He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." The Master seemed to have found that though some had ears that were not what an aurist would call deaf, yet they could not hear. He seemed continually to be testing the hearing of ears, by his words; and so, often proved that all "hearing ears" did not hear. To-day there are ears — and ears. The aurist will tell us of ears that are dulled, no longer sensitive to delicate vibrations. One cause or another may account for this condition. Sometimes they have listened to one sound so long and continuously that it falls and falls upon them unheeded; in fact, only cessation of the sound will rouse the ears to the fact that there has been any sound at all.
Have we not dulled ears among the students of Christian Science, to-day; those that have heard and heard the words of Truth and Life, from the lips of some patient, earnest worker who has dwelt among them? When for some reason the worker is called to another field, there arises a clamor for someone else to come and renew the sound,—so they can feel comfortable again, possibly be lulled to sleep once more. Perchance the teacher has made the mistake of permitting students to sit through class after class, and thus the habit of listening to the sound has been formed, and the students have ignorantly become "hearers of the word, and not doers." On the other hand, the teacher may have loved the sound of his own voice, the pleasant emotion of relating or detailing his "perceptions" to a slowly increasing audience, and thus may have so narcotized his hearers that they have mistaken the reflection of the teacher's self-satisfaction, for the peace of active obedience to Truth.
An aurist will tell, also, of ears having different pitch; so that the responsive vibration of one ear may return a note as G while its mate returns it as G sharp, and hence constant misapprehension or contradiction is going on. Did not Jesus find such ears? Has not every teacher of the Word of God, from his day to the present day, found such ears? How, else, account for the perversions and distortions of the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles, and of the Prophets before them? How account, today, for the perversions and distortions of the teachings of Science and Health? How account for the denominations, sects and factions all calling themselves Christian Scientists? It must be that the clear, pure, resonant note of Truth fell upon ears at variance.
