e Ps. xl. 1—3. f Lam. iii. 54—58. s Hos. vi. 1, 2.
jonah's reflections in the whale's belly.
Jonah ii. 7 — 9. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord : and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their oivn mercy. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving ; I will pay that that I have voiced. Salva- tion is of the Lord.
TO take a retrospect of our feelings, under circum- stances of peculiar trial, is exceedingly beneficial. There are times when we realize in our minds truths which at other seasons have had no weight, and
produced on us no effect. Thus Jonah, after his deli- verance from the belly of the fish, called to mind, and transmitted for our good, the reflections which occu- pied his soul in that peculiarly awful situation, and in the near prospect of death. He here records,
I. The mercy vouchsafed —
This was such as never was vouchsafed to any other man, either before or since —
[The history you well know. But there are some points which we must particularly notice on this occasion. He was delivered, you know, from the belly of a fish. But mark the time when this mercy was vouchsafed to him : it was when he
was in the very act of rebellion against God Mark also
the means: it was by a miraculous influence of God upon the fish, directing it to go to the sea-shore, and to vomit him forth upon the dry land. The occasion also must especially be noticed : it was in answer to a prayer offered from the bottom of the sea : " When Jonah's soul fainted within him, he re- membered the Lord : and his prayer came in unto God, even into his holy temple."]
Though we have never been in a situation like his, have not we also wonderful mercies to recount ?
[We have all of us, more or less, been in situations of danger, either by sickness or by accident, when we were in a state most unprepared to meet our God ; and when, if we had been taken into the eternal world, we must have for ever perished in our sins. On some such occasion, perhaps, we have reflected on our state, and felt our need of mercy, and cried unto our God, and obtained mercy at his hands : and here we are living witnesses for God, that " he desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he turn from his wicked- ness and live" ]
Let us pass on to consider,
II. The conviction wrought —
Jonah had known, before, the folly of idolatry, and the wisdom of relying wholly upon God. But now he felt this in a way that he had not done before. Now too he felt, that to flee from the presence of God, as he had done, and to decline the service of his God, and to seek happiness in a way of disobedience to God, was folly in the extreme ; and that the only way to be truly happy, was to serve, and honour, and obey the Lord.
1200.] Jonah's reflections in the whale's belly. 263
And were not such our convictions, also, in the prospect of death ?
[None of us need be told that the creature is but a broken cistern ; and that " to forsake the fountain of living waters for cisterns of our own formation, is a great evila." But, whilst we acknowledge this as a speculative truth, who feels it prac- tically, so as to act upon it, and to have his life regulated in accordance with it? In a time of health, we see perhaps what is right, but do it not; nor have in our souls any fixed purpose to carry into effect the dictates of our mind and judgment. But in the near approach of death these truths assume a reality and importance which we never discerned before. Once, perhaps, we could laugh at them, as the dreams of enthusiasm, and the peculiarities of a sect : but in that solemn hour when we are expecting to be summoned into the imme- diate presence of our God, we bitterly regret that we have given so little weight to these considerations ; and we then are convinced, indeed, that " in observing and following lying vanities we have madly forsaken our own mercies." The con- vict that is about to perish by the hand of the public execu- tioner, however obdurate he has been in times past, feels this; and the public feel it for him. Would to God that, in our time of health and prosperity, we all felt it for ourselves !]