XXVI.
WORK IN HEAVEN.
WHENEVER a person contemplates a change of residence, one of the first questions he usually asks himself, is, How shall I employ myself in my new abode? And it is equally natural for those who are hoping some day to go to heaven, to ask. How shall we be occupied, or what shall we do, when we get there? Has Swedenborg answered this question? Yes—quite explicitly.
But first, let us see what Christians prior to his time thought about it. On this, as on most other questions touching the Hereafter, opinions were divided. Some believed they should sit upon thrones, and that their happiness would spring from the exercise of regal authority. Others, that they would feast with patriarchs and prophets on the daintiest viands, and that this would be unutterable bliss. Others, that they should dwell in a city with pearl gates and golden streets, be surrounded by more than princely magnificence, and that idly gazing on such outward splendor would make them supremely happy. Others, that there would be in heaven a complete release from all active employment, and that happiness would be found in utter idleness—its denizens forever quaffing delights without rendering the slightest service. Others, that heaven is a place abounding in spontaneous paradisiacal joys, where all things pleasant to the senses are daily born with endless variety, and where it is bliss to respire the fresh and ever-varying delights. Others (and some Christians of the present day may be included in this class) have supposed that acts of formal worship—oral prayer and songs of thanksgiving and praise—would be the chief employment of the heavenly inhabitants.
Such are the opinions which Christians have hitherto entertained. Does any one of them appear reasonable in the light of the present day? To conceive of human beings (for angels are all human) forever occupied in any of these supposed ways—what could be more absurd! Whichever supposition you choose, presents heaven to us as little else than a solemn farce. For all the above-mentioned ways of living, when regarded as regular occupations, fall far below the ordinary employments of people here on earth, in point of both dignity and importance.
Some may think this language too strong when applied to the last named occupation. But consider the subject for a moment. Is there no higher kind of worship than oral prayer and hymns of thanksgiving and praise? These, rightly regarded, are not ends, but simply means to an end. They are a means of opening the soul to a freer influx,of the Lord's love and wisdom, and thus leading us to act in accordance with his will in the manifold relations of life. To regard them as anything more or other than helps to greater fidelity in the discharge of our ordinary duties, is to commit a serious mistake.
Suppose people on earth should devote themselves exclusively to praying and psalm-singing, making this their regular occupation: should we think they were thereby worshiping God in a manner most acceptable to Him? Would they thus be fulfilling the great end of their creation? Would the various wants and faculties of the soul find their full gratification in such exercises? Is this man's proper employment? So far from it, the individual who should make it the regular business of his life, would justly be regarded as insane.
Besides, what use would be subserved by it, if enV gaged in as a regular occupation? Would the growth of charity or the welfare and happiness of society be thereby promoted? And whatever does not tend to this end, cannot be really useful. God does not desire our prayers or praises on his own account. He desires them solely for our good. He knows them to be a means of opening our souls to the influx of his love and wisdom, and of helping us to obey more implicitly the precepts which require us to love and do good to our neighbor.
And does any one believe that a person's own happiness or growth in the heavenly graces, would be promoted by making oral prayer and psalm-singing the business of his life? Let the best man living devote himself steadily and exclusively to this for a single week, and the languor, listlessness and mental torpor thereby induced before the close of this brief period, would seem to him anything but heavenly delight. They would convince him that he was doing violence to his better nature—sinning against the laws of his spiritual being.
Acts of formal worship may be (we are told, are) occasionally engaged in by the angels; and these exercises are, in heaven as on earth, a means of spiritual improvement. But they cannot be the regular employment there, unless man's spiritual constitution is totally changed in the other world—a presumption not warranted by reason or Scripture. For man has many faculties and wants besides those which find their gratification in acts of formal worship. Each of these faculties has a definite mode of action, seeks its gratification in its own way. And they are wants and faculties of the soul, and must therefore exist so long as the soul exists. And if these faculties do not find their chief gratification in prayer and sacred song here, neither will they there. If this would not be useful as an occupation on earth, what reason is there for believing it would be in heaven? If it would not promote men's happiness here, why should it be the chief source of happiness there? And if those who should make it their sole occupation on earth would be regarded as insane, what, then (if it be the chief employment of the angels), would heaven be but a vast assemblage of lunatics?
