4. As to their employments.A. The employments of good angels.(a) They stand in the presence of God and worship him.Ps. 29:1, 2—“Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name. Worship Jehovah in holy array”—Perowne:“Heaven being thought of as one great temple, and all the worshipers therein as clothed in priestly vestments.”Ps. 89:7—“a God very terrible in the council of the holy ones,”i. e., angels—Perowne:“Angels are called an assembly or congregation, as the church above, which like the church below worships and praises God.”Mat. 18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.”In apparent allusion to this text, Dante represents the saints as dwelling in the presence of God yet at the same time rendering humble service to their fellow men here upon the earth. Just in proportion to their nearness to God and the light they receive from him, is the influence they are able to exert over others.(b) They rejoice in God's works.Job 38:7—“all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Luke 15:10—“there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”;cf.2 Tim. 2:25—“if peradventure God may give them repentance.”Dante represents the angels that are nearest to God, the infinite source of life, as ever advancing toward the spring-time of youth, so that the oldest angels are the youngest.(c) They execute God's will,—by working in nature;Ps. 103:20—“Ye his angels ... that fulfil his word, Hearkening unto the voice of his word”;104:4marg.—“Who maketh his angels winds;His ministers a flaming fire,”i. e., lightnings. See Alford onHeb. 1:7—“The order of the Hebrew words here [inPs. 104:4] is not the same as in the former verses (see especiallyv. 3), where we have:‘Who maketh the clouds his chariot.’For this transposition, those who insist that the passage means‘he maketh winds his messengers’can give no reason.”Farrar onHeb. 1:7—“He maketh his angels winds”;“The Rabbis often refer to the fact that God makes his angels assume any form he pleases, whether man (Gen. 18:2) or woman (Zech 5:9—‘two women, and the wind was in their wings’), or wind or flame (Ex. 3:2—‘angel ... in a flame of fire’;2 K. 6:17). But that untenable and fleeting form of existence which is the glory of the angels would be an inferiority in the Son. He could not be clothed, as they are at God's will, in the fleeting robes of material phenomena.”John Henry Newman, in his Apologia, sees an angel in every flower. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 82—“Origen thought not a blade of grass nor a fly was without its angel.Rev. 14:18—an angel‘that hath power over fire’;John 5:4—intermittent spring under charge of an angel;Mat. 28:2—descent of an angel caused earthquake on the morning of Christ's resurrection;Luke 13:11—control of diseases is ascribed to angels.”(d) by guiding the affairs of nations;Dan. 10:12, 13, 21—“I come for thy words' sake. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me ... Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ... Michael your prince”;11:1—“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him”;12:1—“at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people.”Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 87, suggests the question whether“the spirit of the age”or“the national character”in any particular case may not be due to the unseen“principalities”under which men live. Paul certainly recognizes, inEph. 2:2,“the prince of the powers of the air, ... the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.”May not good angels be entrusted with influence over nations' affairs to counteract the evil and help the good?[pg 452](e) by watching over the interests of particular churches;1 Cor. 11:10—“for this cause ought the women to have a sign of authority[i. e., a veil]on her head, because of the angels”—who watch over the church and have care for its order. Matheson, Spiritual Development of St. Paul, 242—“Man's covering is woman's power. Ministrationisher power and it allies her with a greater than man—the angel. Christianity is a feminine strength. Judaism had made woman only a means to an end—the multiplication of the race. So it had degraded her. Paul will restore woman to her original and equal dignity.”Col. 2:18—“Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the angels”—a false worship which would be very natural if angels were present to guard the meetings of the saints.1 Tim. 5:21—“I charge thee in the sight of God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things”—the public duties of the Christian minister.Alford regards“the angels of the seven churches”(Rev. 1:20) as superhuman beings appointed to represent and guard the churches, and that upon the grounds: (1) that the word is used elsewhere in the book of Revelation only in this sense; and (2) that nothing in the book is addressed to a teacher individually, but all to some one who reflects the complexion and fortunes of the church as no human person could. We prefer, however, to regard“the angels of the seven churches”as meaning simply the pastors of the seven churches. The word“angel”means simply“messenger,”and may be used of human as well as of superhuman beings—seeHag. 1:13—“Haggai, Jehovah's messenger”—literally,“the angel of Jehovah.”The use of the word in this figurative sense would not be incongruous with the mystical character of the book of Revelation (see Bib. Sac. 12:339). John Lightfoot, Heb. and Talmud. Exerc., 2:90, says that“angel”was a term designating officer or elder of a synagogue. See also Bp. Lightfoot, Com. on Philippians, 187, 188; Jacobs, Eccl. Polity, 100 and note. In the Irvingite church, accordingly,“angels”constitute an official class.(f) by assisting and protecting individual believers;1 K. 19:5—“an angel touched him[Elijah],and said unto him, Arise and eat”;Ps. 91:11—“he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone”;Dan. 6:22—“My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me”;Mat. 4:11—“angels came and ministered unto him”—Jesus was the type of all believers;18:10—“despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father”; compareverse 6—“one of these little ones that believe on me”; see Meyer, Com.in loco, who regards these passages as proving the doctrine of guardian angels.Luke 16:22—“the beggar died, and ... was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom”;Heb. 1:14—“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?”CompareActs 12:15—“And they said, It is his angel”—of Peter standing knocking; see Hackett, Com.in loco: the utterance“expresses a popular belief prevalent among the Jews, which is neither affirmed nor denied.”Shakespeare, Henry IV, 2nd part, 2:2—“For the boy—there is a good angel about him.”Per contra, see Broadus, Com. onMat. 18:10—“It is simply said of believers as a class that there are angels which are‘their angels’; but there is nothing here or elsewhere to show that one angel has special charge of one believer.”(g) by punishing God's enemies.2 K. 19:35—“it came to pass that night, that the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand”;Acts 12:23—“And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.”A general survey of this Scripture testimony as to the employments of good angels leads us to the following conclusions:First,—that good angels are not to be considered as the mediating agents of God's regular and common providence, but as the ministers of his special providence in the affairs of his church. He“maketh his angels winds”and“a flaming fire,”not in his ordinary procedure, but in connection with special displays of his power for moral ends (Deut. 33:2; Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2). Their intervention is apparently occasional and exceptional—not at their own option, but only as it is permitted or commanded by God. Hence we are not to conceive of angels as coming[pg 453]between us and God, nor are we, without special revelation of the fact, to attribute to them in any particular case the effects which the Scriptures generally ascribe to divine providence. Like miracles, therefore, angelic appearances generally mark God's entrance upon new epochs in the unfolding of his plans. Hence we read of angels at the completion of creation (Job 38:7); at the giving of the law (Gal 3:19); at the birth of Christ (Luke 2:13); at the two temptations in the wilderness and in Gethsemane (Mat. 4:11, Luke 22:43); at the resurrection (Mat. 28:2); at the ascension (Acts 1:10); at the final judgment (Mat. 25:31).The substance of these remarks may be found in Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:637-645. Milton tells us that“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.”Whether this be true or not, it is a question of interest why such angelic beings as have to do with human affairs are not at present seen by men. Paul's admonition against the“worshiping of the angels”(Col. 2:18) seems to suggest the reason. If men have not abstained from worshiping their fellow-men, when these latter have been priests or media of divine communications, the danger of idolatry would be much greater if we came into close and constant contact with angels; seeRev. 22:8, 9—“I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not.”The fact that we do not in our day see angels should not make us sceptical as to their existence any more than the fact that we do not in our day see miracles should make us doubt the reality of the New Testament miracles. As evil spirits were permitted to work most actively when Christianity began its appeal to men, so good angels were then most frequently recognized as executing the divine purposes. Nevius, Demon-Possession, 278, thinks that evil spirits are still at work where Christianity comes in conflict with heathenism, and that they retire into the background as Christianity triumphs. This may be true also of good angels. Otherwise we might be in danger of overestimating their greatness and authority. Father Taylor was right when he said:“Folks are better than angels.”It is vain to sing:“I want to be an angel.”We never shall be angels. Victor Hugo is wrong when he says:“I am the tadpole of an archangel.”John Smith is not an angel, and he never will be. But he may be far greater than an angel, because Christ took, not the nature of angels, but the nature of man (Heb. 2:16).As intimated above, there is no reason to believe that even the invisible presence of angels is a constant one. Doddridge's dream of accident prevented by angelic interposition seems to embody the essential truth. We append the passages referred to in the text.Job 38:7—“When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Deut. 33:2—“Jehovah came from Sinai ... he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them”;Gal. 3:19—“it[the law]was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator”;Heb. 2:2—“the word spoken through angels”;Acts 7:53—“who received the law as it was ordained by angels”;Luke 2:13—“suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”;Mat. 4:11—“Then the devil leaveth him; and behold, angels came and ministered unto him”;Luke 22:43—“And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, strengthening him”;Mat. 28:2—“an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it”;Acts 1:10—“And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel”;Mat. 25:31—“when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory.”Secondly,—that their power, as being in its nature dependent and derived, is exercised in accordance with the laws of the spiritual and natural world. They cannot, like God, create, perform miracles, act without means, search the heart. Unlike the Holy Spirit, who can influence the human mind directly, they can influence men only in ways analogous to those by which men influence each other. As evil angels may tempt men to sin, so it is probable that good angels may attract men to holiness.Recent psychical researches disclose almost unlimited possibilities of influencing other minds by suggestion. Slight physical phenomena, as the odor of a violet or the sight in a book of a crumpled roseleaf, may start trains of thought which change the whole course of a life. A word or a look may have great power over us. Fisher, Nature[pg 454]and Method of Revelation, 276—“The facts of hypnotism illustrate the possibility of one mind falling into a strange thraldom under another.”If other men can so powerfully influence us, it is quite possible that spirits which are not subject to limitations of the flesh may influence us yet more.Binet, in his Alterations of Personality, says that experiments on hysterical patients have produced in his mind the conviction that, in them at least,“a plurality of persons exists.... We have established almost with certainty that in such patients, side by side with the principal personality, there is a secondary personality, which is unknown by the first, which sees, hears, reflects, reasons and acts”; see Andover Review, April, 1890:422. Hudson, Law of Psychic Phenomena, 81-143, claims that we have two minds, the objective and conscious, and the subjective and unconscious. The latter works automatically upon suggestion from the objective or from other minds. In view of the facts referred to by Binet and Hudson, we claim that the influence of angelic spirits is no more incredible than is the influence of suggestion from living men. There is no need of attributing the phenomena of hypnotism to spirits of the dead. Our human nature is larger and more susceptible to spiritual influence than we have commonly believed. These psychical phenomena indeed furnish us with a corroboration of our Ethical Monism, for if in one human being there may be two or more consciousnesses, then in the one God there may be not only three infinite personalities but also multitudinous finite personalities. See T. H. Wright, The Finger of God, 124-133.
