poor heathen, he had forsaken-his own true mercy, in being forgiven of God, and restored to his favor and love.

He now had a strong hope of deliverance; and in view of it, exclaimed, "But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord."

He seems to have thought his deliverance very near. Salvation is of the Lord."

The saving of my life from destruction, and what is of infinitely more importance, the saving of my soul from eternal death, to which my late sins had fearfully exposed me, is all owing to the mercy of God. I have not deserved it at all; indeed I deserve something very different from it-the just and terrible displeasure of God-and yet how great is his forbearance and long-suffering toward me! How great is his goodness, in what I now dare to hope will soon be my deliverance from this horrible prison-house! 'Salvation is of the Lord.'"

Thus rejoicing in the prospect of once more walking abroad on the earth, and on being permitted to revisit his own country, and enter again into the temple of the Lord, Jonah resolves in that holy place, to offer his sacrifice of thanksgiving, and to praise God for his deliverance. He had already vowed (or made a very solemn promise) to do this, and he intended to pay what he had vowed—to fulfil his promise to do exactly as he had said he would.

In the seventh chapter of Leviticus, beginning at the eleventh verse, you can read about the sacrifice

of thanksgiving which the Israelites made unto God when they wished to show their gratitude for his mercies.

Such a sacrifice Jonah vowed to make; and while making it, he intended to declare aloud the goodness of God, with the voice of thanksgiving; probably, in some sacred psalm of praise, singing of the mercies of the Lord, and inviting his friends to unite with him, that they might rejoice together, and express their gratitude at the same time for his deliverance.

"It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High; to show forth thy loving-kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night."

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Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my song will I praise him."

"I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice, and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me."

"What shall I render unto the Lord for all his

benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord."

"I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. In the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord."

Probably with some such songs of praise did Jonah enter the temple on revisiting his native land, while about to offer up his sacrifice of thanksgivings for the deliverance which had been afforded him, and to perform the vows that he had made.

Sacrifices, I have told you, my dear children, are all now done away. We must show our gratitude to God in some other manner than by offering up an animal on the altar of the Lord. How do you show your parents and friends that you remember their kindness to you, and that you are thankful to them for it? You let them see it in your cheerful obedience to their commands, and in your willingness to do any thing for their comfort and happiness. And if you have to give up any thing of your own, or put yourselves to inconvenience and trouble in order to make them happy, you are very willing and ready to do it. This is the way in which children who truly love their parents and friends show their gratitude to them.

And if you truly love God, and are grateful to him for all his goodness and mercy to you, you will show your gratitude to him in the same way. You will cheerfully obey his commands. You will be

willing and ready to do any thing that he requires of you. You will endeavor to make so kind and good a Being known to those who are yet ignorant of him, that they may love and obey him also. You will do all in your power to have others understand who Jesus Christ is, and why he came into the world. You will pray and labor, that your friends, and acquaintance, and countrymen, and all mankind, may be brought to the knowledge of this Savior, and to trust in him. You will cheerfully give up any thing of your own, or put yourself to inconvenience and trouble to do all this. And you will do it, too, feeling that it is nothing more than what you ought to do. You will feel that by doing it, you do not place God under any obligations to do you good, as you sometimes feel that others should be kind to you, because you have been kind to them. On the contrary, you will feel that you have so often failed in doing your duty, and so often quite neglected to do it, and have so often and so greatly sinned against God, that you justly deserve his displeasure instead of his kindness. You will feel that it is only on account of his great mercy toward you, through Jesus Christ, that you can hope for the forgiveness of your sins-for any favor from God, or that he will accept your attempts to serve him, and grant you any blessings in this world, and still more, admit you to the enjoyments of heaven.

These are the sacrifices which you can offer to God to show your gratitude to him-not on the altar in his holy temple, as Jonah did—but in your

heart and life-in loving and obeying God, and in feeling toward him, and toward his Son Jesus Christ, as such sinners as you and I are, ought to feel.

CHAPTER XII.

The fish casts Jonah out upon the dry land. God does many things, the manner of doing which we are not able to understand. Jonah again sent to Nineveh. He goes, and thus shows that his late repentance was sincere.

AT length, after Jonah had been brought into great distress, and very nigh to death itself, and deeply humbled before God, and patient on account of his sins, his deliverance came. "And the Lord