Part 12 (2/2)

CHAPTER XII.

ANGELS AND SPIRITS.

Boast not your lightning wires to bear the news, Such tardy means the Saints would never choose; Too slow your fluid, and too short your wires For heavenly converse, such as love inspires.

If man would fain commune with worlds above, Angels transport the news on wings of love.

”_Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?_” Heb. i. 14.

Angels are of the same race as men. They are, in fact, men who have pa.s.sed from the rudimental state to the higher spheres of progressive being. They have died and risen again to life, and are consequently possessed of a divine, human body of flesh and bones, immortal and eternal. They eat, drink, sing and converse like other men. Some of them hold the keys of Apostles.h.i.+p and Priesthood, by which they teach, instruct, bless, and perform miracles and many mighty works.

Translated men, like Enoch, Elijah, John the Apostle, and three of the Apostles of the Western Hemisphere, are also like the angels.

Angels are ministers, both to men upon the earth, and to the world of spirits. They pa.s.s from one world to another with more ease, and in less time than we pa.s.s from one city to another. They have not a single attribute which man has not. But their attributes are more matured, or more developed, than the attributes of men in this present sphere of existence.

Whenever the keys of Priesthood, or, in other words, the keys of the science of Theology, are enjoyed by man on the earth, the people thus privileged, are ent.i.tled to the ministering of angels, whose business with men on the earth, is to restore the keys of the Apostles.h.i.+p, when lost; to ordain men to the Apostles.h.i.+p, when there has been no Apostolic succession; to commit the keys of a new dispensation; to reveal the mysteries of history; the facts of present or past times; and to unfold the events of a future time. They are, sometimes, commissioned also to execute judgments upon individuals, cities or nations. They can be present in their glory, or, they can come in the form and appearance of other men. They can also be present without being visible to mortals.

When they come as other men, they will perhaps eat and drink, and wash their feet; and lodge with their friends. Hence, it is written--”_Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares_.”

Their business is, also, to comfort and instruct individual members of the Church of the Saints; to heal them by the laying on of hands in the name of Jesus Christ, or to tell them what means to use in order to get well; to teach them good things, to sing them a good song, to warn them of approaching danger, or, to deliver them from prison, or from death.

These blessings have always been enjoyed by the people, or Church of the Saints, whenever such Church has existed on our planet. They are not peculiar to one dispensation more than another.

They were busy in the Patriarchal dispensation, in the Mosaic, and in the Gospel dispensations. They delivered Lot and destroyed Sodom.

They were busy with Moses and the Prophets. They foretold to Zechariah the birth of John. They predicted to Mary her conception, and the birth of Jesus Christ. They informed Joseph, her husband, of her situation. They announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds of Judea, and sang an anthem of peace on earth and good will to man, to hail him welcome. They attended on his footsteps, in all his sojourn on the earth. In fact, an angel was the instrument to open the gloomy prison of the sepulchre, and to call forth the sleeping body of the Messiah, the first to exclaim, ”He is not here, but is risen.” Two angels in white raiment, were the first to announce his second advent, while he ascended up in the presence of his disciples. Thus, being delivered from the personal attendance on their Master on the earth, they turned their attention to the Apostles, opened the way for their ministry among Jew and Gentile, delivering them from prison and from danger, and revealing the mysteries which G.o.d saw fit to make known to the Saints of that age. And when all the other Apostles had fallen asleep, and the Apostle John had been banished, to dig in the coal mines of the lone isle of Patmos, they still were faithful to their charge. They followed him there, and there unfolded to him the events of all ages and generations.

The darkness of the middle ages; the corruptions of Anti-Christ, under the name of Christianity; the rivers of blood, and the oceans of tears, which would flow during eighteen centuries of error; the mighty angel who should again commit the Gospel to the earth, for every nation, kindred, tongue, and people; the judgments of G.o.d, in the downfall of error and mystery; the rest.i.tution or restoration of the Church of the Saints; their final triumph and dominion over the earth; the descent of Jesus Christ to reign over all kingdoms; the resurrection of the Saints, and their reign over the earth; the end of death, and sorrow, and tears, and weeping; were all, _all_ foretold by the angel to the last of the Twelve.

Again, in the present age, have angels restored the Gospel. Again have they committed the keys of Apostles.h.i.+p. Again have they opened some of the events of the past, present, and future.

Again have they attended upon the footsteps of Apostles, Prophets, and holy Martyrs, from the cradle to the grave. Again have they aided in the ministry, and a.s.sisted to deliver from prisons, and from persecutions and death, the Saints of the Most High. And again are they about to execute vengeance on great and notable cities and nations of the earth.

O what an unspeakable blessing is the ministry of angels to mortal man! What a pleasing thought, that many who minister to us, and watch over us, are our near kindred--our fathers who have died and risen again in former ages, and who watch over their descendants with all the parental care and solicitude which characterize affectionate fathers and mothers on the earth.

Thrice happy are they who have lawful claim on their guardians.h.i.+p, and whose conduct does not grieve them, and constrain them to depart from their precious charge.

SPIRITS are those who have departed this life, and have not yet been raised from the dead.

These are of two kinds, viz.--Good and evil.

These two kinds also include many grades of good and evil.

The good spirits, in the superlative sense of the word, are they who, in this life, partook of the Holy Priesthood, and of the fulness of the Gospel.

This cla.s.s of spirits minister to the heirs of salvation, both in this world and in the world of spirits. They can appear unto men, when permitted; but not having a fleshly tabernacle, they cannot hide their glory. Hence, an unembodied spirit, if it be a holy personage, will be surrounded with a halo of resplendent glory, or brightness, above the brightness of the sun.

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