ing themselves and their animals with the same emblem of sorrow.

The animals, too, were to have no food nor water during the day. The inhabitants of the city were to spend no time in taking care of them, but to devote it all to humbling themselves before God, confessing their sins to him, heartily repenting of them, and praying for pardon and mercy. By this universal fasting of men, women, and children, and all of their animals, it was intended to show how universal their guilt was, and that their very beasts, as it were, had been partakers of this guilt, because they had belonged to those wicked people, and had been used by them while engaged in their wickedness.

I do not think it is necessary, when we fast, that, to show our sorrow for sin, we should make the animals which belong to us fast also. God does not require this. It is proper to feed and water them, and also to give nourishment to children, and to sick and feeble persons. But the Ninevites thought differently; and, although they did not think, perhaps, exactly right about it, it showed the sincerity and the depth of their sorrow. I suppose, too, that fasting for one day would not do any lasting injury to their animals. It often happens that wild animals in the woods go without eating or drinking any thing for a longer time than one day.

It was also decreed by the king and nobles, that the people should cry mightily unto God; and that they should turn, every one from his evil way, and from the violence that was in their hands; that they

should do wickedly no more; and that the violent things, the quarrelling, the fighting, the stealing, the robbing, the murdering, in which their hands had been employed, should all cease.

This decree of the kings and nobles of Nineveh shows how they trembled at the threatenings of Jonah; how well they knew that their wickedness had been very great; how deeply they felt that they justly deserved the awful judgments of God, and that they had no hope of escape but in his mercy alone. It shows, also, how strongly they desired that the sorrow of themselves and the people might show itself to come from the heart, and to be something more than the mere fear of punishment. For they knew, that while persons continue in sin they cannot feel sorry for it; and that every one who feels true sorrow for his sins will immediately begin to forsake them, and to do what God requires of him.

CHAPTER XVI.

The people are directed to pray, as well as to fast. They wil lingly obey the decree. A great change in their conduct. God spares Nineveh. The duty of fasting, and of having seasons of public fasting, humiliation, and prayer.

It was a part of the decree of the king and nobles, that prayer to God should be united with the fasting. The people were required to cry mightily unto God; to cry from their hearts, feeling deeply their guilt

and their danger; to cry aloud with their voice, as persons are ready to do when they are sensible of some great danger that threatens them, and that they must obtain help speedily, or be destroyed.

The fasting was to prepare them thus to pray the more earnestly and feelingly. Great grief often destroys the appetite. Persons who feel a great deal of sorrow will not care about eating and drinking. On the other hand, to go for some time without food, aids us in feeling truly sorry for our sins. It keeps the mind awake and clear, so that we can think the better how guilty we have been in the sight of God; and confess more fully all our wickedness; and pray the better for pardon, and that we may be kept from sinning in future. While a person is trying to do this, he will find, in almost all cases, that his attention and feelings become very different from what they would have been if he had continued to use without food.

Fasting is something more than a mere outward expression or mark of sorrow. It is a means of preparing the heart and the mind to be humbled before God, deeply to repent of sin, and earnestly to cry unto God for forgiveness, and for a disposition to love and obey him. Very young persons, however, or those who are sick and feeble, or those whose health requires it, may not be able to go without food. In such cases they ought to take nourishment. Their repentance may be equally sincere, although not accompanied with the outward expression of it.

The king and the nobles told the people, in the

decree, that if they would all thus humble themselves before God, and show that their fasting and prayers were sincere, by immediately forsaking their wickedness-then there might be some hope of their deliverance from the destruction with which they were threatened. 'Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?"

You remember, my dear children, that I have explained to you what is meant when we speak of God's repenting, or of his being angry; and it may be well for you to read it over again, if you do not recollect it all distinctly.

The king and nobles hoped that, if they truly repented of their sins, God would treat them all very differently from what he had threatened, and that his terrible displeasure would not come upon them.

The king caused the decree to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh. He sent many of his officers, probably on horseback, through all the roads and streets of the city, to tell the people what himself and the nobles thought it was best to do, and what they commanded to be done by all the inhabitants.

The people heard the decree, and felt that it was just and right. They prepared to obey it. It took them some little while to get every thing ready for the day of fasting, humiliation and prayer; but soon the preparations were made, and, when the time came which the king had appointed, they were all of them, and the animals too, which they used in riding, covered with sackcloth.

How sorrowful the whole city must have appeared! It would be a sad sight to you, my dear children, to see all the men, women, and children, and all the horses too, in the place where you live, clothed in mourning. How they must have all felt in the great city of Nineveh, to look round and see its numerous inhabitants, and its thousands of horses and camels, all covered with the emblems of grief.

It was a mournful day for them. They took no food nor drink. They prayed alone, and in their families; and I think it probable that they also went into their temples, and there cried mightily unto God to have mercy on them. Many of them, we have reason to believe, felt truly sorry for their sins, and confessed them to God, and besought him to pardon them, and to give them his Holy Spirit, that they might forsake their sins, and do what was right and pleasing in his sight.

There was a great change after this in the conduct of the Ninevites. A great many among them ceased from outward wickedness, and some continued to worship and obey the true God. How many of them truly loved God, and desired to be holy and freed from all sin, and loved their neighbors as they did themselves, we cannot tell. But probably not a few did; and throughout the whole city there was scarcely any violence-any quarrelling or fighting, any stealing, robbing, or murder to be seen. "And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not."