127. Men's desire to probe into mysteries of faith by means of sensory evidence and factual knowledge was not only the cause of the downfall of the Most Ancient Church, that is to say, of its descendants - to be dealt with in the next chapter; it is also the cause of the downfall of every Church. For that desire leads not only to falsities but also to evils of life.

1871. The appearance that the Word of the Lord takes on as it is seen by the angels defies description; yet some idea of it may be had by those who have seen in places where curiosities are housed those optical cylinders in which beautiful images are produced from projected components that seemingly lie around without order. ¹ But although these components which lie around one another appear to have no form, sequence, or order, and appear to be wholly shapeless projections, yet when they are all directed towards the cylinder they produce a lovely image there. So it is with the Word of the Lord, especially in the prophetical part of the Old Testament. Almost everything in the literal sense there seems to be without order, but when it is read by man, and especially by a very young boy or girl, it becomes by degrees more lovely and delightful as it ascends, and at length presents itself before the Lord as the image of a human being in which and by means of which heaven is represented in its entirety, not as it is in fact but as the Lord would like it to be, that is, a likeness of Himself.

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