weather; who causes the soft and gentle breezes He has taught should pray to Him alone, to save us in times of difficulty and danger. God has been very kind thus to make Himself known to us; and ought we not to pity those who have not yet the Bible in their hands, and who, like the mariners in the ship with Jonah, still look to false gods, and to idols, to protect them? Ought we not to do all we can, to give them the Bible, that they may know the true God, and Jesus Christ whom God has sent into the world, to save us from what is a great deal more dreadful than a storm at sea, or the loss of our lives, to save us from the loss of our never dying souls? After crying for help to their false gods, the mariners began to take the goods that were in the ship, and to cast them overboard into the sea. And they cast them all overboard; hoping that this would lighten the ship so much, that it would ride more easily over the waves, and not be in danger, as it was, every moment, of being filled with water, and of sinking into the deep. Men will do anything to save their lives. If necessary they will part with the most valuable things, and even be willing to lose all that they have. If you had been in that ship, my dear children, would you not have been ready to throw all the things that belonged to you overboard, and never see them again, if, by so doing, you could have helped to lighten the ship, and save your lives? I dare say, you would have done so very quickly and cheerfully. You would not have hesitated to do it a moment. Are you now willing to do as much, to save your souls? Your souls are worth a great deal more than your bodies. In a few years, your bodies will die, and moulder away to dust. But They will live hun your souls will never die. dreds, and thousands, and millions of years;— longer than you could count in a whole year,— longer than all the people in the world could count, if they should keep on counting all their lives, and if all that they should count could be added together, and make a number of years so vast, that you could not think how vast it would be. Your souls will live hundreds, and thousands, and millions of years longer than this vast number of years, and longer still, and longer. Your souls will still keep on living, they will live as long as God lives, that is, they will live forever. And your souls will be happy forever, or they will be wretched forever. God tells us so in the Bible. You would cast away all that you have, all that love most, you if it were necessary to do this, in order to save your lives. How much are you willing, and ready, to cast away, to save your souls? Jesus Christ has told us, that, if we have anything, as precious to us, even as one of our eyes is, and which keeps us from loving God with all our hearts and our neighbor as ourselves; or which leads us to think, to feel, or to act wickedly; we must give it up, we must cast it away from us, as the mariners in the ship threw their goods into the sea. No matter how precious it is to us, or how much soever we love it, we must love it no more, we must part with it readily and cheerfully, that we may not be tempted by it to sin; and that we may be the better able to love and obey God; and to love and do good to others. -And Jesus Christ says, if we do not do so, we cannot be His friends,-we cannot be saved by Him. On Sunday, perhaps, you had rather play, or read some amusing story book, than go to church and the Sunday school, or, if you are at home, than to think of God, and pray to Him, and read His holy word. Then you are unwilling to give up these things that you may save your souls. For your souls will be lost unless you trust in Christ, and love Him; and He has said, that if you do indeed love Him, you will keep His commandments. His commandments are the same as God's commandments, one of which, as you know is Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. And so, if you do anything else that keeps you from loving and obeying God; or if you love anything else, more than you love God; and are unwilling to give up and forsake these things; it shows, that you are not so wise as the mariners in the ship with Jonah, were. How foolish they would have been, to refuse to cast their goods into the sea, if doing so would render it more probable, that their lives would be saved. How much more foolish and guilty, my dear children, will you be, if you are unwilling to give up, and forsake, any thing that will prevent you from trusting in Christ, and loving and obeying God, and saving your souls. Hear what our Saviour, Jesus Christ, says on this subject, and may you never forget it. For what is a man profited, (what real gain will it be to him,) if he shall gain the whole world, (every thing in it that he loves and wishes to possess,) and lose his own soul, (never go to heaven, to be happy there, but be miserable in hell forever ;)—or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? What, my dear children, would you be willing to give away, or exchange, for your life, that it might be saved, if you were in danger of losing it, as the mariners and Jonah were, of losing theirs? You would give up anything, and everything. Are you willing to do the same, that your never-dying souls may be saved? I ask you the question. You can answer it to yourselves. CHAPTER IV. Jonah asleep. The captain wakes him, and calls upon him to pray. Sinning makes people leave off praying. Remorse a source of wretchedness. Casting lots explained. The mariners cast lots. The lot falls on Jonah. WHILE the storm was still raging, and the mariners busily engaged in throwing their goods overboard, Jonah was gone down inside of the ship, and was there fast asleep. The rattling of the rain, the roaring of the wind, the waves rolling and beating against the ship, and all the noise which the captain and sailors made, in throwing the goods overboard, did not awake him. He slept soundly, and was perhaps dreaming of sail. ing along pleasantly to Tarshish, and of soon ar |