was he, according to this story? 1. As soon as God speaks, he disobeys. This was wilful wickedness. 2. He thinks to flee from the presence of the Lord. This was consummate ignorance. 3. When the storm-the judgment-came, he kept fast asleep. He must have been a most hardened reckless wretch, according to his own account. All the rest were praying, while he, the cause of all the trouble, lay fast asleep. True, he tells us, v. 9, that he feared the Lord, but it is no uncommon thing for piety to be linked with depravity. Jonah, according to the story, caused the poor mariners a world of anxiety and trouble. He also caused them the loss of their cargo. Yet he shows no pity for them. But why should he? He was an orthodox Jew; they were but Pagans. He even allowed them to cast lots to find out the guilty cause of the storm, instead of making an honest confession. I suppose he would have allowed one of the innocent mariners to be thrown overboard and drowned if the lot had happened to fall on one of them. The men rowed hard to save Jonah, even after they had found he was the guilty one. Dear good souls; what a contrast between good Pagan humanity and the Jewish prophet's villany. 4. The men, it is said, were exceedingly afraid when they heard of God. But why should they be afraid when Jonah was not? If they were so soon afraid, how much more susceptible of good they were than he? How much fitter for prophets? Besides, what had they done to make them fear? In short, all looks like a silly attempt to magnify the Hebrews and their God, at the expense of the poor benighted Pagans. And the writer had not sense enough, after all, to make out a plausible case. 5. And what shall we say about the wickedness of Nineveh coming up before God? Is not every thing always before him? 6. But what was this wickedness, to render such an extraordinary mission necessary? The story gives no answer. All is left in the dark. What likelihood is there that one man, a stranger, should arouse, alarm, all the people of so great a city? The idea is absurd! Jesus preached three years to the people of Jerusalem, and worked many miracles, it is said, without bringing them to repentance. And shall we believe that this ignorant, heartless, unaccredited stranger, all filthy and sodden from the sto mach of the fish, should instantly convert a city fifty times its size? How would such a prophet, so conditioned, be likely to fare now in Philadelphia or New York-in London, Rome, or Paris? Just imagine some wild Indian, or some tame Chinaman, coming all besmeared, from the belly of a fish, to tell those cities that in forty days they would be overthrown; who would regard the mad cry? They would seize the modern maniac with a pair of tongs, and take him to prison or to an asylum; and tumble him into a bath. 7. In what language did Jonah preach? Did he understand the language of Nineveh? Or did he preach in Hebrew? 8. No matter; Jonah preached, and the effect was terrible. The King ordered a fast. He published a decree that neither man nor beast, nor herd, nor flock, should have either food or water, but that both man and beast should cry mightily to God. The idea of the beasts crying to God, is something new. However, keeping them without food and water would be a very likely method to make them cry either to God or to somebody else, and to cry mightily. This is the first protracted meeting we read of in which beasts and cattle of various kinds engaged in prayer; but not the last, if all we have read of modern protracted meetings be true. And the beasts, and herds, and flocks, were to be covered with sackcloth too! This beats all. And yet, since the days of Baalam, it has been customary, according to sacred and ecclesiastical history, for asses and mules both to preach and put on good woolen clothing. And many of them wear black cloth, if not sackcloth, to this day. 9. It is also worthy of remark that Jonah's prophecy did not prove true. Yet it was unconditional. And Jonah expected it to be fulfilled. He understood it himself literally, according to the story, and was vexed it was not so fulfilled. He was angry with God, and said he did well,had a right,-to be angry. And I think he had. God deceived him, if the account be correct. Yet Jonah says he expected as much, and says that this was the reason why he refused to come to Nineveh at first, and fled to Tarshish. Then why should he be so grievously disappointed? And why did he conceal his doubts as to the veracity of God and the truth of his prophecy from the Ninevites. Everything in the story is full of mystery. God deceived Jonah, and Jonah deceived the Ninevites; then God and Jonah are no sooner together alone than they are contending with each other. 10. Then look at the heartlessness of this prophet. He is vexed, to madness, that the people are saved, though saved on their repentance, and through his preaching too. What did the fury want? Plunder? Gold and silver? Was this the man to be sent to rebuke others? 