講道

Father Mapple rose, and in a mild voice of unassuming authority ordered the scattered people to condense.

梅普神父站起身來，以一種不擺架子、卻自有威嚴的溫和嗓音，命令那零散的會眾靠攏。

“Starboard gangway, there! side away to larboard—larboard gangway to starboard! Midships! midships!”

「右舷通道那邊的！往左舷靠——左舷通道的往右舷靠！往船中央集中！往中央集中！」

There was a low rumbling of heavy sea-boots among the benches, and a still slighter shuffling of women’s shoes, and all was quiet again, and every eye on the preacher.

長椅間響起一陣沉重水手靴的低隆移動聲，還有更輕些的女鞋窸窣聲，隨後一切又歸於安靜，每一雙眼睛都望向傳道人。

He paused a little; then kneeling in the pulpit’s bows, folded his large brown hands across his chest, uplifted his closed eyes, and offered a prayer so deeply devout that he seemed kneeling and praying at the bottom of the sea.

他停頓了一會兒；然後跪在講壇的「船首」處，把他那雙黝黑的大手交疊在胸前，闔著眼向上仰起，獻上一段極其虔誠的禱告——虔誠得彷彿他正跪在海底祈禱。

This ended, in prolonged solemn tones, like the continual tolling of a bell in a ship that is foundering at sea in a fog—in such tones he commenced reading the following hymn; but changing his manner towards the concluding stanzas, burst forth with a pealing exultation and joy—

禱告完畢，他以悠長莊嚴的聲調——像一艘在霧海中下沉的船上那不停敲響的鐘——以這樣的聲調，開始誦讀以下這首讚美詩；但到末尾幾節，他的神態一變，迸發出一陣響亮的歡欣與喜悅——

Nearly all joined in singing this hymn, which swelled high above the howling of the storm.

幾乎所有人都加入合唱這首讚美詩，歌聲高高蓋過了風暴的呼嘯。

A brief pause ensued; the preacher slowly turned over the leaves of the Bible, and at last, folding his hand down upon the proper page, said: “Beloved shipmates, clinch the last verse of the first chapter of Jonah—‘And God had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.’”

隨後是短暫的停頓；傳道人慢慢翻著《聖經》的書頁，最後把手按在那一頁上，說道：「親愛的船友們，把〈約拿書〉第一章最後一節牢牢記住——『神安排了一條大魚，把約拿吞下。』」

“Shipmates, this book, containing only four chapters—four yarns—is one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures.

「船友們，這卷書只有四章——四段故事——是《聖經》這條巨纜裡最細的一股之一。

Yet what depths of the soul does Jonah’s deep sealine sound! what a pregnant lesson to us is this prophet!

然而，約拿那條深探的測海線，探到了靈魂何等的深處！這位先知給我們的功課，又何等意味深長！

What a noble thing is that canticle in the fish’s belly! How billow-like and boisterously grand!

魚腹中那首聖歌是何等崇高！何等如波濤翻湧、雄渾激越！

We feel the floods surging over us; we sound with him to the kelpy bottom of the waters; sea-weed and all the slime of the sea is about us!

我們感到洪水在頭頂上翻湧；我們隨他一同沉到那長滿海藻的水底；海草與滿海的黏滑泥濘環繞著我們！

But what is this lesson that the book of Jonah teaches? Shipmates, it is a two-stranded lesson; a lesson to us all as sinful men, and a lesson to me as a pilot of the living God.

但〈約拿書〉教的究竟是什麼功課呢？船友們，這是一條兩股交織的功課；一條是給我們眾罪人的功課，一條是給身為活神領航員的我的功課。

As sinful men, it is a lesson to us all, because it is a story of the sin, hard-heartedness, suddenly awakened fears, the swift punishment, repentance, prayers, and finally the deliverance and joy of Jonah.

就我們眾罪人而言，這是給大家的功課，因為它講的是約拿的罪、心硬、突然驚醒的恐懼、迅速的懲罰、悔改、禱告，以及最終的得救與喜樂。

As with all sinners among men, the sin of this son of Amittai was in his wilful disobedience of the command of God—never mind now what that command was, or how conveyed—which he found a hard command.

就像人世間所有罪人一樣，這位亞米太之子的罪，在於他任性地違抗了神的命令——那命令是什麼、怎麼傳達的，這會兒且不必管——他覺得那是一道難遵的命令。

But all the things that God would have us do are hard for us to do—remember that—and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavors to persuade. And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.

