made a large gourd grow on the spot, to screen him from the scorching heat of the sun. Jonah was exceedingly rejoiced. But when the morning came, a worm had eaten of the gourd, so that it withered, and once again the prophet saw cause for complaint and repining. Physical suffering was now added to mental annoyance. The dry east-wind blew remorselessly over his unprotected head; but fiercer than the blazing sun raged within him the mingled passions of anger and mortified pride. He repeated with greater vehemence than before, that it was better for him to die than to live; and when the Divine voice asked him if he did well to be angry about the gourd, he answered, that he did well to be angry, ‘even unto death.'

These are the last words which are recorded from the lips of the fretful prophet, and we leave him sitting in moody gloom, brooding with vexation over that happiness in which he took no part.

But the Book does not end with this sad description of human failings; it has another lesson to teach besides the impotence of man, the narrow limits which encircle his sympathies, and the selfishness which arouses his passions. It terminates with the reverse side of the picture, and presents, with force and simplicity, an example of God's all-pervading goodness. No anger iş discernible in the last Divine reproof, and the mercy which had been extended to the erring Ninevites was not withheld from the ungenerous Hebrew. God said to him, 'Thou hast had pity on the gourd for which thou hast not laboured, and which thou didst not make grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night; and should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixty thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle ?'

It is most probable that this episode in the life of Jonah

was treasured for many generations in the retentive memory of the people, till an able writer, desirous to perpetuate the lofty truths and moral lessons it implies, wrote it down in its present form. The language bears unmistakable traces of a later age, and points to a time contemporary with, if not later than, the Babylonian exile. The style is so simple, and so free from all obscurity, that it would be unwarrantable to search for hidden explanations of the story. The supposition of an allegorical or typical meaning underlying the account of miraculous occurrences is contrary to the spirit of the work, which clearly aims at impressing the all-pervading power and the inexhaustible long-suffering of God. This lesson would be weakened if Jonah's supernatural deliverance were explained away by the assumption of a vision or a dream. As a miracle it had probably been cherished by the people; as such it was accepted by the author; and as such it enhanced the interest of his narrative, and intensified the contrast between Divine omnipotence and human fallibility.

Apart from its leading ideas, the Book of Jonah bears comparison, in other points also, with some of the most sublime productions of prophecy; for it exhibits a largeness of spirit peculiar to the greatest of the sacred writers. Narrow minds often considered the chosen people alone as worthy of Divine favour, and believed that the heathens were destined to destruction, and their land to desolation. But the more comprehensive sympathies of the great prophets diffused the light and the blessing of a purer faith, extending over all nations alike. The author of the Book of Jonah was even more impartial in his appreciation of an alien people. The plain and unadorned facts he narrates present many contrasts unfavourable to his own nation. The pagan crew readily bow down before the supreme will of a God whom they have not been taught

to revere, while the Hebrew prophet evades and defies His command. The childlike trust of the Ninevites, their humility and speedy repentance, stand out in marked. opposition to the unconquerable stubbornness which the Jews evinced during long generations. The heathens are treated with generosity; far from being held up to scorn, or looked upon as objects of God's wrath, they appear no less than the Hebrews as recipients of His benefits and His protection. There breathes throughout the Book a spirit of toleration rarely surpassed in any religious work. Therefore, the Book of Jonah, though simple and unpretending in language, occupies a worthy place by the side of grander and more ambitious writings. Few of them illustrate with so much vigour the efficacy of ready obedience and humble repentance; few of them represent so happily the comforting side of religion; and few have brought to our human comprehension so strongly as the Book of Jonah the God of Israel as a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenting of evil,' as a God showing His omnipotence not by the terror of His punishments, but by His love and forgiveness.

III. AMOS (790).

The reign of Jeroboam II. (825-784) was of particular importance in the history of the empire of Israel, on account of the many influences then at work in preparing subsequent calamities. For at that period, the people found more delight in the fantastic and sensual rights of neighbouring idolaters than in the stern and simple creed of their ancestors. Indifference to their religion and worldly ambition combined to taint every class of the community, not excepting the sacred order of the priesthood. Still the voice of truth could not be checked, and it rose with

increased force after every attempt that was made to silence it. Among the contending factions that were striving only for aggrandisement and wealth, the figure of Isaiah, the statesman and prophet, stood out in strong relief; somewhat earlier, the priesthood, though as a body perverted either by bigotry or callousness, had sent forth Joel armed with a loftier religion than any which public teachers had been wont to proclaim; and almost at the same period, the desire of reforming the people and averting their doom kindled the heart of a representative of a much humbler class. Whilst multitudes were listening in the gates and public places of Jerusalem to the inspiriting orations of renowned prophets, Amos, far removed from those busy scenes, was enrolled among the faithful servants of God.

Belonging to the tribe of Judah, and born at Tekoa, in the vicinity of Bethlehem, he was a contemporary of the prophets Joel and Hosea, and lived during the reigns of Uzziah and Jeroboam II. The moral corruption and frivolity so conspicuous at the court of the latter king, the want of justice and charity prevailing among the great and powerful, the cries of the oppressed extending far beyond the city gates, reached Amos in his simple life of seclusion, and called him to action. Unlike many of his great fellowworkers, he did not belong to a learned or distinguished caste, but was an untutored herdsman. Nature, his teacher and companion, imprinted on him her own freshness and vigour, and his love of her marvels and beauties was fostered by his pastoral occupations. While tending his flocks on the distant mountains, the echoes of men's strife and turmoil reached him with a stranger and more thrilling sound; and falling upon a mind of the greatest moral sensibility, they called forth in him a longing to abandon the tranquillity of his retired life, to move in the great world, and to battle against its follies and sins. He, therefore,

left his native place, and went to the large and important town of Beth-el, in the kingdom of Israel, determined to lift up his voice where warning and reproof were so urgently needed.

But like many other Hebrew teachers, he did not limit his prophecies to his own people. The neighbouring countries were as notorious for their cruelty and rapine, as the Israelites for their heedlessness and idolatry; and the prophet deemed it his duty to announce to them the day of Divine vengeance. It was on account of pitiless and revengeful treatment of conquered enemies that the proud commonwealth of Damascus and the principal Philistine towns, as Gaza, Ashdod, and Ashkelon, were to suffer the misery which they had themselves inflicted; Tyre should be laid low for her faithlessness; and a terrible doom awaited the Ammonites and the Edomites, because they had shown mercy to no one.

Having declared the fate of these once triumphant communities, the prophet addressed himself to his own countrymen, in language more explicit and even more decided; for their transgressions had fearfully accumulated. 'They sell,' he exclaimed, 'the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes.' They humiliated the poor, persecuted the virtuous, and profaned, by licentious revelries, the House of that God who had overwhelmed them with favours, and had humbled their powerful enemies; and with a vivid recollection of the familiar scenes he had recently left, the prophet indignantly burst forth: Thus says the Lord, I have annihilated the Amorite before them; his height was like the height of the cedar, and he was strong like the oaks, yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath. And I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and also led you forty years through the wilderness, to possess the land of the Amorite. And I raised up many of your sons for prophets, and many of