“Behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”—MATT. xii. 41.
By the Rev. James S. Sinclair, John Knox’s, Glasgow. (Taken down by a Hearer, at Oban.)
THESE words were spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ in response to a request made by certain of the Scribes and Pharisees for a sign. The Scribes and Pharisees came to Him and said, “Master, we would see a sign from thee.” The Lord Jesus, in His reply, told them their true character as a people and a generation. He said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas.” The Scribes and Pharisees were seeking some display of His wonder-working power that would produce a strong impression upon their natural senses and imaginations. They were not satisfied with the many signs that He had already given in those beneficent miracles that He wrought on behalf of the poor children of men. He healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, opened the eyes of the blind, and raised the dead. These were signs sufficient to convince any truly sincere and honest seeker that Jesus of Nazareth spoke the truth when He claimed to be the Messiah. The unbelieving Scribes and Pharisees, however, were not satisfied, and so they sought some new sign from Him, which He clearly tells them He would not give. They would receive a sign, but not such a sign as they desired, namely, “the sign of the prophet Jonas.” Jonas was sent, in a mysterious manner, three days and three nights into the fish’s belly; and the Son of Man was to be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He was to give the sign of His death and resurrection—a sign that would not be understood by many. It would prove a stumbling-block to the unbelieving Jews and foolishness to the worldly-wise Greeks. It was only unto them who were called by the power of the Spirit of God that it would be the wisdom and power of God unto salvation. Now, we find that when He makes mention of the experience of Jonah, He proceeds to bring forward, as witnesses who would rise in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, the men of Nineveh unto whom Jonah was sent to preach. These Ninevites were heathen Gentiles; they were a wicked and idolatrous people; they knew little or nothing about the one living and true God; but no sooner did Jonah appear among them with a solemn message of warning concerning the destruction of Nineveh, than immediately they repented. “They repented at the preaching of Jonas.” They repented at the preaching of this comparatively humble prophet who was sent from the land of Israel. But Christ goes on to tell them that a much greater prophet than Jonas had appeared in the land, and that the people of this present generation had refused to repent at His preaching. “Behold,” He says, “a greater than Jonas is here.” Although a greater than Jonas had appeared in their midst, and had already given such remarkable proofs of His Messiahship, they had obstinately despised His message. These words, then, were spoken to the Scribes and Pharisees and to the people of that generation, with the view of bringing home to them their solemn responsibilities and the ill use they were making of the remarkable privileges that they enjoyed. They enjoyed the greatest possible privilege in having the Son of God, the true Messiah, in their midst, speaking to them concerning the things of God and eternity, and yet they repented not.
I desire, then, in dependence upon the Spirit of truth, to look for a little at certain things brought before us in these brief but suggestive words: “Behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” Let us observe—
I.—The superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ unto Jonas;
II.—The assertion that “a greater than Jonas is here,” in its abiding significance; and
III.—The call to “behold,” or consider, the truth thus declared concerning the Lord Jesus.
I.—First, then, let us observe the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ to the prophet Jonas.
I observe, in the first place, in this connection that the Lord Jesus was greater than Jonas as to His person.
The Lord Jesus Christ was perfect man. He assumed into union with Himself a true and real humanity, yet that humanity was without sin. He was holy, harmless, and undefiled, from the womb. In Him was no sin. In Him as man there appeared all the graces of the Spirit in perfect degree and in perfect proportion. He came up to the perfect standard of God’s law, and fulfilled its precepts in everything. He never came short in the least degree of that standard in thoughts, in affections, in words, and in actions. In one word, He left a perfect pattern to His people to follow. But Jonas was, at best, an imperfect man. Although a servant of God—highly honoured to be a prophet—he was manifestly imperfect, and showed this in the actions of his life. When the Lord called upon him to go to Nineveh and to deliver His message, he disobeyed the call of the Most High. He fled from the presence of the Lord, and took ship at Joppa, with a view to go to Tarshish. Jonas, long after this, and notwithstanding the discipline he passed through, showed himself to be an imperfect man. The Lord Jesus Christ, then, was greater than Jonas in respect of His manhood.
