Article March 1, 1924 Issue

Hungering after Righteousness

BEATRICE PECK

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled," said the Master. This passage of Scripture is both a promise and an admonition. Every mortal is constantly hungering; sometimes for material food, sometimes for amusement, for friends, for anything, in short, which he does not already seem to possess. If he has food, he still wants different varieties of it; if he is being amused, he tires of the form of amusement and wants a change. However much of this world's goods he has, he is continually trying to get more. And yet, we see all about us the dissatisfaction of mortals with the material things they have desired and come to possess. All have not learned, as did Solomon after he had gathered together of all the treasures the world then knew, that, materially speaking, "all is vanity and vexation of spirit." Mrs. Eddy expresses the same idea when she tells us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 61), "The senses confer no real enjoyment."

Is not the whole trouble due to the failure of mortals to heed the word "righteousness" in the beatitude quoted above? Jesus said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." When the five thousand had followed him out into a desert place, and had listened to him for, perhaps, many hours, he gave them food. Luke says in his account of this incident that Jesus "spake unto them of the kingdom of God." As a result of their seeking "the kingdom of God, and his righteousness," were not "these things" added unto them?

Many other circumstances are related in the Bible which prove this same truth. When the Israelites were being led by Moses out of the bondage of Egypt into the promised land, their need for food was supplied by the manna from heaven, and their need for drink by the sweetening of the bitter waters of Marah. But Moses was constantly reminding the people that to obtain such good things they must diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord their God. David said, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." No one realized better than David the protection and joy which a search for God can bring. The Christian Scientist knows what it means to "hunger and thirst after righteousness." So many benefits have come to him from the study of Christian Science that if he is deprived for a period of the opportunity to attend church services, to read the Christian Science literature, or to study the Bible Lessons daily, he feels hunger more surely than he would feel a lack of material food. When once we have realized the benefit of reading what our Leader in her wisdom has provided for us, nothing can take its place in our lives. The turning of thought to the truth about God and man in His image gives us a mental peace which enables us to meet with courage and assurance the problems of each day. We have proved, as we read in Science and Health (p. 2), that "the desire which goes forth hungering after righteousness is blessed of our Father, and it does not return unto us void."

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