Similar remarks will apply with even more force to the other ideas which Christians have entertained about life in heaven. In the light of to-day, they are all seen to be most unreasonable and absurd. Not one of them will stand the test of a rational examination. Sitting upon thrones, feasting daintily with the patriarchs, walking idly in golden streets, dwelling luxuriously in palaces of regal splendor—none of these things can confer real happiness, because none of them can adequately supply the soul's varied wants. And if it is desirable to have correct views on the subject, it is to the same extent desirable that some further revelation respecting it be vouchsafed.
Turn now to the disclosures made through Swedenborg; and see if they are as unreasonable as the beliefs which have hitherto prevailed. He tells us first, that there are innumerable occupations in heaven, every one there having some useful work to do, for which he is constitutionally fitted, and which he takes delight in doing. No one can be happy or be in heaven without being actively employed. But work there is never fatiguing, as it often is on earth. It is the free, spontaneous and healthy exercise of the faculties;—is all joyous and delightful like the dearly-loved plays of children.
And we are further told that every one's happiness in heaven, is in proportion to the importance of the use he performs there, and to the affection and earnestness with which he devotes himself to it.
But the Bible, we are told, speaks of the righteous after death as "resting from their labor." How is this language to be understood, and how is its teaching to be reconciled with that of the passage just quoted? We will let Swedenborg himself answer this question, or rather one of the wise ones he encountered in the other world. On a certain occasion three new comers from our earth, who had imbibed many erroneous ideas about heaven, and among others, that all active occupation would there cease, were led about by a wise elder, and shown various things which astonished them. At length "they were led in the city [called Athenæum] to the rulers, administrators, and their subordinate officers, and by the latter to the wonderful specimens of workmanship which are made in a spiritual manner by the artificers." And the narrative proceeds:
And many Christians of our day, especially such as are gifted with much spiritual insight, have come to the same conclusion without the help of Swedenborg,—so completely do his disclosures about life in heaven accord with the dictates of reason and common sense. How entirely in agreement with the above extract, is the following, for example, by the author of that remarkable discourse, "Religion in common Life," which has been so widely circulated:
"The true 'Rest' of the soul is that, not of Inactivity, but of Congenial Exertion. Labor is rest to the active and energetic spirit. To not a few minds, congenial activity, eager, absorbing, all but incessant, is the element in which they find repose. And the ardent and enthusiastic soul, conscious of power, and delighting in work that calls it forth, will sometimes seem to enjoy perfect serenity only in the whirl of occupation, as the bird on the wing, in the flow of joyous strength, while it cleaves the air at fullest speed, yet seems as if at rest, poised on its outspread pinions.
"Tor it is to be remembered that the toil that is unfelt is no toil; and the exercise of the mind's faculties on congenial objects, is not only unaccompanied by any irksome sense of toil, but is attended, and probably, were it not for the necessity of using gross material organs, would ever continue to be attended, with positive delight. Fatigue, waste, exhaustion, belong only to matter and material organization. The mind itself does not waste or grow weary, and but for the weight of the weapons wherewith it works, it might think, and imagine, and love on forever. Even with all its present drawbacks, a spirit of great power and energy, so far from resting, frets and feels ill at ease in inactivity. To it inaction is unrest and torture—no work so hard as doing nothing. Only in the putting forth of its energies, in the evolution of its inward power, in the devotion of thought and feeling to congenial pursuits, does it find itself tranquil, unburdened, at rest."—Caird's Sermons, pp. 251, '2.Swedenborg further tells us that the diligent application of the mind to some useful employment from a principle of neighborly love, is an essential condition of happiness in the realms above; and that no one can have experience of the joys of heaven without such application, since the interiors cannot otherwise be opened to the Divine life, the influx of which is the cause of all true joy. He relates the following as instruction given by the angels themselves to certain novitiates who had recently entered the spiritual world:
"The delight of use arising from love through wisdom, is the life and soul of all heavenly joys. In the heavens there are most joyful consociations, which exhilarate the minds of the angels, fill their bosoms with pleasure, and recreate their bodies; but not until they have performed uses in their functions and employments. From these uses is the soul or life of all their joys and delights. And if this soul or life be taken away, accessory joys gradually become no joys, exciting first of all indifference, then disgust, and lastly sorrow and anxiety."—C. L. n. 5.
