"ALL OUR RIGHTEOUSNESSES (BEFORE GOD) ARE AS FILTHY RAGS." We are all as an unclean thing. Of ourselves we have no righteousness. The righteousness which God requires is provided by the life and death of His Son and is presented to sinners in the everlasting gospel. It imputes to every believer the richest grace, accepts when pleaded at the Father's throne, and honours with a title to eternal life. This righteousness is by faith; it is the office of faith to receive it, plead it, trust it, rejoice in it, embolden the soul through it and clothe the soul in it. It is not offered to anything but faith, nor can it be received and enjoyed except by faith. Every unbeliever or self-righteous person rejects it, but every man who is taught of God knows that he needs it; he discovers its beauty, glory, and value and applies for it with ardent desire and earnest longing. He embraces it as God's greatest favour, enjoys it as a rich and durable treasure, and dies confidently expecting to be accepted and admitted to glory through it. O may we be found in Jesus, not having on our own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God by faith! And while we pant for holiness with every breath, and aim at it in every action, may each of us devoutly say -

For Meditation:
And even when I feel Thy grace,
And sin seems most subdued,
I'll wrap me in Thy righteousness,
And plunge me in Thy blood.