collateral and subsidiary one, it is true, but by no means unimportant.

The book is written by a Jew. The great charge brought against them by their foes was, that they were unsocial; upholding themselves, condemning all others. There then, on the one hand, is Jonah, a Jew, a prophet. See in what way his conduct is stated; his character sketched. Nothing is kept back that makes against him; nothing extenuating is alleged. The writer had no predominating regard to the honour of his nation in giving this account of Jonah.

But Jonah does not fill up the canvass. There is the group of heathen mariners. Mark the contrast. They pray to a false god; but they pray. Their prayers are connected with labour, and with a willingness to save the ship at the expense of their wares. They fear they may be suffering from guilt: they make the appeal of the lot; the man on whom it falls is a stranger, of a religion which condemns theirs and them. Yet how calmly do they proceed! with what wariness, with what unwillingness to injure another! How different the ignorant heathen, from the more favoured Jew. It is no mean argument for the divinity of the book, that the writer thus rises above his age.

The men ask (verse 11) the very man who had put them thus in jeopardy, what they were to do. They acknowledge him in his prophetic character, and seek direction from him.

And, being moved of God, he gives the reply, Cast me overboard. (Verse 12.) That Jonah was penitent, appears from his entire submission to the word of the Lord, though that submission involved the sacrifice of his life. Thus Saul of Tarsus, the moment he had submitted to divine light exclaimed, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

We see the men (verse 13) unwilling to commit a fellowcreature to the deep. They ply their oars, and use all the means for escape in their power. But effort is vain against God. They therefore solemnly address themselves to Him of whom they had so lately heard, and whose worshippers they had so lately become. (Verse 14.) Their prayer is very earnest, as is shown in the doubled, "We beseech thee." And they solemnly appeal to God that their intention was not to take

away innocent life, but that they had submitted to his evidently declared will. And having used all means, till the uselessness of means was most undeniably apparent, and solemnly appealed to God for their unwillingness to take away life, they do as they were directed, they take Jonah, and cast him into the sea. (Verse 15.)

And wonderful was what followed. Conceive of the boiling waves, and the mighty wind rushing hither and thither, and the tost and straining vessel, and the alarmed crew lifting up a fellow-voyager, and casting him into the raging waters in the name of God. As soon as they had done so, all became still. Their danger passed away. "The sea ceased from her raging." Jonah had disappeared from their eyes; but that they had done right, was proved by the event. The consequence was, that the men now acknowledged Jehovah to be God of earth and sea, reverenced him, offered sacrifices, and made vows to be performed when their voyage should close. They appear, in fact, to have been disabused of the terrible errors of idolatry, and to have been brought to the knowledge of the truth. Thus far, even Jonah's disobedience was overruled for good. The sinner is followed by God's judgments; and these are so ordered, as to enlighten and impress these erring idolaters. Their subsequent history is not recorded. Their duty would be plain; to honour Him on the dry land, whom they had acknowledged on the ocean; to serve him at all times, on whose name they had called in the hour of danger, and to whom they had offered sacrifices in the first joyful feelings of deliverance. The vows of God were upon them; and if they were unfaithful, they were unfaithful at their own peril.

This is the wonder-working providence of God. Everything is turned to good account. "The wrath of man shall praise thee." Yet there is no sympathy with sin. The events which impressed the mariners grew out of the sin of Jonah; but, in the most evident manner, they declared God's opposition to it. And thus, even where sin is overruled, yet not only no approval of sin is seen, but the strongest opposition to it is made manifest.

Never, therefore, let the providence of God afford any

encouragement to sin. Your rule is God's law. Whoever does evil that good may come, incurs the divine displeasure. Not only must the end be holy, but the means also. Such is the law under which man is placed; such is the law which God, the Holy God, himself observes. It is only when the creatures rebel, that the holy, benevolent, almighty God, by a providence always and visibly free from all the contaminations of sin, so overrules it, as that good is educed from it. With Jonah's rebellion God had no other concern than to punish it: yet so is the punishment arranged, that a company of mariners are enlightened, impressed, and brought to know and worship the true God. This leaves the sin of Jonah just where it was. It lessens not its evil and guilt. All the praise is seen to be due to the wonderworking providence of God.

