THE DEATH ROUTE

     If Satan never told any other truth, he told it when he said, "Skin for skin; yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life." This is especially true in a spiritual sense. Man does not like to die to his set ways of thinking and doing. He is loath to give up his self-life. He has leaned to his own understanding so long that it is really killing to take sides against himself and blame himself for the worst things that have ever occurred in his life. Under the blazing light of God, things take on a different aspect than when viewed from a self-defensive standpoint.

     Carnality is blinding. If the seeker for holiness can only realize the fact that he is not after a blessing; he is not seeking for something; he needs to die, and it is no blessing-to-death, or chloroformic death, nor sudden heart disease, but it is to be a crucifixion death. He is to be "crucified with Christ." Now this is what the seeker ought to look for if he expects to testify with Paul, "I am crucified with Christ." "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed." This is what must take place, and this is what the "old man" shrinks from. Men will do anything else rather than hold themselves to the real death. They will travel thousands of miles to attend a divine healing meeting, a missionary gathering or a superficial holiness meeting; they will fast and pray for days and weeks for "the baptism for service," but how few there are who will follow the Spirit and specify how, when, and where carnality stirred and manifested itself. It is no cross to talk it out to individuals, but it is crucifying to tell it to God in the Spirit. Jacob could wrestle all night easier than tell his name.