THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN
"There remaineth yet very much land to be
possessed." Josh. 13: 1.
The conquest of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua was a
most striking type of the conquest of Christianity under the leadership of
Christ, the Captain of our salvation.
It is one thing to cross the River Jordan and sing a song;
it is another thing to enter in, and quite another thing to shout down the
walls of Jericho, to stone Achan to death at Ai, to go on until it can be said
that the whole land is possessed. At the time these words were uttered it could
be truthfully said that the land of Canaan was subdued. The Southern kings and
their power had been broken at Horeb, and the North countries had been subdued
at the waters of Merom. But when it came to the individual possession of their
individual inheritance the people were so slack that Joshua threw down a
challenge and cried out, "how long are ye slack to go up and possess the
land which the Lord your God hath given to your fathers." Their hesitation
is a striking picture, first, of the Christian age, and second of individual
Christian experience. When we glance over the past wean not fail to note how
slack, how reluctant Christianity has been to go up and possess the land, and
to carry out the great commission of her glorified Head. How slack American
Protestantism has been, and is, to publish the whole Bible to a lost world.
After nineteen centuries, two thirds of the population of
the earth are without a knowledge of Christ, and nine-tenths of the people are
without salvation. With the awful increase of heathenism during the centuries
of sin, with the neglected masses in so called Christendom, and darkness that
can be felt on every hand, we must see how slow the professed Christian Church
has been to go up and accomplish the purpose of God.
God's purposes are most noble. He has some magnificent plans
even for this old world if He only can find somebody who would carry them out,
but in all the past ages it has occurred again and again, that He has had to
make much of sanctified individuality, and sometimes has had to take a single
individual with whom to accomplish that, which the whole Church ought to have
done. Many a time He has lifted, even from the masses, somebody who could stay
the rising tide of spiritual death, and turn back the powers of darkness and
publish a gospel that would save from sin, and give another generation a
chance. All along the ages the reluctance of His people has been apparent. It
is all about us to day.
The necessity of this camp meeting, the fact that we are
here as we are this morning is the result of almost universal lethargy and
indifference about us. We are here from the force of circumstances. To see what
the Lord will do and to see what can be done to carry out the great Commission
so neglected by its professed friends. God have mercy on the empty profession
of these times! Uncover deceit and bring such power upon us as will cause
hypocrisy to cover its accursed head in everlasting shame. Lament these facts
as we may, there is no earthly power that can change them. God must make bare
His arm, let the power of His gospel fall down upon us. He is able to save to
the uttermost all that come unto Him. This is not only a picture of the Church
but a picture of individual Christian experience. Here questions will confront
many of us that must be settled. God help us to meet them manfully and to
settle them for the right. And "there remaineth yet very much land to be
possessed." The weakness of the Christian Church is traceable to the fact
that she has never received the Holy Ghost. The weakness of the so called
Holiness movement is traceable to the fact that they have failed to recognize
the Holy Ghost, and go on to possess the land. Many have doubtless received the
Holy Ghost, but by ignoring His gifts and graces have grieved Him and quenched
Him until He has withdrawn. The weakness of the Holiness movement and its
inglorious defeat in many places is traceable to the fact that the people have
failed to receive the gifts of the Spirit, have not recognized Him as Captain
of the Lord's host, and have failed to keep Him in the front.
Many of us have desired to be leaders ourselves. We have
called upon Him to help us when we ought to have recognized that the work was
His, and we are the helpers. We have called upon Him in our emergencies when we
ought to have recognized that He is the sole proprietor of all that concerns
us. We have come to Him in times of trouble when we ought to have trusted Him
to keep us out of trouble. Some have made the mistake of supposing that entire
sanctification is the ultimatum of Christian experience when it is only the
beginning of a triumphant, victorious, conquering tread which means to possess
the land to the going down of the sun. Thousands have failed to keep step with
God, and the worst thing that could be said about them is, that they are left
behind. Many of them still profess holiness and testify to it straight, but
they are certainly deserted, empty, and powerless, and making a disgraceful
failure. Many forget that entire sanctification is not only instantaneous. but
gradual, and the gradual phase of this experience is sadly neglected in these
days. It is instantaneous in its reception and the destruction of inbred sin
takes place in a moment of time, and the coming of the Holy Ghost to His temple
is sudden, but sanctification is gradual in its out workings and out puttings
of the Spirit in every day life. While our hearts are made clean in a moment,
our lives are conformed to His image as the years go by. This requires time,
patience, labor, and waiting upon God, that the highest purposes of God may be
accomplished in and through us and that we may possess the land.
