21. The Intercommunion of The Angels

I. Social life arises among beings possessed of intelligence; and it consists primarily in the intercommunion of mind with mind. In the Trinity there is a Divine Society, with interior communications between the three Persons. The divine mind also enters into communication with human minds by means of revelation. Animals can communicate simple emotions to one another by inarticulate cries. Men deaf and dumb can exchange ideas by gesture. With normal men communication is much more complete; it embraces large groups of ideas, and enters into minute detail. By sounds, facial expression, and a system of little marks on paper, men can reproduce their thoughts and emotions in others most vividly. But this method is gross and imperfect, whereby mind communicates with mind through physical signs addressed to the eye or ear, passing through the nerves to the brain, and thence into the immaterial consciousness.

The angels, being pure intelligence, communicate directly and instantaneously, without physical medium, without the waste that accompanies so many transformations of energy, and without the misunderstandings that ensue with us. How sublime must be the speech of the angels; how much more extended in its range than ours! As the conversation of the learned surpasses that of the savage, so does the converse of the blessed and the angels surpass that of earth. This alone will be a great source of delight in heaven.

II. The angels, being of different kinds and classes, vary in their intelligence and knowledge and other faculties. They represent in different ways the infinitely different aspects of the divine perfections, which can only be reflected very partially in any individual or class. As every man has much which he can bestow on others and which others need, so the angels have communications to make to one another, arising out of the abundance of the gifts of God to them, and their various apprehension of His wonderful mysteries. “Goodness is diffusive of itself.” Throughout creation we see communication of benefits from one to another. The sun bestows light, heat and energy on this world; plants contribute oxygen to the air for our breathing, and food for animals and men; and our duty is to expend care and supervision on the inferior creation, to exchange ideas, services and love with our fellows, and to offer worship and obedience to God.

The angels, too, must be subject to this law of life. They must communicate, according to their nature, with one another and with men. As a member of the Church you have come consciously into the company of the angels (Heb. xiii. 22). That implies active communication: you will honour them, they will pray for you.

III. God works in all beings through the intermediary of others, who thus become His agents and the channels of His gifts. God provides for us temporally and spiritually through parents, rulers, teachers, priests, through the talents and goodness of many men. So God’s agents in maintaining vegetation are the sun, the soil, and moisture; these transmit the sap of life through roots, trunk, branches, twigs, veins of the leaf, to the smallest atoms of the tree.

So too among the angels there must be communications of knowledge and grace from choir to choir and angel to angel, from first to last. The inexhaustible source of truth and holiness in God is ever providing new material for these communications. The spiritual sap of life is for ever circulating through all the ramifications of the celestial universe; and every individual is progressing unceasingly in knowledge, love and happiness, by reason of these communications.

All God’s servants of this world and the next are united into the great society of the Communion of Saints. That means mutual communication. Each gives and receives. Each aids and is aided. Each prays and is prayed for. Each must be the intermediary of God to others, imitating in his way the supreme mediation of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

20. The Temptations of The Evil Spirits

 

I. In nature, God allows all creatures to exercise their proper activities without interference. They may be contradictory to others and may produce catastrophes, but out of it all there proceeds harmony and a higher good. So all spiritual beings are allowed to use their powers according to their free will, whether rightly or perversely. Wrong-doing is not visited straightway with extinction, or with restraint of activity or liberty; it plays its part, and is controlled by God to a good end. The forces of right and wrong are allowed to wage an unending strife until the time comes to separate them eternally. As bad men are allowed to live out their full course unhindered, so Satan and his followers remain in the universe where they still are to have acted as ministers of God, and there they carry on a work of their own, according to their desires and capacities. Hatred of the supreme good, envy of men who are one day to occupy their places in heaven, fierce pride, malicious love of evil for its own sake, these are their motive forces. They endeavour to thwart the designs of God, to establish a reign of falsehood and vice, to deceive and corrupt men, to turn them against their Creator and lead them to eternal misery. It is fearful to think of our being exposed to conflicts with spirits so malicious and so superior to us. But it is for our advantage; and some day we shall see how much good God has educed from that evil.

