and he makes a great point of his wings:

Crashaw in his
Lady," says

two sharp winged sheares

Decked with diverse plumes like painted jayes,
Were fixed at his back to cut his ayery wayes.

poem on

"The Glorious Assumption of Our Blessed

Go then, go glorious on the golden wings

Of the bright youth of heaven that sings
Under so fair a burden,

and describing the Annunciation, he says,

Heaven's golden-winged herald late he saw

To a poor Galilean virgin sent;

How low the bright youth bowed, and with what awe

Immortal flowers to her fair hand present.

In Isaiah's vision the Seraphim has "each one six wings; with twain he covered his feet; and with twain he covered his face, and with twain he did fly" (Isaiah vi. 1). The ancient liturgies at the Sanctus speak of "the Cherubim with many eyes, and the Seraphim with six wings." The reader will remember Shakespeare's phrase," the young-eyed Cherubims." The exactness of the great poet's language in all matters pertaining to the Christian tradition is worthy of note. These are the two highest ordersthe Cherubim, the Spirits of Knowledge, and the Seraphim, the Spirits of Love. The twofold idea of the angelic office is expressed in the Michaelmas collect-it is to "do God's service in heaven," and "to succour and defend men or earth." The first part of this office is performed by all the heavenly host-the second more especially by those who are called "angels"— that is, messengers. St. John the Baptist, by the way, is always depicted with wings in the icons of the Eastern Church, to indicate his office as messenger sent before the face of Christ.

As to the worship offered by the angels, it is only necessary to point out the part which the Sanctus plays in the Liturgies of Christendom. The Sanctus-bell rings to call the faithful to join in that unceasing adoration. The angelic worship is elaborately described by the ancient Liturgies. A Syrian Liturgy dilates with Oriental diffuseness on "the jubilees of Angels, the songs of Archangels, the concerts of Principalities, the dances of Virtues, the lyres of Powers, the voices of Dominations, the clamours of

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Thrones, the thunders of Cherubim, the swift motion of Seraphim." Well may the French use the proverbial expression être aux anges," meaning to be in a transport of joy. This is another example of how profoundly the language of the people was affected by the worship and faith of the Church. "Per Christum Dominum" goes the Præfatio in the Roman Mass, per Quem Majestatem Tuam laudant Angeli, adorant Dominationes, tremunt Potestates." This illustrates that large and rich theology of the Incarnation, an heirloom from the ancient Church, in which the Eternal Son is the Mediator of angels as of men. "Through Whom the Powers tremble." It is a very grave defect that in the English Preface there is no "through Jesus Christ Our Lord."

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The attendance of the angels at the altar is the continual theme of the Fathers of the Church. When Spenser in his Epithalamium," truly in no very edifying context, speaks of the angels that continually

About the sacred Altar do remaine,

he expresses one of the most ancient and universal of traditions. The poets are the best of theologians. The idea of angels ministering in the Liturgy is very strong in Russia and the East. In Eastern pictures one sometimes sees the priest carrying the paten and chalice upborne by angels. "Grant that with our entrance may be the entrance of the holy angels " runs the prayer. The Russian name for the dalmatic, the vestment of the ministering deacon, is the "cherubim." One must not forget the prayer of the Western Mass, that "these gifts may be carried by the hands of Thy Holy Angel to Thine Altar on high.” high." But by the angels are more especially meant the spirits whose office it is to minister to man. Over these, according to all tradition, are seven archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Chamuel, Jophiel and Zadkiel. The names of the angels are always a composition with that of God, ending with the syllable El, and denote the special commission entrusted to each. Michael means "Who is like to God?" Gabriel, "the strength of God"; Raphael, "the healing of God." These are the only three commemorated by name by the Church.

"Who is like God?" thunders Michael the chief,
Raphael, "cure of God," comforteth grief,

And as at Nazareth, prophet of peace,
Gabriel, "light of God," bringeth release.

The Prince of the Heavenly Host is St. Michael.

Sub tutela Michaelis

Pax in terrâ, pax in cœlis

the old hymn says. It is he who fought with the dragon and cast him out of heaven, and contended with him "disputing about the body of Moses" (Ep. St. Jude, 9), who is said to have made the plagues of Egypt and parted the Red Sea; he is to slay Antichrist on Mount Olivet, and his is that "voice of the archangel" at which the dead shall rise. He, as the sign-bearer, "sanctus Michael signifer," will display at the Judgment the Cross, the Nails, the Spear, and the Crown of Thorns. Gabriel is the messenger par excellence, the bearer of the Great Message at the Annunciation. The Russian name for Lady Day is "the Glad Tidings."

Gabriel to Mary went,

A mighty Message bare he,
Deep in awe the Maiden bent

To hear the first Hail Mary.

