4. Their business is "to minister for " the per sons mentioned, not against them.

5. It is taught that the spiritual angels are "all" of them such as are therein described.

From the foregoing results the following:

SPIRITUAL ANGELS ARE ALL GOOD BEINGS.

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IN regard to the official business or occupation of angels, it appears that, according to the Scriptures, they have been sent from God to man on various errands; yet, as I view the case, all such errands relate (, though some of them rather remotely,) to one and the same great End,progress and elevation of the human race, physically, mentally, morally, and religiously, through the general diffusion of Christianity with its attendant influences, as the great Means among those instituted by the universal Father for the promotion of that end.

Among the recorded occasions upon which angels have appeared, may be reckoned the following:

The conveying of intelligence concerning coming events of personal and general interest; as to Abraham, Daniel, Zacharias, Mary, and John the Revelator;

The deliverance of some from perilous circumstances, and the preservation of others in situations of danger; as of Peter from prison, and of Daniel among the lions;

The soothing, encouraging, and strengthening, of persons in extreme trouble; as of Paul, when

about to be shipwrecked; and of Jesus in Gethsemane, when about to surrender himself, in compliance with the will of God, to a violent and most ignominious death;

The annunciation of important existing facts; as the birth of the Saviour, to certain shepherds near Bethlehem; his resurrection to some of the female disciples at his tomb;

And so forth; &c.

I consider it to be not at all improbable also, when taken in connection with other facts, that the repentance or reformation of sinners (, which -, startling as the announcement may seem, the Saviour actually assures us causes "joy" even "in heaven,") is made known to the heavenly inhabitants by angels.1

It appears, too, from the Scriptures, that angels have sometimes exerted a powerful influence over human mortals without making themselves - and perhaps without making the fact of their influence

time

known to the persons over whom such influence has been exerted. Thus an angel, in conversation with the prophet Daniel, claimed to have confirmed and strengthened "Darius, the Mede," "in the first year " of his reign, which year included the or was but a little antecedent to the time when Daniel, through the envy, malice, and cunning, of his inferiors in office, was cast into a den of lions, with the intent that he should be devoured. Now this was sorely against the will of the king; but he had been entrapped into making of a law with that penalty, and, as it would seem, was constitutionally deprived of both the repealing and the pardoning power; and Daniel having certainly violated the law, it could not well be otherwise than that its penalty must be inflicted upon him. 1 Luke xv. 7, 10.

2 Dan. xi. 1.

And we read that when he found it was impracticable for him to save Daniel, he addressed this remarkable language to him:-language which it might seem hardly credible should have proceeded from the mouth of a heathen, were we not also told that, at or about that time, an angelic influence was being exerted over him: Thy God, whom thou servest continually," said he to Daniel, "he will deliver thee." 1*

What concerning "guardian angels?"

The Scriptures are not altogether silent upon the subject of angelic guardianship, though not so full and explicit as perhaps would seem to us desirable.

The guardianship of angels over some persons, and this by the express appointment of God, is obviously promised in the simple language of one of the Psalms, an extract from which is given, below, and a small part of which is quoted in Matt. iv. 6, and in Luke iv. 10, 11:

Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day. nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee...... 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. xci. 5-12.

The doctrine of the existence of guardian angels is at least favored by the second dream of King Nebuchadnezzar, which dream the prophet Daniel recognized as "showing the decree of the Most

1 Dan. vi. 16.

*"He will deliver thee." This, perhaps, should be rendered interrogatively; as "Will He not deliver thee?" But thus rendered the speech of Darius is still very remarkable.

High." In this dream of the king, "a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven," &c.1 (See the account.)

As relating in a direct manner to the subject in hand, let us now once more advert to that text which teaches that angels are all of them ministering or officially-serving spirits, sent forth to minister for those who-, according to the common rendering, shall be heirs of salvation. What less can be meant in this text, than that at least a share of the business of angels on earth, is to do for, or attend on, or in some way serve, the persons therein intended?

In a certain place, the Saviour exhorts and declares as follows:

"Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say to you that in heaven their angels [, or their angels in heaven,] do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven." Matt. xviii. 10.

In this text, the phrase "little ones" must mean either children, in the household sense, or else those persons of maturer age who, in the Scripturally intended sense, have become "as" children See the context. But understanding the phrase this way, or that way, affects not the point now in hand. Nothing can be clearer than the fact that, according to the Saviour, there were at that time some on earth who had angels in heaven! In other words, there were angels then whose home was in heaven, and who at the same time were, in some proper sense, the angels or the little ones in mention. Or, there were angels in heaven, and there were little ones on earth; and it was a fact in relation to these earth-dwelling ones, that at that very time some of the angels mentioned were "their angels."

Dan iv. 13, 24, &c.