If I were to hear the naked statement, without preface or supplement, that a man was once thrown overboard from a ship, was swallowed by a fish as he fell into the sea, was kept in the fish's bowels three days and three nights alive, and then thrown up alive on dry land, I would regard it as a "fish story," and pay no attention to it. So, if I were to hear the naked story that a man once went into the greatest and wickedest city on the earth, and by preaching against it one day caused the people, from the king on his throne to the beggar on the street, to sit down in sack-cloth and ashes and call mightily on God till he heard and forgave then, I would think of the life-long preaching done by Spurgeon in London, and that of other great preachers in other great cities, and I would not believe the story. Again, if I were to hear, without historical connections, that a man was sitting once on a sandhill in a very hot country, suffering almost death with the heat, and that in a single night a gourdvine grew up, and the next day made a delightful shade over his head, I would think of Jack and the bean stalk, and would treat it as an idle tale. In like manner, here I to hear that a man once stood at the mouth of a cave, and called to a dead man within, who had been dead four days, and that the dead man immediately stood outside the cave alive, still bound hand and foot with the grave cloths, I would not believe that till I learned who did it, and why it was done. [42]

      Now unfortunately this is the way in which the three principal incidents in the story of Jonah come to the ears of many persons, and it accounts for the widespread incredulity respecting them. To believe them is to believe three miracles; and we can not believe that a mere idle wonder is a work of God's hand. A year or two ago I went to see the performance of Herrmann, the great magician; and I witnessed feats that were as mysterious to me as any miracles of which we read in the Bible; but if Herrmann had claimed, which he did not, that they were wrought by the direct power of God, I would have denied it flatly; for I could not believe that God would take part in a show which did no good except to gratify idle curiosity, and to fill Herrmann's pocket with silver. If I am called on to believe a wonder which could be wrought only by the direct power of God, I must see in it something that makes it worthy of God. When the occasion is such, or the manifest purpose is such, as to demand, or even to justify, the interposition of God's hand, this at once removes the incredibility which would otherwise attach to the story. I propose now to look at the story of Jonah from this point of view, and to see if it will remain incredible after it is understood.

      Behold, then, the city of Nineveh, "that great city," the greatest that had thus far been built on earth, the head of the Assyrian Empire, which was the greatest and most powerful empire yet established among men. The city is wholly given to idolatry, and to all those abominations which ever characterize idolatrous peoples. It leads in these abominations all the nations of Western Asia, over all of which its king has rule. God looks down upon the vast population of both city [43] and empire, and he sees in every individual of the teeming millions one of the immortal creatures of his hand reveling in iniquity and rushing on to eternal ruin. He is the same God who so loved the world that he gave his own Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have eternal life. Did he who cared so much for men afterward, care nothing for them then? Or, do not the words just quoted express the divine compassion which moved him in all the ages before the advent of Christ? He longs for these prodigals, and he is about to institute measures to bring them to repentance.

      The Scriptures reveal to us no way in which God brings men to repentance, except in connection with preaching. But if Nineveh is to be brought to repentance, the task must be assigned to no ordinary preacher. God assigned it to the prophet Jonah, the son of Amittai, of Gath-hepher. Very little is said of this prophet outside the book which bears his name, but that little implies a great deal. He lived under the reign of Jeroboam the Second. This prince came to the throne of Israel under most discouraging circumstances. During the reign of his grandfather, Jehoahaz, Hazæl, king of Syria, had subdued and overrun Israel. In the expressive language of the Book of Kings, he "destroyed them, and made them like the dust in threshing." He left Jehoahaz only fifty horsemen, ten chariots and ten thousand footmen (II. Kings xiii. 3-7). His son Joash, by three successful battles fought under encouragement given by the prophet Elisha, succeeded in throwing off the yoke of Syria, but the country was left in extreme weakness and distress, so that with reference to the beginning of Jeroboam's reign it is said: "The [44] Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter; for there was none shut up or left at large, neither was there any helper for Israel" (xiv. 26). Though coming to the throne under such circumstances, Jeroboam, in the course of a reign of forty-one years, not only re-established the prosperity of his nation, but he conquered Syria, and extended the northern boundary of his kingdom to the utmost limit that it had attained under David and Solomon. In the language of the text, "He restored the border of Israel from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the Arabah [the Dead Sea];" and he did this, the text adds, "according to the word of Jehovah, the God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, which was of Gath-hepher" (xiv. 25). The account of this long reign and of these mighty conquests is remarkably brief, being limited to four verses; but the author refers the reader for the "rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered Damascus, and Hamath," to the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. Doubtless if we had that book we should find the story a long one.

