Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-03-29
THE TALMAGE SERMON.
BROOKLYN's DIVINE breaches
ON ANGELOLOGY.


wife had there kindled the flames for sacri-
flee in praise of God and in honor of a guest
whom they supposed to be man. But as
the flame rose higher and higher their
| stranger guest stepped into the fame and by
one red leap assembled into the skies Then
they knew that he was an Angel of the Lord
1.-THE angel did wondrously"
Two hundred and forty-eight times does
the Bible refer to the angels, yet ! never
heard or read a sermon on Angelology. The
whole subject is relegated TO the realm
mythical, weird, spectral and unknown.
Such adjournment is unscriptural and
wicked. OF their life, their character, their
habits, their actions their velocities, the
Bible gives us full length portraits, and why
| this prolonged and absolute silence concern
ing them? Angelology my theme.
There are two nations of angels, and they
nre hostile TO each other; the nation OF good
angels and the nation of bad angels. OF the
/ former chiefly speak to-day. Their capital,
their headquarters, their grand rendezvous,
is heaven, but their empire is the universe.
| They are a distinct race Of creatures. No
human being can ever join their eonfrater-
nifty. The little child who in the Sabbath
school sings, II want to be an angel will
never have her wish gratified. They are SUI
perhuman; but they are of different grades
and ranks, not all on the same level, or the
same height. They have their superiors and
| interiors and equals. | propose no guessing
on this subject, but take the Bible for my
| only authority. Plato, the philosopher,
guessed, and divided angels into super-celes-
tial, celestial and suh-celestial. Dionysius the
Areopagite, guessed, and divided them into
three classes the supreme, the middle and
the last-and each of these into three other
classes, making nine in all.
Philo said that the angels were related to
! Sod, as the rays TO the sun. Fulgentius said
that they were composed of body and spirit.
Clement said they were incorporeal. Au-
, gustine said that they had been in danger of
| falling, but now are beyond being tempted.
| But the only authority on this subject that
respect says they are divided into Cheru-
| BIN, Seraphim, Thrones, Dominations, Prin-
| CAPABILITIES Powers Their commander-in-
! chief is Michael Daniel called him Michael.
| st john called him Michael These supernal
beings are more thoroughly organized than
any army that ever marched. They are
swifter than any cyclone that ever swept the
sea. They are more radiant than any morn
| ing that ever came down the sky. They have
more to do with your destiny and mine than
| any being in the universe except God. May
the Angel of the New Covenant, who is the
| Lord Jesus, open our eyes and touch cur
| tongue, and rouse our soul, while we speak of
their deathlessness, their intelligence, their
| numbers, their strength, their achievements.
| Yes deathess They had cradle, but
viii never have grave. The Lord remem-
bers when they were born, but no one shall
ewes see their eye extingushed, OF their mo-
mentum slow up, OF their existence term
mate The oldest of them has not wrinkle,
or 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, death
less are these wonderful creatures of whom
| speak. They will see world after world go
out, but there shall be no fading of their own
brilliance Yea, after the last world has
taken its last fight they will be ready for the
widest circuit through immensely, taking
quadrilion of miles in one sweep as easy as a
| pigeon circles a dovecot. They are never
| sick. They are never exhausted. They need
no sleep, tor they are never tirel. At Co.'s
| command they smote with death, in one
night, one hundred and eighty-fve thousand
of Sennacherib's host, but no fatality can
smite them. Awake agile, multipotent,
deathless, immortal
| A further characteristic of these radiant
| folk is intelligence. The woman of Tekoah
was right when she spoke to King David Of
| the wisdom of an angel We take in what
little we know through eye and ear and nos
| trll and touch, but those beings have no
physical encasement and hence they are all
senses. A wall five feet thick is not solid to
them. Through it they go without disturb
ing flake of mortar or crystal OF sand Knowl-
| edge II flashes on them. They take it in at
all points They absorb it. They gather it
up without any Underwent. No need of
| literature for them The letters CT their
books are stars. The dashes of their books
are meteors. The words of their books are
consultations. The paragraphs of their books
are galaxies. The pictures Of their books are
| sunrises, and sunsets, and midnight auroras
| and the Conqueror on the white horse with
| the m rtpHa1. His faaE and of GLASS
mingled with fire. Their library is an open
| universe. No need of telescope to see some
| thing millions of miles away, for instantly
they are there to inspect and explore it. All
ASTRONOMERS, all geologies, all botanies all
| PHILOSOPHERS at their feet. What an oppor-
/ unity for intelligence is theirs What facili-
| ties for knowing everything and knowing it
| right away.
| There is only one thing that puts them to
their wits end, and the Bible says they have
| to study that They have been studying it
NIL through the ages, and yet warrant they
have not fully grasped it the wonders of Re
| demptlOn. These wonders are so high, so
| deep, so grand, so stupendous, so magnificent
| that even the intelligence of angelhood is con-
founded beforeit. heapostle says: (Which
things the angels desire to look intd3 That
is subject that excites inqusitiveness on
their part That is a theme that strains their
faculties TO their utmost That is higher than
they can climb, and deeper than they can
dive. They have desire for something too
| big for their comprehension. (Which things
| the angels desire to look into" But that does
not discrelit their Intelligence No one but
tod Himself can fully understand the won.
| ders of Redemption. IL all heaven should
study it for fifty eternities they would get no
further than the B of that inexhaustible
subject But nearly all other realms of
knowledge they have ransacie1 and explore
and composed. No one but God can tell
them anything they do not know. They have
read to the last word of the last line of the
last page of the last volume of investigation.
And what Delights me most Is that all their
Intelligence is to be at our disposal, AMI, com
ing into their presence, they will tell us in
| five minutes more tlan we can learn by one
hundred years of earthly surmising
further characteristic of these inn
| mortais is their velocity This the Bible
| puts sometimes under the figure of wings
sometimes under the igure of a flowing gar
ment, sometimes under the figure of make
feet. As these superhumans arc without
bodies these expressions are of course fiSur-
alive, and mean swiGtness The Bible tells
J us that Daniel was praying, and Gabriel few
| from heaven and touched him before he got
up from his knees. How far, then, did
the Angel Gabriel have to fly in those
moments of Daniels prayer? Heaven
is thought 10 he the center of the uni
verse. Our sun aud its planets only tie
! rim OF the wheel of worlds In a mo-
ment the Angel Gabriel flew from that center
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 veloc-
| lty? Law of gravitatlon, which grps all
things else, has no influence upon angelic
| momentum. lmmensities before them open
and shut like fan. That they are here is no
reason why they should not be quintillion
| OF miles hence the next minute Our bodies
| hinder us, but our minds can circle the earth
IN minute. Angelic beings are bodiless and
have no limitation. God may with
| His finger point down to some world
III 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 immensely and God may say "Come ~
| aud instantly it is in His bosom. Abraham.
| Elijah, Hagar, Joshua, Gideon, Manoah,
| Paul, st. John, could tell of their unhindered
| locomotion. The red feet of summer light
ming are slow compared with their hegiras.
| This doubles up AMI congresses infiuitudes
into lnhnitesimals. This puts all the astro-
nomlcal heavens into space like the balls of
chllds rattle, This mingles into one the
Here and the There the Now and the Then,
the Beyond and the Yonder
another remark nave to make concern
ing these illustrious immortals is that they
are mulhtudinous. Their census has never
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 popu-
lous with them. John speaks of angels aud
other beings round the throne as ten thousand
times ten thousand Now, according to nv
calculation. ten thousand times ten thousand
are one hundred million But these are only