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enriched the disciples in their knowledge of Christ. The other was the storm which fell on the Armada, and drove it asunder, and dashed it on wild rocks-an ill wind, but a wind which saved our country, and wrought incalculable good for Europe.

AGAIN, our lesson shows us this, that even a viper

may help on the Gospel. We all know the story of the viper. It is one of the Bible scenes we never forget. We see the creature torpid in the brushwood; we watch it stirring as the heat of the fire gets at it; and thenirritated—it grips the apostle's hand, and is shaken off into the fire. You see that if Paul had let others tend the fire, he would have escaped this sudden peril. But it is always nobler to run the risk of vipers, than to sit idle and let others do the work. And then what happened? Every eye was fixed on Paul. He came to his own rightful place at once. They thought that he was a murderer; then that he was a god. The captain and mate and crew took a second place. Paul would be spoken of that night in a hundred cottages, and before morning Publius would know of him. The viper was the bell before the sermon. It stirred up interest and centred it on Paul. He would not have to wait for an audience now when he began (through an interpreter) to preach. Note then that even poisonous creatures may be used to advance the message of Christ Jesus. It is a great thing to believe that we serve a Lord who can turn even a snake into an argument. No man ever gave himself up to what was highest without stirring up the venom in the firewood; but as the world looks back upon these noble lives, it sees that all things were working for their good.

THEN lastly, the great lesson of these verses is the sure reward that follows a kindly welcome. We have all heard of the Cornish wreckers, and of the heart

less cruelty that characterised them. A wreck was an act of God, not to be interfered with, and strange stories are told of how men were left to die. Such wreckers were true barbarians (though they called themselves Christians), and no blessing ever followed their vile gains. How different is this scene at Malta! The islanders gave the shipwrecked a kind welcome; they did it instinctively, looking for no reward. But when their fevered were cured and their diseased were healed, they found they had got far more than they gave. No generous welcome is ever thrown away. Kindnesses, not less than curses, come home to roost. all the passage, is the golden text, 'Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares' (Heb. xiii. 2).

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FIFTY-SECOND SUNDAY

Morning

JONAH AT NINEVEH

Passages to be read : Jonah iii. 1-10; iv. I-II.

SECOND time the command came to Jonah to go to the great city of Nineveh and cry against it. When the second call came, Jonah was a wiser man. He had learned how impossible it was to fly from God. The storm, and the falling of the lot on him, and the miraculous saving of his life thereafter, had taught him the folly of trying to disobey. On this occasion, then, Jonah arose. He set his face towards Assyria. And soon there rose up on the horizon the palaces and the towers and the walls of Nineveh; it was a city of unrivalled wealth and splendour. But it is not of the palaces we read here. Jonah 'entered into the city a day's journey.' We see him wandering through interminable streets, where human life is massed and dense and teeming; and always, down one street and up another, the same cry of doom is on his lips, 'Forty more days and Nineveh shall perish.' Repetition, says the Latin proverb, is the mother of studies. It is also the mother of powerful impressions. There was something haunting in the ceaseless cry of this alien prophet of the unknown God. Men woke at night with it ringing in their ears. Mothers stopped singing and shuddered when they heard it. It echoed from the cottage to the palace and touched the heart of the king upon the

throne.

Jonah.

to us.

Doubtless the way had been prepared for Conscience had been wakened in ways unknown This voice was the outward and visible seal of a wrath that somehow had been recognised as imminent. It issued in immediate repentance. From king to cottager they turned from their evil way (v. 10), with all the Oriental trappings of heart-sorrow (v. 8). And God repented of the evil and He did it not (v. 10).

Now NOW it shows how far Jonah was from having a heavenly mind, that he was very angry at God's mercy. If there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, how exultant the joy must be when a vast city turns! And a vast city here has turned to God, and all the ranks and choirs of heaven are jubilant; yet Jonah, heaven's prophet, is intensely angry. It teaches us that a man may be called to preach, yet may often miss the spirit of his summons. Part of the anger of Jonah sprang from this, that the word he had uttered would not be fulfilled. He feared lest men should reckon him a lying prophet, because the cloud did not break in beating rain. But deeper still lay the irritating thought that the mercy of God should be lavished on the heathen (iv. 2). It was this squandering of covenanted kindness that angered the typical Jew like Jonah. So Jonah sulked while the angels in glory sang. He left the city and built his wattled booth, and sat there hoping against hope for judgment. And it was there God taught His foolish child a lesson that has made all Christendom indebted to his sulks. A gourd sprang up and sheltered the prophet's booth. It was very pleasant to brood in its cool shadow. But when the sun in its fiery splendour rose at the morrow's dawn, the gourd had shrivelled and the shade was gone. And then there blew a silent (v. 8, margin) but searching wind-how the broad leaves would have sheltered him from that! Yet I cannot help loving Jonah when I find that personal discomfort did not fill

all his heart. He had eyes for the swift tragedy of that poor herb. It perplexed him that it should flourish just to perish. It was inscrutable that it should be clothed with glory and come to nothingness all in a night. And it was then that God raised the eyes of His cross child to Nineveh, and said, 'Do you understand My pity now'? 'You did not labour for that herb-only a gourd !-yet when it perished were you not sorry for it? Think of My sorrow if My hand of judgment had had to slay the multitudes of Nineveh.' And there, abruptly, the book of Jonah closes. God's word leaves much to the imagination. But Jonah would never see a gourd again, or a mountain-blossom nipped by sudden frost, but he would remember that the love of God is broader than the measures of mankind.

THERE are three secondary lessons in these chapters; and first, there is strong faith in unexpected places. We know how slow the Jews were to believe. We know how prone they were to despise the prophets. And if they gave a cold welcome to God's speaker, how harsh a reception might we expect in Nineveh! Yet Nineveh listened to the voice of God; and the Syro-Phoenician would not be gainsaid; and it was of a pagan officer that Jesus said that He had not found such great faith, no, not in Israel. Sometimes it is in the unlikeliest of homes that we find the deepest and finest heart-religion. Sometimes it is the last boy in the family whom we had hopes for, who comes out and out on the side of Jesus Christ. We should never despair. We should never cease to watch. We should be hopeful in the most hopeless cases. When Jerusalem, with its Temple and altars is deaf, unlikely Nineveh may have an ear to hear.

NEXT, no man is so angry as the man who is in the wrong. That proverb is exemplified in Jonah. Can we give other instances from Scripture that confirm the

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