The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-04-25
IN TIE RELIGIOUS WORLD
What Church Folk Are Think
ing Abont and Doing
MIS- PRESENT PREACHING.
son Tor April 30 is Gods Pity For
The Heaftlen.'' Jonah 3: 1-4:11.
1Rv L T. ELLIS

ronab needs to be rescued from the
whale. The popular mind holds moth
ing concerning the great character eX-
,an, the belief, or disbelief, that he
cas once swallowed by a whale. In
.iaantaIly. it may be remarked that
.hp Bible nowhere says chat Jonah
vas swallowed by a whale: simply be-
cause q whale is the biggest fish with
~ the knowledge of people general
3v his conclusion has beep Jumped
A. Let the book be read Tor itself,
IN its entirety. Every adult owes it
&, his intellectual equipment to know
mis- masterpiece of literature at first
hand. Every teacher should make
SIRE that all his scholars read it for
themselves.
The book may be read in less than
len minutes. Concerning its literary
,alup. consider what the great novel
j1f. charles Reade, has to say: Jonah
is the resost beautiful story ever writ
len in 50 small q compass. It is in
AZ ycr~ae. or 1928 English words.
Now e." 1928 words in our current
narr@u1ea; how far do they carry
you@ Why, ten to one, you get to
nothing at all but chatter, chatter,
chatter. Even in those close models,
Robinson Crusoe,' The Vicar Of
Wakcfeld.' 'Candide,' 'Rasselas,' 1,32s
words do not carry the reader far, Yet
IN the 1923 words of Jonah You have a
wealth Of incident and all the dlaloge
Needed TO carry on the grand and var
led action. o also have character,
not stationary, but growing just as
Jrnah grew, and a plot that would
bear Volumes, yet worked out without
haste or crudity in 1928 words
\ LATHE Geography Lesson.
This ramat story needs TO be
studied in front of q map, IS we'll as
Hith the open book. Bible narratives
have 3 way of sweeping from place to
place. as though the distance were but
i step. They are history. not travel
records. Nevertheless, they are true
10 the geography involved. Thus
.Abram goes from Ur Of the Chaldees.
through Haran. with as little said
about II as the modern s~uburbanlte
saws about his daily jaunt from home
10 Office. SO this brief recital k
Jonah over a large part Of the then
known world.
From the little town Of Gath
hepher. in Ga1ilee, just north OF Naza-
reth. he was called TO he greatest city
VI his time. One is<e1npted to owen
upon the small places which DO busl-
ness with the whole world, Tx Oper-
lin and Holyoke colleges. whose grad
mates may be found III mission work
al over the earth. SO the TERRITORIAL
j. insignificant British Isles have for
nearly a thousand years been the
leading force in the worlds politics
From anywhere one may reach very
where.
Joppa. the modern Jaffa. the apo
of Jerusalem, has a unique place IN
the history Of missions. 1t was from
there that Jonah. the first foreign mis-
sionarF. tried to run away from ms
call. II was there that PAU, the
apostle TO the Gentiles, had his Won
4erful vision. This is the main gate,
nay Of the land that gave n world
lis good news. AS | myself, ana
countless other travellers have done,
Jonah took a ship at Joppa, en- route
from the northern Syrian ports. lie
Was bound for the farthest place he
could rcach-forgetting, in his panic
that there is no near and Tar Win
Jchoyah-the port Of Tarshis:1, in far-
away spain. Al the While he should
have been going in the opposite OIL
~rection. by lane and not by sea, TO the
Great CITY on the bank of the T1Sris.
What About That Fish:
Here We come 10 the part the fish
plays in the narrative. A great storm
overlook the ship. The sailors in terror,
called on their gods. Only Jonah
Jared not; he lay lin the innermost
hold of the ship. sleeping the sleep or
numbness ana rvo exhaustion.
His soul was spent in its mad flSnt
With cod. The sailors decided to cast
lots 10 see who had offended the Ruler
III wind and wave. God, who maketh
the wrath Of man to praise him, caused
TIE lot to fall upon Jonah;\Who there
upon made a clean breast Of his whole
story. IN this crisis, Wearled OF a
vain struggle against Jehovah. his
h"bler nature asserted itself, and ne
S4lendidly offered himself \ sacrIfice
~ the sake Of the ship. This reAte
height in Jonah's life fairly reaches
- y ~ p,rnr+tNpc Alton all nGSS1htG
delay and with greatest reluctance the
Hue sailors surrendered Jonah to the
angry waves.
Now the Creator, whose creative
Work We rcSCrently believe to be neyeI
1'hc, prepared a great fish to sWal-
NV ~, 'ohah.' Here enter the caVllers
iheE say that there is no fish DIG
enough to swallow g man. Let them