THE GUARDIAN: A MONTHLY MAGAZINE Devoted to the Social, Literary and Religious Interests of Young Men and Ladies, and to the Sunday-School Cause. Rev. B. BAUSMAN, D. D., Editor. princi Dr SP Heilman BAUS 10 copies THE GUARDIAN enters upon its XXVIIIth volume, on the first of January 1877. It has ient history to establish its character, and to show its fruits. In its meral spirit, no changes are proposed. The True, are unchangeable-error and sin are always the Dec 77 ent is committed, as heretofore, to the Rev. B. me, of itself, the publishers regard as the most high tone and general interest which should characDALE o be published by the REFORMED CHURCH PUBLeb Co Pa ompares favorably with other publications of the kind, and has earned of a reputation which may well be coveted. The publishers will continue to use a superior quality of paper; and do all in their power, in co-operating with the Editor, to render THE GUARDIAN acceptable to its subscribers. terize TH LICA This Magazine will be mainly devoted, as heretofore, to the highest interests of the young, at the most solemn and interesting period of their life. It will offer its friendly counsels to them in an earnest, though free and cheerful way. It will solemnly seek to warn them against the wrong, and affectionately lure them to the right. The Editor will endeavor to make its contents true, pure, fresh, and healthy as the morning of life. It will particularly urge self-culture and early piety as of the highest importance, and cultivate the home feeling as a sacred element in social purity and peace. It will seek to move in the element of its motto:"Life-Light-Love." In addition to its usual variety of reading matter, THE GUARDIAN will hereafter appropriate at least ten pages of each number to the interests of the SundaySchool cause. It will aim to serve as an efficient helper of Sunday-School Teachers, and thus meet a want which has long been felt in the Reformed Church. THE GUARDIAN contains thirty-two pages monthly, making a handsome Volume of three hundred and eighty-four pages at the end of the year. Pastors who receive this Prospectus are requested to hand it to some active member of the Church or of the Sunday-School, who will procure subscribers for THE GUARDIAN. We respectfully ask all Young Men and Ladies to aid us in increasing our circulation. It will be an easy thing for them to raise a club among their companions. Specimen numbers sent when requested. TERMS-ONLY $1.50 A YEAR-IN ADVANCE. The Club-rates for Sunday School Teachers, and the terms for the Lesson Leaves, are as follows: For 5 copies to one address, for one year. .$7 00 10 .. 20 ** 30 46 66 66 13 00 25.00 36 00 The Lesson Papers will be sold separately, at 75 cents for 100 copies of a single issue. For any less number, one cent will be charged for each copy. In each case, the money must accompany the orders. Discontinuances.-To insure a discontinuance, written notice must be sent direct to the publishers before the close of the year, and all arrearages paid. If the notice be received after one or more numbers of a new year have been sent, the subscriber will be charged for the full year thus commenced. ADDRESS REFORMED CHURCH PUBLICATION BOARD, Publishers, No. 907 Arch Street, Philadelphia. DEVOTED TO THE SUNDAY SCHOOL CAUSE AND THE SOCIAL, LITERARY, OF YOUNG MEN AND LADIES. Rev. B. Bausman, D. D., Editor. PHILADELPHIA: REFORMED CHURCH PUBLICATION BOARD, Geo. Diehl, Geo. Hoskins, Dr. S. P. Heilman, Mrs. A. M. Meyers, U. Nycum, W. H. Pohrman, Miss C. Holzhouser, Geo. Thiel, Jr., S. Clark, L. Gibbs, Rev. J. Kester, W. H. Kehl, Martha A. Myer, H. Moling, M. M. Acker, Mrs. S. A. Bowers (2), A. J. Eyerly, W. M. Major, Mrs. D. Senn, S. A. Bowers, Mary R. Hall, W. L. Jones, E. M. King. S. B. Mitchel, Kate Pott (2). E. Ziegler, W. H. Corman, Mrs. A. E. C. Foust, Pharon S. Kohler, Daniel King, D. Miller, S. D. Piper, G. Hoskins. TO OUR PATRONS The "Guardian" will hereafter be mailed to subscribers by means of Dick's patent Mailer. Hence the date to which they have paid will invariably accompany the name. Accordingly, the acknowledgment of monies received will hereafter be discontinued. Each subscriber can know exactly how his account stands. Those who are in arrears will please forward the amount due without delay. Address REFORMED CHURCH PUBLICATION BOARD, 907 Arch Street, Philadelphia. VOL. XXVIII. MARCH, 1877. NO. 3. The Nature and Occupation of Angels. spirit: "A spirit hath not flesh and bones BY REV. J. W. STEINMETZ. The first conception we obtain concerning Angels is that they are spirits. But this definition does by no means clear up the mystery by which they are surrounded. The difficulty that confronts us here is that which meets us everywhere in our studies of the supernatural. We acquire the materials of our knowledge in temporal things through the media of our senses. But when we approach that which is in itself invisible the eye is of no avail. In all spiritual studies our bodily senses cannot aid us. We enter a new world-a higher order of existence, which by its superiority at once inspires us with awe and admira tion. as ye see Me have." And yet His body, while it was real, had undergone so great a change, that it was in a state of glorification far advanced, so that He could instantly dissolve out of their sight. And from the fact that He was much more of the time hidden from their sight than visible, during the forty days intervening between His resurrection and ascension, we conclude that the invisible form of His presence among them was to Him the most natural. Nay, perhaps He did not change His form at all, but that the vision of the disciples had to be miraculously strengthened to behold Him at all. And yet He possessed His true body, nay, was as truly human after His resurrection as before His crucifixion. So also does St. Paul teach that the resurrected bodies of the saints will not be grossly material, but spiritual. May not the resurrected saints' equality with the angels in part consist in the possession of bodies similar to those of angels? The