The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 53

neither, probably, would the goodnese, bad not the severity gone before. The effect does not flow from the last of the series of its causes, but from the series ae e. whole. 11. How A REVIVING FAITH CAN TRIUMPH OVER BENSE, To sense the prophet's case we.e despere.te. On the platform of natural laws the circumstances forbid hope, and would logically shut the mouth of prayer. Yet their effect is directly the reverse. 'l'he prophet only begins to pray at the moment when all seems past praying for. And this is the paradoxical but characteristic way of faith. It triumphs over sense, reverses its verdict, overbears its testimony, realizes in actual possession its theoretic impossibility, "Take the case of Abraham and the character and commendation of bis faith. 'Age.inst hope he believed in hope.' Appearances were all against him. Sensible realities all contradicted, and in themselves alone destroyed, his expecta- tion. Had hie hope rested on sense, on reason, on nature, on time, it must have failed and sunk for ever. But he did not rest on nature. He did not argue. He believed ; and his faith destroyed the hope-destroying power of sense" (Rev. Hugh Martin, D.D., in Zoe.). It ie tbe business of your faith and mine to do likewise. We are surrounded by influences and circu.mste.uces altogether adverse to the attainment of our soul's salvation. Lusts a.re strong. Tempers are violent. He.bite are tenacious. Example ie corrupting. Toil is engrossing. Pleasure is ensnaring. The world, alike when it smiles and frowns, is our soul's foe. But faith is there-keen-eyed conquering faith. It sees through opacity and discovers the invisible. And it knows things very different from what they seem. Beneath the currents of sense, whose trend is away out to sea, it discerns the tidal wave of unseen influence moving in steady flow toward the celestial shores (2 Cor. i. 9; iv. 8-11). God, in his wise and stimulative dealing," may clothe all circumstances and all bis dispensations towards us with appearances of opposi- tion and hostility, in order that we may flee to the anchor of his pure and simple Word, and lean on it without any other help, or rather against all adverse power u (Martin). III. How NATURALLY PRAYER CLOTHES ITSELF IN THE WORDS OF SCBIPTtrB&. Jonab's prayer was original in the sense that the thoughts called forth the words, But the words themselves are largely borrowed from the Psalms. Most of these had then been written, e.nd, as the Church's Psalter, would be familiar to a prophet of God. And naturally his devotional feelings appropriate their inspired and so fitting words. His prayer " is the simple and natural utterance of a man versed in Holy Scripture, and living in the Word of God" (Keil). What Scripture says is best said. It contains e.t once the warrant and the definition of prayer, and the actual words in which it was offered by holy men of old. What more natural or fitting than that a man should use these for himself e.s e.t once unerring and appropriate I "Let the Word of God dwell in you richly." There is nothing else can support faith, or so well formulate its prayer. And then as to the Pse/.ms, where in Scripture is there to be found such a concentrated wealth of devotional matter as there? " They appear to me a mirror of the soul of every one who sings them" (Athanasius). "The Psalter deserves to be called the praise of God, the glory of man, the voice of the Church, and the most beneficial confession of faith" (Ambrose). "Not without good grounds am I wont to call this book an anatomy of all parts of the soul, since no one can experience emotions whose portrait be could not behold reflected in its mirror" (Calvin). The artist goes to the Louvre, e.nd the scholar or antiquarian to the British Museum, because he finds there the objects he studies in greatest variety and profusion. And so the pious, in search of devotional mat«:'rials of the most precious kind, resorts inevitably to the Book of Psalms. There are found portrayed, as from the life, the hopes and fears, the moods and fro.mes, the faith and ardour, of their own soul. There they find words that interpret their case and express the very spirit of their aspiration. And so in all time, and over nil the world, the saintly praise and pray and vow "with the words of David o.nd Aso.ph the seer.'' IV. How POINTEDLY GOD PUNISHES DEFECTION BY ENDORSING IT. Jonah was a spiritual deserter. He struck work, abandoned his post, and so practically vacated his office and abjured God's service. He seemed resolved to have done with the whole thing. And he succeeded but too well, e.s now to his cost he feels. God has taken him at his word. Figur11tively speaking, he has got the" Chiltern Hundreds." He is JONh)l, !I 60 THE BOOK OF JON AH. [on. u. 1-10,