Does not the crumbling away of the present generation admonish us that we are not living as children of the eternal King? Does not the enormous expense of raising another generation to take our places rebuke us, stupid in our selfishness? Do not the graveyards in every neighborhood, the unbroken line of farewells at death beds awake us from our sleep of carnality? The pains in our bodies are harbingers of death that we too soon must join the long caravan to the tomb, and our opportunity of hastening the kingdom of God on earth will end, and the hope of our entering into the glories of immortality, without tasting death will be gone forever; and that we shall take up the lamentation, The harvest is over, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

The generations of Israel which were delivered from the Egyptian bondage led out as if on eagle's wings by Jehovah, when in the wilderness rebelled against the Lord, and all save Joshua and Caleb, died in the wilderness; because of their carnal minds. And when they were all dead, and a new generation of the sons of Abraham stood before the Lord, Joshua girt the sword upon his thigh, and at his command they followed him to the banks of the swift running Jordan, whose waters at their presence stood still, till the children of the father of the faithful passed over dry-shod, into the land promised to Abraham and his seed after him.

A greater than Joshua with his sword girt upon his thigh, has stood before the generations of men for the last eighteen hundred years, not waiting for the miracle to be performed, but having passed over, calls for us to follow, to live and to reign with him in the power of everlasting life. Shall we still choose death rather than life, and our carcasses rot in this wilderness? If it is so with us, God grant that the babes now sleeping in their cradles may enter into new

ness of life, the eternal sabbath awaiting the people of God, ordained from the foundation of the world.

O when

O when shall we come into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto perfect men, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ? shall this corruptible put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality and death be swallowed up in the victory of everlasting life? When shall we enter into that house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens? When shall the glad hozannas ring? Death is swallowed up by the abundance of life, in holy men who shall never die. Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, which hope is sure and steadfast in our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Christ. O when shall the last trumpet sound and the dead be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. Come Lord Jesus come quickly.

T

CHAPTER XIX

ANGELS

HE forms of spiritual life spoken of in the Scriptures, are God, the divine life of men and the angels.

Angels are spirits with wills to choose their conduct and elect their characters. They are individuals, who were brought into being some time, but whether it was in any way in connection with the creation of this world, we are not informed. They are merely spirits and have no bodies. The bodies in which they have appeared were only temporary, called into being for the occasions.

The holy angels assumed these bodies at will, and when their visits to men were ended, they dismissed them. These bodies were not begotten, nor born from parents, they had no infancy, no period of childhood, no years of discipline walking with God, to come into glorified bodies as Enoch, as Moses, as Elijah and as Jesus did. By the holiness of their spirits, pure from the person of Jehovah, they commanded bodies into being and dismissed them without tasting death, or their flesh seeing corruption.

These bodies were tabernacles into which they entered, so that they could be seen and commune with men, as men talk with each other. But their bodies were no part of their individuality as angels. They were angels when embodied, and they were angels when they were not in bodies. Their bodies were not animal. They were not linked to the world by natural bodies, and part of the world like men. Men cease to be men when they die and become merely unclothed spirits,

in banishment from their physical association. The angels are not inhabitants of the world, but visitors to it.

The angels assumed bodies in the forms of men, and not of females with wings. They looked like men, and were taken for men, until they revealed their identity. They ate and drank, but this was not to support their bodies. When with Abraham, it was the sociability of guests.

Wicked angels had no power to take up bodies of their own;-this was done by the power of the holiness of life. Sin is weakness, and its only power is death. Not even Satan the prince of devils, had the power to call into being a body for himself, but was obliged to enter the body of a serpent, that his presence might be visible to Eve. Wicked angels at the time of Christ, entered the bodies of the weak-minded men or brutes, but never appeared in bodies of their own.

There are evil influences working in nature, as disease, the corruption in death, the ferocity in savage animals, and unseen influences impelling men to evil deeds, with a cunningness that is second only to the creative powers of life. Our experience is that we battle with principalities and powers in the air, whose influence is to drive us from God. The lives of good men are a battle with temptations from without, and the wicked are led away by them willing captives.

All over the world and in all ages, the ways in which men sin are substantially the same. Moreover, nature in its bondage of corruption and death, acts in the same manner the world over and at all times. Some have thought that there is one all pervading evil spirit paralleling the being of God; but all that is in reliable evidence, can be accounted for, by Satan being a mighty individual spirit, with innumerable fleet subjects, who are one with him in character and will. The scriptures speak of Beelzebub the prince of devils, the devil, Satan

with his angels called devils or demons.

If God is good and kind why did he make Satan and the devils is a fair question. Devils are individual spirits like men are. They were created pure as the divine life which Jehovah breathed into Adam and Eve, but they fell through selfishness. Angels have wills to choose, to elect their characters as men do. God is no more accountable for them, than for wicked men.

Men go into sin, either led by the passions of their flesh, or by the choice of their wills. The Scriptures speak of the sins by the passions of the flesh, as a being overtaken in a fault; and command us to restore such, in meekness, lest we also be tempted. There are sins not unto death; and there are sins which are unto death, which we are not commanded to pray for. When men sin wilfully and take pleasure in their selfishness, there is no hope for them. The men whom Jesus denounced as a generation of vipers, who could not escape the damnation of hell, held the passions of their flesh in subjection, so that their lives outwardly were indeed beautiful. The devils have no flesh, and when they sin, it is by their wills,they sin wilfully. There is no hope of mercy for them.

There is no evidence in the Scriptures of a circumscribed locality called hell where the devils are assembled together. Hell is depraved, corrupted spiritual life. Jesus said that Satan is the prince of this world. John in his Revelation wrote, 1And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceiveth, he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. The devils are annoying all nature and tempting the wills of men. There are epidemics of crime as well as diseases, both of

'Rev. 12:9.