4. As to their employments.A. The employments of good angels.(a) They stand in the presence of God and worship him.Ps. 29:1, 2—“Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name. Worship Jehovah in holy array”—Perowne:“Heaven being thought of as one great temple, and all the worshipers therein as clothed in priestly vestments.”Ps. 89:7—“a God very terrible in the council of the holy ones,”i. e., angels—Perowne:“Angels are called an assembly or congregation, as the church above, which like the church below worships and praises God.”Mat. 18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.”In apparent allusion to this text, Dante represents the saints as dwelling in the presence of God yet at the same time rendering humble service to their fellow men here upon the earth. Just in proportion to their nearness to God and the light they receive from him, is the influence they are able to exert over others.(b) They rejoice in God's works.Job 38:7—“all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Luke 15:10—“there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”;cf.2 Tim. 2:25—“if peradventure God may give them repentance.”Dante represents the angels that are nearest to God, the infinite source of life, as ever advancing toward the spring-time of youth, so that the oldest angels are the youngest.(c) They execute God's will,—by working in nature;Ps. 103:20—“Ye his angels ... that fulfil his word, Hearkening unto the voice of his word”;104:4marg.—“Who maketh his angels winds;His ministers a flaming fire,”i. e., lightnings. See Alford onHeb. 1:7—“The order of the Hebrew words here [inPs. 104:4] is not the same as in the former verses (see especiallyv. 3), where we have:‘Who maketh the clouds his chariot.’For this transposition, those who insist that the passage means‘he maketh winds his messengers’can give no reason.”Farrar onHeb. 1:7—“He maketh his angels winds”;“The Rabbis often refer to the fact that God makes his angels assume any form he pleases, whether man (Gen. 18:2) or woman (Zech 5:9—‘two women, and the wind was in their wings’), or wind or flame (Ex. 3:2—‘angel ... in a flame of fire’;2 K. 6:17). But that untenable and fleeting form of existence which is the glory of the angels would be an inferiority in the Son. He could not be clothed, as they are at God's will, in the fleeting robes of material phenomena.”John Henry Newman, in his Apologia, sees an angel in every flower. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 82—“Origen thought not a blade of grass nor a fly was without its angel.Rev. 14:18—an angel‘that hath power over fire’;John 5:4—intermittent spring under charge of an angel;Mat. 28:2—descent of an angel caused earthquake on the morning of Christ's resurrection;Luke 13:11—control of diseases is ascribed to angels.”(d) by guiding the affairs of nations;Dan. 10:12, 13, 21—“I come for thy words' sake. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me ... Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ... Michael your prince”;11:1—“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him”;12:1—“at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people.”Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 87, suggests the question whether“the spirit of the age”or“the national character”in any particular case may not be due to the unseen“principalities”under which men live. Paul certainly recognizes, inEph. 2:2,“the prince of the powers of the air, ... the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.”May not good angels be entrusted with influence over nations' affairs to counteract the evil and help the good?[pg 452](e) by watching over the interests of particular churches;1 Cor. 11:10—“for this cause ought the women to have a sign of authority[i. e., a veil]on her head, because of the angels”—who watch over the church and have care for its order. Matheson, Spiritual Development of St. Paul, 242—“Man's covering is woman's power. Ministrationisher power and it allies her with a greater than man—the angel. Christianity is a feminine strength. Judaism had made woman only a means to an end—the multiplication of the race. So it had degraded her. Paul will restore woman to her original and equal dignity.”Col. 2:18—“Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the angels”—a false worship which would be very natural if angels were present to guard the meetings of the saints.1 Tim. 5:21—“I charge thee in the sight of God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things”—the public duties of the Christian minister.Alford regards“the angels of the seven churches”(Rev. 1:20) as superhuman beings appointed to represent and guard the churches, and that upon the grounds: (1) that the word is used elsewhere in the book of Revelation only in this sense; and (2) that nothing in the book is addressed to a teacher individually, but all to some one who reflects the complexion and fortunes of the church as no human person could. We prefer, however, to regard“the angels of the seven churches”as meaning simply the pastors of the seven churches. The word“angel”means simply“messenger,”and may be used of human as well as of superhuman beings—seeHag. 1:13—“Haggai, Jehovah's messenger”—literally,“the angel of Jehovah.”The use of the word in this figurative sense would not be incongruous with the mystical character of the book of Revelation (see Bib. Sac. 12:339). John Lightfoot, Heb. and Talmud. Exerc., 2:90, says that“angel”was a term designating officer or elder of a synagogue. See also Bp. Lightfoot, Com. on Philippians, 187, 188; Jacobs, Eccl. Polity, 100 and note. In the Irvingite church, accordingly,“angels”constitute an official class.(f) by assisting and protecting individual believers;1 K. 19:5—“an angel touched him[Elijah],and said unto him, Arise and eat”;Ps. 91:11—“he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone”;Dan. 6:22—“My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me”;Mat. 4:11—“angels came and ministered unto him”—Jesus was the type of all believers;18:10—“despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father”; compareverse 6—“one of these little ones that believe on me”; see Meyer, Com.in loco, who regards these passages as proving the doctrine of guardian angels.Luke 16:22—“the beggar died, and ... was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom”;Heb. 1:14—“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?”CompareActs 12:15—“And they said, It is his angel”—of Peter standing knocking; see Hackett, Com.in loco: the utterance“expresses a popular belief prevalent among the Jews, which is neither affirmed nor denied.”Shakespeare, Henry IV, 2nd part, 2:2—“For the boy—there is a good angel about him.”Per contra, see Broadus, Com. onMat. 18:10—“It is simply said of believers as a class that there are angels which are‘their angels’; but there is nothing here or elsewhere to show that one angel has special charge of one believer.”(g) by punishing God's enemies.2 K. 19:35—“it came to pass that night, that the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand”;Acts 12:23—“And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.”A general survey of this Scripture testimony as to the employments of good angels leads us to the following conclusions:First,—that good angels are not to be considered as the mediating agents of God's regular and common providence, but as the ministers of his special providence in the affairs of his church. He“maketh his angels winds”and“a flaming fire,”not in his ordinary procedure, but in connection with special displays of his power for moral ends (Deut. 33:2; Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2). Their intervention is apparently occasional and exceptional—not at their own option, but only as it is permitted or commanded by God. Hence we are not to conceive of angels as coming[pg 453]between us and God, nor are we, without special revelation of the fact, to attribute to them in any particular case the effects which the Scriptures generally ascribe to divine providence. Like miracles, therefore, angelic appearances generally mark God's entrance upon new epochs in the unfolding of his plans. Hence we read of angels at the completion of creation (Job 38:7); at the giving of the law (Gal 3:19); at the birth of Christ (Luke 2:13); at the two temptations in the wilderness and in Gethsemane (Mat. 4:11, Luke 22:43); at the resurrection (Mat. 28:2); at the ascension (Acts 1:10); at the final judgment (Mat. 25:31).The substance of these remarks may be found in Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:637-645. Milton tells us that“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.”Whether this be true or not, it is a question of interest why such angelic beings as have to do with human affairs are not at present seen by men. Paul's admonition against the“worshiping of the angels”(Col. 2:18) seems to suggest the reason. If men have not abstained from worshiping their fellow-men, when these latter have been priests or media of divine communications, the danger of idolatry would be much greater if we came into close and constant contact with angels; seeRev. 22:8, 9—“I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not.”The fact that we do not in our day see angels should not make us sceptical as to their existence any more than the fact that we do not in our day see miracles should make us doubt the reality of the New Testament miracles. As evil spirits were permitted to work most actively when Christianity began its appeal to men, so good angels were then most frequently recognized as executing the divine purposes. Nevius, Demon-Possession, 278, thinks that evil spirits are still at work where Christianity comes in conflict with heathenism, and that they retire into the background as Christianity triumphs. This may be true also of good angels. Otherwise we might be in danger of overestimating their greatness and authority. Father Taylor was right when he said:“Folks are better than angels.”It is vain to sing:“I want to be an angel.”We never shall be angels. Victor Hugo is wrong when he says:“I am the tadpole of an archangel.”John Smith is not an angel, and he never will be. But he may be far greater than an angel, because Christ took, not the nature of angels, but the nature of man (Heb. 2:16).As intimated above, there is no reason to believe that even the invisible presence of angels is a constant one. Doddridge's dream of accident prevented by angelic interposition seems to embody the essential truth. We append the passages referred to in the text.Job 38:7—“When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Deut. 33:2—“Jehovah came from Sinai ... he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them”;Gal. 3:19—“it[the law]was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator”;Heb. 2:2—“the word spoken through angels”;Acts 7:53—“who received the law as it was ordained by angels”;Luke 2:13—“suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”;Mat. 4:11—“Then the devil leaveth him; and behold, angels came and ministered unto him”;Luke 22:43—“And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, strengthening him”;Mat. 28:2—“an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it”;Acts 1:10—“And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel”;Mat. 25:31—“when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory.”Secondly,—that their power, as being in its nature dependent and derived, is exercised in accordance with the laws of the spiritual and natural world. They cannot, like God, create, perform miracles, act without means, search the heart. Unlike the Holy Spirit, who can influence the human mind directly, they can influence men only in ways analogous to those by which men influence each other. As evil angels may tempt men to sin, so it is probable that good angels may attract men to holiness.Recent psychical researches disclose almost unlimited possibilities of influencing other minds by suggestion. Slight physical phenomena, as the odor of a violet or the sight in a book of a crumpled roseleaf, may start trains of thought which change the whole course of a life. A word or a look may have great power over us. Fisher, Nature[pg 454]and Method of Revelation, 276—“The facts of hypnotism illustrate the possibility of one mind falling into a strange thraldom under another.”If other men can so powerfully influence us, it is quite possible that spirits which are not subject to limitations of the flesh may influence us yet more.Binet, in his Alterations of Personality, says that experiments on hysterical patients have produced in his mind the conviction that, in them at least,“a plurality of persons exists.... We have established almost with certainty that in such patients, side by side with the principal personality, there is a secondary personality, which is unknown by the first, which sees, hears, reflects, reasons and acts”; see Andover Review, April, 1890:422. Hudson, Law of Psychic Phenomena, 81-143, claims that we have two minds, the objective and conscious, and the subjective and unconscious. The latter works automatically upon suggestion from the objective or from other minds. In view of the facts referred to by Binet and Hudson, we claim that the influence of angelic spirits is no more incredible than is the influence of suggestion from living men. There is no need of attributing the phenomena of hypnotism to spirits of the dead. Our human nature is larger and more susceptible to spiritual influence than we have commonly believed. These psychical phenomena indeed furnish us with a corroboration of our Ethical Monism, for if in one human being there may be two or more consciousnesses, then in the one God there may be not only three infinite personalities but also multitudinous finite personalities. See T. H. Wright, The Finger of God, 124-133.
4. As to their employments.A. The employments of good angels.(a) They stand in the presence of God and worship him.Ps. 29:1, 2—“Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name. Worship Jehovah in holy array”—Perowne:“Heaven being thought of as one great temple, and all the worshipers therein as clothed in priestly vestments.”Ps. 89:7—“a God very terrible in the council of the holy ones,”i. e., angels—Perowne:“Angels are called an assembly or congregation, as the church above, which like the church below worships and praises God.”Mat. 18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.”In apparent allusion to this text, Dante represents the saints as dwelling in the presence of God yet at the same time rendering humble service to their fellow men here upon the earth. Just in proportion to their nearness to God and the light they receive from him, is the influence they are able to exert over others.(b) They rejoice in God's works.Job 38:7—“all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Luke 15:10—“there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”;cf.2 Tim. 2:25—“if peradventure God may give them repentance.”Dante represents the angels that are nearest to God, the infinite source of life, as ever advancing toward the spring-time of youth, so that the oldest angels are the youngest.(c) They execute God's will,—by working in nature;Ps. 103:20—“Ye his angels ... that fulfil his word, Hearkening unto the voice of his word”;104:4marg.—“Who maketh his angels winds;His ministers a flaming fire,”i. e., lightnings. See Alford onHeb. 1:7—“The order of the Hebrew words here [inPs. 104:4] is not the same as in the former verses (see especiallyv. 3), where we have:‘Who maketh the clouds his chariot.’For this transposition, those who insist that the passage means‘he maketh winds his messengers’can give no reason.”Farrar onHeb. 1:7—“He maketh his angels winds”;“The Rabbis often refer to the fact that God makes his angels assume any form he pleases, whether man (Gen. 18:2) or woman (Zech 5:9—‘two women, and the wind was in their wings’), or wind or flame (Ex. 3:2—‘angel ... in a flame of fire’;2 K. 6:17). But that untenable and fleeting form of existence which is the glory of the angels would be an inferiority in the Son. He could not be clothed, as they are at God's will, in the fleeting robes of material phenomena.”John Henry Newman, in his Apologia, sees an angel in every flower. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 82—“Origen thought not a blade of grass nor a fly was without its angel.Rev. 14:18—an angel‘that hath power over fire’;John 5:4—intermittent spring under charge of an angel;Mat. 28:2—descent of an angel caused earthquake on the morning of Christ's resurrection;Luke 13:11—control of diseases is ascribed to angels.”(d) by guiding the affairs of nations;Dan. 10:12, 13, 21—“I come for thy words' sake. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me ... Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ... Michael your prince”;11:1—“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him”;12:1—“at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people.”Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 87, suggests the question whether“the spirit of the age”or“the national character”in any particular case may not be due to the unseen“principalities”under which men live. Paul certainly recognizes, inEph. 2:2,“the prince of the powers of the air, ... the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.”May not good angels be entrusted with influence over nations' affairs to counteract the evil and help the good?[pg 452](e) by watching over the interests of particular churches;1 Cor. 11:10—“for this cause ought the women to have a sign of authority[i. e., a veil]on her head, because of the angels”—who watch over the church and have care for its order. Matheson, Spiritual Development of St. Paul, 242—“Man's covering is woman's power. Ministrationisher power and it allies her with a greater than man—the angel. Christianity is a feminine strength. Judaism had made woman only a means to an end—the multiplication of the race. So it had degraded her. Paul will restore woman to her original and equal dignity.”Col. 2:18—“Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the angels”—a false worship which would be very natural if angels were present to guard the meetings of the saints.1 Tim. 5:21—“I charge thee in the sight of God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things”—the public duties of the Christian minister.Alford regards“the angels of the seven churches”(Rev. 1:20) as superhuman beings appointed to represent and guard the churches, and that upon the grounds: (1) that the word is used elsewhere in the book of Revelation only in this sense; and (2) that nothing in the book is addressed to a teacher individually, but all to some one who reflects the complexion and fortunes of the church as no human person could. We prefer, however, to regard“the angels of the seven churches”as meaning simply the pastors of the seven churches. The word“angel”means simply“messenger,”and may be used of human as well as of superhuman beings—seeHag. 1:13—“Haggai, Jehovah's messenger”—literally,“the angel of Jehovah.”The use of the word in this figurative sense would not be incongruous with the mystical character of the book of Revelation (see Bib. Sac. 12:339). John Lightfoot, Heb. and Talmud. Exerc., 2:90, says that“angel”was a term designating officer or elder of a synagogue. See also Bp. Lightfoot, Com. on Philippians, 187, 188; Jacobs, Eccl. Polity, 100 and note. In the Irvingite church, accordingly,“angels”constitute an official class.(f) by assisting and protecting individual believers;1 K. 19:5—“an angel touched him[Elijah],and said unto him, Arise and eat”;Ps. 91:11—“he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone”;Dan. 6:22—“My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me”;Mat. 4:11—“angels came and ministered unto him”—Jesus was the type of all believers;18:10—“despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father”; compareverse 6—“one of these little ones that believe on me”; see Meyer, Com.in loco, who regards these passages as proving the doctrine of guardian angels.Luke 16:22—“the beggar died, and ... was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom”;Heb. 1:14—“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?”CompareActs 12:15—“And they said, It is his angel”—of Peter standing knocking; see Hackett, Com.in loco: the utterance“expresses a popular belief prevalent among the Jews, which is neither affirmed nor denied.”Shakespeare, Henry IV, 2nd part, 2:2—“For the boy—there is a good angel about him.”Per contra, see Broadus, Com. onMat. 18:10—“It is simply said of believers as a class that there are angels which are‘their angels’; but there is nothing here or elsewhere to show that one angel has special charge of one believer.”