Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/216

210 hold open intercourse with spirits of every class, and to become familiar with their character and surroundings, and with all the important facts, phenomena and laws of the spirit world. It was in a similar way that Paul was "caught up to the third heaven," and heard there words "which it is not possible for a man to utter." In a similar way, too, that he beheld at midday, when on his way to Damascus, "a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun;" for that dazzling light was the light of the spiritual world beaming from the face of the Lord as a sun, which Swedenborg so often tells us is immensely brighter than the sun of this world. It was in a similar way, also, that the seer of Patmos saw myriads of angels, and heard their voices, when he "was in the spirit;" and in a similar way that the disciples repeatedly saw the Lord after his resurrection—that is, by the opening of their spiritual eyes. This accounts for his appearing suddenly in their midst—"the doors being shut"—and as suddenly "vanishing out of their sight." (Luke xxiv. 31; John xx. 26.)

The Bible also testifies to the existence and the occasional opening of the spiritual senses in man. To refer here to a single instance—that of Elisha's servant, who, rising early in the morning, beheld the residence of his master in the little town of Dothan, surrounded by the horses and chariots of the Syrian king, who had sent thither "a great