v. 25.)

The reader will mark that our Lord referred to the miraculous
preservation of Jonah, and his deliverance, as a historical event,
recorded in the first and second chapters of the book of Jonah, not as a
myth or allegory, but as a historical fact. "_As_ Jonah was three days
and three nights in the whale's belly, _so_ shall the Son of man be
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." _As_ the one,
_so_ the other. As certainly and literally the one, so certainly and
literally the other. If Jonah's preservation and coming forth from the
fish that God had prepared was only a legend, then was Christ's death,
burial, and resurrection a legend. And in consistency with their
critical theory some of the rationalists have reduced them both to
legend. For _as_ one was, _so_ was the other to be. The statement is
plain, definite narrative, from which there is no escape.

Others of the critical school hold to the historical verity of Christ's
burial and resurrection, but assert that he made use of the assumed
legend concerning Jonah, as we might illustrate any fact in history by a
familiar statement from fiction. To such an assumption we reply that our
Lord was dealing with tremendous realities, such as could not be
belittled by turning for support or illustration to a fictitious story.
He quoted from Old Testament history to illustrate and enforce New
Testament truth. On another occasion he said: "_As_ Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even _so_ must the Son of man be lifted up
that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal
life." Shall we hand over to legendary literature the great historical
fact of the twenty-first chapter of Numbers--God's deliverance of the
people from the fiery serpents--by one look at the uplifted brazen
serpent by the hand of Moses? We may as well reduce one passage to
fiction as the other. "_As_ Jonah ... three days and nights, _so_ the
Son of man. _As_ the serpent was lifted up, _so_ the Son of man shall be
lifted up." This comparison has a definite meaning. The apostle uses it
in his Epistle to the Romans, fifth chapter and twelfth verse. "_As_ by
one man sin entered into the world, ... _so_ death passed upon all men
for that all have sinned." As certainly as sin entered into the world by
one man, so certainly it resulted that death passed upon all men. _As_
Christ's remaining in the grave three days was not a fiction, _so_
Jonah's three days and nigh