April 29

The place was called the brook of Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. - Numbers 13:24

CANAAN was rich in its productions, and the Jews had even while in the wilderness a specimen of it; and as the spies held forth grapes, figs, and pomegranates, they said, “This is the fruit of it;” so that the children of Israel had something beside the report and the promise: they had not only the pledge of it, they had a part of Canaan itself, a little realization of it. And have not Christians something of heaven even while they are here? and concerning which they also may say, “This is the fruit of it?” The report is indeed something, and it is a good report, and the promise is also exceedingly precious, and is a promise that shall never fail; but the Christian is a partaker of heaven while on earth. Are not the knowledge, purity, and blessedness, in which consists their Spiritual life, to believers now what the grapes of Eshcol were to the children of Israel-the earnests and foretastes of the heavenly Canaan? And there are seasons in which these earnests and foretastes are most richly vouchsafed and enjoyed.

The first of these is Solitude. As Christians, our souls can never prosper in the divine life without occasional and frequent retirement. As the treasures of friendship are mainly unfolded and enjoyed in secret, so is this abundantly the case with the friendship subsisting between God and his people. It is then he manifests himself unto the Christian as he does not unto the world. It is then we sing:-

“Be earth with all her scenes withdrawn,

Let noise and vanity be gone;

In secret silence of the mind

My God and there my heaven I find.”

Secondly, The means of divine appointment. In reference to the sanctuary, have we not often prayed with Watts,

“Send comforts down from thy right hand,

While we pass through this barren land;

Lord, in thy temple let us see

A glimpse of heaven, a glimpse of thee.”

And how often have we been privileged to see his power and his glory in the sanctuary? As he himself has said, “I will bring them to my holy mountain, and I will make them joyful in my house of prayer. Thirdly, The table of the Lord. It is here that sense aids faith; it is here that Jesus Christ stands and shows to his beloved and loving disciples his hands and his side; and while participating in this ordinance they have said, “I sat under his shadow with great delight, and found his fruit sweet unto my taste.” Affliction is another season at which God vouchsafes his earnests and foretastes of heaven. Jacob was a fugitive when he said, “This is none other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven.” John was an exile in Patmos when he was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” “And,” says Paul, “as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. Lastly, These earnests and foretastes of heaven are peculiarly vouchsafed in dying moments, and we shall need them then; and

“Jesus can make a dying bed,

Feel soft as downy pillows are.”

Affliction tends to promote the believer’s readiness to leave this world; but these earnests tell us what heaven is, and render it attractive, so that he sings-

“Yes, I have tasted of the grapes,

And now I long to go

Where my dear Lord the vineyard keeps,

And all the clusters grow.”