Divine Love and Wisdom # 333

333. Forms of use for receiving a spiritual character from the Lord are all matters having to do with religion and so with worship, thus which teach an acknowledgment and knowledge of God, and a knowledge and acknowledgment of goodness and truth, and consequently eternal life. These are similarly learned like other disciplines from parents, teachers, sermons and books, and especially through efforts to pursue a life in accordance with them. In the Christian world they are learned through doctrines and sermons drawn from the Word, and through the Word from the Lord.

These forms of use can be described in their range and scope in the same terms as forms of use to the body, as for example, in terms of nourishment, clothing, lodging, recreation and enjoyment, protection, and the preservation of condition, provided one applies them to the soul - its nourishment to goods of love, its clothing to truths of wisdom, its lodging to heaven, its recreation and enjoyment to felicity of life and heavenly joy, its protection to evils assailing, and the preservation of its condition to eternal life.

All of these boons are bestowed by the Lord according to a person's acknowledgment that the same boons which are matters of the body are also all from the Lord, and that a person is only as a servant or steward set over the goods of his Lord. ¹

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