"Why hnst thou done this?" Once you tasted tha.t the Lord wa.s gracious ; now you are far out on the godless, reckless deep, where there Ml no peace. Why iR this? "Speechless" you must be. For such guilty flight reason there can be none.-G. T. C. Vere, 11-16.-The s0111ors' conduct. Look at those swarthy sailors. They were among Jonah's teachers; they, too, may be among ours. From age to age in this chapter they sail the sea-Jonah's friends; ours also if we will let them be, having much to say to us if we have but ears to hear. Ma.rk- I. THEm REVERENOE. There is nothing rough a.nd rude about them. The storm has subdued them. What they hear from Jona.h affects them. Is it not the hour of their conversion? They cease from idolatry and worship Jehovah. Ilea.ring of Jehovah as God of heaven, earth, and sea, they were "exceedingly afraid." He must indeed be the Lord I And that Jonah should have sought to flee from him I "What shall we do unto thee?" they ask; for through Jonah they would learn the will of 0ud con- cerning him. They have no grudge against him, no scorn for him, no words of insult, no deed of violence. They reverence his God, and so show kindness to him. A pattern in this to us. Have we an offending brother-one who has offended us? Let us wrong not ourselves, nor wrong him, the better man in him, by bitterness. The wrong-doer will have self-reproach enough, bitter memories enough. II. TaEm SELF-DENYING GENEROSITY. Those sailors did what they could to save the prophet. When Jonah was at his best they were at their best. His unselfishness called out theirs; their nobility answered to his. Thus is it ever. Be kind, pure, p:enerous, and you will help others to show kindness, and to be pure and generous, What inspiration is there in goodness! Supremely is this seen in our blessed Lord. What an encouragement to copy him that we may quicken others I "Honour to those whose words or deeds Thus help us in our daily needs, And by their overflow Raise 11B from what is low." III. THEm PBAYEBFULNEBB. As heathens they bad" given themselves to prayer." Hearing of Jehovah, they pray to him. They cannot save Jonah; but before they do the deprecated deed "they cried unto the Lord "--cill of them, earnest, importunate. 'l'hey recognized God in this series of events; they would be submissive to him; they would be clear of this man's blood; they would take no step without prayer. Nor let us. Let it be the "key of the morning and the bolt of the night." When have we not requests to offer? needs to be supplied? When do we not need God 1 IV. THEIR GODLY FEAB ATTESTED. At the sight of the sudden great calm "the men feared the Lord exceedingly." Their fear, their faith, evidenced itself. By "a sacrifice unto the Lord" they expressed in act thankfulness for the past and preseiµ; by their "vows," their resolution of service in the time to come, As/rom themselves must have come the knowledge of the saorifice offered and vows made, we may believe that that sacrifice to Jehovah was the first of many, and that the vows made were paid; otherwise they had not cared to have remembered or spoken of them. In these days of Christian light may we offer a daily sacrifice of our time, means, faculty, influence, to him who for us "even dared to die," and in his strength perform the many vows that we have made.-G. T. C.
Yer. 17-ch. ii. 10.-Jonah's "De profundis." Here the prophet is, as he is called in the Koran, "the man of the fish." God had pity on him, and sent him into an awful school-house that he might "come to himself." A strange character was bis, and a. strange chastisement came upon him. God's power was his keeper-his power" who bath a bridle for the lips of every disease, and a hook for the nostrils of death." The external history of the man through that imprisonment is unwritten. Not so the history of bis heart. I. SEE JONAH AT PRAYER. He had slept in the ship; he is awake in the fish. He prays; he feels his misery; he sees his sin. The man is awake. In the terrible dark- ness of adversity he longs for the light of the Lord. In what solitude was he ! Far from light of day, human voices, human sympathy. Yet there ht1 could pray. We can THE BOOK OF JONAH. [oH, I, 1-17