ies. They
are all so preserved by the Lord that not the smallest of them is
lost. Every state from infancy even to extreme old age not only
_remains_ in another life, but also returns. Returning, these states
are such as they were during a man's abode in the world. Not only the
goods and truths, stored up in the memory, remain and return, but
likewise all the states of innocence and charity; and when states of
evil and the false, or of wickedness and phantasy recur, these latter
states are attempered by the former through the Divine operation of
the Lord.

--_Arcana Coelestia, n._ 561

PRAYER

"O Thou who hearest prayer;
Unto Thee shall all flesh come."

--_Psalm_, LXV, 2

Prayer, in itself considered, is speech with God. There is then some
inward view of the objects of the prayer, and answering to that
something like an influx into the perception or thought. Thus there is
a kind of opening of the man's interiors toward God, with a difference
according to the man's state and according to the nature of the object
of the prayer. If one prays out of love and faith and only about and
for things heavenly and spiritual, then there appears in the prayer
something like revelation, which shows itself in the affection of the
suppliant, in hope, solace, or an inner gladness.

--_Arcana Coelestia, n._ 2535

THE SERVICE OF WORSHIP

"I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy;
In Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple."

--_Psalm_, V, 7

One should not omit the practice of external worship. Things inward
are excited by external worship; and outward things are kept in
holiness by external worship, so that things inward can flow in.
Moreover, a man is imbued in this way with knowledge, and prepared to
receive celestial things, so as to be endowed with states of holiness,
though he is unaware of it. These states of holiness the Lord
preserves to him for the use of eternal life; for in the other life
all one's states of life recur.

--_Arcana Coelestia, n._ 1618

THE SACRAMENTS

Baptism and the Holy Supper are the holiest acts of worship. Baptism
and the Holy Supper are as it were two gates, through which a man is
introduced into eternal life. After the first gate there is a plain,
which he must traverse; and the second is the goal where the prize is,
to which he directed his course; for the palm is not given un