PRACTICAL PIETY by Hannah More, 1811
Chapter 16
TRUE AND FALSE ZEAL
One of the most important ends of cultivating self-knowledge is to discover
what is the real bent of our mind and which are the strongest tendencies of
our character; to discover where our disposition requires restraint, and
where we may be safely trusted with some liberty of indulgence. Our
religious fervor needs the most consummate prudence to restrain its excesses
without freezing its energies.
If, on the contrary, timidity is our natural propensity, we shall be in
danger of falling into coldness and inactivity with regard to ourselves, and
into passive compliance with the request of others, or too easy a conformity
with their habits. It will therefore be an evident proof of Christian
self-government when a man restrains the outward expression of over-ardent
zeal where it would be unseasonable or unsafe; while he will practice the
same Christian self-denial if he has a fearful and diffident character, to
burst the fetters of timidity where duty requires a holy boldness and when
he is called upon to lose all lesser fears in the fear of God.
One of the first objects of a Christian is to get his understanding and his
conscience thoroughly enlightened; to take an exact survey, not only of the
whole comprehensive scheme of Christianity, but of his own nature; to
discover, in order to correct, the defects in his judgment; and to ascertain
the deficiencies even of his best qualities. Through ignorance in these
respects, though he may be following up some good tendency, though he is
even persuaded that he is not wrong in his motive or his purpose, he may yet
be wrong in the scope, the mode, or in the application, though right in the
principle. He must therefore watch over his better qualities with a
suspicious eye and guard his very virtues from deviation and excess.
Zeal is an indispensable ingredient in the composition of a great character.
Without it no great eminence, secular or religious, has ever been attained.
It is essential to the acquisition of excellence in arts and arms, in
learning and piety. Without it no man will be able to reach the perfection
of his nature, or to animate others to aim at that perfection. Yet it will
surely mislead the dedicated Christian if his knowledge of what is right and
just does not keep pace with the principle itself.
Zeal, indeed, is not so much a single virtue, as it is the principle which
gives life and coloring, grace and goodness, warmth and energy to every
other virtue. It is that feeling which exalts the relish of every duty and
sheds a luster in the practice of every virtue. It embellishes every image
of the mind with its glowing tints and animates every quality of the heart
with its invigorating motion. It may be said of zeal that though by itself
it never made a great man, yet no man has ever made himself conspicuously
great where it has been lacking.
Many things, however, must concur before we can determine whether zeal is
really a virtue or a vice. Those who are contending for the one or for the
other will be in the situation of the two knights who, meeting on a
crossroad, were on the point of fighting about the composition of a cross
that was between them. One insisted it was gold; the other maintained it was
silver. The duel was prevented by the interference of a passenger who
desired them to change their positions. Both crossed over to the opposite
side and found that the cross was gold on one side and silver on the other.
Each acknowledged his opponent to be right.
It may be disputed whether fire be a good or an evil. The man who feels
himself cheered by its kindly warmth is assured that it is a benefit, but he
whose house it has just burned down will give another verdict. Not only the
cause, therefore, in which zeal is exercised must be good, but the zeal
itself must be under proper regulation. If it is not, it will be like the
rapidity of the traveler who gets on the wrong road, carrying him so much
the farther out of his way, or if he be on the right road, will carry him
involuntarily beyond his destination. That degree of zeal is equally
misleading which detains us short of our goal, or which pushes us beyond it.
The Apostle suggests a useful precaution by expressly asserting that it is
"in a good cause" that we "must be zealously affected." This implies a
further truth, that where the cause is not good the mischief is
proportionate with the zeal. But the possibility of misdirected zeal should
not totally discourage us from being zealous.
If the injustice, the intolerance and persecution with which a misguided
zeal has so often afflicted the Church of Christ be lamented as a deplorable
evil, yet the overruling wisdom of Providence, fashioning good out of evil,
made those very calamities the instruments of producing that true and lively
zeal to which we owe the glorious band of martyrs and confessors, those
brightest ornaments of the best periods of the Church. This effect, though a
clear vindication of that divine goodness which allows evil, is no excuse
for the one who perpetuates it.
It is curious to observe the contrary operations of true and false zeal,
which though apparently only different modifications of the same quality,
are, when brought into contact, repugnant and even destructive to each
other. There is no attribute of the human mind where the different effects
of the same principle have such a total opposition, for is it not obvious
that the same principle which actuates the tyrant in dragging the martyr to
the stake, can under another direction, enable the martyr to embrace it?
