HENRY W. RANKIN. 
 
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 BX 614A .S8 F6 1890 
 Stockman, E. A. 1821-1901 
 Foot-prints of angels in 
 fields of revelation 
 
rOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
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 * MAR 221910, * 
 
 FIELDS OF REVELAf!< 
 
 E. A. STOCKMAN, 
 
 AUTHOR OP "OUR HOPE," "THE RIGHTFUL RULER OP THE WORLD,* 
 "TRANSFIGURATION," "JUSTICE AND MERCV," ETC., BTC. 
 
 "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that 
 fear him, and delivereth them." — Ps. 34 : 7. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 ADVENT CHEUSTIAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
 
 144 Hanover Strbbt. 
 
 1890. 
 
COPTKIGHT, 1890, 
 BY 
 
 CHAS. H. WOODMAN, Manager. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 For many years the author of this little volume 
 has been deeply interested in the contemplation of 
 angelic ministries, as constituting an important ele- 
 ment in the divine government of our world. Com- 
 mon experience recognizes the phenomena of per- 
 sonal manifestations by beings not of the human 
 race. It is believed that the ministry of angels is 
 the true and only solution of such phenomena. 
 
 The writer's purpose, however, is not to offer a 
 scientific analysis of the existence and nature of 
 angels, but rather to exhibit their relations to men 
 in the mortal state and their activity in the work of 
 redemption, as revealed in the Sacred Scriptures. 
 And this unpretentious book is offered to the Chris- 
 tian reader in the hope that it may enlighten the 
 doubting, confirm the believing, and comfort the 
 sorrowing. e. a. s. 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 That a higher order of beings than man exists somewhere in 
 the universe of God, called angels, is apparent from the fre- 
 quent reference made of them in the Holy Scriptures. Of 
 their origin we know but A'ery little, but they are doubtless 
 created intelligences ; created by God for some wise and noble 
 purpose. It is thought by some that angels are the spirits of 
 dead men ; but this cannot be true since angels existed before 
 the creation of man, and sang joyfully at the formation of our 
 earth. They are a higher order of beings than man, since 
 man at his creation was "made a little lower than the angels." 
 How many there are of these wonderful beings we know not, 
 but the Bible represents their number as being very great. In 
 Psalms 68:17 we read, "The chariots of God are twenty 
 thousand, even thousands of angels." At the birth of omt 
 Saviour, we are told "there was with the angel a multitude 
 of the heavenly host praising God, and saying. Glory to God 
 in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." 
 
 When Peter attempted the defence of his Master with the 
 sword, Jesus chided him, and asked if he did not know he 
 could pray to his Father and he would presently give him 
 *'more than twelve legions of angels." (Matt. 26 : 53.) And 
 when Paul wrote to the Hebrew church he spoke of their 
 number as being innumerable. (Heb. 12 : 22.) 
 
 Some of these angels have been seen by mortal eyes. Seen 
 
 \ 
 

 
 VI. INTRODUCTION. 
 
 by Abraham as he sat in. the door of his tent, in the "plains of 
 Mamre," "in the heat of the day ;" by Jacob, on his way 
 home after an absence of more than twenty years in Padan- 
 aran ; by Lot when they came to hasten him from the 
 doomed city ; by David when the angel came with judgment 
 upon Israel for their sin ; by Balaam when he was pursuing a 
 course that God did not approve ; by Zacharias as he minis- 
 tered at the altar in the temple of God. Now we might mul- 
 tiply instances where these angels have been seen by mortal 
 men, evidently wearing the human form ; for Paul admon- 
 ished the Hebrew church to entertain strangers, for thereby 
 some had "entertained angels unawares." How could this be 
 if they did not look like men ? When the angels appeared to 
 Abraham he called them men and besought them to tarry with 
 him all night, and had cake baked and veal cooked and set 
 before them and they did eat. And what marvel? We are 
 told that the Israelites in eating the manna in the wilderness 
 did eat ^'■angels foody 
 
 Their strength and knowledge are superior to man, so that 
 they are called "mighty angels" and are said to ^'•excel in 
 strejtgt/i' and knowledge. This wonderful race of intelli- 
 gences God has been pleased to employ as man's attendants. 
 "Are they not all minisiermg spirits, sent forth to minister for 
 them who shall be heirs of salvation?" How many errands of 
 mercy these messengers have been sent on to this world of 
 ours ! In the far off ages of the past dispensation a poor, lone, 
 forsaken, disconsolate woman was found by an angel of God, 
 who gave her counsel such as she needed in her hour of great 
 trial. To Abraham an angel appeared just at the point of 
 time when most needed, for the knife had already been raised 
 to take the life of his son. Lot was hastened by angels from 
 
INTRODUCTION. Vll. 
 
 the burning city just in time to save him from the awful con- 
 flagration. Jacob wrestled with an angel all night long, and 
 at break of day the angel bestowed on him the blessing he 
 sought. All through Israel's weary journey in the wilder- 
 ness from Egypt to the land of Canaan an angel of God went 
 before them guiding them in the way. To Gideon an angel 
 came with words of comfort at a time when his heart almost 
 sank within him from the oppression of the enemy, and when 
 David needed reproof for numbering Israel an angel was sent 
 who met him at the threshing-place of Araunah the Jebusite. 
 When Elijah was faint and hungry with his long journey, as 
 he fled in terror from the face of Jezebel, who sought his life, 
 an angel came to strengthen him. When the three young He- 
 brews were cast into the fiery furnace an angel of God stood 
 by their side to protect them from the burning flames. An 
 angel made Daniel the prophet several visits in hours of his 
 greatest need. Once when in the lion's den an angel came and 
 calmed those ferocious beasts, making them as harmless as 
 gentle lambs ; and when he needed skill to understand the 
 mysterious visions of God an angel gave him the understand- 
 ing he so much desired. 
 
 And so throughout the Bible where an account is given of 
 the appearance of angels, whether good or bad, this beautiful 
 little volume, Footprints of Angels in Fields of Revela- 
 tion, records a most sublime description of them, in the glow- 
 ing language peculiar to the writer's style. Chapter 1st shows 
 that from the remotest ages there has existed a belief in the 
 existence of angels. Chapter 2nd shows the ''dark ministeries 
 of bad angels," and then comes the history of the good and 
 holy angels both in the old and new dispensations, making the 
 book very deeply interesting and instructive. As the reader 
 
Vlll. , INTRODUCTION. 
 
 passes along from chapter to chapter he will be thrilled with 
 the interesting events in the ministry of the holy angels as 
 portrayed in this book. While reading chapter 7— "Angels at 
 the open grave" — one almost imagines himself at the grave of 
 our Blessed Lord, watching the angels as they roll the stone 
 away, and Jesus comes forth a conqueror of death. One of 
 the most thrillingly interesting themes is the gathering of the 
 saints at the last day by the holy angels. 
 
 We say to this book, "Go mto all lands, visit all homes, 
 enlighten many minds and comfort many hearts, and when the 
 final settlement shall come may it be shown what good thou 
 hast done among men." 
 
 WM. H. MITCHELL. 
 
 Kennebunk, June 1, 1889. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 FAGK. 
 
 Preface by Author iii. 
 
 Introduction by W. H. Mitchell v. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Belief in the Existence of Angels 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Dark Ministries of the Bad Angels 9 
 
 CHAPTER IH. 
 The Good Angels 24 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Holy Angels 36 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Holy Angels in the Christian Age 4,5 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Holy Angels Strengthen the Son of God 54 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Angels at the Open Grave 60 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Jesus Went Away, but the Angels are With Us Still. . • . 68 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 An Angel Settles an International Question 83 
 
X. CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Angels Assist in th.e "Work of Salvation 95 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Angels in Patmos 104 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 An Angel Preaches the Gospel 1 15 
 
 CHAPTER Xin. 
 The Work of the Angels— The Work of the Spirit 129 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Angelic Manifestations in Recent Times 136 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Instances of the Visible Appearance of Angels 147 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 An Angel Announces the Coming of the King 155 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Angels Will Hail the Rising Dead 163 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 Angels Will Marshal the Risen Dead • 168 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 Belief in the Existence of flngels. 
 
 •'Are ye forever to your skies departea? 
 O, will ye visit our dim world no more? 
 Ye, whose bright wings a solemn splendor darted 
 Through Eden's fresh and flowering shades of yore !" 
 
 — Hem arts. 
 
 From the earliest historic ages belief in an order 
 of beings distinct from and superior to the human 
 race is clearly traceable. Finite imagination has 
 graced every realm of nature with thronging intelli- 
 gences of vast strength, surpassing wisdom, and in- 
 imitable beauty. The Greeks saw in all things the 
 skillful fingers of gods and fauns, of nymphs and 
 naiads. Hesiod, who was, next to Homer, the earli- 
 7. est Greek poet, said: "Millions of spiritual crea- 
 y tures walk the earth unseen." And Socrates be- 
 lieved himself attended by a good demon — or know- 
 ing one — who gave him notice every morning of any 
 evil that would befall him during the day ; and 
 when condemned to death he said, ''My demon did 
 not give me notice this morning of any evil to be- 
 fall me to-day ; therefore I cannot regard as any 
 evil my being condemned to die." 
 
 The crude and confused conceptions of the an- 
 cient heathens concerning various orders of unseen 
 
2 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 beings whom the Greeks termed demons, and the 
 Romans genii, were probably derived from tradition, 
 in part, and partly borrowed from the sacred writ- 
 ings. 
 
 But only in the certain and heavenly light of Di- 
 vine Inspiration is the beautiful and thrilling truth 
 of an intermediate race of created beings, holier, 
 wiser and mightier than men, placed beyond con- 
 jecture. What the heathen dimly inferred from the 
 analogies of nature, and the phenomena of experi- 
 ence, the Christian perceives as a clear and divinely 
 revealed fact. 
 
 The exact nature of the angelic race, and by 
 what laws of being they subsist, are among the 
 mysteries for whose solution we shall have to wait 
 until the hour when we shall see as we are seen, 
 and know as we are known. Various opinions have 
 been obtained, but they are little more than conjec- 
 ture. The synod of Nice invested them with a sub- 
 tle, ethereal, fire-like body ; but the Scholastics and 
 Lateran Council of 1215 held to their strict materi- 
 ality. 
 
 But in the light of Scripture intimation, which 
 flashes now and then upon their persons and their 
 ministries, we are led to believe that those wonder- 
 ful and powerful intelligences possess the faculty 
 of appearing in corporeal forms at will, or to come 
 and go, plan and execute, unperceived by mortal 
 sense ; mingling with and variously serving the 
 friends of God on earth without echo of footfall or 
 gleam of wing. 
 
 The Holy Word is aglow with frequent reference 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 3 
 
 to loving ones, whose visitations to our world, and 
 whose delicate ministries to our race suffuse all its 
 pages with a radiance divine. All through the nar- 
 ratives of the Sacred Books angelic voices ring 
 clear and sweet. All along the darlvsome way, from 
 Paradise faded to Paradise reblooming, angelic foot- 
 falls are distinctly heard, in the darkness and the 
 light. All adown the changeful ages angelic hosts, 
 now appearing and now unseen, have led the way 
 of the true and good. With many a dirge of earthly 
 sorrow has come the glad refrain of angelic cheer. 
 Over many a new-made grave of smitten hopes, 
 from seraphic wings have flashed the splendors of 
 resurrection glory. Above the mists of the weary 
 centuries the hills of God are thronged with circling 
 ranks of beings beautiful and pure, who stand one 
 foot on earth, and one in heaven. Between two 
 worlds, on unseen golden steps they come and go, 
 as in the patriarch's nightly vision, when he slept at 
 Luz on his pillow of stone. Above us in rank of 
 being, they interpose their loftier skill and strength, 
 and high ministries maintain in our w^orld's career 
 and destinies. Why they visit us and how they 
 serve it were joy to know. And know we may. 
 And in the light of the Holy Oracles let ua wonder- 
 ingly contemplate their interest in our bewildered 
 race and trace their glowing footsteps through the 
 mortal ages. 
 
 GOOD AND EVIL ANGELS. 
 
 An infinitely good and holy God could not have 
 been the creator of evil intelligences, nor in any 
 sense the author of disloyalty to his own throne. 
 
4 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 Therefore we must conclude that all the angels were 
 endowed with the same immaculate nature. That 
 the entire race was put under the law of allegiance 
 is forcibly intimated by several Scripture expres- 
 sions ; and that a part of those heavenly hosts 
 proved disloyal is more than implied. 
 
 '*And angels which kept not their own principal- 
 ity, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in 
 everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judg- 
 ment of the great day." Jude 6. (E. V.) 
 
 These remarkable but somewhat involved words 
 can mean no less than that the evil angels were 
 once holy, but that for some reason they fell from 
 their primal state and place, and became malevolent 
 in spirit and nature, the enemies of God and of all 
 good beings and things. The exact occasion of 
 their apostacy who can tell ? It has been conceived 
 by some that the proclamation of the Creator that 
 Jesus, the Son of God, should be above and over 
 all principalities and powers (Ps. 2: 6, 7), and 
 that his name should be exalted above every name, 
 wounded the self -estimation and awakened the pride 
 of those once immaculate creatures ; and that giv- 
 ing way to dark passions they were plunged into 
 open rebellion against the throne and government 
 of the Most High. 
 
 This is little more than conjecture, yet it seems 
 quite probable when it is remembered that for count- 
 less ages before they had stood next to Jehovah in 
 dignity of being ; the name Satan, Lucifer, or 
 Michael signifying "?c7io is like God.'' Possibly, 
 touched by some inexplicable feeling of treasonable 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 
 
 ambition at the mention of one to come who should 
 be nearer the throne than himself, he said, "I too 
 will have my throne. I will be equal to the Most 
 High." 
 
 But what a mighty fall was there ! — a fall from 
 heaven to hell. What cutting disappointment ! 
 "What bitter, burning chagrin, giving birth to rage 
 and hate co-equal with their knowledge and their 
 strength ! And in that fall two races and a glori- 
 ous world went down. 
 
 However great and terrible the moral change 
 wrought in the nature of the fallen angels by their 
 lapse into rebellion may have been, there is no rea- 
 son to suppose that they suffered any diminution of 
 knowledge or power, or any essential change of in- 
 tellectual forces. The Scriptures habitually inti- 
 mate that they are still possessed of vast mental 
 foresight and cunning, coupled with immense bodily 
 strength. That they understand the laws of matter 
 and mind, and are able to control physical forces 
 we cannot doubt. We see Lucifer wielding the 
 wind and the lightning in his persecution of Job, 
 and transporting the Saviour from the wilderness to 
 the pinnacle of the temple, and thence to the top of 
 an "exceeding high mountain;" and the miracles 
 wrought by him in Egypt in imitation of those per- 
 formed by Moses show his wonderful mastery of 
 the physical elements. And Paul referring to the 
 wicked one says : "Whose coming is after the work- 
 ing of Satan, with all power and signs and lying 
 ivonders;" and John ascribes to the "spirits of dev- 
 ils" the power to work miracles. And solemnly 
 
b FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 does Inspiration warn us that we "wrestle against 
 principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness 
 in high places." A most startling element of their 
 power over weaker minds is disclosed in their ability 
 to conceal their true character, appearing as holy 
 things, almost deceiving the "very elect." They 
 can transform themselves, at will, into the appear- 
 ance of "angels of light," or loyal angels, and so 
 artfully personate the sons of God that, by the un- 
 wary, Lucifer may be taken for Gabriel. 
 
 And it must also be remembered that the hordes 
 of treason-stricken beings act not singly and at 
 wild random, but in close unity of evil. What binds 
 them together and inspires allegiance to their infer- 
 nal leader, who can tell? But that, 
 
 "Devil with devil damned 
 Firm concord holds," 
 
 there is much reason to believe. Throughout the 
 Scriptures one of the many fallen spirits, by way 
 of distinction and eminence, is designated "the dev- 
 il," "ApoUyon," "the old serpent," "the angel of 
 the bottomless pit," "the prince of darkness," "the 
 god of this world." And of this chief of the con- 
 federacy of rebellion St. Paul affirms, "The whole 
 world lieth in the wicked one." 
 
 Doubtless the great instigator of the revolt in 
 heaven was an angel of high rank, one of the arch- 
 angels, a very "son of the morning," who by his 
 position near the throne, and his recognized superi- 
 ority, was able to lead into rebellion and treason a 
 large number of the heavenly hosts, who, under his 
 leadership, were and are thoroughly organized in 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 7 
 
 their work of hate and rage and ruin. He, the 
 unblushing, stupendous traitor, is their high priest 
 of crime against the Throne^ against the loyal ser- 
 aphs, against the Christ, against all goodness ; the 
 captain of their dark damnation. Under his well 
 skilled mastery and chieftainship all the sons 
 of night are marshalled in their incessant, hellish 
 invasion of our world and ruin of our race. 
 
 That the vast army of fiendish insurgents are di- 
 vided into companies, and classed according to their 
 skill in dark designs, and their strength to execute 
 their great leader's will, is more than probable. Be- 
 ing finite creatures, and not omnipresent, though 
 swift of unseen wing as lightning's flash, they can- 
 not assault, in full force, all points at once, though 
 they may be massed, for special purposes, with 
 great rapidity. Scattered through all nations, cog- 
 nizant of all notable events, in attendance at all 
 courts, standing behind all thrones, watching all 
 human leaders in church and state, marching with 
 every general, entering the chancel with every priest 
 — all in obedience to the dictates of the chief of 
 
 devils — 
 
 "With rage that never ends, 
 Their hellish arts they try ; 
 Legions of dire, malicious hends, 
 And spirits enthroned on high." 
 
 It was an ancient and prevailing opinion among 
 both Jews and Christians that, beside the general 
 and organized malevolence of evil spirits, every 
 man is personally attended by a good and a bad an- 
 gel. While this can scarcely be proved by direct 
 Scripture declaration, it seems not improbable that, 
 
8 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 filled with black envy and furious hate towards the 
 *'angels of light," who refused to be betrayed into 
 rebellion by ApoUyon, the fallen ones should take 
 special delight in seeking to countervail the gracious 
 ministries of the shining ones sent forth of God to 
 serve his elect. The thought that every guardian 
 angel, tenderly caring for his precious trust, is 
 shadowed and followed by a demon, seeking to pre- 
 vent the intended blessing, may well awaken feel- 
 ings of insecurity, o'ermastered by a grateful sense 
 of safety ; for our God and his holy angels are in- 
 finitely wiser and mightier than Satan and his an- 
 gels. And ever repeating the prayer put into our 
 lips by Bishop Kent, we may dismiss all fears : 
 
 "0. may thy angels, while I sleep, 
 Around my bed their vigils keep ; 
 Their love angelical instill. 
 Stop every avenue of ill. 
 May they celestial joys rehearse. 
 And thought to thought with me converse." 
 
 But this is only a glance at the dark and frightful 
 work of the had angels. We will add another chap- 
 ter to this dismal theme, and then, dropping the 
 terror out of our speech, we will lift up our eyes to 
 the hills of God and survey with delight the minis- 
 tries of the holy ones. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 The Dark fllinistfies of the Bad flngels. 
 
 The facts of history concur with the statements 
 of revelation in forcing upon us the unwelcome con- 
 viction that the human race is subject to the malev- 
 olent influence of an organized and all-pervading 
 demonism. Alike in the career of nations and in 
 the phenomena of personal destiny the presence of 
 demoniacal skill and power is often prominent, fre- 
 quently dominant, always evil. 
 
 Not content with openly and violently breaking 
 allegiance to the Throne, the bad angels conspired 
 to oppose and defeat, in every possible way, to 
 every possible extent, the purposes and govern- 
 ment of Jehovah, from whose presence they have 
 l)een cast down into darkness, until the judgment 
 of the great day. "Reserved in chains" — held un- 
 der divinely-imposed limitation — they were still left 
 free to prosecute their dark designs in those that 
 "yield themselves servants to obey" their fiendish 
 will and way. 
 
 In undiminished possession of their intelligence 
 and strength they constantly assault us in every 
 weakness ; through every avenue ; by every means ; 
 
10 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 by methods foul or fair ; in haggard shapes of taunt- 
 ing guilt, in garbs of light, falsely assumed ; in dark- 
 ness when we know it not ; in open day when least 
 suspected. 
 
 "A constant watch they keep ; 
 They eye us night and day ; 
 They never shiinber, never sleep, 
 Lest they should lose their prey.'* 
 
 Whom they cannot destroy they cease not to 
 worry, torment. They inspire evil tempers ; arouse 
 dark passions ; instill ill will ; beget malice, envy ; 
 impose care, fear, distrust ; suggest deceit, fraud, 
 and all forms of crime. As one has said, "There 
 is no evil done, or spoken, or thought without the 
 assistance of the devil." 
 
 Just when in the history of the universe their re- 
 volt and rebellion occurred we do not know ; or what 
 desolation they may have wrought in other worlds 
 than ours we may not even conjecture ; but clear it 
 is that in the creation of the human race, endowed 
 with perfect freedom of will, and placed under law 
 of obedience, and accessible to temptation, the arch 
 devil, the fallen "son of the morning," saw oppor- 
 tunity most rare for the appliance of his angelic 
 wisdom and infernal malice, in an attempt at once 
 specious and audacious, to thwart the holy will of 
 God and plunge untold millions of sentient beings, 
 together with a beautiful creation fashioned for 
 their happiness, into miseries of which only fiends, 
 who once were angels, could have conceived. And 
 amidst the faded splendors of the primal Eden the 
 first foot-prints of the malign invader of our world 
 are found. Well may he boast that his earliest and 
 
IN FIELDS ON REVELATION. 11 
 
 all-sweeping triumph was won under the shadow of 
 the cherubic wings. 
 
 Inspired b\' his much coveted, but scarcely ex- 
 pected success, he did not and does not fail to fol- 
 low up his vast victory ; reaping, through all the 
 ages, the black spoils of his infernal triumph. Down 
 through the suffering centuries the mocking voices 
 of his confederate fiends are heard ; and the tu- 
 mult of his crimson chariot wheels breaks the peace 
 of all lands. 
 
 When the first two brothers, born under the same 
 roof of flowers, and cradled in the same mother's 
 bosom, went forth together with their offerings to 
 the Lord, the bad angel, with unheard steps, went 
 forth with them, whispering the while a false thought 
 to Cain, arousing dark passions in his heart, then 
 plunging him into the ignominy of the first murder- 
 er's guilt and shame. 
 
 Moreover, on the day that the sons of God came 
 to present themselves before the Most High, the 
 chief of the evil angels came also among them, in 
 quest of some victim of his malicious acts. And, 
 being permitted by the Lord God, he boldly tried 
 his destructive power upon the only perfect man in 
 all the earth. At one fell stroke he robbed Job of 
 all his oxen and asses, and slew all his servants 
 with the edge of the sword. And before the holy 
 man had time to recover from the terrible shock he 
 called fire down from heaven and burned up all his 
 sheep, and the shepherds that kept them. And 
 then with another blow he destroyed all his camels, 
 and their keepers. And, his satanic hate sharp- 
 
12 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 ened by the sight of blood, he raised the winds of 
 the wilderness, and therein smote down the house 
 wherein all Job's children were gleefully assembled, 
 and slew them all. And then in fiendish delight 
 he looked and listened as the desolate patriarch 
 bowed himself to the ground while his irrepres- 
 sible grief broke forth in the sorrowful lament, 
 '•'• Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and 
 naked shall I return thither." His hellish hate not 
 even yet satiated, and enraged afresh that his robbed 
 and bereaved victim had not surrendered his integ- 
 rity and trust in God, by further permission he re- 
 newed his cruel assault on the person of his an- 
 guish-smitten subject. From the sole of his feet to 
 the crown of his head he smote him with sore, cor- 
 rupting, tormenting boils. And as the forlorn. and 
 heart-crushed servant of God — his property all 
 gone, hie sons and daughters every one slain, him- 
 self an object of disgust — betook himself to the ash 
 heaps for relief, this relentless fallen angel, this 
 very Apollyon of treason against Heaven, smiled a 
 fiendish smile and said, I will smite his broken heart 
 with one blow more, and it shall be the heaviest of 
 them all. I will touch his lacerated soul in its ten- 
 derest, sorest spot. And then he frenzied his hith- 
 erto faithful and loving wife, with a revolting sense 
 of her husband's forsaken and disgusting condition, 
 and put into her once caressing lips the barbed dag- 
 ger of distrusting and discarding words : ^'•Renounce 
 God^ and die." 
 
 And this is he — the chief of the disloyal angels, 
 the fallen seraphs, the spirits of the pit, the hordes 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 13 
 
 of darkness, the black army of demons, who from 
 Job's time till now have never slumbered nor slept, 
 but day and night, in the darkness and in the open 
 day, infest our world and prosecute with tireless in- 
 fernal zeal and zest their black-hearted plans to 
 torture and destroy. 
 
 And now the head of the fallen ones tries his 
 baud with a king of Israel for a subject and a witch 
 for a medium. A strange conjunction of charac- 
 ters ! Saul was first possessed by a spirit of peri- 
 odical lunacy, or madness. This led him into other 
 follies, and cut him off from access to divine guid- 
 ance. And when a critical moment in his w'aiiike 
 career came, he was instigated by satanic influence 
 to apply to a necromancer for information and di- 
 rection, which resulted in the defeat of the armies 
 of Israel and the death of Saul and both his sons. 
 Thus the bad angels accomplished a great national 
 calamity. 
 
 The resurrection of- the dead must be very espec- 
 ially annoying to the apostate angels, for the in- 
 troduction of death was a chief purpose and a great 
 triumph of their invasion of paradise ; and the res- 
 urrection annuls that dark phase of their wicked 
 work. And so, when Michael was sent from Heaven 
 to superintend the resurrection of Moses from his 
 royal grave among the cliffs of Nebo, as the proto- 
 type of the general resurrection, the chief of the 
 fallen hosts appeared on the spot and sharply con- 
 tended with him over the body of the great leader 
 of Israel, doubtless insisting that he had "the power 
 of death" until probation shall end and the judg- 
 
14 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 ment shall sit, and that God himself had no right to 
 revive any of the dead "before the time." And it 
 was only when the Almighty rebuked his insolent 
 assumption that he quit the field and left Michael to 
 fulfill his grand commission. 
 
 This instance of audacious interference with the 
 purposes of the Almighty forcibly suggests that the 
 chief of devils, by the aid of his myriad associates, 
 knows what is transpiring in our world, and watches 
 with sleepless jealousy the progress of events, surely 
 discerning coming occasions for some bold attempt 
 to defeat the success of mercy and truth. And in 
 the resurrection of Moses he saw the prophecy of 
 that hour when all the millions of our race, slain 
 and consigned to hades as the result of his first foul 
 falsehood, shall awake and arise ; and deaths and 
 himself who had and sought to retain the power of 
 death, should be utterly destroyed ; and to prevent 
 that great antecedent resurrection he measured 
 swords with Michael over the first opened tomb of 
 earth. But he was vanquished, and Moses arose 
 and went forth to gloriously enact his pre-eminent 
 part in the more than half heavenly scenes on 
 Tabor. 
 
 Of all classes of men employed by the Heavenly 
 Father in the work of redemption, none are more 
 fiercely hated by the wicked angels than the whole 
 line of the prophets. For from the first to the last 
 they foretell the final and eternal overthrow and ut- 
 ter extinction of the "powers of darkness," the "spir- 
 its of disobedience." 
 
 When Daniel had obtained audience with Heaven, 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 15 
 
 and a loyal angel -was sent to give him * 'skill and 
 understanding," and to reveal to him coming events 
 of the greatest moment to his people Israel and to 
 the saints of all time, the '"prince of the kingdom 
 of Persia," the evil angel specially appointed to in- 
 fluence and, if possible, to control the "Persian 
 world power to which Israel was then subject" — 
 met the holy angel at the Persian court, and fiercely 
 resisted his efforts to influence the rulers to allow 
 Israel's restoration ; and also, perhaps, sought to 
 retard the holy one's visit to the waiting prophet. 
 For twenty-one days did the arch traitor press his 
 opposing skill and power against the messenger of 
 the Lord. And only when Michael, the archangel 
 — the same who contended with the demon over the 
 body of Moses — came to the assistance of his fel- 
 low angel, was the persistent spirit of darkness re- 
 pulsed and Jehovah's purpose accomplished. 
 
 These few instances selected from Old Testament 
 history are quite suflScient to demonstrate the real- 
 ity and potency of the interference of bad angels, 
 both in personal experience and destiny, and in the 
 broader and graver issues of state. 
 
 And yet, startled as we well may be at this merest 
 glance at the blackness and darkness of the two 
 well laid plots and plans of fiendish cunning and 
 strength, there is much more that ought to be said 
 and pondered, especially as related to Christian his- 
 tory, and to our own times. 
 
 WORK OF THE BAD ANGELS IN THE CHRISTIAN AGE. 
 
 The old dispensation closed darkly and gloomily 
 for the hope of Israel, but auspiciously for the em- 
 
16 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 pire of darkness. Satanic dominance had fatally 
 demoralized the house of David. The enemies of 
 Judah held sway over the royal people and city. 
 All the nations of the world were governed by one 
 sceptre, and that the sceptre of Rome ; always op- 
 pressive, always cruel, often bloody Rome. And 
 the dawn of the new dispensation awakened afresh 
 the jealous hate and dark forebodings of the primal 
 apostate, and startled with peculiar alarm the whole 
 confederacy of evil. In the earliest light of the 
 gospel era they saw the gleam of the power and 
 glory of Messiah's kingdom, which they understood 
 had been promised by Jehovah and predicted by all 
 the ancient prophets ; and in the possible triumph 
 of the Nazarene they saw their own discomfiture 
 and final extinction ; for they knew who Jesus was 
 and whence he came, and that he was "manifested 
 to destroy the works of the devil." Their chief once 
 said to Christ, "Art thou come to destroy us? I 
 know thee whom thou art ; the Holy One of God." 
 Well they knew their only chance to perpetuate 
 their power or maintain their personal existence 
 was in some well laid fiendish strategy to destroy or 
 traduce the Son of God, and circumvent his re- 
 demptive undertaking. Their first plot was to de- 
 stroy the Christ in his mother's arms by means of 
 the inflamed jealousy of the cruel Herod. Foiled 
 in this by the interference of a good angel, and un- 
 able to affect the Son of Mary by any evil disease, 
 or to possess him with any evil spirit, they awaited 
 his entrance upon his public ministry. Doubtless, 
 in curious envy, they thronged, unseen of men, the 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 17 
 
 green shores of the Jordan, but were not allowed to 
 mar the beauty and holiness of the baptismal scene 
 by so much as a whisper of their malicious lips or 
 a motion of their black wings. 
 
