preparation for the higher life. Their use, however, is only temporary, and they obscure our perceptions of spiritual things, and hide from us the riches and glory of our future inheritance. Our life here is a fore-gleam of immortality. This world is the seed-field of elements which are to bear flower and fruit in heaven.
These things do not exist in the spiritual world, because the operation of the law of creation there differs from its operation here, that being a world of spiritual substances and not one of inert matter. Spiritual substances are emanations or concretions from a divine substance, and take form and coloring from the operations of the Divine Mind, and from those of the finite minds which He creates. Our spiritual bodies, the garments they wear, the houses they live in, the objects which surround them, are all "made without hands." As Swedenborg expresses it, they are all given freely by the Lord. Food, clothing, shelter, are no longer objects of painful solicitude. In our Father's house are "many mansions" prepared for us by Himself. We are fed with "angels' food," a spontaneous creation like the manna of the wilderness. We find ourselves daily clothed in correspondence with our interior states, like the lilies of the field which
