Page:The Other Life.djvu/77

 ries are bathed in the purple splendors of a celestial morn. Every window is thrown open to greet the spiritual sun which is representative of the Lord. Thousands of beautiful and happy spirits present themselves to view, clad as the angels are, and all voices join in singing a morning song of praise and joy, of such divine harmony that the whole soul is thrilled and melted with delight. This did Swedenborg see and hear.

Yes, music exists in heaven. It is indeed the voice of heaven, because it is the external form or medium through which the purest heavenly affections are expressed and communicated.

There is more in speech than the communication of ideas. That is but one half of the phenomenon. Ideas in the spiritual world may indeed be communicated without speech. One spirit coming to another takes on his entire memory in a moment, knows all he knows, thinks all he thinks. They can read each other's thought without exchanging an audible word. What then is the necessity of speech? of sound conveyed atmospherically from the mouth of one spirit to the ear of another?

It is because the affections of the speaker are involved and unfolded in the sound of his voice. There is a difference between the words and the