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Canaan on Earth
A Sermon Delivered on Sabbath Morning, December 30, 1855, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
At New Park Street Chapel, Southwark
"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."Deuteronomy 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 Jesuswhen 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, "Yea 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 Canaanthat 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 statenot 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 mendicantI have become a gentleman-pensioner on the providence of
God; my position, which was that of a bondslave in Egypt, is now 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 causesthe 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 not 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 get 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 himput 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 Christiansa 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 yearto 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 altogetherthe 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 all 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
assemblyduring 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 gospelno legal preachingnone of your exciting preachingnone 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 year 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 frownsthough 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.
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