God is Ever Near
Christian Age
Genesis 16:13-14
And she called the name of the LORD that spoke to her, You God see me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that sees me?…


The people of God, if they read nature aright, might learn much from even her humblest page; for the bending grass has a voice as distinct, if not as loud, as the sturdy oak. Myriad voices ever testify that God is near. This truth was found beautifully realized a little while ago by one of the agents of the London City Mission, who was visiting in one of those courts where the houses are crowded with inhabitants, and where every room is the dwelling of a family. In a lone room at the top of one of these houses the agent met with an aged woman, whose scanty pittance of half-a-crown a week was scarcely sufficient for her bare subsistence. He observed, in a broken teapot that stood in the window, a strawberry plant, growing and flourishing. He remarked, from time to time, how it continued to grow, and with what jealous care it was watched and tended. "Your plant flourishes nicely; you will soon have strawberries upon it." "Oh, sir," replied the woman, "it is not for the sake of the fruit that I grow it." "Then why do you take so much care of it?" he inquired. "Well, sir," was the answer, "I am very poor, too poor to keep any living creature; but it is a great comfort to me to have that living plant; for I know it can only live by the power of God; and as I see it live and grow from day to day, it tells me that God is near." "Thou God seest me. A young Christian lady was laid on a sick bed. She was often unprotected and alone. One night very late, as she was lying awake on her bed, her family all asleep in their rooms around, a man was seen by her entering her door. He stopped a moment after he had gained entrance, her little night lamp shining on them both from the stand by her bedside. He saw this sick girl surveying him with perfect tranquillity. She raised her finger, pointing upward, and said, Do you know that God sees you?" The man waited a moment, but made no reply, and then turned and walked immediately out, having opened no other door than the street door and the door of her chamber. Thus God interposed and defended her by the weakest instrument, but with the mightiest power. "Thou God seest me. When the great Phidias had completed his reclining statue of Theseus, someone, knowing that the statue was to occupy an elevated position in the temple, and observing that the back of the masterpiece was as highly polished and as carefully completed as was the front, asked why such waste of time and energy, when no one would ever see whether it was finished or in the rough. The sculptor calmly and reverently replied, Men may not see it, but the gods will." Our every act is under the inspection of the living God.

(Christian Age.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?

WEB: She called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, "You are a God who sees," for she said, "Have I even stayed alive after seeing him?"




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