. God's Angels, J.R. Miller, Daily
Bible Readings in the Life of Christ, 1890. And when Zechariah
saw the angel, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. Luke
1.12. Yet the angel had come on an
errand of love. He had come to announce to Zacharias
tidings which would fill his heart with great joy. It is often
so. All through the Bible, we find
that people were afraid of God's angels, their very glory startled
and terrified those to whom they appeared. It is oft times the
same with us. When God's messengers come to
us on errands of grace and peace, we are terrified as if they were
the messengers of wrath. Angels do not appear to us in
these days in their heavenly garb. Yet they come no less really
and no less frequently than in the Bible days, but they wear
other and various forms. Sometimes they appear in robes
of gladness and light, but oft times they come in dark garments. Yet our faith in our Father's
love should make us confident that every messenger that He
sends to us, whatever the garb, brings something good to us.
The things which we call trials and adversities are really God's
angels, though they seem terrible to us. If we will only quiet
our hearts and wait, we shall find that they are messengers
from heaven, and they have brought blessings to us from God. They
have come to tell us of some new joy that is to be granted,
some spiritual joy, perhaps, to be born of earthly sorrow,
some strange and sweet surprise of love which is waiting for
us. We need to learn to trust God
so perfectly that no messenger He ever sends shall alarm us.