      Now if, in the absence of the fuller record, we inquire how it was that all these conquests were made "according to the word of Jehovah, the God of Israel, which he spake by the mouth of his servant Jonah," I think we shall find the answer in what the author tells us a few chapters back of a similar work done by the prophet Elisha. This famous prophet lived under the reign of Jehoram of Israel, who was continually at war with Ben-Hadad, king of Syria. During those wars the king of Syria frequently took counsel with his chief [45] officers, and said: "In such and such a place shall be my camp." But Elisha would say to Jehoram: "Beware that thou pass not such a place, for thither the Syrians are coming down." By accepting this warning the king of Israel "saved himself, not once or twice," which means many times. It was impossible that the king of Syria should fail to see every time that his plans had been anticipated; so "his heart was sorely troubled about this thing." As his plans had been made known only to his confidential advisers, he came to the conclusion that one of them was betraying him. He called them together and demanded: "Will ye not show me which of us is for the king of Israel?" One of them promptly answered: "Nay, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber" (II. Kings vi. 8-12). Ben-Hadad inquired where Elisha was sojourning, and sent a troop of cavalry to surround the town of Dothan and take him prisoner, with the result that Elisha took captive the whole troop, but gave them a good dinner and sent them home unharmed. Having given us this account, when the author says that the victories of Jeroboam were achieved according to the word of Jehovah by Jonah, he leaves us to suppose that the process was the same, of similar. We must understand, then, that during the forty-one years of Jeroboam's reign, Jonah was his prophetic adviser respecting his military movements, and that his fame as such was spread abroad among surrounding nations. Especially would it have spread into the region about Nineveh, which was separated from the field of Jeroboam's conquests only try the river Euphrates. It is very clear from all this that Jonah [46] was the most famous, and the greatest prophet then living. It was in accord, therefore, with the wisdom which governs all of God's dealings with men, that he, rather than any other man, was selected to preach to the Ninevites.

      There are times in the experience of every community, when rebukes from a preacher of righteousness fall unheeded on the ears of the people; and there are others, when the same rebukes are rewarded with the richest results. In our common experience we can learn in which of these conditions a community is only by trial; and we are often very bitterly disappointed. But God, who knows the secrets of all hearts, can never be mistaken in choosing the hour at which to strike, and he chose a favorable time at which to send Jonah to Nineveh. The history of the city at that particular time is to us wrapped in profound obscurity; and it is a fair inference that the empire was in a depressed condition, furnishing no startling events to catch the attention of historian or sculptor. Such a state of affairs would be favorable to a call for repentance. At the precise time in which the people were best prepared for such a message, God spoke to Jonah at his home in Gath-hepher, and said: "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me" (Jonah i. 1, 2). Instead of obeying, Jonah arose and started in the opposite direction. God's command would have sent him toward the north, but he turns toward the south, and he stops not until he reaches Joppa, the principal seaport of the kingdom of Judah. Here he finds a ship sailing to Tarshish, the farthest port of the west to which vessels then sailed. He was running "away from the presence of Jehovah," [47] which means from the region in which he thought it probable that Jehovah would speak to him again. He supposed that if he could get as far away as Tarshish, God would not call him back from so great a distance to send him on the disagreeable mission.

