A Plain Talk Upon An Encouraging Topic

A Plain Talk Upon An Encouraging Topic

(No. 3101)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1908.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer
came in unto You, into Your holy Temple." Jonah 2:7.

THE experience of the saints is the treasure of the Church. Every child
of God who has tried and proved the promises of God, when he bears his
testimony to their truth, does, as it were, hang up his sword and spear
on the Temple walls and thus the house of the Lord becomes "like the
tower of David built for an armory, whereon there hang a thousand
bucklers, all shields of mighty men." "The footsteps of the flock"
encourage others who are following their track to the pastures above.
Every preceding generation of saints has lived and suffered to enrich
us with its experience. One great reason why the experience of saints
in olden time is of such use to us is this–they were men of like
passions with ourselves. Had they been otherwise, we could not have
been instructed by what they suffered. They endured the same trials and
pleaded the same promises before the same God who changes not in any
measure or degree, so that we may safely infer that what they gained by
pleading may also be obtained by us when surrounded by the same
circumstances. If men were different, or if the promises were changed,
or if the Lord had varied, all ancient experience would be but an idle
tale to us. But now, whenever we read in Scripture of what happened to
a man of faith in the day of trial, we conclude that the same will
happen to us–and when we find God helping and delivering His people,
we know that He will even now show Himself strong on our behalf, since
all the promises are yes and Amen in Christ Jesus unto the Glory of God
by us. The Covenant has not changed–it abides firm as the eternal
hills. The preacher, therefore, feels quite safe in directing you to
the experience of Jonah and in inviting you to make its lessons a
practical guide to yourselves.

We shall use the lesson of the text, first, for the child ofGodand,
secondly, for the sinner awakened and aroused.

I. OUR TEXT HAS AN EVIDENT BEARING UPON THOSE WHO FEAR THE LORD, for
such was Jonah. With all his mistakes, he was a man of God. And though
he sought to flee from the service of his Master, yet his Master never
cast him off–He brought back His petulant messenger to his work and
honored him in it–and he sleeps among the faithful, waiting for a
glorious reward.

Think, then, of the saints' condition. In Jonah's case, as set forth
before us, the child of God sees what a plight he may be brought
into–his soul may faint in him.

Jonah was certainly in a very terrible condition in the belly of the
fish, but the position itself was probably not so dark as his own
reflections, for conscience would say to him, "Alas, Jonah, you came
here by your own fault, you had to flee from the Presence of God
because in your pride and self-love you refused to go to Nineveh, that
great city, and deliver your Master's message." It gives a sting to
misery when a man feels that he, himself, is responsible for it. If it
were unavoidable that I should suffer, then I could not repine. But if
I have brought all this upon myself, by my own folly, then there is a
double bitterness in the gall. Jonah would reflect that now he could
not help himself in any way. It would answer no purpose to be
self-willed now–he was in a place where petulance and obstinacy had no
liberty. If he had tried to stretch out his arm, he could not. He was
immured in a dungeon which imprisoned every sense as well as every limb
and the bolts of his cell, his hand could not draw! He was cast into
the deep in the midst of the seas, the waters compassed him about even
to the soul, the weeds were wrapped about his head. His state was
helpless and, apart from God, it was hopeless.

Children of God may be brought into a similar condition and yet be dear
to His unchanging heart. They may be poor and needy and have no helper.
No voice may speak a word of sympathy to them and no arm may be
stretched out to

succor them. The best of men may be brought into the worst of
positions. You must never judge of character by circumstances. Diamonds
may be worried upon the wheel and common pebbles may bathe at ease in
the brook. The most wicked are permitted to clamber to the high places
of the earth while the most righteous pine at the rich man's gate, with
dogs for their companions. Choice flowers full often grow amid tangled
briars. Who has not heard of the lily among thorns? Where dwell the
pearls? Do not the dark depths of the ocean conceal them amid mire and
wreak? Judge not by appearances, for heirs of the Light of God may walk
in darkness and princes of the celestial line may sit upon dunghills.
Men accepted of God may be brought very, very low, as Jonah was.

