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seen of angels," who surrounded his path, adoring him, ministering unto him, and eagerly looking forward to the moment when they should escort him to his throne

above, with the rejoicing song, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in!" Those forty days that intervened between the rising again and the ascension into heaven of the Lord Jesus, were a precious type of the coming time, when earth shall once more enjoy the presence of her heavenly King, and bask in the brightness of his divine glory; while angels tread her peaceful surface, and that which is now but a howling wilderness of sin, shall blossom like a rose, and become as the garden of Eden. May the Lord hasten that day, when his children, no longer buffeted by messengers of Satan, and pining for communion with Him, too often in vain through the abounding of temptations, and the deep knowledge and subtlety of those with whom they must continually wrestle, shall serve him without fear, while dwelling in the presence of his millennial glory!

VIII.

THE APOSTLES A SPECTACLE TO ANGELS.

Ir is a remarkable circumstance, that whereas we do not read of any visible interposition of angels in the affairs of men, as ministering spirits, until after the call of Abraham, and the promise to him of Christ as his seed, so, to the very last, with the single exception of Cornelius the centurion, all to whom we are told they appeared in that capacity were of Abraham's race. We are fully assured, that to every child of God they render the same offices of love and care as to the ancient people of the Lord; but, together with the Jewish dispensation, under which we include the Church of the circumcision in Judea, up to the final scattering of the people, ended the personal intercourse of angels with the children of men in the flesh; and those concerning whom we are now to speak were Jews.

When our Lord was about to ascend into heaven, his disciples, true to their national feelings and scriptural expectations, asked him, "Lord, wilt thou at this time

restore again the kingdom unto Israel?" But that period was yet far distant, and he answered them, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which my Father hath put in his own power." Acts i. 6, 7. It was enough that the promise had been given, and that the restoration of the kingdom to Israel was sure; but a militant, not a triumphant church, was that of which they were to be constituted pillars; and they must sow in tears, in humiliations, persecutions, afflictions, and distresses, the great harvest to be reaped when the King should come, and all his saints with him, to that restored kingdom.

The Lord was parted from them: a cloud received him up out of their sight; but they were loth to believe he was indeed gone. Knowing him of a certainty as their Messiah, and also knowing that their Messiah would assuredly be a deliverer, a prince, a ruler, over the Jewish nation in particular, while his dominion should extend throughout the whole earth, they who had now seen the great work of man's redemption perfected, looked for the glorious sequel, of which they knew that a leading sign would be the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. They seem to have expected that he would no longer delay this great consummation, but fulfil now his own and his Father's repeated promise; and the ascension of their Lord left them very desolate, disappointed, perhaps shaken in faith. "They looked stedfastly towards heaven as he went up ;" and from the

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context we may infer, that their feeling was one of dread and dismay. Can he have forsaken us? Is Israel not to be gathered? will he not even now relent, and return and finish the mighty work? or can it be that we have suffered so many things in vain, and are now left to mourn a hope that has mocked us? must we take up the language of Jeremiah, and say, “ O, the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man, that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name: leave us not?" That their secret thoughts were of this complexion we have every reason to suppose, from what follows: "And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." 9-11. To gaze after their Lord, to keep their eyes fixed on that spot whither He, their only help in time, their only hope in eternity, was gone, and to contemplate the pathway by which He, their forerunner, had even then entered beyond the veil, to appear in the presence of God for them, was surely natural and seemly but their feeling was probably so far tinctured with dismay and doubt, as to call

forth the gentle remonstrance of these two angels, who lingered behind their fellows to bear a message of consolation to the perplexed disciples, that should be for the encouragement of the Church until the Lord return.

After this, we have many instances of the care and diligence with which the angels fulfilled their ministry to the Church in Jerusalem. When the apostles, by their preaching and miracles, had so roused the indignation of the High Priest and the Sadducees that they laid hands on them, and put them in the common prison, "the angel of the Lord by night opened the prisondoors, and brought them forth, and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life." Acts v. 19, 20. This deliverance was wrought in so quiet a manner, that no one was aware of it until the next day: the doors were shut, and the keepers standing before them when the officers came, who were sent to bring the prisoners before their cruel and unjust judges. Yet even this marked deliverance had no effect on the hardened opposers of God's word; all, save Gamaliel, were disposed to slay them, and when, by God's providence, that intention was overruled, they were beaten and threatened, and commanded to speak no more in the name of Jesus. In the beautiful narrative of Stephen, no mention is made of angelic ministry, although we cannot doubt that they surrounded on all sides the heavenward steps of the proto-martyr; but in the persecution that followed his death, we find them actively employed