By Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

      "I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing"
      (Ezek. 34:26).

      What is thy season this morning? Is it a season of drought? Then that is the season for showers. Is it a season of great heaviness and black clouds? Then that is the season for showers. "As thy day so shall thy strength be." "I will give thee showers of blessing." The word is in the plural. All kinds of blessings God will send. All God's blessings go together, like links in a golden chain. If He gives converting grace, He will also give comforting grace. He will send "showers of blessings." Look up today, O parched plant, and open thy leaves and flowers for a heavenly watering. --Spurgeon

      "Let but thy heart become a valley low,
      And God will rain on it till it will overflow."

      Thou, O Lord, canst transform my thorn into a flower. And I want my thorn transformed into a flower. Job got the sunshine after the rain, but has the rain been all waste? Job wants to know, I want to know, if the shower had nothing to do with the shining. And Thou canst tell me Thy Cross can tell me. Thou hast crowned Thy sorrow. Be this my crown, O Lord. I only triumph in Thee when I have learned the radiance of the rain. --George Matheson

      The fruitful life seeks showers as well as sunshine.

      "The landscape, brown and sere beneath the sun,
      Needs but the cloud to lift it into life;
      The dews may damp the leaves of tree and flower,
      But it requires the cloud-distilled shower
      To bring rich verdure to the lifeless life.

      "Ah, how like this, the landscape of a life:
      Dews of trial fall like incense, rich and sweet;
      But bearing little in the crystal tray
      Like nymphs of night, dews lift at break of day
      And transient impress leave, like lips that meet.

      "But clouds of trials, bearing burdens rare,
      Leave in the soul, a moisture settled deep:
      Life kindles by the magic law of God;
      And where before the thirsty camel trod,
      There richest beauties to life's landscape leap.

      "Then read thou in each cloud that comes to thee
      The words of Paul, in letters large and clear:
      So shall those clouds thy soul with blessing feed,
      And with a constant trust as thou dost read,
      All things together work for good. Fret not, nor fear!"