similar fact on record. It was calculated by its novelty to impress the world most deeply, and it has so impressed it, for the resurrection of Christ is the distinguishing feature of Christianity. True, others had been raised from the dead before-three under the old dispensation, five under the new-but these all rose from the dead to die again, to prolong their pilgrimage for a while, and then to return to corruption. The novelty in the case of our Lord's resurrection was this "Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more." It is the only event of the kind in the records of creation. Distinct from the miracles of Moses or Elijah, or even from the other miracles of the Saviour, it stands out alone and unique, a new thing in the history of the world.

Another point of resemblance between the sign and the countersign is the distress of each in the prospect of temporary death. We can liken Jonah's incarceration to nothing else than to the case of some person buried alive,—a circumstance by no means impossible in countries where interment takes place a few hours after death, and where corruption, that true test of

dissolution, is not waited for,-shut up in some massy sepulchre, against which he might strain his heaving chest and thrust his powerless arms in vain and convulsive efforts for escape, and shriek for mercy unheard and unheeded till he sank down at last in his living grave in the utter hopelessness of despair. Such we may suppose was the situation of the prophet. Well might he call it, "The belly of hell;" well might he say, "Thou hast brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God."

Turn now to the countersign, so harmoniously fitting in all its parts. We cannot but conclude that the thought of death was a subject full of distressing considerations to the Son of God. We remember how he shrank from it in the days of his flesh with instinctive horror, and how his human weakness rebelled against his divine will. Thus he was wont to say, "Mine hour is not yet come." "I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." "Can ye drink (said he to his two ambitious followers) of the cup that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" and when the hour had

indeed come, the anticipation of which had filled him with so much dread, he bade the traitor do his work with a friendly speed and put him out of his pain, "That thou doest, do quickly." But the mind shrinks from the mysteriousness of the contact between "him which had the power of death," and the Author and Prince of Life; between the king of Hades and the "King of kings" which had "the keys of hell and of death."

To this let it be added that not only was the period of the entombment of Jonah in the whale's belly of the same duration as that of our Lord in the heart of the earth, but a further resemblance is established from the fact that during the three days and three nights of their incarceration neither Jonah nor our Lord saw corruption. Jonah says of himself, "Thou hast brought my life again from corruption." David says of Christ, "Thou wilt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." Here again the sign harmonizes completely with the countersign. No other human being but Jonah could represent our Lord. All who have died, or who having been raised from the dead, have lived to die

again, have seen corruption. Of Jonah alone of the whole human race could it be said that for three days and three nights he died, as it were, in the belly of the fish, and rose again the third day not having seen corruption. In the particulars, therefore, which we have enumerated that the entombment of the prophet was a new thing unheard of before or since in the history of mankind—that the period of its duration extended over three days and three nights and that during that time, although shut up in "the belly of hell," he saw no corruption; Jonah was not simply a remarkable type of our Lord, but the only corresponding sign furnished by the Scriptures. All this gives a circumstantial reality to the history we are about to consider, and impresses it with the stamp of truth -it entwines the prophetical narrative with the doctrines of Christianity, and places it upon an equal basis with regard to credibility—so that to sneer at the Book of Jonah as an allegorical representation, or to cavil at the extraordinary interposition of Divine Providence of which the prophet was the object, is to cast a doubt upon the authenticated miracles of the gospel as well

as upon the positive declarations of the Redeemer of mankind.

With this brief notice of the life and writings of Jonah, we pass on to speak of the city to which he was sent.

Nineveh, great and wondrous city-monarch of a hundred lands-sovereign of a thousand tribes-lady of the eastern world, who saidst in thine heart, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow."

Nineveh, great and wondrous city-gigantic skeleton of past magnificence-superb ruin of departed glory-whose "crowned were as the locusts, and whose throne was among the stars." Great in antiquity-great in wickedness--great in desolation; henceforth thou shalt be great as the champion of truth-great, as the evidence that the word of God is not the sleight and invention of men-great, as the gauntlet thrown down to infidelity, which none of her mailed sons shall dare to lift-great, as the challenge struck on the sceptic's shield with the sharp spear of eternal truth, daring and defying him to mortal combat. From beneath thy mounds, I hear a sound reverberating along the palaces of Senna