 Chapter 7 of Practical Religion. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Practical Religion by JC Ryle. Chapter 7 Charity. Now abide a faith, hope, charity. These three, but the greatest of these is charity. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 13. Charity is rightly called the Queen of Christian Graces. The end of the commandment, says St. Paul, is charity. 1 Timothy 1, verse 5. It is a grace which all people profess to admire. It seems a plain, practical thing which everybody can understand. It is none of those troublesome doctrinal points about which Christians are disagreed. Thousands, I suspect, would not be ashamed to tell you that they knew nothing about justification or regeneration about the work of Christ or the Holy Spirit. But nobody, I believe, would like to say that he knew nothing about charity. If men possess nothing else in religion, they always flatter themselves that they possess charity. A few plain thoughts about charity may not be without use. There are false notions abroad about which require it to be dispelled. There are mistakes about it which require to be rectified. In my admiration of charity, I yield it to none. But I am bold to say that in many minds the whole subject seems completely misunderstood. Let me show, firstly, the place the Bible gives to charity. Let me show, secondly, what the charity of the Bible really is. Let me show, thirdly, once true charity comes. Let me show, lastly, why charity is the greatest of the graces. I ask my best attention of my readers to the subject. My heart's desire and prayer to God is that the growth of charity may be promoted in the sin-burden world. And nothing does the fallen condition of man show itself so strongly as in the scarcity of Christian charity. There is little faith on this earth, little hope, little knowledge of divine things, but nothing, after all, is so scarce as real charity. Let me show the place which the Bible gives to charity. I begin with this point in order to establish the immense practical importance of my subject. I do not forget that there are many high-flying Christians in this present day who almost refuse to look at anything practical in Christianity. They can talk of nothing but two or three favorite doctrines. Now I want to remind my readers that the Bible contains much about practice as well as doctrine, and that one thing to which attaches great weight is charity. I turn to the New Testament and ask men to observe what it says about charity. In all religious inquiries there is nothing like letting the scripture speak for itself. There is no sure way of finding out truth than the old way of turning to plain texts. Texts were our Lord's weapons, both in answering Satan and in arguing with the Jews. Texts are the guides we must never be ashamed to refer to in the present day. What sayeth the scripture? What is written? How read is thou? Let us hear what St. Paul says to the Corinthians. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and not have charity, I am become a sounding brass or a tinking cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and not have charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and not have charity, it profiteth me nothing. 1 Corinthians 13 verses 1 through 3. Let us hear what St. Paul says to the Colossians. Above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Colossians 3 verse 14. Let us hear what St. Paul says to Timothy. A new commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfaigned. 1 Timothy 1 verse 5. Let us hear what St. Peter says. Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves, for charities shall cover the multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4 verse 8. Let us hear what our Lord Jesus Christ himself says about that love, which is only another name for charity. A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love to one another. John 13 verses 34 and 35. Above all let us read our Lord's account of the last judgment, and mark that one of love will condemn millions. John 25 verses 41 through 42. Let us hear what St. Paul says to the Romans. Oh, no man, nothing, but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. Romans 13 verse 8. Let us hear what St. Paul says to the Ephesians. Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us. Ephesians 5 verse 2. Let us hear what St. John says. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. 1 John 4 verses 7 through 8. I shall make no comment upon these texts. I think it better to place them before my readers in their naked supplicity, and to let them speak for themselves. If anyone is disposed to think the subject of this paper a matter of light importance, I will only ask him to look at these texts, and to think again. He that would take down charity from the high and holy place, which it occupies in the Bible, and treat it as a matter of secondary moment, must settle his account with God's word. I certainly shall not waste time in arguing with him. To my own mind, the evidence of these texts appear clear, plain, and incontrovertible. They show the immense importance of charity, as one of the things that accompanies salvation. They prove that it has a right to demand the serious attention of all who call themselves Christians, and that those who despise the subject are only exposing their own ignorance of Scripture. Let me show, secondly, what the charity of the Bible really is. I think of great importance to have clear views on this point. It is precisely here that mistakes about charity begin. Thousands delude themselves with the idea that they have charity when they have not, from downright ignorance of Scripture. Their charity is not the charity described in the Bible. A. The charity of the Bible does not consist in giving to the poor. It is a common delusion to suppose that it does. Yet Saint Paul tells us plainly that a man may bestow all his goods to feed the poor, 1 Corinthians 13 verse 3, and not have charity, that a charitable man will remember the poor. There can be no question, Galatians 2 verse 10, that he will do all he can to assist them, relieve them, and lighten their burdens. I do not for a moment deny. All I say is that this does not make up charity. It is easy to spend a fortune in giving away money, and soup, and wine, and bread, and coals, and blankets, and clothing, and yet to be utterly destitute of Bible charity. B. The charity of the Bible does not consist in never disapproving anybody's conduct. Here is another very common delusion. Thousands pride themselves on never condemning others, or calling them wrong, whatever they may do. They convert the precept of our Lord, judge not, into an excuse for having no unfavorable opinion at all of anybody. They pervert his prohibition of rash and censorious judgments into a prohibition of all judgment whatsoever. Your neighbor may be a drunkard, a liar, a Sabbath breaker, a passionate man. Never mind, it is not charity, they tell you, to pronounce him wrong. You are to believe that he has a good heart at bottom. This idea of charity is, unhappily, a very common one. It is full of mischief. To throw a veil over sin, and to refuse to call things by their right names, to talk of hearts being good, when lives are flatly wrong, to shut our eyes against wickedness, and say smooth things of immorality, this is not scriptural charity. C. The charity of the Bible does not consist in never disapproving anybody's religious opinions. Here is another most serious and growing delusion. There are many who pride themselves on never pronouncing others mistaken, whatever views they may hold. Your neighbor, forsooth, may be an Aryan, a Sosinian, a Roman Catholic, or a Mormonite, a deist, or a skeptic, a mere formalist, or a thorough entomian. But the charity of many says that you have no right to think him wrong. If he is sincere, it is uncharitable to think unfavorably of his spiritual condition. From such charity may I ever be delivered. At this rate, the apostles were wrong in going to preach to the Gentiles. At this rate, there is no use in missions. At this rate, we had better close our Bibles and shut up our churches. Everybody is right, and nobody is wrong. Everybody is going to heaven, and nobody is going to hell. Such charity is a monstrous caricature. To say that all are equally right in their opinions, though their opinions flatly contradict one another, to say that all are equally in the way to heaven, through their doctrinal sentiments, are as opposite as black and white, this is not scriptural charity. Charity like this pours contempt on the Bible, and talks as if God has not given us a written test of truth. Charity like this confuses all our notions of heaven, and would fill it with the discordant and harmonious rabble. True charity does not think everybody right in doctrine. True charity cries. Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not. 1 John 4 verse 1, 2 John 10. I leave the negative side of the question here. I have dwelt upon it at some length, because of the days in which we live, and the strange notions which abound. Let me now turn to the positive side. Having shown what charity is not, let me now show what it is. Charity is that love, which St. Paul places first among those fruits which the spirit causes to be brought forth in the heart of a believer. The fruit of the spirit is love. Galatians 5 verse 2. Love to God, such as Adam had before the fall, is its first feature. That he had charity desires to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength. Love to man is its second feature. He that has charity desires to love his neighbor as himself. This is indeed that view in which the word charity and scripture is more especially regarded. When I speak of a believer having love in his heart, I mean that he has loved to both God and man. When I speak of a believer having charity, I mean more particularly that he has loved to man. The charity of the Bible will show himself in a believer's doings. It will make him ready to do kind acts to everyone within his reach, both to bodies and souls. It will not let him be content with soft words and kind wishes. It will make him diligent with all that lies in his power to lessen the sorrow and increase the happiness of others. Like his master, he will care more for ministering than for being ministered to and will look for nothing in return. Like his master's great apostle, he will very willingly spend and be spent for others, even though they repay him with hatred and not with love. True charity does not want wages. Its work is its reward. The charity of the Bible will show itself in a believer's readiness to bear evil as well as to do good. It will make him patient under provocation, forgiving when injured, make when unjustly attacked, quiet when slandered. It will make him bear much and for bear much, put up with much and look over much, submit often and deny himself often, all for the sake of peace. It will make him put a strong bit on his temper and a strong brittle on his tongue. True charity is not always asking, what are my rights? Am I treated as I deserve? But how can I best promote peace? How can I do that which is most edifying to others? The charity of the Bible will show itself in the general spirit and demeanor of a believer. It will make him kind, unselfish, good-natured, good-tempered and considerate for others. It will make him gentle, affable and courteous in all the daily relations of private life, thoughtful for others' comfort, tender for others' feelings and more anxious to give pleasure than to receive. True charity never envies others when they prosper, nor rejoices in the calamities of others when they are in trouble. At all times, it will believe and hope and try to put a good construction on others' doings. And even at the worst, it will be full of pity, mercy and compassion. Would we like to know where the true pattern of charity like this can be found? We have only to look at the life of our Lord Jesus Christ as described in the Gospels and we shall see it perfectly exemplified. Charity shone forth in all his doings. His daily life was an incessant going about, doing good. Charity shone forth in all his bearing. He was continually hated, persecuted, slandered, misrepresented, but he patiently endured it all. No angry word ever fell from his lips. No ill temper ever appeared in his demeanor. When he was reveled, he reveled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not. 1 Peter 2 verse 23 Charity shone forth in all his spirit and deportment. The law of kindness was ever on his lips. Among weak and ignorant disciples, among sick and sorrowful petitioners for help and grief, among publicans and sinners, among Pharisees and Sadists, he was always one and the same, kind and patient to all. And yet, be it remembered, our Blessed Master never flattered sinners or connived its sin. He never shrunk from exposing wickedness in its true colors or from rebuking those who would cleave to it. He never hesitated to denounce false doctrine by whom some ever it might be held or to exhibit false practice in its true colors and to the certain end to which it tends. He called things by their right names. He spoke as freely of hell and the fire that is not quenched as of heaven and the kingdom of glory. He has left on record an everlasting proof that perfect charity does not require us to approve everybody's life or opinions and that it is quite possible to condemn false doctrine and wicked practice and yet to be full of love at the same time. I have now set before my readers the true nature of scriptural charity. I have given a slight and very brief account of what is not and what is. I cannot pass on without suggesting two practical thoughts which press home on my mind with weighty force and I hope may press home on others. You have heard of charity. Think for a moment how deplorably little charity is upon earth. How conspicuous is the absent of true love among Christians. I speak not of he than now. I speak of Christians. What angry tempers, what passions, what selfishness, what bitter tongues are to be found in private families. What strives, what quarrels, what spitefulness, what malice, what revenge, what envy between neighbors and fellow parishioners. What jealousies and contentions between churchmen and descenders, Calvinists and Arminians, high churchmen and low churchmen. Where is charity, we may well ask. Where is love? Where is the mind of Christ? When we look at the spirit which reigns the world, no wonder that Christ's cause stands still and infidelity abounds when men's hearts know so little of charity. Surely, we may well say when the Son of man cometh, he shall find charity upon earth. Think for another thing, what a happy world this would be if there was more charity. It is the want of love which causes half the misery there is upon earth. Sickness and death and poverty will not account for more than half the sorrows. The rest comes from ill temper, ill nature, strives, quarrels, lawsuits, malice, envy, revenge, frauds, violence, wars, and the like. It would be one great step towards doubling the happiness of mankind and having their sorrows if all men and women were full of scriptural charity. Let me show thirdly whence the charity of the Bible comes. Charity, such as I have described is certainly not natural to man. Naturally, we are all more or less selfish, envious, ill-tempered, spiteful, ill-natured, and unkind. We have only to observe children when left to themselves to see the proof of this. Let boys and girls grow up without proper training and education and you will not see one of them possessing Christian charity. Mark how some of them think first to themselves are overt in advantage. Mark how others are full of pride, passion, and ill-tempers. How can we account for it? There is but one reply. The natural heart knows nothing of true charity. The charity of the Bible will never be found except in a heart prepared by the Holy Ghost. It is a tender plant and will never grow except in one soil. You may as well expect grapes on thorns or figs on thistles look for charity when the heart is not right. The heart in which charity grows is a heart changed, renewed, and transformed by the Holy Ghost. The image and the likeness of God which Adam lost at the fall has been restored to it. However feeble and imperfect the restoration may appear. It is a partaker of the divine nature by union with Christ and sonship to God and one of the first leaders of that nature is love. 1 Peter 1 verse 4 Such a heart is deeply convinced of sin, hates it, flees from it and fights with it from day to day and one of the prime motions of sin which it daily labors to overcome as selfishness and want of charity. Such a heart is deeply sensible of its mighty debt to our Lord Jesus Christ. It feels continually that it owes to him who died for us on the cross all its present comfort, hope, and peace. How can it show forth its gratitude? What can it render to its redeemer? If it can do nothing else it strives to be like him, to drink into his spirit, to walk in his footsteps and like him to be full of love. The love of Christ shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost is the surest in charity. Love will produce love. I ask my readers special attention to this point. It is one of great importance in the present day. There are many who profess to admire charity while they care nothing about vital Christianity. They like some of the fruits and results of the gospel but not