47. A proper perception of these matters may show that the universe is a coherent whole from first to last, since it contains ends, causes and effects bound up in an indissoluble knot. Since every love has an end in view, and all wisdom is the advancement of the end through mediate causes, and through these proceeding to effects, which are the purposes it serves, it follows too that the universe contains the Divine Love, the Divine Wisdom and services, and is thus a coherent whole from first to last. Every wise man can study as in a mirror the fact that the universe is composed of a perpetual succession of services brought about by wisdom and initiated by love, if he forms for himself any general idea about the creation of the universe, and examines its details. For the details adapt themselves to the general pattern, and this arranges them into a consonant form. Many illustrations of this will be given in the following pages.

4548. 'Who answered me on the day of my distress' means within the state in which truth is placed above good. This is clear from the meaning of 'day' as state, dealt with in 23, 487, 488, 493, 893, 2788, 3462, 3785. As for 'the day of my distress' meaning a state in which truth is placed above good, this becomes clear from what has been stated above in 4542, for the expression 'the day of distress' used here embodies the same as the words used there, 'When you fled from before Esau your brother'.