found in its own code of laws. It is a community whose badge and characteristic is love for its own members-a peculiar love founded on their common redemption and hope of heaven, and their attachment to a common Saviour, and which knows no distinction of color, caste, age or country-a love so strong and pure that it is to be seen by the world to be a new element in human conduct; the development of a new law. It is a community where there is sympathy, deep and sincere, for its suffering members, and where, as in the human body, joy or sorrow in one part thrills along the whole frame. It is a community requiring of us mutual kindness concession, and forbearance; a careful solicitude not to offend, and not to lead others into sin; a willingness to forego our own comforts and indulgencies if we may help others who are feeble and weak on to heaven. It is a community all of whose members are liable to go astray, but in which each member feels an interest in the welfare of every other, and who, whenever he wanders, would by prayer and supplication and appropriate personal effort, seek to lead him back to the paphs of pure religion. Such were some of the features of the New Testament church; had this always been its character, long since its glory would have enlightened all lands, and the earth would have been filled with the knowledge of salvation.

SERMON CCCXCI.

BY REV. JONATHAN BRACE,

NEW YORK.

THE NATURE AND EMPLOYMENT OF HOLY ANGELS. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation."-Hebrews i. 14.

FROM the earliest ages, mankind seem to have had some conceptions of an order of beings superior to themselves. Nor, when we contemplate our situation, is this surprising. We see orders of beings below us in rank-beasts, fishes, reptiles, and insects; and it is reasonable to conclude, that there are orders of beings likewise above us, in the scale of dignity and intelligence. We know not why there should be any gaps or chasms in the creation of God; why that chain should be broken, of which man seems the middle link, and which stre ches from the incomprehensible Jehovah down to the half-formed animalculæ. We, indeed, know nothing certain, respecting this, but by revelation; yet, as the restless mind of man has been ever conjecturing, it is not strange, that when there was so

much ground for conjecture and opinion as in the present instance, the Greeks should have had their demons, (knowing ones)-the Romans, their genii-or, that heathen authors have written so much respecting satyrs, fauns, and nymphs of every kind. What, however, reason makes only probable, the Bible places beyond dispute That assures us, that there are both good and evilholy and fallen angels; informs us also of their nature and occupation; and tells us further, that we have with both these orders a direct concern.

I propose, at the present time, to speak only of the former of these classes, the Holy Angels, of whom we have an interesting though brief account in the text. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ?" By this we may understand that angels are spirits, and that they are active spirits.

Let us, then, contemplate the character of these celestial inhabitants and their employments; which will prepare the way for some practical reflections.

1. I remark, that they are immaterial beings; not encumbered like curselves with flesh and blood, though doubtless, like ourselves, endued with reason, affections, and free agency. If they have bodies, these bodies are formed-not of such matter as that with which we are acquainted, but of what is far more subtle and etherealized than such matter-matter imperceptible by our senses, as we are now constituted.

2. Their intellects are capacious and richly furnished.

Their minds were originally formed with exalted faculties, and these faculties have since been constantly expanding, and constantly engaged in amassing knowledge. More than six thousand years have these distinguished intelligences, been devoting themslelves, with intenseness and fervor, to the study of truth. Had Adam lived until the present time, and with only the ordinary capacities of humanity, have employed himself in investigating various subjects, what a high degree of knowledge would be now possess! How great, then, how inconceivably great, that amount of information which those have obtained, who, with commanding faculties at first, have been since ardently searching into the works of Jehovah- his works of creation, of providence, and of grace!

3. Their strength is wonderful.

A good angel must be as strong as an angel ruined; but it was a fallen angel which raised a whirlwind, "smote the four corners of Job's house," and immediately destroyed his children. It was an angel who "smote in one hour all the first born of the land of Egypt, both of man and beast ;" and it was "the four angels," we are told in the book of Revelation, who were commissioned" to hold the four winds of heaven." The twentieth chapter of this book, presents us likewise with the spectacle of "an angel coming

down from heaven, with the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand, and laying hold of the dragon which is Satan, chaining him, casting him into the bottomless pit, shutting him up and setting a seal upon him." Almost boundless, then, is the power of these first-born children of God! They "excel in strength."

4. But their activity is as astonishing as their strength

A striking proof of this we are furnished with in the case of Daniel. He commenced prayer, and before he had concluded, "the angel Gabriel being ordered to fly swiftly, touched him," and announced an answer to his request. Though light flies with great rapidity-264,000 miles in a second, yet it takes three years for its rays to reach us from some of the fixed stars; but here Gabriel comes from the immediate presence of the Most High to our world, probably a distance far more remote, in a few moments. Such unparalleled velocity, words can neither express nor imagination conceive. They literally, like their Master, "walk on the wings of the wind."

5. In addition to these attributes, this dignified order of beings are, in their nature, pre-eminently lovely. All the gentler and sublimer virtues, tarnished with no spot and debased with no alloy, meet in and adorn their character. They are invested with every external grace, and in their bosoms one intense flame of love to their Creator and his creatures, burns clearly and perpetually. God is holy, and they are his holy angels-objects of his complacency, made in his image, and reflecting his perfections.

