Angels Commissioned for Significant Work
By A. S. Booth
We are told in the fifteenth chapter of Luke, verse ten, "Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." Angels are deeply interested in the plan of salvation. When the Master was born on the plains of Bethlehem, they shouted the praise of the Lord, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." However, while they always have been interested that souls be born into the kingdom of God and saved with an everlasting salvation, yet in the book of Revelation the thought is clearly made manifest that their interest deepens as the controversy draws to a close. In the seventh chapter four angels are represented as "standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth," while the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads. In the fourteenth chapter, three angels are seen carrying the last messages that will go to the world before the Master can come to receive His saints home to Himself. After the three angels accomplish their work, and the last soul has made its choice and been sealed, the angels cease their work of salvation. The four angels loose the four winds, and the seven return to heaven. Then comes the command from the temple, or sanctuary, to the seven angels, "Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth." The seven angels come back on the mission of destruction to those that despised the grace of God and counted the blood of Christ of little worth. Thus it is clearly seen that probation ceases before the seven plagues are poured out. During the plagues, angels protect God's children, and at the coming of Christ "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." Angels that are strong to deliver now, will be strong to destroy when the Spirit of God ceases to plead, and mercy is no longer extended, while the wrath of God is poured out. The arm that is made bare and mighty to save now, will strike terror and death when Christ ceases to be man's intercessor in the sanctuary above. Those who heed the admonition of God by the mouth of Isaiah, will have an eternity of years to thank God for their righteous choice: "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."