11. Then see what pains God takes to put Jonah right. He creates a gourd, and a worm, and sends a miraculous wind, all to convince the prophet that he ought not to get so much out of temper. But nothing seems to have any effect on the surly prophet. God has a hundred times more trouble with his prophet than with all the inhabitants of Nineveh, the cattle and herds included. Them he could manage; but nothing seemed to have any good effect on Jonah. On the whole, this story is one of the most absurd and monstrous fables to be found on earth. Yet such is the ignorance of Christians, so terribly are their minds perverted by a religious education, that with them it passes for a divine revelation. Yet even these Christians would reject such a story, if told them on any other authority than the Bible. There was some such story published in the newspapers some time ago. A carpenter on board a ship, fell sick and died at sea, and was put into a sack with a grindstone and buried in the water. His son, who was on board, was so distressed for the loss of his father, that he threw himself overboard and was drowned. Some days after, while the ship was becalmed, the crew were fishing, when they caught a big old shark, and hauled him on deck. When they proceeded to open the monster, they heard a singular noise inside the fish, and, on reaching his interior, they found the carpenter and his son busy at the grindstone. The shark had swallowed them both, and the father, on his son reaching him, had come to life; and the two, not liking their accommodations, had rigged up the grind stone, and set to work to sharpen their knives, to cut their way out. This is even a more miraculous story than that of Jonah and the whale; yet Christians don't believe it, because it is not in the Bible. If the Bible had told it, it would have been glorious. Some, however, are beginning to doubt the truth of the Old Testament, and to limit their faith to the New. Thus the Rev. Samuel Aaron, when he agreed to debate with me, refused to defend the Old Testament, he would answer for the New alone. But this was foolish. The New is inseparable from the Old. It makes itself answerable for the Old. It makes itself answerable for this story of Jonah and the whale. Jesus speaks of it as true, saying, "As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the bowels of the earth." But, strange to say, the son of man, according to the Gospel, was not three days and three nights, but only one day and two nights in the bowels of the earth. For he was buried on Friday evening, and was up by daylight on Sunday morning. The whole Bible abounds with falsehoods and follies, with contradictions and absurdities.. But enough. Perhaps we ought to apologise for spending so much time in exposing these childish fictions. And yet the credulity of the multitude seems to render it necessary. Perhaps, too, we ought to apologise for the manner in which we have spoken. And yet, as Buckle observes, argument alone is not sufficient to cure some forms of credulity; a tincture of ridicule is necessary. We have no desire, however, to give believers unnecessary pain. If we could cure their folly, without wounding their feelings, we would gladly do it, but it seems impossible. We have no ill feeling towards Christians; why should we? We were Christians ourselves in our earlier days. Nor do we blame them for believing these impossible stories, for we once believed them ourselves. Their credulity is not their fault, but their misfortune; and the only question should be, how best it can be cured. We have done our best for its cure, and we hope the results will be satisfactory. Meanwhile, let us all devote ourselves to the study of nature, to the acquisition of science, to the cultivation of virtue, and to the improvement and happiness of our race. Men are ignorant; let us give them instruction. Some are vicious; let us seek their reformation. Many are suffering; let us alleviate their sorrows. Let us especially endeavor to be examples of that intellectual and moral excellence which we wish to behold in others. And while we speak of patriotism and philanthropy, of our duty to our country and to our race, let us not forget the duties we owe to our families. Let us cherish our home affections. Let us train our children wisely, and fit them for an honorable, a happy and a useful life. Let us, by all the gentleness and tenderness of love, and by all the attentions that affection can devise, endeavor to make cheerful and joyous the hearts of our wives. Let us consecrate our homes to purity and bliss, and worship in those temples, the lawful idols of our souls, our living household gods. Here let us present our costliest offerings. Here let us sing our sweetest songs. Here let music delight with her choicest strains, and enrapture with her divinest melodies. Hither let science and art and literature bring their treasures, and innocent mirth her smiles and jollity. Let all that earth can give, let all that life can enjoy, be lavished on loving, trusting and selfsacrificing woman, and on her children. "Woman may err-Woman may give her mind Their love shines brightest; in the perilous hour Copies of Mr. Barker's Tracts mailed free of postage on receipt F. L. TAYLOR, Box 1764 P. O., Philadelphia. . |