II. Almighty Wisdom has balanced all things so justly in the universe that no excess in any force is able to destroy the due order of things. In the spiritual universe also there are laws and limitations, beyond the reach of our investigation, which prevent the terrible power of the devils from destroying us by forcing us to sin. Human liberty is sacred and is amply safeguarded. The Omnipotent Himself will not infringe it, even for His glory and our eternal advantage; still less would He permit us to be overborne against our will, and made the sport of Satan, and hurried, unwilling victims, to destruction. The devils can suggest evil to us, can present error in the guise of truth, and wickedness as beautiful and refined; they may even induce us in sheer ignorance to do that which is, in itself, sinful; but they cannot force us to commit sin in a responsible way. The mind and will are always supreme and free, even when man has weakened their dominion by subjecting himself to habits of sin. For anything that man does without full advertence of the intelligence and full adhesion of the will to evil, there is no sin, no responsibility, no punishment. Thank God for thus securing your liberty against the assaults of your deadly enemies.

III. God counterbalances evil by the forces which He has placed at our disposition, His own presence, our faith, prayer and the command of grace, and the special guardianship of good angels. We have within our grasp the certain means of securing the victory over all the temptations of Satan. If we do our best, however little that be, we secure the omnipotence of God on our side, and our weakness becomes stronger than all the craft and violence of Satan, whether exercised through men or devils. Our first requirement in this struggle is humility; this involves distrust of ourselves and confidence in God. It is necessary also to avoid and fly from the occasions of sin; otherwise our confidence becomes a tempting of God. We must resist the first approaches of temptation, so as to give no foothold to the tempter. Finally, persevering prayer obtains a continual supply of powerful graces. Observing these conditions you may rely absolutely on the promise: “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able; but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. x. 13). Meet temptation courageously and joyfully. It is thus you bear your part in the great conflict of good with evil.

19. The Punishment of the Bad Angels

I. The first and chief punishment of the fallen angels in hell is the pain of loss, the deprivation of God and of all that holds from Him, i.e. of all good.

They have lost the Beatific Vision, the sight of God in all His love and His beauty.

They have lost their position of dignity and the company of the blessed.

Also such supernatural advantages as they had before the trial, including faith, hope and charity.

Although they retain their natural faculties and powers, yet they have lost the natural happiness which springs from employing these in the natural apprehension and service of God; for God is the only object which can satisfy even the natural faculties and elicit all their activity, and He has been utterly rejected and lost.

Thus are these perverted beings deprived by their own choice of every advantage but bare existence and the faculties that belong to their nature. Consider what it is to lose at once all that is good, and for ever.

What a multitude of things you require to make life happy or even endurable: the angels require much more on account of their greater activities and capacities. Think what it is to lose but one of the minor gifts of God, a sense or bodily liberty or health, wife or child, fortune, good-name or employment. Such a loss often makes life unendurable, makes all other goods worthless, drives men to desperation. What will it be to lose everything!

II. The sin of the bad angels further inflicts a direct and most fearful punishment on them. In virtue of the transformation of energy, every cause produces effects adequate to its character. Sin, as the supreme evil, inflicts a supreme injury on the sinner, where it is not, as here, restrained by God’s power. It inflicts evils such as the creations of God’s goodness cannot cause; for every action of God is good and produces only good, excepting such superficial evils as are substantially for the good of His creatures. Thus sin becomes its own avenger and the exact measure of its punishment.

The revolted angels chose sin for their lot, and it worked itself out upon them as soon as its full power was unchained against them by the withdrawal of God whom they rejected. Beware how you admit sin into your heart. It comes under the guise of pleasure or gain or false honour. It seems harmless, for its evil effects are known as yet only by faith. Its activities are half dormant at present, restrained by God, who has not yet withdrawn from you, and they are mitigated by the other gifts of God which you still retain. One false step leads to others. Then death comes; the soul is fixed in the evil it has chosen; all else drops away, and sin stands revealed in all its horror and cruelty as the condition of the soul for eternity.

III. This state of things will never change. It is fixed by the indomitable will of the wicked angels formed with full deliberation. Now that they find themselves stricken and powerless, their pride hardens them still more in their rebellion. They will not yield under punishment to Him whom they defied; their hatred will not transform itself into ecstatic love. They will for ever prefer hell itself with the power of blaspheming the Most Holy, to the delights of intercourse with Him purchased only by humility and submission.

“The pride of them that hate Thee ascendeth continually” (Ps. lxxiii. 23).

This is the most terrible effect of sin. It so transforms the mind and will as to make them impervious to the light of truth and warmth of God’s love.

