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LIFE INCIDENTS

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 31, 1868

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 31, No. 16.

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“LIFE INCIDENTS.”

By M. W. Howard

“THE angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.” Ps. xxxiv, 7.
“Such was my first thought as I read in “Life Incidents”: “I closed with benediction, took my chart and Bible, and made my way out through the subdued crowd. Some one locked arms with me, to assist and guard me. His countenance seemed inexpressibly familiar, yet I did not know him. When I had passed the crowd, I missed him; and from that evening, who he was, or how he left me, and where he went, have been mysterious. Was it an angel of God, sent to stand by me in the perils of that evening? Who can say it was not?”
What true Christian is not comforted as he reads in God’s word, “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him,” and is ready tacitly to admit it? But how many really feel in their own case this is true? Not that they are usually visible, yet not the less real. The apostle assures us that the angels are ministering spirits to those who are to be heirs of salvation, and shall we discredit such authority? Let us rather plant ourselves upon the sure word of God, and ascertain from our own actual experiences if this be so. But there are conditions to this blessing. Satan must be vanquished; for the Word assures us we must neither give place to the Devil. After that memorable encounter of Christ with Satan in the wilderness, when he (Satan) was vanquished, “then angels came and ministered unto him.” No doubt, in this case they were visible, as in some other instances of which the New Testament gives account. To our blinded vision the comforting angels are unseen, but the comforting is not the less real, whenever we have been able to withstand successfully, either by word or acts, the devices by which the Devil would entrap us.
Jacob in that dream-ladder, saw the angels of God—not descending and ascending, but ascending and descending. Already they were encamped round about him—already had they “charge over him to keep him in all his ways.” And how comforting to know that it is ever thus; for are they not all ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation? Heb. i, 14.
By trials we are prepared for holier duties, and often for happier lives.
“Eternal walls are our defense, Environed with Omnipotence. What foe can e’er prevail?”
Time spent in labor that even turns out a failure, is not always lost—if the work in itself is right—if it be performed as one’s duty, with a pure and earnest purpose.
M. W. HOWARD.
Malone, N. Y., March, 1868.