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At this moment when I am beginning to preach there are many persons dying. There is the last breath, the last sharp pang, the last sore struggle, and now they are dead. Let us follow the course their souls have taken; and think that, in this minute, some souls are entering heaven. Now, even now, some are enjoying the beatific vision of Christ. And at this moment also some who were living when I began to speak to you are now in woe, feeling for the first time what is meant by losing the soul. But why is it that this tremendous fact does not strike us more forcibly? If we saw one drowning man, that sight would disturb our waking hours and haunt our sleep. And why should it be, then, that the thought of a matter incomparably more striking and weighty should wake in us no feeling that will last? It is that hearing we can hear and not understand, and seeing we can see and not perceive. The monster evil of our fallen nature is this want of power to realise spiritual things. The misery is that we know such things are, but cannot make it seem as if they were. We know that Moses and the prophets are enough if men would but hear them; we know that Christ, lifted up from the earth, exerts a force that ought to draw all men to Him; yet men will not hear, and will not come, and will not be saved. And will nothing serve to waken men up from this sleep of ruin? Do not we sometimes think, like the rich man in woe, that if one went to them from the dead men would repent? Ah, but what could he tell them that they do not know already? It is no news that "the wicked shall be turned into hell," and that is the sum of what he could say. I shall point out some of the leading truths and realities in regard to which our souls are affected by this wretched dulness of perception.

I. THE CONSTANT PRESENCE AND INSPECTION OF GOD. Every man knows, and is ready to acknowledge, that God is everywhere, and therefore of course is here; but is there one man in a million who will venture to say he realises what is meant by this? Unless you feel the presence of God just as forcibly as if the flames of Sinai shone on your face, or the still small voice that spoke to Elijah fell thrilling on your ear, you are hearing without understanding, and seeing while you do not perceive. And if it be that even in this solemn place, and with all the advantage of having your thoughts specially directed to the subject your minds labour in vain to bring it home to them that God is here as much as you, how little realised must have been the thought that He was your constant Companion in the long hours of common life. Now, why should this be? If some dimly seen form, a being from another world, should haunt your steps, you think that that would be something whose presence you would feel as something real and true. And why, then, should it be, that the constant presence of the Infinite Spirit should be so often forgot, and so faintly felt when it is remembered best? A man whose blood would be chilled and his tongue palsied by even the suspicion of the presence of an apparition of a human being, hears us tell with absolutely no emotion how there is beside him forever the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible. And the only explanation is that to believe a thing and to realise it are wide as the poles asunder.

II. THE REALITY OF THE FUTURE LIFE. Almost every man will confess that all the millions who have lived on this earth are living yet; and that he him self, when he dies, will be only going into another world. But the vast majority of those who profess to believe all this do not realise it. Their conduct proves this. Very many live as if they were to live on earth forever. Think of the worldly prudent man who is content to wear away the best years of his life in constant toil and pinching privation, that he may surround his declining years with comfort. And think you that this prudent man would live on without making the least provision for life hereafter, if he really felt, what he professes to believe, that after-years in this world are not half so sure to come to him, as endless ages are in a state of being for which earthly riches make no provision? Or, think of the regardless sinner who goes on in the path of guilt and shame, though he has read of the worm that never dies and the fire that is never quenched, and though he never doubts that these things are somewhere. Yes, he believes it, but he does not feel it; he hears without understanding, and he sees without perceiving. For, if he could call up the black picture of the place of woe, would he live one hour more in the path which must lead thither?

III. A NEED OF A SAVING INTEREST IN CHRIST. This seems a simple thing. A man perishing for thirst knows thoroughly his need of that water which will quench it; and every sinful creature's need of the Saviour is just as pressing and as real. Ask any thoughtful professing Christian what it is he most needs. It requires no deliberation to answer such a question. Many firings are desirable, but one thing is needful; and that is a saving interest in Christ. Well, then, if a thing be truly felt to be the thing we most need, there are two consequences which will follow — the desire we feel for that thing so needful, and the exertion we put forth to gain it, will be incomparably greater than we ever felt or put forth in the case of anything else. Is all this so? Let me ask what you have been most earnestly desiring for the last few days? The thing you most need? If not, then you have not realised your need of the Saviour. If you feel that you are more anxious to get on in life, then you are not realising that need. Again, look back and consider what it is you have spent most pains on. Most of us have worked hard in our day. Did we work hardest to get the one thing needful? Or is it not rather true that we have spent the best part of our strength upon our worldly affairs; and given only jaded powers, and any odd scraps of time to doing that which we profess to believe is the great thing we have to do on earth?

(A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)

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KJV: Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:

WEB: saying, 'Go to this people, and say, in hearing, you will hear, but will in no way understand. In seeing, you will see, but will in no way perceive.