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SUBJECT: 03 DEU 11:10-12 Canaan on Earth
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Canaan on Earth
December 30, 1855
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)
"For the land whither thou goest in to possess it,
is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came
out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it
with thy foot, as a garden of herbs; but the land
whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills
and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of
heaven; a land which the Lord thy God careth for;
the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it,
from the beginning of the year, even unto the end
of the year."- Deu_11:10-12.
It has generally been considered, that the passage of
the Jordan by the Israelites is typical of death, and
that Canaan is a fitting representation of heaven. We
believe that in some sense it is true, and we do fondly
cherish the household words of those hymns which
describe our passing through Jordan's billows, and
landing safe on Canaan's side; but we do think that the
allegory does not hold, and that Jordan is not a fair
exhibition of death, nor the land of Canaan a fair
picture of the sweet land beyond the swelling flood
which the Christian gains after death. For mark you,
after the children of Israel had entered into Canaan,
they had to fight with their enemies. It was a land
filled with foes. Every city they entered they had to
take by storm, unless a miracle dismantled it. They
were warriors, even in the land of Canaan, fighting for
their own inheritance; and though each tribe had its
lot marked out, yet they had to conquer the giant
Anakim, and encounter terrible hosts of Canaanites. But
when we cross the river of death we shall have no foes
to fight, no enemies to encounter. Heaven is a place
already prepared for us; out of it the evil ones have
long ago been driven; there brethren shall await us
with pleasing faces, kind hands shall clasp ours, and
loving words shall alone be heard. The shout of war
shall ne'er be raised by us in heaven; we shall throw
our swords away, and the scabbards with them. No
battles with warriors there, no plains besoaked with
blood, no hills where robbers dwell, no inhabitants
with chariots of iron. It is "a land flowing with milk
and honey;" and it dreams not of the foeman of Canaan
of old. We think the church has lost the beauty of
Scripture, in taking Jordan to mean death, and that a
far fuller meaning is the true allegory to be connected
with it. Egypt, as we have lately observed to you, was
typical of the condition of the children of God while
they are in bondage to the law of sin. There they are
made to work unceasingly, without wages or profit, but
continually subject to pains. We said, again, that the
coming up out of Egypt was the type of the deliverance
which every one of God's people enjoys, when by faith
he strikes the blood of Jesus on his lintel and his
doorpost, and spiritually eats the paschal lamb; and we
can also tell you now, that the passage through the
wilderness is typical of that state of hoping, and
fearing, and doubting, and wavering, and inconstancy,
and distrust, which we usually experience between the
period when we come out of Egypt, and attain unto the
full assurance of faith.
Many of you, my dear hearers, are really come out of
Egypt; but you are still wandering about in the
wilderness. "We that have believed do enter into rest;"
but you, though you have eaten of Jesus, have not so
believed on him as to have entered into the Canaan of
rest. You are the Lord's people, but you have not come
into the Canaan of assured faith, confidence, and hope,
where we wrestle no longer with flesh and blood, but
with principalities and powers in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus-when it is no longer a matter of doubt
with us whether we shall be saved, but we feel that we
are saved. I have known believers who have existed for
years almost without a doubt as to their acceptance.
They have enjoyed a sweet and blessed reliance on
Christ; they have come into Canaan; they have fed on
the good old corn of the land; they now "lie passive in
his hand, and know no will but his." They have such a
sweet oneness with their blessed Lord Jesus, that they
lay their head on his breast all day long, and they
have scarcely any nights; they almost always live in
days; for though they have not attained unto his
perfect image, they feel themselves so manifestly in
union with himself that they cannot and dare not doubt.
They have entered into rest; they are come into Canaan.
Such is the condition of the child of God, when he has
come to an advanced stage in his experience, when God
has so given him grace upon grace that he can say, "Yes
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me: thy rod and
thy staff they comfort me."
We will read this passage again; and bear in mind what
I understand it to mean. It sets before the Christian's
state, after he has attained to this faith and
confidence in God; when he is no longer careful about
the things of this life, when he does not water the
ground with his foot, but has come to a land that
drinketh in the rain of heaven. "The land whither thou
goest in to possess it,"-the land of high and holy
Christian privilege-"is not as the land of Egypt, from
whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and
wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs; but
the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of
hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of
heaven; a land which the Lord thy God careth for: the
eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the
beginning of the year even unto the end of the year."
