526
The Great Controversy
In all ages, God has wrought through holy angels for the succor and
deliverance of His people. Celestial beings have taken an active part in
the affairs of men. They have appeared clothed in garments that shone
as the lightning; they have come as men in the garb 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 at 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
[632]
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.”
Psalm 34:7
.
With earnest longing, God’s people await the tokens of their com-
ing King. As the watchmen are accosted, “What of the night?” the
answer is given unfalteringly, “‘The morning cometh, and also the
night.’
Isaiah 21:11, 12
. Light is gleaming upon the clouds above the
mountaintops. Soon there will be a revealing of His glory. The Sun of
Righteousness is about to shine forth. The morning and the night are