have given us but ashes
instead of bread, is the longing to be like God and like Christ. That
desire alone is sure to be fulfilled, and, being fulfilled, is sure to
be blessed.

It is not true that all desires after righteousness are fulfilled. Those
which spring up, as I have said, in men's hearts sporadically, and apart
from the background of the experiences of my text, are not always, not
often, even partially accomplished. There are in every land, no doubt,
souls that thirst after righteousness, as they are able to discern it.
And we are sure of this, that no such effort and longing passes
unnoticed by Him 'who hears the young ravens when they cry,' and is not
deaf to the prayer of men who long to be good. But the experience of the
bulk of us, apart from Jesus Christ, is 'the things that I would not,
these I do, and the things that I would, these I do not.' The hunger
and thirst after righteousness, imperfect as they are, which are felt
at intervals by all men, do not avail to break the awful continuity of
their conduct as evil in the sight of God and of their own consciences.
And so, just because every man knows something of the sting of this
desire after righteousness, which yet remains for the most part
unfulfilled, the world is full of sadness. 'Oh, wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' comes to be the
expression of the noblest amongst us. Then this great Gospel comes to
us, and the Nazarene confidently fronts a world dimly conscious of its
need, and sometimes miserable because it is bad, and says: 'Ho! every
one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.... Come to Me, and drink.'

What right had He to stand thus and promise that every desire after
goodness should be fulfilled in Him? He had the right, because He
Himself had the power and the purpose to fulfil it. For this is the very
heart of His Gospel: that He will give to every one who asks it that
spirit of life which was His own, and which 'shall make us free from the
law of sin and death.'

Thus, dear friends, we have to be content to take the place of
recipients, and to accept, not to work out for ourselves, this
righteousness for which, more or less feebly, and all of us too feebly,
we do sometimes long. Oh, believe me, away from Him you will never
receive into your characters a goodness that will satisfy yourselves.
Siberian prisoners sometimes break their chains and escape for some
distance. They are generally take