"There is a certain latent vein in the affection of the will of every angel, which draws his mind to the doing of something; and by this the mind is tranquillized and made satisfied with itself. This tranquillity and satisfaction form a state of mind capable of receiving the love of uses from the Lord; from the reception of this love is heavenly happiness which is the life of the joys mentioned above. Heavenly food in its essence is nothing else but love, wisdom and use together; that is, use, by wisdom, from love. Wherefore food for the body is given to every one in heaven according to the use which he performs; magnificent to those who are in eminent uses; moderate, but of exquisite relish, to those who are in uses of a middle degree; and ordinary to such as are in ordinary uses; but none to the indolent."—Ibid. n. 6.
"Learn what is meant by kings and princes, and reigning with Christ; that it is to know and do uses; for the kingdom of Christ, which is heaven, is a kingdom of uses. For the Lord loves all, and thence wills good to all. But good is use; and because the Lord does good or uses mediately by the angels, and in the world by men, so to them who faithfully do uses He gives the love of use and its reward which is internal blessedness, and this is eternal happiness. There are in the heavens as in the earth, supereminent dominions and the richest treasures; for there are governments and forms of government, and thus there are greater and less powers and dignities. For those of the highest rank, are palaces and courts which exceed in magnificence and splendor those of emperors and kings on earth, and honor and glory flow around them from the number of their attendants, ministers and guards, and from their magnificent vestures. But they who have the highest rank are selected from those whose hearts are in the public welfare, and who are only as to the senses of the body in the fullness of magnificence for the sake of obedience. And because it is for the public welfare that every one should be of some use in society as in a common body, and because all use is from the Lord, and is done through angels and through men as if by them, it is plain that this is to reign with the Lord."—C. L, n. 7.
"There are three things which flow as one from the Lord into our minds; these are love, wisdom and use. But love and wisdom do not exist unless ideally, when only in the affections and thoughts of the mind; but they exist really in use, because they are simultaneously in act and bodily work; and where they exist really, there they also subsist. And because love and wisdom exist and subsist in use, it is use which affects us; and use is faithfully, sincerely and diligently to perform the works of one's office. The love of use, and therefrom a fixed attention to use, hold the mind together, so that it may not flow forth and dissipate itself, and wander about, and drink in all the lusts which flow-in from the body and the world through the senses, with their allurements, by which the truths of religion and morality with all their goods, are scattered to the winds. But a studious fixing of the mind upon use, holds and binds them together in use, and disposes the mind into a form receptive of wisdom from those truths; and then it exterminates the sports and mockeries of falsities and vanities."—Ibid. n. 16.
"The wise ones said: Man when first:created was imbued with wisdom and its love, not for the sake of himself, but for the sake of its communication with others from himself. Hence it is inscribed on the wisdom of the wise, that no one is wise or lives for himself alone, but for others at the same time. Thence is society, which otherwise could not be. To live for others is to perform uses. Uses are the bonds of society, which are just as many as there are good uses, and the number of uses is infinite. . . Moreover, every love has its own pleasure, for by this love lives; and the pleasure of the love of uses is heavenly pleasure, which enters succeeding pleasures in order, and according to the order of succession exalts them and makes them eternal.
