Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-11-02


That is higher than they can climb, deep
or than they can dive. They have a de-
sire for something too big for their com
prchcnsion. (Which things the angels
desire to look into" But that does not
discrcdit their intelligence. No one but
God himself can fully understand the
wonders of redemption. If all heaven
should study it for 30 centuries, they
would get no further than the A II G. of
that incXhaustible subject. But nearly
all other realms of knowledge they have
ransackcd and explored and comprised.
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,
and, coming into their presence, they will
tell us in five minutes more than we can
learn by 100 years of earthly surmising.
without Limitation.
A further characteristic of these i'm
mortals is their velocity This the Bible
puts sometimes under the figure Of wings,
sometimes under the figure Of a flowing
garment. sometimes under the figure of
naked feet AZ these superhumans are
without bodies, these expressions are of
course igurativc and mean swftness.
The Bible tells us that Daniel was pray
ing and Gabriel flew from heaven and
touched him before he got mp from his
knees. How far, then, did the angel
Gabriel have to fly in those moments of
Daniels prayer? Heaven is thought to
he the center Of the universe. Our sun
and its planets only the rim of the wheel
of worlds In a moment the angel Gabri-
81 flew from that center to this periphery.
Jesus told Peter he could instantly have
10000 angels present If he called for
them. What foot of antelope or wing of
alhatroSS could equal that velocity? Law
of gravitation, which grips all things else,
has no influence upon angelic momentum.
ImmensitioS before them open and shut
like n fan. That they are here is no rca.
son why they should not be a quintil.
lion of miles hence the next minute. Our
bodies hinder MS, 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
is there to help il. or some celestial may
he standing at the farthcrmost outpost of
immensely. and God may say Gomez
and instantly it is in his bosom. Abra-
ham, Elijah. Hagar Joshua, Gideon. Ma
noah, Paul. st. John, could tell of their
unhindcred locomotion. The rcd feet Of
summer lightning are slow compared
with their hegiras This doubles up and
congresses infnitudes into infnitesmals.
This puts all the Astronomical heavens
into a space like the balls of child's rat
tie. This mngles into one the here and
the there, the now and the then, the be-
yond and the yonder.
Angels Everywhere
Another remark | have to make con
corning these illustrouS immortalS il
that they are multitudinous. Their cen
sus has never been taken and no one but
God knows how many they are, but all
tho Bible accounts suggest their immense
nunbers-companes Of them. regiments
of them, armies of them, mountain tops
haloed by them, skies populous with
them. John speaks OF angels and other
beings round the throne as ten thousand
times ten thousand. Now, according to
my calculation, ten thousand times ten
thousand are 100 ,000000. But these are
anly the angels in one place. David
counted 10000 of them rolling down the
sky in chariotS. When God came away
from the riven rocks of Mount Sinni. the
Bible says he had the companionship Of
10000 angels. | think they are in cv-
cry battle. in every exigency, Mt every
birth, ut every pillow, mt every hour, at
every moment the earth full of them,
the heavens full of them. They outnum.
her the human race in this world. They
outnumber ransomed spirits in glory
When Abraham had his knife uplifted
to STAY Isaac, it was an angel who ar
rested the stroke, crying, abraham,
Abraham. 1t was n stairway Of angels
that Jacob saw while pillowed in the
wilderness We are told an angel led
the hosts OF Israelites out of Egyptian
Sorfdom. 1t was an angel that showed
liagar the fountain where she filed the
bottle for the lad. 1t was an angel that
took Lot ont Of doomed Sodom. 1t was
an angel that shut up the mouth of the
hungry monsters when Daniel was
thrown into the caverns. 1t was an
angel that fed Elijah under the juniper
tree. 1t was an angel that announced
20 Mary the approaching nativity. They
were angels that chanted when Christ
was born. 1t was an angel that strength
encd our Saviour in his agony. 1t was
an angel that encouraged Paul in the
Mediterranean shipwrcck. 1t was an
angel that burst open the prison, gate
after gate, until Peter was liberated. 1t
was an angel that stirred the pool of
Sloan, whore the sick were healed. 1t
was an angel that John saw flying
through the midst of heaven, and an an
gel with foot planted on the sea, and
an angel that opened the book, and an