A Present to His Royal Highness - The Prince of Wales — Page 55
55 laugh at him. Curse means estrangement from God, then how say ye that Jesus was the beloved of God, and yet was he estranged from Him. The wicked alone turn away from God and the transgressors alone hate Him. Then why do ye hold Jesus accursed, who was the beloved of God? “Do ye not read, ‘An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas! For as Jonas 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. ’ ∗ Then, did Jonas enter the belly of the whale dead, that the son of man should have entered the heart of the earth dead also? Did Jonas remain three days and three nights in the belly of the whale dead or alive? Then, why should the son of man remain three days and three nights in the grave dead? “Understanding, why do ye shut your eyes and proclaim your master a sinner that ye may be proved righteous? Jonas entered the belly of the whale alive, remained there alive and came out alive, so did the son of man enter the heart of the earth alive, remained there alive and came out alive, and Jerusalem was shown how the Lord of Life and Death had the power to take His servant down from the cross alive, and to save him from death before the very eyes of his enemies, and to justify His words by the doings of their own hands. “You read that after leaving his tomb he went secretly about in Jerusalem and Galilee and showed his wounds to Thomas and said to his disciples, ‘Behold my hands and ∗ Matthew xii, 39, 40.