Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1890 — THE REALM OF THE ANGELS. [ARTICLE]

THE REALM OF THE ANGELS.

Their Home,, tbs Heavens j Their Empire, the "Daly yse, Angelology the Theme of Dr. Talmage.—He Draws Aside the Dorset That Veils Angelie Habitation.-r The Angel of the Lord in —Manoah’s Flame on the Bock. Sunday morning at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Rev. Hi Dewßt Talmage announced his text Judges 13: 19—“ And the angel did wondrously,” and said: Fire built on a rock. Manoah and his wife had there kindled the flames for sacrifice in juraise of God, and'in honor of a guest they supposed to be a man. But, as the flame rose higher and higher, their stranger guest stepped into the flame jnd by one red leap ascended into the skies. Then they knew that he was an Angel of the Lord. “The angel did wondrously.” Two hundred and forty-eight times does the Bible refer to the angels, yet I never heard or read a sermon on Angelology. The whole subject is relegated to the realm mythical, weird, spectral, and unknown. Such adjournment is unseriptural and wick ed. Of their life, their character, their habits,their action, their velocities, the Bible irives full length portraits,and why this prolonged and absolute silence concerning them? Angelology is my theme.

There are two nations of angels, and they are hostile to each other: the nation of good angels and thb nation of bad angels. Of the former, I chiefly speak to-day. Their capital, their headquarters, their grand rendezvous, is heaven, but their empire is the universe. The are a distinct race of creatures. No human being can aver join their confraternity. The little child who in the Sabbath school sings, “I wanttoßsr an angel,” will never have hor wish. gratified. They are superhuman; hut they are of different grades and ranks, not all on the same level, or the same height. They have their superiors and inferiors and equals. 1 propose no guessing on this subject, but take the Bible for my only authority. Plato, tho philosopher, guessed, and divided angels into super-celestial, celestial, and sub-celestial. Dionysius, the Areopagite, guessed, and divided them into three classes —the supremo, the middle and the last—and each of these into three other classes, making nine in all. Philo said the angels were related to God, as the rays to the sun. Fulgoutius said that they were composed of body and spirit. Clement said they were incorporeal. Augustine said that they had been in danger of falling, but now aw beyond being tempt d. B-ut the only authority on this subject that I respect says they are divided into Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones, Dominations, Principalities, Powers. Their commander-in-chief is Michael. Daniel called him Michael, St. John called him MichaoL These supernal beings are more thoroughly organized than any array that ever marched. They are swifter than any cyclone that ever swept the sea. They are more radiant than any morning that ever came down the sky. They have more to do with your destiny and mine than any being in the universe oxcept God. May the Angel of tne New Covenant, who is the Lord Jesus, open our eyes and touch our tongue, and rou3e our soul, while we speak of their deathlessness, their intelligence, their numbers, their strength, their achievements. Yes, deathless. They bad a cradle, but Avili never have a grave. The Lord remembers when they were born, but no one shall ever see their eye extinguished, or their momentum slow up, or their existence terminate. The oldesr, of them has not a wrinkle, or a decrepitude, or a hindrance; as young after six thousand years as at the close of their first hour. Christ said of the good in heaven, “Neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels.” Yes, deathless are these wonderful creatures of whom I speak. They will see world after world go out, but there shall bo no fading of their own brilliance. Yea, after the last world jiaa taken its last flight they will be ready for the widest circuit through immensity, taking a quadrillion of miie3 in ono sweep as easy as a pigeon circles a dovecot. They are never siok. They are never exhausted'. They need no sleep, for they are never tired. At God’s command they smote with death, in ono night, one hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib’s host, but no fatality can smite them. Awake, agile, omnipotent, deathless, immortal! A further characteristic of these radiant folk is intelligence. The woman of Tekoah was right whenurixo-spoke to King David of the wisdom of an angeL Wo take in 1 what little we know through eye and ear and nostril and touch; but those beings have no physicaL encasement and hence they are all senses. A wall five ieet thick is not solid to them. Through it they go without disturbing flake of mortar or crystal of sand. Knowledge I It flashes on them. They take it in at all points. They absorb it. They gather it up without any hinderment. No need of literature for them! The letters of their books are stars. The dashes of their books are meteors. The words of their books are constellations. The paragraphs of their hooks are galaxies. The pictures of their books are sunrises, and sunsets, and midnight auroras, and the Conqueror on the white horse with the moon under his feet, and seas of glass mingled with fire. Their library is an open universe. No need of telescope to soe something millions of miles away, for instantly they are there to inspect and explore it. All asironomie3, all geologies, ad botanies, nil philosophies at their feet. What an opportunity for intelligence is theirs! \i hat facilities for knowing everything and. knowing it right away!