As a striking proof that the necessity for caution is not imaginary, it has
been observed that the Holy Scriptures record more instances of bad zeal
than of good zeal. This furnishes the most authoritative argument for
regulating this impetuous principle, and for governing it by all those
restrictions demanded by a feeling so calculated for good and so capable of
evil.
It was zeal, but of a blind and furious character, which produced the
massacre on the day of St. Bartholomew, a day to which the mournful strains
of job have been so well applied: "Let that day perish. Let it not be joined
to the days of the year. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it." It
was zeal most bloody, combined with a perfidy the most detestable, which
inflamed the detestable Catherine de Medici, when she, under the alluring
mask of a public festivity, contrived a general mass of wholesale
destruction of some twenty-five to fifty thousand French Protestants. The
royal and pontifical assassins, not satisfied with the sin, converted it
into a triumph. Medals were struck in honor of a deed which has no parallel
in the annals of pagan persecution.
Even glory did not satisfy the pernicious plotters of this direful tragedy.
Devotion was called in to be the crown and consummation of their crime. The
blackest hypocrisy was made use of to sanctify the foulest murder. The
iniquity could not be complete without solemnly thanking God for its
success. The Pope and Cardinals proceeded to St. Mark's Church, where they
praised the Almighty for so great a blessing conferred on the Pope of Rome
and the Catholic world. A solemn jubilee completed the preposterous
pretense. This zeal of devotion was much worse than even the zeal of murder,
as thanking God for enabling us to commit a sin is worse than the commission
itself. A wicked piety is still more disgusting than a wicked act. God is
less offended by the sin itself than by the thank-offering of its
perpetrators. It looks like a black attempt to involve the Creator in the
crime.
For a complete contrast to this pernicious zeal we need not, blessed be God,
travel back into remote history, nor abroad into distant realms. This happy
land of civil and religious liberty can furnish a countless catalog of
instances of a pure, a wise, and a well directed zeal. Not to swell the
list, we will only mention that it has in our own age produced the Society
for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the British and Foreign Bible Society,
and the abolition of the African slave trade. Three as noble and, we trust,
as lasting monuments as ever national virtue erected in true piety. These
are institutions which bear the authentic stamp of Christianity and embrace
the best interests of almost the whole of the habitable globe "without
partiality and without hypocrisy."
Why we hear so much in praise of zeal from a certain class of religious
characters is partly owing to their having taken up a notion that zeal is
necessary for the care of other people's salvation, rather than for their
own. Indeed the casual prying into a neighbor's house, though much more
entertaining, is not nearly as troublesome as the constant inspection of
one's own. It is observable that the outcry against zeal among the
irreligious is raised on nearly the same ground as the clamor in its favor
by these professors of religion. The former suspect that the zeal of the
religionists is consumed in censuring their impiety, and in eagerness for
their conversion, instead of being directed to themselves. This supposed
anxiety they resent, and they give a practical proof of their resentment by
resolving not to profit by it.
Two very erroneous opinions exist respecting zeal. It is commonly supposed
to indicate a lack of charity; actually it is a firm friend rather than an
enemy. Indeed, charity is such a reliable criterion of its sincerity, that
we should be suspect of zeal which is unaccompanied by this fair ally.
Another opinion equally erroneous is prevalent—that where there is much
zeal, there is little or no prudence. Now a sound and sober zeal is not such
an idiot as to neglect to provide for its own success by taking every
precaution which prudence can suggest. True zeal therefore will be as
discreet as it is fervent, well knowing that its warmest efforts will be
neither effectual, nor lasting, without those provisions which discretion
alone can make. No quality is ever possessed in perfection where its
opposite is lacking; zeal is not Christian fervor, but animal heat, if not
associated with charity and prudence.
That most valuable faculty of intellectual man, the judgment, the
enlightened, impartial, unbiased judgment must be kept in perpetual use,
both to ascertain that the cause be good, and to determine the degree of its
importance in any given case, so that we may not blindly assign an undue
value to an inferior good. Without the discrimination we may be fighting a
windmill when we fancy we are attacking a fort! We must prove not only
whether the thing contended for be right, but whether it be essential;
whether in our eagerness to attain this lesser good we may not be
sacrificing or neglecting things of more real consequence; whether the value
we assign to it may not be even imaginary.
