arb of wayfarers. Angels
have appeared in human form to men of God. They have rested, as if weary,
under the oaks at noon. They have accepted the hospitalities of human
homes. They have acted as guides to benighted travelers. They have, with
their own hands, kindled the fires of the altar. They have opened prison
doors, and set free the servants of the Lord. Clothed with the panoply of
heaven, they came to roll away the stone from the Saviour's tomb.

In the form of men, angels are often in the assemblies of the righteous,
and they visit the assemblies of the wicked, as they went to Sodom, to
make a record of their deeds, to determine whether they have passed the
boundary of God's forbearance. The Lord delights in mercy; and for the
sake of a few who really serve Him, He restrains calamities, and prolongs
the tranquillity of multitudes. Little do sinners against God realize that
they are indebted for their own lives to the faithful few whom they
delight to ridicule and oppress.

Though the rulers of this world know it not, yet often in their councils
angels have been spokesmen. Human eyes have looked upon them; human ears
have listened to their appeals; human lips have opposed their suggestions
and ridiculed their counsels; human hands have met them with insult and
abuse. In the council hall and the court of justice, these heavenly
messengers have shown an intimate acquaintance with human history; they
have proved themselves better able to plead the cause of the oppressed
than were their ablest and most eloquent defenders. They have defeated
purposes and arrested evils that would have greatly retarded the work of
God, and would have caused great suffering to His people. In the hour of
peril and distress, "the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that
fear Him, and delivereth them."(1084)

With earnest longing, God's people await the tokens of their coming King.
As the watchmen are accosted, "What of the night?" the answer is given
unfalteringly, " 'The morning cometh, and also the night.'(1085) Light is
gleaming upon the clouds above the mountain tops. Soon there will be a
revealing of His glory. The Sun of Righteousness is about to shine forth.
The morning and the night are both at hand,--the opening of endless day to
the righteous, the settling down of eternal night to the wicked."

As the wrestling ones urge their petitions before God, the veil separating
them from the unseen seems almost withdrawn. The hea