October 3

Let the North wind blow

“Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits” (Cant. 4:16).
“He bringeth the wind out of his treasuries” (Psa. 135:7).

A good gardener, it is true, prunes the lower parts of his trees as far as he can, but the higher parts he must leave to the North wind. It shakes and shakes until all the dead, useless branches and twigs and the old leaves are thrown down. We also need, now and again, to be thoroughly shaken. Even if He sends the “North wind” as in the form of human beings, we need not be terrified. They come to us as from the hand of a wise, loving Father for our good.


When the North wind has done his work, then the South wind comes. The North wind may be compared to the judgment storms of God, and the South to the gentle movings of the Holy Spirit. The South wind must blow through the garden so that it can drop its sweetness. The North wind bends the boughs to the earth, and then comes the South wind which lifts up and renews. It is the breath of the living God Himself, His breath of life.
—Sister Eva.

All as God wills, who wisely heeds
To give or to withhold,
And knoweth more of all my needs
Than all my prayers have told.

Enough that blessings undeserved
Have marked my erring track;
That, wheresoe’er my feet have swerved,
His chastening turned me back.

That all the jarring notes of life
Seem blending in a psalm,
And all the angles of its strife
Slow rounding into calm.

And so the shadows fall apart,
And so the West winds play:
And all the windows of my heart
I open to this day.
—J. G. Whittier.

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