The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1897-02-27
Mr.. Wilson Defends Jonah n the
Whale Against Rev. Lyman
AhhOtf'S Attack

Few matters in the Bible ave beer
s'pulled and hauled' over as the story
of Jonah and the great fish, said tt
have brought him back To his line o
duty. On one hand the story has been
defended as IL miracle. on the Other
scoffed al as an impossible adventure
Some very high theological anthorI
ties take the view that the statement
III the Bible, that God spake to snch {
one, or that the word of the Lord came
TO such Il prophet, means that the
person i'll question did not hear any
audible voice, but that he felt impelled
by his conscience TO do a certain right
thing and that he believed it to be tho
voice of the Creator, the source of a.
good and right. Certainly there is
many Il person who can testify that no
audible voice could o strongly I'M
press him that he ought TO take a GER
tain course of conduct than does the
inaudible voice of conscience. This
interpretation may fairly be applied to
Jonah's case. Ills business was TO
preach and warn. He knew the state
of affairs in Ninevah, but tried TO
excuse himself from his plain duty of
preaching and warning by saying to
himself That they were not the people
of Yahweh or Jehovah.
The fact that people urged by the
voice of conscience to go n certain way
will go the very opposite, is a familiar
psychological phenomenon. So the
fact that Jonah started to run away
from his conscience Is natural.
The next act of the story must strike
every II who has we'll informed him.
self on the history of that great nation
of Antiquity, the Phenicians, as ex-
ceediugly life like and natural. One
of the greatest German scholars, DIR.
Movers, who was a pious Catholic
Christian, is the great authority on the
subject of the Phenicians. But he has
been corrected in some important
points by another acute German writer,
DR.. Redslob, OF Hamburg. 1t was
always thought by modern scholars
that Tarshish was on the southwest
coast of Spain, because 1t was said to
be on the Atlantic. We W it to DR..
RedslOb that we now know that the
Atlantic of the ancient writer's was not
our Atlantic, but was the western part
of the ELECTROMAGNETIC part that
lay over against the Atlas mountains of
North Africa, or Atlantides. DR.. Red
slob says the Ph9nicians did not navi-
gate tho Atlantic as we know it. He
says TarshIsh was in Northeastern
at the mouth of the Ebro, near
where the town OF Tortosa still is, the
name of Tarshish being also spelt by
ancient writers Tartessus.
When Jonah paid his fare on a yes
sci bound for Tarshish he was getting
as far away as he could, just as people
now run over the world trying to get
away from themselves. These renowned
had an eye to business, just
as the owners of steamer lines now
When q man had paid his fare
hey took pride in filling their part of
he contract, saying to themselves.
there are others''-others in the
business and others wanting to travel,
With whom this passenger will come
n contact, and whom he will tell
whether the ssAstarte'' was a good yes
Iel and whether he was well fed and
on his voyage on her. So when
Jonah was awakened out of sleep and
ound every ma calling on his god
for, like most ships crews, hers was
made up of various nationalities and
ZACH n with a different god) he took
he same view that they did, that the
torn represented the wrath of an
blended Deity, and his conscience told
lin that he was the guilty n and he
old them SO, and offered in a most
elf sacrifcing and generous way to
ave the others by suffering for what
10 believed was his fault alone.
At this point in the story, | am m
'ressed with its life likeness. Their fair
Iess as square dealing men engaged in
transportation and their pride rs navi-
ators and their business sense was on
op, and they told him 'no, you have
aid your fare and we are going to get
there" 1t was not unlike the time
hat Hank Monk, the overland stage
river, had a contract to deliver Horace
Freely al Sacramento on time to meet
ne oilisens assembled TO see HIM.
was banged back and forth
'om one end of the coach to the other,
ometimes standing on his head and
ometimes with his head punched
the top of the coach, and
the driver TO let up u little,
ut the immovable old veteran of the
hip-lash only said, "keep your seat,
you'll be there on time" And
8 was. So these hardy mariners,
with the sun and smelling of
II and salt water, told Jonah that he
not be thrown overheard, but ,
hard" to get him to land. The 3,
DRY goes that their efforts were I'M
Nothing is more natural or -,
kelly or less miraculous than that u =,
lip going to TarsLish, should have :
caught in such a storm; whether !
was meant for Jonah or whether he :
lily believed 1t was and so wrote 1t, !
one will settle for himself. +
Now comes the critical part of the
after, DIR. Abbott SCOTS at the idea J
at Ii man could live three days in the 3
lily of a great fish. From long :
.perience the monsters of the deep q
ing around ships In storms, expect !
g that they will get an abundant 7
cal if the ship is wrecked. The l.
mes of a marine monster were on
hibItion IN this town and seen by I
ousands, and ! think that every one /
saw them will bear witness that II
Q cavity of its stomach must have ],
en- large enough for q man to stay in I
r q day or more, even il the air in 1t i
re not renewed. There is nothing
scientific or improbable in the belief,
At there have been many ''great fish" S
the Mediterranean in any n of
lich there were as many cubic feet of
lpty space as our court room here in G.
IN. a man could in all probability s.
@ in one of them for several days. c
ID if he happened to have a butcher n
life along with him, as nearly every t
IN had, before they had knives and Ii
ks on the table, he would most HI
ely make himself so uncomfortable d
the fish, that he would spew him IL
/ of his month, and it might just as VI
II be near land as anywhere else. Il
Whether the story is the relation of a
fact, or is intended to be such or q
ether It is sp sllegory, embellished n
a made interesting with oriental
agery-on these points there is room n
O difference of opinion. But on h
D poiais there Is no room for differ 10
&c. FIRST, that the whole story as II
its incidents might be literally trne, u
m under the most searching tests of al