Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 1.pdf/72

 they were made possessors of the land of Canaan, they were commanded to bring the first-fruits of the earth as an offering to Jehovah, to worship Him as the Giver of all good, and to acknowledge that He had given to them the Canaan that flowed with milk and honey.

Great, indeed, and numerous are the blessings with which the Lord in mercy has surrounded us while passing through time into eternity; yet no blessings can exceed that gift of reason which He has bestowed upon the children of men. By this He has imparted to all the power of complying with His merciful invitation, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isa. i. 18.) By the gift of reason, we have a privilege not only of exploring the wonders and beauties of nature, but also of the things that connect us with God, and with the realities of a far brighter world than this, where health is everlasting, and life undying. The land of Canaan, which to the Jews was the land of promise, was beautiful for situation, rich, and fertile; and hence described as a land flowing with milk and honey. Canaan is therefore taken to signify the Church of the Lord on earth, as also the true emblem of heaven—the land of the living, of promise, and of the blessed!

O how beautiful for situation is the heavenly Canaan, where the Sun of Righteousness never goes down, but where the Lord to all the blessed inhabitants is an everlasting light. What wonders open to the mind when the Word of Revelation is seen in its own spiritual beauty! for then the land of Canaan is