"After this they enumerated the heavenly delights proceeding from the love of use, and said that they are myriads of myriads, and that they who are in heaven enter into them. And with further discourses of wisdom on the love of uses, they passed the day with them until evening."—C. L, n. 18.And the same thing in substance is often repeated in his writings. In the light of these disclosures heaven is seen to be a state of intense activity. Every angel has some useful occupation which he loves, and in the earnest pursuit of which he finds intense delight. Without it, he could not really know what heaven is. Its essential constituents, we are told, are love and wisdom; but these are only ideal entities—mere abstractions—until determined toward and embodied in works. They have no real existence but in use. The angels say:
Uses, therefore, or love and wisdom ultimated and fixed in deeds, are the essential things in God's kingdom. The angelic heaven is a kingdom of uses, and every angel is a form of some particular use. Use, moreover, is the containant of all true heavenly life, and every angel is happy according to the nature of his use, and to the affection and earnestness with which he devotes himself to it.
Such is Swedenborg's uniform teaching on this subject. Is it true? is the next and vital question to be considered.
It is generally canceded that God is the one infinite Source of life. He alone is Life Itself. And life is forever active. Life and inaction are incompatible ideas. The two cannot coexist. One forbids or dissipates the other, as surely as light disperses the darkness. God is Life, and Life is inseparable from action. Therefore He never has ceased and never can cease to work. He not only did create, but is forever creating. He not only did make, but is now and forever making men in his own image and likeness; yes, and making worlds, and fitting them for the abode and sustenance of human beings. He is everywhere and always working—always creating and preserving; for it is not in the nature of Life to cease from action. This is a central truth. As saith the incarnate Word: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work."
Now, as He from whom creation sprang is forever present in his own works, filling, sustaining and directing, therefore something of his own activity is stamped on all things which have been touched by his living breath, from the great orb that warms and enlightens us, down to the smallest atom that quivers in his beams. All things have an appointed use, a specific end and a determinate mode of action, because something of the Divine Love and Wisdom is in them all as their guiding and controling power. This is true of the sun's light and heat, of the air we breathe and the earth we tread, as well as of everything that lives and grows upon it. The smallest grain of dust is the containant of something of God's wisdom which directs it to its appointed goal, and of something of his love which impels it to the performance of its allotted work. And ascending to the realm of organic matter, the activity of life becomes more apparent. There is life of a low order in plants and trees; and it is ever at work there—ever busy at its appointed use. When its vital forces are so obstructed that their activity ceases in a blade of grass or the limb of a tree, straightway that blade or limb withers and dies.
Then look at animal life, especially as manifested in the higher orders. It not only courses in one continuous current through their veins and arteries, imparting health and activity to each separate organ, but it sets the whole animal in motion. Each creature has its sphere of use, and its determinate mode of action; and both its action and its use are according to the nature of its life. It must act as its life impels it, else it cannot enjoy its full share of happiness, health or content.
We know, too, that a certain amount of bodily exercise is indispensable to bodily health. Weakness and infirmity are the sure consequences of inaction, while exercise promotes health and vigor. And this is true alike of the whole body and each of its component parts. If any part is exercised more than the rest (provided the exercise is not carried to excess), that part is sure to outstrip the others in strength and vigor. Look at the blacksmith's brawny arm, and contrast it with that of one who has left that limb unexercised!
What, then, is the conclusion to which we are forced by the analogies of nature? Clearly this: That life in heaven must be one of intense activity. The denizens of the celestial realms must be actively and usefully employed. Nature (and this is but the lowest plane of the Divine activity) in all her kingdoms is a vast theatre of action, and of action tending always to some useful end. Nothing is idle here; nothing stands still; nothing is inactive. Earth, sun and stars are always in motion. The air and the ocean pulsate continually. They have their tides, their eddies, and their currents, and through ceaseless activity are preserved in a salubrious condition. And the multitudinous forms of animal life all have a determinate mode of action corresponding to the nature and use of each. And not only is activity needed to the health and comfort of each, but indispensable to its complete development. And in the healthy condition of the human system, how active is every organ and every minutest part of it! Although their modes of action and the uses they severally perform are infinitely various, yet they are mutually adapted to each other, and work together in admirable harmony.
