268. I must explain how the Lord and heaven are present in every land and linked to it by means of the Word. The whole heaven of angels is in the sight of the Lord like one person, and so is the church on earth. They really look like a person, as may be seen in my book HEAVEN AND HELL (59-86)*. That person contains the church, where the Word is read and thus the Lord is known, just as the body contains a heart and lungs; the Lord's celestial kingdom serves as the heart, His spiritual kingdom as the lungs, Just as these two sources of life in the human body supply all the remaining limbs, viscera and organs with continued existence and life, so too the linking of the Lord and heaven with the church by means of the Word supplies continued existence and life to all those throughout the world who have a religion, worship one God and live good lives. Thus they form part of that person, and answer to the limbs and viscera outside the chest, which is the seat of the heart and lungs. For the Word possessed by the Christian church is life to the remainder, given by the Lord through heaven, just as the life of the limbs and viscera throughout the body comes from the heart and lungs. The communication between them too is similar. This too is why Christians, who hear the Word read, make up the chest of that person. They are also at the midmost point of all, surrounded by the Roman Catholics; outside them come the Mohammedans who acknowledge the Lord as the greatest prophet and as the Son of God. After them come the Africans, and the outermost circumference is made up of the peoples and nations in Asia and the Indies.