The national leader., 1889-04-13
JONAH AND THE WHALE.

elected him upon the dry ground in
three days. If you will go to the mu-
scum at Nantucket. Mass, you will
find the skeleton of a whale large
enough to swallow man. said to
the janitor, while I was standing in
the museum, 'Why, it does not seem
from the looks of this skeleton that
that story In the Book Of Jonah is so
very improbable, does it?'' ''Oh, no."
he replied, sit does not. There is a
cavity in the mouth of the common
whale large enough for man to live
in 1t. There have been sharks found
again and again, with an entire human
body in them. Besides that, the Bible
says nothing about whale. 1t says.
1.-The Lord prepared great fish," and
there are scientists who tell us
that there were sea monsters
in other days that make the
modern whale seem very Insignificant.
l know in one place in the New les
lament it speaks of the whale as ap-
pearing in the occurrence l have just
mentioned, but the word may just as
we'll be translated 'tsea monster"-any
kind of sea monster. Procopius
says, in the year 532, sea monster was
slain which had for fifty years destroyed
ships. I suppose this sea monster that
took care Of Jonah may have been one
of the great sea monsters that could
have easily taken down prophet, and
he could have lived there three days If
he had kept In motion so as to keep the
gastric juices from taking hold of him
and destroying him. and at the end of
three days the monster would naturally
be sick enough to regurgltate Jonah.
Besides that, my friends, there IS one
word which explains the whole thing.
1t says, "The Lord prepared great
fish," IT a ship carpenter prepare a
vessel to carry Texan beeves to Glas-
cow, 1 suppose it can carry Texan
beeves; if ship carpenter prepare
vessel to carry coal to one Of the north
ern ports, suppose it can carry coal;
If ship-carpenter prepare vessel to
carry passengers to Liverpool, 1 sup
pose 1t can carry passengers to Liver
pool; and il the Lord prepared fish
to carry one passenger, suppose 1t
could carry passenger. and the yenti-
latiOn have been all right.
So all the strange things In the Bible
can be explained If you wish them ex-
planned, And you can build them into
a beautiful and healthful fire for your
hearth, or you can with them put
YOUR IMMORTAL INTERESTS
into confagration. But you had better
decide about the veracity of the Bible
very soon. I want this morning to
caution you against putting off making
up your mind about this book. Ever
since 1772 there has been great discus
sion as to who was the author OF Junius'
Letters. those letters so full of sarcasm
and vituperation and power. The
whole English nation stirred up with
it. More than hundred volumes
written to discuss that question: WHO
was Juniusp" ''Who wrote the letters
of JuniusY" Well, it is an interesting
question to discuss, but still, after all,
1t makes but little practical difference
to you and to me who Junius was,
whether Sir Philip Francis or Lord
Chatham, or John Horne Tooke, CT
Horace WalpoIe, or Henry Grattan. or
were seriously charged with the au-
thorship. But it is an absorbing ques-
tion, it is practical question, 1t is
AN OVERWHELMING QUESTION
to you and to me, the authorship of
this Holy Bible-whether the Lord
God of heaven and earth or a pack of
dupes, ScOundrelS or impOstors. We
cannot afford to adjourn that question
week or day or an hour, any more
than a sea-captain can afford to say:
"Well, this is very dark night.
have really lost my bearings; there is
light out there; I don't know whether
it is lighthouse or false light on the
shore, I don't know what it is; but III
just go to sleep and in the morning I'll
find out" In the morning the vessel
might be on the rocks and the beach
Strewn with the white faces of the
dead crew. Oh, my friends, 1 want
you to understand that In our delibera
tion, about this Bible we are not at calm
anchorage, but we are rapidly coming
toward the coast, and I must know
whether it is going to be harbor or
shipwreck,
l was so glad to read in the papers of
the fact that the steamship Eddna had
come safely into harbor. A week be-
fore, the Persian Monarch, plowing its
way toward the Narrows. a hundred
miles out, saw the signals Of distress,
bore down upon the vessel, and found
it was
THE STEAMSHIP ''EDAM."
She had lost her propeller. She had
two hundred passengers on board. The
merciful captain Of the Persian Mon
arch endeavored to bring her in, but
the tow-line broke. He fastened it
again, but the sea was rough, and the
tow-line broke again. Then the night
came on, and the merciful captain
Of the Persian Monarch ''lay to-"
thinking IN the morning he could
give rescue to the passengers. The
morning came, but during the