Page:Heaven Revealed.djvu/316

 "Every society of heaven," says Swedenborg, "consists of persons of similar character. They who are alike, are brought together not of themselves but of the Lord. In like manner conjugial partners whose minds are capable of being conjoined into one, are drawn together; and at first sight they deeply love each other, and see that they are conjugial partners, and enter into marriage. Hence all the marriages in heaven are of the Lord alone."—H. H. n. 383.

This is the case with those who have died in infancy or childhood, and been educated in heaven. They have never contracted any evil habits, and have learned and practiced the true worship. It is the indwelling of the Lord in their hearts which gives such perception. But it is otherwise on earth, mainly because children are not here nurtured, nor surrounded by such sweet religious atmospheres, as they are in heaven. They are not early taught to deny self, and to shun all known evils as sins. And sin always clouds the mind's clear vision. Forgetting or turning our backs on the Lord, as we do when we disobey his precepts, is what shuts out the light of heaven from the soul. And this light gone, we walk in darkness. And "he that walketh in darkness, knoweth not whither he goeth."

From the heavenly view of marriage that we have presented, it is further seen that, if one desires or hopes to form a true conjugial union, he must worship the Lord in his daily life; he must cultivate a reverence for the written Word, and shun as a sin all known evil. There can be no true worship without this; for it is not with words only that the Lord is truly worshiped. Words alone do not open the heart to the reception of