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I. ITS NATURE — fervour — from a verb signifying "to boil." It stands opposed to indifference or lukewarmness. Its object may be good or bad, a person or thing, truth or error. The Jews and Saul were zealous for the law and the tradition of their fathers; and through zeal persecuted the Church.

II. ITS CRITERIA.

1. Not.

(1) The object. There can indeed be no holy zeal for sin or error; but there may be an unholy zeal for God and truth, as was the case with Saul.

(2) The energy, or the self-denial and exertions to which it leads: Many unholy men are exceedingly fervid and self-sacrificing.

2. But —

(1) The source.

(a) The source of false zeal is either some selfish interest, as in the ease of the Jews, the Romanists, etc.; or party spirit, national feeling, esprit de corps; or false doctrine, hatred of the truth.

(b) The source of true zeal — i.e., as a Christian grace — is the Holy Spirit, as the Author of all good, together with spiritual apprehension of the excellence of its object, whether God, truth, or the Church.

(2) The concomitants and effects.

(a) False zeal is malignant; true is benevolent. The one is the fervour of the unrenewed; the other of the renewed mind — as illustrated by Jesus and the Jews.

(b) False zeal is proud; true is humble. The one arises from a sense of superiority which it seeks to assert and vindicate; the other from such views of God and things Divine as tend to produce humility.

(c) False zeal is irreverent; true is reverent.

(d) True zeal is connected with a holy life.

III. ITS OBLIGATION. It is demanded by —

1. The infinite importance of the interests at stake — the glory of God, the progress of truth, the salvation of men. To be unconcerned about these is the greatest sin and peril. God therefore declares His special abhorrence of the cold and lukewarm.

2. Our relations to God and Christ. A child is zealous for its father, a subject for his sovereign, a soldier for his commander, a captive for his redeemer.

3. The fact that zeal is a chief source of spiritual power. This qualification in the absence of others can accomplish wonders.

IV. THE MEANS OF ITS CULTIVATION.

1. Avoid all pretence and affectation; all expression of more interest than you feel.

2. Gather warmth by continual intercourse with God, and cherish the influence of His Spirit.

3. Keep your minds filled with the subjects about which you should be zealous, and your attention devoted to them.

4. Remember that zeal being a gift of the Spirit, whatever grieves Him quenches our zeal.

(C. Hodge, D. D.)

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KJV: (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)

WEB: When they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they were even more quiet. He said,