但凡是神要我們做的事，對我們都是難的——記住這一點——也正因如此，他多半是命令我們，而不是費力勸說我們。而我們若要順服神，就必須違逆自己；而正是在這違逆自己之中，藏著順服神之所以艱難的緣由。

“With this sin of disobedience in him, Jonah still further flouts at God, by seeking to flee from Him.

「約拿身懷這違命之罪，還進一步藐視神——竟想逃離祂。

He thinks that a ship made by men will carry him into countries where God does not reign, but only the Captains of this earth.

他以為一艘人造的船，能載他去到神不掌權、只有這塵世船長作主的國度。

He skulks about the wharves of Joppa, and seeks a ship that’s bound for Tarshish.

他在約帕的碼頭一帶鬼鬼祟祟地溜來溜去，尋一艘開往他施的船。

There lurks, perhaps, a hitherto unheeded meaning here.

這裡頭，或許潛藏著一個迄今未被留意的含義。

By all accounts Tarshish could have been no other city than the modern Cadiz. That’s the opinion of learned men.

照各種說法，他施不會是別的城，正是今天的加地斯。這是博學之士的看法。

And where is Cadiz, shipmates? Cadiz is in Spain; as far by water, from Joppa, as Jonah could possibly have sailed in those ancient days, when the Atlantic was an almost unknown sea.

那加地斯在哪兒，船友們？加地斯在西班牙；從約帕走水路過去，已是約拿在那古遠年代——大西洋還幾乎無人知曉的年代——所能航行的最遠之處了。

Because Joppa, the modern Jaffa, shipmates, is on the most easterly coast of the Mediterranean, the Syrian; and Tarshish or Cadiz more than two thousand miles to the westward from that, just outside the Straits of Gibraltar.

因為約帕，也就是今天的雅法，船友們，位在地中海最東端的敘利亞沿岸；而他施、即加地斯，則在它以西兩千多哩處，恰在直布羅陀海峽外。

See ye not then, shipmates, that Jonah sought to flee world-wide from God?

那麼船友們，你們難道看不出，約拿是想逃到天涯海角去躲避神嗎？

Miserable man! Oh! most contemptible and worthy of all scorn; with slouched hat and guilty eye, skulking from his God; prowling among the shipping like a vile burglar hastening to cross the seas.

可悲的人哪！噢！最是卑劣、最該受盡鄙夷；他壓低帽簷、目光含愧，躲著他的神溜走；在一艘艘船之間逡巡，活像個急著渡海潛逃的卑鄙竊賊。

So disordered, self-condemning is his look, that had there been policemen in those days, Jonah, on the mere suspicion of something wrong, had been arrested ere he touched a deck.

他神色如此慌亂、滿臉自責，要是那年頭有警察，約拿單憑「形跡可疑」這一條，恐怕還沒踏上甲板就被逮了。

How plainly he’s a fugitive! no baggage, not a hat-box, valise, or carpet-bag,—no friends accompany him to the wharf with their adieux.

他分明就是個逃犯！沒有行李，沒有帽盒、手提箱，也沒有毛氈旅行袋——沒有朋友到碼頭來與他道別。

At last, after much dodging search, he finds the Tarshish ship receiving the last items of her cargo; and as he steps on board to see its Captain in the cabin, all the sailors for the moment desist from hoisting in the goods, to mark the stranger’s evil eye.

最後，一番躲躲閃閃的尋覓之後，他找到了那艘他施船，正在裝最後一批貨；他踏上船、要去艙裡見船長時，所有水手一時都停下手裡的搬貨活兒，去打量這陌生人那股邪氣的眼神。

Jonah sees this; but in vain he tries to look all ease and confidence; in vain essays his wretched smile.

約拿看在眼裡；他想裝出一副從容自信的樣子，卻是徒勞；他擠出一個可憐的笑，也是枉然。

Strong intuitions of the man assure the mariners he can be no innocent.

水手們對這人的強烈直覺，叫他們認定他絕非什麼清白之輩。

In their gamesome but still serious way, one whispers to the other—“Jack, he’s robbed a widow;” or, “Joe, do you mark him; he’s a bigamist;” or, “Harry lad, I guess he’s the adulterer that broke jail in old Gomorrah, or belike, one of the missing murderers from Sodom.”

他們半開玩笑、卻又一本正經地，這個對那個耳語——「傑克，他搶了個寡婦；」或者，「喬，你瞧他；他是個重婚犯；」要不就是，「哈利小子，我猜他是那個從古蛾摩拉越獄的姦夫，要不就是所多瑪那幾個在逃殺人犯之一。」

Another runs to read the bill that’s stuck against the spile upon the wharf to which the ship is moored, offering five hundred gold coins for the apprehension of a parricide, and containing a description of his person.

