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
