stones, on which thou hast got thy name engraved, will not long outlive thee. Oh! how true is that sentence: Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity, but to love God and serve him alone? (Thomas A. Kempis.) It is thus only we shall be wise for eternity: all other wisdom is but folly.
THE TWENTY-FOURTH DAY.
On the presence of God.
CONSIDER, that God is everywhere. If I ascend into heaven, says the Psalmist, Psal. cxxxviii. 8. thou art there: if I descend into hell, thou art there. He fills both heaven and earth; and there is no created thing whatsoever, in which he is not truly and perfectly present. In him we live, in him we move; our very being is in him. As the birds, wherever they fly, meet with the air, which encompasses them on all sides; and the fishes swimming in the ocean everywhere meet with the waters; so we, wherever we are, or wherever we go, meet with God; we have him always with us; he is more intimately present to our souls, than our souls are to our bodies. Alas! poor soul of mine, how little have we thought of this? And yet it is an article of our laith, in which we have been instructed from the very cradle. Let us seriously reflect on this truth for the future: let us strive to be always with him, who is always with us.
2. Consider, that God being everywhere sees us wherever we are; all our actions are done in his sight; our very thoughts, even the most secret motions and dispositions of our hearts, cannot be concealed from his all-seeing eye. In vain does the sinner flatter himself in his crimes, like the libertine mentioned by the wise man: Eccl. xxiii. 28. that darkness compasses him,
