at Satan is
trying to capture and to get possession of it? Indeed, he may already
have possession of it. And when God by His grace shall come and cast out
Satan and all his evil companions, they will come back and try to get
into the city again. They will come to the various gates of the city;
for your heart has various avenues of approach, which may be called
gates. There is eye-gate. Satan comes and he appeals to you and tries to
get into your heart through the eye. Bad pictures that are posted upon
the bulletin boards along our streets, and wicked things upon which you
and I ought not to look--worthless papers, bad books--these Satan
desires to have us look upon, and in that way get evil thoughts into our
minds and wicked purposes into our hearts, so that he can once more get
possession of our hearts.

Then he comes to ear-gate, and tries to get into our hearts through our
ears. There are wicked songs, and bad stories, and wicked words that men
pour into our ears, even when we walk along the streets. And so Satan
tries to get into our hearts through ear-gate, and he tries to get into
our hearts through what I will call mouth-gate. He tempts our appetite,
and would have us eat things which would injure us, or to drink that
which would harm us. And so he tries to get a boy to smoke, or to drink,
if at first only beer, or something else, until at last Satan makes a
drunkard of him. So Satan would get into the heart through mouth-gate.
And when he cannot get into the heart through mouth-gate, or any other
way, he oftentimes approaches mouth-gate by way of nose-gate. By the
smell of something that is pleasant he tempts the appetite, and thus
would lead us astray.

And then he would also approach our hearts through the sense of feeling.
There are many wicked things that Satan tempts people to do in order to
give them pleasure, and so he seeks to get into their hearts, and to get
entire control of them, and in that way to get God out of their hearts.

The best thing that you and I can do, is to accept of God's invitation,
where He says, "My son, give me thine heart." I trust that you will give
your heart earnestly and fully to the Lord Jesus Christ. He will take
away this heart of stone out of your flesh, and give you a heart of
flesh. He will keep your heart securely for you, if you will only give
it fully to Him.

QUESTIONS.--Does the stone have any feeling? Are
our natural hearts like a stone? Can