578. Comparisons too can illustrate what a person would be like, if he did not co-operate with the Lord. When he perceived or felt any spiritual influence from heaven or the church, it would be like something hostile or discordant coming in, such as a rotten smell to the nose, a dissonance to the ear, a monstrosity to the eye and a foul taste to the tongue. If the pleasure of charity and the beauty of faith were to fall upon the spiritual organism of the minds of those who delight in evil and falsity, they would be so vexed and tormented by the intrusion of that pleasure and beauty, that they would end by falling into a faint. This organism is composed of a continuous series of helices; and in the case of such people it would wrap itself into coils and writhe like a snake on an ant-hill. I can vouch for the truth of this as the result of many experiences in the spiritual world.