又有一個跑去看那張貼在繫船木樁上的告示——上頭懸賞五百枚金幣捉拿一名弒親兇手，還附了那人的相貌描述。

He reads, and looks from Jonah to the bill; while all his sympathetic shipmates now crowd round Jonah, prepared to lay their hands upon him.

他讀著，目光在約拿和告示之間來回；而他那些同氣連枝的船友這會兒都圍攏到約拿身邊，準備動手抓他。

Frighted Jonah trembles, and summoning all his boldness to his face, only looks so much the more a coward.

受驚的約拿渾身發抖，把全身的膽量都調到臉上來，結果反倒顯得更像個膽小鬼。

He will not confess himself suspected; but that itself is strong suspicion.

他不肯承認自己受了懷疑；可這本身就是個大大的可疑。

So he makes the best of it; and when the sailors find him not to be the man that is advertised, they let him pass, and he descends into the cabin.

於是他只好硬著頭皮應付；待水手們發現他並不是告示上通緝的那人，便放他過去，他這才下到艙裡。

“‘Who’s there?’ cries the Captain at his busy desk, hurriedly making out his papers for the Customs—‘Who’s there?’ Oh! how that harmless question mangles Jonah!

「『誰在那兒？』船長在他那忙亂的書桌前喊道，正急著趕辦海關的文件——『誰在那兒？』噢！這句本無惡意的問話，把約拿攪得多麼難受！

For the instant he almost turns to flee again. But he rallies. ‘I seek a passage in this ship to Tarshish; how soon sail ye, sir?’

一瞬間他差點又轉身要逃。但他穩住了。『我想搭這艘船去他施；先生，你們多久後開船？』

Thus far the busy Captain had not looked up to Jonah, though the man now stands before him; but no sooner does he hear that hollow voice, than he darts a scrutinizing glance.

到這時，忙碌的船長都還沒抬眼看約拿，儘管那人此刻就站在他面前；可他一聽見那空洞的嗓音，立刻射來一道審視的目光。

‘We sail with the next coming tide,’ at last he slowly answered, still intently eyeing him. ‘No sooner, sir?’—‘Soon enough for any honest man that goes a passenger.’

『我們隨下一次漲潮開船，』他終於緩緩答道，眼睛仍緊盯著他。『不能再早些嗎，先生？』——『對任何當乘客的老實人來說，這已經夠早了。』

Ha! Jonah, that’s another stab. But he swiftly calls away the Captain from that scent.

哈！約拿，這又是一記戳刺。但他迅速把船長從那條線索上引開。

‘I’ll sail with ye,’—he says,—‘the passage money how much is that?—I’ll pay now.’

『我就搭你們的船，』他說，『船費要多少？——我現在就付。』

For it is particularly written, shipmates, as if it were a thing not to be overlooked in this history, ‘that he paid the fare thereof’ ere the craft did sail. And taken with the context, this is full of meaning.

因為經上特別寫著，船友們，彷彿這是這段歷史裡不容忽略的一件事——『他付了船費』，在船開航之前。聯繫上下文來看，這話大有深意。

“Now Jonah’s Captain, shipmates, was one whose discernment detects crime in any, but whose cupidity exposes it only in the penniless.

「且說約拿這位船長，船友們，是這麼一種人：他的眼力能看穿任何人身上的罪，他的貪婪卻只在身無分文的人身上把那罪揭出來。

In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.

在這世上，船友們，付得起買路錢的罪惡，可以暢通無阻、不需護照地通行；而美德倘若是個窮光蛋，便在所有的關卡都被攔下。

So Jonah’s Captain prepares to test the length of Jonah’s purse, ere he judge him openly. He charges him thrice the usual sum; and it’s assented to.

所以約拿這船長便打算先試探一下約拿錢袋的深淺，再公開評斷他。他開了平常三倍的價錢；而約拿應允了。

Then the Captain knows that Jonah is a fugitive; but at the same time resolves to help a flight that paves its rear with gold.

這下船長明白約拿是個逃犯了；但他同時下定決心，要去成全這場「一路撒金鋪後路」的逃亡。

Yet when Jonah fairly takes out his purse, prudent suspicions still molest the Captain. He rings every coin to find a counterfeit. Not a forger, any way, he mutters; and Jonah is put down for his passage.

