of God's commandments, no ear for the sweet music of the Gospel, no voice for the praises of Christ, no relish for that bread which is "for the life of the world." And forasmuch as it is only through Christ, in his office of Mediator, that those influences are communicated which repair the decayed, or impart the destroyed faculties, we may justly regard our blessed Savior, whilst working miracles on the body, as both teaching what was needful for the soul, and representing himself as its appointed physician. Hence, in Christ's unstopping the ears, and loosening the tongue, of the man that was brought to him as he passed through Decapolis, every one may find the outlines of a symbolical lesson, as to the necessity for a divine operation on our spiritual organs, ere the tidings of redemption can penetrate the soul, and the utterances of thanksgiving be heard in return. unable, or even whilst unwilling, to do any thing for themselves. We may bring them to Christ; we may entreat Christ to heal them; and such narratives as that which has been under review, warrant the hope, yea, even the expectation, that, if we ask in faith, the Redeemer will put forth his miraculous power. But there is yet another significative fact which ought not to be overlooked. Our Lord led the afflicted man aside from the multitude: did he not thereby tell them, who may be visited with any desire for spiritual cure, that it is not in the throng and bustle of the world that they may expect the renewal of their senses and powers? that they should separate themselves from distracting associations, seeing that it is in privacy and retirement that he is ordinarily pleased to work a moral miracle, and reproduce in the soul the lost image of God? He can heal you any where he can unstop the ear and loosen the tongue whilst you are in the hurry of the crowd, or when you have sought the secrecy of the closet. But he loves the solitude: if you wish him to work a miracle, prove that you wish it by going aside from the multitude, detaching yourselves from a world that "lieth in wickedness," breaking away from the company of his enemies-and then may you hope that he will meet you, and say unto you, with as much of power as of graciousness, "Ephphatha, that is, Be opened." But more may have been represented than this general fact. The man does not seem to have come of himself; and there is no evidence whatsoever. that he had faith in Christ's power to heal. Indeed, as we have endeavored to show you, Christ took pains to fix attention on himself as the worker of the miracle, as though to provide for faith following, if it did not precede the cure. The friends or relatives of the deaf and dumb man had faith in our Lord; this faith moved them to solicit a miracle, and was recompensed by its being wrought. And there is great encouragement in eve- Will he say it with a sigh? Indeed, ry such record of blessings procured so great is the corruption of our nathrough the intercession of friends. ture, and so vast the disorganization When I read of parents or relations around us, that the portion of a renewleading the dumb to Jesus, and solicited man has often to be described in ing, in his name, what he could not solicit for himself, I gain assurance that parents or relations may bring children to the regenerating waters of baptism, and entreat on their behalf those gifts of the Spirit, which they are yet too young to entreat for themselves. thank God for the record of miracles, in whose subjects there was faith; I thank him still more for the record, when the faith was not found in the party that was healed, but in the party who conducted the diseased person to Christ. Oh, we may do much for those whom we love, whilst they are I the words of St. Paul: "Without were fightings, within were fears." To convert, is to consign to a hard conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil. And Christ might sigh in speaking the word which gives spiritual health, remembering that he quickens men to the painful and perilous task of crucifying themselves, of offering themselves a living sacrifice unto God. But if heaviness may endure for a night," "joy cometh in the morning. The victory is sure with Christ for a leader, though the contest be severe. And if it be with a sigh that he pro nounces the Ephphatha now-with a sigh, because to be a believer is to be persecuted and afflicted, at war with the world, at war with one's self-it shall be with a smile that he pronoun ces the Ephphatha hereafter, saying to the everlasting doors," Be ye opened," that my people may enter my kingdom: "There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest." SERMON XI. THE LATTER RAIN. "Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain: so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field."-Zechariah, 10: 1. It is not necessary that we inquire | whether, as originally delivered, these words included spiritual blessings or were limited to temporal. The former are so frequently illustrated or shadowed out in Scripture by the latter, that we may safely treat the passage as a direction and a promise which have to do generally with prayer, and particularly with prayer for the communication of divine grace. In order, however, to the right understanding of the words, you are to observe that there were two seasons of the year at which rain was peculiarly needed and looked for in Judea. The one was in autumn, at the seed-time; the other was in the spring, when the corn had to be brought to an ear and filled. The rain which fell at the one, is spoken of in Scripture as "the former rain;" that at the other, as "the latter;" and you find the two mentioned together when God would covenant to do great things for his land. Thus, in the Book of Deuteronomy, "If ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments, which I command you this day, I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain." Thus again, in the prophecy of Jeremiah, "Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter in his season; he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of harvest." And once more, in Hosea, "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." But the "latter rain" is often mention ed by itself, as though specially needed to the making available the labors of the husbandman. Thus you read in the Book of Job; "They waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain." And Solomon says, in the Book of Proverbs, "In the light of the king's countenance is life; and his favor is as a cloud of the latter rain." Jeremiah, also, when describing the utter desolation