{"id":"01KG8AP593VY1A5KN714C7HDVD","cid":"bafkreibc5a75cklxn4ans2l75llwbjb7tmlrtarf6og2nvxiwydmlfd4oa","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2316,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:30.764Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 25","source_file":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","start_line":2253,"text":"\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nNearly all joined in singing this hymn, which swelled high above the\r\nhowling of the storm. A brief pause ensued; the preacher slowly turned\r\nover the leaves of the Bible, and at last, folding his hand down upon\r\nthe proper page, said: “Beloved shipmates, clinch the last verse of the\r\nfirst chapter of Jonah—‘And God had prepared a great fish to swallow up\r\nJonah.’”\r\n\r\n“Shipmates, this book, containing only four chapters—four yarns—is one\r\nof the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures. Yet what\r\ndepths of the soul does Jonah’s deep sealine sound! what a pregnant\r\nlesson to us is this prophet! What a noble thing is that canticle in\r\nthe fish’s belly! How billow-like and boisterously grand! We feel the\r\nfloods surging over us; we sound with him to the kelpy bottom of the\r\nwaters; sea-weed and all the slime of the sea is about us! But _what_\r\nis this lesson that the book of Jonah teaches? Shipmates, it is a\r\ntwo-stranded lesson; a lesson to us all as sinful men, and a lesson to\r\nme as a pilot of the living God. As sinful men, it is a lesson to us\r\nall, because it is a story of the sin, hard-heartedness, suddenly\r\nawakened fears, the swift punishment, repentance, prayers, and finally\r\nthe deliverance and joy of Jonah. As with all sinners among men, the\r\nsin of this son of Amittai was in his wilful disobedience of the\r\ncommand of God—never mind now what that command was, or how\r\nconveyed—which he found a hard command. But all the things that God\r\nwould have us do are hard for us to do—remember that—and hence, he\r\noftener commands us than endeavors to persuade. And if we obey God, we\r\nmust disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein\r\nthe hardness of obeying God consists.\r\n\r\n“With this sin of disobedience in him, Jonah still further flouts at\r\nGod, by seeking to flee from Him. He thinks that a ship made by men\r\nwill carry him into countries where God does not reign, but only the\r\nCaptains of this earth. He skulks about the wharves of Joppa, and seeks\r\na ship that’s bound for Tarshish. There lurks, perhaps, a hitherto\r\nunheeded meaning here. By all accounts Tarshish could have been no\r\nother city than the modern Cadiz. That’s the opinion of learned men.\r\nAnd where is Cadiz, shipmates? Cadiz is in Spain; as far by water, from\r\nJoppa, as Jonah could possibly have sailed in those ancient days, when\r\nthe Atlantic was an almost unknown sea. Because Joppa, the modern\r\nJaffa, shipmates, is on the most easterly coast of the Mediterranean,\r\nthe Syrian; and Tarshish or Cadiz more than two thousand miles to the\r\nwestward from that, just outside the Straits of Gibraltar. See ye not\r\nthen, shipmates, that Jonah sought to flee world-wide from God?\r\nMiserable man! Oh! most contemptible and worthy of all scorn; with\r\nslouched hat and guilty eye, skulking from his God; prowling among the\r\nshipping like a vile burglar hastening to cross the seas. So\r\ndisordered, self-condemning is his look, that had there been policemen\r\nin those days, Jonah, on the mere suspicion of something wrong, had\r\nbeen arrested ere he touched a deck. How plainly he’s a fugitive! no\r\nbaggage, not a hat-box, valise, or carpet-bag,—no friends accompany him\r\nto the wharf with their adieux. At last, after much dodging search, he\r\nfinds the Tarshish ship receiving the last items of her cargo; and as\r\nhe steps on board to see its Captain in the cabin, all the sailors for\r\nthe moment desist from hoisting in the goods, to mark the stranger’s\r\nevil eye. Jonah sees this; but in vain he tries to look all ease and\r\nconfidence; in vain essays his wretched smile. Strong intuitions of the\r\nman assure the mariners he can be no innocent. In their gamesome but\r\nstill serious way, one whispers to the other—“Jack, he’s robbed a\r\nwidow;” or, “Joe, do you mark him; he’s a bigamist;” or, “Harry lad, I\r\nguess he’s the adulterer that broke jail in old Gomorrah, or belike,\r\none of the missing murderers from Sodom.” Another runs to read the bill\r","title":"Chunk 25"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AK7FP6P1V67V3ATJHHZ83","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J198KE6FY8WPVJQQRCZ6","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AP593Z7PJ9XA0EQ2JZVEN","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AP5931XNTA8KR3Q61NABY","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:33.475Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:40.554Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}