the root from which these fruits alone can grow or the doctrines with which they are inseparately connected. Hundreds will praise love and charity who hate to be told of man's corruption of the blood of Christ and of the inward work of the Holy Ghost. Many a parent would like his children to grow up unselfish and good-tempered who would not be pleased if conversion and repentance and faith were pressed home on their attention. Now I desire to protest against this notion that you can have the fruits without the roots, that you can produce Christian tempers without teaching Christian doctrines, that you can have charity that will wear and endure without grace in the heart. I grant most freely that every now and then one sees a person who seems very charitable and aimable without any distinctive doctrinal religion but such cases are so rare and remarkable that, like exceptions, they only prove the truth of the general rule. And often, too often, it may be feared in such cases the apparent charity is only seeming and in private completely fails. I firmly believe as a general rule you will not find such charity as the Bible describes except in the soil of a heart thoroughly imbued with Bible religion. Holy practice will not flourish without sound doctrine. What God has joined together it is useless to expect to have separate and asunder. The delusion which I am trying to combat is held forward to a most mischievous degree by the vast majority of novels, romances and tales of fiction. Who does not know that the heroes and heroines of these works are constantly described as patterns of perfection? They are always doing the right thing saying the right thing and showing the right temper. Always kind and amable and selfish and forgiving and yet you never hear a word about the religion. In short, to judge by the generality of works of fiction it is possible to have excellent practical religion without doctrine, the fruits of the spirit without the grace of the spirit and the mind of Christ without union with Christ. Here in short is the great danger of reading most novels, novels and works of fiction. The greater part of them give a false or incorrect view of human nature. They paint their model men and women as they ought to be and not as they really are. The readers of such writings get their minds filled with wrong conceptions of what the world is. Their notions of mankind become visionary and unreal. They are constantly looking for men and women such as they never meet in their mind. Let me entreat my readers, once and for all to draw their ideas of human nature from the Bible and not from novels. Settle it down in your mind that there cannot be true charity without a heart renewed by grace. A certain degree of kindness, courtesy, and mobility, good nature may undoubtedly be seen in many with no vital religion but the glorious plant of charity in its fullness and perfection will never be found without union with Christ and the work of the Holy Ghost. Teach this to your children if you have any. Hold it up in schools if you are connected with any. Lift up charity. Make much of charity. Give place to none in exalting the grace of kindness, love, good nature, unselfishness, good temper. But never ever forget that there is but one school in which these things can be thoroughly learned and that is the school of Christ. Real charity comes down from above. True love is the fruit of the spirit. He that would have it must sit at Christ's feet and learn of him. Let me show, lastly, why charity is called the greatest of the graces. The words of St. Paul on this subject are distinct and unmistakable. He winds up his wonderful chapter on charity in the following manner. Now abide with faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 13 This expression is very remarkable. Of all the writers in the New Testament none certainly exalts faith so highly as St. Paul. The epistles to the Romans and Galatians abound in sentences showing its vast importance. By it the sinner lays hold on Christ and is saved. Through it we are justified and have peace with God. Yet here the same St. Paul speaks of something which is even greater than faith. He puts before us the three leading Christian graces and pronounces the following judgment on them. The greatest is charity such a sentence from such a writer demands special attention. What are we to understand when we hear of charity being greater than faith and hope? We are not to suppose for a moment the charity can atone for our sins or make our peace with God. Nothing can do that for us but the blood of Christ and nothing can give an interest in Christ's blood but faith. It is unscriptural ignorance not to know this. The office of justifying and joining the soul to Christ our charity and all our other graces are all more or less imperfect and could not stand the severity of God's judgment. When we have done all we are unprofitable servants. Luke 22 verse 10 We are not to suppose that charity can exist independently of faith. St. Paul did not intend to set up one grace and rivalry to the other. He did not mean that one man another love and another charity and that the best of these was the man who had charity. The three graces are inseparately joined together where there is faith there will always be love and where there is love there will be faith. Sun and light, fire and heat ice and cold are not more intimately united than faith and charity. The reasons why charity is called the greatest of the three graces appear to me plain and simple. Let me show you what they are. Charity is called the greatest of graces because it is the one in which there is some likeness between the believer and his God. God is no need of faith. He is dependent on no one. There is no one superior to him in whom he must trust. God has no need of hope. To him all things are certain whether past present or to come. But God is love and the more love his people have the more like they are to their Father in heaven. Charity, for one thing, is called the greatest of the graces because it is most useful to others. Faith and hope, beyond doubt, however precious, have special reference to a believer's own private individual benefit. Faith unites the soul to Christ brings peace with God and opens the way to heaven. Hope fills the soul with cheerful expectation of things to come and, amid the many discouragements of things seen, comforts with visions of the things unseen. But Charity is preeminently the grace which makes a man useful. It is the spring of good works and kindnesses. It is the root of missions, schools, and hospitals. Charity made apostles spend and be spent in their souls. Charity raises up workers for Christ and keeps them working. Charity smooths corals and stops strife and, in this sense, covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4 verse 8 Charity adorns Christianity and recommends it to the world. A man may have real faith and feel it, and yet his faith may be invisible to others but a man's charity cannot be hid. See Charity, in the last place, is the greatest of the graces because it is the one which endures the longest. In fact it will never die. Faith will one day be swallowed up in sight and hope in certainty. Their office will be useless in the morning of the resurrection and, like old Amenax, they will be laid aside. But love will live on through the endless ages of eternity. Heaven will be the abode of love. The inhabitants of heaven will be full of love. One common feeling will be in all their hearts and that will be Charity. I leave this part of my subject here and pass on to a conclusion. On each of these three points of comparison I have just named between Charity and the other graces, it would be easy to enlarge. But time and space both forbid me to do so. If I have said enough to guard men against mistakes without the right meaning of the greatness of Charity, I am content. Charity, be it every membered, cannot justify and put away our sins. It is neither Christ nor faith. The Charity makes us somewhat like God. Charity is of mighty use to the world. Charity will live and flourish when faith's work is done. Surely in these points of view, Charity well deserves the crown. And now let me ask everyone into whose hands this paper may come, a simple question. Let me press home on your conscience the whole subject of this paper. Do you know anything of the grace of which I have been speaking? Have you Charity? The strong language of the Apostle Saint Paul must surely convince you that the inquiry is not one that ought to be lightly put aside. The grace without which the holy man could say I am nothing. The grace which the Lord Jesus says expressly is the great mark of being his disciple. Such a grace as this demands the seriousness