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Righteousness

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jul 28, 1904

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 30.

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_Righteousness_

By H. W. HERRELL

H. W. HERRELL
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.” Matt. 5:6. Righteousness is right-doing, and David tells us that all of the commandments are righteousness. Ps. 119:172. Righteousness is also holiness, and holiness is likeness to God. Therefore when we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we are really hungering and thirsting after God; and “God is love.” 1 John 4:16.
“When the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, we shall be truly keeping the law of God; for the apostle Paul says, “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Rom. 13:10. We can not receive righteousness by our long prayers, or through any outward form of worship, but it is a gift of God, given to every man who will surrender all to him, and truly hunger and thirst after the same.
“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; . . . both without money and without price.” Isa. 55:1. Thank the Lord, the gift of righteousness is free to all. Many of us could not have it, if we had to purchase it with money, or with some other costly gift.
Well do I recall an experience that I had when I was a boy, of traveling through a strange country with men who were furnishing telegraph poles. There was a drought, so we could hardly get any water for love or money; but when we came to a place where it was offered to us, how willing we were to drink, and O, how refreshing it was to us! So the living waters of life will satisfy our hearts as nothing else can satisfy.
Many of us have been trying to quench our spiritual thirst at the shallow streams, when we should so hunger and thirst that we would come to the fountainhead, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Jesus said, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:14. May we all seek to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Without this no man can be saved.
Let us take the Lord at his word, and prove him for ourselves. He tells us that he is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” Eph. 3:20.