THB CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 37 



void, but it shall accomplish that -which I please, and it 

 shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (Isai. Iv. 

 10.) Rain and snow, as experience proves, are most 

 uncertain in the time of their coming, but never fail to 

 come at last, and to confer the benefits intended by 

 their Creator. And so also the gracious influences of 

 the Spirit of God, of which these elements are 

 figurative, are under the guidance of that same word 

 which assures us, " That neither is he that planteth any- 

 thing, neither he that watereth ; but God that giveth the 

 increase.'* To every one therefore, who is instru- 

 mental in sowing the Word of Life ; whether in the 

 high capacity of a ruler, sending forth, or maintaining 

 Christian teachers, or whether actually as a Minister in 

 dispensing this Word, or as a layman, in lending his 

 assistance to speed the Gospel plough, and to scatter 

 the good seed of the kingdom, the encouragement will 

 ever be the same as of old, when it was said, ** Sow to 

 yourselves in righteousness ; reap in mercy." (Hosea 

 X. 12.) ** To him that soweth righteousness shall be a 

 sure reward." (Prov. xi. 18.) — "Light is said to be 

 sown for the righteous," (Psalm xcvii. 11,) to intimate 

 that the glorious fruits of their exertions will not be 

 seen, till like the seed it has been sometime buried in 



