Engel

“ Sometimes I seek to turn my thoughts upon the crowd and unmask the angel as well as the demon. But I find that the angels, as a general thing, wear no face concealers. They go disguised in poor clothes and scant bravery of attire, but the angel within them is like a singing bird rather than like a silent and chained beast. It reveals itself in songs, like a caged lark. It looks from out the window of the eyes in loving glances and tender smiles; it manifests itself in sweet and cheerful service, like the sunshine that can neither be hidden nor concealed. ”

“ The "Angel of the Lord," visible, sure,
Known for the angel by his presence pure
Whereon was written love, and peace, and grace,
With beauty passing mortal mien and face.
So when the Angels were no more to see,
Re-entering those gates of space,—whose key
[Pg 165] Love keeps on that side, and on this side death—
Each shepherd to the other whispering saith,
Lest he should miss some lingering symphonies
Of that departing music, "Let us rise
And go even now to Bethlehem, and spy
This which is come to pass, shewed graciously
By the Lord's angels." ”

“ I must ring the bell for my pupils. [He sees the Angel.] What are you? Who are you? I think I saw some that were like you in my dreams when I was a child—that bright thing, that dress that is the colour of embers! But I have done with dreams, I have done with dreams.
Angel. I am the Angel of the Most High God.
Wise M. Why have you come to me?
Angel. I have brought you a message.
Wise M. What message have you got for me?
Angel. You will die within the hour. You will die when the last grains have fallen in this glass. [She turns the hour-glass.] ”

“ PARTICULARLY THE ANGEL GUARDIAN.
The holy angels are to be honoured with a particular devotion, on account of the superior dignity of the angelic nature, as well as the peculiar love which they bear to us, and the benefits they confer on us. For though in essence they are spirits, the noblest of all creatures, denizens of the court of God, and always beholding the face of the Father who is in heaven, yet, as St. Bernard says, this does not deprive us of their affectionate ministry; for while they inhabit the heavens, they do not despise the earth. ”

“ HE tenderest and kindest angel, the Angel of the last hour, whom we harshly call Death, is sent to us, that he may mildly and gently pluck away the sinking heart of man from life, and bear it unhurt in his warm hands out of the cold breast into high, warming Eden. His brother is the Angel of the first hour, who twice kisses man,—once when he begins this life; and again, when he awakes on high, without wounds, and enters smiling upon the other life, as he came weeping into this. ”

“ I have selected two angels to give an idea of this peculiar and poetical treatment. The union of the theological and the mythological attributes is in the classical taste of the time, and quite Miltonic. [53] In Raphael’s child-angels, the expression of power and [Pg 81] intelligence, as well as innocence, is quite wonderful; for instance, look at the two angel-boys in the Dresden Madonna di San Sisto, and the angels, or celestial genii, who bear along the Almighty when He appears to Noah. ”

“ So, too, the angels are styled “holy ones,” [2] and “watchers,” [3] and are spoken of as the “host of heaven” [4] or of “Yahweh.” [5] The “hosts,” צְבֶאוֹת‎ Sebāōth in the title Yahweh Sebaoth, Lord of Hosts, were probably at one time identified with the angels. [6] The New Testament often speaks of “spirits,” πνεύματα. [7] In the earlier periods of the religion of Israel, the doctrine of monotheism had not been formally stated, so that the idea of “angel” in the modern sense does not occur, but we find the Mal’akh Yahweh, Angel of the Lord, or Mal’akh Elohim, Angel of God. ”

“ You all know one expression of the purest and happiest form of such faith, as it exists in modern times, in Richter's lovely illustrations of the Lord's Prayer. The real and living death-angel, girt as a pilgrim, for journey, and softly crowned with flowers, beckons at the dying mother's door; child-angels sit talking face to face with mortal children, among the flowers;-- hold them by their little coats, lest they fall on the stairs ”

