Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/124

118 throughout, the New Church does not believe or teach that only those who accept this doctrine and who understand the science of correspondence, can receive spiritual instruction from the Word. Swedenborg teaches nothing of this sort. On the contrary, he teaches that the spiritual meaning of many parts of the Word—and these the most essential parts—is sufficiently obvious to all minds. The cloud of the letter in many places is so thin, that the light of the spiritual sense shines through. Thus he says: "The Word in its literal sense is like a man clothed, whose face and hands are naked. Everything in the Word necessary to a man's faith and life and also to his salvation, is naked; but the rest is clothed; and in many places where it is clothed, it [the genuine spiritual truth] is visible through the clothing, as objects are seen through a veil of thin silk." (D. S. S. n. 229.)

Thus all have an intuitive perception of the correspondence and spiritual signification of many things. Consequently all have a perception of the spiritual meaning of many portions of the Divine Word.

For example: When our Saviour says: "I am the light of the World," Christians generally do not think of natural light, but of that to which the natural corresponds—the light of divine truth. When He says: "I am that bread of life," most