The principles of the art of stenography may be learned in a
comparatively short time, but the easy and rapid development and practical
exercise of these principles requires time. There area great many things in
Christian experience that we can get in a moment which it may require years to
learn how to use with perfect ease. Paul says, "I have learned in
whatsoever state I am therein to be content." I have learned them. Some
things come by revelation and some things come by learning. Paul says, "I
have learned how to be abased as well as how to abound." There are a great
many people who are abased but they do not know how, Paul says, "I know
how to be abased." He knew how to have comforts, to have comfortable
circumstances without allowing it to puff him upon the other hand he knew how
to be abased. He knew how to sleep on the floor of a dark, dingy room without
complaining. He knew how to do it. It is one thing to have to do it and another
to know how to do it.
This gradual phase of Christian experience is so sadly
neglected that many are shorn of their strength and have utterly failed to keep
step with God. It was the Lord that said unto Joshua, "there remaineth yet
very much land to be possessed;" and at the time He uttered these words
there were thirty-one headless sovereigns lying at Joshua's feet, and thirty-one
mighty strongholds in his grasp, and yet there remaineth very much land to be
possessed. They downed the representatives of the land they possessed, they had
possessed the strongholds but God says, "Do not conclude that you have
reached your climax." There are greater lengths to be traversed and higher
heights to be scaled. Go on to the going down of the sun. With many of us our
former education is against us, we have been wrongly instructed. It has been
laid on in such thicknesses that the Holy Ghost must take it off in layers;
layer by layer. Peter was such a Jew that he had to have a sheet experience to
stretch his head after his heart had been made clean. If we will walk with God,
we will go on to find tremendous things, things we have never dreamed. We will
find the Lord talking to us about our body, and will be lead to trust him with
our physical condition, with our circumstances, with the strange providences
that come into our lives, the things that never can be explained, and He will
guide and protect us under awful pressure. In the most perplexing and trying
surroundings, we will find the Holy Ghost hushing our soul's cry, singing some
sweet song which will put us to sleep. To follow on, to know the Lord is to
trust Him in the strangest and most aggravating circumstances.
We may find ourselves enveloped in difficulties, trials and
circumstantial darkness, yet singing like a nightingale, rejoicing evermore,
and drinking from a fountain of such depth that there is no possibility of
exhaustion. The opposition to a whole Gospel in the so called holiness movement
is traceable to the fact that the people have not kept step with the Holy
Ghost. They may have had as genuine a Pentecost as any one, but if they object
to anything between the lids of the Book it is because of a lack of
acquaintance with the Author of the Book, and persisted in, will produce
leanness of soul. If some of you who listen this morning had kept step with
Him, He would have whispered to you about the picnic that is to take place in
the skies.
If you had walked in solitary retirement with the presence
of the Lord, you would have known the secret of His coming back to earth again.
With the real progressive saint there are times when friends have proven false,
everything seems unfavorable, heartbroken, filled with sorrow inexpressible,
suddenly the whole scene changes and He whispers to you about His coming back
to pick you up and take you out of the coming tribulation and house you up in
the New Jerusalem, where you shall not see the awful things which are surely
coming upon the inhabitants of this earth. Those who receive the Holy Ghost do
not have to have much theology to know the value of salvation. They may need it
to know how to tax the patience of the people with their dry sermons but they
never need the theology of the schools to get the old fundamental truths from
God. Man does not have to leave his business and glean libraries to make him
orthodox. The Lord may have to knock out of him a lot of things the schools
have put in, but He is able to do it. God not only scrapes the heart and
enlarges the head but men with only a few ounces of brains have been used to
accomplish more than the heavy weights in theology.
The wholly sanctified see the city that is out of sight;
comprehend the incomprehensible; understand the mysterious and know the things
that the thousands of earth never know. The Lord will whisper secrets to you
that would astonish lords, counselors, and kings of earth. If you walk with Him
you will get acquainted with Him and His works. You will find great comfort and
consolation in trials, in sorrow, in bereavement. It is simply unexplainable.
Nobody can understand it; but they who shut themselves up in the secret place
of the Most High and talk with the Comforter and He bathes their souls in the
water of life, and pours in the oil -- the pure beaten oil, and they sit in His
presence. If He seems to be silent at times they are not restless. There is
something most satisfying about sitting in the silent presence of one whom you
love. His comforting presence gives consolation and solidity; He holds us
steady with remarkable fixedness while we go on to possess the land. Brother,
sister, are you going on? Have you reached the banks of Jordan?
Canaan is spoken of as being bounded on the right and on the
left, but in front of us there is no boundary line, it is to the going down of
the sun. This glorious morning some of us are sitting upon the summit of a
great blessing, but it only enables us to see another range, and when you reach
the top of another peak, there are still other ranges, other heights of
spiritual blessedness. You will go on bounding and bounding, and some of these
days, like bounding Paul, you will go bounding into the city of God.