There is only one thing that puts them to their wit’s end, and the Bible says they have to study that. They have beeu studying it_a.ll through the ages, and yet I warrant They have not fully grasped It-the wonders of Redemption. These wonders rre so high, so deep, so grand, so stupendous, so magnificent that oven the intelligence of angelhood '.f confounded before it The apostle says, "Which things tho angels desire to look into.’’ That is a subject that excites inquisitiveness on their part That is a theme that strains their faculties to the utmost That is higher than they can climb, and deeper than they can dive. They have a desire for something too big for their comprehension. “Which things tho angels to look lota” Bat that does not discredit their intelligence. No one but God Himself can fully understand the wonders of Redemption. If all heaven should study It for fifty eternities the* would get no further than the A U C of that inexhaustible subject. But all other realms lines or the realms of know!: edge they have ransacked and explored uml compassed. No one but God can tell them anything they do not know." TTKoyfiave read to tna Tost word of the last page of tho last volume of investigation. And what delights me most is that all their intelligence is to be at our disposal, and, coming Into their presence, they will tell us in five minutes more than we can learn by One hundred years of earthly surmising. A further characteristic of tneae immortals is their velocity. This tha Bible puts somettmos under the figure of wings, some*

’ times under the figure of a Jawing garment, sometimes under the figure of naked feet. As these snnerhnmans are without bodies these expressions are of course figurative, and mean swiftness. The Bible tells ns that Daniel was praying, and riel flew from heaven and touched him before he got up from his knees. Huw far, then, did the angel Gabriel have to fly in those moments of Daniel’s prayer? Heaven is thought to be the center of the universe. Our sun and its planets only the rim of the wbeeL_ot worlds. In a moment the angel Gabriel flew from that centre to this periphery. Jesus told Peter He could instantly have sixty thousand’angels present if He called for them. What foot of antelope or wing of albatross could equal that velocity? Law oi gravitation, which grips all things else, has no influence upon angelic momentum. Immensities before them open and shut like a fan. That they are here is no reason why they should not be a quintiilion of miles hence the next minute. Our bodies binder us, but our minds can circle the earth in a minute. Angelic beings are bodiless and have no limitation. God may with His finger point down to some world in trouble on the outmost limits of creation, and instantly an angelic cohort are there to help it. Or some celestial may be standing at the furthermost outpost of immensity, and God may say “Come I” and in. Btantly it is in His bosom. Abraham, Elijah, liagar, Joshua, Gideon, Manoah, Paul, St. John, could tell of their uuhindered locomotion. The red feet of summer lightning are slow compared with their hegiras. This doubles-up and compresses infinitudes into infinitesimals. This, puts all the astronomical heavens into a space like the balls of a child’s rattie. This mingles into one the Here and the There, the Now and the Then, the Beyond and the Yonder. Another remark I have to make concerning these illustrious immortals’is that they, are multitudinous. Their census hasnever been taken and no one but God knows how many they are, but all the Bible accounts suggest their immense numbers, Companies of them, regiments of them, armies of them, mountain-tops haloed by them, skies populous with them. John speaks of angels and other beings around the throne as ten thousand times ten thousand. Now according to my calculation, ten thousand times ten thousand are one hundred million. But these are only the angles in one place. David counted twenty thousand of them rolling down the sky in chariots. When God came away from the riven rock 3 of Mount Sinai, the Bible says He had the companionship of ten thousand angels. I think the,} are in -SvhFy Dattie, in every exigency, at every birth, at every pillow, at every hour, at every moment. The earth* full of them. The heavens full of them. They outnumber the human race in this world. They outnumber ransomed spirits in glory. \\ hen Abraham had his knife uplifted to slay Isaac, it was an angel who arrested the stroke, crying, “Abraham, Abraham 1” It was a stairway of angels that Jacob saw while pillowed in the wilderness. Y\ e are told an angel led the hosts of Israelites out of Egpytian serfdom. It was an angel that showed liagar tho fountain where she filled the bottle for the lad. It was an ange that took Lot out of doomed Sodom. It was an angel that shut up the mouth of the hungry monsters when Daniel was thrown into the caverns. It was an angel that fed Elijah under the juniper tree, it was an angel that announced to Mary the approaching nativity. They were angels that chanted when Christ was born. It was an angel that strengthened our Saviour in His agony. It was an angel that encouraged Paul in the Mediterranean shipwreck. It was an angel that burst open the prison, gate after gate, until Peter was liberated. It was an angel that stirred the Pool of Siloam where the sick were healed. It was an angel that John saw flying through the midst of heaven, and an angel with foot planted ou the sea and an agei that opened the book, and an angel that sounded the trumpet, and an angel that thrust in the sickle, and an angel that poured out the vials, and an angel standing in the sun. It will be an angel with uplifted hand, swearing that Tima shall be no ionger. In the great final harvest of the world, the reapers are tne angels, Yea, the Lord shall be revealed from heaven with mighty angels. Oh, the numbers and the might and the glory of these supernuls! Fleets of them 1 Squadrons of them! , Host beyond host! Rank above rankl Millions on millions! And all on our side if we will have them.

