Seeing as God Sees by A. E. Place

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 29, 1915

Seeing as God Sees

By A. E. Place

A. E. PLACE

To see ourselves as others see us, might be quite an achievement—quite a revelation, in fact. But it is a far greater achievement to see ourselves as God sees us. This would also be a revelation which, if it did not kill us, would cause us to cry, “Woe is me! for I am undone,” and nothing but the “coal . . . from off the altar” would save us from despair.

Let us remember that what man sees or thinks he sees in us, or what he thinks of us, is of small moment compared with what God sees and thinks. Let us also remember that the more we see ourselves as God sees us, the more we shall see our brethren as God sees them; yea, the more we shall see the great sin-cursed world as God sees it; the more we shall be conscious that sinners are longing to be free from the power of the devil; and, thus, more and more, we can look upon their mistakes and sins through the eye of God’s merciful love, and we shall consider ourselves, lest we be tempted.

As soon as we begin to see men as God sees them, we begin to treat them as God treats them, and as he treats us. Have we not many times had cause for thankfulness that God did not deal with us after our sins, nor reward us according to our iniquities? But while failing and stumbling, should we ask God to express his thoughts toward us, we would hear the blessed assurance, “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” We would hear him through Jeremiah saying, “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, . . . thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end.” O, to be like God! To be filled with the spirit of the world’s Redeemer! This is the cry of every true Christian.

San Jose, Cal.