5158. Heaven is a kingdom of uses. There is no one there who does not discharge a use. The kinds of uses are innumerable, both such as they are conscious of, and such as they are not conscious of; for there are, there, those who instruct others, those who lead to good, those who are with men, those who awake the dead, those who protect, and those who are responsible for others. In a word, there are innumerable duties and everyone, in his own place, receives certain duties according to his affection of use for the sake of use. That affection itself, with its joy, is the reward and recompense which is meant in the Word. Hence it is manifest, that, since the very delight of the affection is the reward, there is no desire of meriting just as a mother who tenderly loves her children - in which love the joy is - does not think about merit like a hired nurse, but grieves if she is deprived of that use, and is willing to give all that she has only to be allowed to possess her joy. Hence it is evident that she rejects the notion of merit on that account. Sometimes, indeed, she thinks what her happiness will be when the child becomes grown up and attains honors; but she thinks of this from afar, and scarcely anything about it when she is in her love.