The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1904-05-13
4 SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELceUENr-olscoUEss EMITTED
"JoNAh'S SEA exPERENcEsn i
The Rev. Dr. John X. Naekay shows
How Human Effort and Human In-
nuence wither Quickly Under sarcasm
Jonah Has suffered in This wsy.


morning on The significance Of Jonah's
Sea Experience" The ext was from
Jonah i:l2 DR. Mackay said:
One Of the suress WAYS 10 ruin any cause
is 10 be able successfully 10 heap ridicule
upon II. Make il ridiculous and you have
rulneo It, As soon as II becomes the butt
OF common talk and the standing joke for
the funny column OF the newspaper its
power Is gone, Its influence sealed. And
so soon as an individual becomes the centre
OF a communitys Jokes and sneers hls IN
huence Is gone. Human effort and intiu-
ence wither more quickly under sarcasm
and ridlcule than in any other way. In
this way many a good cause and many a
good person has suffered al the hands of
persons who have never seriously tried 70
understand the cause or the person. In
this way many a great human neart has
been placed upon its Calvary and made 10
bleed and suffer the keenost agony. In this
way many a noble, sincere, sensitive soul
i going through its Gethsemane or Is be-
ing nailed 10 its cross on this very Sabbath
dav
This is how I believe the work and life
OF Jonah have suffered Unthinkingly. un-
teellnglv, saTcastlcally. people have asso-
clated Jonah with 4 whale, and a Joke be-
ing the easiest and cheapest way of show.
ing wisdom they have exhausted all their
wisdom there.
We cannot keep too often reminding
ourselves that, we shall continue 10 miss
the true meaning OF the Bible and most Of
Its great teaching unless we remember that
every incident mentioned in the Old Tes-
lament gives not only the story o.. some
perscn, with all the local coloring sur
rounding him as a man and an individual.
but also and more important. that there Is
a great world truth 10 be revealed, and
this individual. with his local coloring, mas
Il ba l,.i
10 reveal and teach that truth. And,
therefore, the great Bible difficulties. with
so many. have arisen because they have
been satisfied to centre all their thought
and interest on the individual and ms To-
cal details and IN this way have missed
the great truth intended 10 be taught-a
truth SO great that were il grasped il
would then become a key by which 10
open up and understand the incident it.
self.
This is how Jonah has suffered at our
hands. And our task is now in a few
words 10 take another look at Jonah--to
try and see him In the light OF the great
truth intended TO be taught and see if
thereby We can the better understand the
story itself.
Bethink yourselves back into the earlier
stages and gradual growth of the human
race. To them as TO Us there came prob.
lens 20 be solved. We have the benefit Of
their efforts and can profit by them in our
problems But the further back we go the
less and less did they have to help them
solve their problems Yet they felt the full
force Of each one and mad TO make an ef.
fort OF some sort TO solve it. The problem
was not always the same. Sometimes il
was social, sometimes IL was physical
sometimes IL was national, sometimes 10
was intellectual. sometimes it was moral,
II II took a religious phase il was either
national or moral or intellectual. Men felt
the presence OF God impinging upon them.
They have forced themselves TO formulate
certain conceptions about Him. Then they
found that certain of their experiences did
not agree with these conceptions OF God
And there their difficulties arose This is
the meaning of the book of Jonah Who
ever wrote the book felt the difficulty of a
great intellectual and national problem
This led him 10 take the story Of the Pro
phet Jonah, that, having thrown it into a
paraboic form. he might the better
through ii explain 10 the people what he
thought was Gods own solution of this
particular problem.
What. then, was that difficulty. that
problem? The people of Israel believed
that tho love and sympathy of God were
confined 10 themselves. His care. His IA
vor. Ills blessings were for them and them
alone. God was their God and all the rest
Of the world was outside There was hut
one human family that had divine roa-
tlonship, and that was Jewish. Quite true
there were other nations, and they had 70
live, bat they had to live without God He
did not belong 10 them. they had no claim
upon Him. That was the real traditional
Jewish feeling.
But few people were growing up who
had n newer and trucr conception Of Csld.
and broader outlook upon man. One OF
them felt he would like to relieve this mar
row, limited wrong conception of God
This led him to write the book. and in
doing so he took Jonah as the representa-
tive of the old narrow Jewish idea. and
showed how Jonah's ideas became broad
cnCd, and thus taught the broad, full love
of God Tor all men-taught not only the
ClemcnCy Of God, but also that He loves all
men, There. then. is the national prob
lem. TO teach that God - God OF all men
and loves them; and the intellectual prob
lem, 90 teach the Jewish people and all
other people that God is everywhere. Let
as see, then how this double sided prob
lem was solved and satisfactorily illus
tratcd IN Jonah's eXperIences-that God is
everywhere and that God loves all men
Jonah did not believe this God was not
everywhere as Jehovah. This Jonah had
been taught and this he believed. This was
the very atmosphere in which he lived and
bdhyhood's hsplng his boyhood's teaching
and ms manhood's patriotism. But one
day there broke into his mind a new
thought: why should not God care for
the people IN that other city Just as well
as He does for the people IN this ctyy
Why should Jerusalem be any more ia
vored than Ninevehg The people are not
Jews, but why should God not care for
them Just az well as If they were Jews
should n ~ "A 10 gFH ~
mankind stronger than all the limits OF
national and family prejudice Why not"
That thought came 20 Jonah like a voice
which seemed 20 say 10 him, Then. Jonah,
why don't you 20 and tell them about
Cod Why don't you 20 and tell them
they may have Gods favor az well as other
people This thought so burned itself
into Jonah's mind and heart that he ielt
10 must be Gods viii also 90 bless other
people beside Jews. But Jonah being a
dyCdIn-the-wool jew could not tolerate
that He therefore sand Now. IL ! get
out Of the country for a while this thought
viii leave me, Tor God h. not everywhere
10 press i upon M as He j. IN Israeli
He did not care very much where he went
Do only he could get away from that voice
The voice troubled him. He felt that
voice was calling MN 20 do something he
was sure was right but be- did not wish 10
do 10. This j. the sphere IN which We so
often are Jonahs 1ha. voice we have al.
ways heard, and like Jonah we have tried
10 stifo u. Yea, we get just as angry W.
God and our friends when they dare 20
keep suggesting 70 10 Us; we do not want
90 hear about the right when we don't
want % do It. Jonah, therefore, fed. He
did not care where. That ship going TO
Tarshish was opportune. IL made him de-
eide shat the safest place for him would be
at sea. God was never known 20 have spo-
ken to a jew on the sea And 80 now Jo-