CLEANSING THE TEMPLE
‘And He went into the Temple … den of thieves.’
Our Lord twice had to cleanse the Temple. The profane practice grew up gradually until He put it down in His authoritative way. What is its counterpart now?
I. The encroaching spirit of worldliness.—God is practically dethroned. Think of the Sunday trading, Sunday travelling, Sunday excursions, in simple disregard of the day.
II. The growth of irreligion gives birth to all new forms of self-indulgence. Be careful to mark the beginning of careless, God forgetting ways. Beware, too, of ‘evil communications’; no doubt buyers and sellers encouraged each other.
III. The voice of conscience even among those buyers and sellers was only stifled—it was not destroyed. They shrank away at the words of Christ, ashamed and self-condemned.
The voice of God still makes itself heard above and against the voice of the people.
—Bishop Fraser.