The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 72

people (Mark xii. 37), when the scribes and Pharisees, who were more familiar with revelation, remained uuinfluenced almoet to a man (John vii. 48, 49). It would eeem· as if Di,·inc truth, like potent drugs with the body, is effective most of all in its first cont.nets with the soul. Lengthened and frequent contact with truth, if it does not regenerate, only thickens the spiritual skin, and much hearing means little heeding· as a general rule. ll. RErE~1I'ANOE llIPLIEs A BELIEF OF THE 'l'RUTR. (Ver. 6.) Belief of the truth ie a logical first step to every religious attainment (Heh. xi. 6). 'l'ruth is the revelation of things as they are-of character, of destiny, of duty. Until that bas been received there can be no spiritual beginning. \Vhile not only danger but the disease itself is disbelieved in, the patient will tl\ke no step toward cure. "He that cometh to the Lord must believe that he is." This is the least modicum of knowledge conceivable in any intelligent. comer. So he that comes away from sin must believe that sin is. Unlest be does, and until be does, he bas no reason for moving. He that comes by repentance and faith, moreover, must believe in tbe propriety and dutifulness of these acts. Fore- casting the possible result of Timothy's ministry in the turning of the wicked, Paul says, "If God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the· truth." This aspiration brings out the point exactly. Repentance and the acknow- ledging of the truth imply and involve each other. Impenitence is largely the result of incredulity. If a man really believed what God says about sin-its demerit, deformity, and d&troyiug character-the grief and hatred and turning which constitute repentance must arise. The impenitent man either does not believe God at all. or he gives him a weak and heedless credence that is never acted on, and so is practical dis- belief. Let God's word of dogma, God's word of promise, be truly and adequately· believed, aud God's word of precept will be infallibly obeyed. A man may contemplat~ his sin indifferently and commit it with even pulse, but the power to do so means that the Scripture testimony against it has been silenced, or the witness put out of the court of conscience altogether. " It is to be observed that faith operates differently according to the matt.er believed. When faith looks to the redeeming love of Christ, faith worketh by love. 'We love him who first loved us.' When faith looks to the infinite wrath of God, faith worketh fear, and we 'flee for refuge to the hope set before us.' When faith· looks at Christ, bearing in his love the wrath from which he calls us to flee, faith worketh by grief; and, 'looking on him whom we have pierced, we mourn.' And all these· operations of faith-love, fear, grief--enter into that repentance unto salvation which true faith produces" (Martin). Ill. fuPENTABCE 18 AT ONCE DEEPENED BY FEAB AND SWEETENED BY HOPE, Th&· Ninevites feared to "perish" through the "fierce anger" of God, yet hoped he might "turn away" from it and "repent." Fear is a rather ignoble emotion, but it is not without its place and power in the religioUB sphere. , A man's life, in the widest sense,. is his most precious trust. To gain the whole world would not compensate for the loss of it. Hence the universal instinct of self-preservation. "All that a man hath will be· give for his life.'' And by appealing to this instinct, ae it so often does, the Scripture- assumes its lawfulness (Luke xiii. 3; Matt. L 28). The loss of soul and body in hell is a loss unparalleled and irreparable, and which it would be madness not to fear. The Ninevites feared it. Their dread of it was a chief cause of the penitence they showed. And naturally so. To a man as yet unspiritual, the bearing of his sin on his own fate is the supreme consideration. When he becomes better he will be amenable to higher motives, but fear as opposed to carnal security is always a prominent factor in the early stages of the religions life. But the Ninevites' repentance did not spring from fear alone; it based on hope as well. "Who can tell.'' etc.? (ver. 9). The hope here WBB far from: BBBured. It was a mere glimmer in the soul Yet still it was hope. Escape was deemed- not impossible,-that was alL And there was a shadow of ground for hope, which the· keen eye of the doomed did not fail to detect. They had an intuitive idea that God would make some difference between a penitent city and an impenitent one. Then the catastrophe was not to come for forty days, and, in the granting of so long a respite, they would see the door left open for a possible change before its close. Besides, Jonah'e own deliverance in a more dire extremity still, and of which he evidently told them in his preachillg (Luke xi. 30), would suggest the possibility of a like escape to them with like repentance. If the preacher had been saved in the very moment of imminent i(!Il, III. 1-10.] THE BOOK OF JONAH. 69