CLEANSING POWER by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 28, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 22.

CLEANSING POWER.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

“And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” There was the power of the royal priest, and that was an illustration of what Jesus still does when He makes His triumphal entry through the power of the cross. The Lord says, “I will send My Messenger, and He shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.” “And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” Mal. 3:1, 3.

Our bodies are the temple of God. 1 Cor. 3:16, 17; 6:19. The Lord is surely coming to His temple; but “who may abide the day of His coming?” The Jews would not accept His cleansing of the ancient temple, and so, instead of standing forever, it had to be destroyed; for “if a man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” God would cleanse us by the coming of His Messenger; but if we refuse to be cleansed, then will He destroy us. But the power and glory of His coming to destroy, is the power of His coming to save. The fire that burns up the finally impenitent, is the fire that consumes the sins of those who have allowed themselves to be cleansed.

In cleansing us He heals. As soon as the temple was cleansed, “the blind and lame came to Him in the temple; and He healed them.” There was authority exhibited in the cleansing of the temple—power which caused the traders who defiled it to flee in terror; yet that was the power that healed the lame and the blind. Take notice that all the power of the Lord, even when it appears in awful majesty, striking terror to the hearts of the wicked and working destruction, is simply cleansing power, and is always working only to cleanse. The fire that burns up the wicked at the last, will be the fire sent to cleanse the earth from the curse. Shall we experience the blessedness of that cleansing power, or shall we resist it, and so be destroyed by it? We have our choice. If we yield, we feel the cleansing power; if we resist, we feel only the destruction, and the cleansing process leaves us as tho we had not been. Then let us say,—

“Every day, every hour, Let me feel Thy cleansing power.”

—E. J. Waggoner.