3425. Days of Heaven on the Earth

A Sermon Published On Thursday, September 24, 1914.

As the days of heaven on the earth. {De 11:21}

1. As this text was originally written, it referred only to the length of life and the length of existence which God promised to his obedient Israel. If they walked in his statutes, the kingdom was to endure from generation to generation, without end, “as the days of heaven on earth.” But it seems to me that such a phrase as this ought to mean something more, if it did not, and might be used to express, and must be used to express, many of those happy times which we have enjoyed when the Lord has revealed himself to us, and which have been for us “as the days of heaven on the earth.” But is not the expression exaggeration? Is it not too strong? Brethren, I do not think so. There were days of heaven on earth once. Every day on earth was a day of heaven, before our first parent stretched out his hand and broke his Lord’s command. When he walked through the garden of Eden, by the side of the rippling Hiddekel, or the streaming Euphrates, which rolled over sands of gold; as he reclined under the shadow of the trees from the heat of the sun, and picked the generous fruit God was with him as his companion and revealed himself to his favourite creature. Those were, indeed, days of heaven on earth! There was no strife, no sin, no sorrow—everything was happy. It seemed as if this world was only one room of God’s great house, one of the many mansions in our Father’s house, the vestibule of glory, the portal of the skies, the ground floor, if I may say so, of the Master’s palace, which reached high up beyond the clouds.

2. There were days of heaven on earth; and we know from the sweetest prophecies, as sure as they are sweet, that there will be days of heaven on earth again, and that for a length of time. He who went up to heaven from Olivet will soon come, in the same way, as we have seen him go up into heaven; and when he comes, then he will reign in the midst of his people. And we are in the habit of speaking of that glorious reign with intense delight. No strife shall vex Messiah’s reign; there shall be no sorrow then; they shall hang the useless helmet in the hall, and study war no more—halcyon days! a millennial period! peace like a river; righteousness like the waves of the sea, for he shall live; and to him shall be given the gold of Sheba; prayer also shall be made for him continually, and he shall be praised daily. We are looking for the advent of the Lord, praying for it, desiring to be found in a working and waiting posture, whenever he may come; and when he comes, then, to the letter, there shall be a long-continued series of days of heaven on earth. But, dear friends it is useless to mourn the past; and though it may be of much benefit to expect the future, yet what shall we say about the present? I think the present is not without some happy times, which may be compared to the days of the text.

3. My first business at this time will be to mention some of the days which are fit to be called days of heaven on earth; then, secondly, I shall answer the question, why do we not have more of them; and then, thirdly, I shall try to show the best ways of getting more of them.

4. I. First, then, though man is born to sorrow, yet:—WE HAVE MOST HAPPY AND BLESSED PERIODS—DAYS OF HEAVEN ON EARTH.

5. The first I will mention is the day in which we first look to Jesus and lose our sins. Our Revival Hymn Book sings:—

   Happy day! happy day!

   When Jesus wash’d my sins away.

The long time of conviction, the dolorous winter of sorrow, made the day of our release all the happier and the brighter, just as the oasis is all the greener in contrast with the dry, sandy region, over which the traveller has passed. The first day of our conversion, when we know Christ, and have peace through him, is a particularly green and happy place in our life’s pilgrimage. We can never forget it. Some of us had a very distinct time and place of conversion. To us the day when we looked to Jesus is as fresh as though it were newly coined from the mint of time. Other days have lost their special image and superscription. We can scarcely remember any one of our birthdays, perhaps, unless something very remarkable has happened on them; but that day, if we were to live to be as old as Methuselah, we should still remember, and consider it to be the true day of our birth, the day when we truly began to live, for all before it was only dead. Dear friends, do you remember the excessive joy of that day? It must have been so with all of you; but with some of us the joy was more than we could hold. We were like Simeon, when he saw the Lord, and said, “Lord, now let your servant depart in peace.” We made no stipulations with God. We would have been content to rot in a dungeon, or to lie tossing on the sick-bed of a hospital, now that we had found Christ; we wanted nothing beyond; we could have dared the very gates of hell in that day to stop our joy; Satan himself could not have made us cease from singing, we were so joyful. Probably others noticed it, and asked why it was; and they learned that the Lord had done great things for us, for which we were glad.

