The herald., 1897-03-08
UNITY CHURCH
Or. Thomson on Christ's Interpretation Of
Jonah and the Whale

The pastor, ]. S. Thomson, preached q
sermon on "Christ's Interpretation of
Jonah in the Whale" taking the text,
LAS Jonas 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.'-Mat-
thew xii:40.
THE sea monster.in the belly of which
Jonah was, represented hell, hades, ,sheol
for he says that he was in the belly
of hell. He was not dead when he was
in this water dragon, or fish-god, of the
Ninevites, for he offered a spiritual and
beautiful prayer in fine Hebrew poetry
when he was in his symbolic prison
Christ said that his death would re-
semble Jonah's Imprisonment in the
fish-god. Christ was not dead when his
body was in the grave. His spirit re-
turned to God, and went with the gos-
pei to imprisoned spirits, but his soul
remained in his body to prevent morti-
fication. Jonah's prayer in the dragon
god is inspired, and gem of prayer
literature. The expulsion of Jonah from
the fish, and his preaching to the Nine
vites, resemble Christ's resurrection
from the dead, and his preaching to his
disciples and friends. The Ninevites re-
pented at the preaching of Jonah, and
Nineveh was mercifully spared; but
Christ complained that the cities TO
which he had preached did not repent
According to Jonah, repentance is essen
tial to divine forgiveness; but genuine
repentance is sufficient for forgiveness
The Ninevites were not required to Of
fer to God a slain animal or murdered
man. They offered to God only the
proofs of their repentance-sorrow, fast
ing and sackcloth. The book of Jonah
teaches that God is the father and the
friend of all souls and all nations. He
is no respecter of persons. He severely
Ieprimanded Jonah for his wicked in
difference to the fate of the great city
of Nineveh. The book, also, teaches
that God loves and cares for animals
They are his children. He created them
ard breathed the breath of life into their
nostrils. The king of Nineveh pro-
claimed that the animals should fast,
that they should be clothed in sackcloth,
that they should be sorry for their sins,
and that they should pray for mercy;
and the last words of the book show
that God respects the lives of animals
II is the mission of every man to work
out his salvation by the consecrated use
of all his faculties and opportunities,
and the book of Jonah teaches that our
characters must be developed before the
crowns of life can be given to US. Jo-
nah strove to escape from his plain
the mission which had been given to
him. If we slight or neglect any task of
life, we shall have to return and COM
plete our work. 1t is foolishness to at
tempt to run away from duty, for some
time and somewhere God has a fish pre-
pared to arrest us and send us back to
our tasks. The god of the Ninevites was
a fish. The country around ancient Nine
veh needed rains as much as Southern
California does; and the water-dragon
who poured out the rains and blessed
the earth, and without whose aid famine
would destroy man and beast, was de-
voutly worshiped. This god who swal-
lowed Hercules and Jonah at Joppa and
the sun in the Atlantic, would not let Jo-
nah neglect the duty which he owed to
Nineveh. There are some passages in
Jonah that neither unitarian nor trini-
tartan theologians can explain, because
they are ignorant of the philosophy,
symbolism and allegories of the sublime
mysteries of ancient days. The so-call-
ed higher criticism joins the vulgar in
sneering at, and making fun. of what it
does not understand. Christ who was
the master and fulfiller of ancient mys-
teries, recognized and acknowledged the
inner, spiritual. and symbolic sense of
the book of Jonah, and he alluded to this
sense for the benefit of those who have
ears to hear According to Second