This leads me to speak of the offices of these supernals. To defend, to cheer, to rescue, to escort, to give victory to the right! and overthrow the wrong; that is their business. Just as alert to-day and efficient as when in Bible times they spread wing, or unsheathed sword, or rocked down penitentiaries, or filled the mountains with horses of Are hitched to chariots of lire and driven by reinsmen of lire. They have turned your steps a hundred times, and you knew it not. You were on the way to do some wrong thing, and they changed your course. They brought somo thought of Christian parentage, or of loyalty to your own home, and that arrested you. They arranged that some one should meet you at that crisis, and propose something honorable and elevating, or they took from your pocket some ticicet to evil amusement, a ticket that you never found. It was an angel of God, and perhaps the very one that guided you to this service, and that now waits to report some holy impression to be this morning m.ido upon your soul, tarryiug with one foot upon ttie doorstep of your immorial spirit, and the other foot lifted for ascent into the skies. By some prayer detain him unit he cau tell of a repentant and ransomed soul) Or you were sometime borne down with trouble, bereavement, persecution, bankruptcy, sickness, and all manner of troubles beating their discords in your heart and life. You gave up; you said: “I cannot stand it uny longer. I believe I will take my life. Where is the rail-train, or the deep wave, or the precipice that will end this torment of earthly existence*" But suddenly your mind brightened. Courage came surging into your heart liko oceanic tides. You said: “God is on my side, and all these adversities He can maku turn out for my good." Suddenly you felt a peace, a deep peace, the peace of God that passeth all understanding. W hat made the change* A sweet, and mighty, and comforting angel of the Lord met you. That was aIL W bat an incentive to purity and righteousness is this doctrine that we are continually under augel'to observation 1 Eye*ever on yon, «o that the most secret misdeed Is oommitted in of an audience of immortals. No door so bolted, no darkness so Cimmerian, as to hinder that supernal eyesight. Not critical eyesight, not jealuus eyesight, not baleful eyesight, but friendly eyesight, sympathetic eyesight, helpful eyesight. Contldentlal clerk of store, with great responsibility on your shoulder, and no one to eppltHid your work when you do it well, and sick with the world’s ingratitude, think of the uncels in the count-ing-room raptured at your fidelity I Mother of homehold, stitching; mending, cooking, dusting, planning, up half the night, or all the Bight, With the sick child, day in and, day out. year in and year out, worn wltjh. too monuvmiy «f a it»e that no one seems to case for. think of the augels in the nursery, angels in all the rooms of your toilia*