brought by sin upon the land, exclaims; "Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain." The want of this latter rain would evidently be peculiarly distressing; it might not do more towards causing famine than the want of the former; but, occurring at a time when the husbandman had fully done his part, and was expecting to reap the fruit of his labors, the horrors of dearth would be aggravated through the bitterness of disappointment; and there would, moreover, be less opportunity of providing sustenance from other quarters than if " the former" rain had failed, and thus long notice had been given of an insufficient harvest. : We may find, as we proceed with our discourse, that, in applying the text to spiritual things, great attention should be given to this mention of the latter rain" rather than of "the former." At present it is sufficient to have pointed out to you the times at which rain ordinarily fell in Judea you will hence be aware of the importance of the blessing for which the people are directed to ask. We will now, without further preface, enter on the consideration of several great truths which appear derivable from the passage, when taken, in its largest sense, as a direction to prayer. We will not attempt, beforehand, to specify these truths, but rather leave them to open successively as we prosecute our examination. Let us only ask rain of the Lord, let us only entreat the aids and teachings of his Spirit, without which we may not hope to enter thoroughly into the meaning of Scripture, and it may, indeed, be for our profit that we study the direction, "Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain ;" and that we hearken to the promise, "The Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field." Now we shall begin with looking at the direction as having to do literally with the rain, with those showers which descend in due season to water the earth, "that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater." Alas, how difficult is it to keep God in mind as the great First Cause, when there is a mechanism of second causes through which he is pleased to conduct his operations and communicate blessings! If things ordinarily occur in a settled course, we speedily forget that this course is, after all, but the law which God is pleased to prescribe to himself, to be followed only while it shall seem good to his infinite wisdom, and swerved from whensoever he shall think fit to suspend his own laws. If, for example, there be a time of the year at which rain is accustomed to fall, how readily do we expect rain at that time, just as though there were a certain set of causes, which, working always, and with unvarying regularity, would be sure, at corresponding seasons, to produce corresponding results. Men seem practically to have but little remembrance, that the mainspring of all the mechanism is in the hands of an invisible Creator; that it is not from what goes on in the hidden laboratories of what they call nature that season succeeds season, and shower and sunshine alternate with so much of beautiful and beneficent order, but that the whole arrangement is momentarily dependent on the will and energy of that supreme Being who "sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers." It is needful, we might almost say, that God should occasionally interrupt the ordinary course of things, that he should suspend the laws which he has been pleased to impress on the natural world, if only that he may keep himself from being forgotten, and compel some recognition of his all-pervading influence from those who actually "live in him, and move, and have their being." But whilst there is this known proneness amongst us to the substituting second causes for the first, whilst we are confessedly so ready to look to the laws and the mechanism of nature, to do for us what can be done only by the direct and immediate agency of God, how important, how instructive, such an injunction as this; "Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain!" You are to lay the emphasis on its being "the time of the latter rain," the season, that is, at which rain might be commonly expected; at which, year after year, it had been accustomed to fall, and at which, therefore, a boastful, or rather an infidel philosophy, might have argued that it would continue to fall, in obedience to fixed and immutable laws. If, from some cause or another, there should be want of rain at seasons when it was not usually wanted, when it was not the time for either the former rain or "the latter," perhaps this boastful philosophy itself would allow and we cannot be said to have warrant for that. But to ask it at this time, is to ask what we know is according to God's will; and "this," saith St. John, "is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us. that there was place or occasion for asking of rain. To ask it at another prayer. We do not, indeed, mean that time might be asking a miracle, a dethe philosophy would necessarily as-parture from God's ordinary course, sent to the possible usefulness of prayer in the supposed emergence: it is far more likely that it would entrench it self within its maxims as to the fixedness of nature's laws, and the consequent vanity of any expectation that these laws would be interfered with in order to the meeting our wishes or wants. But, at least, philosophy would here confess, that, if the rain fell at all, it would fall not through the working of mere second causes; and that, therefore, though prayer must be practically worthless, as pleading against a firmly-settled ordinance, it was still so far in place as that only the Being, to whom it was addressed, had power to give rain at so unwonted a time. If, however, it be actually "the time of the latter rain," then will a prayer for rain appear to this philosophy utterly unreasonable or preposterous, as if we were not content to leave natural causes to work out their invariable effects; or as if we wanted to make a parade of the power and efficacy of prayer, and therefore directed it to a boon which we knew that we should receive, whether we asked it or not. But God, on the contrary, says; "Ask ye rain in the time of the latter rain." Oh, what a lesson to us that we reckon not, so to speak, on the seasons; that we presume not to expect any good merely because the time is come round at which, in the ordinary course of his dealings, God has been used to bestow that good. A blessing may have been long and regularly communicated; but we are not to count on the regularity of the communication, as though it proved some