The merciful calls to repentance and offers of pardon become an unendurable irritation, and only move the sinner to greater hostility towards infinite holiness. Still less do the horrible consequences of their sin excite tenderness and contrition: on the contrary “they gnawed their tongues for pain: and they blasphemed the God of heaven for their pains and wounds, and did not penance for their works” (Apoc. xv. 10, 11). This is the only obstacle to the forgiveness of sins; this turns the transitory act into an eternal sin. 

18, The Award of The Judge

 

   

I. When the trial and conflict of the angels was over, a separation of good and bad took place. “The great dragon was cast out, the old serpent . . . and his angels were thrown down with him” (Apoc. xii. 9). The good angels were confirmed in grace and in the possession of heaven. This involves a summing up of results and a judicial award, a preliminary general judgment of the supramundane universe. In all that was essential, the angels had worked out their destiny and made their final choice for once and all. Our Lord implies this judgment where He says, “the prince of this world is already judged” (John xvi. 11). The conflict is still being continued, but in this lower sphere. When that is complete, the final summing up and judgment of all will take place; and in this the angels will be included, according to the Apostle: “The angels who kept not their principality . . . He hath reserved under darkness in everlasting chains unto the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6). That will be the day of the great victory of God. It will be the manifestation of His justice and mercy, the revelation of the hidden ways of His providence, the justification of His dealings with men and angels. Then will you, if among the blessed, rejoice, that, having trusted in the Lord, He has delivered you. Let the thought of that day make you patient in the obscurities and difficulties of this life.

II. From the moment of their creation, the angels had possessed natural beatitude, consisting in the exercise of their natural powers and faculties upon God as their object. To this God had added, as in the case of Adam and Eve, a certain supernatural grace and divine indwelling in them, which was accompanied by a clearer revelation and knowledge of Himself. The good angels, having proved their fidelity, and passed through the difficulties of the conflict with evil, were admitted by God to the fulness of their reward, to the sight of the Beatific Vision, and to the state of confirmation in grace for ever. From what Our Lord has revealed to us concerning the future general judgment of the world, we may picture to ourselves that first judgment in heaven. The Eternal Father would have rehearsed the services of the spirits found faithful, comforted them for the troubles they had undergone, commended their virtues, invited them to take possession of their kingdom. What overwhelming joy for those blessed spirits! What surprise at the unmerited abundance of their reward! You are now enduring their experiences of trial and conflict. Be patient and persevere, and you will enjoy their experiences of judgment and glory.

III. At the same time God exercised His justice by awarding to the traitor angels the lot that they had deliberately chosen for themselves. They had sought for self without God; He leaves them to themselves without any portion of the Supreme Good, which is Himself. They had rejected and scorned His love, and bounty, and indwelling presence; He of necessity withdraws these, and leaves His irreconcilable foes to their own pride, perversity, blasphemy, falsehood, unsatisfied desire, frustrated spite, hatred of goodness and virtue. “And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world; and he was cast to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ, because the accuser of our brethren is cast forth” (Apoc. xii. 9, 10). Thus was evil overthrown once in its conflict with good. So it will be again, and its next overthrow will be final. Do not be discouraged at the temporary pre-eminence of evil. Right and Truth are stronger and must prevail.

 

17. Speculations on The Sin of The Angels

I. It is generally taken for granted that pride was the sin of the angels. It is a sin of the intellect; it is one that accommodates itself to the strongest natures as well as to the meanest; high virtue, and position, and excellence are a direct incentive to it; it seems to disorganize the relation of the creature to its Creator more directly than any other sin. But as to the particular form which pride took in the angels there is much speculation. Some have supposed that it was spiritual luxury, or unbridled delight in themselves, their talents, their dignity, their beauty, without subordination to God.This accords with the Scripture: “Thy heart was lifted up with thy beauty; thou hast lost thy wisdom in thy beauty” (Ez. xxviii. 17). They would thus be seekers of themselves and their private advantage and pleasure, and not of the glory of God. They would make self the aim of their existence, putting it up as a kind of god in the place of the Supreme Goodness which ought to be the object of all created action, love and service. This form of sin is very prevalent in our experience. Men delight in any excellence, natural or inherited, which they possess, and turn God’s gift into a source of continual offence against Him and men. They give themselves full credit for it, and never refer it to its giver or use it for His glory. They worship themselves by reason of it and not God.