(g) by punishing God's enemies.2 K. 19:35—“it came to pass that night, that the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand”;Acts 12:23—“And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.”A general survey of this Scripture testimony as to the employments of good angels leads us to the following conclusions:First,—that good angels are not to be considered as the mediating agents of God's regular and common providence, but as the ministers of his special providence in the affairs of his church. He“maketh his angels winds”and“a flaming fire,”not in his ordinary procedure, but in connection with special displays of his power for moral ends (Deut. 33:2; Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2). Their intervention is apparently occasional and exceptional—not at their own option, but only as it is permitted or commanded by God. Hence we are not to conceive of angels as coming[pg 453]between us and God, nor are we, without special revelation of the fact, to attribute to them in any particular case the effects which the Scriptures generally ascribe to divine providence. Like miracles, therefore, angelic appearances generally mark God's entrance upon new epochs in the unfolding of his plans. Hence we read of angels at the completion of creation (Job 38:7); at the giving of the law (Gal 3:19); at the birth of Christ (Luke 2:13); at the two temptations in the wilderness and in Gethsemane (Mat. 4:11, Luke 22:43); at the resurrection (Mat. 28:2); at the ascension (Acts 1:10); at the final judgment (Mat. 25:31).The substance of these remarks may be found in Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:637-645. Milton tells us that“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.”Whether this be true or not, it is a question of interest why such angelic beings as have to do with human affairs are not at present seen by men. Paul's admonition against the“worshiping of the angels”(Col. 2:18) seems to suggest the reason. If men have not abstained from worshiping their fellow-men, when these latter have been priests or media of divine communications, the danger of idolatry would be much greater if we came into close and constant contact with angels; seeRev. 22:8, 9—“I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not.”The fact that we do not in our day see angels should not make us sceptical as to their existence any more than the fact that we do not in our day see miracles should make us doubt the reality of the New Testament miracles. As evil spirits were permitted to work most actively when Christianity began its appeal to men, so good angels were then most frequently recognized as executing the divine purposes. Nevius, Demon-Possession, 278, thinks that evil spirits are still at work where Christianity comes in conflict with heathenism, and that they retire into the background as Christianity triumphs. This may be true also of good angels. Otherwise we might be in danger of overestimating their greatness and authority. Father Taylor was right when he said:“Folks are better than angels.”It is vain to sing:“I want to be an angel.”We never shall be angels. Victor Hugo is wrong when he says:“I am the tadpole of an archangel.”John Smith is not an angel, and he never will be. But he may be far greater than an angel, because Christ took, not the nature of angels, but the nature of man (Heb. 2:16).As intimated above, there is no reason to believe that even the invisible presence of angels is a constant one. Doddridge's dream of accident prevented by angelic interposition seems to embody the essential truth. We append the passages referred to in the text.Job 38:7—“When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Deut. 33:2—“Jehovah came from Sinai ... he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them”;Gal. 3:19—“it[the law]was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator”;Heb. 2:2—“the word spoken through angels”;Acts 7:53—“who received the law as it was ordained by angels”;Luke 2:13—“suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”;Mat. 4:11—“Then the devil leaveth him; and behold, angels came and ministered unto him”;Luke 22:43—“And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, strengthening him”;Mat. 28:2—“an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it”;Acts 1:10—“And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel”;Mat. 25:31—“when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory.”Secondly,—that their power, as being in its nature dependent and derived, is exercised in accordance with the laws of the spiritual and natural world. They cannot, like God, create, perform miracles, act without means, search the heart. Unlike the Holy Spirit, who can influence the human mind directly, they can influence men only in ways analogous to those by which men influence each other. As evil angels may tempt men to sin, so it is probable that good angels may attract men to holiness.Recent psychical researches disclose almost unlimited possibilities of influencing other minds by suggestion. Slight physical phenomena, as the odor of a violet or the sight in a book of a crumpled roseleaf, may start trains of thought which change the whole course of a life. A word or a look may have great power over us. Fisher, Nature[pg 454]and Method of Revelation, 276—“The facts of hypnotism illustrate the possibility of one mind falling into a strange thraldom under another.”If other men can so powerfully influence us, it is quite possible that spirits which are not subject to limitations of the flesh may influence us yet more.Binet, in his Alterations of Personality, says that experiments on hysterical patients have produced in his mind the conviction that, in them at least,“a plurality of persons exists.... We have established almost with certainty that in such patients, side by side with the principal personality, there is a secondary personality, which is unknown by the first, which sees, hears, reflects, reasons and acts”; see Andover Review, April, 1890:422. Hudson, Law of Psychic Phenomena, 81-143, claims that we have two minds, the objective and conscious, and the subjective and unconscious. The latter works automatically upon suggestion from the objective or from other minds. In view of the facts referred to by Binet and Hudson, we claim that the influence of angelic spirits is no more incredible than is the influence of suggestion from living men. There is no need of attributing the phenomena of hypnotism to spirits of the dead. Our human nature is larger and more susceptible to spiritual influence than we have commonly believed. These psychical phenomena indeed furnish us with a corroboration of our Ethical Monism, for if in one human being there may be two or more consciousnesses, then in the one God there may be not only three infinite personalities but also multitudinous finite personalities. See T. H. Wright, The Finger of God, 124-133.
4. As to their employments.A. The employments of good angels.(a) They stand in the presence of God and worship him.Ps. 29:1, 2—“Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name. Worship Jehovah in holy array”—Perowne:“Heaven being thought of as one great temple, and all the worshipers therein as clothed in priestly vestments.”Ps. 89:7—“a God very terrible in the council of the holy ones,”i. e., angels—Perowne:“Angels are called an assembly or congregation, as the church above, which like the church below worships and praises God.”Mat. 18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.”In apparent allusion to this text, Dante represents the saints as dwelling in the presence of God yet at the same time rendering humble service to their fellow men here upon the earth. Just in proportion to their nearness to God and the light they receive from him, is the influence they are able to exert over others.(b) They rejoice in God's works.Job 38:7—“all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Luke 15:10—“there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”;cf.2 Tim. 2:25—“if peradventure God may give them repentance.”Dante represents the angels that are nearest to God, the infinite source of life, as ever advancing toward the spring-time of youth, so that the oldest angels are the youngest.(c) They execute God's will,—by working in nature;Ps. 103:20—“Ye his angels ... that fulfil his word, Hearkening unto the voice of his word”;104:4marg.—“Who maketh his angels winds;His ministers a flaming fire,”i. e., lightnings. See Alford onHeb. 1:7—“The order of the Hebrew words here [inPs. 104:4] is not the same as in the former verses (see especiallyv. 3), where we have:‘Who maketh the clouds his chariot.’For this transposition, those who insist that the passage means‘he maketh winds his messengers’can give no reason.”Farrar onHeb. 1:7—“He maketh his angels winds”;“The Rabbis often refer to the fact that God makes his angels assume any form he pleases, whether man (Gen. 18:2) or woman (Zech 5:9—‘two women, and the wind was in their wings’), or wind or flame (Ex. 3:2—‘angel ... in a flame of fire’;2 K. 6:17). But that untenable and fleeting form of existence which is the glory of the angels would be an inferiority in the Son. He could not be clothed, as they are at God's will, in the fleeting robes of material phenomena.”John Henry Newman, in his Apologia, sees an angel in every flower. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 82—“Origen thought not a blade of grass nor a fly was without its angel.Rev. 14:18—an angel‘that hath power over fire’;John 5:4—intermittent spring under charge of an angel;Mat. 28:2—descent of an angel caused earthquake on the morning of Christ's resurrection;Luke 13:11—control of diseases is ascribed to angels.”(d) by guiding the affairs of nations;Dan. 10:12, 13, 21—“I come for thy words' sake. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me ... Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ... Michael your prince”;11:1—“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him”;12:1—“at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people.”Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 87, suggests the question whether“the spirit of the age”or“the national character”in any particular case may not be due to the unseen“principalities”under which men live. Paul certainly recognizes, inEph. 2:2,“the prince of the powers of the air, ... the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.”May not good angels be entrusted with influence over nations' affairs to counteract the evil and help the good?[pg 452](e) by watching over the interests of particular churches;1 Cor. 11:10—“for this cause ought the women to have a sign of authority[i. e., a veil]on her head, because of the angels”—who watch over the church and have care for its order. Matheson, Spiritual Development of St. Paul, 242—“Man's covering is woman's power. Ministrationisher power and it allies her with a greater than man—the angel. Christianity is a feminine strength. Judaism had made woman only a means to an end—the multiplication of the race. So it had degraded her. Paul will restore woman to her original and equal dignity.”Col. 2:18—“Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the angels”—a false worship which would be very natural if angels were present to guard the meetings of the saints.1 Tim. 5:21—“I charge thee in the sight of God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things”—the public duties of the Christian minister.Alford regards“the angels of the seven churches”(Rev. 1:20) as superhuman beings appointed to represent and guard the churches, and that upon the grounds: (1) that the word is used elsewhere in the book of Revelation only in this sense; and (2) that nothing in the book is addressed to a teacher individually, but all to some one who reflects the complexion and fortunes of the church as no human person could. We prefer, however, to regard“the angels of the seven churches”as meaning simply the pastors of the seven churches. The word“angel”means simply“messenger,”and may be used of human as well as of superhuman beings—seeHag. 1:13—“Haggai, Jehovah's messenger”—literally,“the angel of Jehovah.”The use of the word in this figurative sense would not be incongruous with the mystical character of the book of Revelation (see Bib. Sac. 12:339). John Lightfoot, Heb. and Talmud. Exerc., 2:90, says that“angel”was a term designating officer or elder of a synagogue. See also Bp. Lightfoot, Com. on Philippians, 187, 188; Jacobs, Eccl. Polity, 100 and note. In the Irvingite church, accordingly,“angels”constitute an official class.(f) by assisting and protecting individual believers;1 K. 19:5—“an angel touched him[Elijah],and said unto him, Arise and eat”;Ps. 91:11—“he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone”;Dan. 6:22—“My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me”;Mat. 4:11—“angels came and ministered unto him”—Jesus was the type of all believers;18:10—“despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father”; compareverse 6—“one of these little ones that believe on me”; see Meyer, Com.in loco, who regards these passages as proving the doctrine of guardian angels.Luke 16:22—“the beggar died, and ... was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom”;Heb. 1:14—“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?”CompareActs 12:15—“And they said, It is his angel”—of Peter standing knocking; see Hackett, Com.in loco: the utterance“expresses a popular belief prevalent among the Jews, which is neither affirmed nor denied.”Shakespeare, Henry IV, 2nd part, 2:2—“For the boy—there is a good angel about him.”Per contra, see Broadus, Com. onMat. 18:10—“It is simply said of believers as a class that there are angels which are‘their angels’; but there is nothing here or elsewhere to show that one angel has special charge of one believer.”(g) by punishing God's enemies.2 K. 19:35—“it came to pass that night, that the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand”;Acts 12:23—“And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.”A general survey of this Scripture testimony as to the employments of good angels leads us to the following conclusions:First,—that good angels are not to be considered as the mediating agents of God's regular and common providence, but as the ministers of his special providence in the affairs of his church. He“maketh his angels winds”and“a flaming fire,”not in his ordinary procedure, but in connection with special displays of his power for moral ends (Deut. 33:2; Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2). Their intervention is apparently occasional and exceptional—not at their own option, but only as it is permitted or commanded by God. Hence we are not to conceive of angels as coming[pg 453]between us and God, nor are we, without special revelation of the fact, to attribute to them in any particular case the effects which the Scriptures generally ascribe to divine providence. Like miracles, therefore, angelic appearances generally mark God's entrance upon new epochs in the unfolding of his plans. Hence we read of angels at the completion of creation (Job 38:7); at the giving of the law (Gal 3:19); at the birth of Christ (Luke 2:13); at the two temptations in the wilderness and in Gethsemane (Mat. 4:11, Luke 22:43); at the resurrection (Mat. 28:2); at the ascension (Acts 1:10); at the final judgment (Mat. 25:31).The substance of these remarks may be found in Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:637-645. Milton tells us that“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.”Whether this be true or not, it is a question of interest why such angelic beings as have to do with human affairs are not at present seen by men. Paul's admonition against the“worshiping of the angels”(Col. 2:18) seems to suggest the reason. If men have not abstained from worshiping their fellow-men, when these latter have been priests or media of divine communications, the danger of idolatry would be much greater if we came into close and constant contact with angels; seeRev. 22:8, 9—“I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not.”The fact that we do not in our day see angels should not make us sceptical as to their existence any more than the fact that we do not in our day see miracles should make us doubt the reality of the New Testament miracles. As evil spirits were permitted to work most actively when Christianity began its appeal to men, so good angels were then most frequently recognized as executing the divine purposes. Nevius, Demon-Possession, 278, thinks that evil spirits are still at work where Christianity comes in conflict with heathenism, and that they retire into the background as Christianity triumphs. This may be true also of good angels. Otherwise we might be in danger of overestimating their greatness and authority. Father Taylor was right when he said:“Folks are better than angels.”It is vain to sing:“I want to be an angel.”We never shall be angels. Victor Hugo is wrong when he says:“I am the tadpole of an archangel.”John Smith is not an angel, and he never will be. But he may be far greater than an angel, because Christ took, not the nature of angels, but the nature of man (Heb. 2:16).As intimated above, there is no reason to believe that even the invisible presence of angels is a constant one. Doddridge's dream of accident prevented by angelic interposition seems to embody the essential truth. We append the passages referred to in the text.Job 38:7—“When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Deut. 33:2—“Jehovah came from Sinai ... he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them”;Gal. 3:19—“it[the law]was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator”;Heb. 2:2—“the word spoken through angels”;Acts 7:53—“who received the law as it was ordained by angels”;Luke 2:13—“suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”;Mat. 4:11—“Then the devil leaveth him; and behold, angels came and ministered unto him”;Luke 22:43—“And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, strengthening him”;Mat. 28:2—“an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it”;Acts 1:10—“And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel”;Mat. 25:31—“when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory.”Secondly,—that their power, as being in its nature dependent and derived, is exercised in accordance with the laws of the spiritual and natural world. They cannot, like God, create, perform miracles, act without means, search the heart. Unlike the Holy Spirit, who can influence the human mind directly, they can influence men only in ways analogous to those by which men influence each other. As evil angels may tempt men to sin, so it is probable that good angels may attract men to holiness.Recent psychical researches disclose almost unlimited possibilities of influencing other minds by suggestion. Slight physical phenomena, as the odor of a violet or the sight in a book of a crumpled roseleaf, may start trains of thought which change the whole course of a life. A word or a look may have great power over us. Fisher, Nature[pg 454]and Method of Revelation, 276—“The facts of hypnotism illustrate the possibility of one mind falling into a strange thraldom under another.”If other men can so powerfully influence us, it is quite possible that spirits which are not subject to limitations of the flesh may influence us yet more.Binet, in his Alterations of Personality, says that experiments on hysterical patients have produced in his mind the conviction that, in them at least,“a plurality of persons exists.... We have established almost with certainty that in such patients, side by side with the principal personality, there is a secondary personality, which is unknown by the first, which sees, hears, reflects, reasons and acts”; see Andover Review, April, 1890:422. Hudson, Law of Psychic Phenomena, 81-143, claims that we have two minds, the objective and conscious, and the subjective and unconscious. The latter works automatically upon suggestion from the objective or from other minds. In view of the facts referred to by Binet and Hudson, we claim that the influence of angelic spirits is no more incredible than is the influence of suggestion from living men. There is no need of attributing the phenomena of hypnotism to spirits of the dead. Our human nature is larger and more susceptible to spiritual influence than we have commonly believed. These psychical phenomena indeed furnish us with a corroboration of our Ethical Monism, for if in one human being there may be two or more consciousnesses, then in the one God there may be not only three infinite personalities but also multitudinous finite personalities. See T. H. Wright, The Finger of God, 124-133.
