Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/207

Rh where all things are homogeneous with itself—that is, are spiritual. The spirit is in the human form and is a spiritual and substantial organism. It has feet, hands and other bodily organs, and senses far more acute than those of the body; and these senses are opened as soon as the body dies, so that the spirit sees and hears other spirits as men see and hear one another,—and has sensible perception of the things in the spiritual world as men have sensible perception of the things in this world. This agrees with Paul's teaching; for he says: "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body;" and in the same verse he declares that it is the spiritual body which experiences the resurrection. "A natural body is sown, a spiritual body is raised"—according to the correct translation of the original Greek; and he calls the man a "fool" who imagines that it is the material body—this outer garment of flesh which envelops us in this our earth-life—that is to attain unto the resurrection (1 Cor. xv. 36, 44).

The material body has no life of its own. It lives by virtue of the indwelling spirit. The spiritual body is within the natural during our life on earth, filling and animating every minutest part of it. But when the latter dies, the spiritual body, released from its clay tenement, enters upon a conscious state of existence in its own congenial realm;—still lives, with its senses all awake or