The Doctrine which Drops as the Rain, 2
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II. But we pass on to our second point, which is to open up the spiritual meaning of the words– "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as thesmall rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass." Four different emblems are here made use of to describe the way in which this doctrine drops and this speech distills. These are– the rain, the dew, the small rain, and the showers. These several emblems are employed by the Holy Spirit to set forth the light, life, and power which accompany the truth of God when he is pleased to bless it to the soul. Each of them we will, with God's blessing, now endeavor to unfold.
A. First, "the RAIN."In eastern climates the rain is a most acceptable benefit– a most precious gift of heaven. In Palestine, rain usually fell at but two seasons of the year– autumn and spring; and was thence called the former and latter rain. The former rain fell in October, when the seed was committed to the ground, to make it germinate; and the latter fell in April, to fill the ear and carry the crop on to harvest. But viewed as an emblem, rain in Scripture generally signifies the blessing of God; for as the rain falls from heaven to water the earth and make it fruitful, so does the blessing of God fall from heaven upon the soul, and more especially upon the preached gospel, to make it take root and bear fruit in the hearts of the saints of God. There are several points of resemblance between the natural and spiritual rain.
1. The falling rain is sovereign. We read in Amos– "I have withheld the rain from you, and I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city; one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered." How powerless we are as regards the rain that falls from the sky! Who can go forth when the sun is shining in its brightness and bid the rain to fall? Or when rain is falling, who can go forth and restrain the bottles of heaven? He who gives us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness, also turns a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of those who dwell therein.
Equally sovereign is the blessing that God gives to the preached gospel. He holds the blessing in his own hand; it is his to give, and his to withhold. If he blesses, it is because he has promised it; but when, where, and to whom it shall come, is in his own sovereign disposal. Yet what do we naturally desire when the earth is parched up for lack of rain? Knowing that there is rain stored up in the clouds above, and that when it does come it will produce beneficial effects, desires, if not prayers, go up that it may fall. In fact, the earth itself, parched and dried up by heat– the very ground itself, by the fissures and clefts which are made in the soil by a burning sun, silently, mutely, but still imploringly calls upon the rain to fall. Every crack you see in July is a silent mouth asking the rain to come down. The withered herbage, the cattle lowing in the field, the dried up ponds and brooks, are all imploring, though not a word is uttered, that rain may fall.
So in grace. The parched, withered, dried up feelings of the soul are all so many mute mouths imploring God's blessing to come down. No, the very hardness, barrenness, and sterility felt in our heart when the blessing of God does not rest upon the word, are so many mute appeals to the God of all grace that his blessing would attend the word to our conscience. I say this because you may think sometimes that you are not praying for the blessing of God to rest upon the word, because you may not be using vocal prayer, or are not favored with a Spirit of grace and supplication. God sees your needs, and to those needs he has a kind regard.
The babe need not, and indeed cannot ask in so many words for food. The cry of hunger is enough. Or even if too weak to cry, the mother knows the child is hungry by its restless movements; and she is as pleased to give the nutritious food as the babe is to receive it. So you must not always measure the strength of your prayers by the mere vocal utterance you may give to them. The heart-searching God reads your needs, knows your desolate case, and sees your barren condition. As in the kingdom of his providence he views from his holy throne the parched ground, and sends down showers because he sees its need; so in the kingdom of his grace he looks upon the parched condition of his people, and gives the spiritual rain because he knows they need it.
2. The gospel also resembles the rain in a second point. It is specially adapted to the needs of the people of God. Is there not a natural agreement between the parched ground and the rain that falls upon it? Is not the ground as naturally adapted to receive the rain, as the rain is adapted to fall upon it? So in grace. A needy soul, parched and withered by the law, is as much adapted to receive a blessing from the gospel, as the gaping earth is adapted to receive the rain.
3. The rain is only suitable to the earth as under cultivation. The rain that falls upon the sea, on the top of a barren mountain, or on the Arabian desert, does no good. There must be a suitable soil for it. So in grace. It is the blessing of God attending the preached gospel to a heart under its own culture ("You are God's husbandry") that makes it fruitful. He will ever own his truth, but it will ever be to the heart which he has previously ploughed up by conviction and trouble.
4. But there is another point of resemblance. What is the effect of rain? It softens the clods.So does the blessing of God falling upon the gospel. It softens hard hearts. Nothing but rain will penetrate. You may break the clods to pieces, or roll them small and fine; but that will not soften them, and the seed will lie useless in the furrow. But the rain softens both seed and soil. So it is with the blessing of God upon the gospel. Not only does it soften a hard heart, but it makes the word of truth to take root in the conscience thus made tender in God's fear.
