Heaven Revealed/Chapter 21
XXI.
CHILDREN IN HEAVEN.
IT is known that hundreds of thousands of little children are daily passing by death from the natural into the spiritual world. What becomes of all this infantile host? In what condition are they when their earthly bodies are laid aside? Are they infants and little children still? If so, who has charge of them? and what is done for them? and what their history and final destiny? Millions of bereaved parents are hourly asking these questions—mentally if not orally; and it would seem reasonable to expect that God, who has revealed Himself as an infinitely wise and loving Father, would some day give an explicit answer to such inquiries. He has done so through his own chosen and illumined servant. But before giving the answer, the reader should know what the generally accepted belief on this subject among Christians, was at the time Swedenborg lived and wrote; for this will show the dense spiritual darkness in which the Christian church had become immersed, and the imperative need there was of such a new revelation as he was divinely authorized and commissioned to make.
Many who have not made themselves familiar with the religious beliefs of a hundred years ago, will no doubt be surprised to learn that the cruel and worse than heathenish doctrine of infant damnation, was among the then generally accepted beliefs of all the churches in Christendom. The Roman Catholics believed and taught that all infants dying unbaptized, were doomed to eternal hell torments. And all the distinguished lights (?) and recognized authorities in the various Protestant churches —including Luther, Melancthon, Calvin and Beza, and many eminent professors of theology after them, the English and German churches, the Synod of Dort, and the famous Westminster Assembly of divines—believed that everlasting hell torments will be the portion of some, at least, who die in infancy and childhood.[1] This belief is seen to be one of the legitimate offspring of the doctrine of unconditional election and reprobation, which was generally accepted by all Protestant churches a hundred years ago.
It is needless to make any comments on this doctrine, or to attempt to prove its falsity. For in the light of to-day—the dawning light of the New Jerusalem which is being universally diffused—every one sees that it is not only false, but so monstrous and cruel that no intelligent and humane person thinks of accepting it. And although it may still linger in some of the creeds, or be fairly deducible from other articles there, the staunchest Calvinistic minister of to-day would hardly dare to proclaim such a doctrine before an intelligent congregation, or even hint his belief in it; or if he should, he might expect his people would very soon be on the lookout for another minister. How great, then, must have been the spiritual darkness of the church, when such a doctrine could have been generally accepted! And how great the need of a new and divinely-authorized revelation to disperse that darkness!
Turn, now, to Swedenborg's disclosure on this subject, and see how it squares with the teachings of enlightened reason and Holy Scripture. He says:
We learn from this that all who die in infancy and childhood, go directly to heaven. They are not angels, however, immediately after their decease, for they lack the intelligence and wisdom necessary to constitute an angel. They have the same infantile mind which they had while yet in the flesh; for the death of the body works no change in the spiritual organism. So long, therefore, as they are without heavenly intelligence and wisdom, they are not angels, although in the society of angels.
The condition, in the spiritual world, of those who die in infancy and childhood, is thus seen to be preferable to that of those who continue on earth. Their surroundings are more favorable to the growth of the heavenly graces. They are in better company. Their spiritual wants are more fully supplied; for those who have them in charge are wiser than the wisest mothers or nurses on earth, and love them with a purer spiritual affection—an affection that has supreme regard to their eternal well-being. Thus they are kept under the more immediate auspices of the Lord, and are freed from the manifold debasing influences that surround little children in this lower sphere. They inhale the healthful atmosphere of heaven. No blasting mildew—no foul breath from hell falls upon them there. They meet with no harsh or unkind treatment. So wisely are they led and governed, that their hereditary evils lie dormant—never become actual sins. They witness in those around them no exhibition of evil feelings, they hear no profane or angry words, they look upon no wicked deeds. Love prompts and wisdom directs whatever is done to them and for them. Love breathes in every tone they hear; love beams in every face they see; love moulds the forms and prompts the words and shapes the deeds of all around them. Even the gardens, trees and flowers, and all the beautiful objects that greet their senses, are but the visible and substantial forms of the angelic thoughts and affections which are poured forth in a fresh and everliving stream into their open and receptive souls.
