He had been dwelling upon this, when an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. "Joseph, son of David," the angel said, "do not be afraid to take Mary for your wife, for her child has been conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.

When Joseph awoke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had directed him.

After they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said: "Awake, take the child and his mother, and seek refuge in Egypt; and stay there until I bid you return, for Herod is about to search for the child, to put him to death."

But, on the death of Herod, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said:

I, however, say to you that any one who cherishes anger against his brother shall be liable to answer for it to the Court; and whoever pours contempt upon his brother shall be liable to answer for it to the High Council, while whoever calls down curses upon him shall be liable to answer for it in the fiery Pit.

Then his master, in anger, handed him over to the jailers, until he should pay the whole of his debt.

The king, in anger, sent his troops, put those murderers to death, and set their city on fire.

When suddenly a great earthquake occurred. For an angel of the Lord descended from Heaven, and came and rolled away the stone, and seated himself upon it.

But the angel, addressing the women, said; "You need not be afraid. I now that it is Jesus, who was crucified, for whom you are looking.

As they remained silent, Jesus looked round at them in anger, grieving at the hardness of their hearts, and said to the man: "Stretch out your hand." The man stretched it out; and his hand had become sound.

And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right of the Altar of Incense.

But the angel said to him: " Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth shall bear you a son, whom you shall call by the name John.

"How can I be sure of this?" Zechariah asked the angel. "For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years."

"I am Gabriel," the angel answered, "who stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.

Six months later the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,

When the angel spoke again: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

"How can this be?" Mary asked the angel. "For I have no husband."

"The Holy Spirit shall descend upon you," answered the angel, "and the Power of the Most High shall overshadow you; and therefore the child will be called 'holy,' and 'Son of God.'

"I am the servant of the Lord," exclaimed Mary; "let it be with me as you have said." Then the angel left her.

When an angel of the Lord suddenly stood by them, and the Glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were seized with fear.

"Have no fear," the angel said. "For I bring you good news of a great joy in store for all the nation.

Then suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly Host, praising God, and singing--

Eight days after the birth of the child, when it was time to circumcise him, he received the name Jesus--the name given him by the angel before his conception.

On his return the servant told his master all these answers. Then in anger the owner of the house said to his servant 'Go out at once into the streets and alleys of the town, and bring in here the poor, and the crippled, and the blind, and the lame.'

Alas for the women that are with child, and for those that are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great suffering in the land, and anger against this people.

[Presently there appeared to him an angel from Heaven, who strengthened him.

The crowd of bystanders, who heard the sound, said that it was thundering. Others said: "An angel has been speaking to him."

An angel of the Lord, however, opened the prison doors at night and led them out.

The eyes of all the members of the Council were riveted upon Stephen, and they saw his face looking like the face of an angel.

Forty years had passed when there appeared to him, in the Desert of Mount Sinai, an angel in a flame of fire in a bush.

This same Moses, whom they had disowned with the words--'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' was the very man whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer, under the guidance of the angel that had appeared to him in the bush.

He, too, it was who was present at the assembly in the Desert, with the angel who talked to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors, and who received living truths to impart to you.

Meanwhile an angel of the Lord had said to Philip: "Set out on a journey southwards, along the road that runs down from Jerusalem to Gaza." (It is now deserted).

One afternoon, about three o'clock, he distinctly saw in a vision an angel from God come to him, and call him by name.

Cornelius fixed his eyes on him and, in great alarm, said: "What is it, Lord?" "Your prayers and your charities," the angel answered, "have been an acceptable offering to God.

When the angel, who had spoken to him, had gone, Cornelius called two menservants and a religious soldier, who was one of his constant attendants,

The men replied: "Our captain, Cornelius, a pious man who reverences God and is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, has been instructed by a holy angel to send for you to his house, and to listen to what you have to say."

He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and how the angel had said to him--'Send to Jaffa and fetch the Simon, who is also known as Peter;

Suddenly an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the cell. The angel struck Peter on the side, and roused him with the words: "Get up quickly."

The chains dropped from his wrists, and then the angel said: "Put on your girdle and sandals." When Peter had done so, the angel added: "Throw your cloak round you and follow me."

Peter followed him out, not knowing that what was happening under the angel's guidance was real, but thinking that he was seeing a vision.

Passing the first Guard, and then the second, they came to the iron gate leading into the city, which opened to them of itself; and, when they had passed through that, and had walked along one street, all at once the angel left him.

Then Peter came to himself and said: "Now I know beyond all doubt that the Lord has sent his angel, and has rescued me from Herod's hands and from all that the Jewish people have been expecting."

Instantly an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give God the glory; and he was attacked with worms, and died.

(For Sadducees say there is no such thing as a resurrection, and that there is neither angel nor spirit, while Pharisees believe in both.)

So a great uproar ensued, and some of the Teaches of the Law belonging to the Pharisees' party stood up and hotly protested: "We find nothing whatever wrong in this man. Suppose a spirit did speak to him, or an angel--"

For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong, and whom I serve, stood by me, and said--

While as to those who are factious, and disobedient to Truth but obedient to Evil, wrath and anger, distress and despair,

But again I ask 'Did not the people of Israel understand? First there is Moses, who says--'I, the Lord, will stir you to rivalry with a nation which is no nation; Against an undiscerning nation I will arouse your anger.'

And do not murmur, as some of them murmured, and so 'were destroyed by the Angel of Death.'

And no wonder; for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of Light.

Yet even if we--or if an angel from Heaven were to tell you any other 'Good News' than that which we told you, may he be accursed!

And as for what must have tried you in my condition, it did not inspire you with scorn or disgust, but you welcomed me as if I had been an angel of God--or Christ Jesus himself!

