CHURCH ENTERTAINMENTS: Twenty Objections

There are two scenes in the Bible that have always made a profound impression on me. One is the cleansing of the Temple by the Son of God. What an obstinate Temple it was in some respects! and what a faculty it had of accumulating questionable things! At one time back in the days of the Kings we read of so many hundreds of cart-loads of rubbish taken from it. In the time of Christ it was cleansed twice; once at the beginning of his ministry, and again at its close. The Scriptures tell us that the Savior spent an entire day looking upon the human innovations and corruptions of the Temple. What thoughts must have dwelt in his mind, what grief must have swelled his heart, as he marked the long lines of bleating animals, the coops and cages of fluttering birds, and listened to the rattle of coins on tables accompanied by the excited chaffering of hundreds of buyers and sellers! And this was the Temple that God had solemnly consecrated to himself! This was the House of Prayer instituted by the Father! Behold, i t had become a bazaar or market place! Worse still, Christ called it a Den of Thieves. It was fouler now than when a thousand cart-loads of rubbish had been discovered in its sacred precincts. Christ's solemn, silent and prolonged view of the scene one day, and the occurrence that followed on the next day, when in holy indignation he drove out the animals, overturned the tables and cleansed the courts of the Temple, teach most powerfully and unmistakably the jealousy with which God regards his house.
The second scene in the Bible I call attention to is Christ sitting over against the Treasury of the Temple and watching the people as they cast in their gifts. He saw the rich contribute of their abundance, and beheld among them a certain poor widow who threw in two mites -- even all that she had.
It would have seemed that the trying scenes soon to burst upon him, or the coming terrible fate of the Temple and city lying outspread before him, would have engrossed every thought. He
was in the afternoon, even twilight, of his ministry, and the shadow of the cross was falling upon him, and yet here he sat absorbed in the contemplation of the people as they gave to God.
The fact of divine attention to the gifts of men is the thought presented by this scene. This attention is seen all through the Bible. Whenever individual or nation gave to God, the notice of heaven was instantly secured. Nor did it end with a mere contemplation of the act, but the divine favor and blessing was poured out in such a remarkable manner that the people rejoiced. This attention is still kept up. No one ever gave freely and largely of his means, and according to his means, but felt at once the loving, approving smile of God upon the soul. Evidently much is bound up in the act of giving.
God regards it as so essential that a law concerning it was passed upon the children of Israel, or more truly was continued from the time of Abraham for the tithe law existed in his day and was observed by him. Let us all remember that the covenant with Abraham has never been repealed. Moreover it is well to bear in mind, that the tithe law that existed with the patriarchs and afterwards in the Mosaic dispensation might certainly be thought worthy of observance in our day.