然而當約拿真把錢袋掏出來時，謹慎的疑心仍纏著船長。他把每一枚錢幣都敲一敲，看有沒有假幣。反正不是個偽幣販子，他咕噥道；於是約拿的船位就登記下來了。

‘Point out my state-room, Sir,’ says Jonah now, ‘I’m travel-weary; I need sleep.’ ‘Thou lookest like it,’ says the Captain, ‘there’s thy room.’

『先生，請指給我我的客艙，』約拿這會兒說，『我旅途勞頓；我需要睡覺。』『你看著也確實像，』船長說，『那就是你的房間。』

Jonah enters, and would lock the door, but the lock contains no key. Hearing him foolishly fumbling there, the Captain laughs lowly to himself, and mutters something about the doors of convicts’ cells being never allowed to be locked within.

約拿進去，想把門鎖上，可那鎖沒有鑰匙。船長聽見他在那兒傻乎乎地摸索，獨自低低一笑，咕噥了幾句——說什麼囚犯牢房的門是絕不准從裡頭反鎖的。

All dressed and dusty as he is, Jonah throws himself into his berth, and finds the little state-room ceiling almost resting on his forehead. The air is close, and Jonah gasps.

約拿衣裳也沒換、滿身塵土地往鋪位上一躺，發現那小客艙的天花板幾乎要壓到他的額頭。空氣悶塞，約拿喘不過氣。

Then, in that contracted hole, sunk, too, beneath the ship’s water-line, Jonah feels the heralding presentiment of that stifling hour, when the whale shall hold him in the smallest of his bowels’ wards.

於是，在那個逼仄、又沉在船吃水線之下的窟窿裡，約拿預先感到了那令人窒息一刻的徵兆——那時，鯨將把他關在牠腸肚間最小的一格牢房裡。

“Screwed at its axis against the side, a swinging lamp slightly oscillates in Jonah’s room; and the ship, heeling over towards the wharf with the weight of the last bales received, the lamp, flame and all, though in slight motion, still maintains a permanent obliquity with reference to the room; though, in truth, infallibly straight itself, it but made obvious the false, lying levels among which it hung.

「一盞吊燈以其軸心擰固在艙壁上，在約拿房裡微微擺盪；而那船因吃下最後幾捆貨的重量，正朝碼頭那側傾側，於是那盞燈，連同火焰，雖只輕輕晃動，相對於這房間卻始終保持著一種固定的傾斜；其實它本身準確無誤地筆直，只不過把它所懸處那一片虛假、扯謊的「水平」給照得分明了。

The lamp alarms and frightens Jonah; as lying in his berth his tormented eyes roll round the place, and this thus far successful fugitive finds no refuge for his restless glance.

這盞燈叫約拿心驚膽寒；他躺在鋪上，飽受折磨的雙眼在艙裡四下打轉，這個迄今還算成功的逃犯，竟找不到一處可供他不安目光棲身的地方。

But that contradiction in the lamp more and more appals him. The floor, the ceiling, and the side, are all awry. ‘Oh! so my conscience hangs in me!’ he groans, ‘straight upwards, so it burns; but the chambers of my soul are all in crookedness!’

但那燈裡的矛盾越來越叫他驚駭。地板、天花、艙壁，全是歪斜的。『噢！我的良心就這麼懸在我裡頭！』他呻吟道，『它筆直朝上、這麼燃著；可我靈魂的那一間間房，卻全是歪的！』

“Like one who after a night of drunken revelry hies to his bed, still reeling, but with conscience yet pricking him, as the plungings of the Roman race-horse but so much the more strike his steel tags into him; as one who in that miserable plight still turns and turns in giddy anguish, praying God for annihilation until the fit be passed; and at last amid the whirl of woe he feels, a deep stupor steals over him, as over the man who bleeds to death, for conscience is the wound, and there’s naught to staunch it; so, after sore wrestlings in his berth, Jonah’s prodigy of ponderous misery drags him drowning down to sleep.

「就像一個徹夜醉樂之後踉踉蹌蹌奔向床鋪的人，仍暈眩搖晃，良心卻仍刺痛著他——好比羅馬賽馬越是猛衝、越是把馬刺的鋼釘扎得更深；又像一個在那悲慘處境裡仍翻來覆去、在暈眩的痛苦中打轉、向神禱告求個了斷、只盼這陣發作快過去的人；最後，在他所感到的層層愁苦的漩渦中，一陣深沉的麻木悄悄籠罩了他，就像籠罩一個正流血至死的人——因為良心就是那傷口，而沒有任何東西能止住它的血；就這樣，在鋪位上一番痛苦的掙扎之後，約拿那沉重得驚人的悲慘，把他像溺水般拽進了睡眠。

“And now the time of tide has come; the ship casts off her cables; and from the deserted wharf the uncheered ship for Tarshish, all careening, glides to sea.

