Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/253

Rh and psalm-singing, would be an utterly useless life; and if any one imagines it might be a happy life, let him try the experiment for a single week, and he will be convinced of his mistake. And if such a life on earth would be neither useful nor happy, why should it be in heaven?

No: the highest happiness here is realized by those who devote themselves most faithfully and unselfishly to the performance of the highest uses of which they are capable. And if such be the condition of happiness on earth, then why not also in heaven?

It is into such faithful, active, use-loving souls, that the Divine life flows most freely; and it is the influx of this life which brings heavenly peace and rest;—not the rest of idleness or inaction, but rest from all the harassing doubts and tormenting fears and turbulent passions and corroding anxieties and worldly cravings which make the unregenerate heart "like the troubled sea, whose waters cast up mire and dirt."

Swedenborg says that heavenly joy and bliss, "such as it is in its essence," is indescribable, being in the inmosts of the angels, and thence diffusing itself throughout their whole being.

"It is as if their interiors were wide open and free to receive delight and blessedness, which is