Evening, June 7, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“Be zealous.” — Revelation 3:19

If you wish to see souls converted, if you desire to hear the cry that “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ;” if you would place crowns upon the head of the Savior, and see his throne lifted high, then be filled with zeal. For, under God, the way of the world’s conversion must be by the zeal of the church. Every form of grace shall achieve exploits, but this one shall be first; prudence, knowledge, patience, and courage will follow in their places, but zeal must lead at the forefront. It is not the extent of your knowledge, though that is useful; it is not the extent of your talent, though that is not to be despised; it is your zeal that shall achieve exploits. This zeal is the fruit of the Holy Spirit: it draws its vital force from the continued operations of the Holy Spirit in the soul. If our inner life dwindles, if our heart beats slowly before God, we shall not experience zeal; but if all is strong and vigorous within us, then we cannot help but feel a loving anxiety to see the kingdom of Christ come, and his will done on earth, even as it is in heaven. A deep sense of gratitude will nourish Christian zeal. Looking to the hole of the pit from where we were dug, we find abundant reason why we should spend and be spent for God. And zeal is also stimulated by the thought of the eternal future. It looks with tearful eyes down to the flames of hell, and it cannot slumber: it looks up with anxious gaze to the glories of heaven, and it cannot help but rouse itself. It feels that time is short compared with the work to be done, and therefore it devotes all that it has to the cause of its Lord. And it is forever strengthened by the remembrance of Christ’s example. He was clothed with zeal as with a cloak. How swift the chariot wheels of duty went with him! He knew no loitering along the way. Let us prove that we are his disciples by manifesting the same spirit of zeal.