Let me remark that the hearts of God's servants may sometimes faint
within them–yes, absolutely faint in them and that, first, through a
renewed sense of sin. In this matter my tongue will not outrun my
experience. Some of us have enjoyed for years a full assurance of our
pardon and justification. We have walked in the Light as God is in the
Light, and we have had fellowship with the Father and with the Son–and
the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, has cleansed us from all sin. We
have often felt our hearts dance at the assurance that "there is
therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Jesus Christ." We
have stood at the foot of the Cross and seen the records of our sins
nailed to the tree, as the token of their full discharge. Yet, at this
time, we may be suffering an interval of anxious questioning and
unbelief may be lowering over us! It is possible that our faith is
staggered and, therefore, our old sins have risen up against us and are
threatening our peace. At such times, conscience will remind us of our
shortcomings, which we cannot deny, and Satan will howl over the top of
these shortcomings, "How can yoube a child of God? If you were born
from above, how could you have acted as you have done?"

Then, if for a moment we look away from the Cross. If we look within
for marks of evidences, the horrible bog of our inward corruptions will
be stirred and there will pour into the soul such dark memories and
black forebodings that we shall cry, "I am utterly lost, my hope is
hypocrisy! What can I do? What shall I do?" Let me assure you that
under such exercises, it is no wonder if the soul of the Christian
faints within him. Be it remembered, also, that soul-fainting is the
worst form of fainting. Though Jonah in the whale's belly could not use
his eyes, he did not need them. And if he could not use his arms or his
feet, he did not require to do so. It mattered not if they all failed
him! But for his soul to faint– this was horror indeed! So is it with
us. Our other faculties may go to sleep if they will, but when our
faith swoons and our confidence staggers, things go very hard with us.
Do not, however, my Brothers and Sisters, when in such a state, write
yourself down as a hypocrite, for many of the most valiant soldiers of
the Cross know by personal experience what this dark sensation means–

"What though Satan's strong temptations Vex and tease you day by day?
And your sinful inclinations Often fill you with dismay? You shall
conquer,

Through the Lamb's redeeming blood! Though ten thousand ills beset you,
From without and from within, Jesus says He'll never forget you, But
will save you from Hell and sin! He is faithful

To perform His gracious word!

Though distresses now attend you

And you tread the thorny road,

His right hand shall still defend you,

Soon He'll bring you home to God!

Therefore praise Him,

Praise the great Redeemer's name!" The same faintness will come over
us, at times, through the prospect of prolonged pain or severe trial.
You have not yet felt the cruel smart, but you are well aware that it
must come and you shudder at the prospect. As it is true that "we feel
a thousand deaths in fearing one," so do we feel a thousand trials in
the dread of one single affliction. The soldier is often braver in the
midst of the battle than before the conflict begins. Waiting for the
assault is trying work–even the

crash of the onslaught is not so great a test of endurance. I confess
that I feel an inward faintness in the prospect of bodily pain. It
creates a swooning sickness of heart within me to consider it for a
moment and, beloved Friend, it is no strange thing that is happening to
you if your soul also faints because of difficulties or adversities
that lie before you. May you have wisdom to do what Jonah did–to
remember the Lord–for there and only there lies your great strength.

Faintness will also come upon true Christians in connection with the
pressure of actual sorrow. Hearts may bear up long, but they are very
apt to yield if the pressure is continuous from month to month. A
constant drip is felt even by a stone. A long day of drizzling rain is
more wetting than a passing shower of heavy drops. A man cannot always
be poor, or always be sick, or always be slandered, or always be
friendless without sometimes being tempted to say, "My heart is faint
and weary; when will the day break and the shadows flee away?" I say
again, the very choicest of God's elect may, through the long abiding
of bitter sorrow and heavy distress, be ready to faint in the day of
adversity.

The same has happened to earnest Christians engaged in diligent
service, when they have seen no present success. To go on tilling a
thankless soil, to continue to cast bread upon the waters and to find
no return has caused many a true heart to faint with inward bleeding.
Yet this is full often the test of our fidelity. It is a noble thing to
continue preaching, like Noah, throughout a lifetime, amid ridicule,
reproach and unbelief–but it is not every man who can do so. The most
of us need success to sustain our courage and we serve our Master with
most spirit when we see immediate results. Faint hearts of that kind
there may be among my fellow soldiers, ready to lay down the weapons of
their warfare because they win no victory at this present. My Brothers,
I pray you do not desert the field of battle but, like Jonah, remember
the Lord and continue to abide by the royal standard!

