Let crowds approach, with hearts prepar'd, Revive Thy dying Churches, Lord, JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON. THOU GOD SEEST ME. say this to your "THOU God seest me." self, my friend, every day, every hour; keep it in your thoughts. God sees us at all times, in all places, wherever we go, whatever we are about; we cannot stir, we cannot move a step, we cannot speak a single word, we cannot even think a single thought, without God seeing us. He sees us in the day and in the night, when we labour and when we rest, when we are at home and when we are in the shop or in the field. Do what we will, we cannot get out of God's sight; we cannot rush away from Him; we cannot hide ourselves; we cannot cover up what we have done; all is open to Him, all is clear as crystal; from Him no secrets are hid; the darkness is no darkness to Him, but the night is as clear as the day. We may hide ourselves from men; we may shut ourselves in our chamber; we may do things which they cannot see; we may think and think without their tracing one single thought; we may pass by such a man's field and covet it, and as we walk along the road none can see our covetous thoughts; we may look on such a man rising in the world, and getting on as we stand still, or perhaps are sinking down, yet while envy rises in our heart none can see our envious thoughts; or we may have suffered some wrong, and may be dwelling upon that wrong, nursing feelings of hatred and revenge, and yet none can see our bitter and revengeful thoughts. Or even as regards our actions, who can follow us all through the day? who among our nearest friends is so continually at our side as to be with us every day, from the hour we wake till the hour when we fall asleep? No man sees us or can see us at all times. And after all, even when we are in the sight and presence of other men, they only see the outside of our lives; they do not see the springs and motives, the secret wheels and machinery that set our outward life in motion. Not so, however, is it with God. Not so is it with that divine Redeemer who knows what is in man. Never, never are we out of the sight of God. His eyes are in every place beholding the evil and the good. We cannot put a veil between ourselves and Him, or throw a shade over any portion of our life. In the busy streets, in the secret chamber, in the crowded town, in the lonely heath, in journeys upon land, in the voyages on the wide sea, He is with every one of us. If we plunge into crowds of men, and think we shall be overlooked, we shall be traced and followed by the eye of God as if we alone were alive upon the earth; though there are thousands round about us, and each of those thousands thinking thousands of various thoughts, yet every single thought of ours is seen, known, watched, amid all those multitudes, as if there were none but us, as if we were quite alone. Just apply this truth to any common day. We rise in the morning; while we dress, the thoughts that pass through our heads are seen; when we take our meals, if it be with others, our conversation is seen; when we go along the road or street to our place of toil, our thoughts are seen; or if others accompany us on our road, our conversation goes into God's ear; when we toil, whether alone or with others, either our speech or our thoughts during every minute of every hour, are open before God; when we re turn from toil and sit at home, all that is done, all that is thought, all that is said, is still known to God; when we go up into our rooms to bed, whether we pray or forget to pray, the prayers or the neglect of prayers are seen; when we lie down, all our thoughts, even to the moment when sleep shuts our eyes, are seen. So is it with each single day; from day to day, from hour to hour, from place to place, our Lord God is with us, is at our side, is looking into our inmost hearts. And so does this watchfulness of God go on from year to year, through times of sin and times of godliness, through youth, through manhood, through old age, through health, through sickness, through rest, through toil, through pleasure, through trouble, through all the changes and chances of this mortal life, even till the eye is closed in death, till the last word has been spoken and the last thought has passed through the brain. The first thoughts of the infant, the last of the dying man, and all between the first act and the last, are seen by God, by God the blessed Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, by Him who. made us, by Him who redeemed us by His blood, by Him who sanctifies us, by the one true God. Surely if we did but feel this truth, “Thou |