"And Elisha prayed, and said, Yahweh, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And Yahweh opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw, and, behold, the mountain [was] full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." (II Kings 6: 17)

It's true, Sister. We all saw it. First there was a sort of a yellow mist like, sort of risin' before the Germans as they came to the top of the hill, come on like a solid wall they did--springing out of the earth just solid, no end to 'em. I just gave up. No use fighting the whole German race, thinks I; it's all up with us. The next minute comes this funny cloud of light, and when it clears off there's a tall man with yellow hair in golden armour, on a white horse, holding his sword up, and his mouth open as if he was saying, "Come on boys! I'll put the kybosh on the devils." ... The minute I saw it, I knew we were going to win. It fair bucked me up--yes, sister, thank you. I'm as comfortable as can be (Lancashire Fusilier describes the Battle of Mons to nurse Phyllis Campbell; "The Angels of Mons." London Evening News

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow....
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost, 1923

In the Great War, was heard the testimony is of heaven's intervention in the war. It was observed by many soldiers during the opening action at Mons, Belgium, which was part of the Battle of the Frontiers in August 1914. In his book ANGELS A TO Z Matthew Bunson recounts, "One of the most famous episodes of angelic intervention, [was] the supposedly widely reported descent of an angelic army in August 1914, which came to the aid of the British forces against the Germans in Mons. . . The angelic host's assistance could not have come at a more propitious moment as the British were being driven back by the relentless German advance."

In one account, a detachment of British soldiers was retiring through Mons under very heavy German artillery and machine-gun fire in August 1914. They knelt beside a hastily erected barricade, endeavoring to hold up the enemy advance. The firing on both sides was intensive, and the sound of exploding shells filled the air.

Suddenly, firing on both sides stopped. Looking over the barrier, the astonished British saw four or five angels much bigger than men, between themselves and the halted Germans. They wore white robes, were bareheaded, and seemed rather to float than stand. Their backs were towards the British, and they faced the enemy with outstretched arm and hand as if to say: "Stop. Thus far and no further."

Here is the eye-witness testimony of a soldier who was there.

"I was with my battalion in the retreat from Mons on or about August 28th (1914). The weather was very hot and clear, and between eight and nine o'clock in the evening I was standing with a party of nine other men on duty, and some distance on either side there were parties of ten on guard. Immediately behind us half of my battalion was on the edge of a wood resting. An officer suddenly came up to us in a state of great anxiety and asked us if we had seen anything startling ...taking me and some others a few yards away showed us the sky. I could see quite plainly in mid-air a strange light which seemed to be quite distinctly outlined and was not a reflection of the moon, nor were there any clouds in the neighbourhood. The light became brighter and I could see quite distinctly three shapes, one in the centre having what looked like outspread wings, the other two were not so large, but were quite plainly distinct from the centre one. They appeared to have a long loose-hanging garment of a golden tint they were above the German line facing us. We stood watching them for about threequarters of an hour. All the men with me saw them, and other men came up from other groups who also told us that they had seen the same thing. "It is a statement originally made in conversation!"

28 August 1914, following the Retreat from Mons:

In a version of the story told by German prisoners described a batallion of angels armed with bows and arrows, led by a towering figure on a shining white horse who spurred on English forces during an assault on German trenches. In another story three angelic beings were observed by the British, hovering in the air over German lines, providing a source of deep inspiration for them.

The irreducible details about the incident of the Angel of Mons seem to be that a small force of regular soldiers representing a nation with an oral tradition of combat success due to divine participation had a narrow escape against a vastly more numerous opponent at Mons in August, 1914. Contemporary diaries and letters of many sane, sober people show that by 1915, the British had accepted that a supernatural event had taken place at Mons.

Military historians that have studies Mons have incorporated the legend of the Angel of Mons into their writings. "Soldiers reported being rescued by angels and bowmen." The Germans were coming in swarms, like clouds. They broke out of the woods, advancing towards the entrenched British, advancing in what has been described as a medieval "20-acre formation." As the southward wheel of Von Kluck's army progressed, however, the wave of the attack gradually spread westward, breaking briefly along the line of the canal. By 11am III German Corps on the right of the unit attacking the Nimy Peninsula came up against the Bridge of Jenappes two miles west of Mon. The BEF was getting surrounded.

It was the Forest of Mormal that the last alleged sighting of an Angel occurred as reported by Arch Whitehouse.

SERAPHIM

Isaiah saw a vision of God seated upon His throne in the Temple. Hovering above Him were beings called seraphim. The word "seraphim" means "burning ones." In Isaiah's account we learn that the seraphim have six wings. Two wings cover their faces in reverence. Even the angels protect themselves from the brilliance of God's glory! Two wings cover the seraphim feet in humility. Although they are not called seraphim in the account in Revelation 4, the angels resemble Isaiah's description. They have six wings and cry "Holy, holy. holy" to the Lord.

CHERUBIM The Prophet Ezekiel's account depicts the angels appearance like that of a man. They each had four faces and four wings...their legs were straight, which implies that they were standing upright, but their feet were calf-like instead of human, and were like burnished bronze. Ezekiel said the four cherubim also had human-like hands, but 4 faces on their four sides, and they were able to travel straight in any direction, or to change position or direction without turning. One face is the face of a man, one a lion, one an ox, and one an eagle. They have four instead of six wings like the seraphim. Two wings cover their bodies in reverence before God. The other two wings are outstretched so their tips touch the wing tips of angels on each side. When they use these two wings to fly, they make a great noise.

Unlike other angels, the cherubim never convey instructions or messages from God to human beings. They are never directly called angels. The first time they appear in the Bible is at the gate of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3, where a cherub guards the way to the tree of life.

The cherubim seem to be important in the Old Testament history of Israel. When God gave the plans for the tabernacle (the symbol of God's presence among His people), He instructed that two golden cherubs be placed on the mercy seat which was the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. The cherubs faced each other from opposite ends of the Ark with outstretched wings. The design of the cherubim was also woven into the curtains in the tabernacle. When Solomon's temple was built, the skilled workmen carved the design of cherubim into walls and doors and constructed huge figures of them.

MICHAEL Michael is the only archangel of the Bible, who is mentioned by name. In Daniel 10:13, he is called an archangel or --"one of the chief princes." Michael is the defender of Israel.

THE ANGEL GABRIEL

Gabriel means "Mighty One of God." Luke calls him the "angel of the Lord." Gabriel describes himself as one who stands in the presence of God. As God's messenger, he was sent swiftly in answer to Daniel's prayer at the end of the Babylonian captivity. It was Gabriel who, 500 years later, announced the birth of John the Baptist, as well as the birth of Jesus Christ.

The author's father Galen Hunt was an Iowa teenager who fought in WW1. As he lay wounded on a supply wagon, watching the brilliant blasts of the exploding shells in the night skies and waiting for morning to come, so he could be taken out, he saw a vision of Yeshua/Jesus. He related stories both verbally and in his diaries which tell of many soldiers, some wounded, or dying, who saw visions of the Christ of the Battlefield, and of angels.

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