quickens and vivifies. Hence it is common to hear people who abound in love towards others, called warm-hearted.
And from what other source can spiritual light and heat proceed, than a spiritual sun? And a spiritual sun must be a living sun. And what can a living sun be, but the Lord Jehovah Himself? What but the very sun in whose bright beams of truth and love the angels continually rejoice—the sun of the spiritual world? And can there be any reasonable doubt that this sun is the incarnate Word—the Divine Man who, when on earth, declared: "I am the light of the world;" who is the Enlightener of all minds and the Quickener of all hearts; "in whom is life," and whose life "is the light of men"? (John i. 4, 9.) The spiritual sun must be to the universe of souls, what the natural sun is to the realm of matter.
Consider again, that angels are human beings in an advanced stage;—men and women raised from this primary and rudimental to a higher or more interior state of existence. And if advanced to a higher state, they should possess a keener insight and enjoy a wider range of vision than we do. They ought therefore to dwell in light of superior brilliancy. And so we might reasonably expect that the sun of heaven would be immensely brighter than the sun of this world. We should expect it to surpass our sun in splendor by as many degrees as heaven is higher than earth, or as angels are superior to men. Accordingly Swedenborg says:
