Messenger boy

“ A messenger has come to us from heaven, sent by God Himself, to speak with us on certain necessary matters, and you leave hearing His will, and the message He sends to you, and sit listening to stage-players. ”

“ He robs the face of the hues of life, and it becomes as pure as marble. He touches the white hair, and it falls into beautiful repose. He breathes on the distorted brow and smoothes every wrinkle. We know that the messenger who has wrought this wondrous change is none other than the servant of God, that he is the last commissioned of the ministering spirits to the earthly tabernacle, that he hath no more that he can do, and he compels us to look on his handiwork and stand in awe. ”

“ For centuries past the world had cherished the thought that the voice of the Lord should no more be heard, when suddenly, thunderlike, a messenger appeared, heralding from one end of heaven to mother the above quoted intelligence. ”

“ What puzzles the world, and its wise philosophers and fanciful pagan poets, about the priests and people of the Catholic Church is that they still behave as if they were messengers. A messenger does not dream about what his message might be,{309} or argue about what it probably would be ”

“ Announces Paul in the text: "They are the messengers of the churches." We all know the office of a messenger. It is to bear a message from one person to another person. This figure is frequently made use of in the Bible to illustrate the intercourse between God and man. Thus it is employed in reference to the Lord Himself. From all eternity He had been in the bosom of the Father, and when the fullness of time was come, He appeared in the form of a man, to make known, to declare, the message of the Father. ”

“ We are neither priests nor professors, but preachers. We have to deliver the message given to us faithfully. We have to ring out the proclamation loudly. The virtue of a town crier is that he make people hear and understand. The virtue of a messenger is that he repeats precisely what he was told. And a Christian minister has to lift up his voice and not be afraid, to see to it that his speech be plain, and that it do not overlay the message with fripperies of ornament, or affectations, or personalities, and to plead earnestly and lovingly with men to come to the divine Healer. ”

“ But here, my brethren, it is a Messenger of Heaven, foretold by a whole people, announced, during four thousand years, by a long train of prophecies, desired of all nations, figured by all the ceremonies, expected by all the just, and shown from afar in all ages. The patriarchs expire in wishing to see him: the just live in that expectation: fathers instruct their children to wish for him: and this desire is like a domestic religion which is perpetuated from age to age. The prophets themselves of the Gentiles, see the Star of Jacob shining from afar ”

“ Or thou have a house of gold; or thou ascend up into Heaven; and we will not believe in thy ascent until thou send down to us a book which we may read.” Say: Extolled be the glory of my Lord! Am I aught save a man, a messenger?
And nothing prevented men from believing, when the guidance came to them, but their saying, “Hath God sent a mere man as a messenger?”
Say: Had there been angels upon the earth walking at ease, we had surely sent them an angel from heaven as an apostle.
Say: God is witness enough between me and you: verily He knoweth and seeth His servants. ”

“ Such passages are all to be explained by supplying the nomen regens, and by considering them as identical with “I am the messenger of the God of thy father,” “I am the messenger of God who appeared to thee in Bethel,” and the like. ”

“ One more duty,—assist the messenger. Various are the means and channels in which that may be done. We have in our midst a willing band of Sunday-school teachers; what are they doing but helping to bring the message to the hearts of our youth? We have those who are not ashamed or afraid to invite others to come and hear the message spoken in public, those who encourage some to go and hear it in private, in catechetical instruction. Then, too, are our church societies laboring usefully in the Lord. ”

“ The third angel or the messenger representing the body of messengers, by whose efficacy the beast and its image and the false prophet supporting them, will disappear from the globe, gives in the last treatise of this book the plan according to which the beast and its image and the false prophet will disappear and Christ's peaceable reign will be established on the whole globe. ”

“ I may have missed in arrangement in some instances, but the principle is preserved, and you will be able to bring forward abundance of corroborating scripture upon the subject of the gospel and of the gathering. You are aware of the fact, that to give a minute rehearsal of a lengthy interview with a heavenly messenger, is very difficult, unless one is assisted immediately with the gift of inspiration. There is another item I wish to notice on the subject of visions. The Spirit you know, searches all things, even the deep things of God. ”

“ This messenger proclaimed himself to be an angel of God, sent to bring the joyful tidings that the covenant which God made with ancient Israel was at hand to be fulfilled, that the preparatory work for the second coming of the Messiah was speedily to commence; that the time was at hand for the Gospel in all its fulness to be preached in power, unto all nations, that a people might be prepared for the Millennial reign. I was informed that I was chosen to be an instrument in the hands of God to bring about some of His purposes in this glorious dispensation. ”

“ This we know would not be the case did they but realize with distinctness, not only that they had received their commission from on high, but also that they executed it in the presence of the living God. The messenger of the Lord should never be affected by those to whom he delivers his message; he should be above them, while at the same time he takes the humble place of a servant. ”

“ Now, you know, a messenger commonly when he cometh, doth bring some errand to them to whom he is sent, either of what is done for them, or what they would have them whom they send unto do for them, or such like. Now what a glorious message was that which our Lord Jesus Christ came down from Heaven withal to declare unto poor sinners, and that from God His Father? I say, how glorious was it; and how sweet is it to you that have seen yourselves lost by nature? ”

“ One of these messengers found a party of five Shepherds, who were sitting upon a hill and trying to decide a quarrel of their own. They gave their opinions so freely, and in language so very strong, that the King's messenger said to himself, "Here are the men for us. ”

