624. The fourth memorable occurrence. I woke up in the middle of the night and saw an angel quite high up toward the east. The angel was holding a piece of paper in his right hand that was shining brightly because of the sun. On the middle of the page there were words in gold lettering; I saw the words The Marriage of Goodness and Truth. A glow shone from the writing that extended to form a large halo around the piece of paper. That halo or aura looked like the dawn of a morning in spring.

Then I saw the angel coming down, still carrying the piece of paper in his hand. As he came down, the piece of paper became less and less radiant, and the writing on it that said The Marriage of Goodness and Truth turned from gold to silver, then copper, then iron; it eventually became the color of rusty iron and tarnished copper. Then I saw the angel drop into a dark storm cloud and pass through it to the ground. There the piece of paper was no longer visible, although the angel was still holding it in his hand. This was in the world of spirits, the place where all of us first come together after we die.

[2] The angel addressed me and said, "Ask the people who are coming here whether they can see me or anything in my hand. " Great throngs of people then arrived. One great crowd came from the east, another from the south, another from the west, and another from the north.

The new arrivals from the east and the south were people who during their lives in the world had been devoted to learning. I asked them whether they could see anyone here with me, and if so, was there anything in his hand. They all said that they could not see anything of the sort.

The new arrivals from the west and the north were people who during their lives in the world had believed what they were told by the educated. I asked them the same question. They said they too saw nothing. Nevertheless, after all the earlier people in their groups had moved on, the last people to arrive from the west and north said that they did see a man with a piece of paper. They were people who through goodwill during their lives in the world had come to have a simple faith, or who knew some truth because of their goodness. They said the man they saw was well dressed and the piece of paper had neatly written lettering on it. When they looked at it more closely they said they read the words, "The marriage of goodness and truth. "

[3] They addressed the angel directly and asked him to tell them what this meant.

The angel said, "From creation, all things that are in the whole of heaven and all things that are in the whole world are nothing but a marriage of goodness and truth, since each and every thing, whether it lives and moves or does not, was created both from a marriage of goodness and truth and for that marriage. Nothing was created for truth alone, and nothing was created for goodness alone. Neither truth nor goodness is anything on its own, but when they marry each other they become something, and the nature of that something depends on the quality of their marriage.

"In the Lord God the Creator, divine goodness and divine truth exist in their essential quality. The divine goodness is the underlying reality within that essential quality; the divine truth is that quality's capacity to become manifest. They also enjoy a complete union together, since in the Lord they become one in an infinite variety of ways. Since these two are one in God the Creator, they are also one in each and every thing that was created by him. As a result, there is also an eternal covenant, like a marriage, that joins the Creator to all that he created. "

[4] The angel also noted that Sacred Scripture, which was dictated by the Lord, is as a whole and in every part a marriage of goodness and truth. (See above, 248-253.)

"For Christians," he added, "Sacred Scripture is the sole source of the church, which is formed from true teachings, and religious practice, which is formed from good actions that follow those true teachings; therefore you can see that the church, too, is as a whole and in every part a marriage of goodness and truth.

"The same things that were just said about the marriage of goodness and truth also apply to the marriage of goodwill and faith, since goodness relates to goodwill and truth relates to faith. "

After saying this, the angel rose up off the ground and flew up through the storm cloud into heaven. As he ascended, the piece of paper began shining again as it had before. To my astonishment, the halo that had looked like the dawn when I first saw it now came down and dispersed the storm cloud that had been darkening the land. The weather became warm and sunny.