Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1882-02-07

Of the gospel, snd even zealons chris
tians Of the present 7day--Always, Attrih
uting their own open dereliction Of .duyy
| to some attribute Of God, and evade th'
real issue Of the case by continually
complaining Of como supposed specia
act Of Providence, and soliciting Hin
70 take no notice ofthem - they are tn
unworthy to be called His children, a II
such instances as these God very rightly
pities them more because Of their mani
Tested Ignorance Of His ways, than cen
sures them for their carelessneas and
disobediencs, but q last He justly pun
Eishes the4 fox neglect Of thetr peEsQpal
fndf fyfduai, ana Imperative respo1sibii
ity. Upon this point DR.. Clarke argues
that "3od has left this example on,re.
cord, to show that An inconsiderate man
is not fit to be employed in His work
and He chose this one example. that II
might serve ~ an endless warning Ia
His church to employ no man In the
work OF the ministry that is not scrip
turally acquainted with God's justice
and mercy"
But to revert to the main part Of eur
subject. 80 Jonah went out of the city,
and sat on the east side of the city, and
there made him booth, and eat under
It in the shadow, till he might see what
would become of the city. And the
Lord God prepared q gourd, and made
1t to come up over Jonah, that it might
be shadow over his head, to deliver
him from his grief. So Jonah was ex-
ceedingly glad of the gourd. But God
prepared q worm when the morning
rose the next day, and 1t smote the gourd
that it withered. And it came to pass
when the sun did arise, that God pre-
pared q vehement east wind, and the
sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that
he tainted, and wished in himself to die,
and said, It is better for me to die than
to live. And God said unto Jonah,
Doest thou we'll to be angry for the
gourd? And he said do we'll to be angry
even unto death" One of the grandest
answers we have ever read, and doubt-
less tradition will never furnish an
equal, was when that irritable man was
expostulating with God, He, in all the
calm majesty Of His mighty power,
said: "Doest thou well to be angry p"
"Then said the Lord, Thou hast had
pity on the gourd, for the which thou
hast not labored, neither madest it
grow; which came up in q night and
perished in q night. And should not I
spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein
are more than siX-score thousand per-
sons that cannot discern between their
right hand and their left hand; and al.
so much cattle 2" These unanswerable
arguments seem to have fully met the
objections of Jonah and entirely ST.
fenced his outbursts of human folly, af-
ter which, in all probability, he re-
turned from Nineveh to Judea. The
great number of CATTLE to which refer.
ence was previously made, were for the
support of that vast population.
No doubt Nineveh was like antique
Babylon. of which Quintius Curtius
says: The buildings were close to the
walls, there being the space Of an acre
left between them; and in several parts
there were within the walls portions of
cultivated land, that If besieged, they
might have provision to sustain the in.
habitants Though the Nineveites
we're truly sincere In their profession,
yet they did not continue long under
the influence of good resolutions, but
reIapsed into their former state of per.
fidy and violence, and about one hun
dred and fifty years afterwards they
were totally destroyed by Cyaxares and
his allies an event which occurred a.
bout sos years B. G, Many useful les
sons may be learned from this short re-
production Of prophecy. It is the in
corrigibly wicked against whom Gods
judgments are threatened, and upon
whom they will fall. That unto those
who are of contrite spirit and broken
heart He will grant mercy and pardon.
1t shows how prevalent repentance is to
turn aside any threatened stroke of
divine wrath or displeasure. Even per-
sons on the very verge of destruction, If
they will but stop and repent they will be
reprieved, but are, nevertheless, subject
to Gods consuming anger 1t afterwards
they ap0statize and revert to their
former base and sinful corruptions. If
we have met with unsolvable mysteries
and seeming impossible accomplish
ments in this concise description Of one
of the most singular, entertaining and
surprising narrations in the Bible, let
US keep constantly in mind that 1t was
God who instigsted and wrought them,
and that His ways are not our ways
and are past finding out, and that He
determined to destroy or cause the re-
pentance of the vile and depraved Min
evites He selected and commissioned
Jonah; He witnessed his attempts to
escape He raised the storm; He direct
ed the lot; He Influenced the mariners
to thrust Jonah into the sea He created
the colossal marine moustsr which swal.
lowed the disohedient' prophet, and by
His Unlimited power preserved his life
for thirty. six hours In the fish's stom-
ach; He caused 1t to cast him ashore ;
He carried the then faithful servant over
the intervening distance between the
sea coast and his destination; He gave
him q second commission; He directed
him to forewarn the Ninevites that in
forty days, they would be destroyed /;
He saw the effect of his utterances, and
heard them bewailing their offences and
duplicating for mercy; He had COM
passion upon them and pardoned their
manifold sins and trangressions; He
produced the sheltering gourd which
came to perfection In night and perish
ed In the morning; He answered all the
complaintsand representations ofthe pro
phet, and illustrated and convinced
him that His acts were divine, merciful,
and right. After linking. all these
marvellous and unparalleled incidents
into one grand. glorious and sparkling
chain. evincing and proving the holi-
ness, love. purity, omnipotence, COM
passion, forbearance. and justice of God
In His hourily dealings with, poor,
weak, depraved human nature, who
continually and often purposely mis-
construe and pervsrt their true import
We conclude this brilliant and thrilling
chapter of sacred history.
P. A. Ross.
Staunton, Va, Feb. End, 1882.
One time there was an old man who
had ten children and lots of grandohil.
dren, aud one of his boya was q shoe
maker, and the old man said that all tn,
other children should buy their shoe
from Bob at two dollars q pair Just t.
encourage him to keep the money in tn,
family. Every day there was some out
slider come knocking at the outside eat,
with just as good shoes at q dollar .
pair, but still they all had to buy from
Bob. and Bob got rich off his own kin
folks. and that's the way with the tariff
i ia good thing for Bob, but mighty
hard on the rest of the famlly.-Bil
ATp..
/ No = l.