The attributes of God pass inevitably and naturally one into another.
It cannot be otherwise because they are all ways in which the Living
Eternal Being reveals Himself. In thinking of His Holiness and of His
power we are led to think of His presence and in thinking of His
presence we are led to think of His knowledge.
"The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the
good." It will not be possible to speak here in any fulness of the
knowledge of God. Two facts, however, should always be kept in mind.
Nothing can be hid from Him Whose eyes are in every place. Nothing is
obscure to Him Who is everywhere. Yet it is not God's knowledge of
them that causes men to be what they are or to act as they do. There
is a big problem here. In theory it is too big for solution, but in
practice the problem is not so great. God's knowledge does not compel
us more than does His will. Within the limits that we are well aware
of, that come to us from inheritance and from environment, we are free
and because we are free we are responsible.
A second consideration is this. The Holy One Who is ever present, Who
makes His moral claim upon us and expects the best of us, is no other
than our Father. He knows us through and through. Yet as a Father he
has compassion on His children. He knoweth whereof we are made; He
remembereth that we are but dust. The presence of God may best be
studied in close connection with His Personality. It is as a person
that He is present. The 139th Psalm will help us best to realize how
universal His Presence is. We can then follow out the teaching given
there and elsewhere in Holy Scripture, in the witness of the Church,
and in the experience of men. He Who is everywhere present, just
because He is our Father, can be present with us by His own appointment
in special ways and places and for special purposes. He is present in
nature in its vastness and in its minuteness, and in both we can read
His thoughts after Him. He is present in the affairs of men and of
nations in all ages. He speaks to men in the voice of conscience and
we hear Him in its strange authority to command and to forbid. In
Christ He is present revealing Himself in human experiences and in
human deeds and words and service. Where two or three are gathered
together in Christ's name He is in their midst. In the Sacraments He
is present to give His sacred gifts.