Jonah's Gourd | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 13, 1858

Jonah's Gourd.

While Jonah was admiring the fragrant shade, and his repining heart grew light beneath it, an invisible worm was at the root. The color began to fade, the broad leaves to wilt, the graceful form to lose its beauty and strength, until it lay at length lifeless at his feet.

Thus while every man not wholly consecrated to Christ and his service has his favorite gourd of earthly good, God has a worm feeding upon its root. The question of decay is only one of time. It may be husband, wife, child lover, or friend; or the world in grosser forms. Decay is written upon them all, and God knows how and when to wither them.

Christian, take care how you lean to earth. He taught the prophet fellowship with himself in his compassion for sinful men, while he reproved his selfish attachments and joys.

We recollect a lady of great intelligence and worth, who, in the midst of worldly prosperity, would often defend with evident sincerity, a moderate enjoyment of worldly amusements. But an only daughter was smitten by death—her idolized gourd withered; and with tears she expressed her wonder, soon after, that she could have entertained the low views of christian life she once did. Alas, how many bearing the name of christian, when their idols are demolished, weep over their own wanderings, and for the perishing souls of unconverted ones

And let the worshiper of mammon, the sensualist, the votary of pleasure know that Jehovah has made a worm which is gnawing at the root of the transitory gourd; and that it will ere long become to each heart, unless the eternal God be its portion, the worm that never dies.