364. 窮人進入天國, 不在其貧窮, 而在其生活。無論貧富, 人的生活皆隨著他。對人而言, 主的憐憫無二無別。生活良善者被接收, 生活敗壞者被棄絕。

事實上, 貧窮和財富一樣, 也能引人背離天國。很多窮人不安于貧窮, 貪心極重, 以財富為福, 既未得其所願, 便懷恨在心, 怪罪於上帝。他們覬覦別人的財產, 但得機會, 必要詐而取之, 活於其啟濁的快樂之中。

安分守己, 工作上勤勉細心, 熱愛工作, 拒絕懶散, 行為誠實可靠, 照基督而行的窮人卻不同。有時, 我與一些信上帝的啟村百姓交談, 他們在世時曾誠實, 正直地生活。由於他們渴望明白真理, 也就不斷求問何為仁, 何為信, 因為他們在世時常聽說信, 到了靈界又常聽說仁。他們被告知, 仁關乎生活, 信關於教義;就是說, 仁是在每一件事上立志並奉行公平, 正直, 信則是思考何為公平, 正直;信與仁並行, 正如教義與生活並行, 或如認知與意志並行。當人立志並奉行其所思想的公平和正直, 信就成為仁。及此, 兩者不再是二, 而是一。這些他們都能心領神會, 也為之歡喜踴躍, 還說他們在世時曾以為信與生活完全是一回事。

8788. 'And sanctify them today and tomorrow' means covering over their interiors in order that those people may appear now and subsequently in the holiness of faith. This is clear from the meaning of 'sanctifying' as arranging them so that outwardly they may appear in holiness; and since this is accomplished by covering over their interiors, 'sanctifying' has this meaning also. The fact that 'today and tomorrow' means now and subsequently is self-evident. What all this implies will be stated briefly. The Church established among the Jews was not, as regards the Jews themselves, the Church, only a representative of the Church. For the Church to exist there must reside with those belonging to the Church faith in the Lord, and also love to Him, as well as love towards the neighbour. These virtues make the Church. But they did not reside with the people who were called Jacob; for they did not acknowledge the Lord, and so did not wish to hear about faith in Him, let alone about love to Him or indeed about love towards the neighbour. They were ruled by self-love and love of the world, the kinds of love that are the complete opposites of love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour. Such a disposition has been rooted in that people from their earliest forebears. This is why no Church could be established among that people; all they could do was represent things that constitute the Church. Mere representation of the Church comes about when people's worship centres on external things, but only on such things as correspond to heavenly ones. External things then serve to represent internal, and the internal things are made evident in heaven, to which those people are consequently joined. Therefore to make representation possible among the Israelite people, when interiorly they were devoid of the faith and love of heaven, indeed were full of self-love and love of the world, their interiors were covered over. Then their externals alone, without their internals, could be conveyed to spirits, and through these to angels. Consequently unless their internals had been covered over, internals too would have been made evident, in which case the representation would have been destroyed because foul [thoughts and affections] would have burst out and defiled it. Such a covering over was possible with that people more than with all the rest because they venerated external things more than others did; they thought that those things themselves were intrinsically holy, indeed Divine.

All this makes clear what one should understand by 'sanctifying', namely covering over their interiors in order that those people may appear in the holiness of faith, though not to themselves, only to the angels present with them. See what has been shown already about this people and the establishment of the Church among them, in 4208, 4281, 4288, 4289, 4293, 4307, 4314, 4316, 4317, 4429, 4433, 4444, 4459, 4844, 4847, 4865, 4899, 4911, 4912, 4500, 7048, 7051, 8588. The fact that sanctification among them amounted to no more than an appearance of holiness in externals, since they themselves had no holiness within them, becomes clear from the ceremonies by which they were sanctified, that is to say, by sacrifices, washings, sprinklings of blood, and anointings, which do not in any way whatever touch internal things.