II. There is another form of pride which affects a different class of minds amongst men. It is a spirit of self-sufficiency and independence, an impatience of all authority and restraint, an attitude of defiance and revolt. This was one of the offences of Israel against the Lord: “Thou hast broken My yoke, thou hast burst My bands, and thou saidst I will not serve” (Jer. ii. 20). This sin is common on earth, and is supposed by some to have been the sin of Satan and his angels. In the earlier stages of this form of pride among us, there is not professedly any revolt against God, only against His authority as delegated to others; there is a disinclination to recognize any manifestation of divine truth or law except one’s own reason and conscience, or rather, one’s own prejudices and whims. The development of this spirit quickly leads to restiveness under the sense of God’s overruling authority, angry criticism of the dispositions of His Providence, and finally a positive hatred of God on account of His tranquil supremacy which even men’s blasphemies cannot perturb. God continually commands you to be lowly-minded, to bow your neck to the yoke, to submit to authority, to make yourself the servant of all. If you do this you are His.

III. It is very generally supposed that the satanic revolt was connected with the revelation of the Incarnation of the Son of God. He is first-born of all beings; all creatures are produced through Him; in His name all are required to adore on earth, in heaven or in hell; and there is no other name in which salvation is bestowed. As this is true of all beings as well as man, it is thought that the mystery of the Incarnation may have been revealed to the angels, as the efficient cause of the glory they were to receive; and that they were required to pay homage to the Second Divine Person in His human nature; and that they refused to humble themselves to the Godhead when united to a nature inferior to their own. This view harmonizes with the words of Our Lord where He speaks of the hatred of Satan as being anterior to His human existence, and identical with that of His Jewish enemies: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth” (John viii. 44). Humble yourself before Jesus. Confess Him and glorify Him in the Gospel history, in the Church, in the Most Holy Sacrament. Under these three manifestations the Incarnation is at this day the great object of Satan’s hatred, and of the attacks of fallen spirits angelic and human. 

16. The Sin of The Angels

 

 

I. It may reasonably be supposed that every hierarchy and choir furnished its contingent to the host of the revolted angels. In every condition of life some are found unfaithful. Past supernatural graces and the delights of God’s friendship are no assurance against a fall. Higher endowments are no preservative, for these are accompanied by greater temptations and more numerous opportunities of sin. Even the cedars of Lebanon have fallen; and those who have eaten the bread of angels have come to lust after the husks of swine. As Lucifer failed, the highest of the Seraphim, the nearest to the throne, the most like unto God, we cannot suppose that any other class was exempt from the dangers that accompany free-will. As Lucifer was the noblest of the blessed spirits, so his sin was the greatest. He had a clearer vision of what he was doing; his powerful will adhered more obstinately to evil; at the same time he owed a deeper debt of gratitude to Him who had made him so great; and the splendour of his natural endowments gave greater encouragement and vigour, and dignity even (we may say), to the cause of evil. How sad to see the destruction of great possibilities of good, and the failure of great promise of happiness! How sad the rejection of God’s best gifts, the frustration of His loving designs! How horrible that His mercy should meet with such a return of hostility and hatred! Yet it is of daily occurrence. You may yet come to this; strive and pray that you may not.

II. What was the sin of the angels? We have no definite information as to details. From Holy Scripture and from our experience of human life we may gather data which afford considerable presumption as to the general character of that sin. It would not have been possible for the angels to fall into those sins which are associated with material conditions, such as carnal lusts, the thirst for gold, or physical brutality, which form so large a part of human transgressions. Their sin would necessarily have been one of the spiritual faculties, the intellect and the will. Such sins would be of less degrading character than ours, but yet of greater guilt, as being offences committed with higher faculties, and with fuller deliberation and knowledge, malice and obstinacy. They may have been transgressions of duties and virtues known to us, or something in kind and degree beyond our comprehension. The civilized man can commit more kinds of crime than the savage; and the sin of the clever cultured man, while less crude and shocking, is more injurious and more full of guile than that of the boor. So the angels with their wider universe, higher duties, finer talents, had opportunities of sin beyond what any man can have. How miserable it is to be subject to so many dangers of sin, and to find them more abundantly even in the gifts of God’s mercy! Long for the day of your release.

