6744. 'Take to yourself this child' means that she should link him to herself. This is clear from the meaning of 'taking to' as linking; from the meaning of the mother, to whom 'to yourself' refers here, as the Church, dealt with just above in 6742; and from the representation of Moses, to whom 'child' refers here, as the law of God in its earliest stages. In the highest sense, which describes what went on with the Lord, those were the stages that occurred when He was working to make His Human the law of God; and in the relative sense, which describes what goes on with a person who is being regenerated, they are the stages that occur when he is being introduced into God's truth, see above in 6716.

6742. 'And the girl went and called the child's mother' means that the Church's truth of good linked things of the Church to it. This is clear from the meaning of 'the girl' as the Church's truth of good, dealt with below; from the meaning of 'calling' as linking, for the reason why she called the mother was in order to link her; and from the meaning of 'the mother' as the Church, dealt with in 289, 2691, 2717, 5581, and so also as things of the Church. In the Word the expression 'virgin' is used; so also is 'girl', though the word rendered 'girl' here rarely occurs in the original language. 'Virgin' means the good that the celestial Church possesses, whereas 'girl' means the truth of good that the spiritual Church possesses, as in David,

They have seen Your goings, O God, the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. The singers went before, players [of stringed instruments] after, in the midst of the girls playing timbrels. Psalms 68:24-25.

The words in these verses all have reference to the truths of good that the spiritual Church possesses. The expression 'God' is used when truth is the subject, see 2769, 2807, 2822, 4402; 'king' means truth, 1672, 2015, 2069, 3009, 4575, 4581, 4966, 5044, 5068, 6148; 'singers' has reference to truths that the spiritual Church possesses, 418-420, and 'timbrel players' has reference to spiritual good, 4138. From this one may see that 'the girls' are the truths of good which the spiritual Church possesses.