NOTES ON THE INTERNATIONAL LESSON.
LAST week’s lesson ended with Jonah in the fish’s belly. Then he began to pray. In fact, he began to pray as soon as he was cast into the sea; for he says: “For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about; all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.” “When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came in unto thee, into thy holy temple.” Chap. 2:3, 4, 7. It often happens that some such upsetting as this is necessary to bring men to see themselves. David said, “Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word.” Ps. 119:67. Then he says: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.” Verse 71. The whole of psalm 107 is made up of instances of men being brought by dangers, afflictions, etc., to acknowledge God, and of calls upon men to “praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men.”