Such, at a glance, is the nature of these noble spirits. As to the number of them, it is exceeding great Our Lord speaks of "more than twelve legions," who, had requested it, would instantly have come to his aid. Matt- xxvi. 53. "Thinkest thou, that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" A Roman legion amounts to more than six thousand men; more than seventy-two thousand would have come, therefore, to the Saviour's help, had he required it, Daniel saw, in his vision, "thousands of thousands ministering to the Ancient of days, and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him ;" and the apostle, in the epistle to the Hebrews, calls them, an innumerable company." Their numbers exceed computation.

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II. Let us now, secondly, inquire, respecting their employments They have employments. God has so formed his rational creatures, that to be happy, their faculties must be engaged in the pursuit of some interesting end. Time hangs heavy on the hands of those who have nothing to do. They are restless and uneasy; and if angels had no occupation, they, too, could not be blessed. "An angel's wing would droop, if long at rest."

But they are not at rest, they are engaged,

1. They celebrate Jehovah's praises.

When the foundations of our earth was laid, these "morning stars sang together, and all these sons of God shouted for joy." As they beheld this terraqueous globe, emerge harmonious and beautiful from chaos, at the fiat of the Almighty; saw "light invest it-the firmament arch above it-the waters roll backward into their bed-the dry land heave, and the mountains lift their heads towards heaven"-charmed at the wisdom and power displayed, they sang praises to Him, who spake, and this mighty work was done. When the law was announced from the trembling top of Sinai, amidst lightnings, thunders and tempest, the chariots of God even thousands of angels, are mentioned as encompassing the mount, exalting the majestic law-giver by their presence, and adding grandeur and solemnity to the scene. At the birth of the Messiah, angels hymned his natal song, bringing glory to God and glad tidings to man, into delightful union. And when this Messiah, having completed his arduous, yet blessed work, returned to his Father who sent him, these same spirits hailed his advent with acclamation, calling the gates to lift up their everlasting heads, and the doors to lift up theirs also, that their King might come in. And now in the upper temple, they "rest not day nor night, crying holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty; and saying blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sit teth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever!"

2. They, also, as we have seen, with unmingled and intense love of truth, study the character and the works of God. The divine character is a subject full of interest for them-a subject which they can never exhaust; and as more and more of the in-. finite Creator is unfolded to their admiring gaze, fresh emotions of delight are awakened. Since, too, "the works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein," and they have much pleasure in these works; these works, likewise, they explore. But particularly do the dispensations of the Most High towards his church, engage their minds, and open delightful fields of investigation. "Into these things they desire" especially "to look," for in these they find "the manifold wisdom of God." "By the church," her incarnate, suffering, dying, risen, Saviour, "is made known unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places," more of the incomprehensible Jehovah, than can be found any where else,-glory of his most winning and kindling the riches of his love and grace.

3. They are prompt to execute the judgments of God upon the guilty. Is the army of Sennacherib obnoxious to Him whom they serve? An angel flies on his mission of terror, and slays a hundred, fourscore, and five thousand men of them. Does David, by numbering the people, contrary to the Divine command, justly expose his nation to the Divine vengeance? An angel is despatched, who

destroys in three days,

of Judah and Israel.

three-score and ten thousand persons out And if any vials of Jehovah's wrath are to be poured out on any particular portions of our corrupt earth, an angel breaks the seal, and the curse comes.

4. "But one of their chief employments, is described in the text;-they minister unto the heirs of salvation :-Those whom God designs to save, -whom Christ has redeemed,-whom the Holy Ghost has regenerated, and is now sanctifying: and who, having bowed to the Lord as their rightful sovereign,-have renounced the world, devoted themselves to his service, and live on Him for protection and happiness:-in other words, to real christians,to such it is the duty, as it is the privilege, of these noble beings, to minister. It is almost incredible that they do this. It would be quite incredible, had not inspiration declared the welcome fact, and recorded many such instances of their affectionate condescension or rather, it would be quite incredible, had not God parted with the Son of his bosom, to die for us ;-but having done this, no examples of his regard, or of other's regards, far loftier in every respect than ourselves, should occasion distrust or suprise. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also, freely give us all things." We are mean creatures indeed,- frail, sinful, mortal, but if we are not too mean for the Lord of all, to die for, we are of sufficient consequence for even angels to minister unto. And we are assured they do this: "They minister unto the heirs of salvation." An heir of salvation is one adopted into the family of God: and as the older members of a family, smile upon the new-born infant, cherish it as one of themselves, because sustaining a like relation with them to the same parents; so angels foster the weak, tender, believer. Though his superiors in intelligence, piety, and power, he has the same Divine Father, and is to enjoy, eternally enjoy with them, the same Heaven. They feel, therefore, a deep interest in Christians,-minister unto them.

But how have they discharged this office? And here: "Not to be wise above what is written," we must confine ourselves to the inspired word. We must look for instances of these, their acts of kindness, in the Bible. How, then, have angels ministered to saints in past ages?

1. They have done this: By keeping them out of evil. When Elijah had fled from the fury of Jezebel, and hisheartened, lay under a juniper tree in the wilderness, where, but for food, he would have perished: "an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat; and he looked, and behold, there was a cake baken upon the coals, and a cruise of water at his head; and he did eat and drink, and laid him down again." When he on whom Elijah's mantle had fallen, Elisha, was hunted down by the agents of the King of Syria, for destruction; more were for the man of God, than were