Advent Reading - December 26

AR 255 [3] - Manger

The manger in the stable . . .
means spiritual instruction for the understanding;
this is the meaning of a manger,
and the same is meant by the manger
in which the Lord lay when an infant,
because a horse, which eats therefrom,
means the understanding of the Word.

Doctrine of Sacred Scripture 40 - Swaddling Cloths

The truths of the sense of the Letter of the Word are,
in some cases, not naked truths,
but appearances of truth, being, as it were,
similitudes and comparisons
taken from such things as are in nature,
accommodated and adequate to the apprehension
of simple people and children;
but because they are correspondences,
they are the receptacles and abodes of genuine truth.
They are like vessels which enclose and contain,
as a crystal cup holds noble wine,
or a silver dish nourishing food.
They are like garments which serve as clothing, 
like swaddling clothes for an infant,
and comely robes for a maiden.
They are also like the knowledge of the natural person,
which comprises the perceptions and affections of truth
of the spiritual person.
The truths themselves unveiled,
which are included, contained, clothed and comprised,
are in the spiritual sense of the Word,
and goods unveiled are in its celestial sense.