Yer. 21.-Under the eyes of God. I. WE ABE ALWAYS UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYEB OF GoD. God is no epicurean Divinity, retreating far above mundane affairs in celestial seclusion. He is not indifferent to what goes on in this little world. He is watchful and observant. This fact may not affect us much while we think of it in the general. But we should observe that God's watchfulness is directed to all particular, individual objects. He looks at each of us, at the smallest of our concerns. It is the property of an infinite mind thus to reach down to the infinitely small, as well as to rise to the infinitely great. Consider, then, that God searches us through and through. There is no dark cranny of the soul into which his keen penetrating light does not fall, no locked secret which does not open up freely to his magisterial warrant. We may hide the thought of God from our own minds, but we cannot hide ourselves from the sight of God. Now, what God notices chiefly in us is our conduct-our "ways," "goings." Mere profession coUDts for nothing with the .All-seeing. Opinions, feelings, resolutions, a.re of secondary moment. God takes inquisition chiefly of what we do, whither our life is tending, what are the actions of the inner as well as of the outer man. But let us remember that God does all this in no mere prying curiosity, in no cruel desire to "find us out" and convict us of wrong. He does it of right, for he is our Judge; he does it with holy ends, for he is holy; he does it in love, for he is our Father. JI. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE DIVINE OVERSIGHT SHOULD POWERFULLY AFFECT ALL OUR CONDUCT. 1. It should make us true. What is the use of paltry devices for the deception of men when the only question of consequence concerning the treatment of our conduct is-How will God regard it? What folly to wear a mask if he sees behind it I The gaze of God should she.me and burn all lies out of the soul. 2. It should make ns dread to do wrong. An Eastern legend tells how one stole a jewel called "the eye of God," but though he fled far with his treasure and hid in dark caverns, he was tortured by the piercing light that it threw out till, unable to endure the horror of it, he gave himself up to justice. We all have the eye of God on our ways. Let us beware that we never go where we should :not wish him to see us. 3. It should lead to confession of sin. If God knows all, is it n,it best to make a clean breast of it, and humble ourselves before him? We cannot hide or cloke our sins from God. It is foolish to attempt to do so. But let us be thankful that we cannot. While we try to hide them they only scorch our own bosom. If we confess them, "he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." 4.. It should induce confidence in God. It is some- times a relief to know that the worst is out. God knows a.II. Yet he endures us, yet he loves us still. He who thus watches looks upon us as a mother regards her child, grieving for what is wrong, but tenderly seeking to save and protect us from all harm. Why should we fear the gaze of God? Hie sleepless eye is our great security (see 2 Chron. xvi. 9). 5. It should incline us to / aithful service. We should learn to h8 ashamed of the eye-service of men-pleasers, and seek to win the approval of our rightful Lord. He is no hard tyrant. When we try to please him, though ever so imperfectly, he is pleased, and will say, "'Veil <lone, good and faithful servant," May OH. V. l~23.J THE .PROVERBS. 117
it be our aim to live, a.s Milton resolved to do when considering his life on his twenty- third birthday- ,. As ever in my great Taskmaster's eye."
Ver. 22.-0ords of sin. I. THE BINNER IS IN BONDAGE. Such a condition is not expected when a man freely gives the reins to his passions, and weakly yields himself to temptation. On the contrary, he supposes that he is enjoying a larger liberty than they possess who are constrained to walk in the narrow path of righteousness. Moreover, even when this shocking condition is reached, he is slow to admit its existence. He will not confess his bondage; perhaps he scarcely feels it. Thus the Jews were indignant in rejecting any such notion when our Lord offered deliverance from the slavery of sin (John viii. 33). But this only proves the bondage to be the greater. 'l'he worst degradation of slavery is that it so benumbs the feelings and cmshes the manliness of its victims, that some of them do not notice the yoke that would gall the shoulders of all men who truly appreciated their condition. The reality of the bondage is soon proved, however, whenever a slave tries to escape. Then the chains of sin are felt to be too strong for the sinner to break. He cries, "0 wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. vii. 24). II. THE CORDS THAT DIND THE SINNER ARE SPUN OUT OF HIS OWN SINS. Satan does not need to build any massive prison walls, or to call upon Vulcan to forge fetters for his captives. He has but to leave them to themselves, and their own misdeeds will shut them in, as the rank new growth of a tropical forest encloses the rotting trunks of the older trees, from the seed of which it sprang. 1. This results from the force of habit. All conduct tends to become permanent. The way wears into ruts. Men become entangled in their own past. 2. This is confirmed by wilful disregard of saving i11fluences. If the sinner repented and called for deliverance, he might be saved from the fearful bondage of his sins. But proudly choosing to continue on his own course, he has consented to the tightening of the cords that bind him. III. CHRIST ALONE CAN LIBERATE FROM THE BONDAGE OF SIN. Left to itself, the slavery will be fatal. The sinner will never be free to live to any good purpose. He will not be able to escape in the day of doom; his own sins will tie him to his fate. In the end they will strangle him. Inasmuch as the cords are spun out of bis own conduct, they are part of himself, and he cannot untie their knots or cut their strands. They are stronger than the cords with which Delilah bound Samson, while the helpless, guilty sinner is weaker than the shorn Naze.rite. But it is to men in this forlorn condition that the gospel of Christ is proclaimed, with its glorious promise of liberty to the captives (Isa. lxi. 1). Christ blings liberating truth (John viii. 32), redeeming grace, and the SI\Ving power of a mighty love,-those attractive "cords of a. man" (Hos. xi. 4) which are even stronger than the binding cords of sin.