St. Paul daily globe., 1891-06-22
PARABLE OF JONAH.
Instructive Sermon Before the
UniyerSaliStS.

Instructive Sermon Before the
Uniyersalists.
Rev. w. S. Vail. in his sermon yester-
day morning before the Universalist So
ciety, at the Grand opera house, took up
the old familiar story of Jonah. He said
the interest was not so much in the
teaching as in the fact that new idea
is slowly and unconsciously creeping
into the churches, and soon we are to
face the question, How shall we read
stories of the olden time?:' When we
are obliged to make Moses a man and
place him alongside OF the wise and just
of all other nations, how will itAnfiu
ence our ideas? When we tell the story
of Isaiah, just as we tell that of Crom-
well, or William the Silent. or Lincoln,
what will we find it as religious inspira-
ton? For time the pulpit will drop
these men and keep to the discussion of
more practical topics. But sooner or
later we will once more be called 10 tell
of them, and he who IS faithful
preacher will not shrink from doing so
when he feels the time has come,
although he may be called to stand in
the advance guard.
The first thing we have to say that is
is fiction written with moral purpose.
That
Jonah Never Lived
is now conceded. But if he never lived
does that make the book any the less
valuable? That macbeth" is a drama
is conceded. Is it any less real to us
because of that fact? No matter if the
characters are fictionS; the underlying
n
see the ghost of Banquo in our age,
when the theory in vogue at the time
the drama was written has passed away.
For US truth is none the less real. 1t
stands before us with the same lesson
and has lost none of its power. We
read the story of Jonah in the same
way. All that was ever true in it is true
now. The incident concerning the whale
no more affects it than the appearance
of witches affects Macbeth And the
accidents that belong to the local times
are to be taken in the same way. More
over. it is the first book of the Bible
that set the modern mind to thinking.
When it was discovered that a whale
could not swallow man without some
miraculous assistance, then the minds
of men began to study this whole ques-
ton as to
IAe HtGlns1u Element
of the Bible, and as this was the first
place for destruction it ought to be the
first place for construction.
The author was Hebrew. He lived
at time when the jewish people by
heroic sacrifice had rebuilded their tenn
pie, and. as natural consequence, were
thanking God for special mercy. He
heard all the arguments about chosen
people, special favOritlSm, and in
feriOrity of our neighborS, and the glori-
Gus privilege of belonging to our partic-
ular clan. This may be race pride. and
then we swell with egotism about our
land and Its privileges. 1t may be
church pride, and then we commiserate
the poor deluded creatures who have
been deprived of our glorious doctrines.
1t may be society" pride, and we pity
the piebeians who are foolish enough to
be happy outside of the flour hundred"
and we eat dirt out of the hands of peo-
pic who despise us for our sycophancy.
There are many applications of the idea.
In this particular case it was religious.
This man saw the religious
Pride of His People,
and undertook to summarize their char
acter in the imaginary preacher. Jonah.
Jonah heard the call of the Lord.e He
had theory that God ought tol,ove only
His own people. He felt sure that it
would be useless. He had threatened
this city with destruction. Knowing
something Of Gods character, he was
afraid they would be properly chaS-
tiSed. He had theory, and he was
much more interested in seeing that
theory established than in making men
better by any means that would reach
them. Therefore this author, looking
to his own nation, and seeing the pomp-
Gus pride of his people and their utter
neglect of the nations round about, as
we'll as their utter contempt for others,
concluded to look elsewhere and see
what he could there find. He cast his
niticent city of Ninevah Oh the great
plain. beside the slow-moving waters
of the broad Tigris-a city
with marvellous walls, commerce of
Importance. religion rude but still an
attempt to embody the sense of mans
obligation to an unseen power; social
organization, low in the scale, but be-
ginning that showed the
Instinct of Man
now developing in modern civilization.
He found people brave, kind, with many
virtues. He desired to give them
credit for these virtues. Therefore he
told of prophet named Jonah, who
was called to preach repentance to this
people.
But Jonah felt that the Almighty was
entirely too lenient and LIBERAL and in
terposed an objection. Circumstances
finally senthim to Nineveh, and sure
enough the people repented. With this
the prophet became very angry. But
the Lord reminded him of the little
children In the city, and asked that he
have sense OF pity. Exclusiveness
was the great fault of himself and his
time. A broader and more charitable
sentiment was asked by Jehovah.
In closing the preacher said that once
more we find this old story full of inter
est when we read its words. Never
more than to-day do we need the very
things herein urged. Exclusiveness
and absence of human pity are among
the things we are willing to confess we
lack. A final consideration for the
words of the old parable shows that it
has lost none of its value to the present
generation.