lenging the sovereign God. He, in effect, declares that he does not believe that the Judge of all the earth has done right. He denies by his conduct that God may do according to his pleasure in heaven and on earth. He more than insinuates that the will of the creature is to be preferred to the will of the Supreme. It is that creature in rebellion again. It is correction all forgotten, and self-will resolute as before. It is nature once more paramount in the heart, and grace eclipsed or put away.

Jonah not merely challenges

But more than this. the will of the Supreme. He not merely says, "What doest thou?" He challenges the very mercy of Jehovah. Had it been sin which displeased the prophet, his anger could have been understood; or, had it been even the exercise of Jehovah's untarnishable justice, then Jonah would only have ranked among the men who murmur because God is just, because he punishes sin, and brings misery on the sinner. But here is the strange and startling case of one complaining because God is good; because his tender mercies are over all his other works; because he has no delight in the death of him that dieth, and would rather see the sinner pardoned and saved, than crushed and overthrown.

Here, then, we have perhaps the most instructive case which the history of mankind supplies-we see what even a prophet becomes when left to be guided by his own wisdom, or to lean upon his own strength-when nature and conscience are his only guide, and when the Spirit of grace is withdrawn. The prejudice of a Jew, or any other feeling, might give rise to this waywardness; but whatever produced it, that waywardness itself

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JONAH'S CASE OFTEN PARALLELED.

is the instructive thing to us, and it tells that so determined is man to have his own will and his own way, that even the mercy of God provokes only murmurs when it crosses the sinner's wish. That sinner may have been tried by sorrows the most crushing; all God's waves may have rolled over him, and it may seem as if he would never be wayward any more. But, after all, let something happen which that sinner does not like; let the very mercy of God appear in some signal way; still, if that mercy cross man's purpose, self will rise up in revolt again. God will be challenged his very mercy will be grudged, if it come in a way different from that which wayward man would dictate. The prophet wished the city to be burnt up by fire, or otherwise destroyed, but Jehovah wished to spare it, and the offended man grew angry and sullen. Jonah would have returned to Gath-hepher rejoicing had he only seen Nineveh in ruins-Jehovah meant to spare it for perhaps a century to come; and the creature was indignant because the Creator was merciful.

We have seen that many attempts have been made to account for this conduct on the part of Jonah. Religious animosity is one solution; Jonah's zeal for the truth of God is another; his regard for his own reputation is a third; his wish to see an example of vengeance on the heathen, that the Jews might be roused thereby, is a fourth. But, without deciding between these, we observe, what will find a response in the soul of all who know their own heart, that there is enough by nature in us all to make us walk in the footsteps of Jonah, strange and inexplicable as his case appears. Let preventing grace be withheld-let man be left to

the guidance of his own wayward will, and there is not one among us who would not act, in spirit, just as Jonah did. We confess, in words, that God does all things well, and we would shrink from formally declaring that, "The Judge of all the earth will not do right;" yet do not the murmurs, the restlessness, the repining of thousands, proclaim that they speak and act as if Jehovah did wrong? He is doing now just as he did at Nineveh every event is under his control; and sooner or later the universe will see that he did all things well. But, meanwhile, we repeat the conduct of Jonah from day to day, and many who wonder at his waywardness, or cannot explain it, nay, are reluctant even to believe it, act in the same spirit of murmuring and repining, because Jehovah is supreme, and man but a creature. The simple meaning of every murmur that escapes our lips, is this-Jehovah will not let me have my will; and that is, in spirit, the very sin of which Jonah was guilty.

But let us look deeper into this case, as the prophet proceeds with his sketch of himself. With all the solemnity of prayer, this man comes into the presence of God to bewail his disappointment, and give utterance to his chagrin. Every clause suggests some solemn reflections here.

And, first, we should notice in what spirit this man engaged in prayer. It was not in the attitude of an humbled offender, but rather of an injured or a disappointed man. He was not ashamed to appear before the holy God in the very act of rebelling against him as the Lord of all the language of Jonah was not, Thy will be done," but in substance, "Why hast thou done it?" Now, amazed as we may be at this sinful man's position, and

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perplexed in our attempts to solve the mystery here, we should beware lest Jonah's case be ours. He came before his God in a spirit of opposition to the Supreme are we never prone to do the same? Is there no latent dislike to the supremacy of God? Is there never any opposition or conflict between our will and his? He has forbidden us to regard iniquity in our hearts. Is there no secret sin unrepented of when we pray to the Holy One? Those who have looked the deepest into their own souls, and most profoundly studied their condition in the light of Jehovah's word, will see most clearly how similar in nature they are to Jonah-how prone to do as he did, as if man and not Jehovah were God.

But consider this prayer in detail, and notice how Jonah refers to his former flight, "Was not this my saying when I was yet in my country?" Instead of being ashamed and confounded because of that sin, he now obliquely defends it. He vindicates the measure after all that had happened, and prefers the course which he himself pursued to that which the eternal God had appointed. Now, this is just another fold of man's amazing nature opened up. It is the sinner vindicating sin, even though the blame should be cast on the Holy One and the Just. It is man refusing to plead guilty, even after the sin had been brought home by the very finger of God. It is the self-righteous soul rejecting the charges of the Word of God. "Was not this my saying?" Jonah asks-Was I not right—had I not reason on my side when I declined obeying thee? I knew thy yearnings over sinners, and was sure that thou wouldst not destroy the city; and I now complain as

ARE WE DIFFERENT FROM JONAH?

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if I were an injured man. That is the meaning of the words, "Was not this my saying?" Having once been wrong, Jonah will defend his error whosoever may be blamed-unconsciously the Holy One is accused.

Now, we grant that this is one of the strangest things which are mentioned in the Scriptures. The superficial views of man's heart and nature, which are current among us, cannot at all explain it; and till we have studied our own hearts in the light of the Bible, it is utterly inexplicable. How can any man, but especially a prophet, pray to God in the language of self-justification, like a deeply-injured man? How could one who had been convicted, corrected, and humbled like Jonah, dare to speak of his former sin in the language of apology or defence? How could a prophet refuse to preach what God commanded, for fear it should be successful, or murmur and complain when success actually followed? How could he dare to plead the mercy of God as a reason why he should disobey him, and flee from his presence? Or, finally, how did all the prophet's sufferings fail to correct his waywardness, and to make him walk humbly with his God? How were they all so soon forgotten, and Jonah restored to the control of his own heart again? These are things which man's philosophy has no line to fathom -these are things which man's wisdom has no skill to explain which man's heart has no desire profoundly to study. It is only when the Spirit of God leads us into the knowledge of our own hearts, and lets us see that we are doing just as Jonah did, that such wondrous things become naked and open before us. But the mystery of Jonah's rebellion is explained when the Spirit is our teacher; for we find that we, we ourselves,