6. Oh! I wish this evening some of you could find the Saviour. Some of you perhaps, did not come here to find him, but you need him. You are feeling your sins, perhaps, pressing heavily on you; your guilt is like a burden on your back; but I do hope you will look to the cross of Christ, and if you do, the strings will crack that bind your burden to your back, and you shall leap for joy to find that you are free. There is life for a look at the Crucified One; and with that life there comes such a flood of joy that I should not wonder if you were almost ready, when you get home, to begin singing in the house, even though there might be some there who could not sympathize with your joy. It is one of the days of heaven on earth when a soul casts its anchor on Christ and says, “I am at rest, at rest for ever.”

7. It must not be thought, however, that this is the only time, for often, very often, days of calm and peace are, for the Christian, like days of heaven on earth. Have you not often felt a stillness in your souls, cares gone, doubts fled, troubles forgotten, all so peaceful within, that you did not seem to have a wish, nor a need, and, happy in the Saviour’s love, you did not care for all the world besides—changed into a little child? You have gotten up in the morning, and you have felt so happy; there was no excitement, no exuberance of feeling; but still such a peaceful happiness, that you would not have changed your state with a king on his throne; you had to go to business, and there was a good deal to tax you, but you were not vexed; you seemed to put it all aside, and to go through the day talking with Christ, your hands busy below, but your heart occupied above, your treasure being in heaven, and your heart being there too, and that continued all day; and, perhaps, at night, at the family altar, they noticed how sweetly you prayed, and, if they did not, you remember what a calm there was on you when you went upstairs, and cast yourself on the bed and slept; and if you awoke during the night, you found that you were still with God. With some of us there have been many such times, and they have lasted sometimes for weeks, but far more often they have come and gone very soon, and to many they have been, like angels’ visits, few and far between, yet we have had enough of them to make us have a foretaste of that happier shore where all is peace for ever, where the dove builds her nest and is never disturbed, where not a wave of trouble ever rolls across a sea of everlasting rest, where continually the angels sing the praises of God, and there are no groans to mar the melody of their seraphic songs. Yes, those days of quiet peacefulness were as days of heaven on earth.

8. And we have gone beyond that. Many Christians can remember days of praise. Have you not had days in which your souls seemed taken up with singing God’s praises? I do not mean that you went into the street or in public, but your soul kept singing—you had a prayer answered:—

   Oh! may my soul in tune be found

   Like David’s harp of solemn sound!

You wanted to tell everyone about what your God had done for you, and when you had an opportunity you told of the goodness of the Lord, and invited people to “Taste and see that the Lord is good”; you went to see the sick, and if they murmured you put aside their murmuring, for you yourself felt so happy that you could scarcely sympathize with a murmuring spirit; and when you went up to the assembly of God’s house, and they sang some of their joyful songs, when, like a peal of thunder, their notes of praise went up and made the walls ring again, oh! how blessed were you! Why, I say it without exaggeration, I have sometimes in this house, when we have been singing some of God’s praises, felt as though it could not be much better to be in heaven, than it was to be in the midst of God’s people, singing his praises with all their hearts. We have sometimes run up the gamut until we reached the top of the scale, and seemed to have almost gotten to the top of Jacob’s ladder, and almost ready to step into heaven. Blessed days of praise! We can never forget you, for you have been “as the days of heaven on the earth.” Days of finding Christ, days of peace, days of praise are “as the days of heaven on the earth.”