「這會兒漲潮的時辰到了；船解開纜索；那艘開往他施、無人歡送的船，從冷清的碼頭，整個傾側著，滑向大海。

That ship, my friends, was the first of recorded smugglers! the contraband was Jonah.

朋友們，那艘船，是有記載以來頭一艘走私船！而那走私的違禁品，就是約拿。

But the sea rebels; he will not bear the wicked burden.

但大海反抗了；他不肯承載這邪惡的貨。

A dreadful storm comes on, the ship is like to break.

一場可怕的風暴襲來，船眼看就要散架。

But now when the boatswain calls all hands to lighten her; when boxes, bales, and jars are clattering overboard; when the wind is shrieking, and the men are yelling, and every plank thunders with trampling feet right over Jonah’s head; in all this raging tumult, Jonah sleeps his hideous sleep.

但這會兒，當水手長召集全員減輕船載；當箱子、貨捆、罈罐嘩啦啦地往船外拋；當風在尖嘯、人在吶喊、每一塊甲板都在約拿頭頂上被踩踏得如雷轟鳴——在這一片狂暴的喧囂中，約拿卻睡著他那可怕的覺。

He sees no black sky and raging sea, feels not the reeling timbers, and little hears he or heeds he the far rush of the mighty whale, which even now with open mouth is cleaving the seas after him.

他看不見漆黑的天與狂怒的海，感不到搖晃的船板，也幾乎聽不見、不理會那遠處巨鯨的奔湧——那鯨此刻正張著大口、破開海水，朝他追來。

Aye, shipmates, Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship—a berth in the cabin as I have taken it, and was fast asleep.

是啊，船友們，約拿下到了船的內側——照我的講法，是艙裡的一個鋪位——並且睡得正沉。

But the frightened master comes to him, and shrieks in his dead ear, ‘What meanest thou, O, sleeper! arise!’

但那受了驚的船長來到他跟前，對著他那死人般的耳朵尖叫：『沉睡的人哪，你這是什麼意思！起來！』

Startled from his lethargy by that direful cry, Jonah staggers to his feet, and stumbling to the deck, grasps a shroud, to look out upon the sea.

被那可怕的喊聲從昏沉中驚醒，約拿踉蹌起身，跌跌撞撞奔上甲板，抓住一條桅索，向海上望去。

But at that moment he is sprung upon by a panther billow leaping over the bulwarks. Wave after wave thus leaps into the ship, and finding no speedy vent runs roaring fore and aft, till the mariners come nigh to drowning while yet afloat.

但就在那一刻，一道豹子般的巨浪躍過舷牆，猛撲到他身上。一波又一波就這樣躍進船裡，找不到快速宣洩之處，便轟鳴著前後奔流，弄得那些水手雖然船還浮著、人卻幾乎要淹死。

And ever, as the white moon shows her affrighted face from the steep gullies in the blackness overhead, aghast Jonah sees the rearing bowsprit pointing high upward, but soon beat downward again towards the tormented deep.

而每當那白月從頭頂漆黑中陡峭的雲隙裡露出她受驚的臉，駭然的約拿便看見高高揚起、直指上方的船首斜桅，旋即又被打得朝那受盡折磨的深淵俯衝下去。

“Terrors upon terrors run shouting through his soul. In all his cringing attitudes, the God-fugitive is now too plainly known.

「一重又一重的恐怖，呼嘯著穿過他的靈魂。從他那一副副畏縮的神態，這個逃避神的人此刻已昭然若揭。

The sailors mark him; more and more certain grow their suspicions of him, and at last, fully to test the truth, by referring the whole matter to high Heaven, they fall to casting lots, to see for whose cause this great tempest was upon them.

水手們盯住了他；他們對他的疑心越來越篤定，最後，為了徹底查明真相、把整件事交託給高天裁奪，他們動手抽起籤來，要看這場大風暴究竟是因誰而起。

The lot is Jonah’s; that discovered, then how furiously they mob him with their questions. ‘What is thine occupation? Whence comest thou? Thy country? What people?’

籤抽中了約拿；這一查明，他們便何等暴怒地一擁而上、向他連珠炮似地發問。『你是做什麼的？你從哪兒來？你的國家？哪一族人？』

But mark now, my shipmates, the behavior of poor Jonah. The eager mariners but ask him who he is, and where from; whereas, they not only receive an answer to those questions, but likewise another answer to a question not put by them, but the unsolicited answer is forced from Jonah by the hard hand of God that is upon him.

