p. 182 | The Latter Rain by C. E. Harris

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 28, 1858

The Latter Rain.

By C. E. Harris

A crisis the most important that the church of God on earth has ever witnessed is just before us. As a lukewarm people we have heard the testimony of the faithful and true Witness concerning our state, his fearful threatening, his kind and faithful counsel, and his cheering promise. Some have believed his testimony and accepted his counsel. Rebuked and chastened such are, and are zealous in the work of repenting. Must repentance necessarily be a long work? Is it not properly defined to be

“to leave The sins I did before; And show that I do truly grieve By doing so no more?”

The Lord sees the repentance of his people, and that they greatly desire to leave their sins and open the door for Jesus to come in and sup with them and they with him. And is it not when the blessed Jesus comes in, and not before, that they become pleasing to God? The tried gold, white raiment and eye-salve, are what will change their condition from one in which they are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, to one in which they will be rich, clothed, and will see. Will they not then be as Jesus would have them be, neither lukewarm, nor cold, but hot, and as no church has been since the apostles preached, being filled with the Holy Ghost, and confirmed the word with signs and wonders?

Let us think a few moments of the subject of the latter rain. How very appropriate it seems that the early and latter rains which fell in Palestine, one before seed time, and the other before harvest, should he used as emblems of the richest outpourings of the Holy Spirit which the Lord ever gives his people; one at the commencement of the gospel dispensation, and the other at the time of harvest, or the “end of the world.” Matt. xiii.

The apostle James exhorts his brethren to be patient unto the coming of the Lord, by the example of the husbandman waiting for the precious fruit of the earth, and having long patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain. From several of the prophets also we may learn something in relation to the latter rain; especially from Joel. The first and second chapters of Joel have of late been very deeply interesting to me. He seems to have a view of the church near the end, and it is first presented to him under the figure of a land, the fruit of which has been eaten; and the completeness of the destruction is described in the following words: “That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten, and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten,” &c.

In verse 6 he speaks of the number and power of the enemy which had wrought this desolation, and in verse 7 describes the work of destruction in very impressive language. “He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree; he hath made it clean bare and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.” The account of the desolation is carried forward through the remainder of the chapter with now and then a call for the husbandmen and vine-dressers to howl, and the priests, the ministers of the altar also, because the meat-offering and drink-offering are withholden from the house of God. In the next chapter some of the wonders and terrors of the day of God seem brought to view, and then in verse 12 the subject is sweetly changed, and a way of hope is opened; and a way in which mercy is to be obtained of the Lord. This is worthy of our consideration. Praise the Lord for a way of hope.

What is the result? “Then will the Lord be jealous for his land and pity his people. Yea, the Lord will answer (his people have cried unto him, verses 12–17) and say unto his people, Behold I will send you corn, and wire, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith, and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen. But I will remove far off from you the northern army, (the enemy who had caused this desolation, the “nation” of chap. 1, 6, is it not?) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate,” &c. Cheering tidings for the church of God! The power of their oppressive enemies will be removed and those gifts and graces which the Lord once gave them will again be theirs.

Let us read the next seven verses with thankful hearts, and especially mark in verse 23 the cause of this change, and of all this rejoicing. The floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil, and even the years that the locust, the canker-worm, &c., had eaten shall be restored. It is enough. Praise the Lord.

And now when the ministers of the Lord have wept between the porch and altar, and the people have turned to the Lord “with all the heart with fasting and with weeping and with mourning;” is not here another “promise of the Father” for them, and may they not as did the disciples of old upon a similar occasion, “wait” for it? Acts i; ii. That the Lord may speed on his work, is my prayer.

C. E. HARRIS. Lunenburg, Vt., Sept., 1853.