Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/217

Rh host" to capture the man of God; and in alarm he cried out: "Alas, my master! how shall we do?" And the prophet answered: "Fear not; for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed and said: Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha" (2 Kings vi. 15-18). It is plain that the "eyes" here spoken of, which the Lord opened in answer to Elisha's prayer, were not the eyes of that young man's body, but the eyes of his spirit; and that the horses and chariots which he then beheld round about his master, were seen in the spiritual world, and represented, under the great law of correspondence, the strong and sure defence not only of Elisha but of all who put their trust in the Lord, and seek only to do his will.

Every one, therefore, who reads his Bible, and will make himself acquainted with the pneumatology and psychology of the New Church, will find it easy to accept declarations like the following, which are of frequent occurrence in the writings of Swedenborg:

"That there is a spiritual world inhabited by spirits and angels, distinct from the natural world inhabited by men, is a fact which, because no angel has descended and declared it, and no man has