      We might conjecture a number of motives for which Jonah undertook this desperate flight, and perhaps all of them might have had some part in causing it; for men do not often embark upon desperate enterprises without a number of motives; but there is one which he himself mentioned afterward, and we must accept this as at least the chief of all. When, afterward, he saw that God did not destroy the city according to his prediction, "it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry"; and in a prayer, which was rather a remonstrance against Jehovah's mercy, he said: "O Jehovah, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I hastened to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and full of compassion, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, and repentest thee of the evil" (iv. 1, 2). This shows that he fled to Tarshish because he did not believe that God would destroy the city. He believed that even after its doom was pronounced, God's grace, compassion, and mercy would lead him to spare the great population, and that his own mission would therefore appear to be a failure. This reasoning shows plainly that if he had been sure that the destruction of the city would follow, he would have gone; and why? Undoubtedly because Jonah, in common with his countrymen, hated the Ninevites, and would have been glad to witness their destruction. That proud city had sent forth its desolating armies into neighboring kingdoms, through mere lust of conquest, [48] and had aroused the intensest hatred of every conquered nation, and no less that of every nation which sympathized with the oppressed. While God, then, was moved by the grace, compassion, and mercy of which Jonah speaks so admirably and desired through the ministration of Jonah to bring the Ninevites to repentance, that he might save them, the preacher whom he chose was full of hatred toward them, and refused to go because he desired their destruction. Jonah but reflected the sentiments of all Israel; and this brings prominently to view another problem for Jehovah to work out, the riddance of his own people of a feeling so unworthy, not to say degrading. We shall see in the sequel that the aim at this riddance played an important part in directing the course of events.

      Jonah's flight to Joppa, whence he expected to set sail for Tarshish, covered a distance of not less than one hundred miles. He doubtless traveled rapidly, and his mental agitation must have been extreme; for he had reason to fear at every step some providential interference with his attempt to escape God's command. But when he found passage in a ship, and was far out at sea with every prospect of a favorable voyage, his excitement naturally subsided, and nervous depression followed. He sought his berth, and fell asleep. So profound was his sleep, that when the storm arose even the tossing of the vessel did not awake him. The master of the vessel was astonished to find him asleep under such circumstances, and calling him a "sleeper," he cried: "What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that he will think upon us, that we perish not." The cry was like a thunderclap to Jonah. He rushed on deck to find that while he slept [49] such a tempest had fallen on the ship as threatened its destruction; that the sailors had cast the freight into the sea to lighten the vessel; that every one had then called mightily upon his god for safety; and that they had just agreed to cast lots that they might know God whose account this evil had come upon them. The true cause flashed across Jonah's mind in an instant; but he had nerve enough to join in the casting of lots. When he drew the black ball from the urn, he was immediately plied with questions faster than he could answer them: "What is thine occupation? Whence comest thou? What is thy country? Of what people art thou?" When they gave him a chance to speak, he confessed the whole truth: "I am a Hebrew, and I fear Jehovah, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. I flee from the presence of Jehovah." His questioners had perhaps never before heard of this God--a God who made the sea and the dry land--and when they heard that it was He who had been offended, they were it "exceedingly afraid." If the God who made the sea had raised the tempest against them, what could they do? Believing what Jonah confessed, and naturally thinking that his knowledge of this God would enable him to judge what would appease his wrath, they demand of him: "What shall be done unto thee, that the sea may be calm for us?" This demand put Jonah to the test of all the manliness that was in him. Had he been a coward, or a sneak, he would have begged the sailors to let him remain on board till the ship went to pieces. But he was too manly to permit others to perish on his account, and too honest, now that God had overtaken him, to try to escape the fate which he deserved. To the surprise of all, he answered: "Take me up and cast [50] me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you." Generosity begets generosity. As he was unwilling for them to suffer on his account, they generously resolved not to save themselves at the expense of his life. They turn again to their abandoned oars, and "rowed hard to get back to land." Their efforts are in vain. The sea grows more and more tempestuous against them, and they see clearly that the God who made the sea is determined to have his own way, as declared by Jonah. Trained to stand by a comrade to the last, and to perish if need be in the effort to save him, they tremble at the thought of casting even a strange passenger into the sea to save themselves; and fearing lest, even with the clear demonstration before them, they might offend the God whom they were seeking to appease, before they laid hands on Jonah they offered this prayer: "We beseech thee, O Jehovah, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood, for thou, O Jehovah, hast done as it pleased thee." Thus, for the first time in their lines they prayed to Jehovah, the only true and living God. Then, with the steady step which only trained sailors could command on a vessel tossed as that one was, they took Jonah, several men seizing him from either side, walked to the rail and cast him into the boiling sea. The vessel sped on its way and they saw him no more. The wild tempest sank to a moderate breeze, the tossing waters stretched themselves out in a gentle swell. "The sea ceased from her raging." The effect upon the seamen was irresistible: "Then the men feared Jehovah exceedingly; and they offered a sacrifice unto Jehovah, and made vows." It is not necessary to [51] suppose that they waited till they went ashore before they offered this sacrifice. They could erect an altar on the deck of the ship and offer such victims as they had on board; and, if neither their altar nor the victim was such as the Mosaic law required, of which they knew nothing, they could hope for acceptance. The vows they made were doubtless vows to serve Jehovah.

