The Penn's Grove record., 1909-10-01
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. WALDO ADAMS AMOS.
Subject: Angels.

Brooklyn, n. -Y.-Sunoay evening
In the Church of the Holy Trinity the
associate rector, the Rev. Waldo
Adams Amos, preached on Angels"
The text was from Matthew 4:6: He
shall give His angels charge concern
ing thee and in their hands they shall
bear thee up lest at any time thou
dash thy foot against a stone" Mr..
Amos said:
One evening when the poet Shelley
was at University College, Oxford, h9
and a fellow student named Hogg be-
came engaged in a warm discussion
at the dinner table as to the compare
tive merits of German and italian lit
erature. The discussion was carried
IN with great ardor for an hour OF
more, Shelley defending the Italian
writers, and Hogg siding with the
Germans. Then it was proposed that
the disputants should continue their
debate in Shelley's rooms. On reach
ing his study the poet turned to
Hogg and said: "To tell you the
truth, I have no knowledge of the
Italian language, and l know abso-
lutely nothing about Italian litera-
ture." Hogg confessed a like ig-
of the German language and
literature, and there the discussion
ended.
Let us begin, then, by saying
frankly that you don't know anything
about angels, and neither do I. There
have been times during the course of
history when people thought that they
knew a great deal about them. The
medieval scholiasts, for example,
seem to have had inside information
which enabled them to give the most
detailed account of the nature and
habits of angels. Even as recently as
1875 a Mr.. Duke, of London, pub
lished a book on "The Nature and
Employments of the Holy Angels
Several years ago one of the scluptors
engaged in decorating the new cathe-
dral in New York was brought to
book when his chisel produced a
oma angel. for any one who knows
anything at all knows that all angels
are of the male persuasion. Appar-
emily, conditions in Heaven are some
what different from what they are in
this world, for among the angels
/ have known" several have been of
the gentler sex. The whole attitude.
however, which prompts a man to
write a book on the nature and en-
ployment of the angels, or seriously to
discuss the question of their sex,
finds scant sympathy at the present
day. Nowadays we regard the angels
of Scripture as part of the poetry of
religion; we regard them as products
of the poetic Imagination, who give
ecceE7ior TO their homes and fears
IL song and verse we sscei s
with shepherds snd sSara his az
with .tae stored land aercss the
Syrian Sea" Consequently, We resent
any atse1pt 81 the part q the thsa.
iogiar y reduce the angels to teFlla
81 Dali prose. We resent any attempt
such rs that OF Father Racknam 20
determine what speech u current u
the world beyond. for We know that
the speech of the angels * TastTg.
the Language OF the heFrt. that
that ialgNage is universal, knowing
naught of accent, gender, mood er
tense.
While the angels are the peculiar
province of the poet, we prosaic folk
may, however, apply our scientific
method to what the world has thought
about angels. We must study his
torically the gradual development of
the idea of angels without feeling
that we are rushing in where poets
fear to tread. Our word angel is de-
rived from the Greek word meaning
a messenger. In the earlier books of
the Old Testament the Angel of the
Lord is the messenger who conveys
Gods word to men. In the later
books of the Old Testament and in
the New Testament we find the in
fluence of the Persian religion, with
which the Jews had come into contact
for several hundred years, we find
archangels, Michael, Gabriel and
Raphael, with Persian names. The
background of the Bible, the back
ground of the Masters mind, is the
popular thinking of the day, and con-
s~equently we find in our Scriptures
this celestial company adapted by the
Jews from the poetry and religion of
Persia. Included in this heavenly
hierarchy were guardian angels, and
recording angels, and angels who car
ried to and from the messages of
God. But all these, guardian angels.
recording angels, angelic messengers.
in ancient times, as in our Own time.
were the products of the poetic I'M
agination.
When / say that the angels are
part of the poetry of religion, I do
not mean that they are unreal. The
things of poetry are more real than
the things of prose. The angels are
the products of the Imagination. but
we must remember that the magma
tion is no airy and playful thing. II
is that deep and essential faculty
which in a Newton leaps from the
falling apple to the movements of the
stars in their courses; it is that
idealizing faculty which in a Darwin
wings its daring fight from a few
observed phenomena to a universal
process of evolution. There are
angels, then, guardian angels, record
ing angels, and angels who carry to
and fro the messages of God. Sweden.
borg, the philosopher, believed in
them so thoroughly that he used to &c
into his church all alone in the early
morning and preach to them, and il
the sermons were expressions of his
own deep and earnest conXction, I've
no doubt the angels heard him.
Thpra oro ~~ ~ ~