ANGELS AND SPIRITS.
Boast not your lightning wires to bear the news,
Such tardy means the Saints would never choose;
Too slow your fluid, and too short your wires
For heavenly converse, such as love inspires.
If man would fain commune with worlds above,
Angels transport the news on wings of love.
"_Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for
them who shall be heirs of salvation?_" Heb. i. 14.
Angels are of the same race as men. They are, in fact, men who have
passed from the rudimental state to the higher spheres of progressive
being. They have died and risen again to life, and are consequently
possessed of a divine, human body of flesh and bones, immortal and
eternal. They eat, drink, sing and converse like other men. Some of
them hold the keys of Apostleship and Priesthood, by which they teach,
instruct, bless, and perform miracles and many mighty works.
Translated men, like Enoch, Elijah, John the Apostle, and three of the
Apostles of the Western Hemisphere, are also like the angels.
Angels are ministers, both to men upon the earth, and to the world of
spirits. They pass from one world to another with more ease, and in
less time than we pass from one city to another. They have not a
single attribute which man has not. But their attributes are more
matured, or more developed, than the attributes of men in this present
sphere of existence.
Whenever the keys of Priesthood, or, in other words, the keys of the
science of Theology, are enjoyed by man on the earth, the people thus
privileged, are entitled to the ministering of angels, whose business
with men on the earth, is to restore the keys of the Apostleship, when
lost; to ordain men to the Apostleship, when there has been no
Apostolic succession; to commit the keys of a new dispensation; to
reveal the mysteries of history; the facts of present or past times;
and to unfold the events of a future time. They are, sometimes,
commissioned also to execute judgments upon individuals, cities or
nations. They can be present in their glory, or, they can come in the
form and appearance of other men. They can also be present without
being visible to mortals.
When they come as other men, they will perhaps eat and drink, and wash
their feet; and lodge with their friends. Hence, it is written--"_Be
not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have
entertained angels unawares_."
Their business is, also, to comfort and instruct individual members of
the Church of the Saints; to heal them by the laying on of hands in
the name of Jesus Christ, or to tell them what means to use in order
to get well; to teach them good things, to sing them a good song, to
warn them of approaching danger, or, to deliver them from prison, or
from death.
These blessings have always been enjoyed by the people, or Church of
the Saints, whenever such Church has existed on our planet. They are
not peculiar to one dispensation more than another.
They were busy in the Patriarchal dispensation, in the Mosaic, and in
the Gospel dispensations. They delivered Lot and destroyed Sodom.
They were busy with Moses and the Prophets. They foretold to Zechariah
the birth of John. They predicted to Mary her conception, and the
birth of Jesus Christ. They informed Joseph, her husband, of her
situation. They announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds of
Judea, and sang an anthem of peace on earth and good will to man, to
hail him welcome. They attended on his footsteps, in all his sojourn
on the earth. In fact, an angel was the instrument to open the gloomy
prison of the sepulchre, and to call forth the sleeping body of the
Messiah, the first to exclaim, "He is not here, but is risen." Two
angels in white raiment, were the first to announce his second advent,
while he ascended up in the presence of his disciples. Thus, being
delivered from the personal attendance on their Master on the earth,
they turned their attention to the Apostles, opened the way for their
ministry among Jew and Gentile, delivering them from prison and from
danger, and revealing the mysteries which God saw fit to make known to
the Saints of that age. And when all the other Apostles had fallen
asleep, and the Apostle John had been banished, to dig in the coal
mines of the lone isle of Patmos, they still were faithful to their
charge. They followed him there, and there unfolded to him the events
of all ages and generations.
The darkness of the middle ages; the corruptions of Anti-Christ, under
the name of Christianity; the rivers of blood, and the oceans of
tears, which would flow during eighteen centuries of error; the mighty
angel who should again commit the Gospel to the earth, for every
nation, kindred, tongue, and people; the judgments of God, in the
downfall of error and mystery; the restitution or restoration of the
Church of the Saints; their final triumph and dominion over the earth;
the descent of Jesus Christ to reign over all kingdoms; the
resurrection of the Saints, and their reign over the earth; the end of
death, and sorrow, and tears, and weeping; were all, _all_ foretold by
the angel to the last of the Twelve.
Again, in the present age, have angels restored the Gospel. Again have
they committed the keys of Apostleship. Again have they opened some of
the events of the past, present, and future.
Again have they attended upon the footsteps of Apostles, Prophets, and
holy Martyrs, from the cradle to the grave. Again have they aided in
the ministry, and assisted to deliver from prisons, and from
persecutions and death, the Saints of the Most High. And again are
they about to execute vengeance on great and notable cities and
nations of the earth.
O what an unspeakable blessing is the ministry of angels to mortal
man! What a pleasing thought, that many who minister to us, and watch
over us, are our near kindred--our fathers who have died and risen
again in former ages, and who watch over their descendants with all
the parental care and solicitude which characterize affectionate
fathers and mothers on the earth.
