Spiritual Meaning of

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The signification of bending themselves and bowing themselves down, is the effect of humiliation (AC 2153, 6266) but bending themselves denotes exterior humiliation, and is that of those who are in truth; and bowing themselves down denotes interior humiliation, and is that of those who are in good, may be seen above (AC 5682). That this is so, has often been made plain from those who are in truth and those who are in good: they who are in truth are as it were rigid, and stand erect as if they were hard; and when they ought to humble themselves before the Divine, they only bend the body a little; but those who are in good are as it were soft, and when they humble themselves before the Divine, they bow themselves down to the earth. For truth without good is quite rigid, and when it looks to good as the end, this rigidity begins to soften; but good is in itself soft, and the truth which is being insinuated, as it becomes good there, also grows soft. The reason is that truth cannot be ordered in the heavenly form except by good; hence it is in itself hard; for the heavenly form is most free and makes no resistance; and from this the good with which truth has been rightly ordered, is like it; and, as above said, is soft.

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