are in communion with God live, those who are not are
dead.

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,
{phronema tes sarkos}, by its very nature, limited capacity, and
time-ward tendency, is {thanatos}, 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_.

We do not need to go to Revelation for the proof of this. That has been
rendered unnecessary by the testimony of the Dead themselves. Thousands
have uttered themselves upon their relation to the Spiritual World, and
from their own lips we have the proclamation of their Death. The
language of theology in describing the state of the natural man is often
regarded as severe. The Pauline anthropology has been challenged as an
insult to human nature. Culture has opposed the doctrine that "The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned." And even some modern theologies have refused to
accept the m