"And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land. Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them. Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous. And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous against them. Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech Thee, O Lord, we beseech Thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood for Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased Thee. So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly; and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows."-JONAH i. 9-16. W THIRD LESSON. E stopped last Sunday at the question of the sailors. We will now examine Jonah's answer, for we shall recognise in it the language of a true believer. Alas, we know all about it: how he wished to evade God's command; how he did not feel courageous enough to go into the great heathen city to proclaim the terrible judgments of Jehovah. Many a man besides Jonah would have shrunk from such a mission. He needed for it the extraordinary power which God afterwards bestowed on him but for the present he had fallen; he had disobeyed God, and, unable to endure his own thoughts, he had tried to divert his mind from them by fleeing from everything in Israel which could remind him of his sin. Yet he still knew and loved the Lord; so mark his candour and sincerity. He acknowledged that the Lord had chastened him to recall him to himself; while at the same time he acknowledged his sin, and who the God was that he worshipped. These are the effects God's judgments ought to produce. Man's heart ought to be softened, and his will subdued by them. Frequently when trial visits even unconverted people, it appears to make a great change in them, and they speak of it almost as a Christian would do. But it is only in the latter that sorrow really produces the fruits of repentance, humiliation, and blessing. When David was punished by the death of his child, he exclaimed, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest. Purge me with hyssop." And in another place the psalmist says, "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy word." 2 Jonah hid nothing from his companions. "I am an Hebrew," he tells them, "and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which made both the sea and the dry land." He hastened to confess the name of his God to these idolaters; he courageously exclaimed, 1 Psalm li. 1-7. 2 Palm cxix. €7. "I fear the Lord," and was not ashamed of his religion. If any one were to ask you, my young friends, who you are, you would reply very promptly, "I am of such a country, and my name is so and so," but would you say with the same freedom, "I love my Bible; I believe the gospel; I rest all my hopes on Christ the true God and Saviour, who only can give eternal life?" You would be afraid of ridicule and mockery, or of incurring certain reproachful names which the world applies to God's people, or of the prejudice which exists against them. And yet the Saviour has said, "Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I confess before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven."1 Many hundred years ago God asked, by the mouth of Isaiah, the question, "Who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth ?" 2 But Jonah did more than confess his God-he acknowledged his sins also. He told the sailors candidly, though no doubt sadly and solemnly, that he was fleeing from the face of his God; and we read 1 Matthew x. 32, 33. 2 Isaiah li. 12, 13. |