— ■- ' ■ I angels about tne sick cradt i, ana mm mm sympathy I . Railroad engineer, with hundreds of lives hanging on your wrist, standing amid , the cinders and the smvtch, round the the sharp curve, and by ap;>ivliiug declivity, discharged and disgraced if you make a ; mistake, but not one word of approval if you take all the trains in safety for ten years, think of the angels by the throttlei valve, angels by the roaring furnace or the engine, angels looking from the overhangj ing erag, angels bracing the racing wheels ; °® kb® Precipice, angels when yon mount ; the thunderbolt of a train, and angels I when you dismount! Can you not hear them, louder than the jamming of the car-coupling, leiidei than the bell at the crossing, louder than the whistle that sounds like the scream of a flying fieni,the angelic voices saying, “You did it welL You did it well?” If I often speak of engineers it is because I ride so much with them. I always- accept their invitation to join them on their locomotive, because I not only get to my destination sooner, but because they are about the grandest men alive. Men and woman of all circumstances, only partly appreciated, or not appreciated at all, never feel lonely again or unregarded againl Angels ail around, angels to approve, angels to help, angels to remember. Yea, while all the good angels are friends of the good, there is one special angel your body-guard. This idea, until this present study of angology, 1 supposed to be fancifnl, but ! find it clearly stated in the Bible. When the disciples were praying for Peter’s delivorance from prison, and he appeared at the door of the prayer-meeting, tney could not believe it was Peter. They said: “It is his angeL” So these disciples, id special" nearness to Christ, evidently believed that every worthy soul has an angeL Jesus said of his followers: “Their angels behold the face of my Father.” Elsewhere it iB Sttid: “He shall give hta afigala chau-ga over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.’ Angol-shielded, angel-protected, angelguarded, angel-canopied, art thou. No wonder that Charles Wesley hymned these words: “V\ hich of the petty kings of earth Can boast a guard like ours, Encircled from our second birth With all the heavenly powers?” Valerius and Rufinus wore put to death for Christ’s sake in the year 387, and, after the day when their bodies had been whipped, and pounded into a a jelly, in the nigiit in prison, and before tho next day when they were to be executed, they both thought they saw angels standing with two glittering crowns saying, “lie of good cheer, valiant soldiers of Jesus Christ! a little more of battle and then these crownsare yours.” And I am glad to know thatbefore many of those who have passed through great sufferings in this life soma angel of God has held a blazing coronet of' eternal rewurd. Yea; we are to have such a guardian angel to take us upward when our work is done. You know we are told an angel conducted Lazarus to Abraham’s bosom. That shows that none shall be so poor in dying he cunot afford angelic escort. It would boa long way to go alone, and up paths we have never trod, and amid blazing worlds swinging in unimaginable momentum, out and on through such distances and across such infinitudes of space, we should shudder at the thought of going alone. Hut the angelic escort will come to your languishing pillow, or the place of your fatal accident and say: “Hail, immortal one! All is well; God hath sent me to your home;” and without tremor or slightest dense of peril you will away and upward, furttter on and further on, until after awhile heaven heaves in sight, and the rumble of chariot wheelsand the roll of mighty harmonies are heard in the distance, and nearer you come, und nearer still,until the brightness is like many mornings suffused into one, and the gates lift and you are inside the umethystine walls, and ,on the banks of the jasper sea, foreveF safe, forever free, forever well, forever rested, forever united, forever happy. Mothers, don’t think your little children go alonewhen they quit this world. Out of your arms into angolio arms. Out of sickness into health. Out of tho cradle into a Sav* iour’s bosom. Not an instant will the darlings be alone between the two kisses, the lost kiss of earth and tho first kiss of* heaven. “Now angels, do your „workl” cried an expiring Christian. Yes, a guardian angel for each ono of you. Put yourself now in accord with him. V\ hen he suggests the right, follow it. When he warns you against the wrong, shun it. Sent forth from God to help you in this great battle against sin and death, accept his deliverance. Vt hen tempted to a feeling of loneliness and disheartehment appropriate the promise: “The angel of the Lord encampeth aroundabout them that fear Him and deliveretb them.” Oh, lam so glad that the spaces between here and heaven are thronged with these supernaturals taking tidings home, bringing messages here, rolling back obstacles from our path and giving us defence, for terrific are the forces who dispute our way, and if the nation of the good angels is on our side, the nation of bud angels is on the other side. Paul had it right when he said: “v\« wrestle not against fiesh and blood but against Principalities, against Powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” In that awful fight may God soud us mighty angelic reinforcement! We want all their wings on our side, all their swords on our side, all their chariots on our side. Thank God that those who are for us are mightier than those who are against us I And that makes me jubilant as to the final triumph. Belgium, you know, was the battle ground of fingland and France. Yea, Belgium more than once was the battleground of opposing nations. It so happens that this world is the Belgium or battleground between the angelic nations, good and bad. Michael, the commander-in-chief on one side; Lucifer, as Byron calls him, or Mephlstopheios, as Goethe calls him, or Satan as the Bible calls him, tha commander-in-chief on the other side. All pure angelhood under the one leadership. And nil abandoned angelhood under the other leadership Many a skirmish have the two armies had, but the great and decisive battle is yet to do fought. Either from ou» earthly homes or down from our supernal residences, may we come in on the right side; for on that side are God and heaven and viotory. Meanwhile tts* battle in bewa* wL Va. array, and the forces celestial and demoniacal are confronting each other. Hear tha boom of the great cannonade already opened! Cherubim. Seraphim, Thrones, Dominations, Principalities, and Powers are beginning to ride down their foes, and until the work Is completed, “Sun, stand thon still upon Gibeon, and thou, Moon, is the valley of AJaioni