Practical Religion — Zeal Part 1
"_It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing.
_"--Gal.
iv.
18. Zeal is a subject, like many others in religion, most sadly misunderstood.
Many would be ashamed to be thought "zealous" Christians.
Many are ready to say of zealous people what Festus said of Paul: "They are beside themselves,--they are mad."
(Acts xxvi.
24) But zeal is a subject which no reader of the Bible has any right to pass over.
If we make the Bible our rule of faith and practice, we cannot turn away from it.
We must look it in the face.
What says the Apostle Paul to Titus?
"Christ gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, _zealous_ of good works."
(Titus ii.
14. ) What says the Lord Jesus to the Laodicean Church?
"Be _zealous_ and repent."
(Rev. iii.
19. ) My object in this paper is to plead the cause of zeal in religion.
I
believe we ought not to be afraid of it, but rather to love and admire it.
I believe it to be a mighty blessing to the world, and the origin of countless benefits to mankind.
I want to strike a blow at the lazy, easy, sleepy Christianity of these latter days, which can see no beauty in zeal, and only uses the word "zealot" as a word of reproach.
I want to remind Christians that "Zealot" was a name given to one of our Lord Jesus Christ's Apostles, and to persuade them to be zealous men.
I ask every reader of this paper to give me his attention while I tell him something about zeal.
Listen to me for your own sake,--for the sake of the world,--for the sake of the Church of Christ.
Listen to me, and by God's help I will show you that to be "zealous" is to be wise.
I.
Let me show, in the first place, _what is zeal in religion_.
II.
Let me show, in the second place, _when a man can be called rightly zealous in religion_?
III.
Let me show, in the third place, _why it is a good thing for a man to be zealous in religion_?
I.
First of all, I propose to consider this question.
"What is _zeal_ in religion?"
Zeal in religion is a burning desire to please God, to do His will, and to advance His glory in the world in every possible way.
It is a desire which no man feels by nature,--which the Spirit puts in the heart of every believer when he is converted,--but which some believers feel so much more strongly than others that they alone deserve to be called "zealous" men.
This desire is so strong, when it really reigns in a man, that it impels him to make any sacrifice,--to go through any trouble,--to deny himself to any amount,--to suffer, to work, to labour, to toil,--to spend himself and be spent, and even to die,--if only he can please God and honour Christ.
A zealous man in religion is pre-eminently _a man of one thing_.
It is not enough to say that he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-going, whole-hearted, fervent in spirit.
He only sees one thing, he cares for one thing, he lives for one thing, he is swallowed up in one thing; and that one thing is to please God.
Whether he lives, or whether he dies,--whether he has health, or whether he has sickness,--whether he is rich, or whether he is poor,--whether he pleases man, or whether he gives offence,--whether he is thought wise, or whether he is thought foolish,--whether he gets blame, or whether he gets praise,--whether he gets honour, or whether he gets shame,--for all this the zealous man cares nothing at all.
He burns for one thing; and that one thing is to please God, and to advance God's glory.
If he is consumed in the very burning, he cares not for it,--he is content.
He feels that, like a lamp, he is made to burn; and if consumed in burning, he has but done the work for which God appointed him.
Such an one will always find a sphere for his zeal.
If he cannot preach, and work, and give money, he will cry, and sigh, and pray.
Yes: if he is only a pauper, on a perpetual bed of sickness, he will make the wheels of sin around him drive heavily, by continually interceding against it.
If he cannot fight in the valley with Joshua, he will do the work of Moses, Aaron, and Hur, on the hill.
(Exod.
xvii.
9--13. ) If he is cut off from working himself, he will give the Lord no rest till help is raised up from another quarter, and the work is done.
This is what I mean when I speak of "zeal" in religion.
We all know the habit of mind that makes men great in this world,--that makes such men as Alexander the Great, or Julius Caesar, or Oliver Cromwell, or Peter the Great, or Charles XII.
