GOD HONOURED AND MAN HAPPY.

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But it is of far more importance for us here to remark, that in the case of Jonah as it is here described, we have an example of true and practical religion. He was neither turned aside by difficulties, nor scared by dangers; and our safety, and happiness, lie in doing as he did. The only question which we should ever ask is this Has God commanded? and that once settled, obedience should instantly be yielded. Does he say, "Stretch forth the withered hand?" It is to be stretched forth without question or delay, because to question or delay is to sin. Does he say, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved?" I am instantly to address myself to the work of believing, refusing to listen to my own heart, and listening only to God. Does he say, "I must be born again?" Then that decisive change I am to seek, undeterred by any impediment or any objection. Difficulty should be nothing to the soul when it has the command of God to guide it. It should just do as Jonah did, when he went single-handed to preach to Nineveh, a city which was full sixty miles in circumference. It is thus that God is honoured; and thus that we see his salvation, as the prophet enjoyed his blessing, by simple faith in the truth of the Eternal.

But all this comes more plainly before us in the

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Creation, which has shed much light on the shallowness of the knowledge of many in our day, we are told that it were a most inconceivably paltry exercise" of the power of God to create certain of the lower creatures of earth. Men like not the knowledge of God even as a Creator, and of course far less as a Redeemer, till they have made him such a one as themselves. But we now see to what such speculations tend-even to set aside the Creator's fiat, and make the world independent of him.

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THE TRIAL OF FAITH AND ITS TRIUMPH.

words, "Jonah entered into the city a day's journey; and he cried and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." When that unfriended, solitary man stood amid the myriads of that heathen city, whose gorgeous magnificence, after being entombed for more than two thousand years, is again disinterred to astonish and amaze us, you can think of the trial to which his faith was put. You can fancy the sinking of heart which he might feel, and had he listened to his own spirit he would no doubt have fled again. But none of these things moved Jonah. He was not responsible for results, but only for duty—and he did it. Without any inquiry or delay, he preached the preaching which he was bidden, assured that the Word of God would not return to him void. "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," was the burden of the prophet's message he delivered it, and left the result with God, Jehovah had bent his bow, and made it ready; his prophet drew it, and discharged the arrow of truth, to find the home and accomplish the purposes which the Overruler had decreed. Nothing but repentance could now avert the ruin that was coming.

Now here, also, a multitude of salutary lessons occur to the reflective mind; we need only enumerate, without expatiating upon them at large.

And mark how fearless faith in God can make us. This man, lately so timid that he fled from duty, or so averse to do it that he tried to escape to some spot where God would be less pressingly present, now stands forth amid the myriads of Nineveh without any fear of man. He is guided by the fear of the Lord, and that is the beginning of wisdom. O what a multitude of snares

THE SIMPLICITY OF JONAH'S MESSAGE.

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might we all escape-what tranquillity of soul might we all enjoy, could we simply do as Jonah did when the word of the Lord came to him again, and when he went out just to do what God commanded, leaving the result in the hands of the Almighty!

And notice, moreover, the simplicity of the prophet's message. All that is recorded is, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." That, most probably, was not all that he preached, but it was the burden of his announcements. It was his text, or the substance of his message; and how simple, how perspicuous, how startling! Even the children who crowded that mighty city could comprehend the whole-and not less simple is the message of the gospel : "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth." "In the Lord have we righteousness and strength." "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." "In Christ ye are complete." "He hath made an end of transgression, and brought in an everlasting righteousness." "Ye are made the righteousness of God in Christ." "There is no condemnation for them that are in Christ." What more simple, perspicuous, and definite? Is it not true that "the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein?" and how can we escape if we neglect this simple salvation?

Or, next, behold how God chooses weak things to confound the mighty. Jonah was an unit in the midst of myriads; with his single voice he was to sound the knell of the greatest and most flagitious city then in the world; and yet that single voice was sufficient for the work which God had assigned to the prophet. God

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THE REWARD OF PERSEVERANCE.

does not need an army to achieve his purposes. Gideon's three hundred will rout an host. Ten men will chase a thousand-nay, one man will suffice, when that man is strong in the Lord and the power of his might."

Nor can we fail to notice the encouragement which the Word of God here supplies to parents in their spheres, to ministers in theirs, and to all who seek the welfare of their fellow-men. The task of turning sinners to God may be often unpromising and irksome, for line upon line, and precept upon precept, appear to be all unavailing. Open ungodliness or hardened indifference may at once try our faith, and all but quench our hope, yet we should learn a lesson from the position of the prophet Jonah. Has God given us a work to do? Has he placed us in a sphere where souls are dependent upon us? Has he said, for example, "Take this child and rear him for me, and I will give thee thy wages?" Then let us do as Jonah did. Let us deliver God's message, or employ the means appointed in his Word; and in the end it will be seen that that Word has not returned unto him void. Life unto life, or death unto death, and God glorified in either case, will be the result.

And, finally, we may think for an instant of the certainty with which the purposes of God are all accomplished. It was prophesied that Nineveh should be destroyed. It repented, and the overthrow was postponed; but the city returned to its sins, and ruin came like a whirlwind at last. According to the words of Nahum, "she is empty, and void, and waste;" for centuries it was many not even known where Nineveh had stood. It was an indiscriminate mass of ruins-nay, villages, and graveyards,

and gardens were piled above it, and men all the while did not know the desolation over which they lived. In like manner, where is Babylon the Great? The cormorant and the beast of prey are its only inhabitants. And where is Tyre, once the emporium or the mistress of the world? It is engulfed in the sea; a few poverty-stricken seamen are all who remain to point in mockery to the spot where it stood. And where is Palmyra? Where is Tadmor? Where is Thebes, and Luxor, and Carnac ? All have perished in indiscriminate overthrow-and so of every city, according to the Word of God. Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon, Chorazzin and Bethsaida, all attest at once that God is holy, and that God is true: and happy are we if these mementoes of his righteous retribution have pointed us to the city of refuge, the covert from the tempest, the shadow of the great rock,-to Him who is the rock, and whose work is perfect.

There is a city which hath foundations; are we in the way which leads to it? There is a kingdom which

cannot be moved; are we like pilgrims thither? There is a land where the Lord God and the Lamb are the light of all; are we attracted by the light, and preparing for that land? If we be, then the hour of coming death will be to us the hour of coming deliverance; and over us it may be said, not forty days and we shall be overthrown, but forty days, nay, perhaps forty hours, nay, perhaps forty moments, and we shall be following the Lamb whithersoever he leadeth.