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 A SEEMON 
 
 TREACHED IN 
 
 ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL, WINDSOU, 
 
 ON 
 
 MICHAELMAS DAY, 1861. 
 
 Published at the request of the Dean. 
 
 (!)\-fDrlr k XDiikii: 
 
 J. II. AXD J AS. PAlUvER. 
 
 1861.
 
 % ^txnxan, i't. 
 
 MATTHEW X. 10. 
 "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." 
 
 TT would not be true to say of the aggregate of 
 professing Christians that they actually deny the 
 reality of angelic ministrations, but we submit to 
 you, as a truth which can hardly be too much de- 
 plored, that they live in comparative forgetfulness of 
 such ministrations being definitely set forward in our 
 Holy Scriptures. Now, not only is there the shut- 
 ting up of a wide avenue of godly consolation in 
 putting out of mind the statements of the Bible as 
 to the active offices of good angels, but there is 
 a positive opening of a ready channel for mischief in 
 the removal from our thoughts of the energetic exer- 
 tions of the evil angels, under their sovereign poten- 
 tate, struggling to grasp our souls, and to make them 
 fellow-heirs with them of eternal perdition. The doc- 
 trine of the activities of the good angels, in behalf of 
 man's welfare, is so intertwined with the doctrine of 
 the activities of the evil, in the direction of his utter 
 woe, that whosoever heeds not the comfort of the one 
 must be in imminent peril of being inextricably in- 
 volved in the meshes of the other. 
 
 Well, then, may we believe that the doctrine of the 
 ministrations of angels of mercy, and the machina-
 
 4 TllK JlIMSTllATION OF ANGELS. 
 
 tions of angels of mischief, docs not obtain its proper 
 share of regard. It is a misfortune that it should prac- 
 tically be held a fanciful thing and a speculative, if 
 not a fanatical thing and a foolish, to demand the 
 attention of our congregations to the functions of 
 invisible intelligences ; and so it is a subject of real 
 congratulation that the Church, fearing no ridicule, 
 dauntless in asserting verity, and having no object 
 but man's true interest, makes a special point of set- 
 ting up what her carnal sons are disposed to over- 
 turn. She deems it well to blow her annual trum- 
 pets, and to proclaim her yearly festival on which 
 her appointed services may ring with the memories 
 of blessings wrought by angels, on which her prayers 
 may supplicate for the benefits of " succour and de- 
 fence" conferred through angels, and on which it 
 may be brought home to a man's intelligence, if it 
 cannot be forced upon his heart, that his destiny, for 
 weal or woe, is to be administered by angels. 
 
 Something of the measure of the neglect in pon- 
 dering on the beings who make up the thronging 
 numbers of God's paradise above may perchance be 
 understood if we will but consider with what careless, 
 thoughtless minds are breathed forth the repetitions 
 of the entreaty in our Lord's complete and beautiful 
 summation of all prayer. Continually does the peti- 
 tion come forth from li])s wearing the semblance of 
 devotion, even from those who know that they ought 
 to be praying both with the spirit and the under- 
 standing ; but do you, as perpetually you allow the 
 syllables in accustomed form to pass the outlet of 
 your lips, duly consider how much is involved ? Do 
 
 O
 
 THE MINISTRATION OF ANGELS. ^ 
 
 you take it to your heart what verily is implied in 
 your kneeling before God's throne, and generally for 
 the world at large, and emphatically for your very 
 self, addressing the Almighty, "Thy will be done in 
 earth, as it is in heaven ?" 
 
 "As in heaven." Why, this one solitary Scrip- 
 ture breathed forth by Christ, sanctified and for ever 
 consecrated by the divine source from whence it 
 springs, this alone is more than enough to shew us 
 how great is the folly, and how closely the sin verges 
 upon hypocrisy, when you presume to employ lan- 
 guage which your Saviour has bidden you, and yet 
 are not careful to learn or scrupulous to treasure 
 what is placed within your reach of knowledge con- 
 cerning the nature, the offices, the duties, the obedi- 
 ence of those, to attain unto the measure of whose 
 devotedness to the Eternal you profess by your very 
 sentences to be the summit of your hopes, the loftiest 
 of your aims. 
 
