THE WORK OF THE RAIN : BROOKS AND RIVERS 



Just as you see the rain water at work now upon 

 the side of a road or on a gravel walk or any other 

 surface that is not protected, so it began those long, 

 long ages ago to work upon the crests of those rocky 

 islands that have become the six great continents 

 upon which people live. 



Slowly at first it did this, very, very slowly, be- 

 cause there w^as nothing to work upon but rock. 

 No gullies can be made in a single rain-storm on a 

 surface of solid rock. How many, many years the 

 rain must have fallen upon that rocky surface before 

 it was able to wear the smallest depression in it! 

 But in time even rock gives way to water, and 

 finally those patient raindrops had their reward. 

 The smallest depressions appeared. These became 

 grooves, then were worn into channels. Thus, after 

 years and years there were brooks flowdng to the 

 ocean in deep beds that they had hollowed out for 

 themselves from the solid rock. 



It seems almost impossible, does it not? But 

 since God gave the rain water its work to do and its 

 law to follow, would He not always give it power to 

 do that work? Yet it seems as if nothing in all the 

 world had a harder task than the rain water, for the 

 wearing away of the hard rocks was not all it had 

 to do. The raindrops must carry along with them 



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