Above all we should examine if we contend for a cause chiefly because it
happens to fall in with our own feelings or our own party, more than for its
intrinsic worth. We should also consider whether we do not wish to
distinguish ourselves by our tenacity, rather than being committed to the
principle itself.
This zeal, hotly exercised over mere circumstantial or ceremonial
differences, has unhappily helped in causing irreparable separations and
dissensions in the Christian world, even where the champions on both sides
were great and good people. Many of the points over which they have argued
were not worth insisting upon where the opponents agreed in the grand
fundamentals of faith and practice.
But to consider zeal as a general question, as a thing of everyday
experience, we can say that he whose religious devotion is most sincere is
likely to be the most zealous. But though zeal is an indication, and even an
essential part of sincerity, a burning zeal is sometimes seen where the
sincerity is somewhat questionable.
For where zeal is generated by ignorance, it is commonly fostered by
self-will. That which we have embraced through false judgment we maintain
through false honor. Pride is generally called in to nurse the offspring of
error. We frequently see those who are perversely zealous for points which
can add nothing to the cause of Christian truth, while they are cold and
indifferent about the great things which involve the salvation of man.
Though all significant truths and all indispensable duties are made so
obvious in the Bible that those "may run who read it," people tend to argue
over issues that are unworthy of the heat they excite. Different systems are
built on the same texts, so that he who fights for them is not always sure
whether he is right or not, and if he wins his point, he can make no moral
use of his victory. The correctness of his argument indeed is not his
concern. It is enough that he has conquered. The importance of the object
never depended on its worth, but on the opinion of his right to maintain
that worth.
The Gospel assigns very different degrees of importance to allowed practices
and commanded duties. It by no means censures those who were rigorous in
their payment of the most inconsiderable tithes; but since this duty was not
only competing with, but preferred before the most important duties, even
justice, mercy and faith, the flagrant hypocrisy was pointedly censured by
Meekness itself. This opposition of a scrupulous exactness in paying the
petty demand on three paltry herbs to the neglect of the three cardinal
Christian virtues, exhibits as complete and instructive a specimen as can be
imagined of that frivolous and false zeal which, vanishing in trifles,
wholly overlooks those grand points on which hangs eternal life. This
passage serves to corroborate a striking fact, that there is scarcely in
Scripture any precept enforced which has not some actual example attached to
it. The historical parts of the Bible, therefore, are of inestimable value,
were it only on this single ground, that the appended truths and principles
so abundantly scattered throughout them are in general so happily
illustrated by them. They are not dry aphorisms and cold propositions, which
stand singly and disconnected, but precepts growing out of the occasion. The
recollection of the principles recalls to mind the instructive story which
they enrich, while the reminder of the circumstance impresses the lesson
upon the heart. Thus the doctrine like a precious gem is at once preserved
and embellished by the narrative being made a frame in which to enshrine it.
True zeal will first exercise itself in the earnest desire to obtain greater
illumination in our own minds; in fervent prayer that the growing light may
operate to the improvement of our conduct; that the influences of divine
grace may become more outwardly perceptible by the increasing correctness of
our behavior; that every holy affection may be followed by its correspondent
act, whether of obedience or of resignation, of doing, or of suffering.
But the effects of a genuine and enlightened zeal will not stop here. It
will be visible in our discourse with those to whom we may possibly be of
help. The exercise of our zeal, when not done with a bustling kind of
interference and offensive forwardness, is proper and useful. Wherever zeal
appears, it will be clearly visible, in the same way that a fire will emit
both light and heat. We should labor principally to maintain in our own
minds the attitudes which our faith has initiated there. The brightest flame
will decay if no means are used to keep it alive. Pure zeal will cherish
every holy affection, and by increasing every pious disposition will move us
to every duty. It will add new force to our hatred of sin, fresh contrition
to our repentance, additional vigor to our resolutions, and will impart
increased energy to every virtue. It will give life to our devotions, and
spirit to all our actions.