9. Among the choicest times in a Christian’s life, however, are those in which he finds himself honoured by God in the conversion of souls. Those are days of heaven on earth. I should like to know, but I suppose it is impossible to find it out—I should like to know how many of us here, who are Christians, are spiritual parents. I am afraid, if there was a stock-taking, there would not be found many diligent ones among us, and that is not to our credit. Every Christian should make it to be one of the grand aims of his life, if not the grandest, to bring others to reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. Now, since some of you may never have tried doing this, I should like to encourage you by offering you the sweet reward which God gives to those who labour for him. Ah! my dear friend, the City Missionary, you need not tell me of all your toils among the poor, and the ragged, and the filthy—true every word; but there is one thing I should like you to tell me, when you have met a poor sinner who has been rescued by you from the depths of degradation, and you have seen the tear of gratitude glistening in the eye of a convert, have you not felt that it has made up for it all? You are no true missionary if you cannot say that. And do not tell me, my dear brother minister, of all the toils of preaching to a people who seem weary of hearing, and of endeavouring to convince those of the truth who do not care to listen to it—we know all about that; but let me ask you, when you have heard that a penitent has come to Christ, and it has been said, “Behold he prays!” have you not felt that you have been rewarded for ten times more toil and trouble than you have ever done? If one could be cut in pieces, and every piece could be hung or flayed alive, it would be worth while to suffer all that for the bringing of one soul to Christ; because, if Jesus Christ thought it worth his while to suffer unutterable pains to redeem a soul, it would be worth the while of any one of Christ’s people to suffer the same, if that were the way to bring sinners to him. Let me tell you that there is no joy like it. When you can hear a penitent say, “Blessed be God, I was once far from him by wicked works, but I listened to the truth as you proclaimed it; I heard your prayer in the class; it touched my heart; it broke me down; and afterwards it led me out of darkness into Christ’s marvellous light, and blessed be God, I am saved”; oh! there is no joy like it, and he who has many souls given to him for his hire must enjoy many of the days of heaven on earth.

10. Again, I believe there is many a family where this same joy has been felt not by those who were the immediate instruments of conversion, but by those who have long prayed for the conversion of such. Your good mother now, John, if you were to go home tonight a saved soul, would be made unspeakably happy. The dear old soul has been praying for you for these many years. She wept over you when you were in your cradle; she has often prayed for you when you have been cursing and swearing; and has she sometimes fears that she will go to her grave and never see her child brought in? But if she were to hear that you were saved, there would be a day of heaven on earth in that family. How many households are there where the conversion of the husband has turned a little hell into a little heaven? You know which children are afraid of the father—how they run upstairs to get to bed, because the father comes home the worse for drink, and how the poor mother suffers. There may be a little furniture, but she knows at any moment it may go off to the pawnbrokers to be converted into money to get more of the accursed liquor, and she lives in perpetual bondage and fear; but one night he comes home very thoughtful—where has he been? Oh! he has been to such and such a place of worship. Do you know the woman cannot sleep that night for hope. She is in hopes that there may be a change come over him, and when she sees him washing himself the next morning, and she hears that he is going to the same place, how her heart beats with joy and hope, and how heartily does she pray that her husband may become a changed character! And when he comes home, and sits down, and the tears begin to flow, and he says, “Wife, we never prayed together; you know that I could never bear the thoughts of your praying; but it is all changed now; get the Bible and let us see if we cannot pray together tonight”—that is one of the days of heaven on earth. There is joy to the mother who finds her son saved, joy to the wife who sees her husband converted; and it is equal joy to the husband when he sees his wife converted. There are some husbands who have severe trouble with ungodly wives; and they have prayed often, and I hope they will not grow downcast and stop praying. The Lord who blessed them can bless their wives: wait, never give in, never give up praying, as long as they have breath in their bodies, as long as they are on praying ground, pray for them, and they may be converted; then there will be joy, joy unspeakable and full of glory even on earth, when such a one is brought to know the Lord. These are, indeed, days of heaven on earth.

