It is midsummer, and no rain has fallen for weeks. The bottled clouds refuse to yield one drop of moisture, and all nature is sore athirst. Down in the meadows the springs are dried up, and the grass is brown and shrivelled. Here and there the corn fields are red as they were in April, for the green blade has been burned up. Along the wayside the hedgerows are covered with a dense coat of dust. The leaves are drooping, the flowers are dying, the little birds have ceased their song.
And as the husbandman surveys his parched fields, and looks up to the brazen sky, his heart sinks within him. But, in His own good time, God hears the cry of universal nature, and sends down the rain. For hours it has fallen copiously, and now the clouds have cleared away, and the sun is shining again. What a change! And how suddenly ! All nature is revived. Once more
the birds are singing. No longer leaves or flowers are drooping, unless under the load of the rain drops. The fields and hedgerows are green again, for “God has visited the earth and watered it ; He has greatly enriched it with the river of God which is full of water.”
This is a-picture of a revival in the Church of God. When rain from heaven is withheld, the fields of Zion languish; but when the Spirit descends as “rain upon the mown grass and as showers that water the earth,” even ” The wilderness and the solitary place are made glad, and the desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose.” Then,” In the wilderness waters, break out, and streams in the desert; and the parched ground becomes a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.” Then sinners are converted and saints are quickened. The Bible is prayerfully read in the closet, and statedly read in the family. The sanctuary is thronged with eager worshippers, and a mighty power accompanies the preaching of the Word ; for earnest prayer goes up to God, and ministers preach with the “Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” Then the Church realises the beautiful imagery of the Song of Songs, “The winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in. our land ; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell.”