consideration of everyone who is in earnest about the salvation of his soul. It should set him thinking, how does this effect me? Have I Charity? You have some knowledge it may be of religion. You know the difference between true and false doctrine? You can perhaps even quote texts and defend the opinions you hold but remember the knowledge which is barren of practical results in life and temper is a useless possession. The results of the Apostle are very plain. Though I understand all knowledge and not have Charity, I am nothing. First Corinthians 13 verse 3 You think you have faith perhaps? You trust you are one of God's elect and rest in that. But surely you should remember that there is a faith of devils which is utterly unprofitable and that the faith of God's elect is a faith that worketh by love. It was when Saint Paul remembered of the love of the Thessalonians as well as their faith and hope that he said, I know your election of God. First Thessalonians 1 verse 4 Look at your own daily life both at home and abroad and consider what place the Charity of Scripture has in it. What is your temper? What are your ways of behaving towards all around you in your own family? What is your manner of speaking especially in seasons of vexation and provocation? Where is your good nature, your courtesy, your patience, your meagerness, your gentleness, your forbearance? Where are your practical actions of love in your dealing with others? What do you know of the mind of him who went about doing good, who loved all? Though specially his disciples who returned good for evil and kindness for hatred and had a heart wide enough to feel for all. What would you do in heaven, I wonder, if you got there without charity? What comfort could you have in an abode where love was the law and selfishness and ill nature completely shut out? I fear that heaven would be no place for an uncharitable and ill-tempered man. If grandfather goes to heaven, I hope I and brother will not go there. Why do you say that? he was asked. He replied. If he sees us there, I am sure he will say as he does now. What are these boys doing here? Let them get out of the way. He does not like to see us on earth, and I suppose he would not like to see us in heaven. Give yourself no rest till you know something by experience of real Christian charity. Go and learn of him who is meek and lowly of heart and ask him to teach you how to love. Ask the Lord Jesus to put his spirit within you to take away the old heart to give you a new nature to make you know something of his mind. Cry to him night and day no rest until you feel something of what I have been describing in this paper. Happy indeed will your life be when you really understand walking in love. But I do not forget that I am writing to some who are not ignorant of the charity of Scripture and who long to feel more of it every year. I will give you two simple words of exhortation. They are these. Practice and teach the grace diligently. It is one of those graces after all which grow by constant exercise. Strive more and more to carry it into every little detail of daily life. Watch over your own tongue and temper throughout every hour of the day and especially in your dealings with servants, children and your relatives. Remember the character of the excellent woman and her tongue is the law of kindness. Verse 31 verse 26 Remember the words of St. Paul Let all your things be done with charity. 1 Corinthians 16 verse 14 Charity should be seen in little things as well as in great ones. Remember not least the words of St. Peter have fervent charity among yourselves not a charity which just keeps a light but a burning, shining fire which all around can see. Verse 4 verse 8 It may cause pains and trouble to keep these things in mind. There may be little encouragement from the example of others but persevere. Charity likes this brings its own reward. Finally, teach charity to others. Press it continually on servants if you have any. Tell them the great duty of kindness, helpfulness and considerateness one for another. Remind them constantly the kindness, good nature and good temper are among the first evidences which Christ requires in children. If they cannot know much or explain doctrines, they can understand love. A child's religion is worth very little if it only consists in repeating texts and hymns. Useful as they are, they are often learned without thought, remembered without feeling, said over without consideration of their meaning gotten when childhood is gone. By all means, let children be taught texts and hymns, but let not such teaching be made everything in their religion. Teach them to keep their tempers, be kind to one another, to be unselfish, good-natured, obliging, patient, gentle, forgiving. Tell them never to forget to their dying day. If they live as long as Methuselah, that without charity the Holy Ghost says we are nothing. Tell them above all things to put on charity which is the bond of perfectness. Colossians 3 verse 14 End of chapter 7 Chapter 8 of Practical Religion This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Practical Religion by J. C. Ryle. Chapter 8 Zeal 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. X26 verse 24 But Zeal is a subject which no reader of the Bible has any right to pass over. If we make the Bible a 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 of all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. Titus 2 verse 14 What says the Lord Jesus to the Lesothian Church? Be zealous and repent. Revelation 3 verse 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 later 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 apostles and to persuade them to be zealous men. I ask of every reader of this paper to give me his attention while I tell him something 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. Let me show in the first place what is zeal in religion. 2. Let me show in the second place when a man can be called rightly zealous in religion. Let me show in the third place why it is a good thing for a man to be zealous in religion. 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 are so much more strongly than others that they alone deserve to be called zealous men. This desire is so strong when it really rains 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 labor, to toil, to spend himself and be spent and even to die if only he can please God and honor Christ. A zealous man in religion is preeminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say that he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thoroughgoing, wholehearted, forbidden 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 offense, whether he is thought wise or whether he is thought foolish, whether he gets blame or whether he gets praise, whether he gets honor or whether he gets shame. For all this 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 has appointed him. Such in one will always find a spear for his zeal. If he cannot preach and work and give money, he will cry and sigh. And 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 her on the hill, Exodus 17 verses 9 through 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 and religion. We all know the habit of mine 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 Marvolo, 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 everything else aside. They counted everything a 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 mine applied to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ becomes religious zeal. We all know the habit of mine that makes men great in the sciences of this world, that makes such men such as Archimedes, or Sir Isaac Newton, or Galileo, or Ferguson the Astronomer, or James Watt. All these men were 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 the same habit consecrated to the service of God becomes religious zeal. We know the habit of mine 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 everything 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, zeal, soul, and mind to their business. But they seemed to live for nothing else. I say that if you turn that habit of mine to the service of God and is Christ, it makes religious zeal. A. Now this habit of mine, this zeal was the characteristic of all the apostles. See for the example the apostle Paul. Hear him when he speaks to the Ephesian elders for the last time. None of these things move me. There count I 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 20, verse 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, Philippians 3, verses 13 through 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 till 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. This again was the characteristic of the early