 But as soon as our Lord assumed the functions of 
 his redemptive priesthood, before he had opened his 
 lips to teach, or wrought a single miracle, the arch 
 deceiver confronted him, full armed with his ancient 
 cunning and well dissembled falsehood. In the 
 midst of a gloomy Judean desert, surrounded by 
 howling "wild beasts" — fit place and circumstance 
 for foul Satanic assault — face to face they stood, 
 the immaculate and anointed Son of God, and the 
 black-hearted traitor, the chief of the fallen angels. 
 And that encounter was as real and personal as was 
 that in Eden ; as literal as the meeting of Napoleon 
 and AVellington at Waterloo. To deny that Apol- 
 lyon was really there, is to deny that Jesus was 
 there, thus turning the whole account into an al- 
 legory. 
 
 For forty terrible days the Michael of the dark 
 world plied his hellish arts to seduce the second 
 Adam as he had seduced the first. Could he with 
 subtlety supreme but induce the High Priest of our 
 redemption to distrust the divinity of his commis- 
 sion, audibly bestowed on him at the baptism ; could 
 he but wring from his breast, by the torture of lying 
 words, the consciousness that he was the "Son of 
 the living God ;" could he only awaken in his mind 
 the dim shadow of one dark doubt, the assault 
 would be a success far greater than that achieved 
 in paradise, in the morning of the world. 
 
18 FOOT- PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 All his subtlety of speech, fair and foul ; all his 
 plausibility of reasouing, failing to shake the con- 
 stancy of the Prince of life, at the end of his long 
 fasting, when hunger in its resistless, bewildering 
 power returned upon him, the practical chief of the 
 devils suddenly changed his method of attack, and 
 with beguiling phrase sought to plunge the Saviour 
 into damning presumption. "If thou be the Son of 
 God," demonstrate thy divinity and godlike power 
 by commanding that "these stones be made bread," 
 he said. 
 
 Foiled still, as a last resort he re-attempts the 
 bold, audacious strategy that had served his malign 
 intent so well upon the first pair in the garden. 
 And, throwing off all disguise he boldly assumes 
 rivalry with God himself in his claims to homage 
 and worship. To Eve and Adam he presented the 
 alluring promise of becoming gods themselves. To 
 Jesus he offers the immediate possession and ruler- 
 ship of all the kingdoms of the world, and their 
 untold glory, for one moment of homage. Stand- 
 ing upon an exceeding high mountain, he pointed 
 out the enchanting loveliness of all the surrounding 
 country, the flowering beauty of hill and vale, and, 
 by some panoramic skill, brought into ravishing 
 view the glory of "all the kingdoms of the world ;" 
 then, recklessly assuming entire control and full 
 right of conveyance, he held the glittering tempta- 
 tion before the eyes of Christ, and offered to give 
 him all if he would by one brief overt act confess 
 his Satanic princeship. Had he succeeded he would, 
 through the defection of the second Adam, have 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 19 
 
 wrecked the plan and purpose of redemption ; as, 
 through the surrender of the first Adam, he wrecked 
 the piimal bliss of both man and nature, and there- 
 by would have prolonged the tenure of his own ex- 
 istence and the dominance of his empire of treason 
 and ruin. And in this whole adroitly planned and 
 cunningly prosecuted conflict for the seduction and 
 capture of the "Captain of our salvation," we see 
 the hand of an unmistakably personal being — the 
 head and chief of the infernal confederacy of apos- 
 tate angels. 
 
 Utterly defeated in every attempt to corrupt the 
 Saviour or shake his confidence in his divine mis- 
 sion for the salvation of the just, and the extinc- 
 tion of the wicked — the destruction of the '^work of 
 the devil" and the devil himself —the next strategy 
 of the arch fiend was to cut off his triumph by pro- 
 curing his premature death while his work was in its 
 incipient stages. For this he found a ready and 
 pliant agent in the person of one of the chosen dis- 
 cipleship, himself an apostate, and so like the fallen 
 ones that he is called ''a devil." Every fiend has 
 his Judas. *'Then entered Satan into Judas, sur- 
 named Iscariot, being one of the twelve. And he 
 went his way and communed with the chief priests 
 and captains how he might betray him unto them." 
 
 But when Christ had risen from the dead and as- 
 cended to the court in heaven, it flashed like con- 
 suming lightning on the whole race of the fallen 
 sons of light, that the encounters of their chief with 
 the personal Jesus had ended in ignominious defeat 
 and disaster. And then they knew their fate was 
 
20 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 sealed ; the die of their damnation was cast. And 
 it only remained to them to hunt and worry and tor- 
 ment the friends of God until the appointed time. 
 
 And, remembering his success of infamy in be- 
 reaving and torturing Job, the doomed leader of the 
 doomed army of the apostates massed his full force 
 upon the exposed followers of the ascended Saviour. 
 And the startling phenomena of demonism which so 
 saddened the history of the early Christian church 
 furnishes the painful proof of the reality and terri- 
 ble power of bad angels over the minds and bodies 
 of men. 
 
 Nor has their malign energy ceased or abated as 
 the centuries have come and gone. It was their 
 malice and hate, firing the hearts of their willing 
 human allies, that drenched the church in the blood 
 of her martyrs for more than a thousand years. It 
 was their infernal ingenuity, finding ready agents in 
 Pagan and Papal Rome, that invented the rack^ the 
 thumb-screw,, the guiUotine. It was their fiendish 
 malevolence that conceived and organized and in- 
 spired the bloodthirsty Inquisition. It was their 
 damning hate, through their zealous Roman co-con- 
 spirators, that made the tortures enacted by the 
 Papacy possible. They smiled and laughed when 
 the crackling flames besported themselves with the 
 dying agonies of Ridley and Latimer and their he- 
 roic associates at the stake. They grinned and 
 danced in hellish glee while the gardens of Nero — 
 their favorite and eager vicegerent — were lighted by 
 the blazing bodies of the witnesses of God. They 
 hold high jubilee, through all their dark caverns, 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 21 
 
 while Leo the Pope is holding jubilee at Rome. 
 The Vatican of the H0I3' See is but an adjunct of 
 their Vatican in the Pit. The arch devil and the 
 arch Romanist are no strangers. All the bulls is- 
 sued from the seven-hilled city are countersigned by 
 the chief of the apostate angels. It is but one 
 short stej) from Rome to Gehenna. 
 
 As the closing scene of human probation and Sa- 
 tanic existence approaches, we might expect an ap- 
 palling increase of demoniacal manifestation. The 
 words of revelation are very significant: "Woe for 
 the earth and for the sea ; because the devil is gone 
 down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that 
 his thne is short." And that these times are dis- 
 tinguished by unparalleled displays of evil agencies 
 is frightfully apparent. They affect us in many 
 ways. As Satan covered Job with excruciating 
 sores, and bound a daughter of Abraham so that 
 she could not raise herself up for eighteen years 
 (Luke 13 : 16), so now much of the suffering from 
 diseases and many cases of lunacy and insanity are 
 doubtless produced, directly or indirectly, by evil 
 angels. They are full of bitter envy and burning 
 revenge towards all classes of human beings ; and 
 they rest not day nor night in their cruel work of 
 afflicting and tormenting all within their reach. It 
 is more than probable that many of the accidents 
 and physical calamities which befall us are produced 
 by their power over material forces. That the hur- 
 ricanes and cyclones are fanned into destructive 
 fury by their black wings we may well believe. And 
 atmospheric disturbances, producing new forms of 
 
22 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 disease which baffle the skill of the doctors, are 
 doubtless the baleful work of the "prince of the 
 power of the air." 
 
 Familiar with the laws which govern mental con- 
 ditons, the fallen hosts ply all their specious arts to 
 excite personal suspicions and animosities, and to 
 create national resentments and bloody conflicts, 
 their chief delight being to compass the destruction 
 of peace and the banishment of concord from the 
 earth ; to embitter the poor children of sin and sor- 
 row against each other, and turn our world into an 
 arena of strife and crime. 
 
 Another and a foremost achievement of the wick- 
 ed angels is the propagation of false doctrines. 
 Their work began with a colossal lie, and has been 
 prosecuted in stupendous deception. The Holy 
 Oracles give special warning against "doctrines of 
 devils," as one of the signs of the judgment day at 
 hand. Necromancy, incantation and witchcraft 
 were the fruit of their deceitful inspiration in the 
 ancient years, as Spiritualism and Christian Science 
 are in our times. 
 
 But supremely do they revel in the criminal do- 
 main. They foster falsehood, incite revenge, fan 
 jealousy, beget quarrels, help on thefts, robbery 
 and arson, further divorces, plan defalcations, in- 
 stigate murders. They run the saloons and edit the 
 Police News. 
 
 Their masterpiece of wrathful power will be wit- 
 nessed in their leadership of the wicked nations, 
 living and dead, in the universal fray, with whose 
 terrific scenes of unrestrained and crimson carnage 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 23 
 
 our doomed world's tragical history will close. The 
 saiots will be safely shielded beyond the reach of 
 their fiery breath, while they will be left to wreak 
 their final vengeance on the myriad victims of their 
 cruel deceit and fiendish malice. But fire will come 
 down from God out of heaven and destroy them 
 all. The chief and personal leader of the fallen 
 seraphs, with his numerous followers and confeder- 
 ates in treason and rebellion, and all the poor chil- 
 dren of men who have yielded consent to his dark 
 devices and followed his black banne/s, will be con- 
 sumed together by the devouring flames ; and all the 
 loyal angels and all the ransomed saints will join in 
 high acclaim of joy that heaven and earth are for- 
 ever freed from the malicious ministries of the evil 
 angels. 
 
 '^And the God of peace shall bruise Satan 
 under your feet shortly." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 The Good flngcls. 
 
 *'Yet by your shining eyes not all forsaken, 
 Man wandered from his Paradise away ; 
 Ye, from forgetfulness his heart to waken, 
 Came down, high guests, in many a later day; 
 And witli the patriarchs, under vine or oak, 
 Midst noontide calm or hush of evening, spoke."" 
 
 The Heavenly Father governs his universe not by 
 sovereign fiat alone, but largely by chosen and com- 
 missioned messengers, royal ministers, plenipoten- 
 tiaries direct from the throne and court in heaven ; 
 invested with adequate power to instruct, deliver, 
 guide and bless the children of God, in their tear- 
 ful and exposed pilgrimage on earth. Ten thou- 
 sand times ten thousand holy beings wait, and ever 
 wait, on poised and ready wing, before the Almighty 
 Presence, eager to fly on heavenly behests to any 
 world, to every race. In the darkness and in the 
 light, when men sleep and when they wake, in the 
 hour of peace and in the fiery shock of arms, inces- 
 santly they come and go, unerringly fulfilling the 
 will of Him who sitteth on the throne. Nor are 
 they merely obsequious servants of the sovereign 
 God, but are instinct with lofty interest in all the 
 issues of the divine government, in all the purposes 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 25 
 
 and plans of truth and grace. With seraphic won- 
 der they watch the unfoldings of the Infinite wis- 
 dom and goodness, and glow with holy delight in 
 the mighty trusts to which they are elected. When 
 Jehovah unveiled to their enraptured sight the splen- 
 dors of his finished creations, all their shining ranks 
 broke forth in shouts of joy. And ever from that 
 august moment, even unto these dark hours, they 
 have high ministries performed between heaven and 
 earth. 
 
 Are the good angels specially interested in the good 
 of earth ! And luhy ? 
 
 It was by an apostate of their own race and rank 
 that the pure and fair creatures of Paradise were 
 seduced. The terrible curse and blight of sin and 
 pain and death was wrought by the malicious skill 
 of angelic envy. As the unsinning seraphs survey 
 the ceaseless sorrows of our world, they cannot but 
 feel most humiliating shame and sadness that those 
 who were once pure and loyal as themselves, their 
 own blissful associates, blest with the smiles of the 
 same loving Creator, should have been the betray- 
 ers of a race fashioned for supreme delights. 
 
 By the invasion of Eden all the holy angels were 
 defamed. And naturally they are intensely anx- 
 ious to aid in undoing the cruel work of the spir- 
 its of darkness. It must afford them peculiar pleas- 
 ure to be able to defeat, in any measure, the hate- 
 ful designs and prevent the malevolent intent of the 
 angelic traitors. By all the instincts of self-vindi- 
 cation, by all the pride of untainted loyalty, by all 
 their infinite hatred of rebellion, by all their love of 
 
26 FOOT- PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 purity and peace, by their supreme devotion to the 
 hope of a universe redeemed, they joyfully bring all 
 their wisdom and strength and skill into unceasing 
 conflict with the powers of darkness. 
 
 Moreover, their holy natures throb with pity and 
 compassion for the poor victims of satanic decep- 
 tion ; and their love for those who are struggling 
 for redemption knovvs no limit. With vast knowl- 
 edge of the human heart and mind, and clear fore- 
 sight of the adroit devices of the devil, they keenly 
 sympathize with us in our exposure to temptation 
 and assault, and gladly interpose their higher skill 
 and power to^strike the poisoned darts from the up- 
 lifted hand of the cruel and crafty foe. In bands 
 and troops, led by their invincible Michael, they 
 sorely press the traitor hordes on every field, and 
 crown many a sanguine battle with triumph for the 
 friends of God. 
 
 The holy angels are specially interested in our 
 race as the objects of the Saviour's love and re- 
 demptive work. They are indissolubly bound to 
 Christ by the profoundest affections of their being. 
 They joined hands in holy worship around the cra- 
 dle of his infancy. They love and adore him as the 
 only Son of God. Their admiration is boundless 
 as they see in him the promised and certain victor 
 of the evil angels, and the rightful and mighty ruler 
 of our alien world. In lofty acclaim, which startles 
 the dark conclave of the demons, they cast their 
 crowns at Jesus' feet, and enter with keen delight 
 into his divinely conceived movement for the defeat 
 of the arch-fiend and the ransom and recovery of his 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 27 
 
 deluded followers. Christ's infinite love of men 
 they deeply share ; and in his conquests and king- 
 ship their highest and holiest aspirations are crowned. 
 As allies of Jesus they are the "ministering spirits" 
 of the saints, sent forth to "serve" the heirs of sal- 
 vation. 
 
 The good angels are an host. Though the fallen 
 ones are legion^ their secession did not seriously 
 decimate the holy race. The loyal angels are spoken 
 of in Scripture in terms which imply that their 
 number baffles human computation. Jesus said he 
 could in an instant call to his aid more than twelve 
 legions. They by far outnumber the traitors. There 
 are more of them than there are of righteous men, 
 living and dead. They can fortify every point of 
 assault, '^ encamp" around all who fear God, es- 
 cort all the armies of the saints, hold an invincible 
 shield over all the messengers of truth, cover with 
 their flashing cimeters every sad, weeping, friend- 
 less orphan, furnish a body guard for every Laza- 
 rus, keep vigil at every sick bed, supply pall bear- 
 ers for every funeral cortege, and stand sentinel at 
 every grave, and then have a reserved force of ten 
 thousand times ten thousand, even thousands of 
 thousands. 
 
 The good angels are very strong. Finite beings, 
 infinitely below their Creator, they are inconceiva- 
 bly more powerful than men. Each one of them 
 has the strength of an hundred Hercules. A single 
 one of them by his good right arm smote an hun- 
 dred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians in one 
 night ; and one angel destroyed in the space of a 
 
28 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 few hours, "all the first-born of Egypt, both of man 
 and beast." And in Revelation four angels are 
 said "to hold the four winds of heaven." The Holy 
 Book declares that they '•^excel in strength." ^^Ex- 
 cer not God nor Christ, but all finite beings ; even 
 the apostate angels ; for a loyal archangel must 
 possess more power than an '^archangel ruined.'* 
 We may not doubt that these first-born children of 
 light could, if Jehovah's name or cause required it, 
 dissolve our entire planetary system, crush the 
 whole frame of nature, and pile wrecked worlds in 
 heaps. Yet the tender infant of days is as safe in 
 their keeping, as if it were slumbering in the bosom 
 of God. 
 
 The wisdom and knowledge of the holy angels 
 must be equal to their strength. Created in type 
 of intelligence next to that of the Infinite, and 
 schooled in the developments of providence for at 
 least six thousand years, what Pisgahs of knowledge 
 they must have reached who can conceive? Famil- 
 iar with the works of God, constant messengers to 
 all worlds, how vast their understanding of natural 
 and sentient forces ! How easily they comprehend 
 the circumstances and even the hidden thoughts of 
 men and fiends ! 
 
 And then their scope of vision ! A few years 
 since there was a boy in Kentucky, born with a tel- 
 escopic eye. He could look into the face of the 
 planets without the aid of a glass, and describe 
 their surfaces with wonderful accuracy. It was 
 called a freak of nature ; but we believe it was a 
 slight intimation of the primal power of human vis- 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 29 
 
 ion. But what was tiiat compared to the grasp of 
 an angel's eye ! The scope of seraphic vision, un- 
 dimmed by the mists of evil, unclouded by the night 
 of sin ! The good angels are not omniscient. But 
 that they can sweep with a single glance 
 
 "Tenfold the length of this terrene" 
 who dares to doubt? 
 
 And these are they, the guardians of the good of 
 earth ; the sleepless watchers of our lives and des- 
 tinies : sentinels at the gates of danger ; cherubim 
 with flaming sword, flashing every way in the face 
 of all invaders of our peace ; the benign messengers 
 sent from Heaven to guide homeward the wander- 
 ing children of sorrow. Though they salute us with 
 no audible voices, and cheer us by no visible signs, 
 their presence and their ministries are as real as 
 when they announced the birth of Jesus with song 
 and flashing glory. 
 
 THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 The "service" of the holy angels in the govern- 
 ment and redemption of our world is as clearly a 
 subject of Old Testament record as the exodus, the 
 call of Abram, or the creation of man. The in- 
 spired history of pre-Messianic times is replete with 
 the presence and power of the seraphic race. They 
 are the aid-de-camps of the Throne ; the unrecog- 
 nized plenipotentiaries of all courts and councils ; 
 often the divinely commissioned arbiters of the des- 
 tiny of nations and of men. They guide, protect, 
 deliver, punish, destroy. The patriarchal ages knew 
 their voices, and were familiar with their visitations. 
 
30 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 The demons recognized and dreaded their avenging 
 hand. 
 
 It is highly probable that in all the instances, 
 narrated in the first fifteen chapters of Genesis, in 
 which the Lord is said to have spoken to Noah, Lot 
 and Abraham, the audible voice was that of an an- 
 gel — Jehovah speaking by his commissioned mes- 
 sengers. It may be assumed without violence to 
 the Sacred Oracles that God has usually spoken to 
 man by his holy angels, excepting when he has 
 spoken by the prophets, or by his Son. As in Heb. 
 2 : 2, "If the word spolien by angels was steadfast, 
 and every transgression received a just recompense 
 of reward," the reference being, without doubt, to 
 what the Lord said to Noah and Lot. 
 
 But the earliest and one of the most pathetic 
 cases of explicitly stated angelic intervention is 
 that of Hagar, twice banished by the jealousy of 
 her mistress. In the desolate desert, alone with 
 her ill-starred boy, the bread and water exhausted, 
 she sat apart from her starving child, her mother's 
 heart unable to bear the pangs of his terrible death, 
 and sent into the veiled heavens her cry of wild de- 
 spair, mingled with the dying moans of the lad who 
 was more the fruit of Sarah's pride than of his 
 slave mother's sin. There was silence in heaven. 
 The sobbings of two breaking hearts had touched 
 the bosom of God. An '''■angel called to Hagar, 
 out of heaven, and said unto her. What aileth thee, 
 Hagar? Fear not, for God hath heard the voice of 
 the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad and hold 
 him in thine hand, for I will make of him a great 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 31 
 
 nation. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a 
 well of water ; and she went and filled the bottle 
 with water, and gave it to the lad to drink." We 
 know whose sturdy hand broke the turf of that 
 wild wilderness soil and drew from the depths the 
 sweet cooling beverage, and bade the happy mother 
 bear it to the parched lips of her precious offspring. 
 This was the first rich chance for a seraph to show 
 his deep pure sympathy with human suffering. And 
 with eager joy did he make the most of it. Let all 
 the Hagars of our world's dark history of jealousy 
 and desertion know that when there is no earthly 
 ear to hear, nor heart to pity, their penitent, im- 
 ploring prayer will have a hearing in heaven. 
 
 When Abraham was an hundred years old save 
 one, sitting at noontide heat in the opening of his 
 tent, he was surprised by the approach of three 
 strangers in the garb of eastern travelers. There 
 was a royalty in their persons and bearing to which 
 the well-bred patriarch at once responded by ad- 
 vancing and bowing himself to the ground, and of- 
 fering the ample hospitalities of his station as the 
 "chief Sheik" of that land. 
 
 Now, as the sequel shows, these strangers were 
 angelic messengers direct from the court of God, 
 charged with wonderfully interesting and impor- 
 tant intelligence for Abraham, and with an an- 
 nouncement of the gravest and grandest national 
 import. They had come to reveal Jehovah's pur- 
 pose and promise to raise up from the loins of the 
 age-stricken patriarch a seed that should outnum- 
 ber the sands of the seashore ; a royal nation who, 
 
32 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 including the lineage of faith, shall constitute the 
 rightful and everlasting citizenship of a kingdom 
 universal, whose peaceful and plentiful domain shall 
 stretch from shore to shore, from the rivers to the 
 ends of the earth ; whose glory shall never tarnish, 
 whose beauty fadeth not, whose sceptre shall never 
 change hands, whose throne shall stand forever, 
 whose sweet virgin soil shall never be desecrated by 
 alien feet, whose streets shall never echo the plain- 
 tive cry of oppression, whose flowering hills shall 
 give back no prayer for bread. This trio of angels 
 from heaven had come down to the plains of Mamre 
 to announce to incredulous Sarah and highly pleased 
 Abraham that a child of singular divine intentions, 
 and of wonderfully typical character, should be 
 born to them in their extreme old age. And against 
 science and the laws of nature that strange angelic 
 announcement stood fast. Never has any seraph 
 gone forth from the presence of the Most High to 
 any world, nation, people or person with uncertain 
 tidings. The "word spoken by angels" is the ut- 
 terance of the lips of God ; and though thrones and 
 dominions and principalities and powers conspire to 
 thwart its accomplishment, not one jot or tittle shall 
 fail. 
 
 But that same angelic band was on double minis- 
 try intent. With other and strangely diverse w^ork 
 they were charged. AYhen they had finished dining 
 with Abraham, with cakes warm from the hearth, 
 and butter and milk and the fatted calf for viands, 
 and the friendly shade of the tall graceful palms 
 for a shelter ; and had delivered with the dignity of 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 33 
 
 state their instructions to the wondering aged pair, 
 they went on their way toward the self-doomed cities 
 of the plain. At even, as the babbling sounds of 
 Sodom's lewdness rose towards the shuddering 
 skies, two angels entered the gates and stood in the 
 presence of the only righteous man in all that me- 
 tropolis. It was their wish to spend the night in 
 the open streets, taking unseen, swift witness of 
 their crying abominations, but Lot's importunities 
 drew them at length into his dwelling, where they 
 warned him to quickly gather together all his family 
 and substance, and hasten out of the city, saying, 
 "For u-e will destroy this place . . . for the Lord 
 hath sent us to destroy it.'* During the night the 
 lecherous rabble assailed Lot's house and attempted 
 to break in the doors, when the angels put forth 
 their hands and smote them all with blindness — a 
 slight example of their power over men and the 
 forces of nature. 
 
 At the break of day those ministers of mercy to 
 Lot and of wrath to Sodom hastened the elect out 
 of the doomed enclosures, and when they hesitated 
 they laid hold of them and drew them forth, and 
 bade them flee for their lives. And when they were 
 safe in Zoar, just as the rising sun poured its reluc- 
 tant light in upon the lingering orgies of the cor- 
 rupted multitudes, the angels waved their hands 
 toward heaven, and bursting from the clouds came 
 avenging torrents of brimstone and fire ; and the 
 smoke of their swift and appalling destruction rose 
 over all the country and mantled the hills, as if to 
 hide from the heavenly hosts the revolting spectacle 
 
34 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 of a people so debauched that they did not know 
 their right hand from their left. And therein was a 
 gloomy type of another scene yet to come, in the 
 end of the ages, with which the avenging angels 
 will be as closely connected as with this. 
 
 But now we turn our eyes to a spot consecrated 
 by one of the most pleasing and inspiring angelic 
 manifestations to be found in the Sacred Annals. 
 
 Jacob, fleeing from the wrath of his brother Esau, 
 found himself at the close of day weary and shelter- 
 less, a lonely fugitive, in the midst of an open field, 
 with only the darkness for a curtain and the sleep- 
 less stars for sentinels. Gathering a few stones for 
 his pillow he composed his tired limbs for a little 
 sleep. Never before did so hard a pillow bring 
 dreams so sweet, or couch so rude attract visitors 
 so royal. In his slumbers he saw a ladder — or more 
 likely a mountain with indented sides — reaching 
 from earth to heaven, thronged with angels, coming 
 and going with tireless feet, on errands of peace 
 and blessing, between God's footstool and his 
 throne. Royal embassy ! Not to court or council, 
 but to one lone wanderer sunk to defenceless rest 
 on the bare bosom of the pitying ground. What 
 type and prophecy are here of cherubic vigils over 
 the weary and exposed pilgims of this vale of sor- 
 rows, this wilderness of sighs ! But it was only a 
 dream. Well, does not angelic presence oft inspire 
 the beauty of our nightly visions ? Without a doubt 
 the shining ones, whom Jacob saw coming from 
 heaven and going to heaven, were grouped around 
 bis pillow of stone, watching the happy workings of 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 35 
 
 his face, turned towards the stars, as they suffused 
 his mind with visions of their own tender ministries 
 to the troubled friends of God. Well might Jacob 
 have called the lonely spot of that night's slumbers 
 Bethel — the house of God — and set up a stone in 
 memory of the wonders he had seen in his dream. 
 Angelic hands can change a rough and rocky couch 
 to a restful bed, and make an heap of stones "feel 
 soft as downy pillows are.'* 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 The j4oly flngels. 
 
 It is true that the doctrine of the ministration of 
 angels has been the occasion of fanatical extrava- 
 gances. In the fifth century the ^' Feast of St. 
 Michael" was instituted, which was celebrated in 
 honor of the angels ; and still earlier Ambrose and 
 others insisted on the invocation of angels ; and the 
 Phrygian sect of ''Angelici" practised for a time the 
 idolatrous adoration of angels. But the Laodicean 
 Council condemned their views as heretical. 
 
 Sure it is that our heavenly visitants, in all their 
 varied ministries, have never by act or word invited 
 adoration. They have always appeared as simple 
 messengers from Heaven and servers of men. If 
 the doctrine of angels — or any Bible truth — is to be 
 rejected because of fanatical abuses, alas ! for the 
 Holy Oracles. Satan, the arch fiend, is the only one 
 of all the seraphic race to set himself up as an ob- 
 ject of worship. And he was so crushingly rebuked 
 by the Son of God that he has never repeated the 
 experiment. The good angels find sufficient happi- 
 ness in their holy and enrapturing trusts as the high 
 ministers of the Throne in the sublime economy of 
 
IN FIELDS OB' REVELATION. 37 
 
 redemption. Let us resume our joyful meditations 
 of their loving and mighty interventions in the his- 
 tory of our race and world. 
 
 In the 34th Psalm occurs an expression at once 
 most forcibly and touchingly descriptive of angelic 
 protection and deliverance. "The angel of the Lord 
 encampeth round about them that fear him, and de- 
 Uvereth them." The righteous are like a slender 
 band in an open plain, exposed on every side to 
 malignant demoniacal assault, having in their own 
 control no means of defence, no fortifications to 
 cover them, no shelter from the merciless fury of the 
 army of fiends, marching on them from every point. 
 But happily the loyal angels, "who excel in strength," 
 are not forced to look on silently and see the hapless 
 victims of infernal cunninsr and malice utterlv de- 
 stroyed by the traitorous insurgents. But the holy 
 warriors of Heaven, the angels of the Lord armed 
 with high commission, appear on the field, unseen it 
 may be by the fearing and trembling saints, and 
 pitch their white tents in serried lines close around 
 the friends of God, and spread over their "defence- 
 less heads" their shields of invincible skill and 
 power. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round 
 about them that fear him." They do not come and 
 go simply in great and dire perils, just when the 
 righteous are well nigh lost ; but they tent on the 
 field, they are never absent, but always on duty, full 
 armed and vigilant; not like Sheridan — "twenty 
 miles away" — when some sudden assault is made, 
 breaking the lines and scattering the saints in panic 
 and dismay. Their commissions run to the end of 
 
38 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 mortal danger and strife. They will not relax their 
 herculean arms, nor withdraw the lines of their de- 
 fences, till their Lord and our Lord shall have made 
 the conquest of the world, and crushed out beneath 
 his victorious chariot wheels the last of his enemies 
 and ours. 
 
 '"Encampeth round about." They cannot be 
 flanked. They leave open no exposed gap inviting 
 massed attack. They are a cloud of darkness, as 
 between Israel and Pharaoh's pursuing hosts ; a wall 
 of consuming fire between God's people and their 
 Satanic invaders ; a front guard and rereward of 
 two-edged swords, turning every way to keep the 
 camp of Israel, as the cherubim kept the tree of life 
 amid the faded splendors of Eden. 
 
 "Oh not wholly lost, our Father ! is this evil world of ours : 
 Upward through its blood and ashes spring afresh its Eden 
 
 flowers ; 
 From its smoking hell of battle love and pity send their prayer. 
 And the white-winged angels hover dimly in our earthly air." 
 
 In the year of King Uzziah's death the prophet 
 Isaiah, who lived in an atmosphere suffused with 
 heavenly manifestation, was enveloped by such over- 
 mastering views of the holiness of Jehovah, and the 
 purity and devotion of the attendants upon his im- 
 mediate presence, that, smitten to the heart by a 
 sense of his own impurity, he cried out, "Woe is 
 me ! for I am undone ; because I am a man of un- 
 clean lips ; for mine eyes have seen the King, the 
 Lord of hosts." 
 
 Then one of the seraphim took a live coal from 
 the altar and, swiftly flying to the prostrated prophet, 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 39 
 
 pressed it to his lips, saying, "Thine iniquity is 
 taken away, and thy sin is purged." 
 
 This is the only instance where ^'-seraphim'" is ap- 
 plied to angels. The word means burning, to burn; 
 and the use of it in this case may indicate a particu- 
 lar class of angelic beings who are nearest God and 
 specially charged with holy offices in the work of re- 
 demption. They are described as having physical 
 form, with ^'-face'' and "/eei" and '^wings^'' always 
 ready for flight, under special divine mandate, on 
 errands of mercy and grace. ^^ Seraphim'* — burning 
 — must indicate their ardent, superhuman zeal in 
 serving Jehovah in visitations of salvation to men. 
 And the appearance of the seraphim to Isaiah was 
 to qualify and commission him for a special and 
 most important ministration to his people Israel. 
 
 But let it be noted that the seraphim took the 
 "live coal" from the ''^ altar," showing that in him- 
 self there was no power to purge Isaiah's iniquity. 
 Of the divine compassion and grace, which take 
 away sins, the holy angels, even the seraphim, are 
 only the administrators. But that they are both 
 messengers and administrators is so clearl}^ revealed 
 that to deny it would be the repudiation of revelation 
 itself. 
 
