Conjugial Love (Rogers) n. 242

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242. (7) Of these internal reasons for cold states, a third is one partner's having one religion and the other partner another. The reason is that in their case good cannot be joined together with its corresponding truth - for a wife in form is the good of her husband's truth, and he the truth of his wife's goodness, as we have previously shown.* Consequently, it is impossible in their case for their two souls to become one soul. The wellspring of conjugial love is therefore shut off; and when this is shut off, they come into a conjugial relationship that has its seat on a lower level. This relationship is one of good with another truth than its own, or of truth with another good than its own; and between the two there cannot be any concordant love. The result is that coldness develops in the partner who is caught up in falsities of religion, and this coldness increases as he grows apart from the other. (In a great city I once wandered the streets in order to find lodging, and I entered a house where partners of different religions were staying. I was unaware of it, but angels then spoke to me, saying, "We cannot remain with you in this house, because it has partners with discordant religions living in it." This they perceived from the inward lack of union between their souls.) * See, for example, nos. 21:2, 32, 33, 44:9, 61, 66, 75:5, 76:5, 88, 89, 90, 91, 100, 115:5, 122, 159, 193.


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