Christians. They were men everywhere spoken against, Acts 28, verse 22. They were driven to worship God in dens and caves of the earth. They often lost everything 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 an earnest. Look at Ignatius, cheerfully traveling 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, For score and six years have I served Christ, Neither hath he ever offended me in anything. And how then can I revile my king? This was true zeal. See, this again was the characteristic of Martin Luther. He boldly defied the most powerful hierarchy that the world had ever seen. He unveiled its corruptions with an unflinching hand. He preached the long-neglected truth of justification by faith, in spite of anthomas and excommunications, fast and thickly poured upon him. See him going to the diet at Worms, and pleading as cause before the emperor and the legate, and a host of children of this world. Hear him saying, When men were dissuading him from going, And reminding him of the fate of John Hus, 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, Wycliffe, when he rose up on his sick bed, And said to the friars, Who wanted him to retract of all he had said against the pope, I shall not die, But live to declare the villainies of the friars. You have it in Cranmer, dying at the stake, Rather than deny Christ's gospel. Folding 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 Kerry, In Morrison, In Schwartz, In Williams, In Brannard, In Elliott. You see it in none more brightly than in Henry Martin. Here was a man who would reach the highest academic honors 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 being knighted 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. E. But let us look away from all earthly examples, And remember that zeal was preeminently the characteristic of our Lord and Savior, 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 19 verse 9, Isaiah 9 verse 17, John 4 verse 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. End 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 Peter 2, verse 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 Cephas, with Pilate and Herod, with Festus and Agrippa, with Felix and Galeo, than with St. Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 I pass now to the second thing I propose to speak of. When is a man truly zealous in religion? There was never a grace of which Satan has not made a counterfeit. There never was a good coin issued from the mint, but forgers of once have coined something very much like it. It was one of Nero's cruel practices first, to sow 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. If 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. Romans 10, verse 2, Saul had zeal when he was a persecuting Pharisee. He says himself, in one of his addresses to the Jews, I was zealous towards God as he all are this day. Acts 2, verse 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 Malat, 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 Malachis. But he was quite wrong. Bonner and Gardner had zeal when they burned Ladmer 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 debts because they would not forsake the gospel. Yes, they marched down men and women to the stake in solemn procession and called it an act of faith, and believed they were doing God's service. The Hindus, 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 Vadis and Albiginis, 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 a zeal as God approves. It was not a zeal according to knowledge. Two. Furthermore, if zeal be true, it will be a zeal from true motives, such as the subtility 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 bright, 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 only looks at the action. God looks at the motive. Man only thinks of the quantity of work done. God considers the doers heart. There is such thing as zeal from party spirit. It is quite possible for a man to be unwaryed 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 come past sea and land to make one proselyte. And when he was made, they made him twofold more than the child of hell than themselves. Matthew 23, verse 15, This zeal is not true. There is such a thing as zeal from mere selfishness. There are times when it is men's interests 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 we met Jonah Dab, the son of Reshab, and said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord. 2 Kings 10, verse 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 feed on the praise of their fellow creatures. They would rather have it from Christians than of 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 Corinthians 13, verse 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 immerse 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 false motives, to satisfy a secret pride in the 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. Like for one instance, the highest and best kind of zeal, I mean zeal for our own growth and 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 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, for getting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 27, Philippians 3, verses 13 and 14. Take for another instance zeal for the salvation of souls. Each zeal will make a man burn with desire to enlighten the darkness, which covers the souls of multitudes, and bring to every man, woman, and child he sees, to the knowledge of the gospel. Is this not 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 6, verse 31. Is this not 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 Corinthians 9, verse 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 infancy, and long to sweep it from the face of the earth. It will make him jealous of God's honor and glory, and look on everything which robs him of it as an offense. Is this not what you see in Phineas, the son of Eleazar, or in Hezekiah and Josiah when they put down adultery? Take for another instance zeal for maintaining the doctrines of the gospel. Such zeal will make a man hate on scriptural 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 scripturously careful about every jot and title of the counsel of God, lest by some omission the whole gospel should be spoiled. Is this not what you see in Paul at Antach, when he was stood Peter to the face and said he was to be blamed? Galatians 2, verse 11. These are the kind of things about which true zeal is employed. Such zeal, let us understand, is honorable 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 adulterer. True zeal will abhor any kind of wickedness, but labor to do good even to the vilest of transgressors. True zeal will warn as Saint Paul warned the Galatians and yet feel tenderly as a nurse or a mother over airing 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 anthanasis against the world and not care who is offended, but true zeal will endeavor, in all its speaking, to speak the truth in love. True zeal Part 1 Chapter 8, Part 2 of Practical Religion. This is the Libydox recording. All Libydox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Libydox.org. Chapter 8, Part 2, Zeal. 5 Furthermore, if zeal be true, it will be joined to a deep humility. A truly zealous man will be the last to discover the greatness of his own attainments. All that he is and does will come so immensely short of his own desires, that he will be filled with a sense of his own unprofitableness, and amazed to think that God should work by him at all. Like Moses, when he came down from the mount, he will not know that his face shines. Like the righteous, in the 25th chapter of St. Matthew, he will not be aware of his own good works. Dr. Buchanan is one whose praise is in all the churches. He is one of the first to take up the cause of the perishing heathen. He literally spent himself body and mind in laboring to arouse sleeping Christians to see the importance of missions. Yet he says in one of his letters, I do not know that I ever had what Christians call zeal. Whitefield is one of the most zealous preachers of the gospel the world has ever seen. Fervent in spirit, instant in season and outer season, he was a burning and shining light and turned thousands to God. Yet he says after preaching for thirty years, Lord, help me to begin, to begin. McShane is one of the greatest blessings that God ever gave to the Church of Scotland. He was a minister insatiably desirous of the salvation of souls. Few men ever did so much good as he did, though he died at the age of twenty-nine. Yet he says in one of his letters, None but God knows what an abyss of corruption is in my heart. It is perfectly wonderful that ever God could bless such a ministry. He may be very sure whether it is self-conceit, though it