HUNGERING AND THIRSTING.
By Ellet Joseph Waggoner
“BLESSED are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.” Hunger is not a bad thing. The man who has never been hungry does not know the satisfaction there is in eating. Only those who know what real hunger is, can appreciate the real value of food, and can enjoy it. The sad case of the poverty-stricken is not that they get hungry, but that they have no food with which to satisfy their hunger. It is deplorable when one has nothing to eat, but it is a good thing to feel downright hungry when there is abundance of good food at hand to supply the need. The blessedness of hungering after righteousness lies in the fact that “the gift by grace,” even “abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness,” is provided for all through Jesus Christ. To every hungry and thirsty soul the Lord calls, “Come ye to the waters.” “Eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” Some one asks, “How can I hunger and thirst after righteousness?” Ah, it is a simple matter, as simple as longing for daily bread! Christ is “the desire of all nations.” He alone can satisfy “the desire of every living thing.” Have you ever known what it was to be dissatisfied? “What a question! Ask me rather if I ever knew what it was to be perfectly satisfied.” Just so; you have never known absolute satisfaction; there has always been a longing for something, you know not exactly what, but something different from what you had. Well, that was the hunger of the soul for Christ, who is righteousness. You didn’t know it, but the full, conscious possession of Jesus Christ would satisfy that unrest and longing, just as cool water will satisfy the thirst of the body. Still more; Christ is “the bread which cometh down from heaven.” He is “the living bread.” This is not a figure of speech, but the statement of an actual fact. To demonstrate it, God fed the Israelites in the desert forty years with manna. He rained down bread from heaven, and it was “spiritual meat,” which, if they had eaten by faith, would have given them life everlasting. But it was daily bread, to satisfy their ordinary hunger. So it is that the demand of our bodies for food can be satisfied only by Christ. He is “the life.” If we but recognize Him in the gifts of God, then in satisfying our daily hunger with the food which He provides for us, we shall be filled with righteousness. “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” “There is no want to them that fear Him.”