Secret sins.
Nothing perishes. Nothing is forgotten. Things lost to us are found elsewhere. Things that seem to perish do but pass into new forms. The bursting bubble, the smoke scattered by the wind, the fallen leaf trampled into the mire, vanish from our sight and sense; but the atoms of which that puff of smoke is made are as old as the world, and will endure while the world endures. The image of that bubble, with its lovely colours, most lovely just before it bursts, may remain in our memory, or may exercise the thought of scientific minds, for years. The bud which the perished leaf nourished may grow into a bough that will be green when generations have passed; and the dust into which the dead leaf moulders may feed new life. How much more in the spiritual realm! The acted deed, the spoken word, the conscious thought, may seem to perish the instant it comes to birth. Memory may blot it that moment from her tablet. But it is indestructible. It survives in its results. There is a memory in which nothing ever fades; an eye nothing is quick enough to escape or baffle; a light from which no secret thing is hid. "Thou hast set," etc.
I. SIN NATURALLY SEEKS CONCEALMENT. The first impulse of the first sinners—very foolish, but very natural—was to hide themselves from God (Genesis 3:8-10). Some sins those who commit them are anxious to hide from human knowledge. Shame is the natural attendant of consciousness of wrong doing. Only the most hardened and debased "glory in their shame." Other sins, through self-ignorance, self-deceit, carelessness, or dulness of conscience, are a secret from the sinner himself (Psalms 19:12). Some sins—e.g. fraud of all kinds—are possible only by concealment. Self-interest, not shame merely, prompts secrecy. So subtle is sin, that it often disguises itself as virtue. Covetousness poses as prudence, spite as candour, pride as a delicate sense of honour, obstinate ill temper as honest independence, envy, malice, and all uncharitableness, as zeal for truth and for God. Even the sincerest Christian has cause to pray, "Who can understand," etc.? (Psalms 19:12).
II. NO SIN IS HIDDEN FROM GOD. An appalling contrast! What darker hiding place conceivable than the secret, silent depth of the heart? But not only is it transparent to God's view (Psalms 139:1, Psalms 139:12), he brings our secrets to light in the full blaze of omniscience. Elsewhere the "light of God's countenance" means his favour, the sunshine of his loving kindness. But that is a different word in Hebrew; the one used here means not mere sunshine, but the sun (Genesis 1:14 16). God's knowledge of men's sins is such as is possible to God alone; he knows each sin in its motives, its exact magnitude, its issues in the sinner himself and towards others, its desert. Yet this tremendous thought has its side of comfort. "He knoweth our frame" (Psalms 103:14)—our weakness, ignorance, temptations. His justice excludes harshness. He "has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth."
III. THIS KNOWLEDGE IS NOT TO BE KEPT SECRET. It is to be published to the universe (Ecclesiastes 12:14). The frequent detection and punishment of the most carefully concealed crimes is a faint anticipation of "the day" (Acts 17:31; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Revelation 2:23).
IV. SIN CANNOT BE HIDDEN; BUT IT CAN BE "COVERED." (Psalms 32:1; Psalms 85:2.) It can be "blotted out" (Isaiah 43:25; Acts 3:19), "washed" (Psalms 51:2; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Revelation 7:14). Only he who knows our sins could forgive or atone (Romans 5:8).