Tj The principal seasons when a provision of the nature of dew is needed in the Holy Land, and when it is so abundantly given, are summer and autumn. Then six consecutive months of drought occur regularly, even under the most favourable circumstances. From about the first week in May to the middle of October, in the usual course, no drop of rain falls, and throughout the twelve hours of each day the sun shines with great strength, unveiled by a single cloud. In the autumn the thermometer has been known to register 118° Fahrenheit in the shade of the hot plains. In other words, the dew comes in just where and when it is most needed, adding greatly to its benefits by the timeliness of its coming.
I am glad to believe that this is in accordance with the modes
1 Sir Michael Faraday.
HOSEA xiv. 5, 6 313
of Divine working amongst the children of men. The souls who most need the Master's tender care are those whom He most seeks to bless. The moments of our life which are most barren of ordinary joys and blessings are those moments in which we may most securely depend upon the answering help of our Almighty Father. When the heart is parched by drought, and scorched by the sun ; when the rain-laden clouds refuse to gather, or gather only to deceive our hopes; when the showers fall not, and we lie barren of hope and joy before God, then — even then, yes, especially then, will He come to us if we truly seek Him.1
II.
The Blessing op the Dew.
The prophet's familiarity with Nature, however, carried him a long way past the point of merely accepting the dew as a symbol of God's relationship to Israel. He knew that fertility was begotten of the dew. Where it was given it was natural to expect growth. The response of fields and vineyards to its productive presence was fruitfulness and plenty; and so, in a figure, the result is applied to Israel in this splendid picture of human responsiveness to God's gracious influence: "He shall blossom 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."
1. When God heals the backsliding of Israel, "he shall blossom as the lily." Long after this word was spoken by the lips of the prophet, Jesus walked our fields and pointed to the purple- crowned flower. He bade us see, in its curving petals and rich tints, the very perfection of beauty. No show that even Solomon could make, when decked in royal robes, was equal to the glory of the lily-bloom. But God's heart cannot rest there. To create and to behold even such exquisite loveliness is not enough. Soon the lily fades ; and it dies, having had no joy in its own beauty, and no communion with its own Creator. God yearns for a deathless flower, whose grace shall ever grow under His smile, and whose heart shall understand and answer His.
1 H. C. McCook, The GqsjkI in Nature, 38.
3H THE BLESSING OF THE DEW
Tf The white Julienne was a special favourite with the unfortunate Marie Antoinette. She was shut up in the most loathsome apartment of the Conciergerie, and a soldier was stationed in a corner of the room to watch over her night and day. Madame Kichard, a keeper of the prison, who pitied the poor queen, brought her every day bouquets of the flowers she loved, thus tempering the putrid miasmas of the place with sweet perfumes.1
2. As the result of God's presence, Israel " shall cast forth his roots as Lebanon." This does not refer to the roots of that giant range that slope away down under the depths of the Mediterranean. That is a beautiful emblem, but it is not in line with the other images in the context. As these are all dependent on the promise of the dew, and represent different phases of the results of its fulfilment, it is natural to expect this much uniformity in their variety, that they shall all be drawn from plant life. If so, we must suppose a condensed metaphor here, and take " Lebanon " to mean the forests which another prophet calls " the glory of Lebanon." The characteristic tree in these, as we all know, was the cedar. It is named in Hebrew by a word which is connected with that for " strength." It stands as the very type and emblem of stability and vigour.
Tj Galilee is literally the casting forth of the roots of Lebanon. As the supports of a great oak run up above ground, so the gradual hills of Galilee rise from Esdraelon and Jordan and the Phoenician coast upon that tremendous northern mountain. It is not Lebanon, however, but the opposite range of Hermon, which dominates the view. Among his own roots Lebanon is out of sight ; whereas that long glistening ridge, standing aloof, always brings the eye back to itself. In the heat of summer harvesters from every field lift their hearts to Hermon's snow ; and heavy dews by night they call his gift. How closely Hermon was identified with Galilee, is seen from his association with the most characteristic of the Galilsean hills : Tabor and Hermon rejoice in Thy name.2