Everything that Jesus foretold, came to pass exactly a few years afterwards, when the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem, and made a trench, and a wall with strong towers all round the city, so as to prevent the inhabitants getting any help. The consequence was, that the want of food caused the most dreadful suffering and misery. When at last the city was taken, the Romans did destroy it so completely, that it might truly be said, that one stone was not left upon another. "And when Jesus was come into Jerusalem," accompanied by multitudes, waving palm branches, and singing Hosannas, "all the city was moved," or filled with astonishment, saying, "Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. 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 money-changers, 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." Very soon after our Lord's baptism, He thus cleared the temple for the first time (Ch. VII.); then He blamed the people for making His Father's house a house of merchandise; now he tells them that they have made it like a den of thieves. There have always been people wicked enough to break the eighth commandment. In the land of Judæa, there were then many lawless men, who, instead of working to gain an honest living, went about the country robbing their fellow creatures, and so living on what they could get. These robbers joined together in bands, and took up their abodes in hollow places in the sides of the mountains, called dens or caves. These dens generally had a small entrance, but inside were of different sizes: they had no light but what came in through the entrance hole; but the inhabitants could burn lamps or torches to give them light, and of course they were quite sheltered from wind and rain. The robbers used to leave their hiding-places at night, and prowl about to take whatever they could find. Even if they met with cattle or sheep unguarded, they drove them away into their dens, where they kept all manner of things which they had stolen; and therefore when the court of the temple was filled with oxen and sheep, and other animals, it might well be compared to a den of thieves. Nothing like this can happen in our days; but let us remember that Jesus referred to the words of the prophet Isaiah, "Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people": Jesus blamed the people for profaning the temple, and not making the proper use of it: we are guilty of this sin, if we do not make a proper use of our churches, and behave reverently when we are in them. Let us all be careful to make our churches houses of prayer, by joining devoutly in the prayers, and listening attentively to all that we hear there: unless we do this, we shall sin against God by not hallowing His Name;