or a rood of land, as may be judged expedient, at the same price which the farmer pays. Let the landowner or his bailiff communicate this information to the labourer, and see that the agreement be fulfilled. But let the farmer still have the control over the land, so far at least as to be able to dispossess any labourer, whom he may have occasion to dismiss from his service for misconduct. Let the payment be made, by small weekly deductions from the labourer's wages, and be remitted by the farmer to the landlord, as a part of his rent. Two acres, or three at the utmost, out of every hundred, would be sufficient for this plan; which would, I am convinced, conduce equally to the temporal and moral benefit of the labouring population. SERMON V. THE MONEY-CHANGERS IN THE TEMPLE, OR THE EFFICACY OF THE GOSPEL TO SANC- MATTHEW Xxi. 12, 13. "And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves and said unto them; It is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves." THIS must indeed have been a scene of no ordinary character. To see men with cages of birds, and money-changers sitting at their tables, and, as Saint John informs us, sheep and oxen, in God's holy emple, is of itself strangely inconsistent with all our notions of decency and order. And then to behold a single individual, (for it does not appear that the disciples were with him)-to behold Jesus alone, aided by no one, and armed with no human authority, forcibly driving out all these intruders, adds not a little to the strangeness of the transaction. It should however be noted in explanation, that the temple at Jerusalem was very different from our modern churches. In the climate of Palestine there was no need of a roof to cover the congregation. The small portion that was roofed, containing the Holy of Holies, and the priests' apartments, was fronted by open courts in which the worshippers assembled. And there the animals intended for sacrifice were brought and delivered to the priests, who sacrificed them on the altar. At the At the great festivals, many of the worshippers came from foreign lands. There were strangers from Rome, Crete, and Arabia, from the distant Ethiopia, and from the parts of Libya about Cyrene. All these, being unprovided with animals for the sacrifice, were obliged to purchase them on the spot, and required change in the current coin for the foreign monies which they brought. This will explain how it happened that these things were admitted into the outer court of the temple. Still it was highly indecent, that such trafficking, not always probably of the most honest character, should take place within any part of the sacred precincts; nor can we wonder at the indignation of the Son of God, when he came "suddenly to his Temple," and saw it thus defiled. A just indignation, and a holy zeal for his Father's honour was kindled in the breast of Jesus, and his divine attributes burst forth with such irresistible might that the astonished traffickers were awed and panic-struck. This remarkable scene will furnish us with one amongst many convincing proofs, that the kind and compassionate, the meek and lowly Jesus, was not without power, had he chosen to exert it, to crush under his foot those rebellious creatures for whom he submitted to suffer death on the cross; and that he is able even now to drive ungodly sinners for ever from his kingdom, though he prefers to win them back to love and obedience, and make them fit to approach his heavenly presence, by purifying their hearts from worldliness and sin. And we may look, brethren, upon the whole of this transaction as furnishing us with no unmeaning type, and affording an intimation not to be mistaken, that the divine power of the Gospel is that which purifies the hearts of men from the contamination of the world, and renders them fit temples for the Holy Spirit to dwell in. We live in an age when the contest runs high between the world and the Gospel; and we are members of a community whose commercial habits have given rise to a state of moral feeling, which demands the powerful influence of religious truth to control and cleanse it. I propose, therefore, in the following discourse, to take occasion from the text before us, to make some remarks on the moral effects of the present commercial |