The Zealous Heart

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Quintessence of Concentrated Meanness

Jealousy – Fallen Angel

There is a volume of sermons in the significant fact that zealous and jealous were once the same word. Strange and yet true! Jealousy is a fallen angel of the choir of zeal. How did jealousy corrupt its noble nature and fall so low? Zeal is truly a heavenly thing, the over-flowing of charity. Fill your soul to the brim with love of God, and you are good and holy; let the precious contents pour out upon the souls of others, and you are zealous. Zeal always has its eyes on foreign missions. It is restless at the sight of evil; it feels the pressure of its own earnestness; it moves abroad and sets to work to remove and utterly root out every wrong. Until all sin ceases, until all souls are saved and occupying the highest possible places in Heaven, zeal will not be content.

Jealousy – Degraded Rivalry

Where, then, is the kinship between “zealous” and “jealous”? It is in this. Zeal has a narrower sense than the one just described. It means rivalry and emulation. In fact, while jealousy was growing worse, zeal seems to have been growing better. Zeal after a time left out of sight the rival, whom it was trying to equal in the getting of good, and strove simply to get more and more good for others. When, on the other hand, rivalry became more intense and more selfish, then jealousy came into the world. The zealous rival is sad that he is inferior to another and strives to make up the deficiency; the jealous rival is sad that another is superior and would be glad to see him robbed of that advantage. Zealous rivalry fills up the valleys to the level of the mountains; jealous rivalry tears the mountains down to the level of the valleys. There is not much difference in statement between getting better than another and getting the better of another, but there is a world of difference in fact, and it is represented by the difference between a zealous heart and a jealous heart.

Jealousy – Described by Saint James

Saint James in his Epistle describes the jealous hearts for us, using of them the terms, “bitter zeal” and “envying,” which are expressed by the same words in the original text. “You have bitter zeal and there be contentions in your hearts: glory not and be not liars against the truth; for this is not wisdom, descending from above; but earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and contention is, there is inconstancy and every evil work.”

Jealousy – Described by a Chemist

“Jealousy is the quintessence of concentrated meanness.” That is the definition given to college students one Sunday morning twenty-five years ago by a professor who for that same number of years had taught sciences. He was a chemist, and he knew the full meaning of all these words. To get a concentrated solution, he had often to keep a liquid simmering long over a hot fire. To produce eight ounces of attar of roses, he knew, would take three thousand times that weight, or one ton of rose-petals. So he concluded that a vast amount of meanness was needed first of all in a highly condensed form, and then he would have to go to an infinite deal of care and trouble to pluck out the heart of that solution and isolate for inspection, jealousy, the meanness of that meanness. Was the professor exaggerating? He did not seem to be to his listeners, and he will not seem to be to anyone who has studied the evil nature and marked the ruinous effects of jealousy.

Jealousy – Cancer of Human Love

Certain poisonous growths are like plants and will not thrive except on a proper soil. Cancer, for example, grows on flesh, preferably human flesh. Jealousy has its proper soil; it fastens upon friendship as its suitable place. It is the cancer of love. Its favorite abode is the home and the family. The first appearance of it in creation came very early. Was it not envy or jealousy which helped bring about the fall of the angels? Another creature of God, they were told, was to be better than they. The created nature of Christ was to be united with Divinity, and we may well believe that jealousy formed part of the malice which gave birth to the first rebellion and the first sin. “God created man incorruptible, and to the image of His own likeness He made him,” says the Book of Wisdom. “But, by the envy of the devil, death came into the world.” Does Wisdom refer to Eve’s sin or Cain’s sin? If jealousy is not one of the sources of all sin, certain it is that it was the cause of the first murder. The favor of Heaven excited the jealousy of Cain.

Jealousy – Wrecker of Homes

Jealousy has lived up to the fatal promises of its beginning. Joseph and his brothers, Saul and David, are further proofs, if needed, of the murderous issue of jealous thoughts. Remake the history of the world, leaving out jealousy, and behold the happiness of friends and families, and listen to the harmony of the loving home. Brother will live in friendship with brother, and sister with sister, each happy that the other is blessed. The favor of Heaven will not make them “exceedingly angry” or make their countenance fall as in the case of Cain. They will not strive to kill those whom they cannot perhaps equal. The favor of parents will not bring to their lips the piteous whine of the elder brother of the ProdigaL “I never had singing and dancing for me. Thou hast never given me a kid to make merry, but thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.”