is little true zeal. I ask the readers of this paper particularly to remember the description of true zeal which I have just given. Zeal according to knowledge, zeal from true motives, zeal warranted by scriptural examples, zeal tempered with charity, zeal accompanied by deep humility. This is true, genuine zeal. This is the kind of zeal which God approves. As such zeal, you and I never need fear having too much. I ask you to remember the description because of the times in which you live. Beware supposing that sincerity alone can ever make up true zeal. That earnestness, however ignorant, makes a man a really zealous Christian in the sight of God. There is a generation in these days which makes an idol of what it is pleased to call earnestness in religion. These men will allow no fault to be found of an earnest man, whatever his theological opinions may be. If he be but an earnest man, that is enough for these people, and we are to ask no more. They tell you we have nothing to do with minute points of doctrine, and with questions of words and names about which Christians are not agreed. Is the man an earnest man? If he is, we ought to be satisfied. E earnestness in their eyes covers over a multitude of sins. I warn you solemnly to beware of this specious doctrine. In the name of the Gospel and in the name of the Bible, I enter my protest against a theory that mere earnestness can make a man a truly zealous and pious man in the sight of God. These idolaters of earnestness would make out that God has given us no standard of truth and error, or that the true standard, the Bible, is so obscure that no man can find out what truth is by simply going to it. They pour contempt upon the word, the written word, and therefore they must be wrong. These idolaters of earnestness would make us condemn every witness for the truth, and every opponent of false teaching, from the time of the Lord Jesus down to this day. The scribes and Pharisees were in earnest, and yet our Lord opposed them. And shall we dare even to hint a suspicion that the ought to have been let alone? Queen Mary and Bonner and Gardener were in earnest in restoring popery and trying to put down Protestantism, and yet Ridley and Latimer opposed them to the death. And shall we dare to say that as both parties were in earnest, both were in the right? Devil worshipers and idolaters at this day are in earnest, yet our missionaries labour to expose their errors. And shall we dare to say that earnestness would take them to heaven, and that missionaries to heaven and Roman Catholics had better stay at home? Are we really going to admit that the Bible does not show us what is truth? Are we really going to put a mere vague thing called earnestness in the place of Christ, and to maintain that no earnest man can be wrong? God forbid that we should give place to such doctrine. I shrink with horror from such theology. I warn men solemnly to beware of being carried away by it, for it is common and most deductive in this day. Beware of it, for it is only a new form of an old error. That old error would say that a man can't be wrong whose life is in the right. Admire zeal, seek after zeal, encode zeal, but see that your own zeal be true. Seed at the zeal in which you admire none of us is a zeal according to knowledge, a zeal from right motives, a zeal that can be chapter and thirst out of the Bible for its foundation. When zeal but this is but a false fire it is not lighted by the Holy Ghost. I pass on now to the third thing I propose to speak of. Let me show why it is good for a man to be zealous. It is certain that God never gave man a commandment which it was not man's interest as well as duty to obey. He never set a grace before his believing people, which his people will not find it their highest happiness to follow after. This is true of all the graces of the Christian character. Perhaps it is pre-eminently true in the case of zeal. A. Zeal is good for a Christian's own soul. We all know that exercise is good for the health and that regular employment of our muscles and limbs promotes our bodily comfort and increases our bodily vigor. Now that which exercise does for our bodies zeal will do for our souls. It will help mightily to promote inward feelings of joy, peace, comfort and happiness. None have so much enjoyment to Christ as those who are overzealous for his glory. Zealous over their own walk, tender over their own consciences, full of anxiety about the souls of others and ever watching, working, labouring, striving and toiling to extend the knowledge of Jesus Christ upon earth. Such men live in the full light of the sun and therefore their hearts are always warm. Such men water others and therefore they water themselves. Their hearts are like a garden daily refreshed by the dew of the Holy Ghost. They honour God and so God honours them. I would not be mistaken in saying this. I would not appear to speak slightingly of any believer. I know that the Lord takes pleasure in all his people. Psalm 149.4. There is not one from the least to the greatest, from the smallest child in the kingdom of God to the oldest warrior in the battle against Satan. There is not one in whom the Lord Jesus Christ does not take great pleasure. We are all his children, and no other weak and feeble some of us may be. As a father pity of his children, so does the Lord pity them that love and fear him. Psalm 103.13. We are all the plants of his own planting, and though many of us are poor, weakly exotics, scarcely keeping life together in a foreign soil, yet as the gardener loves that which his hands have reared, so does the Lord Jesus love the poor sinners that trust in him. But while I say this, I do also believe that the Lord takes special pleasure in those who are zealous for him, and those who give themselves body, soul and spirit to extend his glory in this world. To them he reveals himself as he does not to others. To them he shows things that other men never see. He blesses the work of their hands. He cheers them with spiritual consolations which others only know by the hearing of the ear. They are men after his own heart, for they are men more like himself than others. None have such joy and peace in believing. None have such sensible comfort in their religion. None have so much of heaven upon earth, Deut. 1121. None see and feel so much of the consolations of the gospel as those who are zealous, earnest, furrow-going, devoted Christians. For the sake of our own souls, if there were no other reason it is good to be zealous, to be very zealous in our religion. B. Our zeal is good for ourselves individually. So it is also good for the professing Church of Christ generally. Nothing so much keeps a live true religion as 11 of zealous Christians scatter to and fro throughout a church. Like salt they prevent the whole body falling into a state of corruption. None but men of this kind can revive churches when ready to die. It is impossible to overestimate the debt that all Christians owe to zeal. The greatest mistake the rulers of a church can make is to drive zealous men out of its pale. By so doing they drain out the lifeblood of the system and hasten on ecclesiastical decline and death. Zeal is in truth that grace which God seems to delight to honour. Look through the list of Christians who have been eminent for youthfulness. Who are the men that have left the deepest and most indelible marks on the church of their day? Who are the men that God has greatly honoured to build at the walls of his Zion and turn the battle from the gate? Not so much men of learning and literary talents as men of zeal. Bishop Latimer was not such a deeply read scholar as Kramner or Ridley. He could not quote fathers from memory as they did. He refused to be drawn into arguments about antiquity. He stuck to his Bible. Yet it is not too much to say that no English reformer made such a lasting impression on the nation as old Latimer did. What was the reason? His simple zeal. Backster the Puritan was not equal to some of his contemporaries in intellectual gifts. It is no disbaragement to say that he does not stand on a level with Manton or Irwin. Yet few men probably exercised so wide an influence on the generation in which he lived. What was the reason? His burning zeal. Whitefield and Wesley and Barrage and then were inferior in men to attainments to Bishop's Butler and Watson. But they produced effects on the people of this country, which 50 butlers and Watsons would probably never have produced. They saved the Church of England from viewing. What was one secret of their power? Their zeal. These men stood forward at turning points in the history of the Church. They bore unmoved storms of opposition and persecution. They were not afraid to stand alone. They