The eye of God is ever upon us. J. R. Miller. A flower blooms
no more sweetly because it is gazed at by an admiring crowd. It would be just as lovely if
it grew in the depths of a great forest where no eye ever saw
it. The stars look down with as much
brilliancy into the desert where no one looks up at them as into
the streets of the great city where thousands behold them.
The sea breaks with as much majesty on an uninhabited shore, as where
its waves kiss the feet of multitudes. It is just so in all true Christian
life and work. When one is doing any great thing
and shows by his attitude that he is conscious of it, more than
half the greatness is gone from the performance. When a man knows
that he is living a life that is very great in its service,
when he is conscious that he is being noticed by others, much
of the glory is gone from his life. We should live just as
sweetly and beautifully when no one is looking upon us, to
see our deed and praise our life as when all the world is beholding. The eye of God is ever upon us,
and it is His approval and commendation that we should always seek to
deserve. It is said of the great sculptor,
Michelangelo, that when at work he wore a little lamp fastened
on his cap in order that no shadow of himself might fall upon his
work. Just so, we need to take care
that no shadows of ourselves, of our pride, our ambition, our
self-seeking, should fall upon our work for Christ. to labor
in Christian work, that we ourselves may have the glory, is to dim
and darken the beauty of all we do, and also to make ourselves
vessels unfit for the Master's use. We are ready for the most
sacred of all ministries only when we are content to be nothing,
that Christ may be all in all. Be careful not to do your acts
of righteousness before men, to be seen by them. If you do,
you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when
you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as
the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored
by men. I tell you the truth, they have
received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy,
do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who
sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Matthew 6, 1-4