Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/232

226 spiritual idea with the angels. Hence it is that times in the Word signify states; and that the things which are proper to time, signify spiritual things corresponding to them." (H. H. 164, '5.)

It is easy to believe this, if we reflect upon what is happening every day in this world. When the mind is thoroughly absorbed in any subject, or agreeably entertained by genial company, we take no note of time. Hours pass, but they seem to us as minutes. Again, in moments of distressing anxiety, as when one's house is on fire or his child has fallen into the water, seconds seem as minutes and minutes as hours. And again in our dreams, we sometimes have the experience of days crowded into a few moments of natural time. In a few minutes we make journeys and accomplish deeds which it would require days, weeks, and even months to perform. All of which is so much evidence from our own experience, that in the spiritual realm there exists not what we call time, but state instead.

Nor does natural space exist in heaven; yet things appear to be in space there, and people appear to go from place to place by the exercise of their powers of locomotion, the same as on earth. But this appearance results from a change of state, the visible correspondent of which is a change of place. When Paul was caught up to the third heaven, his body underwent no change