through the tribulation. If that were the case we might well look to the signs around us and look (as some believers do) where Antichrist is to come from. The latter rain stands in connection with the Lord's manifestation for Israel. Let us know, follow on to know Jehovah: like the morning His coming is sure, and He shall come like the rain for us, like the latter rain watering the earth. (Hosea vi: 3.) O ye children of Zion, rejoice and be glad in Jehovah your God; He gives you the former rain in a just measure, and sends you in showers the early and the latter rain as in times of old. (Joel ii: 23.) It is time to seek Jehovah, until He come to rain righteousness upon you. (Hosea x: 12.) But the latter rain is also a type of spiritual blessings. It includes all the blessed promises in spiritual things, and especially does it stand for the full harvest which comes in after the heaven is opened and that great outpouring of the Spirit takes place. (Joel ii: 28.) It is unscriptural to expect now in this time such a latter rain, just as it is unscriptural to expect now the rain upon the land of Israel. How many prayers there are now in Christendom, well meant undoubtedly; prayers for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, prayers for a new Pentecost, even prayers for the outward manifestations; all these prayers have no scriptural foundation, and cannot be answered now in the dispensation in which we live. There will be the latter rain, the outpouring of the Spirit upon all flesh; but it stands in connection with the day of the Lord and with God's earthly people. Truly, as the beginning of Zechariah x. has it, in the time of the latter rain there will be prayer for it, but the prayer does not come from the lips of church-saints, but it comes from the lips of the Jewish remnant. The assurance is given that Jehovah will send the showers of rain, and before they come He will create the lightning. The lightnings stand for His wrath and judgment, which will proceed before the showers of blessing. In His coming He will be like the lightning falling from the clouds.