      Thus far the flight of Jonah has resulted in some good--in the conversion of these seamen to the worship of Jehovah. And did the good work stop with them? Did they not tell the story in every seaport visited by their ship in its long voyage? Did not every one of them continue to tell the strange and glad story as long as he lived? This ship's company, we may safely assert, were made missionaries to the heathen, preaching the true God in all the seaports of the Mediterranean, and thus a light was kindled in the dark places of the western world.

      But leaving this part of the story, which grows on our imagination as we dwell upon it, we return to Jonah. When he was cast headforemost into the raging sea, he undoubtedly believed that it was a plunge into hell, for he was caught in the midst of his sin, and now he faces instant death. But he finds himself sliding down the cold throat of a great fish, of whose widespread jaws he barely caught a glimpse ere he passed within them. He is in the bowels of the fish, with every limb cramped as in a vice. He can not breathe, though he struggles for breath desperately. He suffers the pangs of the dying in every nerve and muscle. He realizes the plunge of the great animal into the deep waters; he hears the scraping of seaweeds on its sides; [52] and, as the fish, now full of pain and alarm caused by the struggles of a living man within him, rushes hither and thither in his fury, Jonah is conscious of all his movements. What was his sense of time? He tells us, and in the same breath he reveals the anguish which his soul experienced. He exclaims: "The earth with her bars closed upon me forever. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried." He expected every moment to be his last; he was already suffering in body and mind the very torments of the damned; every slow moment as it passed appeared like years, every day like a cycle of eternity.

      Suddenly he feels the warm sun in his face. He opens his eyes. He sees the dry land around him, and down below is the sea. The fish is gone, and this seems to be the shore of his native land. How long he lay there before he acquired strength to rise and walk; whether he was found there in helpless weakness by some passerby, or made his way unassisted to some dwelling where he might procure food and drink, we are not informed. We are left equally in the dark as to how long it took him to get back to his home in Gath-hepher, and as to the way in which the news of his adventure was spread abroad. The remarkable reticence which characterizes all of the sacred records, and which distinguishes them from all fictitious writings, is strikingly prominent here. But now that the prophet has been delivered, and is restored to home and family for a time, we may pause and look back with the question, is this his mode of return incredible?

      We can not be mistaken in affirming that God, having formed the purpose of bringing the Ninevites to repentance, was not to be defeated. Having selected [53] the man through whose preaching the good work was to be accomplished, he was not to be outwitted by that man. The runaway preacher must be brought back. God could have caused the wind to blow in such a direction as to force back the slip, or he could have seized Jonah by the hair of the head, and brought him back to Gath-hepher; but neither of these methods, nor any other that I can think of, would have been so wise as the one stated in the story. No other would have involved so complete a conversion of the heathen sailors; no other could have taught Jonah so good a lesson; and none, except the second just mentioned, could have brought him back so quick. The fish ran faster than any ship afloat, and even the ocean racers of the present day would have been left by him far in the lurch. Jonah learned, and through his valuable experience millions have learned, that when God enjoins a disagreeable duty, it is far easier to go and do it than to run away from it. It was an act worthy then of Him who sees all things in all places, and who is ever-watchful to provide for all the foreseen generations of men the instruction which they need. The far-reaching effects of the event in the moral training of the world removes it as far as the east is from the west away from the category of idle wonders. And this is not all. We may safely say that if Jonah had gone to Nineveh when the word of Jehovah first came to him, his preaching would have been in vain; for though he would have come as a great prophet, he would not have been "a sign to the Ninevites," in the sense in which our Lord, as we have seen, uses that expression; and lacking this element of power, his mission would have been a failure. God knew this; for he knows all things. He knew that [54] Jonah would run away as he did; he intended from the beginning to bring him back as he did; and all this was necessary to the effective execution of his benevolent purpose to save the Ninevites. From every possible point of view the whole scheme was worthy of God, and I confidently affirm that the story could not have been invented by man. No myth, no legend, in the whole range of human literature, can compare with it in all the elements which make it an incident worthy of divine interposition. If any man doubts this assertion, let him select his example and present it for comparison.