“ Chapter 3
1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:
3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. ”

“ Not without reason are little children called angels, or "messengers:" children are indeed messengers from the other world, whose mysterious influence is visible in their eyes, to those who receive them as gifts of God. ”

“ If they attain to this high calling, it must be in the same way, and from the same authority, and the same benefits will result to those who obey their teachings: because if God sends a messenger, it will be by the power of the Holy Ghost, and that spirit will testify to the same plan of salvation, whether it dwell in the heart of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaiah, St. ”

“ The first to speak shall be the Messenger of God, who shall say: "I adore and love you, O my God, and with all my heart and soul I give you thanks for that you did vouchsafe to create me to be your servant, and made all for love of me, so that I might love you for all things and in all things and above all things ”

“ To be chosen out and to be sent by God to speak to men in His name, to come as a messenger a latere Jesu to preach penance and the remission of sins, to show the way of sanctity and of perfection in His name, in His words, and by His authority—who would dare these things if necessity were not laid upon him? ”

“ To you I am the messenger of your God—by me he offers health, and hope, and self-respect, and the regard of your fellow-men. You may heal the broken heart of your wife, and give back a father to your helpless children. ”

“ For argue that the ancient apostles did so, and the argument is equally as strong that the ancient churches did so also, and the rule will quadrate: it will meet at every corner.
I have been no little surprised to hear men contending with all the zeal of their nature to guard the world against receiving any man as a messenger of heaven unless he can prove his mission by miracles ”

“ Strange for a divine messenger, if He simply stood as one in the line and sequence of divine revelation, to begin His work by saying, 'Now, I do not mean to annihilate all that is behind Me!' The question arises how anybody should have supposed that He did, and why it should ever have been needful for Him to say that He did not. ”

“ In every community there are some homes in which the pastor finds it almost impossible to create a welcome for himself. Misconceptions of long standing, anti-church sentiments, old grievances block the way. But if in such a home there is a boy whose loyalty the pastor has won through association in the boys' club, at play, in camp--anywhere and anyhow--his eager hand will open both home and parental hearts to the wholesome friendship and kindly counsel of the minister of Christ. When the boy's welfare is at stake how many prejudices fade away! ”

“ The messenger of Christ speaks to it thus:
‘Thy fate doth not permit thee to draw nigh
In this life; but I shall wait patiently,
For thy path leads thee to me in the end.’
The woman who doth stand before the man [101]
Falls at his feet and feels herself transformed.
A soul prays to the God in human form;
A heart doth love God’s messenger on earth.
(Johannes sinks upon his knees before Maria.) ”

“ It appears extremely probable that God would send a messenger on earth, and, in order to prove him to the world to be his messenger, should give him miraculous power, and that then this messenger should not be able to perform miracles of such a kind as would convince even eye-witnesses. ”

“ All I was told was that there was no answer."
The messenger spoke in a tone of resentment, as if suffering from a grievance. He was a small youth, with crisp black hair and sharp black eyes; combativeness writ large all over him. ”

“ Open the Mail-bag again, and produce the letter "V," from the story of the Hebrew Children, asking another child to hold the letter, standing next in line. The message from these three faithful boys is that God's children should stand together like three links in a chain. This gives strength stronger than iron. Good companionship [128] is the need of boys today. Fall in with the right crowd. A minister of the gospel, who was appointed spiritual adviser to a boy about to be executed, asked him one day what was his first step downward, and he replied, "I fell in with the wrong crowd." ”

“ So, once again, the preacher's success and effectiveness are found largely to depend upon his own heart's condition. The message will carry little more cheer than the messenger can pour into it out of the stored up happiness and confidence of his own breast. In the cheer of God must he abide who would scatter a little comfort among his fellow men! ”

“ Many of our young communicants have made a fair and a promising start for salvation. They have got over the initial difficulties that lay in their way to the Lord’s table, and we have entered their names with honest pride in our communion roll. But a year or two passes over, and the critical season arrives when our young communicant ‘comes out,’ as the word is. Up till now she has been a child, a little maid, a Bible-class student, a young communicant, a Sabbath-school teacher. But she is now a young lady, and she comes out into the world. ”

“ We are not all called to be the King’s ambassadors, but all who have heard the messages of salvation for themselves are called to be ‘the Lord’s messengers,’ and day by day, as He gives us opportunity, we are to deliver ‘the Lord’s message unto the people.’ That message, as committed to Haggai, was, ‘I am with you, saith the Lord.’ Is there not work enough for any lifetime in unfolding and distributing that one message to His own people? ”

“ And that is why we honour the postman. The messenger always shares in the welcome given to the message How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of [122] him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! We ministers often share in the postman’s benediction. We are welcomed and honoured and loved, not so much for our own sake as for the sake of the great, glad message that we bear. The heart leaps up to the message and blesses the messenger. ”

“ And therefore lightly call his messenger and he shall be answered, for as yet my wounds be green, and they will be sorer a seven night after than they be now; and therefore he shall have his answer that I will do battle tomorn with him. ”

“ He was very fond of children, and some one has said that no case is known in which he refused to grant a favor when a child was asked to be the messenger. He was fond of his nieces and nephews, and devoted to his step-children. ”

“ The messenger finds that much-desired man in the midst of an excited group; one has him by the arm pulling him forward, another by the coat dragging him back, a third is bawling at him at the top of a powerful voice. ”