In Assyria, we may gather from the sculptures which have been preserved, that there was not any idea of angels being essentially different to gods. Indeed, it is very difficult wherever there is a polytheism in any form, to understand the distinction between a god and an angel Even in the religion which passes current as "the Christian," which acknowledges three gods as "coeternal together and coequal," we are distinctly told that one of the three "proceeds" from the father and the son (_Athanasian Creed_). The New Testament, again, repeatedly informs us that the son was "sent" into this world by his father to effect a special purpose--e.g.t "God sent his only begotten son into the world, that we might live through him" (1 John iv. 9; see also John iii. 16, 17; Matt. xxi. 37; Mark xii. 4; John v. 38; vi. 29; vii. 28, 29; and compare with John i. 33 and Mal.iii. 1-3). If, therefore, we regard the bearer of a message or an order from the supreme king as an "angel," Jesus of Nazareth was certainly one, inasmuch as he said that he was sent hither by the father of all; and the Holy Ghost was another, for we find John (xv. 26) stating that Jesus would send him to the earth--an assertion repeated in chap, xvi. 7--whilst in the fourteenth chapter of the same book we observe that the father was to send this comforter, who was to abide in this world for ever (v. 16). Indeed, the presumed identification of Jesus with the promised Messiah, "the prince" of Dan. ix. 25, shows the belief that he was one who was as much appointed to do a certain duty as was that "angel of death" which went out to destroy the Assyrian army (2 Kin. xix. 35). With such indicated reservation, we notice that the angel which the gods sent to watch over various Assyrian kings is depicted almost invariably with wings. Now he is an archer, standing in a disc representing the sun, having wings below him; now he stands in front of the circle, the pinions and sometimes his body terminating in feathers resembling a bird's expanded tail. Then, again, the minor divinities bear wings, some of them no less than four (Bonomi's _Nineveh_, 2d ed. p. 157). It would be superfluous to linger over a description of the winged bulls with human heads, and the winged men with eagle or hawks' faces, which are so familiar to us in consequence of the researches of Layard and others. All alike bear testimony to the connection, in human celestialism, between birds and men. Nor can we reasonably doubt, that the idea intended to be conveyed by the inventor of the Assyrian composition which we refer to was, that the being, thus symbolized, was famous for strength like the bull; for rapidity of movement, like the eagle; and for wisdom, like a man.