登陆注册
15291000000018

第18章

"With this sin of disobedience in him, Jonah still further flouts at God, by seeking to flee from Him. He thinks that a ship made by men, will carry him into countries where God does not reign but only the Captains of this earth. He skulks about the wharves of Joppa, and seeks a ship that's bound for Tarshish. There lurks, perhaps, a hitherto unheeded meaning here. By all accounts Tarshish could have been no other city than the modern Cadiz. That's the opinion of learned men. And where is Cadiz, shipmates? Cadiz is in Spain; as far by water, from Joppa, as Jonah could possibly have sailed in those ancient days, when the Atlantic was an almost unknown sea. Because Joppa, the modern Jaffa, shipmates, is on the most easterly coast of the Mediterranean, the Syrian; and Tarshish or Cadiz more than two thousand miles to the westward from that, just outside the Straits of Gibraltar. See ye not then, shipmates, that Jonah sought to flee worldwide from God? Miserable man! Oh! most contemptible and worthy of all scorn; with slouched hat and guilty eye, skulking from his God;prowling among the shipping like a vile burglar hastening to cross the seas. So disordered, self-condemning in his look, that had there been policemen in those days, Jonah, on the mere suspicion of something wrong, had been arrested ere he touched a deck. How plainly he's a fugitive! no baggage, not a hat-box, valise, or carpet-bag,- no friends accompany him to the wharf with their adieux. At last, after much dodging search, he finds the Tarshish ship receiving the last items of her cargo; and as he steps on board to see its Captain in the cabin, all the sailors for the moment desist from hoisting in the goods, to mark the stranger's evil eye. Jonah sees this; but in vain he tries to look all ease and confidence; in vain essays his wretched smile. Strong intuitions of the man assure the mariners he can be no innocent. In their gamesome but still serious way, one whispers to the other- "Jack, he's robbed a widow;" or, "Joe, do you mark him; he's a bigamist;" or, "Harry lad, I guess he's the adulterer that broke jail in old Gomorrah, or belike, one of the missing murderers from Sodom." Another runs to read the bill that's stuck against the spile upon the wharf to which the ship is moored, offering five hundred gold coins for the apprenhension of a parricide, and containing a description of his person. He reads, and looks from Jonah to the bill; while all his sympathetic shipmates now crowd round Jonah, prepared to lay their hands upon him. Frightened Jonah trembles. and summoning all his boldness to his face, only looks so much the more a coward. He will not confess himself suspected; but that itself is strong suspicion. So he makes the best of it; and when the sailors find him not to be the man that is advertised, they let him pass, and he descends into the cabin.

"'Who's there?' cries the Captain at his busy desk, hurriedly making out his papers for the Customs- 'Who's there?' Oh! how that harmless question mangles Jonah! For the instant he almost turns to flee again.

But he rallies. 'I seek a passage in this ship to Tarshish; how soon sail ye, sir?' Thus far the busy Captain had not looked up to Jonah, though the man now stands before him; but no sooner does he hear that hollow voice, than he darts a scrutinizing glance. 'We sail with the next coming tide,' at last he slowly answered, still intently eyeing him. 'No sooner, sir?'- 'Soon enough for any honest man that goes a passenger.' Ha! Jonah, that's another stab. But he swiftly calls away the Captain from that scent. 'I'll sail with ye,'- he says,- 'the passage money how much is that?- I'll pay now.' For it is particularly written, shipmates, as if it were a thing not to be overlooked in this history, 'that he paid the fare thereof' ere the craft did sail. And taken with the context, this is full of meaning.

"Now Jonah's Captain, shipmates, was one whose discernment detects crime in any, but whose cupidity exposes it only in the penniless.

In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers. So Jonah's Captain prepares to test the length of Jonah's purse, ere he judge him openly. He charges him thrice the usual sum;and it's assented to. Then the Captain knows that Jonah is a fugitive;but at the same time resolves to help a flight that paves its rear with gold. Yet when Jonah fairly takes out his purse, prudent suspicions still molest the Captain. He rings every coin to find a counterfeit. Not a forger, any way, he mutters; and Jonah is put down for his passage. 'Point out my state-room, Sir,' says Jonah now, 'I'm travel-weary; I need sleep.' 'Thou lookest like it,' says the Captain, 'there's thy room.' Jonah enters, and would lock the door, but the lock contains no key. Hearing him foolishly fumbling there, the Captain laughs lowly to himself, and mutters something about the doors of convicts' cells being never allowed to be locked within. All dressed and dusty as he is, Jonah throws himself into his berth, and finds the little state-room ceiling almost resting on his forehead. The air is close, and Jonah gasps. Then, in that contracted hole, sunk, too, beneath the ship's water-line, Jonah feels the heralding presentiment of that stifling hour, when the whale shall hold him in the smallest of his bowels' wards.

