_And Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God, out of the fish’s belly._ THE RETURN TO GOD The object in setting forth the history of Jonah is to show the nature of his sin, the truth of his penitence, and the way in which he was restored to God’s favour. Turn thought to the change which was worked in Jo... [ Continue Reading ]
_I cried by reason of mine affliction._ TROUBLES AND DELIVERANCE I. The fact of trouble. Jonah is at one with all men in a common experience of trouble. No child of God is born to a heritage of unmitigated grief. Some compensating mercy is sure to throw its mellow light over the angriest storm. So... [ Continue Reading ]
_Yet will I look again toward Thy holy temple._ THE BACKSLIDER’S VOW The leading feature of the story is that of one man sacrificed for the rest of the crew: it is the execution of the culprit, in arrest of judgment on the innocent. Lessons-- 1. The deepest remorse has its remedy in a return to d... [ Continue Reading ]
_When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord._ JONAH AN EXAMPLE OF SANCTIFIED AFFLICTION It is interesting to mark the workings of a soul when struggling with the strong billows of affliction, especially if that affliction has come in the immediate train of backsliding, and appears as the... [ Continue Reading ]
_They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy._ THE VALUE OF SUPERSTITIONS Here we learn the value to attach to all superstitions, to all those opinions of men, when they attempt to set up religion according to their own will; for Jonah calls them lying or fallacious vanities. There is,... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will pay that that I have vowed._ A FORGOTTEN VOW I heard of a sea-captain who had been wrecked, and with whose ship most of the crew and passengers were lost. He himself had only saved his life by holding on to a plank, and had for a considerable time been completely at the mercy of the waves,... [ Continue Reading ]