The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 38

day of time. But not without reproving storms, of los8, trouble, affliction, bereavement. It is well that the man suffer loss that he be not lost. The voice of circumstances is the voice of God. II. THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAILORS REPROVED JONAH, They, each man of them, prayed. E11eh to his favourite god. Earnestly, with faith in the efficacy of prayer, they "cried e1•ery man unto his god." Prayerless Jonah (how can the backMlider pray?) is reproved by those praying sailors. Their prayer is one of ignorance, ignorant earnestness. He has no prayer at all; and he, too, a prophet of the Lord I Aud how the heathen's passionate cries to his god rebuke our restraint of and coldness in prayer I How the full-hearted earnestness of (it may be) the illiterate Christian reproves our heartless accuracies and formal worship I How the backslider is shamed by the cry of the penitent! "Arise, ea.II upon thy God!" III. THE APPEAL OF THE 0APTAIN REPROVED JONAH. He, respectful in all his 1mrprise and snppresserl indignation, goes down and himself awakes Jonah. A heathen, he is faithful in all his ship. Not man or boy aboard but he calls to prayer. .And 'even the strange pa~nger must be called as well. A pattern master this. He had a religious as well as secular care for those uuder him; was not a.shamed to show his earnest spiritual interest in this strange Hebrew. A pattern for all masters and mistresses on sea and land. Jonah should have been reprover, and he is reproved; a teacher, and is being taught; prayerless, when he should have been leading others in prayer. "What meanest thou, 0 sleeper?" 'l'hou, backslider to-clay, why sleep? Awake to thy peril I Call upon the great Deliverer I He will think upon you, His thought shall be salvation. You shall not perish.-G. T. C. Vers. 7-10.--Jonah detected. L JoNAB DETECTED BY THE LOT. Heathens cast that lot; stiil the disposal of it was of the Lord. He guided the fateful token, and so it fell to Jonah. Now that the Divine Spirit is given to those that seek him, we are released from dependence upon the indications of the lot. But still by things as little-seeming as lot-casting, backsliders are discovered to themselve11 if not to others. A cock-crow detected the recreant Peter. And now by some memorial of better days, an old letter perhaps, a book inscribed with a once-cherished Christian name, or a time-yellowed ticket of Church-membership, the backslider is self-detected. Oh the upbraiding days that a.re no more! Oh, reproaching light of the irrevocable years I Now he has sinned away the light, has grieved out of his heart the joy of the Lord. •• The lot fell upon J uoah," and he was detected. IL JONAH DETECTED BY THE SAILORS' MANY QUESTIONS. "Thine occupation?" A prophet! But so faithless to the prophetic call, so unworthy of the prophetic name! "'Whence comest thou?" From Gath-hepher; from high, if perilous, mission to Nineveh, tieeking, as he tells them, to flee from the presence of the Lc,rd, to escape (how guilty I how futile !) frJm the great universal presence. " What thy country ? " '!'he land of privilege, the Holy Land I "Of what people a.rt thou?" Of the people of God, the people chosen to be the depository of the Divine truth, and the witnesses to the Divine character. Questions these to go home. Backslider, " what thine occupation "? You have been, it may be, a Christian worker, a teacher of the yoUDg, a speaker of the truth. And not now. Why not? "Whence comest thou?" From a pious early home? From scenes of Christian activity and service that miss you, that know you no more? "What thy country, thy people?" A citizen of this Christian country, with such opportunities to be a Christian man and to do Christ's work among men, and yet you act as if gospel light had never shone to you, as if the news of salvation had never sounded in your ears. III. JONAH DETECTED BY THE SAILORS' UNANSWERABLE QUESTION. "Why hast thou done this?" was the question that pierced deepest of all. lt was UDanewered. Jonah could not attempt excuses, and reason for his flight there was none. Backslider, once you could find time for Christian service; you had joy in it; you were a blessing; you were blest. Not so now. You have withdrawn from Christian work. "Why hast thou done this?" What valid reason can you give? Once you were in fellow- ship with God's people. Not so now. The world's spell is on you. You are intent ou malting a position, pushing the fortune of your family; pleasure is your pursuit, ambition your aim. But were you not happier in the former days than in thellQ Y 011, I, 1-17,] 'l'IIE BOOK OF. JONAH. 35