The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1890-04-09

day and efficient as when in Bible times
they spread wing, or unsheathed sword,
or rocked down penitentiaries, or filed
the mountains with horses of fire
hitched to chariots Of fire, and driven
by reinsmen Of fire. They have turned
your steps hundred times, and
you knew it not. You were on the
way to do some wrong thing
and they changed your course. They
brought some thought Of Chris
tian parentage, or Of loyalty to your own
home, and that arrested you. They ar
ranged that some one shonld meet you
at that crisis, and propose something
honorable and elevating, or they took
from your pocket some ticket to evil
amusement, ticket that you never
found. 1t was an angel of God, and per-
haps the very one that guided you to
this service, and that now waits to re-
port some holy impression to be this
morning made upon your soul, tarrying
with one foot upon the door step of your
immortal spirit. and the other foot
lifted for ascent into the skies. BY
some prayer detain him until he
can tell of repenant and ransoned
soul! Or you were some time
borne down with trouble, bereave-
ment, persecution, bankruptcy. sick
ness, and all manner of troubles beating
their discords in your heart and life.
You gave up; you said II can not
stand it any longer. believe l will
take my life. Where is the rail train,
or the deep wave, or the precipice that
will end this torment of earthly exist
ence?" But suddenly your mind bright
ened. Courage came surging into your
heart like oceanic tides. You said:
"God is on my side. and all these ad-
versities He can make turn out for my
good" Suddenly you felt peace, a
deep peace, the peace of God that
passeth all understanding. What made
the change? A sweet and mighty and
comforting angel of the Lord met you.
| That was all.
What an incentive to purity and
righteousness is this doctrine that we
are continually under angelic observa-
ton! Eyes ever on you, so that the
most secret misdeed is committed in the
midst of an audience of immortals. No
door so bolted, no darkness SO Chm
merriam as to hinder that supernal eye
sight. Not critical eyesight, not jealous
eyesight, not baleful eyesight, but
friendly eyesight, sympathetic eyesight,
helpful eyesight. Confidential clerk
OF store, with great responsibility
on your shoulder, and no one to applaud
your work when you do it well, and sick
with the worlds ingratitude, think of
the angels in the counting room raptured
at your fidelity! Mother of household,
stitching mending, cooking, planning,
up half the night, or all night. with the
sick child, day in and day out, year il
and year out, worn with the monotony
of a life that no one seems to care for,
think of the angels in the nursery, an
gels in all the rooms of your toiling, an
gels about the sick cradle, and all in
sympathy!
Railroad engineer, with hundreds OF
lives hanging on your wrist, standing
amid the cinders and the smutch, round
the sharp curve, and by appalling de-
clivity, discharged and disgraced if you
make mistake, but not one word Of ap'
J-proyAlh ron take all rhe trains n safe'
4 " ~ ~ years, thiuH n tie xhgeis
by the throttle-valve. angels by the
roaring furnace Of the engine, an
gels looking from the overhang
ing crag, angels bracing the racing
wheels off the precipice, angels
when you mount the thunderbolt of 8
train, and angels when you dismount
Can you not hear them, louder than the
jamming of the car-coupling, louder thar
the bell at the crossing, louder than the
whistle that sounds like the screams o.
flying fiend, the angelic voices saying
You did it we'll. You did it we'll" i
often speak of engineers it is be
cause ride SO much with them.
always accept their invitation to ioir
them on the locomotive, because no
only get to my destination sooner, bu
because they are about the grandestmel
alive.o
Men and women Of all circumstances
only partly appreciated, or not appreci
ated at all, never feel lonely again O
unregarded again. Angels all around
angels to approve, angels to help
angels to remember. Yea. while all tn,
good angels are friends of the good
there is one special angel your body
guard. This idea, until this presen
study of angelology, l supposed t.
, be fanciful. but l find it clearl,
stated in the Bible. When the di
sciples were praying for Peters deliv
erance from prison, and he appeare,
, at the door Of the prayer-meeting
, they could not believe it was Peter
They said: ut is his angel" SO thes
disciples, in special nearness to Christ
, evidently believed that every worth
soul has an angel. Jesus said of his fol
lowers: "Their angels behold the fac
: of my Father" Elsewhere it is said
, HE shall give his angels charge owe
thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
, Angel-shielded, angel-protected, angel
guarded, angel-canopied, art thou. N
: wonder that Charles Wesley lynne
I these words:
? Which OF the petty kings Of earth
. Can hast guard like ours.
Enci-,ied from our second bIrs..
IL With all the heavenly powers.
l, Valerius and Rufinus were put
, death for Christ's sake in the year 2si
, and after the day when their bodies ha
1 been whipped and pounded into a jell
, in the night in prison, and before tn