Pours itself into acts, as done in society, it is suffocated, and at last so completely that the man has no longer any respect to his neighbour, but only to himself." It is hence manifest that the life of charity towards the neighbour, which consists in doing what is just and right in all our dealings and occupations, leads to heaven" (H. and H. 360). Thus, when a man knows the truths of faith from the Word, and apprehends them in his measure, he has conscience, which is the point of union between his faith and charity. "Herein," says the Apostle," do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and men (Acts xxiv. 16).

H. W. R.

THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS.

II.

AND, firstly, with respect to those functions of the angels in which we are all most immediately interested, which have inspired some of the sweetest strains of poesy, and the thought of which has doubtless ofttimes strengthened our too failing faith and hope; I mean their tender offices as (Heb. i. 14) "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." The writings of the Church are full of the most delightful doctrine on this pleasing theme. From the cradle to the grave we are the charge of loving angel friends, tenderly solicitous on our behalf, who inspire charity and faith, and, so far as our free will permits, moderate our delights, and gently bend them to good; and, when the evils of our nature are excited by our infernal foes, call forth our holy affections and the truths we know, that we may be free continually to eschew the wrong, and love and pursue the right. "By such offices," it is beautifully added (A. C. 5992), "the angels from the Lord lead and protect man, and this every moment, and every moment of a moment; for, if the angels were to intermit their offices only for a single instant, man would be plunged into evil from which he could never afterwards be extricated. These offices the angels perform from the love which they derive from the Lord, for they perceive nothing more delightful and more happy than to remove evils from man, and to lead him to heaven; that they have joy herein may be seen, Luke xv. 7,-'Joy shall be in heaven I said that from the cradle to the over one sinner that repenteth.' grave we are thus the charge of angels, but I might have gone yet

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further before our birth into this world at all they tenderly watch and guard us, presiding, with loving care, over those who are about to become mothers, and thus providing, from the very first, for the highest welfare of every human soul. The angels thus employed "love infants much more than the parents do," and are the wisest and best of all the heavenly host (A. C. 5052). Yea, they are most tender mothers, so that they can scarce live but in a state where the tender love of infants prevails" (S. D. 3152). After the birth of infants, we are instructed (A. C. 2303), "immediately on their nativity, there are angels attendant on them from the heaven of innocence; and, in the succeeding age, angels from the heaven of the tranquillity of peace; afterwards, angels from the societies of charity; and next, other angels, in proportion as innocence and charity decrease with the infant children; and, lastly, when they become more adult, and enter into a life alienated from charity, angels indeed are present, but more remotely, and this according to the ends of life, which the angels direct, by insinuating continually good ends, and averting evil ones; and in proportion as they are able or unable to effect this, their influx is nearer or more remote."

Among the particular benefits which man owes to the ministry of angels may be mentioned protection against the infestation of evil spirits during the helpless hours of sleep. "This office they discharge with the utmost delight, insomuch that there is an emulation amongst them who shall approach" (A. C. 1977). They also inspire agreeable dreams, the angels employed in this manner being "those who, in the life of the body, delighted to make the life of others pleasant; as certain mothers do by means of sports with their infants and children; also nurses, and those who delight to act in an infantile manner" (S. D. 3182).

An interesting, and to some extent a problematical, question, arises as to the precise nature and degree of the knowledge which angels possess of the persons on earth whom they benefit. In A. R. 943 it is asserted, "The angels of heaven, and also the spirits under the heavens, know nothing of man; no more indeed than man knows of them, because the state of angels and spirits is spiritual, and the state of men is natural, which two states are consociated solely by correspondences, and consociation by correspondence does indeed cause them to be together in affections, but not in thoughts, wherefore one does not know anything of the other,i.e., man does not know anything of the spirits with whom he is consociated as to affections, nor do spirits know anything of man, for that which is not in the

thought, but only in the affection, is not known, because it does not appear, or is not seen. The Lord alone knows the thoughts of men." This statement is, however, greatly qualified by the assertion (A. C. 5862), "The spirits associated with man do not know that they are so; only angels from the Lord know this, for they are adjoined to the soul or spirit of man, but not to his body." This seeming contradiction is, to my mind, very beautifully explained in an editorial reply to a correspondent of the Intellectual Repository, published in April 1862. A distinction is there drawn between sensible and rational knowledge; and it is shown that just as we, though not cognizant of spiritual existences by the natural senses, yet possess, from doctrine, rational and definite convictions respecting them, so spirits, though similarly limited as to sensuous acquaintance, are yet capable of receiving the most minute instruction on the subject. And since such instruction seems imperatively necessary to the accomplishment of the various uses previously described, we conclude that in the case of angelic ministrations it is always fully supplied; whereas, with regard to inferior spirits, and especially infernals, it is providentially withheld, because knowledge with them could only prove pernicious. Besides, we can have no conception of the kind and measure of the consociation which Swedenborg declares (A. R. 943) to be effected by correspondences. Though essentially different from any method of communication with which we are now familiar, it is probably far more distinct and perfect, so that our angelic helpers, though not acquainted with us by the vision of the eye, or the hearing of the ear, perhaps know every particular of our internal states, and feel for us the most vivid and individual personal regard. Apparently, also, their consciousness of such consociation is, to a great degree, proportionate to the innocence of those with whom they have intercourse; for we read, concerning certain Africans in the present life, to whom Swedenborg uniformly assigns a singularly high spiritual quality, that angels communicate with them, on some occasions, by oral dictation (C. L. J. 76). Thus those who possess dear ones in the other world, with whom they would fain continue in closest possible communion, are encouraged to cultivate those graces of peace and purity which seem favourable to the completest angelic friendship.

