"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations!"--_Isaiah xiv. 12._ "And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp."--_Revelation viii. 10._ "And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth; and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit."--_Revelation ix. 1._ It is reasonable to believe that all intelligent beings are morally free; and if free, are on probation. Intelligence, will-power, free agency, and probation are logically inseparable, regardless of place or environment. Without question, in the natural world this is true, and therefore must be true in the spiritual world. That men, angels, archangels, and redeemed spirits never attain a state of character beyond the possibility of free choice is a most fearful responsibility. But for the imperialism of intelligent will, the _fall of angels_ is unreasonable, improbable, impossible. Just how temptation can assail the inhabitants of heaven--the land, we are told, "where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest"--is beyond all human comprehension. Startling as this truth appears to be, the Bible teaches it in unmistakable language. "Lucifer, son of the morning," an archangel, a great being, created in holiness, standing near the Throne of God. His name means "light bearer," indicative of his glorious office. We can scarcely imagine such honour, such power, such distinction. Just what the high-calling of "light bearer" was, as it was performed under the highest commission in the universe, the Book fails to tell us; but the office of Lucifer was surely the peer of Michael or Gabriel, if not above them in rank. Brilliancy and splendour radiated from his person. May we dare, not altogether by the imagination, to venture into that remote, prehistoric time when the Second Person of the Trinity--the Anointed One--the Logos, a being of perfection, made in the image of the invisible God, became a Manifestation. That One of whom "the whole family in heaven and earth is named"; sharing the glory and honour equally with the Father, on a throne in the heavenlies. Milton and others believe that the presence of this Manifestation aroused in Lucifer a consuming spirit of ambition and envy; he at once aspired to the place and power which God reserved for His only begotten Son.