o falling is thought to be transmuted into seeds
and fruits. But surely the image is as true as it is beautiful! The rain
is absorbed by vegetation, and is transmuted into seeds and fruit, and
it would go hard to say that the same particles of rain are again
evaporated and taken up afresh into the clouds. Besides, if we complete
the quotation we find that what is stated is that the rain does not
return _until_ it has accomplished its purpose:--

"So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it
shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that
which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I
sent it."

Elihu describes the process of evaporation precisely:--

"Behold, God is great, and we know Him not;
The number of His years is unsearchable.
For He draweth up the drops of water,
Which distil in rain from His vapour:
Which the skies pour down
And drop upon man abundantly."

Throughout the books of Holy Scripture, the connection between the
clouds and the rain is clearly borne in mind. Deborah says in her song
"the clouds dropped water." In the Psalms there are many references. In
lxxvii. 17, "The clouds poured out water;" in cxlvii. 8, "Who covereth
the heaven with clouds, Who prepareth rain for the earth." Proverbs xvi.
15, "His favour is as a cloud of the latter rain." The Preacher says
that "clouds return after the rain"; and Isaiah, "I will also command
the clouds that they rain no rain upon it"; and Jude, "Clouds they are
without water, carried about of winds."

The clouds, too, were not conceived as being heavy. Nahum says that "the
clouds are the dust of His feet," and Isaiah speaks of "a cloud of dew
in the heat of harvest." The Preacher clearly understood that "the
waters above" were not pent in by solid barriers; that they were
carried by the clouds; for "if the clouds be full of rain, they empty
themselves upon the earth." And Job says of Jehovah, "He bindeth up the
waters in His thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them;" and,
later, Jehovah Himself asks:--

"Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds,
That abundance of waters may cover thee?

* * * * *

Who can number the clouds by wisdom,
Or who can pour out the bottles of heaven?"

The Hebrews, therefore, were quite aware that the waters of the sea were
drawn up into the atmosphere by evaporati