THE EMPLOYMENT OF ANGELS. Original. 171 Jews who were thrown into the fiery furnace by the THE EMPLOYMENT OF ANGELS. King of Babylon, and to protect Daniel when he was BY E. H. HATCHER. "Which things the angels desire to look into," 1 Peter i, 12. It is an interesting truth that while the plans of God in relation to man's salvation are going on in this world, angels themselves are no unconcerned spectators of their development. That such is the fact is plainly taught in the Holy Scriptures. There is," says our Savior, "joy in the presence of God over one sinner that repenteth;" and the apostle represents them as "desiring to look" into the mysteries of the incarnation. The apostle, it is supposed, had allusion to the posture of the cherubim, which overshadowed the mercy-seat with their faces toward it, as if deeply interested in the dispensation of mercy to the guilty. While the patriarchs and prophets looked with an eye of faith to the coming of the Messiah, and made the vales and mountains of Judea echo with the predictions of his advent; and while the types and shadows under the Jewish dispensation engaged the devout attention of men, angels were not unmindful of the subject. And we have good reasons to believe that while the missionary of the present day is preaching to the heathen this salvation, they are not uninterested beholders. Doubtless they would deem it an honor to leave their stations around the throne, and fly through the world as the heralds of salvation, proclaiming mercy to its guilty tribes. Several considerations induce us to believe that the angels are employed in looking into the mysteries of redemption. 1. Because they are instrumental, to some extent, in accomplishing God's designs with regard to the human race. cast into the den of lions. It was an angel that directed Peter to Cornelius, and Paul to preach at Macedonia. Indeed, there scarcely occurs any thing more frequently in Bible narrative than accounts of the ministry of angels. They came to guide and defend the servants of God as well as to inflict punishments upon his enemies. They used to converse with the patritheir vines and oaks. They flew from place to place to archs at noontide, and in the hush of evening, under fulfill the commands of Heaven. One came to the juniper-tree in the wilderness under which slept the prophet of the Lord, and waked him from his slumbers, and gave him food for his sustenance. In the visions of the prophets the angels acted very conspicuous parts. Isaiah saw "the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. About it stood the seraphims: each had six wings: with twain he covered his face, with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." The visions of Ezekiel were equally sublime. He saw angelic beings with feet that sparkled like the color of burnished brass, whose appearance was like burning coals of fire, and the sound of whose wings was like the voice of the Almighty. Daniel received his celebrated prediction of the Messiah, contained in the ninth chapter of his prophecies, from the angel Gabriel; and when that Messiah made his advent into the world, the song, "peace on earth and good will to men," ascended from ten thousand angel tongues up to the eternal throne, while the rejoicing shepherds of Judea received from them the tidings of a Savior. They ministered unto Jesus when he had foiled the devil; they strengthened him when he drank the bitter cup of his sufferings; at his resurrection they rolled away the stone from the door of his sepulchre, and when he was taken up into heaven, they appeared in human shape, arrayed in white apparel, to the men who witnessed his departure, and declared unto them that he should come again in like manner as they had seen him go up into heaven. When our first parents were driven from paradise, angelic beings, denominated cherubim, were placed at the east of the garden, with flaming swords, to guard the tree of life. Angels, too, were instrumental in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and in inflicting various other punishments upon the enemies of God. When David, in the pride of his heart, was tempted In the Revelation trumpets were sounded and vials to number Israel and Judah, meditating, perhaps, an extension of his dominions, without the Divine com- poured out by the angels. And our Savior declares mand, God was displeased, and determined that the that in the end of the world the Son of man shall come props of his vain ambition should be taken away, either in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; by famine, war, or pestilence. He sent a prophet to and that he will send his angels with a great sound of David, offering him the choice of these three judgments. a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from He chose the latter. The Almighty then commissioned the four winds, from the one end of heaven to the an angel to inflict the pestilence, and seventy thousand other. "The Lord Jesus," saith the apostle Paul, were destroyed. "And when the angel stretched out "shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord re- in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know pented him of the evil, and said to the angel that de-not God, and that obey not the Gospel." stroyed the people, It is enough, stay now thy hand!" Another fact of interest is, "the angel of the Lord "The angel of God" was commissioned to go before | encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivthe children of Israel to keep them in the way, and ereth them." The apostle asks, "Are they not all bring them into the promised land, and to drive out the ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who heathen before them, and to defend the three noble || shall be heirs of salvation?" That the affirmative is 172 THE EMPLOYMENT OF ANGELS. the truth we have no doubt. They linger about our || thousands of years, and when they were called forth pathway on viewless wings to shield and defend us. to vindicate the honor of the Divine government, they They hover over the pillow of the dying Christian, || fell not upon the head of the guilty; but were inflicted and when his spirit is freed from its prison, waft it on upon the Son of God, who offered himself a willing radiant pinions to paradise. victim to appease the wrath of his Father, and restore From these considerations it is natural to conclude man to the forfeited favor of heaven. Was not this that the angels are employed in looking into the mys-sufficient to create astonishment among the millions teries of man's redemption. May we not suppose that people the celestial world? How must the angels that they feel a great anxiety to become acquainted have been lost in wonder when they beheld the Lord's with the nature of the business upon which the Al- anointed lay aside his glory, and fly to our world on mighty employs them; and that while they execute the wings of mercy to endure the wrath of insulted his commands, finding in the plan of salvation range justice, and pluck the rebel, man, from hell! And how enough for wing and eye, they are continually explor-inflexible must be the requirements of the Divine goving the deep things of God as they unfold themselves ernment when nothing short of the utter ruin of the in the scheme which he has devised for the redemption transgressor, or the sacrifice of the only begotten of of the world? But other arguments are not wanting the Father is sufficient to atone for the violation of its upon which to found such a belief. laws! 2. They here obtain the most satisfactory view of the glory of God. It is reasonable to suppose that the angels, as the messengers of God, do not confine their operations to this world. They may be commissioned from world to world, and throughout the vast range of Jehovah's empire they may discover immortal glories, and listen to immortal harmonies. From the throne of God to the utmost bounds of the universe there may be no isle of light, no bright unfallen world that does not come within the range of their excursions. But it may not be presumptuous in us to suppose that from every other display of the glory of God, they turn their eager gaze toward the plan of redemption to discover the most brilliant exhibitions of the Divine glory. Here they behold the glory of his mercy. With what interest must they contemplate the depths of God's redeeming love-his saving grace to sinners! They see fallen angels passed by, but man restored to the favor of his Maker. The death of the Son of God doubtless forms the most striking display of mercy that can be conceived even by angelic minds. We can wing our thoughts to "Worlds untraveled by the sun, Where Time's far wandering tide has never run "— we can fly through eternity until the space that measures the duration of our world shall dwindle to a point, and behold in our imagination other systems circling other suns; but in vain may we endeavor to imagine an ocean of mercy so broad, or so glorious a display of love as is exhibited in the atonement of Christ. Of all the events within the range of God's dominion, we can conceive of none so benevolent. Here they behold the glory of his power. It is true they witnessed the creation of the universe, and shouted for joy when it was rolled into existence. But this world of ours became a prodigal in the family of God. Like the lost pleiads it wandered from the group that clustered around his throne; and then was the mind of Jehovah bent upon the extermination of the enemy that had seduced our world from its loyalty. And, O, what a source of wonder was it to the angels to see the arm of Omnipotence grapple with the powers of hell, demolish its kingdom, dethrone its destroy-powers, and are as capable of making glorious discover, and reinstate man in the bright abode from which he was exiled! "'Twas great to speak the world from naught, Each attribute of the Deity, as manifested in the redemption of the world, presents a wider range for the wing and eye of an angel than all the systems ever scanned by an intelligent being. It may be that disembodied souls, regenerated by grace and received up into heaven, are the companions of the ministers of God's throne, and possess as strong and expansive eries in the economy of grace as the angels themselves. If so, it will perhaps be the united work of saints and angels to expatiate amid the wonders of redemption for ever. The Scriptures, as if this world were a space too The power that conquered death and hell, which in small for the residence of man, and too mean for his their might had broken into the fold of God, and de-contemplation, announces its dissolution, and promises spoiled a portion of his fair dominions, was, perhaps, a "new heavens and a new earth." When these things greater cause of admiration to angels than the power shall come to pass, then shall commence the work of that rolled the earth upon the