April 20

As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven: so shall my word he that goeth forth out of my mouth. - Isaiah 55:10-11.

“THE rain and the snow that cometh down,” and the gospel, have one author. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.” There are some who imagine the Apostle James here means to establish a distinction between these -between the good gifts and the perfect gifts-applying the good gifts to earthly, and the perfect gifts to Spiritual benefits. It is true that there is such a difference between them, and it is equally true that they all descend from above, and they all come down from the God of all grace. This is unquestioned with regard to the snow and the rain. Every one knows that if God were to withhold these no creature could obtain a “fall” of the one or a “shower” of the other. “Hath the rain a father, and who hath begotten the drops of dew?’’ "Can any among the vanities,” asks Jeremiah, “of the Gentiles give rain?”

And the inference to be derived from this is, that if God gives the less, he gives the greater; that as the natural light is from him, so must also Spiritual illumination be; for, saith the Apostle: “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” The life of an insect and of the plant comes from God, and so also does that life which is emphatically called the “life of God.” “You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” The verdure of the meadows, and the fertility of the fields and of the gardens praise God, and the saints by their self-denying duties, their works of faith and labours of love, and the graces of the Spirit, “show forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light;”.

If we are filled with the fruits of righteousness,” it is by “Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God.” “This people,” says God, “have I formed for myself, and they shall show forth my praise.” It is commonly and justly admitted that the works of nature lead to God as their author, and that there is upon all of them the impress of Deity; that such is the immensity of some and the minuteness of others, and the perfection of the whole, that we are constrained to say-

“The hand that made them is Divine.”