, or Marlborough, or Napoleon, or Pitt.
We know that, with all their faults, they were all men of one thing.
They threw themselves into one grand pursuit.
They cared for nothing else.
They put every thing else aside.
They counted every thing else as second-rate, and of subordinate importance, compared to the one thing that they put before their eyes every day they lived.
I
say that the same habit of mind applied to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ becomes religious _zeal_.
We know the habit of mind that makes men great in the sciences of this world,--that makes such men as Archimedes, or Sir Isaac Newton, or Galileo, or Ferguson the astronomer, or James Watt.
All these were men of one thing.
They brought the powers of their minds into one single focus.
They cared for nothing else beside.
And this was the secret of their success.
I say that this same habit consecrated to the service of God becomes religious _zeal_.
We know the habit of mind that makes men rich,--that makes men amass mighty fortunes, and leave millions behind them.
What kind of people were the bankers, and merchants, and tradesmen, who have left a name behind them, as men who acquired immense wealth and became rich from being poor?
They were all men that threw themselves entirely into their business, and neglected every thing else for the sake of that business.
They gave their first attention, their first thoughts, the best of their time, and the best part of their mind, to pushing forward the transactions in which they were engaged.
They were men of one thing.
Their hearts were not divided.
They devoted themselves, body, soul, and mind to their business.
They seemed to live for nothing else.
I say that if you turn that habit of mind to the service of God and His Christ it makes religious _zeal_.
(_a_) Now this habit of mind,--this zeal was _the characteristic of all the Apostles_.
See for example the Apostle Paul.
Hear him when he speaks to the Ephesian elders for the last time: "None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry that I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God."
(Acts xx.
24. ) Hear him again, when he writes to the Philippians: "This one thing I do; I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
(Phil.
iii.
13, 14. ) See him from the day of his conversion, giving up his brilliant prospects,--forsaking all for Christ's sake,--and going forth to preach that very Jesus whom he had once despised.
See him going to and fro throughout the world from that time,--through persecution,--through oppression,--through opposition,--through prisons,--through bonds,--through afflictions,--through things next to death itself, up to the very day when he sealed his faith with his blood, and died at Rome, a martyr for that Gospel which he had so long proclaimed.
This was true religious _zeal_.
(_b_) This again was the _characteristic of the early Christians_.
They were men "every where spoken against."
(Acts xxviii.
22. ) They were driven to worship God in dens and caves of the earth.
They often lost every thing in the world for their religion's sake.
They generally gained nothing but the cross, persecution, shame, and reproach.
But they seldom, very seldom, went back.
If they could not dispute, at least they could suffer.
If they could not convince their adversaries by argument, at any rate they could die, and prove that they themselves were in earnest.
Look at Ignatius cheerfully travelling to the place where he was to be devoured by lions, and saying as he went, "Now do I begin to be a disciple of my Master, Christ."
Hear old Polycarp before the Roman Governor, saying boldly, when called upon to deny Christ, "Four score and six years have I served Christ, neither hath He ever offended me in any thing, and how then can I revile my King?"
This was true _zeal_.
(_c_) This again was _the characteristic of Martin Luther_.
He boldly defied the most powerful hierarchy that the world has ever seen.
He unveiled its corruptions with an unflinching hand.
He preached the long-neglected truth of justification by faith, in spite of anathemas and excommunications, fast and thickly poured upon him.
See him going to the Diet at Worms, and pleading his cause before the Emperor and the Legate, and a host of the children of this world.
Hear him saying,--when men were dissuading him from going, and reminding him of the fate of John Huss, "Though there were a devil under every tile on the roofs of Worms, in the name of the Lord I shall go forward."
This was true _zeal_.
(_d_) This again was _the characteristic of our own English Reformers_.
You have it in our first Reformer, Wickliffe, when he rose up on his sick bed, and said to the Friars, who wanted him to retract all he had said against the Pope, "I shall not die, but live to declare the villanies of the Friars."
