We learn in Christian Science that no matter what the "individualism" of angels
appears to be -- such as when they seem to take the form of men in Bible stories

-- angels are mental concepts, or thoughts from God. We are taught to listen for

angel messages that come to us during our prayers, in times of need, or simply

throughout our normal day. These angels can rescue us from impending trouble if

we have kept our minds in a receptive state and free from willful or cluttered

thinking. Angels seem to appear whenever we have expressed a deep desire for

God's assistance. Would you ignore an urgent plea for help from one of your

children? Neither would God.

My favorite description of angels comes from a short piece titled "Angels," written
by Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science:

 

"When angels visit us, we do not hear the rustle of wings, nor feel the feathery

touch of the breast of a dove; but we know their presence by the love they create

in our hearts. Oh, may you feel this touch, -- it is not the clasping of hands, nor

a loved person present; it is more than this: it is a spiritual idea that lights your

path! The Psalmist saith: 'He shall give His angels charge over thee.' God gives

you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for

tomorrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait,

never doubting, you will have all you need every moment.What a glorious

inheritance is given to us through the understanding of omnipresent Love! More

we cannot ask: more we do not want: more we cannot have. This sweet

assurance is the "Peace, be still" to all human fears, to suffering of every sort."

(Miscellaneous Writings 306)

To assist those who are teaching children, I have pulled together a number of

descriptive phrases found in the writings of Mrs. Eddy, to summarize what is

taught in Christian Science about the nature of angels. Following that, is a

selection of many of the citations in full, so that you can see the phrases in their

proper context.  A listing of Bible stories you might use in teaching your children

or Sunday School class can be reached on another page via the link below:

ANGELS ARE:

Spiritual intuitions . . . guardians in the gloom . . . celestial visitants . . . pure

thoughts from God . . . exalted thoughts . . . God's representatives . . . upward-

soaring beings . . . spiritual guides . . . nameless, incorporeal impartations of

divine Love . . . holy thoughts winged with Love . . . true ideas of God . . . God's

divine messages . . . swift-winged thoughts . . . God's thoughts passing to man

. . . spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect . . . inspiration of goodness, purity, and
immortality . . . messengers of pure and holy thoughts . . . natures allied to God's
nature.

WHAT ANGELS DO:

Come in the quiet of meekness . . . fly on spiritual pinions . . . point upward . . .
guide to divine Principle . . . tarry with us . . . whisper . . . abound in the spiritual
atmosphere of Mind . . . are assigned different offices . . . deliver us from the
depths . . . counteract all evil, sensuality, and mortality . . . create love in our heart
. . . take charge over us . . .administer grace, do our errands, and are our dearest
allies.

CITATIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF MARY BAKER EDDY:

"Angels are not etherealized human beings, evolving animal qualities in their wings;

but they are celestial visitants, flying on spiritual, not material, pinions. Angels are

pure thoughts from God, winged with Truth and Love, no matter what their
individualism may be. Human conjecture confers upon angels its own forms of
thought, marked with superstitious outlines, making them human creatures with
suggestive feathers; but this is only fancy. It has behind it no more reality than has
the sculptor's thought when he carves his 'Statue of Liberty,' which embodies his
conception of an unseen quality or condition, but which has no physical antecedent
reality save in the artist's own observation and 'chambers of imagery.'

"My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door of some sepulchre, in which
human belief has buried its fondest earthly hopes. With white fingers they point
upward to a new and glorified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys. Angels are
God's representatives. These upward-soaring beings never lead towards self, sin,
or materiality, but guide to the divine Principle of all good, whither every real
individuality, image, or likeness of God, gathers. By giving earnest heed to these
spiritual guides they tarry with us, and we entertain 'angels unawares.'"
(Science and Health 298)

"ANGELS. God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect;
the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil,
sensuality, and mortality." (S&H  581)

"The footsteps of thought, rising above material standpoints, are slow, and portend
a long night to the traveller; but the angels of His presence -- the spiritual intuitions
that tell us when 'the night is far spent, the day is at hand' -- are our guardians in the
gloom." (S&H 174)

"Earth has little light or joy for mortals before Life is spiritually learned. Every
agony of mortal error helps error to destroy error, and so aids the apprehension
of immortal Truth. This is the new birth going on hourly, by which men may entertain
angels, the true ideas of God, the spiritual sense of being." (S&H 548)

"And how is man, seen through the lens of Spirit, enlarged, and how counterpoised
his origin from dust, and how he presses to his original, never severed from Spirit!
O ye who leap disdainfully from this rock of ages, return and plant thy steps in
Christ, Truth, "the stone which the builders rejected"! Then will angels administer
grace, do thy errands, and be thy dearest allies."  (Miscellany 129)

"The Soul-inspired patriarchs heard the voice of Truth, and talked with God as

consciously as man talks with man.  Jacob was alone, wrestling with error, --
struggling with a mortal sense of life, substance, and intelligence as existent in
matter with its false pleasures and pains, -- when an angel, a message from Truth

and Love, appeared to him and smote the sinew, or strength, of his error, till he

saw its unreality; and Truth, being thereby understood, gave him spiritual strength

in this Peniel of divine Science. Then said the spiritual evangel: 'Let me go, for

the day breaketh;' that is, the light of Truth and Love dawns upon thee. But the

patriarch, perceiving his error and his need of help, did not loosen his hold upon

this glorious light until his nature was transformed. When Jacob was asked, 'What
is thy name?' he straightway answered; and then his name was changed to Israel,
for 'as a prince' had he prevailed and had 'power with God and with men.' Then
Jacob questioned his deliverer, 'Tell me, I pray thee, thy name;' but this appellation
was withheld, for the messenger was not a corporeal being, but a nameless,
incorporeal impartation of divine Love to man, which, to use the word of the
Psalmist, restored his Soul, -- gave him the spiritual sense of being and rebuked
his material sense." (S&H 308)

"Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power, and also by holy thoughts,
winged with Love. These angels of His presence, which have the holiest charge,
abound in the spiritual atmosphere of Mind, and consequently reproduce their own
characteristics. Their individual forms we know not, but we do know that their
natures are allied to God's nature; and spiritual blessings, thus typified, are the
externalized, yet subjective, states of faith and spiritual understanding." (S&H 512)

"The Old Testament assigns to the angels, God's divine messages, different offices.
Michael's characteristic is spiritual strength. He leads the hosts of heaven against
the power of sin, Satan, and fights the holy wars. Gabriel has the more quiet task
of imparting a sense of the ever-presence of ministering Love. These angels deliver
us from the depths. Truth and Love come nearer in the hour of woe, when strong
faith or spiritual strength wrestles and prevails through the understanding of God.
The Gabriel of His presence has no contests. (S&H 566)

Click Here to go to Bible Stories featuring Angels