Jealousy – Dyspepsia of Souls

The contemptible meanness of jealousy is shown clearly enough by the number of homes it has wrecked. It is still more evident from an inspection of the way of acting and the motives of jealousy. Jealousy is essentially a creature of darkness. It is a kill-joy. Its evil eye, and black, malicious glances are often mentioned in Scripture. It makes its possessors unhappy. They waste away. Jealousy “hath a lean and hungry look.” It is the true dog in the manger, snarling, snapping at all comers. No dog ever wanted hay, but this cur is so mean that, if it cannot have the hay, it will let no one else have it. Revelation and common sense, history and experience unite in condemning such sour selfishness, such dyspepsia of the soul. Modern science in the person of one of its professors was right in asserting that jealousy is the quintessence of concentrated meanness.

Quintessence of Concentrated Generosity

Zeal Aflame in Christ

That the Heart of Christ was afire with zeal needs no proof. It is depicted to us as radiating heat and flame. If zeal is the excess of love, then what is the measure of excess where the infinite love of God is put into a human heart? The coldest, hardest iron when subjected to heat will glow to whiteness, radiate its energy, dazzle the eyes with its splendor, and when struck, burst into a shower of sparks. What then shall we say of the tender, sensitive Heart of Christ when caught up into union with the Person of God and made the instrument of His love? Its zeal will be as nearly infinite as can be. “I came to send fire upon earth, and what would I but that it be kindled?” Every particle of zeal found in the Apostles, the missionaries, the teachers, the Saints of the Church, are but sparks cast from that great conflagration.

Zeal Eager to Win All

That the Heart of Christ could have no jealousy is equally clear. The sun is not jealous of the struggling beams of a candle millions of miles away. A thought of jealousy would come as near to that Heart as a drop of water would to the centre of the sun. Its nobility, its Divinity, kept the base pettiness of jealousy at an infinite distance. If the jealousy of the fallen angels met that Heart on first being revealed to creatures, then that is proof of the eternal enmity between jealousy and the Heart of Christ. It was the mission, too, of that Heart to reconcile a world to God, to win back to Him all the love that should be His, and that means all the love there is. God wants it all. He calls Himself in the Old Testament a jealous God. Because, just as zealous was used in a bad sense, so jealous is used in a good sense. God is jealous lest the smallest part of His children’s love should go from Him, and the Heart of Christ is zealous to sweep all hearts as fuel into the holocaust of love that should go up from creatures to their Creator,

Zeal – a Foe to Jealousy

Every consideration, then, kept the Heart of Christ from jealousy and filled. It with more and more zeal. His experience in life would serve to increase His antagonism to jealousy. He would find jealous feelings growing up among His Apostles and almost breaking into open enmity when a fond mother urged the claims of her ambitious sons to a special place in His kingdom. It was necessary for Him to become more and more popular, to gain followers and advance in power. It was unavoidable then , that He should excite jealousy in mean spirits. Not all were like Saint John the Baptist. There, surely, was a large and noble soul, far above the narrowness and pettiness of jealousy. He welcomed the new Leader; he pointed Him out to his best disciples, checked those followers of his who were envious of Christ, and went into solitary obscurity and to death with the profession of that splendid principle, which is the cure of all jealousy: “This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.” Other leaders, however, were not like John. They did not view the growing power of Christ as the generous heart of the Baptist did. “What do we?” they cried; “for this Man doth many miracles.” “From that day, therefore, they devised to put Him to death.” Their motives were no secret. Pilate was weak, but he was shrewd enough to know that jealousy was the cause of their enmity to Christ. “He knew that for envy they had delivered Him.” Jealousy then committed its greatest crime, bringing about the crucifixion of the Son of God.

Zeal – a Sacrifice unto Death

The Heart of Christ was zealous to convert and heal these jealous hearts if so it could be. Once His zeal flamed forth and, making a whip, He drove those from the Temple who were making of it a den of thieves. The evangelists saw in that action the fulfillment of prophecy. “The zeal of Thy house hath eaten Me up.” Now the time had come when God’s great temple of creation, the whole round world, wherein stood a fallen race, was to be cleansed of all its defilement. No longer would lash of cords suffice. A stronger power must now drive the thieves from the house of prayer. The zealous Heart dies for the jealous hearts that murder It. Infinite justice from the crushed and bruised Heart of Christ drew the fragrant savor of full sacrifice. Would our old college professor let us call the zeal of Christ the quintessence of concentrated generosity?