B. The DEWI have now, with God's blessing, to explain. In eastern climates, where the sun shines with greater heat and power than with us, the dew is proportionately greater. In fact, in those burning climates vegetation would be utterly destroyed were it not for the copious dews that fall by night. The dew that fell on Gideon's fleece when wrung out filled a bowl full of water. "My head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night." There again the dew is spoken of as falling so copiously as in a short time to saturate the locks of the head. But what resemblance is there between the natural and the spiritual dew?
1. First, the dew generally follows a clear, bright, and shining day.It does not fall in cloudy weather, not when the wind is blowing with violence. So with the dew of God's grace. The Sun of righteousness shines in a pure, bright, and clear atmosphere– the heaven of the gospel. From this pure, bright, clear atmosphere of gospel grace, does the dew of God's blessing descend. Not from the cloudy Law, not from the blackness and darkness and tempest, does the dew distill.
2. Again: it falls when a million stars are spangling the sky,all of which may be considered as so many bright promises studding the skies of grace. When the promises glitter, the dew falls.
3. Again: it falls imperceptibly. No man can see it fall. Yet its effects are visible in the morning. So it is with the blessing of God upon a preached Gospel. It penetrates the heart without noise; it sinks deep into the conscience without anything visible going on; and as the dew opens the pores of the earth and refreshes the ground after the heat of a burning day, making vegetation lift up its drooping head, so it is with the blessing of God resting upon the soul. Heavenly dew comes imperceptibly, falls quietly, and is manifested chiefly by its effects, as softening, opening, penetrating, and secretly causing every grace of the Spirit to lift up its drooping head. Whenever the Lord may have been pleased to bless our souls, either in hearing, in reading, or in private meditation, have not these been some of the effects?– silent, quiet, imperceptible, yet producing an evident impression; softening the heart when hard, refreshing it when dry, melting it when obdurate, secretly keeping the soul alive, so that it is not withered up by the burning sun of temptation, or dies for lack of grace!
Nothing but the gospel ever produces these effects. The law, with all its terrors, threatenings, and alarms, the fears of death and hell, the pangs and stings of a guilty conscience, the temptations of Satan,– may all cause great and deep distress; they may sink a man very low and bring him almost to despair; but no rain will ever fall or dew distill upon any other doctrine or any other speech than the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is this alone which God honors, which the Spirit owns, and the soul enjoys.
C. But we read in the text of "the small rain."The Holy Spirit, in the words before us, has selected emblems all of the same character and yet of different degrees. Rain falls abundantly; dew imperceptibly; small rain rather more visibly; showers often profusely. We have sometimes what is called "drizzling weather"– no great drops; no heavy rain; no copious showers but a gently falling mist, that is just sufficient to moisten the soil, to refresh vegetation, keep the crop growing, and forward it on to an abundant harvest, but not penetrating the ground to any depth or extent.
"Small rain" then, viewed spiritually, seems to describe those gentle operations of the Spirit of God upon the soul that soften, revive, and keep the heart alive, the conscience tender, and the affections lifting themselves upward, without any great manifestations of the Lord's goodness and love.
D. The last emblem used in our text is that of "the showers."These fall more copiously, especially in eastern climates, where, in the rainy season, the whole watery heavens seem to precipitate themselves upon the earth. They are therefore more visible than dew or small rain, and their effects proportionally greater and more manifest. They reach to a far greater depth; soak the ground more effectually, and penetrate to the lowest roots of the herbage.
Spiritually viewed, therefore, "showers" point to great, powerful, and blessed manifestations of the love of God, of the Person of Christ; of his blood and obedience, agonizing sufferings, and dying love. The Lord promises that he will "pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground." These "floods" are "the showers" of which David speaks: "You water the ridges thereof abundantly, you settle the furrows thereof; you make it soft with showers." So that we have in our text a regular scale: the dew, the small rain, the rain, and the showers. And this graduated scale of heavenly moisture shows that there are degrees of spiritual blessing.
