The Spiritual World: Talks for Children by George de Charms

12.  Speech in Heaven

It was fifty days after the Passover at which the Lord had been crucified - the day of Pentecost. The Lord had appeared to the disciples several times, so that they knew that He had not really been killed, but had risen again. He had told them to go forth and preach to everyone the Gospel of the Kingdom, that they might establish the Christian Church on the earth.

So they were gathered together in an upper chamber, in one of the houses in the city of Jerusalem, eating together and discussing what they ought to do, when they heard the sound as of a rushing wind, and cloven tongues of fire appeared over their heads, and they were inspired from heaven to preach. So they went forth and spoke to the people passing in the street.

Now Jerusalem was a great city where people came and went from every country of the world. Some came from Egypt, some from Media, some from Greece, some from Babylonia, and each person spoke their own language. And the disciples were Jews who lived in Galilee where everyone spoke in the Galilean tongue. But imagine the astonishment of those who passed by and heard them speaking, to find that each person understood them in that person’s own language. The Greeks thought the disciples were speaking Greek; the Romans thought they were speaking Latin, and so on - everyone heard them in a different tongue. And they marveled greatly, saying, "Behold, are not these Galileans ? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?" (Acts 2: 7, 8)

Now this indeed was a marvelous thing, and no one, even at this day, understands how it could possibly be done. But it is easy to understand if we know the great law of language in the world. For these people heard the disciples speaking, not in this world, but in the other world. There are many cases where the spiritual eyes were opened, as described in the Word, when angels and spirits appeared to people on earth. But in this case the spiritual ears were opened, and they heard the disciples speaking in the other world, according to the spiritual language, which is the same for the whole human race.

Everyone who goes into the other world - no matter to what nation or people they belonged on earth; no matter what language they may have spoken while they lived in the body - will there speak in this spiritual language. They do not have to learn it. They simply know it as soon as they enter there. It is altogether different from the language they spoke on earth - so different that angels and spirits cannot understand a single word of any earthly tongue. But it is a language natural to all people - a language which all of us can speak without having to learn it; and everyone there can understand it perfectly. Indeed, people here also understand it - even on earth, but they at once translate it into their native tongue, and do not even realize that they have done so. It is for this reason that angels can speak with equal ease to anyone on earth, no matter to what nation a person may belong, and will be perfectly understood; but by every person they will be understood in that person’s own language.

This is what happened with the disciples. Being in the spirit, they spoke the language of spirits, feeling so familiar with it that they did not know it was not their own Galilean tongue. And those passing by - hearing it in the. Spirit - were able to understand it perfectly, but thought that they heard it in their particular language. So it is always when spirits speak to people on earth. Suppose an angel came and spoke to you. He or she would speak in the language of heaven, for that is the only language an angel knows. But you would understand the angel, and would think that they spoke in English. And suppose that same angel should speak to a little French child, or a little Spanish child, or a little Swedish child - each would understand the angel perfectly, but would think that the angel was speaking French, Spanish or Swedish, as the case might be.

This may seem very strange to you, even as it did to the people who paused outside that in house in Jerusalem, so long ago, to listen to wonderful message the disciples had to give. But if for a moment you will stop to think what language is, you will see how perfectly natural it is.

The words of a language are merely signs that stand for ideas. These signs are different in different countries. But the ideas are fundamentally all the same. If your mother says "Go outside and play, "you know exactly what she means. At once you think of getting your coat and hat, or your rubbers, and playing out-of-doors. Now if a French mother should say to her little boy or girl, "Vas dehors, et joue," you would not understand her, and yet she would have said exactly the same thing, only using different signs by which the thing itself might be known. Her little child would understand quite as well as you would understand your own mother. He or she would go at once and get their coat and hat, and leave the house to play in the open air. They would hear something different, but they would think of the same thing. The words would be different, but the idea would be the same. And this is true, no matter what language might be spoken. The idea of going outside to play is the same in China, Japan, or Russia, as it is here in America.

Now the language of the angels is a language of ideas. And so it is the same for everyone. All in the spiritual world can understand it equally well. The words we use on earth are merely the means of getting at our ideas - of causing us to think them. To do this we use many different signs. Even in our own country language may be spoken - in which case we use sounds for signs; or it may be read, in which case we use letters for signs. These two are very different, but they rouse the same ideas. And when those ideas come into our minds, at once we understand.

So the disciples spoke in ideas, because they spoke in the language of heaven; and those who listened heard them in the other world; that is, they heard ideas, and no matter what language they had learned to speak, they at once understood.

This is one of the wonderful things about the spiritual world - that we shall all be able understand one another there. There are little children who belong to the New Church in many different countries of the world. There are
some in Sweden; there are others in France; still others in Holland and Austria, and some in South America, where they speak Portugese. You could not understand a word they said if they were to come here. Nor could they understand you. Yet they learn about the Lord, about the Word, and about heaven and how spirits live there; and because of this they come to think of the same things that you think of, to be delighted with the same wonderful teachings, and to receive the same ideas from their parents and teachers. And when you both enter the other world, you will be able to speak together with perfect ease, and will understand each other.

I might tell you very much more about language - how necessary it is, and how useful it is here on earth - for without some language we should never be able to make anyone else in the world understand what we are thinking about. But let it be sufficient for this time to remember that language is like money - it is extremely useful, but it is of no value in itself. It is a means of exchanging ideas, even as money is a means of exchanging things. We should treasure our language. We should try to keep it pure, and should seek to increase our knowledge of it, that we may more perfectly express ideas by means of it. But remember that it is always the idea that is the important thing - the thing we should try to possess - the thing that makes the real wealth of the mind. For ideas are the language of heaven, and the more of them we have, the more widely and the more perfectly will we be able to speak in the other world.

Lesson: Genesis 11: 1-9

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