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INFIDELITY-ITS CAUSES.

and we read, "the Lord prepared a great fish ;" then to Him all was as easy as to bid the sun to shine, or the moon to give her light. Men have tried to explain how such a thing could be, as if the whole were not the product of Almighty power; as if the miracle were not a miracle, or God not able to work it. But safer, wiser, humbler far it were, to take the passage as it rests upon Jehovah's authority; to see Him at work, and then to be silent and adore.

But this is suggestive of several lessons which, perhaps, we need do little more than name. And first, think of the design of the miracle here recorded. It was to prove that " verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth.” It was to show that the attempt to flee from Him is just as vain as it would be to endeavour to escape from Omnipresence. Or, secondly, the objections offered to this miracle show, that the nearer God comes to sinners, or the more obviously he works, the more do they object and oppose. He is here arresting a fugitive servant. He is here demonstrating that earth and sea are alike ready at his bidding to do his will. He is proclaiming his own omnipresence. He is vindicating his own authority. He is preventing his name from being blasphemed among the heathen. He is, in brief, signally demonstrating his presence and his power, that Jew and Gentile may alike bow before Him, exclaiming, "The Lord, he is the God!" But, just because Jehovah is so near, so pressingly, so awfully near, men recoil from his nearness; they deny his word rather than acknowledge his sovereignty and power.

And further, notice here how all creation is made subservient to the will of its Lord. Is Daniel cast into

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a den of lions? God is there; and ferocity is turned into gentleness. Are the three children thrown into the glowing furnace? God is also there; and the flame becomes only the means of setting the prisoners free. Or is Jonah to be imprisoned, because he had rebelled? The deep shall furnish a prison-house at God's command; and another proof shall be given, that fire, and air, and water, with all that are within the same, move at Jehovah's bidding, and promote Jehovah's will.

Or further still, as Jonah had refused to preach to Nineveh, he is here made to preach to the world the sovereignty of God unto the end of time. In spite of himself, he proclaims to all ages at once the goodness and severity of God; his goodness, in arresting the sinner; his severity, in putting down the sin. Nay, more, in one point of view, Jonah preaches the death and resurrectio.. of Christ. For three days and three nights both the prophet and the Saviour were entombed; and we know how the type was employed to prepare men's minds for believing in the antitype.

But finally, we notice how the hour which seemed to come with death and disaster to Jonah, was in reality the hour of his deliverance. Strangely, but surely, the God of all grace saved the prophet from his own wayward self, and so it often is with the suffering child of God. He may seem to be cast overboard; but Jehovah is at hand to help. Disaster may appear to be his only portion; but, as in the case of Jonah, the Lord has prepared a way of escape. He will prove a sanctuary in the time of trouble, and the set time will find deliverance made sure.

CHAPTER VII.

"Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.”—JONAH ii. 1, 2.

THE exclamation of a holy man of old was, that he adored the fulness of the Scriptures. He saw that God was in them of a truth. He felt that they thoroughly knew every thought of the heart, and could as thoroughly detect the most lurking sin of the soul. By these things he was convinced that the God of the Scriptures is the true God. He had once despised them, but he now felt that he could not elude their grasp. Conscience was stirred. Sin was laid bare; and the Word became like the very eye of Jehovah scrutinizing that earnest man's soul. Now, were we enabled to study this book of Jonah with care, we should see reason to do as that man did, and admire the rich fulness of Scripture.

In entering on the second chapter, we find that it contains an instructive account of sanctified affliction. We have seen how this prophet rebelled against the commandment of his God, and have followed his course while seeking peace and safety in opposing the sovereign mind. We have noticed the effects of sin in first degrading man, and then plunging him into misery.

GODLINESS DEVELOPED BY SUFFERING.

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In one remarkable case, it has been made plain that the wages of sin is death; and that, under the government of a holy God, we cannot commit iniquity without sinking into moral wretchedness as well as moral degradation. But now, in the same man's case, we are to see that where sin abounds, grace may yet more abound. The sinner may be left to be filled with the fruits of his own devices; for example, when Jonah sought to flee from his God, he might have been left to wretchedness for ever. But grace in God has restored what sin in man had forfeited; and, in studying this subject, we are to see how that grace humbles yet exalts; how it rebukes and chastens, yet all in love; how it "Return from going to the pit, for I have found a ransom." We notice, then, first of all, that this passage tells that "Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God." The first attitude in which we behold him after his sin has found

says,

him out, is that of a suppliant to the very God against whom he had transgressed. It is said of him as it was said of Paul at a similar stage, "Behold he prayeth." "Arise, and call upon thy God," were the words addressed to Jonah while asleep in the tossing vessel; but he has at length heard a louder voice than that of a heathen seaman; and now, behold, he prays. He obeyed the command-" Call upon me in the day of trouble;" and waited for the promise" I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me."

And thus do we find piety developed by suffering, and perceive again how good it is that the wayward sinner should be arrested in his self-ruinous career. But let us, in some detail, examine this case as one of sanctified affliction, for the guidance of all the afflicted. And it is

88 PRAYER RESTRAINED-SIN CONSUMMATED.

manifest from this man's history, that departing from the presence of the Lord, and abandoning prayer, are but different names for the same transgression. While the heathen in their danger were calling on the name of their gods, this prophet was once fast asleep, as if there had neither been a God to hear, nor a sinner to cry unto him; and that state of mind in Jonah explains all his wandering, and all his sin. Had he continued a man of prayer when temptation to flee came upon him, had he cried, "Support and deliver me when I am tempted"—his sad fall would have been prevented, and his sad history would have remained unwritten for want of materials. But sin would not let him pray. The throne of grace was abandoned; and then the sinner was left to hasten onward from transgression to transgression. Another heart is thus laid bare; another demonstration is given of what man becomes when he forsakes his God, and another proof is supplied that we are what we are only by the grace of God that is in us." But is not Jonah's case, in this respect, repeated from time to time? For a season, the throne of grace may have been often resorted to by some. They may have found comfort and enlargement there, so that their soul was glad. At last, however, some temptation came. Worldly engrossments, or worldly pleasures tempted the soul away from its God. By slow degrees, perhaps, but at last completely, prayer was neglected, and the heart was left unchecked to the deadening influence of the world. Nothing was done to counteract the evil that was there; and that soul is detected at last, as a deserter, like Jonah, from its God -as one that had forsaken the throne of grace, and

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