III. Considering the sin of the angels apart from details, we may safely describe it in general terms as a choice of self instead of God, of independence instead of submission, of their natural conditions, endowments, and satisfactions, instead of those which were attached to the higher, the divine, the supernatural life. This, taking it a little more specifically, may be called the equivalent of a sin of pride; and as such the sin of the angels is usually described by Holy Scripture and by the general consent of the Church. Thus, it is written of the enemy, the emblem of Satan, “He beholdeth every high thing, he is king over all the children of pride” (Job xli. 25). Pride manifests itself under many different forms, and varies in each individual. In the angels it would have the effect, as soon as it was entertained, of destroying at once all that was divine, virtuous and good, and producing an outburst of every kind of deordination and sin. Still we may say, generally speaking, that all the unfaithful angels united in one revolt under their leader against God. Pride is the destruction of all virtue; it is an abomination before God. It attacks all, and its work is secret, swift and fatal. Guard carefully against it.

15. The Trial and Conflict of the Angels

 

 

I. All beings aspire to act according to the full capacity of their nature. The service of free beings must be free: i.e., the choice must be given to them to serve or not to serve; in other words, a trial or test is necessary. Further, the sight and possession of God with its infinite delights is not the proper due of angels or men. It has pleased the All-wise to offer this transcendent gift as a reward to be earned by fidelity under trial. As to men, so also to the angels, a period of probation was appointed, in which they could exercise their liberty of choice and make themselves worthy of God. How long it lasted we cannot know. It may have been as long as that of the human race, or it may have been instantaneous. There was no need for a lengthy trial; in the angelic nature there is no struggle between heterogeneous components, no clouding of mind by matter; the intelligence is prompt and clear, the will is precise and unwavering. With the angels there was no perturbing influence, no inheritance of perversity to be allowed for, such as make the sins and errors of men more excusable and pardonable. They could grasp at once all the aspects of the question; they could have no need of reconsideration; there was no room in them for repentance. The substantial fact remains that they were needs tested as we are. To them was applied the “golden reed” or scale, “the measure of a man which is of an angel” (Apoc. xxi. 17), the option between the life of mere nature independent of God, or submission to God with supernatural life. Your whole life on earth is arranged simply for the solution of this question. Every act of yours contributes towards it.

II. The dragon’s “tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth” (Apoc. xii. 4); for there were many “angels who kept not their principality but forsook their own habitation” (Jude 6); asserting the power of their free-will even to their own destruction. The greatest of all, Lucifer, the bearer of light, was their leader. His splendid endowments filled him with pride, and fascinated his followers, who took him at his own estimate, and were ready to serve him as their natural good instead of the supreme supernatural Good. The other two thirds, in the full exercise of their freedom, elected to be faithful to their Benefactor and their Love. Learn hence that a good commencement is not all, but perseverance is necessary. Observe that the highest natural endowments are no security for moral rectitude and spiritual insight. “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the learned, nor favour to the skilful” (Eccles. ix. 11). Tremble for yourself, pray, and hope.

III. “There was a great battle in heaven” (Apoc. xii. 7). Such is the universal law of life. From the freedom of the creature proceeds a force opposed to truth and goodness. The two opponents are incompatible and mutually destructive; their activities, being proportioned to their nature, necessarily result in conflict à outrance (death to the very end). There is no such thing as compromise, as fellowship, between light and darkness; the only two alternatives are eternal separation or the destruction of one of the terms. The conflict in heaven may have been very long. It would appear that God did not intervene to check natural activities, but allowed them full scope for good or evil, till at last good by its innate divine force prevailed over evil (Apoc. xii. 8). This struggle must have been gigantic and fearful, carried on as it was between forces full of such immense energies; it was the first engagement of the great war in which we are now involved. It is not sufficient for you to choose good and do it quietly; you must further fight the good fight for it. Because of this many fail. They would willingly be virtuous if there were no temptation; faithful, if the price of treason were not so attractive. Trust in the force of Right and Truth, and in their ultimate victory: but remember that the victory depends on your exertions and will cost dearly.

