Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-10-30
"a HEAVENLY GUARD.
DR.. TALMAGE ON THE MISSION OF
THE ANGELS
They Have Much to Do with the Ev-
eryday Affairs of Life, Says the Dis
tinEuished Preacher Guardian
Angel For Every One.
copyright, Louis Klopsch, 1891


beings supposed by some to be imagi-
nary are by DR.. Talmage in this sermon
shown to be real and to have much to
do with our everyday life The text is,
Judges xiii, 49, ''And the angel did
wOndrOusly"
Fire built on rock Manoah and his
wife had there kindled the flames for
sacrifice in praise of God and in honor
of a guest whom they supposed to be a
man. But as the flame rose higher and
higher their stranger guest stepped
into the fame and by one red leap as
cended 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 |
never heard or read a sermon on angel
Ology. The whole subject is relegated
TO the realm mythical, weird, spectral
and unknown. Such adjournment is
un-Scriptural and wicked. OF their life,
their character. their habits, their ac-
tions, their velocities, the Bible gives
us full length portraits, and why this
prolonged and absolute silence concern
ing them? Angelology is my theme.
There are two nations of angels, and
they are hostile to each other-the ma
ton of good angels and the nation of
bad angels OF the former l chiefly
speak today. Their capital, their head
quarters, their grand rendezvous, is
heaven, but their empire is the uni
verse They are a distinct race of crea-
lures. No human being can ever join
their confraternity. The little child
who in the Sabbath school sings, 81
want to be an angel" will never have
her wish gratified. They are superhu-
man, but they are of different grades
and ranks, not all on the same level or
the same height They have their SUI
periors and interiors and equals. 1 pro-
pose no guessing on this subject, but
take the Bible for my only authority.
Plato, the philosopher, guessed and di-
vided angels into supercelestial, celes-
tial and subcelestial 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 re-
lated to GOD, as the rays to the sun.
Fulgentius said that they were COM
posed of body and spirit Clement said
they We're incorporeal. Augustine 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
cherubinI, seraphim, thrones, DONNA
tions principalities, powers. Their COM
mander 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 morning 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
our tongue and rouse cur soul while we
speak of their deathlessness, their in
telligence their numbers their strength,
their achievements.
A Cradle, but No Grave.
Yes, deathless. They had cradle,
but will never have a grave. The Lord
remembers when they were born, but
no one shall ever see their eye extin-
u Iuc11 SIO" w
their existence terminate. The oldest
of them has not a wrinkle or decrepi
tude or a hindrance, as young after
5000 years as at the close of their first
hour. Christ said of the good in heav-
en-, Neither can they die any more, for
they are equal unto the angels Yes
deathless are these wonderful creatures
of whom l 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
flight they will be ready for the widest
circuit through immensely, taking a
quadrillion Of miles in one sweep as
easy as a pigeon circles dovecot They
are never sick. They are never exhaust
ed. They need no sleep, for they are
never tired. At Gods command they
smote with death in one night 165, 900
of Sennacherib's host, but no fatality
can smite them. Awake, agile. multi
potent, deathless. immortal
A further characteristic of these ra-
diant folk is intelligence. The woman
of Tekoah was right when she spoke to
King David of the wisdom of an angel.
We mOrtals take in what little we know
through eye and ear and nostril and
touch, but those beings have no physic~
al encasement, and hence they are all
senses A wall five feet thick is not
solid to them. Through it they go with
out disturbing flake of mortar or crystal
of sand. Knowledgel 1t flashes on them.
They take it in at all points. They alb
serb it. They gather it up without any
Underwent. No need of literature for
them The letters of their books are