 "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to 
 do service for the sake of them that shall inherit sal- 
 vation?" Heb. 1: 14, "For if the word spoken 
 through angels proved steadfast, and every trans- 
 gression and disobedience received a just recom- 
 pense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect 
 so great salvation?" Heb. 2:2. "Which of the 
 
40 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they 
 killed them which shewed before of the coming of 
 the Just One ; of whom ye have now become be- 
 trayers and murderers ; ye who received the law as 
 it was ordained by angels, and keep it not." Acts 
 7:53. 
 
 In the light of these, and many other correlative 
 scriptures, is it not infidelity to the Word of God to 
 question that to the holy angels are committed im- 
 portant ministerial and administrative trusts in the 
 work of salvation and restitution ? 
 
 Moreover it is a matter of inspired certainty that 
 angels have been sent to convey to men lyrophetical 
 instructions. Not possessed in themselves of fore- 
 knowledge, they are charged with revelations of God 
 to his servants. Not always fully understanding the 
 import of their instructions, they are plenipotentia- 
 ries of Heaven, bearing to the holy seers information 
 of coming events ; and sometimes upon their com- 
 munications the destinies of great peoples and na- 
 tions depend ; they are embassadors from Heaven to 
 earth ; and disregard of their ministries and mes- 
 sages is fatal alike to nations and to men. 
 
 No portion of inspired revelation is more interest- 
 ing or nuportant than the prophecy of Daniel. His 
 predictions run to the end of mortal years ; cover all 
 the great governments of the world ; include the 
 Messianic advent, the crucifixion and resurrection, 
 the return of Christ to this earth, the reliving of all 
 the dead, the destruction of evil, the regenesis of 
 nature, and the establishment of an everlasting king- 
 dom on the ruins of the Csesarism of all 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 41 
 
 kingdom of righteousness and peace. And ranch of 
 Daniel's instruction came to him through the lips of 
 an angel ; the key which unlocked the mystery of 
 the unseen eras was furnished to the prophet by 
 angel hands. Vov much which Daniel predicted, 
 Michael was the authority. And the "words spoken 
 by angels" to the prophets have stood, are standing, 
 will stand fast. Around the angelic revealmeuts of 
 prophetic events the tumultuous centuries have 
 surged and broken like the waves of Algesiras against 
 unconscious Gibraltar. Above the wreck of all 
 earthly thrones and powers, and of the earth itself, 
 the angelic messages will rise, imperishable peaks of 
 inspired truth, evermore reflecting the glory of Christ 
 in the redemption of men. 
 
 Daniel was a captive in a foreign land, but he was 
 true to the traditions of his people and to the God 
 of his fathers. He resisted the fascinations and 
 corruptions of court life, and challenged the admi- 
 ration of his enemies by the exalted purity and dig- 
 nity of his character and conduct. And Jehovah 
 honored him as few men have been honored in tlie 
 divine administration. 
 
 But the preferments bestowed upon Daniel by the 
 king awakened in the hearts of the officials the most 
 cruel jealousy, and by a wicked plot the young He- 
 brew captive was cast into a den of ferocious lions. 
 The lions were very hungry, and the beautiful young 
 Hebrew, full of blood and life, would furnish a 
 precious and dainty meal for their voracious appe- 
 tites. Calmly our prophet submitted to this awful 
 fate. By the rude hands of those who hated him he 
 
42 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 was cast down among the beasts howling for their 
 prey, and the king's unalterable signet was quickly 
 placed upon the stone which covered the mouth of 
 the den. The king, filled with sadness and horror, 
 tied to his chambers and refused meat or music. 
 We instinctively put our ear close down to the great 
 stone with the royal seal upon it, and, shuddering, 
 listen for the dying moans of the fair martyr. All 
 is still. Have the merciless animals consumed their 
 sweet morsel so quickly? Was the terrible agony 
 soon over? Alas, that death so shameful should 
 have come to one so true, so pure, so noble of blood, 
 so beloved of God ! He went into the jaws of the 
 lions in his full dress. May there not be a remnant 
 of his garments left, precious legacy of his lofty 
 heroism? The beasts are satiated and quiet. Let 
 us peer into the cavern. Amazement most amazing ! 
 The lions are lying in a group like loving lambs. 
 The light of unwonted kindness is in their eyes. 
 And in the midst sits Daniel, serene as a seraph in 
 heaven, busying his unsoiled fingers with the shaggy 
 manes of his charmed companions. Scene most 
 wonderful ! Miracle most stupendous ! What strange 
 power is here ? Look again ! The den is wondrous 
 radiant. Erect, by Daniel's side, with right hand 
 laid on the lions' heads, stands a holy angel. But the 
 voice of Darius the king is heard : ''0 Daniel, servant 
 of the living God, is thy God whom thou servest 
 continually able to deliver thee from the lions ? Then 
 Daniel said unto the king, O king, live for ever. My 
 God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' 
 mouths that they have not hurt me." Who dares 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 43 
 
 dispute? "What Christian wishes to deny that "the 
 angel of the Lord encampeth round about those who 
 fear him, and delivereth them"? 
 
 But more than once or thrice was Daniel the 
 prophet visited by messengers from the Throne. He 
 was visited by dreams and visions of the night which 
 covered the history of nations from his day to the 
 end of time ; the rise and succession of the four 
 great world powers, the destruction of the last of 
 them, and the coming of the King of kings to estab- 
 lish a kingdom of immutable foundations, whose 
 domain shall stretch far and wide, even "under the 
 whole heavens." These visions he could not com- 
 prehend. He was amazed at their vastness and 
 grandeur. Their mighty significance oppressed his 
 strongest thought. His mind was in a maze. He 
 made long and earnest supplication to Jehovah for 
 instruction, and an angel was specially commissioned 
 to explain to the prophet the import of what had ap- 
 peared to him in visions of the silent night, while 
 "at Shushan in the palace." "And while I was 
 speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and 
 the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my sup- 
 plication before the Lord my God for the holy moun- 
 tain of my God ; yea, while I was speaking in 
 prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in 
 the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly 
 swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening 
 oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, 
 and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give 
 thee skill and understanding." Dan. 9 : 20-22. 
 
 And upon the explanations and instructions given 
 
44 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 by the angel depends, largely, our hope of the Sav- 
 iour's return, the resurrection of the dead, and the 
 endless reign of the Son of God on the throne of 
 David, on this earth, restored to Edenic conditions. 
 The succession of prophetical and historical events, 
 the meaning and ending of the prophetic numbers, 
 the ushering in of the '•Hime of the end,'' the appear- 
 ing of the Ancient of days, the final scenes of human 
 history, the adjustment of the eternal order of nature 
 and of ransomed men, were all included in the inter- 
 pretations of Gabriel, who was commanded to make 
 Daniel '•''understand the vision." 
 
 If any are anxious to know why the great code of 
 doctrines called Adventism has stood the test of half 
 a century's popular discredit and denunciation, and 
 still holds its grip on the faith and hope and love of 
 hundreds of thousands of God-fearing Scripture- 
 searchers, we will answer : Because Adventism rests, 
 in an essential sense, upon interpretation given by 
 holy angels sent directly from the world of light, 
 from the throne of God. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 The Holy Angels in the Christian flge. 
 
 The Christian dispensation dawned in resplen- 
 dent display of angelic manifestation. Personally 
 familiar with all the prophets, interpreting to them 
 their most intricate predictions, often bringing to 
 them wonderful messages direct from the court of 
 God, they did not fail to comprehend, in outline at 
 least, the prophetic travail of the ages. Standing 
 near the Throne, they witnessed with wondering de- 
 light the majestic preparations for the great dispen- 
 sational change — the new order of priesthood and 
 princeship — and made themselves ready to give the 
 coming Heir of the vacant throne of David a recep- 
 tion and announcement befitting the glory of his 
 promised conquest and endless kingship. From 
 within the veil they noted the swift progi*ess of the 
 numbered years which would bring the advent of 
 "Messiah the Prince," and looked with rapture to 
 the hour that would crown the august event. 
 
 Their first ministries were personal and private. 
 They withheld their anthems till the supreme mo- 
 ment struck. Jehovah's preparations are often un- 
 noticed by men. Even the righteous are sometimes 
 
46 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 taken m glad surprise. A great glory bursts on the 
 hope of the world as light of a new star of instan- 
 taneous birth. The holy angels can keep "the se- 
 crets of the Lord" till the appointed time. 
 
 Just as the meridian between the old order and 
 the new was nearing, a righteous but childless 
 priest was burning incense in the temple of God, 
 and all the people were praying without, when sud- 
 denly there appeared unto him an angel, standing 
 on the right side of the altar. The good Zacharias 
 was overcome with fear at the presence of his shining 
 visitor from worlds unseen. But the angel soothed 
 his alarm with words which divided his heart be- 
 tween amazement and delight. "Fear not, Zacha- 
 rias," he said, "for thy prayer is heard, and thy 
 wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt 
 call his name John." But Zacharias, remembering 
 that he and his wife Elizabeth were "well stricken 
 in years," could scarcely accept the joyous tidings, 
 though they came from an angel's lips : and he said, 
 "Whereby shall I know this? . . . And the angel 
 answered and said unto him, I am Gabriel, that 
 stand in the presence of God ; and am sent to 
 speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tid- 
 ings. And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not 
 able to speak until the day that these things shall 
 be performed." And instantly his priestly lips were 
 sealed, and he beckoned to the wondering people 
 and remained speechless. 
 
 The Messiah, about to come, must needs have fit- 
 ting heraldry. And this John, promised by Ga- 
 briel, of pure Israelitish blood, the first and only 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 47 
 
 bora of a priestly family, a child of miracle, was to 
 be the honored forerunner, messenger of the mighty 
 Prince, the long-looked-for Redeemer. He was to 
 go before the Christ, in the spirit and power of Elias, 
 to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. 
 
 But other and grander aspects of God's prepara- 
 tion for the advent of his Son waited attention. 
 Other minds and hearts were to be apprised of the 
 order and imminence of the greatest and grandest 
 event in the annals of the universe. And six months 
 after the visit to Zacharias Gabriel was again dis- 
 patched on special embassy. But now to Nazareth, 
 a city of Galilee. A poor, but fair and pure Jew- 
 ish virgin was espoused to a young man then un- 
 known to fame, but of direct lineage from the house 
 of David : and the virgin's name was Mary. One 
 morning, as Mary was busy with her household 
 tasks, cheerfully humming the refrain of some an- 
 cient Hebrew song, the imposing figure of a mighty 
 angel stood on the threshold, and said to the bewil- 
 dered maiden, "Hail., thou that art highly favored, 
 the Lord is with thee ; blessed art thou among 
 women. And when she saw him she was troubled 
 at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of 
 salutation this should be. And the angel said unto 
 her. Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with 
 God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy 
 womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his 
 name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called 
 the Son of the Highest ; and the Lord God shall 
 give unto him the throne of his father David ; and 
 
48 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and 
 of his kingdom there shall be no end." 
 
 During the period from Gabriel's promise to Mary 
 to the birth of her son the Christ, there must have 
 been a strangely intense interest among the angels 
 in heaven, and anxiety as well, if seraphs know 
 what anxiety means. We may seem to see them, 
 gathered in radiant groups in the shadows of the 
 throne, interchanging rapt thoughts concerning the 
 great mystery. Is the promised son of Mary to be 
 the "seed of the woman" who shall bruise the head 
 of the arch-traitor of their race ? Will the virgin's 
 son Jesus be their mighty leader and Lord who 
 shall commission them to overthrow and utterly de- 
 stroy the alien hordes ? Will this heir to the throne 
 of David, under their angelic ministrations finally 
 recover Adam's lost dominion, and restore the Edenic 
 beauty and glory and peace? Will this child of 
 miracle, whose birth and greatness, whose kingdom 
 and sceptre have been announced by Gabriel, be 
 able to annul death and restore forfeited immortal- 
 ity? Since the sons of God shouted for joy over 
 the finished universe, there had been no other period 
 of interest so singular, so intense, among the holy 
 angels as the waiting for Gabriel's assurance to 
 Mary to reach its fulfillment. Upon the issue of 
 those few strange words of the heavenly messenger 
 to the Hebrew virgin trembled the hopes of millions, 
 dead, living and unborn. If that promised miracu- 
 lous birth shall fail, no star of Bethlehem will ever 
 rise over Adam's lost world. But it did not fail. The 
 promise of God, by the mouth of his holy angel, 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 49 
 
 stood fast, though its fulfilment contradicted reason 
 and disregarded the laws of nature. 
 
 In the green pastures, on the Judean slopes, the 
 shepherds silently "watched their flocks by night," 
 leaning half slumberous on their "friendly crooks," 
 when suddenly a light brighter than of a thousand 
 morning stars suffused the sky and flooded the hills. 
 To their astonished eyes there appeared, standing 
 in mid air above them, a holy angel, in attitude of 
 speech. Sore afraid, the simple shepherds covered 
 their faces with their hands. But the royal visitant 
 said unto them, "Fear not ; for, behold, I bring you 
 glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all peo- 
 ple. For unto you is born this day in the city of 
 David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And 
 this shall be a sign unto you ; ye shall find the babe 
 wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." 
 And waving his right hand towards the throne, a 
 full vast choir of the heavenly songsters were in- 
 stantly at his side, and, breaking the midnight si- 
 lence, o'er the echoing hills rolled the mighty an- 
 them, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
 peace, good will toward men." 
 
 And so the first announcement of the Saviour's 
 birth was made by an angel. The first advent ser- 
 mon was preached by an angel. The first redemp- 
 tion song e'er sung to mortal ears burst in wondrous 
 melody from a thousand angel voices. The inaugu- 
 ration of the gospel age, in its essential, divine, 
 saving power, was made by the Holy Ghost at the 
 Pentecost. But the glorious prelude was rendered 
 in vocal music of a multitude of holy angels, under 
 
50 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 the nightly skies of Bethlehem, with only the hum- 
 ble, rustic shepherds and the listening stars for an 
 audience. 
 
 "As shepherds watched their flocks by night, 
 
 All seated on the ground, 
 The angel of the Lord came down, 
 And glory shone around." 
 
 Who shall question that the administration of an- 
 gels, which so bountifully marked the old dispensa- 
 tion, has come over into the neio? The opening of 
 the gospel era is resplendent with the presence and 
 ministries of the holy angels of God. And all 
 through the Christian times they fulfill what the in- 
 spired Paul has said of them: "To which of the 
 angels said he at any time, "Sit on my right hand, 
 until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they 
 — the angels — not all ministering spirits, seyit forth 
 to minister — ser-ve — for them who shall be heirs of 
 salvation?" Heb. 1 : 13, 14. 
 
 Let it be noted that this statement of St. Paul 
 was made a considerable time after the gift of the 
 Holy Spirit at the Pentecost. And he employs the 
 present participle — ^ ''being sent forth" — the sense is 
 continually^ as their appointed regular service for all 
 ages. And, as we shall show by and by, in the end 
 of this age the angels will manifest themselves, and 
 execute personal ministries, more grand, awful, 
 glorious, than any of their past achievements. 
 
 THE BABE OF BETHLEHEM DELIVERED BY AN ANGEL. 
 
 At the time of the Saviour's birth there prevailed, 
 among the intelligent and learned classes, a pro- 
 found belief that some remarkable personage was 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 51 
 
 about to appear among men, who would change the 
 order of history and sway a scepter of unusual 
 power over the people. In the East, — Arabia, Per- 
 sia, or Mesopotamia — some Magi or Magians, who, 
 perhaps, had heard by tradition of the prophecy of 
 Daniel 9 : 24, saw, suddenly appearing in the heav- 
 ens, aluminous body or meteor, which they regarded 
 as a signal that the long expected wonderful person 
 had made his advent into the world. Regarding 
 Jerusalem as the center of knowledge concerning 
 sacred things they hastened to the renowned me- 
 tropolis in search of the mighty one destined to be 
 greater and wiser than any man or god who had 
 preceded him. Great excitement and wonder were 
 awakened in the city by the visit and strange story 
 of the "wise men from the east." 
 
 The air was full of the breath of prophecy. Half 
 articulate voices seemed murmuring in the skies the 
 forgotten words of the seers of God. The priests, 
 ministering in the temple grew suddenly anxious. 
 The story of the birth, at an inn, of a strangely 
 beautiful son of a virgin mother spread rapidly 
 among the people. Wonder was on all faces. The 
 more devout asked, one of another, what if it shall 
 be the promised Messiah, Israel's long expected 
 King? Herod heard the ominous whisperings of 
 the multitude, who came and went wnth an air of 
 curious inquiry ; and the guilty monarch sat uneasily 
 on his throne of crime. The jealousy of his low 
 cunning nature was fiercely aroused. He knew the 
 tradition of the Jews that some day the 3'oke of for- 
 eign rule would be broken from their necks. He 
 
52 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 feared that strange birth in the manger meant rival- 
 ry of his scepter and his crown. Hastily he gath- 
 ered together all the priests and scribes of the peo- 
 ple, and demanded of them where the promised 
 Messiah should be born, and they told him ''in 
 Bethlehem of Judea." And then, privately calling 
 the Magi he questioned them closely as to what 
 time the "star in the east" appeared. With well 
 concealed intent of evil he bade the Magi make dili- 
 gent search for the young child, and bring him word 
 when they had found him. But one of greater au- 
 thority gave orders to the wise men ; and when they 
 had bestowed their rich gifts of gold, frankincense 
 and myrrh upon the precious object of their search, 
 they returned by another way. Herod, foiled in his 
 well-laid strategy, madly issued a murderous edict 
 against every male child in his realm under the age 
 of two years. Sure was he now of reaching that 
 babe of days whom he feared more than all the 
 armed men of his kingdom. 
 
 "What a moment was that for the hope of the 
 world ! On that young life in the manger of the 
 inn, hung the stupendous scheme of redemption for 
 a vast race. Let Herod's cruel mandate but suc- 
 ceed, and mercy for man is forever departed. Poor 
 and helpless are Joseph and Mary ; and all uncon- 
 scious of the king's murderous malice toward the 
 infant Jesus. An hour is sufficient for the execu- 
 tion of the fateful order. O ! what can interpose 
 between that throne and that cradle? 
 
 Another mandate is issued. And quickly as light- 
 ning flash, a seraph, tall, majestic, with burning eye, 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 53 
 
 stands before the throne in Heaven, with strenorth 
 enough in his right arm to overturn a world. Swiftly 
 descending he came and spread his unseen shield 
 over that babe in that lowly place. And when the 
 last faint echo of the Magi's departing steps had 
 died away, a voice of touching kindness, blended 
 with imposing power, fell on the wondering ears of 
 Joseph and the mother of Jesus. An angel stood 
 beside them, "Herod would kill thy child," he said, 
 "But I am come to give thee warning and safe con- 
 duct. Arise, Joseph ; and take the young child 
 and his mother and flee into Egypt, and be thou 
 there till /shall bring thee word." 
 
 Instantly they obeyed And all night long, under 
 the silent stars, they made their anxious journey, 
 guided by the strong, radiant form of their angelic 
 deliverer, who left them not till they were safe 
 beyond the power of Herod's officers of blood. 
 Was ever a life so precious in peril so startling! 
 Was ever deliverance so signal, so momentous ! 
 Was ever angelic intervention grander, more beauti- 
 ful. ! 
 
 Nor did their. heavenly guardian forget his trust ; 
 for when Herod was dead he again visited Joseph 
 and Mary in Egypt, and escorted them to their own 
 land. How beautiful ! The holy angels keeping 
 watch over the child Jesus I "He shall give his an- 
 gels charge concerning thee, and in their hands 
 they shall bear thee up in all thy ways, lest at any 
 time thou shouldst dash thy feet against a stone." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 ^oly flngels Strengthen the Son of God. 
 
 Amazing transition ! From the divine overshad- 
 owing and visible glory of the baptism the Saviour 
 hastened to the mysterious conflict with the powers 
 of darkness in the wilderness. That encounter was 
 fierce and protracted. Satan massed all his subtle 
 power on the Son of God at the threshold of his 
 ministry. He had vanquished the first Adam amid 
 the splendors of Eden, and he meant to achieve a 
 more brilliant triumph over the second Adam before 
 he should be able to exercise a single function of 
 his divine ministry. Jesus could not avoid the con- 
 flict. He must conquer his mighty personal foe be- 
 fore he could win victories for his followers. The 
 issue made up in Paradise and won by Satan must 
 be recovered by Christ in the wilderness ere he 
 could enter upon his career of miracle and mercy 
 for a race enslaved by the prince of darkness.- 
 
 The scene of the struggle was in the wilderness, 
 away from the sight and sympathy of men. As yet 
 Jesus had selected no ministry, had no followers. 
 He must fight this battle single-handed and alone. 
 He must demonstrate the prowess of his own per- 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 55 
 
 sonal might unaided by heaven or earth. If he 
 could not vanquish the chief of the fallen spirits by 
 his intrinsic power it were vain for him to undertake 
 the ransom of the captive sons of men. As at the 
 death on the cross, so now even his Father hid his 
 face. His own arm must bring salvation. The 
 holy angels, in anxious groups, from within the 
 shadows watched the imposing trial of skill and 
 power between the lion of the tribe of Judah, and 
 the ancient seducer of the head of a new race- 
 The issue must be distinctly made and the result 
 must be decisive. No word or sign of sympathy 
 could be allowed to the Nazarene. Standing alone 
 face to face with the mighty traitor he must conquer 
 or abandon his undertaking of a world's redemp- 
 tion. Fierce and long the conflict raged. Again 
 and again the prince of perdition changed his base 
 of assault, and readjusted his skillful tactics. Hun- 
 gry and weak and faint the Son of Jesse held his 
 ground and repulsed his foe. Each well chosen on- 
 set was but the occasion of a greater triumph for 
 the Saviour. 
 
 And when at last, foiled, defeated, repulsed, re- 
 buked, Satan sullenly retreated and the Christ was 
 crowned with victory full, complete, then holy an- 
 gels came and strengthened him. Jesus was a man. 
 He had all the attributes of a human being. He 
 ate and drank ; hungered and thirsted ; wept and 
 prayed. And when he emerged from that terrible 
 ordeal, and was freed from the fearful pressure of 
 Satanic power, faint from long fasting, he sank 
 down in exhaustion, and craved the sympatliy and 
 
56 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 aid of some friendly hand and voice. The holy 
 ones of Heaven clustered around him, and minis- 
 tered to his weakness and his sadness. With strong 
 arms they held him up, and brought him water and 
 bread, and strengthened him. During his struggle 
 with the devil they could not aid him by act of 
 power, or look of love ; the conquest must be wholly 
 his own. But now that he had won, and conquered 
 the tempter they throng him in tenderness and sus- 
 taining might. As they guarded his cradle in in- 
 fancy so now they minister to him in his redemptive 
 work. 
 
 Here is a majestic truth. The angels of Heaven 
 are the body-guard, the allies, the swift and power- 
 ful ministers of the Redeemer. Through all his 
 earthly career they attended him day and night. 
 They were and still are his messengers of love and 
 power. Swift of wing as gleam of light, powerful 
 enough to control demons and men and the wildest 
 forces of nature, they wait, in myriad ranks to exe- 
 cute his will, on visits of comfort to his followers 
 sorely buffeted of Satan as he was in the wilder- 
 ness ; on errands of deliverance from personal and 
 mortal peril ; on missions of state controlling the 
 destinies of nations ; on embassies of judgment 
 sweeping away the foes of his people and clearing 
 the way for the proclamation of his gospel and 
 opening dark continents to the ingress of his word ; 
 in soothing hearts breaking with some great an- 
 guish ; and healing the sick who are ready to die ; 
 in moving redundant wealth to feed the hungry and 
 clothe the naked. Ten thousand times ten thou- 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 57 
 
 sand, stand before him. Thousands of thousands 
 minister unto him. 
 
 THE MYSTERIOUS CRISIS. 
 
 The scene of the great mystery in Christ's life 
 was laid in Gethsemane. In that garden of olive 
 trees, in the silence of night, heaven and earth 
 came together in the inscrutable agony of the pros- 
 trate Son of Mary. In that awful hour justice and 
 mercy met face to face. To the divinely sensitive 
 nature of Jesus the ghastly horrors of death by 
 Roman crucifixion assumed their most terrifying 
 forms. His immaculate human being shrank af- 
 frighted from the oppressive spectacle. Well he 
 knew that on the morrow, faint and bleeding, fol- 
 lowed by the heartless jeering rabble, led on by the 
 high priests wildly clamoring for his life, he would 
 be dragged through the streets of his own beloved 
 Jerusalem to the ignominy of a felon's death. He 
 saw the dreadful cross, and heard the cruel blows 
 that drove the unwilling nails through his quivering 
 flesh. He heard the mad cry of those who should 
 be his followers and defenders, "Crucify him, cru- 
 cify him." He saw the face of his Father in Heaven 
 turned away from him, the sun become black as 
 sackcloth of hair, and felt the ground tremble with 
 the palsy of a mighty earthquake. Before the aw- 
 ful scene his human heart grew faint, and in his 
 agony of soul the flesh threatened to give way. 
 
 Beside, and more terrible still, the guilt or a 
 world came rolling in as an ocean of darkness upon 
 his spirit. He felt the awful power of divine wrath 
 
58 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 against sin. He saw the flashing Rghtning of the 
 angry law. He heard the thunder of incensed holi- 
 ness He looked toward the throne and it was 
 veiled in displeasure while justice with collected 
 might prepared to smite his defenceless head. 
 
 The dread crisis, at which perdition laughed and 
 Heaven wept, was reached. The promise of God, 
 the triumph of Christ, and the hopes of the world 
 hung trembling on that awful moment. "Father, if 
 it be possible, let this cup pass from me" sadly the 
 sinking Saviour said, and for a moment all seemed 
 lost, when swiftly as a sunbeam from the heart of 
 light, AN ANGEL camc and strengthened him, and, 
 girded with new might, firmly he added, "Not my 
 will but thine be done." The crisis was passed 
 and all was safe. Jehovah's word stood fast. The 
 woman's seed had stood the fiery ordeal. The sul- 
 len throne of darkness was vanquished. Hope rose 
 benignly over a lost world. 
 
 But for that angeVs visit to the sufferer in the 
 garden, at that critical, that august moment, what 
 might have been, who dares to contemplate ? Would 
 his human nature have failed? That it faltered we 
 know. Was there real danger? Else why did 
 Heaven send a special messenger to support the 
 lone Jesus in the matchless struggle ? And how did 
 the timely angel strengthen the fainting Son of 
 God? Did he remind him of the glory promised 
 by his Father, to follow the suffering? Did he 
 cause to' flash on his darkened vision the splen- 
 dors of the throne and kingdom that should be his 
 forever when the agony and darkness should be 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 59 
 
 past? Did he hold before his quivering view the 
 radiant massive crown and mighty scepter of uni- 
 versal lordship awaiting his triumph ? Did he cause 
 him to hear the acclaim of all the hosts of Heaven, 
 and the great song of all the redeemed that should 
 rend the skies w^hen his coronation hour should 
 come ? Perhaps he laid his hand above his break- 
 ing heart and from his own exhaustless might sent 
 needed power through the faltering forces of his 
 human frame, giving way under a weight of anguish 
 too heavy to be borne by one in mortal form. Per- 
 haps he spake in his anxious ear articulate words of 
 love and assuring cheer — words of his Father's con- 
 fidence and admiration ; words of the loyalty of the 
 heavenly hosts ; words of power and glory ancj king- 
 ship which rallied his hesitating trust, and girded 
 afresh his weary soul . for the initial victory of his 
 great ministry to earth. Sure it is an angel strength- 
 ened him, and he conquered. 
 
 And sure too it is that the same bright, holy, 
 powerful beings who attended the Saviour all 
 through his earthly career, and ministered to him 
 all his trials and sufferings, as really and constantly 
 attend all his saints ; the poorest and weakest even ; 
 guarding their weary steps from dangers ; deliver- 
 ing them from the "snare of the fowler;" defend- 
 ing them against the assaults of demons ; healing 
 their diseases ; assauging their sorrows ; providing 
 for their necessities, and strengthening them for all 
 their toils and labors of love. "The angel of the 
 Lord encampeth round about them that fear him 
 and deli vereth them." 
 
chaptp:r VII. 
 
 Angels at an Open Grave. 
 
 "Bright angels, bright angels, at the breaking of the day." 
 
 Not a harp was heard in Heaven. The angel 
 bands stood around the throne with folded wings 
 and bowed heads. The holy Son of God sleeps in 
 his snow-white shroud in a tomb of stone. He who 
 made the worlds lies silent and cold in death. The 
 hands that fashioned the stars and grouped the pie- 
 iades in kindred beauty have lost their skill. The 
 heart that broke over a world's guilt is pulseless 
 now and still. Jesus, the Christ, has fallen beneath 
 the sword of the conqueror of Eden. Slain is he, 
 but not vanquished. Before he surrendered he said, 
 "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise 
 it up." On those words hangs the destiny of two 
 worlds. If that prediction and pledge shall fail 
 hope for man is ended. If that tomb opens not 
 death is eternal sleep. The fallen star of Bethle- 
 hem must rise again out of the gloom of death, or 
 endless night covers our world and race. The slain 
 Captain of our salvation must conquer in his fall, 
 or the prince of darkness is an unchallenged victor. 
 
 But how can the dead Christ arise ? His sepul- 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 61 
 
 chre is solid rock. One egress only, and that is 
 made sure by a huge stone bearing the seal of 
 Rome, which means death to him who dares touch 
 it. And the soldiers of the king, clad in the garb 
 of battle, guard well the scarred sleeper lest his 
 strange prophecy shall, somehow, prove true. What 
 a moment of suspense in Heaven, and of destiny on 
 earth ! The hopes of men, the veracity of God, 
 the confidence of angels are bound up in the silent 
 folds of that cold, winding sheet. If that death 
 slumber be not broken within threescore and twelve 
 hours the travail of the ages has miscarried ; the 
 light of two worlds is quenched forever. 
 
 One day has come and gone and there is no sign. 
 Another sun has risen and set ; another silent, sad 
 night has past, and the dead Prince — promised 
 Prince of life — stirs not in his shroud. The slow 
 hours of the last day, on which hangs the awful is- 
 sue, are wearing on, and grim, sullen death hath 
 him still. 'Tis high twelve at night and the slow- 
 pacing sentinels cry, "All is well." The morn be- 
 gins to break. Another hour and all is lost. But 
 hark ! The shimmer of a wing ! And instantly a 
 twain of angels^ swiftly descending from the throne 
 on high, appear and spread their wings of light 
 over the dead Jesus in his marble tomb. At their 
 shining presence the mailed keepers fall back as 
 dead. And with their strong hands they roll the 
 stone away, and sit upon the seal it bears. One 
 glance from their eyes annuls the power of Rome. 
 The grave's mouth is opened wide. And he that 
 
62 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 was dead awoke, cast off the cerements of his 
 tomb, and came forth. 
 
