The Wind.

CANT. iv. 16.

"Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south: blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits."

EZEK. xxxvii. 9.

"Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live."

ACTS. ii. 2-4.

"And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."

"Lord God the Holy Ghost,
In this accepted hour,
As on the day of Pentecost,
Descend in all Thy power!
We meet with one accord
In our appointed place,
And wait the promise of our Lord,
The Spirit of all grace.

"Like mighty rushing wind,

Upon the waves beneath,

Move with one impulse every mind,

One soul, one feeling breathe:
The young, the old, inspire

With wisdom from above,

And give us hearts and tongues of fire,
To pray, and praise, and love.

"Spirit of Light, explore

And chase our gloom away, With lustre shining more and more

Unto the perfect day!

Spirit of Truth, be Thou

In life and death our Guide!

O Spirit of adoption, now

May we be sanctified!"

-JAMES MONTGOMERY.

THE WIND.

JOHN iii. 8.

"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."

O the true believer, who is called to live a life of close and constant communion with God, the world of nature abounds with illustrations of the world of grace. Thus, the sun in the firmament suggests to his mind the Sun of Righteousness rising upon the souls of men with healing in His wings. The rain and the snow, that come down from heaven, remind him of the Word of the Gospel, which goeth forth out of God's mouth. The refreshing dew tells him of those silent and salutary influences of the Holy Spirit of God, by which the whole face of the moral world is refreshed and revived. The flowing spring leads him to think of the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness; and the rugged rock brings to his recollection Him, who is the Rock of

Ages, and who is to all who receive Him, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Thus, by a holy mechanism, may the believer make the creature a spiritual ladder by which to ascend to the Creator. And the more he accustoms himself, with the help of Scripture to look on the things which are seen and temporal as so many finger-posts and steps to guide and raise him to the knowledge and thought of those things which are unseen and eternal, the nearer will he feel himself brought to the great Fountain of all being and blessedness; and thus every place will become to him a Bethel, and every object a preacher. Nor is this application of the phenomena of nature unauthorised. The sacred writers frequently have recourse to them for the illustration of spiritual truths; and, in the passage placed at the head of this chapter, our great Teacher himself describes the operations of the Holy Spirit in regeneration by a similitude drawn from the wind-one of the most simple and familiar agents in the natural world. Let us, then, proceed to inquire in what respects the analogy between the Spirit's influence and the wind may be traced.

There is a striking resemblance in the uncertainty and variableness of their operation. The wind bloweth where it listeth, that is, where it wills or pleases. Its motions, indeed, are under the direction and control of the Almighty, for we are assured, that "He gathereth the wind in His fists," and that แ the stormy wind fulfils His word:" still the laws, by which it is regulated, are to us inexplicable. It bloweth where, and when, and how, it pleases. So, too, the operations of the Spirit of God are characterised by great diversity and uncertainty. He "divideth to every one severally as He will." While a few highly-favoured lands receive the most copious and refreshing influences, others are suffered to continue the barren and deadly wastes of Satan's dark domain. The ordinances of grace are vouchsafed to thousands, but not every one who waits upon them is savingly profited. Equally great is the diversity in the time of the Spirit's operations upon the soul. Sometimes, we behold God " ordaining strength out of the mouths of babes and sucklings," while, at other seasons, the irresistible energy of His grace is seen, in softening the hearts of those who had grown