I have never felt fully at ease with two lines of a favorite hymn-
"Though the shore we hope to land on
Only by report is known";
for in my secret thoughts, while that has been singing, I have said, We have something beside a report of that land. I grant that if we had nothing but God's report, that would be quite enough to commend our souls into that state which the hymn goes on to describe-
"Yet we freely all abandon,
Led by that report alone."
I fully grant, that if the Lord had been pleased to give us only His word about the goodness of the land, that would be quite enough to claim our faith. But the question is, Has He confined it to a report of that land? Is it only tidings? This I question. Eliezer, for instance, gave to Rebecca more than a report-jewels and gold, pledges of Isaac's love, and samples of Abraham's wealth. And this is the office of the Holy Ghost in the great economy of redemption. He enters the scene, not so much with the report of the distant glory, as with pledges and first fruits of it; He is the earnest of the inheritance. So with the spies and their clusters (Num. 13); they did this additional service for the camp. The report of Canaan had reached them through Moses, long before this, and the spies also bore a report of it; they said, that surely it was a good land, flowing with milk and honey; but they did more, something which Moses their redeemer from Egypt had never done; they presented a cluster of grapes, and said, This is the fruit of it. They offered a sample, a first fruits. This was a new thing; this seeing of the produce of Canaan was something additional to all that had hitherto been done for them. Moses described the land, the spies exhibited and brought into the wilderness a taste of its pleasant produce, and this Eshcol, like the jewels of Eliezer, typifies the blessed service of the Spirit in the great work of our salvation; and this is God's way, as appears by these witnesses. He gives an earnest, as well as a report. He did so in patriarchal days by His messenger from Abraham's house; He did so in Israel's days by the spies which He commanded to search the promised land (Numb. 13:3), while His people were still in the wilderness; and He does so in this age of ours, among His elect, by the gospel and indwelling of His Spirit, who gives the soul enjoyment of the things reported of in the Word, after the manner of a sample or foretaste. It is a part of the divine plan of the great economy, or purpose, to give earnests, as well as reports. This is essential, and not accidental.