Angels

MARY EVELYN CAMPBELL

Bible readers have sometimes wondered why the angels, those gracious messengers from God who frequently appear in Bible narratives, are no longer seen by men. Some may have been tempted to feel that they have reached an age which has outgrown them. They may, however, read again with comfort the narrative of the prophet Elijah, who, fleeing from the wrath of Queen Jezebel, and having gone "a day's journey into the wilderness," had reached the point of asking God that he might die. We are told that "as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.

... And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee."

All may recall, too, that our Master, when he had withdrawn from his disciples in Gethsemane, prayed, saying, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." Then "there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him."

In Christian Science we learn that angels are God's thoughts. These messages from God—divine Mind—may not appear to reach us, but that is our fault. The consciousness of their availability, however, is growing clearer through the teachings of Christian Science, which explains their nature, thus enabling whoever will to be blessed by their benefactions.

Under the marginal heading "Thought-angels" in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 298, 299), Mary Baker Eddy writes as follows: "Angels are not etherealized human beings, evolving animal qualities in their wings; but they are celestial visitants, flying on spiritual, not material, pinions. Angels are pure thoughts from God, winged with Truth and Love, no matter what their individualism may be. 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."

Many can look back on some sorrowful experience and remember a thought which pierced the darkness like a shaft of light. It might be a verse from a Psalm or some other passage from the Bible. A steadfast star, the song of a bird, or a sweet, fresh flower may have conveyed the needed message. Angel-messages come as gently as the dew. But, alas, how often we are too absorbed in material things to heed them! Frequently, it is not until we are forced into a purer, holier mood, perhaps through a hard experience, that we find ourselves entertaining consciously and joyfully the angels of God.

A student of Christian Science was once passing through what seemed a dark and difficult time; indeed, there appeared to be no light present to dispel the darkness. During this experience a few words from Isaiah, until that time practically unheeded, kept coming to her. They were, "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me." The thought of the wine press and the aloneness seemed so applicable that they brought a measure of comfort to her. It was not, however, until the words had repeated themselves to her many times that their deeper meaning dawned on her thought and lifted her out of the darkness. An angelic message from God, and none other, had done this.

For what is a wine press used? To press the juice from wine-grapes. Our textbook, Science and Health, gives the spiritual interpretation of "wine," on page 598, as "inspiration; understanding." As if scales had fallen from the student's eyes she recognized the angel-message. Truly this experience was rousing her into a higher, holier atmosphere of inspiration and understanding. Oh, the joy to know that where the wine press is operating, there the wine of inspiration is flowing in rich measure! Thought is rising into the realm of God, the kingdom of heaven. The promise stands, "Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared."

Two stanzas of a beautiful hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal read as follows:

God's angels ever come and go,
All winged with light and love;
They bring us blessings from on high,
They lift our thoughts above,
They whisper God is Love.

O wake and hear the angel-song
That bids all discord cease,
From pain and sorrow, doubt and fear,
It brings us sweet release;
And so our hearts find peace.

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