Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/500

 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.  Sinners  forget  that  God  sees them, and  therefore  they  offend  him  at  all  times. The