The benefits derived from the rain are unlimited. After the visitation of a great and prolonged drought, when lakes and rivers and their many tributaries, the little mountain torrents which feed them, are dry for lack of rain; when the gardens and all vegetation at last succumb and shrivel for lack of moisture; when we really endure great bodily privation, and domestic animals suffer for lack of water, then we may realise fully, what a wise and necessary provision the rain is to us.
153. Thunder cloud
154. Nimbus or low stratus clouds
It seems therefore that there is always a great promise and hope embodied in the providential falling of the rain at such a crisis; nothing can express the thought I would convey more clearly than the following beautiful lines:
“Hast thou forgotten God who gives the rain?
Plentiful and merciful the long showers pour
On parching field where dust and drouth were sore,
Yet, will thine eyes watch out the night again?