I observe, further, that the Lord Jesus was incomparably greater than Jonas in respect of His Godhead.
He was the Son of Man, but He was also the Son of God. He was the Second Person in the glorious Trinity, co-equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost in the undivided Godhead. He possessed in Himself all the immeasurable perfections of Deity—”the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of his person, upholding all things by the word of his power.” He was the personal Word who was with God and was God from all eternity, and by Him, as the personal Word, all things were made that were made. He continued also to uphold all things that He had made. He was the upholder of the universe at the very moment that He appeared as an infant of days in Bethlehem’s manger. The Lord Jesus, then, was greater—incomparably greater—than Jonas in respect of His person. He was a marvellous combination of the infinite perfections of the Godhead joined to all the finite perfections of humanity. “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”
In the second place, I would observe that the Lord Jesus was greater than Jonas in respect of His office.
Jonas was one of the prophets whom the Lord called, under the old dispensation, to make known His mind and message unto the children of men, but his prophetic office was discharged on a lower platform, so to speak, than that on which Christ discharged His. He was the personal Word that was with the Father from everlasting, and He was sent forth from the immediate presence of the Father to make known the will of God for salvation. He was the Divine Prophet concerning whom Moses spake unto the children of Israel. “A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up from among your brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; and whoso will not hear that prophet, the Lord will require it of him.” He came forth from the immediate presence of the Father in heaven to make known the mind of God concerning salvation. We find Him saying, “The words which thou gavest me, I have given them.” He received those words immediately from the Father, and He gave those words unto poor sinners upon earth with all the authority that the Divine Prophet possessed. He was, therefore, greater in that respect as a prophet than it was possible for Jonas or any of the ancient prophets to be. And then, my friends, it is to be observed that the Lord Jesus, as the Divine Prophet of the Church, had power given Him to open the understandings of the children of men to receive the truth that He proclaimed. The ancient prophets could only deliver their message. They had no power to give a capacity to the hearers to receive the message that was entrusted to their charge. But it is written concerning the Lord Jesus, that He opened the understandings of His disciples, that they might understand the Scriptures. He was “the light of the world,” and He was able to impart divine light—saving light—unto the souls of the children of men. Such Jonas could not do. Further, I observe in this connection that Jonas and the ancient prophets only sustained the prophetic office for a season. When they died, their work as prophets came to an end. They passed into eternity; they entered heaven; and death put a period to the discharge of their prophetic office. But this is not so with regard to Christ. He still exercises His prophetic office at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and you, as a poor sinner, can go to Him at a throne of grace with your darkness, difficulties, and perplexities. He is able, in the exercise of His omniscience, to understand your case, and by the power of the Almighty Spirit of God, to take away your darkness and to remove all your difficulties and perplexities. “The fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever?” The merely human prophets had their day, and you cannot now go to Isaiah or Ezekiel or Jonas personally, in order to get instruction in the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But you may go now, upon earth, and pour out your case before this Divine Prophet, and He is able to help you to the uttermost. He can guide your footsteps into the ways of truth and peace, and cause you to go on your way rejoicing. The Lord Jesus, then, is greater in respect of His office as prophet than Jonas.
I proceed, in the third place, to observe that the Lord Jesus is greater than Jonas in respect of those outstanding experiences through which He passed, that were designed for usefulness.
Jonas went through remarkable experiences. I remarked already that he was disobedient to the voice of the Most High. He refused at first to go to Nineveh, and took ship to Tarshish, but the Lord followed after him. He sent a storm upon the sea, and the ship in which Jonah was sailing was like to be overwhelmed in the raging waters. The mariners at last cast lots in order to see who was the cause of this great storm that had come upon them, and the lot fell upon Jonah, and Jonah himself suggested—yea, declared his willingness—that he should be thrown into the raging billows, in order that calm might be restored. Such was done. But the Lord prepared a great fish, and when Jonah was cast into the waters this fish opened its mouth and swallowed him; and Jonah was three days and three nights in the fish’s belly. Jonas passed through great sufferings of mind and body in the fish’s belly, owing to his own sin of disobedience. He tells us in his wonderful book that out of the belly of hell he cried, and the Lord heard his voice. He was in the belly of hell in his own conscience, sensible that he was under divine displeasure on account of his disobedience. He looked towards God’s holy temple when he felt cast out of God’s sight. The Lord heard him, and at the end of the appointed period, caused the fish to vomit out Jonah upon the dry land. Now, these were very remarkable experiences through which Jonah passed, and the actual truth of them is here confirmed by the Son of God, against all the objections of “the higher critics.”