You have it in Cranmer, dying at the stake, rather than deny Christ's Gospel, holding forth that hand to be first burned which, in a moment of weakness, had signed a recantation, and saying, as he held it in the flames, "This unworthy hand!"
You have it in old father Latimer, standing boldly on his faggot, at the age of seventy years, and saying to Ridley, "Courage, brother Ridley!
we shall light such a candle this day as, by God's grace, shall never be put out."
This was _zeal_.
(_e_) This again has been _the characteristic of all the greatest Missionaries_.
You see it in Dr. Judson, in Carey, in Morrison, in Schwartz, in Williams, in Brainerd, in Elliott.
You see it in none more brightly than in Henry Martyn.
Here was a man who had reached the highest academical honours that Cambridge could bestow.
Whatever profession he chose to follow, he had the most dazzling prospects of success.
He turned his back upon it all.
He chose to preach the Gospel to poor benighted heathen.
He went forth to an early grave, in a foreign land.
He said when he got there and saw the condition of the people, "I could bear to be torn in pieces, if I could but hear the sobs of penitence,--if I could but see the eyes of faith directed to the Redeemer!"
This was _zeal_.
(_f_) But let us look away from all earthly examples,--and remember that zeal was pre-eminently the characteristic of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself.
Of Him it was written hundreds of years before He came upon earth, that He was "clad with _zeal_ as with a cloak," and "the _zeal_ of thine house hath even eaten me."
And His own words were "My meat is to do my Father's will, and to finish His work."
(Psalm lxix.
9; Isaiah lix.
17; John iv.
34. ) Where shall we begin, if we try to give examples of His zeal?
Where should we end, if we once began?
Trace all the narratives of His life in the four Gospels.
Read all the history of what He was from the beginning of His ministry to the end.
Surely if there ever was one who was _all zeal_, it was our great Example,--our Head,--our High Priest,--the great Shepherd of our profession, the Lord Jesus Christ.
If these things are so, we should not only beware of running down zeal, but we should also beware of allowing zeal to be run down in our presence.
It may be badly directed, and then it becomes a curse;--but it may be turned to the highest and best ends, and then it is a mighty blessing.
Like fire, it is one of the best of servants;--but, like fire also, if not well directed, it may be the worst of masters.
Listen not to those people who talk of zeal as weakness and enthusiasm.
Listen not to those who see no beauty in missions, who laugh at all attempts at the conversion of souls,--who call Societies for sending the Gospel to the world useless,--and who look upon City Missions, and District Visiting, and Ragged Schools and Open Air Preaching, as nothing but foolishness and fanaticism.
Beware, lest in joining a cry of that kind you condemn the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Beware lest you speak against Him who has "left us an example that we should follow His steps."
(1 Pet.
ii.
21. ) Alas!
I fear there are many professing Christians who if they had lived in the days when our Lord and His Apostles walked upon earth would have called Him and all His followers enthusiasts and fanatics.
There are many, I fear, who have more in common with Annas and Caiaphas,--with Pilate and Herod,--with Festus and Agrippa,--with Felix and Gallio,--than with St. Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ.
II.
I pass on now to the second thing I proposed to speak of.
_When is a man truly zealous in religion?
_ There never was a grace of which Satan has not made a counterfeit.
There never was a good coin issued from the mint but forgers at once have coined something very like it.
It was one of Nero's cruel practices first to sew up Christians in the skins of wild beasts, and then bait them with dogs.
It is one of Satan's devices to place distorted copies of the believer's graces before the eyes of men, and so to bring the true graces into contempt.
No grace has suffered so much in this way as zeal.
Of none perhaps are there so many shams and counterfeits abroad.
We must therefore clear the ground of all rubbish on this question.
We must find out when zeal in religion is really good, and true, and of God.
(1) If zeal be true, it will be a _zeal according to knowledge_.
It must not be a blind, ignorant zeal.