      We are not informed how long Jonah remained at home before God spoke to him again; and this is another example of the reticence quite unnatural to fiction, which characterizes this narrative. It may have been a day, a week, or a month; but when the chosen moment came, God spoke to Jonah again. He says nothing about the first command, about the flight to Joppa, about the storm at sea, about the fish. He says, as if for the first time, "Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee." There is no flight or hesitation this time. "Jonah arose and went to Nineveh." Why this change? Has he altered his opinion as to whether or not God will destroy the city? Is the distance to Nineveh any less than it was before? Is the journey any less expensive or laborious? Ah, Jonah has learned the lesson of implicit obedience, the lesson of leaving all consequences with God. He goes to Nineveh. As he goes, I confess for my own part, that if the story of Jonah had closed here without another word, I would be constrained to regard it as one of the most valuable of all the episodes in the Old Testament. [55]

      When he began to cry out in the streets of Nineveh, "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown," the question necessarily went from lip to lip, Who is this? The answer, that it was the great prophet of Israel, by whose supernatural foresight the victories of Jeroboam, running through a period of forty years, had been won, was enough to arrest solemn attention; but when it was added that on first receiving the command to come and utter this cry, he tried to escape the task by running away, and sailing far out upon the sea, but that Jehovah, who had given the command, overtook him, brought him back in the bowels of a fish, cast him out alive on dry land, and then renewed the command, this added tenfold power to the word of the prophet. The Ninevites believed, proclaimed a fast, put on sack-cloth, turned every man from his evil way, and called mightily on Jehovah. Is this incredible? I have tried to think what effect such a proclamation, by such a man, under such circumstances, would have in our modern society; and I can think of only one class of persons who would probably not repent, and that is the class made up of men who have listened to the gospel for years and years, heard it in all its power, in all its tenderness, and have so hardened their hearts by continued resistance to it, that nothing less than the thunders of the judgment day is likely to bring them to repentance. Men untrained to such resistance, as were the Ninevites, men who had never in their lives before been confronted with the outspoken wrath of the Almighty, could only tremble and repent and pray. The repentance of the Ninevites was natural. Most unnatural is the impenitence of the gospel-hardened sinners of our own day. [56]

      But the effect of Jonah's preaching could not, in the nature of things, be confined to the people of Nineveh. Throughout the Assyrian empire, and wherever on earth the name of Nineveh was known, the influence of her example must have been felt; and the revelations of eternity alone will enable us to know how much good was accomplished. It would not be strange if many souls unknown to fame, both in Nineveh and elsewhere, were brought to lasting repentance and finally to eternal life. Jonah was a great missionary to the heathen, and we may be sure that his work was not in vain.

      How Jonah ascertained that God "repented of the evil that he said he would do unto the Ninevites," we are not informed; and this is another instance of the reticence common to this and other books of the Bible. But when he did ascertain it he was angry; and he gave vent to his anger by exclaiming: "O Jehovah, was not this my saying when I was yet in my own country? Therefore I hasted to flee unto Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and full of compassion, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O Jehovah, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live." God answered him, "Doest thou well to be angry?" sad here the interview ended.

      One would have supposed that Jonah would return to his home, having accomplished the mission on which he was sent; but instead of doing this, he "went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city." Why had he any question as to what would become of the city, when God had repented of the evil which he said [57] he would do it? I can think of no answer, unless it be that he had no confidence in the repentance of the Ninevites. They had been so desperately wicked that their sudden repentance appeared more like a spasm of fright than a genuine turning away from sin; and he did not believe it would last. If it did not, if they turned back to their old ways, he knew very well that God would certainly bring upon them the doom which had been pronounced. What was to become of the city, then, depended upon the genuineness and the permanency of the reformation which had been effected; and Jonah, still wishing to see his prediction fulfilled, determines to await the result. He must wait till at least forty days expire, and possibly longer; but the presumption is that he intended to remain only through the forty days.

