the earth; "and many more similar expressions. If such passages are applied to the material earth they have no meaning; for that certainly has no moral or intellectual qualities. It cannot rejoice or grieve the Lord. But when we pass from the natural to the spiritual idea, a thick cloud of darkness vanishes from the sacred page. It is instantly illuminated by a light from heaven. The law of correspondence between natural and spiritual things, also explains with equal clearness those other prophecies mentioned above. In the literal sense those prophecies seem to foretell the approach of some awful convulsion in the material universe; but in this sense they were not fulfilled. The natural sun which is the source of heat and light, sustains a relation to the earth, similar to that which the spiritual sun, the divine love and wisdom, sustains to the Church. The sun never ceases to shine, but the clouds sometimes intercept its rays, or the earth turns us away from it, and then it seems to us to be darkened. In a similar way the spiritual sun which is the life and light of the Church, appears to be "turned into darkness." Not that the love and wisdom of the Lord are ever withdrawn, for these divine qualities being infinite and perfect, can never be diminished or changed. But the church sometimes turns herself away from the Lord, and then her heavens become dark and the spiritual sun appears to be extinguished.
The moon transmits to us the light which she receives from the sun. It very finely and beautifully represents that heavenly charity and faith which is the reflected image of the divine love and wisdom. But when the sun is turned into darkness, the moon is also turned into blood. When the divine love and wisdom disappear from the spiritual heavens, charity and faith are turned into that which is evil and false. For blood, in an evil sense denotes the extinction of life—in a natural sense the extinction of natural life, and in a spiritual sense, the extinction of spiritual life, the life of charity and faith.
