“Neither hath entered into the mind of man to conceive” spiritual things. I need not enlarge on this. We know, indeed, that the imagination has great powers; that it forms a very tangible idea of what neither eye nor ear has had opportunity to discern; that sometimes it surpasses eye and ear, and succeeds in grasping what they have but touched. Hence such sayings as, “It is easier to imagine than describe;” and such practices as shutting the eyes, when we want to realise an idea. But still, in spiritual things, if actual observation and study, if faithful descriptions by qualified persons, a prophet, an apostle, the Bible, the Spirit, utterly fail to inform the natural man, surely he cannot expect illumination from the fancies of his unassisted imagination. Religious ideas come into the _mind_ through the eye and the ear; if, then, these have all along been closed, it must, of course, be empty. And now, dear brethren, does not all this show you why you are so little religious? Have you not, all along, been dealing with the things of the Spirit too much as though they were things which you could perceive by observation, by investigating their evidence, by intellectually studying them? Have not you tried to learn religion as you would a human language, or a physical science? And have not your highest religious exercises, your searchings into the deep things of GOD, been the hearing of sermons; or the indulging of your reason, or your imagination? What do you know of religion, which you did not in some of these ways acquire? How much has the Spirit of GOD taught you? that Spirit who alone knows the things of GOD, and who alone can reveal them; that Spirit which comes not first into the eye, or the ear, or the mind of man, but into his spirit. How often do you pray for the Holy Spirit, and strive to prepare yourselves for Him? What dependence do you place on Him for guidance? What means do you use to bring Him near; and how much have you Him in mind while using them? What homage do you render Him? How do you serve Him? When do you commune with Him? When you regard nature, is it by the light of the Spirit? When you read the Bible, is it to learn what the Spirit will say to you, the Spirit invoked to speak? When you hear a sermon, do you pray the Spirit, “LORD, declare unto me, unto my spirit, this parable?” When you meditate, is your supplication, “Open thou mine eyes;” “Except Thy presence go with me, carry me not up hence?” Is your life—thoughts, words, and deeds—directed by the consideration, “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of GOD”? If not, this is why you are not really religious; and the remedy is in seeking to be and do what I have now described.