hide their sins, to answer those who excuse their sins, and to confound those who boast of their sins. He comes with mercy and peace,-to bring salvation to even the weakest of his servants, --and to bestow an exceeding abundant and eternal weight of glory upon those who shall have wisely multiplied their talents.

With this prospect before us, let us earnestly commend ourselves to the grace of God; and, in lowliness and faith, let us begin, or persevere in, a course of serious endeavour that we may be at all times both entitled and able to look upward, and to say, "Even so come, Lord Jesus."

247

SERMON XIII.

GOD UNDERSTANDETH OUR THOUGHT AFAR OFF.

PSALM cxxxix. 2.

Thou understandest my thought afar off.

persons

If you were looking on a large number of assembled in some place of business or amusement, all strangers to yourself, you would be struck perhaps with the varieties of form, the different expressions of countenance, and the manifold indications of sentiment and thought, in the company before you. If a friend, acquainted with the features and names of the parties, were to join you, he would give additional interest to the scene by identifying various individuals, and by leading you to understand how many persons of rank or distinction were mingled in the throng. -If another friend were to come up, well versed in the history and habits, the sentiments, designs,

and pursuits of many of the persons assembled, he would lead you perhaps in a little time to reflect, What a wonderful scene then is before me ! In life and agitation, in importance, in reality, all that is external is the least! What a mass of intelligence, what vigorous designs,-what hopes and disappointments,-what sorrow and joy,— what virtue and vice,—what holiness and iniquity, are here! Suppose now that a third friend were to accost you, and to say, What a spectacle is this to the eye of God! You could not but acknowledge the truth of the remark. You could not but feel that if the thoughts of those men's hearts are of so much account in their history and being, it were absurd to suppose that those thoughts are concealed from the observation of their Maker. You would feel that, as your first glance upon the crowd was ignorance, compared with your present information, so your further insight into those men's bosoms must be trifling, compared with the knowledge and understanding of the Most High. And when your reflections taken such a turn as this, I could wish to suggest to you yet one more in connection with them. Remember that He who surveys the thoughts of all who are before you, sees therefore the thoughts of every individual;-that he sees and is acquainted with your own.

may

have

I. May this great truth-God's acquaintance with the heart-be at this time distinctly and profitably present to our minds. It is one which few persons, or none, are disposed to call in question; but which all are liable to overlook or to forget. At the same time, it is the subject of a clear and positive announcement of Scripture. "The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts." (1 Chron. xxviii. 9.) "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." (Heb. iv. 13.) And what Scripture thus affirms concerning men in general, it affirms in like manner concerning individuals. The infinite Mind is neither distracted by numbers, nor deceived by distance. "Thou understandest my thought," says the Psalmist, "afar off." "Doth not he see my ways," says Job, "and count all my steps?" (Job xxxi. 4.) Such knowledge may indeed be too wonderful for us, as the leaves of the forest are more than we can number; but, just as those countless leaves expand notwithstanding to the summer sun, so the innumerable thoughts of many hearts are spread before the all-comprehensive view of the Most High.

When the Son of God was upon earth, he gave many demonstrations of this attribute of know

ledge. Consider what took place on one remarkable occasion. A man sick of the palsy had been miraculously cured by the Almighty power of incarnate Deity. The cure had been accompanied with those words of consolation, "Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee." "And behold,” says the evangelist, "certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?" Observe, these were certain of the scribes,—some only of a large number, men buried in a crowd; and they said this,-not publicly, or even to bystanders, but only within themselves,-yet the eye of the divine Redeemer pierced through the crowd, and looked into their bosoms, and Jesus knew their thoughts and the evil of their hearts. Our Lord gave many other examples and assurances of such knowledge, making it plain that "he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man." (John ii. 24, 25.) Remember what he said to Nathanael. And consider likewise how he tells us to enter into our closets, and when we have shut the door, to pray to our Father in secret; assuring us that our Father which seeth in secret shall reward us openly.

But I suppose that proofs of this great truth