empty space and spread taking a more perfect survey of the glories of God as over it a canopy of worlds! exhibited in the restoration of a fallen world. Saints shall expatiate amidst the mysteries of redemption; and as the wonders of God's love expand before them, revealing new and undiscovered glories, they shall ever cast their crowns before the Lamb saying, "Thou wast slain!" And angels may ever cry, in holy awe and joyful admiration, "Lord, we beseech thee show us thy glory!" Here they behold the glory of his justice. Man became a rebel against the government of God, and justice demanded a satisfaction. But did the Almighty answer this demand by at once visiting his rebellious creatures "with thunder, and earthquake, and great noise, and storm, and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire?" O, no! His thunders were stayed for Original. ON LIGHT. BY REV. JOHN MILEY. LIGHT. "And God said, let there be light; and there was light." 'I WOULD haste to my theme, but linger at my motto. Its style is as pleasing to taste as light is to the eye. Its inimitable beauty has been noticed by many. And no marvel; for how could it be, by any, unnoticed? If there be emotions, excited by the beautiful and the sublime under the form of composition, here they would be awake and alive. And the passage certainly has all the perfection in style, for which it has received such high eulogiums, even from Longinus, the celebrated Grecian writer on the sublime, until now. But to my theme. 173 Light affords a most elegant and interesting branch of natural philosophy. Upon its laws and properties is based the science of optics. Philosophers are not fully agreed as to the nature of light. The most common and approved theory is, that it is properly material, and composed of exceedingly fine particles. Its laws and properties may be ascertained with more certainty. They may be subject to experiment, and thus be made matter of demonstration. The velocity of light is astonishing, being at the rate of about two hundred thousand miles a second. It comes from the sun to the earth in about eight minutes. This is ascertained by observations upon the eclipses of Jupiter's moons. Light is reflective and refractive. These are its most important properties. We see objects through the lines of light that come from them to the eye. And very few of the objects of vision are luminous. Most of them reflect the light; and therefore could not be seen, if it were not reflective. But vision would still be imperfect, if not impossible, without the refraction of light, unless the structure of the eye were of any use whatever. But God, who created the light, also formed the eye; and he has shown infinite skill in the structure and adaptation of the eye to the nature of the light. "O the depth * of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" Light is the great agent of life and beauty. Without it, vegetable and animal life would become extinct. The light is their life. Without its controlling and vivifying agency, the world would be "Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless A lump of death-a chaos." "And God said, let there be light." This was on the first day of the creation. And yet the sun, the great source of light, was not made until the fourth day. And this has been the ground of much criticism-of many theories and opinions. But these we would|| entirely changed. Nor would optical instruments be avoid; for critics and theorists, by endeavoring to explain how God created light on the first day and the sun on the fourth day, have but too often created darkness. The facts, however, are certain. And they are not to be harmonized by a denial of the one or the other. Light was created on the first day. And it could not have been latent, as has been supposed; or if it was, it did not remain so until the fourth day. The Scripture account certainly indicates an immediate separation of the light from the darkness. And if the separation was not until the fourth day, then there were three full days without visible light; and yet it is the light, separated from the darkness, (and therefore visible,) that is called day. If the light remained latent,|| then darkness must have been upon all the face of the earth; and there could have been no natural distinction between day and night. But this is contrary to fact, or there was no day until the fourth day. Whether all the light within the solar system was created on the first day, and the sun formed out of this light on the fourth day; or whether only a portion-perhaps as much as we usually have within our atmosphere-was created on the first day, is not determined. But I would be of the latter opinion. If this quantity was then created, and so diffused as to circumvest the whole earth, it would form a kind of twilight-a commingling of light and darkness. And this light, collected within a hemisphere, would constitute the day, and the other hemisphere would be night. All this would be beautifully expressed by the sacred text: " And God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night." And this would not have superseded the necessity for the sun as a light to the world; for the earth absorbs the light, and darkness would again have overspread it, if the sun had not been made to give it light. And so in due time it was created as the source of continuous illumination to the world. Light is also the great colorific principle. Objects have not