A Heavenly Guard — Dr. Talmage on the Mission of Angels

Oct. 29, 1899

A Guardian Angel For Every One, Says the Distinguished Preacher

Men and women of all circumstances, only partly appreciated or not appreciated at all, never feel lonely again or unregarded again! Angels all around, angels to approve, angels to help, angels to remember. Yea, while all the good angels are friends of the good, there is one special angel your bodyguard. This idea until this present study of angelology I supposed to be fanciful, but I find it clearly stated in the Bible. When the disciples were praying for Peter's deliverance from prison and he appeared at the door of the prayer meeting, they could not believe it was Peter. They said, "It is his angel." So these disciples, in special nearness to Christ, evidently believed that every worthy soul has an angel. Jesus said of his followers, "Their angels behold the face of my Father. " Elsewhere it is said, "He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." Angel shielded, angel protected, angel guarded, angel canopied, art thou! No wonder that Charles Wesley hymned these words:

Which of the petty kings of earth
Can boast a guard like ours,
Encircled from our second birth
With all the heavenly powers?

Yes, a guardian angel for each one of you. Put yourself now in accord with him When he suggests the right, follow it. When he warns you against the wrong, shun it. Sent forth from God to help you in this great battle against sin and death, accept his deliverance. When tempted to a feeling of loneliness and disheartenment, appropriate the promise, "The angel of the Lord encampeth around about them that fear him and delivereth them." Oh, I am so glad that the spaces between here and heaven are thronged with these supernaturals taking tidings home, bringing messages here, rolling back obstacles from our path and giving us defenses, for terrific are the forces who dispute our way, and if the nation of the good angels is on our side the nation of bad angels is on the other. Paul had it right when he said, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." In that awful fight may God send us mighty angelic re-enforcement! We want all their wings on our side, all their swords on our side, all their chariots on our side. Thank God that those who are for us!

—The Indiana Progress, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Nov. 1, 1899, p. 2, Thomas De Witt Talmage.