 

 

14. The Third Hierarchy

The spirits of the third hierarchy are considered as entrusted by God with what we may call executive powers. They act upon the external world more directly than the other orders, and, as we gather from Holy Scripture, act as guides, directors, messengers, in carrying out the divine decrees regarding this world. The first of these three choirs is that of the Principalities. We assign to this class such spirits as the one whom the Prophet Daniel calls the “Prince of the Kingdom of the Persians.” These are the angels who have the guardianship of kingdoms and peoples; and they are endowed accordingly with wisdom, force, and authority for that purpose. When men are entrusted with preeminence under God, they too frequently employ it for their own private advantage; they forget that they are the servants of God and the people, and place their interests above the claims of morality and religion; they exalt themselves as if there were no God above them, and enforce their will as if there were no hereafter. On the other hand the characteristic of the celestial Principalities is the purity of intention with which they use their powers, seeking not themselves, but the glory of God and the utility of His creatures. Take care to employ with similar conscientiousness and unselfishness whatever preeminence you have received from God over others.

The Archangels are described by one of them, Raphael, as “the seven who stand before the Lord” (Job xii. 18). They appear to be the immediate chiefs of the last order of heavenly spirits, to be entrusted with the more important missions to men, and to be possessed of a more abundant grace, and splendour, and power. We learn from Holy Writ that the Archangel Michael was the leader of the hosts of heaven in the primeval contest between good and evil, when Satan and his followers revolted against their Maker and were cast out from His presence (Apoc. xii. 7). Daniel calls him “the great Prince who standeth for the children of the people” (Dan. xii. 1). He was the protector of the Church of the Old Testament, and now of its successor the Church Catholic. The Archangel Raphael was sent to Tobias in order to exemplify the great doctrine of the angels being the instruments of God’s Providence towards men. The Archangel Gabriel was entrusted with the messages from God to those concerned with the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity. Pay due homage to those great spirits. Glorify God on account of them. Implore their powerful assistance.

The Angels, in the specialized sense of the word, are the lowest of the nine choirs of blessed spirits; to all of whom, however, the name is applied in a general sense. These are the ordinary messengers of God, so often mentioned in the Old and New Testaments; and to them is committed the guardianship of individual men. They are “all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation” (Heb. i. 14). Although they are the lowest of the celestial spirits and inferior to many others in their endowments, yet they far surpass in intelligence, and holiness, and power, and beauty, all that we can conceive; so that those to whom they appeared sometimes thought they had seen the Divinity Itself (Judg. xiii. 22). The virtues that most strike us in them are their humility in undertaking lowly tasks, such as the guardianship of vile beings so inferior to themselves; their contentment with such duties; their devotion towards their Master, which makes them feel that nothing done for His sake can be ignoble; and the perfection and exactness with which they carry out His smallest commands. How pleasing to God is such service, and how glorious. Endeavour to serve Him in the same spirit.

13. The Second Hierarchy

 

The three choirs of the second hierarchy are, according to St. Dionysius, associated with the external rule of God over creatures. The Dominations are the first of these. They represent the universal sovereignty of the Creator over all things; they manifest that perfection, assert it, and promote it. The petition of the Our Father, “Thy kingdom come,” expresses the object of their existence. The special virtues of these angels are, therefore, profound adoration towards the majesty of God, zeal for the maintenance of His authority, hostility to all those numerous forms of usurpation by which the devil, or the world, or the flesh, thrust themselves into the place of God as supreme objects of human homage and service. You require the spirit of these holy Dominations in yourself, and their aid in your work for God. A contest is always in progress between the two standards of Christ and Satan. A large portion of mankind have adopted, more or less consciously, the spirit of him who said “I will not serve,” and have cast off the yoke which is sweet and the burden which is light. The honourable service of God is the only true liberty. Those who cast it off only change masters, and they become the bond-slaves of evil, of misery, and of Satan. As far as you can, promote the reign of God in yourself and others.

The second choir is that of the Virtues. The meaning of the word in this connexion is rather that of Scripture than of common parlance. It does not mean moral excellences such as patience, faith, etc., but the strength, energy and overwhelming force of God. So the frequent expression of the Psalms “Dominus Deus Virtutum” is rendered “the Lord God of Hosts.” In the New Testament we read, “the power (virtus) of the Lord was to heal them” (Luke v. 17). The function of these spirits is to represent that perfection of God which “reacheth from end to end mightily” (Wisd. viii. 1), and compels all things to His will. This is that power of God which produces miraculous effects in the realms of matter and of mind. It may well be supposed that God entrusts to this choir of spirits the execution of His great works of power, and the duty of aiding others who are so engaged. The moral virtue that corresponds is Fortitude; it is the quality of Apostles and Martyrs, of mighty workers and sufferers. You need the aid of this blessed choir; you are so subject to weakness, discouragement, cowardice. “The scourge is come upon thee and thou faintest, it hath touched thee and thou art troubled. Where is thy fear, thy fortitude, thy patience, and the perfection of thy ways?” (Job iv. 5, 6). Only in the power of thy God.