11. I think the Church has sometimes had them. Some of you do not know much about it; you do not work for Christ; you do not pray for souls; you do not feel for souls; but I could pick out in this assembly, if it were right, some who know a great deal about it, because the Lord has given them a yearning heart and a tender soul, so that they weep for others’ sorrows and repent of others’ sins. These are the people that know, in deed and in truth, that there are days of heaven on earth. They travail, and therefore they know the joy of her who forgets her travail, because a man-child is born into the world.

12. But I must hurry on. There are other days. Dear friends, a communion with loving, Christian brethren often brings days of heaven on earth. I know some churches where there seem to be as many parties in the church as there are male members; where there is no love, no unity, no affection, no contention for the faith, but much contention for power and position. Now, they never have days of heaven on earth; but where Christians love each other, there is the dew of heaven. Some Christians greatly envy you your privileges, and in belonging to a united church. Scores of times, when I have received members, who have been united previously with churches split up and divided, they have said:—

   Here would I find a settled rest,

      While others go and come;

   No more a stranger or a guest,

      But like a child at home.

And I know there are many of you who have found a settled rest here, and you have found in communion with God’s people that you are made to lie down in green pastures, and go beside the still waters.

13. Lonely Christians lose much comfort, and I think those Christians who are always going out for company lose more; but those who have a select few, whom they love, and with whom they associate, and with whom they can enjoy holy communion, will find many such days. I must confess that I have often been loathe to go to bed when I have had a few beloved friends to talk about better things; and I am afraid if we had had our way, and had not had to go to work the next morning, we should have let the clock get into the small hours, for so sweet was the company and the talk, that we did not like to part. When Jesus Christ is the theme, there is no fear of weariness, and when those who know him speak about him, there is such freshness in their speech, that one likes to let them keep on, without stopping them at all.

14. Christian fellowship, how sweet! And if you get into a Christian family and live in it, how happy and pleasant it is! Some families have a morose father who seems to think there is no one in the world to be cared for except himself, and he domineers and tyrannises. Others have a touchy, crotchety, quick-tempered mother, and very little can go right with them for very long. Others have a negligent woman, perhaps, slovenly, who does not attend to the house, but is a gossip. Now, to live in such houses as those is a misery, but if you get into some houses, such as I have known, where the father endeavours, while he rules the house, to do it with love, where the mother is the very pattern of her gender, where the children are obedient, and yet happy and free; where the servants feel an interest in the master’s affairs, because the master feels an interest in theirs, it is like a little heaven on earth. It is a blessed thing to drop into such a house, for you feel there, indeed, they have days of heaven on earth. When you young people marry, I hope you will set up just such houses, and that it will be your desire to make your homes such that people may like to live in them. I would have your houses like that of Sir Thomas Abney, where Dr. Watts went to stay for a few days, and he stayed there twenty-six years. It was too good a house to leave. Let your houses be such that, when good men come, they will feel, “Here is the place where we can find rest.” May you have many days of heaven on earth in such a way!

15. Now, to pass on, surely the highest of all will be found in a close communion with Christ. There is a nearness of approach to Christ, of which to speak in the carnal ear would be to cast pearls before swine. There is a secret and mysterious communion carried on between earth and heaven, of which Solomon sang in mystic numbers in the Canticles, and which saints have enjoyed, but which no tongue can adequately express—a peace which is not only like heaven, but is heaven; it is a piece of heaven cast down to us here; it is not a grape from some wilderness vine, but a cluster from the vine of Eshcol, and Eshcol was in Canaan itself. The Lord gives foretastes of his love, pledges of joys to come, so that even here we have, in communion with Christ, days of heaven on earth.

16. But I must not prolong the catalogue for time fails me. I think I have said enough to make some feel that the Christian’s life is a happy one; let me add my testimony that it is; let me add, not mine, but the testimony even of many a negro slave in the days of slavery, who could say that, notwithstanding all suffering, and all penury, and every evil, a Christian’s life was a happy one after all.

17. II. Now, the second point was to be an enquiry, if there are so many days of heaven on earth:—WHY DO WE NOT HAVE MORE OF THEM?

