登陆注册
19875300000018

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
热门推荐
  • 末世重生之神徒

    末世重生之神徒

    一款未知的游戏,让地球瞬间沦为了危险与机遇共存的死亡之地。在这个血腥而残酷的世界里,无论你是高官巨富,还是平民乞丐,都拥有了重新决定命运机会!这里是强者的天堂,也是弱者的地狱!当白伊从末世十年后回到了游戏尚未开始之初,这一次,熟知历史走向,各种副本攻略、任务线索、宝箱位置和未来强者的她,将会演绎出怎样绚烂的末世篇章。新人新书,码字不易,求收藏!求推荐!求宠爱!(^-^)V
  • 一日一悟

    一日一悟

    豁达安祥的生活态度深刻积极的人生哲理。人生需要自悟。自悟就是自己觉醒、自己觉悟、自己领会、自己理解。本书所撷取的短文,其内容涵盖自然、心灵、生命、爱情、婚姻、幸福、快乐、人生等方面,篇篇如醍醐灌顶,让你有所感悟、醒悟、觉悟、开悟。
  • 超级职业

    超级职业

    有了超级职业后,游戏无限BUG,等级连连飙升,神器神宠连连降,红绿钞票大把赚,水灵靓妞怀里拥。到底是神马职业?嗯,暂时不说,点击、收藏,进入本书一起开始‘超级职业’之旅吧!(有过百万字完本保障,小小聊天群107440789)
  • 歌以拥挚

    歌以拥挚

    男主角:田歌女主角:梁挚诚楔子他看到她了,她难得一个从女生宿舍大门走出来,右手小臂上拎着个单肩包,绕过有男生打球的篮球场。他喝水的动作停了一下,她停在篮球边上的大树下。在等谁?“田歌,你快来呀!”大志把球传给了队友,朝他喊。“哎,来了!”拧紧了水瓶盖,抹了下脸,大步朝大志跑去。
  • 烟岚随笔

    烟岚随笔

    自《烟岚》之后,一直很懒,没动笔写第二部小说。闲暇时随手写的一些杂文,却也都被些编辑拿去发了,攒在一起却也有了好几万字。索性存个地方,省得以后连自己写过什么都忘记了。
  • 重生之萧峰成神

    重生之萧峰成神

    想知道箫峰与阿紫掉下悬崖后发生了什么事吗?降龙十八掌融合了六脉神剑与北冥神功又会产生什么变化?神秘的混沌阴阳决又会给箫峰带来什么变化?一个全新的人生,随之而来的一段全新的感情,萧峰又到底该不该接受?且看重生后的箫峰如何修神……
  • 言兵事书

    言兵事书

    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。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 复仇全能魔法公主

    复仇全能魔法公主

    三姐妹本来过着快乐的生活,但有一天,有三个女孩闯入她们的生活。她们以为自己终于获得友谊,没想到,她们被背叛、被骗了,那三个女孩夺走她们的一切。十年后,她们回来了,就是想复仇,告诉那三个女孩,那时候她们的痛苦、伤痛······写得不好请轻喷,毕竟我只是个新手······
  • 英雄联盟之剑圣崛起

    英雄联盟之剑圣崛起

    一不小心穿越了,争霸天下,泡到女神,走上人生巅峰
  • 妻主太无能:宠爱二皇女

    妻主太无能:宠爱二皇女

    好命穿成天启皇朝最无能却最受宠的二皇女,女尊男卑对了胃口。女王,妖孽统统都来吧!闯荡江湖,偶尔中个毒,瞎个眼什么的怕什么?这世道,花男人的钱要男人养才是王道!待众美男们通通收入怀中,看谁还敢嫌她无能!