They are educated, too, in a far wiser manner than children on earth. They are instructed for the most part by representatives which are surpassingly beautiful and fraught with angelic wisdom. Objects which delight them exceedingly—all of which are correspondences replete with instruction suited to their states—are presented before them, and their signification fully explained; and thus their minds are gradually opened, and they are led on by their angel teachers to the fulness of angelic wisdom, more rapidly and more pleasantly than children under even the very best instruction in this world. No compulsory processes are resorted to, but they are led by their affections; for the angels know how to insinuate heavenly intelligence into the minds of little children by means of objects which address and delight their senses. Describing the manner in which children are educated in heaven. Swedenborg says:
"Into their affections which all proceed from innocence, are insinuated such things as appear before their eyes, and are delightful. And as these are from a spiritual origin, the things of heaven flow into them at the same time; and thus their interiors are opened, and they become more perfect every day."
"Little children in heaven are instructed principally by representatives suited to their capacities, which, in beauty and fulness of wisdom derived from an interior ground, surpass all belief. Thus intelligence which derives its soul from good, is insinuated into them by degrees."—H. H, n. 337, '8.And this, remember, was written more than twenty years before Froebel, the founder of the new method of educating little children known as the Kindergarten system, was born. Yet the latter system is a faithful imitation of the method pursued in heaven, as revealed through Swedenborg a hundred and thirty years ago.
But those who pass into the spiritual world during infancy or childhood, do not remain infants and children. They advance there as here to the full stature of manhood. They grow by the assimilation or accretion of the substances of the spiritual world, as children on earth grow by the assimilation of material substance. The body in each world is formed of substances homogeneous in their nature with its respective world. But they do not grow old there as here. They do not advance (in appearance) beyond the age of early manhood and womanhood, but retain forever the freshness and vigor of that early period. (See p. 227 for further remarks on this subject.)
But all children are born into this world with a certain hereditary evil taint. They inherit from foregone ancestry proclivities which, in their full development, incline them to all kinds of evil. This is what Swedenborg calls the natural or hereditary proprium, which he says is altogether infernal, and within or above which every regenerate soul receives from the Lord a new and heavenly proprium. This is what constitutes the new man—the new creature—the new birth from Above. And do not those who die in infancy, it may be asked, take with them this natural proprium? If so, what becomes of it? Does it never manifest itself in the world beyond? And if it does, how are their hereditary tendencies to evil to be overcome or got rid of?
It is true that children take with them into the other world all the evil proclivities with which they are born into this world. But their evils are never aroused or called into activity there, and are therefore never appropriated; that is, they never become their own by actual life. Their perverse tendencies gradually lose their strength by not being brought into exercise; for whatever is endowed with life, loses its vital force in the degree that exercise is denied it. This is a universal law. Every mental faculty and disposition as well as every bodily organ, acquires strength by habitual exercise, and loses it by long-continued rest. So with the hereditary evils of children in the other world; they remain quiescent, and never become actual sins by being ultimated. And the principal reason is, that they are so wisely governed that their evil proclivities are never aroused. The sphere of love and wisdom by which they are continually encompassed, exerts a restraining influence on their evil tendencies, while it quickens into life and action every innocent affection; and so their hereditary evils are kept in a quiescent state. But in order to convince them what they are by inheritance, and to induce in them a becoming humility, they are at times remitted into their natural proprium, and kept in it until they see and acknowledge their hereditary evil tendencies. Says Swedenborg:
All, we think, will admit the reasonableness of the great seer's disclosures on the whole subject under consideration. Some say they are too beautiful to be true. Too beautiful to be true! Is anything too beautiful or too good for the Lord to do? Is not He the very perfection of all beauty and all goodness? Did He not create man for heaven, and is it not his constant effort to bring all into the heavenly state? What is there, then, in the nature of the case, in the revealed character of God, in the laws of Divine Providence, or in the state of little children themselves, to prevent their lot in the other world from being precisely as Swedenborg has revealed it? Nay, is not the Lord's infinite mercy a sure pledge that such and so blessed will be their condition? And does not his Word give assurance of the same? What affecting tenderness and love for little children did the Saviour exhibit, when He called them to Him, put his hands upon them and blessed them! And how plainly did He declare their fitness for the realms above, when He said: "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. xix. 14). Again, when He set a little child in the midst of the disciples, saying: "Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Ib. xviii. 3). And again when He said: "For I say unto you that their angels in the heavens do always behold the face of my Father which is in the heavens" (Ibid. v. 10).
