Angels are not etherealized human beings, evolving
animal qualities in their wings; but they are celestial
298:27 visitants, flying on spiritual, not material,
pinions. Angels are pure thoughts from God,
winged with Truth and Love, no matter what their indi-
298:30 vidualism may be. Human conjecture confers upon angels
its own forms of thought, marked with superstitious out-
lines, making them human creatures with suggestive
299:1 feathers; but this is only fancy. It has behind it no more
reality than has the sculptor's thought when he carves
299:3 his "Statue of Liberty," which embodies his concep-
tion of an unseen quality or condition, but which has
no physical antecedent reality save in the artist's own ob-
299:6 servation and "chambers of imagery."
Our Angelic messengers
My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door
of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried
299:9 its fondest earthly hopes. With white fin-
gers they point upward to a new and glo-
rified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys. Angels
299:12 are God's representatives. These upward-soaring beings
never lead towards self, sin, or materiality, but guide to
the divine Principle of all good, whither every real indi-
299:15 viduality, image, or likeness of God, gathers. By giving
earnest heed to these spiritual guides they tarry with us,
and we entertain "angels unawares."
Knowledge and Truth
299:18 Knowledge gained from material sense is figuratively
represented in Scripture as a tree, bearing the fruits of
sin, sickness, and death. Ought we not then
299:21 to judge the knowledge thus obtained to be
untrue and dangerous, since "the tree is known by his
fruit"?
299:24 Truth never destroys God's idea. Truth is spiritual,
eternal substance, which cannot destroy the right reflec-
tion. Corporeal sense, or error, may seem to hide Truth,
299:27 health, harmony, and Science, as the mist obscures the
sun or the mountain; but Science, the sunshine of Truth,
will melt away the shadow and reveal the celestial
299:30 peaks.
Old and new man
If man were solely a creature of the material senses,
he would have no eternal Principle and would be mutable
300:1 and mortal. Human logic is awry when it attempts
to draw correct spiritual conclusions regarding life from
300:3 matter. Finite sense has no true apprecia-
tion of infinite Principle, God, or of His infi-
nite image or reflection, man. The mirage, which makes
300:6 trees and cities seem to be where they are not, illustrates
the illusion of material man, who cannot be the image
of God.
300:9 So far as the scientific statement as to man is under-
stood, it can be proved and will bring to light the true
reflection of God - the real man, or the /new/ man (as
300:12 St. Paul has it).
The tares and wheat