Mexico weekly ledger., 1897-03-04
A STARTLING VIEW.
A Remarkable Criticism of the Jonah.
Whale Story by a Kan
sas City Minister.

The Kansas City Star, in printing
two or three columns of the views of
local ministers on the biblical MARIA
tive of Jonah, the whale and the con-
version of Nineveh, says:
The most startling view of the story
was found to be held by the Rev. DIR.
J. E. Roberts, pastor of All Souls I'm
itarian church. He laughed when ask
ed to express his opinion and said:
"The whale and Jonah combination
gets around about so often. This time
the advance agent was DIR. Abbott.
He stepped before the curtain to an
nounce that the marine aggregation
would appear no more. A thousand
ministers instantly billed the ancient
attraction, and it has been running
ever since.
"The only thing remarkable about
this periodic morsel of inspiration is
that any intelligent man takes it SER
iously. 1t must be that we have in
spired men with US still, for nom but
inspired men a believe the unbe-
lievable. If the Captain of that es-
sci ordered Jonah to be thrown over
board, then the captain should have
been indicted for manslaughter. If
there was an understanding between
the captain and the whale, then both
should have been indicted for con-
spiracy. If the whale swallowed Jo-
nah and worked on him for three days
with a view to converting him-into
whale-then there is a strong prob
ability that all of Jonah that ever got
ont of Nineveh was a few pants but
tons and a couple of suspender buck
les.
s'The deacons of the church could
not have recognized him. Jonah
would have needed the whale with
him to swear to his identity. Per-
haps Jonah foresaw this and took the
whale along. At any rate, the people
of that town ever afterward had great
respect for the whale. They knew
that part of him was preacher. The
railroads gave a clerical permit to
each of them. And when the whale
and Jonah were gathered to their
fathers the people did not know
whether to build the monument to the
whale Or to the So they com-
promised and made it half man and
half whale.
"There is, however, another inter-
probation which may be preferred by
some Bible readers. 1t is that after
the whale had swallowed the preacher
and found him so dry that he was in
soluble in any of the gastric juices
then on tap, and after three days.
grinding, still impervious to the gas
tronomic mill, that the whale request
ed him to resign. Jonah, it seems,
had been feeling for some time that
he could labor more effectively in a
wider field. And, besides, he did not
like the internal commotion of the
present congregation. Receiving just
at that time a call from a church at
Nineveh, he accepted at once, with |
out ever waiting to pray for guidance.
"The matter OF guidance was attend
ed to by the whale.
"It is no mere romance to say that
Jonah's n was well calculated to
make his faith bag at the knees. He
lay down under q shade tree to take
a nap and the tree withered and let
the sun IN on HIM. He went to sea in
a ship and the sailors threw him over
board in q gale. He took a lower
berth in the vestibule- whale limited
and was elected by the management
before he had gotten half way. The
palpable moral Of this marvellous his
toric event is that Jonah was up againt