116 HEAVEN and HELL §223
b. Stone means what is true: 114 , 643 , 1298 , 3720 , 6426 , 8609 , 10376. Wood means what is good:
643 , 3720 , 8354. So for the earliest people, who were attuned to heavenly good, buildings were
wooden: 3720.
c. [Swedenborg’s note at this point refers the reader to the note in § 214 above.]
d. To love the Lord and our neighbor is to live by the Lord’s precepts: 10143 , 10153 , 10310 , 10578 ,
10645 , 10648 [ 10659 ].Churches in the spiritual kingdom seem to be made of stone, and
those in the heavenly kingdom of wood. This is because stone corre-
sponds to the truth that occupies people in the spiritual kingdom and
wood to the good that occupies people in the heavenly kingdom.b The
buildings in this latter kingdom are not called “churches” but “houses
of God.”
Buildings in the heavenly kingdom are devoid of splendor, but in the
spiritual kingdom they are more or less ornate.224 I also talked with one particular preacher about the holy state charac-
teristic of people who are listening to preachers in church. He said that
there is something reverent, devout, and holy in all of us depending on
the deeper levels of our love and faith, since there is something holy
within our love and faith because the Lord’s divine [presence] is there.
He added that he did not know what anything holy was apart from these.
Further, he said that when he thought about something externally holy
apart from these, it might possibly be something that mimicked holiness
in outer appearance, something acquired either by skill or by hypocrisy.
A deceptive fi re arising from love for oneself and the world would gener-
ate and present this kind of appearance.
225 All preachers are from the Lord’s spiritual kingdom and none from
his heavenly kingdom. The reason they are from the spiritual kingdom is
that people there are attuned to truths that stem from what is good, and
all preaching comes from truths. The reason none is from his heavenly
kingdom is that the people there are attuned to the good of love, and see
and grasp truths on this basis, but do not talk about them.c
Even though the angels who are in the heavenly kingdom grasp and
see truths, there are still sermons there because sermons are means of
enlightenment in the truths that the angels already know and lead to
further perfection by means of many things they have not known before.
The moment they hear them, they acknowledge them and therefore
grasp them. The truths they grasp they also love, and by living accord-
ing to them they make them part of their life. They say that living by
truths is loving the Lord.d