      Instead of taking up his temporary abode within the city walls, he chose a point of observation in the plain to the east, and probably it was the summit of some elevation from which he could have an extended view. The booth which he built was not to keep off the wind or the rain; but to shelter him from the heat, which is very intense in that region during the hot season. It was not made of leaves, which would wilt and curl in a single day under such heat; but of sticks and small boards which he could pick up in the vicinity. It afforded a very imperfect shelter from the direct rays of the sun, and none from the reflected heat which rose from the surrounding sand. He suffered much, but God had pity on him, and "prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his evil case." That gourd sprang up in a single night, so that it might [58] appear, as it was, a special and miraculous gift from God. Jonah was "exceedingly glad because of the gourd." Doubtless it covered the whole of the shanty which had so imperfectly sheltered him, shutting out the side heat as well as the direct rays of the sun, and giving him the full benefit of any breeze that might blow. But the relief lasted only one day. The next morning God having prepared a worm that smote the gourd, when the sun became hot its leaves wilted, turned yellow, curled up, and dropped off. When the heat of the day had come Jonah suffered more than ever. "The sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die." He was now angry again; and God said to him, "Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? " He said "I do well to be angry, even unto death." I suppose that he meant, he was so angry that it would kill him if he did not get relief. He does not claim to be angry with God, or with the Ninevites, or with any person or thing in particular. It was one of those fits of anger to which many persons are subject when suffering, and which makes them growl and snarl like a wild beast in pain.

      The opportunity had now come; God had brought about the opportunity to teach Jonah the last lesson for which this series of events was projected. Had Nineveh been destroyed he would have gone home happy. His present misery was brought on in consequence of his desire to see it destroyed even yet. He was displeased with the mercy which God had manifested toward it, and refused to believe that this mercy would continue. So God says to him: "Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou hast not labored, neither madest it to grow; which came up in a night, [59] and perished in a night: and should not I have pity on Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that can not discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?"

      What a rebuke for the unfeeling hostility of the prophet toward a vast population; and what forgetfulness it displayed on his part of the multitude of innocent babes who would have been swallowed up in the destruction which he desired to witness! The rebuke was instantaneous; but what shall we say of the train of thought which it awoke in Jonah's mind never to cease while he lived? And when the knowledge of this last scene came to spread abroad in Israel, who can tell the good impression made on thoughtful minds, as day after day and year after year the thrilling story was told, and God's chosen people were made to realize that he was not their God only, but the God of the whole earth?

      If now we review the whole story in the light of our reflections on it, we see that it represents God as desiring the repentance of the Ninevites, and of all in the proud empire of Assyria who could be influenced by their example. He selects as the preacher through whose word this great reformation may be effected, the most renowned prophet of the age. Knowing in advance that this prophet, great as he was, would be moved by his knowledge of God's goodness, and his own hatred of Nineveh, to run away from the task assigned him, God permits him to flee far out upon a stormy sea, that he might make him the means there of turning a company of heathen sailors to the true faith, and send them preaching round the shores of the [60] western world, and that he might at the same time bring the prophet back better than ever prepared to do effective work in Nineveh. As a result of this preparation, the whole population of the great city is brought to repentance, and they appeal so earnestly to Jehovah for mercy that he spares them after having doomed them to destruction. We need no historian's pen to assure us that as far as Nineveh was known, the news of this thrilling experience traveled with the speed of the wind; and that an impression in favor of fearing and honoring Jehovah must have been made on every mind. What could have been more worthy of God than all this? Then, that he might send the prophet back to his countrymen with a new and kindlier sense of the brotherhood of man springing out of this universal Fatherhood of God, the weary waiting on the sand hill follows, and the whole story terminates with the tender lesson drawn from the magic shade which refreshed the suffering prophet. Is the story incredible? I think my readers are ready to answer, Not if any other miracles are credible.