4. As to their employments.A. The employments of good angels.(a) They stand in the presence of God and worship him.Ps. 29:1, 2—“Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name. Worship Jehovah in holy array”—Perowne:“Heaven being thought of as one great temple, and all the worshipers therein as clothed in priestly vestments.”Ps. 89:7—“a God very terrible in the council of the holy ones,”i. e., angels—Perowne:“Angels are called an assembly or congregation, as the church above, which like the church below worships and praises God.”Mat. 18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.”In apparent allusion to this text, Dante represents the saints as dwelling in the presence of God yet at the same time rendering humble service to their fellow men here upon the earth. Just in proportion to their nearness to God and the light they receive from him, is the influence they are able to exert over others.(b) They rejoice in God's works.Job 38:7—“all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Luke 15:10—“there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”;cf.2 Tim. 2:25—“if peradventure God may give them repentance.”Dante represents the angels that are nearest to God, the infinite source of life, as ever advancing toward the spring-time of youth, so that the oldest angels are the youngest.(c) They execute God's will,—by working in nature;Ps. 103:20—“Ye his angels ... that fulfil his word, Hearkening unto the voice of his word”;104:4marg.—“Who maketh his angels winds;His ministers a flaming fire,”i. e., lightnings. See Alford onHeb. 1:7—“The order of the Hebrew words here [inPs. 104:4] is not the same as in the former verses (see especiallyv. 3), where we have:‘Who maketh the clouds his chariot.’For this transposition, those who insist that the passage means‘he maketh winds his messengers’can give no reason.”Farrar onHeb. 1:7—“He maketh his angels winds”;“The Rabbis often refer to the fact that God makes his angels assume any form he pleases, whether man (Gen. 18:2) or woman (Zech 5:9—‘two women, and the wind was in their wings’), or wind or flame (Ex. 3:2—‘angel ... in a flame of fire’;2 K. 6:17). But that untenable and fleeting form of existence which is the glory of the angels would be an inferiority in the Son. He could not be clothed, as they are at God's will, in the fleeting robes of material phenomena.”John Henry Newman, in his Apologia, sees an angel in every flower. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 82—“Origen thought not a blade of grass nor a fly was without its angel.Rev. 14:18—an angel‘that hath power over fire’;John 5:4—intermittent spring under charge of an angel;Mat. 28:2—descent of an angel caused earthquake on the morning of Christ's resurrection;Luke 13:11—control of diseases is ascribed to angels.”(d) by guiding the affairs of nations;Dan. 10:12, 13, 21—“I come for thy words' sake. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me ... Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ... Michael your prince”;11:1—“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him”;12:1—“at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people.”Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 87, suggests the question whether“the spirit of the age”or“the national character”in any particular case may not be due to the unseen“principalities”under which men live. Paul certainly recognizes, inEph. 2:2,“the prince of the powers of the air, ... the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.”May not good angels be entrusted with influence over nations' affairs to counteract the evil and help the good?[pg 452](e) by watching over the interests of particular churches;1 Cor. 11:10—“for this cause ought the women to have a sign of authority[i. e., a veil]on her head, because of the angels”—who watch over the church and have care for its order. Matheson, Spiritual Development of St. Paul, 242—“Man's covering is woman's power. Ministrationisher power and it allies her with a greater than man—the angel. Christianity is a feminine strength. Judaism had made woman only a means to an end—the multiplication of the race. So it had degraded her. Paul will restore woman to her original and equal dignity.”Col. 2:18—“Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the angels”—a false worship which would be very natural if angels were present to guard the meetings of the saints.1 Tim. 5:21—“I charge thee in the sight of God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things”—the public duties of the Christian minister.Alford regards“the angels of the seven churches”(Rev. 1:20) as superhuman beings appointed to represent and guard the churches, and that upon the grounds: (1) that the word is used elsewhere in the book of Revelation only in this sense; and (2) that nothing in the book is addressed to a teacher individually, but all to some one who reflects the complexion and fortunes of the church as no human person could. We prefer, however, to regard“the angels of the seven churches”as meaning simply the pastors of the seven churches. The word“angel”means simply“messenger,”and may be used of human as well as of superhuman beings—seeHag. 1:13—“Haggai, Jehovah's messenger”—literally,“the angel of Jehovah.”The use of the word in this figurative sense would not be incongruous with the mystical character of the book of Revelation (see Bib. Sac. 12:339). John Lightfoot, Heb. and Talmud. Exerc., 2:90, says that“angel”was a term designating officer or elder of a synagogue. See also Bp. Lightfoot, Com. on Philippians, 187, 188; Jacobs, Eccl. Polity, 100 and note. In the Irvingite church, accordingly,“angels”constitute an official class.(f) by assisting and protecting individual believers;1 K. 19:5—“an angel touched him[Elijah],and said unto him, Arise and eat”;Ps. 91:11—“he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone”;Dan. 6:22—“My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me”;Mat. 4:11—“angels came and ministered unto him”—Jesus was the type of all believers;18:10—“despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father”; compareverse 6—“one of these little ones that believe on me”; see Meyer, Com.in loco, who regards these passages as proving the doctrine of guardian angels.Luke 16:22—“the beggar died, and ... was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom”;Heb. 1:14—“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?”CompareActs 12:15—“And they said, It is his angel”—of Peter standing knocking; see Hackett, Com.in loco: the utterance“expresses a popular belief prevalent among the Jews, which is neither affirmed nor denied.”Shakespeare, Henry IV, 2nd part, 2:2—“For the boy—there is a good angel about him.”Per contra, see Broadus, Com. onMat. 18:10—“It is simply said of believers as a class that there are angels which are‘their angels’; but there is nothing here or elsewhere to show that one angel has special charge of one believer.”(g) by punishing God's enemies.2 K. 19:35—“it came to pass that night, that the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand”;Acts 12:23—“And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.”A general survey of this Scripture testimony as to the employments of good angels leads us to the following conclusions:First,—that good angels are not to be considered as the mediating agents of God's regular and common providence, but as the ministers of his special providence in the affairs of his church. He“maketh his angels winds”and“a flaming fire,”not in his ordinary procedure, but in connection with special displays of his power for moral ends (Deut. 33:2; Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2). Their intervention is apparently occasional and exceptional—not at their own option, but only as it is permitted or commanded by God. Hence we are not to conceive of angels as coming[pg 453]between us and God, nor are we, without special revelation of the fact, to attribute to them in any particular case the effects which the Scriptures generally ascribe to divine providence. Like miracles, therefore, angelic appearances generally mark God's entrance upon new epochs in the unfolding of his plans. Hence we read of angels at the completion of creation (Job 38:7); at the giving of the law (Gal 3:19); at the birth of Christ (Luke 2:13); at the two temptations in the wilderness and in Gethsemane (Mat. 4:11, Luke 22:43); at the resurrection (Mat. 28:2); at the ascension (Acts 1:10); at the final judgment (Mat. 25:31).The substance of these remarks may be found in Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:637-645. Milton tells us that“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.”Whether this be true or not, it is a question of interest why such angelic beings as have to do with human affairs are not at present seen by men. Paul's admonition against the“worshiping of the angels”(Col. 2:18) seems to suggest the reason. If men have not abstained from worshiping their fellow-men, when these latter have been priests or media of divine communications, the danger of idolatry would be much greater if we came into close and constant contact with angels; seeRev. 22:8, 9—“I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not.”The fact that we do not in our day see angels should not make us sceptical as to their existence any more than the fact that we do not in our day see miracles should make us doubt the reality of the New Testament miracles. As evil spirits were permitted to work most actively when Christianity began its appeal to men, so good angels were then most frequently recognized as executing the divine purposes. Nevius, Demon-Possession, 278, thinks that evil spirits are still at work where Christianity comes in conflict with heathenism, and that they retire into the background as Christianity triumphs. This may be true also of good angels. Otherwise we might be in danger of overestimating their greatness and authority. Father Taylor was right when he said:“Folks are better than angels.”It is vain to sing:“I want to be an angel.”We never shall be angels. Victor Hugo is wrong when he says:“I am the tadpole of an archangel.”John Smith is not an angel, and he never will be. But he may be far greater than an angel, because Christ took, not the nature of angels, but the nature of man (Heb. 2:16).As intimated above, there is no reason to believe that even the invisible presence of angels is a constant one. Doddridge's dream of accident prevented by angelic interposition seems to embody the essential truth. We append the passages referred to in the text.Job 38:7—“When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Deut. 33:2—“Jehovah came from Sinai ... he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them”;Gal. 3:19—“it[the law]was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator”;Heb. 2:2—“the word spoken through angels”;Acts 7:53—“who received the law as it was ordained by angels”;Luke 2:13—“suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”;Mat. 4:11—“Then the devil leaveth him; and behold, angels came and ministered unto him”;Luke 22:43—“And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, strengthening him”;Mat. 28:2—“an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it”;Acts 1:10—“And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel”;Mat. 25:31—“when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory.”Secondly,—that their power, as being in its nature dependent and derived, is exercised in accordance with the laws of the spiritual and natural world. They cannot, like God, create, perform miracles, act without means, search the heart. Unlike the Holy Spirit, who can influence the human mind directly, they can influence men only in ways analogous to those by which men influence each other. As evil angels may tempt men to sin, so it is probable that good angels may attract men to holiness.Recent psychical researches disclose almost unlimited possibilities of influencing other minds by suggestion. Slight physical phenomena, as the odor of a violet or the sight in a book of a crumpled roseleaf, may start trains of thought which change the whole course of a life. A word or a look may have great power over us. Fisher, Nature[pg 454]and Method of Revelation, 276—“The facts of hypnotism illustrate the possibility of one mind falling into a strange thraldom under another.”If other men can so powerfully influence us, it is quite possible that spirits which are not subject to limitations of the flesh may influence us yet more.Binet, in his Alterations of Personality, says that experiments on hysterical patients have produced in his mind the conviction that, in them at least,“a plurality of persons exists.... We have established almost with certainty that in such patients, side by side with the principal personality, there is a secondary personality, which is unknown by the first, which sees, hears, reflects, reasons and acts”; see Andover Review, April, 1890:422. Hudson, Law of Psychic Phenomena, 81-143, claims that we have two minds, the objective and conscious, and the subjective and unconscious. The latter works automatically upon suggestion from the objective or from other minds. In view of the facts referred to by Binet and Hudson, we claim that the influence of angelic spirits is no more incredible than is the influence of suggestion from living men. There is no need of attributing the phenomena of hypnotism to spirits of the dead. Our human nature is larger and more susceptible to spiritual influence than we have commonly believed. These psychical phenomena indeed furnish us with a corroboration of our Ethical Monism, for if in one human being there may be two or more consciousnesses, then in the one God there may be not only three infinite personalities but also multitudinous finite personalities. See T. H. Wright, The Finger of God, 124-133.
