The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 73

.death, the fact wae ground of hope to the people who had forty days' reprieve. Thus the faith in which the Ninevites' repentance originated" wrought by fear and hope combined. The evil dreaded vras sufficient to break and humble all their pride. And .the hope they entertained was sufficient to prevent their fear from turning into mere despair" (Martin). It is the element of hope in it tha.t marks off the sorrow which worketh only death from the sorrow which worketh repentance to salvation. There is a persuasion of men which bases on the terrors of the Lord, and a. beseeching of them .also by the mercies he ha.a shown. And what is this but to make fear and hope the Jimbs of a. stable arch to carry the repentance" that needeth not to be repented of"? IV. REPENTANCE INCLUDES GRIEF FOB THE PAST AND BEFOBMATION FOB THE FUTURE. 'The Ninevites "put on sackcloth," etc., and "turned them every one from his evil way." There wa.s compendious logic in this. Sackcloth and ashes were the con- ventional livery of abasement and grief (2 Cor. vii. 9, 10), and these have a distinct ,place in the spiritual connection (Joel ii. 13). But they must he spiritual. Not the xesult of wounded pride, or baffled purpose, or ruined prospects. These things a.re utterly .carnal. They involve no sense of sin's demerit, no horror of its impurity. They are merely aspects and expreBBions of selfishness. Every detected rogue can see that he has blundered in his sinuing, and from that standpoint grieves. Sa.ui does it, exclaim- ing, in the bitterness of failure, "I have played the fool exceedingly." But the sorrow "after a godly sort" is a radically different thing, and done in a different spiritual .atmosphere altogether. And David crying with contrite and humbled spirit," I acknow- ledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me," is a. perfect moral contrast. His is a sorrow that has God in it. Sin is viewed in its relation to God, from God's sta.nd- ,point, and with feelings like to God's. Job sorrowed thus with God when he said, "Now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself," etc. Such sorrow has hope in it, and so" the promise a.nd potency" of a reformed life. Under its impulse the Ninevites "turned every one from his evil way." Reformation is the work meet for repentance -the crystalline form revealing the genuine meta.I. "Numbers will do everything in .religion but turning from sin to the Saviour; and where this is not done, all the rest is lost labour-their religion is hypocrisy, their hope is mere delusion, and their latter end is bitterness and woe ; for all who refuse to depart from sin must perish in sin. In vain .shall we fast for sin, if we do not fast from sin; and what blessings can all our prayers 'bring down while we refuse to turn from our evil ways?" (Jones). V. REPE~ANCE CBIEB TO Gon IN PRAYER. 'l'he words of Jonah were like an earth- quake in the vast city. From king to beggar there was consternation and dismay. 'The destroying armies of heaven were at hand. Men can neither disbelieve, nor doubt, nor resist, nor fly, nor survive. What remains but to submit and beg for mercy-the last resort of the sinner, but the very first command of God? And so the king descends 'from his throne, and the beggar rises from his straw, and a stricken universal cry for "help goes up in the ear of Heaven. In such an exercise true repentance is at home. Prayer is the spontaneous, the instinctive expression of the soul's new-found need. A true sense of sin, together with an apprehension of God's mercy in Christ which all _genuine repentance includes, leads logically to prayer. Given a sick man thoroughly alarmed, and a willing physician accessible, and the application for help will infallibly Iollow, "On bended knees, replete with godly grief, See where the mourner kneels to seek relief: From his full heart pours forth the gushing plea, • God of the lost, be merciful to me I ' The light of life descends in heavenly rays, And angels shout and sing, 'Behold, he prays l',. YI. REPENTANCE 18 TO BE NATIONAL WHEN THE SIN IS NATIONAL. The Ninevite111 ·was a" public, general, royal fast." So when the Divine judgments menaced Jerusalem Jn the reign of Jehoia.kim, all the people proclaimed a fast (Jer. x.xxvi. 9). Then it was observed by all the people in accordance with a royal edict. So Jehoshaphat" frn:·ed .and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah" (2 Chron. xx. 3) when Moa.b and A=on invaded the kingdom. In the nature of the case, the rt'pentance must correspond to the transgression. The people must repent who have sinned, and in the character and relations Jin which the sin has been committed. That their action in the matter was suggested 70 TIIE DOOK OF JON ATI. [en. m. 1-10.