jonah's gourd.
Jonah iv. 5 — 9. So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat
1203.] jonah's gourd. . 275
under it in the shadow, till he might see tvhat would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a ivorm, when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd, that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind ; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd ? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
WHETHER we look into the sacred volume or to the world around us, we are almost at a loss to say which is the greater, the depravity of man, or the
tender mercy of our God In the brief history
which we have of the Prophet Jonah, they are both exhibited to our view in the most striking colours. Had Jonah been a professed heathen, we should have wondered less at his impiety : but being an Israelite, yea, a prophet too of the Most High God, and, we would fondly hope, a good man upon the whole, we are amazed at the very extraordinary wickedness which he manifested, and no less at the astonishing forbearance exercised by Almighty God towards him. In the former part of his history we have an account of his declining to execute the commission which God had given him to preach to the Ninevites, and, notwithstanding that rebellious conduct, his preserva- tion in the belly of a fish. In the passage which we have now read, we see his perverseness carried to an extent that seems absolutely incredible, and God's condescension to him keeping pace with his enor- mities. It relates his conduct in reference to a gourd which God had caused to spring up over him, and which withered within a few hours after it had com- forted him with its refreshing shade. That we may place the matter in a clear point of view, we shall notice,
I. His inordinate joy at the acquisition of the gourd —
He was at this time in a most deplorable state of mind —
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