September 15

Even so ye, for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church.—I COR. xiv, 12.

So earnest with thy God! can no new care,

No sense of danger, interrupt thy prayer?

The sacred wrestler, till a blessing given,

Quits not his hold, but halting conquers heaven.

EDMUND WALLER.

Religious zeal should in every instance be the offspring of personal piety.

JOHN ANGELL JAMES.

Zeal is the richest evidence of faith, and the clearest demonstration of the Spirit. SAMUEL WARD.

Zeal without humility is like a ship without a rudder, liable to be stranded at any moment.

OWEN FELTHAM.

Zeal may be defined as the heat or fervor of the mind, prompting its vehemence of indignation against anything which it conceives to be evil—prompting its vehemence of desire toward anything which it imagines to be good. In itself it has no moral character at all. It is the simple instinct of energetic nature, never wholly divested of a sort of rude nobility, and never destitute of influence upon the lives and characters of others. MORLEY PUNSHON.

Zeal is one of the fair colors of grace. . . . It stimulates to the performance of every duty, infuses life into every experience, fervor into all devotion, spirit into all work, and overcomes difficulty as fire overcomes every resisting object.

HUGH MACMILLAN.