4. As to their employments.A. The employments of good angels.(a) They stand in the presence of God and worship him.Ps. 29:1, 2—“Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name. Worship Jehovah in holy array”—Perowne:“Heaven being thought of as one great temple, and all the worshipers therein as clothed in priestly vestments.”Ps. 89:7—“a God very terrible in the council of the holy ones,”i. e., angels—Perowne:“Angels are called an assembly or congregation, as the church above, which like the church below worships and praises God.”Mat. 18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.”In apparent allusion to this text, Dante represents the saints as dwelling in the presence of God yet at the same time rendering humble service to their fellow men here upon the earth. Just in proportion to their nearness to God and the light they receive from him, is the influence they are able to exert over others.(b) They rejoice in God's works.Job 38:7—“all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Luke 15:10—“there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”;cf.2 Tim. 2:25—“if peradventure God may give them repentance.”Dante represents the angels that are nearest to God, the infinite source of life, as ever advancing toward the spring-time of youth, so that the oldest angels are the youngest.(c) They execute God's will,—by working in nature;Ps. 103:20—“Ye his angels ... that fulfil his word, Hearkening unto the voice of his word”;104:4marg.—“Who maketh his angels winds;His ministers a flaming fire,”i. e., lightnings. See Alford onHeb. 1:7—“The order of the Hebrew words here [inPs. 104:4] is not the same as in the former verses (see especiallyv. 3), where we have:‘Who maketh the clouds his chariot.’For this transposition, those who insist that the passage means‘he maketh winds his messengers’can give no reason.”Farrar onHeb. 1:7—“He maketh his angels winds”;“The Rabbis often refer to the fact that God makes his angels assume any form he pleases, whether man (Gen. 18:2) or woman (Zech 5:9—‘two women, and the wind was in their wings’), or wind or flame (Ex. 3:2—‘angel ... in a flame of fire’;2 K. 6:17). But that untenable and fleeting form of existence which is the glory of the angels would be an inferiority in the Son. He could not be clothed, as they are at God's will, in the fleeting robes of material phenomena.”John Henry Newman, in his Apologia, sees an angel in every flower. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 82—“Origen thought not a blade of grass nor a fly was without its angel.Rev. 14:18—an angel‘that hath power over fire’;John 5:4—intermittent spring under charge of an angel;Mat. 28:2—descent of an angel caused earthquake on the morning of Christ's resurrection;Luke 13:11—control of diseases is ascribed to angels.”(d) by guiding the affairs of nations;Dan. 10:12, 13, 21—“I come for thy words' sake. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me ... Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ... Michael your prince”;11:1—“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him”;12:1—“at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people.”Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 87, suggests the question whether“the spirit of the age”or“the national character”in any particular case may not be due to the unseen“principalities”under which men live. Paul certainly recognizes, inEph. 2:2,“the prince of the powers of the air, ... the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.”May not good angels be entrusted with influence over nations' affairs to counteract the evil and help the good?[pg 452](e) by watching over the interests of particular churches;1 Cor. 11:10—“for this cause ought the women to have a sign of authority[i. e., a veil]on her head, because of the angels”—who watch over the church and have care for its order. Matheson, Spiritual Development of St. Paul, 242—“Man's covering is woman's power. Ministrationisher power and it allies her with a greater than man—the angel. Christianity is a feminine strength. Judaism had made woman only a means to an end—the multiplication of the race. So it had degraded her. Paul will restore woman to her original and equal dignity.”Col. 2:18—“Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the angels”—a false worship which would be very natural if angels were present to guard the meetings of the saints.1 Tim. 5:21—“I charge thee in the sight of God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things”—the public duties of the Christian minister.Alford regards“the angels of the seven churches”(Rev. 1:20) as superhuman beings appointed to represent and guard the churches, and that upon the grounds: (1) that the word is used elsewhere in the book of Revelation only in this sense; and (2) that nothing in the book is addressed to a teacher individually, but all to some one who reflects the complexion and fortunes of the church as no human person could. We prefer, however, to regard“the angels of the seven churches”as meaning simply the pastors of the seven churches. The word“angel”means simply“messenger,”and may be used of human as well as of superhuman beings—seeHag. 1:13—“Haggai, Jehovah's messenger”—literally,“the angel of Jehovah.”The use of the word in this figurative sense would not be incongruous with the mystical character of the book of Revelation (see Bib. Sac. 12:339). John Lightfoot, Heb. and Talmud. Exerc., 2:90, says that“angel”was a term designating officer or elder of a synagogue. See also Bp. Lightfoot, Com. on Philippians, 187, 188; Jacobs, Eccl. Polity, 100 and note. In the Irvingite church, accordingly,“angels”constitute an official class.(f) by assisting and protecting individual believers;1 K. 19:5—“an angel touched him[Elijah],and said unto him, Arise and eat”;Ps. 91:11—“he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone”;Dan. 6:22—“My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me”;Mat. 4:11—“angels came and ministered unto him”—Jesus was the type of all believers;18:10—“despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father”; compareverse 6—“one of these little ones that believe on me”; see Meyer, Com.in loco, who regards these passages as proving the doctrine of guardian angels.Luke 16:22—“the beggar died, and ... was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom”;Heb. 1:14—“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?”CompareActs 12:15—“And they said, It is his angel”—of Peter standing knocking; see Hackett, Com.in loco: the utterance“expresses a popular belief prevalent among the Jews, which is neither affirmed nor denied.”Shakespeare, Henry IV, 2nd part, 2:2—“For the boy—there is a good angel about him.”Per contra, see Broadus, Com. onMat. 18:10—“It is simply said of believers as a class that there are angels which are‘their angels’; but there is nothing here or elsewhere to show that one angel has special charge of one believer.”(g) by punishing God's enemies.2 K. 19:35—“it came to pass that night, that the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand”;Acts 12:23—“And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.”A general survey of this Scripture testimony as to the employments of good angels leads us to the following conclusions:First,—that good angels are not to be considered as the mediating agents of God's regular and common providence, but as the ministers of his special providence in the affairs of his church. He“maketh his angels winds”and“a flaming fire,”not in his ordinary procedure, but in connection with special displays of his power for moral ends (Deut. 33:2; Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2). Their intervention is apparently occasional and exceptional—not at their own option, but only as it is permitted or commanded by God. Hence we are not to conceive of angels as coming[pg 453]between us and God, nor are we, without special revelation of the fact, to attribute to them in any particular case the effects which the Scriptures generally ascribe to divine providence. Like miracles, therefore, angelic appearances generally mark God's entrance upon new epochs in the unfolding of his plans. Hence we read of angels at the completion of creation (Job 38:7); at the giving of the law (Gal 3:19); at the birth of Christ (Luke 2:13); at the two temptations in the wilderness and in Gethsemane (Mat. 4:11, Luke 22:43); at the resurrection (Mat. 28:2); at the ascension (Acts 1:10); at the final judgment (Mat. 25:31).The substance of these remarks may be found in Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:637-645. Milton tells us that“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.”Whether this be true or not, it is a question of interest why such angelic beings as have to do with human affairs are not at present seen by men. Paul's admonition against the“worshiping of the angels”(Col. 2:18) seems to suggest the reason. If men have not abstained from worshiping their fellow-men, when these latter have been priests or media of divine communications, the danger of idolatry would be much greater if we came into close and constant contact with angels; seeRev. 22:8, 9—“I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not.”The fact that we do not in our day see angels should not make us sceptical as to their existence any more than the fact that we do not in our day see miracles should make us doubt the reality of the New Testament miracles. As evil spirits were permitted to work most actively when Christianity began its appeal to men, so good angels were then most frequently recognized as executing the divine purposes. Nevius, Demon-Possession, 278, thinks that evil spirits are still at work where Christianity comes in conflict with heathenism, and that they retire into the background as Christianity triumphs. This may be true also of good angels. Otherwise we might be in danger of overestimating their greatness and authority. Father Taylor was right when he said:“Folks are better than angels.”It is vain to sing:“I want to be an angel.”We never shall be angels. Victor Hugo is wrong when he says:“I am the tadpole of an archangel.”John Smith is not an angel, and he never will be. But he may be far greater than an angel, because Christ took, not the nature of angels, but the nature of man (Heb. 2:16).As intimated above, there is no reason to believe that even the invisible presence of angels is a constant one. Doddridge's dream of accident prevented by angelic interposition seems to embody the essential truth. We append the passages referred to in the text.Job 38:7—“When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Deut. 33:2—“Jehovah came from Sinai ... he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them”;Gal. 3:19—“it[the law]was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator”;Heb. 2:2—“the word spoken through angels”;Acts 7:53—“who received the law as it was ordained by angels”;Luke 2:13—“suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”;Mat. 4:11—“Then the devil leaveth him; and behold, angels came and ministered unto him”;Luke 22:43—“And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, strengthening him”;Mat. 28:2—“an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it”;Acts 1:10—“And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel”;Mat. 25:31—“when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory.”Secondly,—that their power, as being in its nature dependent and derived, is exercised in accordance with the laws of the spiritual and natural world. They cannot, like God, create, perform miracles, act without means, search the heart. Unlike the Holy Spirit, who can influence the human mind directly, they can influence men only in ways analogous to those by which men influence each other. As evil angels may tempt men to sin, so it is probable that good angels may attract men to holiness.Recent psychical researches disclose almost unlimited possibilities of influencing other minds by suggestion. Slight physical phenomena, as the odor of a violet or the sight in a book of a crumpled roseleaf, may start trains of thought which change the whole course of a life. A word or a look may have great power over us. Fisher, Nature[pg 454]and Method of Revelation, 276—“The facts of hypnotism illustrate the possibility of one mind falling into a strange thraldom under another.”If other men can so powerfully influence us, it is quite possible that spirits which are not subject to limitations of the flesh may influence us yet more.Binet, in his Alterations of Personality, says that experiments on hysterical patients have produced in his mind the conviction that, in them at least,“a plurality of persons exists.... We have established almost with certainty that in such patients, side by side with the principal personality, there is a secondary personality, which is unknown by the first, which sees, hears, reflects, reasons and acts”; see Andover Review, April, 1890:422. Hudson, Law of Psychic Phenomena, 81-143, claims that we have two minds, the objective and conscious, and the subjective and unconscious. The latter works automatically upon suggestion from the objective or from other minds. In view of the facts referred to by Binet and Hudson, we claim that the influence of angelic spirits is no more incredible than is the influence of suggestion from living men. There is no need of attributing the phenomena of hypnotism to spirits of the dead. Our human nature is larger and more susceptible to spiritual influence than we have commonly believed. These psychical phenomena indeed furnish us with a corroboration of our Ethical Monism, for if in one human being there may be two or more consciousnesses, then in the one God there may be not only three infinite personalities but also multitudinous finite personalities. See T. H. Wright, The Finger of God, 124-133.
