JONAH.-THE REPENTANCE OF NINEVEH.

WHEN Jonah refused in spirit to be the witness of the abounding grace of God to Nineveh, he was made to learn the lesson of grace in his own person over again in the whale's belly. He had it impressed again on his own soul, that “salvation is of the Lord." It was a terrible process; but we may know, that the Spirit accompanied the Prophet through it, even from the very outset. Therefore he calmly tells the mariners and the shipmaster, to throw him overboard. And the experience he had when in the deep, and in the whale's belly, shews us how graciously and blessedly the Spirit was still with him. Though in the depths of the sea, the billows and the waves passing over him, he was able to look to the Temple; and ere he left the place of death, he speaks of salvation.

Thus he learnt afresh the story of grace. And strength of God lies in the soul's fresh and vigorous apprehension of that grace day by day, rather than in any attainment it may have made in the ways of the Lord.

Thus instructed, thus exercised in Spirit, thus as one who had been made afresh to learn salvation, he

• Jonah had been the witness of the abounding mercy of God in Israel (see 2 Kings xiv. 23-27). He had learnt God; and he rightly judged, that though the Lord was sending him to Nineveh because its wickedness was great, He would, according to Himself, let mercy rejoice against judgment. Jonah's language in ch. iv. 2, shews us that this was the conviction and persuasion of his soul.

went to Nineveh, and Nineveh is spared. But Jonah very quickly forgets the lesson in all the practical force of it. Sad to see it, and to say it. His soul refuses to rejoice in the largeness of the grace wherein he himself was standing—a common way with our wretched narrow hearts; and in a bad temper he goes outside Nineveh, which had thus shared with himself the salvation of God; for he cannot bear to see the uncircumcised, after this manner, in the light of the Lord.

Repulsive, offensive disclosure of these miserable hearts of ours! But in rich and wondrous long-suffering, God again sits down to teach him. The lesson may be the same, but the method of God with the soul in teaching it is different. The Lord is still seeking to melt down the cold and hard heart; but He brings the second coal from a new altar. In the parable, so to call it, of "the withered gourd," He would have Jonah learn the precious secret of His own joy in the grace and salvation He ministers, as before, in the terrific process of the whale's belly, He had been teaching him, through death and resurrection, the grace and salvation in which he himself was standing.

This is the most blessed secret to learn. The gourd that flourished and withered, interpreted by the Lord Himself, made known to Jonah the joy which God takes in the exercise of that grace which had now saved Nineveh-for He "delighteth in mercy," and we may assume that this lesson is effectual-that the coal thus wondrously heated, heated at such an altar as this, heated by such pure mysterious fire as this, melted down the heart of the Prophet to take the form and consistency of the divine grace, and led him to glory

in a work that could save such ones as himself and the wicked Ninevites, and at the same time return back to God with a rich harvest of joy and glory.

Is it, then, I ask, beloved, under the meltings and kindlings of such mysteries as these, that our souls are taking their form, and mould, and character? We all need much enlargement of heart, as Jonah did. Peter needed it, and he was taught it by the vision of the sheet (Acts x.). Paul, in measure, needed it, and he was taught it by the vision of the man of Macedonia (Acts xvi.). Ananias needed it, and he was taught it by the rebuking word of the Lord,-"Go thy way" (Acts ix.). Jonah needed it, as we have now seen, and he was taught it, first in the whale's belly, and then under the withered gourd.

We all need, again I say, beloved, this beautiful, divine enlargement of heart, after the pattern of the heart of Christ. The little captive maid had it, and breathed its temper, when she longed that her master, who had made her captive, were with the Prophet in Samaria, that he might be healed of his leprosy. And Paul had it and uttered it, when he said, looking at the assembly that was holding him in chains,-" Would to God that all that hear me this day were not only almost, but altogether such as I am, except these bonds."

The poor returned and welcomed prodigal was himself the witness, the silent, humbled, thankful, happy witness of the deep eternal reality of these two mysteries, which Jonah was set to learn. As he sat at the table, honoured and refreshed, he was made to feel the grace in which he himself was set, and to witness in all around him, in the feast that he was enjoying, in the

robe that he was wearing, and in the music and dancing of the house, the joy that the God of heaven tastes, and will taste for ever, in the fruit of His own boundless, unmeasured, grace.*

But further: the repentance of Nineveh is involved in this story of Jonah. It is also commented on by our Lord in Mat. xii. It was, as I may say, of the true or right character, because it was in the conscience. The conscience was learning the lesson, or sitting at the feet of the message which God sent to Nineveh; and by that, the will was broken, and the heart subdued.

The Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah. This is what the Lord tells us. And Jonah was but a poor stranger in their city. He had nothing of the world to recommend him to them. As he entered their borders, he was not accompanied by any thing that, after the manner of men, could give dignity or authority to his mission. But this did not offend them. He was a poor unknown stranger, without the seals and standards of the world to give him place and influence; but he bore a message to their conscience, and they bowed. They were convicted. The recollection of their wickednesses was stirred in their souls, and the message of God by His Prophet, poor and unknown as he was, met its suited answer from them.

This was fruit in season. The generation to which the Lord preached was just the contradiction of this.

• The elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son is outside the house listening to this joy of God and His angels over the repentant sinner. His attitude is the same as that of Jonah in ch. iv. 10, 11. The Jew in the coming day of power will learn the lesson.

But it was this

Instead of bowing, with convicted hearts, under the word, they were asking for a sign from heaven. They demanded some exhibition of power, such as the world could understand and value. They refused to sit as sinners under the preaching. that the men of Nineveh did. The Jews would have had the Lord approve Himself to the world, on the world's principles. "Come down from the cross," said they, "and we will believe thee." "Show us a sign from heaven." This was the very contradiction of the way of the Ninevites. But the way of the Ninevites is the saving way, the right way with God, to this day. It is as sinners we must hear and learn. It is the conscience that must be brought to Him, that Jesus may be revealed as the repairer of the mighty breach discovered there: "I that speak unto thee am He."

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In the day of judgment, the men of Nineveh shall rise up against the generation to which Christ preached. It was a "wicked and adulterous generation," because they sought a sign, a sign of power, such as the world could appreciate. This was their adultery. "O ye adulterers and adulteresses! know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God," But at Nineveh things were totally different; the moral of the scene was entirely otherwise. So little was the way of the world taken up, so deeply was the conscience learning the lesson, that the king himself comes down from the throne, and with the humblest of his subjects, in company with the very beasts of the field, repents at the preaching of a poor unknown, unaccredited stranger, who, in the name of God, the God of right