It may be that enquiries will be made as to why we should thus enlarge
upon the different ways in which Christians faint. Our reply is, we
have been thus particular in order to meet the temptation so common
among young Christians, to fancy that they are singular in their
trials. "Surely no one has felt as I feel," says many a young
Christian. "I don't suppose another person ever hung down his head and
his hands and became so utterly overcome as I am." Do not listen to
that suggestion, for it is devoid of truth! Faintness is very common in
the Lord's hosts–and some of His mightiest men have been the victims
of it. Even David himself, that hero of Judah, in the day of battle
waxed faint and had been slain if a warrior had not come to the rescue.
Do not give way to faintness! Strive against it vehemently, but at the
same time, should it overcome you, cast not away your confidence, nor
write yourself down as rejected of God or one fatally fallen.

And now, Brothers and Sisters, we will notice the saints'resort. Jonah,
when he was in sore trouble, tells us, "I remembered the Lord." What is
there for a faint heart to remember in the Lord? Is there not
everything? There is, first, His Nature. Think of that. When I am faint
with sorrow, let me remember that He is full of pity and full of
compassion. He will not strike too heavily, nor will He forget to
sustain. I will, therefore, look up to Him and say, "My Father, break
me not in pieces. I am a poor weather-beaten boat which can scarcely
escape the hungry waves. Send not Your rough wind against me, but give
me a little calm that I may reach the desired haven." By remembering
that the Lord's mercies are great, we shall be saved from a fainting
heart.

Then I will remember His power. If I am in such a strait that I cannot
help myself, He can help me! I have needs and sharp pinches, but there
are no such things with Him. There are no emergencies and times of
severe pressure with God. With Him all things are possible! Therefore
will I remember the Lord. If the difficulty is one which arises out of
my ignorance, though I know not which way to take, I will remember His
wisdom. I know that He will guide me. I will remember that He cannot
make a mistake and, committing my way unto Him, my soul shall take
courage. Beloved, all the Attributes of God sparkle with consolation to
the eyes of faith. There is nothing in the Most High to discourage the
man who can say, "My Father, my God, in You do I put my trust." None
who have trusted in Him have ever been confounded. Therefore if your
soul sinks within you, remember the Nature, Character, and Attributes
of God!

When you have remembered His Nature, then remember His promises. What
has He said concerning souls that faint? Think of these texts if you
think of no other–"I will never leave you, nor forsake you." "Your
shoes shall be iron and brass; and as your days, so shall your strength
be." "My Grace is sufficient for you: for My strength is made perfect
in weakness." "Trust in the Lord, and do good: so shall you dwell in
the land, and verily you shall be fed." "No good thing will He withhold
from them that walk uprightly." When we get upon this strain and begin
to talk of the promises, we need hours in which to enlarge upon the
exceeding great and precious words, but we mention only these–we let
fall this

handful for some poor Ruth to glean! When your soul is faint, catch at
a promise, believe it and say unto the Lord, "Do as You have said," and
your spirit shall speedily revive.

Remember, next, His Covenant. What a grand word that word, "Covenant,"
is to the man who understands it! God has entered into Covenant with
His Son, who represents us, His people. He has said, "As I have sworn
that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I
sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. For the
mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall
not depart from you, neither shall the Covenant of My peace be
removed." Truly, we may say with good old David, "Although my house is
not so with God, yet He has made with me an Everlasting Covenant,
ordered in all things, and sure." When everything else gives way, cling
in the power of the Holy Spirit to Covenant mercies and Covenant
engagements, and your spirit shall be at peace–

"With David's Lord, and ours,

A Covenant once was made

Whose bonds are firm and sure,

Whose glories shall never fade!

Signed by the Sacred Three in One,

In mutual love before time begun–

Firm as the lasting hills,

This Covenant shall endure,

Whose potent shalls and wills

Make every blessing sure!

