he rain does indeed fall like
hitherto pent-up waters rushing forth at the opening of a sluice, and it
seems unreasonable to try to place too literal an interpretation upon so
suitable a simile.

There is the less reason to insist upon this very matter-of-fact
rendering of the "windows of heaven," that in two out of the three
connections in which it occurs, the expression is certainly used
metaphorically. On the occasion of the famine in the city of Samaria,
Elisha prophesied that--

"To-morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be
sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in
the gate of Samaria. Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned
answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would
make windows in heaven, might this thing be?"

So again Malachi exhorted the Jews after the Return from Babylon:--

"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may
be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the
Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven,
and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room
enough to receive it."

In neither case can the "windows of heaven" have been meant by the
speaker to convey the idea of the sluice-gates of an actual,
solidly-built reservoir in the sky.

One other cloud fact--their dissipation as the sun rises high in the
heavens--is noticed in one of the most tender and pathetic passages in
all the prophetic Scriptures. The Lord, by the mouth of Hosea, is
mourning over the instability of His people. "O Ephraim, what shall I do
unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? For your goodness is as a
morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away."

The winds of heaven were considered as four in number, corresponding to
our own four "cardinal points." Thus the great horn of Daniel's he-goat
was broken and succeeded by four notable horns toward the four winds of
heaven; as the empire of Alexander the Great was divided amongst his
four generals. In Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones the prophet prays,
"Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain;" and
Jeremiah foretells that "the four winds from the four quarters of
heaven" shall be brought upon Elam, and scatter its outcasts into every
nation.

The circulation of the winds is clearly set forth by the Preacher in the
Book of Ecclesiastes.

"The wind goeth toward the south, and t