But our indebtedness to the angels by no means ceases with this present life. They are the ushers of the eternal world, who welcome the arrival there of every translated spirit. When we, in our turn, shall cross the silent sea, they will be waiting for us on the other side, lovingly solicitous to prepare us for our immortal homes. For, says

Swedenborg (A. C. 454), "Nothing is more delightful to the angels than to instruct and teach spirits coming from the world, . . . to raise up the dead to eternal life, and afterwards, if their souls be such that it is possible, to introduce them into heaven." Various particulars are related as to the manner of these kind offices (A. C. 168-185; H. H. 449, 450). We are taught that every one who dies appears to awake, in the other world, as from a sleep; and that celestial angels, from the third or highest heaven, attend such resurrection, and fill the resuscitated soul with thoughts of eternal life. But as very few indeed, on leaving the present world, are sufficiently advanced to share the company of these pure beings, they gradually give place to others, of different quality, who proffer their ministrations. Not, it is beautifully stated, that the celestial angels forsake the novitiate spirit, because they love every one; but, when the soul can no longer consociate with them, he desires to depart. Spiritual angels then draw near, who communicate the use of light, the spirit having previously only thought, but without the power of vision. This they bestow by unrolling, as it were, a membrane from the eyes, when the awakened soul by degrees perceives the scenery and objects of the new world which he has entered, and commences his immortal life there. And at every stage of the progress towards his eternal state, angelic helpers are beside him, ready to afford all needful information as to the laws of spiritual existence, its sublime activities and duties, and its ineffable delights. If his character unfits him for the heavenly home, he quits these pure associates, sinking lower and lower until he finds congenial company among his like. If, on the contrary, his heart sincerely loves. the good and true, the angels help him to cast off those adventitious errors of belief and habit, which cling even to the best-disposed, so long as they remain on earth, but which cannot find entrance into heaven; and when they have thus aided him towards full preparation, they rejoice to introduce him to his Father's house, and gladly welcome him as one among themselves. Remembering, therefore, that about a hundred thousand human beings quit this world every day, each one of whom needs these friendly ministrations, we shall readily perceive one vast scope for angelic skill and energy.

Especially is this apparent when we consider the vast numbers leaving the earth in earliest childhood, who commence the other life in the same helpless infantile condition, and require the tenderest training and nurture to fit them for their happy immortality. Of these it is written (H. H. 332), "As soon as infants are raised from the dead, which takes place immediately after their decease, they are

carried up into heaven, and delivered to the care of angels of the female sex, who, in the life of the body, loved infants tenderly, and, at the same time, loved God. Since the angels, when in the world, loved all infants from a sort of maternal tenderness, they receive them as their own; and the infants also, from an affection implanted in them, love them as their own mothers. Every female angel has as many infants under her care as she desires from a spiritual maternal affection." Thus it would appear that domestic life in heaven is not without the joy that springs from the presence of the little ones. There, as here, the home circle is enlivened by the prattle of baby lips, and the patter of baby feet; and, doubtless, some of the tenderest and sweetest pleasures known there spring from the parental love lavished on these adopted innocents. And the progress of the children, transplanted to that balmier air, is not so slow, or beset with so many difficulties and anxieties as here on earth. They walk and speak without previous teaching (H. H. 331), being at once able to express whatever they feel and think; so that their instruction, from the very first, concerns itself with the essentials of wisdom, and not with its mere accessories and instruments. And who can describe the gentle tact and numberless expedients employed in this angelic education! We are told that it is conducted chiefly by means of representative appearances, which the teachers arrange with inconceivable beauty and significance (A. C. 2299, and H. H. 335), every surrounding object being thus made a parable for the delight and edification of their receptive young disciples. Swedenborg states (H. H. 337), "It was granted me to see little children most elegantly clothed, having their breasts adorned with garlands of flowers, resplendent with the most pleasing and celestial colours, which also encircled their tender arms; and, on one occasion, I saw some children with their instructresses, accompanied by virgins, in a paradisiacal garden, not consisting so much of ornamental trees as of laurel espaliers, and thus of porticos, with paths conducting towards the interior parts. The children themselves were clothed in the manner just described, and when they entered the garden the clustering flowers above the entrance shot forth glad radiance. From this may be inferred the peculiar quality of their delights, and that they are introduced by agreeable and delightful objects into the goods of innocence and charity, which goods are continually insinuated from the Lord by those mediums." Among the means employed to train infants in the ceaseless charities which constitute the happiness of the heavenly life, we are told they are sometimes sent by the Lord to infants upon earth, doubtless to insinuate