The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-02-17
JONAH AND THE WHALE.
A New York Divine Defends the Bible
Narrative.

Recently Rev. Layman Abbott, a
noted New York preacher, in sermon
made such comical comments upon the
Bible narrative of Jonah's stay inside
a whales belly that his congregation
broke out in peals of laughter. He
utterly refused to believe the story.
Sunday night Rev. DR.. j. B. Rem
ensnyder, pastor of St. James Lutheran
church, New York, preached on the
Gospel narrative Of Jonah and the
whale. His text was taken from Jonah
l., II, and H., l: "Now the Lord had
prepared great fish to swallow UP
Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly Of
the fish three days and three nights.
And Jonah prayed unto the Lord his
God, out of the fsh's belly"
"The present attacks on the Gospel
narrative of JONAH" said DR.. Remen-
snyder, come not alone from the ranks
Of skeptics and scoffers, for these we
must always look for but from much
more significant shameful direction
from minister in charge of a nominally
Christian congregation. It is not
strange to hear the voice Of the scofhng
infdel raised in public and in private
against the miracles reported in holy
Scripture, but is sadly novel thing
to hear the pastor Of a Christian flock,
not in r~ivate, BIT in the house of
God itse. f:5m mis- pulpit, on the
Lords day, assail the miracles of
Jonah.
"But this is not all. The assault
was not made in a solemn, digni6ed
manner, as beftted the place and the
occasion, but the Scriptural story was
handled with such levity and ridicule
that we are told the hearers actually
broke forth into laughter. Such a
spectacle as this in Christian sane
tuary is rare, indeed, and, for my part,
I have no words strong enough to con!
demn the sacrilege of the preacher and
the irreverence Of his congregation.
"This story of Jonah and the whale, -
he continued, "stands in just the same
category as all the other miracles mar
rated in the Holy Book. They belong
in the domain of the supernatural, and
will be accepted or rejected according
to our faith in the inspired Word Of
God.
"If we reject Jonah, what about the
parting of the Red Sea, the fall Of
mama in the wilderness, the fall Of
Jericho when Joshua blew his horn :?
Not only this, but what shall we do
with the miracles recorded of our
Lord, and, indeed, what becomes of
that crowniDg miracle of miracles,
most momentous and incredible Of
them all-the death and glorious res
direction of Christi How is the story
of Jonah more difficult to believe than
any or all of the others +? We must
accept or reject them as whole.
Some people appear to think that
the world is having something new in
all these assaults upon the Bible. On
the contrary, the Apostles were
scarcely dead before the pagan writers
began their attacks. The strongest
and keenest ever made was by CELSIUS
in the very early centuries of the
Gospel. He was deep, learned, and
caustic, and his arguments are sub
stantially the same as those used by
the scientific opponents of Christian
ity to-day. CELSIUS derided miracles on
general principles as against all the
laws of matter, but his chief attack
was the miracle of God appearing on
this earth as a man. Julian the
Apostate and Porpnyry aimed their
skepticism at the whole Gospel nara
tive, and in far stronger terms than we
meet with to-day.
Especial ridicule seems to be pointed
now from the pulpit against Jonah
offering up a prayer to God from the
belly of the whale. They say no man
could live three days in such place
that this whale that swallowed Jonah
lst have been specially invented for
lie occasion, &c. Nearly any ordi-
nary sized whale could find plenty of
room for mau, and why shouldn't
Jonah live there three days How is
that any more wonderful than the
three children Of Israel living in that
seven-times heated furnace of Ne
buchadnezzar All the rest Of that
book of Jonah, the history, the geog.
raphy, is correct. Why, then, discard
that part Of the narrative which relates
the unusual means God took to cure
Jonah of his stubbornness and crush
his pride?
"But if this Old Testament story is
preposterous and was never intended
for Christians 10 believe as written,
what about the Endorsement it receiv-
ed from our Saviour AS reported
by St. Matthew, these words we're used
by Christ: An evil and adulterous
generation sceketh after sign, but
there shall be no sign given unto it
but the sign of the prophet Jonah,
for, as Jonah was three days and three
nights in the whales belly, so shall
the Son of Man be three days and three
nights in the heart Of the earth. This
bears out the charge of St. Paul that
the Jews of his day did not under.
stand the prophets. In this story OF
Jonah as in others of the prophets we
must see the prophetical types and
figures of the coming of the Messiah.
In the narrative of Jonah and the
death and resurrection Of Christ the
parallelism is perfect. Both cried
unto God from the hell of deep atfiictlon,
both were three days concealed from
man sight, and both were rescued by
God from death.
"Again, the calm upon the sea
which followed the casting out OF
Jonah from the vessel typihes the re-
suit of Christs visitation to the earth
and our redemption from the vortex OF
sin. The billows ceased upon the
ocean of misery and death. Over all
came holy calm.
DR.. Remensnyder said the very form
of the prayer used ty Jonah from the
whales belly was almost an echo OF
the forms of supplication venerable in
his day. 1t was radiant with the
intercession and victories of the
psalmist and rhc prophets of old.
This constitutes another inherent
argument in favor of the truth OF the