churches, and to be present in them with external modesty and silence accompanied by internal devotion and humility. If David could say of the ancient temple, " Holiness becomes Thy house, O Lord, unto the length of days," (Ps. xcii. 5.) with how much more propriety may it be said of Christian churches?
II. Christ, inflamed with zeal, and anxious "to do away with this pollution" of His Father's house, "when He had made, as it were, a scourge of little cords, He drove them all out of the temple, the sheep also and the oxen, and He poured out the changers' money, and the tables He overthrew." (John ii. 15.) He repeated the same action a little before His passion. This meek and humble lamb, when His Father's honor was concerned, assumed the character of a lion, fulfilling the expression of the Prophet, "The zeal of Thy house hath eaten me up." (Ps. lxviii. 10.) With such zeal ought all those to be inflamed, whose duty it is to prevent the sins of their neighbors.
III. This zeal for His glory is most pleasing to God: He reproaches some of His prophets, " You have not gone up to the race of the enemy, nor have you set up a wall for the house of Israel." (Ezech. xiii. 5.) Hence, St. Gregory writes, " There is no sacrifice more pleasing to God, than the zeal of souls." True zeal consists in this, that you endeavor to correct everything you see wrong in others, by proper means; and if you cannot succeed, to bear it with patience, and pray for them. Observe how cold you are on this subject, as if like another Cain, you were not your brother's keeper.
