Monday. [Rom. 16:17-24; Matt. 13:10-23]

   Why do many people not understand discussions about spiritual things? It is due to a thickening of their heart. When their heart is full of attachments to earthly things, it grows coarse, as is said, he grew fat, he grew thick, he waxed broad [Deut. 32:15]. In this state it gravitates downward like a heavy-weight, dragging and chaining the entire soul to the ground, together with the mind. Then, always churning in its circle of low objects, it becomes low in its thought and cannot soar up on high, like a bird weighed down with food. Churning there, it does not see the heavenly, and its entire disposition is against it… Heaven is an alien country to these people. Such a person has nothing within the sum total of his understanding and experience to which he could relate the heavenly, that he might be able to see it if only through a glass darkly [cf. Cor. 13:12]. That is why he won’t try to discuss it, nor does he wish to listen to others discussing it, and he won’t pick up any books written about it. Isn’t this why you’ll often find any number of secular magazines in people’s homes, but not a single spiritual periodical or book—not even the Gospels?