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Consider Canaan, with its privilege of being ever under the open eyes of the Lord, as setting forth to us, in a very real manner, the spiritual condition of the Church of Christ, and the blessedness of that state.

I. THE SPIRITUAL GROUND OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

1. The freedom of the new land, though Divinely given, was to be acquired and retained by courageous conflict and endeavour.

2. The productiveness of the new land was to be a blessing to the producer. God has expended His Divine treasures, that His children may bring forth the rich fruits of His own glorious life.

3. Purity of life was to be realised in the new land. The Church exists to promote the worship of the Revealed Father in spirit and in truth. The Church's worship is the drawing forth of its strength from God — the reception of the Divine life into the human.

4. The beauty of the new land was to be the counterpart of spiritual beauty. The fruits and flowers of earth were the response to the light and rains of heaven. The Church exists, that the beauty of the Lord our God may be upon us. Nothing in creation is more beautiful than the sight of consecrated spirits cooperating in the work of God and of His Christ.

II. THE DIVINE OBSERVATION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. A high privilege and blessing.

1. For the condemnation of wrong.

2. For the approbation of right. No encouragement to the pursuit of goodness can be so great as that which is derived from the truth that God is beholding the fight with evil.

(W. R. Percival.)

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KJV: 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:

WEB: For the land, where you go in to possess it, isn't as the land of Egypt, that you came out from, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your foot, as a garden of herbs;