inherent color, but are colored according to the kind of light which they reflect. Light consists of seven primary colors. This is demonstrated by analysis. And these seven colors, either separately or in various combination, give nature her diversity of tinge, and shade, and hue. And there is an endless variety of color-of the light and the deep, the gay and the gloomy, the bright and the dull, the soft and the glaring. And this is a rich and extended field of pleasure. The eye is delighted while it beholds objects, great, and novel, and beautiful; and the vision diffuses a pleasure through all the mind. But-to change one word in the poet's line "Tis color lends enchantment to the scene." A colorless landscape would be a dreary scene; but mantled in the rich drapery and many-colored dress of the light, it becomes enchanting. And the fair reader will remember, as she lingers in the flower-garden, attracted by the beauty and delicacy of the violet, the lily, and the rose, that light is the wardrobe from which Flora has brought their dress. And you have often wandered in the flowery mead at dewy morn, when first the sun pours his pure light upon the world-when the dew-drops sparkle with the diamond lustre and the rainbow hue, and the flowers revive, all blushing and gay. You have gazed, enchanted, upon the far off hill "glowing like diamonds on the ebon bow of night." They remind me of a song of my childhood"Little twinkling, twinkling stars, How I wonder what you are." top and the distant groves, fresh-robed in the glowing || in their brightness, and, to use a borrowed expression, light of morning. And at evening time, when the sun sinks low, and the shadows lengthen upon the lawn, you have lingered and looked, with delighted eye, and raptured heart, upon the closing scenes of day. You have gazed, enchanted, when the sun, with reflective and refractive beam, throws his bright bow upon the passing cloud, circling and adorning our heaven with all its radiance and glow. eousness. Light is made the emblem of Christ. He is styled the true Light, the Light of the world, the Sun of rightUntil time began, darkness held empire over the chaos-world. But this darkness was a faint image of thick, heavy, utter, felt darkness, that gathered upon the moral world, when first man forsook his God, and his sun set in gloom. And a long night ensued. The joyous sun did run his course, and oft arose, and scattered night away. But no morn of heaven came to man—no rising sun did close his darkness, or illume his night. All virtue died. Love died, and hatred took her place. Hope let flag her wings, and perished; and man groped in the rayless night, and famished in the waste world. Then prophets arose, and foretold a coming morn. They watched, with eager eye, but died ere yet it came. And others arose, and prophesied, and a dim light flickered over the pathway of time. They were faint lights, proclaiming, somewhere in heaven's wide expanse, a mighty orb of pure and holy light, whose beams they reflected back upon the world; just as the nightly stars that brighten in the vault of heaven, and publish the great and glorious sun, by whose reflective beams they glow and shine. And other prophets spoke and lo! a star arose. It was from Bethlehem-the bright and morning Star-and soon did bring the promised morn. And full day was poured upon the world, for now the Sun of righteousness arose, Are they worlds, like this, of sin and sorrow? Or are they the home of the happy and holy? We know not-we cannot know-and we must be content to gaze upon their beauty, and wonder still. Original. A SKETCH. THE seasons, as they roll, are replete with instruction for every observer of nature. They afford a fit emblem of the several stages of human life; and while we behold them accomplishing the wise and beneficial designs of the Creator, we are reminded at once of our duty and our destiny. Spring, with its unfolding beauties-summer passing on to maturity-the ripeness and attendant decay of autumn-with the bleak desolations of winter, refer us at once to youth and manhood, old age and death. Thoughts not only of the present life, but also of a future state, are suggested by the seasons. Who can look upon winter without thinking of death—and who can look upon spring without being reminded of the resurrection of the dead? How many images of death do we see in winter! The piercing blast, that drives the warm blood back to the fountain of life, resembles the harbingers of death. The motionless surface of the frozen stream and icy lake, look to us as the face of the dead. The feathered songsters having left the grove, the silence of death reigns in the forest. The decay and destruction of vegetation, and wild and dreary desolation all aroundthe snowy mantle, that extends from vale to hillock, and that wreathes the mountain's brow, deeply burying that which once was green and gay, all awaken thoughts REFLECTIONS ON A MOONLIGHT NIGHT. of death, with the loneliness and silence of the grave. -- BY MISS M. DE FOREST. - THE fair orb of night is rolling onward-onward in her endless circuit, pouring her flood of softened light upon a world of darkness, and animating many a heart of sadness with thoughts of purity and peace. To the lone wanderer, seeking his home amid the perils of the night, she proves a guiding star, and leads him softly on till he meets the fond embrace of those he loves. On the heart borne down with worldly care, and