Thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men. No truth more forgotten than this. Men assent to it, but it has no power over the vast mass of men, and far too little power even over religious men. How different it is with the presence or absence of our fellow creatures! We have often much to conceal from them, and we would often make great efforts to prevent them knowing much of our lives. Hence it makes all the difference in the world to us whether they be with us or away from us. It regulates our conduct, our words, our looks, our very tone and movement. But how little of such effect does the thought of the Divine eye seeing all and always what we are and do, even to the understanding of our thoughts afar off! Therefore such forgetfulness of God's presence as that which we are all of us so liable to be guilty of requires that we should diligently consider the many proofs of the truth declared in this verse. Note some of them.

I. HE HAS LAID DOWN LAWS TO REGULATE AND GOVERN THE WAYS OF MEN. He has done this not only for those that are open and manifest, but those that are most secret as well. He is a "discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (cf. Psalm 139.). "God looketh at the heart." Now, he could not thus largely and minutely lay down these laws if he did not know completely the ways which they concern.

II. HE DISCOVERS THEM. If we have been engaged in some secret way, or such as we thought was secret, where no eye was upon us as we imagined; if afterwards some one meets us and tells us all that we did, we know that, unseen to us, he must by himself or by others have been present at that secret hour. Now, thus we know that God has been ever present. For:

1. He tells us all about them. What is memory? what, especially, is conscience, but God telling us that he is perfectly acquainted with all that we thought unknown?

2. He tells others of them. He told David (1 Samuel 23:12) that the men of Keilah would deliver him up into the hand of Saul. He told Joseph of Herod's purpose to kill the infant Saviour. He warned the wise men from whom Herod hoped to have acquired the knowledge he needed. And again, he warned Joseph about Archelaus. And many such instances there are. Now, they all show that God knows all the ways of men.

III. HE TURNS THEM WHICH WAY HE WILL. Sometimes he gives men their heart's desire, satisfying the longing soul. Sometimes he overrules them for ends far other than the doers of them designed. As when they crucified our Lord (Acts 2:23), God ordered which way their sin should issue, which was quite other than they thought (cf. history of Joseph). Sometimes he baffles and denies them altogether. If he did not, this world would be hell. What if all the sin men conceive of they were to commit! Hence (Genesis 20:6) God says he withheld Abimelech from sinning against Abraham, and suffered him not to touch Sarah. And God is forever graciously strangling sin in its very birth. But all this shows that "his eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men."

IV. HE RECOMPENSES THEM.

1. When our secret ways have been evil, cannot we tell in the darkening of the face of God that he knows all? And when they have been such as the Lord delighteth to see in secret, do not our hearts know when we come to him that there is the answering smile?

2. And he recompenses them in his present outward dealings with us. The sinner's most secret sin finds him out not seldom in this world. And the patient continuance in well doing, however humble and obscure, rarely fails to meet with its reward.

3. And God will judge them in the last great day. Then the thoughts of all hearts shall be revealed. "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil." Again is it made evident that he knows all. He is "the Father who seeth in secret." CONCLUSION. Understand what is the right use of this great doctrine. Not that we should be trying every hour of the day to be thinking of the all-seeing eye of God. We cannot, and God does not intend that we should, be ever thus conscious of his presence. Children are not of the presence of their parents. They are utterly unconstrained. But should need arise for their parents' help, should they be tempted to do what they know their parents would forbid, then in a moment they become conscious of their presence, and the needed aid is asked for, and the tempting sin is resisted. Now, thus should we remember the continual presence of God. "The right state of mind plainly is to have the thought of God's presence so perpetually at hand that, as with Joseph in his great temptation, it shall always start before us whenever it is wanted." This is living with God and communion with Christ; and it is won by prayer and close walking with him, and blessed are they who win. - C.

This method of questioning the person to be instructed is known to teachers as the Socratic method. was wont, not so much to state a fact, as to ask a question and draw out thoughts from those whom he taught. His method had long before been used by a far greater teacher. Putting questions is Jehovah's frequent method of instruction. Questions from the Lord are very often the strongest affirmations. He would have us perceive their absolute certainty. They are put in this particular form because He would have us think over His great thought, and confirm it by our own reflections. The Lord shines upon us in the question, and our answer to it is the reflection of His light.

I. Consider the wonderful question of our text which the Lord put to the prophet, VIEWING IT AS NECESSARY.

1. It was needful to tell the prophet this, though he knew it. He never doubted that the Lord is almighty, and yet it was needful for Jehovah Himself to speak home this truth to his mind and heart. It is often necessary for the Lord Himself to drive home a truth into the mind of His most faithful servant. We learn much in many ways, but we learn nothing vitally and practically till the Spirit of God becomes our schoolmaster. The God of truth must teach us the truth of God or we shall never learn it.

2. It is necessary for us to be thus specially instructed, even though we know a truth well enough to plead it in prayer, as Jeremiah did when he cried, "There is nothing too hard for Thee." That man is no mean scholar in the classes of Christ who has learned to handle scriptural truths when pleading with the Lord. Oh, that we used more argument in prayer! Prayers are weak when they lack pleadings.

