XVIII.
REJUVENESCENCE AND GROWTH IN HEAVEN..
WHOEVER thinks of existence in heaven as a reality, can hardly help asking. Do people grow old there as they do here on earth? And is their age written on their faces, as it is on the faces of men? And do those who leave this world far advanced in years, and who enter the society of the blessed, forever retain the withered form and furrowed cheeks which they had at the time they left this world? There is really but one question involved in these interrogatories, and that is one concerning the age or apparent age of the denizens of heaven. Do they appear young or old? What is Swedenborg's answer to this question?
Before adducing his testimony, we will consider how the question ought to be answered. What is the verdict of reason on the subject, and what the inevitable conclusion to be drawn from the teaching of the last chapter?
If what has been said concerning the beauty of the angels is to be accepted as true, it follows that they do not grow old; or, at least, that age does not plow such furrows in their faces as it does in the faces of men. For we all recognize something comparatively unbeautiful in the wasted cheek, the lustreless eye, and the furrowed brow of old age. The faces and forms of men and women at ninety—however pure and innocent the lives they have led—would rarely be thought beautiful. They seldom—never, indeed—at that age realize our highest conception of the human form. What, then, might we expect would be the appearance of those who have been in heaven thousands of years, if Time laid his palsying hand on the bodies of angels as it does on those of men? Why, they would be divested of every vestige of human comeliness. Their features and forms would hardly be recognized as human, so shriveled and wasted would they be. And if those who die at an advanced age and go to heaven, are forever to bear about them the same decrepid form and furrowed checks which marked their declining years on earth, then would it, indeed, be a calamity to live "to a good old age" on earth. Unless the aged saint is to lose in heaven his wrinkles and his decrepitude, and return to the vigor and freshness of his earlier years, who would wish to remain on earth beyond the age of twenty?
What has been said, therefore, of the beauty of the angels, if true, is conclusive evidence that they do not apparently grow old in heaven; and that the good who die at an advanced age, must there rejuvenate—must return to the beauty and buoyancy of their "golden prime."
Besides, in this world all the usual signs of old age, are so many signs of a decaying process—signs that corporeal dissolution has already commenced; for what is decay but a gradual dying? But there is no death in heaven, consequently no decay. Therefore there can be no deterioration there of any of the powers of body or of mind;—no blunting of the senses, no wasting of the form, none of the visible signs which in this world proclaim the coming on of decrepid old age.
Moreover, time cannot properly be predicated of that which is spiritual; consequently it cannot be predicated of the spiritual world, or of spiritual beings. We cannot say, nor even think, that God is old; nor that He is older now than He was ten thousand years ago, or younger than He will be ten thousand years hence. We cannot predicate age of love or wisdom or any of the Divine attributes. Nor can age be predicated of absolute Life. And God is the only absolute Life, and the infinite Fountain of life to angels and men. And Life itself is forever young and vigorous, forever fresh and new. And since the angels are continually becoming more and more perfect—continually being conjoined more closely with the Lord—continually receiving fresh increments of life from the One only Fountain of life, therefore they must be always advancing towards a state of ever-increasing vigor, bloom and beauty.
Such is the undeniable testimony of reason on this subject. Such is the conclusion logically deduced from known and admitted truths, and from premises already established. And this is precisely what Swedenborg has reported from personal observation, after long and open intercourse with the heaven of angels. Let the following suffice for illustration:
Every candid mind must admit that this is altogether reasonable. And not only so, but any different view would at once appear unreasonable. And the rejuvenating process in the other world, though it may proceed more rapidly than the aging process in this, proceeds according to a law no less fixed or intelligible. The Divine wisdom and beneficence are alike reflected in both processes, and the reasonableness of the former is as clearly discernible as that of the latter. The spiritual organism being perfectly plastic to the influent life, as that life becomes sweeter and richer, and its influx more copious, the inevitable result must be a growing perfection of the human form, and a steady increase of human beauty.
Another question closely allied to the one we have just considered, is: Do those who die in infancy or childhood continue to grow in the other world, as they would have done had they remained longer in this? Or do they continue forever the same in stature as when they departed this life? Does Swedenborg answer this question? If so, how?
How would enlightened reason answer it? we again ask. Is it reasonable to suppose that an infant dying before it is able to walk, will remain to all eternity of the same infantile form, and be forever carried in some sweet mother's arms and dandled on some maternal knee? Is it probable—nay, is it conceivable that the all-wise and loving Father would permit an immortal soul to be thus prematurely arrested in its growth, and by an incident over which that soul had no control, and was therefore powerless to prevent? For we cannot conceive of the spirit of a little child developing into the grand, capacious, wise and loving soul of a full-grown angel, without a corresponding change or development of that spiritual organism which constitutes its body in the spiritual realm. The idea is repugnant to all our conceptions as well as our knowledge of the laws of divine order. As easily can we conceive of the luscious qualities of the full-grown and ripened peach or orange existing in the germ of that fruit soon as the flower has fallen; or of these qualities becoming fully developed there, without a corresponding growth and development of the germ itself. Far more reasonable is it to believe that the Lord has made provision for the growth of the spiritual body after the material has been sloughed off, that the soul may not be arrested in its development by the mere incident of bodily death. The body grows on earth to the full stature of manhood by the steady accretion of material substance; what should hinder its growth in heaven to the full stature of angelhood by a similar accretion of spiritual substance? The spiritual body while yet in the flesh, grows with the material,—indeed it is the growth of the spiritual which causes that of the material; what then is to hinder its continued growth after it leaves the flesh? It is not natural but spiritual substance that feeds the soul while in the natural body; and will it not have the same food, and the same means of growth therefore, after this body dies?
It is clear enough, then, what the verdict of reason is on this subject. Now listen to the testimony of him whose spiritual eyes and ears were opened, and who was able, therefore, to testify "from things seen and heard."
And so we find that, on this as on other subjects, Swedenborg's revealings "from things heard and seen" are in perfect agreement with the intuitions of the highest reason, and with all that is known of the wisdom and dealings of Providence and of the laws of divine order. It is impossible to conceive of any different view of the subject, which will so completely satisfy the demands of sober reason and an enlightened understanding.
In view of such sublime revealings, what a precious boon is heaven!—yet a boon which all are made capable of attaining, and which it is the Lord's ceaseless desire and effort to help us to attain. There flows forever the stream of the water of life, and forever increases in crystal clearness. There the fountains of wisdom are ever fresh, and the flame of love burns with ever-increasing fervor. There beauty never fades, but ever grows more fresh and fair. There none grow old, but all rejuvenate;—all who have passed on earth their manhood's prime, are forever advancing towards younger, yet still riper life. Old age puts off its wrinkles there, and returns to the vigor and bloom of early manhood. There joys never decay, and the warm current of bounding life gushes forth with perennial freshness. And the simple yet all-sufficient reason is, that the angels are forever becoming more and more receptive of the Divine Life—forever drawing nearer and nearer, or becoming more and more like. Him who is the one eternal Source of all wisdom, beauty, life and joy.