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

"Freely ye have received, freely give." - Matthew 10:8 [KJV]   Christ spake these words to His apostles. They had their commissions immediately from Him, to preach His everlasting gospel. Many of the clergy, who pretend to be their successors, cannot receive this saying. Their learned lumber (because unsanctified) cost them too much to be dispensed for nought. Free-grace truths they cannot give freely. They have not freely received them into their own hearts. Expect to receive nothing from such unconverted ministers. Pity them: pray for them. Avoid their errors: be courteous to their persons. Private Christians, as well as ministers, have freely received out of the fulness of Christ: therefore, O soul! you and I are concerned in these words.    (1st.) What have we received? the free favour of God; in the rich grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This comprehends all things from God: this includes all things in God. Have we repentance unto life? It is by His grace...

"If the LORD were pleased to kill us, He would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands; neither would He have shewed us all these things." -Judges 13:23 [KJV]   Precious faith this of the wife of Manoah, and sound and conclusive reasoning. My soul, hath the Father, who gave thee Jesus for a Saviour, accepted thee in Jesus? Hath the Father, who sent His dear Son to be the Saviour of the world, accepted Jesus for thy Saviour?    Hath the Holy Ghost shewed thee the glorious things of redemption in His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace? And hath He given thee to believe in the record that "God hath given eternal life, and that this life is in His Son ? "   Oh then say, with the wife of Manoah, Surely the Lord would never have done all this, neither would He have showed me all these things, had He not intended my salvation. Treasure up, then, these past tokens of favour: consider present evide...

"Who against hope believed in hope."   -Romans 4:18 [KJV] Hope is a fruit of the Spirit; and the absence of hope, the thorough, complete absence of hope, stamps death upon that nominal branch, in which the absence of all hope is found. But some will say, "Are not the children of God often plunged into despair?"  No; not into despair. They are often very near it, they are on the borders of it; they go to the very brink of it; the gusts from that pestiferous land may so blow their blasts upon them, that in their feelings they shall be in despair; yet no living soul ever set his foot beyond the brink, no child of God ever stepped beyond the border, so as to get into the regions of despair.  If he got there, he would no longer be in "the land of the living;"  if ever he set his foot over the border that separates the land of hope from the land of despair, he would be no longer calling upon the Lord to save his soul from the lowest hell, but he wou...

"Come and see." -John 1:39 [KJV] Thus replies the Lamb of God, to an inquiry after where He dwelt. How came these two disciples of John to make this inquiry? John had pointed them from himself, to Jesus, with Behold the Lamb of God . Just as though he had said, “Look at that dear man. Take special notice of Him. He has a whole world of sinners to save. He loved them from all eternity. He is come as an innocent, meek Lamb, to be slain as a sacrifice for them. And His precious blood taketh away all their sins."   You and I are poor miserable sinners. We have no object to look to, but that Lamb. Nothing can take away our sins; nothing can bring pardon to our hearts, peace to our consciences, and salvation to our souls, but His blood. Nothing can make us holy and happy here on earth, but, looking to, and living upon this Lamb of God. They believed this. No wonder then, that they followed Jesus, and asked Him, “Where dwellest Thou?”  He said, Come and see .  O w...

"Come, buy wine and milk, without money, and without price."   -Isaiah 55:1  [KJV] Surely, no man can plead poverty as an excuse for not buying, when the things sold are not only without money, but without even the proposals for money; not only without ready money, but without any money. Here is not even a price given. My soul, remember this. The poorer the wretch, the more welcome to this market. But what are the things sold? Both wine and milk. A blessed variety in the gospel feast—wine to cheer, and milk to nourish. Yes, blessed Jesus, Thy love is better than wine, and Thy salvation more healing than milk: Besides, it comes free, it comes pure, it comes in plenty. And it far, very far, exceeds the strongest wine, and the richest milk. For though wine may remove a temporary heaviness, yet was it never known to raise the dead; but Thy love, blessed Jesus, hath raised, and will keep alive for ever, sinners dead in trespasses and sins, and preserve the languishin...

"But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel."   -Luke 24:21 [KJV] What a trial to their faith must the death of Jesus have been to His disciples and believing followers! When their Lord and Master died, their hopes, for the time at least, seem almost to have died with Him. And indeed to the eye of sense, truth, holiness, innocence, all fell crushed by the arm of violence as Jesus hung on the cross.  To the spectator there, all His miracles of love and mercy, His words of grace and truth, His holy, spotless life, His claims to be the Son of God, the promised Messiah, the Redeemer of Israel, with every promise and every prophecy concerning Him were all extinguished when, amidst the triumph of His foes, in pain, shame, and ignominy, he yielded up His breath. We now see that, by His blood-shedding and death, the blessed Lord wrought out redemption, finished the work which the Father gave Him to do, put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, r...

"Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to my integrity that is in me."   - Psalm 7:8 [KJV] What! is David become a self-justifier? Does he trust in, and depend upon his own righteousness? Does he plead it, even before the Lord, and expect justification by it? Hath he not elsewhere declared, “In Thy sight shall no man be justified” ? (Psalm 143:2.) Why then does he here talk of my righteousness? and why does he say, “The LORD reward me, according to my righteousness?”   (Psalm 18:20.)  It was far from David’s heart, to make his own righteousness the ground of his acceptance before God, or to place his hope of eternal life on it. He was a poor sinner. He knew it well. He confesses it constantly to the Lord. He declines it in point of justification, “I will make mention of Thy righteousness, even of Thine ONLY,”   (Psalm 71:16.) Why then does he here talk of his own righteousness? Let not this puzzle thy mind, nor pervert thy judgm...