Life, then, under all its innumerable forms on earth, is forever active; and everywhere and always it has a definite mode of action corresponding to its nature or quality. Should we expect it would be less active in heaven than on earth?
But we have proof stronger than that from analogy, as well as more direct and positive. We know some of the laws that govern man's psychical nature, and some of the conditions indispensable to his happiness while in the flesh. And one is, the exercise of his mental as well as bodily powers, and their determination toward some definite object. Activity is inseparable from his mental constitution; and if his activity is not guided by the revealed laws of neighborly love, he will be active in doing Satan's work—active in seeking his own aggrandizement, and in cheating, robbing and spoiling others. And this misdirection of his powers brings sorrow and suffering both to himself and his neighbor.
Every one knows, too, that the idle man is never a happy man. The soul does not expand but collapses by idleness. It does not grow but withers under it. Man is not vivified but deadened by it. It is only by some kind of occupation requiring the exercise of our mental powers, that the mind is excited, vivified and delighted (C. L. 207). The most unhappy people in the world are those who have no regular occupation, and no clearly defined purpose in life.
But it is essential to our highest happiness here, not only that we be busily but usefully occupied; and that we work at our vocation from the love of serving or of being useful. True human life everywhere has respect to other beings outside of itself, and will ever seek to ultimate itself in truly human acts. It is the love of serving or doing good to others—at the same time acknowledging the Lord as the source of this love, and of the disposition and power to do good. Because this life is truly human, it must seek to ultimate itself in deeds which tend to promote human welfare. If a man really loves his neighbor, and knows how to serve and bless him, he cannot leave the service unperformed; if he should, his neighborly love would soon depart. True love is ever active in doing for others. Soon as it ceases to do—to bless—it ceases to be. The happiest people in the world are those most actively engaged in some useful occupation, and who work from the love of rendering themselves in the highest degree useful. These, while on earth, enjoy a foretaste of heaven. They receive an influx of heavenly delights, just in the degree that they use their gifts for the promotion of heavenly ends. And on the other hand the goods and truths of heaven with their delights, are lost or taken away if not used for the benefit of the neighbor. The Lord plainly teaches this in the parable of the talents. They who used what was committed to them, gained thereby other talents, and were pronounced "good and faithful servants" worthy of an entrance into the joy of their Lord; while he who hid his talent, or neglected to use it, lost through such neglect what was committed to him, and was declared a wicked and slothful servant, worthy only to be cast into "the outer darkness."
This, then, is an everlasting law—a law to which angels in heaven and men on earth are alike subject—that the rich treasures of the heart are increased by being used, and diminished if not used. Nothing is more certain than this. The more we exercise patience, the more patient we become. The more we do justly, the more are our hearts imbued with the love of justice. The more scrupulously we obey the laws of the heavenly life, the more delight do we find in obeying them, and the more do we receive of the spirit of those laws. The more faithfully and unselfishly we devote ourselves to any worthy cause or useful calling—the more we give of affection and thought and study and effort to the upbuilding of God's kingdom, the more is our affection for the things of that kingdom strengthened, our capacity for receiving them enlarged, and the freer and more abundant is their influx. Agreeable to these words of the Lord: "Give, and it shall be given unto you." Give love and sympathy, and your love and sympathy will increase. Give patience and kindness and tenderness and generosity, and you will receive a larger measure of these same graces. Exercise courage, and you will grow more courageous. Do justly, and your sense of justice will become keener and your love of justice stronger. Practice the laws of the heavenly life, and fresh increments of that life and clearer views of its laws will flow into your soul day by day. The more you do to enlighten and purify and bless others, the more of the light and purity and unselfish devotion of heaven will be poured into you from on high. As saith the incarnate Word: "For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance;" and "with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." There can be no reception of the heavenly life, without the giving, or the effort to give, of this same life,—that is, without the exercise of the heavenly graces; and the exercise of these involves the performance of heavenly uses.
