Homilist Jonah 1:5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man to his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea… I. THE MIGHTY AGENCY OF GOD. The wind is a strange power in nature. The fact that storms are under Divine direction should — 1. Rouse us to consider them as God's voice. 2. Lead us to submit to the catastrophes they produce. II. THE NATURAL INSTINCTS OF MAN. These men developed — 1. The dread of death. 2. Faith in prayer. Their prayer involved — (1) Faith in the existence of divinity. (2) Faith in the intreatableness of divinity. III. THE STRANGE VICARIOUSNESS OF SUFFERING. The storm came on as a consequence of the sin of Jonah. The innocent suffer for the guilty the world over. The principle of vicarious suffering is a principle developed in the experience of all. We suffer for others, and others have suffered for us. A man may deny the justice of vicarious suffering, but he cannot deny the fact. The sufferings of mariners are strikingly vicarious. Let shipwrecks remind us — 1. To put our confidence in God. 2. Of our moral condition. 3. Of our duty to pray for our brethren on the sea. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep. |
    |