and our destined
spiritual wealth.

And if we find that any material thing so mesmerizes us that we are held
in fatal bondage, we are to sacrifice it. "If thine eye offend thee, pluck
it out, and cast it from thee!" Whatever interposes itself between us and
our Lord must go! It is a hard way, but it leads to a sound and boisterous
health. We verily "receive an hundredfold!" We lose "a thing," and gain a
grace. We lose fickle sensations and gain abounding inspiration. We lose
the world, and gain the Lord!

JULY The Nineteenth

_THE WRATH OF THE LAMB_

JOHN ii. 13-22.

The narrative of the cleansing follows the story of the wedding-feast. In
the one the Lord has taken the spirit of the sanctuary into a worldly
feast, and thereby illumined and glorified the feast. In the other, the
spirit of the world has invaded the sanctuary, and thereby defiled and
dishonoured it. The spirit of worldliness, like an unclean, insurgent
flood, would enter and possess the entire realm of human life and service.
And here it converted a legitimate convenience into an unhallowed
business. It transformed a needful expedient into an unholy end. It fixed
its tables in the very courts of the Temple, and exalted the quest of
money above the worship of God.

"_And He made a scourge of cords._" And is this "the Lamb of God"? Yes,
"the Lamb of God" is also "the lion of Judah." The mild sunshine can
become focussed into scorching flame! As soon as blessings touch sin they
become curses. "For this was the Son of Man manifested, that He might
destroy the works of the devil."

My soul, remember thou the scourge of thy Lord, and do not trifle in His
holy place! Seek thou the clean hands and the pure heart, and the thunders
of Sinai shall come to thee as beatific music from the hill.

JULY The Twentieth

_DEFILING THE HOLY PLACE_

MARK xi. 11-19.

It was a teaching of the old Rabbis that no one should make a thoroughfare
of the Temple, or enter it with the dust upon his feet. The teaching was
full of sacred significance, however far their practice may have departed
from its truth.

Let me not use the Temple as a mere passage to something else. Let me not
use my religion as an expedient for more easily reaching "the chief seats"
among men. Let me not put on the garments of worship in order that I may
readily and quickly fill my purse. Let me not make the sanctuary "a short
cut" to the bank!

And let me not carry the dust of