What moral lessons we get in the book of Jonah. On man's side, depravity, idolatry, pride, and rebellion. On God's side absolute power, righteous government, and all used to ends of blessing in lovely grace.

Nineveh, that great city, has become so depraved that to bear longer with it could end in no good any more. They have cast off God, so now they give themselves up to all the passions of fallen nature, making themselves vile, and heaping reproach upon their Creator who made not man for such things.

The sailors on board ship when overpowered by the storm, cry each one to his god. They are religious, but their religion is the religion of idolatry. They too have cast off God, and they have put in His place gods of their own, manufactured by themselves, each suiting his taste of course.

Jonah, the prophet, who is no licentious man, nor an idolater, but knows the true God, is full of pride and rebellion. He cares more for his honor as a prophet than for the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. He knows God's character well, and therefore knows that if Nineveh repents they will be forgiven; but he is so selfish that while hoping Nineveh will not repent, and their threatened destruction carried out, he cannot bear the destruction of a gourd which shaded him from the heat of the sun. He is so rebellious in spirit that the crossing of his will, and the disappointing of his pride, make him desire to die. What an awful revelation of what man is! Is it a wonder proud men wish to cast discredit on this book of the Bible ?

But on God's side, what a trinity of glory meets our gaze:as Creator He displays '' His eternal power and Godhead:" He "prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah." He "spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." He "prepared a gourd," He "prepared a worm " to smite the gourd. All the works of the Creator are miracles, and are spread out to view to make His greatness known. Therefore it is "the fool" who "hath said in his heart, There is no God."

As Governor He is perfectly righteous. No wrong can be passed by. No right can be overlooked. He is a righteous judge "who will render to every man according to his deeds." So disobedient Jonah must prove. Much as the sailors may in pity wish to spare him, the storm of offended justice will not abate till they cast him into the sea. Justice-true justice -is an awful thing. It sits with blindfolded eyes, a pair of balances in one hand, a sword in the other, and it knows nothing but its own demands-justice. Rebellious Jonah, the idolatrous sailors, the wicked Ninevites, all must learn the inexorable character of justice.

Were this all, what must become of us! But it is not all. It is in His character as Redeemer that the varied glories of God concentrate:justice satisfied, He uses His almighty power to command the sea into peace, and the sailors are saved, so that "the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows." Jonah cries " out of the belly of hell," and " the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land," so Jonah can sing, " I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord" The Ninevites take warning, they fast, they humble themselves; their very king comes down from his throne to take the place of a suppliant, "and God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not."

But see now what we have beside these lessons:" As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Our Lord, in these few words, throws a flood of light on this book, and gives it wonderful honor-it is all a figure of Himself, of His own death and resurrection. In His own humanity the glory of God as Creator is at its height. In His death, eternal justice has found its demands against sin so perfectly met that it can hold Him no more. So He rises, and risen He says, to His followers, "Thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."

Accordingly they went, and they still go proclaiming, "Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses" (Acts 13:38, 39.

Friends, is it a wonder this book of Jonah is despised and ridiculed by "the wise and prudent," by the "Higher Critics" and all their kind? Yet the voice of love would still appeal to them, "Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of, in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish:for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you" (Acts 13:40, 41). P. J. L.