Thrice happy are they who have lawful claim on their guardianship, and
whose conduct does not grieve them, and constrain them to depart from
their precious charge.
SPIRITS are those who have departed this life, and have not yet been
raised from the dead.
These are of two kinds, viz.--Good and evil.
These two kinds also include many grades of good and evil.
The good spirits, in the superlative sense of the word, are they who,
in this life, partook of the Holy Priesthood, and of the fulness of
the Gospel.
This class of spirits minister to the heirs of salvation, both in this
world and in the world of spirits. They can appear unto men, when
permitted; but not having a fleshly tabernacle, they cannot hide their
glory. Hence, an unembodied spirit, if it be a holy personage, will be
surrounded with a halo of resplendent glory, or brightness, above the
brightness of the sun.
Whereas, spirits not worthy to be glorified will appear without this
brilliant halo; and, although they often attempt to pass as angels of
light, there is more or less of darkness about them.
Many spirits of the departed, who are unhappy, linger in lonely
wretchedness about the earth, and in the air, and especially about
their ancient homesteads, and the places rendered dear to them by the
memory of former scenes. The more wicked of these are the kind spoken
of in Scripture, as "_foul spirits_," "_unclean spirits_," spirits who
afflict persons in the flesh, and engender various diseases in the
human system. They will sometimes enter human bodies, and will
distract them, throw them into fits, cast them into the water, into
the fire, &c. They will trouble them with dreams, nightmare,
hysterics, fever, &c. They will also deform them in body and in
features, by convulsions, cramps, contortions, &c., and will sometimes
compel them to utter blasphemies, horrible curses, and even words of
other languages. If permitted, they will often cause death. Some of
these spirits are adulterous, and suggest to the mind all manner of
lasciviousness, all kinds of evil thoughts and temptations.
A person, on looking another in the eye, who is possessed of an evil
spirit, will feel a shock--a nervous feeling, which will, as it were,
make his hair stand on end; in short, a shock resembling that produced
in a nervous system by the sight of a serpent.
Some of these foul spirits, when possessing a person, will cause a
disagreeable smell about the person thus possessed, which will be
plainly manifest to the senses of those about him, even though the
person thus afflicted should be washed and change his clothes every
few minutes.
There are, in fact, most awful instances of the spirit of lust, and of
bawdy and abominable words and actions, inspired and uttered by
persons possessed of such spirits, even though the persons were
virtuous and modest so long as they possessed their own agency.
Some of these spirits cause deafness, others dumbness, &c.
We can suggest no remedy for these multiplied evils, to which poor
human nature is subject, except a good life, while we are in
possession of our faculties, prayers and fastings of good and holy
men, and the ministry of those who have power given them to rebuke
evil spirits, and cast out devils, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Among the diversified spirits abroad in the world here are many
religious spirits, which are not of God, but which deceive those who
have not the keys of Apostleship and Priesthood, or, in other words,
the keys of the science of Theology to guide them. Some of these
spirits are manifested in the camp-meetings of certain sects, and in
nearly all the excitements and confusions in religious meetings
falsely called "_revivals_." All the strange extacies, swoonings,
screamings, shoutings, dancings, jumpings, and a thousand other
ridiculous and unseemly manifestations, which neither edify nor
instruct, are the fruits of these deceptive spirits.
We must, however, pity, rather than ridicule, or despise, the subjects
or advocates of these deceptions. Many of them are honest, but they
have no Apostles, nor other officers, nor gifts to detect evil, or to
keep them from being led by every delusive spirit.
Real visions, or inspirations which _would_ edify and instruct, they
are taught to deny. Should Peter or Paul, or an angel from heaven,
come among them, they would denounce him as an impostor, with the
assertion that Apostles and angels were no longer needed.
There is still another class of unholy spirits at work in the
world--spirits diverse from all these, far more intelligent, and, if
possible, still more dangerous. These are, the spirit of divination,
vision, foretelling, familiar spirits, "Animal Magnetism,"
"Mesmerism," &c., which reveal many and great truths mixed with the
greatest errors, and also display much intelligence, but have not the
keys of the science of Theology--the Holy Priesthood.
These spirits, generally, deny the divinity of Christ, and the great
truths of the atonement, and of the resurrection of the body. Of such
are the Shakers of the United States, and their revelations. They deny
the resurrection of the body. From this source are the revelations of
Emmanuel Swedenborg, which also deny the resurrection. From this
source, also, are the revelations of Andrew Jackson Davis, of
Poughkeepsie, New York, which deny the resurrection and the atonement.
From this source are all the revelations which deny the ordinances of
the Gospel, and the keys and gifts of the Holy Apostleship.
Last of all, these are they who climb up in some other way, besides
the door, into the sheepfold; and who prophesy or work in their own
name, and not in the name of Jesus Christ.
No man can do a miracle in the name and by the authority of Jesus
Christ, except he be a good man, and authorized by him.