pent of their sins, he did not wish to go. Nineveh was a very old
and a very great city. It was built soon after the flood, but was
still at a high point of glory and wealth in the time of Jonah.

It was a heathen city, but God is the Father of all who live, and cares
for all His children, though they may not know or care for Him.

Perhaps Jonah was afraid, for the people were strong and warlike, and
they would not wish to hear about their wickedness. So Jonah ran away
to the sea shore and took a ship from Joppa to go to Tarshish. He had
not gone far from shore when a storm of wind rose, and the wind tossed
the ship on the great angry waves until it was very nearly wrecked.

The men were afraid, and each prayed to his God, and threw out the
goods they were carrying in order to make the ship lighter.

Where was Jonah? He was below the decks asleep. When the captain
found him he cried out,

"What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that
God will think upon us, that we perish not."

Then they began to wonder if the storm had not been sent upon them for
the wickedness of some one in the ship, and they cast lots to see who
it could be. The lot fell upon Jonah. Then they asked Jonah his name
and country, and of his journey. He told them all about it. Then the
men were more afraid, for they knew that he had tried to run away from
the Lord, and they said,

"What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us?"

"Take me up and cast me forth into the sea," he said, "so shall the sea
be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is
upon you."

It was not easy for the men, who were kind-hearted, to throw into the
sea a man so honest and so willing to die, so they rowed very hard, and
tried their best to reach the shore, but they could not. So they
prayed to Jonah's God to forgive them, and then threw Jonah into the
sea.

But the Lord meant not only to teach Jonah a lesson, but to teach,
through Jonah, a lesson to His children who should live in the ages to
come. He was to make him also a sign of the coming Christ.

When Jonah believed he was sinking down into the green depths of the
sea to die, a great fish, prepared by the Lord, opened his mouth and
took him in. We cannot understand all the ways of God, but we know
that "nothing is impossible with God," and that he was able to keep his
servant alive even in such a strange place as this.

For three day