Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-11-13


MADE UP OF A STRANGE CON
GLOMERATION OF GOOD AND
EVIL
At the United Presbyterian Church
yesterday morning, the pastor, Rev. ].
H. Littell delivered sermon upon the
subject, Cleansing the Temple" the
text being according to John 2:17, "The
zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
The minister's remarks were thought
full and were appreciated by the con-
gregation present. His sermon in part
was as follows:
Evils are of slow and stealthy
growth. They do not come upon us
full grown. If they did they would
shock and alright US. But rather they
grow up with us from the smallest be-
ginnings, so that we are scarcely awere
of them at the first.
And then we become so accuS toned
to their continuance, and at length SO
impressed with the fact of their invet-
crate usage, that we feel i'll disposed
and feebly enabled at any point to take
up arms against them.
$50 it was in the historic case before
US. The holy services of the Passover
brought year by year great concourse
OF Jews to Jerusalem.
These services required great
number of Sheep land oxen for sacTi-
flee, while for the poorer of the people
does were brought.
"Then,- too, each worshipper had to
provide himself with special piece OF
money with which to pay his assess
ment.
'All of these things required imme-
date attention somewhere within
reach of the sacred enclosure. And
they seemed so necessary.
And now, there grew up near the
Temple, booths and stalls where these
things were bought and sold.
Had this trafficking,' says a writer,
been confined to the streets immedf-
ately adjacent to the holy building, it
would have been eXcusable, though not
altogether seemly.' But the mischief
had not stopped here.
"The vicinity of the court of the gen.
tiles, with its broad spaces and long
arcades, had been too tempting to Jew
ish greed.
''The sacred enclosure at length was
opened. Three thousand sheep of the
f1ocks of Kedar were introduced into
the house.
'The profane example was eagerly
followed, and there in the actual court
of the gentiles, streaming with heat in
the burning April day, and filing the
Temple with stencil and filth, were
penned up whole fiocks of sheep and
oxen, while the drovers and pilgrims
stood bartering and bargaining around
them.
There also were the men with their
great wicker cages filled with doves.
And under the shadow of the arcade
sat the money changers with their
tables covered with piles of various
small coins; while as they reckoned
and wrangled in the most dishonest OF
trade, their greedy eyes twinkled with
the lust of gain
''Now there were doubtless many
pious hearts that came to this outer
court on the days of holy festival to
perform their VOWS, who were griey-
ously offended at all this, and who felt
in their souls it's dreadful inconsist-
ency.
Yet, I imagine, it never occurred to
them to do anything about it, but rea-
our fathers brought it in; we can't
help it; it would require terrible
struggle to put these traders out of the
temple
Then, possibly, too, some Of those
good men thought anxiously about the
loss of revenue if they should be put
out, for doubtless these traders paid a
license.
What was it led Christ to clease the
temple?
First, He saw that it needed cleans
ing. True. But there was something
about Him, or in Him, which impelled
him boldly to take hold of the work.
1--WE see it in this, that when the
cleansing was finished, the disciples
who had been witnesses of the scene,
remembered the words of the psalmist,
and applied them at once to their Mas
ter, The zeal of thine house hath eaten
me up
THE text was proof to the disciples
that this was Jesus, the Christ, for zeal
was one of the marks by which He was
to be known.
Zeal, which is the inward burning
of mans best powers!
ut was zeal for human welfare that
caused America to lay her hand on
Spain little more than a year ago.
And when we see great evils exist
within our borders, and around US,
even though they be inveterate and en-
trenched in power and usage. even
though they be part of social custom,
and be made legitimate by corrupt leg
islation, we are not to sit down quietly
before them and say, 1t must needs be
that these offenses come
I'VE must not say, There is no use
of exerting ourselves against them.
Men have done these evil things for
many generations and they always will.
Let US mind our own business, and let
these evils be-
THAT was not Christ's way, at least.
He said in his flaming wrath, in His
flaming zeal, Take these things hence,
and they took them away.
What evils are in our midst to-
day?
"Well, there is the rum traffic; the