THE DEEPER DEATH TO SELF

The wisdom of the fathers

A DEEPER DEATH TO SELF

There is not only a death to sin (self-will), but in a great many things there is a deeper death to self—a crucifixion in detail, after the soul has been sanctified. The very largest degrees of self-renunciation will take place after the work of heart-purity. Things that are not positively sinful can still keep us from entering into the fullest cooperation with the Holy Spirit.

We will therefore find that our loving and all-wise God takes us in hand and begins to lead us through a deep, interior crucifixion to our fine parts and our lofty reason. The crucifixion goes on till we have learned to live by faith in Him alone.

There are innumerable degrees of interior crucifixion on these various lines. Perhaps not one sanctified person in ten thousand ever reaches that degree of death to self and dependent faith in God that Paul and Madame Guyon, and similar saints, have reached.

In contrast to heart-cleansing, this finer crucifixion to self is gradual. It extends through months, or even years. The interior spirit is mortified over and over on the same points, till it reaches a state of complete yieldedness to even the most severe difficulties taking place around it. God, rather than second causes, is seen in everything.

A great host of believers have obtained heart-purity, and yet, for a long time, have gone through all sorts of “dying daily” to self, before they found that calm, fixed union with God. When the soul reaches the upper ranges of this deeper death to self, it breaks out into a great wideness of spiritual comprehension and love. It is a state of almost{?} uninterrupted prayer; of boundless charity for all people; of deep, quiet thoughtfulness; of extreme simplicity of life and manners; and of profound insights into the eternal kingdom of God.

(from "Soul Food" by G.D. Watson)