When ruin shakes all Nature's frame,

Its jots and tittles stand the same." Again, when we remember the Lord,
we should remember what He has been to us in past times. When any of us
fall to doubting and fearing, we are indeed blameworthy, for the Lord
has never given us any occasion for doubting Him. He has helped us in
sorer troubles than we are passing through at this time. We have tested
His faithfulness, His power and His goodness at a heavier rate than
now–and though greatly tried, they have never failed us yet! They have
borne the strain of many years and show no signs of giving way. Why,
then, are we distrustful? Many saints have proved the Lord's
faithfulness for fifty, sixty, or even 70 years–how can they be of
doubtful mind after this? What? Has your God been true for 70 years and
can you not trust Him a few more days? Has He brought you to 75 and can
you not trust Him the few months more that you are to remain in the
wilderness? Call to remembrance the days of old, the love of His heart
and the might of His arm when He came to your rescue and took you out
of the deep waters, and set your feet upon a rock, and established your
goings! He is still the same God. Therefore, when your soul faints
within you, remember the Lord and you will be comforted.

Thus I have shown you the saint's plight and the saint's resort. Now
observe the success of his prayer. Jonah was so comforted with the
thoughts of God that he began to pray and his prayer was not drowned in
the water, nor choked in the fish's belly–neither was it held captive
by the weeds that were about his head, but up it went like an electric
flash, through waves, through clouds, beyond the stars, up to the
Throne of God–and down came the answer like a return message! Nothing
can destroy or detain a real prayer. Its flight to the Throne of God is
swift and certain. God the Holy Spirit writes our prayers, God the Son
presents our prayers and God the Father accepts our prayers–and with
the whole Trinity to help us in it, what cannot prayer perform? I may
be speaking to some who are under very severe trials– I feel persuaded
that I am–let me beg them to take this promise to themselves as their
own. And I pray God the Holy Spirit to lay it home to their hearts and
make it theirs, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." God will not
fail you though you fail yourself! Though you faint, He faints not,
neither is weary. Lift up your cry and He will lift up His hand. Go to
your knees, you are strongest there! Resort to your chamber and it
shall be to you none other than the gate of Heaven. Tell your God your
grief–heavy to you, it will be light enough to Him. Dilemmas will all
be plain to His wisdom and difficulties will vanish before His
strength! Oh, tell it not in Gath that Israel cannot trust in God!
Publish it not in the streets of Askelon that trouble can dismay those
who lean upon the eternal arm! With Jehovah in the van, O hosts of
Israel, dare you fear? "The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob
is our refuge." What man's heart shall quail, or what soul shall faint?
"Lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees." Say unto the
feeble in heart, "Be strong. Fear not. God is with you. He will help
you, and that right early."

II. Now we must change the subject altogether. Having addressed the
people of God, we feel very anxious to speak to those concerning whom
the Lord has designs of love, but who are not yet made manifest. THE
SINNER, WHEN GOD

COMES TO DEAL WITH HIM, IS BROUGHT INTO THE SAME PLIGHT AS JONAH. His
soul faints in him. What

does that show?

It shows very much what we are glad to see. When a man's soul faints
within him, it is clear that his carelessness is gone. He used to take
things very easily and as long as he could make merry from day to day,
what cared he about Heaven or Hell? The preacher's warnings were to him
so much rant and his earnestness fanaticism! But now the man feels an
arrow sticking in his own loins and he knows that there is a reality in
sin–it is to him in very deed an evil and a bitter thing. Now the cup
of gall is put to his own lips and he feels the poison in his own
veins. His heart faints within him and he remains careless no
longer–which is no small gain in the preacher's estimation!

His faintness also shows that he will be self-righteous no longer Once
he hoped he was as good as other people and perhaps a little better.
And for all that he could see, he was every whit as excellent as the
saints themselves. They might speak about their trusting in Jesus
Christ, but he was working for himself and expected by his regular
habits to win as good as place in the world to come as the best of
Believers! Ah, but now God has dealt with him and let the daylight into
his soul and he sees that his gold and silver are cankered, and that
his fair linen is filthy and worm-eaten! He discovers that his
righteousnesses are as filthy rags and that he must have something
better than the works of the Law to trust in, or he must perish. So far
so good. Things are hopeful when there is no more self-reliance left in
the sinner. The worst of human nature is that though it cannot lift a
finger for its own salvation, it thinks it can do it all–and though
its only place is the place of death and it is a mercy when it comes to
burial, yet that same human nature is so proud that it would, if it
could, be its own redeemer! When God make man's conscience a target for
His fiery arrows, then straightway he feels that his life is no longer
in him and that he can do nothing. And he cries out, "God be merciful
to me." Oh, that the two-edged sword of the Gospel would slay all our
spiritual self-reliance and lay us in the dust at the feet of the
Crucified Savior!

