The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 99

His way is perfect. "Consider Jesus, 1&t ye be wearied and faint in your minds.:'' What is our grief t,o his? "0 brothers, let ns leave tl1e shame and sin Of tnt.-ing vainly, in a plaintive mood, The holy name of grief /-holy herein, That, by the grief of One, came all our good." & with him so with us-the way of the cross is the way to the crown.-0. T. 0. Vere. 6--8.--Jonah and tluJ gourd. Welcome was the broad shadow of the gourd rising round the booth and above it I The great glare in subdued green light streamed: through the leaves to the calmed and cooled and comrorted prophet. Just now he· wished to die. Now he was willing to live-" exceeding glad of the gourd." Short-lived· was bis gladness. Worm-smitten, the gourd withered. A day of beauty and value, and then the end of it. And now, unsheltered by the plant, exposed to branding sun and burning wind, Jonah longed again to die. Note here: Divine discipline. The gourd worm wind, divinely sent, have each a ministry for the prophet. He needs correction if he i~ to amend. They are to teach him. But such is the Divine pitifulness that there comes- I. THF: LESSON OF BEFRESHMEh'T. There was sent the gourd "to deliver him from his grief." He needed a shadow. It was given, and the plant shielded him from the oppres.5ive, life-exhausting heat. The gloom of his mind had been increased by the Leat of the booth; the outer had aggravated the inner weariness. In the coolness of the gourd he was calmed and soothed. The mind affects the body, and the body the mind. "Heaviest the heart is in a heavy air." Much mental and even spiritual depression must be put to the account of physical causes. Jonah sheltered was cheered and refreshed; gloom became gladness. Did he rejoice in the gonrd? How, then, must God rejoice to spare his human creatures I And did Jonah meanwhile, " glad of the gourd," with, we may hope, thankfulness to God for it, think tha.t after all God was favourable to his bitter longing for the punishment if not utter destruc- tion of Nineveh thongh repentant? If so, he thought wrongly. Outward prosperity is no proof of the Divine approval. In doing wrong, in feeling wrong, all ma.y seem to go well with us; still, it is none the less wrong. Are we in accorda.nce with Divine truth and righteousness-our will in harmony with the Divine? Then all providences are in reality friendly, and "even the night is light about us." IL Tm: LESSON OF JIEBEAVEMENT. Did Jonah pity, miss,and mourn for the gourd? Shall not God have pity on the myriads in Nineveh? That was the lesson of hie loss to the prophet. But how reluctant to learn it I We may be bereaved of our strength, competence, loved ones. Ah ! how God is berea.ved I "Shall a man rob God?" What multitudes do-of their love, loyalty, service! He appeals to each. "How ca.n I gi ,·e ihee up? " he says. He may take away his gifts. It is the more fully to give us himself. All earthly gourds will wither. But for all who will, there is an abiding shelter from every storm; a living shelter-Christ. In him, though the tempests come of sorrow, bereavement, death, we have peace, sa.fety, and eternal life.-G. T. 0. Vers. 10, 11.-.An argument from human pity to Divine mercy. Jonah is met on his own ground. From hi, human compa.ssion comes the irresistible enforcement of the argument for the Divine mercy. Mark the contrasts. I. PITY ON THE GOUllD; PITY oN NmEVEB. Useful had been the gourd to Jonah. It had made life tolerable; it had gladdened him. He had saddened to see it wither, sorrowed to see it dead. He had pity on it; hie pity would have spared it. Nor was he wrong. It is well to be unwilling to see aught that has cheered us perish. But if he was right in his desire to spare that plant, "should not I spare Nineveh?" asked God. Should a plant be more than a great city? God's great thought Is upon men. How the Divine pity moved over repentant Nineveh I How the blessed Redeemer longed to uve Jerusalem I On his la.et visit, with what other eyes than those of hia ilisciplea did he look upon itl " They shout for joy of heart, But be the King, look, on as one in grief: To heart o'trburdened weeping brings relief, The unbidden tear-drop~ start."  on. Iv. 1-11.J THE BOOK OF JONAH. 97