AT 29
August 29
Matthew 21:4-16. Children praise Jesus in the temple.
When Christ came into his temple, he cast out some, but he received others. The buyers and sellers he cast out; the blind and the lame he received. It must have been an affecting sight to see those helpless creatures hastening from all quarters to meet their benefactor. They did well to come then, for those hands whose touch was health, would soon be stretched upon the cross.
Blindness is a calamity very common at the present day in Jerusalem, and some who love the Jews endeavor, by medical are, to heal their benighted brethren. But there is no Son of God now, whose touch will unveil the eyes. Even in this country it is calculated that two in every thousand are blind; and, therefore, that London and its suburbs contain two thousand blind people. Christians have had pity upon them, and have instituted one society for visiting them, reading to them, and leading them to God's house; and another for teaching them to read and write, and labor for their own living—and both of these societies seek to save their immortal souls.
How interesting it must have been to see the blind and the lame enter the temple! Here perhaps was a blind old man led by the hand of a little grandchild, and there a father who could not walk, borne in the arms of affectionate sons and daughters, whom he had once borne in his.
We know that there were children in the temple when the Lord healed these afflicted creatures. Some of these children may have been leaders of the blind, or even supporters of the lame. This at least we know, they were children who loved Jesus, for when they sang his praise, he was pleased. Once He blessed children, and now they blessed him. Those that were brought to him on a former occasion, seem to have been very little ones, perhaps unable to speak, but those who sang in the temple were old enough both to speak and to understand. Their artless songs irritated the priests exceedingly. No doubt they had been exasperated by the casting out of the buyers and sellers. But they were too much afraid of offending the people to oppose the Lord openly. They did not even venture to command the children to be silent, but appealed to Jesus and said, "Do you hear what these say?" And what had the children said? They had called him "the Son of David." As the Son of David he had a right to the throne of David. The little children acknowledged Him to be their King. No doubt many children were wicked in those days as well as in our own, but we never hear of any who spoke against Christ. It is not said that they joined in the cry that their fathers uttered, "Crucify him, crucify him." May we not rather hope that they followed their mothers, even that company of women who bewailed and lamented Him?
How ought the young to rejoice in the Savior's answer to the priests and Scribes! "Yes, have you never read, out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise?"
Who could have thought that He who listens to the songs of thousands of angels, should be pleased with the lisping accents of a child! But when a little one offers up a simple prayer from his heart, the glorious Savior bows down from his heavenly throne to listen. The children in the temple did not care for the frowns of their proud enemies, while they enjoyed the smiles of Jesus. Those wicked men must have looked upon them with still more anger than before, after the Savior's reply. They cannot have forgotten the words that followed those Jesus quoted from the 8th Psalm, "That you might still (or make silent) the enemy and the avenger." The praises of children often do silence the enemy and the avenger. When a wicked man who hates God sees a little child who loves Him, he sometimes feels ashamed of his wickedness, and wishes he was like that simple babe. Swearers have sometimes left off swearing at the request of a child; prayerless men have learned to pray from the example of a child
There was a father who was called to visit the dying bed of his little daughter. Moved by her entreaties, he knelt down by her bedside, but said he could not pray. She prayed for him—her prayer was heard in heaven. He became a holy man. When he had buried his child, he gathered his household around him, and began, from that day, to call upon the name of that Lord who had loved and saved his child.