 •'He burst death's bars asunder, and he triumphed o'er the 
 
 grave ; 
 He holds the keys of hades ; the almighty One to save. 
 Behold my hands, said Jesus ; I'm your living Lord and King ; 
 From the grave I will redeem you ; all my jewels I will bring." 
 
 "Bright angels, bright angels, at the breaking of the day ; 
 Bright angels, bright angels, they rolled the stone away." 
 
 Shout, ye seraphs of the skies ! He whose birth 
 ye sang in mighty chorus to the listening stars, 
 though he was dead is alive again ; and, behold, he 
 liveth forevermore. Rejoice, David, the Psalm- 
 ist, for his ''soul is not left in hades, neither has his 
 holy one seen corruption." Be glad, "ye that dwell 
 in dust, for now your dew shall be as the dew of 
 herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead." Sing, 
 ye martyrs, in your bloody shrouds, for your aveng- 
 ing is made sure. Clap your hands, ye Rachels, 
 for your scattered children shall come from the ene- 
 my's land. Lift up your voices, ye mothers all, for 
 he who loved and blessed the little children has 
 opened wide the doors of the tomb, and all your 
 precious ones shall come from the dark valley, as 
 doves to their windows. 
 
 "Rejoice and be glad, 
 For the Lamb that was slain, 
 O'er death is triumphant 
 And liveth again." 
 
 A COMPANY OF WOMEN MEET TWO ANGELS. 
 
 "Last at the cross and first at the sepulchre." 
 True to the instinct of womanly affection, a com- 
 pany of those who had followed Jesus from Galilee, 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 63 
 
 forsaking him not in death, visited the sepulchre to 
 see that his sacred form was tenderly and decently 
 composed in its divinely appointed resting-place, 
 and then retired to their dwellings to prepare spices 
 and ointments for his burial. And very early on 
 the morning of the first day of the week they re- 
 turned bringing their spices. On approaching the 
 tomb they were filled with amazement to find that 
 the stone was rolled away. The soldiers were gone, 
 and all was silent around. There was perfume of 
 peace and hope in the balmy morning air. The ori- 
 ent was just breaking into light, and blushed in 
 beauty as if seraphs were smiling on its radiant 
 brow. As the fast gathering rays flooded the mouth 
 of the tomb the women of Galilee, whose love for 
 the dead Saviour had banished their nightly slum- 
 bers, timidly entered. Quickly and tenderly their 
 anxious eyes searched the empty sepulchre for the 
 body of their slain Lord. Great was their wonder 
 when they found him not. Sore the perplexity that 
 seized their pained hearts. Had rude hands stolen 
 him away? Was added insult to be offered to his 
 clay in death? Was not the mockery, the thorns, 
 the nails, the spear which rioted with his last ago- 
 nies enough to satisfy their quenchless hate ? They 
 had marred his fair visage in life ; could they not 
 allow him the common repose of death ? They had 
 cruelly taunted his dying grief ; must they now in- 
 vade his grave of charity ? 
 
 As with sinking hearts they stood, dismayed, 
 "Two men" — angels — stood beside them in shining 
 garments. Startled and sore afraid at the presence 
 
64 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 of visitants whose majesty of mien and splendor of 
 person they had never seen or conceived before, 
 they bowed their faces to the earth in awe-stricken 
 wonder ; when the holy messengers spaZce, and said, 
 "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is 
 not here, he is risen." Were ever words before, or 
 in the ages since, so articulate with love and hope ? 
 The echo of that utterance flew, with wings of light, 
 up to the throne, and rang along the lines of the 
 heavenly hosts till fartherest herald, on embassage 
 to distant worlds, heard, and shouted on to worlds 
 more distant: "He is risen." The far realms of 
 "demons damned" heard it; and sullenly, through 
 all their cave**ns of despair repeated : "He is risen." 
 Death, trembling, heard it. From grave to grave 
 the tidings ran ; and every grain of saintly dust 
 grew instinct with surety of coming life, and seemed 
 to say, in symphony of myriad voices, "He is risen." 
 
 Nor did the angels pause with the great announce- 
 ment of Christ's victory over the grave and hades; 
 but still conversing, they repeated to Mary Magda- 
 lene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James 
 and the other women, their Master's half -forgotten 
 words : "Remember how he spake unto you when he 
 was yet in Galilee, saying. The Son of man must 
 be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be 
 crucified, and the third day rise again." 
 
 This is an indisputable case of audible angelic 
 intercourse with human beings. These heavenly 
 messengers talked to the astonished women in hu- 
 man language. The words of Jesus which they 
 quoted the women remembered and understood. It 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATIQN. 65 
 
 was no illusion. The women were not entranced, 
 for they hastened to find the rest of their company 
 and rehearsed to them what the angels had said. 
 
 How clearly appears the interesting truth that the 
 holy angels attended the Son of God in all his min- 
 istry on earth. They must have been at his side 
 when he uttered the words which he quoted to the 
 women. And though Mary and Joanna, and the 
 rest had forgotten them the angels had not forgotten. 
 
 ANGELS PRESENT AT THE ASCENSION. 
 
 The Saviour's ministry of miracle and grace was 
 supremely crowned by his conquest of death and 
 his resurrection from the grave. He had won on 
 every field and conquered every foe. He had rent 
 the confines of the tomb and led captivity captive. 
 He had spoiled principalities and powers, putting 
 them to an open shame. He had transfixed his ac- 
 cusers to his own triumphant cross, and chained the 
 powers of darkness to his chariot wheels. He had 
 only now to ascend to the right hand of the Majesty 
 on high whence he came for the rescue of an imper- 
 iled world. The heavenly hosts were impatient to 
 welcome the returning "Captain of our salvation." 
 For the last time he led his "little flock" out as 
 far as Bethany ; and having tenderly given them 
 his final words of instruction and affection, he was 
 parted from them and taken up into heaven. Dazed 
 with disappointment and grief they followed him, 
 in his upward flight, until his sacred form was lost 
 to their sorrowing gaze ; when, suddenly emerging 
 from the shadows, two angels, in the form of men, 
 
QQ FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 clad in glistening garments, audibly, in their own 
 tongue, address them. And thus they said: "Ye 
 men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? 
 This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into 
 heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have 
 seen him go into heaven." 
 
 The same holy twain of angels which comforted 
 and strengthened the sad and fainting Jesus in the 
 garden, and announced to the delighted women his 
 resurrection at the dawning of the third day, now 
 reappear to make known to earth another truth of 
 equal grandeur and glory — that the resurrected and 
 ascended Lord will, some splendid day, return to 
 the scenes of his earthly humiliations and sorrows, 
 to complete his triumphs in the deliverance from 
 death and hades of those who have followed him in 
 the regeneration. 
 
 But did the heavenly heralds reappear? Were 
 they not, rather, always with him, from the moment 
 of his birth to the hour when, in the majesty of tri- 
 umphant power, he mounted the obedient skies, and 
 made a chariot of the clouds ; sweeping through the 
 rejoicing heavens, bearing to his Father's throne 
 the trophies of a vanquished prince of evil, and an 
 opened grave ? We dare believe the selfsame holy 
 guardians who kept watch over the infant Jesus in 
 his manger cradle, and escorted the family of three, 
 in their flight for safety, into Egypt, turning the 
 darkness into light, were always at his side, leaving 
 him not day nor night ; his heaven-appointed body 
 guard ; honored above their fellow seraphs ; the 
 royal staff of the Saviour-King, — at once Redeemer 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 67 
 
 and Lord. And, as though men might count these 
 not enough, did he not say, I can ask of my Father 
 and he will send me "twelve legions" more? But 
 these were quite enough. Two mighty sons of God, 
 one at his right hand, one at his left, could defend 
 their royal charge against a universe of devils. At 
 a single volition they could stay ten score As- 
 syrians ; beat back the massed foe in Gethsemane ; 
 strike the kings's soldiers dead before the sepulchre, 
 and roll away the Rome-sealed stone without hin- 
 drance. 
 
 The Saviour's whole career beneath our skies was 
 angel-guarded, angel-led. Beneath the invincible 
 shield of angelic arms, he slept and woke, and 
 fought his conflicts ; save now and then, when to 
 pay the full debt of justice he must win by his own 
 merit alone, he stood apart and coped with the craf- 
 ty foe single handed ; while the watching seraphs 
 stood within the shadows proudly witnessing his 
 easy victory. 
 
 The complete narrative of our Lord's birth, life, 
 miracles, death, reliving, and glorious ascension is 
 radiant with angelic ministry. To discredit this 
 great and brilliant aspect of the redemptive scheme 
 were like blotting a seventh part of the stars from 
 the vault of heaven. The foot-prints of angels in 
 this mortal vale are as visible as the foot-prints of 
 their Lord, the Christ. He who cannot hear the 
 rustle of their wings in the fields of divine revela- 
 lation is deaf to all heavenlv voices. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 4 
 
 Jcsas UUent floaay, but the flngels 
 are With us Still. 
 
 When the Saviour returned to his Father he did 
 not leave his own to the sorrows of orphanage. "I 
 will not leave you comfortless," he said. Among 
 the choicest gifts bequeathed to his church was the 
 royal legacy of angelic ministration. The foot- 
 prints of those holy beings have not ceased to ap- 
 pear in this vale of tears since our Lord departed. 
 Twelve legions of the shining ones waited, and 
 wait still, upon his divine behest. And though his 
 specially selected personal attendants escorted him 
 to the courts above, others were commissioned to 
 "'encamp round about" his church and assume the 
 guardianship of the ''little flock" which he left be- 
 hind. For they are the appointed "ministering spir- 
 its," not to Christ alone, but to "them who shall be 
 heirs of salvation." The apostolic era and the en- 
 tire Christian age are instinct with their presence, 
 and with their skillful and mighty interventions. 
 Under the Redeemer they "rule this lower world." 
 
 Jacob's ladder has not been drawn up to Heaven, 
 only its head has ascended and become attached to 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 69 
 
 the pillars of the throne. Daily and nightly still 
 they come and go *'upon the Son of man." They 
 watch from the hills and encamp in the valleys. 
 They are the tireless messengers of their ascended 
 Lord. They sing his praise above and work his 
 will below. They often still the storm as would 
 their master if he was here. They drive back the 
 thronging demons in his name. They turn the steps 
 leadiug to dangers ; and sometimes palsy the well- 
 aimed shafts of death. Diseases know their pres- 
 ence and surrender at their touch. They are the 
 vicegerents of the great Conqueror, the allies of the 
 Spirit, and the heralds of the Word. "If the word 
 spoken by angels was steadfast." 
 
 Angelic ministry is as frequent and marked since 
 the ascension as before. The Epistles and the Apoc- 
 alypse are vocal with their instructions and their 
 consolations. So long as the New Testament nar- 
 ratives were kept up angelic interposition was visi- 
 ble. And since the sacred books were closed, even 
 unto this hour, had all the well authenticated in- 
 stances of angelic ministries been preserved to us, 
 in the history of the church, they would show an 
 unbroken succession of this wonderful agency in 
 the workings of the gospel economy. There are 
 abundant grounds for the belief that these interme- 
 diate beings, in rank between men and God, bear 
 incessant and effective part in all the trophies of 
 grace. "Are they not serving spirits, sent forth to 
 serve them that shall be heirs of salvation ?" What 
 a grand trinity of forces is here ! The Spirit, the 
 Word, and the holy plenipotentiaries of the throne. 
 
70 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 The ministry of anointed men, with these for a 
 ''front guard and rereward" is majestic and invinci- 
 ble. With these potent co-workers why need we 
 fear? Defended by these powerful and faithful 
 guardians sent from Heaven, why need we distrust? 
 
 ANGELS DISPUTE THE AUTHORITY OF THE HIGH PRIESTS. 
 
 Jerusalem was wild with excitement. The apos. 
 ties were performing the most startling miracles. 
 Ananias and his wife had fallen dead at Peter's re- 
 buke of their deception and falsehood. And many 
 signs and wonders were wrought among the people. 
 The sick were brought out on their couches and 
 laid in the streets that the shadow of the passing 
 apostles might fall on them and heal them. The 
 whole surrounding country was stirred to its pro- 
 foundest depths. Every hearth stone was the scene 
 of solemn and excited inquiry and discussion. Swift- 
 ly the tidings grew that all manner of maladies 
 were instantly cured by the touch, the word, the 
 look of Peter the well-known fisherman, and the 
 others who followed with him. Mothers looked anx- 
 iously on their sick and dying children and prayed 
 that the strangely gifted men might pass their doors. 
 Surrounding cities caught up the amazing news, 
 and every group and household was wildly agitated. 
 The stories grew in wonder from lip to lip. One 
 thing alone was thought of. Was it true that men 
 were among them who had power to heal, and actu- 
 ally were healing all the sick who were placed in 
 their presence ; and casting the demons out of all 
 possessed of them? Credulity spurned all bounds; 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 71 
 
 a spontaneous movement broke forth ; a simultane- 
 ous rush towards Jerusalem set in from all points. 
 On beds, on couches, in vehicles of every kind, the 
 sick were borne along as if it were resurrection day 
 in the old metropolis. Children at the point of 
 death were carried in their mother's arms. And the 
 strong keepers of "them which were vexed with un- 
 clean spirits," hurried their raving patients, in their 
 clanging fetters, toward the spot where the apostles 
 were assembled. And of all who came not one re- 
 turned unhealed. Each victim, whatever was his 
 disease, went back made whole. The children, al- 
 ready in the approaching chills of death, returned 
 prattling with innocent glee in their joyful mother's 
 bosoms, unconscious of the power that had turned 
 the suffering of their 3'oung lives into gladness. 
 The maniac, who unwilling came, biting his chains, 
 returned without his keeper, "clothed and in his 
 right mind." 
 
 "There came also a multitude out of the cities 
 round about, unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, 
 and them which were vexed with unclean spirits ; 
 and they were healed every one." Acts 5 : 16. 
 
 The high priests were wild with rage because all 
 these wonderful works were done in the name and 
 by the power of him whom, in their blind hatred, 
 they had so lately caused to be put to death. They 
 .feared all Jerusalem would be carried away by these 
 miracles and themselves become the scorn of the 
 people. 
 
 They could not dissuade the multitude for it was 
 plain that the miracles wrought by the apostles were 
 
72 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 real, and that the popular sympathy was intense. 
 Every moment's delay increased the excitement. 
 The boldest measures must be adopted at once or 
 the matter would outgrow their authority and ren- 
 der interference dangerous to the peace of the city 
 and the personal safety of the priests themselves. 
 In reckless anger, the high priest, aided by the Sad- 
 ducees, laid violent hands on the men of God, and 
 shut them up in the common prison. 
 
 But where now were their heavenly guardians? 
 Were they the silent, unseen spectators of the in- 
 sults offered the legates of their Master? Did they 
 stand in awe of the sacred office filled, though dis- 
 honored, by the priests of God ? Would they leave 
 the objects of their care to suffer in chains without 
 remonstrance? 
 
 The last rays of the setting sun had faded from 
 the spires of the city of David. The hush of ad- 
 vancing night lay on the great populace. The lights 
 in the prison were out. The sentinels cried, "Twelve 
 o'clock, and all is well." The drowsy high priest, 
 sure that his victims were safely guarded, sank to 
 his guilty slumbers. The keepers of the prison trod 
 to and fro before the well barred doors. The inno- 
 cent inmates were grouped in silent prayer, when, 
 noiselessly, an angel entered. A motion of his 
 hand and all the prison gates stood open. Calmly 
 he led them forth. So quietly, even, the watchful 
 guard knew not that their precious charge was elud- 
 ing their vigilance. The doors closed softly after 
 their receding forms ; and the faithful sentinels kept 
 watch around an empty jail. 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 73 
 
 When well outside, in the faintly breaking light 
 of day, the delivered servants of God stood around 
 their angelic guardian, who, in tones that made the 
 Jewish priests seem pitiably ignominious, said, '-Go, 
 stand and speak to the people in the temple all the 
 words of this life." 
 
 With the high priest's returning wakefulness came 
 afresh his bitter indignation ; and early in the morn- 
 ing he assembled the council and all the senate, and 
 sent to the prison to have the apostles brought forth 
 that he might consummate his wicked intent in hav- 
 ing them more severely punished, perhaps put to 
 death. But great was his chagrin and anger when 
 the officers returned without the prisoners ; and 
 when closely examined, said, ''The prison truly 
 found we shut with all safety, and the keepers 
 standing before the doors ; but when we had opened 
 we found no man within." And presently one came, 
 and said, "The men whom ye put in prison are 
 standing in the temple and teaching the people." 
 
 Finely art thou baffled, cruel and crafty high 
 priest, in thy foul design to stifle the healing power 
 of him, whose blood, shed by thy wanton hands, is 
 ''upon" thee and thy "children." In thy plotting 
 thou shouldest have remembered that the God of 
 Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob had said, "The 
 angel of the Lord encampeth around them that fear 
 him, and delivereth them." 
 
 If some, by entertaining strangers have thereby 
 entertained angels unawares ; others, by assaulting 
 God's servants have thereby encountered angels 
 when least expecting it. And thus we meet again 
 
74 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 the palpable fact that the ministration of the an- 
 gelic race is a marked and majestic feature in the 
 economy of redemption. In personal experiences, 
 in dispensational visitations, and in the marching 
 and countermarching of mighty forces in the his- 
 tory of nations, these holy beings act important 
 and decisive parts. They foil wicked machinations 
 by opening the guarded doors of gloomy prisons, 
 and setting the chained sufferers free. They defeat 
 plotting councils ; overrule grave senates ; drive 
 back mighty armies ; spread their invincible shields 
 over the defenceless heads of Christ's ambassadors ; 
 escort the church in her struggling pilgrimage to the 
 land of promise ; protect the widows and the father- 
 less ; attend in darkness and in day, the poorest, 
 weakest, most disconsolate saint. They mingle, un- 
 seen, in all the gatherings of the righteous ; they 
 poise mid-air over baptismal scenes ; they tenderly 
 lead on, with unheard footfall, the sad companies 
 who go out to the burial ; they steady the faltering 
 steps of age, and watch the cradles of helpless in- 
 fancy. 
 
 '*Angels now are hovering round us, 
 Unperceived they mix the throng ; 
 Wondering at the love that crowns us. 
 Glad to join the holy throng." 
 
 ANOTHER WONDERFUL DELIVERANCE. 
 
 Mystery and miracle enswathe us. Above, be- 
 low, around, the supernatural is all pervading. 
 God is above nature ; and the seraphs are his swift- 
 winged messengers. What we call physical law is 
 no obstruction to angelic ministries. Bolts and 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 75 
 
 bars and prison gates disappear at their volition, 
 and dungeons like palaces shine in their presence. 
 No place can be so dismal, no cavern so deep and 
 dark, no Inquisition cell so hidden and fetid, no 
 fortress so strongly guarded, that they cannot find 
 quick and easy access, if a child of God be there. 
 The heaviest manacles forged by popes and tyrants, 
 and riveted by skill and strength of demons, dis- 
 solve at their slightest touch. 
 
 Here is a spectacle ! An angel within prison 
 walls ! Our pained ears have heard of prophets, 
 apostles, martyrs and saints, wasting, starving, dying 
 in cruel incarceration. Our tear-dimmed eyes have 
 traced the story of Toussaint L'Ouverture starved 
 to death in the castle of Joux, by order of the great 
 Napoleon, for his devotion to human liberty. We 
 cherish as a sacred legacy the narrative of John 
 Bunyan's sufferings and faith in Bedford jail. We 
 recall with undisguised indignation the record of 
 the thousands who pined in the dungeons of the in- 
 famous Inquisition, waiting for the guillotine or the 
 stake. But here we have the rare case of a verita- 
 ble living angel in a jail. Wherefore, and with 
 what ending, we shall see. 
 
 It was night in the Hebrew city. Within the 
 outer wall stood the common prison. Before the 
 gate a quaternion of soldiers kept vigilant guard. 
 Some victim of offended justice of rare importance 
 must be confined within those grim old walls. Let 
 us look in. Lying there on the cold stone floor, 
 heavily manacled, is a manly form, scarce fashioned 
 for such a place as this. Two chains were on his 
 
76 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 hands, two galling his feet — one chain was deemed 
 enough for common criminals. Four quaternions 
 of soldiers — sixteen in all — watched by turns their 
 precious trophy of Jewish hate. Who may this 
 doubly dangerous captive be? This is Peter, the 
 late fisherman of Galilee, now the legate of the cru- 
 cified but living Jesus. He dies in the morning. 
 James had already been beheaded ; he was being 
 kept till the Easter festival should be ended, when 
 he was to be made a spectacle to the people. Nor 
 was he ignorant of his fate. He knew too well the 
 unrelenting hatred of his blinded countrymen to the 
 name of Him whose avowed disciple and apostle he 
 was. 
 
 Our hearts go out tenderly towards him. Torn 
 from his home and kindred, and awaiting, in that 
 loathsome place, the headman's cruel axe, he must 
 be sore stricken with inconsolable grief. But see ! 
 He sleeps ! Quietly, sweetly, a victorious but tired 
 warrior on his untarnished shield. Why should he 
 not slumber? True, it seemed his last night on 
 earth, and bloody seemed his doom. But was he 
 not Jehovah's faithful herald ? Had he not seen his 
 Lord and Master triumphantly expire while heaven 
 and earth gave visible, audible witness to the glory 
 of his death, changing his dying agonies into sig- 
 nals of his power and majesty ? Was he not Christ's 
 heroic embassador? and had not the Captian of his 
 salvation given pledge to succor him to the end, 
 and forever? What ultimate or essential harm could 
 befall him under any condition, in any world? 
 
 Yet, to all eyes but God's and angels' bis lot was 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 77 
 
 most forlorn. His enemies were dead to justice or 
 mercy. His friends were powerless as himself. 
 The cause which he impersonated was the scorn of 
 all men. Despair was at its height. So was faith. 
 One weapon alone remained. But that was mighty 
 to the pulling down of strong holds. It had proved 
 potent enough to shut and open the heavens. It 
 had enthroned monarchs, and dethroned tyrants. 
 It had changed the purpose of kings, and deter- 
 mined the destiny of nations. It had reached the 
 throne of Omnipotence and called messengers from 
 heaven. 
 
 Prayer went up, and an angel came down. One 
 angel. That was enough. Against the Jewish 
 priests wild with rage ; against four quaternions of 
 soldiers ; against Herod ; against Rome ; against 
 the arch fiend, back of them all, one angel was suf- 
 ficient. 
 
 "When the rush and roar of the great city had 
 died awav into silence, and the lights in the halls of 
 revelry were out, and the gloating priests had sunk 
 into their guilty slumbers, a slender band of women 
 secretly gathered at Mary's house to spend the night 
 in incessant prayer. Between that humble kitchen 
 in that remote quarter of the city and the courts of 
 heaven, telephonic communication was quickly es- 
 tablished, and before the voice of supplication had 
 gone round that little circle, an angel, tall and 
 mighty, was bending over Peter sleeping in his 
 chains, and the gloomy dungeon was suddenly as 
 light as heaven. As that holy envoy, flying swiftly 
 through the darkness, descried the prison and the 
 
78 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 cell where the manacled apostle was lying, so will 
 the commissioned bands find every grave, in earth 
 and sea — the marble tomb fenced in by wealth and 
 royal insignia, and the humble grave obscured by 
 debris of ages. And as the light, radiating from 
 the personal presence, filled the prison, so will the 
 glory of the Lord fill all the earth in its restitution 
 splendor. 
 
 Angelic power, under divine commission, is su- 
 perior to physical law. Untouched, Peter's chains 
 fell off, and the huge iron gate, at the heavenly vis- 
 itant's approach, opened of its own accord. 
 
 Tlie scene at the house of Mary was true to the 
 inconsistencies of faith. Left by his heavenly guide 
 in the open street, the miraculously delivered apos- 
 tle instinctively hastened to the place where the 
 women were praying. The valiant group were on 
 their knees when Peter's well known knock was 
 heard on the door. At that very instant they were 
 fervently entreating God to interpose for the deliv- 
 erance of his servant. Yet when the answer came 
 so swift, so grand, they for the moment would not 
 accept it. Their mighty faith was dazed by the 
 majesty of its achievement. The literal fulfillment of 
 their petition shocked their mental confidence, and 
 they ready to accept, as a compromise, the ghost 
 of Peter for Peter himself. So is our faith often 
 staggered by the miracle of its triumphs ; and we 
 are ready to fall back to a position of half doubt 
 and half expectancy. We pray for the angel to 
 come straight from heaven, and fill our dungeons 
 with the light of day, and melt off our chains and 
 
, IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 79 
 
 set US free. But when God begins to answer ia his 
 mighty way, we are afraid, and say it may be partly 
 true. 
 
 AN ANGEL AT THE HELM IN A STORM. 
 
 Saint Paul was under arrest for preaching Christ 
 and the resurrection ; and having appealed to Ca?sar 
 was on his way to Rome for trial. Soon after they 
 had passed Crete they encountered a tempest fiercely 
 driven by a terrible wind known by mariners as 
 Euroclydon ; and when they had been tossed and 
 driven, the sport of the uuabating storm, for many 
 days, seeing neither the sun nor the stars, the offi- 
 cers and crew gave up all hope of being saved. 
 The apostle had warned them of their danger and 
 advised a course of safety, but they did not regard 
 his words. 
 
 There were on board two hundred and seventy-six 
 souls, all exposed to certain death, so far as they 
 could see. At the height of their despair Paul devoted 
 himself to fasting and prayer. For many days and 
 nights he wrestled with God for the deliverance of 
 the ship's company as Jacob wrestled with an angel 
 at Peniel in the years of old. At dead of night, in 
 the darkness and the gloom, an unseen holy one 
 mounted the wings of the tempest at its wildest 
 mood; and treading the mad winds beneath his feet, 
 passed swiftly to the laboring and helpless vessel. 
 Around the apostle, prone in agony of prayer, sud- 
 denly shone a light as it had been of Heaven, much 
 resembling the glory which overwhelmed him when 
 on his wav to Damascus to hail the friends of Jesus 
 
80 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 to prison and death. Over his weary frame came a 
 glow of peace and strength as a voice of unearthly 
 sweetness and power, said; "Fear not, Paul; thou 
 must be brought before Caesar ; and, lo, God hath 
 given thee all them that sail with thee ;" and lifting 
 up his ej^es he saw an angel by his side. 
 
 This was no new delight to the great legate of 
 Christ He had met angels before, and been ad- 
 dressed in speech not of earth. He had learned to 
 trust without misgiving the assurances of heavenly 
 visitants. He knew their control of the warring ele- 
 ments of nature. All, fear forsook him. In calm 
 confidence he stood among the frightened and de- 
 spairing people, and said ; "Sirs, be of good cheer ; 
 for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was 
 told me." And well he might believe ; for the rec- 
 ords of all time bear no instance of failure of any 
 word or jot or tittle spoken by a holy angel. An- 
 gelic announcements have ever stood fast ; immuta- 
 ble as the voice of Jehovah whose commissioned 
 messengers they are. Nations have arisen and 
 fallen at their command ; and dynasties have crum- 
 bled at their breath. Whoever gets tidings from a 
 good angel may rest in certainty of accomplishment. 
 
 The Greek mythology abounds in gods and god- 
 desses to whom is ascribed the control of all forces 
 both of land and sea ; Poseidon, the god of water, 
 and the storm-bearing Harpies, swift as the blast of 
 the winter wind ; a progeny of gods and nymphs, 
 who are guardians of air and sky ; Phorcys, the 
 ruler of the sea ; and the Sirens who still the winds 
 of heaven with their songs. But the angry ele- 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 81 
 
 ments failed to acknowledge the power of these 
 creatures of the imagination. Only at the voice of 
 him who fashioned the worlds, and under the man- 
 date of those whom he has sent forth as the 
 messengers of his will, has ruffled nature surren- 
 dered ; the wild winds been stilled ; the storms grown 
 calm ; the angry deep smoothed its brow to rest. 
 
 In bringing safe to land the "two hundred three- 
 score and sixteen souls," w^hether the angel under- 
 girded the ship by his own might, making her 
 strong to battle against the Euroclydon and resist 
 the power of the tempest, or by his breath calmed 
 the temper of the storm until the ship with its pre- 
 cious freight could be run ashore, or both, we may 
 not know ; but sure it is that the guardian one was 
 master of both the vessel and the storm, and held 
 the helm in his unseen grasp ; and all the winds and 
 waves of sky and sea could not fatally wreck those 
 whom he had promised to rescue in response to 
 Paul's fasting and supplication. 
 
 The ministering angels are at home alike on the 
 sea and on the land. They can stand on the earth, 
 or walk on the water, or fly through the midst of 
 heaven. They can speak from the skies, feed a dis- 
 consolate prophet in the wilderness, or pluck a 
 foundering ship from a tempest in mid-ocean. 
 Wherever God's presence is there are the3^ They 
 traverse the etherial spaces with lightning swift- 
 ness. They need no winged flotilla to make the 
 circuit of the sea, nor chariots of steam and flame 
 to compass the land. Contrary winds and wild 
 storms cannot obstruct their flight. They are never 
 
62 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 behind the appointed time. They are not omnipres- 
 ent, but they can go round our globe as quickly as 
 an electric flash. No danger can elude their sight. 
 No demon can escape their vigilance. No darkness 
 can obscure the objects of their guardianship. They 
 can people the sea and the dry laud at will. If 
 they encamp about us we cannot be outnumbered. 
 If an angel be at the helm our vessel cannot founder. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 fln flngel Settles an International 
 Question. 
 
 In the progress of the divine purpose of grace for 
 our entire humanity the time had come for the "par- 
 tition wall" of national caste to be smitten down. 
 The water of life, hitherto pent up in the narrow 
 channels of the Hebrew blood, must flow to every 
 nation, tribe and kindred. The illimitable Gentile 
 peoples must become heirs to the love of God in 
 Christ the Saviour. But the barriers are high and 
 strong, and fortified by the mutual hate of many 
 centuries of growth. How can unity be reached? 
 Who shall act as mediator between the proud, 
 haughty, boastful and exclusive Jew and the hated 
 heathen Gentile? No Gentile ambassador would be 
 received at a Jewish court. And no Jew would 
 consent to make overtures to the Gentile "dogs." 
 
 At CjHsarea, in Palestine, lived a remarkable man 
 named Cornelius. To be sure he was a military 
 character, a centurion, or captain in the Roman 
 army. But he was "A devout man, and one that 
 feared God with all his house, which gave much 
 alms to the people, and prayed to God always.'*" 
 
84 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 But he was a Gentile ; what the Jews would call 
 "common" or "unclean." He had been circumcised. 
 How fit that such a character should be chosen of 
 the Lord as the door through which the gospel 
 should be introduced to the Gentile world. 
 