We shall have this morning to note, first of all, the
difference between the Christian's temporal condition
and that of the Egyptian worldling; and secondly, the
special privilege vouchsafed to those who have entered
into Canaan-that the eyes of the Lord their God are
always upon their land, "from the beginning of the
year, even unto the end of the year."
I. True religion makes a difference not only in a man,
but in a man's condition; it affects not only his
heart, but his state-not only his nature, but his very
standing in society. The Lord thy God cares not only
for Israel, but for Canaan, where Israel dwells. God
has not only a regard to the elect, but to their
habitation, and not only so, but to all their affairs
and circumstances. The moment I become a child of God,
not only is my heart changed and my nature renewed, but
my very position becomes different; the very beasts of
the field are in league with me, and the stones thereof
are at peace. My habitation is now guarded by Jehovah;
my position in this world is no longer that of a needy
mendicant-I have become a gentleman-pensioner on the
providence of God; my position, which was that of a
bondslave in Egypt, is not become that of an inheritor
in Canaan. In this difference of the condition of the
Christian and the worldling, we shall mark three
things.
First, the Christian's temporal condition is different
to that of the worldling; for the worldling looks to
secondary causes, the Christian looks to heaven; he
gets his mercies thence. Read the text, "The land,
whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land
of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst
thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden
of herbs." The land of Egypt has never had any rain
from heaven; it has been always watered from earthly
sources. At a certain season the river Nile overflowed
its banks, and covered the land; a stock of water was
then accumulated in artificial reservoirs, and
afterwards let out in canals, and allowed to run in
little trenches through the fields. They had to water
it as a garden of herbs. All their dependence was on
the nether springs; they looked to the river Nile as
the source of all their plenty, and even worshipped it.
But the land to which you are coming is not watered
from a river; "it drinketh water of the rain of
heaven." Your fertility shall not come from such
artificial sources as canals and trenches; you shall be
fed from the water that descends from heaven! You see
how beautifully this pictures a worldling and a
Christian. Look at the worldling; what is his
dependence? It is all upon the water below; he looks
only to the water that flows from the river of this
world. "Who will show us any good?" Some rely upon what
they call chance-(a river the source of which, like the
source of the Nile, is never known;) and though
continually disappointed, they still persevere in
trusting to this unknown stream. Others, who are more
sensible, trust to their hard work and honesty; they
look to the source of that river, and they trace it to
a fountain of human erection graced by a statue of
labour. Ah! that river may yet fail you; it may not
overflow its banks, and you may be starved. But, O
Christian, what doest thou rely upon? Thy land
"drinketh water of the rain of heaven;" thy mercies
come not from the hand of chance; thy daily bread
cometh not so much from thy industry as from thy
heavenly Father's care; thou seest stamped upon every
mercy heaven's own inscription, and every blessing
comes down to thee perfumed with the ointment and
spikenard, and the myrrh of the ivory palaces, whence
God dispenses his bounties. Here is the difference
between the assured Christian and the mere worldling:
the one trusts to natural causes-the other "looks
through nature up to nature's God." and seeth his
mercies as coming down fresh from heaven.
Beloved, let us improve this thought, by showing you
the great value of it. Do you know a man who sees his
mercies coming from heaven, and not from earth? How
much sweeter all his mercies are! There is nothing in
the world that tastes as sweet to the school-boy as
that which comes from home. Those who live at the
school may make him ever such good things, but he cares
nothing for anything like that which comes from home.
So will the Christian. All his mercies are sweeter
because they are home-mercies. I love God's favours on
earth; for everything I eat and drink tastes of home.
And oh! how sweet to think, "That bread, my Father's
hand moulded; that water, my Father droppeth out from
his hand in the gentle rain." I can see everything
coming from his hand. The land in which I live is not
like the land of Egypt, fed by a river; but it
"drinketh water of the rain of heaven." All my mercies
come from above. Don't you like, beloved, to see the
print of your Father's fingers on every mercy? You have
heard of the haddock having the mark of the thumb of
Peter on it! It is a fiction, of course; but I am sure
all the fish that we get out of the sea of providence
are marked by Jesus' fingers. Happy the lot of that man
who receives everything as coming from God, and thanks
his Father for it all! It makes anything sweet, when he
knows it comes from heaven.
