s thronging around, profoundly
interested in all that concerns us--"bearing us up in all our
ways"--following us, as Jacob saw them, step by step up the ladder of
salvation, till we reach our thrones and our crowns! Angelic agency is
no mere gorgeous dream of inspired poetry--no mere symbolic way of
stating the doctrine of Divine Providence, and the peculiar care which
God takes of His Church and people. The Bible gives us too many positive
statements on the subject to permit a figurative interpretation. These
bright and holy Beings are there represented as having witnessed all
along with profound interest the gradual unfolding of the plan of
salvation--from the hour when, at creation's birth, the morning stars
sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy--onwards to the
eventful night when they met over the plains of Bethlehem and chanted a
responsive anthem at the advent of the Prince of Peace! Now that
Redemption is completed--they have gathered once more on Olivet to form
a royal retinue to conduct their Lord to His crown--to summon the gates
of Heaven to "lift up their heads" that "the King of Glory may enter
in." If God, in bringing in His first-begotten into the world, said,
"Let all the angels of God worship Him;" much more, when His work is
done, and the moral Conqueror, laden with the spoils of victory, is
about to return to His throne, may we expect that "the chariots of God"
("twenty thousand, even thousands of angels") are waiting to grace His
triumph.

Nor were they merely employed on earth as His servants and attendants
during the period of His incarnation--leaving our world, when _He_ left
it, to "serve him day and night in His heavenly temple." A portion of
this glorious bodyguard we find now, at the hour of Ascension, left
behind to certify to the disciples and the Church in every age, that
Angels were still to continue their loving watchfulness and interest
over the Pilgrims in a Pilgrim world--still to be sent forth on errands
of mercy to "minister to them who are heirs of salvation!"

Is it the House of God--the gates of Zion--the Holy place of
Solemnities? The scene now before us on Mount Olivet forms a miniature
picture of what takes place Sabbath after Sabbath in every meeting of
Christian disciples. As we are assembled like the apostles in our
Sanctuary--looking upwards to Heaven, there are glorious Spirits, we may
well believe, clustering around us--hovering in silence over our
asse