“ ANGEL. The tumultuous noise of the nations, Their rejoicings and lamentations, The pleadings of their prayer, The groans of their despair, The cry of their imprecations, Their wrath, their love, their hate!
PROPHET. Surely the world doth wait The coming of its Redeemer!
ANGEL. Awake from thy sleep, O dreamer? The hour is near, though late; Awake! write the vision sublime, The vision, that is for a time, Though it tarry, wait; it is nigh; In the end it will speak and not lie. ”

“ Within it are the six angels of the Creation, each holding its crystal ball; and within the crystal of the sixth angel one can see Adam’s strong brown limbs and hero form, and the pale, beautiful body of Eve. At the feet also of these six winged messengers of the Creator is sitting the angel of the Seventh Day, who on a harp of gold is singing the glories of that coming day which we have not yet seen. The faces of the angels are pale and oval-shaped, in their eyes is the light of Wisdom and Love, and their lips seem as if they would speak to us; and strength and beauty are in their wings. ”

“ An "angel" is simply a vehicle for a message in the original signification. Let us glance in passing at the accounts of materializing through the psychic power. In this sense a pearl materialized through the psychic power of so reliable a modern medium as the Rev. Stainton Moses, plainly by occult means might be called an "angel"–i.e., the means by which the message from the unseen reached the sitters. ”

“ I became an angel among the angels, and I became all things in all? We said unto him: Yea, Lord. Then answered he and said unto us: On that day whereon I took the form of the angel Gabriel, I appeared unto Mary and spake with her. Her heart accepted me, and she believed (She believed and laughed, Eth.) , and I formed myself and entered into her body. I became flesh, for I alone was a minister unto myself in that which concerned Mary (I was mine own messenger, Eth.) in the appearance of the shape of an angel. ”

“ Oh, take me too!’ One angel more beautiful than she could possibly describe comes towards her, and the fairies give a little cry—for, sweet as they are, they have nothing to do with angels—and disappear. The angel has his strong arms round her, and he says, ‘Your bed of snow is not so beautiful as where you shall lie in the land where no trouble can come.’ Then she remembers no more. ”

“ You have often seen pictures of the holy angels. They are often represented as boys with wings and playing on harps; or again, the holy archangel Gabriel is represented as a youth with wings, holding a lily in his hand, and with a glory round his head. Why should they be drawn like that? They are represented as boys or youths, because they never grow old, but are everlastingly young, and are immortal. The wings signify that the angels are swift as thought, and fulfil God's commands quickly and willingly. The harps are to remind us that the angels ceaselessly sing God’s praises. ”

“ Oh, my angel, my angel, no word suits you but this—‘angel.’ I have this much of you, at least, and I will never part with it while I live—while I live—and then, afterwards, beyond this world, may there not be some realms of bliss where we may meet, as we met in guileless childhood and love, without a thought of any barrier of rank between us? ”

“ As we raise our eyes to the “angel” bosses of the groining and to the springers of the eastern bay we can say, “Therefore with the angels and archangels and all the company of Heaven we laud and magnify Thy glorious Name,” “To Thee all angels cry aloud,” for the Redeemer looks down upon us surrounded by the angels, and beneath the springer canopies there stand the figures of the archangels, “the seven spirits that are ever before the throne of God,” and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom was given by the Early Church the sweet title of the Queen of the Angels, “Regina Angelorum.” ”

“ The group of angels over the Last Judgment, flinging their mighty limbs about, and those that surround the descending figure of Christ in the Conversion of St. Paul, may be referred to here as characteristic examples. The angels, blowing their trumpets, puff and strain like so many troopers. Surely this is not angelic: there may be power, great imaginative and artistic power, exhibited in the conception of form, but in the beings themselves there is more of effort than of power: serenity, tranquillity, beatitude, ethereal purity, spiritual grace, are out of the question. ”