This thought, again, has a great tendency to keep us
from an overweening love of the world. If we think that
all our mercies come from heaven, we shall not be so
likely to love the world, as we shall be if we think
that they are the natural products of the soil. The
spies went to Eschol, and fetched thence an immense
cluster of the grapes which grew there; but you do not
find that the people said, "These are fine fruits,
therefore we will stay here." No: they saw that the
grapes came from Canaan, and thereupon they said, "Let
us go on, and possess them." And so, when we get rich
mercies, if we think they come from the natural soil of
this earth, we feel,
"Here I will for ever stay."
But if we know that they come from a foreign clime, we
are anxious to go
"Where our dear Lord his vineyard keeps,
And all the clusters grow."
Christian, then, rejoice, rejoice! Thy mercies come
from heaven; however small they be, still they are thy
Father's gift; not one comes to thee without his
knowledge, and his permission. Bless the Lord,
therefore, that thou art come to Canaan; where thy
"land drinketh water of the rain of heaven!"
My dearly beloved, just stop here, and console
yourselves, if you are in trouble. "Oh!" says one, "I
know not what I shall do: where to turn myself I cannot
tell." You are not like your brother, who is sitting
near you; he has a competency; he has a river of Egypt
to depend on; you have not any; nevertheless, there is
the sky still. If you were to tell a farmer, "You have
no rivers to water your lands." "Well," he would say,
"I don't want them either; for I have clouds up there,
and the clouds are enough." So, Christian, if thou hast
nothing to depend on down below, turn thine eyes up
there, and say, "The land, whither I go in to possess
it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence I came
out, where I sowed my seed, and watered it with my
foot, as a garden of herbs; but the land, whither I go
to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and
drinketh water of the rain of heaven."
2. But now comes the second distinction, and that is, a
difference in the toilsomeness of their lives. The
worldly man, just like the Israelites in Egypt, has to
water his land with his foot. Read the passage:-"For
the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not
as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where
thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot
as a garden of herbs." This alludes, possibly to the
practice, amongst all eastern nations where the land is
irrigated, of letting out a certain quantity of water
into a trench, and then having small gutters dug in the
gardens, to compel the water to run along different
parts of the ground. Sometimes one of these gutters
might be broken; and then the gardener would press the
mould against it with his foot, to keep the water in
its proper channel. But I have inclined to think that
the passage alludes to the method which those eastern
countries have of pumping up the water by a tread-
wheel, and so watering the land with their foot.
However that may be, it means that the land of Egypt
was watered with extraordinary labour, in order to
preserve it from sterility. "But," says Moses, "the
land, to which ye are going, is not a land which you
will have to water with your foot. The water will come
spontaneously; the land will be watered by the rain of
heaven. You can sit in your own houses, or under your
own vine, or under your own fig tree, and God himself
shall be your irrigator. You shall sit still, and 'in
quietness shall ye possess your souls.'" Now, here is a
difference between the godly and ungodly:-the ungodly
man toils. Suppose his object is ambition; he will
labor and labor, and labor, and spend his very life,
until he obtains the desire pinnacle. Suppose it is
wealth; how will he emaciate his frame, rob his body of
its needed sleep, and take away the nourishment his
frame requires, in order that he may accumulate riches!
And if it is learning, how will he burn his eyes out
with the flame of his hot desire, that he may
understand all knowledge; how will he allow his frame
to become weak, and weary, and wan, by midnight
watchings, till the oil wherewith he lighteth himself
by night comes from his own flesh, and the marrow of
his bones furnisheth the light for his spirit! Men will
in this way labour, and toil, and strive. But now so
the Christian. No: God "giveth his beloved sleep." His
"strength is to sit still." He knows what it is to
fulfil the command of Paul:-"I would have you without
carefulness." We can take things as God gives them,
without all this toil and labour. I have often admired
the advice of old Cineas to Pyrrhus. Old story saith,
that when Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was making
preparation for his intended expedition into Italy,
Cineas, the philosopher, took a favourable opportunity
of addressing him thus: "The Romans, sir, are reported
to be a warlike and victorious people; but if God
permit us to overcome them, what use shall we make of
the victory?" "Thou askest," said Pyrrhus, "a thing
that is self-evident. The Romans once conquered, no
city will resist us; we shall then be masters of all
Italy."
