The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1904-05-11
JONAH'S SEA EXPERIENCES
Bright Sunday Sermon By Rev. DR..
John r. Mackey.
How Human Effort and Human Influence Wlther
Quickly Under Sarcasm.

Dyterldh Ihurcn mere, preached sunday
Sea Experience The text was from
Jonah i:l2 DIR, Mackay said
One OF the snrest ways to ruin any cause
is to be abe. successfully to heap ridicule
upon it. Make it ridiculous and you have
ruined 1t. As soon as it 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
ef community's Jokes and sncers his in-
fuence is gone. Human effort and inhu-
ence wither more quickly under sarcasm
and rdicuie than in any other way. In
this way many a good cause and many
good person has suffered at the hands of
persons who have never seriously tried tc
understand the cause or the person. In
this way many great human neart has
been placed upon its Calvary and made to
bleed and suffer the keenest agony In this
way many noble, sincere, sensitive soul
IL going through its Gethsemane or is be.
ing nailed to its cross on this very Sabbath
day.
This is how I believe the work and life
of Jonah have suffered Cnthinlng!y, un.
feelingiy, sarcastlcaliy. people have asso.
ciated Jonah with 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
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 OF some
person, with all the local coloring sur
rounding him as man and an individual,
but also and more important. that there il
a great world truth to be revealed, and
this individual, with his local coloring, has
been chosen As the medium through which
to 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 his To-
cal details, and in this way have missed
the great truth intended to be taught--a
truth so great that were it grasped it
would then become a key by which to
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 to take another look at Jonah-to
try and see him in the light of the great
truth intended to be taught and see il
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.
Nems to 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 it
was social, sometimes it was physical,
sometimes 1T was national, sometimes it
was intellectual, sometimes it was moral
III 1t took religious phase it 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 ia
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 to take the story of the Pro.
phet Jonah, that, having thrown it into
parabolic form, he might the better
through 1t explain to 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 the love and sympathy Of God were
conhned to themselves. His care, His fa-
vor, His blessings were for them and them
alone. God was their God and all the rest
OF the world was outside. There was but
one human family that had a divine rela.
tlonship, and that was Jewish. Quite true,
there were other nations, and they had to
live, but they had to live without God. He
did not belong to them, they had no claim
upon Him: That was the real traditional
Jewish feeling.
But few people were growing up who
had newer and truer conception OF God,
and broader outlook upon man. One Of
them telt 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
ened and thus taught the broad, full love
OF God TOR all men-taught not only the
.cemency OF God, but also that He loves all
men. There, then, is the national prob.
lem, to teach that God is God of all men
and loves them; and the intellectual prob.
lem, TO teach the Jewish people and all
other people that God is everywhere. Let
us see, then, how this double sided prob
lem was solved and satisfactorily illus
trated IN Jonah's experiepces-that God is
.eygrywhere and that God loves ali men.
pJonah did not ,bslieve this; God was not
everywhere as Jehovah; This Jonah had
the very atmosphere in which he lived and
moved and had his, being. This was his
,babyhood's lisping. his boyhood's teaching
and his manhood's patriotism But one
day there broke into his mind a new
thought; why should not GOD care for
gNOplc III ludI OLntT city JUST NsAl
as, as He does for the people in this city?
why. should Jerusalem be any more fa-
Nored than Nineveh? The people are not
Jews, but why should God not care for
them just as well as if they were Jews?
Mhy SHOULD there not be Q brotherhood of
mankind stronger than all the limits of
national and family prejudice? Why not"
1hat thought came to Jonah like a voice
which seemed to say to him, "Then, Jonah,
why don't you 40 and tell them about
GodE Why don't You go and tell them
they may have Gods favor as well as other
people" This thought so burned itself
into Jonah's mind and heart that he felt
1t must be Gods will also to bless other
people beside Jews. But Jonah being a
dyed-in.the-wool jew could not tolerate
that. He therefore said, "Now. if | get
out OF the country for while this thought
will leave me, for God is not everywhere
70 press it upon me as He is in Israel"
He did not care very much where he went
only he could get away from that voice.
The voice troubled him.. He felt that
voice was calling him to do something he
was sure was right, but he did not wish to
do 1t. This is the sphere in which we so
often are Jonahs That voice we have al.
ways heard, and like Jonah we have tried
TO stihe it. Yea, we get just as angry with
God and our friends when they dare to
keep suggesting it to us; we do not want
TO hear about the right when we don't
want to do it. Jonah, therefore. fed. He
did not care where. That ship going to
Iarshlsh was opportune. 1t made him de.
oide that the safest place for him would be