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are they who can say, in the language of the prophet, "The desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee: With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early."*

Verses 5, 6. "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."

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In these words, Jonah gives a further description of his fears and his hopes, his sufferings and his consolations. His condition was truly terrible. The waters of the ocean surrounded him; nay, they seemed to come into his very soul; for his soul was sinking amidst the waves of trouble, which threatened to overwhelm him: The waters compassed me about, even to the soul." He seems to allude to another passage in the Psalms; "Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul."+ The book of Psalms presents such a rich variety of passages, relating to the experiences of the saints, that there is perhaps no portion of scripture better adapted to refresh and comfort the children of sorrow.

The case of Jonah appeared altogether hopeless: "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

* Isaiah xxvi. 8, 9. + Psalm Ixix. 1.

me for ever."

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He was carried down by the fish to the lowest caverns of the ocean, where he was enclosed every side by the waters of the deep. Sometimes his living prison was lying among the rank sea-weed, part of which might be swallowed by the fish, and be wrapped round the prophet's head, within its stomach. Thus he was imprisoned at the very foundations of the mountains, in the darkest and deepest caverns; and there seemed to be no prospect of release, when the earth, as well as the sea, shut him in on all sides, as with everlasting bars. To all appearance, there was no probability of his ever ascending from these low and dismal regions, till that period when the sea shall give up the dead which are in it.

In these strong colours does Jonah paint the horrors of his situation, that he might magnify the wonders of God's power and grace, manifested in his glorious deliverance and this deliverance he proceeds to celebrate in the following words; "Yet hast thon brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God." Some expressions in this prayer, of which this is one, look as if they had been added after Jonah's release: yet he might use these words, even in the fish's belly; for there his life was preserved from corruption, or from the pit, as the original term is; his soul did not sink into the pit of wo, nor pass into the state of the dead; nor was his body dissolved and corrupted in the sto mach of the sea-monster, as might have been expected. Jonah, therefore, as a type of Christ, might apply to himself the prophetic words of David; "Thou wilt not

leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption."* Already his deliverance was begun, and he enjoyed the most cheering' anticipations of its being speedily and fully realized: and bence he feels himself constrained to begin the song

praise, and to admire the wonders of delivering goodness: "Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God." Perhaps he perceived that the fish was now ascending from the deep recesses to which it had conveyed him, and was approaching the shore where he was to be safely landed : and if this was the case, his hopes would be the more lively, and praise the more warm.

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There was one consideration that peculiarly encouraged the prophet's hopes, and enlivened his thanksgivings; he had a pleasing assurance that the Lord was his God; and under that endearing character he now addressed him. There is nothing so much calculated to support the believer in times of trial, as his interest in God. This is the most powerful antidote to despondency. With this the psalmist once and again encouraged his heart, when it was in danger of sinking; "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God."+ In this the prophet Habakkuk determined to rejoice, though all other comforts were extinguished, and all other sources of joy dried up ; Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall

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* Psalm xvi. 10. Acts ii. 31. †Psalms xlii. 11. xliii. 5.

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fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation."* Jonah, in like manner, can rejoice, even in the belly of the fish; because the Lord was his God, so that he had nothing to fear.

My dear brethren, seek to have the Lord for your God; and then, wherever you are, and however you may be situated, you will possess a never-failing source of consolation. We must be safe, if the Lord be ours. "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?-Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than For I am

conquerors, through him that loved us. persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."+

* Hab. iii. 17, 18. † Rom. viii, 31, 35, 37, 38, 39.

LECTURE VI.

JONAH'S PRAYER CONTINUED HIS DELIVERANCE.

Chap. II. 7-10.

Ver. 7. "When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple."

When Jonah was cast into the sea, and devoured by the fish, he was at first seized with extreme agitation and terror his spirits sunk, his courage failed, his soul fainted within him; he thought himself cast out of God's sight, doomed to bear the fierceness of his wrath, in the belly of hell. And it is not surprising that the prophet's heart should faint; for his situation was perhaps the most frightful in which any of God's children has ever been placed. The state of Daniel in the den of lions is somewhat analogous to it; but Daniel was not in a lion's belly, he still breathed the vital air. The case of Daniel's three friends in the fiery furnace was peculiarly terrible; but they were only a few minutes in the flames; and, instead of being carried down into the bowels of the earth, or to the bottom of the deep, they were still within view of their fellow-men.

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