但你們留意，我的船友們，可憐約拿的舉動。那些急切的水手不過問他是誰、從哪兒來；可他們得到的，不僅是這些問題的答案，還有一個他們沒問的問題的答案——這個不請自來的答案，是被那按在約拿身上的、神那隻嚴厲的手，硬從他口中逼出來的。

“‘I am a Hebrew,’ he cries—and then—‘I fear the Lord the God of Heaven who hath made the sea and the dry land!’

「『我是希伯來人，』他喊道——接著——『我敬畏耶和華，那創造了海洋與旱地的天上之神！』

Fear him, O Jonah? Aye, well mightest thou fear the Lord God then!

敬畏他，約拿啊？是啊，那時你可真該敬畏耶和華神！

Straightway, he now goes on to make a full confession; whereupon the mariners became more and more appalled, but still are pitiful.

緊接著，他便和盤托出、完全認了罪；水手們聽了越發驚駭，卻仍心懷憐憫。

For when Jonah, not yet supplicating God for mercy, since he but too well knew the darkness of his deserts,—when wretched Jonah cries out to them to take him and cast him forth into the sea, for he knew that for his sake this great tempest was upon them; they mercifully turn from him, and seek by other means to save the ship.

因為當約拿——他還沒向神懇求憐憫，因為他太清楚自己罪有應得的黑暗——當可憐的約拿向他們喊著，叫他們把他抓起來、拋進海裡，因為他知道這場大風暴是為他的緣故才臨到他們的；他們卻仁慈地不忍下手，轉而設法用別的辦法來保住船。

But all in vain; the indignant gale howls louder; then, with one hand raised invokingly to God, with the other they not unreluctantly lay hold of Jonah.

但一切都是徒勞；那憤怒的狂風嘯得更響；於是，他們一隻手向神高舉祈求，另一隻手便並非心甘情願地抓住了約拿。

“And now behold Jonah taken up as an anchor and dropped into the sea; when instantly an oily calmness floats out from the east, and the sea is still, as Jonah carries down the gale with him, leaving smooth water behind.

「現在你看，約拿被像錨一樣提起，拋進了海裡；剎那間，一片油亮的平靜從東方漫了開來，海面歸於平息，彷彿約拿把那狂風一併帶了下去，身後留下一片波平如鏡的水。

He goes down in the whirling heart of such a masterless commotion that he scarce heeds the moment when he drops seething into the yawning jaws awaiting him; and the whale shoots-to all his ivory teeth, like so many white bolts, upon his prison.

他在如此一場失控騷亂的旋渦中心往下沉，幾乎沒留意到自己翻滾著、墜入那等候著他、張開的巨口的那一刻；那鯨便把牠一排象牙般的牙齒像一根根白色門閂似地，「咔」地合上，鎖住了牠這座牢房。

Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord out of the fish’s belly. But observe his prayer, and learn a weighty lesson.

然後約拿從魚腹中向耶和華禱告。但你們留意他的禱告，從中學一個分量極重的功課。

For sinful as he is, Jonah does not weep and wail for direct deliverance. He feels that his dreadful punishment is just.

因為約拿雖滿身是罪，卻不為直接的脫困而哭天搶地。他覺得自己這可怕的懲罰是公正的。

He leaves all his deliverance to God, contenting himself with this, that spite of all his pains and pangs, he will still look towards His holy temple.

他把自己的一切拯救全交給神，只以此為滿足：縱有種種痛楚煎熬，他仍要朝著神的聖殿仰望。

And here, shipmates, is true and faithful repentance; not clamorous for pardon, but grateful for punishment.

而這，船友們，就是真實而忠信的悔改；不是吵嚷著要赦免，而是感恩於懲罰。

And how pleasing to God was this conduct in Jonah, is shown in the eventual deliverance of him from the sea and the whale.

約拿這樣的行止何等蒙神喜悅，從他最終得以脫離大海與巨鯨，便可見一斑。

Shipmates, I do not place Jonah before you to be copied for his sin but I do place him before you as a model for repentance. Sin not; but if you do, take heed to repent of it like Jonah.”

船友們，我把約拿擺在你們面前，不是要你們仿效他的罪，而是要把他樹為悔改的榜樣。別犯罪；但你們若犯了，務要留心，像約拿那樣去悔改。」

While he was speaking these words, the howling of the shrieking, slanting storm without seemed to add new power to the preacher, who, when describing Jonah’s sea-storm, seemed tossed by a storm himself.

