"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

"Love is of God." -I John 4:7 [KJV] Love is a gift which the risen Mediator has received that He may freely communicate it out of His fulness to His people. And we must be brought to feel that it is a gift. Could we produce or keep it alive in our own hearts, we should burn incense to our own skill or our own care. Some perhaps will scarcely believe that a child of God can feel enmity against Christ; but his carnal mind is unmitigated enmity against him.  And oh, what a cutting feeling it is for a follower of the Lamb to have a principle in him which hates Christ; hates, bitterly hates His Person, hates His holiness and purity; which could join in the cry, "Crucify Him, crucify Him," and push and strike him with the Roman soldiers and the Jewish rabble. Unless painful experience convinced us that there was such a dreadful principle within, we could not believe that there was this devilish enmity in our heart against Him whom our souls desire to love and...

"We believe, and are sure..."   - John 6:69 [KJV] Here is both faith and assurance. I wish to the Lord I had them, is the language of many a doubting heart, while they have both this very faith and assurance. This assurance is of the essence of faith. Without it faith has no existence.  Consider, (1st.) The nature of this faith and assurance. “We believe and are sure.”  Of what? That their names were written in heaven, that they were sure they were the elect of God? No. But, says St. Peter to our Lord, “We believe, and are sure, that Thou art Christ the Son of the living God, and that Thou hast the words of eternal life.”  Their minds were as sure of this truth, as of their existence. So must ours at all times, and under all circumstances. But is this faith and assurance? Then, blessed be God, I am a partaker of both.  I do believe, I am sure, that Christ is the Son of God, and that He, and He alone, hath the words of eternal life. But I want to be s...

"For I know that ye seek Jesus which was crucified."   -Matthew 28:5 [KJV] Is it indeed known unto my Lord that I seek Him? Doth Jesus know that I desire Him more than my necessary food? Ye angels of light that watched over His sepulchre, do ye witness for me that He is more precious to me than gold, yea, than the golden wedge of Ophir. And can I, do I, humbly appeal to Him that readeth the heart, and knoweth all things, and say, "Thou knowest, Lord, that I love Thee!" Be comforted, then, my soul: He whom thou seekest will soon be found of thee. He is near at hand. He hath never been a wilderness to His people; neither hath He ever said to the praying seed of Jacob, "Seek ye My face in vain."  While thou art seeking Him, He is looking on thee. And the very desire in thine heart of seeking Him, it is Jesus hath kindled. And nothing can be more sure than that He who kindled them in thine heart, did not kindle them in vain. Sweet thought; I bless...

  “POUR OUT YOUR HEART”   “Trust in Him at all time; ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us.  Selah.”   -Psalm 62:8 [KJV]    Child of God, come to the throne of grace and let your innermost thoughts and feelings be poured out like water before the secret presence of the Lord.  Hold nothing back, for nothing is hidden from His eyes.  Turn the vessel of your soul upside down and let your private thoughts, desires, sorrows and sins gush out before Him.   Never think that prayer must wait until you are more spiritual.  Feelings of spirituality are dangerous for in reality, they are feelings of self-righteousness.  In and of ourselves we are never more than sinners needing the blood and righteousness of Christ.   It is written , “In my flesh dwelleth no good thing”   (Romans 7:18) .  What warrant then, and what worthiness do we have to draw near so holy a Being?  Our warrant for co...

“Christ is all, and in all.”   -Colossians 3:11 [KJV]  Anything, even if it be the blessed production of the Eternal Spirit of God, which takes the place of Christ, which shuts out Christ from the soul, is dangerous.  In the great work of salvation, Christ must be everything or nothing; from Him solely, from Him entirely, from Him exclusively, must pardon and justification be drawn.   Whatever, then, rises between the soul and Christ—whatever would tend to satisfy the soul in His absence—whatever would take His place in the affections, must be surrendered.   Is it as the plucking out of a right eye?  It must be yielded.  Is it as the cutting off of a right hand?  Let it go.  Christ in His Godhead, Christ in His humanity, Christ in His great and finished work, Christ in His mediatorial fulness, must be all in all to the believer .                              ...

"I like to be with God's people of the poorer class, and of the more struggling and afflicted sort. I like to be with God's people who wrestle hard with sins, and doubts, and fears. If I get spoken to by my very superior brethren, I find that I have very little pleasant fellowship with them for I know nothing about their wonderful experience of freedom from conflict, and complete deliverance from every evil tendency.  I have never won an inch of the way to Heaven without fighting for it. I have never lived a day but I have had to sorrow over my imperfections. I sometimes get near to God, but at that time I weep most about faults and failings. Although I have thus spoken after the manner of men, I do not believe in these superior beings, nor in their superior heaven: but even if I did, I would sooner follow with the flock than run ahead with the greyhounds." -copied  

"If thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it."  - Exodus 20:25 [KJV] This chapter abounds with legal terror. Here, the glorious Jehovah is giving the law with thunderings and lightnings, and the sound of a trumpet. The mountain smoking. Poor sinners, trembling and fleeing, saying, “Let not God speak with us, lest we die.”  Most awfully tremendous! Well might St. Paul call it, “the ministration of death and condemnation”   (II Corinthians 3:7, 9.)   But blessed, blessed be God, it contains precious gospel-grace to law-condemned sinners. Here, rejoice, and say, Let God speak, and we live . For here is an altar commanded. God is accessible to us. “An altar of earth thou shalt make unto Me.”     Here is gospel-grace. That beloved Son typified, who was made like unto us, and appeared in our earthly nature. Thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings and peace-offerings upon it. “Our God is a consuming fire”   (Hebrews 12:29.) Yet, “we have ...