Editorial November 23, 1918 Issue

Guardian Angels

William D. McCrackan

A Heavenly host of guardian angels go in and out the Bible pages, concerning whom a volume might be written. To the sleeping Jacob angels seemed to be ascending and descending on a ladder which reached to heaven. Guardian angels were seen at the sepulcher after Jesus had risen, and while the disciple beheld Jesus' ascension, it is recorded, "two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." In daily life the mother is the guardian angel of her babe in the crib and so, spiritually understood, God as Mother, divine Love, is the guardian of the real children of light. In an exquisite article on "Angels," to be found in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 306), are these words: "When angels visit us, we do not hear the rustle of wings, nor feel the feathery touch of the breast of a dove; but we know their presence by the love they create in our hearts."

Christian Science lifts the veil and reveals the heavenly host of right ideas, God's real children, as ever present and ever active. At the very moment man may seem beset by hosts of evil suggestions, dark forebodings, threats, the emissaries of hate acting on weaknesses of prenatal predispositions, or disabilities caused by inherited or racial idiosyncrasies, at the very moment when the enemy, having massed its forces, seems about to break through the last lines of resistance, Christian Science rightly understood brings the absolute assurance that God and His angels, the heavenly host, are at hand to protect and save.

Great efforts have been made to discredit the stories of soldiers who were conscious of what will be known in history as the Angels of Mons. This place, by a stroke of divine justice, was retaken by the Canadians in the last hours of the war. Looking back now upon those first days of the world war the general public can see that had not the hordes of Germany been checked for a time at that point as they swept through Belgium, the war would have been quickly decided in their favor according to the prearranged schedule planned in Germany. Many unquestionable witnesses whose testimony has been recorded attested that they were conscious of the presence of a heavenly host which encouraged the Allies to go forward and stopped the advance of the Germans. When the king of Israel surrounded Dothan to take Elisha with a great host of horses and chariots, the prophet could assure his servant thus: "Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them." Then it is added, "And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha."

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