resisting temptations, and consequently of avoiding sin, than the remembrance of God's presence. The angelic Doctor says: " If we always thought that God was looking at us, we would never, or scarcely ever, do what is displeasing in his eyes." And St. Jerome has written that the remembrance of God's presence closes the door against all sins." The remembrance of God," says the holy Doctor, " shuts out all sins." And if men will not dare in their presence to transgress the commands of princes, parents, or Superiors, how could they ever violate the laws of God if they thought that he was looking at them? St. Ambrose relates that a page of Alexander the Great, who held in his hand a lighted torch whilst Alexander was offering sacrifice in the temple, suffered his hand to be burnt sooner than be guilty of irreverence by allowing the torch to fall. The saint adds, that if reverence to his sovereign could conquer nature in a boy, how much more will the thought of the divine presence make a faithful soul overcome every temptation, and suffer every pain rather than insult the Lord before his face!
All the sins of men flow from their losing sight of the divine presence. " Every evil," says St. Teresa, "happens to us because we do not reflect that God is present with us, but imagine that he is at a distance." And before her David said the same: God is not before his eyes; his ways are filthy at all times.[1] Sinners forget that God sees them, and therefore they offend him at all times. The
- ↑ Ps. x. 5.
