THE CHILDREN IN THE TEMPLE.
The next morning Jesus went early with His disciples to the Temple. It
was on the way as they went over the Mount of Olives that they passed a
barren fig-tree--one that bore nothing but leaves. It was like the
Pharisees, who outwardly seemed to be religious, but were inwardly
evil, and bore none of the fruits of a religious life.
"Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever," said Jesus, and it
withered away. When the disciples wondered, Jesus said,
"If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is
done to the fig-tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, 'Be
thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea,' it shall be done. And
all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall
receive." When Jesus came again to the Temple He drove out the buyers
and sellers and the money-changers, as He had done before.
"It is written," He said, "'My house is the house of prayer, but ye
have made it a den of thieves.'"
When they had been driven out, the people who had been waiting for
Jesus, and the blind and the lame came to Him, and He healed all who
came. The Pharisees looked on with hatred in their hearts, and talked
with the priests of arresting Him then and there, but a clear, sweet
sound of young voices singing came floating through the temple courts,
and they saw bands of children who were crying, "Hosanna to the Son of
David!" and it rang like heavenly music through all the place.
"Hearest thou what these say?" cried the angry Pharisees, and Jesus
answered, "Yea; have ye never read, 'Out of the mouths of babes and
sucklings thou hast perfected praise?'" Then He left them and went
again to Bethany to rest in the house of His faithful friends, Martha,
and Mary, and Lazarus.