Perhaps I speak to some who faint because, though they have given up
all self-righteousness now, and relinquished all self-dependence, they
yet have not laid hold upon Christ and His salvation. ' 'I have been
trying to believe," says one, "but I cannot succeed." Well do I
remember the time when I labored to believe. It is a strange way of
putting it, yet so it was. When I wished to believe, and longed to
trust, I found I could not. It seemed to me that the way to Heaven by
Christ's righteousness was as difficult as the way to Heaven by my own,
and that I could as soon get to Heaven by Sinai as by Calvary. I could
do nothing–I could neither repent nor believe. I fainted with despair,
feeling as if I must be lost despite the Gospel, and forever driven
from Jehovah's Presence, even though Christ had died. Ah, I am not
sorry if you also have come to this condition! The way to the door of
faith is through the gate of self-despair. Till you have seen your last
hope destroyed, you will never look to Christ for all things, and yet
you will never be saved until you do–for God has laid no help on you,
He has laid help upon One that is mighty, even Jesus only, who is the
sole Savior of sinners. Here, then, we have before us the sinner's
plight–and I will venture to call it, though it is a very wretched
one, a very blessed one–and I heartily wish that every unconverted man
were brought into such a condition that his soul fainted within him.

Now hear the Gospel! Incline your ear to it and you shall live! The way
of salvation to you is the way which Jonah took. When his soul fainted,
he remembered the Lord. I beseech you, by the living God, to remember
the Lord! And if you ask me what it is you should remember, I will tell
you in a few words. Remember the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the
Savior of sinners. Remember Him who suffered in the place of the
guilty. Know assuredly that God has visited upon Him the transgressions
of His people. Now, the sufferings of such an One as Jesus must have
power to cleanse away sins. He is God and if He deigns to die, there
must be such merit in His death that He is able to save to the
uttermost all them that come unto God by Him. You are bidden, at this
moment, in God's name, to trust your soul in those hands that were
nailed to the Cross and rest your life with Him who poured out His soul
unto death that you might live! In yourself you may well despair, but
remembering His name, coupled with the names of Gethsemane and
Golgotha–remembering all His pains, griefs and unutterable woes
–remembering these by faith, there shall be salvation for you at this
moment! Do I hear you sigh, "Oh, but I have nothing good within me"?
Know, then, that all good is in Him for you–and go to Him for it. "But
I am unworthy." He is worthy–go to Him for worthiness. "But I do not
feel as I should." He felt as He should–go to Him for all that you
should feel. If you bring a rusty farthing of your own, God will not
have it–it would only insult the precious gold of Ophir which Jesus
freely gives you–if He should allow your cankered counterfeits to be
mixed therewith. Away with your filthy rags! Would you add them to the
spotless garment which Christ has woven? The Apostle says our best
works are dross and dung if we venture to put them side by side with
the merits of our Redeemer! None but Jesus can save–remember Him and
live!

"But," says one, "I have tried to remember the Lord. But I find that
while I can trust Him to pardon my sins, yet I have such a hard heart
and so many temptations, and I am so weak for all that is good, that I
still despair." Listen, then, yet again–remember the Lord. At this
time remember the Holy Spirit. When Jesus ascended on high, the Holy
Spirit was given and He has never been recalled. The Holy Spirit is
here in this assembly right now, and in the Holy Spirit is your hope
against indwelling sin! You complain that you cannot pray, but the
Spirit helps our infirmities. You mourn that you cannot believe, but
faith is the gift of God and the work of the Holy Spirit. A tender
heart, a penitential frame of mind, a right spirit–these are the works
of the Holy Spirit in you! You can do nothing, but the Holy Spirit can
work everything in you! Give yourself up to those dear hands that were
pierced, and the power of the Holy Spirit shall come upon you! A new
heart will He give you and a right spirit will He put within you. You
shall learn His statutes and walk in His ways. Everything is provided
for the Believer that He can possibly need. O young Man, anxious to be
saved, the salvation of Jesus Christ precisely suits your case! O
seeking Soul, whatever it is you crave to make you fit to dwell where
God is forever, it is all to be had and to be had for the asking, for
it is all provided in the Covenant of Grace! And if you will remember
Jesus the Lord, and the Holy Spirit–the Indweller who renews the
mind–you will be cheered and comforted!

