Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory : and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost." Acts xii. 21-23. Probably the same angel who delivered Peter, might be commissioned to execute this punishment on the persecutor of the Church; but by whatever hand the judgment came, it was a solemn warning to men; and seeing how the angels rendered praise to the Most High, in the hearing of John, for the appropriateness of his retributive visitation, we may well believe that every spectacle of chastisement inflicted on sinners is a call for renewed thankfulness and praise on the part of the angels who have been kept faithful to their heavenly King, while others fell into guilt and terrible condemnation. "By the Church," they learn a vast deal that redounds to the glory of God, and to their own encouragement in the path of obedience. When Paul, oppressed by the multitude of trials, wrote those words to the arrogant Church of Corinth, puffed up with their gifts, "I think that God hath set forth us the Apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men: we are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised: even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place; and labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed,

we intreat we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day." 1 Cor. iv. 9-13. When he wrote these words, he described the means by which God was at that time instructing not only the world and the church, but the angels in heaven. The spectacle of such suffering, combined with such constancy, patience, zeal and love, was redounding to the glory of God, who out of the pitiable weakness of frail and fallen humanity, made strong his servants, and provided that his Son who had been "seen of angels," should be so effectually "preached to the Gentiles," that he should be "believed on in the world." His manifold wisdom was made known even to the principalities of heaven, by rendering the most foolish things of earth sufficient to baffle all the cunning, and to tread underfoot all the powers of hell. Angelic ministry was indeed sometimes employed, as if to remind the suffering disciples, how much sympathy existed towards them in the unseen world, when often on earth no man stood by them; but in general the Lord wrought towards them and in them of his own sovereign, direct power; while the angelic host looked on and adored his condescending mercy to the children of the dust.

We have one more instance on record of the actual appearance of an angel to the favoured Apostle of the Gentiles; and that was on an occasion of peril so wild, and destitution so entire, that imagination can scarcely picture anything beyond it. Paul, having escaped the

hands of the Jews at Jerusalem, and endured an imprisonment of more than two years at Cæsarea, was at length shipped for Italy, that he might, as the Lord had shewn him in a vision, bear witness of Him in Rome also. A tedious voyage, the latter part of which was undertaken against the prophetic warning of Paul, brought them at length into the most imminent danger : they were tossed helplessly on a tempestuous sea, in a great storm of such long continuance, that for fourteen days the mariners had not even found time or spirits to eat, and all were reduced to utter despair: when the prisoner Paul stood forth, and after gently rebuking them despising his former caution, went on, "And now I exhort you to be of good cheer; for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Cæsar and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer for I believe God that it shall be even as it was told me." Acts xxvii. 22-25.

With the narrative of this gracious deliverance, and Paul's subsequent abode at Rome, a chained and guarded captive, the inspired history of the early church concludes. Very shortly after this its first age, corruptions crept in, and men were so ready to forge the seal of God's authority for their own vain imaginings, that in the absence of the original stamp we have no warrant

the heavenly host is again openly to visit earth, attendants on the triumphant state of Him whose lowly birth in a stable once brought to men's ears their hymns of thanksgiving to God. As the end of this dispensation draws nigh, we are taught to expect that the angels will take an exceedingly active part in what is going forward; and, first, we may refer to our Lord's discourses on this subject. In explaining the parable of the tares and the wheat, he says, "The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world: the Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Matt. xiii. 39-42. On another occasion, when speaking not in parables, but in a strain of prophetic description, our Lord also shewed the office reserved for the angels in reference to his own people. "And there shall appear

heaven: and then shall

the sign of the Son of Man in all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory: and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect, from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Matt. xxiv. 30, 31. This "great sound of a trumpet," is also mentioned by St. Paul, 1 Thess.

iv. 16. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God." The two-fold office of gathering together the elect, and of gathering out all that do iniquity, is likewise set forth very strongly in the Revelation. "And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." Rev. vii. 2, 3. But a more remarkable parallel appears in another part, where the time referred to is evidently the same with that spoken of by our Lord, namely, the end of the present dispensation. We have there a harvest, first of the Lord's elect, then of his enemies. "And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle and reap; for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped." Rev. xiv. 14—16. This is clearly the gathering in of the wheat-the elect; the Lord's harvest of his redeemed people. What immediately follows corresponds with the destruction of the tares." And another