SERMON III.

GOD SEES AND KNOWS YOU.

THE LORD'S THRONE IS IN HEAVEN; HIS EYES BEHOLD, HIS EYELIDS TRY, THE CHILDREN OF MEN.

THE above words are from the fourth verse of the eleventh Psalm. They mean that God is over all things in his greatness and majesty, and that from the height of his exalted power, or throne, he is not only able to see all men, but to see into their hearts, and examine their thoughts, and try them, whether they are good or evil. The wonderful knowledge of God, by which he beholds all that we do, and all that we think, is a subject which children ought to consider, and which I will ask them to consider

now.

I told

you in my

last sermon, that you should re

member your Creator in the days of your youth, and I told you in what manner you should remember him. I told you, that you must think of him, and try to please him, and that you could only please him by being good. And I told you what it was to be good. And now I wish to impress upon your minds the important truth, that God certainly knows whether you are good or not. Every thing which you do to please God, will be noticed by him, if it is ever so little; and if it is not noticed by any one else, still it is noticed by your Creator; for he sees all that you do, and hears all that you say, and is acquainted with all that you think. He who made you, never loses sight of you; and as he made your mind as well as your body, he sees what your mind is doing, as well as what your body is doing.

It may seem surprising to you, that God should be able to see all the people, the many millions of people, who live on the earth, and know all that they are doing, and all their most secret feelings and thoughts besides. But you must remember that he made all these people, and gave them the power to think, and that he made the world in which they live, and those worlds without number which we call the heavenly bodies; and then you will per

ceive that it must be very easy for the Being who did all this, to see all his human creatures, and be acquainted with all their thoughts. You will not be able to comprehend how he knows all men's thoughts, but you will be satisfied that it is not difficult for him to know them, because he formed their minds, and caused them to begin to think,-so that he must know more about men's minds than they do themselves. The knowledge of this truth, should make you careful that your thoughts should be correct as well as your actions, and that you should really be good, as well as seem to be good. If you wish to do a bad thing, and cannot do it, or are afraid to do it, still God knows your wish, even though you said nothing, and did nothing, and he is displeased with you for that evil wish. And so if you wish to do a good thing, and are not able to do it, he knows that you had a good wish in your heart, and loves you for that good wish. Therefore, if you desire to please God, you must endeavor to have good thoughts in your mind, and good purposes in your hearts; for he will surely know whether they are there or not.

You must consider also, that God sees you and your thoughts at all times, in the night as well as in the day. You cannot see without light, but God

can, because he is an all-sufficient light to himself. He who made the sun and the stars, and gave them all their light, can surely see without those beams which they have only borrowed from him. He commanded the sun to shine for our use, but not for his own. The Maker of the sun is brighter than the sun; and the darkness is no darkness to him. The truth, that God is everywhere present, and that he always sees us, is expressed so finely by king David, in the one hundred and thirty-ninth Psalm, that I will read parts of it to you, and have no doubt, that, after what I have said, you will sufficiently understand them, without further explanation. "O Lord," he says, "thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; thou understandest my thought afar off." And again he says, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in the place of the dead, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." Now listen again to what he says, of God's seeing in the dark"If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover

ness.

me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."

These words which I have repeated to you, have been often turned into English poetry, and the meaning of them is so grand, that it always makes the poetry good. Perhaps some of you remember

this verse;

"Or should I try to shun thy sight
Beneath the sable wings of night,

One glance from thee, one piercing ray,
Would kindle darkness into day."

Children! when you grow older, many of you will probably read various works, both in poetry and prose; and you will meet with passages in them which you will call very poetical, very sublime, very true and so they may be; but you will never meet with a passage in all your reading, more poetical, more sublime, or more true, than the portions of the psalm of David which I have just recited to you.

It is certain then, that God sees you always, and knows whether you are good or not. And just so certainly as he sees that you are good, that you