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

uoAt III Juuc6s &uu II Nc &Ot OUC OL Lu4l
land, the Lord would most probably
appoint another prophet to carry, the
message; Jonah evidently appears to
have looked upon the enterprise as dif1-
cult and dangerous, and sincerely wish
ed to avoid 1t, hence he went down to
Joppa, and. having paid his fare, en-
barked for Tarsus, but God, who knew
bis motive and had. watched his course,
did not intend to have His purpose thus
foiled, therefore He caused great storm
to rise !; now, while the storm was rag
ing in all its heaven born fury. Jonah
was calmly sleeping In the hold Of the
ship, unconscious Of tho pending dam
ger, but the f0aming, bubbling, angry
pillows rising like huge mountains and
rocking the vessel to and fro, the mari
ners became frsntically alarmed, and a.
they were all heathens who had each .
different object of worship, go they sup
posed that Jonah likewise had his God,
and that as the peril was imminent, ev-
cry man should use the influence he
had, - tl1G3 were Ill allke equally tas
vclvcd QB1 ebipsno9teg aCt3ng uQdet
tke4mf ols4 0fftfRht. awoke Jonah. md
toid him " their surr6pndihgs. Aftef
considering w1xt they Wot1ld do that
the ses might be calm,, 30 they could
safely pursue their Journey, they de-
cidetl to cast lots ia very ancient mode
Of endeavoring to find out the mind of
Divine Providence "ADr. CSurke) to
ascertain. II possible, by whom the
storm was caused. They did 90, and
God 80 directed it that the lot fell upon
Jonah, and after being thus Convinced
that he alone was the cause and con-
science 30 lashed him for hisl disobedi-
enee and reproved him for his desertion,
that be confessed all, and told them that
he was q Hebrew and worshiped the
God of Heaven; wac one of His proph-
ete. and that he had been commissioned
sy God 10 20 to Niieveh aud proclaim Its
aownfalI. but had refu -eti to obey Him,
and was now, az he surpassed, fleeing
from His presence. Then were the men
exceeding afraid and said unto him,
What shall we do unto thee, that ths
zee may be calm unto ua? And he said
INTO them, Take me up, and cast me
foFth into the sea 40 shall the sea be
calm unto you; for know that for my
fAke this great tempest Is upon you. !"
But the men did not desire to do 30, and
they ''rowed hard 10 bring 1t to the
IaDd; but they could not; for the sea
wrought, and was tempestuous against
themp Then cried they unto the Lord
for succor, but the tempest did not abate,
but continued her mutterings Of wrath
and roarings for vengeance. Then they
took up Jonah and cast him forth into
the sea and the sea ceased from her
raging" Now, ut this juncture of the
miracle, the Lord prepared great fish
to swallow up Jonah. and Jonah was In
a - 81,
three nights. The fish here referred to
was evidently whale. and in accord
sILce with the 4Oth verse Of the 18th
chapter Of st. Matthew. we are justifia-
BILE In supposing and concluding that
such was the true case: "For as Jonas
was three days and three nights In the
be three days and three nights in the
heart of the EARTH"
However, 1t ias given rise to va
rious opinions. and in order to afford
the reader wider field from which to
CLEAN, we quote few. In commenting
upon this part of the subject, DR.. Clarke
says A fish Of the shark kind, and not
. Whate, IL hefp nlehnt. This could not
h4ye been wfale, for the throat of that
annual can scarcely admit mans leg |;
but 1t might have been shark, which
abounds in the Mediterranean sea, and
whose mouth and stomach are exceed
ingly capaeious. In several cases they
have been known to swallow q man
when thrown overheard. 1t is we'll
pable of admitting little more than the
arm Of an ordinary man; but many of
the shark species can swallow q man
| xayh nd hoy IN
in the stomach of several. Besides, the
shark is native of the Mediterranean
sea, in which Jonah was sailing when
swallowed" These facts are given in
substance and in full by the learned
Bochart.-See Leyd, edit. 1892. vol. iii,
COL 742. Upon the other hand, q num-
ber of eminent historians have decided
and discussed at considerable length in
their respective works that it was q
sUh0le and not q shark which is here
meant. Says the Rev. George Burder,
In his Complete History of the Bible,
edit. 1903, vol. !, p. 541: .'Infidels, in
all ages, have made this passage of
Scripture the subject of their ridicule,
and have treated it either as q wild 70.
nance, or at most a parabolical represen-
tatiun of something else. They have
pretended that the throat of q whale, IS
this fish is generally supposed to have
been, is insufficient to receive the body
of q man, and that, IL received, human
life could not have been supported for
any length of time But with all due
difference to these learned men, 1t is,
after all, not only possible, but probable
also, that the fish by which Jonah was
swallowed was literally q whale; for
though it be true that the greater part of
whales, of which the Greenland kind is
the most usual, have swallow not
more than four inches broad, yet 1t 10
ascertained beyond doubt, that there
is another specimen of the whale, called
the Cashel0t Catod0n, o, POtt fish, whose
throat is, 80 very large that he could
swallow q whole OK. The establish
ment, therefore, of this fact, that the
Cashelot is q whale capable of swallow.
ing q uian whole will, we hope. forever
silence the objections of future infidels. !"
(For more extended description. see
Crantz's History of Greenland, vol. !,
p. 112.) Many persons seem to think
and strongly contend that 1t would be
an impossibility for man to live for
two or three days in the stomach of q
fish. This difficulty is easily explained
and removed by reference to ]. Fergu-
sons Philosophical Transactions, vol.
lii. p. 10; do, xii, p. 49,; Derham's
Physico Theology, book 4, cap. 7, note,
p 1853, 159; DR.. Platt's History of Stat.
fordshire, p. 246. 292; also Ray on the
Creation. p. gao; Parkhurst: Cowper.
the anatomist, and others. "There APP
pears, therefore, nothing unphilosophi
cal or absurd in supposing that Jonah
might be cast into the sea and be swal-
lowed up whole by great fish, and yet
be neither drowned, nor corrupted, nor
digested, nor killed. There must have
been q miraculous divine interposition
in causing all the circumstances Of
the presence of the fish, of the forma-
ton of Jonah, to concur rightly to
effect his deliverance. - -Bwrder's HIS
torn, vol. /. p 545. For q complete
history of this remarkable adventure,
see "KiDg's Morsels of Criticism" DR..
Clarke, after carefully reviewing the
entire subject at length. concludes that
rs "some can not work q miracle, can
hardly be persuaded that God can" and
divides 1t into various propositions: u.