understanding heart. On the other hand, there is nothing against which
our Lord in the Gospels utters stronger warnings than that dulness or
deadness of spirit which is described as having eyes that see not, and
ears that are dull of hearing, and hearts that do not understand. And in
illustration of this we read how, while the crowds throng or press upon
Jesus, it is the stricken woman who, with soul sensitive to His
influence, feels the virtue come out of Him though she only touches the
hem of His garment.

Thus we are warned to beware lest that should come upon us which was the
ruin of the Jews, dulness or deadness of spiritual faculty; and we are
exhorted to pray for and to cherish the hearing heart, the soul that sees
and feels spiritual influences, and is sensitive to every high call. And
if your soul is thus open and receptive, it is marvellous how full the
world becomes to you of Divine voices. They come upon you unexpected,
unsought, sending through your heart some illuminating flash of surprise,
so that you wonder at your previous dulness; they strike you with the
sudden shock of some new knowledge or insight, and make you feel, as
never before, the true nature of your daily conduct or your duty and your
relation to other men; or they come as the unresting presence of some new
thought, which, once roused, haunts and troubles you with questions which
you cannot answer, or feelings which you cannot get rid of.

When the soul is roused in this way we see and feel the hatefulness of
any sin that may have tempted or beset us; or we contrast our own life
with that of those whose lot is so much harder than ours, and we are
struck with shame at our selfishness, or waste, or our indifference to
the privation, and sin, and suffering that are all around us in the
world.