two things worthy of attention-God speaking to man in mercy, and man fleeing from God in disobedience. I. Gon SPEAKING TO MAN IN MERCY. 1. Here be speaks. "The word of the Lord." His word to Jonah, lilco his word to all men, was clea1·, brief, weighty, practical. 2. Hero he speaks to an individual. He speaks to all men in nature, conscience, history; but in sovereignty he singles some men out for special communications. In times past he spake "unto the fathers by the prophets." 3. Here he speah to an individual for the sake of e. community. "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city." Why does God call it e. "great" city? To men it was considered "great"-great in numbers, pomp, pretensions, masonry. But to God it could only be great in sin, for sin is a great thing to God; it is e. black cloud in his universe; it is the "abominable thing" which he bates. For the sake of this city, in order to effect its moral refor- mation, and therefore to save it, Jonah receives a commission. "Arise," shake off thy languor, quit thyself for action, go down to this city, and "cry against it." Be earnest. 'fhe danger is great, near at hand, and appoaching every minute. Observe here two things: (1) Man's distinguishing faculty. What is that? The power to receive, to appreciate, and to work out the ideas of the Infinite. No other creature on earth has this power. (2) God's method of helping humanity. God enlightens, purifies, and ennobles man by man. We have this "treasure in earthen vessels." II. MAN FLEEING FROM Gon IN DISOBEDIENCE. "But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tar- shish, from the presence of the Lord." Here is a threefold revelation of man. 1. His moral freedom. God did not coerce Jonah, did not drive him to Nineveh. He merely commanded him to go, and Jonah resisted the Divine command. Man has the power to resist God-a greater power this than can be found in all the heavenly orbs or in the whole history of material organisms. This power invests man with all but infinite importance, links him to moral government. "Ye do always resist the Spirit of God." 2. His daring depravity. He dares to attempt extricating himself, not only from his obligations to God, but from his very "presence." Alas ! men have not merely the power but the disposHion to oppose God. This is their guilt and their ruin; it is what men are doing everywhere, trying to break the shackles of moral responsibility, trying to elude the Infinite. 3. His egregious folly. See the folly. His endeavouring to escape from God was: (1) Not merely an impulse, but a resolution. Had it been a sudden wish, it would have been bld. But here is a resoktion. He "rose up." He rallied and marshalled his energies. (2) Not merely a resolution, but an effort. He "went down to Joppa." The probability is that he went with the greatest speed to Joppa-the Jalfa of our day. Though a descent, it was rather a long journey, and would take him two or three days. When he reached the spot, how long he. was about the quays in search of a suitable vessel! (3) Not merely an effort, but a persevering effort. It was not one, or two, or three spasmodic efforts, and then over. He continued his journey from his home to Joppa, then he searched on the quays for a vessel; and when he found, as he thought, e. suitable vessel, he "paid the fare thereof.n Ah I what fares men pay in the career of siu I And when he had paid the fare thereof, he" went down into it," and there he thought himself safe. How inexpressibly foolish was all this, not only in the nature of the case, but according to results I All the efforts, as the sequence shows, not only provo<l futile, but brought him to the utmost distress. CoNOLUSION. The two things that you have in these verses are always going on- God in mercy speaking to man, and man in terror fleeing from God. Oh, how wrong, how foolish, the attempt to flee from the Infinite I " Whither shall I flee from thy presence? "-D. T.
Ver. 6.-A rousing voice to moral sleepers. "What meanest thou, 0 sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not." The incident referred to in the text is this-Jonah was sent to Nineveh on a mission of mercy, sent to warn the corrupt population of their impending doom, and to call them to immediate repentance. 'fhe Divine message was not to the prophet's mind; he was displeased, and instead of going direct to Nineveh, he went down to Joppa, and _fonnJ a ship going to Tarshish. He paid the fare, embarked, and hast~d n.-!"ay. While on the deep a terrible tempest a!oso. "The Lord sent ou~ a great_ wmd mto the s~, a11<l there was CL mighty tempest in the sea, so that the slup was hke to be broken, A~ 42 THE BOOK OF JON All. [on. 1. 1-17.