1 K. 19:5—“an angel touched him [Elijah], and said unto him, Arise and eat”; Ps. 91:11—“he will 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”; Dan. 6:22—“My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me”; Mat. 4:11—“angels came and ministered unto him”—Jesus was the type of all believers; 18:10—“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”; compare verse 6—“one of these little ones that believe on me”; see Meyer, Com. in loco, who regards these passages as proving the doctrine of guardian angels. Luke 16:22—“the beggar died, and ... was carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom”; Heb. 1:14—“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?” Compare Acts 12:15—“And they said, It is his angel”—of Peter standing knocking; see Hackett, Com. in loco: the utterance “expresses a popular belief prevalent among the Jews, which is neither affirmed nor denied.” Shakespeare, Henry IV, 2nd part, 2:2—“For the boy—there is a good angel about him.” Per contra, see Broadus, Com. on Mat. 18:10—“It is simply said of believers as a class that there are angels which are ‘their angels’; but there is nothing here or elsewhere to show that one angel has special charge of one believer.”
(g) by punishing God's enemies.
2 K. 19:35—“it came to pass that night, that the angel of Jehovah went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand”; Acts 12:23—“And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.”
A general survey of this Scripture testimony as to the employments of good angels leads us to the following conclusions:
First,—that good angels are not to be considered as the mediating agents of God's regular and common providence, but as the ministers of his special providence in the affairs of his church. He “maketh his angels winds” and “a flaming fire,” not in his ordinary procedure, but in connection with special displays of his power for moral ends (Deut. 33:2; Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2). Their intervention is apparently occasional and exceptional—not at their own option, but only as it is permitted or commanded by God. Hence we are not to conceive of angels as coming [pg 453] between us and God, nor are we, without special revelation of the fact, to attribute to them in any particular case the effects which the Scriptures generally ascribe to divine providence. Like miracles, therefore, angelic appearances generally mark God's entrance upon new epochs in the unfolding of his plans. Hence we read of angels at the completion of creation (Job 38:7); at the giving of the law (Gal 3:19); at the birth of Christ (Luke 2:13); at the two temptations in the wilderness and in Gethsemane (Mat. 4:11, Luke 22:43); at the resurrection (Mat. 28:2); at the ascension (Acts 1:10); at the final judgment (Mat. 25:31).
The substance of these remarks may be found in Hodge, Systematic Theology, 1:637-645. Milton tells us that “Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.” Whether this be true or not, it is a question of interest why such angelic beings as have to do with human affairs are not at present seen by men. Paul's admonition against the “worshiping of the angels” (Col. 2:18) seems to suggest the reason. If men have not abstained from worshiping their fellow-men, when these latter have been priests or media of divine communications, the danger of idolatry would be much greater if we came into close and constant contact with angels; see Rev. 22:8, 9—“I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. And he saith unto me, See thou do it not.”
The fact that we do not in our day see angels should not make us sceptical as to their existence any more than the fact that we do not in our day see miracles should make us doubt the reality of the New Testament miracles. As evil spirits were permitted to work most actively when Christianity began its appeal to men, so good angels were then most frequently recognized as executing the divine purposes. Nevius, Demon-Possession, 278, thinks that evil spirits are still at work where Christianity comes in conflict with heathenism, and that they retire into the background as Christianity triumphs. This may be true also of good angels. Otherwise we might be in danger of overestimating their greatness and authority. Father Taylor was right when he said: “Folks are better than angels.” It is vain to sing: “I want to be an angel.” We never shall be angels. Victor Hugo is wrong when he says: “I am the tadpole of an archangel.”John Smith is not an angel, and he never will be. But he may be far greater than an angel, because Christ took, not the nature of angels, but the nature of man (Heb. 2:16).
As intimated above, there is no reason to believe that even the invisible presence of angels is a constant one. Doddridge's dream of accident prevented by angelic interposition seems to embody the essential truth. We append the passages referred to in the text. Job 38:7—“When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy”; Deut. 33:2—“Jehovah came from Sinai ... he came from the ten thousands of holy ones: At his right hand was a fiery law for them”; Gal. 3:19—“it [the law] was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator”; Heb. 2:2—“the word spoken through angels”; Acts 7:53—“who received the law as it was ordained by angels”; Luke 2:13—“suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host”; Mat. 4:11—“Then the devil leaveth him; and behold, angels came and ministered unto him”; Luke 22:43—“And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, strengthening him”; Mat. 28:2—“an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it”; Acts 1:10—“And while they were looking steadfastly into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel”; Mat. 25:31—“when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory.”
Secondly,—that their power, as being in its nature dependent and derived, is exercised in accordance with the laws of the spiritual and natural world. They cannot, like God, create, perform miracles, act without means, search the heart. Unlike the Holy Spirit, who can influence the human mind directly, they can influence men only in ways analogous to those by which men influence each other. As evil angels may tempt men to sin, so it is probable that good angels may attract men to holiness.
Recent psychical researches disclose almost unlimited possibilities of influencing other minds by suggestion. Slight physical phenomena, as the odor of a violet or the sight in a book of a crumpled roseleaf, may start trains of thought which change the whole course of a life. A word or a look may have great power over us. Fisher, Nature [pg 454]and Method of Revelation, 276—“The facts of hypnotism illustrate the possibility of one mind falling into a strange thraldom under another.” If other men can so powerfully influence us, it is quite possible that spirits which are not subject to limitations of the flesh may influence us yet more.