SS 104, 105 - Why It Only Takes a Few

SS 104

There can be no conjunction with heaven
unless somewhere on earth
there is a church where the Word is,
and where by it the Lord is known;
for the Lord is the God of heaven and earth,
and apart from Him there is no salvation.
It is sufficient
that there be a church where the Word is,
even if it consists of comparatively few,
for even in that case
the Lord is present by its means in the whole world,
for by its means heaven
is conjoined with the human race.

SS 105 [1-2]

But in what way the presence and conjunction
of the Lord and heaven
exist in all lands by means of the Word
shall now be told.
Before the Lord
the universal heaven is like one person,
and so is the church.
. . . In this person,
the church where the Word is read
and the Lord thereby known,
is as the heart and lungs;
the celestial kingdom as the heart,
and the spiritual kingdom as the lungs.

As the heart and lungs
are the two founts of life in the human body,
and all the rest of the organs and viscera subsist
and have life from them,
so also do all people in the world
subsist and have life
from the conjunction of the Lord and heaven
with the church through the Word —
all those who have any religion,
who worship one God and live rightly,
who are therefore included in that grand humanity,
and who relate to its organs and viscera
surrounding the thoracic cavity
which contains the heart and lungs.
For the Word in the church,
even if possessed by relatively few,
is life to all the rest
from the Lord through heaven,
as the organs and viscera of the entire body
have life from the heart and lungs.
They also have a similar communication.