--_Psalm_, I, 1, 2


ONE'S SPIRITUAL COMPANY

The mind of a man is his spirit which lives after death; and a man's
spirit is constantly in company with spirits like himself in the
spiritual world. Man does not know that in respect to his mind he is
in the midst of spirits because the spirits with whom he is in company
in that world, think and speak spiritually. The spirit of man,
however, while in the material body, thinks and speaks naturally; and
spiritual thought and speech cannot be understood, nor perceived, by
the natural human being; nor the reverse. Hence, too, it is that
spirits cannot be seen. Yet when a man's spirit is in society with
spirits in their world, then he is in spiritual thought and speech
with them, too, because his inner mind is spiritual, but the outer
natural; wherefore by his inner nature he communicates with them, and
by his outer being with men. By this communication a man perceives and
thinks analytically. If there were no such communication, man would no
more think than a beast, nor any differently from a beast. Indeed,
were all commerce with spirits cut off, a man would instantly die.

--_True Christian Religion, n._ 475


"MINISTERS OF HIS, THAT DO HIS PLEASURE"

Man is quite ignorant that he is governed by the Lord through angels
and spirits, and that there are at least two spirits with a man and
two angels. Through the spirits a communication of the man with the