cared not for their motives were misinterpreted. They counted all things but lost for the truth's sake. They were each and all and every one eminently men of one thing. And that one thing was to advance the glory of God and to maintain his truth in the world. They were all fire and so they lighted others. They were wide awake and so they awakened others. They were all alive and so they quickened others. They were always working and so they shamed others into working too. They came down upon men like Moses from the mount. They shone as if they had been in the presence of God. They carried to and fro with them as they walked their course through the world. Something of the atmosphere and savor of heaven itself. There is a sense in which it may be said that zeal is contagious. Nothing is more useful to the professors of Christianity than to see a real, live Christian, a fully zealous man of God. They may rail at him. They may carpet him. They may pick holes in his conduct. They may look shy upon him. They may not understand him any more than men understand a new comet when a new comet appears. The insensibly a zealous man does them good. He opens their eyes. He makes them feel their own sleepiness. He makes their own great darkness visible. He obliges them to see their own barrenness. He compels them to think whether they like it or not. What are we doing? Are we not no better than mere cumbers of the ground? It may be slightly true that one sinner destroys much good. But it is also a blessed truth that one zealous Christian can do much good. Yes, one single zealous man in the town. One zealous man in the congregation. One zealous man in the society. One zealous man in the family may be a great and most extensive blessing. How many machines of youthfulness a German sets are going. How much Christian activity often calls into being which would otherwise have slept. How many fountains he opens which would otherwise have been sealed. Thoroughly there is a deep minor truth in those words of the Apostle Paul to the Carumpfians. Your zeal have provoked very many. Two Carumpfians 9. Two. See. But our zeal is good for the church and for individuals. So zeal is good for the world. Where would the missionary work be if it were not for zeal? Where would our city missions and ragged schools be if it were not for zeal? Where would our district visiting and pastoral aid societies be if it were not for zeal? Where would be our societies of rooting out sin and ignorance for finding out the dark places of the earth and recovering poor lost souls? Where would be all these glorious instruments for good if it were not for Christian zeal? Zeal called his institutions into being and zeal keeps them at work when they have begun. Zeal gathers a few despised men and makes them the nucleus of many a powerful society. Zeal keeps up the collections of the society when it is formed. Zeal prevents men from becoming lazy and sleepy when the machine is large and begins to get favoured from the world. Zeal raises up men to go forth putting their lives in their hands like Moffat and Williams in our own day. Zeal supplies their place when they are gathered into the garner and taken home. What would become the ignorant masses who crowd the lanes and alleys of our overgrown cities if it were not for Christian zeal? Governments can do nothing with them. They cannot make laws that will meet the evil. The vast majority of professing Christians have no eyes to see it like the priest and Levite they pass by on the other side. Zeal has eyes to see and a heart to feel and a head to devise and a tongue to plead and hands to work and feet to travel in order to rescue poor souls and raise them from their lower state. Zeal does not stand pouring over difficulties but simply says here are souls perishing and something shall be done. Zeal does not shrink back because there are anarchyms in the way. He looks over their heads like Moses on Pisgah and says the land shall be possessed. Zeal does not wait for company and tarry till good works are fashionable. It goes forward like a forlorn hope and trusts that others will follow by and by. Ah, the world little knows what a debt it owes to Christian zeal. How much crime it has checked. How much sedition it has prevented. How much public discontent it has calmed. How much obedience to law and love of order it has produced. How many souls it has saved. Yes, and I believe we little know what might be done if every Christian was a zealous man. How much of ministers are more like Bikersurf and Whitefield and McShane. How much of laymen were more like Howard and Wilberforce and Faulton and Naismith and George Moore. Oh, for the world's sake as well as your own. Resolve, labour, strive to be a zealous Christian. Let everyone who professes to be a Christian beware of checking zeal. Seek it, cultivate it. Try to blurt the fire in your own heart and the hearts of others. But never, never check it. Beware of throwing cold water on zealous souls whenever you meet with them. Beware of nipping in the bud this precious grace when first it shoots. If you are a parent, beware of checking it in your children. If you are a husband, beware of checking it in your wife. If you are a brother, beware of checking it in your sisters. And if you are a minister, beware of checking it in the members of your congregation. It is a shoot of heaven's own planting. Beware of crushing it for Christ's sake. Zeal may make mistakes. Zeal may need directing. Zeal may want guiding, controlling and advising. Like the elephants on ancient fields of battle, it may sometimes do injury to its own side. The zeal does not need damping in a wretched, cold, corrupt, miserable world like this. Zeal, like John Knox pulling down the scotch monasteries, may hurt the feelings of narrow-minded and sleepy Christians. It may offend the prejudices of these old-fashioned religionists who hate everything new. And, like those who wanted soldiers and sailors to go and wear in pigtails, have whore or change. The zeal, in the end, will be justified by its results. Zeal, like John Knox in the long run of life, would do infinitely more good than harm. There is little danger of there ever being too much zeal for the glory of God. God, forgive those who think there is. You know little of human nature. You forget that sickness is far more contagious than health and that it is much easier to catch a chill than impart a glow. Depend upon it. The church's soul do needs a bridle, but often needs a spur. It's soul do needs to be checked. It often needs to be urged on. And now, in conclusion, let me try to apply this subject to the conscience of every person who reads this paper. It is a warning subject, an arousing subject, an encouraging subject, according to the state of our several hearts. I wish by God's help to give every reader his portion. One. First of all, let me offer a warning to all who make no decided profession of religion. There are thousands and tens of thousands I fear in this condition. If you are one, the subject before you is full of solemn warning. Ode the Lord in mercy may incline your heart to receive it. I ask you then in all affection, where is your zeal in religion? With the Bible before me I may well be bold in asking, but with your life before me I may well tremble as to the answer. I ask again, where is your zeal for the glory of God? Where is your zeal for extending Christ's gospel through an evil world? Zeal which was the characteristic of the Lord Jesus. Zeal which is the characteristic of the angels. Zeal which shines forth in all the brightest Christians. Where is your zeal? Unconverted reader. Where is your zeal indeed? You know well it is nowhere at all. You know well you see no beauty in it. You know well it is scorned and cast out as evil by you and your companions. You know well it has no place, no portion, no standing ground in the religion of your soul. It is not perhaps that you know not what it is to be zealous in a certain way. You have zeal, but it is all misapplied. It is all earthly. It is all about the things of time. It is not zeal for the glory of God. It is not zeal for the salvation of souls. Yes, many a man has zeal for the newspaper, but not for the Bible. Zeal for the daily reading of the times, but no zeal for the daily reading of God's blessed word. Many a man has zeal for the account book and the business book, but no zeal about the book of life and the last great account. Zeal about Australian and Californian gold, but no zeal about the unsearchable riches of Christ. Many a man has zeal about his earthly concerns, his family, his pleasures, his daily pursuits, but no zeal about God and heaven and eternity. If this is the state of anyone who is reading this paper, awake, I do beseech