The Powers represent that second aspect of the might of the Lord by which “He ordereth all things sweetly” (Wisd. viii. 1). This is a force in which there is no feverish exertion or abusive excess of power. The peculiarity of this choir is expressed in the Beatitude: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land” (Matt. v. 4). It is exhibited notably in the Church, which is always oppressed and always victorious; which does not take the sword of the flesh for her defence, and therefore cannot perish by the sword; and which finds that the blood of her martyrs is the seed of abounding harvests. In accordance with this, when the power of the Almighty was manifested to Elias, it was not in the great strong wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, “but in the sound of gentle stillness” (3 Kings xix. 12 Hebr.). To these angels is also attributed a special power against Satan and his hosts. Do not attach too much importance to mere natural vigour of character, to a restless animal activity, to excitement and enthusiasm in good works. Quiet effort united with prayer is the most efficient and lasting force. 

12. The First Hierarchy

  

I. An ancient work formerly attributed to St. Denis the Areopagite sums up the ancient Jewish and Christian traditions concerning the different orders of the angels and the characteristics of each. The author gathers from Holy Writ, and principally from St. Paul’s Epistles, the names of nine choirs, and arranges them in three greater divisions or hierarchies according to their dignity. The first hierarchy comprises those spirits who are devoted to the immediate service of God, and stand, comparatively speaking, within the veil. The highest of the three choirs is that of the Seraphim. Their characteristic is the intense and burning love which they render to Him who is the source of all love, and is Himself infinite Love. They are the created representation of that high divine perfection; and in that consists their service and glorification of God. This keeps them for ever in the adorable Presence, worshiping, and crying one to another, “Holy! Holy! Holy! the Lord God of Hosts” (Isa. vi. 3). The love of God is the final service of Him, the most worthy of Him, the most perfect offering of yourself to Him. It is the completion and crown of the other departments of our service, and at the same time is the summary of them all. God sums up all His perfections for us in His love; and He desires above all things our love in return. Join yourself with the Seraphim, and ask them to bring a burning coal from the celestial altar to enkindle your frozen heart.

II. The Cherubim are the second choir. God is the sole object of their service, and they too stand for ever round His throne. We attribute to them a deep knowledge and science of God; it is accompanied indeed by an intense love, but this is subsidiary to the activity of their intelligence. Their characteristic is to reflect the infinite wisdom, to be representatives of the action of the divine intellect, to glorify it thereby, and to praise it. On account of their all-penetrating vision of the Divine Essence, they are represented by the prophet as being full of eyes, their bodies, and their necks, and their hands, and their wings (Ez. x. 12). They see and understand the beauty of God, and are the means of communicating this knowledge to the inferior choirs of the blessed spirits. The knowledge of God is perfect justice (Wisd. xv. 3). It is a great and lofty service of Him to think of His presence, meditate on His attributes, and seek out in His works the evidences of His power, and wisdom, and love. No science on earth is so wonderful, so beautiful, so satisfying to the soul. Value it beyond all.

III. The third choir in the hierarchy that immediately surrounds the majesty of God is that of the Thrones. God is a spirit, universally present, not limited to any spot; His throne, His presence chamber, His courts, can only be spoken of in a figurative way; we speak of such things to indicate, not really to describe, that which is ineffable. By the Thrones we mean a choir of spirits upon whom the divine Majesty, in some spiritual sense, rests and reposes. Isaias speaks of the throne of God being high and elevated, and of the temple being filled by those which were beneath Him (Isa. vi. 1, Vulgate). The virtue attributed to these spirits is a profound submission by which they recognize the supreme authority of God and exhibit it to others. Amongst men the throne of an earthly monarch is the symbol of his authority and even of his person, and itself receives honour on account of him whom it represents. You may become like to these spiritual Thrones by your submission to the will and pleasure of God, as made known either in Him or in His representatives. God will then rest and repose upon that throne with glory to Himself and with honour to you. Humble yourself thus, and He will make you truly great.