That it is not so difficult to live the life of heaven, as some believe, may be seen from this:  when a matter presents itself to a man which he knows to be dishonest and unjust, but to which he inclines, it is only necessary for him to think that it ought not to be done because it is opposed to the Divine precepts.  If a man accustoms himself to think so, and from so doing establishes a habit of so thinking, he is gradually conjoined to heaven.  So far as he is conjoined to heaven the higher regions of his mind are opened; and so far as these are opened he sees whatever is dishonest and unjust; and so far as he sees these evils they can be dispersed—­for no evil can be dispersed until it is seen.

—­Heaven and Hell, nn. 528, 533

THE DECALOGUE

“Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual
covenant that shall not be forgotten.”

—­Jeremiah, L, 5

The conjunction of God with man, and of man with God, is taught in the two Tables which were written with the finger of God, called the Tables of the Covenant.  These Tables obtain with all nations who have a religion.  From the first Table they know that God is to be acknowledged, hallowed and worshipped.  From the second Table they know that a man is not to steal, either openly or by trickery, nor to commit adultery, nor to kill, whether by blow or by hatred, nor to bear false witness in a court of justice, or before the world, and further that he ought not to will those evils.  From this Table a man knows the evils which he must shun, and in the measure that he knows them and shuns them, God conjoins him to Himself, and in turn from His Table gives man to acknowledge, hallow and worship Him.  So, also, He gives him not to meditate evils, and, in so far as he does not will them, to know truths freely.

—­Apocalypse Explained, n. 1179

As one views the two tables, it is plain that they are so conjoined that God from His table looks to man, and that in turn man from his table looks to God.  Thus the regard is reciprocal.  God for His part never ceases to regard man, and to put in operation such things as are for his salvation; and if man receives and does the things in his table, reciprocal conjunction is effected, and the Lord’s words to the lawyer will have come to pass, “This do, and thou shalt live.”

—­True Christian Religion, n. 287

MARRIAGE

“Jesus said:  ’Have ye not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh.  Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh.  What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.’”

—­Matthew, XIX, 4, 5

A PRICELESS JEWEL