city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee." So Jonah
arose and went as God had directed him. Now Nineveh was a very large
city, about sixty miles in circumference, and Jonah went some distance
inside and then cried out, "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be
overthrown!" It was a strange and terrible cry which sounded
throughout the city, and as the Ninevites heard it they feared God,
proclaimed a fast, covered themselves with sackcloth, and every man
was commanded to forsake evil. So they hoped God would forgive them
and spare their city.

God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways,
therefore He spared their city. When Jonah saw that Nineveh was spared
he was very angry, and prayed God to take away his life. He made a
booth and sat under it to see what would become of the city. Then God
sheltered him from the sun by a gourd, and afterwards taught him by it
how wrong he was in being displeased because Nineveh had been spared.
Nineveh was afterwards overthrown, and has remained since then but a
heap of ruins.

[Illustration: JONAH AT NINEVEH.]




HEZEKIAH AND SENNACHERIB.


Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, invaded the land of Judah, and
threatened to lay siege to Jerusalem. Then Hezekiah took counsel with
his princes and mighty men, and repaired the broken walls, and made