44 THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 



growth of those plants, which are now beginning to 

 germinate and spring up under the influence of warmer 

 skies. All vegetable productions, like the young off- 

 spring of the animal world, seem to need a more fluid, 

 or watery nourishment in their infancy than when in 

 a more advanced state. Hence] the reason that Pro* 

 vidence now accumulates in our atmosphere an abun- 

 dance of moisture, which condensing, or becoming 

 heavier than it is in ascending, falls in those genial 

 showers which are so characteristic of the month of 

 April. 



The economy of the clouds, and the various means 

 by which they are made to minister to the wants of 

 nature, is a subject deserving of equal wonder and 

 gratitude. Elihu alludes to it, in language that de- 

 scribes significantly how the process continually goes 

 on under the divine management : *' Behold, God is 

 great ; he maketh small the drops of water : they pour 

 down rain according to the vapours thereof, which the 

 clouds drop and distil upon man abundantly." (Job 36.) 

 The greatness of God is very conspicuous in this part 

 of his works. The Almighty himself, speaking to Job 

 from the whirlwind, is represented as proposing a num- 

 ber of questions, each of which were intended to 