Cineas added-"And having subdued Italy, what shall we
do next?" Pyrrhus not yet aware of his intentions,
replied, "Sicily next stretches out her arms to receive
us." "That is very probable," said Cineas, "but will
the possession of Sicily put an end to the war?" "God
grant us success in that," answered Pyrrhus, "and we
shall make these only the forerunners of greater
things, for then Libra and Carthage will soon be ours:
and these things being completed, none of our enemies
can offer any further resistance." "Very true," added
Cineas, "for then we may easily regain Macedon, and
make absolute conquest of Greece; and when all these
are in our possession, what shall we do then?" Pyrrhus,
smiling, answered, "Why then, my dear friend, we will
live at our ease, take pleasure all day, and amuse
ourselves with cheerful conversation." "Well sir," said
Cineas, "and why may we not do this now, and without
the labour and hazard of an enterprise so laborious and
uncertain?" So, beloved, says the Christian. The
worldly mans says, "Let me go and do this; let me go
and do that; let me accumulate so many thousand pounds;
let me get so rich; then I will enjoy myself and take
my ease." "Nay," says the Christian, "I see no reason
for doing it; why should I not make God my refuge now?
Why should I not enjoy comfort and peace, and make
myself happy now?" He does not want to water his land
with his feet; but he sits down quietly, and his land
"drinketh in water of the rain of heaven." Do not say I
am preaching laziness. No such thing: I am only saying
it is vain for you to rise up early, and sit up late,
and eat the bread of carefulness, for, "Except the Lord
build the house, they labour in vain that build it."
But, if "he giveth his beloved sleep," they rest in
him; they know not these toils; that is, if they have
attained to full assurance, and crossed into the Canaan
of full confidence in God. They do not care to go
ranging the world to find their happiness; but they
say, "God is my ever present help; in him my soul is
satisfied." They rest content in him. Their land is
watered with the rain of heaven.
I remember a story of a young man who was a lawyer. In
order to attain fame in his position he was extremely
anxious to understand all the mysteries and tortuous
windings of the law, and to acquire some power of
oratory, that he might be able to deliver himself
eloquently before the bench. For ten years did he live
apart from other people, lest domestic habits should
wean him from his studies; he wrapped himself every
night in a blanket, and took one of his own volumes,
and put it under his head; he denied himself food,
eating only so many morsels a day, lest indigestion
should impair his powers. Although he was an infidel,
he believed in God; and he bowed his head so many times
a day, and prayed that he might lose anything rather
than his intellectual powers. "Make a giant of
me!"-that was his expression. And although his poor
mother begged him to make himself more comfortable, he
would not, but persisted in his course of
abstemiousness and self-denial. One day, in reading one
of his books, he saw this passage: "When all is gained,
how little then is won! And yet to gain that little,
how much is lost!" He stamped his foot, and raved like
a maniac at the thought, that he had spent all these
ten years, toiling and wearying himself for nothing; he
saw the vanity of his course; he was driven to
desperation, seized his axe, cut down the sign-board of
his profession, and said, "Here ends this business."
Turning to the same book, he found that it recommended
Christianity as the rest of the weary soul; he found it
in Christ, and attained to such an understanding of
Christ, that he became a preacher of the gospel, and
might well have preached on this text-"The land whither
thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of
Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy
seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of
herbs; but the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a
land of hills and valleys, and drinketh the water of
heaven: a land which the Lord thy God careth for: the
eyes of the Lord thy God are upon it, from the
beginning of the year even unto the end of the year."
3. This brings us to the third and last difference that
we will note this morning; and that is, that the
unbeliever, he who has not crossed the Jordan and come
to full confidence, does not understand the
universality of God's providence, while the assured
Christian does. You will see that in my text in a
minute. In Egypt the ground is almost entirely flat;
and where it is not flat, it is impossible, of course,
to grow anything, unless the ground is watered at
considerable difficulty by some method of artificial
irrigation, which shall force the water on to the high
places. "But," says Moses, "the land, whither ye go to
possess it, is a land of hills and valleys." The
Egyptians could not et the water up on the hills, but
you can; for the mountains drink in the rain, as well
as the valleys. Now look at a worldling. Give him
comforts, give him prosperity: oh! he can be so happy.
Give him everything just as he likes it; make his
course all a plain, all a dead valley and a flat; he
can fertilize that, and water it; but let him have a
mountainous trouble, let him lose a friend, or let his
property be taken from him-put a hill in his way, and
he cannot water that, with all the pumping of his feet,
and all the force he strives to use. But the Christian
lives in "a land of hills and valleys;" a land of
sorrow as well as joys; but the hills drink the water,
as well as the valleys. We need not climb the mountains
to water their heads, for our God is as high as the
hills. High as our troubles, and mountainous as are our
difficulties sometimes, we need not climb up with weary
foot to make them fertile, for they are all made to
work together for our good. Go, Egyptian; live thou in
thy flat country, and enjoy its luxuries; thou hast thy
papyrus, and thou writest mercies upon it, but it shall
be the food of worms; we have no lotus, but we have a
flower that blooms in paradise; and we write our
mercies on rocks, and not on rushes. Oh! sweet Canaan,
heavenly land, where I dwell, and where you dwell, my
brother Christians-a land which "drinketh water of the
rain of heaven!"