18. I think there are many reasons. Some people think it is wicked to be happy. You smile, but I know some Christians who even seem to think that it is a sign of growth in grace when you grow to be blessedly miserable. They imagine that for anything like joy to be in a Christian is incompatible with sincerity. We have not learned that from Christ. We know that through much tribulation we inherit the kingdom; but we have learned that just as tribulation abounds, so consolation abounds through Jesus Christ. Let your face lack no oil, and your head no ointment; go your way, and live happily and joyfully, for if God has accepted you, there is no flesh living that has such a right to be joyful. Accepted in the beloved! Cleansed from sin! Clothed with the righteousness of Christ! Safe for heaven! Why should you not be happy? Go to the weeping willows, and take down your harps, and begin to strike them to melodious tunes. You ought to be happy, you people of the living God. Let the righteous be glad; yes let them shout for joy. Some Christians, perhaps, do not think it is wrong to be happy, but they will not be. Almost as a matter of principle, they will not be happy. You cannot please them. They are thorough Englishmen—they exercise the blessed prerogative of grumbling. No matter what it is, they can always see something or other to find fault with in it. If they have much, it might be more; if they have little, they are poorly treated; the blessings of the upper springs cannot satisfy them unless the nether springs flow in as freely; and the mercies that come from heaven will not please them, unless they can have their share of the mercies of earth. Oh! dear friends, pray the Lord to give you a new heart and a right spirit. I cannot figure out what such a one as you will do in heaven. Ask your Master to take away your unheavenly spirit, so that you may be able to see reasons for joy, for there are many of them. Charnock says, “He who observes providence will never be without providence to observe,” and we can say, he who is willing to be made happy may never be without something to make him happy, if he chooses to look for it.

19. There are some of us who do not have so many days of heaven on earth, because we could hardly bear them. Joy sometimes has danger with it. There are, among the flowers, poisonous asps. The Christian needs, when his cup is full, to carry it with a steady hand. Too much spiritual joy might even be too much for the physical frame, like the old Scottish divine, who called out, “Hold, Lord! hold, Lord! it is enough, remember I am only a clay vessel; give me no more joy, lest I die of excess of it.” Indeed, there might be spiritual maladies, if not bodily ones—we might grow proud, self-conceited, and lifted up. If we have much sail, we need much ballast; and, perhaps, the furnace is as good a place for us as any place on earth until we get to heaven. If we had so many of these days of heaven on earth, we might never long to go to heaven at all, we might say, “This is a place happy enough for us”; but the Lord will not let us do so; he will make the wilderness to be a wilderness still, so that we may be willing to go on to Canaan. He would not have the sailor so content with the vessel as not to desire the port, and so he sends us rough days and stiff breezes, so that we may be disturbed and long for our desired haven.

20. There is one more thing: if we had so many of these days and no troubles, we should not be like Christ—we should lack one point of conformity to him, for he was “a man of sorrows.” We are to have fellowship with him in his sufferings, and if our path were always smooth, and our sky always bright, we might not know so well as we know now what the sufferings of Jesus Christ meant. We might be losers in heaven, if we were not sufferers here; for I suppose it will be a part of the joy in heaven to remember the sorrow through which we came, to remember the difficulties which we overcame; and if we do not have sorrows or difficulties, we shall not have so sweet a song. Rest is all the sweeter for the labouring man, and so shall the rest of heaven be all the better, because of the days of grief and sorrow which we had on earth.

21. III. But now, lastly:—WHAT CAN WE DO TO GET MORE OF THE DAYS OF HEAVEN ON EARTH?

22. Well, we cannot build a city with streets of gold; we cannot find chrysolites and pearls with which to build a Jerusalem the Golden; we must take the place as we find it, and this world of ours, though a very fair earth, is not all we should like it to be; but we cannot alter it. It is very much like a convict-settlement, a prison-house for Christians. This is not our rest; and as we look over it, we feel it is not a proper place for the spirit to dwell in. It needs a better land in which to develop itself. But how, then, are we to get heaven on earth?

