746. While they were speaking a servant hastened up and announced that eight wise men had arrived on the prince's orders, and desired to be admitted. On hearing this the angel went out to receive them, and brought them inside. Then after the usual politenesses and introductions, the wise men started by speaking to them about the way wisdom begins and increases; and they included among these remarks a variety of comments on its development, saying that in the case of the angels wisdom has no limit and never comes to an end, but goes on growing and increasing for ever.

When the angel in charge of the group heard this, he said to them: 'At table our prince talked with them about where wisdom resides and said it was in service. Would you please talk to them about this too?' 'At man's first creation,' they said, 'he was endowed with wisdom and the love of wisdom, not for his own sake, but so that he might share it with others. So there is a warning attached to the wisdom of the wise, that no one is to keep his wisdom to himself alone, or live for himself alone, but is to share it at the same time with others. That is the origin of society, which could not otherwise exist. To live for others is to perform services. Services are what hold society together, and there are as many ways of doing this as there are ways of doing good, and services are beyond counting. There are spiritual services, which have to do with love to God and love towards the neighbour. There are moral and political services, which have to do with the love of the community and country in which a person lives, and with his colleagues and fellow-citizens. There are natural services, which have to do with the love of the world and its demands. And there are bodily services, which have to do with looking after oneself, so as to be able to perform higher services.

[2] 'All these services are imprinted on a person, and they follow in their proper order, one after the other; when they are present together, then one is contained within another. Those who are devoted to the first set of services, the spiritual ones, are also devoted to those that follow, and they are wise. Those, however, who are not devoted to the first set, but still are to the second and following ones, are not so wise, but only appear so as the result of an outward show of morality and civility. Those who are not devoted to the first and second sets, but only the third and fourth, are far from being wise, for they are satans, loving only the world and themselves for the world's sake. But those who are devoted only to the fourth set are the least wise of all, for they are devils who live exclusively for themselves, and what they do for others is entirely for their own sakes.

[3] 'Moreover, every love has its own pleasure, for this is what gives it life; and the pleasure of the love of service is a heavenly pleasure which enters into the pleasures that follow in turn, and in accordance with the order in which one follows the other it uplifts them and makes them everlasting.' After this they listed the heavenly delights arising from the love of service, saying that they were tens of millions, and that those who went to heaven entered into them. So continuing with their wise talk about the love of service they spent the rest of the day with them until evening.

[4] But around evening time a runner dressed in a linen garment came to the ten newcomers with the angel, and invited them to a wedding to be held the next day. The newcomers were extremely pleased to think that they would also see a wedding in heaven. After this they were taken to visit one of the privy council and dined with him. After dinner they came back and dispersed, each going to his bedroom, where they slept until morning.

Then when they woke up they heard the maidens and girls singing from the houses around the square, as was described before. The affection which was the subject of their song was on this occasion that of conjugial love. Its sweetness affected them and moved them deeply. They felt a blessed loveliness growing in their joys, uplifting and renewing them. When it was time, the angel said: 'Get dressed and put on the clothes of heaven which our prince has sent you.' They put them on and saw their clothes shining as if with the light of a flame.

'Why is this?' they asked the angel. 'Because,' he answered, 'You are going to a wedding; at such times clothes in our community shine and become wedding garments.'

104. Verse 4. But I have against thee that thou hast left thy first charity, signifies that they do not make such a life as those lived who were in the church at its beginning, the essential of knowledges. This is evident from the signification of "first charity," as being a life according to the knowledges of good and truth, such as those lived who were in the church at its beginning (of which presently); and from the signification of "leaving that charity," as being not to make it the essential of knowledges; for those who are eager for the knowledges of truth and good, and who believe that they are saved thereby, make knowledges essential, and not life, when yet a life according to knowledges is the essential. But as this essential of the church and of salvation is treated of in what follows, more will there be said about it. Charity is life, because all life in accordance with the precepts of the Lord in the Word is called "charity;" therefore to exercise charity is to live according to those precepts. (That this is so, see in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, in the chapter on Love to the Neighbor or Charity 84-106; and in the small work on The Last Judgment 33-39.) The life of the church at its beginning is here meant by "first charity;" for every church begins from charity, and successively turns away from it to faith alone or to meritorious works. (On which subject, and on charity, see what is shown in the Arcana Coelestia, namely, that every church begins from charity, but in process of time turns away from it, n. 494, 501, 1327, 3773, 4689; thus to falsities from evil, and at length to evils, n. 1834, 1835, 2910, 4683, 4689; commonly to faith alone, n. 1834, 1835, 2231, 4683, 8094. A comparison of the church in its beginning and in its decline, with the rising and setting of the sun, n. 1837; and with the infancy and old age of man, n. Arcana Coelestia 10134; that the church is not with man until the knowledges of good and truth have been implanted in the life, n. 3310; that charity constitutes the church, n. 809, 916, 1798, 1799, 1844, 1894; that the internal of the church is charity, n. 4766, 5826; that there would be one church, and not many, as at this day, if all were regarded from charity, although they might differ in respect to doctrinals of faith and rituals of worship, n. 1286, 1316, 1798, 1799, 1834, 1844, 2385, 2982, 3267, 3451; that worship of the Lord consists in a life of charity, n. 8254, 8256; that the quality of worship is according to the quality of charity, n. 2190.)