In the instance, then, of the thoughtless man; in the case where there is little or no self-examination; God unquestionably knows the man as well as the man knows himself.  The Omniscient One is certainly possessed of an amount of knowledge equal to that small modicum which is all that a rational and immortal soul can boast of in reference to itself.  But the vast majority of mankind fall into this class.  The self-examiners are very few, in comparison with the millions who possess the power to look into their hearts, but who rarely or never do so.  The great God our Judge, then, surely knows the mass of men, in their down-sitting and uprising, with a knowledge that is equal to their own.  And thus do we establish our first position, that God knows all that the man knows; God’s knowledge is equal to the very best part of man’s knowledge.

In concluding this part of the discussion, we turn to consider some practical lessons suggested by it.

1.  In the first place, the subject reminds us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  When we take a solar microscope and examine even the commonest object—­a bit of sand, or a hair of our heads-we are amazed at the revelation that is made to us.  We had no previous conception of the wonders that are contained in the structure of even such ordinary things as these.  But, if we should obtain a corresponding view of our own mental and moral structure; if we could subject our immortal natures to a microscopic self-examination; we should not only be surprised, but we should be terrified.  This explains, in part, the consternation with which a criminal is filled, as soon as he begins to understand the nature of his crime.  His wicked act is perceived in its relation to his own mental powers and faculties.  He knows, now, what a hazardous thing it is to possess a free-will; what an awful thing it is to own a conscience.  He feels, as he never did before, that he is fearfully and wonderfully made, and cries out:  “O that I had never been born!  O that I had never been created a responsible being! these terrible faculties of reason, and will, and conscience, are too heavy for me to wield; would that I had been created a worm, and no man, then, I should not have incurred the hazards under which I have sinned and ruined myself.”

The constitution of the human soul is indeed a wonderful one; and such a meditation as that which we have just devoted to its functions of self-examination and memory, brief though it be, is enough to convince us of it.  And remember, that this constitution is not peculiar to you and to me.  It belongs to every human creature on the globe.  The imbruted pagan in the fiery centre of Africa, who never saw a Bible, or heard of the Redeemer; the equally imbruted man, woman, or child, who dwells in the slime of our own civilization, not a mile from where we sit, and hear the tidings of mercy; the filthy savage, and the yet filthier profligate, are both of them alike with ourselves possessed of these awful powers of self-knowledge and of memory.