'Be angry, yet do not sin.' Do not let the sun go down upon your anger;

Let all bitterness, passion, anger, brawling, and abusive language be banished from among you, as well as all malice.

Do not let any one defraud you of the reality by affecting delight in so-called 'humility' and angel-worship. Such a man busies himself with his visions, and without reason is rendered conceited by his merely human intellect.

You, however, must now lay aside all such things--anger, passion, malice, slander, abuse.

Faith caused him to leave Egypt, though undaunted by the King's anger, for he was strengthened in his endurance by the vision of the invisible God.

For the anger of man does not forward the righteous purpose of God.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to make known to his servants, concerning what must shortly take place, and which he sent and revealed by his angel to his servant John,

To the Angel of the Church in Ephesus write:-- "These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, and walks among the seven golden lamps:--

To the Angel of the Church in Smyrna write:-- "These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died, but is restored to life:--

To the Angel of the Church in Pergamus write:-- "These are the words of him who holds the sharp two-edged sword:--

To the Angel of the Church in Thyatira write:-- "These are the words of the Son of God, 'whose eyes are like flaming fire, and whose feet are like brass':--

To the Angel of the Church in Sardis write:-- "These are the words of him who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars;--I know your life, and that men say of you that you are living, though you are dead.

To the Angel of the Church in Philadelphia write:-- "These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds 'the Key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one opens':--

To the Angel of the Church in Laodicaea write:-- "These are the words of the Unchanging One, 'the Witness faithful and true, the Beginning of the Creation of God':--

and I saw a mighty angel who was proclaiming in a loud voice-- 'Who is worthy to open the book and break its seals?'

And, in the east, I saw another angel, ascending, holding the seal of the Living God; and he cried in a loud voice to the four angels, to whom there had been given power to harm the earth and the sea--

Next, another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer in his hand; and a great quantity of incense was given to him, to mingle with the prayers of all Christ's People upon the golden altar before the throne.

The smoke of the incense ascended, with the prayers of Christ's People, from the hand of the angel before God.

Then the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it down upon the earth; and there followed 'peals of thunder, cries, flashes of lightning,' and an earthquake.

Then the second angel blew; and what appeared to be a great mountain, burning, was hurled into the sea. A third of the sea became blood,

Then the third angel blew; and there fell from the heavens a great star, burning like a torch. It fell upon a third of the rivers and upon the springs.

Then the fourth angel blew; and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were blasted, so that a third of them was eclipsed, and for a third part of the day there was no light, and at night it was the same.

Then the fifth angel blew; and I saw a Star that had fallen upon the earth from the heavens, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

They have as their king the Angel of the bottomless pit, whose name, in Hebrew, is 'Abaddon,' while, in Greek, his name is 'Apollyon' (the Destroyer).

Then the sixth angel blew; and I heard a voice proceeding from the corners of the golden altar that stood before God.

It spoke to the sixth angel--the angel with the trumpet--and said 'Let loose the four angels that are in chains at the great river Euphrates.'

Then I saw another mighty angel, descending from Heaven. His robe was a cloud; over his head was the rainbow; his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire;

Then the angel, whom I had seen standing on the sea and on the land, 'raised his right hand to the heavens,

Moreover at the time when the seventh angel shall speak, when he is ready to blow his blast, then the hidden purposes of God, of which he told the good news to his servants, the Prophets, are at once fulfilled.

Then came the voice which I had heard from Heaven. It spoke to me again, and said--'Go and take the book that is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.'

So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little book. And he said 'Take it, and eat it. It will be bitter to your stomach, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.'

I took the little book out of the angel's hand 'and ate it, and, while in my mouth, it was like the sweetest honey'; but, when I had eaten it, it was bitter to my stomach.

Then the seventh angel blew; and loud voices were heard in Heaven saying-- 'The Kingdom of the World has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.'

Then I saw another angel, flying in mid-heaven. He had the Good News, decreed from eternity, to announce to those who dwell on the earth--to men of every nation, and tribe, and language, and people;

Then a second angel followed, crying-- 'She has fallen! She has fallen--Babylon the Great, who has made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her licentiousness!'

Then a third angel followed them, crying in a loud voice-- 'Whoever worships the Beast and its image, and receives its brand on his forehead or on his hand,

Then another angel came out from the Temple, crying in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud-- 'Take your sickle and reap, for the time to reap has come; the Harvest of Earth is ready.'

Then another angel came out of the Temple in Heaven; he, also, had a sharp sickle.

Then another angel came out of the altar; he had power over fire, and he called in a loud voice to the angel that had the sharp sickle-- 'Take your sharp sickle, and gather the bunches from the Vine of Earth, for its grapes are ripe.'

The angel brought his sickle down on the earth and gathered the fruit of the Vine of Earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the Wrath of God.

The first angel went and emptied his bowl upon the earth; and it turned to loathsome and painful sores upon all who bore the brand of the Beast and who worshiped its image.

Then the second angel emptied his bowl upon the sea; and it turned to blood like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died--everything in the sea.

Then the third angel emptied his bowl upon the rivers and springs of water; and it turned to blood.

And I heard the Angel of the Waters saying-- 'Righteous art thou, thou who art and who wast, the Holy One, in inflicting this judgment;

Then the fourth angel emptied his bowl upon the sun; and he was permitted to scorch men with fire;

Then the fifth angel emptied his bowl upon the throne of the Beast; and darkness fell upon its Kingdom. Men gnawed their tongues for pain,

Then the sixth angel emptied his bowl upon the great river Euphrates; and the water in the river was dried up, so that the road for the Kings of the East might be made ready.