Mrs. Eddy defines "angels" in Science and Health as, "God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality" (p. 581). Every coming of a divine idea, every spiritual inspiration or intuition, every impulse of goodness, purity, and gratitude, every spark of selfless love, is an angel of God.
Many of the great Biblical characters felt the divine presence of angels in their experience of being awakened to the spiritual facts of being. Some angels came at the midnight hour of human woe and in moments of great fear—angels of strength and inspiration. Abram felt this inspiration when he left behind him his human father, who served idols, and when he left his country, seeking a habitation, "a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Hebr. 11:10). The angel of divine guidance and of protection accompanied Abram on his journey.
Jacob felt the angel of omnipotence and of spiritual strength when he struggled all through the night until the break of day and did not let go until there came a blessing. And what a blessing this was! Here was one of God's chosen people, formerly mesmerized by greed and avarice and dishonesty, now being awakened and transformed. No longer was he called Jacob; he was renamed Israel, "for," the angel said, "as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed" (Gen. 32:28).
