chilled into dew-drops by the coolness of the uicrht, as in a climate like ours. From l\fay to October rain is unknown, the sun shini~g with unclouded brightness day after day. ~he heat b_ecomes intense, the ground hard, and vegetation would perish but for the moist west wmds that come each night from the sea. The bright skies cause the heat to radiate very quickly into spnce, so that the nights are as cold as the day is the reverse. To this coldness of the night air the indispensable watering of all plant-life is due. The winds, loaded with moisture, are robbed of it as they pass over the land, the cold air condensing it into drops of water, which fall in a gracious rain of mist on every thirsty blade. In the morning the fog thus created rests like a sea over the rlains, and far up the sides of the hills, which raise their heads above it like so many islands. At sunrise, however, the scene speedily changes. By the kindling light the mist is transformed into vast snow-white clouds, which presently break into separate masses and rise up the mountain-sides, to disappear in the blue above, dissipated by the increasing heat." Dew seemed to the Israelites a mysterious gift of heaven as in~~ed it is. (F_or Bible ass~?~ations of the dew, see 2_ Sam. i. 21; xvii. 12; 1 Ki~gs xvu. 1; Job xx1x. 19; xxxvm. 28; Ps. ex. 3; Prov. x1x. 12; Cant. v. 2; Hos. vi. 4; Hag. i. 10 (Gideon's dew on the fleece is familiar, Judg. vi. 36-40); Isa. xviii. 4; xxvi. 19, etc.) God's blessing is like the dew in these particulars- !. IN ITS MYSTERIOUSNESS. The dew differs from the rain in this, that we feel as if we understood the rain, but we never seem to understand the dew. We can see the clouds that distil in rain; we cannot see the moisture of the atmosphere which distils in dew. It is God working in secret for our good. Then, too, it is not always what it seems. It seems to be a cold night mist, that chills us, and we think must chill every- thing. It is (God's blessing always is, whatever form it takes) the very thing that vegetation most pressingly need~. II. bl ITS PRomscuousNESs. No one can keep to3 dew wholly for himself. It will bless bis neighbour too. Nobody can limit or impr.son God's blessings. They come on evil and on good. III. I!,, ITS GENTLENESS. Contrast the deluges of rain in Eastern rainy seasons. The blessings of God are often missed by us,,because they come so silently, so unex- pectedly, and so gently. 'l'he psalmist says, "Thy gentleness bath made me great." IV. IN ITS GOING TO THE BOOTS OF THINGS. Dew is no surface-blessing. Its refreshing goes to the roots of the plants. God's blessings are often unobserved because they do not change our circumstances, but refresh and renew us; they give us new life.-R. T. Ver. 3.-0ld Testament "eternal life." "Even life for evermore." There is a curious legend attaching to the dew of Hermon. "An old pilgrim narrates that every morning at sunrise a handful of dew floated down from the summit of Hermon, and deposited itself upon the Church of St. Mary, where it was immediately gathered up by C:hristian leeches, and was found a sovereign remedy for all diseases." This legend suggests one of the connotations of the term "life for evermore." I. IT MEANS ALWAYS AVAILABLE. The natural processes which form the dew of Hermon will go on as long as there is a Hermon ; and God's blessing will be prepared for bis people as long as lie has a people. Dew and blessing are always available, so long as they are needed. But everything depends upon our using what is available. The dew of Hermon practically fails when the leeches neglect to gather it. 'l'he blessing of God practically ends when men no longer care to seek or receive it. Man's blessing from God is "life for evermore;" but man can himself put the limit to God's "evermore." II. IT MEANS REALITY, NOT MERELY APPEARAN0E. We think chiefly of God's blessing as a prosperity of our circumstances, and that can. never be, a?d bad better never be continuous. It is alto"ether better to have that kmd of hlessmg from God chanaPable because our circumstances can.not remain long the same, and the relation of circu~nstan~es to us, and the influence of circumstances on us, are constantly varying. )f God were to imprison and fix one set of circumstances for ever, and give us to choose which we would have thus fixed, we should be hopeles~ly puzzled, and God would be duing us no kindness. People talk about "for ever" a.nil "everlasting," without thinking to what alone those terms can be applied, if they are to rep•esent any real PB, OXXXIV, 1-3,] 'l.'HE BOOK OF PSALMS. 275
blessing to us. The entire i!phere of the sensual cannot be " for evermore." It; is of its very nature that it begins and ends. The "fashion of this world passeth a.way." It is life that is for evermoro. It is the spiritual being that man ·is that lives for ever. It is the spiritual character that man wins that abides for ever. And helping him to win that character is the blessing-the "life for evermore" which God bestows.-R. T.
Vera. 1-3.-Uniey. Herder says of this exquisite little song that "it has the fragrance of a lovely rose." Nowhere ha.a the nature of true unity-that unity which binds men together, not by artificial restraints, but as brethren of one heart-been more faithfully described, nowhere so gracefully illustrated, as iu this short ode. True concord, we are here taught, is a holy thing, a sacred oil, a rich perfume, which, flowing dowu from the head to the beard, from the beard to the garmeut, sanctifies the whole body. It is a sweet morning dew, which lights not ouly on the lofty mountaiu-peaks, but on the lesser hills, embracing all, and refreshing all with its iufluence. I. TRUE UNITY, 1. Is the unity ef brethren. They feel that they have a common Father, and are children of the same household. 2. But it is unity in variety. Variety of thought, but unity of heart. A uuity of the utmost extremes-from the head to the ed~e of the garments of society. From the heights of Hermon to the humbler hill of Zion. II. ITS GOODNESS AND JOY. 1. Unity can come only from love. A.nd love is the greatest goodness, and the highest, deepest joy. 2. True unity is the most fragrant anci refreJJhingfact of life. In the individual and in the Church, and in society.-S.