Page:The Other Life.djvu/158

 reception and obedience, in the heart of the angels, which constitutes heaven; first the heavenly state or life, and next the heavenly place or objective world.

The sphere of the Lord which constitutes heaven in the hearts of the angels, is love. Heaven is love. Love to the Lord and love to the neighbor are the life of heaven, and there is no heaven without them. This life is attained by obedience to the divine commandments. What we call the commandments of God are simply the laws or modes of his own Divine existence, stated to us in legal forms for our spiritual guidance. To keep the commandments is to live like God in our finite sphere; hence to be like Him; hence, by spiritual affinity, to love Him; and, finally, by the great law of spiritual attraction, to be with Him.

"If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with Me.'

The whole Christian world has some idea of this presence of God in the human soul. It knows that