II. We must consider a little time, THE SPECIAL MERCY.
"The eyes of the Lord are always upon it, from the
beginning of the year even unto the end of the year."
WE must now turn away altogether from the allegoric,
and come to this special mercy, which is the lot only
of God's people.
"The eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from
the beginning of the year even unto the end of the
year:" that is, upon the lot of all Christians
individually. We have come now, beloved, to the end of
another year-to the threshold of another period of
time, and have marched another year's journey through
the wilderness. Come, now! In reading this verse over,
can you say Amen to it? "The eyes of the Lord thy God
are always upon you, from the beginning of the year
even unto the end of the year." Some of you say, "I
have had deep troubles this year." "I have lost a
friend," says one. "Ah!" says another, "I have been
impoverished this year." "I have been slandered," cries
another. "I have been exceedingly vexed and grieved,"
says another. "I have been persecuted," says another.
Well, but, beloved, take the year altogether-the blacks
and the whites, the troubles and the joys, the hills
and the valleys altogether, and what have you to say
about it? You may say, "Surely goodness and mercy have
followed me all the days of my life, and I will dwell
in the house of the Lord for ever." Do not pick out one
day in the year, and say it was a bad day, but take all
the year round, let it revolve in all its grandeur; let
all the signs of the Zodiac come before you. Do not
say, "I have been in Cancer so long a time," but run
through them all, and then get into Libra, and judge
between things that differ; and then what will you say?
"Ah! bless the Lord! he hath done all things well; my
soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!"
And you know why all things have been well. It is
because the eyes of the Lord have been upon you all the
year. Oh! if those awful eyes had been shut for a
single moment, by night or day, where should we have
been? Why, we had not been at al, but swept away, like
airy dreams, into nihility. God watches over every one
of his people, just as if there were only that one in
the world; and he has been watching over you, so that
when a trouble came, God said, "Trouble, avaunt!"
"There shall no temptation happen to you but such as is
common to man." And when your joys would have cloyed
upon you, and around you, God has said, "Stand back,
joy! I will not have you fondle him too much; he will
be deceived by thee." "The eyes of the Lord" have been
upon you continually, "from the beginning of the year
even unto the end of the year." "Well," says one, "I
cannot say so much of my year." Then I cannot say so
much of you. I was speaking to the Christian; and if
you cannot say of your year, "surely goodness and mercy
have followed it all," I am afraid you are not a child
of God, for methinks a child of God will say, when he
reviews it all, "not one good thing hath failed of all
the Lord God hath promised, but all hath come to pass."
Then, my brethren, might I not say a word to you
concerning the eyes of the Lord having been upon us as
a church? Ought we to let this year pass without
rehearsing the works of the Lord? Hath he not been with
us exceeding abundantly, and prospered us? It is during
this year that we met together in the great
assembly-during this year that these eyes have seen the
mighty gatherings of men who listened to our words on
the Sabbath-day. We shall not soon forget our sojourn
in Exeter Hall-shall we? During those months the Lord
brought in many of his own elect, and multitudes who
were unsaved up to that time were called by divine
mercy, and brought into the fold. How God protected us
there! What peace and prosperity hath he given to us!
How hath he enlarged our borders, and multiplied our
numbers, so that we are not few, and increased us, so
that we are not weak! I do think we were not thankful
enough for the goodness of the Lord which carried us
there, and gave us so many who have now become useful
to use in our church! Remember in how many places ye
have worshipped God this year. This place has been
enlarged, so that more can be held within its walls;
now we can receive more to listen to the voice of the
Gospel than we could before; and God seems to say, "Go,
forward, go forward still." The goodness of the Lord
has increased as we have gone along. I have often
feared, lest the people should desert the house, and
that when we made it larger we should not have enough
to fill it: but the Lord still sends an overwhelming
congregation, and still gives us grace to preach his
gospel. How thankful should we be! Surely, "the eyes of
the Lord" have been upon this church, "from the
beginning of the year even unto the end of the year."
