which the blessed and happy come after death, and said: Eternal rest is not idleness, since from idleness is languor, torpor, stupor, and deep sleep of the mind, and thence of the whole body; and these are death and not life, and still less eternal life in which the angels of heaven are. Wherefore eternal rest is a rest which dispels these, and causes man to live; and this is nothing else but such as elevates the mind. It is therefore some study and work by which the mind is excited, vivified and delighted; and this is done according to the use from which, in which, and to which it operates. Hence it is that the entire heaven is regarded by the Lord as containing uses; and every angel is an angel according to use. The pleasure of use carries him on, as a favorable stream does a ship, and causes him to be in eternal peace and in the rest of peace. Thus is understood eternal rest from labors."—C. L, n. 207.
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