Thus do reason, analogy, human experience and Sacred Scripture unite to prove that the denizens of heaven must be actively employed; and since they are all human, their employments must be human. They must be such employments as are suitable to human beings—such as proceed from and agree with true human love. But there is in heaven as on earth an endless diversity of character and state. Therefore we should expect an endless variety of occupations there as here. We should expect societies and individuals to have such occupations as correspond to their different states. Accordingly Swedenborg says:
"The employments of heaven are innumerable, and various according to the offices of the societies. Every society performs a peculiar office; for as the societies are distinct according to goods, so are they also according to uses, since goods with all in heaven are goods in act, which are uses. Every one there performs a use, for the kingdom of the Lord is a kingdom of uses.
"There are, in heaven as on earth, various administrations; for there are ecclesiastical affairs, civil affairs and domestic affairs.
"Ecclesiastical affairs in heaven are under the charge of those who, when in the world, loved the Word and earnestly sought for the truths which it contains, not for the sake of honor or gain but for the sake of the use of life, both their own and others. These are in illustration and in the light of wisdom in heaven according to their love and desire of use; for they come into that light in heaven from the Word, which is not natural there as in the world, but spiritual. These perform the office of preachers.
"Civil affairs are administered by those who, while in the world, loved their country and its general good in preference to their own; and did what is just and right from the love of justice and rectitude. Such men possess capacity for administering offices in heaven in proportion as their love of rectitude has prompted them to inquire into the laws of justice, and thence to become intelligent. The offices which they administer correspond exactly to the degree of their intelligence; and their intelligence is then in like degree also with their love of use for the general good."—H. H. n. 387,'8, '93.But employments in heaven are not the same as they are on earth. Here they are for the most part natural; but in heaven they are altogether spiritual. And between natural and spiritual employments there is a correspondence like that between body and soul.
"The correspondence of natural with spiritual things, or of the world with heaven, is effected by uses, and uses conjoin them; and the forms with which uses are clothed, are correspondences and mediums of conjunction in proportion as they are forms of use. . . The actions of man are uses in form, and are correspondences whereby he is conjoined to heaven, so far as he lives according to divine order.
"Every one in heaven is in his work according to correspondence; and the correspondence is not with the work, but with the use of every work. He in heaven who is in an employment or work corresponding to his use, is in a state of life exactly like that in which he was in the world,—for what is spiritual and what is natural act as one by correspondence,—but with this difference: that he is in more interior delight, because in spiritual life which is interior life, and hence more receptive of heavenly blessedness."—H. H. n. 112, 394.The employments of heaven exceed those of this world in number and variety as much as the denizens of heaven outnumber those of earth. The nature of some of them may be inferred from what is said of the various administrations there; and some are specifically mentioned.
"There are societies whose employments consist in taking care of infants; there are other societies whose employments are to instruct and educate them as they grow up; others who in like manner instruct and educate boys and girls who are of a good disposition from education in the world, and who thence come into heaven; others who teach the simple good from the Christian world, and lead them in the way to heaven; others who perform the same office for the various Gentile nations; others who defend novitiate spirits,—those who have recently come from the world,—from infestations by evil spirits; some who are attendant on those in the lower earth; some who are present with those in hell, and restrain them from tormenting each other beyond the prescribed limits; and some who attend upon those who are being raised from the dead.
"In general, angels of every society are sent to men, that they may guard them, and withdraw them from evil affections and consequent evil thoughts, and inspire them with good affections so far as they receive them freely. By means of these affections also they rule the deeds or works of men, removing from them evil intentions as far as possible. . . . But all these employments of the angels are functions performed by the Lord through them; for they perform them not from themselves, but from the Lord.
