very greatly increased, by those affections being exercised, in open communion with those whose spiritual states are in harmony with his own.
The views just presented, in regard to the nature of heavenly happiness, will, no doubt, appear strange; especially to the indolent, the selfish and the sensual. The indolent man regards all labor, either mental or bodily, as the greatest curse that has fallen upon our race. He looks forward to a heaven where he will be permitted to sit down in eternal idleness, relieved, perhaps, by occasionally singing a few psalms. But such a man would look, with abhorence, upon a doctrine which teaches, that eternity is to be spent in works of usefulness; and that the delights of heaven are obtained from that source. So also the sensualist, who supposes that there can be nothing real and substantial, which is not material, will be very likely to reject the New Church doctrine on this subject; because it is impossible for him to conceive of any employments that can exist in that world. You talk to him of the various occupations, in which the angels delight, and your words only convey to him sensual ideas. While you are seeking to arouse his attention to the importance of some spiritual truth, which is to you a source of the deepest delight, your ardor is suddenly dampened, by hearing him ask whether there are any such employments in heaven as the digging of graves or the making of coffins, or some other question equally silly and irrelevant. It is a useless effort to attempt to convey spiritual truths to minds in which there is no love for them. They are too far away; we cannot reach them.
But there is an immense class, who can be reached, and who are every day drawing nearer, to the heavenly light of the New Jerusalem. Though not yet prepared to receive those spiritual truths, in all their fullness and power, yet they are rationally convinced that the life to come, must have some very near and intimate connection with the life which we now live; that it must be in some sense a con-