It thus appears that Swedenborg's disclosures on this subject have the support of sacred Scripture as well as of sound and enlightened reason.
Then try them by that sure and infallible test which infinite Wisdom has suggested—by their fruits. We know, or can readily infer, the inevitable effect of the Old doctrine on the minds of its believers. We know that it contains no solace for bereaved parents when death has snatched some little one from their embrace. It cannot suppress one sigh, nor mitigate one pang, nor minister one drop of comfort to their stricken hearts. Nay, the thought which it suggests of the bare possibility that their darling may be counted among the reprobates—forever doomed to the torments of the damned—is calculated to wring their souls with indescribable anguish. And what a reproach does the Old doctrine cast upon the character of the infinitely wise and loving Father! What a monster of injustice and cruelty does it make Him!
But the New doctrine as revealed through Swedenborg, while it accords with reason and Scripture and the unspeakable love and wisdom of God, is full of heavenly consolation for bereaved parents. It assures that weeping mother as she bends for the last time over the pulseless body of her darling child, that her precious one is still alive—brighter and happier, too, than ever before; that it has gone from the cold, dull earth to the warm, bright heavens; that it is already in the tender embrace of loving angels, and in due time will itself become an angel; that as soon as it left its earthly tenement and its eyes opened on the spiritual world, it beheld an angel mother smiling on it, and eager to fold it in her loving arms; that there this angel mother will love and tend it, and angel teachers instruct and guide it; that there it will play with other children who are all learning to be good and wise; that there it will feel no pain, and know no sorrow, and experience no want; that there, enveloped in an atmosphere of sweetest love, it will be forever shielded from all baleful influences, and never know the polluting touch of sin; that everything which greets its senses there, will be full of instruction and delight; that its eye will behold none but beautiful objects, and its ear listen only to love's sweet notes.
And let that mother believe all this, as she surely will if she studies the revealings which it has pleased the Lord to make, and will she not derive support and comfort from it? Will she not find in it a balm for her wounded spirit? Will it not give her beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness? Will she not dry her tears, suppress her sighs, chide her murmurs, and with humble, cheerful trust look up, and say from the heart, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."
Nor is the instruction which this new revelation imparts, less important than the comfort it affords. Not only does it enable us to give up our little ones with more resigned and cheerful hearts at the call of the Heavenly Father, but it presses upon us the importance of governing and instructing them aright while they remain with us. It shows us that, if we would train our children for heaven, we must endeavor to become heavenly-minded ourselves. We must have our affections so fixed on heavenly things, that the love of heaven will shine out in our looks, tones, words and actions; for then we shall be able to lead our children by their affections, as the angels do. We must endeavor to shield them against all corrupting influences, and to surround them by such a sweet and heavenly atmosphere as will strengthen all their good affections and stifle all the bad.
Such is the instruction which the new revelation on this subject suggests and emphasizes, by showing us in what way children are trained in heaven, and the happy results thereby attained. It shows us how the growth of their hereditary evils may be checked, and thus prevented from becoming actual sins. And how it enforces the duty of striving to make the home of our children a little heaven on earth! How it entreats us to suffer nothing "that defileth or worketh abomination or maketh a lie," ever to enter there! It tells us as in loud trumpet-tones, that all harsh and uncharitable judgments, all angry looks, resentful feelings and evil speaking, all impatience, discontent, discord and moroseness should be banished thence as soul-destroying fiends;—that the domestic altar should be shielded from every taint of sin as from a wasting pestilence,—swept clean of evil thoughts and words as of the seeds of death;—that it should be guarded and kept as the Holy of Holies where resteth the ark of God's covenant, where truth and purity and peace go hand in hand, and all are encircled with religion and love as with beautiful shining robes.
See how the Old and the New doctrine on this subject appear, when placed side by side! Look at them in the light of Scripture and reason and the revealed character of the Heavenly Father. Which has the stamp of truth most legibly imprinted on it? Which looks like the offspring of Divine Wisdom, and which like the work of men's hands? Do not the character and obvious tendency of the New revealings, clearly authenticate their heavenly origin?
- ↑ See the many and high authorities on this subject quoted and referred to in Part I. of Beauty for Ashes, by the author.