Spiritual Meaning of

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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 signified the truth from which is good, and by bread that very good which is thence derived. Thus to sit at the millstones is to learn and be imbued 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 signification, the Lord, where He teaches about the last time of the church, says:--

which would never have been said unless a mill had signified those things which are of faith. What a mill and grinding mean in the internal sense, see (AC 4335). 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 signified by maidservants behind the millstones.

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