The extent or depth of this communion, the varying degrees of
correspondence in different individuals, and the less or more abundant
life which these result in, need not concern us for the present. The
task we have set ourselves is to investigate the essential nature of
Spiritual Death. And we have found it to consist in a want of communion
with God. The unspiritual man is he who lives in the circumscribed
environment of this present world. "She that liveth in pleasure is Dead
while she liveth." "To be carnally minded is Death." To be carnally
minded, translated into the language of science, is to be limited in
one's correspondences to the environment of the natural man. It is no
necessary part of the conception that the mind should be either
purposely irreligious, or directly vicious. The mind of the flesh,
φρόνημα τῆς σαρκὸς, by its very nature, limited capacity, and time-ward
tendency, is θάνατος, Death. This earthly mind may be of noble caliber,
enriched by culture, high toned, virtuous and pure. But if it know not
God? What though its correspondences reach to the stars of heaven or
grasp the magnitudes of Time and Space? The stars of heaven are not
heaven. Space is not God. This mind certainly, has life, life up to its
level. There is no trace of Death. Possibly, too, it carries its
deprivation lightly, and, up to its level, lies content. We do not
picture the possessor of this carnal mind as in any sense a monster. We
have said he may be high-toned, virtuous, and pure. The plant is not a
monster because it is dead to the voice of the bird; nor is he a monster
who is dead to the voice of God. The contention at present simply is
that he is _Dead_.
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