 But of the more complete knowledge of Christ 
 and his gospel which Cornelius needed, the apostles 
 held the key. And all the accredited legates of 
 Christ were Jews, and shared their nation's preju- 
 dice against all other peoples. And to this time 
 they had preached to the "Lost sheep of the house 
 of Israel" alone. Peter, with his vehement nature, 
 was intensely Jewish. He was particularly proud 
 of his ancestral purity. He had always kept him- 
 self clean from alliance or sympathy with the out- 
 side world. Nothing less than special divine inter- 
 position could soften his aristocracy of blood. He 
 would have deemed a proposition to preach Christ 
 to the heathen world sacrilegious. And how could 
 the gospel flow to the Gentiles through such hands ? 
 
 As Cornelius was alone at about the ninth hour 
 of the day, devoutly worshipping, "He saw in a vis- 
 ion openly, an angel of God coming in unto him, 
 and saying to him, Cornelius. And he, fastening 
 his eyes upon him, and being frightened, said, 
 What is it. Lord? And he said unto him. Thy 
 prayers and thine alms are gone up for a memorial 
 before God. And now send men to Joppa, and 
 fetch one Simon, who is surnamed Peter ; he lodg- 
 eth with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by 
 the seaside. And when the angel that spake unto 
 him was departed, he called two of his household 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 85 
 
 servants, and a devout soldier of them who waited 
 on him continually ; and having rehearsed all things 
 unto them, he sent them to Joppa." 
 
 Dr. Adam Clark says of this passage, "This text 
 is as plain as it can be that an angel of God did 
 appear to Cornelius." This appearance to Cornelius 
 was similar to that made to Daniel, 9 : 20-23, and 
 especially like that to Zachariah, the father of John 
 the Baptist, Luke 1 : 11. Here, as in the other in- 
 stances, the angel held actual conversation with the 
 centurion, and his person was visible. There is 
 every reason to believe that the whole transaction 
 was entirely real and literal. And this view accords 
 perfectly with many other cases of angelic visita- 
 tion, both in the New Testament and in the Old. 
 
 At the same hour of the angel's visit to Ca^sarea, 
 Peter was at Joppa ; and while the embassage, sent 
 by the centurion, was approaching their destination, 
 the apostle became unusually hungry while praying 
 on the house'top ; but as he waited for the meal to 
 be prepared he fell into a trance, or an ecstasy, a 
 transport of spiritual delight, coming over him as 
 he communed with God ; preparing him for the reve- 
 lation which was to be made to him by the messen- 
 gers of Cornelius, as prefigured by the vision of the 
 sheet filled with all manner of beasts. Accom- 
 panying this wonderful exhibition was a voice^ ad- 
 dressing Peter in audible words. No doubt it was 
 the same angel that communicated with Cornelius 
 who spake twice to Peter directing him what to do 
 with regard to the vision ; and instructing him that 
 what God had cleansed should not be called com- 
 
86 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 mon or unclean ; thus preparing him to receive the 
 messengers of the Gentile centurion. And so was 
 the apostle affected by the voice which spake to 
 him, and the recital that an angel had visited Cor- 
 nelius with reference to the same matter, that he 
 willingly went with the man, on the next day to 
 Caesarea, where the great question was forever set- 
 tled that God was no respecter of national blood, 
 and the partition wall between Jew and Gentile was 
 broken down. 
 
 It is clear that, in this case, a holy angel was 
 commissioned to adjudicate a most important and 
 difficult international matter, and open the Gentile 
 world to the gospel of redemption. And did ever 
 an earthly diplomatist display greater foresight and 
 skill? How vastly intelligent and trustworthy must 
 those holy ones be. And if our Heavenly Father 
 trusts them to manage the most weighty affairs of 
 the divine administration, ought we not to accept 
 with entire confidence the inspired assurance that, 
 "All these are ministering spirits, sent forth to 
 serve them that shall be heirs of salvation. ?" And 
 may we not believe that the Word of God, as ful- 
 filled in the career of the nations, is superintended 
 still by those wise and true representatives of the 
 throne of heaven? 
 
 AN ANGEL DIRECTING A BAPTISM. 
 
 The church at Jerusalem was terrorized by the 
 ferocious persecution of Saul of Tarsus. In fear 
 of being slain the disciples fled in all directions. 
 Philip, a deacon and Evangelist, went down to 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 87 
 
 Damascus, and preached to the mixed population, 
 Christ and the resurrection with great success. 
 
 In Ethiopia lived a man of high character, who 
 was lord chamberlain of Queen Candace's house- 
 hold. Though in great authority, having full charge 
 of the queen's treasury, he was a devout man and 
 worshipped God ; but he needed Christian enlight- 
 raent and baptism. He was on his way to Jerusa- 
 lem to engage in religious devotion, when an angel 
 appeared to Philip, and said to him, * 'Arise, go 
 toward the south, unto the way that goeth down 
 from Jerusalem unto Gaza which is desert." Acts 
 8; 26. 
 
 What could the angel have had in view in so par- 
 ticularly directing Philip as to what course he should 
 take? Did he know that the Ethiopian was on Mb 
 way to Jerusalem ; and did he desire to bring the 
 two men, Philip and the eunuch, together for some 
 important purpose ? The sequel will show. 
 
 As Philip went on his way, as the angel had di- 
 rected him, he caught sight of a man, of royal equi- 
 page, riding in a chariot and reading a book. Spe- 
 cially impressed by the Spirit, he joined himself to 
 the chariot, and heard the royal traveler reading 
 from the prophet Esaias, and soon found himself 
 enlisted in a very interesting conversation with none 
 other than a chief officer from Ethiopia, the treas- 
 urer of Queen Candace's Court. Now the light 
 begins to shine. The angel was sent to superinduce 
 the baptism of the eunuch. And this was his inge- 
 nious method. He knew when the treasurer would 
 leave Ethiopa, and by what route he would make 
 
SS FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 his journey, and at what speed he would travel ; and 
 he started Philip out towards the south by just the 
 I'oad to intercept the Ethiopian. 
 
 Philip lost no time in more fully instructing his 
 deeply interested listener, who presently enquired of 
 the Evangelist if he could not be baptized? At 
 that moment they opportunely came upon a "cer- 
 tain water" by the wayside. And the treasurer 
 commanded the chariot to stand still ; "And they 
 went down both into the water, both Philip and the 
 eunuch ; and he baptized him." 
 
 And here is another beautiful lesson of angelic 
 ministrations. These holy beings not only interpose 
 their shield of mighty power between the friends of 
 Jesus and the bad angels ; take part in great na- 
 tional issues ; control important religious events ; but 
 they also maintain an intense concern in the per- 
 sonal experience and career of each child of God. 
 They overrule circumstances to induce obedience to 
 duty. They prepare the way for the ordinances of 
 the gospel to be honored. They predispose the 
 ministers of truth to the ways they should take. 
 They bring royalty and peasantry into sweetest fel- 
 lowship by their tender mediations. They cause 
 officers who ride in chariots and Evangelists who go 
 on foot to go down, arm-in-arm into the baptismal 
 waters. 
 
 While the Spirit by a subtle force which we can- 
 not analyze, acts directly on our moral and mental 
 faculties ; Illuminating the fields of truth, and reveal- 
 ing to human perception the divine character and pur- 
 poses ; quickening torpid sensibilities ; arousing con- 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 89 
 
 science to a sense of obligation, and softening the 
 will into obedience ; the angels have control of out- 
 ward conditions ; the mastery of physical elements ; 
 the marshaling of human agencies ; the disposal of 
 historic and providential coincidencies ; the issues 
 of armed conflicts ; the fulfillment of divine predic- 
 tion ; and the general superintendence of the affairs 
 of our world. The Scriptures warrant us in saying 
 that the Almighty largely governs our world by the 
 direct interposition and powerful ministry of his 
 liolv ano^els. 
 
 "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even 
 thousands of angels. The Lord is among them, as 
 in Sinai in the holy place." "Who maketh his an- 
 gels spirits ; his ministers a flaming fire." 
 
 AN ANGEL CURES DISEASES. 
 
 At Jerusalem, near the sheep market, there was 
 a pool or bath which had obtained great notoriety. 
 It was called in Hebrew Bethesda, or Bethchasdah, 
 The house of mercy. It had derived this name from 
 the many cures which had come to the sick from 
 bathing in its waters. But it was not believed 
 the healing virtue was in the water naturally for all 
 manner of diseases were instantly cured ; diseases 
 entirely unlike, positively opposite in their nature 
 and producing causes, disappeared in a moment 
 All kinds and classes of sufferers were made whole, 
 whatsoever maladies aflflicted them, the instant they 
 entered the pool. A result which has never been 
 claimed for any other medicinal waters, at any 
 time, or in anv land. Beside, Bethesda had no heal- 
 
90 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 ing property except at particular times, when its 
 waters were strangely agitated. All of which proved 
 that the curative power, whatever it was, did not 
 inhere in the water in its natural condition. 
 
 Around Bethesda were built five porches or porti- 
 coes for the accommodation of the sick and halt 
 and withered people who thronged the place in hope 
 of being cured. The porticoes were all free, no 
 charge being made for their occupancy ; for the 
 Jews never allowed a tax to be collected of the 
 poor invalids who sought relief in these healing 
 waters ; a further proof that they regarded the 
 cures as supernatural. 
 
 "After this there was a feast of the Jews." John 
 5: 1. This was doubtless the feast of the Pass- 
 over. At these feasts only was there any healing 
 virtue in the waters of Bethesda. On this occasion 
 "A great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, 
 withered, crowded the porches ; some on beds, some 
 on crutches, some carried in the arms of their 
 friends, some lying helpless and friendless on the 
 floors; all "waiting for the moving of the water." 
 For it was only when the water was troubled or put 
 in motion that it possessed healing virtue. But at 
 a "certain season," probably during the feast only, 
 an "angel went down and troubled the water ; who- 
 soever then first after the troubling of the water, 
 stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease 
 he had." John 5 : 4. 
 
 Just how the healing virtue was communicated to 
 the pool no one can tell ; but certain it is that some- 
 how the angel of the Lord had power to infuse into 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 91 
 
 the water a a efficacy that instantly cured every 
 kind of malady. And this shows that angels have, 
 under special commission at least, control of dis- 
 eases. Nor need we stumble at all this, for in 
 more than one case they have been sent to destroy 
 as well as to heal. Life and death are, under the 
 divine direction, subject to their will. Doubtless 
 many instances of sudden healing of obstinate ail- 
 ments come of angelic interposition. What is 
 called "faith healing," in our own times, when it is 
 genuine, may be regarded as the merciful ministry 
 of holy angels. For if demons — fallen angels — 
 have power over human bodies, and can inflict dis- 
 eases, as in the case of Job, and can cast into 
 water and into fire, as did the demons in Christ's 
 time, need we doubt that the holy angels are charged 
 with ability to counterwork the wicked designs of 
 the spirits of darkness? There are best of scrip- 
 tural reasons for believing that muoh of the paiu 
 and sickness we endure is superinduced by the 
 malevolence of bad angels ; and that many deliver- 
 ances of God's people when all human ill has failed, 
 are to be attributed to the power of the angels of the 
 Lord. If they ministered to the Saviour, relieving 
 him from pain and weakness, as in the garden and 
 after his sore conflict with Satan in the wilderness, 
 why should they not, in like manner, render their 
 tender services to the "followers of the Lamb?" 
 That they are not visible at our side amid danger, 
 nor in the chambers of the sick, does not disprove 
 their presence. The angel who came down and 
 troubled the Bethesda pool was, probably, not seen 
 
92 FOOT- PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 by the people, not even by the sufferers, who 
 waited for his merciful ministries ; yet the Divine 
 Record declares that an angel was there, and that 
 the miraculous cures were wrought by his hand. 
 
 A most beautiful feature in the scene at Bethesda 
 was the intimate relation between the angel and the 
 Lord Jesus. The angel troubled the waters and im- 
 pregnated them with curative virtue, and Jesus took 
 the most helpless one of all that sad company bj' 
 the hand and made him whole without being im- 
 mersed in the troubled pool at all ; showing that 
 there was one greater even than the angels, and 
 that from him these subordinate healers derive all 
 their power ; and that when he, the infinite healer, 
 should be no longer among them in person, his holy 
 angels would still be commissioned to perpetuate 
 his Bethesda work for the comfort of his people 
 until he himself shall return to our world again. 
 
 Some have thought the angel in his work of mak- 
 ing the sick, and mained, and halt, and blind whole 
 was a type of Christ in his great redemptive minis- 
 try. Dr. Adam Clark says: "Was not the whole 
 a type of Christ? He is the true Bethesda or house 
 of mercy, the fountain opened to the house of 
 David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin 
 and for uncleanness ; unto which all the diseased 
 may come, and find health and life eternal." To 
 which we add, if the Bethesda scene was typical 
 then it follows that healing the diseases of the 
 body, according to the will of God, is an element 
 in Christ's gracious work ; and that the angels are 
 divinely appointed agents for its accomplishment. 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 
 
 93 
 
 Indeed, is it a more difficult problem for Chris- 
 tian faith that the holy angels should have power 
 of our physical conditions than that the Holy Spirit 
 should control our mental and spiritual moods ? 
 
 '•Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of 
 the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He 
 shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his 
 wings shalt thou trust ; his truth shall be thy shield 
 and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the ter- 
 ror by night ; nor for the arrow that flielh by day ; 
 nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness ; nor 
 for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A 
 thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at 
 thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. 
 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the 
 reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made 
 the Lord which is my refuge, even the most High 
 thy habitation ; there shall no evil befall thee, 
 neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling, 
 FOR he shall give his angels charge over thee, to 
 keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up 
 in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a 
 stone." Ps. 91. 
 
 What a graphic description of personal safety! 
 How varied and comprehensive this assurance of 
 physical protection ! What an ample guardianship 
 amidst any and all dangers ! W^hat foresight and 
 strength must be requisite for such deliverance and 
 protection ! What tireless and sleepless fidelity 
 must such constant and certain interposition re- 
 quire I Yet all this is the work of an angel. ''For 
 he will give his angels charge over thee," — to do all 
 
94 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 this. Such power for protection must include con- 
 trol of diseases, and mastery of all physical forces. 
 "No j>Za^Me shall come nigh thy dwelling." There 
 may come around thee the bloody clash of arms, 
 and "ten thousand may fall at thy right hand but it 
 shall not come nigh thee." 
 
 How subduing, how sacred, how comforting the 
 assurance that : 
 
 ♦'Angels now are hovering round us ; 
 Unperceived they mix the throng." 
 
 And so it surely is ; these holy ones of heaven 
 find it their chief delight to spread the shield of 
 their tender love over the head of helpless infancy ; 
 and steady the faltering steps of trembling age 
 along the margin of the tomb ; and shed from their 
 radiant wings the smile of peace and rest which so 
 often settles on the faces of the holy dead. 
 
 Yes, the angel hosts are the executors of the 
 providence of heaven. They do the behests of the 
 infinite love towards the "church of the first-born" 
 in her tearful pilgrimage through this shadowy life. 
 They unfalteringly attend her going out and her 
 coming in. They guard her when, in her tents, she 
 slumbers, and when, under burning skies, she 
 presses on in her sore journeyings towards the fra- 
 grant shores of rest. They are near when earth's 
 best beloved are afar. They leave us not when 
 human friendship decay. They are not missing 
 when fortune frowns and want darkens the fireside. 
 They depart not when forms beloved are borne 
 from our sight. They stand, unseen maybe, beside 
 the empty chair and beckon us to resurrection glory. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 flngels Assist in the Work of Salvation. 
 
 The incessant and intense devotion of tlie lioly 
 angels to tlie Lord Jesus from his birth to his as- 
 cension must extend to all his gracious work, both 
 in heaven and on earth. We may believe that a 
 distinguishing phase of their constant ministrations 
 is active and effective participation in the work of 
 turning sinners to God. Their quenchless desire 
 for their Master's success in his vast undertaking to 
 recover a belligerent world ; their deep and pure 
 sympathy with him in his personal intercession at 
 the throne in heaven ; their sacred love for a be- 
 trayed race ; their burning zeal for the defeat of 
 the rebellious sons of the morning, and their de- 
 light in the holiness and happiness of the saved ; 
 these all conspire to make them willing and grateful 
 ministers in winning bewildered, guilty sinners to 
 the fold of the great Shepherd. Surely they must 
 be more than curious observers of the grand strug- 
 gle in the realm of mercy and grace, waxing more 
 and more intense as the years rush on and the end 
 draws near. It is impossible that they should be 
 content to watch from the battlements of the skies 
 
96 FOOT- PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 the friends of Jesus contending with the principali- 
 ties and powers of darkness, fighting nobly against 
 vast odds, sealing their fidelity with their willing 
 blood, and not interpose their strong arms, nor 
 cover the fainting ranks with their invincible shields. 
 They cannot witness the tears and prayers and 
 pleadings of the saints for the rescue of perishing 
 ones dear to themselves and precious to the Sav- 
 iour, and remain silent in heaven. The sight of 
 the bloodstained banners of the cross, on ten 
 thousand fields, must fire their seraphic natures 
 with irrepressible enthusiasm to mingle in the holy 
 conflict and help to bear off trophies to their Mas- 
 ter's power to ransom those for whom he died. 
 "The cries of the wounded and the shouts of the 
 redeemed" bring recruits from above till there are 
 more angels on earth than in heaven. 
 
 They are in every pulpit which in the power of 
 Christ's constraining love calls the lost sons of 
 men to repentance. They lead the way of all true 
 workers who heroically advance into the "high- 
 ways and hedges." They doubly guard the desolate 
 and sore stricken wife and mother who enters the 
 saloon — that vestibule of hell — to win home the vic- 
 tims of the cup. They take passage on all mis- 
 sionary ships which really carry the glad tidings to 
 dark lands, as they sailed with Paul on his adven- 
 turous voyage to Rome. They bend over every 
 altar on Christian or on heathen shores, where sin- 
 sick souls seek the crucified Saviour. They throng 
 the green banks of all Bethesda fountains where be- 
 lievers are buried, in baptism, with their Lord. In 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 97 
 
 all the fields of mercy and grace they mingle with 
 the reapers, and lend an unseen hand in binding up 
 the sheaves. And in the harvest home theirs will 
 be a grandly joyful part. 
 
 Now, does this accord with the Holy Oracles of 
 God? Luther said : '-One plain text is as good as 
 forty." And this thrilling theme is encircled by 
 more than forty inspired assurances. Take the fol- 
 lowing as examples. 
 
 '^But to which of the angels said he at any time, 
 sit on my right hand until I make thy enemies thy 
 footstool ? '^\re they not all ministering spirits sent 
 forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of sal- 
 vation?" Heb. 1 : 14. That is, they are all minis- 
 tering spirits ; for the Hebrews often express the 
 strongest affirmative by an interrogation. 
 
 Let it be noted that the '•^spirits'' in the 14th 
 verse are stated to be ^^ angels'' in the 13th verse. 
 '^They" in the 14th relates to ''angels^^ in the 13th. 
 There cannot be any dispute about the meaning of 
 these words. It is the holy angels of whom the 
 apostle is here speaking. 
 
 '''Sent foM\ From God ; from the throne ; from 
 heaven. To our world where they "that shall be 
 heirs of salvation" are. So the angels actually 
 come, come in person, to men, "sent forth" by the 
 Lord. 
 
 "To minister to'' or '•'serve.'' Not to observe and 
 report ; but to serve; to aid ; to take part in the sal- 
 vation of those who shall be heirs. Can any words 
 more plainly teach that, somehow, the angels of 
 God do actually participate in the instrumental 
 
98 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 work of bringing sinners to Christ— of saving lost 
 men? We do not, we cannot, doubt that the heav- 
 enly ones really and most effectively join in all the 
 efforts of the Christian church and workers to turn 
 sinful men to repentance and salvation. This Scrip- 
 ture alone settles the whole matter. And St. Paul 
 who thus taught the Hebrew church, doubtless 
 wrote from vivid recollections of the wonderful 
 part which the angels bore in his own miraculous 
 conversion and ministerial work. He was too famil- 
 iar with angels to doubt their presence among men. 
 And he knew quite too well the value of their ser- 
 vices in the work of salvation to allow the church 
 to be indifferent to their co-operation. With him 
 angelic ministry was as real as his own ministry. 
 
 And here is another scripture which glows with 
 angelic delight in the work of Christ. 
 
 "Likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the 
 presence of the angels of God over one sinner that 
 repenteth." Luke 15 ; 10. 
 
 We know not that the angels in heaven are al- 
 ways joyful. There is silence in heaven sometimes ; 
 and may there not sometimes be sadness? When 
 the malign invader entered the fair garden in Eden 
 with dark designs toward the happy creatures who 
 reposed amid its fragrant flowers, and with fiendish 
 cunning seduced them from their loyalty to their 
 loving Creator, did not a feeling of gloom fall on 
 the holy worshippers around the throne ? Were not 
 the angels sad when they saw Eve listening to the 
 tempter? Did not a shade of sorrow pass over 
 their bright faces as they heard the acclaim of tri- 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 99 
 
 umph from * 'demons damned'* when those blissful 
 children of paradise turned their faces away from 
 the smiles of the throne, and gave credence to 
 Satan rather than to God ? Was there not gloom 
 in heaven when a race was swept into sin, and a 
 fair creation fell from primal splendor and peace ? 
 Was there not silence of harp and voice when the 
 blight and curse swept over the fair domain, and all 
 its royal beauty was eclipsed ? 
 
 But when the decree from the Throne went forth : 
 "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's 
 head," from all the sersphs of the skies rolled in 
 mighty volume a responsive, triumphant — Amen. 
 And from that glad moment every triumph of the 
 Saviour, every victory of his cross, every trophy of 
 his grace has filled the hearts of the holy angels 
 with supreme delight. With eager interest they 
 have watched the progress of the tidings of redemp- 
 tion, and witnessed with ecstatic pleasure the con- 
 quests of gospel grace. Great was their joy at 
 creation's birth, but greater far when a benighted 
 soul is recovered, and a lost sinner is converted to 
 God. Every falling tear of repentant souls awak- 
 ens a new strain of gladness among the harpers of 
 the heavenly world. A peculiar happiness fills the 
 seraphic bpsom when a victim of sin is rescued, 
 and a servant of Satan becomes the friend of 
 Christ. 
 
 But how do the angels know when a sinner re- 
 pents? Let the Master answer: "Verily, verily, I 
 say unto you, hereafter ye shall see heaven open, 
 
100 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 and the angels of God ascending and descending 
 upon the Son of man." John 1 : 51. 
 
 The ascending and descending of the angels upon 
 the Son of man is a metaphor borrowed from the 
 custom of sending couriers to embassadors at for- 
 eign courts, by which Christ must have intended to 
 teach that constant intercourse is kept up between 
 earth, the scene of God's gracious work, and the 
 court of heaven, by means of angelic embassage. 
 And when the holy messengers, who attend all the 
 work of the Holy Spirit and of the church on earth, 
 ■carry the glad news of the repentance of sinners 
 up to the courts above, not only is Jesus made 
 glad, but all the angels around the throne are filled 
 with a new joy ; and though it be but "07?e sinner 
 who repenteth," they strike their harps and join 
 their seraphic voices in fresh delight. The angels are 
 not omniscient, and they can only know when sin- 
 ners repent by being present and witnessing the 
 penitential tear. And the heavenly hosts can know 
 only by the ministering ones flying swiftly to bear 
 the news above. 
 
 How exhilarating to Christian toilers to be as- 
 sured the angels of God are their co-workers and 
 mighty allies in all their efforts to reach and win 
 lost souls ! How often it chances that the most in- 
 corrigible, after all human effort has seemed to fail, 
 are suddenly overwhelmed with fear and conviction, 
 and, turning to Christ, declare that they heard a 
 voice, or saw some omen, which so wrought on 
 them that they were constrained to sue for mercy. 
 We have known of hardened men being arrested, 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 101 
 
 in the midst of their evil work, by an audible warn- 
 ing, which so startled them that they could neither 
 eat nor sleep till they sought God in penitence and 
 anguish of soul. And instances are not wanting, 
 even in recent times, of the personal visitation of 
 angelic beings, which resulted in the conversion of 
 desperately wicked men. There can be no doubt 
 that jointly with the influence of preaching, prav- 
 ing, reading the Word ; and in conjunction with the 
 power of the Spirit, direct angelic ministrations are 
 a potent factor in all the work of redemption ; and 
 that it is a chief pleasure of the cherubic hosts to 
 participate in foiling the designs of evil spirits, and 
 rescuing their victims from ruin and endless death. 
 
 Even Satan himself recognizes the ministry of 
 the loyal angels. In 2 Cor. 11 : 14, we find this 
 remarkable statement of St. Paul: "For even Sa- 
 tan fashioneth himself into an angel of light " 
 (R V.) Now what is Satan's object in imperson- 
 ating good angels — in passing himself off as an 
 "angel of light" — but to secure the confidence of 
 saints that he may more easily deceive and injure 
 them? But would the arch devil, who has lost 
 none of his intelligence by his apostacy, undertake 
 to imitate the angels of light, in their ministry to 
 saints, if nothing of the kind exists? In the chapter 
 from which we have quoted the apostle compares 
 false ministers who assumes a righteous char- 
 acter which they do not possess, to Satan who rep- 
 resents himself as an "angel of light," that he may 
 countervail the influence of holy angels in deliver- 
 ing and saving men. "When the chief of the fallen 
 
102 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 spirits presents himself to the church as a good an- 
 gel he thereby distinctly confesses that there are 
 ''angels of light" and loyalty whose ministry of 
 mercy he desires to frustrate. 
 
 Nor is this cunning strategy of the chief of dev- 
 ils altogether unsuccessful. He often approaches 
 unwary saints, who are not familiar with his de- 
 vices, in most sanctimonious seeming. And under 
 pretense of giving new light, and leading to greater 
 achievements of faith, he plunges his deceived vic- 
 tims into fanaticism, and self-conceited absurdities 
 which end in spiritual disaster. 
 
 It was in just this way that he deceived and 
 seduced the first pair in the garden. And from that 
 sad hour to this he has used his favorite scheme of 
 pretending to be an angel of light, with fruitful 
 success. When once he is received as a good an- 
 gel, his way is clear for all infamous designs. 
 Sometimes he deludes his unsuspecting subject with 
 the belief that he is holy above his brethren ; that 
 he is a favorite with Christ ; that he is so completely 
 led by the Spirit that he cannot sin ; that God 
 wants to make of him some wonderful example of 
 faith ; that he can walk on the water and not sink ; 
 that he is commanded to slay some human being, 
 as Abraham was told to offer Isaac, and God will 
 raise him up again. Now all these wicked ends 
 Satan accomplishes by first getting himself recog- 
 nized as an "angel of light." But in. so doing he 
 confesses that there are good and true angels who 
 maintain a righteous and saving ministry over the 
 church in her militant state. 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. IQ^ 
 
 Under the present dominance of evil every good 
 thing has its counterfeit. Even the ministrations of 
 God's holy angels are attended, step by step, by 
 the base imitations of evil angels, whose darlv work 
 it is first to delude, then to destroy. But we must 
 not renounce the gracious work of the pure and 
 commissioned sons of light because the spirits of 
 darkness flaunt their malicious power. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 Angels in Patmos. 
 
 St. John was sent to Patmos for banishment and 
 solitude ; but never was prince or potentate so 
 grandly attended by guests so royal. Scarcely 
 had his weary feet touched those sterile shores — ere 
 he could feel the silent loneliness — when the 
 Spirit's flashing light, and the glory of angelic 
 presence changed the desolation into the beauty 
 of heaven ; and that barren Palmosa, in the -^gean 
 Sea,was nearer the infinite throne than any other spot 
 of earth. As soon as that cheerless isle became the 
 home of the beloved disciple, in exile for his devo- 
 tion to Christ, its dreary wastes glowed with the 
 light of angelic ministry ; and its solitude was 
 broken by the melody of seraphic voices. 
 
 The Lord Jesus turned the banishment of his 
 faithful servant into occasion for the most wonder- 
 ful and glorious revelations ever made to a mortal 
 man ; an unfolding of events covering the career 
 of the nations and the progress and experience of 
 the church thenceforth to the end of time. Those 
 grand and awful revelations were intended for the 
 enlightenment of the saints through the centuries 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 105 
 
 to follow, including the last scenes of human 
 history, and the opening grandeurs of the world 
 to come. But the '•''Revelation'' was first made to 
 Jesus by God his Father. But Christ was already 
 at the right hand of the throne in heaven prose- 
 cuting his official intercessory priesthood which he 
 could not abandon even for an hour, without break- 
 ing the Scriptures. How could he convey to his 
 church on earth all the words and scenes of the 
 new unveiling which the Father had made to him ? 
 To whom, in all the universe, could he entrust mat- 
 ters so infinitely pregnant with the destinies of 
 worlds? Simply human lips were unworthy even 
 to repeat things so august. There was his servant 
 John in far away Patmos. But he was only a man. 
 And then, how could the new wonders be made 
 known to him ? 
 
 First of all the Holy Spirit was sent to the apos- 
 tle to suffuse his being with superhuman light and 
 strength, exalting all his faculties into a state of 
 rapture and intensity adequate to communications 
 directly from the courts of God. And this is 
 John's way of stating his mood of mind and heart ; 
 '-''I icas in the Spirit on the Lord's day." Super- 
 naturally prepared he waited for what heaven had 
 to make known to him. 
 
 But where is the messenger, high enough, holy 
 enough, swift enough to be sent on embassage so 
 divine? Who shall be honored by representing the 
 court of Jehovah in a distant and belligerent 
 world? Into whose hands and lips shall be com- 
 mitted the unveiling of messages the miscarriage of 
 
106 FOOT-PKINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 which, in one jot or tittle, would wreck an under- 
 taking far more grave than the creation of a world. 
 
 From among the shining hosts that ever wait 
 around the throne one is chosen — a holy angel — 
 and from Jesus the Christ he receives commission 
 to fly swiftly to the "isle that is called Patmos" and 
 reveal to St. John all the "things which must 
 shortly come to pass." 
 
 "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God 
 gave unto him to show unto his servants, even the 
 things which must shortly come to pass ; and he 
 seiit and signified it by his angel unto his servant 
 John ; who bare witness of the word of God, and 
 of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things 
 that he saw." Rev. 1 : 1,2. 
 
 Amazing truth ! An angel is taken into the coun- 
 sels of the Father and the Son ! To an angel are 
 entrusted most critical transactions in the redemp- 
 tive work of the Son of God ! An angel is an 
 equal agent with the Spirit of God in matters of 
 divine revelation ! An angel acts and speaks in 
 Christ's stead, when life or death depends upon his 
 word ! An angel is charged with the last message 
 of heaven to earth! Jehovah made "The Revela- 
 tion" to Jesus Christ ; and Christ communicated 
 "The Revelation" to his angel; and his angel, by 
 special commission, conveyed "The Revelation," to 
 John in Patmos ; and John communicated all things 
 that he saw to the churches. 
 
 Thus, unmistakably and most vividly, is angelic 
 ministry interwoven with all the work of revelation 
 and grace ; enacting solemn and most delicate mis- 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 107 
 
 siona in the proclamation of divine messages to the 
 church and to the nations. It may be that there 
 are angels of state, who are retained for special 
 administrative services, as in this case of the angel 
 sent to Patmos ; who are engaged in visitations to 
 governments, and rulers, and courts, and armies ; 
 who exercise the combinins: and controlling influ- 
 ence, over great events, which we call '•'provi- 
 dence ;" who are put in charge of the historic fuliill- 
 ment of God's prophetic word, seeing to it that no 
 jot or tittle fails. History is full of instances of 
 sudden and unexpected procedure of armies and 
 bodies of men, who can give no natural reason for 
 their own conduct. Great military movements are 
 checked and changed in ways entirely inscrutable. 
 Who can deny that the inexplicable falling back of 
 the Roman army in the siege of Jerusalem was 
 caused by angelic influence, so that God's people 
 might escape to the mountains, as the holy oracles 
 had predicted ? May we not believe that the terrific 
 storm at sea which made the Spanish Armada a pit- 
 iable and helpless wreck, was called up by the power 
 of angels over the elements, for the protection of 
 England as the stronghold of the Protestant faith? 
 In the light of Old Testament history and of the 
 apostolic period, it is not difficult to believe that 
 the terrific thunder-storm that burst on Rome and 
 the Vatican at the moment when the Pope waa 
 impiously proclaiming himself infallible, and blas- 
 phemously assuming the prerogatives of God, was 
 raised to its strange fury by angelic interposition. 
 Did not the incensed heralds of the Almighty break 
 
108 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 the terrific thunders over the guilty head of the 
 *'Man of sin," and flash the red lightnings in his 
 brazen face ? 
 
 "And he [Christ] sent and signified it by his ari- 
 gel to his servant John." Rev. 1:1. The word 
 ^^ signify'^ means to point out or show by tokens or 
 emblems. The angel sent to John not only ap- 
 peared to him personally and talked with him, but 
 he presented to his enraptured view, in emblems, 
 all the wonderful things which he "saiu." He was 
 commissioned to unfold to the apostle, in appropri- 
 ate signs and symbols, the entire Revelation which 
 God had given to Jesus. This he did in a succes- 
 sion of views and scenic representations, some laid 
 in heaven, and some on earth ; the whole covering, 
 it seems likely, a number of days. 
 
 THE ANGELS WORSHIP HIM WHO OPENED THE BOOK. 
 
 St. John beheld an impressive transaction in 
 heaven. He saw the throne and him that sat on it. 
 And at the right hand of the Infinite Majesty he 
 saw a singular book. It was written within, and 
 inscribed on the back side ; the, inscription indi- 
 cating the great importance of its contents ; and it 
 was sealed with seven seals ; the number of the 
 seals showing the sacredness of the book, and the 
 skill and strength required to open it. And as he 
 looked in wonder on the strangely sealed volume he 
 saw an angel proclaiming, "Who is worthy to open 
 the book and to loose the seals thereof?" The 
 angel was scarcely less notable than the book. He 
 was unusually "strong," and his voice was mighty. 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 109 
 
 Loiid and long was his proclamation made, reaching 
 the farthest ends of the earth, and reverberating 
 through all the dismal caverns of the alien hosts. 
 But no response was heard, for "No man in heaven,. 
 nor in earth, nor under the earth was able to open 
 the book, neither to look thereon." Rev. 5 : 3. 
 
 80 deeply was John impressed with the signifi- 
 cahceof the wonderful volume that he ''wept much'* 
 because no one was found worthy to open and read 
 it. But one of the elders informed him, to his great 
 joy, that the "Lion of the tribe of Juda, the root 
 of David, had prevailed to open the book, and to 
 loose the seven seals thereof." Then the scene as- 
 sumed a new and imposing aspect. In the midst 
 of the throne and the beasts and the elders, stood 
 a Lamb as it had been slain, and he came and took 
 the book from the hand of him who sat on the 
 throne. This was the signal for a great outburst 
 of joy. The whole company of the elders, and all 
 the living creatures prostrated themselves at the 
 feet of the Lamb, each one having a harp and a 
 vial full of odors. And then arose a mighty chorus 
 of voices, interblended with the music of their 
 harps ; and they sung in strains of new and won- 
 drous melody, a song never heard before in heaven 
 or earth : "Thou art worthy to take the book and 
 to open the seals thereof ; for thou wast slain, and 
 hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every 
 kindred, and tongue, und people ; and hast made us 
 unto our God kings and priests ; and we shall reign 
 on the earth." Rev. 5 : 9-10. 
 
 An ajigel had made the proclamation ; but could 
 
110 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 heaDd his fellow seraphs take part in the worship and 
 the song? It is a prevalent sentiment that the holy 
 ones of heaven cannot participate in praise to God 
 and Christ because they have not experienced par- 
 doning grace, not being subjects of redemption by 
 the blood of the Lamb. But this is erroneous. 
 True, they cannot share the peculiar joy of forgiven 
 and redeemed men. But they can, after the higUer 
 order of their sensibilities, profoundly sympathize 
 with the saved hosts, and enter into admiration and 
 praise of the Son of God for his manifestation of 
 love for his enemies, and his infinite sacrifice to 
 rescue a helpless race. Do not men enter most 
 heartily into the joy and happiness of those who 
 have been rescued from some great peril, though 
 themselves were not involved in the danger? And 
 do we not enthusiastically join in praise of the self- 
 forgetful deliverer, though he did nothing for us 
 personally? How often the whole world is moved 
 to tearful and most tender admiration of some brave 
 fellow who imperiled his own life to save others. 
 
 And how can the holy angels of God, with their 
 pure and exquisite sympathies, fail to be moved to 
 most lofty and glowing delight at the rescue of sin- 
 ners by the mercy of heaven ? And how can they 
 refrain from adoration of him who gladly poured 
 out his own life for the ransom of the doomed pris- 
 oners of sin and death? 
 
 Look again at this thrilling scene of song and 
 joy around the throne of heaven. "And I beheld 
 and heard the voice of many angels round about 
 the throne and the living creatures and the elders ; 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. Ill 
 
 and the number of them was ten thousand times 
 ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." And 
 they all united, — the angels with the rest — in as- 
 cribing blessing, and honor and glory and power to 
 him who had broken the seals and opened the book. 
 Surely the loyal and loving angels who sang in 
 gladness at the birth, and comforted the Saviour in 
 the garden, and in the wilderness, and opened the 
 sealed mouth of his tomb, and were first to publish 
 his rising, do not forget to shout anew in heaven at 
 every trophy of his grace ; and when "the redeemed 
 of the ages" shall throng the hills of God, and the 
 great, boundless, endless "new song" shall break 
 from myriad lips of the blood- washed, the '•Hivelve 
 legions" will not stand mute, with the silent voice 
 and harp. If they cannot help swell the sweet re- 
 frain : "Who hath washed us in his blood," they 
 can touch the highest notes of: "Worthy is the 
 Lamb that was to receive power and riches, and 
 wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and 
 blessing." 
 
 ANGELS HOLD THE WINDS. 
 
 "And after these things I saw four angels stand- 
 ing on the four corners of the earth, holding the 
 four winds of the earth, that the wind should not 
 blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor upon any 
 tree." Rev. 7:1. 
 
 It may be very difficult to determine just what 
 the "/oi<r idnds'* were intended to symbolize. 
 Some think great wars of universal prevalence are 
 meant ; and some say, terrific physical disturb- 
 
112 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 ances. But certain it is that vast and fearful 
 national calamities, of some kind, are prefigured, 
 which will affect the whole creation ; occurring 
 immediately previous to the final judgment scenes. 
 But whatever the mighty and destructive forces, 
 here pointed out may be, the angels are represented 
 as holding them in positive control. If great gov- 
 ernments and peoples are eager for bloody conflict 
 they are held in check by angelic influence ; bind- 
 ing councils, cabinets and kings. If pent-up natu- 
 ral forces are ready for appalling disruption, an- 
 gelic hands are on the valves staying the wild ener- 
 gies until the saints of God shall be sealed. If 
 hostile armaments are all prepared for mutual and 
 universal assault and carnage, not a ship of war can 
 weigh its anchor ; not a battery can be planted ; no 
 line of march can be taken up ; no sword can be 
 unsheathed ; no alliances can be executed ; not a 
 drop of blood can be shed until the four angels 
 shall loose the winds. No rage of nations ; no skill 
 of great commanders ; no decree of councils of war 
 can enforce a collision while a single child of God 
 is exposed to the fury of the conflict. What vast 
 power is vested in the superintendence of holy 
 angels. How majestic the conception ! On the 
 "four corners of the earth" stand four stalwart 
 seraphs of heaven, clasping their unseen hands 
 across continents and seas, keeping the peace of 
 the world ! No voice is heard, no banner seen ; 
 but there they stand, silent but mighty ; and be- 
 neath their sleepless eyes men and nature, and 
 furious demons are held at bay, until every servant 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 113 
 
 of God is covered and made secure. How grand ! 
 Four angels the joint monarchs of the world ; the 
 arbiters of national destiny ! The winds and waves 
 obey their behest ; and flashing swords refuse to kill 
 or hurt at their nod. This great, wild, rolling orb, 
 pressed by their feet, grows calm, and not a "tree" 
 or any living thing is "hurt" without their com- 
 mand. True they are not God ; but they are Je- 
 hovah's ministers, by whose skill and strength he 
 governs, in part, this nether workl. Bearing com- 
 missions from heaven, the plotting of despots, the 
 cunning of courts, backed by gold and arms, can- 
 not annul their sway nor force their retreat. They 
 are here to stay till earth's sad drama is finished. 
 
 AN ANGEL SEALING THE HEIRS OF SALVATION. 
 
 "And I saw another angel ascending from the 
 east, having the seal of the living God ; and he 
 cried aloud to the four angels, to whom it was 
 given to hurt the earth and the sea. Saying. "Hurt 
 not the earth neither the sea, nor the trees, till we 
 have sealed the servants of our God in their fore- 
 heads." Rev. 7 : 2, 3. 
 
 Here an angel is represented as the chancellor of 
 God himself, bearing the ^^seal of the living God," 
 entrusted with setting the divine signet on the brow 
 of the sons and daughters of the Almighty. Who- 
 ever received this angelic signature was safe from 
 the terrors of the "four winds;" and was assured 
 of recognition by the throne of heaven as an heir 
 of the eternal kingdom. Just what the sealing is, 
 or is to be, we cannot tell. But this is clear, that 
 
114 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 it is the mark of God by which his people are to be 
 distinguished from the wicked ; and by which they 
 are to be protected from the final judgments of 
 heaven on sinners. And the solemn and critical 
 trust of thus designating the children of the Lord 
 is committed to angels. And this implies their 
 accurate and absolute knowledge of the character 
 of men, and the relation of each one to the great 
 matter of salvation. They must have perfect per- 
 ception of who the saints are. They must be able 
 to distinguish the righteous at a glance under any 
 circumstances. It must be utterly impossible for 
 them to be deceived by false appearances, or by 
 impious pretence, or by the testimony of their fel- 
 lows. No illusion of pious seeming or personal 
 charms can dim their unerring scrutiny. The lack 
 of the wedding garment they instantly discern, in 
 palace or hovel. For the slightest mistake in 
 "'Sealing'' would admit a demon into heaven, or 
 banish a saint to endless night. And this delicate 
 work which marks eternal destiny is committed to 
 angels. What confidence the Almighty must have 
 in these holy ones who have been true through the 
 numberless ages. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 An Angel Preaches the Gospel, 
 
 ' *'And I saw another angel fly in the midst of 
 heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to 
 them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, 
 and kindred, and tongue, and people." Rev. 14 : 6. 
 We give entire the views of Horatius Bonar, 
 D. D., upon this text. "This world-wide proc- 
 lamation of the glad message has been going on 
 for ages. It is to be wider, and louder, and more 
 urgent as the end draws near. The gospel is to be 
 preached to all nations for a witness ere the end 
 
 come. 
 
 "The proclamation is made by an angel, — an angel 
 flying in mid-heaven, the position of the sun at 
 noon— that all may see and hear. Angels in this 
 book are representatives of the invisible agencies 
 at work on earth. They are living and personal 
 agencies, though they be invisible ; not dead, mute 
 laws, but superhuman powers, setting in motion all 
 the machinery of the world ; and in the case of the 
 present angel, the special machinery for the pro- 
 mulgation of the everlasting gospel. This book of 
 the revelation, (like Daniel and Zechariah) takes. 
 
116 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 US within the vail that hides the material from the 
 spiritual, the human from the supernatural. It gives 
 us the inner or superhuman side of church history ; 
 the secret springs and invisible agencies which pro- 
 duce events and facts — changes for good or evil ; it 
 gives us a glimpse of the true laws of nature, or at 
 least of those living powers and processes by which 
 these laws are regulated and made to subserve the 
 Creator's purpose ; it shows us that the angels have 
 far more to do with our world and its history than 
 we suppose ; it keeps before us, what is so much 
 needed in our day, the supernatural world of intel- 
 ligence, and life, and strength, outside of ours, yet 
 quite as real and true — closely though invisibly 
 connected with us, and operating at all points, ani- 
 mate and inanimate, spiritual and physical, upon 
 the course of things in this lower sphere of ours. 
 These 'ministering spirits' (Heb. 1 : 14) have far 
 more to do in connection with earth and its history 
 than we usually ascribe to them. 
 
 "This angel is seen 'preaching' (he has the 'evangel 
 to evangelize' as the words are literally), making 
 the good news known. Not that he actually 
 preaches as men do ; but in ways unknown to us 
 he sends the gospel abroad, both by stirring up 
 human agencies and in other more secret way com- 
 municating it to men. Satan and his angels work 
 for evil, in the dissemination of error, the sowing 
 of tares, the inventing of strong delusions ; and 
 why should it be thought incredible that good an- 
 gels might, in their sphere of good, do the like 
 service for truth and righteousness? How Satan 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 117 
 
 tempted Christ — how he made Ananias lie to God — 
 how he sowed the tares — how he leavens the world 
 with error — how he beguiles with his subtlety — we 
 know not ; but he does so. Just as the law was 
 given by angels, as the word was spoken by angels 
 (Heb. 2 : 1), as the angels testified 'these things in 
 the churches' (Rev. 22: 16), so this angel in mid- 
 heaven may be understood as proclaiming the ever- 
 lasting gospel. Angelic lips may not be heard ; 
 but human lips, set in motion by agencies which 
 eye hath not seen, may proclaim it. There is here 
 a new proclamation of an old thing ; a re-proclama- 
 tion on a wider scale of the everlasting gospel in 
 the last days just before the great act of judgment 
 is consummated." And as in this special proclama- 
 tion the aiigel is prominently and effectively active, 
 so throughout the entire divine administration, an- 
 gels are the agents of God, on earth. 
 
 AN ANGEL ANNOUNCES THE FALL OF ROME. 
 
 "And there followed another angel saying, Baby- 
 lon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she 
 made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of 
 her fornicaition." Rev. 14 : 8. 
 
 Babylon is held to mean Rome, by most exposi- 
 tors. In the rabbinical writings, Rome is called 
 Babylon — Rami rabbetha, the great Rome. The 
 angel which was seen flying in the midst of heaven 
 "having the everlasting gospel to preach" also pro- 
 claimed "with loud voice. Fear God and give glory 
 to him ; for the hour of his judgment is come." 
 
118 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 Imniediately following this proclamation came "an- 
 other angel" announcing the fall of Rome. 
 
 Rome, the city and seat of fornication, the per- 
 secuting and incorrigible power ; the false church, 
 drunk with the blood of martyrs, whose seat is on 
 the seven hJls ; the head and center of idolatrous 
 worship ; the seducer and corrupter of all nations ; 
 the infamous Papacy, with its cruel inquisition and 
 hidden haunts of lechery and murder ; — even crim- 
 son-guilty Rome has not escaped angelic surveil- 
 lance. Her rise, her ascendancy, her blasphemy, 
 her decadence, have been keenly watched by God's 
 ministering angels ; and when her hour of doom 
 approaches an angel will announce, with a loud 
 voice of special gladness, her sudden and utter 
 overthrow. That hour has not yet come, but it 
 even now hovers over Pope and Vatican and harlot 
 church ; and at a moment not very distant the whole 
 world will be startled by the shout of a mighty an- 
 gel : "Babylon is fallen, is fallen ;" and that "great 
 Rome" will be a heap of ghastly ruins ; the jeer of 
 devils, and the contempt of the righteous, while 
 hallelujahs lofty, and vast, filling earth and respon- 
 sive heaven, will signalize the overthrow, the judg- 
 ment and final and eternal annihilation of that 
 adulterous and murderous institution, sometimes 
 called, amid the merriment of demons, "The holy 
 mother church." As persecuting Rome was origi- 
 nated and has been guided and fostered by fallen 
 angels, it is fitting that a loyal angel should be 
 allowed to proclaim its judgment and destruction. 
 And a great day will it be in heaven and on earth 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 1 1 
 
 when Babylon the great, "the hold of every foul 
 beast," shall be consigned to consuming flames. 
 And the holy martyrs, whose blood she drunk, in 
 her filthy and blasphemous orgies, shall arise from 
 their crimson shrouds and lift their white hands in 
 exultation over her grim ruins. 
 
 "And the third angel followed them, saying 
 with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast 
 and his image, and receive his mark in his fore- 
 head, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the 
 wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out 
 without mixture into the cup of his indignation ; 
 and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone 
 in the presence of the holy angels, and in the pres- 
 ence of the Lamb." 
 
 Fitting close of abominations so flagrant, of 
 atrocities so cruel, of hypocrisies so transparent, 
 of blasphemies so appalling, of corruptions so uni- 
 versal, of demonism so boastful, of falsehood so 
 brazen, of all wickedness so hideous. 
 
 ANGELS ALL THROUGH THE BOOK. 
 
 The wonderful succession of views which the 
 angel revealed to John covers the entire period of 
 earthly history from that time to the end of human 
 scenes ; including even the opening events of the 
 world to come. And as the scenes thicken and 
 become imposing, the number and activity of the 
 commissioned angels increase. More and more 
 they throng the fields of prophecy, and the events 
 of history. As the grand culmination of earthly 
 affairs becomes imminent multitudes of these heav- 
 
120 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 enly beings are seen, directing alike the career of 
 the saints, and the administration of the judgments 
 of God on the wicked. They are specially entrusted 
 with the management of the final scenes ; and they 
 are everywhere present amidst the overthrow of 
 principalities and powers, and the dissolution of hu- 
 man society, preparatory to the new order of things. 
 Seven angels, true and strong, are sent forth to 
 execute the seven last plagues, each being supplied 
 with a golden vial, filled with the "wrath of God." 
 One angel pours out his vial on the earth ; another 
 angel pours his vial on the sea ; another opens 
 his vial on the rivers and fountains ; another broke 
 his vial on the sun, and men were scorched with 
 great heat ; and still another angel discharged his 
 vial on the "seat of the beast ;" and "his kingdom 
 was full of darkness ;" and "they gnawed their 
 tongues for pain ;" then another angel opened his 
 vial on the "great river Euphrates ; and the waters 
 thereof were dried up ;" and the last of the seven 
 poured his vial into the air ; and there came a great 
 voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, 
 saying, "It is done." And unearthly voices were 
 heard ; and unwonted thunders shook land and sea ; 
 and fearful lightnings flashed along the trembling 
 skies, omens of a swiftly following earthquake, 
 shock on shock, such as earth had never felt 
 before ; and the cities of the nations fell ; and 
 great Babylon — blasphemous Rome — came in re- 
 membrance before God, to give unto her the "cup 
 of wine of the fierceness of his wrath." "And a 
 mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 121 
 
 and cast it into the sea, saying, "Thus with vio- 
 lence shall the great city Babylon be thrown down, 
 and shall be found no more at all." 
 
 '■''Rome shall perish. Write that word 
 In the blood that she hath split, 
 Perish hopeless and abhorred, 
 Deep in ruin as in guilt." 
 
 Then followed an enchanting scene of outbursting 
 gladness and irrepressible joy, among the living 
 creatures above, and all the host of the redeemed. 
 "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him ; 
 for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife 
 hath made herself ready." Enraptured with delight, 
 and thrilled with gratitude, St. John fell at the 
 angel's feet to worship him ; but this well-meant 
 act was instantly repudiated by the angel. "See 
 thou do it not," he said, "I am thy fellow-ser- 
 vant," — employed in the same work as thyself — 
 "worship God ;" thus showing that these heavenly 
 messengers, endowed as they are with vast intel- 
 lectual and physical power, and honored as the 
 plenipotentiaries of the court of heaven, are very 
 jealous of the majesty and glory of Jehovah, before 
 whose presence they wait to execute the divine be- 
 hest, in our world. They, like John, and all saints, 
 are the servants of Christ, entitled no more to rev- 
 erence than the weakest Christian who is wholly 
 devoted to his Lord. Angel worship, and image 
 worship, and all worship of any but God, is idola- 
 try. John did not intend an act of worship, but 
 only of reverence ; and even that the holy angel 
 would not receive. 
 
122 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 After this an angel came down from heaven hold- 
 ing the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain 
 in his hand. And he laid hold of the devil and 
 bound him for a thousand years. The "A^ey" and 
 the ''^chain'' show this angel to be an executor 
 of the divine justice, commissioned to take Satan 
 into custody, and shut him up. If the angels may 
 not exercise judicial authority, they do use execu- 
 tive force. If they do not judge, they do punish, 
 and sometimes destroy demons and bad men. 
 
 And whatever may be, in detail, the meaning 
 of all these symbolic representations with which, 
 throughout the Revelation, the angels are so con- 
 stantly and intimately connected, the whole cer- 
 tainly can prove nothing less than that the pure 
 and loyal seraphs are employed by the Father and 
 the Son in all departments of the divine administra- 
 tit)n ; and that social, ecclesiastical, commercial and 
 national affairs are under their direct cognizance, 
 and subject to their control according to the will of 
 him who sends them forth. 
 
 AN ANGEL UNVEILS THE NEW JERUSALEM. 
 
 Milton called the Apocalypse "The majestic im- 
 age of a high and stately tragedy, shutting np and 
 intermingling her solemn scenes and acts with a 
 sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs and harping sym- 
 phonies." Inspiration calls it, "The Revelation of 
 Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show his 
 servants the things which must shortly come to 
 pass ; and he sent and signified them by his a7igel 
 to his servant John." 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 123 
 
 The vast and imposing succession of events which 
 the angel was commissioned to reveal to St. John, 
 was nearing its completion. He had seen at the be- 
 ginning one like unto the Son of man, — an imper- 
 sonation of the glorious Christ, as he will appear 
 in regal splendor when he shall assume the undis- 
 puted throne of God set in heaven. He had looked, 
 enraptured, on the sea of glass mingled with fire. 
 With great joy he witnessed the breaking of the 
 seals of the mystic book by the Lion of the tribe 
 of Judah, and heard the number of them who were 
 sealed by the angel, as the servants of the living 
 God. Awe-stricken he had listened to the sounding 
 of the seven trumpets, and witnessed the terrific 
 effect upon man and nature. He had heard the 
 angel, standing on the sea and on the earth swear by 
 him that liveth for ever and ever that time should be 
 no longer. He had heard the announcement of the 
 fall of Babylon, and great rejoicing in heaven and 
 earth at her downfall. The call to the marriaore 
 supper of the Lamb had been proclaimed in his 
 hearing. He had seen the dead, small and great, 
 stand before God, and had witnessed the awful 
 judgment scene. Before his eyes, the heavens, ignit- 
 ing, had dissolved and passed away ; and the earth, 
 with all things therein, had become a molten mass 
 of ruins ; and out of the smoking chaos he had seen 
 new heavens and new earth arise, clad with the 
 beauty of the primal Eden. He had heard a voice 
 out of heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of 
 God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and 
 they shall be his people ; and there shall be no 
 
124 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 more death neither sorrow nor crying ; neither shall 
 there be any more pain ; for the former things are 
 passed away." 
 
 And now the holy angel once more lifts the veil 
 and shows the banished apostle the grandest, most 
 resplendent, most inspiring view of the entire series. 
 It is "one of the seven angels" that now approaches 
 John and talks with him, inviting him to come and 
 see the wonderful glory. "And he carried me away 
 in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and 
 showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, de- 
 scending out of heaven from God, having the glory 
 of God." Rev. 21 : 10. 
 
 The architectural beauty of the city, and its or- 
 namental splendor excels all human conception. 
 How almost infinite must be the intelligence and 
 skill of the angel who could cause to stand, in its 
 heavenly grandeur, before the apostle's vision, the 
 New Jerusalem — glorious metropolis of Christ's uni- 
 versal kingdom — as it will be in the time when the 
 earth is made new. Perhaps this same angel is the 
 honored architect of the "/ioZy city'' which hath 
 foundations, "whose builder and maker is God;" 
 for it is said of him, "And he that talked with me 
 had a golden reed to measure the city, and the 
 gates thereof, and the walls thereof." And he — 
 the angel — measured the city, the walls and the 
 foundations and the gates, and gave the apostle the 
 length and breadth and height. We may believe 
 that under this chief seraph's superintendence an- 
 gelic hands reared the wonderful superstructure, 
 and polished and set the "All manner of precious 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 125 
 
 stones" •which garnished the foundations and walls ; 
 and lifted to their places the twelve gates of pearl. 
 
 That magnificent city of God had twelve gates, 
 each gate a solid pearl ; and at each grand pearl- 
 arched entrance stood a?i angel; this showing that 
 the holy sons of heaven do not cease their royal 
 ministry to the redeemed even when they are safely 
 sheltered under the pearly dome of the New Jeru- 
 salem. It is not too much to believe that holy 
 angels, having been God's chosen agents in the 
 redemption of the "innumerable company," whom 
 they served, protected, and delivered on earth, will 
 maintain intimate relations with the saved hosts 
 forever. 
 
 Not only did this particular angel — one of the 
 seven — unveil to John's enraptured sight the re- 
 splendent metropolis of the new world in its archi- 
 tectural and ornamental glory, but he called the 
 apostle's special notice to the broad and gracefully 
 flowing river which crowned the beauty of the one 
 city of the restored universe ; not forgetting to add 
 to the charming picture the "tree of life," standing 
 in the midst of the crystal waters, and spreading its 
 branches to either shore, whose perennial foliage 
 lends healing balm to the ransomed nations. 
 
 We may believe that the angel was as delighted 
 in revealing to John these coming splendors and 
 ravishing beauties as was John in beholding them. 
 What an exquisite artist that angel must have been ! 
 And how familiar with the mind of Jehovah, in 
 Christ Jesus, concerning the world to come ! And 
 need we wonder? He was present when the worlds 
 
126 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 were made ; and led, perhaps, the seraphic choir 
 which voiced high anthems of joy, in chorus with 
 the morning stars, over the magnificence of the fin- 
 ished creation. 
 
 And now come the angel's last words to the ban- 
 ished but honored disciple. He had swiftly carried 
 him through the vast and changing scenes of all 
 the mortal centuries. He had unmasked to his 
 keen vision the final events of earthly history. 
 He had opened to his amazed view the dawnings of 
 the endless ages. He had painted, in its real col- 
 ors, the flashing resplendence of the eternal city. 
 He had caused his charmed ears to hear the new 
 song of the redeemed, as they throng the hills of 
 God. And noW he closes his lofty revelations with 
 a most solemn assurance, and a divinely ordered in- 
 junction. 
 
 "And he — the same angel — said to me, These 
 sayings are faithful and true ; the Lord, the God of 
 the spirits of the prophets, hath sent his angel to 
 shew his servants, the things which must be done 
 shortly come to pass." Rev. 22 : 6. R. V. 
 
 Who shall question that this holy messenger from 
 Christ spake audibly to John in Patmos? Is not 
 the declaration simple and positive? "And he said 
 to me." To doubt that so the angel did speak to 
 the servant of Christ is to equally doubt that the 
 slumber of the shepherds was broken by real voices 
 in midnight melody at the Saviour's birth ; or that 
 Peter, in his dark prison, was startled from a deep 
 sleep by the audible command : "Gird thyself, and 
 bind on thy sandals." We see no more reason to 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 127 
 
 receive John's emphatic assertion: "And it was I 
 John -who heard and saw these things," with sus- 
 picion, than to question any explicit statement of 
 the inspired Volume. That an angel was in Pat- 
 mos as truly and literally as was the apostle ; and 
 that they stood face to face while the angel really 
 spake in articulate words, there is no reason to 
 dispute. 
 
 Having formally and with solemn emphasis as- 
 sured St. John that all he had revealed to him was 
 strictly true and would surely come to pass ; and 
 that the long line of events described would at once 
 begin to occur, the apostle, overwhelmed by solemn 
 wonder and admiration prostrated himself at the 
 angeVs feet in adoring gladness. But even a seem- 
 ing act of worship the holy angel again rebuked, 
 saying, "See thou do it not; I am thy fellow ser- 
 vant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them 
 who keep the sayings of this book, worship God." 
 Rev. 22 : 10. And having remanded John to his 
 feet, he enjoined him not to conceal the revelations 
 he had received, but to make them known to the 
 churches for whose information and comfort, 
 through all time, their unfolding fulfillment was in- 
 tended. "And he said to me, Seal not the sayings 
 of the prophecy of this book ; the time is nigh." 
 
 And these were the last recorded words of that 
 holy angel of God, who was specially commissioned 
 by the Saviour to reveal to his servant John the 
 things which Father had revealed to him. And 
 that such an angel did make the recorded unveiling 
 to God's servant, in his exile on the isle called Pat- 
 
128 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 mos, is proved by its fulfillment already, in large 
 part, and its still occurring accomplishment before 
 the eyes of all men. 
 
 And this angelic revealment was made under the 
 new covenant, in the Christian dispensation ; show- 
 ing impressively that angelic ministries are among 
 God's chosen agencies in the economy of grace. 
 
 "Not wholly lost, O Father ! 
 
 Is this evil world of ours ; 
 Upward, through its blood and ashes 
 
 Spring afresh its Eden flowers ; 
 From its smoking fields of battle 
 
 Love and pity send their prayer, 
 And still thy white- winged angels 
 
 Hover dimly in our air." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Work of the flngels— The Work 
 of the Spirit. 
 
 God governs our world by no single force. Di- 
 vine Sovereignty works not by simple fiat, but 
 through chosen and directed agencies, adapted to 
 the various realms of thought and motion, of mind 
 and matter. The governing influence of the Holy 
 Oracles is that of revelation, precept, law. These 
 alone are authority in questions of moral conduct, 
 and spiritual truth. 
 
