Pueblo chieftain., 1922-03-05
In the Religious World

thanksgiving for deliverance, Jonah,
,hastened, obeyed the repeated COM
mand to go to Ninsvel; where his
message so aroused the people that
they did repent--to his great ehagrin.
lie even desired to die; for Jonah was
, hot as great as the message lie carried.
He wanted vengeance visited upon
Nineveh, not salvation. There was not
drop of missionary spirit IN the
hard old Hebrew prophet.
New Interest in tho Old Place
Probably not one person in a mil
lion linked up the battling little pless
dispatch of few weeks ago, to the
effect that the Kurds from down Mo-
sui way have raided Van, in Armenia,
with the historic facts that the AS
syrians from the same region three
thousand years ago fought and cap
tured this same old city Of Van. with
its immemorial rock citadel. Nineveh
and Mhsul are almost interchangeable
words; for the latter is the compara-
lively modern city on the western
bank of the Tigris. across the river
from the site of Nincveh. and con-
nccted by bridge of boats.
Women of Mosul nowadays do their
laundering under the crumbled walls
of old Ninevah. As l stood on the
highest point of the palace ruins one
day, and looked around at the clearly
visible remains of the walls of this
once proud capital of Assyria, real
lied that it was "great city, to
which the prophet was sent.
A curious fact is that the only cx-
isting life within the boundaries of
ancient Nineveh is little village per-
ched on a hill which cove,s the re-
puted tomb of the prophet, and is
called "Neby Yunus''. or "Prophet
Jonah that is to say. the very
name of the city of Nineveh has dis
appeared, but the name Of Jonah per-
sists TO this day. The Moslems have
two other shrincs or "tombs'' of
Jonah: one on the Mediterranean
shore just above Sidon, which 7 have
visited: and the other at his birthplace
in Galilee.
Some readers will be turned to the
fascinations of Lavard's "Nincveh :,
or of Barton's Archaeology and the
Bible' by this Lessons illusions to
the excavations that have been made
on the site of the old city. The visits
of the British troops to Mosul, during
the Mesopotamian expedition, also
heightened interest in the place. Mn
cveh will be a station on the Bagdad
railway. and SO accessible to ordinary
travellers. if ever the rival European
powers cease their quarreline in the
Near East and complete the line.
That the walls of the old city were
wide enough to let three chariots drive
abreast which is still trnc of the
present walls of Pekin-conccrns the
modern reader less than the fact that
Nineveh is situated at the crossroads
Of today's problems of the Near East.
British and French. Turk and Arab.
Persian and kurd. Armenian and Nes-
torian-with the Russian looking on
nnticipatingly-all are now ominously
vis-a-vis in tho region of which old
Nineveh is the center. Follow Jonah 5
route today and yon find yourself at
the crux Of international problems.
A Lenten Message
Appropriately, this Lesson falls up
on the first Sunday in Lent. It is a
call to repentance. and a reminder of
the dnuntless outreach of the ycarn-
ing love of God.
Repent ye'" was Jonah. cry to
the hundred and twenty thousand peo-
pie of prideful Nincveh. 1t must have
seemed as incongruous as oldfashioned
faith does today TO over-sophisticated
devotees of materialism. Assyria rul-
cd the world. Kings and nations
irembled at her approach. Little Is