Yet let me not forget another Person of the sacred Majesty of
Heaven–remember the Father as well as the Son and the Spirit! And let
me help you to remember Him. You, trembling Sinner, must not think of
God as severe or stern, for He is Love. Would you be glad to be saved?
He will be still more glad to save you! Do you wish to return to your
God tonight? Your God already meets you and bids you come! Would you be
pardoned? The absolution is on His lips! Would you be cleansed? The
Fountain of atoning blood was filled by His mercy and filled for all
who believe in His Son! Come and welcome, come and welcome! The child
is glad to be forgiven, but the Father is still more glad to forgive.
Jehovah's melting heart yearns to clasp His Ephraim to His breast. Seek
Him at once, poor Souls, and you shall not find Him hard and cold, but
waiting to be gracious, ready to forgive, a God delighting in mercy! If
you can thus remember God, the Son, the Spirit and the Father, though
your soul faints within you, you may be encouraged.

And so I close by bidding you, if such is the case, to imitate Jonah's
example and send up a prayer to Heaven, for it will come up even to
God's holy Temple. Jonah had no prayer book and you need none. God the
Holy Spirit can put more living prayer into half-a-dozen words of your
own than you could get out of a ton weight of paper prayers! Jonah's
prayer was not notable for its words. The fish's belly was not the
place for picked phrases, nor for long-winded orations. We do not
believe that he offered a long prayer, either, but it came right up
from his heart and flew straight up to Heaven. It was shot by the
strong bow of intense desire and agony of soul and, therefore, it
speeded its way to the Throne of the Most High. If you would now pray,
never mind your words–it is the soul of prayer that God accepts. If
you would be saved, go to your chamber and rise not from your knees
till the Lord has heard you. Yes, where you now are let your souls pour
out themselves before God and faith in Jesus will give you immediate
salvation!

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JONAH2.

Verse 1. Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's
belly. What a strange place for prayer! Surely this is the only prayer
that ever went up to God out of a fish's belly! Jonah found himself
alive–that was the surprising thing, that he was alive in the belly of
a fish–and because he was alive, he began to pray. It is such a wonder
that some people here should continue to live that they ought to begin
to pray. If you live with death so near and in so great peril, and yet
you do not pray, what is to become of you? This prayer of Jonah is very
remarkable because it is not a prayer at all in the sense in which we
usually apply the word to petition and supplication. If you read the
prayer through, you will see that it is almost all thanksgiving–and
the best prayer in all the world is a prayer that is full of
thankfulness. We

praise the Lord for what He has done for us, and thus we do, in effect,
ask Him to perfect the work which He has begun. He has delivered us, so
we bless His holy name and by implication we beseech Him to deliver us.
Notice that it says here, "Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God."He
was a runaway–he had tried to escape from the Presence of God–yet the
Lord was still his God. God will not lose any of His people–even if,
like Jonah, they are in the belly of a fish, Jehovah is still their
God–"Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly."

2. And said, I cried by reason of my affliction unto the LORD, and He
heard me. You see that this is not praying, it is telling the Lord what
He had done for His disobedient servant. Jonah had prayed, and the Lord
had heard him, yet he was still in the fish's belly. Unbelief would
have said, "You have lived so long, Jonah, but you cannot expect to
live to get out of this dreary, damp, fetid prison." Ah, but faith is
out of prison even while she is in it! Faith begins to tell what God
has done before the great work is actually accomplished! So Jonah said,
"I cried by reason of my affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me."

2. Out of the belly of Hell cried I, and You heard my voice. He was
like a man in the unseen world among the dead. He felt that he was
condemned and cast away, yet God had heard him, and now he sings about
it in the belly of the fish. No other fish that ever lived had a live
man inside him singing praises unto God!

3. For You had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas. The
word Jonah used implies that God had violently cast him away into the
deep. "Cast me not off," prayed David, but here is a man who says that
God did cast him out like a thing flung overboard into the vast deep.
"You had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas."

3. And the floods compassed me about "They rolled all over me, beneath
me, above me, around me. 'The floods compassed me about.'"

3. All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. Jonah had evidently
read his Bible. At least he had read the 42nd Psalm, for he quotes it
here. It is a blessed thing to have the Bible in your mind and heart so
that wherever you may be, you do not need to turn to the Book because
you have the Book inside you! Here is a man inside a fish with a Book
inside of him–and it was the Book inside of him that brought him out
from the fish again!

