The Negro A Beast In The Image Of GOD

MAN, AND THE NEGRO. 379
prise at this threatened visitation of God's wrath ;
made
no inquiry as to the cause of the trouble, nor offered any
protest against the judgment of God. On the contrary,
he fully realized the nature of the trouble, and the
justice of God's judgment, by proceeding to rectify the
evil.
Hence, he issued his edict that all business should
be suspended, even to the feeding and watering of the
herds and flocks; and that all the energies
of *'man and
beast" should be concentrated in an effort to appease
Divine wrath, and thus save the city. (5) The King
fully realized that it was the criminal relations existing
between the men of Nineveh and their beasts that had
brought the city to the verge
of destruction under Divine
judgment. This is demonstrated by the fact that he
laid identically the same penalty upon man and beast.
Each was required to observe a fast; each was to be
covered with sackcloth ;
each must "cry mightily unto
God," each must "turn from his evil way, and from the
violence that is in their hands." Thus, it is shown that
the beasts were compelled to do identically the same
things which the men of Nineveh did in their efforts to
appease the wrath of God, and save the city. "And
God saw their works, that they turned from their evil
way and God
; repented of the evil that he had said he
would do unto them ;
and he did it not." [Jonah iii, 10.]