“ Behold the handmaid of the Lord!
According to thy holy word,
So be it unto me!
(
Here the Devils shall again make a great noise, under the stage.
)
III. THE ANGELS OF THE SEVEN PLANETS,
bearing the Star of Bethlehem.
The Angels.
The Angels of the Planets Seven
Across the shining fields of heaven
The natal star we bring!
Dropping our sevenfold virtues down,
As priceless jewels in the crown
Of Christ, our new-born King.
Raphael.
I am the Angel of the Sun,
Whose flaming wheels began to run
When God's almighty breath
Said to the darkness and the Night,
Let there be light! ”

“ Together they met, those two children who had stood together in the earthly courts of the Most High, and whom the angel had simultaneously called from the earth, beneath the shining battlements of "the city of God." The white wings of the warden-angels, who stood on its watch-towers, were slowly folded together, and back rolled the massive gates from the walls of jasper; and with the great "Godlight" streaming outward, and amid the sound of archangel's harp and seraph's lyre, the ministering angels came forth. ”

“ Thus we learn that the terms "man" and "angel" are interchangeable in this respect: angels are men in the generic sense of the term. The Greek word translated "angel" and the Hebrew word translated "man" refer to both sexes.
Men and women become good angels, or " evil angels" (Psalm lxxviii. 49) , according to the character they have acquired during their abode in this world. Jesus, speaking of the children of God, in the resurrection, said "they are equal to the angels" (Luke xx. 36) ”

“ Q.—What are we to understand by the four Angels, spoken of in the 7th chap, and 1st verse of Revelations?
A.—We are to understand that they are four Angels sent forth from God, to whom is given power over the four parts of the earth, to save life and to destroy; these are they who have the everlasting Gospel to commit to every Nation, Kindred, Tongue, and People; having power to shut up the Heavens, to seal up unto life, or to cast down to the regions of darkness. ”

“ Do you suppose that there are any angels here to-day? I would not wonder if there were ten times more angels here than people. We do not see them, but they are here watching us, and are anxious for our salvation. Will one out of twenty of those who are here to-day go through the gates into the celestial City? ”

“ Why are the Angels so full of interest? Was the birth of this little one so different from any other? It was indeed miraculous, but Joachim and Anne were by no means the only ones thus favoured. No, there is something beyond this which is engaging the interest of the Angels. They see in this little babe, whom Anne is offering to God, a sight to make them wonder and adore—they see a soul which has never been touched by original sin. They had seen Adam created in grace ”

“ In these and other scenes of the New Testament, in which angels are described as direct agents, or merely as a chorus of ministering attendants, they have the usual form, enhanced by as much beauty, and benignity, and aërial grace as the fancy of the artist could bestow on them. In the Nativity they are seen hovering on high, pouring forth their song of triumph; they hold a scroll in their hands on which their song is written: in general there are three angels; the first sings, Gloria in excelsis Deo! ”

“ When, in subjects from Scripture history, angels figure not merely as attendants and spectators, but as personages necessary to the action, they are either ministers of the divine wrath, or of the divine mercy; agents of destruction, or agents of help and good counsel. As all these instances belong to the historical scenes of the Old or the New Testament, they will be considered separately, and I shall confine myself here to a few remarks on the introduction and treatment of angels in some subjects of peculiar interest. ”

“ They are also in conjunction with the whole angelic heaven, and I might venture to affirm with all and each of the angels there; for they all are as the children and descendants of one father whose minds, manners, and faces are resemblant, so that they mutually recognize each other. The angelic heaven is harmoniously arranged in societies, according to all the varieties of the love of good; which varieties all tend to one most universal love, which is love to God. ”

“ The guardian angels of the nations in Daniel probably represent the gods of the heathen, and we have there the first step of the process by which these gods became evil angels, an idea expanded by Milton in Paradise Lost. The development of the doctrine of an organized hierarchy of angels belongs to the Jewish literature of the period 200 B.C. to A.D. 100. In Jewish apocalypses especially, the imagination ran riot on the rank, classes and names of angels ”

“ Still his exquisite fair curls clustering round his neck, and his blue eyes, if their insolence, their anger, and their pain could be forgotten, lent him the appearance of an angel—a soiled, ruffled, complaining angel, who, finding itself on earth, wished to be elsewhere. ”