early Church fathers taught that angels possessed highly aeriform bodies, so transparent that they are invisible to man in his mortal state, except by express revelation. Such bodies are not impossible. Angels are spirits. They are not matter. They rather form the topmost course in the pyramid of creation. Creation commences with gross matter, devoid of life and feeling, though not of order and arrangement. Then we find life permeating and organizing matter, as in the vegetable world. Then life rising distinctly into the sphere of sensation and power of motion, as in the sphere of the animal kingdom. And then again life, by the introduction of the principle of intelligence and spirit from outside of nature, organizing matter in unity with reason and spirit, as in man. And now at the upper end of this chain we find the angels as spirits, Neither is this idea at war with the standing nearest, and most like God-assertion that they are spirits. For the the Maker and Former of all. If they are possessed of bodies, then these bodies must be of a highly refined form of matter, matter so etherial as to be imperceptible to the touch or to the vision of mortal man, except under extraordinary circumstances. So our Saviour said after His resurrection, when His disciples thought they had seen a For matter can be so volatilized as to be invisible. The air we breathe is matter, and yet perfectly transparent. And beyond the atmosphere float oceans of ether still more impalpable. highest constituent element in man is spirit, and yet we all know how real our bodies are. In the human and angelic, God has in His infinite wisdom brought spirit, mind, and matter into organic connection, as He has in lower orders of creation brought inanimate matter and living force into organic conjunction. So far as we know-for we are altogether dependent upon revelation for our information on this subject-all angels are males. They do not stand in any family relation. They have not fathers or mothers, or children among them, but constitute a grand brotherhood-a universal sonship of God by creation. Each angel must thus be an immediate creature of God. Of their powers or capacities the Divine Word speaks very copiously. They are said to be holy. They were not absolutely holy-so holy that they could not sin. But God made all angels without sin, and without inclination to sin. It is generally believed that their fall was less probable than Adam's; their confirmation in holiness more easy; but their fall, if it would take place, irreparable, because they, falling from a higher sphere spiritually, would be precipitated to a more profound abyss. The fact also that there is no federal head among them would render their redemption more difficult. Some angels did make the fatal plunge, and having become characteristically evil, are portrayed in Scripture as the inveterate enemies of Jehovah. As such, they endeavor to thwart all God's plans, and to destroy all His works. As such Satan was the instigator of Adam's fall; the tempter of the Incarnate Son; the inspirer of all the wicked deeds that so darkly tarnish the eventful history of our fallen race. But as the evil angels have become fixed in their eternity so as to be irreconcilable and irredeemable, the holy angels have also been confirmed in holiness that they will not fall. The intensity of their love to God is only equalled by their hatred of siu. Their greatest delight is in God, and their highest good in carrying forward the divine works in God's vast universe. They are represented as stooping to look into the deep things of God. St. John saw them worshipping in heaven with boundless delight. Jesus saw them ascending and descending upon Himself, the living bridge spanning the chasm that had existed between the Holy God and sinful man. Throughout Scripture they are represented as obedient to the divine will. And Christ teaches us to wish, and to pray, for grace, that we may be equally obedient. They are thus represented as holier than man. So also are they portrayed as more powerful. They excel in strength. They are morally stronger than men. Sin has not enervated their will or perverted their desires. But they can also accomplish more in nature than man. They can by natural endowment bring forces and powers to bear upon nature that lie entirely beyond our reach. There are examples given of their power. The angel of the Lord smote the first-born in Egypt. And one hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers of Sennacherib's army was slain in a single night. They have also power over the wind and the sea. They work for the Lord their Maker, not that He could not do without them, but because He chooses to render them happy by conferring work upon them. On this account they are called messengers. They carry messages, and also execute messages they have received. On this account they are called hosts. Here the idea of number and warriors in battle array is combined. They constitute an innumerable and invincible army, a guard of true immortals waiting upon the Lord of Universal Dominion to execute His mandates with awful effect and power. They are called powers, principalities, princes, dominions, and lords. As holy and intelligent spirits they are endowed with immortality. Disease, pain, and care cannot touch them, neither does the onward flow of time make them aged and decrepid. They are ever young and fair, and of dazzling splendor. They drink without ceasing at the fountain of immortal youth and life. Their intelligence is represented as surpassing that of man. Exceedingly wise men are represented as being wise as angels of God. By this is not meant that they are equal in wisdom, but that they approach angels in wisdom. Jesus represents them inferentially as knowing more than man, when He says that no man knew the time when the great and notable day of the Lord should come, by adding, "No, not the angels in heaven." Their minds are vaster and can take in a wider scope of vision?and compass of thought. They stand by their creation nearer God, and know more of Him |