These experiences of the prophet, as recorded in the Scriptures, have been useful to the sons of men—to the people of God—in subsequent generations. They are, in a certain sense, passed through by others—even by those who are brought under a deep sense of their sinfulness and guilt. Such persons are brought down into the depths of soul distress under a sense of their sins against the Most High, but the Lord hears their cries in the depths, and He raises them up again. He causes them, like Jonah, to sing of deliverance: “Salvation is of the Lord.”
We find, further, that the Lord Jesus Himself here makes comparison of His own sufferings and death and resurrection to the experience through which Jonah passed in the fish’s belly; but although this experience was made useful as a sign to the Ninevites, as a sign to the children of Israel, and has certainly been beneficial to exercised souls—to the people of God—in subsequent ages, as a source of direction and encouragement, yet we are not saved by the sufferings of Jonah. We are saved only and exclusively by the sufferings and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father laid upon Him the iniquity of others, the iniquity of a company of our race which no man can number. He was made sin in their room and stead. He was made to experience in His holy soul the just wrath of an offended God against guilty sinners, and the waves and billows of God’s displeasure passed over Him. He went down into the uttermost depths of God’s holy displeasure, but He was not left there. He went down also into the grave—His body was laid in Joseph’s tomb—but the Lord did not leave Him there. He raised Him from the dead on the third day; and the death and resurrection of Christ are the sources of peace and life unto the children of men. The apostles preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified—Jesus Christ, as a suffering Redeemer, enduring God’s wrath in room and stead of the guilty. They preached also Jesus Christ risen again from the dead on the third day by the power of God. His resurrection from the dead is the pledge of the resurrection of all His people from the grave of spiritual death. The Lord Jesus is greater than Jonas in respect of those outstanding experiences through which He passed for the benefit of poor sinners upon earth, and it is of the very greatest importance that we should know this for ourselves. It is of the greatest importance that we should know Christ as the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation. He is such unto everyone that believeth.
But I observe, in the fourth place, that He is greater than Jonas in respect of the message that he came to proclaim.
Jonas was sent with a very solemn and weighty message to the Ninevites. He was told by the Most High to say that in forty days Nineveh would be overthrown. It was a message of solemn warning concerning impending judgment upon the people and city of Nineveh, if they continued in their wickedness.
The Lord Jesus Christ, as the great Prophet of the Church, also proclaimed a message of solemn warning, but His message was greater. His message was more tremendous, more solemn and awful, than that which Jonas was commissioned to proclaim. Jonas had commission to speak principally concerning a temporal judgment that would fall upon the Ninevites as the consequence of their sins, but the Lord Jesus Christ was commissioned to speak concerning a judgment that is eternal. What does He say? He says:—”He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” He declared to the people of that generation, particularly to certain cities, that the woes of the Most High were upon them. He said to Capernaum, which had been so highly exalted with privileges, that it would be cast down to hell. He told the people of His own generation that, if they continued in their sins, if they continued to despise the message of the gospel, they would fall into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
But it is to be observed further that Christ’s message presents a greater exhibition of the wondrous mercy and love of God than the message of Jonas, or any of the ancient prophets. “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” The Father sent Him forth to proclaim more fully than had hitherto been done by any of the ancient prophets the love which He cherished from all eternity towards poor, perishing sinners of Adam’s race. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,” and the Apostle John further expresses it in these words, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The Lord Jesus Christ spoke much concerning the matchless, sovereign love of God towards perishing sinners. He spoke much concerning the ransom which He Himself was to give on behalf of many. Do not think for a moment that I mean that Jonas or the ancient prophets knew nothing about the mercy or the love of God as in connection with the Messiah, the Redeemer of Israel. If you study the Old Testament carefully, you will see that they thought about His loving-kindness oftentimes in His temple (Psalm xviii. 9). The Scriptures of the Old Testament contain a distinct revelation of the mercy and love of God unto sinners of the human race and of the Messiah or Christ who was to come in the fulness of the times to accomplish the redemption of a countless multitude. At the same time, we must see most plainly that the Lord Jesus Christ did unfold more richly and fully in his public ministry the wondrous love of God unto perishing sinners, than Jonas or any of the ancient prophets had done, and, my friends, was not His message much greater on that account, and does His message not imply far greater responsibility? We shall have to give all the greater account, all the more solemn account, of our responsibility in view of the fulness of the message of mercy as proclaimed by Christ, and as afterwards made known also by His apostles. The “greater than Jonas is here.”
