fractory prophet was singularly ill-named.
If his cognomen was bestowed on him by his parents, they must have been
greatly deceived as to his character. The proverb says that it is a wise
son that knows his own father; and with the history of Jonah before us,
we may add that it is a wise father who rightly knows his own son.

The solicitude of "the Lord God of the Hebrews" for the welfare of the
Ninevites is to the sceptical mind an extraordinary phenomenon. It is
one of the very few cases in which he shows the slightest concern for
any other people than the Jews. His ordinary practice was to slaughter
them wholesale by pestilence or the sword; and it is therefore very
refreshing to meet with such an instance of his merciful care. For once
he remembers that the rest of Adam's posterity are his children, and
possess a claim on his attention.

Jonah, however, did not share this benign sentiment; and disrelishing
the missionary enterprise assigned him, he "rose up to flee unto
Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." Jehovah does not seem to have
been omnipresent then; that attribute attaches to him only since the
beginning of the Christian era, when he assumed universal sway. Long
before the time of Jonah, another man, the first ever born in this
world, namely Cain, also "went out from the presence of the Lord, and
dwelt in the land of Nod;" probably so called because the Lord was not
quite awake in that locality. No one knows were Nod was situated,
nor can the most learned archaeologists denote the actual position
of Tarshish. These two places would be well worth study. A careful
examination of them would to some extent reveal what went on in those
parts of the world to which God's presence did not extend; and we should
be able to compare their geological and other records with those of
the rest of the world. No doubt some striking differences would be
perceptible.

Jonah determined to voyage by the Joppa and Tarshish line. So he went to
the former port and embarked in one of the Company's ships, after paying
his fare like a man.

Having a perfectly untroubled conscience, and no apprehension of his
coming troubles, Jonah no doubt felt highly elated at having done
the Lord so neatly. Perhaps it was this elation of spirits which
safe-guarded him from sea-sickness. At any rate he went "down into the
sides of the ship," and there slept the sleep of the just. So profound
was his slumber, that it was "quite unbroken" by th