4. As to their employments.A. The employments of good angels.(a) They stand in the presence of God and worship him.Ps. 29:1, 2—“Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name. Worship Jehovah in holy array”—Perowne:“Heaven being thought of as one great temple, and all the worshipers therein as clothed in priestly vestments.”Ps. 89:7—“a God very terrible in the council of the holy ones,”i. e., angels—Perowne:“Angels are called an assembly or congregation, as the church above, which like the church below worships and praises God.”Mat. 18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.”In apparent allusion to this text, Dante represents the saints as dwelling in the presence of God yet at the same time rendering humble service to their fellow men here upon the earth. Just in proportion to their nearness to God and the light they receive from him, is the influence they are able to exert over others.(b) They rejoice in God's works.Job 38:7—“all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Luke 15:10—“there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”;cf.2 Tim. 2:25—“if peradventure God may give them repentance.”Dante represents the angels that are nearest to God, the infinite source of life, as ever advancing toward the spring-time of youth, so that the oldest angels are the youngest.(c) They execute God's will,—by working in nature;Ps. 103:20—“Ye his angels ... that fulfil his word, Hearkening unto the voice of his word”;104:4marg.—“Who maketh his angels winds;His ministers a flaming fire,”i. e., lightnings. See Alford onHeb. 1:7—“The order of the Hebrew words here [inPs. 104:4] is not the same as in the former verses (see especiallyv. 3), where we have:‘Who maketh the clouds his chariot.’For this transposition, those who insist that the passage means‘he maketh winds his messengers’can give no reason.”Farrar onHeb. 1:7—“He maketh his angels winds”;“The Rabbis often refer to the fact that God makes his angels assume any form he pleases, whether man (Gen. 18:2) or woman (Zech 5:9—‘two women, and the wind was in their wings’), or wind or flame (Ex. 3:2—‘angel ... in a flame of fire’;2 K. 6:17). But that untenable and fleeting form of existence which is the glory of the angels would be an inferiority in the Son. He could not be clothed, as they are at God's will, in the fleeting robes of material phenomena.”John Henry Newman, in his Apologia, sees an angel in every flower. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 82—“Origen thought not a blade of grass nor a fly was without its angel.Rev. 14:18—an angel‘that hath power over fire’;John 5:4—intermittent spring under charge of an angel;Mat. 28:2—descent of an angel caused earthquake on the morning of Christ's resurrection;Luke 13:11—control of diseases is ascribed to angels.”(d) by guiding the affairs of nations;Dan. 10:12, 13, 21—“I come for thy words' sake. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me ... Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ... Michael your prince”;11:1—“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him”;12:1—“at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people.”Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 87, suggests the question whether“the spirit of the age”or“the national character”in any particular case may not be due to the unseen“principalities”under which men live. Paul certainly recognizes, inEph. 2:2,“the prince of the powers of the air, ... the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.”May not good angels be entrusted with influence over nations' affairs to counteract the evil and help the good?[pg 452](e) by watching over the interests of particular churches;1 Cor. 11:10—“for this cause ought the women to have a sign of authority[i. e., a veil]on her head, because of the angels”—who watch over the church and have care for its order. Matheson, Spiritual Development of St. Paul, 242—“Man's covering is woman's power. Ministrationisher power and it allies her with a greater than man—the angel. Christianity is a feminine strength. Judaism had made woman only a means to an end—the multiplication of the race. So it had degraded her. Paul will restore woman to her original and equal dignity.”Col. 2:18—“Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the angels”—a false worship which would be very natural if angels were present to guard the meetings of the saints.1 Tim. 5:21—“I charge thee in the sight of God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things”—the public duties of the Christian minister.Alford regards“the angels of the seven churches”(Rev. 1:20) as superhuman beings appointed to represent and guard the churches, and that upon the grounds: (1) that the word is used elsewhere in the book of Revelation only in this sense; and (2) that nothing in the book is addressed to a teacher individually, but all to some one who reflects the complexion and fortunes of the church as no human person could. We prefer, however, to regard“the angels of the seven churches”as meaning simply the pastors of the seven churches. The word“angel”means simply“messenger,”and may be used of human as well as of superhuman beings—seeHag. 1:13—“Haggai, Jehovah's messenger”—literally,“the angel of Jehovah.”The use of the word in this figurative sense would not be incongruous with the mystical character of the book of Revelation (see Bib. Sac. 12:339). John Lightfoot, Heb. and Talmud. Exerc., 2:90, says that“angel”was a term designating officer or elder of a synagogue. See also Bp. Lightfoot, Com. on Philippians, 187, 188; Jacobs, Eccl. Polity, 100 and note. In the Irvingite church, accordingly,“angels”constitute an official class.(f) by assisting and protecting individual believers;1 K. 19:5—“an angel touched him[Elijah],and said unto him, Arise and eat”;Ps. 91:11—“he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone”;Dan. 6:22—“My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me”;Mat. 4:11—“angels came and ministered unto him”—Jesus was the type of all believers;18:10—“despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father”; compareverse 6—“one of these little ones that believe on me”; see Meyer, Com.in loco, who regards these passages as proving the doctrine of guardian angels.Luke 16:22—“the beggar died, and ... was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom”;Heb. 1:14—“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?”CompareActs 12:15—“And they said, It is his angel”—of Peter standing knocking; see Hackett, Com.in loco: the utterance“expresses a popular belief prevalent among the Jews, which is neither affirmed nor denied.”Shakespeare, Henry IV, 2nd part, 2:2—“For the boy—there is a good angel about him.”Per contra, see Broadus, Com. onMat. 18:10—“It is simply said of believers as a class that there are angels which are‘their angels’; but there is nothing here or elsewhere to show that one angel has special charge of one believer.”(g) by punishing God's enemies.2 K. 19:35—“it came to pass that night, that the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand”;Acts 12:23—“And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.”A general survey of this Scripture testimony as to the employments of good angels leads us to the following conclusions:First,—that good angels are not to be considered as the mediating agents of God's regular and common providence, but as the ministers of his special providence in the affairs of his church. He“maketh his angels winds”and“a flaming fire,”not in his ordinary procedure, but in connection with special displays of his power for moral ends (Deut. 33:2; Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2). Their intervention is apparently occasional and exceptional—not at their own option, but only as it is permitted or commanded by God. Hence we are not to conceive of angels as coming[pg 453]between us and God, nor are we, without special revelation of the fact, to attribute to them in any particular case the effects which the Scriptures generally ascribe to divine providence. Like miracles, therefore, angelic appearances generally mark God's entrance upon new epochs in the unfolding of his plans. Hence we read of angels at the completion of creation (Job 38:7); at the giving of the law (Gal 3:19); at the birth of Christ (Luke 2:13); at the two temptations in the wilderness and in Gethsemane (Mat. 4:11, Luke 22:43); at the resurrection (Mat. 28:2); at the ascension (Acts 1:10); at the final judgment (Mat. 25:31).The substance of these remarks may be found in Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:637-645. Milton tells us that“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.”Whether this be true or not, it is a question of interest why such angelic beings as have to do with human affairs are not at present seen by men. Paul's admonition against the“worshiping of the angels”(Col. 2:18) seems to suggest the reason. If men have not abstained from worshiping their fellow-men, when these latter have been priests or media of divine communications, the danger of idolatry would be much greater if we came into close and constant contact with angels; seeRev. 22:8, 9—“I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not.”The fact that we do not in our day see angels should not make us sceptical as to their existence any more than the fact that we do not in our day see miracles should make us doubt the reality of the New Testament miracles. As evil spirits were permitted to work most actively when Christianity began its appeal to men, so good angels were then most frequently recognized as executing the divine purposes. Nevius, Demon-Possession, 278, thinks that evil spirits are still at work where Christianity comes in conflict with heathenism, and that they retire into the background as Christianity triumphs. This may be true also of good angels. Otherwise we might be in danger of overestimating their greatness and authority. Father Taylor was right when he said:“Folks are better than angels.”It is vain to sing:“I want to be an angel.”We never shall be angels. Victor Hugo is wrong when he says:“I am the tadpole of an archangel.”John Smith is not an angel, and he never will be. But he may be far greater than an angel, because Christ took, not the nature of angels, but the nature of man (Heb. 2:16).As intimated above, there is no reason to believe that even the invisible presence of angels is a constant one. Doddridge's dream of accident prevented by angelic interposition seems to embody the essential truth. We append the passages referred to in the text.Job 38:7—“When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Deut. 33:2—“Jehovah came from Sinai ... he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them”;Gal. 3:19—“it[the law]was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator”;Heb. 2:2—“the word spoken through angels”;Acts 7:53—“who received the law as it was ordained by angels”;Luke 2:13—“suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”;Mat. 4:11—“Then the devil leaveth him; and behold, angels came and ministered unto him”;Luke 22:43—“And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, strengthening him”;Mat. 28:2—“an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it”;Acts 1:10—“And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel”;Mat. 25:31—“when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory.”Secondly,—that their power, as being in its nature dependent and derived, is exercised in accordance with the laws of the spiritual and natural world. They cannot, like God, create, perform miracles, act without means, search the heart. Unlike the Holy Spirit, who can influence the human mind directly, they can influence men only in ways analogous to those by which men influence each other. As evil angels may tempt men to sin, so it is probable that good angels may attract men to holiness.Recent psychical researches disclose almost unlimited possibilities of influencing other minds by suggestion. Slight physical phenomena, as the odor of a violet or the sight in a book of a crumpled roseleaf, may start trains of thought which change the whole course of a life. A word or a look may have great power over us. Fisher, Nature[pg 454]and Method of Revelation, 276—“The facts of hypnotism illustrate the possibility of one mind falling into a strange thraldom under another.”If other men can so powerfully influence us, it is quite possible that spirits which are not subject to limitations of the flesh may influence us yet more.Binet, in his Alterations of Personality, says that experiments on hysterical patients have produced in his mind the conviction that, in them at least,“a plurality of persons exists.... We have established almost with certainty that in such patients, side by side with the principal personality, there is a secondary personality, which is unknown by the first, which sees, hears, reflects, reasons and acts”; see Andover Review, April, 1890:422. Hudson, Law of Psychic Phenomena, 81-143, claims that we have two minds, the objective and conscious, and the subjective and unconscious. The latter works automatically upon suggestion from the objective or from other minds. In view of the facts referred to by Binet and Hudson, we claim that the influence of angelic spirits is no more incredible than is the influence of suggestion from living men. There is no need of attributing the phenomena of hypnotism to spirits of the dead. Our human nature is larger and more susceptible to spiritual influence than we have commonly believed. These psychical phenomena indeed furnish us with a corroboration of our Ethical Monism, for if in one human being there may be two or more consciousnesses, then in the one God there may be not only three infinite personalities but also multitudinous finite personalities. See T. H. Wright, The Finger of God, 124-133.
A. The employments of good angels.(a) They stand in the presence of God and worship him.Ps. 29:1, 2—“Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name. Worship Jehovah in holy array”—Perowne:“Heaven being thought of as one great temple, and all the worshipers therein as clothed in priestly vestments.”Ps. 89:7—“a God very terrible in the council of the holy ones,”i. e., angels—Perowne:“Angels are called an assembly or congregation, as the church above, which like the church below worships and praises God.”Mat. 18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.”In apparent allusion to this text, Dante represents the saints as dwelling in the presence of God yet at the same time rendering humble service to their fellow men here upon the earth. Just in proportion to their nearness to God and the light they receive from him, is the influence they are able to exert over others.(b) They rejoice in God's works.Job 38:7—“all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Luke 15:10—“there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”;cf.2 Tim. 2:25—“if peradventure God may give them repentance.”Dante represents the angels that are nearest to God, the infinite source of life, as ever advancing toward the spring-time of youth, so that the oldest angels are the youngest.(c) They execute God's will,—by working in nature;Ps. 103:20—“Ye his angels ... that fulfil his word, Hearkening unto the voice of his word”;104:4marg.—“Who maketh his angels winds;His ministers a flaming fire,”i. e., lightnings. See Alford onHeb. 1:7—“The order of the Hebrew words here [inPs. 104:4] is not the same as in the former verses (see especiallyv. 3), where we have:‘Who maketh the clouds his chariot.’For this transposition, those who insist that the passage means‘he maketh winds his messengers’can give no reason.”Farrar onHeb. 1:7—“He maketh his angels winds”;“The Rabbis often refer to the fact that God makes his angels assume any form he pleases, whether man (Gen. 18:2) or woman (Zech 5:9—‘two women, and the wind was in their wings’), or wind or flame (Ex. 3:2—‘angel ... in a flame of fire’;2 K. 6:17). But that untenable and fleeting form of existence which is the glory of the angels would be an inferiority in the Son. He could not be clothed, as they are at God's will, in the fleeting robes of material phenomena.”John Henry Newman, in his Apologia, sees an angel in every flower. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 82—“Origen thought not a blade of grass nor a fly was without its angel.Rev. 14:18—an angel‘that hath power over fire’;John 5:4—intermittent spring under charge of an angel;Mat. 28:2—descent of an angel caused earthquake on the morning of Christ's resurrection;Luke 13:11—control of diseases is ascribed to angels.”(d) by guiding the affairs of nations;Dan. 10:12, 13, 21—“I come for thy words' sake. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me ... Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ... Michael your prince”;11:1—“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him”;12:1—“at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people.”Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 87, suggests the question whether“the spirit of the age”or“the national character”in any particular case may not be due to the unseen“principalities”under which men live. Paul certainly recognizes, inEph. 2:2,“the prince of the powers of the air, ... the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.”May not good angels be entrusted with influence over nations' affairs to counteract the evil and help the good?[pg 452](e) by watching over the interests of particular churches;1 Cor. 11:10—“for this cause ought the women to have a sign of authority[i. e., a veil]on her head, because of the angels”—who watch over the church and have care for its order. Matheson, Spiritual Development of St. Paul, 242—“Man's covering is woman's power. Ministrationisher power and it allies her with a greater than man—the angel. Christianity is a feminine strength. Judaism had made woman only a means to an end—the multiplication of the race. So it had degraded her. Paul will restore woman to her original and equal dignity.”Col. 2:18—“Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the angels”—a false worship which would be very natural if angels were present to guard the meetings of the saints.1 Tim. 5:21—“I charge thee in the sight of God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things”—the public duties of the Christian minister.Alford regards“the angels of the seven churches”(Rev. 1:20) as superhuman beings appointed to represent and guard the churches, and that upon the grounds: (1) that the word is used elsewhere in the book of Revelation only in this sense; and (2) that nothing in the book is addressed to a teacher individually, but all to some one who reflects the complexion and fortunes of the church as no human person could. We prefer, however, to regard“the angels of the seven churches”as meaning simply the pastors of the seven churches. The word“angel”means simply“messenger,”and may be used of human as well as of superhuman beings—seeHag. 