I do not need to waste your time in trying to define what zeal is. We all know it. When we approve of its object we admire it and call it' beautiful consecration'; when we are not in sympathy with its objects we call it ridiculous exaggeration' and fanaticism.' Its elements are threefold, an overmastering recognition of the greatness of some truth, or cause, or person, for which, or for whom, we are zealous'--a glow of emotion arising from that recognition, and a conscious- ness of obligation to strain all our powers for the diffusion of the truth, or the advancement of the cause, or the honour of the person, for whom we are zealous. Now, of course, when a man gets hold of some truth that masters him, there is always the danger of his losing the sense of proportion, of his getting his perspective wrong, and being so swallowed up in the one thing that he sees, that, like a horse with blinkers, he does not see anything except that one narrow line that lies in front of him. And so zeal is always in danger of being deformed into fanaticism, but it is God's way in working the world onwards, to raise up successions of men, each of whom recognises with overwhelming clearness some one little segment of the great orb of truth, and the world advances because there are men that believe in one thing, that see one thing, and that give themselves, body and soul, to the setting forth of that one thing. All the rest of us stand by and say, What ridiculous exaggeration! how entirely oblivious he is counter-balancing considerations; how he has narrowed himself down into being the instrument and the apostle of this one thing!' Yes; and if you want to bore a hole through a six-inch plank, you have to put a pretty sharp point upon your tool, and to make it very narrow.' The world never gets to see any truth, until it has been hammered into it by some man who did not see any other truth.
There will come, too, with that overwhelming conception of the greatness of the truth, or of the person, or of the cause, a glow of emotion. Argument may be worked in fire or in frost, and the arguments that melt are warm, or if I might go back to my former figure, your boring tool will penetrate more quickly and easily if it has been heated as well as pointed. And zeal glows, and it is the glow rather than reasoning that convinces men.
I need not dwell upon other characteristics of zeal, but my next thought is--Christianity is such as that, if a man really and fully accepts it, he cannot help being zealous. Look at the truths that we say we believe. We believe in ideas about the significance and issues of this earthly life, so solemn, so great, so transcending all present experience, that it is incredible that they can enter into a man's mind in any deep sense, and leave him cold and indifferent, We believe in such truths about Sin and Judgment and Eternity that they might kindle a soul beneath the ribs of death, and burn up all indifference, so as that the extremist, enthusiastic grasp of them is only moderation and rational. We say that we believe that the infinite, divine nature was incarnated in a Man, and that that Man lived and died because He loved every soul, and that that death brings to the world emancipation, and that Life brings to the world life, and that these things are true for all men. What I maintain is, that if a man really believes these things, not with the mere conventional faith that characterises multitudes of professing Christians, it is impossible that he should be left cold. If the sun is shining the temperature will go up; and if the thermometer does not rise it is because something or other has come between the sunbeam .and the mercury. If the iceberg floats down into the warm oceans of the temperate or tropical zones it will melt into sweet water, and it cannot remain ice. If it continue grim and cold, it is because there is only the sun of the Arctic winter, which has a pale light, and scarcely any warmth at all, shining down upon it. An indifferent Christian, who believes in sin and in redemption and in an incarnate Christ and in a sacrifice on the Cross and in a Divine Spirit and in a future Judgment and remains cold, is all but an impossibility; he is a contradiction in terms, and a living monster.
Brethren, I venture to plead with you that there are few things which the conventional Christianity of this day needs more than to awake to the fact that the sober standard of feeling in matters of religion,' which some so much admire, is contrary to the genius of the gospel, and the importance of the truths which it contains. And when I say a sober standard I do not mean the sobriety which the New Testament enjoins, but I mean the sobriety which the conventional Christianity of this day so much admires, and which is scarcely distinguishable with a microscope from absolute indifference. We are frequently besought to beware of enthusiasm. I hear from quarters where one would not expect to hear it, the cynical politician's advice, Not too much zeal, I beg of you.' And I venture to oppose to all that what the voice of the Master from heaven said,' I would thou were cold or hot.' This Christianity that never turns a hair, that does not know what zeal means, seems to me uncommonly like no Christianity at all.
We all want to be roused from our torpor. This community, like every church of professing Christians, is weighted by a mass of loosely attached and half-believing professing Christians who are nothing better than clogs on the wheel, and instruments for bringing down the temperature of the whole mass. And what we want, I believe more than anything else, is that we should"be zealous, as dominated by the overwhelming greatness and solemnity of the truths, and melted into a passion of love by the overwhelming greatness and love of the Person whom the gospel reveals to us. We are to be zealous,' and whilst I dare not say that a true Christian will be a zealous one, I dare not conceal my conviction that a consistent Christian will be.
