Emblems of the Holy Spirit: Rain and Dew
Rain and dew are emblems of the Spirit. They are refreshing and they are abundant. The rain falls upon the just and the unjust. It revives the weeds in a garden, as well as the’ vegetables, and makes them all grow. So the rain of God’s Spirit f;ills on a community, but some go away without receiving any good. They are not willing to receive it.
How silently the dew comes, and how silently it passes away. And SO with the rain. And they are the same the world over. So it is with the Spirit of
God. II 1 should go to China, or Japan, 1 would find the same Spirit as in America.
1 have sometimes been in a place where the very air seemed to be charged with the breath of God, like the moisture in the air. I remember one time as 1 went through the woods near Mount Hermon
school I heard bees, and asked what it meant.
“Oh,” said one of the men. “they are after the
honey-dt w.” “What s that?” I asked. He gave me a chestnut leaf, and told me to put
my tongue to it. 1 did SO, and the taste was sweet as honey. Upon inquiry I found that all up and down the Connecticut valley what they call “honey-Emblems of the Holy Spirit. ill
dew” had fallen, so that there must have been altogether hundreds of tons of honey-dew in this region. Where it came from I don’t know. It sometimes seems as if the honey-dew of heaven has fallen for us, and if anyone has not tasted its sweetness, it is his own fault.
Do you suppose that this world would be worth living in if it were not for the dew and the rain? A church that hasn’t any of the dew of heaven, any of the rain that comes down in showers, will be as barren as the world would be without the dew and rain.
There are some mornings where there is no dew, but thank God you can have the dew of heaven every morning! 1 ne er have seen a mar or woman who spent fifteen or twenty minutes alone with God every day that didn’t have the dew all the while. I have never known one to backslide, either. You never get more than one day’s journey from Christ if you come to Him every morning. Shut the world out. Get closeted with God and you will learn His secrets. 1 like to get up at live o’clock in the morning and turn the key and be alone, and let God talk with me.
Some people say: “1 cannot concentrate my thoughts. My mind just goes all over the world.”
Well, that is true. There is no bigger tramp on the earth than the human mind. It is astonishing how the mind travels; and you ask, How can we bring our thoughts into captivity and have fellowship with God, instead of thinking of ourselves and everj’thing under the sun?
Praj-er is important, but there is something else as important. When I pray I am talking to God; when I read the Bible God talks to me. We need’ both. They help us to bring our thoughts into captivity. You will never get much of an uplift if you talk with yourself. I heard of a man who thought so much of himself that he shook hands with himself every morning. What is the best sign that I have good, healthy lungs? It is that I am not conscious of them. But if I have a diseased lung, I think of that lung all the time. The healthiest Christian is the man or woman who thinks of God, not of himself.
The way to overcome impure thoughts is to fill the mind with better thoughts. You can do that by Bible study and prayer.
Notice, again, that you find dew only when the sky is clear overhead. If any cloud comes between us and God the dew of heaven ceases to refresh us. If you are in that condition ask God to let the Sun of Righteousness arise and dissipate the clouds.
There is no dew, either, if there is much wind. Haven’t you sat under some men’s preaching and felt that it was all wind, no dew? When the Spirit of God falls on a man his words have weight, because he is not speaking his own wisdom, but receives his message from on high.
In the fourteenth chapter of Ilosea we have these words:
“I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under His shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard Him, and observed Him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.”
Notice the seven-fold result when God became as dew to Israel: (1) blossoming, (2) rooting, (3) spreading, (4) beauty, (5) fragrance, (6) influence over others, (7, renunciation of idols.