AC 7780 - Millstones

AC 7780

It is said "behind the millstones"
because a "millstone" is predicated of
those things which are of faith;
for by millstones grain is ground into flour,
and is thus prepared for bread;
and by "flour" is meant the truth from which is good,
and by "bread" that very good
which is derived from those truths.
Thus "to sit at the millstones"
is to learn and be filled with such things
as may be serviceable to faith,
and through faith to charity.
For this reason the ancients, when they described
the first rudiments of the doctrine of faith,
described them by "sitting at the millstones,"
and the things which were still more rudimentary
by "sitting behind the millstones."

Because of such a meaning,
the Lord, where He teaches about
the last time of the church, says:

Two women shall be grinding at the mill,
the one shall be taken and the other left
(Matthew 24:41),

which would never have been said unless a "mill"
had meant those things which are of faith.

As to the truths of faith which are in the first place,
and those which are in the last,
be it known that those truths of faith
which immediately proceed from the good of charity
are what are in the first place,
for they are goods in form;
but the truths which are in the last place are naked truths;
for when truths are successively derived,
they recede at each step from good,
and finally become naked truths.
Such truths are meant by
"maidservants behind the millstones."