(_b_) As zeal is good for ourselves individually, so it is also _good for the professing Church of Christ generally_. Nothing so much keeps alive true religion as a leaven of zealous Christians scattered 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 over-estimate 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 life-blood 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 usefulness. 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 generally honoured to build up 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 Cranmer 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. And what was the reason? His simple zeal.
Baxter, the Puritan, was not equal to some of his contemporaries in intellectual gifts. It is no disparagement to say that he does not stand on a level with Manton or Owen. Yet few men probably exercised so wide an influence on the generation in which he lived. And what was the reason? His burning zeal.
Whitefield, and Wesley, and Berridge, and Venn were inferior in mental attainments to Bishops Butler and Watson. But they produced effects on the people of this country which fifty Butlers and Watsons would probably never have produced. They saved the Church of England from ruin. And 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 though their motives were misinterpreted.--They counted all things but loss 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 savour 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 thoroughly zealous man of God. They may rail at him,--they may carp at 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;--but 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 cumberers of the ground?" It may be sadly true that "one sinner _destroyeth_ much good;" but it is also a blessed truth that one zealous Christian can _do_ much good. Yes: one single zealous man in a town,--one zealous man in a congregation,--one zealous man in a society,--one zealous man in a family, may be a great, a most extensive blessing. How many machines of usefulness such a man sets a going! How much Christian activity he often calls into being which would otherwise have slept! How many fountains he opens which would otherwise have been sealed! Verily there is a deep mine of truth in those words of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians: "Your zeal hath provoked very many." (2 Cor. ix, 2.)