Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-11-19
MANY MODERN
JONAHS AROUND
Fail to Size Up Properly as
Shown by Applications For
Rich Charges
WAR IN PALESTIN n E
Country, as in Days of Scrip
ture, Is Center of Whole
Earth; New Crisis?
WAR IN PALESTIN E

The name of Jonah is good for |
smile in almost any company. The |
slang phrase Hes a JONAH" is COM
mon among myriads who do not know |
the first word OF the story of the run )
away prophet. Other masses of peo-
| pie merely have a dim notion that |
Jonah brought bad luck to a ship; !
was thrown overheard and swallowed |
by whale. of which more anon.
Now, by the choice of the Jonah |
story by the International Lesson
Committee, there is put squarely up
| to the millions of members of the |
| Sunday school the realization that !
| there are modern preachers and
teachers who are Jonahs in two
senses In that they cucumber the
gospel ship and run away from their
| divine mission and message. Pur-
posely or not, there are a host of
Christians who are modern Jonahs in
the first two phases of that prophets
experiences. Thank God, there are
also men who represent Jonah in the
third and victorious stage of his
| work.
The thing that is most wrong with
| our day is that our prophets haven't
! gwen us their uttermost message. |
They have declined to declare the
! whole counsel of God. They have
put human comfort before divine
commands. They have sought their
| own ease rather than served their
divine mission. Let us admit it frank |
hot Of I, IL,
the hard places in kingdom service. |
| There are score of applications for
the pulpit of every prosperous church |
with a good salary which becomes va
cant, but the difficult fields go un-
manned. What is this but the case of !
Jonah over again?
Perhaps our present universal
shake-up will be the big fish exper-
fence for our modern Jonahs. Out
| of the travail of the worlds woe we
| may hope to see new prophets emerge. |
All great spirits are suffering heavi-
ness of heart because this collapse
| of civilization" has come to pass while |
the church idled complacentIy along
about petty concerns,
To-day in Old Ninevah
| Nobody has yet attempted to ex-
plain why the currents of world war
| and OF universal human interest are
once again setting in toward Bible |
| lands. Palestine is anew as in the |
days OF Scripture, the center of the
whole earth. Military movements and |
diplomatic struggles converge on the !
scenes of the Bible story. Perhaps |
the great God has designed some new
| revelation of Himself in the ancient |
land of Abraham. Does this converg-
ence of events upon sacred soil por- |
tend new crisis for humanity? Ger
tainly there is a new dramatic rela- |
tion between the daily newspapers and |
the inspired Scripture.
A novelist could scarcely imagine |
a more melodramatic situation than |
that now beheld in the exile of the |
Armenian survivors to the city of |
Mosul; for Mosul is directly across |
the river from the ruins of Ninevah, |
and connected herewith by a bridge |
of boats. Women of Mosul do their |
laundering on the eastern banks of |
the Tigris and spread their clothes to |
dry beneath the ruined walls of the |
ancient capital of Assyria, the city !
of Jonah. This city, to which the |
Children of Israel were later driven |
is now the destination of hunted and |
haFried Armenian survivors.
AS these prosecuted Christians in
1915 look upon the vast ruins of the
once great city, even as 1 myself |
have stood upon the remains of Sen
nacherib's palace and viewed them,
will they recall the ancient proph-
ecies, and remember, that while Gods |
justice may seem slow, it never fails
to run. Ninevah crumbled to dust |
is Gods testimony, that His word is
sure, and that His people will be pre-
served.
Where Jonahs Name Lives
found at Ninevah a startling thing
The great city-and its greatness may
still be seen in the ruined walls trace
able from the heights of the palace
ruins-is now levelled to earth and un-
occupied. The only life in it is one
little village. and this is called "Neby
Yunis," which is the Arabic for
built about a sacred mosque over the
ruins of an ancient church which
contains the reputed site of Jonahs |
tomb. The sheik of the mosque es-
corted me down to see Jonah's grave.
1t is poetic justice that after twenty
eight centuries the name of Jonah
should still persist on the site of his
preaching; while that of Ninevah's
kings is lost.
This is not the place to go into the
question of the historicity of the book
of Jonah. Whether 1t be a literal
record or an allegorical homily; as
is one and the same. No point of
fact named in the story is impossi-
BILE.
That Whale
Mountains of good paper have
been spoiled by absurd dissertations
on the point that a whales mouth is
not large enough to admit the body
of a man, and that, therefore, Jonah
could not have been swallowed by |
the whale. Well, who says he was?
Certainly not the Book of Jonah.
Tho franslat0rs of the King Iamas'
version did fall into the error, in the
one New Testament allusion to Jonah,
of translating the Greek word great
sea monster into the biggest thing ,