The Spiritual World: Talks for Children by George de Charms

4.  The Quarters in Heaven 

We have learned something about the Sun of heaven - how it always shines for the angels with a light far brighter than the light of our sun; how it never rises nor sets, but remains in one place, about as far up in the heavens as our sun is in the middle of the morning; and how it never shines for the evil spirits in hell because they have closed the windows of their minds, and turned their backs upon the Lord. And now we want to learn something about the North, South, East and West, in the spiritual world.

It is very different there from the way it is with us in this world. Here we know where the East is because that is where the sun rises. We know where the West is because there the sun sets. And when we are facing the East we know that the South lies to our right hand, while the North is toward our left. But in the other world the East is where the Lord is. It is where He appears in the Sun. The angels who love the Lord always turn toward Him, and see His Sun before their eyes; and what is wonderful, however they may turn their body, they still face toward the Lord, and thus toward the East. Because of this the South is always toward their right hand, and the North is always toward their left hand, and the West is always toward their back. This seems very strange to us, and we can hardly understand how it can be, because we think at once, that if two angels are standing talking to one another, the one sees the Sun before him, in one direction, and the other sees it before him, in the opposite direction, and they are both facing the East. But this is because we try to think of it from our own world. And yet, even here, the same thing is true - though not exactly the same way. We here look in one direction and see the sun rising in the East. But if we should journey toward the East, and keep on traveling until we came to the other side of the world - while we would still be facing the rising of the sun and looking toward the East - we would be turned in exactly the opposite direction. So we can see, even in this world, how it is possible for two people to be facing opposite ways, and still be turned toward the East. In the other world it is more wonderful, because two in the same place can do this; and how this is true you can also see if you will picture the sun in the center of the earth, and men living inside the surface of the earth. Then they might turn in any direction, and still see the sun before them, in the same position.

This is the case in the other world. The Lord is the center of that world, and all the heavens are round about Him, at a distance, as it were in a circle.. The ground on which they walk seems to be flat - even as it does to us. But, like our earth, it is not flat, but round, in such a way that people standing on it, wherever they turn, still see the Lord always before their eyes.

In that world the Lord is the East. And there those who love Him the most, and receive from Him the greatest wisdom, are said to be in the East. Those who love Him less, yet are intelligent, knowing many things from Him, are said to be in the South. Those who still love Him but know very little dwell in the North; and those who do not love Him, but who reject and turn away from Him, are in the West. All little children there, because they love the Lord - although they are not wise, and as yet know very little - are in the North. And as they grow up and become wiser, they journey toward the South, and at last toward the East, until they come into the societies of the wise angels there. So also, many people who come from the earth, and who have no knowledge of the Lord, come first among those in the North, and as they are instructed - if they are good, they journey toward the South and the East. But if they are not good, then they refuse to learn, and turn away toward the West, journeying until they come among those who are in hell.

Because people in very ancient times knew how it was in the other world, therefore they turned to the East when they worshiped the Lord. All their temples were built so that they might face the East, and look toward the rising of the sun when they prayed to the Lord. And that custom has come down even to our. times. We also worship facing the East.

And because all wisdom comes from the Lord, the people of ancient times spoke of all who were wise as dwelling in the East Country. So it was that the land of Syria, where the wisdom of heaven lingered after those of other countries had forgotten about the Lord, was called the land of the East. It was from this country that the prophet Balaam was called by Balak, King of Edom, to curse the children of Israel, as they were about to enter the Land of Canaan after their wanderings in the wilderness. It was from this same land that the Wise Men came to worship the Lord and to offer Him gifts, when He was born in Bethlehem of Judaea. They were called wise men from the East, although Syria - whence they came - was not really in the East, but rather in the North. It was called the land of the East because those who lived there were wiser than others in the things of heaven, and thus were nearer to the Lord.

So also when speaking of the great wisdom of King Solomon, the Lord says in the Word that he was wiser than "all the children of the East," which was the greatest thing that could be said of him.

The East - in the other world - is where the Lord is, and we draw near to it by loving Him, and growing wise from Him. If we love the Lord we will wish to be near Him. We will wish to look toward the place where He dwells, and to journey in that direction. The Lord is with us in His Word, and we turn toward the East when we love His Word, and seek to learn the things written therein. As we do this we will grow wise, and closer to the Lord. It will not seem - so long as we are on earth - as if we are journeying. But we actually are journeying, and if our spiritual eyes were opened we would see at once the direction in which we are traveling. This love of the Lord - the desire to draw nearer to Him, the desire to become wise from Him, and to dwell among those wise angels who live in the East in heaven - should make us eager to learn the things of the Word, to have them always in our mind, to be ever ready to listen to what the Lord tells us out of His Word, and so to have Him ever before the eyes of our mind, even as the angels have.

Lesson: Numbers 23: 1-12.

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