March 2

The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.—John 2:17.

CHRIST had just expelled the buyers and sellers from the temple, by whom that hallowed place had been made a den of thieves. Immediately after this occurrence his disciples remembered that it was written “the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.” (Psalms 69:9.) Zeal signifies fervour of soul, an ardent and vehement pursuit of any object. Christ ever displayed this spirit. There was never any thing listless, cold or formal about him. His whole soul was absorbed in the work which he came to fulfil. This zeal was in him as a flame continually burning, and it never was extinguished, until as the sacrifice for human guilt, he was consumed by it. At twelve years of age he evidenced it when reasoning with the doctors in the temple. At his baptism he manifested it when he came three days journey to be baptized of John. Amidst all his labours he displayed it, hence poverty, weariness, and toils never damped his holy ardour. Amidst the most cruel neglect, from those he came to benefit, amidst all the scorn and reproach that was heaped upon him, his zeal still burned with inextinguishable flame. His zeal regarded the purity of the law, and his holy soul was indignant at the false glosses and corruptions of the scribes and pharisces. His zeal regarded his Father's glory, and hence he invariably reproved sin wherever he saw it. And it was thus, that he said to those who were polluting the temple,—"It is written my house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves." He was zealous for the happiness and salvation of man. Hence he went about doing good. Hence also he longed for the baptism of his sufferings, intense and dreadful as he knew they would be, that a guilty world might have preached unto them repentance and remission of sin. And now elevated as he is at the right hand of the Majesty on high, he is still zealously carrying on his mediatorial schemes, and will do so until his reign is universal, and his enemies are made his footstool. How it becomes us to possess a similar glowing spirit of holy fervent zeal. How intimately connected will it be with our progress in divine things,—with our true happiness,—and with our real and extensive usefulness to the church and to the world. It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing.