Who path ears to hear, let him hear . . . . For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heat them. Matt. 13:9-15.

If a man has ears, can he not hear? That depends. A person with good hearing can readily distinguish hundreds of pitches of sound. A trained musician can multiply that number by many times.

Marius the Roman, as he watched the gladiatorial combats in the arena at Rome, was reputed to have said, "What is needed is the development of a mind that makes this kind of thing impossible for people to watch."

The only avenue that God has for getting through to us is the mind. "God . . . will work by His Spirit through the mind he has put in man."—Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 725. The words, "Who hath ears to hear, let him hear," declare that we are personally responsible for the direction and the training of our minds. God will not violate the freedom and rights of the mind. In education, unless the student opens and directs his mind the teaching process will not penetrate.

Faith is no passive submission but a mind active in a responsible relationship to the living God. Prayer, study of the Word, Christian service, require active participation. Apathy, neglect, indifference to eternal realities and issues, neutralize the mind toward God.

Today men are hounded by a thousand and one voices crying for attention. Never was there a time when the minds of men were so captured by the trivial and the worthless. We are bombarded by the most amazing fanfare of shallow interests and vain endeavors that ever confronted any generation. Never was the devil more persistent and overwhelming in his efforts to lure Christian men and women into an irresponsible attitude toward eternal things. The spiritual destiny of the individual is imperiled by a way of life that neglects the capacities of the mind toward God and toward His Word. "For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18).