immutable law, which must continue to work out the accustomed result it may be "the time of the latter rain;" the experience of a lengthened course of years may warrant the expectation of rain; and the clouds on the firmament may seem big with the usual supply-but God has yet to issue his command; God has yet to unseal the fountain; and therefore there is still place for prayer, there is still need for prayer: it is the time of the latter rain," but, on that very account, it is the time also for the १९ Beware, then, of taking for granted that mercies will continue to descend in the order, and at the times, which may have long been observed: there is no such likely way of stopping the supply, as the failing to recognize that the fountain is with God. God describes himself as a jealous God;" and it must move him to jealousy, whensoever, in any degree, we substitute his instruments for himself, or look to the channel as if it were the spring. The long continuance of a mercy at a particular season may indeed be said to involve a kind of promise-for God has so constituted us that we naturally expect what we have often experienced; and a divine promise is not only that which is registered in the divine word, but that also which is conveyed through the moral constitution received at God's hands. But let it be remembered that a divine promise, so far from proving it unnecessary that we ask, should itself be our great reason for asking. God's promises are the warrants for man's prayers. What God has promised, may be asked for in the perfect confidence that it is according to his will ;" and since the promises are conditional, their fulfilment being made dependent on our seeking, or inquiring for, the covenanted blessings, we may not only be encouraged in our prayers by God's promises, but ought in no degree to reckon on promises, except as we make them foundations for prayers. God may be said to have promised rain "in the time of the latter rain:" but just because it is a time at which rain has been promised, therefore it is a time at which prayer should be made. And so with every mercy. The recurrence of the time at which God has been used to bestow it, should not make you expect to receive it again without asking, but should make you ask in the full confidence of receiving. | of rain ;" a time at which it is God's The Sabbath, for example, is a "time ordinary course to communicate a of the latter rain :" rain is then used blessing; and we have warned you to fall-God's Spirit descends in gra- against expecting that blessing, withcious showers for the refreshment of out asking for it; we have endeavored the church. The time of the admin- to prove to you, that your reason for istration of christian ordinances is a expecting should be your reason also "time of the latter rain," God com- for asking. monly using the preaching of his word and the dispensing of his sacraments, to the conveyance of grace to his waiting people. But because these are times of the latter rain," shall they not also be times for the praying for rain? Oh, never ought your prayers to be so fervent or importunate. You are, as it were, on the top of Carmel; you see the cloud rising out of the sea; but you must not take for granted that there will be "abundance of rain:" God may command the cloud back into the sea, yea, he may be expected to do this, if you do not wrestle with him in prayer. Therefore, on the Sabbath morn, because it is the Sabbath morn, the morning of grace, redouble your prayers for grace; on sacramental opportunities, because they are God's chosen occasions of impart ing his Spirit, cry more earnestly than ever for that Spirit. Think not that the favorableness of the season can make the necessity for prayer less, whereas it does but make the encouragement to prayer greater. Substitute not the means of grace for grace, as though, when the former were vouchsafed, the latter would be sure to follow; ah, there may be the clouds and not the showers; and, therefore, remember ye the precept of our text, and "ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain." १९ Now we have thus endeavored, to show you that the circumstance of its being a time of rain ❞—whether the natural rain or the spiritual-so far from furnishing a reason why we should not ask for rain, is itself the great argument for our asking; inasmuch as it proves that we have God's promise on our side, and the promise of God is always the warrant, but never the substitute for the prayer of man. But all that has preceded would have been equally appropriate, had "the former rain," not "the latter," been specified in the text: we have simply spoken of the time as being "a time Let us not, however, pass without comment the mention of "the latter rain:" when the reference of the prophet is supposed to be to spiritual rain, there are special truths to be gathered from his speaking of "the latter rain" rather than of "the former." We have explained to you that "the latter rain" was that which fell in the spring, and which was instrumental to the bringing the corn into the ear, and filling it; so that, if this rain failed, the husbandman would be disappointed of his harvest, notwithstanding all his previous industry, skill, and anxiety. He was indeed dependent also on "the former rain," that which fell at the seed-time for the grain would not germinate, and send up the tender shoot, unless the ground were watered by the fertilizing showers. But there would be a yet more bitter disappointment, for there would be the utter loss of much labor, the fruitless expenditure of much effort and hope, if the latter rain" were withheld; and, consequently, there was even greater reason for his asking rain in "the time of the latter rain" than in that of "the former :" if "the former rain" were withheld, he might make some other use of his capital and enterprise; but if "the latter," his disaster scarce admitted of repair. १९ Now without endeavoring to trace too narrowly the parallel to this in spiritual things, we may safely say that there is something very affecting and admonitory in the mention of "the latter rain." It is the rain needed for filling the ear, and fitting it for the sickle. Take it metaphorically, and it is the grace needed for ripening the believer, and fitting him for heaven. The former rain may be considered that which fell upon him at his baptism, or, perhaps more accurately, at his conversion, when he set himself, according to the directions of the prophet, to break up his fallow ground, and sow to himself in righteousness." And he has been enabled, through the continued ९९ ; |