1:13—“Haggai, Jehovah's messenger”—literally,“the angel of Jehovah.”The use of the word in this figurative sense would not be incongruous with the mystical character of the book of Revelation (see Bib. Sac. 12:339). John Lightfoot, Heb. and Talmud. Exerc., 2:90, says that“angel”was a term designating officer or elder of a synagogue. See also Bp. Lightfoot, Com. on Philippians, 187, 188; Jacobs, Eccl. Polity, 100 and note. In the Irvingite church, accordingly,“angels”constitute an official class.(f) by assisting and protecting individual believers;1 K. 19:5—“an angel touched him[Elijah],and said unto him, Arise and eat”;Ps. 91:11—“he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone”;Dan. 6:22—“My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me”;Mat. 4:11—“angels came and ministered unto him”—Jesus was the type of all believers;18:10—“despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father”; compareverse 6—“one of these little ones that believe on me”; see Meyer, Com.in loco, who regards these passages as proving the doctrine of guardian angels.Luke 16:22—“the beggar died, and ... was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom”;Heb. 1:14—“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?”CompareActs 12:15—“And they said, It is his angel”—of Peter standing knocking; see Hackett, Com.in loco: the utterance“expresses a popular belief prevalent among the Jews, which is neither affirmed nor denied.”Shakespeare, Henry IV, 2nd part, 2:2—“For the boy—there is a good angel about him.”Per contra, see Broadus, Com. onMat. 18:10—“It is simply said of believers as a class that there are angels which are‘their angels’; but there is nothing here or elsewhere to show that one angel has special charge of one believer.”(g) by punishing God's enemies.2 K. 19:35—“it came to pass that night, that the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand”;Acts 12:23—“And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.”A general survey of this Scripture testimony as to the employments of good angels leads us to the following conclusions:First,—that good angels are not to be considered as the mediating agents of God's regular and common providence, but as the ministers of his special providence in the affairs of his church. He“maketh his angels winds”and“a flaming fire,”not in his ordinary procedure, but in connection with special displays of his power for moral ends (Deut. 33:2; Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2). Their intervention is apparently occasional and exceptional—not at their own option, but only as it is permitted or commanded by God. Hence we are not to conceive of angels as coming[pg 453]between us and God, nor are we, without special revelation of the fact, to attribute to them in any particular case the effects which the Scriptures generally ascribe to divine providence. Like miracles, therefore, angelic appearances generally mark God's entrance upon new epochs in the unfolding of his plans. Hence we read of angels at the completion of creation (Job 38:7); at the giving of the law (Gal 3:19); at the birth of Christ (Luke 2:13); at the two temptations in the wilderness and in Gethsemane (Mat. 4:11, Luke 22:43); at the resurrection (Mat. 28:2); at the ascension (Acts 1:10); at the final judgment (Mat. 25:31).The substance of these remarks may be found in Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:637-645. Milton tells us that“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.”Whether this be true or not, it is a question of interest why such angelic beings as have to do with human affairs are not at present seen by men. Paul's admonition against the“worshiping of the angels”(Col. 2:18) seems to suggest the reason. If men have not abstained from worshiping their fellow-men, when these latter have been priests or media of divine communications, the danger of idolatry would be much greater if we came into close and constant contact with angels; seeRev. 22:8, 9—“I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not.”The fact that we do not in our day see angels should not make us sceptical as to their existence any more than the fact that we do not in our day see miracles should make us doubt the reality of the New Testament miracles. As evil spirits were permitted to work most actively when Christianity began its appeal to men, so good angels were then most frequently recognized as executing the divine purposes. Nevius, Demon-Possession, 278, thinks that evil spirits are still at work where Christianity comes in conflict with heathenism, and that they retire into the background as Christianity triumphs. This may be true also of good angels. Otherwise we might be in danger of overestimating their greatness and authority. Father Taylor was right when he said:“Folks are better than angels.”It is vain to sing:“I want to be an angel.”We never shall be angels. Victor Hugo is wrong when he says:“I am the tadpole of an archangel.”John Smith is not an angel, and he never will be. But he may be far greater than an angel, because Christ took, not the nature of angels, but the nature of man (Heb. 2:16).As intimated above, there is no reason to believe that even the invisible presence of angels is a constant one. Doddridge's dream of accident prevented by angelic interposition seems to embody the essential truth. We append the passages referred to in the text.Job 38:7—“When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Deut. 33:2—“Jehovah came from Sinai ... he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them”;Gal. 3:19—“it[the law]was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator”;Heb. 2:2—“the word spoken through angels”;Acts 7:53—“who received the law as it was ordained by angels”;Luke 2:13—“suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”;Mat. 4:11—“Then the devil leaveth him; and behold, angels came and ministered unto him”;Luke 22:43—“And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, strengthening him”;Mat. 28:2—“an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it”;Acts 1:10—“And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel”;Mat. 25:31—“when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory.”Secondly,—that their power, as being in its nature dependent and derived, is exercised in accordance with the laws of the spiritual and natural world. They cannot, like God, create, perform miracles, act without means, search the heart. Unlike the Holy Spirit, who can influence the human mind directly, they can influence men only in ways analogous to those by which men influence each other. As evil angels may tempt men to sin, so it is probable that good angels may attract men to holiness.Recent psychical researches disclose almost unlimited possibilities of influencing other minds by suggestion. Slight physical phenomena, as the odor of a violet or the sight in a book of a crumpled roseleaf, may start trains of thought which change the whole course of a life. A word or a look may have great power over us. Fisher, Nature[pg 454]and Method of Revelation, 276—“The facts of hypnotism illustrate the possibility of one mind falling into a strange thraldom under another.”If other men can so powerfully influence us, it is quite possible that spirits which are not subject to limitations of the flesh may influence us yet more.Binet, in his Alterations of Personality, says that experiments on hysterical patients have produced in his mind the conviction that, in them at least,“a plurality of persons exists.... We have established almost with certainty that in such patients, side by side with the principal personality, there is a secondary personality, which is unknown by the first, which sees, hears, reflects, reasons and acts”; see Andover Review, April, 1890:422. Hudson, Law of Psychic Phenomena, 81-143, claims that we have two minds, the objective and conscious, and the subjective and unconscious. The latter works automatically upon suggestion from the objective or from other minds. In view of the facts referred to by Binet and Hudson, we claim that the influence of angelic spirits is no more incredible than is the influence of suggestion from living men. There is no need of attributing the phenomena of hypnotism to spirits of the dead. Our human nature is larger and more susceptible to spiritual influence than we have commonly believed. These psychical phenomena indeed furnish us with a corroboration of our Ethical Monism, for if in one human being there may be two or more consciousnesses, then in the one God there may be not only three infinite personalities but also multitudinous finite personalities. See T. H. Wright, The Finger of God, 124-133.
(a) They stand in the presence of God and worship him.
Ps. 29:1, 2—“Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name. Worship Jehovah in holy array”—Perowne:“Heaven being thought of as one great temple, and all the worshipers therein as clothed in priestly vestments.”Ps. 89:7—“a God very terrible in the council of the holy ones,”i. e., angels—Perowne:“Angels are called an assembly or congregation, as the church above, which like the church below worships and praises God.”Mat. 18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.”In apparent allusion to this text, Dante represents the saints as dwelling in the presence of God yet at the same time rendering humble service to their fellow men here upon the earth. Just in proportion to their nearness to God and the light they receive from him, is the influence they are able to exert over others.
Ps. 29:1, 2—“Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name. Worship Jehovah in holy array”—Perowne:“Heaven being thought of as one great temple, and all the worshipers therein as clothed in priestly vestments.”Ps. 89:7—“a God very terrible in the council of the holy ones,”i. e., angels—Perowne:“Angels are called an assembly or congregation, as the church above, which like the church below worships and praises God.”Mat. 18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.”In apparent allusion to this text, Dante represents the saints as dwelling in the presence of God yet at the same time rendering humble service to their fellow men here upon the earth. Just in proportion to their nearness to God and the light they receive from him, is the influence they are able to exert over others.
(b) They rejoice in God's works.
Job 38:7—“all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Luke 15:10—“there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”;cf.2 Tim. 2:25—“if peradventure God may give them repentance.”Dante represents the angels that are nearest to God, the infinite source of life, as ever advancing toward the spring-time of youth, so that the oldest angels are the youngest.
Job 38:7—“all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Luke 15:10—“there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth”;cf.2 Tim. 2:25—“if peradventure God may give them repentance.”Dante represents the angels that are nearest to God, the infinite source of life, as ever advancing toward the spring-time of youth, so that the oldest angels are the youngest.
(c) They execute God's will,—by working in nature;
Ps. 103:20—“Ye his angels ... that fulfil his word, Hearkening unto the voice of his word”;104:4marg.—“Who maketh his angels winds;His ministers a flaming fire,”i. e., lightnings. See Alford onHeb. 1:7—“The order of the Hebrew words here [inPs. 104:4] is not the same as in the former verses (see especiallyv. 3), where we have:‘Who maketh the clouds his chariot.’For this transposition, those who insist that the passage means‘he maketh winds his messengers’can give no reason.”Farrar onHeb. 1:7—“He maketh his angels winds”;“The Rabbis often refer to the fact that God makes his angels assume any form he pleases, whether man (Gen. 18:2) or woman (Zech 5:9—‘two women, and the wind was in their wings’), or wind or flame (Ex. 3:2—‘angel ... in a flame of fire’;2 K. 6:17). But that untenable and fleeting form of existence which is the glory of the angels would be an inferiority in the Son. He could not be clothed, as they are at God's will, in the fleeting robes of material phenomena.”John Henry Newman, in his Apologia, sees an angel in every flower. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 82—“Origen thought not a blade of grass nor a fly was without its angel.Rev. 14:18—an angel‘that hath power over fire’;John 5:4—intermittent spring under charge of an angel;Mat. 28:2—descent of an angel caused earthquake on the morning of Christ's resurrection;Luke 13:11—control of diseases is ascribed to angels.”
Ps. 103:20—“Ye his angels ... that fulfil his word, Hearkening unto the voice of his word”;104:4marg.—“Who maketh his angels winds;His ministers a flaming fire,”i. e., lightnings. See Alford onHeb. 1:7—“The order of the Hebrew words here [inPs. 104:4] is not the same as in the former verses (see especiallyv. 3), where we have:‘Who maketh the clouds his chariot.’For this transposition, those who insist that the passage means‘he maketh winds his messengers’can give no reason.”
Farrar onHeb. 1:7—“He maketh his angels winds”;“The Rabbis often refer to the fact that God makes his angels assume any form he pleases, whether man (Gen. 18:2) or woman (Zech 5:9—‘two women, and the wind was in their wings’), or wind or flame (Ex. 3:2—‘angel ... in a flame of fire’;2 K. 6:17). But that untenable and fleeting form of existence which is the glory of the angels would be an inferiority in the Son. He could not be clothed, as they are at God's will, in the fleeting robes of material phenomena.”John Henry Newman, in his Apologia, sees an angel in every flower. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 82—“Origen thought not a blade of grass nor a fly was without its angel.Rev. 14:18—an angel‘that hath power over fire’;John 5:4—intermittent spring under charge of an angel;Mat. 28:2—descent of an angel caused earthquake on the morning of Christ's resurrection;Luke 13:11—control of diseases is ascribed to angels.”
(d) by guiding the affairs of nations;
Dan. 10:12, 13, 21—“I come for thy words' sake. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me ... Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ... Michael your prince”;11:1—“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him”;12:1—“at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people.”Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 87, suggests the question whether“the spirit of the age”or“the national character”in any particular case may not be due to the unseen“principalities”under which men live. Paul certainly recognizes, inEph. 2:2,“the prince of the powers of the air, ... the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.”May not good angels be entrusted with influence over nations' affairs to counteract the evil and help the good?
Dan. 10:12, 13, 21—“I come for thy words' sake. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me ... Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me ... Michael your prince”;11:1—“And as for me, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I stood up to confirm and strengthen him”;12:1—“at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people.”Mason, Faith of the Gospel, 87, suggests the question whether“the spirit of the age”or“the national character”in any particular case may not be due to the unseen“principalities”under which men live. Paul certainly recognizes, inEph. 2:2,“the prince of the powers of the air, ... the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.”May not good angels be entrusted with influence over nations' affairs to counteract the evil and help the good?
(e) by watching over the interests of particular churches;
1 Cor. 11:10—“for this cause ought the women to have a sign of authority[i. e., a veil]on her head, because of the angels”—who watch over the church and have care for its order. Matheson, Spiritual Development of St. Paul, 242—“Man's covering is woman's power. Ministrationisher power and it allies her with a greater than man—the angel. Christianity is a feminine strength. Judaism had made woman only a means to an end—the multiplication of the race. So it had degraded her. Paul will restore woman to her original and equal dignity.”Col. 2:18—“Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the angels”—a false worship which would be very natural if angels were present to guard the meetings of the saints.1 Tim. 5:21—“I charge thee in the sight of God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things”—the public duties of the Christian minister.Alford regards“the angels of the seven churches”(Rev. 1:20) as superhuman beings appointed to represent and guard the churches, and that upon the grounds: (1) that the word is used elsewhere in the book of Revelation only in this sense; and (2) that nothing in the book is addressed to a teacher individually, but all to some one who reflects the complexion and fortunes of the church as no human person could. We prefer, however, to regard“the angels of the seven churches”as meaning simply the pastors of the seven churches. The word“angel”means simply“messenger,”and may be used of human as well as of superhuman beings—seeHag. 1:13—“Haggai, Jehovah's messenger”—literally,“the angel of Jehovah.”The use of the word in this figurative sense would not be incongruous with the mystical character of the book of Revelation (see Bib. Sac. 12:339). John Lightfoot, Heb. and Talmud. Exerc., 2:90, says that“angel”was a term designating officer or elder of a synagogue. See also Bp. Lightfoot, Com. on Philippians, 187, 188; Jacobs, Eccl. Polity, 100 and note. In the Irvingite church, accordingly,“angels”constitute an official class.
