Though this vision of Ezekiel is crude and very extreme, even for an ancient prophet of Israel, yet we have people to-day who invest these wheels, and eyes, and heads with symbolic meanings to bolster up a monstrous religion that is contrary to pretty much everything that Jesus taught. Out of the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation, some well meaning but untaught souls can invent fifty-seven varieties of religion. But they can learn neither the lesson nor the danger of an undisciplined imagination. 3. Jonah As I am simply giving a bird's-eye view of the Scriptures, and the method of approaching them, possibly a few words should be said concerning Jonah. As a great missionary book for a people who were very unmissionary in spirit, Jonah is unique. It breathes the spirit of Christian missions in this twentieth century. The friends of the Bible have unwittingly made this great book a jest and a byword by their wretched interpretation of it. Even as a little boy, I used to feel ashamed of certain portions of Jonah when read at family prayers. For, as I understood it, there was something about the story uncanny and unreal. I knew that some people scoffed at the fish story. But that did not trouble me because I believed in miracles, and was much pleased that God did not let poor Jonah drown. It was the unnaturalness of Jonah himself that troubled me. And when it came to his experience with the gourd, I almost lost faith. When Jonah felt so angry and sorry that he wanted to die because a worm bit the gourd, my common sense revolted completely. I meditated over this incident a long time, and finally concluded that no little boy was ever such a fool as that. I had felt faint in the hot sun many times myself and had seen chinch bugs eat up whole fields of wheat, and yet I did not want to die. That a big man, and prophet of God, could give way to such hysterical feelings over a withering gourd was more than I could believe. This incident was a much greater shock to my faith than the fish story. Though I felt very wicked for doubting the Bible, yet I was heartily glad that a certain sceptical neighbor was not present to hear it, for I knew he would make fun of such a story. What a pity it is that a little boy should be compelled to experience such feelings about the Bible at family prayers, when a little rational explanation would make this book charming to him beyond expression. Though the book of Jonah is written in a curious oriental style that no man of to-day would wish to imitate, yet its spirit, purpose, and subject matter would be very difficult to surpass. As a parable, it is true to the general history of Israel and to the spirit of Christian missions. It contains the vision of a missionary statesman, and was meant to sting Israel to the quick for her bigotry and hardness of heart. Very briefly stated, it is something like this: