Prayed for Their Guardian Angel — And the Angel Came!

1921

A British Clergyman and His Wife Tell About a Most Remarkable Visitation — and All England Marvels at the Story and Its "Corroboration."

LONDON, Dec. 20. — Rev. Maurice Elliott, vicar in the village of Snitterby, Lincolnshire, believes in his guardian angel with the same certainty that he believes in the existence of his village grocer. For the clergyman, according to his sworn testimony, has seen this angel with his own eyes, has heard the sound of his voice, has touched his glistening robe. The angel came at a crisis in the clergyman's life and by his good counsel enabled him and his wife to meet the situation without disaster.

The revelation of Mr. Elliott created considerable talk all over England, but a sensation was caused when it became known that many of the facts of his visitation had been corroborated by a celebrated London physician. Since that time a number of other physicians declare that they have met with similar cases and believe Mr. Elliott's story implicitly. There is as much reason to believe that a person has a guardian angel, they say, as it is to believe any of the commonly accepted physical facts of life. They contend, that such a belief is as provable, by resort to the ordinary senses, as, for instance, the law of specific gravity.

Dr. Elliott is a popular member of the clergy and is highly regarded as a thinker. His interview with his guardian angel came at a time, he said, when his wife was about to have a child and her life was in serious danger.

He was very fearful regarding her condition and sought the advice of a London specialist. The specialist advised an immediate operation, but admitted that such an operation would involve a dangerous risk.

"My wife and I," said Dr. Elliott, "prayed with all our hearts for guidance in this troubled hour. We prayed that if there was an angel specially appointed to protect and guide me and mine — that he appear to us and counsel us. And the evening before my wife was to go into a nursing home he did appear.

"The angel was a male. His figure was more majestic than that of men on earth. His eyes were extraordinary in their beauty and brightness. Ha spoke with a voice that was bell-like. He came to us in our room and at his appearance we felt not the slightest sense of terror — only a feeling of complete calm. He spoke in everyday language. It was as if a link between us and heaven had been established.

"We asked him what we must do about the specialist's advice. He replied that the specialist was wrong in advising an operation and that such a course would be fatal. 'Don't have it,' he told us. 'The physician's diagnosis is wrong.'

"The angel's visit decided us. When the physician came the next day to see us about the removal of my wife to the nursing home, we told him what had happened and that Mrs. Elliott had made up her mind to forgo the operation.

"Naturally, the doctor was astonished beyond measure, but did not argue the matter with us. I might add that he has, himself, taken a keen interest in the case ever since.

"A few days later we again asked Divine guidance. We wanted the angel to direct us to a medical man who would confirm the angel's statement. Again our prayers were answered. The angel appeared to us as he had on his first visit and told us to go to Brighton where we could meet the doctor we so much desired to see.

"Following these instructions we packed our bags and left the next day for Brighton. Before we arrived at the station the angel came to us in our compartment I do not imagine anyone else in the coach saw him, for nothing was said of it. The angel walked with us through the town and guided us to a hotel. He walked normally. There was no gliding or passing through substances. I noticed that he wore sandals. He conversed with us a good part of the time.

"After giving us full instructions as to the doctor we would meet there, what the doctor would look like and when we should approach him, the angel dematerialized and since then has not appeared to us."

The second day at the hotel, Dr. Elliott says, he recognized the physician from the angel's description as the man passed down the corridor into the drawing-room. Dr. Elliott followed him into the drawing-room and stated his case without asking him if he were a physician, so sure was he that the angel was correct,

The physician was naturally much astonished at being approached by a man who didn't even know his name, but though he had come to Brighton for a rest, finally consented to make an examination of Mrs, Elliott and a diagnosis of her case. He did not think an operation was necessary — in fact, he advised strongly against it.

The child born after this remarkable experience is a strong, healthy girl. Dr. Elliott says that when the baby was christened in Winchester Cathedral a company of angels was plainly manifest to himself and his wife.

A Vision of the Savior

For reasons of medical ethics, the physician who attended Mrs. Elliott would not permit the use of his name, but he confirmed the Brighton occurrence in detail.

Having a large practice the physician said he had gone to Brighton for a few weeks' rest. He did not register as a medical man and nobody connected with the hotel or in the town knew him as such.

"Being on a holiday which I much needed," he said, "I naturally did not care to accept any cases. But when I asked Dr. Elliott how he knew I was a physician he told me his remarkable story. It interested me so much that I agreed to see his wife. I examined her and my own diagnosis of the case accorded exactly with what the angel had told them. They appeared much relieved when I gave them my opinion.

"While I have had no experience with spiritualism, in fact, I know scarcely nothing about it, I believe that with God all things are possible."

Concurrent with the Elliott case is that which is vouched for by Rev. W. J. L. Sheppard, who has been preaching at Braintree parish church, fifty miles out of London. A member of the congregation, a business man who had been associated in no way with spiritualism, told the pastor that he had seen a vision of Christ on the cross behind the chancel rail, during the progress of the service.

Rev. Dr. Sheppard recently announced the vision from the pulpit, saying to his startled congregation:

"During the evening service last Sunday a well known Braintree business man in the congregation saw a vision of the crucified Savior in the chancel of this church. He said he first saw the vision while kneeling in prayer. A bright light from a halo on the head of the crucified Christ filled the whole chancel and blotted out every other object. This is not a case of an emotional woman seeing a vision, but of a hard-headed man. The vision must be "taken as a divine revelation."

The business man told Mr. Sheppard that when he first saw the vision he bowed his head to collect his thoughts. He thought at first that it might be an optical illusion. When he looked up again the vision of the crucified Christ still filled the chancel. He looked at it about four minutes the second time. The vision did not speak or beckon to him, but looked with pleading eyes. Finally, the light from the halo faded gradually away and the vision disappeared. The man became quite ill and broke into a violent perspiration.

—Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Jan. 1, 1922, section 4, page 2.