ADVERTISEMENTS are inserted on this page at the following rate :-3s. 6d. for 30 words, and Id. for each additional word. BRIGHTON-EDUCATION. — Mr. Alfred Clark, B.A. (Lond.) receives about 20 Sons of Gentlemen, from seven to fourteen years of age. Terms from 40 to 55 Guineas. Pupils are thoroughly grounded in English subjects, Latin, Greek, French, German, and Mathematics. Personal care, Christian influence, and a healthy, happy home.-Address, 84, Buckingham Road, Brighton.-Referees: Rev. W. Poole Balfern, Brighton; Rev. F. Cruse, Christ Church Vicarage, Worthing; Rev. J. B. Figgis, Brighton; Rev. Haslam, 19, King's Road, Brownswood Park, N. Mr. CLARK is wishing to receive two or three little boys, from 5 years of age, to be taught by a Lady with his own little boy. L ADIES' SCHOOL, Byne Villa, Stor rington, Sussex. Principal, Miss Gleadah, late Miss Hughes. The above establishment has been more than 40 years conducted on strictly Christian principles. The comforts of home are combined with a thoroughly modern education. Moderate terms. The next Term commences on the 12th of September. HASTINGS, Indi "West Hill."vidual care is bestowed upon the Pupils, their highest interests are considered, and while accomplishments are successfully taught, the whole system of education is thorough and based on Christian Evangelical principles. The house commands extensive sea and land views, while medical authority pronounce the situation "the most healthy in the neighbourhood." So much success has attended the earnest endeavours of the Principals, that parents have been anxious to place younger brothers with their sisters. Should an adequate number signify their wishes in this respect, additional arrangements will be made for their reception. Principals: The Misses Chart & Westall, 13, Belle Vue, Hastings. EDUCATION. A happy home, com bined with high-class education and careful Christian training, in one of the healthiest suburbs of London. Masters attend for advanced English and accomplishments. References to parents of pupils and others. Misses Dawe, Portland House, Hornsey Lane, Highgate. F RIEND OF THE CLERGY CORPORATION. November Election. The favour of Votes and Interest is earnestly asked for Mrs. Ellen Lucy Penfold, widow of the Rev. W. Penfold, Rector of Ruardean, Glos., who died May, 1881, leaving a widow, without any income, and with six children, four being entirely dependent on her. Recommended by the Rev. Ernest Boys, who will gladly receive votes. CLERICUS acknowledges with grate ful thanks, kind donations, prayers and wishes from several members, and anonymous contributors, and Nos. 62, 7541, 7542, 7666, 17533, B. G., 39938, 54612, 44678, 1978, 40278, 11716, 47907, 36333, 7836, 49896, 50778, 52999, 47496, 47497, 47499, 32953, E. R., 40293, 846, 52730, 51810, 46454, 35943, 35551, 50844, A. D., 39073, 44428, 45748, 5346, 15411, 22478, A., 44180, 44403, 52588, 48166, 3168, 13988, 2048, 24028, 52414, 5647, 48921, 52995, 31802, Syd. and Hor., 49550, 13737, 44695, Banbury, 38477, 53769, 53770, G. C., 31647, 47574, 47575, 54528, 54529, 4263S, 8609, A. B., E. J. M., 18098, 20354, F. C., L. L., 638, C. E. F., 2636, 485, 54202, 49430, 24420, Miss M., 52966, 33561, 51349, 55196, 43730, 13165, 38428, 47756, 55046, 6028, 1419, 22145, Reader, 37806, 23029, 32367, 4244 and friend, 1150, 52304, Mat. 25.40. Special thanks to those who sent more than one stamp. If less than one fourth of the members would send but one penny stamp the Mission Room might be erected at once, Particulars to anyone who desire it. Aug. 31. Also 798, B. C. D., 39314, 36726, 34901, 19909, 15950, 24420, 45339, 55242, 26499, 53399. Total, £4 8s. 1d. Sept. 6th. Observer Office, Usk. THE CHEAPEST AND PRETTIEST BIRTHDAY BOOK. COMPILED BY THE REV. ERNEST BOYS. THE BIRTHDAY REMEMBRANCER; OR, DAILY TEXT BOOK. This Volume is intended to be used as a Daily Text Book; also as a Register of Birthdays, and as a book of autographs of friends. To each Text is added a suitable verse of Poetry, selected from the Works of the late MISS HAVERGAL and other favourite modern writers. The Book is handsomely printed in black and red. It would make an acceptable and helpful present to friends. PRICE Is. 6d. IN CLOTH. BEMROSE & SONS, 23, OLD BAILEY, LONDON, AND DERBY; or may be ordered of all Booksellers. CHRISTIAN VOL. VII.] PROGRESS. OCTOBER, 1882. [No. 10. 66 The Four Winds.* AWAKE, O NORTH WIND; AND COME THOU SOUTH; BLOW UPON MY GARDEN, THAT THE SPICES THEREOF MAY FLOW OUT."