p. 134 | The Sleepless Eye

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 20, 1869

The Sleepless Eye.

Many are familiar with the story of a distinguished prisoner, the duty of whose guard it was to watch him every instant through a little aperture in his dungeon door. The guard was often changed, but there forever was that glittering eye. When he slept, or when he woke, it was always upon him. And after a time, he tells us, it became the most intolerable element of his imprisonment. It was no friendly eye, and that made the burden greater still. Many prisoners have escaped from bondage, even when massive walls and iron bars inclosed them. Many more have beguiled the weary hours in planning or speculating on the possibility of their doing the same. But here such a diversion of the thoughts was quite shut out. Not a moment could he escape the gaze of that sleepless eye. The slightest suspicious movement would be sufficient ground for causing the rigors of his confinement to be increased. Oh, to escape for one-half hour from the presence of that watching eye! But months were lengthened into years, and still the watch went on.

But there was another eye, just as sleepless, continually on the prisoner, of which no doubt he thought but seldom. It saw far more than the soldier guard. It saw the real man, the heart life, hour by hour.—The guard could only see the outer dress. The guard and those whose power he represented, could do but little. They had power only to kill the body, but that All-seeing One had “power to cast both soul and body into hell.”

We cannot think too often of this sleepless eye which never, for an instant, is withdrawn from us. “Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.” It is a fearful thought to

the wicked, but one of the most precious to those who love God. “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.” He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”

But, oh! this eye “is strict to mark iniquity.” We may cover our sins from our fellow men, but they cannot be hid from God. Yet, how precious the thought that we may come to the crimson fountain, and wash them all away, so that we can be pleasing even to his searching eye. He will behold us without spot or blemish; because he looks upon us through his Son. Hasten to the fountain, while yet there is opportunity given. How canst thou refuse

“To wash and be cleansed in his pardoning blood?”