 Very manifold, you should be aware, are the re- 
 ferences throughout the Bible to those blessed ex- 
 istences which fill the palaces above. Indeed, we 
 find the angels far from uniformly mixed up with ob- 
 scure things, not generally concerned with things sur- 
 passing comprehension, or exceeding ordinary faith. 
 They are found associated with the most precious of 
 Bible promises, and conspicuous in the most cherished 
 Bible scenes. Many and many a Christian, we doubt 
 not, has drawn goodly comfort as he has owned rich 
 sympathy with the Psalmist commemorating the mercy 
 of Jehovah,' " Because thou hast made the Lord thy 
 refuge, and the Most High thy habitation, there shall
 
 6 THE MINISTRATION OF ANGELS. 
 
 no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh 
 thy dwelling;" yet how few perchance, even of those 
 who have derived the richest solace from the strain, 
 have dwelt with proportioned thought upon the lines 
 w^hich follow, exhibiting by what means the deliver- 
 ance is accomplished, by what instrumentality the 
 mercy is wrought, — "For He shall give His angels 
 charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy w-ays." 
 
 There is one reason, and but one, w-hy there can 
 ever be a pretence for justifying anything like a deli- 
 berate disregard to these messengers of God. This 
 consists in the fear that w^e should be led to hold 
 them in undue reverence, and to pay them such 
 homage as alone is due to God, the great and holy 
 Spirit. We ascribe to the Holy Ghost alone the 
 attribute of being " the Comforter." In the Holy 
 Ghost alone we would recognise the powder of im- 
 planting divine life, outpouring divine influence, over- 
 spreading divine hope ; but thus giving to God the 
 Spirit the undivided worship which is the Spirit's 
 due, it w^ill not be derogatory to the Spirit ; in the 
 words of a departed bishop, " It will not infringe on 
 the office of the Holy Ghost to suppose that good 
 angels may and often do, as instruments of the divine 
 goodness, operate upon our minds so as to prompt us 
 to pious affections, thoughts, and actions." Once 
 guarded from the danger of desiring to worship, we 
 are subject to the duty charged upon us by Christ 
 Himself, of being studious to imitate. St. John, in 
 Patmos, was moved to make the oftcr of worship to 
 the angel of revelation, but the reply of the angel 
 lives on to the end of time, speaks in the name of
 
 THE MINISTRATION OF ANGELS. 7 
 
 the troops of heaven to ourselves, and says, " See 
 thou do it not, . . . worship God." 
 
 Mystery, of course, will ever surround what is 
 unseen. The entirely spiritual evades the grasp of 
 the carnal. The veil of mystery, however, is not 
 altogether impenetrable, the dimness not utterly in- 
 scrutable. Scripture propounds some decisive infor- 
 mation concerning angels ; it testifies alike to the 
 strength and the multitudes of this order of creation. 
 " Bless the Lord, ye His angels who excel in strength," 
 such is the rhapsody of the Psalmist, whilst he affirms 
 of their numbers that they crowd up into myriads : 
 " The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even 
 thousands of angels, and the Lord is among them." 
 Gifted they are besides with the splendid endowment 
 of immortality ; in them the seeds of corruption have 
 never been planted, so that when our Lord would 
 make men understand that the children of the resur- 
 rection should arise to an imperishable and everlasting 
 life, He said, " Neither can they die any more, for they 
 are equal unto the angels." Thus mighty, thus count- 
 less, thus immortal, are the tenants of the heavenly 
 courts. Moreover, it is the added testimony of the 
 unerring Word that they are " all ministering spirits, 
 sent to minister to the heirs of salvation ;" and here, 
 here is the theme on which the Church of Christ makes 
 holiday. She keeps her eye of adoration fixed on the 
 Crucified, the Risen, the Divine, but meanwhile she is 
 conscious of the wiUing aid in the full achievement 
 and effectual working out of the great salvation which 
 is lent by the unnumbered ranks of the spirits who 
 never fell. From first to last their interest is ever
 
 8 THE MINISTRATION OF ANGELS. 
 
 keen. At the creation it was " Glory to God ;" at 
 the incarnation it was " Glory to God in the highest :" 
 just hecause they beheld God's glory most in the 
 marvellous work of men's redemption, they were then 
 inflamed to raise their more rapturous song. 
 
 We read of Moses of old breathing forth his ardent 
 prayer, " Lord, I beseech Thee, shew me Thy glory ;" 
 and the Lord in answer said, " I will make J\Iy good- 
 ness to pass before thee," indicating plainly that the 
 dazzlins; heii^hts of His dorv were founded in the 
 amazing depths of His mercy. And in like manner, 
 what else can w^e conceive of the seraphim and 
 cherubim above, but that they are ever burning with 
 the eager promptings of the prayer, " Lord, shew us 
 Thy glory?" And when the Eternal replies, " I will 
 make My goodness to pass before you," and shews 
 them the bleeding Lamb, and the vanquished grave, 
 and the ransomed souls, they feel indeed that verily 
 goodness is glory ; and so they sweep their harps with 
 yet richer melody, and break forth in still more fer- 
 vent praise. 
 
 Long were the attempt to register, hard the task 
 to reckon up, all that has been wrought on earth by 
 the agency of these ministers of the Highest. When 
 do we not hear of them as busied in the welfare of the 
 saints ? In what association are they not ever to be 
 found ? Would not patience be exhausted sooner 
 than material were we to enumerate a fraction of the 
 chronicles which reveal how God has been pleased to 
 accomplish His purposes by the direct employment of 
 this tenantry of the upper world. Patriarchs, pro- 
 phets, apostles, those are rare which have not been
 
 THE MINISTRATION OF ANGELS. 9 
 
 delivered, been comforted, been guided, and been 
 taugbt by angels. Shielded often from actual vision, 
 and yet not always so, we may know that they are 
 unwearied and unwearying in their embassies of loving- 
 kindness. The witness of God Himself is their glori- 
 ous testimony, and we must therefore hold that no 
 doctrine is more clearly laid down in Holy Writ, and, 
 being laid down, scarce any should be more precious, 
 than that good angels are employed in waiting and 
 watching for the righteous. These in their holy zeal 
 we are bound to imitate ; these in their beautiful obe- 
 dience we are called to follow ; to them pursuing 
 their high vocation, and burning with their celestial 
 adoration, should we be uplifted in a rapt and reve- 
 rent contemplation, as often as we venture to come 
 as suppliants to the God of angels and of men, and 
 ask, " Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." 
 
 But this our service, while it exalts our estimate of 
 angelic enterprise and presents us with the model of 
 angelic purity, somewhat startles us when it exhibits 
 that there has been a time and there is a sense 
 in which the will of the Father has been challenged 
 even in the realms of light, — a time when this will 
 was sought to be violated even by the superior spirits 
 with which He had surrounded Himself in the su- 
 premeness of His glory. 
 
 Without preface, without preparation, there breaks 
 in abruptly upon the proceedings of our sanctuary 
 the astounding announcement that " there was war in 
 heaven." It is the largest of contradictions, it is the 
 vastest of paradoxes, that heaven — the essential home 
 of peace, the palace of unsullied love — should become
 
 lO THE MINISTRATION OK ANGia.S. 
 
 the scene of conflict and the arena of contending 
 armaments. But surpassing man's conjecture, and 
 yet demanding man's faith, it stands recorded that 
 there tvas, — " there was \Yar in heaven," 
 
 I presume not to picture the details ; I venture not, 
 in God's house, to follow out the glowing portraitures 
 of Milton's fancy, nor to depict how the legions of re- 
 bellious seraphim coped in vain with the battalions, 
 still loyal to Jehovah, who owned Michael for their 
 captain. 
 
 Without trespassing, how^ever, into regions belong- 
 ing to poetry and human imagination, there is enough 
 intimated in the ungarnished statements of inspired 
 revelation to circle with mighty interest and to invest 
 with peculiar warning the declaration of what was 
 enacted when there was " war in heaven." 
 
 In double aspect may this statement, thus strangely 
 thrust upon us, be surveyed. It may be regarded in 
 its historic verity, or it may be read in its prophetic 
 interpretation. In the first, (its historic verity,) it 
 chronicles the apostacy of Satan ; in the second, (its 
 prophetic character,) it is exponent of the Church's 
 experience. In each alike it is shrouded with mystery : 
 but what signifies the rolling over of those clouds of 
 obscurity ? Our sense of hearing is not closed. What 
 though the vision be perplexed? The car may still, 
 through all the confusions of overhanging mist, dis- 
 cern the shout of victory. We may know that all 
 along this is the cry of victory, — an Epinikion which 
 publishes the glorious tidings of a battle fought and 
 a battle won. 
 
 Now, as to i\\Q first aspect in which this Michaelmas
 
 THE MINISTRATION OF ANGELS. II 
 
 celebration tells of the victory here achieved by the 
 angels who do God's will, we find enunciation of the 
 consolatory truth that the struggle of the Evil One 
 for eminence and power in heaven was a final struggle, 
 — "His place therein was found no more:" so that 
 the striving against the might of the Omnipotent is 
 never to be renewed. They whose portions shall be 
 in the presence of God for evermore, are warranted be- 
 forehand in their goodly expectation of being free 
 there from the wiles of an adversary who here is an 
 antagonist of such restless and lamentable energy. 
 
 As matter, too, of deep and true theology, another 
 intimation of this Apocalypse is the elevated teach- 
 ing, that it was none other than the death of the Son 
 of God by which the arch-fiend was expelled from the 
 upper sanctuary. How mysteriously the Atonement 
 spread out its influence to give the hosts of heaven 
 their victory over the uprising ranks of the apostates, 
 — how it became an apparatus by which the engines 
 of rebel mischiefs should be silenced, — how, (we say,) 
 we know not ; but we are taught (even by the simple 
 teUing that so it was) to uplift our Lord with still 
 higher exaltation ; to behold that His energies for 
 averting evil reach higher than to the families of men ; 
 to know that that Atonement scattered the blessings 
 of deliverance even amongst the angelic hosts. The 
 tenants of the eternal homes, fired with no other than 
 the desire to do God's will, thus appear to be par- 
 takers of the benefit as w^ell as helpers in the work of 
 the Redeemer's mission : inasmuch as it is said that 
 in the original convulsion of the revolutionized heaven, 
 they owed their mastery not to their prowess, not to
 
 11 THE MIMSTUATIOX OF ANCKLS. 
 
 their strength, but " they overcame by the blood of 
 the Lamb." 
 
 But the gain of the spirits in joy was, for a while, 
 the trial of the created world beneath. "Rejoice, ye 
 heavens, but woe to the earth ;" this the up-sent cry, 
 as the prince of this world is banished from the 
 brighter world above. Here, for a time, he concentres 
 all his permitted powers to thwart the designs of Al- 
 mighty mercy ; and here, we have apparent reason for 
 believing, is limited his faculty of evil. Since the curse 
 in Paradise, the tempter, perchance, has not been free 
 to traverse the far-off spheres, or expatiate over bound- 
 less tracks, but here on earth is a prisoner, here is 
 condemned to comparative confinement ; and in the 
 bitterness of superhuman wrath employs the interval, 
 "the short time" that is permitted him, — even the 
 time of man's probation, — to make vassals of those 
 who, by accepting Christ's work and by working God's 
 will, are eligible to share in God's presence all the 
 transcendent glories of the conquering Christ. 
 
 However, to the second view. This prevalence of 
 the obedient angels to effect the banishment of Satan 
 is to be regarded, as it has been evidently appropri- 
 ated by St. John, as being in itself a figure of the 
 triumph of Christianity in the world. Herein does 
 the vision become a prophecy. Thus does it grow 
 elo([uent with the tidings that the kingdom of God, by 
 the instrumentality of the saints who do God's will, 
 shall surely overcome all resistances and be established, 
 in spite of the utmost of diabolical strivings. It ap- 
 pears to me to be yet equally vain and vague to endea- 
 vour to assign special dates for the fulfilment of the
 
 THE MINISTRATION OF ANGELS. 1 3 
 
 prophecy, to set down special incidents as verification 
 of the figure. It may be that the commentators are 
 right who behold in the " war in heaven" a scenic de- 
 picting of the struggles of infant Christianity against 
 the opposition of imperial Rome intent upon its sup- 
 pression. It may be when Constantine became a con- 
 vert to the Cross, and by national decree prohibited 
 the public recognition of idolatry by the State, that the 
 Evil One might be said to be foiled and to depart in 
 wrath. It majr be, again, that there is allusion to 
 the abominations of papal Rome and the destined 
 demolition of its power. I deny it not ; but yet rather 
 I glory in discriminating a wider range for the splen- 
 did prediction. It seems not so much a particu- 
 lar, as a perpetual prophecy. It extends wider than 
 the Roman government ; it endures longer than the 
 Church's infancy. It is a fixed possession, a per- 
 manent rally-point for the Church of Christ ; the 
 finest of encouragements to be resolute in doing our 
 Master's will. Just as often as Christianity becomes 
 effectual in any clime, or in any age, to demolish the 
 altars of paganism or efface the miseries of super- 
 stition, so often is there a fresh driving back of the 
 Evil One from his strongholds ; so often is there a 
 new victory in the on-going conflict with the powers 
 of darkness. Every fresh establishment of a station 
 whence the knowledge of Christ may be disseminated, 
 is a renewed stimulus to the Spirit of mischief to 
 accelerate his measures and augment his activity. 
 This, at its every repetition, is a separate (thougli 
 imperfect) verifying of the vision of the " war in 
 heaven," which shall go on, again and again, in re-
 
 14 THE MINISTRATION OF ANGELS. 
 
 iterated number, till the last efforts of the devil are 
 demonstrated to be fruitless. Then shall ensue the 
 final and utter crushing of the master Spirit of evil 
 and of his associated legions. Then, immediately, the 
 evangelized earth shall be ready to fulfil to the letter 
 the foreshewings of the vision. Then shall dawn 
 upon the peoples of the world the day of general 
 thanksgiving of nations, no longer rivals in aught but 
 righteousness ; then shall earth's confines re-echo with 
 the exultations of victory till the East shall chant 
 for joy unto the West, and one pole shall shout in 
 ecstasy to another, that " now is come salvation 
 and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the 
 powder of His Christ; for the accuser of our brethren 
 is cast dowm." 
 
 AYhilst, however, we are led somewhat away from 
 our original topic to expatiate upon the angelic con- 
 flict which is immortalized in this day's epistle, let 
 us return to it for a practical lesson, a parting and 
 a plain. Let us only remember that it is the will of 
 God as accomplished heartily in the unity of heaven 
 above, and not as slowly developed amidst the dis- 
 tractions of the kingdom of God below, that we are 
 bound to seek to fulfil. 
 
 God's will ; and " as in heaven." Having our con- 
 versation in heaven, we should rise above the entice- 
 ments of these lower scenes, and seek to perform our 
 earthly duties with a heavenly eye. 
 
 "As it is in heaven." It is the teaching of the 
 great Teacher : it is the inspiration of the pre-emi- 
 nently Inspiicd. O, ye would do well to ponder on
 
 THE MINISTRATION OP ANGELS. 1 5 
 
 the sublimeness of the pattern which hereby is set 
 before you. What a contrast between the obedience, 
 quick and ready, of the angels ; and the obedience, cold 
 and sluggish, of the best of men! To be perfectly 
 obedient even as the troops of Zion exhibit obedience, 
 this has been your prayer ; but have ye yet attained 
 to this submission of your wall to your Maker's ? 
 Have ye yet risen to angelic serving of your glorious 
 King ? Ah, no : your own will has risen in rebellion ; 
 your own inconsistencies have vitiated your highest 
 purposes of piety. 
 
 But though ye have not yet attained to the fulfil- 
 ment of your own petitions, be ye not dispirited ; 
 rather be ye animated by angels' high achievements. 
 Pi'ay on ; the time cometh w^hen obedience, even as 
 angels', may be rendered by you ; and happiness, even 
 as angels', may be shared by you. 
 
 But those amongst you who will not strive, but 
 are content to repeat this petition day by day with 
 little of sincerity and nothing of warmth, you who 
 desire no communion with good angels, and dread no 
 contamination from evil, we warn you that unless yc 
 gird yourselves in the Spirit's power to follow the 
 angels' pattern, and to do deeds worthy of your call- 
 ing, of which angels might not be ashamed, ye have 
 to dread hereafter a portion with the hypocrites. God 
 is a God too righteous to allow to pass unpunished 
 the guilt of asking with the lips to be made like angels, 
 while you are pondering with your hearts intent on 
 doing works of carnal selfishness. 
 
 You will do well, then, not to be neglectful of 
 Scripture teachings about angels now. In the coming
 
 TlIK MINISTRATION 01' ANGF.LS. 
 
 w 
 
 *CTcafter angels have their tasks assigned. If men 
 A^ivdcrstand not tlie offices of angels now, they- wHl 
 comprehend f/ie/i. Angels shall erect the-throne ;'angel^ 
 "in' myriads shall escort the Judge ; angels shall reap 
 the earth ; angels shall bring the harvest home ; angels 
 ^shal^bind the ungodly for the burning; angels shall 
 'proclaim the recorded guilt; angels recal the forgot^n 
 sins ; angels shall attend the last g^at jubilee ; angels^ 
 throng the pavilion of undying praise. O, then ^it^ 
 will be much, it will be well-nigh everything, to have 
 aimed at an angel's holiness on earth ! It will be well 
 for'^hose who have sought to do for Christ what 
 *ii^Ohrist has bidden, and who have longed for obedienc^ 
 j||t pure and perfect, even as that for which thev^re % 
 »w taught to pray, nay which they teach themselveMp|s 
 often as they bow the knee, and say, "Thy wM be 
 done in earth, as it is in heaven." 
 
 Jrintcb bn Btssrs. |J.ul>cr, G:ormir.u!ict, €)xiox'ii.