King's Business - 1923-04

T H E K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S

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whale. The well-known author, F rank Bullen, In his book “The Cruise of the Cachalot” says th a t “ a shark fifteen feet in length has been found in the stomach of a Cachalot.” He tells us fu rth e r th a t “when dying, the sperm whale always ejected th e contents of its stomach!” He tells us of one whale th a t was caught and killed, “ th e ejected food from whose stomach was in masses of enormous size, some of them being estim ated to be the size of our hatch- house, viz., 8 feet by 6 feet by 6 feet.” Of course such a whale would have no difficulty in swallowing a man, so th e whole objection to th e Bible n arrativ e from th e standpoint th a t a whale could not swallow a man is not founded upon superior knowledge, but upon igno­ rance.' “B ut,” someone may say, “ th e action of the gastric juices would kill a man w ithin a whale, or other sea m onster.” B u t th is leaves God out of th e tra n s­ action, whereas in the Bible story God is very prom inent in the whole tra n s­ action. The God who made both the monster and the man and the gastric juices could quite easily control th e gas-, trie juices and preserve th e man alive. We are no t trying to m ake out th a t the transaction was not m iraculous in any event, but those who really believe in God and have had any large experience w ith God have no trouble w ith the miraculous. It ought to be added, moreover, th a t the Bible does not tell us th a t Jonah remained alive during th e period th a t he was in the belly of th e g reat fish. There are things in the n arrativ e as recorded in th e Book of Jonah th a t make it appear as if he did not remain alive (Jonah 2:2, 5, 6, R. V. See m ar­ gin.) There seems to be a strong probar bility th a t Jonah actually did die and was raised from th e dead. If Jonah actually did die, th is only adds one

more to th e resurrections recorded in the Bible and makes Jonah a still more rem arkable type of Christ. To those ,who believe in God there is no difficulty in believing in the resurrection, if suffi­ ciently well attested. “Why should it be thought a thing incredible th a t God should raise th e dead?” There are nu ­ merous instances on record a t ldast of resuscitation of men and women who from appearances had been for some days dead. The historicity of this event is endorsed by Jesus Christ Himself (Mt. 12 :40 ). To th ink of it as being merely allegory or parable is to dis­ credit th e words of Jesus. So, on careful exam ination of what th e Scripture says,, and of the facts of history, all th e difficulties supposed to exist in th e story of Jonah and “the whale” are found to disappear. m m EGGS AND RABBITS The following question is quite ap t to be heard a t th is season— “W hat is th e meaning and origin of eggs and rabbits a t E aster tim e?” E aster eggs are sym­ bolical of the germs of life and re-crea­ tion of spring. The practice of pre­ senting eggs to our friends at E aster is of Magian or P ersian origin and bears allusion to the mundane eggs for which Ormuzd and Ahriman were to contend till th e consumption of all things. It prevailed not only w ith th e P ersians bu t also among the Jews, Egyptians and H indus. Christians adopted th e custom to symbolize the resurrection, and the eggs are colored red in allusion to the blood of the redemption. O ther colors were la ter introduced bu t have no spe­ cial significance except to make variety. The Romans recognized th e egg as a symbol of th e re-creation ©f life, and th e rabbit, th a t of fertility and rep ro ­ duction.

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