NO book of the Bible more clearly shows the futility of attempting to interpret Holy Writ literally than the book of Jonah. The attempt to materialize Scripture has proven particularly unfortunate in the case of this book, for it has drawn upon the Bible in general much cheap wit and resentful skepticism, and the name of Jonah has been made to apply to one who brings disaster to any company with which he is associated. The writer will not attempt to translate the whole of the book of Jonah into metaphysical terms, much less to impose upon the reader his own version of its true meaning, but certain mental phases stand out so conspicuously that a short survey may prove helpful.
"Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me," we read at the opening of the book of Jonah, and from that exhortation on to the end metaphysical lessons are constantly before the reader. If we take Nineveh as a specific type of evil or error, then the divine exhortation would be equivalent to a demand upon Jonah to face evil and handle it specifically. Jonah's attempted evasion of his manifest duty, his subsequent adventures in fleeing from error, and the peculiar states of mind to which this gave rise, would then depict, according to this point of view, just so many mental and spiritual experiences common to the searchers after good in all ages who from fear or from any other cause refuse to handle error.
We read that no sooner had Jonah been bidden to go to Nineveh, than he fled in the opposite direction toward the sea, which might typify the not infrequent desire on the part of a Christian Scientist to avoid handling specific error and then trying to escape by rushing to the sea, or to error in general. The name Jonah signifies dove in Hebrew, and Mrs. Eddy gives the true meaning of this word in the Glossary of Science and Health as "a symbol of divine Science; purity and peace; hope and faith" (p. 584). But Jonah may be taken to illustrate a false sense of peace, and especially the temptations to which those are exposed who desire to please everybody. This type until instructed out of itself by Science is constantly crying, "Peace, peace; when there is no peace." Through dread of spiritual warfare it risks bringing disaster upon itself and those with whom it is associated. Its fear of war invites war, and it has to be taught that peace at any price is too expensive when it means the loss of all that is worth fighting for. To this supine quality Isaiah doubtless referred when in his majestic cadences he declared of the Messiah, "The chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." The desire for material ease, and that fatal resignation to the laws of mortal mind which characterize mankind before they are spiritually awakened, added great weight to Jesus' cross. On page 254 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy places the issue squarely before us: "If you venture upon the quiet surface of error and are in sympathy with error, what is there to disturb the waters? What is there to strip off error's disguise? If you launch your bark upon the ever agitated but healthful waters of truth, you will encounter storms."