他說這些話時，外頭那場尖嘯、斜打的風暴的呼嘯，彷彿為傳道人添了新的力量；他描述約拿那場海上風暴時，自己也彷彿被一場風暴拋擲著。

His deep chest heaved as with a ground-swell; his tossed arms seemed the warring elements at work; and the thunders that rolled away from off his swarthy brow, and the light leaping from his eye, made all his simple hearers look on him with a quick fear that was strange to them.

他深厚的胸膛起伏，像湧動著一股海底長浪；他揮舞的雙臂彷彿是交戰中的天地元素；從他黝黑的額頭滾滾散開的雷聲、從他眼中迸射的光，使他那些純樸的聽眾望著他，生出一種他們從未體驗過的驟然的敬畏。

There now came a lull in his look, as he silently turned over the leaves of the Book once more; and, at last, standing motionless, with closed eyes, for the moment, seemed communing with God and himself.

這會兒他的神色平靜下來，再一次默默翻著那本書的書頁；最後，他一動不動地站著，闔著眼，一時間，彷彿正與神、也與自己交談。

But again he leaned over towards the people, and bowing his head lowly, with an aspect of the deepest yet manliest humility, he spake these words:

但他又一次朝會眾俯下身來，低低垂著頭，帶著一種最深沉、卻又最具男子氣概的謙卑神情，說出了這番話：

“Shipmates, God has laid but one hand upon you; both his hands press upon me.

「船友們，神只把一隻手按在你們身上；他卻把雙手都按在我身上。

I have read ye by what murky light may be mine the lesson that Jonah teaches to all sinners; and therefore to ye, and still more to me, for I am a greater sinner than ye.

我已借著我所能有的那點昏暗微光，向你們講了約拿教給一切罪人的功課；這功課是給你們的，更是給我的，因為我是比你們更大的罪人。

And now how gladly would I come down from this mast-head and sit on the hatches there where you sit, and listen as you listen, while some one of you reads me that other and more awful lesson which Jonah teaches to me, as a pilot of the living God.

此刻我多麼樂意從這桅頂上下來，坐到你們所坐的艙口蓋上，像你們一樣地聆聽，讓你們中間某一位，讀給我聽約拿教給我這個活神領航員的、那另一個、更可畏的功課。

How being an anointed pilot-prophet, or speaker of true things, and bidden by the Lord to sound those unwelcome truths in the ears of a wicked Nineveh, Jonah, appalled at the hostility he should raise, fled from his mission, and sought to escape his duty and his God by taking ship at Joppa.

那功課是：約拿身為一個受膏的領航先知、講真理的人，奉主之命去向邪惡的尼尼微人耳中宣講那些不受歡迎的真理，他卻因懼怕自己將激起的敵意，逃離了自己的使命，想在約帕搭船來躲開他的職責和他的神。

But God is everywhere; Tarshish he never reached.

但神無所不在；他施，他從未抵達。

As we have seen, God came upon him in the whale, and swallowed him down to living gulfs of doom, and with swift slantings tore him along ‘into the midst of the seas,’ where the eddying depths sucked him ten thousand fathoms down, and ‘the weeds were wrapped about his head,’ and all the watery world of woe bowled over him.

如我們所見，神藉著那鯨臨到他，把他吞入那活生生的滅亡深淵，以迅疾的斜衝把他拽著『進到海的中心』，那兒打旋的深處把他吸下一萬噚，『海草纏裹住他的頭』，整個愁苦的水世界在他頭上翻滾而過。

Yet even then beyond the reach of any plummet—‘out of the belly of hell’—when the whale grounded upon the ocean’s utmost bones, even then, God heard the engulphed, repenting prophet when he cried.

然而即便到了那地步、遠在任何測深錘所能及之外——『從陰間的深處』——當那鯨擱在海洋最底的骨架上時，即便在那時，神仍聽見了那被吞沒、正在悔改的先知的呼求。

Then God spake unto the fish; and from the shuddering cold and blackness of the sea, the whale came breeching up towards the warm and pleasant sun, and all the delights of air and earth; and ‘vomited out Jonah upon the dry land;’ when the word of the Lord came a second time; and Jonah, bruised and beaten—his ears, like two sea-shells, still multitudinously murmuring of the ocean—Jonah did the Almighty’s bidding.