3. It is necessary for God thus to reveal truth individually to each of our hearts even though we may have acted on it. Jeremiah had acted on the fact that nothing was too hard for God. After his obedience, he began to look back on what he had done, and to be considerably bewildered, while trying to make out how God would justify what he had done. The best of men are men at the best. If the Lord lifts you up into the purity and dignity of a childlike faith, yet you will have your moments when you will cry, Lord, speak to me Thyself again, even though it be out of the whirlwind; and let me know that I have done all these things according to Thy Word, and not after my own fancy." Even the practice of truth does not raise us above the need of having it again and again laid home to the soul.

4. Another necessity for this arises out of further manifestations with which we are to be favoured. God had caused Jeremiah to know His omnipotence so far, but he was to see still more of it. Faith has led you into marvellous places; but there are greater things before you, and the Lord presses truth upon you that you may receive more of it.

II. Look at the text REGARDING IT AS DECISIVE.

1. For the argument is fetched from the Lord Himself. When we look to God alone, and think, by the help of His Spirit, of who He is and what He must be, then we realise that nothing can be too hard for Him. Meditate much upon the Divine Father, Creator and Preserver; upon the Divine Son, the risen Redeemer, who hath all power in heaven and in earth; upon the sacred Spirit, of whom the rushing mighty mind in the tornado is but a faint symbol, and you will feel that here is the source of all might.

2. But He means us also to see the argument as founded on His name, "I am Jehovah." The name brings out the personality of God. It also signifies self-existence. God does not exist because of His surroundings: He draws nothing from without, His life is in Himself. All things were made by Him, and He sustaineth all things by the Word of His power. The name of Jehovah reminds us that He has within Himself sufficiency for all His will; He hath adequate power of performance for all His purposes and decrees; Jehovah wills, and it is done. Moreover, the name sets forth the truth that He is immutable: He is "I am that I am." Time does not affect Him, nor change come near Him. He is never less than Jehovah; He cannot be more.

3. The argument is also founded on the Lord's relation to man. "I am the Lord, the God of all flesh." How is the worm linked to the immortal! Happy men who have such a God! Not that flesh and blood, as they are, can inherit the kingdom of God, nor that corruption can dwell with incorruption; but for believers in the Lord Jesus there is a resurrection which shall lift us into a body of a nobler sort. The argument is that, since Jehovah is the God of all flesh, He can effect His purposes by men, and work among them things which seem impossible.

4. The argument is so great that it puts all other arguments out of court. Is anything too hard for Jehovah? Come, Jeremiah, rake up your difficulties; set in order the discouraging circumstances; call in your friends, who all shako their heads at you, and point their fingers to their brows, as much as to insinuate that you are a little gone from your senses; and then, answer them all with this, "Nothing is too hard for Jehovah." This clears the deck of every doubt that would board your vessel. Blessed argument which answers every difficulty, and sets faith upon a rock from which it cannot be removed! "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him."

III. APPLYING IT IN DETAIL.

1. Apply this question to the justification of your obedience. If you do what God bids you, the responsibility of your conduct lies with Him, and He will bear you through. He will bring forth our judgment as the light, and our righteousness as the noonday.

2. Apply this glorious truth to the sure fulfilment of all the Divine promises. Consider a great one to begin with. This chapter evidently shows that the Jews are one day to be converted and restored. They that crucified the Lord of Glory shall look on Him whom they pierced, and shall mourn for Him. "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

3. Apply this to any case of great sin. Select any one whom you know to be especially hard-hearted, and pray for him earnestly and hopefully.

4. Apply this to difficult truths. I will put before you a problem. If man acts freely in his sinful actions how can predestination be a fact? If every man acts after his own will, how, then, does God foreordain all things? I answer, "Is anything too hard for Jehovah?" The solving of this great problem constrains me to worship the Lord; for He does solve it in actual history. Consider another hard case — the hardest of all: human salvation. How can it be possible for God to exercise the fulness of His mercy, and yet discharge the necessities of His justice? All men and all angels put together would have made but one fool in trying to solve that difficulty. The Lord has answered it. He gave His Son to bear our sin. "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

5. Bring hither your own little problems. You are always getting into tangles and snarls. Prudent friends try to help you, but the tangle grows worse. Bring your hard cases to one who is wiser than Solomon, and He will draw out a clear thread for you.

IV. Treat the text as USING IT WITH DELIGHT.

1. Use the text as a preventive of unbelieving sin. Do God's work thoroughly, heartily, intensely, and God will reward you in His grace.

2. Use it next for consolation in the time of trouble. Jehovah hath delivered those who trust in Him, and He will yet deliver us.

3. Next, use the text as a window through which you look with expectation. The Lard's blessing is coming upon the Churches: look for it!

4. Let this text be a stimulus to you to engage in great enterprises. Launch out into the deep. Fall back upon omnipotence, and then go forward in the strength of it.

5. Let the text be a reason for adoration. O Thou to whom nothing is hard, we adore Thee! We worship Thee with all our hearts, and this day we believingly link our weakness with Thine omnipotence.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)