The "Salutation was a very common inn-sign in old English, and is still occasionally to be seen. It is to commemorate the Annunciation that the Angelus, the Angel-bell, rings three times a day all over the world. The bell itself was often named "Gabriel." How much poorer in the things best worth having is a country where the Angelus does not ring! Some "softening gleam" falls on the life of the most monotonous village or the most sordid town as the bell once more evokes the scene, and one sees for the thousandth time the Maiden and the Angel in the twilight of Nazareth.

Raphael, the guide of the boy Tobias, is the spirit of joy, the angel of safe returns and happy meetings. Uriel is said to have been the destroyer of the hosts of Sennacherib. He carries a roll and a book, as the interpreter of prophecies. This is probably connected with the early Christian legend that it was he, and not Christ in person, who accompanied the Disciples to Emmaus, and "opened to them the Scriptures." One of the titles of our Lord Himself, by the way, is "Magni Consilii Angelus." Chamuel, " he who sees God," is the angel of Gethsemane, who strengthened

the Saviour in the Agony with the assurance of the Resurrection. Jephiel, "the beauty of God," is the angel at the gates of Eden with the flaming sword. Zadkiel, whose name for us is hopelessly vulgarised, but which means "the Righteous of God," is the angel who stayed the uplifted hand of Abraham, about to smite his son. The two greatest painters of the world, by the way, were named Raphael and Michael Angelo. "Angelo," "Cherubino," "Serafino " are all common Christian names in Italy.

Under the seven archangels are the "thousands of angels (Ps. lxviii. 17), the whole host of the ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to man. It was a Pagan as well as a Christian belief that each soul has a guardian spirit, a genius or demon attending upon it. In that most extraordinary book, the Revelations of Sister Catherine Emmarich, there is a curious touch which illustrates this. I quote from my own copy, which is a French translation of the German original: "Lorsque Jésus tomba en faiblesse, Gesmas, le voleur de gauche, dit 'Son démon l'a abandonné." " Sometimes it was held that each soul had not only its good angel, but its evil genius. The good angel was held to take up his station on the right hand, the evil on the left. There is a quaint Russian superstition that one should not spit to the right hand, because the good angel is there, but to the left where the demon is. One should also put on one's right shoe first. The Jews held that the evil spirits had power over all even numbers, hence the saying in all languages "there's luck in odd numbers."

The office which the angel performs for his charge is "to keep him in all his ways," and to be a faithful and charitable guide, as Raphael was to Tobias. This was believed to extend to the smallest details of life. One has heard of Catholics praying to the Guardian Angel to wake them at an unusual hour in the morning -a touching example of loving familiarity with the unseen world. The belief in the protection of the angels is strongest in dwellers in mountainous countries, and among sea-coast peoples-for example, in Brittany. Forest churches all over the world are dedicated to them. The Bible represents them as being with man continually, from the beginning to the end of his journey, encamping around his dwelling, bearing him up in their hands. There is no possible circumstance in which they do not stand by him, no deliverance which they do not effect for him. They

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hasten Lot from the doomed city, saying, "Arise, lest thou be consumed"; they present the prayers of Tobit and his wife before the Holy One; they carry the soul of Lazarus into Abraham's bosom. The angels of the little children see always the face of the Father. There is joy in their presence over one poor publican or harlot who repents in some mean Galilean town. From the first page in the Bible to the last we see them ascending and descending upon the sons of men.

In the morning of the world men received angels unawares. Abraham entertained the mysterious Strangers, "he saw Three, and worshipped but One," the Golden Legend says, and to this day Russian peasants put up green branches in their houses on Trinity Sunday in memory of the tree under which he received them. There is a wild Rabbinic legend that Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt because she neglected to add salt to the food of the angels who came to be her guests. There are angels of different countries, "the Prince of Persia," and "the Prince of Grecia"; angels that have power over earth and air and water; the "Prince of Hail," and the "Prince of Fire." This is the meaning of such texts as "God standeth in the Congregation of Princes" (Ps. lxxxii. 1). The Rabbinic legends elaborate and embroider the stories of the deliverance of Abraham from the oven of Nimrod, and of the Three Children from the furnace in Babylon-" the furnace and chimney of the Chaldees," as the Golden Legend says. The angels dispute who is to be the deliverer, and by what means the deliverance is to be wrought.

Something has already been said of the joy of the angels. It it is of them that it is said that at the Creation "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job xxxviii. 7). The angelic carols and dances at the Nativity are represented in a thousand pictures. "When He bringeth the First-Begotten into the world He saith, Let all the Angels of God worship Him" (Heb. i. 6). The express intention of ringing all the bells at the Gloria in Excelsis in the Mass of Easter Eve is to rejoice with the angels." The gladness at the Ascension, as is fitting, is more stately and ceremonial, with its chanting of the alternate choirs. "Tremunt videntes Angeli." In pictures of the Assumption the note of riotous festivity is again struck. The point is that it is all a joy over man-the ministration of the

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