It must be a calm, reasonable, intelligent principle, which can show the warrant of Scripture for every step it takes.
The unconverted Jews had zeal.
Paul says, "I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, _but not according to knowledge_."
(Rom.
x.
2. ) Saul had zeal when he was a persecuting Pharisee.
He says himself, in one of his addresses to the Jews, "I was _zealous_ toward God as ye all are this day."
(Acts xxii.
3. )--Manasseh had zeal in the days when he was an idolater.
The man who made his own children pass through the fire,--who gave up the fruit of his body to Moloch, to atone for the sin of his soul,--that man had zeal.
--James and John had zeal when they would have called down fire on a Samaritan village.
But our Lord rebuked them.
--Peter had zeal when he drew his sword and cut off the ear of Malchus.
But he was quite wrong.
--Bonner and Gardiner had zeal when they burned Latimer and Cranmer.
Were they not in earnest?
Let us do them justice.
They were zealous, though it was for an unscriptural religion.
--The members of the Inquisition in Spain had zeal when they tortured men, and put them to horrible deaths, because they would not forsake the Gospel.
Yes!
they marched men and women to the stake in solemn procession, and called it "An Act of Faith," and believed they were doing God service.
--The Hindoos, who used to lie down before the car of Juggernaut and allow their bodies to be crushed under its wheels:--had not they zeal?
--The Indian widows, who used to burn themselves on the funeral pile of their deceased husbands,--the Roman Catholics, who persecuted to death the Vaudois and Albigenses, and cast down men and women from rocks and precipices, because they were heretics;--had not they zeal?
--The Saracens--the Crusaders,--the Jesuits,--the Anabaptists of Munster--the followers of Joanna Southcote,--had they not all zeal?
Yes!
Yes!
I do not deny it.
All these had zeal beyond question.
They were all zealous.
They were all in earnest.
But their zeal was not such zeal as God approves,--it was not a "zeal according to knowledge."
(2) Furthermore, if zeal be true, it will be a zeal _from true motives_.
Such is the subtlety of the heart that men will often do right things from wrong motives.
Amaziah and Joash, kings of Judah, are striking proofs of this.
Just so a man may have zeal about things that are good and right, but from second-rate motives, and not from a desire to please God.
And such zeal is worth nothing.
It is reprobate silver.
It is utterly wanting when placed in the balance of God.
Man looks only at the action: God looks at the motive.
Man only thinks of the quantity of work done: God considers the doer's heart.
There is such a thing as zeal from _party spirit_.
It is quite possible for a man to be unwearied in promoting the interests of his own Church or denomination, and yet to have no grace in his own heart,--to be ready to die for the peculiar opinions of his own section of Christians, and yet to have no real love to Christ.
Such was the zeal of the Pharisees.
They "compassed sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he was made, they made him two-fold more the child of hell than themselves."
(Matt.
xxiii.
15. ) This zeal is not true.
There is such a thing as zeal from mere _selfishness_.
There are times when it is men's interest to be zealous in religion.
Power and patronage are sometimes given to godly men.
The good things of the world are sometimes to be attained by wearing a cloak of religion.
And whenever this is the case there is no lack of false zeal.
Such was the zeal of Joab, when he served David.
Such was the zeal of only too many Englishmen in the days of the Commonwealth, when the Puritans were in power.
There is such a thing as zeal from the _love of praise_.
Such was the zeal of Jehu, when he was putting down the worship of Baal.
Remember how he met Jonadab the son of Rechab, and said, "Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord."
(2 Kings x. 16. ) Such is the zeal that Bunyan refers to in "Pilgrim's Progress," when he speaks of some who went "for praise" to mount Zion.
Some people feed on the praise of their fellow-creatures.
They would rather have it from Christians than have none at all.
It is a sad and humbling proof of man's corruption that there is no degree of self-denial and self-sacrifice to which men may not go from false motives.
It does not follow that a man's religion is true because he "gives his body to be burned," or because he "gives his goods to feed the poor."