"These employments of the angels are their general employments. But to each one is assigned his particular use; for every general use is composed of innumerable others which are called mediate, ministering and subservient uses." —H. H. n. 391.In heaven as on earth some employments are superior to others in point of dignity and importance; but no one there arrogates to himself the dignity, or thinks himself superior to others because of the superiority of his use. Personally the angels are all on a level; and they never think of the honor and dignity of any use as belonging to themselves, but to the Lord alone, from whom comes all their love of use, and their ability and skill in its performance.
"The wiser angels take charge of those things belonging to the general good or use; and the less wise, of such as relate to particular goods or uses; and so on. They are subordinated just as in divine order uses are subordinated. Hence also dignity is attached to every employment according to the dignity of the use. No angel, however, arrogates the dignity to himself, but ascribes it all to the use. And because use is the good which he performs, and all good is from the Lord, therefore he ascribes it all to the Lord. Wherefore he who thinks of honor for himself and thence for use, and not for use and thence for himself, cannot perform any office in heaven; for he looks backward from the Lord, regarding himself in the first place and use in the second. When use is spoken of, the Lord also is meant; because use is good, and good is from the Lord.
"From these considerations it may be inferred what subordinations in the heavens are; namely, that as every one loves, esteems and honors use, so also he loves, esteems and honors the person to whom that use is adjoined; and also that the person is loved, esteemed and honored in the degree that he does not ascribe the use to himself, but to the Lord; for in that degree he is wise, and the uses which he performs are performed from a principle of good.
"Spiritual love, esteem and honor are nothing else than the love, esteem and honor of use in the person who performs it; and the honor of the person is from the use, and not that of the use from the person. He also who regards men from spiritual truth, regards them in no other way; for he sees that one man is like another, whether he be in great dignity or in little; that they differ only in wisdom, and that wisdom consists in loving use, and thus in loving the good of a fellow-citizen, of society, of the country and of the church. In this also consists love to the Lord, because all good which is the good of use, is from the Lord; and love toward the neighbor also, because the neighbor is the good which is to be loved in a fellow-citizen, society, the country and the church, and which is to be done to them."—H. H. n. 389, '90.Look, now, at the practical bearing of this teaching. What kind of influence is it calculated to exert on the lives of those who accept it? The teaching briefly summarized, is: That the kingdom of heaven is a kingdom of uses, and every dweller therein is a form of use; that no one can experience the delights of heaven, until there is developed in him a genuine love of use; that the heavenly inhabitants are all actively employed, each in that particular use which he loves and is constitutionally fitted to perform best; that their innumerable employments are all human—all answering the demands of true human love, and tending to the advancement of human happiness; that every angel does his appointed work, not from any selfish end, but from the exquisite delight he finds in rendering useful service; and that the higher the use, and the purer the love that one carries into its performance, and the more earnestly he devotes himself to it, the more exalted and abundant is his happiness.
Now, take this doctrine along with that other, that each one carries his own life with him into the other world, and what is the conclusion? Why, that every person who would enter heaven, must first become a form of use in the kingdom of God; for such are all the angels. He must diligently cultivate, and to some extent acquire while here on earth, the love of use. Every believer will, therefore, seek to know what his peculiar powers of body and mind qualify him to do best; and that he will do, thinking less of personal reward than of the use, and trying to work from a love of this latter. Thus will he consecrate to USE—or, what is equivalent, to the service of God—all his powers of body and mind. He will study to learn the highest use of them all, and will regard himself merely as a steward bound to use his Master's goods in a manner most agreeable to his Master's will. He will not be idle, but an earnest worker. He will not ask, What shall I gain by doing this or that? but Will it be useful?—will it benefit the church, the community, the country, or mankind? He will not inquire, What occupation will bring me most of honor or emolument, but what one do my gifts of body and mind qualify me to perform best? For he will see that every occupation which is useful, is honorable and praiseworthy in the sight of God, so it be honorably performed.
