The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-05-09
THE DEW UNTO ISRAEL.

Messiah should be to the soul of the
believer, but what does the city man
know about dew? What does boy
who has never gone barefoot, know
about the dawn, and the calling to
the COWS which are out in the dewy
meadows? What does the bank
clerk, whose conception of a breeze is
not of wind fresh from the noun
tain glen across blue lakes and pas
lures sweet with violets, but of yes
terday's dead atmosphere flung at
him out of wire cage by an electric
fan, what does he know of those
hours which have inspired prophets,
thrilled poets and moved all souls
that live in Already?
1t is one of the charms Of the Bible
that it never wanders far from pas
toral simplicity. But for this very
reason the Bible can not be the same
to a man born in the second story
back room of brown stone mansion,
that it is to one born under the slant
ing shingles of a weather-sta
| farm house. The man whose first
play ground was an attic floor under
fat roof can never make that out of
the Bible which he finds in the Word
whose cradle was rocked beside the
window sweet with the breath of a
cinnamon-rose and bright with the
hues of morning -glories. Nobody
can understand in its fulness the
Twenty third psalm whose idea of a
meadow is derived from the twenty
four square feet of grass between the
basement window and the stone
sidewalk.
GAS dew unto Israeli" How many
man, as he sits down to his ten
o'clock breakfast in his city hotel, re-
peats those words to himself, looking
meanwhile over the menu for some
thing that shall tempt his appetite,
but dreaming of the morning when
the cat-bird sang in the syringa, and
the robin in the apple tree, and the
thrush in the elm. The waiter hands
him a plate of insipid bananas
ripened in cellar by the aid of
kerosene stove; but he is thinking of
the harvest apples which he used to
find, golden in the dewy clover, whose
fragrance was blended with that of
the bountiful breakfast, the aroma of
which came to him from the kitchens
open door. All, we'll he has not for
gotten what the dew means; and per-
haps these hot and sultry streets and
quivering walls help him the better
to realize what Hosea promised when
he said that the Christ should come
unto weary souls as the dew to the
heated and the thirsty land.
Silent, widespread, beneficent; that
is what the grace of God is to weary
world. In what a contrast to the
tempest distils the devil
And yet, notwithstanding all the
prophets sweet assurances, the He
brew nation was awaiting Messiah
whose sword should sweep the earth
like cyclone; destructive, punitive
irresistible. His birth should be
marked by the shooting of stars from
their spheres; his missi On be accom-
panied by the trembling of the globe,
and his victory heralded by the light
ning's flash, the thunder's peal. But
as in the summer evening we are
made conscious of the falling dew
only by a sudden stiffness and cool
ne:s of the air, and we feel the ten
sion of the nerves relaxed under the
gracious moisture of which we are as
yet but half aware, so came Jesus to
a tired world, and stole in upon the
sorrows of mankind with gentle,
healing touch. No inventive genius
has as yet produced meter that shall
give us, night by night, the precipita-
ton of the dew; but a careful esti-
mate based upon the most reliable
data assures us that in most of our
country the moisture received by this
process of radiation is not less than
five inches during summer. So the
grace of our blessed Lord, received
ofttimes unconsciously, SO gentle are
its operations, cheers and comforts
the soul and ensures its rich fertility.
And like the dew, the spiritual gift
we receive in our Saviour is not local,
but broadly diffused. The Messiah
was not of one race or people, but for
world. Showers water here and
there farm, township, or it may be
half a State; but the dew spreads
itself over the sleeping continent.
Not here or there, but everywhere it
gathers, diffusing bsnedictions and
gathering sweetness. 1t glistens upon
the leaf of the willow, and drops from
the tip of the elm, and fills the cup of