ON 1{ON 2{THE remarkable history of Jonah is a picture of Israel's history-that people are at present at the bottom of the sea, as it were; but there will be, in the coming day, a restoration of the nation.
But the prophet is more than a type of the Jew; he is a perfect picture of man in his natural state; and it is in this light I would call attention to it.
" Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord."
Here, then, we have him, as a fallen child of Adam, setting up his will against God. Selfwill marks him at the very start; in the pride of his heart too, like Adam, he will take his own way to accomplish his own ends; and instead of going to Nineveh, where God had sent him in the exercise of a ministry in which all the power of God would sustain him, he rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, like Adam again, who hid himself from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden after he had set up his will.
Sin is the having an independent will which is ever opposed to God's will, and this leads to distance from God. Adam went out from God's presence; Cain and Jonah likewise. This is the unvarying path that flesh walks in-it cannot abide the light of God's presence, and God cannot suffer the exercise of this will. The prophet having thus acted in selfwill, and fled from the presence of the Lord, in the independence of the flesh paying his fare to Tarshish, presents a sorrowful picture of the condition of many a sinner at this present time. Death and ruin all around him, and none to help, in a ship well-nigh broken up by the violence of the waves, while the very heathen call on their god, he alone of all others "lay" "fast asleep." Oh, what a picture! Alas! no uncommon one at this moment. My reader, a picture of yourself, if as yet you have never been awakened to your true state before God. "Lay" "fast asleep" are the simple but expressive words by which the Holy Ghost describes this most solemn condition; it is not only self willed and independent, but when the awful consequence is upon him, and death stares him in the face, he alone is indifferent. Here, then, is the condition of the professing multitudes around us. In the midst of religious observances of all kinds, and religious appliances of every shape-open churches, fast days, and sacraments, synods and religious societies-the vast mass lie in the boasted cradle of privilege, and the devil rocks them fast asleep. "What meanest thou, O sleeper?" is the only suited language when pondering such a state of things. Awakened at last, in the mercy of God, to a sense of his perishing condition, the prophet passes the sentence of death upon himself-"Take me up, and cast me into the sea." And Jonah is soon wrapped among the weeds of the sea, down in the bottoms of the mountains, the waters compassing him about, the depth closed around his head. Now, there are two points of immense beauty here:-
First, Who was it thought of Jonah in his self-willed independence and indifference? Oh! the
wondrous grace of our Savior God, who in His own persevering love pursues in awakening tenderness the failing prophet, or a poor sinner now! Yes, reader, the very same God who shook to its foundations the prison of Philippi, to awaken the jailer, now blows his mighty storm upon the ocean to awaken the sleeping Jonah, and, it may be, in His grace, may use these poor lines to awaken you.
Secondly, Who was it provided for Jonah a salvation worthy of Himself? Who but God? Now, mark it well, the prophet passes sentence of death on himself; nothing less would suit; it must be death, and it must be accepted. " Take me up, and cast me into the sea:" and so when death had its victim the sea ceased from its raging. But is that all? What of Jonah? If left to the consequences of the death he has accepted, he must perish; but here is exactly where the blessed God comes in, and that in a way worthy of Himself. He does not remit the sentence; to do so would be to clear the guilty; but He does bring salvation, and this is grace-a salvation, too, which, while it maintains all the righteous character of God, and vindicates Him to the uttermost, most blessedly delivers the sinner from all the consequences of his rebellion. against God. And so we read, "Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah!" In the life of another, which can go down into the element where Jonah could not live, the prophet is saved. Beautiful type of the salvation of Him who in grace took our judgment and endured it! He who alone could bear it went into death-passed through its dark raging flood for us. And so Jonah's sin is all that is left in the bottom of the sea, and left there forever. Thus, in this scripture, we have a striking picture of man's rebellion and God's salvation. On man's side, as in the case of Jonah, nothing but selfwill, independence, indifference, death; on God's side, a compassion that can move the very elements to awaken the sleeper to a sense of his danger, and a grace which provides a salvation, so complete, so perfect, so full, that while He is demonstrated to be just there is also deliverance for the sinner; the sin is judged, and the perishing one is saved. W. T. T.