saddened with its weight of sorrow, she sheds a holy, calming influence, and seems to say, "There are worlds of peace above-be patient." To the stranger-to the one who knows no earthly home, she whispers of an heavenly one; and even to him who is hardened in guilt, she would, were it possible, impart her own gentleness. On she moves, through that broad ocean of blue, gilding with her rays a thousand fleecy clouds that float around her as if to shade her queenly majesty from too intense a gaze. The stars are dancing forth Do not the opening freshness and beauty of spring, rapidly succeeding the desolations of winter, afford a pleasing representation of the glorious resurrection day? Thawing sunshine, whispering zephyrs, and distilling showers, suddenly renew the face of the earth. The ice and snow melt away, and gushing fountains send abroad their clear and shining streams. Forest leaves burst out from their swelling buds; the feathered tribes fill with their music the bowers, so lately recovered from the rude hand of winter; while life and joy are all abroad through earth, and air, and ocean. Who turns the piercing wintry storm to gentle zephyrs? Who changes the rude, unsightly wastes of winter, to scenes of romantic beauty, and peaceful enchantment? It is God: and can he not raise the dead? Would he show us such pleasing changes, such fair and heavenly scenes, and not permit us to hope that "spring shall revisit the moldering urn?" Will he give new life and verdant loveliness to the face of the earth, while man, poor man, is for ever consigned to the winter of death? No. For as surely as spring comes forth || ever, confine its ministrations to pleasures of taste or Original. BY DR. LOWRIE. the memory, quickens the perceptive powers, and by strates by the irresistible certainty of facts, that all CONCHOLOGY is that branch of natural history which treats of animals with testaceous coverings, or shells, which to a large extent inhabit the dark blue ocean, its branches, or the liquid streams that, meandering over the smiling bosom of the earth, increase the beauty of the landscape, and afford fertility to the soil, and convenience to man. Its specimens, by their richness and variety of color, fineness of polish, and beauty of form, have always excited admiration even in the most incu-ness of superstition and error on every side, and demonrious, and procured for them a distinguished position in the cabinet of nature's student. Many kinds of shell-fish afford an excellent and nutritious food, as the muscle, limpet, clam, &c.; while others supply the table of the epicure with delicate luxuries, amongst which may be named the oyster, famous even of yore to the degenerate Roman, who obtained from Britain his finest kinds; and last, though not least, the monstrous turtle of modern days. The shells of other fish, as the tortoise and pearl oyster, afford opportunities for the exercise of ingenuity and art in preparing them for useful and ornamental purposes; and the pearl itself, often Conchology is sometimes confounded with crustarivaling the lustre of Golconda's gem, is the production|| ceology; but need not be, as nature has drawn a line of of a testaceous animal. | distinction between the composition of the shells and the structure of the animals which inhabit them. Testaceous shells are composed of carbonate of lime, combined with a small portion of gelatin, and are in general permanent coverings for the inhabitants, and are formed by the animal gradually or periodically adding to them, as may be seen in the common muscle; and all shells are composed of layers, as may be seen by filing or slightly calcining one. The animal is of a soft and simple nature, destitute of bones, and attached to its domicil by an adhesive property possessed by some of its muscles. On the other hand, shells of But did not our wishes and pleasures induce us to study conchology, to some extent, our wants would compel us; as our attention is demanded in studying the habits, tracing the history, and obtaining a remedy against the poisonous properties of some species of this tribe of animals. The snail, in its ravages through our gardens and fields, destroys many a lovely specimen of nature's fairest forms, as well as causes much pecuniary injury to man. The ship-worm, the seaman's dread, though an apparently insignificant, is nevertheless an efficient instrument in the hands of Providence in humbling the pride, and demolishing, by unseen but perse-crustacea are produced all at once, and are cast and revering labors, the noblest efforts of man's ingenuity and skill, by which he almost annihilates both distance and time. newed annually. Their composition is phosphate of Shells have been divided into two classes. The first An acquaintance with the various departments of natural science is admirably calculated, by enlarging the sphere of man's observation and research beyond its ordinary bounds, to afford him opportunities of gratifying his love for the sublime and beautiful in nature, whilst at the same time putting him in possession of The second class consists of shells generally covered facts and principles capable of useful application in the with a strong epidermis or skin, beneath which lies the several mechanical and chemical operations necessary shell in layers, and composed of the substance known in supplying his numerous wants. It does not, how-l as the mother of pearl. As instances of this class, are |