urprised at this report when they have visited some of
these cities and found that they were far from being the cleanest cities,
or most sanitary in their general arrangement, and yet year after year
this report has been returned. The explanation is simply this, it is the
wind blowing from the lakes that has brought life and health to the
cities. Just so when the Spirit ceases to blow in any heart or any church
or any community, death ensues, but when the Spirit blows steadily upon
the individual or the church or the community, there is abounding
spiritual life and health.

(5) Closely related to the foregoing thought, like the wind the Holy
Spirit is _life giving_. This thought comes out again and again in the
Scriptures. For example, we read in John vi. 63, A. R. V., "It is the
Spirit that giveth life," and in 2 Cor. iii. 6, we read, "The letter
killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." Perhaps the most suggestive passage
on this point is Ezek. xxxvii. 8, 9, 10, "And when I beheld, lo, the
sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above:
but there was _no breath_ in them. Then said He unto me, Prophesy unto
_the wind_, prophesy, son of man, and say to _the wind_, Thus saith the
Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these
slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and _the
breath came into them, and they lived_, and stood upon their feet, an
exceeding great army" (cf. John iii. 5). Israel, in the prophet's vision,
was only bones, very many and very dry (vs. 2, 11), until the prophet
proclaimed unto them the word of God; then there was a noise and a shaking
and the bones came together, bone to his bone, and the sinews and the
flesh came upon the bones, but still there was no life, but when the wind
blew, the breath of God's Spirit, then "they stood up upon their feet an
exceeding great army." All life in the individual believer, in the
teacher, the preacher, and the church is the Holy Spirit's work. You will
sometimes make the acquaintance of a man, and as you hear him talk and
observe his conduct, you are repelled and disgusted. Everything about him
declares that he is a dead man, a moral corpse and not only dead but
rapidly putrefying. You get away from him as quickly as you can. Months
afterwards you meet him again. You hesitate to speak to him; you want to
get out of his very presence, but you do speak to him, and he has not
uttered many sentences befor