to say the least, significant that words should be used here so exactly descriptive of the period during which Christ remaine,l under the power of death. There is probably a glance Christ-wards in the passage. 5. The end of revival is that we may l-i-11e wnto God. "And we shall live in his sight." See this thought developed in Rom. vi. 10, 11; 2 Cor. v. 15. Tho new life, having Goel as its Source, has God also as its End. III. Tm: ASPECTS OF GoD's GRACE To lsr.AEL. (Ver. 3.) What God wills to be to his people, he cannot discover to them all at once. There is greater fulness in bim than they can at once apprehend. His coming is like the dawn-progressive, hrigbtcninu by degrees till it culminates at noon; and like the rain, falling in repeated an,l seaso;able showers. Would Israel, therefore, know all that God is, she must "follow on "-must persevere in her new way. God would open himself up to her in new manifestations of grace, suited to each step in her advance. "Dawn" and "rain" are influences. (1) Heavenly; (2) !!entle; (3) beneficent; yet (4) distinct in their effects. 1. The dawn is primarily enlightening; the rain fructifying. 2. 'fhe dawn gladdens; the rain refreshes. 3. The peculiar effects of the dawn are those of contraat; the rain gives heightened beauty to effects already existing.-J. 0. Ver. 4.-The day-dawn and the rain. The Jewish doctors found in these words a prophecy of Christ. We Christians cannot do less. It is Christ whom our faith must grasp under these two figures-the day-dawn and the rain. Tbere is a twofold coming of the Son of God-the first in his own Person to establish and confirm the gospel ; the second in his Holy Spirit to apply it to the heart. The one of these may be very fitly cotnpared to the morning, the other to the rain. I. '!'HERE ABE POINTS IN WHICH THE DAY-DAWN AND THE RAIN RESEMBLE EACH OTHER. 1. They have the same manifest origin. They come from heaven. They are not of man's making and ordering, but of God's. It is not less so with the gospel and Spirit of Christ. Man neither invented nor discovered them. They carry their evidence with them, like Heaven's sun and Heaven's rain. 2. They have the same mode of operation on the part of God. The mode of operation is soft and silent. What so gentle as the day-dawn? What more soft than the spring's falling rain? And like to these in their operations are the gospel and the Spirit of Christ, When the Saviour came into the world it was silently and alone. His kingdom came not with observation.. The Spirit's great work is not in the earthquake, or the mighty rushing wind, but in the still small voice. 3. They have the same mode of approach to us-in perfect fulness and freeness. 'l'hey are, like God's great gifts, without money and without price, and they come with an overflowing plenty. In this they are fit and blessed emblems of the way in which Christ approaches us, both with his gospel and his Spirit. 4. They have the same obfect and end. It is the transformation of death into life, and the raising of that which lives into higher and fairer form. The gospel and Spirit of Christ have the same aim-life and revival. Christ is no less earnest for our eternal life in the one than in the othe:·. II. THERE ARE POINTS OF DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE DAY-DAWN AND TBE RAIN. 1. Christ's approach to men has a general and yet a special aspect. The sun comes every morning with a broad, unbroken luok, shining for all and singling out none. But the rain, as it descends, breaks into drops, and hangs with its globules on every blade. 'l'here is a wonderful individualizing power in the rain. There is a similar twofold aspect in the comiog of Christ. 'fhe gospel enters the world with the broad universal look of daylight. It singles out none, that it may exclude none. But Christ comes after another manner in the Spirit. Here no man can tell how God is dealing with another. He 11.pproaches the door of the single heart and speaks to itself. 2. Chr(st's coming is constant, yet variable. He visits men in his gospel, steady and unchangmg as the sun. But with tho Holy Spirit it is otherwise. For the rain man knows no fixed rule. It may come soon or late, in scanty showers or plentiful floods. The gift of God's Spirit is no doubt regulated also by laws, but these laws are hidden from us in their tioal ground. 'l'he emblems show us in God's workino- the two great features of law a11d freedom. 3. Uhrist's corning may be with gladn:ss, and yet also with trouble. What more joyful than the returning sun? But Gml comes also in the cloud, and there is ,i shade over the face of nature-sometimes in the thunder-cloud, dark aud threateuins;. There is gladness in the gospel, there is trouble iu the conviction by the Spirit. l.liit Christ, comea in both. 4. Chri£t's coming in his gospel and his corni; 1g in the S[;>iri t 'l'HE BOOK OF HOSEA. [clt. vr.'1--11.
tend lo a.fi11~l and perfect union. They llre indispensable to each other. The gospel withont the Spirit would be the sun shinincr on a rainless waste. 'l'he Spirit without the gospel would be the rain falling in a starless night. Christians need both. Some he .,.e a very di~tinct perception of the gospel in its freeness and fulness but they lack the life of the Spirit. They need the rain. Some experience the workin'gs of the Spirit in conviction, etc., but they ha,•e only a small portion of the sunlight and the joy. Our ~nuls can only lh·e and grow when the sun and the showers intermingle. (Adapted from Dr. John Ker,H. 0.