And then, lastly, I observe in this connection that the Lord Jesus was greater than Jonas in respect of the fruits of His ministry.
The preaching of Jonas certainly did produce a general or outward repentance among the Ninevites. We are not very clear as to whether any of those Ninevites were really saved with an everlasting salvation. But, although it is true that many listened to the voice of Christ when He was upon earth and did not profit by His ministry, still some did in a saving measure. Such were the Apostles themselves, and they expressed their thoughts in such words as these:—”Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” Zacchæus, the publican, and Matthew, Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and others, were brought out of darkness into God’s marvellous light. A considerable number were plucked as brands from the fire through the preaching of the great Prophet of the Church, and, if we consider the thousands who were afterwards gathered in by Him through the instrumentality of His Apostles, and other servants, we must say that the fruits of His abiding ministry are immeasurably greater than those of the ministry of Jonas. “A greater than Jonas is here.”
II.—This leads me now, in the second general place, to call attention to Christ’s assertion that “a greater than Jonas is here,” in its abiding significance. Now, my friends, I need hardly say further, for I have already to a certain extent anticipated this, that this is a very striking assertion on the part of the Lord Jesus Christ concerning Himself. This form of expression seems to suggest something more than that He was in a comparative degree greater than Jonas. The expression suggests that He was more than man. We find in a subsequent verse that He says:—”Behold, a greater than Solomon is here.” This is a parallel expression, and these expressions seem to convey this, that there was One standing among them who was greater than the greatest of the sons of men that had appeared before Him. He suggests, in fact, His divinity, His Godhead. He was incomparably greater than any of the children of men, than the greatest of the kings, or the most eminent of the prophets that preceded Him. “Behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” I desire, however, to consider this statement on the part of Christ as having in some sense a perpetual meaning and significance unto the end of time. These words uttered by Christ may be still applied to Him, to His office and to His work until the very end of the world. A greater than Jonas is still present. He has, no doubt, personally ascended on high, and entered into the immediate presence of God. He has passed into the heavens; but it is also true that He still abides with us. He still abides upon earth.
(1) Let me notice, then, some particulars as to the manner of His presence still upon earth.
He still remains upon earth, as represented by His Word.
He has given us the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and it is within the confines of this inspired Word that we alone can meet with Christ. Take away the Word of God; take away the Bible; and you may say, “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.” It is impossible, in the nature of things, that you can find Christ apart from this Word of Truth, in which the things concerning Him and His work are infallibly recorded for the benefit of all generations to the end of time. He said Himself, in the days of His flesh, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me.” I say, then, Christ is still with us, as represented by His holy and blessed Word. There we may seek and find Him as the light and life and salvation of our never-dying souls.
But I observe further, in the second place, that Christ abides with us by His Spirit as well as by His Word.
Did He not say to His disciples, when He was about to leave them, “Go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world”? And how is Christ with His disciples unto the end of the world? Just by the Holy Spirit of truth, and the Spirit of truth has been promised and has been given to those who fear His name and who proclaim His word in accordance with the mind of God. I do not say, my friends, that we observe the Spirit of God working with the same measure of power that He wrought in the days of the apostles, or even in subsequent centuries—such as the times of the glorious Reformation—but still the Spirit of God has not wholly left His Church or His people. The word of Christ is pledged for it: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” And He said also that “He would send the Spirit of truth, who would abide with them for ever.” Christ, the greater than Jonas, is still here, as represented by His Spirit.
