ANGELS AND MINISTERS OF GRACE 249
stand upon. Beneath this ruby-rock, were, successively a huge bull, an immense fish, a mass of water, and lastly darkness.12
Thus the grand vision of "the face of the deep" over which hovered the
Spirit of God, before the creative words were spoken, giving form to
the earth, is not altogether lost sight of in this Mohammedan fancy.
Luther
was a firm believer in the existence of guardian angels, and he even
goes so far as to assert that the angels assigned to men differed in
rank and ability as did the men themselves. Of this he says :
Just
as among men, one is large and another small, and one is strong and
another weak, so one angel is larger, stronger, and wiser than another.
Therefore, a prince has a much larger and stronger angel, one who is
also shrewder and wiser, than that of a count, and the angel of a count
is larger and stronger than that of a common man. The higher the rank
and the more important the vocation of a man, the larger and stronger
is the angel who guards him and holds the Devil aloof."
Our
idea of a guardian angel is so spiritual and so pure that it is
difficult for us to understand the curious results this belief has
occasionally produced among the primitive peoples. A weird tale is told
of a Congo negro who killed his mother so as to gain an especially
powerful guardian spirit.14 The dreadful deed was
perpetrated in the full conviction that the mother's love would remain
unshaken, while her power for good would be increased. Such ferocious
egoism does not find an exact parallel among civilized peoples, but the
underlying principle is unfortunately too often illustrated in our
midst at the present day.
The belief in guardian angels has the best of Scripture warrant as offered by the text Matthew, chapter xviii, v. 10,
"Lane, Arabian Society in the Middle Âges," ed. by Stanley Lane-Poole, London, 1883, p. 106.
" Schindler, " Der Aberglaube des Mittelalters," Breslau, 1858, p. 4.
"Peschel, "Völkerkunde," Leipzig, 1885, p. 272. Quoted from Winwood Beftde't " Savage Africa."
