1 H. F. Henderson, Erskine of Linlathen, 136.
336 A MEETING WITH GOD
there, the common property of the race. We must wait for their vision till we have reached their level.1
One feast, of holy days the crest,
I, though no Churchman, love to keep, All-Saints, — the unknown good that rest
In God's still memory folded deep; The bravely dumb that did their deed,
And scorned to blot it with a name, Men of the plain heroic breed,
That loved Heaven's silence more than fame,
Such lived not in the past alone,
But thread to-day the unheeding street, And stairs to Sin and Famine known
Sing with the welcome of their feet; The den they enter grows a shrine,
The grimy sash an oriel burns, Their cup of water warms like wine,
Their speech is filled from heavenly urns.
About their brows to me appears
An aureole traced in tenderest light, The rainbow-gleam of smiles through tears
In dying eyes, by them made bright, Of souls that shivered on the edge
Of that chill ford repassed no more, And in their mercy felt the pledge
And sweetness of the farther shore.2
1 J. Brierley, The Secret of Living, 126.
9 J. R. Lowell, Under the Willows and Other Poems.
The Wideness of God's Mercy.
JER.-MAL.— 23
Literature.
Bell (C. D.), Night Scenes of the Bible, ii. 49.
Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women, and Children, iii. 454.
Fiirst (A.), True Nobility of Character, 124.
Gibbon (J. M.), In the Days of Youth, 112.
Ingram (A. F. W.), Under the Dome, 43.
Mackennal (A.), Christ's Healing Touch, 87.
Macuaughtan (G. D.), Two Hebrew Idylls, 171.
Matheson (G.), Rests by the River, 141.
Morrison (G. H.), The Footsteps of the Flock, 381.
Norton (J. N.), Golden Truths, 158.
Owen (J. W.), Some Australian Sermons, 61.
Smellie (A.), In the Secret Place, 186.
Christian World Pulpit, xv. 168 (E. W. Shatters) ; Hi. 177 (H. P.
Hughes) ; lxx. 212 (R. Hislop). Church of England Pulpit, lvii. 158 (F. R. M. Hitchcock). Church Family Newspaper, July 12, 1912, 8 (H. E. Ryle). Churchman's Pulpit : Sermons to the Young, xvi. 449 (J. Edmond). Homiletic Review, New Ser., xxxviii. 506 (G. C. Morgan). Presbyterian, Feb. 27, 1913 (D. Connor). Treasury (New York), xxii. 480.
The Wideness of God's Mercy.
And the Lord said, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow ; which came up in a night, and perished in a night : and should not I have pity on Nineveh, that great city ; wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand ; and also much cattle ?— Jon. iv. 10, ii. i
1. Jonah was the typical representative of a proud and exclusive nation. It was expected of Israel as the chosen people of God, to whom were committed the oracles of God, that they would be zealous in the cause of true religion, and spread its light and truth among those sitting in the darkness of heathenism. Their election and preparation for this high and noble mission had, however, a totally different effect upon themselves from that designed by God. It made them proud, arrogant, and exclusive, very unwilling to spread among the heathen the Divine truth lodged with them ; at all events, at the time the Book of Jonah was written they were so. They considered themselves the favoured of Heaven, and as such possessing the exclusive right of enjoying Divine truth, whilst the Gentiles might live in the darkness of heathenism, and perish in it. If compelled to preach to them, they would be much more willing to announce God's judgment upon them than His mercy and compassion. It is indeed true that the prophets have always been enthusiastic about the near or distant future, when the Gentiles would be made partakers of the same privileges and blessings as were enjoyed by the Jews, but the Jewish nation as a whole was always reluctant to entertain such liberal and humane ideas.
2. The Book of Jonah is meant to illustrate by an historical narrative, embellished no doubt to suit the taste of the time, the great and important truth that God is no respecter of persons, and that in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh
339
340 THE WIDENESS OF GOD'S MERCY
righteousness is acceptable to Him. These bigoted and narrow- minded Jews had to be taught the humiliating lesson that the Gentiles were more ready and willing to accept the truth of God when preached to them than they themselves were. The repent- ing Gentiles saved, whilst the unmerciful Jews are reproved ; the conversion of the Gentiles preceding the conversion of the Jews ; the Gentiles rejoicing in the forgiving mercy of God, whilst the Jews are protesting, murmuring, and complaining that the promises of God have not been fulfilled in exactly the same manner as they have desired they should be — these are some of the leading principles this peculiar Book of Jonah is meant to set forth.
3. Jonah is the typical narrow and exclusive Jew; and the whole story of his narrowness and exclusiveness serves to throw into relief the wide and tender mercy of God. Than the text there is no more Christian utterance in the Old Testament. It raises the eternal protest that God is no less pitiful, but more pitiful, than we ; that the pang of pity which a man feels for the withering of a flower or the autumnal fall of the leaf is felt a hundredfold in the heart of the Most High for the souls whom He has made in His image, and for whose growth in grace He has laboured and will labour.