THE OBJECTS OF ANGELIC CURIOSITY.

BY THOS. O. SUMMERS, D. d.,

OF THE ALABAMA CONFERENCE.

"Which things the angels desire to look into."-1 Peter i, 12.

A strong desire to find out something unknown, either by research or inquiry, is characteristic of a great mind. It is predicated by the apostle of the ancient prophets. Those wonderful men, influenced by Divine inspiration, uttered predictions concerning the mysteries of redemption, which were astounding to themselves as well as to others. A holy curiosity was excited in their minds, and they "inquired and searched diligently" into the hidden meaning of their sublime announcements. They endeavored to find out the nature of the salvation they predicted, and the time of its accomplishment. Nor were they singular in this; the angels themselves evinced a similar curiosity. Indeed, they evince it still-they manifest a constant "desire to look into the mysterious things" of our salvation.

There is a kind of curiosity which is contemptible. It consists in a pragmatical disposition of the mind, an incontinent inclination to pry into matters, whether lofty or low, which are entirely beyond one's province-a quest of information about things which do not concern us at all. Thousands who manifest no avidity in pursuit of "the knowledge fit for man to know," let no opportunity escape to approach the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and pluck its forbidden fruit. Curiosity is laudable only when its objects are proper. The things which the angels desire to look into are worthy of their highest and most intense concern, as they combine novelty, grandeur, and importance, on the largest scale,

LET US FIRST NOTICE THE NOVELTY OF THESE THINGS:
They are developments of Divine mercy and compassion.

The angels had witnessed exhibitions of Divine power and wisdom in their own creation and in the creation of the universe at large-so

also of benevolence, of which, in a thousand modifications, they were the happy subjects. These perfections of the Deity were variously and gloriously manifested in the origination, maintenance, and government of all the worlds that had been called into existence. And there had been also a display of the severer attributes of the Divine Majes ty. Angels had fallen from their pride of place. When they fell, and how they fell, we know not. From an incidental expression of the apostle, we may suppose that pride or ambition was the sin which occasioned their overthrow. It could scarcely have been a meaner crime than that which has been poetically and paganizingly defined, "the glorious fault of angels and of gods." Certain it is, they "kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation." They fell-self-tempted of course, and this perhaps was the reason that no redemption was provided for them. They were hurled at once from the battlements of heaven, shut up in the prison-house of hell, and bound with chains of darkness, as culprits under a terrible sentence and waiting its execution. What a development of inexorable justice and vindictive wrath! This the holy angels witnessed; but they had never witnessed any expression of mercy and compassion-the former requiring sin for its elicitation, and the latter connoting misery, neither of which had any place in heaven or any relief in hell.

But when, through the envy, malice, and subtlety of the devil, man had fallen, the Divine benevolence received a new modification, developing itself in forms adapted to the character and condition of lapsed humanity. The sin and misery of man drew forth the mercy and compassion of God. These lovely qualities of the Divine nature mingled harmoniously with all the other attributes of the Most High, and produced the plan of redemption, which is the mystery of the universe and the problem of eternity. No sooner did the mighty and inerciful design beam forth from the countenance of the Godhead, than angelic curiosity was excited to comprehend it.

There was the gracious purpose of God-they were eager to unfold it. There was the primordial promise-they reverently cast an inquisitive glance towards the Only-begotten of the Father, as if they would know from himself whether it were possible that He should become the seed of the women to bruise the serpent's head. There was the stellar light of patriarchal revelations-through this medium they sought to penetrate the mystery in which the wonderful arrangements were involved. There was the lunar light of the Mosaic dispensa