to them the honour which is due only to their Lord and ours. When Daniel saw an angel, he "stood trembling," and "retained no strength;" (Dan. x. 8, 11;) when the women saw an angel in the sepulchre of our Lord, "they were affrighted;" (Mark xvi. 5;) when Cornelius "looked on" the angel that visited him, "he was afraid;" (Acts x. 4;) and when St. John saw the angel that Christ sent to him, he so far lost his recollection and self-command as to fall down in an act of worship before the heavenly messenger, for which he received an instant reproof. (Rev. xix. 10; xxii. 9.) Such is the tenderness of our Saviour's mercy, that He sends His angels to visit and serve us; but He exempts us from the terror which the sight of them would necessarily inspire, and from the temptation of rendering them religious homage.

'And is there care in heaven? and is there love

In heavenly spirits to these creatures base,

That may compassion of their evils move?
There is; or else more wretched were the case
Of man than beasts. But O the' exceeding grace

Of highest God! that loves His creatures so,
And all His works with mercy doth embrace,
That blessed angels He sends to and fro,
To serve to wicked men,-to serve His wicked foe.

"How oft do they their silver bowers leave,

To come to succour us that succour want!
How oft do they with golden pinions cleave
The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant,
Against foul fiends to aid us militant!
They for us fight, they watch and duly ward,

And round about us their bright squadrons plant;

And all for love, and nothing for reward;

O why should heavenly God to man have such regard?”*

* Spenser.

The intercourse between men and angels will be perpetuated in a future state, but under other circumstances. When the beggar Lazarus died, his disembodied spirit, redeemed and sanctified by the blood of Christ, "was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." (Luke xvi. 22.) We have no reason to regard

this as a peculiar case. Those kind and holy beings doubtless perform the same service in behalf of all who "die in the Lord," whether little children, or persons of adult age. They wait in the chamber of every dying saint, to perform this office of love; and, while they hear the wailings of bereaved families, rejoice to see the objects of their charge delivered from the burden of the flesh, and from all the miseries of this sinful world, and introduced into the regions of the blessed, where there is neither pain nor sorrow. Commissioned by Christ,―

"A convoy attends,

A minist'ring host of invisible friends."

Various passages of Holy Scripture intimate that the angels of God, in their ministrations to His people, are opposed by evil spirits, with whom they are therefore placed in collision. One of these heavenly messengers said to Daniel, "From the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia." (Dan. x. 12, 13.) St. Jude states that "Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about

the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." (Jude 9.) The nature and direct occasion of these conflicts we profess not to explain, nor even to understand. We may form conjectures concerning them; but, after all, they are among the "secret things” which belong to the Lord, and which we must die to know.

When Christ shall come to raise the dead, and to judge the world, He will be attended by all the angels of God, who will "swell the triumph of His train." (Matt. xxv. 31.) "He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (Matt. xxiv. 31.) At His command, "the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire." (Matt. xiii. 49, 50.) "The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." (Matt. xiii. 41-43.)

Here the Scripture account of the ministry of angels ends. When Christ, in His character of Judge, shall have pronounced the final sentence of acceptance upon the just, and of condemnation upon the unjust, and the sentence in both cases is carried into effect, He will deliver up the mediatorial kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all. The grand scheme of providence and redemption will then be completed; the

mystery of God fulfilled; Christ will "see of the travail of His soul," and be infinitely and eternally "satisfied;" and angels and sanctified men will for ever form one vast assembly of worshippers before the throne of God and of the Lamb.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN RELATION TO INORGANIC MATTER, VEGETATION, AND BRUTE CREATURES.

THE providence of God, which is extended to every object in nature, is a sort of continued creation, no creature being able to sustain itself, any more than it was able to give itself existence. There is no medium between self-existence and dependent existence. Selfexistence belongs exclusively to God; and dependent existence is an inseparable characteristic of all other beings. His existence is necessary and unoriginated. Theirs is contingent, depending upon His sovereign will. On this subject two of our old divines have made the following pertinent observations:

"God's will in creation maketh a thing to be: His will in preservation maketh it continue to be. The same omnipotency and efficacy of God is necessary to sustain our beings, as at first to create them. Therefore it is said, 'Thou stretchest out the heavens like a curtain,' (Psalm civ. 2,) which noteth a continued act. God erected them at first, and still sustaineth them by His secret power in this posture: so that with respect to God it is the same action to conserve as to create. That the creature may have a being, the influence of God is necessary to produce it; that the creature may

continue its being, it is necessary that God should not