— Song of Sol. iv. 16. IN the verse preceding the passage before us, Christ has been describing His Church under the similitude of a garden. He has enumerated the variety of plants and spices that it contains. But there is no breath of air to move the leaves, to stir the fragrance of the spices. All is still; and therefore He prays for the Holy Spirit to breathe on His garden, "that the spices thereof may flow out." He invokes the reviving influences of the Holy Ghost, under the familiar emblem of the wind. It may not be unprofitable to consider the winds which are mentioned as illustrating the diverse operations of the Spirit, so necessary to make the Church and the individual member of it more fruitful and fragrant. In the Bible we read of four prevailing winds, answering to the four cardinal points; and hence we have the expression "four winds," as equivalent to the * From Illustrative Texts and Texts Illustrated." By the Rev. James Waring Bardsley. Published by Nisbet & Co., Berners Street, London, W. four quarters of the hemisphere. "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live." Why are these two special winds mentioned? Why not pray for the west wind, or the east wind? We answer that the west wind in Palestine invariably brought rain. When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is." In this allegory Solomon has depicted the rainy season as over. "The winter is past, the rain is over and gone." The east wind is one to be dreaded : sweeping over the parched desert, it withered up vegetation. Hence the words of the prophet Ezekiel, "Yea, behold being planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither where the east wind toucheth it?" (Ezek. xvii. 10). May the Lord, who has so graciously tended our beloved Church of England in times gone by, never send His east wind upon it, as upon rebellious Ephraim, because of our negligence to "quicken those things that are ready to die." "An east wind shall come, the wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up" (Hos. xiii. 15). The supplication for the awaking of the north wind and the coming of the south wind, winds blowing from opposite points of the compass, points out the diverse operations of the Spirit, which are so necessary for the garden. As Sibbes observes, "We see that the courses that Christ takes, and the means that He uses with His Church, may seem contrary; but by a wise ordering all agree in the wholesome issue. A prosperous and an afflicted condition are necessary a mild and a sharp course may seem to cross one another; yet sweetly they agree in this, that as the Church needeth both, so Christ useth both for the Church's good." The north wind rarely blows, but is naturally the coldest of the four. We read in the book of Ecclesiasticus xliii. 20, "When the cold north wind bloweth, and the water is congealed into ice, it abideth upon every gathering together of water, and clotheth the water as with a breast-plate." Nipping as the north wind is, it is most beneficial in its results. When the heavens are clouded, and the light of the sun is hidden behind a curtain of mist and vapour, the bracing and invigorating wind disperses the darkness and gloom. "The north wind driveth away rain" (Prov. xxv. 23). "Fair weather cometh out of the north" (Job xxxvii. 22). In the 9th verse of the 37th of Job, "North" is translated in the margin "scattering" wind, for the reason just stated. When clouds of unbelief and sin, arising from corruption and Satan, gather round the soul-when the Sun of Righteousness is hidden from the believer's view, the north wind is needed. A trying dispensation, a fatherly chastisement, is sent, and deeper knowledge of the utter corruption of the heart, under the convincing power of the Holy Ghost, is given. The wind is keen and cutting, but how it "scatters" the clouds. How Jesus is sought and seen. Nothing at such a time comes between the soul and "the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God." It was when the north wind of affliction was blowing, with its most chilling blast, that David exclaimed, "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" It is the believer's comfort that all creation obeys Jesus, and therefore He can recall the north wind at His pleasure. "What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him!" The south wind blows from the Arabian peninsula, and is necessarily hot. Our Lord said, "When ye see the south wind blow, ye say there will be heat; and it cometh to pass" (Luke xii. 55). "How thy garments are warm," said Elihu, "when he quieteth the earth by the south wind?" (Job xxxvii. 17). Here the south wind is said to calm and soothe. The Spirit not only wounds, but heals; not only convinces of sin, but of righteousness; not only convicts, but comforts and consoles. The south wind quiets the soul, and sweetly whispers rest and peace— "Lord, let Thy love, Fresh from above, Soft as the south wind blow; Call forth its bloom, Wake its perfume, And bid its spices flow." Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out." Christ prays that His Church, under the influences of the Spirit, may make her presence felt; her goodness must appear, she must be a "fountain of gardens," her spices must " flow out." May each dear reader be not as a box of ointment closed, but like the box of spikenard broken in the house of Mary, |