Guardian Angels by X.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 14, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 15.

Guardian Angels.

By X.

Whether angels appear as represented in our beautiful illustration may well be doubted. Only those are fitted to portray angels who have looked upon them in their own glorious form. Whether any just such scene ever took place in the life of any child, we know not. But we do know that the sweet picture symbolizes two great and important and comforting facts to the child of God; the first fact—there are angels, higher, wiser, stronger than man, who gladly serve under the direction of God; the second fact—these angels are God’s sentinels to guard His children.

Who Are They?

They are not the spirits of the dead; for they existed before sin entered earth’s fair domain, and death claimed its first victim. We read of them in creation’s dawn rejoicing over the glorious works of God, when “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” We read of them in the Garden of Eden, protecting the tree of life, when man first fell. The name by which we know them is “angels,” which means “messengers.” They are also called “cherubim” and “seraphim.” They are the “ministers” of God, who “do His pleasure.” The number of these celestial beings is said to be “ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands.” Another scripture speaks of them as an “innumerable company.” These minister before God, carry His messages to countless worlds, and execute in gladness His holy will.

Two Classes.

But not alone does the Word of God reveal to us good angels. A vast company “kept not their first estate” of holiness and purity before God. They were led into rebellion by the arch apostate, Satan, him who was once “Lucifer, the son of the morning.” And since then there have been the two opposing spiritual hosts, Michael, or Christ, and the good angels on the one side, and on the other, the devil and his angels, the malign demons of darkness, exerting their baleful influence on the children of earth, and primarily responsible for suggesting every evil under the sun. The first host, filled with the love of God, labor on the principle that eternal right is eternal might, and will eventually conquer by its intrinsic goodness; while the second, the evil host of demons, led by Satan, work upon the principles that “might is right,” that “the end justifies the means”—principles which, ground in the seemingly slow mills of God, will be demonstrated to be chaff, doomed in themselves to destruction. With the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the truth of God stand the first host; with the war and strife and error and deception, stand the latter.

Their Ministration.

The holy Bible abounds with instances of where God’s angels executed His will and ministered unto His people; for “are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” We are told of how the angels came to Abraham with the message that Sodom should be destroyed; how they came to Lot and urged his escape from the doomed city; how Abraham’s hand was stayed in the sacrifice of his son; how through His angel Jehovah blessed and redeemed Jacob; how the Egyptians were destroyed and the Israelites preserved by the Passover angel; how the Angel of God’s presence accompanied the host of Israel all the way, “and bare them and carried them all the days of old;” how an angel of the Lord withstood Balaam for Balaam’s good; how the angel called and strengthened Gideon; how the blessed messenger of God comforted Elijah; how he slew in one night of the Assyrian host 185,000 men; how these heavenly ministers appeared to Isaiah, Daniel, John, Paul, and even to our blessed Lord. The Word of God makes frequent reference to many of their ministrations in all the various affairs of life.

But the preciousness of this great fact lies in the

peculiarly blessed truth that these things are true in a particular way to each one of the children of God. God sends a messenger to go with each one of His children, an individual protector. “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven.” When Peter came to the hospitable gate from the prison, where the angel of God freed him, the joyful yet frightened damsel said, “It is his angel.” “The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them.” Oftentimes does the Lord thus protect even the sinner. How many times does God warn even wicked men of danger! Heeding the warning, they escape; despising it, they suffer. A captain on a North Sea steamship (an unbeliever, by the way), once told the writer the following story:—

One night as the captain was about to turn in for rest, a strong impression came upon him that he should remain on watch. But as the night was comparatively clear, the sea smooth, and the first mate, who was to take his place, a good seaman, the captain laughed at the idea, and prepared to retire, when the impression again came to remain on watch. Again in his own reason he ridiculed the idea, and went on with his preparations for retiring. Once again came the almost command that he abide on watch, and for the third and last time the captain refused, yielding to the mysterious entreaty to the extent that the mate was expressly charged to keep a strict watch. The captain retired to his stateroom and to his bunk, but he had scarcely fallen asleep ere the noble steamer struck a fishing dory with five men in midships, crushed it as it would an egg-shell, and the fishermen were all drowned. Sad indeed was the captain, but it was then too late to heed the warning. Who gave that warning? Who but an angel of God? How many times do we know of merciful interventions which have saved us from visible foes and seemingly certain destruction! How many more times have the shining servants of God shielded us from unseen dangers!

What Comfort!

It is a solemn thought to know that the unseen watchers are noting every word and act and recording them in the books of God, even as we write them upon the pages of our character. But it is a wondrously comforting thought to the Christian that God has given him such holy and mighty and helpful companions in all his spiritual warfare. We may despise their presence to our own destruction, or we may so trust God that heaven itself shall be emptied of every shining messenger of light and minister of power before we shall fall or be defeated. It is for us to co-operate by trusting God and doing His will; it is for God to send His angel to shut lions’ jaws, open prison doors, or defeat the hosts of malign demons which seek to delude and to destroy us.

It is ours to claim the protection of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of heaven. It is ours to plead that He will send His shining squadrons to engage with us in the promulgation of His Gospel and in lifting up the fallen. It is ours to plead with assurance, as we give our children to Him, that mighty guardian angels will accompany them and keep them all the way through this black world of snares, pitfalls, and dens of iniquity, where lurk the demons of appetite, vice, and crime. It is ours to co-operate with the angels and our Lord Jesus Christ, and “rejoice together” in the sinless and eternal future. X.