The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1912-12-24

REV. DIR. DoREMUs soUDDER
| Who preached his Christmas sermon in
Central Union Church yesterday.
X X X X X X X X X \ X X X X X X
road by which angels are formed. In
this world we have glimpse of two
of these methods of angel building. One
is the ordinary path of human life trod
| by you and me. The other is that which
one half of our race has traversed, that
pressed by tiny feet led into the eter-
nal world during infancy. The very es.
sence of Christianity demands sons OF
God. that is, spiritual beings assoclat
ed with the Et rnal Father, or in other
words, angels.
cone purpose is the development of
! spiritual beings into His likeness. If
they are to be like Him they must be
workers. They must have real tasks.
| And those tasks must be unselfish. They
must be running errands for others
| There is no reason to suppose that hui
man beings on this planet are not in
cluded among these others, for whose
sake God sets His angels certain tasks.
"The author of the Epistle of the
Hebrews was, therefore, using twen-
tieth century reasonableness as well as
first century thought when he employ
ed rhetorical qquestion to give his
definition of angels; Are they not all
ministering spirits sent forth to do ser
vice for the sake of them that shall
inherit salvationi'
"Another purpose of God is to build
l. .,rl,1 ~ M
surprisingly beautiful universe in
which ali manner of diverse talent
shall carve out constantly new and be-
wilderingly lovely ideas. Hence, He
needs gifted spiritual beings to do this
work in companionship with Himself.
, These fellow craftsmen of the Eternal
artist are, in other words, angels.
Need for Angels.
''If God needs them we may be sure
that we also do, as we shall see more
clearly when able to study this life
from the vantage ground of the eternal
world. There seems no reason to doubt
that unknown to us some of these CON-
rades of the king may be allowed the
joy of entering into our lives helpfully
by suggestion of good and happy
thoughts and thus of laying basis FOR
future friendship. Why noti Shakes
peare, and Milton, and Dante and hosts
of other spiritual beings who once were
men unseen by us are given the priv
ilege of helping you and me to be larg-
er men and finer women. What in rea-
son is to hinder Gabriel or Michael
from doing like servicei
"Never is there a perfectly straight
toward reasonableness in refusing to
throw overheard such expressions con-
cerning Jesus in the wilderness and in
Gethermane as, and behold, angels
came and ministered unto him. And
there appeared unto him an argel from
heaven, strengthening him. To all men
then who find comfort in the thought
of these unseen companions, the high
est science of our day has not one
word of encouragement for its trend
is all the other way.
"But there are men with doubling
habits who find it hard to lay hold of
much less of other unseen beings And
there are men whose consciousness of
/ the great Father as all in all, is so real
that no room in the present experience
seems left for other spirits These two
solemn declaration respecting angels of
little children naturally seek in his
words some deeper meaning than that
| which is on the surface.
"Years ago, while pondering the sor-
row of mother over the death Of her
babe, and before myself experiencing
a similar grief, this verse of Jesus was
suddenly illumined with n new light
Their anges!' What aid the Master
meant 'The angels who guard little
children?' He did not say SO. Perhaps
he ment the child angels. the angel
spirits, the little ones culled from earth
during infancy and childhood. OF al
the mighty beings inhabiting the here
after, it is these tiny infant spirits that
are closest to the heart of the Father
did our Lord mean thisi ] think
we must include it in our understand
ing of his words, especially we who live
in this age when the loving thought OF
God for children is just beginning tt
be sensed by the best and noblest meI
and women. We, of course, stand ou
at the very threshold of the Era of tht
Child in the development of the human
race and are hardly more than guess
ing at the confines of that world open
ed to us in the prophet S exclamation
A little child shall lead them.
''ln heaven then the children pla,
closest about the Father. have quickest
most direct access TO Him, are great
est there, as His Son declared them T.
, he in His Kingdom here. How beauti
! fully this fits in with the nature o
/ Jesus. What a joy it helps Christina
, tide TO bring TO empty mother arm,
Some of you dread Christmas beeaus
you are so lonely. Dread it no NOR,
Picture Christmas eve and Christina
= morn among the happy throncs of tin
T. spirits nearest the Throne. Your chil
: is there Some day you will than
+ God that lie knew best and planne
I most lovingly when He called YOU
: darling into the ranks of 'thei
e angels who do ever behold the face O