I observe, thirdly, that Christ is still here, as represented by His messengers or ambassadors.
The apostle said, “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” Such are the character and work of all true preachers of the Gospel. And although they be few and humble in the present day that seek to proclaim the Gospel in its purity, yet at the same time that does not take away from the authority of their message, if it is proclaimed in accordance with the mind of Christ expressed in the Word of God. Christ is still here, then, as represented by His ministering servants. The treasure is in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of men. It is theirs to say to the righteous that it shall be well with him, and to the wicked that it shall be ill with him.
I observe in this connection, lastly, that He is here, as represented by His people—by the members of His mystical body.
You will recollect that when the Lord Jesus appeared to Saul of Tarsus on his way to Damascus, He said to him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” Saul was persecuting the servants and disciples of Jesus. He was not persecuting Jesus immediately, because Jesus was in heaven and Saul was upon earth, but what was done against His servants and disciples, the Lord Jesus regarded as done against Himself. He regarded them as parts of Himself. They were members of that mystical body which the Father gave Him, in the counsels of eternity, to be redeemed and saved. And so, my friends, we may say that wherever there is a real servant of Christ—a real child of God—to be found, there in a measure Christ Himself is. That is a representative of Christ, although a representative most imperfect. None was perfect but the glorious Pattern Himself. Still, at the same time, we have reason to bless the Most High that He has yet left a few members of Christ upon earth. He has still a remnant “according to the election of grace,” and where they are, Christ is. He is still here, as represented by His mystical body. “Behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”
(2) I shall next point out a few of the places of His presence.
Well, it is an encouraging thought to us that the “greater than Jonas” is still in this earth, in this fallen world of ours.
Oh! my friends, He came from heaven to earth that He might redeem His Church by His own blood. He came from heaven to earth that he might procure a title to take possession of the whole world. “Ask of me,” said the Father, “and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” Although in some generations it is only a very few scattered here and there over the face of the earth who truly fear God and live by the faith of Jesus Christ, yet the Son of God came from heaven that He might secure a title in righteousness to reign from sea to sea, and from the river even unto the ends of the earth. “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world;” and, oh! my friends, He is still in the world by His Word and Spirit, by His ministering servants and people, in order that He may gain ultimately all nations to His sceptre. These are the instruments or means that He is to employ for this great and glorious purpose. He shall reign until all His enemies be made His footstool—
“Yea, all the mighty kings on earth
Before Him down shall fall;
And all the nations of the world
Do service to Him shall.”
He is still here representatively in this sinful, fallen world.
He is still here, let me further remark, in His Church.
Christ said, in the days of His flesh, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” That is the promise bearing upon the assemblies of the saints, bearing upon the gathering together of God’s people in the way of worship and service. He is still here in His Church. I do not say that He is everywhere in what are known or denominated as Churches. It is to be feared that many organisations that are called by the name of Churches have no proper right to the name at all. They have no proper right, because they deny fundamental truths; they set aside the inspiration and infallibility of God’s Word. Some of them, in fact, deny the Godhead of Jesus of Nazareth. The Christ that they hold forth to their fellow-creatures is not “the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the Mighty God;” He is a mere man possessed of human sympathy, and nothing more. But, my friends, the true Christ of God is still present in His true Church, with those who hold fast the fundamental doctrines of the faith in the Spirit. He is still present, then, in His Church.
Lastly, I observe He is still here in respect of the souls of His people.
“To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” When Christ comes in a day of mercy to save a soul from going down to the pit, when He puts him among the justified, He takes possession of that soul. Christ becomes in that soul “the hope of glory.” He enters it in the exercise of His enlightening, cleansing and renewing influences. He takes up His abode in that soul, and He will go no more out. Perhaps, to the feelings of His people at certain times, He may seem as if He had taken His departure, and their cry may be like that of Job, “Oh, that I knew where I might find him.” But that does not imply that He is actually absent. He is absent as far as their conscious feeling or comfortable sense is concerned, but He is not absent in deep reality. Once He takes possession of the citadel of a poor sinner’s heart, He keeps fast His hold. He says: “I give unto my sheep eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and none is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” “Behold, a greater than Jonas is here.”
