136. After this the people looked at the piece of paper which the angels had left on the table, and they saw the added instruction written at the end, "Combine the three explanations into a single statement." They then brought their three conclusions together and saw that they formed a single connected series, and that the series or final statement was this:

"Man was created to receive love and wisdom from God, and yet to receive them to all appearances as though they originated from himself, in order that he might be capable of reception and conjunction. Man therefore does not come by birth into any love or into any knowledge, neither does he come into any power to love and become wise from himself. Consequently, if he attributes every good of love and every truth of wisdom to God, he becomes a man with life in him. But if he attributes them to himself, he becomes a man without life."

The people then wrote this statement on a new piece of paper and placed it on the table. And behold, suddenly angels appeared in a bright white light and took the paper away into heaven.

After their statement had been read in heaven, the people sitting on the chairs heard voices from heaven saying, "Good, good, good." And instantly they caught sight of an angel apparently flying from that direction, with a pair of wings about his feet and another pair about his temples, carrying their awards in his hand. The awards were robes, caps, and laurel wreaths.

The angel descended, and to the people who were sitting towards the north he gave opal-colored robes. To those sitting towards the west he gave scarlet-colored robes. To those sitting towards the south he gave caps, the borders of which were decorated with strips of gold and pearls, with elevations on the left side adorned with diamonds cut in the form of flowers. And to those sitting towards the east he gave laurel wreaths set with rubies and sapphires.

The people left the school of wisdom and headed home all decked out in these awards, but though they meant to show themselves off to their wives, their wives came to meet them also arrayed in beautiful gifts from heaven, which the men marveled at.

Gold means good, and just as gold was the most precious metal known to ancient mankind so it represents the good of the highest and wisest of the angels. These angels foremostly love the Lord, and because they do they act from that love at all times. So the things they do are from love or as the writings for the new church often say, their acts are "goods of love". This is what gold represents. As soon as God planted the garden of Eden, He created a river in it, to water it. This river went out and branched into four, the first branch mentioned, Pishon, encompassed the "…land of Havilah, where there is gold… and the gold…is good". Another mention of gold comes in Exodus where the Lord is telling Moses how to make the Tabernacle. If you pay attention you will see that inside the tabernacle the main thing you see is gold, the boards of the wall are covered with it and all the furniture is either wood covered completely with gold, or is made of solid gold. Then at the end of the Word the holy city descends from God and it is made of gold, "gold like unto clear glass" good of love that can be clearly and completely understood. And it has its river. This is a promise from the Lord that we can come into a state similar to that of the garden of Eden, if we follow Him so as to come into love for Him, and act from that love.