according to his religion." I was afterwards grieved in spirit to think that marriages, which in the most ancient times had been most holy, were so wretchedly changed into adulteries. The angel said, "The case is the same at this day with religion; for the Lord says '_In the consummation of the age there will be the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel. And there will be great affliction, such as there has not been from the beginning of the world_,' Matt. xxiv. 15, 21. The abomination of desolation signifies the falsification and deprivation of all truth; affliction signifies the state of the church infested by evils and falses; and the consummation of the age, concerning which those things are spoken, signifies the last time or end of the church. The end is now, because there does not remain a truth which is not falsified; and the falsification of truth is spiritual whoredom, which acts in unity with natural whoredom, because they cohere." 81. As we were conversing and lamenting together on this occasion, there suddenly appeared a beam of light, which, darting powerfully upon my eyes, caused me to look up: and lo! the whole heaven above us appeared luminous; and from the east to the west in an extended series we heard a GLORIFICATION: and the angel said to me, "That is a glorification of the Lord on account of his coming, and is made by the angels of the eastern and western heavens." From the northern and southern heavens nothing was heard but a soft and pleasing murmur. As the angel understood everything, he told me first, that glorifications and celebrations of the Lord are made from the Word, because then they are made from the Lord; for the Lord is the Word, that is, the essential divine truth therein; and he said, "Now in particular they glorify and celebrate the Lord by these words, which were spoken by Daniel the prophet, '_Thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay; they shall mingle themselves together by the seed of man; but they shall not cohere. Nevertheless in those days the God of the heavens shall cause a kingdom to arise, which shall not perish for ages. It shall bruise and consume those kingdoms; but itself shall stand for ages_.' Dan. ii. 43, 44." After this, I heard as it were the voice of singing, and further in the east I saw a glittering of light more resplendent than the former; and I asked the angel what was the subject of their glorification? He said, "These words in Daniel; '_I saw in the visions of the night, and lo! with the clouds of heaven there came as it were the SON OF MAN: and to him was given dominion and a kingdom; and all people and nations shall worship him. His dominion is the dominion of an age, which shall not pass away; and his kingdom that which shall not perish_,' Dan. vii. 13, 14. They are further celebrating the Lord from these words in the Revelation: '_To JESUS CHRIST be glory and strength: behold he cometh with clouds. He is alpha and omega, the