winter. I told him that for several years spirits with various different types
of faith had been walking past me. Every time people who had separated
faith from goodwill came near me, such intense coldness would rise up
my legs into my groin and finally into my chest that I almost thought the
spark of my vitality had been extinguished. I would in fact have died if
the Lord had not driven those spirits away and set me free.
Another thing seemed amazing to me: The spirits themselves did not
feel any coldness within. They told me so. Therefore I compared those
spirits to fish under ice that do not feel the cold because their life and
their nature are intrinsically cold.
I was able to perceive at the time that their coldness emanated from
the faint, deceptive light of their faith, much like the light that glows
around swampy or sulfury places in midwinter after the sun has set. Trav-
elers see that faint, deceptive, frigid light from time to time.
People who have separated faith from goodwill can be compared to
mountains of pure ice that have been dislodged from their places in
northern lands to drift here and there across the ocean. I have heard it
said that when ships come near these icebergs, all who are on board shiver
from the cold. Therefore groups of people who have separated faith from
goodwill can be likened to icebergs, and even called icebergs if you wish.
People know from the Word that faith without goodwill is dead; but
I will say where that death comes from. That death is from the cold.
Faith dies of the cold like a bird in a severe winter: first its vision dies,
then its ability to fly, and finally its breathing. Then it falls headfirst off
its branch into the snow and is buried.386 The second memorable occurrence.One morning after I woke up, I saw
two angels coming down from heaven. One was coming from the south-
ern part of heaven and the other from the eastern part. They were both
in carriages drawn by white horses. The carriage that was carrying the
angel from the southern part of heaven was shining like silver. The car-
riage that was carrying the angel from the eastern part of heaven was
shining like gold. The reins the angels were holding in their hands were
flashing with a fiery light like the rising sun. That is how the two angels
looked from far away. When they came closer, however, they no longer
looked as though they were in carriages. They were simply in their own
angelic form, which is human. The one who came from the eastern part
of heaven was wearing shining clothes that were deep red. The one who
came from the southern part of heaven was wearing clothes that were sky
blue.