Dew falls freely in some parts. Where it seldom rains it falls heavily, and is nature's only means of preserving vegetation in these thirsty regions of the globe, thus providing every leaf with its allowance of moisture, night after night, enabling it to grow and nourish.
" In the South American forests," says Humboldt, M notwith- standing the sky is perfectly clear overhead, rain frequently falls in heavy showers, caused by the copious formation of dew by the radiating powers of the tops of the trees, in contact with the vapour-laden atmosphere of the tropics." l
2. Often in Scripture the dew, so much needed and so benefi- cent in its operation as it distils on the dry and thirsty ground, stands as the image of the Divine Spirit, and His quickening, refreshing influences as He works in the moral world, on the otherwise arid and barren hearts and lives of men. It is evi- dently thus that the figure is here employed. It is the living and life-giving Lord Himself who speaks. He speaks of His own purposed action. He says, This is what I personally and power- fully will do. I will come to the hitherto lifeless, useless, fruit- less Israel, and affect him as does the dew when it falls on the
1 W. Coles-Finch, Water : Its Origin and Use, 140,
HOSEA xiv. 5, 6 309
parched and profitless earth, in the rainless, scorching days of summer, and transforms deadness and sterility into life and beauty and fertility.
God envelops His people as an atmosphere by which they are revived as with fresh dew from on high. No man hath seen Him at any time, yet it is His invisible power that quickens and sustains us all ; it is not the things that we can touch, taste, or handle, but that God who is " through all, and in you all, and over all." As the air lies close to every living thing and enters into its being, so also does He ; and the health and the joy of our souls depend on our receiving, in all its purity, that spiritual atmosphere which is the very breath of our life. But the special point suggested by the text is, that this God who is so near to us all brings with Him elements of tender refreshment, which are like dew to revive our hearts amid the wear and tear, the dust and weariness of existence.
TJ It is peculiarly true of the dew that it moistens everything where it falls; it leaves not one leaf unvisited; there is not a tiny blade of grass on which the diamond drops do not descend ; every leaf and stem of the bush is burdened with the precious load. Just so it is peculiarly true of the Spirit, that there is not a faculty, there is not an affection, or power, or passion of the soul on which the Spirit does not descend, working through all, refreshing, reviving, renewing, re-creating all.1
T| Sarah Smiley, in speaking of the preciousness of early communings with God, says : " It is one of the rarest exceptions when no dew falls in my garden, and perhaps it is nourished even more in this way than by the rains. As I go to my morn- ing work among the flowers, the dew rests everywhere, often as heavily as though a shower had fallen — that is, everywhere that there is life to receive it ; for I do not find the dew upon the garden paths, nor on any barren spot. But every leaf is laden and every flower is fresh from this baptism by the hand of God. And as I lightly stir the soil around my flowers, where it is be- coming hard and impervious to air, these heavy dews contribute their small quota of rich refreshing to the soil itself." Then Sarah Smiley applies the spiritual lesson of the early dew, " Oh, blessed dew of the Spirit of God ! How faithful and constant is Thy coming ! How Thou visitest us in the still hours and in the hours of shadow! How dost Thou utter Thy wisdom almost inaudibly! We see no cloud, we hear no sound, and yet Thy
1 R. M. McCheyne.
310 THE BLESSING OF THE DEW
presence is with us and our souls are rejoicing. Thy love bathes our souls with delight. We bow down beneath its pressure in adoring gratitude. The fragrance of our souls goes forth to Thee as every pore of our being opens at this soft touch. We are alone with Thee, and Thou speakest to our hearts. Thou canst not come to us thus in the broad light of the busy day. We bless Thee for the still hours in which our souls are charged anew with life."1
3. The dew is a fit emblem of God. It is one of His own creations. Like all the works of His hand, it was made in the love of it, and in the joy of the mission on which He was to send it. It therefore pictured the heart which begat it. In itself it is a truth as to God. He needed but to say, " I will be as the dew," to tell us that He Himself would bless us, even as, in the dew, He blesses the plants. To slake our thirst, to feed our 5 life, to touch us into loveliness, and to thrill us into fruitfulness, we need God Himself. No angel is mighty enough to undertake the task ; no gift is of any avail. God does not therefore send : He comes: "I will be as the dew." The fitness oi dew as an emblem of God may easily be seen.