Oh! my friends, consider the privilege and responsibility connected with this great and precious truth that a greater than Jonas, even the Son of God, who is the brightness of the Father’s glory and express image of His person, is still present in the world, still present with His Church, still present with His people, and shall so remain unto the very end of time.
III.—The third and last thing is the call to “behold” or consider this—that “a greater than Jonas is here.” Oh! my friends, it is to be feared that many do not consider it. They do not believe the truth concerning Jesus Christ, the Divine Redeemer, the Almighty Saviour. They do not believe that He is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. They disregard His claims and despise His works. He calls the children of men to consider the valuable truth concerning His presence.
Consider this, then, with a view to anxiety and alarm. Remember that you have seen and heard, through the medium of the Word of Truth and through the proclamation of the Gospel, this Person who is greater than Jonas. You have had testimony upon testimony from your childhood concerning the truth as it is in Jesus, and you are called upon to consider the truth that you have heard. You are called upon to consider this, with a view to fleeing from the wrath to come, unto the city of refuge that He points you to in the Gospel; and if you refuse to consider it—if you refuse to hear the solemn truth concerning the person and work and word of Christ—you will have an awful account to give at death and the judgment-seat. You will have a deeper hell than the Ninevites; yea, you will have a deeper hell than the Jews who were personally present when Christ thus spake. For we have had additional testimonies to the truth. We have the testimonies of the apostles after the day of Pentecost. We have the testimonies of God’s servants and saints all down the ages and generations concerning this Divine Redeemer and Almighty Saviour. We have an accumulated mass of testimonies concerning the glory of Christ and the excellency of His work and the preciousness of His Word, and if we despise those testimonies and go on in the way of indifference and carelessness, we shall have to give a most solemn and awful account at the day of judgment. “Consider this, and be afraid, ye that forget the Lord.” Consider this, and be afraid, ye that spend your days and nights in disregard of the concerns of your soul and of your prospects in view of an endless eternity. Consider this, and be afraid, for there is an awful day in front of you, if you will not become alarmed now and flee for refuge unto this “greater than Jonas,” who stands before you in the Gospel.
And consider this, let me say lastly, with a view to encouragement. The “greater than Jonas is here.” Sometimes unbelief will suggest that He has departed, and has forsaken the world altogether. Unbelief will suggest that He has given up the reins wholly into the hands of Satan that Satan may do as he pleases with the nations of the world. But, my friends, yield not to the suggestions of unbelief. “Behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” We are sometimes afraid that He will not shine again, that He will not manifest His power again in any measure corresponding to what He has done in the past, but His great and precious promises completely forbid the thought. A greater than Jonas is still present in this evil world of ours; He is still present in His Church and in the souls of His people. He is still present with a view to take possession of the earth as His ultimate portion and inheritance. He will have His witnesses while sun and moon endure, and there is a day coming when the whole earth shall be filled with His glory (Psalm 72).
Oh! then, are you thinking of these things? “Behold, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation.” You who are still without God and without Christ, delay not, tarry not. “Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain (of God’s grace in Christ), lest thou be consumed.” And are you thinking of this, you who desire to walk in the fear of God and by the faith of Jesus Christ? He has not forgotten us altogether; He has promised never to leave or forsake His true Church and people, and, if in some generations He gives great outward signs of His displeasure, as He is doing at present, yet He is oftentimes working out the most gracious purposes in connection with these awful and desolating judgments. We trust that He is opening up the way, even in this dreadful time of bloodshed and destruction, for the ultimate extension of His cause and kingdom to the ends of the earth. He will pull down the strongholds of iniquity; He will burn down Satan’s citadel upon earth; He will make a large place in the wounded hearts of poor sinners for the entrance of the word of the truth of the gospel. He will make, we hope, a deep and large place for Himself in the hearts of the nations whence He has been excluded for many, many years. We are fully convinced, then, that Christ is still here, that He is still in the earth working out His gracious purposes, even when He is sending desolating calamities upon the nations. “Behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” May the Lord bless unto us His truth!