23. I think there are three things we can do, and the first is, we can get it, if we cannot alter the place, by being more like the people. They are happy in heaven, not only because it is heaven, but because they are heavenly. They could not be otherwise than happy. If those blessed spirits were on earth, so perfectly pure as they are, they would be perfectly happy. It is not, I say, so much the place that makes their heaven, as their state of mind. They are completely conformed to the will of God; they delight themselves intensely in the Most High; they have been freed from their earthly grossness, and they are now like the pure gold that has passed through the furnace. Let us pray for holiness, and we shall get happiness; let us ask to be heavenly-minded, and we shall get heaven. There is no fear about our joy, if we can get holiness. Very much in proportion as we shall become fit for heaven we shall have days of heaven on earth.

24. And then a second thing we can do: if we cannot get the place, we can get the object that makes the place such a place as it is—that is to say, if we cannot get heaven, we can get days of heaven on earth by getting Christ, for it is Christ who makes heaven, as the sun makes the day. Christ is the flower in that garden that makes all the rest sweet; Christ is heaven’s crown and glory, its brightest jewel and diadem; and he who gets his heart set on Christ gets the better part of heaven; at any rate, he can do without the angels and without the harps of gold for a time. When he gets Christ in his heart, the hope of glory; when the love of God is shed abroad in his heart, by the Holy Spirit, and he can say, “My Beloved is mine, and I am his,” he has gotten the major part of heaven, and may have days of heaven on earth.

25. There is a third thing that we can do to get heaven, and that is, to follow the occupation of those who are in heaven. A man’s joy or sorrow comes very much from what he has to do. In heaven they are always serving and praising. If we get the same work to do, if we enter into the same happy choir, and sing praises to our heavenly King, and try to serve him without weariness, why, then, we shall get, again, the better part of heaven by getting the occupation of it. Holy men with Christ in their hearts, and with Christ’s work in their hands, spend many days of heaven on earth. We do not find Mr Whitfield and Mr. Wesley very often troubled with doubts and fears, and I believe the reason was because their tenor of life was on high, their communion with Jesus was very close, and, above all, because they were so hard at work for their Master, that they did not have any time to sit down and begin raking in the mire for doubts and fears. May we be just such men as they were, and we shall have days of heaven on earth.

26. Now, alas! alas! alas! there are many to whom I am now speaking who will have no days of heaven on earth, but they will have their poor unsatisfactory days to drag their weary length along, and then at last will come the days of death. Ah! then, there are some who have had days of hell on earth—some who have made the nurse declare that they would never nurse such a man again for all the world—some who have made their very parents spring up from their bedside to hear their cries, as they lay there suffering from the rod of Almighty wrath. Take care, take care that such is not your end, and if you would escape from it, remember the door of heaven is Christ; the door is wide open; only come to it, trust Christ, and you shall have days of heaven on earth, and afterwards heaven itself shall be your portion. May God grant that it shall be so for his name’s sake. Amen.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {De 6:1-23}

1, 2. “Now these are the commandments, the statues, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go to possess it: that you might fear the Lord your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you, and your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged.

Obedience to God should arise from the fear of him, or from a holy awe of God felt in the heart, for all true religion must be heart-work. It is not the mere action alone at which God looks, but at the motive—at the spirit which dictates it. Hence it is always put, “That you might fear the Lord your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments.” Neither are we to be content with keeping commands ourselves. It is the duty of parents to seek the good of their children—to seek that the son and the son’s son should walk in the ways of God all their lives. May God grant us never to be partakers of the spirit of those who think that they have no need to look after the religion of their children—who seem as if they left it to a blind fate. May we care for them with this care—that our son and our son’s son should walk before the Lord all the days of their life.

3. Hear therefore, oh Israel, and observe to do it; that it may will be with you and that you may increase mightily, as the Lord God of your forefathers has promised you, in the land that flows with milk and honey.

