The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-11-10
MESSENGER, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1899.

Of these supernals. To defend. to cheer. |
to rescut. to escort, to give victory to
the right and overthrow the
hat is their business-just as alert to-
day and efficient as when in Bible
times they spread wing or unsheathed
sword or rocked down p~enitentiaries or
filled the mountains with horses OF fire
hitched to chariots OF fire and driven
by reinsmen of fire. 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 chang
ed your course. They brought some
thought OF Christian ~parentage or of
loyalty to you own home. and tina
arrested YOU They arranged that some
one should meet you at that crisis and
propose something honorable and ele-
waiting, OF they took from your pocket
some ticket to evil amusement, a ticket
that you never found. 1t was an angel
Of God, and perhaps the very one that
guided o to this service and that
now waits to report some holy i'm
preston ito be made upon your soul
tarrying with one o 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 a reDentant and ran
Somed SOUL! Or you were some time
borne dow with trouble, bereavement,
precaution, bankruptcy, sickness and
all Of troubles beating their
discords in your heart and life. You
gave up. You said: II cannot stand il
any longer. 1 believe / 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 frightened.
Courage came surging into vour h@c~t
like oceanic tides. You said, God is
on my side, and all these adversities
he al make turn out for my good
Suddenly you felt a peace, a deep
peace, the peace of God that passeth
all understanding. What made the
change? A sweet n mighty and COM
fOrting angel of the Lord met Won.
That was all.
AN INCENTIVE TO RIGHTEOUS
NESS.
What an incentive to purity and
righteousness is this doctrine thai we
are continually under angelic observa-
ton! Eyes even 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
e~yesight, not baleful eyesight, but
friendly eyesight, sympathetic eyesight,
helpful eyesight. Confidential clerk of
SeOAN, Will ICSPOIlSlDlIIIy On your
houlde n no n to applaud YOU
work when you do it we'll and stick
with the worlds ingratitude, think of
the angels in the counting room rap
tured at your fidelity. Mother of house
mold, stitching, mending, cooking, dust
ing, planning, up half the night or ali
night with the sick child. day in and
day out, year in and year out, worn
with the mOnotOny Of a life that no one
seems to care for, think of the angels
IN the nursery, angels 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.
rounding the sharp curve and by ap-
palllng declivity, discharged and dis
graced # you MAKE a mistake. but not
one word of approval if you AXE all
the trains in safety for ten years, think
Of the angels by the throttle valve, an
gels by the roaring furnace of the en-
CINE, angels looking from the ~erha
ing crag, angels bracing the racing
wheels off the p~recipice, angels when
you mount the thunderbolt of a train
ana angels when you diSmOunt. Can
you hear them, louder than the jam
ming of the a coupling louder than
the bell at the crossing, louder thar
the whistle that sounds like the scream
of a flying fiend, the angelic voices
saying, You did it we'll, you did it
well?" If [ often speak of engineers, it
is because 1 ride so much with them. |
always accept their invitation to Join
them on their locomotive, and among
them are some of the grandest men
alive.
GUARDED BY ANGELS.
Men and women of all circumstances,
My partly appreciated or not appre-
ciated at all, never feel lonely again or
unregarded again! Angels all around
angels to approve, angels to help, an
gels 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 ~angelology 1 supposed to be
fanciful. but [ find it clearly stated in
the Bible. When the disciples were
praying for Peters ~deliverance from
prison and he appeared at the door of
the rayer meeting, they could not be-
lieve it was Peter. They said, "It is
an angel" So these disciples, in spe-
cial nearness to Christ, evidently be-
lieved that every worthy soul had an
angel. Jesus said of his followers,
Their angels behold the face of my
Father" Elewhere it is said, HE shall
give his angels charge over thee, to
keep thee in all thy ways" Angel
shielded, angel protected, angel guard
ed, angel canOpied, art thou! No won
der that Charles Wesley hymned these
words:
Which of the petty kings Of earth
Can boast a guard like ours,
Encircled from our second birth