'We have travelled down here from heaven,' they replied, 'in response to the Lord's instruction that we were to talk to you about the blessed state of those who want to control others because they love performing services. We are worshippers of the Lord; I am the prince of our community, and the other is the chief priest in it.'

[2] The prince said that he was the servant of his community, since he served it by performing services. The other one said that he was the minister of the church there, since his service to them was the administration of holy rites for the service of their souls. They both enjoyed perpetual joys arising from the everlasting happiness the Lord bestows on them. They said that everything in their community was splendid and magnificent, splendid with gold and precious stones, and magnificent in its palaces and parks. 'The reason,' he said, 'is that our love of controlling others does not arise from self-love, but from the love of performing services. Since this love comes from the Lord, all good services in heaven sparkle and gleam. And since all in our community share this love, the atmosphere there appears golden as the result of the light it receives from the sun's flame. It is this flame-coloured sunlight which corresponds to that love.'

[3] When they said this, an atmosphere of this kind became visible to me around them; and I smelt an aroma from it, as I also told them. I begged them to add a little more to what they had said about the love of performing services. So they went on to say, 'The ranks we enjoy are something we sought, but for no other purpose than to perform services more fully and to spread them over a wider range. We also have honours heaped on us, and we accept them, not for ourselves, but for the good of our community. Our brethren and colleagues who belong to the common people there are hardly aware that the honours of our rank are not in us or that the services we perform do not come from us. But we can tell the difference; we feel that the honours of rank lie outside us, being like clothes in which we dress. But the services we perform come from the love of performing them, which is within us coming from the Lord, and this love derives its blessedness by being shared with others by means of the services performed. We know by experience that in so far as we perform services as a result of our love for them, so far does that love increase, and wisdom increases with it, as a result of which it is shared. But to the extent that we keep these services to ourselves and do not share them, to that extent our blessedness departs. Then the performing of services becomes like food stored in the stomach instead of being carried around to nourish the body and its parts; but if it remains undigested it causes nausea. In short, the whole of heaven is nothing but a container of services, from first to last. What is a service, but the realisation in action of love for the neighbour? And what holds the heavens together but this love?'

[4] On hearing this I asked, 'How can anyone tell whether he is performing services out of self-love or out of a love of service? Everyone, good as well as wicked, performs services and does so at the bidding of some love. Suppose that in the world there were a community composed of none but devils, and another composed of none but angels. It is my opinion that the devils in their community, fired by self-love and resplendent in their self-importance, would perform just as many services as the angels in their community. Who then can tell what is the love and the origin from which these services come?'

[5] The two angels replied to this speech thus: 'Devils perform services for their own sakes and to get a reputation, so as to be promoted to honours, or to make a profit. But angels do not perform services for these reasons, but for the sake of the services and their love of being of service. No person can distinguish between those services, but the Lord can. Everyone who believes in the Lord and shuns evils as sins, performs services at the Lord's bidding. But anyone who does not believe in the Lord, and does not shun evils as sins, performs services for himself and his own sake. This is the difference between services performed by devils and those performed by angels.'

After saying this the two angels went away; and from a distance they appeared to be travelling in a chariot of fire like Elijah, until they were taken up into their own heaven.