同类推荐
  • 孙子略解

    孙子略解

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 佛说越难经

    佛说越难经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 狱中杂记

    狱中杂记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 诸佛集会陀罗尼经

    诸佛集会陀罗尼经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 曲藻

    曲藻

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 九魂花

    九魂花

    一朝穿越她成为人尽可欺的傻公主殿下,失去前尘记忆法力。世人皆知她拥有绝世丑颜。天降小萌宝抱着她喊‘’妈咪”‘’虾米妈咪是什么鬼”养个儿子也不错,远嫁东祁和亲,无奈嫁给白面罗刹,亲妹妹抢夫君没事,敢动我儿子揍你没商量。她割袍祀血休书一封给白面罗刹。华丽转身带着美男到他面前你不过我不要的。她为他白了一头青丝,他却消失得悄无声息。为他,她愿放弃江山,奔走天涯。她愿化作一朵彼岸花,只为在哪荒芜的奈何桥头,渡他安好遇他是劫?亦是缘?
  • 非法男仆

    非法男仆

    兄与弟生与死寄托着孤独的灵魂异世徘徊却找不回自我
  • 道钤传

    道钤传

    传说,仁帝感念苍生命如秋叶,取姬海二玉,刻至仁至高之大道,是为《君钤经》。如今,《君钤经》早已不知所踪,只一句“得君钤者得天下”留传了数万年,令无数人遍寻天下,风云再起……一少年巧得上部君钤,且看他如何演绎仁君之精彩大道!
  • 净土往生传

    净土往生传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 秋生辰菲恋

    秋生辰菲恋

    一时控制不住的情感,竟牵扯出一生的羁绊。年少时的方辰沉着冷静,不为女色所动,然而却在大学时与一名普通女孩邂逅,她叫鲁小菲(陆小菲),‘笨蛋’是她的座右铭,坚持不懈的倒追方式终于让方辰为其心动,可事实真相却是如此残酷,他与她是不可一世的仇敌,最终她被迫远离他乡,而方辰却甘心为其等待,无论空虚寂寥,也阻止不了他对她的思念......缘起缘灭,情深情浅,也许是命中注定他们还会再遇,然而,这一次的相遇却是命运与生命的交织......
  • 离思赋

    离思赋

    序:庆余三年,唐欲北伐巴图,朕虽不愿再起争端,陷大周于烽火之中。然北元强悍,周唐一损俱损,此战乃大势所趋。朕将披甲提枪,御驾亲征,以振军心。洛阳留皇太弟明岚监国,明岚年纪尚轻但行事沉稳,且有子谦辅佐,朕心宽慰。此次北上呼和草原,不知离思几何,唯愿凯旋后,万家灯火依旧。在白露之望月,映九州而凝霜。朕宽衣以披甲,且削发而冠胄。感征期之将至,摘金桂以酝酿。思江南之杨柳,念灯市之桃花。昔临渊而羡鱼,今化龙而翱翔。望毕功于一役,展大周之雄姿。待凯旋而高歌,方斟酒以庆余。
  • 高冷男神带回家:老公,轻轻爱

    高冷男神带回家:老公,轻轻爱

    “只要功夫深铁杵磨成针,你早晚就是根绣花针!”璎珞沁看着正在自己身上兴风作浪的某男道。“那劳烦你多多打磨了。”某男勾唇,邪魅一笑。说着两人投入到新的一轮战役中去......有人问璎珞沁你结婚这么多年最大的感悟是什么。她说:“如果这一生能遇见一个为了你拒绝其他暧昧的男人,就嫁了吧。”她想了想,补充道:“但千万不要嫁那些表面高冷禁欲的男人,不然你会后悔的,就像我现在这样。”
  • 都市神仙客

    都市神仙客

    修仙文明世界大能无意识的神魂与濒死的准大学生李齐灵魂融合。不一样的生活即将开始,坦荡的人生需要做一个自由的神仙。我不惹事,更不怕事!何人欺我,拍死就是!
  • 何许林溪

    何许林溪

    我会胆小,会逃避,但除了你,我需要你……
  • 穿越奇缘霸道总裁爱上我

    穿越奇缘霸道总裁爱上我

    古代第一美女拒嫁皇帝,跳河自杀竟穿越现代!没有了古代的种种限制,她要活出自己的天地!嫁一位爱人终身相守!是否能够如愿呢?