The Ministry of Angels. the Separate State. the Book of Esther

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1859 Excerpt: ... that they may be preserved through the fires of the closing period of the age. (Comp. ix. 4.) Thus, while some angels receive a commission to hurt the earth and the sea (vii. 2), this one provides that those whom God has determined to preserve shall be unharmed in the midst of the judgments, which to them may be purifying indeed, but will not be consuming. Just previously to the sounding of the seven trumpets (viii. 2), John beheld an angel engaged in a priestly ministration at the golden altar in heaven. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a censer of gold; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should put (it) to the prayers of all saints upon the altar of gold which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense went up with the prayers of the saints out of the angel's hand before God. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast (it) into the earth: and there were thunderings, and lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake.' (ver. 3-5.) The time is at hand for the execution of the terrible judgments of God on the world; silent preparations for them are made in heaven (ver. 1, 2); and it seems that the prayers of the saints on earth are the immediate cause of the inflictions that follow each successive blast of the trumpets. The incense of course indicates the value of Christ's mediation, the sanction of his name added to their prayers. The censer filled with fire which was then cast to the earth, is symbolic of the holiness of God brought into direct collision with the earth and its inhabitants, the terrible results of which appear in the following parts of the book; and the thunders, lightnings, voices, and earthquakes, are premonitory of what is at hand. The circumstance of an ang...