Article May 29, 1909 Issue

HIS ANGEL

BLANCHE HERSEY HOGUE

In the 23rd chapter of Exodus it is written, "Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared." In the text-book of Christian Science, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy writes, "Human conjecture confers upon angels its own forms of thought, marked with superstitious outlines, making them human creatures with suggestive feathers; but this is only fancy" (p. 298). Her own interpretation of angels, as "God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality" (Ibid., p. 581), establishes them on the spiritual rather than the physical plane.

The students of Christian Science make no attempt to set forth a dogmatic interpretation of the Scriptures, but from the basis furnished them by Christian Science, which resolves things into thoughts and lifts their analysis from the material to the spiritual view-point, they draw from Scriptural narrative, parable, or promise, the lessons which are of the greatest value in their own mental and moral growth. In this manner, much that is recorded in this chapter of Exodus becomes, in the light of Mrs. Eddy's uplifted and spiritualized perception concerning angels, a positive inspiration toward the renovating of individual thought and life. When the promise reads to the student that God will send a pure and perfect spiritual intuition to keep him in the way, and to bring him into the place which God has prepared, the mental process of spiritual guidance can be comprehended. When it is seen that an angel is not an etherealized person, but a right idea, and that such right idea can become a dominating influence in the mind of the individual who cherishes it, mortals need no longer grope in doubt concerning divine help, for they learn that the angel of one's highest sense of good lies within, not without, the borderland of one's own thinking, and consequently is an ever-available help in every problem of life. This angel, admitted, understood, and obeyed, fosters the right living which naturally follows right thinking; and so salvation can begin today, and the place which God has prepared can be, in a degree, a present possession.

In the chapter under discussion, the offices of the angel, the things required of him who would follow it, and the happy results of obedience to it, are clearly stated. God sends His angel to each receptive heart. His highest idea of good then goes before the mortal, keeping him, bringing him into the prepared place. The mortal is admonished to "beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions." Truly, every would-be Christian has long since learned that his highest ideal has no pardon for the unworthy and the base, but holds him unwaveringly to his highest and best performance! "For my name is in him," continues the record,—the seal of divinity marking every right idea as its own, declaring every pure and perfect thought God's offspring! Then the promise follows, the reward of obedience: "But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries." By simple obedience to the highest monitor of heart and conscience, right purpose and endeavor are strengthened, and every Christian warrior may find himself equipped for the battle with the hosts of self, wherein God's angel is indeed an adversary unto all the foes of righteous manhood.

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