And since God intended that all men should be brethren, therefore there is a mutual dependence and a bond of brotherhood among the innumerable occupations of men, from that of the monarch on his throne or the president in his chair of state, down to the humble scavenger and sable chimney-sweep. They are all fraternally allied—bound together like the innumerable parts of the human body. Therefore every one who labors faithfully in his calling, should be respected in his use and according to his use.
The belief has been entertained even by professed Christians, that labor is a curse inflicted on mankind as a penalty for the transgression of the first human pair; and the literal sense of the Bible favors this idea. Hence the conclusion, that in heaven there can be nothing in the nature of work, since the curse must there be removed. Hence also the idea, hitherto prevalent even in Christian lands, that there is something degrading and servile in work; and that they are the special favorites of heaven, whose circumstances relieve them from the necessity of doing any kind of work,—as if idleness were bliss.
With all such fantasies the doctrine revealed through Swedenborg is seen to be directly at war. Its obvious tendency is to exalt and dignify all useful labor; to make industry everywhere honorable, idleness everywhere contemptible. It shows us that persons who neither have nor desire any useful work, are living a life far removed from that of heaven; and unless they change their course, and try to be of some use in the world, they will never reach the abodes of the blessed. And on the other hand it shows us that all who devote themselves to some useful occupation, and endeavor to discharge its duties with religious fidelity, are laying up for themselves treasures in heaven. They are offering to God the most acceptable worship; for how can we more truly glorify our Father in the heavens, than by diligently occupying ourselves about our Father's business?—employing the powers bestowed by Him, in serving and blessing our fellow men?—working under the promptings of his unselfish love, and the guiding light of his revealed wisdom? "hervein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." This—the faithful performance of uses from the love of use—is regarded in heaven as the truest worship.
Can we conceive of any doctrine more wholesome in its tendency, or more eminently practical, than this? It points us to a life of active, faithful, self-forgetting service, as the sure pathway to the realms of bliss; and tells us that all who hope to enter there, must begin on earth to tread this pathway,—begin here to become forms of use in the kingdom of God, as all the angels are. It adds new meaning and emphasis to the words of one of our poets:
"Work—and thou shalt bless the day
Ere the toil be done;—
They that work not cannot play.
Cannot feel the sun.
God is living, working still;
All things work and move;
Work, wouldst thou their beauty feel,
And thy Maker's love."
And affirms, as an absolute certainty, the reasonable conclusion of another, who sings so sweetly the truth which every gifted child of song cannot fail to see—
Surely there must be work to do in heaven.
Since work is the best thing on earth we know;
Life were but tasteless bread, without this leaven—
A draught from some dead river's overflow.
"Work is the holiest thing in earth or heaven:
To lift from souls the sorrow and the curse—
This dear employment must to us be given
While there is want in God's great universe.
"There must be work for us to do in heaven,
Else that were a less blessed place than this:
The worthiest impulse to our earth-life given,
Must still be felt amid celestial bliss."[1]
Let this New doctrine concerning life in heaven be generally accepted, and become thoroughly imbedded in the popular mind and heart, and what a stupendous change in human society would speedily be wrought! Heaven brought down to earth! The Father's will done here below, as it is done in the realms above! What activity, contentment, abundance, harmony, peace and joy would be here! Millions of human beings all praising God by the diligent and loving performance of uses, in the blessings of which all alike are sharers!
Look at the doctrine in a practical point of view, and see if it be not worthy the high origin claimed for it. Consider what must be its legitimate fruits, and judge it by this divine standard; "for every tree is known by its own fruit." Surely a doctrine, the obvious tendency of which is so good and wholesome, cannot be false, nor can it have emanated from the darkness of the abyss. For it bears upon its front the very signet of God, the impress of his unfathomable love.
- ↑ Lucy Larcum in the Christian Union for Oct. 9, 1884.