There is something in this progressive, this arm to arm walk
with the Holy Ghost, that is like nothing else in the universe. On and on, we
do not stop with the downfall of any city, or the beheading of any king, we go
on to obtain our individual inheritance. Let us lift up our eyes this morning
and behold the magnitude of His purchase for us. Some of these times we will go
over there where Achsah's blessing is found. When she was married, she
requested her father, Caleb, to give her not only the Southland, which was her inheritance,
but also "the upper and nether springs.” The Southland was located under a
burning sun, and often scorched with burning heat, but she succeeded in
getting, not only the lower springs, but the upper springs, and from the
springs in the mountains, fed by the constantly melting snow, she had waters
that not only cooled and refreshed, but fertilized the Southland. When under
the scorching sun her pools, rills, rivulets and brooks dried up, when the
rills of the valley were no more, here came the streams from the upper springs.
They were never falling. The others would dry under torrid heat, but she had
demanded springs which would never dry up no difference what came. Achsah was a
most striking and beautiful type of this wonderful blessing of sanctification.
O, there is a place, thank God, where we may, not only have the nether springs
of earthly joys, companionship of friends and loved ones, of temporal blessings
which the Lord bestows upon us, but when these are all gone, and every earthly
joy is dried up, and the last human prop is fallen, then from the upper springs
of God's bountiful ocean of love and grace will come the cool, refreshing
streams upon our souls that will cause us to "rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory."
There are times with all of us when earthly springs fail;
the joys of this earth will fade. I have known some who once lived in palatial
homes, drove fine horses, and rode in splendid carriages, but their earthly
resources have fled away and they are living in a humble cottage, but I find
them with streaming eyes, with shining faces; I find them drinking of the
springs that never fail, the upper spring. Thank God there is a place of never
failing fountains! It is mountain water, it comes from the hill tops of Heaven,
it comes from the streams that make glad the city of God. Here the saints are
abundantly satisfied with the fatness of His house, and they drink of the
rivers of His pleasure. The saints who have persevered through and who have
accomplished the most for God have always had these springs. Abraham found them
on Mt. Moriah. Moses found these springs among the hills of Midian. David found
them when he had to flee for his life from the face of his enemies, and hide in
caves and desert places. He drank, and drank, and drank, he sang about the
rivers "the streams whereof make glad the city of God."
Isaiah, in the midst of the darkness and trials which
surrounded his life, found these upper springs and sang of the glorious streams
and fountains, and would break out sometimes and say, “with joy shall ye draw
water out of the wells of salvation." Habakkuk found these springs when
the pastures were dry and sear; when the flocks had failed; when there was
nothing in the herd or stall; when the crops were all dried up and there was
nothing in the vineyard, he sat down under his own vine and fig tree and sang,
"Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my
salvation." Paul and Silas found these springs in the old prison at Philippi,
and they sang the doors open and sang the prisoner free, for they had these
upper springs of never failing joy. John Bunyan found these springs in Bedford
jail and said one day, "So they had me off to prison, I sat me down to
write. I wrote and wrote, for joy did make me write." Mary Dyer found
these springs on the scaffold on Boston Commons, and she drank and drank until
her soul took its flight to the city of God. Her shining face, after she was in
the coffin box, witnessed that she drank until she was intoxicated from the
holy water of the upper springs beyond the stars. Beloved, don't mistake
yourself. These springs are still running. Don't you believe that they are all
dried up. Don't you believe that a spontaneous Christian experience is a thing
of the past? Christianity has not changed. They may tell you that we are less
emotional and that education has changed our feelings, but don’t you believe
it, sir. The spirit of this world has not changed and the spirit of the Gospel
is the same forever. When the school men tell you that we have outgrown an
emotional religion you just take another drink from the upper springs. When you
are puzzled how to sufficiently thank God for what He has done for you, join
the Psalmist and say, "I will take the cup of salvation." If the ponds
and pools about you are empty, and the rills have gone dry, remember that you
can drink from the upper springs and thirst no more.
In every age where men have accomplished the purpose of God
in any marked way they have had to cut new channels. They have had to leave the
old land marks, they have had to go alone. They have had to cut new channels
for fuller tides. And, sir, if you are in this movement to have something
merely ordinary, I can not go with you; but if this congregation will join us
in seeking something extraordinary, even if we have to cut new channels, to
leave the old beaten paths and get out of the old ruts, to go the whole way
with God, regardless of men or devils, I am with you forever. The men and
movements who have accomplished the most for God have been those who have
utterly ignored the beaten paths of a worldly religion, and have done things
regarded as extreme, extravagant, unreasonable.
