Mat. 13:19—“the evil one”; 1 John 5:18, 19—“the evil one toucheth him not ... the whole world lieth in the evil one”; cf. John 8:44—“Ye are of your father the devil ... When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof”; Mat. 6:13—“deliver us from the evil one.”
From these Scriptural statements we infer that all free creatures pass through a period of probation; that probation does not necessarily involve a fall; that there is possible a sinless development of moral beings. Other Scriptures seem to intimate that the revelation of God in Christ is an object of interest and wonder to other orders of intelligence than our own; that they are drawn in Christ more closely to God and to us; in short, that they are confirmed in their integrity by the cross. See 1 Pet. 1:12—“which things angels desire to look into”; Eph. 3:10—“that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God”; Col. 1:20—“through him to reconcile all things unto himself ... whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens”; Eph. 1:10—“to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth”—“the unification of the whole universe in Christ as the divine centre.... The great system is a harp all whose strings are in tune but one, and that one jarring string makes discord throughout the whole. The whole universe shall feel the influence, and shall be reduced to harmony, when that one string, the world in which we live, shall be put in tune by the hand of love and mercy”—freely quoted from Leitch, God's Glory in the Heavens, 327-330.
It is not impossible that God is using this earth as a breeding-ground from which to populate the universe. Mark Hopkins, Life, 317—“While there shall be gathered at [pg 451]last and preserved, as Paul says, a holy church, and every man shall be perfect and the church shall be spotless.... there will be other forms of perfection in other departments of the universe. And when the great day of restitution shall come and God shall vindicate his government, there may be seen to be coming in from other departments of the universe a long procession of angelic forms, great white legions from Sirius, from Arcturus and the chambers of the South, gathering around the throne of God and that centre around which the universe revolves.”
4. As to their employments.
A. The employments of good angels.
(a) They stand in the presence of God and worship him.
Ps. 29:1, 2—“Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name. Worship Jehovah in holy array”—Perowne: “Heaven being thought of as one great temple, and all the worshipers therein as clothed in priestly vestments.” Ps. 89:7—“a God very terrible in the council of the holy ones,” i. e., angels—Perowne: “Angels are called an assembly or congregation, as the church above, which like the church below worships and praises God.” Mat. 18:10—“in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” In apparent allusion to this text, Dante represents the saints as dwelling in the presence of God yet at the same time rendering humble service to their fellow men here upon the earth. Just in proportion to their nearness to God and the light they receive from him, is the influence they are able to exert over others.
(b) They rejoice in God's works.