The Apostle Paul tells us that a man may do this, and yet not have true charity.
(1 Cor.
xiii.
1, etc. ) It does not follow because men go into a wilderness, and become hermits, that therefore they know what true self-denial is.
It does not follow because people immure themselves in monasteries and nunneries, or become "sisters of charity," and "sisters of mercy," that therefore they know what true crucifixion of the flesh and self-sacrifice is in the sight of God.
All these things people may do on wrong principles.
They may do them from wrong motives,--to satisfy a secret pride and love of notoriety,--but not from the true motive of zeal for the glory of God.
All such zeal, let us understand, is false.
It is of earth, and not of heaven.
(3) Furthermore, if zeal be true, it will be a zeal _about things according to God's mind, and sanctioned by plain examples in God's Word_.
Take, for one instance, that highest and best kind of zeal,--I mean zeal for our own growth in personal holiness.
Such zeal will make a man feel incessantly that sin is the mightiest of all evils, and conformity to Christ the greatest of all blessings.
It will make him feel that there is nothing which ought not to be done, in order to keep up a close walk with God.
It will make him willing to cut off the right hand, or pluck out the right eye, or make any sacrifice, if only he can attain a closer communion with Jesus.
Is not this just what you see in the Apostle Paul?
He says, "I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."
--"I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark."
(1 Cor.
ix.
27; Phil.
iii.
13, 14. ) Take, for another instance, zeal for the salvation of souls.
Such zeal will make a man burn with desire to enlighten the darkness which covers the souls of multitudes, and to bring every man, woman, and child he sees to the knowledge of the Gospel.
Is not this what you see in the Lord Jesus?
It is said that He neither gave Himself nor His disciples leisure so much as to eat.
(Mark vi.
31. ) Is not this what you see in the Apostle Paul?
He says, "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some."
(1 Cor.
ix.
22. ) Take, for another instance, zeal against evil practices.
Such zeal will make a man hate everything which God hates, such as drunkenness, slavery, or infanticide, and long to sweep it from the face of the earth.
It will make him jealous of God's honour and glory, and look on everything which robs him of it as an offence.
Is not this what you see in Phinehas, the son of Eleazar?
--or in Hezekiah and Josiah, when they put down idolatry?
Take, for another instance, zeal for maintaining the doctrines of the Gospel.
Such zeal will make a man hate unscriptural teaching, just as he hates sin.
It will make him regard religious error as a pestilence which must be checked, whatever may be the cost.
It will make him scrupulously careful about every jot and tittle of the counsel of God, lest by some omission the whole Gospel should be spoiled.
Is not this what you see in Paul at Antioch, when he withstood Peter to the face, and said he was to be blamed?
(Gal.
ii.
11. ) These are the kind of things about which true zeal is employed.
Such zeal, let us understand, is honourable before God.
(4) Furthermore, if zeal be true, it will be a zeal _tempered with charity and love_.
It will not be a bitter zeal.
It will not be a fierce enmity against persons.
It will not be a zeal ready to take the sword, and to smite with carnal weapons.
The weapons of true zeal are not carnal, but spiritual.
True zeal will hate sin, and yet love the sinner.
True zeal will hate heresy, and yet love the heretic.
True zeal will long to break the idol, but deeply pity the idolater.
True zeal will abhor every kind of wickedness, but labour to do good even to the vilest of transgressors.
True zeal will warn as St. Paul warned the Galatians, and yet feel tenderly, as a nurse or a mother over erring children.
It will expose false teachers, as Jesus did the Scribes and Pharisees, and yet weep tenderly, as Jesus did over Jerusalem when He came near to it for the last time.
True zeal will be decided, as a surgeon dealing with a diseased limb; but true zeal will be gentle, as one that is dressing the wounds of a brother.
True zeal will speak truth boldly, like Athanasius, against the world, and not care who is offended; but true zeal will endeavour, in all its speaking, to "speak the truth in love."