They have never tried to make Christianity harmonize with
human reason or human smartness. Abraham was a pioneer; Jonah was the first
missionary to Nineveh; Moses had to turn his back upon all the learning of
forty years and go out with nothing but a crooked stick. With all his knowledge
of medicine, with all his learning, for he was laden with literary honors, he
had to turn his back upon it and simply put a piece of brass upon a pole for
folks to look at. Martin Luther, George Fox, John Wesley, and every one who has
accomplished any great thing for God has had to go at it misunderstood, and has
had to do seemingly outlandish and most extreme things to accomplish the
purpose of God, so, if we are going to go on we will have to cut new channels.
New trials will come to us, very difficult things will appear before us, the
enemy will accuse, plan, scheme and come from various quarters, but if we are
going to walk with the Holy Ghost, thank God, we will possess the land. For
one, Beloved, I am going on to possess the land. I have prayed and wept and
written articles and preached about the coming Pentecost too long to back down
when it comes. It is folly for us to write about it and tell about it and then
get frightened when we see the billows of glory breaking in upon us. God is my
witness, there is not in my soul a trace of compromise, and while I am here on
earth and God gives me breath I am going to do my utmost against sin and to
possess every foot of territory possible. Beloved, we are not back to
Pentecostal power, we are not back to Pentecostal manifestations, but some of
us are headed that way. We are going after the sunset. We see that “there
remaineth yet very much land to be possessed." If squatters have taken
possession of our plains that is their lookout, we will have to look after our
own affairs. They must retreat, we must possess the land. All we have to do is
to put our foot on the territory and the Lord says we may have as much as we
walk over. I purpose to walk myself to death. I must possess the land.
While in my room, before I came to this platform, I heard
from the skies. I saw that for this camp meeting "there remaineth yet much
land to be possessed." Somebody must take it. Somebody must pitch their
tents that way. The coming of the Lord has been delayed because the land has
not been possessed. One generation after the other has been swept off the
earth. God is waiting until He can find a generation who will go up and possess
the land. What if it might be us? It seems too exalted to be true, but I would
like nothing better. I believe if God can have His way with it, this very
movement, will finally bring about the consummation of this present age. Every
seat at the marriage supper of the Lamb must be taken. The last seat may be
taken soon, then our Lord will rise up, gird Himself, and we will meet Him in
the air and will go in to the marriage supper of the Lamb. I must be
there.
You can not go up to possess the land unless you are in it,
and you can not get in unless you are fully saved. So many will have to begin
at the beginning. I have before me a lot of people who if they had given
attention to the gradual phase of sanctification would have been years and
years in advance of where they are, and instead of running in for repairs at
every camp meeting, would be preaching and singing and shouting for God; perhaps
on the other side of the world. I wish this morning you would go down and get
something so that you would never have to go to an altar again. I wish you
would get something so that if Gabriel himself should come down to preach to
you he would have to go back and say, "I cannot get those folks to the
altar." Shall we go on to possess the land and keep step with the Holy
Ghost?
You may have to drink from the spring under very peculiar
circumstances and strange surroundings, but thank God, He will be with you. I
feel somehow like the Lord had put iron timbers in my soul. It is wonderful! If
you keep step with God and He sees that you are going to have hard things,
rugged things to encounter; He will put in some iron ribs. Glory to God! I feel
like jumping. It is the progress of the saint, it is the united efforts of
God’s own people under the leadership of the Holy Ghost, that will cause this
earth to feel the shock of an earthquake. When a sinner sees you rejoicing in
God under great trial and perplexity, in great distress, when he sees you at
such a time drinking at the springs that are out of sight, it is then he will
call for a drink himself. He says, "That is the kind of religion I
want." If we do not drink at such times God is watching and the sinner is
watching; and if we do not sing, shine and shout in hard places, it will be
against the interest of our King and His Kingdom which we claim to represent.
O, God help us this morning to possess the land! I am looking out for another
hill top. I am expecting to see another range. I am not considered very
demonstrative, but if I have got to turn somersaults, I am going on. Anything
that is in the Holy Ghost is always in order. Have you new light? Could you
take God for your body this morning?
I believe some people here are going to loosen their grasp
on things below and reach up and take a firmer hold on the things that never
die. This world will pass away; it is to be consumed. We must have something
that will not burn up. Let us rise up and go forward. Let us see the heights
and depths. We are spoiled for this world anyhow. The Church can hardly endure
us. We might just as well see what there is in salvation. If you find that you
are not in the land will you not get up and go over? You can not afford to
fail. Do not criticize; do not ask questions, but go up and go on. Do not talk
about yourself; do not tell the Lord how much you have given up, and what you
are doing, but tell Him how loving He is and what a fool you have been; how
slow you have been, and how stupid. Do not go the altar and tell Him how much
you have surrendered to Him. He knows that there is only a hand full of it
anyhow, and I have heard so much about what you have given up. It makes me sick
at heart. I want to hear you talk more about God; about His resources, His
willingness, His faithfulness. I want to hear you say that He is more willing
to do it than you are to have it done.
