The Astronomer's Eye

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 17, 1871

The Astronomer's Eye.

How ASHAMED we should be if our best friends could see the mean and selfish things we sometimes wish and think, but never say, or the unworthy things we do when no one is looking!—It is hard to keep them secret after all, and there are a hundred ways in which such things creep out in spite of us. And then there is another thing to think of—which is best illustrated by this little anecdote:

One day the astronomer Mitchell was engaged in making some observations on the sun, and as it descended toward the horizon, just as it was setting, there came into the rays of the great telescope the top of a hill about seven miles away. On the top of that hill was a large number of apple trees, and in one of them were two boys stealing apples. One was getting the apples, and the other was watching to make certain that nobody saw them, feeling certain that they were undiscovered. But there sat Professor Mitchell, seven miles away, with the great eye of his telescope directed fully upon them, seeing every movement they made as plainly as if he had been under the tree with them. So it is often with men. Because they do not see the eye which watches with a sleepless vigilance, they think they are not seen. But the great open eye of God is upon them, and not an action can be concealed. There is not a deed, there is not a word, there is not a thought which is not known to God.—Sel.