      But there is another side to the question of incredibility. If the story of Jonah is not history, it is, of course, a piece of fiction, and fiction which originated in the brain of an Israelite. Now I think it may be made to appear that the latter alternative is incredible. It is incredible, in the first place, that any Israelite, capable of conceiving and of writing such a story, would be so irreverent toward one of the great prophets of his nation as to make him act the part ascribed to Jonah. And even if an intellectual Israelite had been so recreant to the ordinary traditions of his countrymen as to write such a story, it is still more incredible that the leaders of the [61] chosen people at any period of their history would have allowed such a document a place among their sacred books. There is nothing of the kind to be found elsewhere in the Bible, and such aspersions upon the names of prophets or patriarchs is not to be found in the apocryphal literature of the Jews. On the contrary, the Jewish writings which are known to be fictitious are often characterized by extravagant eulogies of Biblical characters.

      This alternative is incredible, in the second place, because no Israelite, inventing, a story of God's dealings with a great Gentile city like Nineveh, would have represented him as being so regardful of the welfare of its people, so quick to forgive their sins, and so tenderly mindful of the innocent within its walls. Especially would no Israelite write a story whose culminating point was a stern rebuke of his nation for animosity toward an oppressive heathen power. From this point of view, as well as from the other, such a book, if written as a fiction, would have so outraged the feeling of zealous priests and scribes that it would never have obtained a place in the sacred canon. How can we imagine that a people who attempted to slay Jesus because he showed them that a Gentile woman and a Gentile warrior, in the days of Elijah and Elisha, honored these two prophets as no man or woman in Israel did or would, have permitted a book so full of rebuke for their hatred of the heathen to be made a part of their own Bible? The thought is preposterous. Yet, this is the alternative to which those are driven who affirm that the story as told in the Scriptures is incredible. Like unbelievers in general, they take the harder side. [62]

      This incredibility is intensified when we consider the date assigned to the Book of Jonah by those who hold it to be fictitious. According to Dr. Driver, as we have seen, it was written in the fifth century B. C., after the return from the Babylonian captivity. Nineveh, at that time, together with the Assyrian Empire of which it was the head, had long since perished; yet, this book, though dealing with its sins and its doom, gives not a hint of its final fate. This reticence, if the assumed date is the real one, could have been assumed by its author only for the purpose of making it appear that the book was written before Nineveh's fall; and it was, therefore, a piece of deception. As Nineveh had not only perished at this date, but had, between the time of Jonah and the time of its downfall, carried into captivity the ten tribes of Israel, and visited upon them unspeakable cruelties, a Jew of a later age would be the last man on earth to invent a story showing tender regard for it on the part of Israel's God. Furthermore, at the supposed date of composition, the whole of the twelve tribes, with the single exception of the remnant who had returned to Jerusalem, were being ground under the heel of heathen oppression, and were learning to hate the ways of the oppressors more and more with every passing day. In no former period in Israel's history was it so improbable that such a book could be written by an Israelite, or that, if written, it would be received with any feeling but abhorrence by his countrymen. In other words, the farther down the stream of time you bring the date of the book, the more incredible it is that any Jewish writer would have invented its story, and the more incredible that it could have obtained the place which we know it did obtain in the sacred writings of the Jews. [63] To bring the matter nearer home, let us suppose that some ingenious writer should now publish a volume containing aspersions upon the character of one of the leading generals or statesmen of our revolutionary war, and rebuking severely as unjust and cruel the feeling of the American patriots toward their British foes; and suppose that, by common consent of this generation of Americans, these sentiments should come to he incorporated in the standard histories of the United States. This would be a state of things not one whit more incredible, not to say impossible, than the theory that the Book of Jonah is a fictitious narrative written by an uninspired author in an age of Jewish subjection to a heathen power.

      Finally, when we add to the incredibility of the theory that this book is a fiction, the solemn assertion by Jesus that its leading incidents are real transactions, we can safely conclude this protracted discussion with the affirmation, that none of the supernatural events recorded in the Old Testament are supported by stronger evidence of authenticity than those recorded in the Book of Jonah. [64]

[JAJ 42-64]