concerning the not yet pure, 'which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filled.' Filled with righteousness,
they are pure; pure, they shall see God.

Long ere the Lord appeared, ever since man was on the earth, nay,
surely, from the very beginning, was his spirit at work in it for
righteousness; in the fullness of time he came in his own human person,
to fulfil all righteousness. He came to his own of the same mind with
himself, who hungered and thirsted after righteousness. They should be
fulfilled of righteousness!

To hunger and thirst after anything, implies a sore personal need, a
strong desire, a passion for that thing. Those that hunger and thirst
after righteousness, seek with their whole nature the design of that
nature. Nothing less will give them satisfaction; that alone will set
them at ease. They long to be delivered from their sins, to send them
away, to be clean and blessed by their absence--in a word to become men,
God's men; for, sin gone, all the rest is good. It was not in such
hearts, it was not in any heart that the revolting legal fiction of
imputed righteousness arose. Righteousness itself, God's righteousness,
rightness in their own being, in heart and brain and hands, is what they
desire. Of such men was Nathanael, in whom was no guile; such, perhaps,
was Nicodemus too, although he did come to Jesus by night; such was
Zacchaeus. The temple could do nothing to deliver them; but, by their
very futility, its observances had done their work, developing the
desires they could not meet, making the men hunger and thirst the more
after genuine righteousness: the Lord must bring them this bread from
heaven. With him, the live, original rightness, in their hearts, they
must speedily become righteous. With that Love their friend, who is at
once both the root and the flower of things, they would strive