Revelation 7:1-8 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth… I. GOD EMPLOYS THE HIGHEST ORDER OF CELESTIAL INTELLIGENCES IN THE CONDUCT OF HIS GOVERNMENT. Nowhere throughout immensity does He appear to act directly on matter and mind at all (Hosea 2:21, 22). The mere scientist accounts for the various objects and phenomena of the material world by what he calls blind forces or natural laws; I prefer ascribing all under God to the "angels standing on the four corners," etc. A wonderful view of the universe, truly, we have here. True, a telescope opens to my vision world upon world and system upon system, until imagination reels at the prospect, and my spirit seems crushed with a sense of its own insignificance; but in these words I have a telescope by which I see the wide fields of air, the rolling planets, the minute and the vast, the proximate and the remote peopled and working, reaching in regular gradation from my little being up to the ineffable throne, and all under God. II. GOD, IN EMPLOYING THESE AGENCIES, ENJOINS ON THEM A SPECIAL REGARD FOR THE INTERESTS OF REDEEMED MEN IN THE WORLD (vers. 2, 3). 1. There is some method by which angels can aid man. 2. Man's salvation is of paramount importance. 3. Service to the lowest is consonant with the highest greatness. 4. Man's obligation is to seek the spiritual good of his fellows. (D. Thomas, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. |
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