and shaped by royal edict detracted in nothing from the value of the Ninevitce' repi!nt- anoe. 'l'be obligations of religion rule every relation of life. Ench community ought to be religious, and the rulers of eaoh to consider their office sacred to the accomplish- ment of this rcsnlt. Monarchs should reign for the glory of God, 1md they do BO when, they "take order" for the observance of religious worship with duo regard to the pre- rogatives of the Church, and to the right of private judgment. "It is an evil and danirerous principle that would exempt tbe rulers of a kiugdom from being in subjection in their public capacity to the Word of Christ, and from being uuder obligation in their government to rule for the promotion of his kingdom. It strikes at the root of all family as well as national religion; and while it would confine Obrist to the separate consciences of individual men, it would refuse him the right to govern the households and communities into which in Providence they are combined" (Martin). The practical lesson of this is read to us by Jesus Christ (Luke xi. 32). The existence of saints in the world is a virtual condemnation of all the sinners. With similar privileges and opportunities, why are these spiritually changed, and those not? Unless the believers have done more than their duty, the unbelievers have fallen woefully short. Every saint in a Christian congregation will stand up in the judgment a silent but damnitig. witness against its unconverted members who remain so under equal inducements to repentance. Anrl the C&l!e is worse when the balance of privilege was on the unbelievers• side. It was so as between Nineveh and Israel. The one was brought to repentance by means incomparably less than those whieh had proved entirely inoperative with the other. It will be so as between each of them and us, if we are blind to our greater light# and insensible to our more potent spiritual agencies. "A greater than Jonah is here"- greater in person, greater in office, greater in power, and greater in influence. Have wtt resisted him? Have we withstood his mightier striving? Then who so inexcusable, who 1;0 hopeless, as we? What guilt so deep, what condemnation so great, as ours- (Heb. L 28) ?-J. E. H.
Vera. 1-4.-Jonah's second caJl. "And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the 't;econd time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee," etc. L REINSTATEMENT OF THE PROPHET. "The word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time." Jonah's rebellion had had a twofold effect on his relations to God- broken up his personal fellowship with him, and suspended his official function as a prophet. God's grace restored him both personally and officially, as afterwards in the case of Peter; bnt, as in this case, the restoration of the first did not necessarily include that of the second. Servants of God who have fallen need a second call to public ser- vice; it needs to be shown that God trusts them with his work again. It is natural for ministers who have been publicly dealt with and censured to desire to be reponed; but this cannot be rigbtly done without some token that God again calls them. IL THE NEW COMMISSION. "Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee." We know not where Jonah was-where he had been landed-what had happened in the interval. Imagination can picture the prophet on the shore making for Gath-hepher, and probabll, arriving there. Again the message is preceded by the word of stimulation, "Arise; ' brace thyself, prepare for arduous work; and this time it would bring a lessoil of warning-remember how easily you were turned aside before! The work was not to be made easier out of regard to the prophet's proved weakness, but the prophet must seek a higher strength. The great- ness of Nineveh is again dwelt on-" Nineveh, that great city"-" an exceeding great city, and great unto God" (ver. 3). "Think of a whole vast city, full of this humanity, of this God-breathed life; and is it surµri~ing that a great city should be great unto ,God~ What flashings of intellectual lights in one day I-as many almost as th& i;eparate rays of the sun. What throbLinga of moral or immoral purpose, the moral faculty actinu in each! What a sighing of wandering spirits, unconsciously or blindly secki1,g tl,e l~t portion! What a swell and heave of the great tide of ani~ated lif& cuw1,0sed. of the blended individual sircaws I London is like a great and wide sea of li1e. The daily agitations which stir in her bosom are felt iu feebler pulsings evon in :fa.r-dT :shores; and in multitudes which no man can number her thoughts and acts, and ii. these Ler checker~d m•,ral hi~tory, are going up to God'ij heavcu. Such was Nincve~ Oil, III. 1-10.] 'I'HE BOOK OF JONAH. 71