The call that comes to Jonah. 
  His hesitancy. 
  His dodging of duty. 
  His selfish judgments. 
  His punishment. 
  His attitude toward the people of Nineveh. 
  The lesson taught.

“Yes,” says the young skeptic, “but how about the whale idea?  Do you expect us to believe that stuff?  It’s contrary to all natural law.”

Let’s meet the issue squarely.  The Bible says that Jonah was swallowed by a big fish.  Science is agreed that that part of the account is easily possible—­nothing contrary to natural law so far.

“But what about the three days?  That surely is.”

Here is a challenge.  Is it possible that life can be suspended, “and restored”?  Let the scriptures testify.  It was so in the case of the daughter of Jairus. (Mark 5:22-43.)

So was it in the case of Lazarus. (John 11:23-44.)

Consider the case of the Son of God Himself!  Buried in the tomb, Jesus rose the third day.  If you can believe in the resurrection, you can believe in the restoration of Jonah.  It is interesting to note that Jesus Himself accepted the story of Jonah.  See Matthew 12:40: 

   “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly;
   so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart
   of the earth.”

To doubt Jonah is to question the Master.  Not only so, but if a person throws out the story of Jonah, he faces a chain of miraculous events from one end of the Bible to the other from which he will have difficulty to escape.  You ask me to explain Jonah, I shall reply by asking you to explain: 

  The creation of man. 
  The flood. 
  The confusion of Babel. 
  The parting of the Red Sea. 
  The three Hebrews and the furnace. 
  Elisha and the ax. 
  The birth of the Savior. 
  His resurrection. 
  One-third of the account given by Matthew. 
  Your own birth.

May one not accept with confidence the word of God as contained in the Doctrine & Covenants, Sec. 35:8?

“For I am God, and mine arm is not shortened; and I will show miracles, signs and wonders unto all those who believe on my name.”

* * * * *

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS—­CHAPTER XIII

1.  Discuss the proper use of stories in securing and maintaining interest.

2.  Point out the danger of bringing in foreign “funny” material.

3.  Show how difficult subjects may be made of even greater interest than easy ones.

4.  Use the greater part of this class hour for illustrating how to create interest in subjects ordinarily found hard to teach.

HELPFUL REFERENCES

Those listed in Chapter XI.

CHAPTER XIV

THE MORE IMMEDIATE PROBLEMS IN TEACHING