It seems, according to the old covenant, that temporal prosperity was appended as a blessing to the keeping of God’s commandments. It has been sometimes said that while prosperity was the blessing of the old covenant, adversity is the blessing of the new; and there is some truth in that statement, for whom the Lord loves he chastens, and yet it is true that the best thing for a man is that he should walk in the commands of God. There is a sense in which we do make the best of both worlds when we seek the love of God. When we seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, other things are added to us; so that it is not without meaning to us that the Lord here promises temporal blessings to his people.

4. Hear, oh Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:

This is the great doctrine that we learn, both from the Old and the New Testament there is one Lord. And this great truth has been burned into the Jews by their long chastisement; and, whatever other mistakes they make, you never find them making a mistake about this. The Lord your God is one Lord. May we always be kept from all idolatry—from all worship of anything else, except the living God. May we hold firm evermore the sacred unity of the Divine Trinity.

5. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

It is not a little love that God deserves, nor is it a little love that he will accept. He blesses us with all his heart and all his might, and we are to love him in the same way.

6, 7. And these words, which I command you today, shall be in your heart: and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk about them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.

The Word of God is not for some particular place called a church or a meeting-house. It is for all places, all times, and all occupations. I wish that we had more of this talking over of God’s Word when we sit by the way, or when we walk.

8. And you shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

With you in all your actions—with you in all your thoughts—conspicuously with you—not out of ostentation, but through your obedience to become apparent to all men.

9-12 And you shall write them on the posts of your house, and on your gates. And it shall be, when the Lord your God shall have brought you into the land which he swore to your forefathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you great and goodly cities, which you did not build, and the houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, and wells dug which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant; when you shall have eaten and are full; then beware lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

Pride is the special sin of prosperity, and pride stands side by side with forgetfulness of God. Instead of remembering from where our mercies came, we begin to thank ourselves for these blessings, and God is forgotten. I remember one of whom it was said that he was a self-made man, and he adored his creator, and I may say that there are a great many people who do just that. They believe that they have made themselves, and so they worship themselves. May it be ours to remember that it is God who gives us strength to get wealth or to get position, and, therefore, to him be all the honour for it, and never let him be forgotten.

13-15. You shall fear the Lord your God, and serve him, and shall swear by his name. You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people who are all around you: (For the Lord your God is a jealous God among you)

He will have the heart all to himself. He cannot endure two Gods. Of false gods, there may be many: of the true God there can be only one, and he is a jealous God.

15-19. Lest the anger of the Lord your God is kindled against you, and destroys you from off the face of the earth. You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted him in Massah. You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord: that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to your forefathers. To cast out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.

Now, they broke this covenant of works, just as we also have long ago broken ours. Blessed be God, our salvation now hangs on another covenant which cannot fail nor break down—the covenant of grace. Yet, still, now that we become the Lord’s children, we are put under the discipline of the Lord’s house, and these words might not unfitly describe what is the discipline of the Lord’s house towards his own children, namely, that he blesses us when we walk in his ways, and that he will walk contrary to us if we walk contrary to him. He keeps a rod in his house, and in very love he uses that on his best-beloved ones. “You only have I known of all the nations of the earth; therefore, I will punish you for your iniquities.” He will not kill his children, nor treat them as a judge treats a criminal, for they are not under the law, but under grace; but he will chasten them and treat them as a father chastens his child—out of love. Oh! that we might have grace to walk before him with a holy, childlike fear, so that we may walk always in the light of his countenance.

20-23. And when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies, and the statues, and the judgments mean, which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ Then you shall say to your son. ‘We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand: And the Lord has shown signs and wonders great and dreadful, on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household, before our eyes: and he brought us out from there, so that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our forefathers.’”

And can we not tell our children what God has done for us—how he brought us out of our spiritual captivity, and how in his almighty love, he has brought us into his Church, and will surely bring us into the glory above? May God grant us grace to speak about these things without misgivings, with great confidence to tell our children of what he has done.