you to see your gross folly. You cannot live forever. You are not ready to die. You are utterly unfit for the company of saints and angels. Awake, zealous and repent. Awake to see the harm you are doing. You are putting arguments in the hands of infidels where your shameful coldness. You are pulling down as fast as ministers build. You are helping the devil. Awake, besealous and repent. Awake to see your childish inconsistency. What can be more worthy of zeal than eternal things, than the glory of God, than the salvation of souls? Surely if it is good to labour for rewards to the temple, it is a thousand times better to labour for those that are eternal. Awake, besealous and repent. Go and read that long neglected Bible. Take up that blessed book which you have and perhaps never use. Read that New Testament through. Do you find nothing there to make you zealous, to make you earnest about your soul? Go and look at the cross of Christ. Go and see how the Son of God there shed His precious blood for you, how He suffered and groaned and died for you, how He poured out His soul as an offering for sin, in order that you, sinful brother or sister, might not perish but have eternal life. Go and look at the cross of Christ and never rest till you feel some zeal for your own soul, some zeal for the glory of God, some zeal for extension of the gospel throughout the world. Once more I say, awake, besealous and repent. Two, let me in the next place say something to arouse those who make a profession of being decided Christians and I get lukewarm in their practice. There are only too many I regret to say in this state of soul. If you are one, there is much in this subject which ought to lead you to searchings of heart. Let me speak to your conscience. To you also I desire to put the question in an abruptly affection. Where is your zeal? Where is your zeal for the glory of God and for extending the gospel throughout the world? You know well it is very low. You know well that your zeal is a little feeble, glimmering spark that just lives and no more. It's like a thing ready to die, relation free too. Surely there is a fault somewhere if this is the case. This state of things ought not to be. You, the child of God, you redeemed as a glorious surprise. You ransomed with such precious blood. You who are an heir of glories that is no tongue ever yet told. Or I saw. Surely you ought to be a man of another kind. Surely your zeal ought not to be so small. I deeply feel that this is a painful subject to touch upon. I do it with reluctance or with a constant remembrance of my own unprofitfulness. Nevertheless truth ought to be spoken. The plain truth is that many believers in the present day seem so dreadfully afraid of doing harm that they hardly ever dare to do good. There are many who are fruitful in objections but bowing in actions, rich in wet blankets but pour in anything like Christian fire. They are like the Dutch deputies recording the history of last century. He would never allow Malboa to venture anything and by that excessive caution prevented many a victory being won. Truly, in looking round the Church of Christ a man might sometimes think that God's kingdom had come and God's will was being done upon earth. So small is the zeal that some believers show. It is vain to deny it. I need not go far for evidence. I point to societies for doing good to the heathen, the colonies and the dark places of our own land, languishing and standing still for want of active support. I ask, is this zeal? I point to thousands of miserable guinea subscriptions which are never missed by the givers and yet make up the sum of their Christian liberality. I ask, is this zeal? I point to false doctrine allowing to grow up in parishes and families without an effort being made to check it. While so-called believers look on and content themselves with wishing it was not so. I ask, is this zeal? Would the apostles have been satisfied in such a state of things? We know they would not. If the conscience of anyone who reads this paper please guilt into any participation in the shortcomings I have spoken of. I call upon him, in the name of the Lord, to awake, be zealous and repent. Let not zeal be confined to Lincoln's Inn, the Temple and Westminster, the banks and shops and counting houses. Let us see the same zeal in the Church of Christ. Let not zeal be abundant to lead for law and hopes or get gold from Australia or travel over thick-ribbed ice in voyages of discovery. But defective to send the Gospel to the heathen or to pluck Roman Catholics like brands from the fire or to enlighten the dark places of the colonies of this great land. Never were there such doors of usefulness opened. Never were there so many opportunities for doing good. I loathe that squeamishness which refuses to help religious works if there is a blemish about the instrument by which the work is carried on. At this rate, we might never do anything at all. Let us resist the feeling if we are tempted by it. It is one of Satan's devices. It is better to work with fever instruments than not to work at all. At all events, try to do something to God and Christ, something against ignorance and sin. Give, collect, teach, exhort, visit, pray according as God enables you. Only make up your mind that all can do something and resolve that by you at any rate something shall be done. If you have only one talent, do not bury it in the ground. Try to live so as to be missed. There is far more to be done in twelve hours than most of us have ever yet done on any day in our lives. Think of the precious souls which are perishing while you are sleeping. Be taken up with your inward conflicts if you will. Go on anatomising your own feelings and pouring over your own corruptions if you are so determined. But remember all this time souls are going to hell and you might do something to save them by working, by giving, by writing, by begging and by prayer. Or awake, be zealous and repent. Think of the shortness of time. You will soon be gone. You will have no opportunity for works of mercy in another world. In heaven there will be no ignorant people to instruct, no one converted to reclaim. Whatever you do must be done now. Oh, when are you going to begin? Awake, be zealous and repent. Think of the devil and his zeal to do harm. It was a solemn saying of old Bernard when he said that Satan would rise up in judgment against some people at the last day because he had shown more zeal to ruin souls than they had to save them. Awake, be zealous and repent. Think of your Saviour and all his zeal for you. Think of him in Gethsemane and on Calvary shedding his blood for sinners. Think of his life and death, his sufferings and his doings. This he has done for you. What are you doing for him? A resolve that for the time to come you will spend and be spent for Christ. Awake, be zealous and repent. Free, last of all, let me encourage all readers of this paper who are truly zealous Christians. I have but one request to make, and that is that you will preserve. I do beseech you to hold fast your zeal and never let it go. I do beseech you never to go back from your first works, never to leave your first love, never to let it be said of you that your first things are better than your last. Beware of cooling down. You have only to be lazy and to sit still and you will soon lose all your warmth. You will soon become another man from what you are now. Oh, do not think this a needless exhortation. It may be very true that wise young believers are very rare, but it is no less true that zealous old believers are very rare also. Never allow yourself to think that you can do too much, that you can spend and be spent too much for Christ's cause. For one man that does too much I will show you a thousand who do not do enough. Rather think that the night cometh when no man can work John 9.4 and give, collect, teach, visit, work, pray as if you were doing it for the last time. Lay to heart the words of that noble minded Jansenest who said when told that he ought to rest a little what should we rest for? Have we not all eternity to rest in? Fear not the reproach of men. Fate not because you are sometimes abused. He did not if you are sometimes called bigots. Ephesiast, fanatic, madman and fool. There is nothing disgraceful in these titles. They have often been given to the best and wisest of men. If you are only to be zealous when you are praised for it. If the wheels of your zeal must be oiled by the world's commendation, your zeal will be but short lived. Care not for the praise of frown of man. There is but one thing worth caring for and that is the praise of God. There is but one question worth asking about our actions. How will they look in the day of judgment? End of chapter 8