Lee Ann Jones
Psychology 459
Dr.
http://www.swedenborgdigitallibrary.org/cheav/childheav1.htm
Topics Covered
1. Points to give credit to Emanuel Swedenborg
2. Death of an infant
3. Children’s/Infants’ “home” life in heaven
4. Children’s/Infants’ education in heaven
5. Motherly Angels
I. Points to give credit to Emanuel Swedenborg - Chapter 2
A. How did Swedenborg learn about the Spiritual world?
“We answer that his spiritual sight was opened, and that as to his spirit he was admitted into the spiritual world, and actually saw and heard the things which he relates.”
B. Many discredit Swedenborg as a “mystic, dreamer, or insane”
“Then we are met with the customary epithets which are supposed to set aside his testimony – mystic, dreamer, insane. It is impossible in the nature of things, men say, that he could see and hear such things.”
C. Those same people greatly acceptance John’s sight
“If we reply that there are many instances recorded in the Bible of the opening of man’s spiritual sight; that the whole Book of the Revelation is record of what John saw, while, as to his material body, he was in the Isle of Patmos, and, as to his spirit; that the spiritual world; if we say, further, than there are well authenticated instances of the opening of man’s spiritual sight, in all ages and among all people, the question comes as quick as the report of a gun after the flash.”
D. Why Emanuel Swedenborg?
“… Swedenborg was selected for the office of making known to man the nature of the spiritual world and of man as a spiritual being, because he was one of the greatest and wisest and best men who ever lived in the world. The history of mankind gives us no example of a more unselfish and devoted lover of the truth than he was.”
II. Death of an infant – Chapter 1
A. Must not look at loss of a child as death
“What seems to us as death is seen to be entrance into life. What appears to us as failure and defeat of the Lord’s purpose is seen to be carrying it out to successful completion.”
B. All children go to heaven
“They teach us that all who leave this life in infancy and childhood are saved.”
C. Life after Death
“Oh sorrowing mother, they would say, grieve not so blindly and wildly. The dear child of your heart is not lost, but saved. It is not dead, but more than ever alive. The good and wise and all merciful Lord, who loves us with infinitely more depth and tenderness than we can love each other, permits this transfer of your child from your home below to our home above, for your good, for our good , and for the good of the child.”
III. Children’s/Infants “home” life in heaven - Chapter 1 and Chapter 3
A. Children’s homes
“Little children are received into homes, where they are loved and cherished with the most tender affection. And such homes! There are no such homes on earth.”
B. Perfect home
“… The house they live in is adapted to their tastes, to their minds, and nothing is wanting that can in any way contribute to their good. It is the embodiment of all their desires.”
C. Subject of dress
v “… The clothing its inhabitants wear means far more than it does here. It is the embodiment and expression of their ideas.
v “But although their clothing is beautiful beyond the power of language to express, and is a source of constant delight, it does not minister to any evil passion. It does not beget pride or foster vanity.”
IV. Children’s/Infants education in heaven – Chapter 3
A. Teachers
“The Lord provides for them the best educators in the universe. The children are committed to the care of those who understand their peculiar genius, and know how to touch the secret springs of their natures and call forth their affections in due order and form.”
B. What are the children taught?
v “To answer the question in one sentence, I should say, to be useful; to love the Lord and they neighbor, and to carry their love into practical effect by doing all they can to promote the highest good of all.”
v “They are also taught and led into the constant practice of loving each other. They are educated together. Those of genius adapted to be useful to each other, and non others, are brought into one family, and associate with each other.”
C. Affirmative Education
v “Education is not repression. It is what it truly signifies, the drawing forth of all the intellectual faculties into harmonious and joyous play.”
v “There are no negatives in the heavenly language.”
v Education is direction, not restraint.”
v “Thus education is life itself, a lovely, harmonious beautiful happy life.”
V. Motherly Angels – Chapter 1
A. Love and Devotion
v “It is a motherly love purified from all selfish and worldly affections.”
v “It is a mother’s devotion intensified and exalted by heavenly devotion.”
B. Patience is a virtue
“It is as much more watchful, patient, and self-sacrificing than any natural affection, as heavenly love is purer, deeper, and holier than any earthly affection.”
C. Grandmotherly Love
v “These angels are not abstract and bloodless beings, created by a fiat of Omnipotence, without human form or human affection. They are your mothers and grandmothers, who, with renewed youth and exalted affections, are performing a service for your children, which it would have given them the greatest pleasure to perform if they had remained in this world.”