Yes, goodness is the principal thing; therefore get goodness, and with all thy getting—­at the price of all that thou hast gotten (such is the true meaning of the words)[42]—­get righteousness.  Is this what we are doing?  Goodness is the first thing; are we putting it first?  Day by day are we saying to it, “Sit thou on my right hand,” while we put all other things under our feet?  “Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I remember thee not; if I prefer not thee above my chief joy”—­is this the kind of honour that we are paying to it?  “We make it our ambition,” said St Paul, “to be well pleasing unto Him."[43] Where this is the master ambition, all other lawful ambitions may be safely cherished and given their place.  But if some lesser power rule, whose right it is not to reign over us, the end is chaos and night.  “Seek ye first His righteousness;” we subvert Christ’s order at our peril.  And this righteousness must be sought.  As men seek wealth, as men seek knowledge, as men seek power, so must we seek goodness.  “Wherefore giving all diligence”—­in no other way can the pearl of great price be secured; it does not lie by the roadside for any lounger to pick up.  “With toil of heart and knees and hands,” so only can the “path upward” and the prize be won.  “Blessed,” said Jesus, “are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.”  Blessed, He meant, are they who long more than anything else to be good; for all such longing shall be abundantly satisfied.  Exalt righteousness, and she shall promote thee; she shall bring thee to honour when thou dost embrace her.  She shall give to thine head a chaplet of grace; a crown of beauty shall she deliver to thee.

It is fitting that a chapter on righteousness should follow one on sin, for this may find some to whom the other made no appeal.  At a meeting of Christian workers held some years ago in Glasgow, the chairman invited the late Professor Henry Drummond, who was present, though his name was not on the programme, to say a few words.  He accepted the invitation, but said he would do no more than state a fact and ask a question.  The fact was this, that in recent revival movements, in which he had had large experience, there were few indications of that deep and overwhelming conviction of sin which had been so characteristic a feature of similar revivals in past days.  And this was the question, Did it mean that the Holy Spirit was in any way modifying the method of His operation?  What answer the wise men of the meeting gave to the Professor’s question I do not know.  But fact and question alike deserve to be carefully pondered.  The Spirit, when He is come, Christ said, “will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”  “Will convict the world of righteousness”—­have we not sometimes forgotten this?  Have we not put the full stop at “sin,” as though the Holy Spirit’s convicting work ended there?  Nevertheless, there are many to-day whose religious life begins,