sense by "the smoke of the pit," and the smoke that "ascendeth up for ever and ever." It is that darkened understanding, that mental obscurity which results from the fire of a supremely selfish love, which is the fire of hell. And in the other world where all outward appearances correspond to internal states, a cloud of smoke actually appears round about infernal societies when they are seen in heavenly light.
Thus we see that the doctrine announced by Swedenborg concerning the nature of hell, however it differs from the literal teaching of the Bible, is in perfect agreement with the teaching of its spiritual sense. No candid mind can deny that it is, indeed, the very doctrine of the Bible on this subject, and in harmony with the whole scope of its teaching as well as with all we know of the wisdom of God and the nature of man.
Then look at its obvious, practical tendency. By showing hell to be a state instead of a place, it teaches every one to look within himself, at his own heart; to examine carefully his dominant love, his ends and aims in life, his ruling principles of action. It teaches us, moreover, what that state is: and that those, and those only, go to hell, who carry in their bosoms the loves that rule in hell; and therefore that those only escape it, who resist and overcome these loves. It shows us that only those shun hell, who shun as sins against God the indulgence of the dispositions and loves of hell;—who shun,