1 Cor. 11:10—“for this cause ought the women to have a sign of authority[i. e., a veil]on her head, because of the angels”—who watch over the church and have care for its order. Matheson, Spiritual Development of St. Paul, 242—“Man's covering is woman's power. Ministrationisher power and it allies her with a greater than man—the angel. Christianity is a feminine strength. Judaism had made woman only a means to an end—the multiplication of the race. So it had degraded her. Paul will restore woman to her original and equal dignity.”Col. 2:18—“Let no man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshiping of the angels”—a false worship which would be very natural if angels were present to guard the meetings of the saints.1 Tim. 5:21—“I charge thee in the sight of God, and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things”—the public duties of the Christian minister.
Alford regards“the angels of the seven churches”(Rev. 1:20) as superhuman beings appointed to represent and guard the churches, and that upon the grounds: (1) that the word is used elsewhere in the book of Revelation only in this sense; and (2) that nothing in the book is addressed to a teacher individually, but all to some one who reflects the complexion and fortunes of the church as no human person could. We prefer, however, to regard“the angels of the seven churches”as meaning simply the pastors of the seven churches. The word“angel”means simply“messenger,”and may be used of human as well as of superhuman beings—seeHag. 1:13—“Haggai, Jehovah's messenger”—literally,“the angel of Jehovah.”The use of the word in this figurative sense would not be incongruous with the mystical character of the book of Revelation (see Bib. Sac. 12:339). John Lightfoot, Heb. and Talmud. Exerc., 2:90, says that“angel”was a term designating officer or elder of a synagogue. See also Bp. Lightfoot, Com. on Philippians, 187, 188; Jacobs, Eccl. Polity, 100 and note. In the Irvingite church, accordingly,“angels”constitute an official class.
(f) by assisting and protecting individual believers;
1 K. 19:5—“an angel touched him[Elijah],and said unto him, Arise and eat”;Ps. 91:11—“he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone”;Dan. 6:22—“My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me”;Mat. 4:11—“angels came and ministered unto him”—Jesus was the type of all believers;18:10—“despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father”; compareverse 6—“one of these little ones that believe on me”; see Meyer, Com.in loco, who regards these passages as proving the doctrine of guardian angels.Luke 16:22—“the beggar died, and ... was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom”;Heb. 1:14—“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?”CompareActs 12:15—“And they said, It is his angel”—of Peter standing knocking; see Hackett, Com.in loco: the utterance“expresses a popular belief prevalent among the Jews, which is neither affirmed nor denied.”Shakespeare, Henry IV, 2nd part, 2:2—“For the boy—there is a good angel about him.”Per contra, see Broadus, Com. onMat. 18:10—“It is simply said of believers as a class that there are angels which are‘their angels’; but there is nothing here or elsewhere to show that one angel has special charge of one believer.”
1 K. 19:5—“an angel touched him[Elijah],and said unto him, Arise and eat”;Ps. 91:11—“he will give his angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone”;Dan. 6:22—“My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me”;Mat. 4:11—“angels came and ministered unto him”—Jesus was the type of all believers;18:10—“despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father”; compareverse 6—“one of these little ones that believe on me”; see Meyer, Com.in loco, who regards these passages as proving the doctrine of guardian angels.Luke 16:22—“the beggar died, and ... was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom”;Heb. 1:14—“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?”CompareActs 12:15—“And they said, It is his angel”—of Peter standing knocking; see Hackett, Com.in loco: the utterance“expresses a popular belief prevalent among the Jews, which is neither affirmed nor denied.”Shakespeare, Henry IV, 2nd part, 2:2—“For the boy—there is a good angel about him.”Per contra, see Broadus, Com. onMat. 18:10—“It is simply said of believers as a class that there are angels which are‘their angels’; but there is nothing here or elsewhere to show that one angel has special charge of one believer.”
(g) by punishing God's enemies.
2 K. 19:35—“it came to pass that night, that the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand”;Acts 12:23—“And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.”
2 K. 19:35—“it came to pass that night, that the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand”;Acts 12:23—“And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.”
A general survey of this Scripture testimony as to the employments of good angels leads us to the following conclusions:
First,—that good angels are not to be considered as the mediating agents of God's regular and common providence, but as the ministers of his special providence in the affairs of his church. He“maketh his angels winds”and“a flaming fire,”not in his ordinary procedure, but in connection with special displays of his power for moral ends (Deut. 33:2; Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2). Their intervention is apparently occasional and exceptional—not at their own option, but only as it is permitted or commanded by God. Hence we are not to conceive of angels as coming[pg 453]between us and God, nor are we, without special revelation of the fact, to attribute to them in any particular case the effects which the Scriptures generally ascribe to divine providence. Like miracles, therefore, angelic appearances generally mark God's entrance upon new epochs in the unfolding of his plans. Hence we read of angels at the completion of creation (Job 38:7); at the giving of the law (Gal 3:19); at the birth of Christ (Luke 2:13); at the two temptations in the wilderness and in Gethsemane (Mat. 4:11, Luke 22:43); at the resurrection (Mat. 28:2); at the ascension (Acts 1:10); at the final judgment (Mat. 25:31).
The substance of these remarks may be found in Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:637-645. Milton tells us that“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.”Whether this be true or not, it is a question of interest why such angelic beings as have to do with human affairs are not at present seen by men. Paul's admonition against the“worshiping of the angels”(Col. 2:18) seems to suggest the reason. If men have not abstained from worshiping their fellow-men, when these latter have been priests or media of divine communications, the danger of idolatry would be much greater if we came into close and constant contact with angels; seeRev. 22:8, 9—“I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not.”The fact that we do not in our day see angels should not make us sceptical as to their existence any more than the fact that we do not in our day see miracles should make us doubt the reality of the New Testament miracles. As evil spirits were permitted to work most actively when Christianity began its appeal to men, so good angels were then most frequently recognized as executing the divine purposes. Nevius, Demon-Possession, 278, thinks that evil spirits are still at work where Christianity comes in conflict with heathenism, and that they retire into the background as Christianity triumphs. This may be true also of good angels. Otherwise we might be in danger of overestimating their greatness and authority. Father Taylor was right when he said:“Folks are better than angels.”It is vain to sing:“I want to be an angel.”We never shall be angels. Victor Hugo is wrong when he says:“I am the tadpole of an archangel.”John Smith is not an angel, and he never will be. But he may be far greater than an angel, because Christ took, not the nature of angels, but the nature of man (Heb. 2:16).As intimated above, there is no reason to believe that even the invisible presence of angels is a constant one. Doddridge's dream of accident prevented by angelic interposition seems to embody the essential truth. We append the passages referred to in the text.Job 38:7—“When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Deut. 33:2—“Jehovah came from Sinai ... he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them”;Gal. 3:19—“it[the law]was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator”;Heb. 2:2—“the word spoken through angels”;Acts 7:53—“who received the law as it was ordained by angels”;Luke 2:13—“suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”;Mat. 4:11—“Then the devil leaveth him; and behold, angels came and ministered unto him”;Luke 22:43—“And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, strengthening him”;Mat. 28:2—“an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it”;Acts 1:10—“And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel”;Mat. 25:31—“when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory.”
The substance of these remarks may be found in Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:637-645. Milton tells us that“Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.”Whether this be true or not, it is a question of interest why such angelic beings as have to do with human affairs are not at present seen by men. Paul's admonition against the“worshiping of the angels”(Col. 2:18) seems to suggest the reason. If men have not abstained from worshiping their fellow-men, when these latter have been priests or media of divine communications, the danger of idolatry would be much greater if we came into close and constant contact with angels; seeRev. 22:8, 9—“I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not.”
The fact that we do not in our day see angels should not make us sceptical as to their existence any more than the fact that we do not in our day see miracles should make us doubt the reality of the New Testament miracles. As evil spirits were permitted to work most actively when Christianity began its appeal to men, so good angels were then most frequently recognized as executing the divine purposes. Nevius, Demon-Possession, 278, thinks that evil spirits are still at work where Christianity comes in conflict with heathenism, and that they retire into the background as Christianity triumphs. This may be true also of good angels. Otherwise we might be in danger of overestimating their greatness and authority. Father Taylor was right when he said:“Folks are better than angels.”It is vain to sing:“I want to be an angel.”We never shall be angels. Victor Hugo is wrong when he says:“I am the tadpole of an archangel.”John Smith is not an angel, and he never will be. But he may be far greater than an angel, because Christ took, not the nature of angels, but the nature of man (Heb. 2:16).
As intimated above, there is no reason to believe that even the invisible presence of angels is a constant one. Doddridge's dream of accident prevented by angelic interposition seems to embody the essential truth. We append the passages referred to in the text.Job 38:7—“When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy”;Deut. 33:2—“Jehovah came from Sinai ... he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them”;Gal. 3:19—“it[the law]was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator”;Heb. 2:2—“the word spoken through angels”;Acts 7:53—“who received the law as it was ordained by angels”;Luke 2:13—“suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”;Mat. 4:11—“Then the devil leaveth him; and behold, angels came and ministered unto him”;Luke 22:43—“And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, strengthening him”;Mat. 28:2—“an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it”;Acts 1:10—“And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel”;Mat. 25:31—“when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory.”
Secondly,—that their power, as being in its nature dependent and derived, is exercised in accordance with the laws of the spiritual and natural world. They cannot, like God, create, perform miracles, act without means, search the heart. Unlike the Holy Spirit, who can influence the human mind directly, they can influence men only in ways analogous to those by which men influence each other. As evil angels may tempt men to sin, so it is probable that good angels may attract men to holiness.
Recent psychical researches disclose almost unlimited possibilities of influencing other minds by suggestion. Slight physical phenomena, as the odor of a violet or the sight in a book of a crumpled roseleaf, may start trains of thought which change the whole course of a life. A word or a look may have great power over us. Fisher, Nature[pg 454]and Method of Revelation, 276—“The facts of hypnotism illustrate the possibility of one mind falling into a strange thraldom under another.”If other men can so powerfully influence us, it is quite possible that spirits which are not subject to limitations of the flesh may influence us yet more.Binet, in his Alterations of Personality, says that experiments on hysterical patients have produced in his mind the conviction that, in them at least,“a plurality of persons exists.... We have established almost with certainty that in such patients, side by side with the principal personality, there is a secondary personality, which is unknown by the first, which sees, hears, reflects, reasons and acts”; see Andover Review, April, 1890:422. Hudson, Law of Psychic Phenomena, 81-143, claims that we have two minds, the objective and conscious, and the subjective and unconscious. The latter works automatically upon suggestion from the objective or from other minds. In view of the facts referred to by Binet and Hudson, we claim that the influence of angelic spirits is no more incredible than is the influence of suggestion from living men. There is no need of attributing the phenomena of hypnotism to spirits of the dead. Our human nature is larger and more susceptible to spiritual influence than we have commonly believed. These psychical phenomena indeed furnish us with a corroboration of our Ethical Monism, for if in one human being there may be two or more consciousnesses, then in the one God there may be not only three infinite personalities but also multitudinous finite personalities. See T. H. Wright, The Finger of God, 124-133.
Recent psychical researches disclose almost unlimited possibilities of influencing other minds by suggestion. Slight physical phenomena, as the odor of a violet or the sight in a book of a crumpled roseleaf, may start trains of thought which change the whole course of a life. A word or a look may have great power over us. Fisher, Nature[pg 454]and Method of Revelation, 276—“The facts of hypnotism illustrate the possibility of one mind falling into a strange thraldom under another.”If other men can so powerfully influence us, it is quite possible that spirits which are not subject to limitations of the flesh may influence us yet more.
Binet, in his Alterations of Personality, says that experiments on hysterical patients have produced in his mind the conviction that, in them at least,“a plurality of persons exists.... We have established almost with certainty that in such patients, side by side with the principal personality, there is a secondary personality, which is unknown by the first, which sees, hears, reflects, reasons and acts”; see Andover Review, April, 1890:422. Hudson, Law of Psychic Phenomena, 81-143, claims that we have two minds, the objective and conscious, and the subjective and unconscious. The latter works automatically upon suggestion from the objective or from other minds. In view of the facts referred to by Binet and Hudson, we claim that the influence of angelic spirits is no more incredible than is the influence of suggestion from living men. There is no need of attributing the phenomena of hypnotism to spirits of the dead. Our human nature is larger and more susceptible to spiritual influence than we have commonly believed. These psychical phenomena indeed furnish us with a corroboration of our Ethical Monism, for if in one human being there may be two or more consciousnesses, then in the one God there may be not only three infinite personalities but also multitudinous finite personalities. See T. H. Wright, The Finger of God, 124-133.