The review of such a character may be very profitable. How many of us, my brethren, are very warm, very exact in serving GOD, in the things to which we are naturally inclined? How many of us, if we bid not others (as we too often do), “Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD,” at least flatter, and puff up ourselves, in the contemplation of the service which we are rendering to GOD? How many of us have only just as much zeal as squares with our own desires or interests; and in all else, either desist when GOD urges “Go on,” or persevere when He cries “Forbear!” The zealous man has been advised, by a great moralist, always to suspect that pride, or interest, or ill temper, is at the bottom of his zeal. Provided we guard against the grave error, so prevalent in the last century, of despising and condemning all religious zeal, it is well to entertain this suspicion—of ourselves, I mean—till we have proved it to be false, or by repentance and amendment have made it false. For who does not know how much a proud, carnal, selfish, ill-tempered man or woman may do in the service of self, which has the appearance of zeal for GOD? What pious labours men will undertake, if they happen to be in the path of their natural inclinations! What warfare they will wage against sins that they have no mind to! What platform speeches they will make, what pamphlets or letters publish, against the disciples of a religious school to which they do not belong! They are zealously affected; they come out and are separate; they are enthusiastic, energetic, noisy; they put forth all their own strength; they invoke the civil power; they would have authority from the synagogue, if it were to be had, to punish all who do not conform; they smite with the sharp sword of a bitter persecuting tongue or pen; they work, they speak, they give, they fight, they endure—all, they say, in zeal for the LORD; and yet, if you follow them into the quiet scenes of life, if you come upon them where self has nothing to gain or enjoy, or where it has anything to lose or fear losing, to all appearance they take no heed to walk in the law of the LORD GOD. It is very likely that they are not communicants; that they are irregular in their attendance at Church, or greatly wanting in proper demeanour and devotion when there; that they aid but seldom, and slenderly, in the spread of religion around them, and the relief of GOD’S poor; that they are rarely seen to open the Bible; not men of prayer; exhibiting tempers, and following ways which belong not to the holily zealous; tolerating beneath their own roof, or within the reach of their influence, something as hateful in the sight of GOD as the calves that were in Bethel and that were in Dan.