9146. 'Or standing grain, or a field' means the truth and good of faith in the process of being conceived. This is clear from the meaning of 'grain' as the truth of faith, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'a field' as the Church in respect of good, thus the Church's good, dealt with above in 9139. The reason why 'grain' means the truth of faith is that grain crops, such as wheat and barley, and bread made from them, mean the Church's forms of good, 3941, 7602. The Church's forms of good are those of charity towards the neighbour and of love to the Lord. These forms of good are the being and soul of faith; for they are what cause faith to be faith and give it life. The reason why 'standing grain' is the truth of faith in the process of being conceived is that it has not yet been gathered into stacks or stored away in barns. Therefore when grain is standing or still shooting up it is the truth of faith in the process of being conceived.

[2] Much the same is meant by 'standing grain' in Hosea,

Israel has made a king, and not by Me; they have made princes, and I did not know. Their silver and their gold they have made into idols. Because they sow the wind, they will reap the whirlwind. He does not have any standing grain; the ears will yield no flour. If they do yield it, aliens will swallow it up. Hosea 8:4, 7.

This refers to the Church's truths and forms of the good of faith when they have been reduced to nothing by hollow and false ideas. The fact that these things are the subject is evident from the train of thought, but what is actually being said about them is evident only from the internal sense. For in this sense 'a king' is used to mean the Church's truth of faith in its entirety, see 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 3670, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 6148, and 'princes' to mean primary truths, 1482, 2089, 5044; and from all this one may see what is meant by the words 'Israel has made a king, and not by Me; they have made princes, and I did not know', 'Israel' being the Church, 4286, 6426, 6637. By 'silver' is meant in the internal sense the truth of good, and in the contrary sense the falsity of evil, 1551, 2954, 5658, 6112, 6914, 6917, 8932, by 'gold' is meant good, and in the contrary sense evil, 113, 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914, 6917, 8932, and by 'idols' is meant worship consisting of falsities and evils, 8941; and from all this one may see what is meant by 'their silver and their gold they have made into idols'. 'The wind' which they sow means senseless ideas; 'the whirlwind' which they will reap means the resulting turmoil in the Church; 'the standing grain' which he does not have any of means the truth of faith in the process of being conceived; 'the ears' which will yield no flour means sterility; and 'aliens' who will swallow it up means falsities that will consume it.

4792. Because food and nourishment correspond to spiritual food and nourishment, taste consequently corresponds to a perception of and an affection for this food. Spiritual food consists in knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom. These are what quicken and also sustain spirits and angels, who desire them and have an appetite for them as men desire and have an appetite for food when they are very hungry. Therefore appetite corresponds to that desire for them. And what is amazing, spirits and angels also grow to maturity on that spiritual food, for those who die as young children do not in the next life look like any but young children, and they are young children too as far as their understanding goes. But as they grow in intelligence and wisdom they cease to look like young children. They now look like those who are coming of age, and at length like adults. I have talked to some who died when they were young children and who looked to me like youths, for by then they had grown in understanding. From this one may see what spiritual food and nourishment are.