"For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing let them not feed, nor drink water: but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God; yea, et them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not."-JONAH iii. 6-10. W SIXTH LESSON. E have a most interesting and touching scene recorded in these verses: a scene even more grand and wonderful, perhaps, than any other of which we have as yet read in Jonah's history. We have seen the prophet fleeing from the Lord, and stopped by the tempest; we have seen him miraculously pointed out by lot as the guilty one whom God was pursuing; we have seen him thrown into the sea, and shut up for three days and three nights in a living sepulchre. The most extraordinary thing we have as yet seen has been his faith, his confidence, his song of praise, rising as it did from the depths of the ocean and the inside of the fish; but now here is a still greater wonder-all the people of Nineveh trembling themselves at the voice of Jonah! The prophet went one day's journey into the town, and all the inhabitants proclaimed a fast, and covered themselves with sackcloth and ashes. What a sight! We will try to realize it by fancying ourselves just entering Nineveh. We have arrived at the banks of the Tigris, look at that immense city before us. We go in through its gates: but what has occasioned all this excitement? The men, the women, the children are all dressed in sackcloth; they seem troubled, and frightened, and humiliated; ashes are upon their heads: but though they are hastening towards their temples, it is that they may worship the Lord, and not their own idols. They have eaten no food since the commencement of the fast, but they are all prostrate with grief as they bewail their sins. And now I see still more. I hear sheep, and cows, and horses, bleating, lowing, and neighing. What is the reason of all this noise? It is because they have not eaten, or drunk either. I go on a little further, and I notice that even the horses are stripped of their magnificent harness, and are covered with sackcloth and ashes; so I repeat my inquiry, "What can be the cause of such manifestations of mourning?" They tell me, in reply, that the king has ordered that every man, woman, and child in Nineveh, and even the very animals, shall keep the fast. "Go into the palace," they add, "and you will see what is happening there." So I advance to that splendid building; I enter, and what do I see? The great monarch of Assyria-the mighty prince-has laid aside his gor geous robes to put on coarse sackcloth; and, instead of being seated on his throne, he is prostrate in the ashes, crying to the Lord. But why this panic? why this grief? why this humiliation? why this fasting, these ashes, this stir amongst the people? What has taken place? Simply this: a man, a solitary man, a stranger, a poorly-clad Israelite, persecuted in his own country by rulers who have slain his companions, has entered the town. This man-Jonah by name-has told the people that in forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown; and the king and his subjects have believed the declaration! Was it not wonderful faith? How it puts us to shame! There was no proof that Nineveh was to be destroyed; there was no storm, no earthquake; we do not read of any war with an enemy; and yet the Ninevites believed! And whose word did they believe? That of a poor man who had performed no miracles, but who had come amongst them fatigued by a very long journey, and probably unacquainted with a single person in the great city. What, then, was the cause of his successful preaching? No doubt, it was because God's grace had been poured out on the people. Perhaps they had heard of the miracles which the Lord had wrought at various times in Israel; perhaps (though it is scarcely probable) they had heard of Jonah's history, and knew that he had come to them |