於是神吩咐那魚；那鯨便從海中那令人戰慄的寒冷與漆黑裡，破浪升向溫暖宜人的太陽、升向天空與大地的一切歡愉；並且『把約拿吐在旱地上』；這時耶和華的話第二次臨到；而約拿，遍體鱗傷、被打得不成樣子——他的耳朵，像兩枚海貝，仍紛紛低語著海洋的聲音——約拿遵行了全能者的吩咐。

And what was that, shipmates? To preach the Truth to the face of Falsehood! That was it!

那吩咐是什麼，船友們？是對著謊言的臉去宣講真理！就是這個！

“This, shipmates, this is that other lesson; and woe to that pilot of the living God who slights it.

「這，船友們，這就是那另一個功課；而那輕慢它的活神領航員，有禍了。

Woe to him whom this world charms from Gospel duty!

那被這世界誘離福音職責的人，有禍了！

Woe to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when God has brewed them into a gale!

那在神已把海水釀成狂風時、卻還想往水上倒油（求息事寧人）的人，有禍了！

Woe to him who seeks to please rather than to appal!

那一心想討好、而不願去震懾人心的人，有禍了！

Woe to him whose good name is more to him than goodness!

那把自己的好名聲看得比良善更重的人，有禍了！

Woe to him who, in this world, courts not dishonor!

那在這世上不肯招致羞辱（不肯為真理得罪人）的人，有禍了！

Woe to him who would not be true, even though to be false were salvation!

那寧可說謊得救、也不肯守真的人，有禍了！

Yea, woe to him who, as the great Pilot Paul has it, while preaching to others is himself a castaway!”

是的，那如同偉大的領航者保羅所說、向別人傳道、自己卻成了被棄者的人，有禍了！」

He dropped and fell away from himself for a moment; then lifting his face to them again, showed a deep joy in his eyes, as he cried out with a heavenly enthusiasm,—“But oh! shipmates! on the starboard hand of every woe, there is a sure delight; and higher the top of that delight, than the bottom of the woe is deep.

他垂下頭，有片刻彷彿從自身抽離；然後再次抬起臉望向他們，眼中現出一種深深的喜悅，以一種屬天的熱忱喊道——「但是噢！船友們！在每一樣禍患的右舷邊，都有一份確實的喜樂；而那喜樂的頂端之高，更勝於那禍患的底端之深。

Is not the main-truck higher than the kelson is low? Delight is to him—a far, far upward, and inward delight—who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

主桅頂端之高，豈不勝過內龍骨之低嗎？有福了，那人——一種遙遠、遙遠、向上又向內的喜樂屬於他——他面對這塵世間驕傲的諸神與司令，始終挺立為他自己那不可動搖的本我。

Delight is to him whose strong arms yet support him, when the ship of this base treacherous world has gone down beneath him.

有福了，那人——當這卑劣奸詐的世界之船在他腳下沉沒時，他那強健的雙臂仍撐住他自己。

Delight is to him, who gives no quarter in the truth, and kills, burns, and destroys all sin though he pluck it out from under the robes of Senators and Judges.

有福了，那人——他在真理上絕不留情，殺滅、焚燒、摧毀一切罪惡，哪怕得從元老與法官的袍底下把它揪出來。

Delight,—top-gallant delight is to him, who acknowledges no law or lord, but the Lord his God, and is only a patriot to heaven.

有福了，最高桅般的喜樂屬於那人——他不承認任何法律或主宰，只認耶和華他的神，並且只效忠於天國。

Delight is to him, whom all the waves of the billows of the seas of the boisterous mob can never shake from this sure Keel of the Ages.

有福了，那人——任憑那喧囂暴民之海的層層巨浪，也永遠無法把他從這「萬代之龍骨」上撼動分毫。

And eternal delight and deliciousness will be his, who coming to lay him down, can say with his final breath—O Father!—chiefly known to me by Thy rod—mortal or immortal, here I die.

而永恆的喜樂與甘美，將歸於那人——當他臨終躺下時，能以最後一口氣說——啊，天父！——我對你的認識，主要來自你的杖——無論會死還是不朽，我就在此死去。

I have striven to be Thine, more than to be this world’s, or mine own. Yet this is nothing: I leave eternity to Thee; for what is man that he should live out the lifetime of his God?”

我一直竭力要屬於你，更甚於屬於這世界、或屬於我自己。然而這算不得什麼：我把永恆交託給你；因為人算什麼，竟妄想活滿他的神那樣長的歲月呢？」

He said no more, but slowly waving a benediction, covered his face with his hands, and so remained kneeling, till all the people had departed, and he was left alone in the place.

他不再多言，只緩緩揮手作了一個祝禱，便以雙手掩面，就這樣一直跪著，直到所有的人都離去，只剩他獨自一人留在那地方。