The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1900-07-02
NATIONS THAT WILL LIVE
ARE SATURATED WITH GOD.

The Reverend Mchae! Burnham. pastor
- Pilgrim Congre ga tional Church. preached
last evening from the text: blessed are
they which do hunger and thirst after right
eousness; for they shall be filed Matt.
v,6.
He spoke in part follows:
The first four beatitudes represent the
people OF God conscious Of their need
Of all the blessings OF God accompanying
salvation or included in il. They imply
also that the true children Of God will act
accordingly in their efforts 10 possess the
great blessings of the gospel.
This fourth beatitude IS manifestly in
spirit and form dug out OF the rich mines
OF the Old Testament. Let US study the
bea;tude. First. those upon whom the
blessing comes; second, why the blessing
comes upon them. OF in what form the
blessing comes.
ger. has TWO meanings. First. to lie hungry
IN the natural way with a natura. appe-
:ite and Longing; and. then; TO be hungry
Il fanished- The word here in It's use
is more nearly like the second meaning, or
at least it has an element OF painful long
ing in it. Blessed are they that long after
righteousness with painful desire Is tne
Next Is the word thirst II has the same
double mesning-ihe natural thirst and the
painful longing for water. The wofd also
Is here used more nearly I'm the second
sense. as representing the soul as longing
again after God-thirstirg after God-thirst-
ing after piety and its attendant privileges:
There is third word, righteousness. OF
course, 1t means justice and equity in the
abstract; but Il also means justice ana
equity as inhering in character. Righteous
ness. then. STANDS. in the first place here,
for the being what one should be II also
stands for conduct and refers to the dCin;
what one should do. The longing or the
hungering and thirsting is for the being
what one should be and the doing what one
should do. Piety toward God, or righteous
ness. includes here both righteousness in
the sense Of doing right ana god!lness in
cludes the spirit and the act; the being and
the doing. The outer form OF the doing
cannot be separated from the inner life: So
the righteousness denotes that spiritual
and entire conformity to the law of God
under want OF which the saints groan and
the possession of which constitutes the
only true saintship.'
There are many passages OF scripture
that give expression to the longings OF the
soul after God. Now, our Lord implies the
figure here in similar way AS hunger
and thirst are the keenest of our appetites.
our Lord. by employing this figure here.
plainly means those whose deepest cravings
are after spiritual blessings
so our Lord In this beatitude takes this
the surest prophecy and pledge of the COW
eted supplies. The coveted blessing, then.
to take words that have come to have
theological meaning. is more than works;
1t is more than justification by faith: Ii in
clUdes eanctifcation Of the life; II includes
q spirit OF life and consequent deeds of life
that are accepted before God as righteous
or righteousness.
There is the implication here that tho
whole condition Is gift Of God TO the man
who seeks. God creates God begets that
longing of the soul: All life IS created by
God; not as sinful life: God IL not the
life. There are stern laws In every life that
hold that life to God. 1 care not how low
Science awakens and goads him The he v fp
sinner In this city at times is Obliged TO
listen, not only to the voice of his memory,
but the voice OF his conscience; he knows ne
80. too. there is in every consciousness a
sense OF crushed affinity that holds even a
man. again. sunk into the vilest lie is con-
scious of that affinity, although crushed and
I'm this world men sunk never so low
are conscious In some way of life above
them with which their rela tionship. however
broken and bruised and bleeding. still ex-
lists. The thought is suggestive. Every
man has this consciousness of the defaced
image Of God within his sou, and his con-
science makes his heaven his he'll in i'm
portant senses. In its last analysis his con-
science can never be destroyed.
However blatantly boastful a skeptic
may be about breaking the bands of what
he calls superstition, when he speaks Of the
great facts of the gospel of the Son of God.
no man Is permitted after all to coast far
away on the ocean of his infiielity or in
Equity from some kind of touch with the
shores of truth. The great ground swell OF
the truth of Thought and Of consciousness
takes him up on the ocean of his existence
and filings him constantly toward the shores
A spirit may be lost spirit. lost even TO a |
longing after God. but God Is mightier than |
that spirit and circumscribes ii and, for ex-
ample's sake If for no more. will not let !
such a spirit on the Vastly deep of its own /
darkness coast far from the shores OF |
truths that are from eternity to eternity.
So 1 say all life is created by God. God is |
not the author OF its sin, but God is the |
author of its life. and that life never fails I
OF the consciousness, even in transgression,
of kind of crushed affinity with a holy |
God.
NO man can receive God into longing !
heart without being satisfied. saturated |
with God: God enters into and becomes the |
very fountain OF his life. courses in his |
blood. moves In his thoughts. acts in his |
deeds: he is saturated with God
Il have seen men filled with God: they |
stood in the world. but not of 1t; insulated |
by kind of divine power that a worldly
world could not absorb steal away. God 4
moved them nightly with his indwelling i
spirit and for his kingdom and its interests |
In the world. There Is indeed a way in |
which We may be filled with God and give !
out that divine power to the circle of being |
that Is about us. The might and power of l
Christianity is that. IT has always produced !
such men. Such men were the apostles; |
such men were those in the early church /
who were saturated with God. They have 1
made history Such men there are in mod
ern life: God knows them; God b!esses them;
men bless them. Their eye is lighted by the |.
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