 The Holy Spirit, having direct access to mind, is 
 the revealer ; the inspirer ; the dictator of prophecy ; 
 the teacher of truth. The Spirit's realm of power is 
 heart and mind — the mental and spiritual suscepti- 
 bilities and faculties. Its special operations are 
 with thought, will, affections, conscience. It il- 
 lumes, convinces, convicts, warns, regenerates, 
 comforts, sanctifies, guides. It is the executive 
 force of the divine government ; especially in the 
 realm of intellect and moral sensibility. It is an 
 uncreated power, and can operate in the physical 
 as well as in the spiritual domain ; but its peculiar 
 
130 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 province, in the work of redemption, is over the 
 spiritual and intellectual nature of men. 
 
 But the angels^ being created and personal beings, 
 although far excelling man in rank of mind, cannot 
 discern the thoughts and intents of the heart, at 
 least not with unerring accuracy. But they excel in 
 strength. The Scriptures call them '•'•mighty an- 
 gels." Vast power over material forces is ascribed 
 to them by divine inspiration. In the plan of re- 
 demption their work is, mostly, with demons, the 
 bodies and lives of men, and the elements of na- 
 ture. While the Spirit pervades the universe of 
 thought and emotion, the angels sweep the empires 
 of personal, social and national forces. 
 
 An example in point is the defence of Jerusalem 
 by the hand of a single angel. "And it came to 
 pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went 
 out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hun- 
 dred fourscore and five thousand ; and when they 
 arose early on the morning, behold they were all 
 dead corpses." 2 Kings 19 : 35. If one angel 
 could slay an army of men what could not twelve 
 legions do? 
 
 Another striking instance of angelic power over 
 men is their protection of Lot and his household 
 against the violence of the Sodomites. "And the 
 angels put forth their hands and pulled Lot into the 
 house with them, and shut to the door. And X^ey 
 smote the men that were at the door with blindness, 
 both small and great." Gen. 19 : 12. 
 
 From these, and many more similar cases re- 
 corded in the Scriptures, it is plain that the angels 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 
 
 131 
 
 *'excel in strength" ; and that one can chase a thou- 
 sand, and two put ten thousand to flight. 
 
 Such unlimited mastery of men, even to striking 
 dead thousands in an hour ; and instantly smiting 
 whom they will with blindness must include control 
 of the diseases which afflict us. If an angel could 
 suffuse Bethesda's waters with healing efficacy, 
 thev can by other means cure diseases. If men, by 
 prayer and the laying on of hands are sometimes 
 the' instruments of healing power, why should we 
 doubt that the stronger, and wiser holy angels can, 
 under the Lord's direction, cure the sick. Does 
 not the inspired statement : "The angel of the Lord 
 encampeth round about them that fear him, and 
 delivereth them," include deliverance from all kinds 
 of peril? The angel cf the Lord smote Herod so 
 that he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost. 
 Acts. 12 : 23. Would it be harder for an angel to 
 check disease? And if evil angels can afflict mor- 
 tals with loathsome maladies, as in the case of Job? 
 and if demons can take control of human bodies, 
 casting some "into the fire," and others into the 
 water, and making others wild maniacs ; cannot the 
 holy angels control such maladies and painful in- 
 fliction to, at least, an equal extent? 
 
 In a sermon upon good and evil angels John 
 Wesley says : "There is little reason to doubt, but 
 jiiany diseases likewise, both of acute and chronical 
 kind are either occasioned or increased, by diaboli- 
 cal agencies ; particularly those that begin in an 
 instant, without any discernible cause, as well as 
 those that continue, and perhaps greatly increase, 
 
132 FOOT-PRnrrs of angels 
 
 in spite of all the power of medicine. Many years 
 ago I was asking an experienced physician, who 
 was particularly eminent for curing lunacy, if he 
 had seen reason to believe that some lunatics are 
 really demoniacs? He answered that 'he had been 
 often inclined to think, that most lunatics were 
 demoniacs.* TVho can tell how many of those dis- 
 eases which we impute to natural causes may be 
 really preternatural? What disorder is there in the 
 human frame which an evil angel may not inflict? 
 Can he not smite us as he did Job, and that in a 
 moment with boils from the crown of our heads to 
 the soles of our feet? Can he not, with equal ease, 
 cause any other external or internal malady ? Could 
 not he in a moment, by di\ine permission, cast the 
 stronsjest man down to the ground, and make him 
 *wallow foaming,' with all the symptoms either of 
 epilepsy, or apoplexy? In like manner it is easy 
 for him to smite any one man, or every one in a 
 city or nation, with a malignant fever, or with the 
 plague itself, so that vain would be the help of 
 man. 
 
 '* 'I believe,' said that excellent man, the Marquis 
 de Renty, when the bench on which he sat snapped 
 in sunder without any visible cause, 'that Satan 
 had a hand in it ?' I know not whether he may not 
 have had a hand in the accountable horror with 
 which many have been seized in the dead of night, 
 even to such a degree that all their bones have 
 shook. Perhaps he has a hand also in those terri- 
 fying dreams which many have, even while they 
 are in perfect health." 
 
IN FIKLDS OF RKVKLATION. 133 
 
 And of the power of the good angels over our 
 daily lives Mr. Wesley held views equally interest- 
 ing and instructive. He says : '*May they not 
 minister also to us, with respect to our bodies, in 
 a thousand ways which we do not now understand. 
 They may prevent our falling into many dangers 
 which we are not sensible of ; and may deliver us 
 out of many others, though we know not whence 
 our deliverance comes. How many times have we 
 been strangely and unaccountably preserved, in 
 sudden and dangerous falls ! And it is well if we 
 did not impute that deliverance to chance, or to 
 our own wisdom or strength. Not so : it was God 
 who gave his angels charge over us, and in their 
 hands they bore us up. Indeed, men of the world 
 will always impute such deliverances to accident or 
 second causes. To these, possibly, some of them 
 might have imputed Daniel's deliverance from the 
 lion's den. But Daniel himself ascribed it to the 
 true cause : 'My God hath sent his angels and shut 
 the mouths of the lions.' 
 
 "When a violent disease, supposed incurable, is 
 suddenly and totally removed it is by no means im- 
 probable that it was effected by the ministry of an 
 angel. And perhaps it is by the same cause that a 
 remedy is unaccountably suggested, either by the 
 sick person or some one attendant upon him, by 
 which he is entirely cured. 
 
 ''And what are usually called divine dreams may 
 be ascribed to angels. We have a remarkable in- 
 stance of this kind, related by one who will hardly 
 be thought an enthusiast ; I mean Marcus Antoni- 
 
134 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 BUS. Ill his 'meditations' he heartily thanks God 
 for revealing to him, when he was at Cajeta, in a 
 dream, what totally cured the bloody flux, which 
 none of his physicians were able to heal. And 
 why may we not suppose that God gave him this 
 notice by the ministry of an angel ? 
 
 "And how often does God deliver us from evil 
 men by the ministry of his angels? Overturning 
 whatever their rage or malice had plotted against 
 us. The angels are about their bed and about their 
 path, and privy to all their dark designs ; and many 
 of them, undoubtedly, they brought to nought, by 
 means that we think not of. Sometimes they blast 
 their favorite schemes in the beginning ; sometimes 
 on the eve of execution. And this they can do by 
 a thousand means that we are not aware of. They 
 can check them in their mid-career by bereaving 
 them of courage or strength ; by striking faintness 
 through their loins, turning their wisdom into fool- 
 ishness. Sometimes they bring to light the hidden 
 things of darkness and show us the traps that are 
 laid for our feet. In these and many other ways 
 hew the snares of the ungodly in pieces. 
 
 "We may make one general observation ; whatever 
 assistance God gives to men by men, the same, and 
 in a higher degree, he gives by angels. They shut 
 the mouths of lions — human lions — so that they 
 have no power to hurt us. Sometimes they join 
 our human friends, though neither they nor we are 
 sensible of it, giving them courage, wisdom and 
 strength, without which all their efforts would be 
 unsuccessful. Thus do they secretly minister to the 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 135 
 
 heirs of salvation, while we hear only the voices of 
 men, and see only human forms around us. 
 
 ''It is for this reason that God is pleased to give 
 his angels charge over us, namely, that he may 
 endear us and them to each other ; that by the in- 
 crease of our love and gratitude to them we may 
 find an increase of happiness when we meet in our 
 Father's kingdom. Meantime, while we may not 
 worship angels, we may 'esteem them very highly 
 for their work's sake.' " 
 
 God has always wrought by such instrumentali- 
 ties as he pleases, and always will ; but still it is 
 God himself who doeth the work. Whatever help 
 we have from angels or men is as really the help of 
 God as though he were to put forth his almighty 
 arm and work without any means at all. But in 
 all ages he has used the ministry both of angels 
 and men. And we may safely imitate the good 
 angels in all holiness ; and, as our Lord himself 
 prayed, seek to do his will on earth as angels do it 
 in heaven. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 Angelie Manifestations in l^cecnt Times. 
 
 <'And may ye not unseen around us hover, 
 
 With gentle promptings and sweet influence yet, 
 Though the fresh glory of those days be over, 
 
 When 'midst the palm trees man your footsteps met ? 
 
 "Are ye not near when sorrow unrepining, 
 
 Yields up life's treasures unto him who gave? 
 
 When martyrs, all things for his sake resigning, 
 
 Lead on the march of death, serenely brave?" 
 
 But as to angelic ministries in later Christian 
 times many are incredulous. Unable to offer any 
 reason why these holy messengers of God, whose 
 presence and offices were so abundant in ancient 
 and early Christian times, should have ceased to 
 serve the good of earth, and withdrawn from our 
 world, not a few are unwilling to allow that they 
 are among us still, and bless and guide us as of 
 yore. 
 
 But the continuation of their ministries, even to 
 our own times, is strongly inferable from the thrill- 
 ing fact that the present dispensation opened with 
 a profusion of seraphic interposition which contin- 
 ued without abatement through the apostolic era, 
 and is recorded with prominent solemnity till the 
 last page of the Inspired Record is closed. All 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 137 
 
 through the gospels, from beginning to ending of 
 the Acts, in each and all of the Epistles, and to 
 the final sentence of the Apocalypse, the wonderful 
 services of the holy angels, in the work of redemp- 
 tion, are noted in the most explicit and imposing 
 way. And no intimation is anywhere given that 
 their work was to be transient. But of all that is 
 said of them the implication is very decisive and 
 convincing that they are prominent agents in all 
 this age of grace. 
 
 Take for example : "Are they not all ministering 
 spirits, sent for to do service for the sake of them 
 that shall inherit salvation?" Heb. 1: 14. R. V. 
 
 These pregnant words occur in Paul's letter to 
 the Hebrews, which was written some sixty years 
 after Christ's ascension. Can any think that this 
 broad and unlimited statement of the apostle was 
 true only of the Hebrews of that time ? Must not 
 the expression : ^'TJiem that shall inherit salvation^" 
 include all, of every time and place, who shall be 
 heirs of salvation ? Surely there is as good reason 
 to limit this entire Epistle to the apostolic period as 
 to thus limit this particular statement. The church 
 in these "ends of the world" — "these perilous times" 
 — needs the aid of angels as keenly as in the times 
 when St. Paul comforted his believing kinsmen with 
 the assurance that they, and all saints, are the sub- 
 jects of angelic guardianship. There is no scrip- 
 tural reason, or even ground of inference, for the 
 misgiving of Christian confidence in the doctrine of 
 continuous angelic ministrations, running to the 
 close of time. 
 
138 FOOT-PKINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 No, they have not left us, in these dark and evil 
 days, the sport and easy spoil of devils. No less 
 do they guard our steps through these dim and 
 treacherous times, than when they took voyage with 
 Paul, and clipped the wild wings of the midnight 
 storm, bringing all the company safe to land. They, 
 who did not disdain to visit Peter in his dark, loath- 
 some prison cell, working a whole cluster of mira- 
 cles for his deliverance, do not look on the perplex- 
 ities, and pains, and exposures of the friends of 
 Christ, in these later but not less dangerous hours, 
 with cold unconcern. Tenderly they wait and watch, 
 and spread their unseen shields over the weakest 
 follower of the Lamb ; nor will their sleepless vigi- 
 lance fail, day nor night, till the latest born of all 
 who "shall inherit salvation" is safely escorted to 
 the hills of God beyond the reach of demon, death 
 and tears. 
 
 BUT WHY ARE THEY NOT SEEN OF MEN NOW? 
 
 "Yet sweet is the rapture of music 
 
 Far over the homes of men, 
 Who are all too busy to listen, 
 
 Or too heavy with sleep to ken ; 
 For only the ears can hear it 
 
 That have waited late and long 
 To catch through the clamor and discord, 
 
 The thrill of the angel's song. 
 
 And only the eyes can see them, 
 
 In their bending beauty fair. 
 That have long been used to gazing 
 
 Through the calms of the upper air,— 
 The eyes perhaps of a watcher 
 
 Near to the rest above, 
 Or the innocent eyes of children 
 
 Dear to the Lord of love." 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 139 
 
 In the olden times they were not always seen. 
 Sometimes they were seen and not heard ; some- 
 times they were heard and not seen. The history of 
 these holy ones, running through all the Scriptures, 
 makes it plain that they have power to execute 
 their ministries on earth visibly or invisibly, at will. 
 "VVho has not been startled by sudden prescience of 
 events and dangers, entirely remote from their 
 thoughts, as if some one had actually made an 
 announcement to them?— so impressively, some- 
 times, that we look about us, half expecting to see 
 some human form. These experiences are so com- 
 mon that they come to be recognized, in poetry and 
 personal memoirs. 
 
 We remember the case of a distinguished minis- 
 ter of the gospel who was at the station, waiting to 
 take the train for a neighboring city. His mind 
 was entirely tranquil ; no sense or thought of dan- 
 ger disturbed him : the train approached, he stepped 
 forward to board it, when he became suddenly fas- 
 tened to the spot, feeling as if held by some irre- 
 sistible force. Unable to stir he saw the train 
 depart. Ten minutes later, two miles from where 
 he stood, occurred the terrible Revere disaster, in 
 which nearly a score of persons were instantly 
 killed, and many others painfully injured. This 
 clergyman is still living — the pastor of a church 
 not far from where we are writing. He saw no 
 form, heard no voice, but he was solemnly con- 
 scious of some mighty presence controlling his ac- 
 tion. Why should we doubt it was a holy angel 
 
140 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 of God sent to interpose between a useful life and 
 instant destruction ! 
 
 Moreover, there is much reason to believe that 
 angels personally appear to us, now and then, in 
 present times. How else shall we account for the 
 many authenticated instances in which persons fully 
 awake, in mid-day, and under no abnormal excite- 
 ment, have seen the forms of friends or acquain- 
 tances, or of unknown persons, when it was certain 
 that no human being was near? The best and most 
 intelligent people have recorded such appearances, 
 often followed by unlooked-for providences. We 
 believe it to be neither unscientific nor superstitious 
 to regard such phenomena as explanable only by 
 admitting that the angels of God do still show 
 themselves to men. 
 
 MORE STRIKING INSTANCES OF ANGELIC INTERPOSITION. 
 
 "There are, who like the Seer of old, 
 Can see the helpers God has sent, 
 And how life's rugged mountain side 
 Is white with many 'an angel tent.'" 
 
 There is no doubt that most cases of sudden and 
 inexplicable deliverances of good people from dis- 
 eases and accidents are the result of angelic inter- 
 vention. Of the hundreds of cases within the lim- 
 its of certain aathentification we select a few. 
 
 "In the fall of 1858, while visiting Indiana, I 
 was at an annual conference where Bishop Janes 
 presided. We received a telegram that Bishop 
 Simpson was dying. Said Bishop Janes, 'Let us 
 spend a few moments in earnest prayer for the re- 
 covery of Bishop Simpson.' We kneeled to pray. 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 141 
 
 William Taylor, the great California street preach- 
 er, was called to pray and such a prayer I have 
 never heard since. The impression seized upon me 
 irresistihly . Bishop Simpson icill not die. I rose 
 from my knees perfectly quiet. Said I, 'Bishop 
 Simpson will not die.' 'Why do you think so?' 
 'Because I have had an irresistible impression made 
 upon my mind during this prayer.' Another said, 
 'I have the same impression.' We passed along 
 from bench to bench, until we found that a very 
 large proportion of the conference had the same 
 impression. I made a minute of the time of day, 
 and when I next saw Simpson he was attending to 
 his daily labor. I inquired of the Bishop, 'How 
 did you recover from your sickness?' He replied, 
 ^I cannot tell.' 'What did your physician say ?' 'He 
 said it was a miracle.* I then said to the Bishop, 
 'Give me the time and circumstances under which 
 the change occurred.' He fixed upon the day, and 
 the very hour, making allowance for being a thou- 
 sand miles away, that the preachers were engaged 
 in prayer. The physician left his room and said to 
 his wife, 'It is useless to do anything further, the 
 Bishop must die.' In about an hour he returned 
 and started back, inquiring, ' What have you done?' 
 'Nothing,' was the reply. 'He is recovering rap- 
 idly,' said the physician ; 'a change has occurred in 
 the last hour beyond anything I have ever seen, the 
 crisis is past, and the Bishop will recover.' And 
 he did." 
 
 The above narrative was given by Bishop Bow- 
 
142 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 man ; and is now published by Fleming H. Revell, 
 in a book entitled, The Wonders of Prayer. 
 
 We believe that God answered those prayers ; 
 and that the Spirit made the impression on the 
 minds of those preachers ; and that God's holy an- 
 gel — perhaps the very one that stirred the waters 
 of Bethesda — arrested the Bishop's disease and 
 restored him to health, and service for the church. 
 
 The following case is reported in the same book. 
 
 "A sea captain relates to the editor of the Chris- 
 tian^ a remarkable incident whereby in one of his 
 voyages his ship was unaccountably held still, and 
 thereby saved from sailing directly into the midst 
 of a terrible hurricane : We sailed from the Kenne- 
 bec on the first of October, 1876. There had been 
 several severe gales, and some of my friends thought 
 it was not right to undertake the voyage, but after 
 considerable prayer I concluded it was right. On 
 the 19th of October we were about one hundred 
 and fifty miles w^est of the Bahamas, when we en- 
 countered very disagreeable weather. For five or 
 six days we seemed held by shifting currents, or 
 some unknown poiver^ in about the same place. 
 We would think we had sailed thirty or forty miles, 
 when on taking our observations, we would find we 
 were within three or four miles of our position the 
 day before. This circumstance occurring repeat- 
 edly proved a trial to my faith, and I said in my 
 heart, 'Lord, why are we so hindered, and kept in 
 this position ?' Day after day we were held as by 
 an unseen force, until at length a change took place 
 and we went on our way. Reaching our port they 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 143 
 
 inquired, 'Where have you been through the gale?* 
 'What gale?' we asked, 'We have seen no gale.' 
 We then learned that a terrible hurricane had swept 
 through that region and that all was desolation. 
 We afterwards learned that this hurricane had 
 swept around us, and had almost formed a circle 
 round us during the storm. A hundred miles in 
 one direction all was wreck and ruin ; and fifty 
 miles in the other direction, all was desolation ; and 
 while that storm was raging in all its fury, we were 
 held in perfect safety in quiet waters, and in con- 
 tinual anxiety to change our course and pursue our 
 voyage. One day of ordinary sailing would have 
 brought us into the track of the storm, and sent us 
 to the bottom of the sea. We were anxious to sail 
 on, but some unseen power held us where we were, 
 and we escaped." 
 
 Why should we hesitate to believe that as an an- 
 gel controlled the storm and the ship and the sea, 
 when St. Paul was in peril as he sailed for Rome, 
 so an a7igel held the ship of that praying captain, 
 and restrained him from sailing into danger and 
 death? Had the volume of Inspiration still been 
 open and in progress we believe these cases, and 
 hundreds more like them, would have been recorded 
 as instances of angelic control of the elements, for 
 the safety of those who trust in the Lord. There 
 is DO intimation, in the Scriptures, of the Spirit 
 controlling storms, and hurricanes, and ship at sea. 
 But there are wonderful examples of anrjels work- 
 ing miracles with winds and waves for the deliver- 
 ance of the righteous. And we have neither rea- 
 
144 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 son nor right to suppose that God has changed his 
 methods of governing our world since Paul's time. 
 The holy angels are not yet retired from service. 
 
 DO ANGELS ORDER SOME DREAMS? 
 
 From the same source we copy the following 
 remarkable dream: "The late Dr. Whitehead was 
 accustomed to repeat with pleasure the following 
 fact: In the year 1764 he was stationed as an itin- 
 erant preacher in Cornwall. He had to preach one 
 evening in a little village where there was a small 
 Methodist society. ' The friends,' said he, ' at 
 whose house we preached had at that time a daugh- 
 ter who lived with one of our people about ten 
 miles off. His wife was gone to attend their daugh- 
 ter, who was dangerously ill of fever ; and her hus- 
 band had that day received a message that his 
 child's life was despaired of. He earnestly and in 
 tears desired Mr. Whitehead to recommend his 
 daughter to God in prayer, both before and after 
 preaching. He did so in the most warm and affec- 
 tionate manner. Late that evening, while the 
 young woman's mother was sitting by her daugh- 
 ter's bedside (who had been in a strong delirium 
 for several days) , she opened her eyes and hastily 
 addressed her mother thus : 'O mother ! I have been 
 dreaming that I saw a man lifting up his eyes and 
 hands to heaven, and fervently praying to God for 
 my recovery ! The Lord has heard his prayers, 
 and my fever is gone. And what is far better, the 
 Lord has spoken peace to my soul, and sealed his 
 pardoning love on my heart, I know it, I feel it. 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 145 
 
 my clear mother ; and his Spirit bears witness with 
 my spirit that I am a child of God, and an heir of 
 glory.' Her mother, thinking she was still in delir- 
 ium, desired her to compose herself and be quiet. 
 ' The daughter replied, 'Dear mother, I am in no de- 
 lirium now ; I am perfectly in my senses ; do help 
 me to rise, that upon my bended knees I may praise 
 God.' Her mother did so, and they both praised 
 God with joyful hearts, and from that hour the 
 young woman recovered so fast that she was soon 
 able to attend to the affairs of the family, where 
 she lived. She had never seen Dr. Whitehead pre- 
 vious to this remarkable event ; but some weeks af- 
 ter she saw him ; and the moment she beheld his 
 face she fainted. As soon as she came to herself 
 she said, 'Sir, you are the person I saw in my 
 dream, when I was ill in a violent fever ; and I be- 
 held you lift up your hands and eyes to heaven, 
 and most fervently pray for my recovery and con- 
 version to God. The Lord in mercy heard your 
 prayers, and answered them to the healing of my 
 wounded spirit, and to the restoration of my body.'" 
 Now that the young lady should have had a 
 dream, and even have dreamed that some one was 
 praying for her recovery and that she should get 
 well, would have been no miracle. But how could 
 she have seen Dr. Whitehead, at the very moment 
 he was at prayer, and in his exact posture, with his 
 eyes and hands lifted to heaven ; and heard the 
 very words he spake, ten miles away? That the 
 whole thing was no delusion is proved by her imme- 
 diate recovery and her conversion to God. But 
 
146 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 why should we wonder? Did not an angel give 
 King Nebuchadnezzar a wonderful dream, and af- 
 terward interpret it to the Prophet Daniel? Did 
 not an angel visit Paul in the hold of the ship, in 
 the midst of the storm and speak to him face to 
 face? Why should not an angel have personified 
 Dr. Whitehead in the dream of that sick and suf- 
 fering girl ; appearing to her exactly as the Dr. 
 would have appeared had she been awake and 
 standing by his side while he was in that act of 
 supplication ? 
 
 We believe Mr. Wesley stands on scriptural 
 ground in ascribing "pious dreams" to the presence 
 and inspiKation of the angels. If they encamp 
 about us to protect and warn us in our waking 
 hours, why may they not communicate with us in 
 our slumbers in the silent night? We do believe 
 that while Dr. Whitehead prayed an angel was 
 present at the bedside of that suffering object of 
 his travail of faith, representing to her, in a dream, 
 what was transpiring miles away, and what the re- 
 sult would be. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Instances of the Visible Appearance 
 of flngels. 
 
 •'How oft may be seen what to Jacob was shoAvn, 
 When reposing at night on his pillow of stone ; 
 The angels desending and returning again, 
 In intercourse sweet with the children of men." 
 
 The ancient times were luminous with angelic 
 presence. Across the olden years flashed the 
 brightness of their faces. Through the dashing 
 centuries rang the melody of their voices. And 
 when the vail shall be lifted it will appear that our 
 own changing eras are not less visited and swayed 
 by the wisdom and power of the sons of light. Not 
 only do they watch us from amid the shadows, 
 guiding our dangerous ways by unseen, and oft un- 
 recognized influences ; but sometimes, and oftener 
 than we are wont to think, they stand disclosed in 
 visible forms, and bare their arms of strength in 
 deliverances which baffle the solutions of the most 
 incredulous philosophy. They rescue precious and 
 important lives, and protect whom heaven has or- 
 dained to great achievements for the right. 
 
 Of Samuel Rutherford, one of the chief lights of 
 the Reformation period, and who was Professor at 
 
148 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 St. Andrew's, in Scotland, in 1643, it is related 
 that in his childhood he fell, one morning, into a 
 deep well. No person was in sight, or in hearing 
 of cries. Instinctively he clutched the mossy rocks. 
 But his childish strength was ebbing fast, when a 
 man, robed in white glided down to him, and fold- 
 ing his strong arms around his little form, bore him 
 safely out, then instantly disappeared. His drip- 
 ping and bruised condition, when found, verified 
 his narrow escape. The person who had rescued 
 him could never be found. And his belief was, 
 specially in his after years, that God sent an angel 
 to preserve his life that he might be a preacher of 
 the gospel, and a flaming witness against the wick- 
 ed Papacy. Need it be thought incredible that the 
 holy angel who dug a ivell in the wilderness of 
 Beer-sheba to save Hagar's boy from dying of 
 thirst, should, in these later times, glide down to 
 the bottom of a well and rescue a young lad, se- 
 lected of God for heroic defense of this Word of 
 truth, when grown to manhood ? 
 
 Three hundred years ago when the soil of France 
 was red with the blood of her martyrs, the murder- 
 ous Inquisition sought a fresh victim in the person 
 of the head of a family of Christians ; but the wife 
 and children secreted the father, and would not re- 
 veal his hiding place. Enraged at being cheated of 
 their prey, the heartless tools of Rome seized one 
 of the children, a frail boy in his teens, and put 
 him to torture to force from him by the power of 
 pain, a confession of his father's covert. The 
 thumb-screws were cruelly applied — those instru- 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 149 
 
 ments of exquisite suffering ; — but the lad was firm. 
 Then followed the lighted matches, placed between 
 the fingers, — a keener torture still. The heroic boy 
 gave no sign of pain, save the swift movement of 
 his pale lips in prayer. The tormentors, hardened 
 as they were, were awe-struck by the child's mirac- 
 ulous fortitude, and released him. His friends, 
 who had stood by in helpless agony, took him to 
 their bosoms, and said, *'Was it not terrible to 
 bear?" *'It was indeed hard to bear." he said, 
 "but at the worst of it a tall angel came and stood 
 beside me, and pointed his finger up towards heaven, 
 and all the pain left me." 
 
 Might it not have been the same angel who vis- 
 ited Luther at midnight, in his chamber, at the Diet 
 of Worms, that, a little later, stood beside the pale- 
 browed boy in France, gi^ing him courage and 
 power of endurance which struck his persecutors 
 with strange fear and forced them to release their 
 innocent young victim? 
 
 Quite many years ago the author of this little 
 volume was pastor of the F. Baptist church at Mil- 
 ton Mills, N. H. At an extreme quarter of the 
 parish stood the Farnham homestead. The dwelling, 
 a plain farm-house, was then occupied by John 
 Farnham and his wife Fanny. They were most ex- 
 cellent Christian people, greatly beloved. Ralph 
 Farnham, father of John, was a revolutionary sol- 
 dier, and had spent most of his days on that home- 
 stead, an excellent citizen, a devoted Christian. 
 He was converted to God by witnessing the phe- 
 nomenon called the '•'•dark day" which occurred on 
 
150 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 the 19th of May 1780, and which, to his latest 
 hour, he was accustomed to describe in very glow- 
 ing and impressive language. He lived to a re- 
 markably old age. On his one hundred and fourth 
 birthday he was carried to Boston, Mass., where he 
 was received, and for some days entertained, with 
 much eclat, as the oldest living soldier of the Rev- 
 olution. 
 
 He was a mild, quiet, calm, serene. Christian 
 man, never given to anything fanatical or vision- 
 ary- He spent his last years at the quiet Farnham 
 homestead, tenderly cared for by his son John, 
 who, with wife, was affectionately devoted to the 
 beautiful patriarch. 
 
 One morning, a few years before his death, Mrs. 
 Farnham heard him calling with unusual animation : 
 "Fanny, come quick, O, come quick, Fanny." She 
 sprang to his room and found him sitting in his 
 arm-chair with a heavenly radiance on his counte- 
 nance, as if some new and great joy had burst upon 
 him from the world of light. As she entered he 
 exclaimed, "Don't you see them, Fanny ! O the 
 beautiful angels I Can't you see them ? How sweet- 
 ly they sing ! O Fanny, you must see them ! You 
 must hear them sing !" After some minutes the 
 heavenly visitants retired, leaving the grand old 
 soldier, both of his country and his God, in a won- 
 derfully happy frame of mind. 
 
 As, more than once, we stood in that silent room, 
 beside that "oZcZ arm-chair'' and heard from "Fanny" 
 the recital of that scene, we seemed to feel the sa- 
 cred presence of the holy augels of heaven, and 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 151 
 
 feel the soft motion of the air, as when their white 
 wings, seen by him alone, fanned his wrinkled 
 brow till it shone majestic in the light of God. 
 
 There is every reason to believe that dying saints 
 often see angels around them. How many have 
 seen on the faces of their friends, just as they were 
 touching the cold waters, expressions of unearthly 
 light and beauty, as they lay speechless, gazing so 
 earnestly, as if upon some shining form. The 
 Spiritualists will say they see their dead friends, 
 come to bear them to the spirit world. We say 
 they see the holy angels, sent to suffuse the gather- 
 ing shadows of the grave with the light and glory 
 of promised resurrection. 
 
 "We have known many cases of little children 
 being very happy in pangs of a painful death, tell- 
 ing those around them that they saw beautiful an- 
 gels. Many who read these words will recall death- 
 bed scenes of touching interest, when they felt that 
 the place was hallowed by the holy presence of 
 attending angels. If, as the Bible declares, they 
 *'are all ministering spirits — angels — sent forth to 
 minister to — or serve — them that shall be heirs of 
 salvation," all through our years of strength and 
 activity, they will not desert us when we are pass- 
 ing down into the dark valley. If they attend us 
 through all our long and weary journey they surely 
 will not leave us to struggle alone with the black- 
 winged angel at the moment of supreme need of 
 sympathy and aid, more than mortal friends can 
 give. But when we shall come to that mysterious 
 moment where earthly voices die on our ears, and 
 
152 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 loving human faces fade from* our sight, then their 
 voices shall charm our closing moments with holy 
 cheer ; and their smiles shall tenderly light us to 
 our silent and dreamless bed. 
 
