Throughout the Word of God there are frequent allusions to the five senses of the soul. It no more attempts to prove the existence of these senses than to prove the senses of the body, but they are assumed as a matter of fact, and the Holy Spirit speaks of the existence of an "inner man" as being just as much a matter of reality as the outward physical man. It would fill a little volume to collect all the Scriptures in which the senses of the soul are mentioned. Perhaps none of them would be any stronger than the fourteenth verse of the fifth chapter of Hebrews:" But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." The marginal reading and correct rendering is, Strong meat belongeth to them that are perfect, to those who by the habitual use of their senses (spiritual) can discern both good and evil. The idea of full age, or old age, is not in the text at all, and was put in by the translators because of the old notion that nobody could be a perfect Christian except by long growth and old age, whereas the reference is to a being having all its senses clear, strong, complete, without any reference to whether he be old or young. A young believer, as well as an old one, may be so alive to God, and have all his spiritual senses so cleansed and filled with the Spirit, as to be able to discern spiritual things, and by the exercise of the sanctified soul senses, detect readily and intuitively, the facts in the moral and spiritual realm, whether they be good or evil. The soul of the sinner has all the senses, but they are locked in the dark sleep of sin, and he can no more see or hear or feel the things of God and the heavenly world, than an unborn man can perceive the sights and sounds and magnitudes of the material world.
In order for the soul to have the use of its spiritual senses, it must be born into a spiritual world, its whole being and faculties regenerated by the Holy Ghost. In this age of loose theology and the paring down of the supernatural in religion, the great miracle of the new faith needs to be emphasized with the infinite "must" which Jesus attached to it. When the soul is first converted it is, in reality, a spiritual infant, introduced into a spiritual world, and under the dominion of laws, loves, longings, kinships and apprehensions, that are spiritual. And although it has all the senses and the graces belonging to the spiritual kingdom numerically, yet they are weak, limited, and often rendered dull and inoperative by remaining carnality. This is what the apostle declares concerning the Hebrew converts, when he says that they were "dull of hearing and could not take strong meat, and were inexperienced in the word of righteousness, when at the time they ought to have been teachers." He affirms the same concerning the converted Corinthians.
The vigor and perfection of the bodily senses (unless wounded by an outward force) depend on the purity and vigor of the blood; so the power ,rod acuteness of the spiritual senses depend on the purity of the heart and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. A little infant can see, but he cannot discern shades of color, or distance; he can hear, but he cannot locate sounds; while the senses of touch, taste and smell are feeble. These facts are true of the spiritual babe; he cannot detect the shades of moral quality, he cannot measure accurately moral distances, he is slow to detect evil that hides itself behind apparent good; he does not readily discriminate the agency of Satan, nor has he an acute ear for the voice of God. The infancy of a Christian does not depend upon years, for there arc thousands of sad cases where old Christians blunder along with exceedingly dull apprehension of spiritual things. The inner spiritual man is in a kingdom governed by the Holy Ghost, and not the slow laws of materialism. There are analogies between the different kingdoms, but it is absurd to make these comparisons go on all fours. A man under the reign of animal life will reach his maturity one hundred times quicker than the big trees of California reach theirs, and why should not the inner spiritual man, under the direct agency of the Holy Ghost, reach his moral maturity a hundred times quicker than the outward physical man?
There are three great facts to spiritual life. First, divine life imparted to the soul. Secondly, the life purified from all internal hindrances. Third, the life elaborated and utilized in actual service.
First, the corn must be planted. Second, it must be purified from weeds and grass, and thirdly, utilized into flour and food. We have gold first in the quartz, then purified and turned into bullion, then minted into coin for service. In regeneration the gold of Christian life is imparted. In sanctification the flinty quartz of original depravity is removed, then under the fullness and guidance of the Spirit the faculties and powers become currency in the kingdom of God to do service for him. It is amazing to what an extent the spiritual senses may be carried in their refinement and vigor of apprehension.