When a true zeal has fixed these right affections in our own hearts, the
same principle will, as we have already observed, make us earnest to excite
them in others. No good man wishes to go to heaven alone, and none ever
wished others to go there without earnestly endeavoring to awaken right
affections in them. That will be a false zeal which does not begin with the
regulation of our own hearts. That will be a narrow zeal which stops where
it begins. A true zeal will extend itself through the whole sphere of its
possessor's influence. Christian zeal, like Christian charity, will begin at
home, but neither the one nor the other must end there.
But that we must not confine our zeal to mere conversation is not only
implied but expressed in Scripture. The apostle does not exhort us to be
zealous only of good words but or good works. True zeal ever produces true
benevolence. It would extend the blessings which we ourselves enjoy to the
whole human race. It will consequently stir us up to exert all our influence
to the extension of religion, to the advancement of every well conceived and
well conducted plan, calculated to enlarge the limits of human happiness,
and more especially to promote the eternal interests of humankind.
But if we do not first strenuously labor for our own illumination, how shall
we presume to enlighten others? It is a dangerous presumption to busy
ourselves in improving others before we have diligently sought our own
improvement. Yet it is a vanity not uncommon that the first feelings, be
they true or false, which resemble devotion, the first faint ray of
knowledge which has imperfectly dawned, excites in certain raw minds an
eager impatience to communicate to others what they themselves have not yet
attained. Hence the novel swarms of uninstructed instructors, of teachers
who have had no time to learn. The act previous to the imparting knowledge
should seem to be that of acquiring it. Nothing would so effectually check
an irregular zeal for a temperate zeal, as the personal discipline, the
self-acquaintance which we have so repeatedly recommended.
True Christian zeal will always be known by its distinguishing and
inseparable properties. It will be warm indeed, not from temperament but
principle. It will be humble, or it will not be Christian zeal. It will
restrain its impetuosity that it may the more effectually promote its
object. It will be temperate, softening what is strong in the act by
gentleness in the manner. It will be tolerating, willing to grant what it
would itself desire. It will be forbearing, in the hope that the offence it
seeks to correct may be an occasional lapse rather than a habit of the mind.
It will be candid, making a tender allowance for those imperfections which
beings, fallible themselves, ought to expect from human infirmity. It will
be a friendly admonishment, instead of irritating by the adoption of
violence, instead of mortifying by the assumption of superiority.
He, who in private society allows himself in violent anger or unhallowed
bitterness or acrimonious railing to reprehend the faults of another, might,
did his power keep pace with his inclination, have recourse to other
weapons. He would probably banish and burn, confiscate and imprison, and
think then, as he thinks now, that he is doing God service.
If there be any quality which demands clear sight, a
tight rein and a strict watchfulness, zeal is that quality. The heart where
zeal is lacking has no true life, where it is not guarded, no security. The
prudence with which zeal is exercised is the surest evidence of its
integrity; for if intemperate, it raises enemies not only to ourselves but
to God. It augments the natural enmity to religion instead of increasing her
friends.
But if tempered by charity, if blended with benevolence, if sweetened by
kindness, if shown to be honest by its influence on your own conduct, and
gentle by its effect on your manners, zeal may lead your irreligious
acquaintance to inquire more closely to what distinguishes them from you.
You will already by this mildness have won their affections. Your next step
may be to gain over their judgment. They may be led to examine what solid
grounds of difference exist between us and them, what substantial reason you
have for not going their way, and what sound argument they can offer for not
going yours.
But it may possibly be asked, after all, where do we perceive any symptoms
of this inflammatory distemper? Should not the prevalence, or at least the
existence of a disease be ascertained before applying the remedy? That an
illness exists is sufficiently obvious, though it must be confessed that
among the higher classes it has not hitherto spread very widely. Its
progress is not likely to be very alarming, nor its effects very malignant.
It is to be lamented that in every class indeed, coldness and indifference,
carelessness and neglect, are the reigning epidemics. These are diseases far
more difficult to cure, diseases as dangerous to the patient as they are
distressing to the physician, who generally finds it more difficult to raise
a sluggish habit than to lower an occasional heat. The imprudently zealous
man, if he be sincere, may by a discreet regimen, be brought to a state of
complete sanity; but to rouse from a state of morbid indifference, to brace
from a total relaxation of the system, must be the immediate work of the
Great Physician of souls; of Him who can effect even this, by His spirit
accompanying this powerful word: "Awake, you that sheep, and arise from the
dead, and Christ shall give you light."