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出埃及記 26

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1 你要用幅幔子做帳幕。這些幔子要用撚的細麻和藍色紫色、朱紅色線製造,並用巧匠的手工繡上基路伯

2 每幅幔子要長二十肘,寬肘,幔子都要樣的尺寸。

3 這五幅幔子要幅幅相連;那五幅幔子也要幅幅相連。

4 在這相連的幔子末幅邊上要做藍色的鈕扣;在那相連的幔子末幅邊上也要照樣做。

5 要在這相連的幔子上做五十個鈕扣;在那相連的幔子上也做五十個鈕扣,都要兩兩相對。

6 又要做五十鉤,用鉤使幔子相連,這才成了個帳幕。

7 你要用山羊毛織十一幅幔子,作為帳幕以上的罩棚。

8 每幅幔子要長三十肘,寬肘;十幅幔子都要樣的尺寸。

9 要把五幅幔子連成一幅,又把幅幔子連成一幅,這第六幅幔子要在罩棚的前面摺上去。

10 在這相連的幔子末幅邊上要做五十個鈕扣;在那相連的幔子末幅邊上也做五十個鈕扣。

11 又要做五十個銅鉤,鉤在鈕扣中,使罩棚連成個。

12 罩棚的幔子所餘那垂下來的半幅幔子,要垂在帳幕的後頭。

13 罩棚的幔子所餘長的,這邊一肘,那邊一肘,要垂在帳幕的兩旁,遮蓋帳幕。

14 又要用染紅的公羊皮做罩棚的蓋;再用海狗做一層罩棚上的頂蓋。

15 你要用皂莢做帳幕的豎板。

16 每塊要長肘,寬肘半;

17 每塊必有兩榫相對。帳幕切的板要這樣做。

18 帳幕的面要做板二十塊。

19 在這二十塊板底要做四十個帶卯的座,兩卯接這塊板上的兩榫,兩卯接那塊板上的兩榫。

20 帳幕第二面,就是面,也要做板二十

21 和帶卯的四十個;這板底有兩卯,那板底也有兩卯。

22 帳幕的後面,就是西面,要做板塊。

23 帳幕後面的拐角要做板兩塊。

24 板的半截要雙的,上半截要整的,直頂到第子;兩塊要這樣做兩個拐角。

25 必有塊板和十六個帶卯的座;這板底有兩卯,那板底也有兩卯。

26 你要用皂莢做閂:為帳幕這面的板做五閂,

27 為帳幕那面的板做五閂,又為帳幕後面的板做五閂。

28 板腰間的中閂要從這一頭通到那一頭。

29 板要用子包裹,又要做板上的套閂;閂也要用子包裹。

30 要照著在上指示你的樣式立起帳幕。

31 你要用藍色紫色、朱紅色線,和撚的細麻織幔子,以巧匠的手工繡上基路伯

32 要把幔子掛在根包的皂莢木子上,子上當有鉤,子安在個帶卯的座上。

33 要使幔子垂在鉤子,把法櫃抬進幔子內;這幔子要將所和至所隔開。

34 又要把施恩座安在至所內的法櫃上,

35 桌子安在幔子外帳幕的面;把臺安在帳幕的南面,彼此相對。

36 你要拿藍色紫色、朱紅色線,和撚的細麻,用繡花的手工織帳幕的簾。

37 要用皂莢木為簾子做五根子,用子包裹。子上當有鉤;又要為子用銅鑄造五個帶卯的座。

   

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Conjugial Love # 75

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75. The first account:

When I was once meditating on conjugial love, my mind was seized with a desire to know what that love was like among the people who lived in the golden age, and afterwards what it was like among those who lived in the following ages which are named after silver, copper, and iron. And because I knew that all those people who lived well in those ages are now in heaven, I prayed to the Lord to be allowed to speak with them and be instructed.

Then suddenly an angel stood beside me, and he said, "I have been sent by the Lord to be your guide and companion. First I will guide and accompany you to the people who lived in the first age or period, which is called golden." He also added, "The way to them is difficult. It lies through a dark forest which no one can pass through without being given a guide by the Lord."

[2] I was in the spirit, and so I readied myself for the journey, and we turned our faces to the east. And as we went I saw a mountain, whose height extended beyond the level of the clouds.

We crossed a great desert, and we came to a forest thick with trees of various kinds and dark on account of their density, as the angel had predicted. However, the forest was intersected by many narrow paths, but the angel said they were all winding ways leading astray, and that, unless a traveler's eyes were opened by the Lord to see the olive trees covered with leafy vines and to make his way from olive tree to olive tree, he would wander off into infernal regions which surrounded the forest on each side. "This is what this forest is like," the angel said, "in order to guard the approach, for none but the earliest people dwell on that mountain."

[3] After we entered the forest, our eyes were opened, and here and there we saw olive trees entwined with vines, which had bunches of purplish-blue grapes hanging from them. Moreover, the olive trees were arranged in a continuous series of circles. Consequently we went around and around as each one came to view, until finally we saw a grove of tall cedars, with some eagles on their branches.

