94 JONAH SAVED FROM HIMSELF. him. There is hope for man while man continues a suppliant; when prayer is restrained, hope begins to yield to despair; and though we may not dwell on the remark, we observe, as we pass along, that of all that the ministers of Christ find to do as they minister, nothing is more heavy or more hopeless than to pray for men whose worldly or whose wicked life proves that they never pray for themselves. Had Or, to make the instruction from this passage more general still, contemplate once again the wondrous ways which the only wise God our Saviour adopts to reclaim the wandering, and allure them back to himself. we been there to follow Jonah from Gath-hepher in Galilee, where he dwelt, along the way to Joppa, where he embarked for Tarshish, with the acknowledged design of fleeing from the presence of the Lord-had we heard the storm arise, and seen the sea swell, and then the lot cast, and then the final fatal plunge into the sea, at each successive stage, I think, the conviction would have deepened in our mind, that Jonah was about to be utterly destroyed. Judging as man judges, we had most probably concluded, as the barbarians of Melita did concerning Paul, that God would not permit that signal transgressor to escape. Yet God's ways are not as our ways; and instead of leading Jonah to death, God was only saving Jonah from himself. He laid him in a fearful pit, but that was to prepare him to be set at last upon a rock. He sent wo upon wo after Jonah, but it was to warn him, like the abject prodigal, back to his Father's affections. In brief, God scourged this child, because he received and loved him; and so it often is. Pass over for the present the calamities which assail us re THE CROSS PRECEDES THE CROWN. 95 garding the life that now is: think only of the troubles that often darken and becloud the soul in regard to its eternal prospects. One swells upon another, like wave chasing wave, and we sometimes feel as if our hope had perished from the Lord. But the darkest trial is not seldom the precursor of the brightest joy. Or, there is Joseph in the dungeon-who would have thought that that was the way to the right hand of a throne? There is Job so low that he is cursing the day of his birth-who would have thought that that was to end just in double blessings on his head? There is Jonah in the lowest deep-who would have thought that he was to emerge from that abyss, and become the deliverer of Nineveh after all? Or, greater and more glorious than all, there is the Saviour on the cross, forsaken of God, and crucified by men-who would have thought that that was the way to ransom and prepare a countless multitude of sons and daughters for glory? There is a wan and wasted sufferer: long years of sorrow have been his; for all that time he was scarcely seen to smile -who would have thought that that was the path to glory? Or there is one in deepest sorrow for his soul. He struggles and he wrestles, but all appears in vain. The terrors of spiritual death have taken hold of him, and he has ceased even to hope-who would have thought that that was the training that was to fit that man for winning souls to Christ? Yet so it was in all these cases; and therefore see, we say, the wondrous ways by which Jehovah accomplishes his designs of mercy on the earth. Judge him not by the standard of man, but by the disclosures of the Word. The valley of Achor shall be a door of hope. The wilderness shall 96 HOPE SPRINGING FROM TRIBULATION. yield us vineyards. The valley of Baca shall furnish wells; and after this, away with all our tendencies to limit the Holy One of Israel. He has mercy when we would condemn, although he has also condemnation when we would show mercy. He has loving-kindness, when we doubt or limit him. He leads by ways that we do not know; and surely, when our life springs from death the death of Christ; when our blessedness is the result of his agony, we may well be encouraged to trust in God-to trust in him at all times, to pour out our hearts before him, and banish every fear. Instead of joining with those who either covertly or avowedly "explode the theory of a God," we should wait on him and be of good courage, for he will strengthen our hearts. 66 CHAPTER VIII. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God."-JONAH ii. 3-6. THERE is one idea which should never be absent from the mind while we study this book-it all relates to one who sought to flee from the presence of the Lord, who fled from the post of duty, and hoped to be happier and better somewhere else than where God commanded him to be. Whatever is instructive, or whatever is surprising in the book of Jonah, should always be connected with that leading thought. To our mind, the general title of the book might be, The guilt and the danger of opposing the mind of God. In short, the history of Jonah is just a miniature of the history of our fallen world. Misery and wo have been its lot ever since the will of the holy God began to be opposed-it is made happy again precisely in proportion as that God is believed and obeyed. We have seen, then, that Jonah expected to find happiness in fleeing from the presence of God. hoped to reach a place where God would not be felt to be so near, nor duty to be so urgent and imperative. Prophet of God as he was, he wished to find a spot where his own will would guide him-where the great God would not be so much a God at hand as he was in Judea. That was what Jonah sought, but what did Jonah find? Instead of peace and safety, he found what seemed a watery grave. Instead of being guided by his own will, he was at the mercy of the very winds and waves. Instead of being his own master, as he vainly wished to be, the hand of God took hold of him, and heathen seamen became the servants of Jehovah in correcting the wandering prophet. Then, in previous portions of his history, we have seen the very man who sought to flee from God compelled to flee to him. Wo had become his lot; he found only labour and sorrow; and that sorrow was blessed to give religion that place in the soul from which rebellion or unbelief had put it down. The creature had taken the Creator's place; but misery the strangest that ever fell on mortal man was sent, and it became the means of pointing Jonah back to his God again. And, notice the contrast here, between Jonah fleeing from the presence of God and Jonah overwhelmed with sorrow. He now sees the hand of God in every thing that happens, or hears the voice of God in every thing that is done. "Thou hast cast me off," is one clause of his prayer. passed over me," is another. sorrows to the raging sea. great fish which had devoured him. He does not 66 Thy billows and thy waves He does not accuse the attach blame to the seamen who had thrown him into |