The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 92

with the question of men's salvation, for the first pince in the attention of God's people. Words have, for some paltry personal consideration, been left unspoken, interviews unsought, measures unattended to, on which, humanly speaking, the question of some one's eternity bung. Those who know God and sprak for him want to realize that their doing so is the paramount consideration, with which there is no other matter that may for a moment come into competition. A Paul "counts not his life dear unto him that he might finish the ministry received of the Lotd Jesus, to testify the gospel of the gre.ce of God" (Acts xx. 24). On no lower level can we, as regards the perishing, "walk in love as Christ also loved us." II. How GoD m PROVIDENCE BLESSES SINNERS AGAINST ms GRACE. (Ver. 6.) Jonah bad just complained of the great lenity of God. But he is only quarrelling "l\':ith bis own mercy. He is the very first, as he was the very last, to profit by that lenity himself. 'l'he God who offeuded him by pitying penitent Nineveh ga.e him unmingled gratification by pitying his rebellious self, and bringing him in his self-made discom- fort prompt relief. And the gourd that grew so timely and served so well may be taken as a type of the Divine compensatory arrangements in connection with human life. 1. These always come. God does not forget Lis people, and cannot disregard their troubles. He heeds and he helps them. Wherever there is the burning sun of calamity there is the gourd of some ameliorating circumstance. They do not intermit; if they did our well-being, our very life, would intermit also. They do not fluctuate with our allegiance; if they did they would be at the ebb perpetually. They flow down in a continuous steady stream. "No father like God; none feel for his children like him; none so forgiving and ready to relieve; when none else will pity them, he will; and in the face of manifold provocations the Lord remembereth mercy. When they become sufferers, the Father's bowels of compassion melt over them. We have a High Priest that is soon touched with the feeling of our infi.rmities" (Jones). 2. They always suit. Appropriateness must characterize a" good and perfect gift," such as all God's are. They are not at right angles to our need, but along the line of it. There is a destroying angel to rout a besieging army (2 Kings xix. 35), a flow- ing spring to quench a. dying woman's thirst (Gen. x.xi. 19), an earthquake to shake open prison doors (Acts xvi 26), and "sufficient grace" to make a thorn in the flesh endurable (2 Cor. xii. 8, 9). In fact, God's helpful action bears directly on our sufferings and their alleviation. We get sometimes what we ask for, and always what we need. And we get it too at the moment we need it most. "The sea is opened when Israel is hemmed in on every side; the manna comes down when they have no bread; aud the water flows from the rock when they are ready to die with thirst (Ps. x.x.vii. 10) " (Jones). 3. They do for us what our own skill and contrivance have failed to do. Jonah's booth proved insufficient shelter, and in the hour of its proved inadequacy the gourd grew. God allows us to build our own booth first. We try our hand ab improving our earthly lot, to find that we cannot command success. We lay deep plans and put forth stupendous efforts, and then flounder and stick fast. At last God, who has been awaiting such a juncture, steps in, and, by some unthought-of incident, the blocked path is opened, and the thing is done. The testimony of God's people every- where has been that, not their own brain or arm, but "the good hand of the Lord," has opened their path and made their life's ,prosperity. 4. They are often appreciated without being traced to their source. "Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd." And well he might. It intercepted the broiling sui1shi.ne, and converted physical distress into luxurious ease. Yet he rejoiced in its grateful shade without considering it to be God's gift or a blessing to thank him for. It is so that many of our mercies are received. They are welcomed and prized and rejoiced in. We are exceeding gbd 0f them, and more than enough are exercised about them. "I become exceeding glad of my gourd. My heart entwines around it. This pleasing prospect; this budding hope; this successful movement; this welcome visitant, the golden-haired little ons within my earthly home, crowing in my arms, searching my eye for the kindling glance of joy and love, and dancing gleefully on finding it ;-ah I in many a form my J!:Ourd may grow; and I am exceeding glad of my gourd, even when I quarrel with -God" who gives it (Martin). But our best of blessings we do not trace to their heavenly source. We take them unheeding e.s to whence or where they come. It is ,a fault of our life, 11nd a chief cause of our ingratitude and lack of love, thet God's gift:1  THE BOOK OF JONAH. [err. 1v. 1-11.