He leaves all his
deliverance to God, contenting himself with this, that spite of all
his pains and pangs, he will still look towards His holy temple.
And here, shipmates, is true and faithful repentance;
not clamorous for pardon, but grateful for punishment.
And how pleasing to God was this conduct in Jonah, is shown
in the eventual deliverance of him from the sea and the whale.
Shipmates, I do not place Jonah before you to be copied for his
sin but I do place him before you as a model for repentance.
Sin not; but if you do, take heed to repent of it like Jonah."
While he was speaking these words, the howling of the shrieking,
slanting storm without seemed to add new power to the preacher, who,
when describing Jonah's sea-storm, seemed tossed by a storm himself.
His deep chest heaved as with a ground-swell; his tossed arms
seemed the warring elements at work; and the thunders that rolled
away from off his swarthy brow, and the light leaping from his eye,
made all his simple hearers look on him with a quick fear that was
strange to them.
There now came a lull in his look, as he silently turned over
the leaves of the Book once more; and, at last, standing motionless,
with closed eyes, for the moment, seemed communing with God and himself.
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