This great truth which we have been considering obtains a yet more serious emphasis, and a yet more solemn power over the mind, when we take into view the character of the Being who thus searches our hearts, and is acquainted with all our ways.  Who of us would not be filled with uneasiness, if he knew that an imperfect fellow-creature were looking constantly into his soul?  Would not the flush of shame often burn upon our cheek, if we knew that a sinful man like ourselves were watching all the feelings and thoughts that are rising within us?  Should we not be more circumspect than we are, if men were able mutually to search each other’s hearts?  How often does a man change his course of conduct, when he discovers, accidentally, that his neighbor knows what he is doing.

But it is not an imperfect fellow-man, it is not a perfect angel, who besets us behind and before, and is acquainted with, all our ways.  It is the immaculate God himself.  It is He before whom archangels veil their faces, and the burning seraphim cry, “Holy.”  It is He, in whose sight the pure cerulean heavens are not clean, and whose eyes are a flame of fire devouring all iniquity.  We are beheld, in all this process of sin, be it blind or be it intelligent, by infinite Purity.  We are not, therefore, to suppose that God contemplates this our life of sin with the dull indifference of an Epicurean deity; that He looks into our souls, all this while, from mere curiosity, and with no moral emotion towards us.  The God who knows us altogether is the Holy One of Israel, whose wrath is both real, and revealed, against all unrighteousness.

If, therefore, we connect the holy nature and pure essence of God with all this unceasing and unerring inspection of the human soul, does not the truth which, we have been considering speak with a bolder emphasis, and acquire an additional power to impress and solemnize the mind?  When we realize that the Being who is watching us at every instant, and in every act and element of our existence, is the very same Being who revealed himself amidst the lightenings of Sinai as hating sin and not clearing the thoughtless guilty, do not our prospects at the bar of justice look dark and fearful?  For, who of the race of man is holy enough to stand such an inspection?  Who of the sons of men will prove pure in such a furnace?

Are we not, then, brought by this truth close up to the central doctrine of Christianity, and made to see our need of the atonement and righteousness of the Redeemer?  How can we endure such a scrutiny as God is instituting into our character and conduct?  What can we say, in the day of reckoning, when the Searcher of hearts shall make known, to us all that He knows of us?  What can we do, in that day which shall reveal the thoughts and the estimates of the Holy One respecting us?