The Temple Made a Marketplace
“AND the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: and when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.” John 2: 13–16. IT was an honorable business to sell oxen, sheep, and doves, and to change the money of travelers into the currency of the Jews. Many of the people came to the temple from far-off lands, and they could not bring with them the required offerings; so when they arrived at Jerusalem, it was necessary for them to get their money changed, and then buy from the Jews the required things for the temple service. THE priests who were set apart as ministers of the temple saw these needs, and arranged to supply them. Little by little the traffic came nearer and nearer to the temple, until it was regarded as an important department of the work of the temple, and was admitted to the temple courts. Thus the Lord’s house became a place of traffic, and this work, carried on under the garb of religion, was completed, and the house of God became a “den of thieves.” “AND Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. . . . And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations: and that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean.” Lev. 10: 1, 2, 8–10. GOD requires a clear line of separation between his service and the world. The young man who came to Jesus, and asked what good thing he could do that he might gain eternal life, was told to sell all he had, and follow him. If he was to become a laborer with Jesus, he could not take his riches or his business along with him. The almost irresistible tendency of the church has always been to drift into formalism, institutionalism, or commercialism. And these three are closely allied. OUR tract societies naturally drift from the tract and missionary work into shopkeeping and bookkeeping as their principal work, instead of making them incidental to the one great mission we have in hand. There is danger that we shall work for per cents only, and forget those old lines of free missionary work for which our societies were organized. In the multitude of our routine duties, we may toil day after day, and finally discover that we have missed the work of God entirely. THERE is no work more sacred than that of the gospel canvasser. His consecration must be complete, his eye single, and his dependence must be wholly upon God. It is an easy thing for God to give success, and all the support we need. Shall we, then, with the resources of God at our command, encumber ourselves with worldly trifles, traffic, and commerce as a sort of safety valve to provide for our support if God should fail us? O brethren, let us trust in God; let us keep the commerce out of the temple courts: and let us turn our backs resolutely upon the flattering offers of the world that would lead us away from our legitimate work.