136. Then they looked at the paper left by the angels on the table, and saw the words written at the bottom: 'Link these three subjects into a single statement of opinion.' Then they brought the three subjects together and saw that they hung together in a single series. This series or opinion was as follows: 'Man has been created so that he may receive love and wisdom from God, yet it appears exactly as if he did so from himself; this is to allow him to receive them and so to be linked. This is why he is born without any love or any knowledge, without even the ability to love and to be wise from himself. If therefore he attributes all the good of love and all the truth of wisdom to God, he becomes a living man; but if he attributes them to himself, he becomes a dead man.'
They wrote these words on a fresh sheet of paper and laid it on the table. Suddenly the angels appeared in a flash of light and carried the document off to heaven. When it had been read there, those sitting in the seats heard from there voices saying, 'Well done, well done, well done.' At once there appeared one as it were flying, with two wings at his feet and two at his temples. He carried in his hand as prizes gowns, hats and laurel-wreaths. He alighted and gave to those who sat on the north gowns of iridescent colour, to those on the west gowns of scarlet, to those on the south hats decorated at the rim with bands of gold and pearls and on the raised left side diamonds cut into the shape of flowers. To those on the east he gave laurel-wreaths decorated with rubies and sapphires. They all left the contest of wisdom decorated with these prizes, and when they were seen by their wives, they were surprised to see their wives come to meet them also decked out with ornaments they had been given from heaven.
This page is part of 
© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church