Jonah, at last obedient, fulfils his mission. Nineveh, then the chief city of the heathen world, is startled by his voice proclaiming its speedy overthrow. From street to street this first, unwilling, apostle to the Gentiles goes, his piercing utterances and wild cries ringing through the city. There is nowhere else any hint of the strange scenes that follow. No outward sign of doom appears; no comet blazes; no ghosts walk the streets; no foe is at the gates. But at the word of that lonely stranger remorse for the wrong and violence of generations is awakened universally. The king is affected, and in penitence proclaims a fast and a general mourning. The king himself sits in ashes, and issues a mandate that all shall pray and repent; the very animals are to be clothed in mourning. All Nineveh repents at the first summons, before Jonah has accomplished his mission, before, even, he has gone through the whole city. No preaching before or since ever produced such results. Is it wonderful that with such contrition the Divine pity was aroused, and that God revoked His decree of ruin? Jonah has done his God-given work despite himself.
Contrition, in a more or less perfect form, is to be found at the very beginning of the spiritual life of all who have ever sinned deeply. It is its first movement, that which causes it to say, “I will arise.” It is the first thought that breaks in upon the soul as it awakens to the sense of its sin. Where the sense of sin is not, the spiritual life cannot exist; as the life of holiness grows, the spirit of contrition deepens. It seems strange, but it is undoubtedly true, that contrition deepens in proportion as the guilt of sin is removed. There is nothing that contrition will not dare. She will strive after the virtues that seem to belong only to those who have been always kept pure. Despair cannot exist where she is, nor timidity. She is the life and centre of all the soul's progress. So clear is her own vision of God, so certain is she of her own love, that she can encourage and sustain the soul in times of utmost darkness and deadness.1 [Note: B. W. Maturin, Some Principles and Practices of the Spiritual Life.]