We must not expect all to be blessed to the same extent, nor all to receive the same measure. Yet all are of the same nature. Examine "the dew"– it is water; the "small rain"– it is water; the "rain"– it is water; "the showers"– they are still water. You cannot find any difference between the water of the dew, of the small rain, of the rain, and of the showers: they are all alike pure water, distilled from the alembic of the sky. So it is with the blessing of God upon the soul. It may fall upon one as the dew, upon another as the small rain, upon a third as the rain, on a fourth as the showers: yet all equally and alike, spiritually and divine. It is the same God that gives; through the same Jesus it comes; by the same Spirit it is communicated. All produce more or less the same effect– to soften, to moisten, to fertilize, and to revive; and all descend from the heaven of Christ's Gospel; all fall from the same skies of grace, mercy, and truth, love, blood, and salvation.
The doctrine, therefore, that testifies of Jesus, and the speech that proclaims him to be a Rock and his work to be perfect, and no other teaching, "drops as the rain and distills as the dew." There is a power in truth, when God is pleased to apply it to the heart; and whether it comes in large or in small measure, whether it be in dew or shower, it is equally a proof of his mercy and love, and equally a proof that his power attends his own divine truth to our soul.
III. But I pass on to our third point, which is to show the spot on which the dew, the rain, the small rain, and the showers fall.This is said to be "the tender herb and the grass."
1. By the "tender herb" we may understand spiritually a conscience made tender in God's fear; by "the grass," the graces generally of the Spirit in the soul. We read of "a band of men whose hearts God had touched." The touch of his finger it is that makes the heart tender. By nature man has no tenderness of heart or conscience towards God. He is hard, obdurate, unfeeling, equally regardless of heaven and hell. "They made their hearts as an adamant stone," says the prophet. Like Leviathan, their "heart is as hard as a piece of the nether millstone"– the hardest and flintiest of all stones. But if man's heart be such– a heart of stone, of adamant, harder than the nether millstone– surely, grace alone can produce the change indicated in the words before us, where the heart of the child of God, under the doctrine that drops as the rain and the speech that distills as the dew, becomes as soft and yielding as the tender herb which drinks in the April dew.
The feelings, the conscience, the affections of those who fear God are tender just in proportion to the dew and rain which fall from heaven upon them. As hardness and obduracy are specially hateful, so is this spiritual tenderness especially acceptable to the Lord. How tender was Jesus! How "he grew up as a tender plant," abhorred by men, but oh! how pleasing to God! The Lord specially noted this in Josiah– "Because your heart was tender." He was therefore gathered unto his grave in peace. Anything like hardness or obduracy either to God or man is wholly foreign to the Spirit of God and of the gospel, and to what his operations will ever produce in a living conscience.
But without the rain, the tender herb would perish from its very tenderness. The small rain and the gentle dew are specially suitable to the tender herb. A violent thunderstorm, a sweeping shower, a terrific hail and snow storm from the frozen north, would tear up, chill, and freeze the tender herb. But dew, and the small rain that fall so quietly and softly upon it, do not bruise, or chill, or freeze it; but, being suitable to its tenderness, gently nourish it to make it take a deeper root and spring up into a more vigorous growth.
Nothing is so suitable to a tender conscience as the dew that falls upon it, through the truth of God. The blessing of God upon his own word heals the wounds that guilt has made, softens the heart that the law has hardened and as it makes the truth strike a deeper root downward, so it causes it to bear a more vigorous stem upward, and eventually to ripen into a more productive harvest.
2. The graces of the Spirit seem signified here by the emblem "grass" for as the grass clothes the ground with herbage pleasing to the eye, and ministers food to the sheep that crop it; so it is with the graces of the Spirit. They are pleasing to the sight of God; they are agreeable to the eyes of his discerning saints; no, they are pleasing to our own eyes when we can recognize them as produced by the operation of the blessed Spirit. And as the Lord is pleased to bring them forth, they feed the soul that can feel in them so many marks of the Lord's mercy and love, and they feed too the sheep of Christ, who derive nourishment and edification to themselves from the grace that they see in others.
IV. To come to our fourth and last point– thus is produced everything which is for the glory of God and the salvation and sanctification of the soul. By the dew, the rain, the small rain, or the showers, every good thought is produced in a man's heart, every good word is uttered by his lips, and every good action is performed by his hands. As earth without the dew, the rain, and the showers, could never bring forth either fruit or flower, but would be one vast wilderness, a wild desert uninhabitable by man or beast, so with the soul of man– without the dew of God's grace and the showers of his favour, it could never bring forth anything pleasing or acceptable in God's sight. And do not forget that it is through the gospel that his Spirit and grace are communicated. Oh may this Gospel ever "drop as the rain and distill as the dew" upon our heart, and make it fruitful in every good word and work! Then shall we have all the comfort and God all the glory.
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