. Their photograph flatters them,
by J. R. Miller. One of the most important
questions we can ask ourselves is what God thinks of us. One
has pointed out that in every man there are four different
men, the man whom the neighbors see, the man whom one's family
sees, the man whom the person himself sees, and the man whom
God sees. The community knows us only in
a general way, superficially. What people think of us, we sometimes
call reputation, what we are reputed to be. It is a composite
made up of all that people know about us, gathered from our conduct,
our acts, our dispositions, our words, the impressions of ourselves
we give to others. The knowledge the community has
of a man is only superficial. It is evident that the world's
opinion about people is not infallible, is not complete, is not final. A person may be better than his
reputation. His external manner may do him
injustice. Some men, by reason of their
shyness, their awkwardness, or some limitation in power of expression,
fail to appear at their true value. The world knows only a
man's outward life, and there may be good things in him which
it does not know. Then some people, on the other
hand, are worse than their reputation. their photograph flatters them.
What they pretend to be exceeds the reality. They practice tricks
which give a glamour to their lives, so that they pass in public
for more than they are. They wear veils which hide defects
and faults in them, and thus they seem better than they are.
Hence, we cannot accept the judgment of the community regarding anyone
as absolutely true, fair, and final. But there is another man
in us, the man God sees, and this is most important of all. We do not even know all the secret
things of our own hearts. There is an eye that sees deeper
than ours. It is pleasant to have people
commend us when we have tried to do our duty. It gives us great
joy to have the approval of our own hearts. But if we do not
have the commendation of the Master, human praise and self-approval
amount to nothing. What does God think of me is
always the final question. Men are cruel. They judge often
harshly. They know only part of the truth
concerning us. They are not patient with our
infirmities. But we are safe in the hands
of God. He knows the worst in us, but
He also knows the best. We may trust our lives, therefore,
to God's judgment, even if they are full of defects and flaws. He knows all and will bring to
light all the hidden things.