FRIDAY.
Christ Drives out the Buyers and Sellers. — II.
I. Imagine you hear the words of Christ, " Make not the house of My Father a house of traffic" (John ii. 16), and at another time, a little before His passion, "My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves." (Matt. xxi. 13.) Hence, we are taught to exercise due reverence, both external and internal, in God's church. Examine whether you make it a house of prayer, or do not rather think there of your temporal affairs.
II. According to the Apostle, your soul is a temple of God: " Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Cor. iii. 16.) Hence, the terrible sentence which follows, "But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy." Examine, therefore, whether your soul be a house of prayer, that is, whether your mind be frequently raised to God, or whether it be not rather devoted to worldly concerns and earthly things. If this be unfortunately the case, drive thence all these undue affections and attachments; offer violence to yourself, for "the kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away." {Matt. xi. 12.)
III. Christ did not bring the scourge into the temple, but made it of the cords, which He found there. Thus our Lord does not carry with Him a scourge against us, but makes one of our sins. Sin is its own worst punishment, for what can be equal in torture to the reproaches of a lacerated conscience, or, if the sinner's state be yet more deplorable, what can be a greater curse than the silence of an obdurate heart? Divest yourself, then, of all sin,
