"the man Gabriel" (Dan. ix. 21). The angel seen by Zechariah to he riding on a red horse (Zech. i. 8) is called "a man."
In Matthew xxviii, 2, 5, the women who visited the sepulchre are said to have found there "the angel of the Lord"; in Mark xvi. 5, they are stated to have found "a young man"; in Luke xxiv. 4, "two men"; in John xx. 12, "two angels." The angel, mentioned in Rev. xxi. 17, is said to have measured the wall of the holy Jerusalem . . . . according to the measure of "a man, that is, of the angel." In Matt xi. 10, Mark i. 2, and Luke vii. 27, where John the Baptist is called a messenger, the word in the original Greek is the same elsewhere translated angel. The disciples whom John sent to Jesus (Luke vii. 24) and the messengers sent by Jesus to the Samaritan village (Luke ix. 52), are likewise called, in the original, angels.
Thus we learn that the terms "man" and "angel" are interchangeable in this respect: angels are men in the generic sense of the term. The Greek word translated "angel" and the Hebrew word translated "man" refer to both sexes.
Men and women become good angels, or " evil angels" (Psalm lxxviii. 49), according to the character they have acquired during their abode in this world. Jesus, speaking of the children of God, in the resurrection, said "they are equal to the angels" (Luke xx. 36); and the apostle John says (1 John iii. 10), "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother."
From the Scripture testimony thus adduced, it seems impossible to doubt that angels are from the human race.
"Angels are men, in lighter habits clad:
And men are angels, loaded for an hour."
Shall we recognize our friends in the Spiritual World?