Seeing them the angel said, "We are now on the mountain, not far from its summit."

We went on, and lo, beyond the grove, there was a circular field, where male and female lambs were grazing, which were forms representative of the state of innocence and peace of the people who dwelt on the mountain. We crossed this field, and suddenly tents appeared - tent after tent - reaching many thousands in number, in front and on each side, as far as the eye could see.

And the angel said, "We are now in an encampment. Behold the army of the Lord Jehovih! That is what they call themselves and their dwellings. When these most ancient people lived in the world, they dwelled in tents. Therefore they also live in tents now. But let us turn our way southward - where the wiser ones among them are - to find someone to talk with."

[4] As we went, I saw in the distance three boys and three girls sitting at the entrance of one of the tents. But when we drew near, they looked like men and women of average height.

And the angel said, "All the inhabitants of this mountain appear at a distance like little children, because they are in a state of innocence, and early childhood is the way innocence appears."

Seeing us, the men hurried over to us and said, "Where are you from, and how did you get here? Your faces are different from the faces of our mountain."

But the angel answered and told them how we were able to pass through the forest and the reason for our coming.

Hearing this, one of the three men invited us into his tent and led us inside. The man was dressed in a blue-colored robe and a tunic of very white wool. And his wife was dressed in a purple dress, with a blouse underneath of embroidered fine linen.

[5] Then because I had in my thought the desire to learn about the marriages of the most ancient peoples, I looked by turns at the husband and wife, and I observed a seeming unity of their souls in their faces.

So I said, "You two are one."

The man replied, "We are. Her life is in me, and my life is in her. We have two bodies, but one soul. The union between us is like the union of the two tabernacles in the breast which are called the heart and the lungs. She is my heart and I am her lungs. But since when we say heart here we mean love, and when we say lungs we mean wisdom, therefore she is the love of my wisdom, and I am the wisdom of her love. Therefore her love outwardly clothes my wisdom, and my wisdom is inwardly within her love. Consequently, as you have said, the unity of our souls appears in our faces."

[6] Then I asked, "If such is the union between you, are you able to look upon any other woman than your own?"

He replied, "I can, but because my wife is united to my soul, the two of us look together, and then not a trace of lust can enter. For when I look at other men's wives, I look at them through the eyes of my wife, who is the only one I am in love with. And because she, as my wife, can perceive all my inclinations, she acts as an intermediary and directs my thoughts, taking away anything discordant and at the same time inspiring a coldness and horror towards anything unchaste. As a result it is impossible for us here to regard any of our companions' wives with lust - as impossible as it would be to look at the light of our heaven from a state of infernal darkness. We have no mental concept among us, therefore, and not even any word in our speech for the temptations of libidinous love." He could not say free love, because the chastity of their heaven resisted it.

My angel guide then said to me, "You hear, now, the speech of the angels of this heaven, that it is a speech of wisdom, because they speak in terms of causes."

[7] After this I looked around, and seeing that their tent appeared covered with gold, I asked why this was.

The man replied that it was due to the flaming light, which glittered like gold. "It shines and strikes the curtains of our tent," he said, "whenever we are engaged in conversation on the subject of conjugial love. For the heat from our sun, which in its essence is love, then bares itself and tints the light, which in its essence is wisdom. It tints it with its own color, which is golden. This occurs because conjugial love in its origin is the interplay of wisdom and love, for man was born to be a form of wisdom, and woman to be a form of love for the wisdom in a man. From this come the delights of that interplay in conjugial love, and therefore between us and our wives.

"We here have seen, for thousands of years, that those delights become more excellent and exalted in abundance, degree and strength, according to the worship of the Lord Jehovih among us. That heavenly union or that heavenly marriage which exists between love and wisdom infuses itself as a result of that worship."

[8] When he said this, I saw a great light on a hill at the center amid the tents, and I asked where that light was coming from.

The man said, "It is coming from the sanctuary of our tabernacle of worship."

I then inquired whether we might go there, and he said we could. So I went, and I saw a tabernacle which, outside and in, exactly fit the description of the tabernacle which was built for the children of Israel in the wilderness, whose form was shown to Moses on top of Mount Sinai (Exodus 25:40, 26:30). And I asked what there was inside the sanctuary that was giving off so much light.

He answered, "There is a tablet, which bears the inscription, 'The Covenant Between Jehovah and Heaven.'" That was all he said.

[9] Then, because by that time we were getting ready to leave, I asked, "When you lived in the natural world, did any of you live with more than one wife?"

He replied that he did not know one person who did. "For we could not think of having more," he said. "Those who had had such thoughts told us that their states of heavenly bliss instantly receded from the inmost depths of their souls to the outmost parts of their bodies, even into their fingernails, and along with them the virtues of manhood. When others perceived this, they were exiled from our lands."

Having said this, the man hurried to his tent and returned with a pomegranate containing a number of seeds made of gold. He gave it to me and I took it away with me, as a memento to me that we had been with people who had lived in the golden age.

So then, after saying farewell, we departed and returned home.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.