Article December 31, 1927 Issue

Angels Entertained Unawares

INEZ KOCH

How simple and beautiful are many of the Scriptural narratives of the Old Testament, relating how patriarch and prophet conversed with angels. We may often have wondered, sadly perhaps, why these angels who brought messages of great import to the prophets of olden times do not visit us to-day. Through Christian Science we have learned, however, that angels do visit us to-day; for in our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 581), Mrs. Eddy gives a definition of "angels," which reads in part as follows: "God's thoughts passing to man."

We need to be receptive to these spiritual messages, just as the prophets of old were receptive. Although angels may have seemed to appear to them in a human form, yet their message always had a spiritual meaning, which to be understood required spiritual sense. We read that Abraham and Sarah while unbelieving to begin with at the great promise made to them by the angel messengers, afterwards believed God, and their trust was rewarded by the birth of Isaac, who was to express a higher concept of man, and through whose descendants there was to appear the Messiah. Repeatedly angels visited those who had given up earthly hopes; and always the purport of their message was to prove that man's inability cannot hinder God's infinite ability to fulfill His purpose.

In Hebrews we are admonished not to forget "to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Our beloved Leader tells us in "An Allegory" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 328) that the "Stranger" is "the ever-present Christ, the spiritual idea which from the summit of bliss surveys the vale of the flesh, to burst the bubbles of earth with a breath of heaven, and acquaint sensual mortals with the mystery of godliness,—unchanging, unquenchable Love." In Christian Science practice it is proved constantly that the true understanding of God triumphs over the humanly impossible; and often through such an experience we find we have "entertained angels unawares." The angels, or spiritual ideas, which come to us in this practice, always lead us up higher. And we must ask ourselves honestly whether we are willing to obey and go up higher; for unwillingness and disobedience are stumblingblocks to healing. It needs a searching examination of one's self to detect these unlovely qualities of the carnal mind.

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