4. Then I said, I am cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again
toward Your holy Temple. What grand faith Job displayed when he said,
"Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." And here is another
splendid manifestation of faith, "'I said, I am cast out of Your sight;
yet I will look again toward Your holy Temple.' If God does not look at
me, I will still look towards the place where He dwells. As I am being
flung away from Him, I will give one more look towards His holy
Temple."

6. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul They seemed to get
right into his spirit–his heart became waterlogged. "The waters
compassed me about, even to the soul."

6. The depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my
head. Like his winding-sheet–as if the cerements of the grave were
wrapped about his mouth, ears and eyes–and he was consigned to a
living tomb. This narrative is a graphic description of the natural
motion of the great fish which had swallowed Jonah. When the fish found
this strange being inside him, the first thing that he did was to
plunge as deep as he could into the waters. You will see that Jonah did
go down very deep, indeed. The next thing was for the fish to make for
the weeds–as certain creatures eat weeds to cure them when they feel
very ill, this fish went off to the weedy places to see if he could get
a cure for this new complaint of a man inside him.

6. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. To the very roots and
foundations of the mountains, where the big jagged rocks made huge
buttresses for the hills above. "I went down to the bottom of the
mountains."

6. The earth with her bars was about me forever.Down went the fish, as
deep as he could go! And, of course, down went Jonah, too, and he might
well imagine that he was in a vast prison from which there was no way
of escape!

6. Yet have You brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God. And,
dear Friend, God can bring you up, however low you may have gone!
Though in your own feelings, you feel as if you had gone so low that
you could not go any lower, God can, in answer to prayer, bring you up
again. O despairing one, take heart and be comforted by this story of
Jonah! God is dealing with you as He was with him. There may be a great
fish, but there is a great God as well. There may be a deep seas, but
there is an almighty God to bring you up out of it!

7. When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD. It is a
blessed memory that serves us faithfully in a fainting fit. Mostly,
when the heart faints, the memory fails, but Jonah remembered the Lord
when his soul fainted within him.

7. And my prayer came in unto You, into Your holy Temple. Think of
Jonah's prayer going right within the veil, and reaching the ear and
heart of God in His holy Temple. He said that he was cast out of God's
sight, yet his prayer went into God's Temple. Oh, the prevalence of a
bold believing prayer! "My prayer came in unto You, into Your holy
Temple."

8. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. If you
trust anywhere but in God, you will run away from your own mercy. God
is the only really merciful One who can always help you. But if you
trust in your own righteousness, if you trust in priestcraft, if you
trust in any superstition, you are observing lying vanities and
forsaking your own mercy! God is the source of your mercy–do not run
away from Him to anyone or anything else.

9. But I will sacrifice unto You. "I long to do so. I cannot do it just
now, but I would if I could. And I will do it when You shall grant me
deliverance from my present peril."

9. With the voice of thanksgiving, I willpay that that Ihave vowed.
Salvation is of the LORD. That is one of the grandest utterances that
any man ever made! "SALVATION!" Write it in capital letters. It is a
very emphatic word in the Hebrew and I might read it, "Mighty salvation
is of Jehovah." This is real, old-fashioned Calvinistic Doctrine spoken
centuries before John Calvin was born! The whale could not endure it
and he turned Jonah out and directly Jonah said, "Salvation is of the
Lord." The world does not like that Doctrine and there are many
professing Christians who do not like it. They say, "Salvation is of
man's free will! Salvation is of the works of the Law! Salvation is of
rites and ceremonies" and so on. But we say, with Jonah, "Salvation is
of the Lord." He works it from beginning to end and, therefore, He must
have all the praise for it forever and ever!

10. And the LORD spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the
dry land. God has only to speak and even sea monsters obey Him! I know
not how He spoke to the fish. I do not know how to talk to a fish, but
God does. And as the Lord could speak to that fish, He can speak to any
sinner here! However far you may have gone from all that is good, He
who spoke to that great fish and made it disgorge the Prophet Jonah,
can speak to you, and then you will give up your sins as the whale gave
up Jonah! God grant that it may be so this very hour! That is the
prayer of an ancient mariner–may it be ours, as far as it is suited to
our circumstances–and may we be brought by God's Grace to cry with
Jonah, "Salvation is of the Lord"!