It was a remark of a profane wit and epicure that “as to heaven, he had no great longing, as he could not see what great pleasure there could be in sitting on a cloud and singing psalms to eternity.” We have in this expression a thought which we know to be common to many minds, but respect for the externals of religion forbids its expression. The general belief respecting the nature of life in heaven, is so vague, and contains so much of clouds and psalm-singing, that it is not to be wondered at that some free and daring spirits should openly avow their preference for the more substantial realities of this life. And is it not a pity that the divine glories and delights of the heavenly life should become so veiled in mystery as to lose their attraction, and cease to be desirable? With the exception of the church’s ignorance of the humanity, unity, and divinity of its Saviour and Lord, no surer evidence could be adduced of its consummation, than its inability to answer the simplest child’s questions as to the nature of life in heaven. Let us be thankful that man’s utmost wants, in this respect, are satisfied in the writings of that New Church which the Lord is now raising up, and of which Swedenborg was the divinely-appointed herald. The sun of heaven is the Lord. The light of heaven is the divine truth, and its heat the divine love; both proceeding from the Lord as a sun. The sun of this world is not seen in heaven. Nature commences from the sun of this world, and everything which is produced from it, and subsists by it, is called natural; but the spiritual world in which heaven is, is above nature, and entirely distinct from it, although it is ever to be remembered that nature is a derivation from spirit, and communicates with spirit by correspondences. We shall have more to say on this conjunction yet perfect separation, between nature and spirit, when we come to speak of the doctrine of degrees. The sun of heaven, or the divine sphere of glory surrounding the Lord, the “light which no man can approach unto,” 1 Tim. vi. 6, appears variously to the angels of heaven according to their states of love and intelligence. To the angels of the third heaven, the sun appears fiery and flaming; to the angels of the second heaven, white and brilliant; while to those of the first heaven its light is more subdued and veiled with clouds, yet at intervals bursting forth and pouring his glorious radiance upon them. Although the Lord is thus seen by the angels as a sun above them, yet at times He appears in their midst, in an angelic form, and with a resplendent countenance. What tongue can describe the rapt adoration and ineffable joy which must thrill angelic bosoms on these occasions!