As for ourselves, it is our duty to do good, and to see that our conduct is right, both in intention and rule, that God's approval may be on ourselves, God's blessing on our work.

SO.

Then-as to the tempest ceasing when Jonah was cast out of the ship-there are thus shown to be cases in which judgment is immediately and indissolubly connected with sin. This is sometimes true as to individuals. But as these will have to give account of themselves to God, it is not always The doctrine of Providence is to be connected with thedoctrine of judgment. But as to public matters, the case is different. Nations will not stand before God as such. National rewards and punishments relate to the present life. A nation which refuses to acknowledge God at all, is left to the ordinary operation of causes and effects. In its comparative poverty it will be virtuous; it will wax strong it becomes luxurious, corrupt, a prey to internal dissension, and, at last, either crumbles in pieces, or takes an inferior and subordinate position among the nations, virtually, if not really, losing national independence.

The nation that acknowledges God will prosper or decline as the acknowledgment is persevered in consistently. A Christian nation, trifling with its duties, will be punished. Prosperity flows from the almighty blessing of God: and that is only given to the nation that obeys him.

The lesson again returns,-Flee from sin. Sooner or later it will find you out. He against whom you sin rules over all persons, all places, all things; rules in time, rules in eternity. You cannot flee from his presence, nor escape from his power. Sin may find you out in the ship. The tempest may come to tell you of God's anger and God's power; and if you be brought to repentance, yet, the consequence of your sin may follow you painfully and long. And even if all seems unnoticed, and your disobedience to prosper, still remember, "it is appointed to men once to die, and after death the judgment." Sin must find you out then. You have disobeyed; you have prospered; you have thought you have been overlooked; but you die, and then is your offended God your almighty Judge. The day of mercy is past. You are cast, not into the sea, where you may escape; but into hell, whence there is no escape.

Flee from this wrath to come. Turn to God by Christ. He will have mercy upon you, he will abundantly pardon you.

JONAH.

SERMON VII.

"Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly." JONAH i. 17; ii. 1.

We have followed Jonah in his sin, his danger, his detection, and subsequent, perhaps I should say consequent, awakening and repentance. We have seen him humbling himself before God, and submitting himself to his righteous sentence and disposal. Happy, had he done this earlier. He who refused to submit when required to go to Nineveh, had now to submit when the word of the Lord required him to be cast into the sea. He who refused to give God's sentence against Nineveh, had now to give God's sentence against himself.

Let us proceed with the history, and fix as we proceed, on the important lessons which are taught us.

"The Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah." Much unholy witticism has been expended on this. If the Scriptures be the word of God, describing all his dispensations, then have we to receive the miraculous events which they record: others, as well as this. Before the coming of Christ, and the descent of the Holy Ghost, and that full exposition of truth, which we have in the last dispensation of mercy, extraordinary and even miraculous interpositions were not unusual, as suited to the state of the church and the world. Let the divine revelation of Scripture be inquired into first. If this be not made out, then these tales of miracles will be at best all allegorical legends. But if "all Scripture be given by inspiration of God," let God's dispensations be examined according to God's own account of them. Miraculous interposition will then appear in its proper light. There will be nothing to stagger our faith. The Agent is the Omnipotent God.

A direct miracle is recorded here. The Lord had prepared a great fish for the purpose. The ancient translation renders the general Hebrew term by a specific one, and the great fish is thus described as a whale. Our Lord and his apostles quoted from this. It was their object to instruct men in truth, not to lead them to minute criticisms. Hence, our Lord spoke of Jonah as being "in the whale's belly." And so it might be. He who brought the great fish to the particular spot, could easily adapt the organs of throat and stomach to the intended purpose. And this may be included in— "The Lord had prepared a great fish." It is not necessary, therefore, to look at the natural history of the whale; to inquire into its usual food, and the small capacity of its throat, as designed for very small prey. The miracle being admitted, for a profitable consideration of the question it is not necessary to decide upon the exact character of the great fish. One was prepared. As soon as the now obedient prophet was cast into the deep, he disappeared from the notice of the mariners, and was swallowed by the fish. And here, again, we have to refer to the power of God. The preservation of