er they were going, with its streams and wells spreading freshness
and health around; its rich corn valleys, its uplands covered with vines,
its sweet mountain pastures, a very garden of the Lord, cut off and
defended from all the countries round by sandy deserts and dreary
wildernesses; that land would be a witness to them, at their daily work,
of God's love and mercy to their forefathers. The ruins of the old
Canaanite cities would be a witness to them, and say--Because of their
sins the Lord drove out these old heathens from before you. Copy their
sins, and you will share their ruin. Do as they did, and you will surely
die like them. God has given you life, here in this fair land of Canaan;
beware how you choose death, as the Canaanites chose it. They died the
death which comes by sin; and God has given you life, the life which is
by righteousness. Be righteous men, and just, and God-fearing, if you
wish to keep this land, you, and your children after you.

And now, my dear friends, if Moses could call heaven and earth to witness
against those old Jews, that he had set before them life and death, a
blessing and a curse, may we not do the same? Does not the heaven above
our heads, and the earth beneath our feet, witness against us here? Do
they not say to us--God has given you life and blessing. If you throw
that away, and choose instead death and a curse; it is your own fault,
not God's?

Look at the heaven above us. Does not that witness against us? Has it
not seen, for now fifteen hundred years and more, God's goodness to us,
and to our forefathers? All things have changed; language, manners,
customs, religion. We have changed our place, as the Israelites did; and
dwell in a different land from our forefathers: but that sky abides for
ever. That same sun, that moon, those stars shone down upon our heathen
forefathers, when the Lord chose them, and brought them out of the German
forests into this good land of England, that they might learn to worship
no more the sun, and the moon, and the storm, and the thunder-cloud, but
to worship Him, the living God who made all heaven and earth. That sky
looked down upon our forefathers, when the first missionaries baptized
them into the Church of Christ, and England became a Christian land, and
made a covenant with God and Christ for ever to walk in His laws which He
has set before us. From that heaven, ever since, hath God been sending
rain and fruitful seasons