Christ Cleansing the Heart-Temple

Tn what a turmoil and confusion did our blessed Lord find the temple when he entered it on a certain time of the Passover! A noisy crowd of money-changers and cattlebrokers are driving their selfish and sacrilegious traffic. Herds of oxen are lowing; sheep are bleating; cages of doves block up the way; the air is filled with the jabbering babel of traders’ tongues, all eager to sell their beasts and birds for the sacrifices. It is a terrible desecration of an edifice sacred to the Lord of heaven and earth.

Eight among these noisy traffickers enters One who is greater than the temple. Seizing the small rushes which were used for tying up the cattle, our Saviour twisted them into a “scourge” or whip, and drove out the whole crowd of profane intruders. The tables of the money-changers are overturned; and to those who were turning the sanctuary into a pigeon-house the Divine Master says; “Take these things hence! make not my Father’s house a house of merchandise!” The temple is cleansed in an instant. Not, of course, by the terror inspired by a small whip in a single hand; but by a supernatural authority, — the authority of the Divine Messiah, which asserted itlf in such a manner that the sacrilegious rabble moved off, convicted of their wrong, and overawed by the rebuke of that Sovereign who was “Lord also of the temple.” In this striking scene I find a parable, full of spiritual instruction. The soul of every Christian is a temple. It becomes such at the time of conversion. Formerly a habitation of the evil one, it becomes, by regeneration, a “habitation of God through the Spirit.” As the stones on Mount Moriah were but common stones until they were consecrated to God’s use, so the powers and affections of a sinner’s heart become, through true conversion, a dwelling-place for Jesus. “Know ye not,” said Paul, “that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy, for the temple of God is holy; which temple ye are.” What a glorious idea this presents of a faithful follower of Christ! His heart is a sanctuary of the spirit, — full of holy thoughts and devout aspirations. Not a gloomy cloister; but a tabernacle of praise, with strains of lofty melody pealing through the arches, and the sweet incense of gratitude ascending from the altars. The mercy-seat of prayer is there; and the flames of love, consuming the oflFerings, send forth the “savor of a sweet smell.”

But alas! how often is this inner temple of the believer profaned by intruders as sacrilegious as they who brought their beasts and birds and bullion into the sacred edifice on Mount Moriah! Selfishness brings in its herd of sinful schemes into the apartments which belong to Christ alone. Gradually, and under fair pretences, self edges in, — first into the outer courts, and then into the very sanctum of the soul. But into this profaned heart how often does the loving Jesus come with his scourge of sharp chastisements! How often does he twist the very plans of our selfishness into a thong to smite us! Selfishness becomes its own retributior. Our pride, too, is often fearfully scourged by humiliations and mortifications and exposures. Poor, boastful Peter! What a scourging did his self-conceit receive in Pilate’s garden! And what a terrible whip of retribution did David’s lust receive, when the fluid of his guilt lay dead before his weeping eyes! It was to purify, and not to destroy, that the chastising Lord entered into those heart-temples. And our pitying Saviour, when he weaves out of our sins a scourge to punish us, only carries out his discipline of mercy. Whom he loveih he chasteneth; and scourgdh (observe the word) — scourgeth every child whom he receiveth.

We could point to hundreds of church-members into whose heart-temple covetousness has intruded and set up its tables of traffic, in despite of that solemn caution, “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.” Such men are eaten up by the greed for gain; they are thoroughly worldly-minded and unspiritualized. The heart that was once a temple has become a warehouse, or a broker’s office. Let such backsliding professors look out for the scourge! Perhaps it may come in a sore spiritual distress; perhaps in commercial disaster, which shall overturn the tables and scatter the hoards of coveted wealth. In 1857, the Lord entered into the American Church with the scourge of commercial chastisements, and threw down the tables of traffic in terrible bankruptcies; but it was to prepare the way for the most glorious revivals known in this century.

Sinful ambition is another intruder into the heart sanctuary. “Seekest thou great things for thyself] Seek them not.” But, in spite of this tender warning, ambition gets possession; until at length the indignant Master enters to overthrow our guilty schemes, with the stern rebuke, “Take these things hence;”

“he that exalteth himself shall be abased.” Methinks that some of us may have set up domestic idols in the temple of the heart. We loved them more than we loved Him who gave them. And’ when the scourge came, — came, too, in an unlooked-for hour, — it drew the heart’s blood! The surgery of bereavement was terrible. The death-wail sounded through the inner chambers, while the Master was carrying off our idols. But, when the idol was gone, there was more room for Him to whom the whole heart had once been promised. Wnen our loved ones are taken, then, like the sisters of Bethany, we send for that Friend who had been quite too much forgotten or neglected before. Blessed be the chastisements, however bitter, which purify the heart for Jesus! Blessed be the scourge, if it is only in that hand which was once pierced for our redemption! Love never gives one blow too many, or too hard.

There is one other thought worth noting here, if it be not too close a torturing of the very words of the inspired narrative. You will observe that, when Christ cleansed, the temple of intruders, he “made a scourge of small cords.” He wove the little withes that lay about the floors into the whip of chastisement. So does that same loving Lord now employ little trials as well as great bereavements in the spiritual discipline of his people. Many a Christian has a daily vexation to try his patience or to punish his besetting sins. Little pains, little annoyances, and little discomforts are as much a part of our discipline as are the formidable adversities that occasionally smite us like hurricanes. Little vexations often creep into the secret places, and, by finding out the sore spots, discover to us our faults. Let us not despise the chastening of our Divine Physician and Purifier when he sends small trials as well as great ones to test our graces or to drive out our sins. Remember that it was with a scourge of small cords that the Lord of the temple expelled the profane intruders from his dwelling-place. Better, far better, to bear the scourge of little cords, when laid on by the hand of love, than to endure the whip of scorpions in that world where punishment can torture and sting, but may never purify.