ose who shall be heirs
of salvation?" It is said of little children, that "their angels do
always behold the face of our Father which is in heaven." This last
passage, from the words of our Savior, taken in connection with the
well-known tradition of his time, fully recognizes the idea of
individual guardian spirits; for God's government over mind is, it
seems, throughout, one of intermediate agencies, and these not chosen at
random, but with the nicest reference to their adaptation to the purpose
intended. Not even the All-seeing, All-knowing One was deemed perfectly
adapted to become a human Savior without a human experience. Knowledge
intuitive, gained from above, of human wants and woes was not enough--to
it must be added the home-born certainty of consciousness and memory;
the Head of all mediation must become human. Is it likely, then, that,
in selecting subordinate agencies, this so necessary a requisite of a
human life and experience is overlooked? While around the throne of God
stand spirits, now sainted and glorified, yet thrillingly conscious of a
past experience of sin and sorrow, and trembling in sympathy with
temptations and struggles like their own, is it likely that he would
pass by these souls, thus burning for the work, and commit it to those
bright abstract beings whose knowledge and experience are comparatively
so distant and so cold?

It is strongly in confirmation of this idea, that in the transfiguration
scene--which seems to have been intended purposely to give the disciples
a glimpse of the glorified state of their Master--we find him attended
by two spirits of earth, Moses and Elias, "which appeared with him in
glory, and spake of his death which he should accomplish at Jerusalem."
It appears that these so long departed ones were still mingling in deep
sympathy with the tide of human affairs--not only aware of the present,
but also informed as to the future. In coincidence with this idea are
all those passages which speak of the redeemed of earth as being closely
and indissolubly identified with Christ, members of his body, of his
flesh and his bones. It is not to be supposed that those united to Jesus
above all others by so vivid a sympathy and community of interests are
left out as instruments in that great work of human regeneration which
so engrosses him; and when we hear Christians spoken of as kings and
priests unto God, as those who shall judge angels, we see it more than
intimated that