CHAPTER XIII THE RAIN THE WIND AND THE DEW AS THESE beautiful and beneficent phenomena of Nature are symbols of the Holy Ghost. They are all used as such in Scripture. Some of our readers may have wondered how it was that, after speaking of the Sky as the symbol of God the Infinite Spirit, and of the Sun as the symbol of Christ, the light and life of men, we did not then proceed to speak of the symbols of the Holy Ghost. The reason can easily be given. The doings of God the Father, and the work of Christ the Son, are both unconditioned by men. The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world without man's consent, and the Son wrought out and finished the glorious work of human redemption without any direct or intelligent co-operation on man's part. The sky as the symbol of God and the sun as the symbol of Christ, are purely heavenly phenomena, and are not affected by the earth and its ever-changing conditions. But the work of the Holy Ghost is conditioned by the wills and actions of men The Scriptures plainly tell us that that work can be neglected or accepted, resisted or welcomed, quenched or cherished. His symbols are products of the earth and its atmosphere, and could not properly be referred to until man, and the earth as his symbol, came to be dealt with. It is now in order to consider them. I. The rain. Under the influence of the sun, vapour is drawn up into the firmament from the watery places of the earth, gathered into clouds, carried across the face of the sky by air-currents, condensed by cold, and then comes down as rain. The vapour which ascends is only water, but the drops which descend are a great deal more than water. The clouds attract floating substances and volatile matters as they pass through the atmosphere, and have all the virtues of the heavens poured into their bosoms by the pure ether and the warm sunshine, and the special influences generated by both, before they pour down their fresh and refreshing contents to vitalize and develop all growing things. Everybody knows that mere water supplied to a garden by the human hand has very little influence on the grass, flowers, and plants, compared with the God-given rain. In like manner, under the convicting, convincing, and uplifting power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, penitent prayers and spiritual desires ascend into the moral firmament, not merely to exercise a reflex influence upon the mind and heart, but there to receive blessing from the bosom of the Godhead through the power of the Holy Ghost sent forth from the Father and the Son; and then they return laden with mercy, by which the mind and heart are spiritually enlightened and refreshed, and the spirit quickened into newness of life. The instinct to pray is universal. That instinct is stirred, inspired and guided by the gospel, and the believing cry of the God-seeking soul does not ascend into mere vacuity and emptiness. It is met by all the potencies of the spiritual heavens, and through the believer's faith as a medium, they descend into his inmost being, to vitalize, strengthen, and renew.→ Showers of rain fall upon the earth in every season of the year, and all of them are showers of blessing' even when they appear to be more or less locally injurious. In Nature, as in grace, 'all things work together for good' in the Divine purpose. But all kinds of showers in every season are neither equally seasonable nor beneficial; therefore God says, 'I will cause the shower to come down in its season. So far as we can discern, the showers which fall in winter are of comparatively little value. When the skies are dark, and the earth looks dreary and desolate, and the winds wail and moan, and the waters sigh and sob, and the cold rains pelt and plash, we do not regard the latter as being to any great extent showers of blessing. They look sad in themselves, are depressing in their influence, and produce no visible beneficent results. The showers of spring are different. They are manifestly showers of blessing, for they soften and enrich the soil and waken into new life and activity all the roots and seeds which lie asleep in its bosom. But the showers of summer are pre-eminently showers of blessing. They renew the face of the earth, and cause its growing products to be rapidly developed. Seasonable showers in autumn are also showers of blessing, because they swell the ears of corn and increase the harvest. But while the quickening showers of spring, and the maturing and perfecting showers of autumn are necessary and good, they are not so manifestly useful as the showers of summer. These sometimes fall very gently and greatly refresh the earth and all growing things, while at other times they descend with force and suddenness and effect astonishing results. The use and beauty of rain are not so generally observed as they ought to be, even by students of Nature. It requires a season of drought to make them duly appreciative of this great natural blessing. Very few of our English poets have written about it with admiring rapture, as of many other natural phenomena. Tennyson has called it "a useful trouble," and even Wordsworth has written comparatively little about the falling shower, and that little is not specially suggestive of either admiration wonder, gratitude or gladness. The fact that rain is usually abundant in our climate, and is generally associated with gloom and personal or |