 A distinguished French physician who undertook 
 to account for the entire phenomena of Christian 
 experience by natural causes, frankly confessed 
 that the ''^dyiyig fancies" of many religious persons 
 baffled all solution. **In the most severe suffer- 
 ings, even in the agonies of death," he said, "they 
 were often very joyful, and resigned, declaring in 
 their latest breath their rooms were full of angels ; 
 and that they heard them sing." 
 
 A very impressive instance of angelic protection 
 occurred in the experience of William Miller. In 
 1843 he was lecturing in New York. At one of his 
 meetings a violent mob assembled around the place, 
 with threatening demonstrations. At the close of 
 the service as Mr. Miller went into the street the 
 roughs set on him with the cry, "That is old Miller. 
 Take him !" At that instant two persons appeared 
 in front of him, singularly attired, and, facing the 
 mob, walked backwards for nearly a mile to Mr. 
 M's lodgings, the furious multitude following them 
 all the way with demonstrations of violence. His 
 strange escort uttered no word during their walk, 
 but when the rabble became furious, they waved 
 their hands, which seemed to have great influence 
 over them. When Mr. Miller reached his destina- 
 tion his deliverers suddenly disappeared and the 
 angry crowd quietly retired. The singular event 
 awakened a deep interest among the people, but 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 153 
 
 the closest inquiry failed to reveal the mysterious 
 defenders of God's servant. And Mr. M. ex- 
 pressed his solemn belief that they were angels of 
 God. And the Christian people who were best ac- 
 quainted with the circumstances fully concurred in 
 that conclusion. 
 
 Cases similar in character, and well authenticated, 
 are too common, even in recent times, to make fur- 
 ther recital necessary. But most people, unwilling 
 to recognize the superhuman aspects of the divine 
 government of our world, attempt to discredit all 
 evidences of the ministry of heavenly beings in our 
 midst. There is much more inclination to accept 
 the vagaries of modern Spiritualism than to believe 
 the plain and inspired teachings of God's Word. 
 But to those who are willing to see, the vast fields 
 of Revelation are luminously dotted with foot-prints 
 of celestial intelligences, to whose tender but mighty 
 guardianship we are indebted, under God, for pro- 
 tection and safety. 
 
 ANGELS MORE PROMINENT AS WE APPROACH THE END 
 
 OF TIME. 
 
 If, as we have seen, the holy seraphs have held 
 high ministerial place in the successive develop- 
 ment3<of the redemptive economy, we would cer- 
 tainly expect their offices to become still more 
 abundant and interesting as the final scenes of 
 human destiny draw nigh. Having served as the 
 flaming messengers of the Lord Jesus from the 
 manger to the throne, and onward through the gos- 
 pel era, they, surely, will not fail to participate iu 
 
154 FOOT-PRINTS OP ANGELS. 
 
 the grand and awful events connected with his re- 
 turn in judgment of his enemies and for the crown- 
 ing of his own. If they watched the cradle of his 
 infancy they will not be silent when the anthems of 
 his kingship shall be sung. If they have signalized 
 themselves as champions of their Master's long 
 conflict with the powers of darkness they will not 
 miss being the jubilant witnesses of his final mag- 
 nificent triumph. Having fought the evil angels, 
 throughout the fierce struggle of the centuries, they 
 will be sure to be present in full numbers when the 
 demons receive their doom. The divinely appointed 
 helpers of the saints in all the ages, they will be 
 foremost in delighted acclaim when the laurels of 
 endless joys are bestowed by the hand of their 
 Lord and, King. The friends alike of the Bride- 
 groom and the bride, they will crowd all the gal- 
 leries of heaven at the nuptials. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Rn Angel Announces the Coming of 
 the Kif^g* 
 
 *»Behold ! with awful pomp, 
 The Judge prepares to come ; 
 The archangel SDunds the dreadful trump 
 And wakes the general doom." Wesley. 
 
 A twain of anyels astonished the sad and per- 
 plexed disciples as, at Bethany, they watched their 
 ascending Lord, with the wonderful announcement : 
 "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into 
 heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have 
 seen him go into heaven." For the fulfillment of 
 these majestic words the hope of the church has 
 travailed through the weary and sanguine ages. 
 Should this wonderful revelation fail, the crown 
 and kingdom for which the martyrs died and all 
 saints have looked and prayed, must be forever a 
 mocking phantom. For if their Lord and our Lord 
 returns not there can be neither resurrection nor 
 eternal life. How fitting, therefore, that those 
 heavenly messengers should be allowed to vindicate 
 their own grand prophecy by proclaiming, in a voice 
 that shall shake the earth and skies, and penetrate 
 the Hadean valley to its remotest borders, ''Behold ! 
 
156 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 he Cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see 
 him." 
 
 And thus a strong angel opens the great judg- 
 ment scenes: *'For the Lord himself shall descend 
 from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the 
 archangel, and with the trump of God ; and the 
 dead in Christ shall rise first." 1 Thess. 4 : 16. 
 
 This entire transaction will be as literal and visi- 
 ble as the scene of the ascension. "T/ie Lord him- 
 self shall descend from heaven." To spiritualize 
 these words would be to annul the very founda- 
 tions of Christian hope. And if the coming of the 
 Saviour is to be literal, the appearing of the arch- 
 angel, and the sound of his tremendous voice must 
 be real. 
 
 Of this scripture Dr. Adam Clark says: "Jesus 
 Christ shall descend from heaven in like manner as 
 he was seen by his disciples to ascend, that is in 
 human form. ' With a shouf or order ; and prob- 
 ably in these words, Arise, ye dead and come to 
 judgment! Which order will be repeated by the 
 archangel, who will accompany it with the sound of 
 the trump of God, whose great and terrible blasts, 
 like those on Mount Sinai, sounding louder and 
 louder, shall shake both the heavens and the earth.'* 
 Grand ! Awful ! Glorious ! Suddenly as flash 
 of vivid lightning, on the dancing, rushing, giddy, 
 unconscious, teeming millions will break the mighty 
 ^'shout,'' shaking the pillars of creation; stopping 
 the pulses of the universe. Then instantly, the 
 chief angel, the head of the loyal legions, the tall- 
 est and mightiest son of heaven, he who unveiled 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 157 
 
 to the Prophet Daniel the rise and career of the 
 great monarchies, filling all time ; and changed deso- 
 late Patmos to a lucid panorama whose flashing 
 glory revealed the coming events of two thousand 
 years, will lift up his voice, responsive to the "shout" 
 of the descending Christ; and, putting the "trump 
 of God" to his lips, will blow the long, loud, solemn 
 judgment blast, calling the living and the dead to 
 the great assize. 
 
 "That day, the golden trump, 
 Whose A'oice, from center to circumference 
 Of all created things, was heard distinct, 
 God had bid Michael sound, to summon all 
 The hosts of earth to presence of the King." 
 
 THE SERAPHIC RETINUE. 
 
 "Lift your heads, ye friends of Jesus, 
 Partners in his patience here, 
 Christ to all believers precious. 
 Lord of lords ■will soon appear, 
 
 Mark the tokens 
 Of his heavenly kingdom near. 
 
 Sun and moon are both confounded, 
 
 Darkened into endless night, 
 When -with ayigel hosts surrounded, 
 
 In his Father's glory bright. 
 Beams the Saviour, 
 
 Shines the everlasting light." 
 
 Angelic display is always commensurate with the 
 importance of the occasion. One angel announced 
 to Zacharias the birth of John, the forerunner of 
 Christ. Only one angel revealed to Mary that she 
 should be honored by the motherhood of P^manuel. 
 And to Paul, in that terrible night of storm and 
 danger, appeared a solitary messenger from heaven, 
 
158 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 assuring him of protection and deliverance. And, 
 although Peter was bound with double manacles 
 and guarded by four times the usual number of sol- 
 diers, a single angel entered his well-protected cell, 
 smote off his chains and set him free. But the 
 opening of the Saviour's grave on the predicted 
 third day was an event which, in importance and 
 grandeur, rose to a loftier plane ; yet but tivo holy 
 ones were commissioned to roll away the stone and 
 escort the triumphant Christ out of the dominions 
 of death. Even at the ascension, when the immor- 
 tal Prince of Life made his royal return to his Father's 
 throne, only a twain of seraphs graced the magnifi- 
 cent scene. 
 
 But the birth of Jesus, which was the crowning 
 of the expectation of the prophetic ages, and the 
 incarnation of the hope of the world, was signal- 
 ized by the presence of a great host of visitants 
 from the throne whose anthem of royal recognition 
 filled all the arch of heaven and shook the Judean 
 hills with a chorus new and vast ; reminding na- 
 ture, too little used to angel voices since the dark 
 night of evil set in, of that jubilant hour when the 
 morning stars sang together and the sons of God 
 shouted for joy. 
 
 But there is coming an occasion and a scene 
 whose majesty and glory will tower above all gran- 
 deur and power ever witnessed by men or angels ; 
 whose flashing resplendence will dim the beauty of 
 the stars ; whose vast significance will be the won- 
 der of the universe ; whose attraciions will empty 
 the heaven of heavens of all its worshipers ; whose 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 159 
 
 august pageantry will appall the boldest demons, 
 and amaze the sons of men beyond compare. When 
 the long absent Nobleman shall return ; when the 
 royal Son of David shall come to resume the long 
 vacant throne ; when the Bridegroom shall appear 
 for the marriage of his chosen from the foundation 
 of the world ; when the conqueror of death, of hell, 
 shall gird himself for final victory ; w^hen the King 
 of kings shall come in with scepter and throne, 
 every angel of heaven, every seraph of God will 
 join his train. 
 
 ♦'Lo ! his triumphant chariot waits, 
 And angels chant the solemn lay, 
 Lift up your heads, ye heavenly gates, 
 Ye everlasting doors, give way. 
 
 Who is the King of glory, who ? 
 
 The Lord, of glorious power possessed, 
 The King of saints and angels too, 
 
 God over all forever blest." 
 
 In the far-back ages the captive prophet foresaw 
 that day and filled with holy rapture, exclaimed : 
 "I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the 
 Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white 
 as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool ; 
 his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels 
 as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came 
 forth from before him ; thousand thousands minis- 
 tered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand 
 stood before him; the judgment was set and the 
 books were opened." Daniel 7 : 10. 
 
 And in this later age, our Lord himself, predict- 
 ing his own return, said: "When the Son of man 
 shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels luith 
 
160 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 Mm" Matt. 25: 31. And, also, "For whosoever 
 shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him 
 shall the Son of man be ashamed when he shall 
 come in Ms own glory, and in his Father's, and of 
 the holy angels." Luke 9 : 26. 
 
 The Son of man coming with all his holy an- 
 gels ! Glorious retinue ! Magnificent display of 
 the royalty of heaven ! Concourse vast of seraphs 
 and archseraphs ! A shining train witnessed ne'er 
 before and never again in God's endless years ! 
 Heaven's high ovation to Jehovah's only Son on his 
 triumphal entry into kingship of his purchased pos- 
 session ! Resplendent celebration of redemption 
 completed, demons and their dark work abolished, 
 peace, universal and eternal, established. Mighty 
 angelic acclaim as the Lion of Judah leads "captiv- 
 ity captive," and chains death and hades to his 
 chariot wheels. 
 
 "The glory ! the glory ! around him are poured 
 Mighty hosts of the angels that wait on the Lord !" 
 
 ''''All Ms holy angels." Ten thousand times ten 
 thousand, thousands of thousands! "Twelve le- 
 gions" strong ! Myriads of myriads ! For the first 
 time and for the last there will be silence in heaven. 
 On that great day all the harpers of the skies will 
 have gone down to earth with the conqueror of the 
 nations. '•^All." More than Isaiah could count or 
 John could number. Filling all the highway of the 
 heavens, a mighty thronging host ; before, behind, 
 around the advancing King, onward they come. 
 The glory of their flashing wings obscures the 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 161 
 
 brightness of the firmament. The dancing clouds 
 reflect the effulgent splendor of their majestic 
 movement ; and the long groaning earth claps its 
 hands as when some great jubilee draws near. 
 
 As escort most appropriate they come. The swift 
 and tireless ministers of Christ through all his long 
 conflict with sin, his willing and faithful messengers 
 of grace and deliverance to his followers in every 
 age : true witnesses of the travail of his soul in sac- 
 rificial offering and intercession, how fit that they — 
 his holy angels — should escort him now to his 
 greatest conflict, his grandest victory. Brushing 
 asunder the blue drapery of the skies they swiftly 
 clear the way for the mighty conqueror's chariot 
 wheels. Down to mid-heavens they guide their vic- 
 tor King. Straight to the open field where devils 
 and death can elude his matchless arm no longer 
 they proudly lead him on. 
 
 "The judgment ; the judgment ! the thrones are all set, 
 Where the Lamb and the white- vested elders are met ; 
 There all flesh is at once in the sight of the Lord, 
 And the doom of eternity hangs on his word.*' 
 
 As aid-de-camps they come. Not as clouds of 
 silent witnesses will "all his holy angels" come 
 with our returning Lord. Not skirting the field in 
 numbers vast will they watch a single-handed fight 
 between Christ and Belial. From the inception of 
 the rebellion in heaven, till the closing act of the 
 earthly drama, the loyal angels withstand the whole 
 army of fiends. And when the final struggle comes 
 ou that is to settle the issue of eternal peace, the 
 heavenly ones will bear a willing and effective part. 
 ''And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great 
 
162 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 prince which standeth for the children of thy peo- 
 ple." Dan. 12 : 1. "Michael and his angels fought 
 against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his 
 angels." Rev. 12: 7. 
 
 As executors of Christ's orders of judgment and 
 extermination the "twelve legions," whom he might 
 have called to his aid in his earliest conflicts, will be 
 the swift avengers of their insulted Lord, and of 
 his slain followers. 
 
 The parable of the tares assigns to the angels an 
 important part in the divine administration of jus- 
 tice at the world's great harvest day. 
 
 "The field is the world ; the good seed are the 
 children of the kingdom ; but the tares are the chil- 
 dren of the wicked one ; the enemy that sowed 
 them is the devil ; the harvest is the end of the 
 world ; and the reapers are the angels. As there- 
 fore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, 
 so shall it be in the end of this world. 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." Matt. 13 : 38-42. 
 
 This very strong descriptive language must be 
 intended to teach that the angels will be employed 
 by Christ, in his judgment work, to separate the 
 "vile from the good," and to destroy the "tares" — 
 the children of the wicked one. 
 
 In the great Armageddon battle the loyal sons of 
 heaven will not bear the sword in vain. Nor will 
 they stay their hand till the last black fiend is slain, 
 and all the enemies of God are blotted from his sight. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 Angels Will Hail the Hising Dead. 
 
 "The great archa7igel'$ trump shall sound, 
 While twice ten thousand thunders roar; 
 Tear up the graves, and cleave the ground 
 And make the greedy sea restore." 
 
 No angel or archangel can raise the dead. Mi- 
 chael and Gabriel have voices of vast power and 
 majestic tone, but neither of them, nor the united 
 voices of all the celestial myriads, can break the 
 sleep of death. The slumber of the tomb is too 
 profound to yield to aught but infinite command. 
 The grim enemy's hand is too firmly set upon its 
 precious treasure to relax at less than touch of 
 uncreated power. The gloomy gates of the great 
 charnel house have sullenly resisted the pleading 
 pathos of robbed affection through all the mortal 
 ages, and they will vibrate only at the voice which 
 called the worlds into being. Hades owns but one 
 victor. When he, who stood amid the shadows of 
 the bereaved Bethany hearthstone and cried, ''Laza- 
 rus, come forth," shall call, the grave will answer. 
 
 The angels could not awaken the sleeping Sav- 
 iour ; but they could watch his tomb, and roll away 
 the stone when the hour for his revival came. And 
 
164 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 SO their tender ministries toward their divine Mas- 
 ter were not broken by his transient detention in 
 death. Their relations to his resurrection were in- 
 timate and sacred. And with the quickening of all 
 the saints also the Scriptures most closely and inter- 
 estingly connect the angels of God. 
 
 That remarkable text in 1 Thess. 4: 16, "For 
 the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a 
 shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the 
 trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise 
 first," implies that the archangel is somehow offi- 
 cially related to the awakening and arising of the 
 dead. 
 
 ^''I am the resurrection^'' said Jesus. The essen- 
 tial life-restoring energy must proceed from him. 
 His descending '•'shout" must vibrate through every 
 particle of saintly dust. Yet the apo'fetle so closely 
 associates the '•''voice of the archangel" with the 
 "shout" of the Saviour as to create the belief that 
 the angels, at least the chief angel, are semi-offi- 
 cially concerned in the resurrection itself. It may 
 be that the ''voice'' of the angel and the "trump" of 
 God serve as the grand announcement that the 
 august moment has come for the Life-giver to an- 
 nul the power of death and call the silent nations 
 to life, and to judgment ; the voice and the trump 
 being the solemn prelude to the omnipotent sum- 
 mons by him who alone can set the prisoners free. 
 
 The shout^ the voice, the trump ! Grand blending 
 into the mighty mandate that shall dissolve the vast 
 empire whose speechless subjects outnumber the liv- 
 ing of all the cities of the world ! Welcome sound 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 165 
 
 to the saintly myriads of the dark valley ! Note of 
 doom to him who hath the power of death, and to 
 death itself ! Sound of illimitable joy to the army 
 of martyrs ! Accents of despair to their accusers. 
 
 Spurgeon says : ''What has our risen Lord left 
 behind him ? Our faith has learned to gather up 
 memorials sweet from the couch of the Saviour's 
 tranquil slumber. Well, beloved, he left angels 
 behind him, and made the grave, 
 
 'A cell where angels use 
 
 To come and go with heavenly news.' 
 
 Angels were not in the tomb before, but, at his 
 resurrection, they descended ; one rolled away the 
 stone ; others sat where the body of Jesus was lain. 
 They were the personal attendants and body-guard 
 of the great Prince, and therefore they attended him 
 at his rising, keeping the doorway and answering 
 the inquiries of his friends. Angels are full of life 
 and vigor, but they did not hesitate to assemble at 
 the grave, gracing the resurrection as flowers adorn 
 the spring. I read not that our Master has ever 
 withdrawn his angels from the sepulchres of his 
 saints. Anq^els are both the servitors of livino: 
 saints and the custodians of their dust. The an- 
 gels from heaven rolled away the stone from our 
 Lord's sepulchre and let in the fresh air, and he 
 stepped out more than conqueror. Death had fled. 
 The grave had capitulated." 
 
 How joyfully will the blessed angels greet the 
 rising saints ! At every cemetery on earth a shin- 
 ing convoy will attend. At every lone grave, un- 
 marked by monument or slab, some angel will 
 
166 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 stand, waiting with radiant face, to hear the order, 
 ''Awake, ye dead, and come forth." No bed so 
 lowly, of orphan poor, or pauper long disowned, 
 but over it shall bend, that hour, a seraph tall and 
 glorious as ever graced the presence of the King of 
 kings. No long forgotten mound of little child^ 
 under the weeping willow, planted by hands tremu- 
 lous with poverty and grief, but shall be sought 
 and found and tenderly watched by some vigilant 
 angel from out the vast, shining ranks. No solitary 
 grain of holy martyr's scattered dust but shall be 
 looked for by seraphic eyes, and gathered to its fel- 
 low particles secure. 
 
 With what high acclaim of sacred gladness will 
 the rising hosts be hailed by the holy legions ! 
 Quickly and certainly as a mother's love they will 
 recognize the forms they guarded in the hard life- 
 struggles of the long gone years. How they will 
 smile, and wave their snow-white hands, and shout 
 in irrespressible delight as the subjects of their 
 faithful guardianship come trooping from the vales 
 of death ! How loud, and long, and grandly will 
 they shout when the fifty million martyrs rise ! In 
 what sweet, soft notes will they sing a new-born 
 anthem, lovingly improvised, a tender refrain of 
 the cradle songs of earth, when all the little chil- 
 dren, myriads of myriads, shall come to their ca- 
 ressing arms ! And O, in what transcendent tones 
 of majestic triumph will they tauntingly exclaim, 
 "O grave, where is thy victory now? and where thy 
 sting, O death!" 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 167 
 
 •'What place more strange could men have found 
 
 Wherein to plant the cross than where 
 The flowers in clusters hid the ground 
 And filled with fragrance all the air ? 
 
 Did ever drearier shadows fall 
 
 Athwart the crimson and the gold, 
 Than when in its gaunt arms the tall, 
 
 Grim cross the dying Christ did hold? 
 
 A garden near the cross, and there 
 
 A sepulchre ! Light barred with gloom ; 
 
 Amid the glory rare and fair 
 
 Of blcora and beauty, there a tomb ! 
 
 But never yet had weary feet 
 
 Oi sorrow come, with muffled tread, 
 Thither, to crush the blossoms sweet, 
 
 As they brought in their loved and dead. 
 
 Nor would they, till they came to bring, 
 With tear and moan and smothered wail. 
 
 The body of the murdered King 
 Beneath the paschal moonlight pale. 
 
 'Twas meet that in a garden bright 
 
 With blooms the Champion's tomb should be. 
 
 To sleep away the short, still night, 
 And wake in immortality. 
 
 And meet for Him to wake 'mid flowers, 
 
 When angels rolled the stone away. 
 Where dew-drops, fallen in lavish showers, 
 
 Like lustrous jewels paved His way. 
 
 'Tis well for weary head to sleep 
 
 On the same pillow where He lay, 
 AVhile heaven its vigil sure doth keep, 
 
 And ere long is the break of day. 
 
 And love may make a garden round 
 The place where sleep its own and His ; 
 
 Angeh patrol the holy ground. 
 And Christ the Resurrection is." 
 
 — Sunday School TimeS' 
 
CHAPTER XVIir. 
 Angels Will OQaPshal the I^isen Dead. 
 
 "And now the trump, of wondrous melody, 
 By man or angel never heard before, 
 Sounded with mighty tones, and the march began ; 
 Not swift as cavalcade, or battle bent, 
 But as became procession of a King." 
 
 Wondrous resurrection clay ! Great climax of the 
 pregnant ag$3 ! Emancipation day for deatli-im- 
 prisoned saints ! Glorious translation day for the 
 living church ! Grand field-day of the holy angels ! 
 Commotion vast, awful, glorious ! None will be 
 indifferent, none silent, none mere observers of the 
 imposing scenes. Heaven and earth will pulsate 
 with the grandeur of the hour — grandeur never seen 
 before ; to be repeated never. The living aglow 
 with expectation of the promised change from dull 
 mortality to life, abundant, eternal, in the twink- 
 ling of an eye, at the sounding of the trump. The 
 resurrected dead in rapt amazement stand ; and 
 every angel, in full panoply of heaven, is alert for 
 duty — waiting the orders of the King. 
 
 "And 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. 24 : 31. 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 169 
 
 The august scene will be marred by no confusion. 
 Order will reign supreme. The quickened dead and 
 changed living will throng all shores and vales and 
 mountain-sides ; a multitude vast, innumerable ; 
 standing in serried ranks among their empty graves, 
 when, lo ! a trumpet blast, great and strong, yet 
 not as battle summons, but melodious and tender- 
 toned, presaging joy and bliss, will roll its numbers 
 forth, heard to creation's farthest bounds ; and 
 swifter than speed of lightning, the angels will go 
 forth to marshal the elect. The angels, or perhaps a 
 selected number of them, will be the field-marshals 
 of the day. Into willing custody they will take the 
 vast, numberless throng ; and, obedient to their far- 
 reaching voices, the immense world-scattered mass 
 will be '"-gathered together'" preparatory to their tri- 
 umphal ascension to "meet the Lord in the air." 
 The kingdom not being set up, and the metropolis 
 not having descended, the immortal hosts will be 
 escorted to the chambers of omnipotence for safety 
 "till the indignation be overpast." 
 
 "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven 
 with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and 
 with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ 
 shall rise first : then we which are alive and remain 
 shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, 
 to meet the Lord in the air." 1 Thess. 4 : lG-17. 
 
 The angels will marshal the immense company, 
 putting them in order, — "every man in his own or- 
 der," troop, band, company. With unerring skill 
 they will find and gather all the risen ones. None, 
 however small or obscure, will be missed. Not 
 
170 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS 
 
 only from the great centers of martyrdom, where 
 the battle fiercest raged, and where the slain wit- 
 nesses will rise in vast numbers, but from the re- 
 motest corner where fought and fell a single soldier 
 of the Lamb, will the vigilant marshals bring in the 
 heirs of bliss. The divine order runs for "/</s electa 
 from the four winds of heaven.'' "The reapers are 
 the angels/' And they will bring every sheaf. 
 None so humble in birth or station, none so lonely 
 and unknown of men that the reapers of the Lord 
 will fail to gather them in. Were a single saint, 
 whose name is on the scroll of life, missing from 
 the "numberless hosts," the angelic reapers would 
 glean the earth and seas till they should find the 
 missing jewel, and bear it in their bosoms with 
 shout and song to the royal place purchased for it 
 by the Saviour's blood. Many a child will come 
 without its parents ; and many a "wa?/," who buf- 
 feted the cold world alone, and died without a 
 friend on earth ; but not one will be left behind. 
 Should the seraphic harvesters overlook the weak- 
 est child of God that ever lived and wept and died, 
 they would be remanded to the search, from pole to 
 pole ; nor would the grand translation order be 
 given till the shining ranks were full. Should an 
 infant of days be deemed not worth the gathering, 
 the recreant angel would be deposed from the royal 
 staff, and a special convoy would be despatched to 
 bring the tiny immortal in. 
 
 The holy angels will gather the ransomed from 
 the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the 
 other ; but they cannot translate them. The voice of 
 
IN FIELDS OF REVELATION. 171 
 
 him whose descending shout raised them from the 
 dead must proclaim their rapture. But we may be- 
 lieve that the entire ^Hivelve legions'' will form a 
 grand escort to the ascending saints. 
 
 O magnificent sight ! Resplendent pageant ! Ad- 
 miration of Christ the Rausomer and King, and of 
 God the Father who sent him to conquer and re- 
 deem ! The loyal sons of glory proudly leading up 
 the rejoicing heavens the trophies of their Master's 
 blood and victory ! Honored to present the all-glo- 
 rious bride to her waiting Lord ! They had oft un- 
 sheathed their invincible swords in her defence, 
 turning the victory on Zion's side, in many a hard- 
 fought field. And now, to right and left they stand, 
 with lifted helmets, chanting triumphant strains, as 
 the Prince of life welcomes the sharers of his glory. 
 
 This done, and the last sweet offices, of love and 
 power, in the ministry of the holy angels, are fin- 
 ished. Here their glowing foot-prints^ so grandly 
 visible through the earthly sojourn of the faithful 
 bride, melt radiantly away into the glories and bliss 
 which follow. 
 
 The numberless subjects of their guardian skill 
 and prowess safely sheltered beneath the shield of 
 their Lord and King, what part the angels shall bear 
 through the immortal years, will be as sharers in 
 the honor of the common Lord, participants in the 
 songs, and joys, and adorations which shall delight 
 the saved nation, and gladden the Tlirone ; content, 
 as they shall witness the bliss of the crowned mil- 
 lions, to know how tenderly and faithfully they 
 ministered to them in their tearful and perilous pil- 
 
172 FOOT-PRINTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 grimage through the wilderness of earth ; adding by 
 way of dear remembrance, some lofty refrains to 
 their anthems of unceasing gladness. 
 
 •'But now at the outermost gate 
 Of the City Celestial tliey wait, 
 
 With their feet on the ladder of light, 
 That, crowded with angels unnumbered 
 By Jacob was seen, as he slumbered 
 
 Alone in the desert at night. 
 
 And from spirits on earth that adore, 
 From the souls that entreat and implore 
 
 In the fervor and passion of prayer ; 
 From the hearts that are broken with losses, 
 And weary with dragging the crosses 
 
 Too heavy for mortals to bear ; — 
 
 They gather the prayers as they stand. 
 And they change into flowers in their hands, 
 
 Into garlands of purple and red ; 
 And beneath the great arch of the portal, 
 Through the streets of the city immortal 
 
 Is wafted the fragrance they shed." 
 

A VERT INTERESTING AND INSTRUCTIVE BOOK: 
 
 OUR HOPE: 
 
 OB 
 
 WHY ARE Vv^K ADVENTISTS? 
 
 BT 
 
 E. A. STOCKMAN, 
 
 Editor op Thb World's Crisis. 
 
 TESTIN10NIA.LS : 
 
 Eld. E. M. Andrews writes : "The book entitled Our Hope, or Why 
 are we Adventists? has long been needed by the church and world. 
 Every true Christian ought to have one to read; every Adventist ought 
 to have one to lend to his Baptist neighbor, to his Orthodox friend, to his 
 Methodist associate in business. No honest seeker for truth can read 
 it without being benefited." 
 
 Eld. D. T. Taylor writes : "A pleasant and profitable volume indeed. 
 Sweet spirited, eloquently written, charming and logical. It meets a felt 
 need in our literature. Take pains to circulate it. Put them in Sunday 
 Schools. Put them in public libraries. Give the book to the sick, it 
 will comfort them. Place it in the hands of ministers. Wherever it 
 goes it will silentij' proclaim Jesus' coming, and this is what Adventists 
 are raised up to do." 
 
 Eld. Henry Pollard writes : "It is unquestionably a valuable 
 work much needed at the present time. Ably, eloquently and kindly 
 written, neatly printed and beautifully bound, it is admirably adapted to 
 first attract the eye, then win the heart, and finally capture the judgment 
 of the reader. Of such books we cannot have too many." 
 
 Rev. H. Constable, England, after giving a lengthy review in The 
 Rainbow, says : "We have read Mr. Stockman's work with great pleas- 
 ure. Of the general correctness of hie argument we have no doubt. We 
 cordially recommend it to the readers of the Rainbow. 
 
 Hiram Munger says : "It is a condensed production of our whole 
 faith, backed up by scripture on every point sufficiently to convince all 
 that want to be convinced. If I was traveling as formerly I could sell a 
 thousand in one year. I can recommend it as the einbodiment of all I 
 ever preached on our hope. One brother said he would not take twenty- 
 five dollars for his copy if he could not get another. Buy it, read it, and 
 lend it to your neighbors to read. 
 
 Geo. Huntly writes : "I have read Our Hope, and I think it is the 
 best book I have ever read. Had I means I would have it translated 
 into every language and sent to all parte of the earth.'' 
 
 J. T. AULD writes : "I cannot express my thankfulness in any other 
 way than just to thank God for the book, and you for bringing it out 
 and publishing it." 
 
 PUBLISHED AND FOR SALE BY THE 
 
 ADVENT CHRISTIAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
 144 Hanover Street, Boston, Mass. 
 
 236 pp. Cloth; 60 cents each, f 6.00 per dozen. 
 
Date Due 1 
 
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