The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 187

" Difl'nse, 0 God, those copious showere, Thl\t earth its fruit may yield; And change this barren wilderness To Carmel's flowery field." II. CoNBIDER THE BLEBBING IN ITS EFFEOTB. 1. The revival of drooping life. Descri he a corn-field in spring-time after a time of drought. Contrast its condition after a week'~ rain. Apply these pictures to the moral condition of the Christian Church. Take as a typical instauce the condition of the disciples before and after the day of Pentecost. It was the descent of the Holy Spirit which gave them new tongues, and emboldened them to face and to rebuke a hostile world, till those who had crucified the Lord were pricked in their hearts, and cried, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" 2. The attractive- ness of fragrant life. Nothing is more beautiful in appearance, more pleasant in fragrance, than the garden just blessed by a shower. The rain has brought nourishment to all the life that is in it; but each plant has transformed the nourishment into its own kind of beauty, so that it is white in the lily, green in the grass, fragrance in the violet, strength in the oak. A Pentecostal blessing would not make all Christians alike, but would increase the beauty and the strength of each. Indicate the different expressions of revived life-in the increase of integrity, self-sacrifice, gentleness, devoutness, joy, etc. The Church should be attractive to the world, and so full of life as to possess healing power. She should be like the Lord, around whom the sin-sick and sad gathered, and virtue went out of him even to the skirts of his gar- ments, and "as many as touched were made perfectly whole." 3. The blessedness of a useful life. The Church, represented by the growing grass, exists as grass does for the world's sake. The grass is not merely the pleasant background on which Nature may weave her gorgeous colours; but it is also the fundamental life by means of which other things and beings live. Directly by his use of corn, indirectly through eating the flesh of animals fed on grass, man is absolutely dependent upon grass as it is on the rain. So through the Church, by the power of the Roly Spirit, the world lives; and in this is found her highest honour, because in it she is like unto her Lord, who "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." APPLICATION. 1. To those outside the Ohurch. "Break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you" (eh. x. 12). 2. To those within the Ohurch. Be like Elijah after his conflict on Carmel. Let the yearning cry arise to heaven, and let your hopes go up often to catch the first sign of the coming blessing ; and we shall " hear the sound of a bun dance of rain," where by God will refresh his inheritance when it is weary.-A. R. Ver. 4.-God's grief over evanescent goodness. There are times in a man's life when he begins to fear that he is too impotent or too sinful for the notice of God. In the activity of the day he may be free from such a thought; but in the solemn night, when he looks up to the vast canopy above him and thinks how those same stars have been brooding over the earth amidst all its chauges, there comes to him the thought of David, "When I consider thy heavens," etc. Still more is he oppressed by the sen,e of the moral distance between himself and God which has been created by sin. Ii only infi- nite knowledge can reach him in his insignificance, only infinite mercy can reach him in his degradation I Of both these attrihutes we have an explicit assurance in the text. "Thou art as much hie care, as if beside Nor mcm nor angel were in all the world." God would save the world even at the cost of his Son; nor will he give up the sinner till the last hope of saving him is gone, destroyed by the sinner's own hand. Our text is the sob of a Father's heart after all means of reclaiming the prodigal had failed. J. THAT GOD LONGS FOR THE SALVATION OF MEN, AND SEEKS IN EVERY WAY TO EFFECT IT. 1. Tliis has been revealed to the world. Even under the old dispensation it was expressly declared. If Moses would know the name or character of God, the Lord passed by beforo him, declaring himself to bo " merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and ahundant in goodness and truth" (l:!;xod. xxxiv. 6, 7). Daniel (ix. 9) was bold in his  186 THE BOOK OF HOSEA, [err. vr. 1-11.