We have had peace: not a rotten peace, I trust, but the
peace of God. Nothing has arisen that should disturb
our equanimity. The church has been kept by the grace
of God faithful to the doctrines of grace. Ah! what a
blessing it is, that our members have been kept from
falling into sin! What a glorious thing that we are
carried through another year safely! Some old writer
has said, "Every hour that a Christian remains a
Christian is an hour of miracle." It is true; and every
year that the church is kept an entire church is a year
of miracle.
It is a year of miracles. Tell it to the wide, wide
world; tell it everywhere. "The eye of the Lord" hath
been upon us, "from the beginning of the year even unto
the end of the year." Two hundred and ten persons have
this year united with us in church fellowship; about
enough to have formed a church. One half the churches
in London cannot number so many in their entire body;
and yet the Lord has brought so many into our midst.
And still they come; still they come. Whenever I have
an opportunity of seeing those who are converted to
God, they come in such numbers that many have to be
sent away. Still they come, still they come; and well I
am assured, that I have as many still in this
congregation, who will during the present year come
forward to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. How often has
the sacred pool of baptism been opened this year! How
sweetly have we assembled round the Lord's table! What
precious moments we have had at the Monday evening
prayer meetings! And how glorious it has been when we
have recognized brother after brother, sister after
sister publicly, by giving them the right hand of
fellowship! In all our ways we hope we have
acknowledged him, and he has directed our paths. Sing
unto the Lord, for he hath done wonders; bless his
name, for he has worked miracles; praise his grace, for
he hath highly exalted his people; for he has worked
miracles; praise his grace, for he hath highly exalted
his people; unto him be honor, for ever and ever. And
mark you, brethren, this church has known what it is to
come out of Egypt. We have not toiled with our feet
here. I hope there has been no desire to draw unfit
persons into the church, I have had no toiling with my
feet, I am sure, in preaching the gospel-no legal
preaching-none of your exciting preaching-none of all
that toiling with your feet; but we have had nothing
but the rain from heaven. We have not laboured to
excite carnal passions, nor to preach sermons with a
view of driving you into religious fevers. Sturdy old
Calvinism will not let us do that. We cannot preach
such sermons as Arminians can. The land has been
watered by the rain of heaven. We have not had any of
those fatal pestilential mists that sometimes gather
round the church. It is proverbial, that wherever the
revivalists go, they always carry desolation; before
them is an Eden; behind them is a desert; wherever they
go they scorch the land like firebrands; though
hundreds seem to be converted to God, they are
converted to ten times blacker sins than before, and
the last end of them is worse than the first.* We want
not the getting up of a little feverish passion by
appealing to the natural man; it is the drinking water
of the rain of heaven that does the good. I trust it
has been so here, and that "the eyes of the Lord" have
been upon you "from the beginning of the ear even to
the end of the year."
So, beloved, I can say that, as a minister, the eyes of
the Lord have been upon me this year. It has been my
privilege, many times this year to preach his word. I
think, more than four hundred times have I stood in the
pulpit to testify his truth, and the eyes of the Lord
have been upon me. Blessed be his name! whether it has
been in the north, in the south, in the east, or in the
west, I have never lacked a congregation; nor have I
ever gone again to any of the places I have preached
at, without hearing of souls converted. I cannot
remember a single village, or town, that I have visited
a second time without meeting with some who blessed God
that they heard the word of truth there. When I went to
Bradford last time, I stated in the pulpit that I had
never heard of a soul being converted through my
preaching there; and the good pew-opener came to
Brother Dowson, and said, "Why didn't you tell Mr.
Spurgeon that such-a-one joined the church through
hearing him?" and instantly that dear man of God told
me the cheering news. We have met with much opposition
this year. Thanks to our brethren in the ministry, we
have not had very much assistance from them. We have
been enabled to say to them all, "I will not take from
you, from a thread to a shoe-latchet, lest ye should
say, I have made him rich." But how much of that
bigotry which formerly existed has subsided! How much
of that sneer, which was at one time so common, has now
gone away! I am now, rather more afraid of their smiles
than their frowns-though I do not think I feel much of
either. Cedo nulli, was my motto at the beginning, and
I take it once more. I yield to none; but by the grace
of God I preach his truth, and still, if he help me,
will I hold on my way. And to the Three-one God, be
eternal honor. Amen.
*The revivalists since this period have been usually true
preachers of the gospel with whom we have the fullest sympathy.
Our remarks were intended for certain American Arminian ravers who
had done much mischief.
Provided by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
internet: hyperlink
Box 318
Columbus, NJ 08022