River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1908-11-19

-z-==--=-=-=--- and prophesied in
the days of Jeroboam H.
"a. Every other explanation is
founded upon unbelief, and is an at
tempt to eliminate Almighty God by
getting rid of the miraculous. The
pagans were the first to ridicule this
story of Jonah and the fish, and some
unbelieving Christians have echoed
their gibes.
(5) Our Lord Jesus Christ calls the
experience of Jonah a sign or miracle.
| the Ninevites so shall also the Son of
Man be to this generation" Jonah in
| his deliverance and preaching was
miracle to the Ninevites, as Jesus was
to the people among whom he lived,
| and one was as real as the other.
| Jesus Spoke of Jonah.
CO. Jesus refers to the work OF
Jonah as historic. "The men of Nine
veh," He said, shall rise up in the
| judgment with this generation and
shall condemn it, for they tepented at
the preaching of Jonah" The great
event of the book, which is the great
est miracle in it, the repentance of the
pagan city at the preaching of Jonah,
| is declared by our Lord to have been a
| fact, and he warns the people of his
generation against the judgment to
come, when these penitent Ninevites
shall rise up to condemn them.
| CD 1t takes less credulity to believe
| in the miracles of the book than in
| the explanations which unbelievers
| give in order to get rid of the miracu-
lous When one has accepted the
creed of Capt Phillips, spoken on
board the Texas in the harbor of San
tiago, II believe in the Father AL
mighty no difficulties will stagger
his faith, and if he does not believe in
the Father Almighty no explanation
will satisfy his unbelief.
Extent of Gods Power.
The Bible declares that ''the Lord
had prepared a great fish to swallow
I'D Jonah" There is nothing said Of
the method by which God prepared the
fish. He could have made the fish of
such pee liar structure that Jonah
might have been accommodated on the
inside with ample room and sufficient
| air, so that the miracle would have
been needed only in the construction
| of the fish; all the rest would have
been natural O'lnipotence might have
| given Jonah Ltateroom and all the
conveniences OF ocean travel. Men
with modern scientific knowledge
make such fish out of iron, put human
beings in them and send them to the
bottom of the sea, where they can re-
main for quite while and come again
to the surface without injury. What
| man has almost done with mechanical
appliances surely our Creator God
| could do through vital forces. Science
| is in danger of claiming all the
miracles, and scientific men who boast
of the wonders in the progress of
| modern civilization should not sheer
at the workings Of the God whose laws
| they must obey in order to produce
any result. 4
| If Almighty God had needed fish
| big enough to swallow not only Jonah
but the crew and the ship on which he
was sailing he was equal to the emer-
gency of making such fish and pre-
| serving both ship and crew under the,
| water for three days. Is it too much
| to say that such a God, if he wishedl
| to do it, could make an animal large
| enough to swallow the globe and fly
| through space with it? We are pur-
| posely extravagant in language in orr
| der that you may exalt the Omnipotent
| God let nunv man stand dumb be-
| fore him. Let human weakness not
| presume to measure his power nor
| human wisdom to compass his knowl-
| edge.
| FoIIy of Some Christians.
| We expect atheists and infidels to-
| deny this story for the one does not
| believe in God at all and the other
does not believe the Bible. But for
the Christian to say that his God could
| not perform such a miracle after he
has read the first chapter of Genesis
and the continuous records OF his
wonder working is glazing incon-
sistency. For him to say that God
would not work such miracle is GER
| tainly to be wise beyond what is writ
ten. And to. deny the fact because
| we cannot understand how it was
| done is to deny more than half the
| facts of the natural world which we
daily accept, though they are shroLd-
| ed in mystery just as great.