endure so long as the human soul endures, and its laws and tendencies remain what they are.
But the Bible, says an objector, teaches that "in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage" (Matt. xxii. 30). How is this language to be understood, and how its its teaching to be reconciled with that of Swedenborg? Our next chapter will be devoted to the consideration of this question.
XXIII.
SEX AND MARRIAGE IN HEAVEN—SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY.
THAT there should be marriages in heaven, is something so reasonable in itself, and withal so desirable by those who have any true idea of the spiritual nature of true marriage, that Christians in general would readily believe it, did it not seem contrary to the explicit teachings of Scripture. Their highest reason favors the idea; the distinguishing characteristics of the masculine and feminine soul, seem to necessitate the relation in the Hereafter; and the deepest want of our nature and the best feelings of the regenerate heart, encourage the hope that it may be as the great seer has revealed. Yet they cannot accept Swedenborg's teaching on this subject, because of the Lord's words to the unbelieving Sadducees, quoted at the conclusion of the last chapter.
That pious minds should, in view of the Scripture re-
