XXXI

THE ANGEL OF THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL THE GOSPEL PREACHED UNTO ALL NATIONS XIV 6-7

In this vision we have a symbolical representation of the Lord's prophecy: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a testimony unto all the nations (Mat. xxiv. 14). The gospel must first be preached unto all the nations. . . . And then shall the end come (Mark xiii. 10). It contains some very interesting particulars, and affords us a suitable occasion to consider the ministry of angels, especially in this universal preaching of the gospel.

6 And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell upon the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people, 7 saying with a great voice, Fear God, and give glory unto Him, for the hour of His judgment is come, and worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and the fountains of waters.

This angel flies in midheaven, like the eagle of a former vision, that his great voice may be heard by all mankind (179). The two-fold enumeration of four particulars here, i. e. with respect to the population of the earth and to the created universe, recalls the symbolical meaning of this number, that of the whole world, or universality (114). The 'everlasting' or 'eternal gospel' is without the definite article in the Greek, which raises the question, whether it is to be understood as the gospel in the common acceptation of the word, or as some special glad tidings concerning the end of the world. Commentators are much divided on this point, but probably both ideas are included. For it is

expressly given as a part of the angel's message, that'the hour of God's judgment has come,' and this is joyful news, as where it is said in a former vision: "In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he must sound his trumpet, the mystery of God should be finished, as He declared the glad tidings to His servants the prophets" (199). And that this message includes the gospel, properly so called, though with special reference to the end, i. e. to the final establishment of the Lord's kingdom, and the predicted triumph of good over evil in this world, will be evident from the following considerations: (1) There never was, nor ever can be, but one 'everlasting' or 'eternal' gospel, upon which here a strong emphasis is evidently laid. Other glad tidings, of course, there might be, whether pertaining to the coming of the kingdom, or to other matters; but nothing that did not contain the very heart, substance, and object of the gospel of Christ could, with any propriety, be so called. (2) What the angel has to declare and publish is for them that dwell upon the earth. . every nation and tribe and tongue and people'; wherein it agrees with the Lord's command: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark xvi. 15). (3) The angel's message, 'Fear God, and give glory unto Him, for the hour of His judgment. is come, and worship Him,' expresses the substance and object of the whole gospel, and of the word of God from beginning to end, but here with evident allusion to the words: "[This is] the end of the matter; all hath been heard: Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole [duty or well-being] of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, and every hidden thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Ec. xii. 13-14). Thus we see that the great voice of this angel, sounding in the ears of all the dwellers upon earth, and commanding them to fear and worship and give glory to God, is significant of the very heart and object of the everlasting gospel. The heaven and the earth and the sea and the fountains of waters' may be taken here both in their literal and symbolical import, as representing, in the latter sense the source of light, the

natural life of man (153), his national organizations (174), and all the sources and supplies of his spiritual life (175). For everything in the creation, providence, and word of God has this practical object, that men should fear and worship, obey and glorify Him. All created things, all events, all truths, all doctrines are means unto this end. The incarnation and sacrifice of Christ, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the church and sacraments, the preaching of the gospel, all God's judgments and providential dealings with the children of men, cannot be otherwise comprehended than as means unto the end of bringing them back from their wanderings in ignorance, idolatry, and immorality to the knowledge, worship, and obedience of the one only living and true God. And it is very necessary that we should sometimes withdraw our attention from particular doctrines, and fix it upon this paramount practical object, as it is here presented to our view; otherwise we may easily lose sight of it, as often it has been lost sight of, in the multitude of the means which it employs, many of which are of absorbing interest. In fine, the all-constraining motive which this angel presses upon us to enforce his preaching is, that the hour of God's judgment is come, when He will render to every man according to his deeds, which, indeed, is the subject of the whole. book (18).

Thus we see that what is symbolized in this vision is the great evangelizing or missionary work of the church (199), as running on to the close of the dispensation, just as it is presented by our Lord Himself in His declaration: “Then shall the end come (267). And the rapid advance and glorious success of this work in our time ought surely to be taken as one of the signs of the approaching consummation; for if it should continue to advance with constantly accelerated speed, as in the last twenty years, it cannot be long before the prophecy of this vision shall be amply fulfilled. When we consider what is now going on in the islands of the Pacific Ocean, in Africa, Turkey, Persia, India, Siam, China, and Japan, we can almost see this great angel in his flight through midheaven, and hear his 'great voice' pro

claiming to all the dwellers upon earth, that they shall 'fear God, and give glory unto Him, and worship Him, for the hour of His judgment is come.'

But what, then, we must now enquire, have angels to do with the preaching of the gospel unto mankind? For the solution of this question we must recall here the name of this book, the Unveiling, and that it is so named because it withdraws the veil from the invisible world, and discloses to our view those spiritual agencies and transactions from which all that takes place in this world proceeds, and of which it is, as it were, the shadow or echo (3). Thus, where otherwise we should see only the great missionary work of the church, we have here unveiled an angelic agency within, under, behind it, or howsoever it might be expressed, giving it impetus, urging it on to its consummation. For this angel flying in midheaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach, and actually preaching it to all the world, can signify nothing less, I think, than that the missionary work of the church is a matter of the deepest interest to the holy angels; that they have a mighty agency in it; that they have much to do in opening the doors of nations and peoples to the gospel; that they watch over the Holy Scriptures to preserve them from corruption, and to cause them to be faithfully translated into all the different languages, and diffused among all the nations of mankind; and that much of what we commonly ascribe immediately to God is due rather to their intermediate agency. One thing at least is plain, that the holy angels are deeply interested in the missionary work, and that in it we have their fullest sympathy and active co-operation. Beyond this I cannot go with certainty, for I do not think this symbol requires us to believe that it is under the supervision or control of any one particular angel, though I would by no means deny that it may be.

All this leads us to notice here something which runs through the whole Scripture, namely, that angels have much to do with human affairs. What is taught us on this subject may be epitomized as follows: There are good and bad angels, and both are immensely numerous.

1. Bad angels were once good, but they fell from their holy and happy estate by the sin of pride, i. e. by trusting to and following their own wisdom, instead of the wisdom of God, in the distinction and choice between good and evil, which is the Scriptural meaning of pride, and which, in a deeper sense than guile (265), is necessarily the primary root of all sin.* They are bitter, malignant enemies of God and man and of the holy angels. Their power is very great, and it is all employed in doing evil, especially to men. They tempt men to sin in order to involve them in perdition. One of them, under the form of a serpent, was the original tempter of our first parents, and 'beguiled' them by the subtlety of his temptations; for his wisdom is the wisdom of subtlety. He drew other angels into transgression, and has authority over them (236). He is called their king, the angel of the abyss, Satan or adversary, the devil or slanderer, the accuser, the tempter, the dragon, the old serpent, the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air, Beël zebub, a liar, the father of lying, a murderer from the begin ning, and by other names and titles of like evil significance. He tempted Job, Ananias and Sapphira, Simon Magus, and the Lord Himself; in whose time, perhaps also before and since, these bad angels entered into men, possessed their bodies and minds, and produced epilepsy, paralysis, insanity, and other distressing maladies of soul and body. Sometimes they are employed as executioners of the divine judgments. No atonement has been made for them, and their final destiny is to be shut up in hell and tormented forever in the fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels' (Mat. xxv. 41).

2. Good angels surround the throne of God and worship. Him and His Christ. They were the guardians and ministers of His humanity while He tabernacled in the flesh. They ministered to Him in His great temptation in the wilderness and in His agony in Gethsemane, and they minister to His people, the 'heirs of salvation.' They are God's

*See Wisdom of Holy Scripture, vi.