§364 the rich & the poor 207
e. There is no direct mercy, only mercy through means—that is, for people who live according to
the Lord’s commandments, whom he in his mercy is constantly leading in this world, and after-
ward to eternity: 8700 , 10659.
not only the wealth itself but also what it is used for—the pampered liv-
ing, the indulgence in pleasures, the wider and freer dedication to amoral-
ity, the self-exaltation over people they belittle. Because these riches and
these functions have nothing spiritual in them, only earthly qualities, they
turn to fi lth. The spiritual aspect of wealth and its uses is like the soul in a
body and like the light of heaven in moist earth. So a body without a soul
becomes putrid, as does moist earth without the light of heaven. These
are the people whom wealth has seduced and drawn away from heaven.
After death, our ruling affection or love awaits each one of us. This is 363
never rooted out to eternity because our spirit is exactly like our love;
and (what has not been known before) the body of every spirit and angel
is an outward form of her or his love that is completely responsive to the
inner form that is the character and mind of that spirit or angel. That is
why you can recognize the quality of spirits from their faces, their pos-
tures, and their speech. That is why our own spirits are recognized in this
world if we have not learned how to pretend with our faces and postures
and speech. We may gather from this that our own eternal quality is that
of our ruling affection or love.
I have been allowed to talk with people who lived more than seven-
teen centuries ago, people whose lives are known from the literature of
their own times; and I have been convinced that the same love they had
then is still sustaining them.
We may also gather from this that a love of wealth and the usefulness
it affords also remains with us forever, with exactly the quality it acquired
in this world. There is this difference, though: for people whose wealth
served them as means to useful lives, it is turned into delights in keeping
with their usefulness, while for people whose wealth served them as
means to evil activities, it is turned into fi lth—fi lth that they enjoy just as
much as they enjoyed their ill-used wealth in the world. The reason they
enjoy the fi lth is that the foul pleasures and pursuits that were their prac-
tices in the world, and their greed (which is a love of wealth with no
thought of use), correspond to fi lth. Spiritual fi lth is nothing else.
Poor people do not get into heaven because of their poverty but 364
because of their lives. Our lives follow us whether we are rich or poor.
There is no special mercy for the one any more than for the other.e People
who have lived well are accepted; people who have lived badly are rejected.