324. But as regards the gentiles of the present day, they are not so wise, but most of them are simple in heart. Nevertheless, those of them who have lived in mutual charity receive wisdom in the other life, and of these one or two examples may be cited. When I read the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters of Judges (about Micah, and how the sons of Dan carried away his graven image and teraphim and Levite) a gentile spirit was present who in the life of the body had worshipped a graven image. He listened attentively to the account of what was done to Micah, and of his grief on account of his graven image which the Danites took away, and such grief came upon him and moved him, that he scarcely knew, by reason of inward distress, what to think. Not only was this grief perceived, but at the same time the innocence that was in all his affections. The Christian spirits who were present watched him and wondered that a worshipper of a graven image should be moved by such a feeling of mercy and innocence. Afterwards, some good spirits talked with him, saying that graven images ought not to be worshipped, and that being a man he was capable of understanding this; that he ought, apart from a graven image, to think of God the Creator and Governor of the whole heaven and the whole earth, and that that God is the Lord. When this was said I was permitted to perceive the interior nature of his adoration, which was communicated to me; and it was much more holy than in the case of Christians. From this it can be confirmed that the gentiles come into heaven more easily than Christians, at the present day, according to the Lord's words in Luke: