       VOLUME XXXIV                               JULY  P,  1958  -  GRAND  RAPIDS,  MICHIGAN                               NUMBER   1    8

                                                                         tribulation as the one outstanding tribulation of  al1 other
!         .MEDITATl-ON                                              ll woes.There is a tribulation for every  creature that exists.
                                                                         Especially  clear this  wil1 be  when we consider the meaning
                  Out of Great Tribulation                               of that word. It  means  to be in narrow straits, to be in a
                 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me,         place that is too smal1 for  US. Not necessarily in the local,
              What are these which are arrayed in white robes?           physical sense, but more in the spiritual sense of the word.
              and whence  came they?                                     To be in tribulation  means to be cramped on  every hand
                 And 1 said unto  ,him, Sir, thou  knowest.   And  he    from the  .point of view of our spirits. To be free and in the
              said to me, These are they which  came  out of great       open  spiritually  means  to be in  the loving arms of God and
              tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made         to rest in His  bosom. That is the  very  reverse  of tribulation.
              them white in the blood of the  Lamb. (Rev.  7:13, 14)     And the awful  fact is that man is far from that loving  em-
                                                                         brace. He is in the  claws of the  devil. And that works to his
      It seems as though the eyes of John  the Theologian  re-           untolcl misery. God, instead of embracing  him in untold
veal the wonder that  fills his  soul  at the spectacle of the           affection,  curses  him as the day is long. For the  curse  of
innumerable multitude  who, arrayed in white robes, throng               the Lord is in the house of the wicked.
around the great white throne, singing ancl  l$ing merry.                    1  wil1 admit,  however,  that the worldly man and  woman
For we  reàd that one of the elders answered, saying unto                clo their best to counteract that awful tribulation. They try
him : "What. are these which are arrayed in white robes  ?               hard but  al1 to no avail. And although they laugh and scream
and whence  came they  ?" It reads:  ti.mszwered.  But John              of the great fun they have, it  al1 is but a  very hollow sound.
had not  said a word at all. And  surcly   the question was not          The more they fight their tribulation the more miserable they
put to  John for the reason that the  elder did not know. For,           become  through  the ages. There is a great tribulation in the
firstly, John says, "Sir, thou  know&t:" And, secondly, the              world among men and' there is a great  tribulatiou  among
elder gives him iñ the following verse thë answer to his                                                                             .
                                                                         the devils that is unutterable.
own question. He knew it  al1 the  time. Hence,  it seems
that the  elder saw the look of wonder in  John's-   é&  and                 And the worst of  it is, that they  wil1 never  come  out of
interpreted  it in his question.                                         it. They remain in their narrow  straits and their narrow
                                                                         straits become ever more narrow. And the culmination of
       And what an answer !                                              their tribulation is  indeed   when they shall  rather be  crushed
`.    The. answer of the  elder gives in a few words the  whole          by the splitting  rocks and mountains than to enter the  place
history of redemption. The throng that are before the great              that is prepared for the  d&il and his fellows.
-wli$e throne have  come  out  o,f the great tribulation  ; they             Descrjptive'of  this tribulation is the ever repeated  koe,
are cleansed by the blood of the Lamb  ; and they  are'  con-            Woe. Woe  6f Jesus  and His angels in the  Boek of  Revela-
sequently arrayed in white robes.                                        tion.
       Hence,  it is the manifestation of the Marvel of Divine               But these  souls  that John sees in his  vision have  come
Grace.                                                                   out of the great tribulation.
       Ancl  how marvellous !                                                What is its meaning  ?
       They have  come  out of  the great tribulation.  For so the           Ah, that is a great question!
translation ought to  read. It is  tlze great tribulation. That              And  the answer is equally great.  1; is the tribulation
little definite article  thc ought to be retained. It  marks the         of the'ages.


     4 1 0                                       T H E   STANDARD,.   B E A R E R
l
         In order  td'find the correct answer we must consider  first           ;B.ut, God be blessed, they  al1  come  out of it.
     of  al1 that these souls are  very particular  persons:  They are,:        And  1  .assure you that it is no wonder that John the
     as is  very  clear from the immediate context, the  elect of God.      Theologian marvels at it. So do you.
     Because we  read in  Jhe beginning of this 7th  chapter that
     ihey are sealed by God's servants  out  of the tribes of Israel            Or would you not marvel  when  yoo  notice  that  after  al1
     and they are a great multitude of  al1 nations, and kindreds,          things are done and said you are ushered in heavenly
     and people, and tongues.  ,They  `are not  al1 of, Israel as it has    places?  Suppose,  dear reader, that you  fa11  dead this  very
     appeared  and does appear in history... Only  io  many and             instant, and you open your eyes in heaven: would you not
     no more are sealed  .by the  williríg workers of God's heaven.`        marvel? Your ears have  almost  become accustomed  `to the
     They are not  til1 the  hations and kindreds and people  tinel         swearing, cursing, ranting brawl of the  wicked throng ;  would
     tongues. Oh, no, they are the  sealed  only.                           you not marvel if,  al1 in a moment, you were to hear  nothing'
                                                                            but the most wonderful singing and chanting? If you were
         Secondly, we note the purpose of this sealing  pyocess.            to hear the ever-recurring  theme, accompanied by heavenly
     Tha  fipal hurt wherewith God  wil1 hurt the world  cannot-            music:  Thou art  w&thy, 0 God, to  recei.ve  honor and  bless-
     come while they are in their midst. It is a seal that protects         ing and thanksgiving, and majesty  ?
     them from  real hurt and harm. It is a negative way of  say:
     ing that they shall be blessed  indeed. Blessing is in store               But there is  much more  cause to marvel than this.
     for them. It is a seal of blessedness. And  another  Scripture             You,  who know the misery, the  Oaattwdh&d,  because of
     ;ells me that too. Paul tells  US in  IJ  Timothi  2  :lg  th& the     your rotten  nature   ; you,  who know what it  means  to swim
     foundation of God has this seal: The Lord knoweth them                 up against the  current   of. the power. of sin, that dwells in
     that are His, and: Let everyone that nameth the name of                you and that always  wil1  draw you to sin and  deceit and
     Christ  depart from iniquity. The  latter tells me that the            darkness  ; 1  ask you, would you not marvel,  when  al1 of a
     former is true. True in me;  that is, that the loving knowleclge       sudden that current disappears and you find yourself so
     of God has found its purpose in a Godly  walk in me.                   clean and so  puie and so  holy ? And  when- you  notice that
         And, thirdly, it is because of this seal of God that 1 am          for'  once  nll  ze.&&   you   bless His  holy name  ?
     in the great tribulation. And it shows  also  that only  when              Ah, yes,  the, believer is scarcely saved.
     the love of God dwells in me do 1 know of  this great  tribu-
     lation.                                                                    Marvel of God's  grace.
         You see,  the soul  .that is loved  by God from  al1 eternity          You see, the Lord our God has a  very  .fìrm hold of
     receives the birth from above. Through it he becomes a                 everyone of His saints.  When  they were  nat -as yet;  when
     new, heavenly  creature.  1 say purposely  hea8venly   creature.       the world was not yet; amid His glad song of the  Covenant
     His life is from above. That is, the life of the new man in            in the millions of years of eternity before there were  any
     him. And his inner  desire is henceforth to live that life on          creatures  at  al1 (therefore there were no  years as yet:  fool-
     the earth in the midst of the godless world. It is his  meat and       ish notion of me)  : from everlasting to everlasting, oh  how
     drink, in a measure, to do the  wil1 of God  aZzvuys. For  the         long, long ago : He saw them, He knew them, He loved them,
     love of God dwells in him.             '                               He grasped these Divine Thoughts in the palms of His
         And that, my friends, brings with it  the  pa.t  Mmln-             hands; He willed them with an everlasting  wil1 to become
     tion.                                                                  co~lformecl to the image of Jesus: the  heart of the Father's
                                                                            love.
         From the moment that the  new,  heaveniy, spiritual life
     cómes  to the fore in his consciousness, thoughts, words  and              Attend, that  when these saints `were born and  fel1 in the
     cleeds,  from that moment on  het that is, the new man is              mire of sin ;  when they were lost in the wilderness, He loved
     kill.ed  al1 the day long, You  may be sure that  he is  counted       them stil1  and. never lost them  out of His sight. He loved
     as a sheep for the  -slaughter. From that moment on that he            US  when we were  stil1 sinners. Oh  the depth!
     appears on the stage of history,  al1 things  wil1 try to put him          He loved  US  when we hated Him and sent the seeking
     in a  place that is altogether too smal1 for him.' He  wants to        Shepherd. He desired to have  US  come  out of the tribulation
     be in the unadulteratecl atmosphere of endless perfection  and         of the misery of sin. And He found  US.
     the love of God, but  finds himself in the midst of the godless            Marvel of Divine  Grace, for He regenerated  US ancl
     and the devils, in the midst of the  very atmosphere of  heil.         doing so He made contact between our inner heart and His
     The  very air is laden with the cancerous stench of sin  and           own heart. And we  cal1 that contact Faith. And  that Faith
     iniquity. That stench and that devilish, hellish, godless  at-         works by Love and that Love is spread abroad in the heart
     mosphere spells suffering  such as cannot be described.  And           through the  Holy Ghost of Christ Jesus.
     fhey say : Flee as a bird to your mountain  !                             And there the great tribulation began. Then a  pain was
         Yes,  indeed,  flee as a bird he would, if he  could.  But the     born in the inner heart that beggars description. Then a
     Lord's  solemn statement must be lived: My  dear sheep, I              grief was felt that tears as it  bites as it devours.  Al1 the
     send you in the midst of wolves.                                       powers of  darkness  war against my regenerated and  con-


I                                                 T H E   STANDA-RD   B E A R E R                                                                                                                                                   411
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           /-

     verted  soul.  Yea, 1  hate myself  ; 1  war against myself  ; 1  am
     my own greatest enemy. 1 love God but listen to  Satan.   1                                            ME'  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
     strive for the  entrance  of the pearly  gatq but  my feet are               Seíni-mon,ihly,  except   monthly  dur@   Jzme,  July and  August
     leaden and impotent: so  often 1 tread forbidden paths that                        Published by  tl-+e  REFORMED  FREE   PIJJSLISHJNG  ASSOCIATION
     lead to hell. 1 find in my  mouth  `sweet strains of songs of                     P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand  Rapidi 7,  Mich.
     redemption:  yet there  also lurks the bitterness of  &, poison                                              Editor  - REV. HERMAN  .HOF.KSEMA                                                                     .            ..
     of the  adde;, the asp. And  al1 things around me, both visible                   Communications relative  to  contents  should be addressed to
                                                                                                       Rev. H. Hoeksema, $139 Franklin St., S. E.,
     and  invisible' tend to  drati me to the  devil and to sin.                                                                Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
                                                                                       All matters relative to subscriptions   should  be addressed to Mr.
         But through it  al1 Jesus prays for me that  my faith fail                    G. Pipe, 1483 Ardmore St., S. E., Grand  Rapids   ,7,  Mich.
     not. He strengthens it by His -Word and Spirit. He  nur-                          Announcements and Obituaries must be mailed  to the above
     tures it  when 1  anl spiritually  sick' and  makes me healthy                    address  and  will be published at a fee of $1.00 for  each   notice.
     again. When 1 would  wander,  He upholds me through the                           RENEWAL:   Unless a  definite-  request for discontinuance is  re-
                                                                                       ceived  it is assumed that the subscriber wishes  the subscription
     medium of Faith : it is the  cleaving  love of God to  the Word                   to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
     Divine. That bond of Faith is made ever stronger and draws,                                                    Subscription  price: $5.00 per year
     draws me to God.  _                                                               Entered as  Second  Class  ,matter at Grand  Rapids,  Michigan
         Therefore,  yo«  may freely tempt me with the  riches of                 -                    -                                                                                                                       -
     Egypt: 1  am  goirig to choose the desert with its  fiery  ser-
     pents and the wrath of  Amaiek,  the children of the  devil.                                                                    C O N T E N T S
     For Faith draws me to His Word. And in Canaan 1 must                    MEDITATION -
     come.  He beckons me through  the wild waves of Jordan  t6                            Out of Great Tribulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . ..<.......<_......... 409
                                                                                              Rev. G.  Vos
     the other  side of peace and  harmonieus  singing.
                                                                             EDITORIALS  -
         So travels  my  soul  in a sinful body, amidst  fierce  tribu-                    Our Synod of 1958 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ._,.,_., . . . ..__..._... - ,.....413
     lation to peace, to God. So travels the Church of Christ                                         Rev. H.  Hoeksema
     through great, through  the  great tribulation to  where the            OUR   DOCTRINE  -
     fountains are ever  flowing.                                                          The Boek' of Revelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
                                                                                                      Rev. H.  Hoeksema
         1  wil1  admit that you  wil1 keep  my body under the power         F
     of death: it is but for a short period.  After  al1 God's people         ROM HOLY WRIT -
                                                                                           Exposition of Matthiw 24 and 25 (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..__...............  417
     have died in  faiih and inherited the  promises,  God  shali                                     Rev. G. Lubbers                                                         i
     quicken  our  mortal bodies  thro'ugh the  same  Holy Ghost that        1~ HIS FEAR -
     clwelleth in US.            .~                                                        Freedom From Fear (G ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  419
         Al1 this has made me, a sadder but a  wiser man. So, 1                                      Rev. J. A. Heys
     would  kindly ask you  to.  letive me  .the characteristics of the      CONTENDING FOR  THE  FAITH  -
     pilgrim.  1  am-a  stranger as my  fathers  were.  Indeed, 1  am                      The Church and the Sacraments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .._._.......  421
     a  pilgrim  and 1 am a'stranger  ;, 1  can tarry, 1  can tarry but a                     R e v .   H .   Veldman
     bolitary  night. Do not detain me, for God's sake, do  nat              THE  VOICE OF  OUR  FA-  -
     de&in  me for 1  m«st  come  out of the great tribulation. God                        The Canons of Dordrecht.                                                 _.. . . . . .                                                    ,423
     beckons  me, His angels would serve me on the way  ; Christ's                                    Rev. H. C.  Hoeksema
     voice 1 hear and His sweetly  calling  voice sounds ever more           DECENCY  AND ORDER -
     urgent : 1 must go  hpme  !                                                           The Moderamen _.                                                  _.                      _. .                                            ,425
                                                                                                      Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg
         Never `more" to roam.                                               ALL ARom& US -
                                                               G. V.                       Reaffirming the Reformation.. . .                                                               ,.        __.        ._        __, ,427
I                                                                                            R e v .   M .   S c h i p p e r
                                                                             FEATURE  ARTICLE -
                                                                                           The Angel of Jehovah . . . . . ..__....................................................                                                   1429
                           ANNOUNCEMENT                                                               Rei. A. A.  Mulder
                                                                             CONTRIRIJTIONS  -
         The congregation of South-West Protestant  Reformed                               Missionary Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . :.........____.,..  431
     Church now worships in its own  building located at 2019                                        Rev:  G. Lubbers
     Porter Street; S. W., at the corner of Porter and Meyer                               Report of the Westeim  Ladies' League _______._..,.~....................  431
     Streets  (formerly  occupied by the Beverly Christian  Re-                                      Mrs. H. J. Blankespoor ,
     formcd,, Church) .


412                                            T H E   STAN,DARD   .BEARER

                                                                         received  in  the  communion  of  om churches. In order to
              EDITORIALS                                                 acquaint  om-  reaclers with the entire decision in  +a this mat-
                                                                         ter, and  also to  cause  them to understand why  this  became
                                                                         a synodical matter and coulcl not be finished in Classis West,
                       Our Synod of 1958                                 we here quote  from the report of the  Mission  Board:
                                                                            "Last November we  received  a request from the  Reformed
       If  1  am not mistaken, the Synod of the Protestant  Re-          Hope Church of  Loveland  requesting  affiliation with  om
formed Churches  that  assembled  in the First Protestant  Re-           churches as a congregation with  its consistory continuing in
formed Church of Grand Rapids,  Mich.,  wil1 go down in                  office. At  that  time the  Mission  Committee advised them
the  annals  of history, if not as one of the most important,            that `since they clesire to affiliate  with the Protestant  Re-
nevertheless, as one of the most  pleasant  and harmonious               formed Churches as a congregation with a consistory  contin-
synods of  om churches.                                                  uing in office, this lies beyond the  jurisdiction  of the  com-
   `This does not  mean that we always  agreed  on everything            mittee, and therefore we advise them to appeal to Classis
that was proposed, for we did  nat.                                      West. The  mission   committee is not mandated to  receive
   `But it does  mean, in the first place, that there was a  goed        into the association of  om chmches established churches
spirit, the spirit of love for the truth  and of love for one            with established consistories. (Cf. Constitution of the  Mis-
another and, therefore, that we richly experienced  the  guid-           sion Committee)  .'
ante of the  Holy Spirit.                                                    "In  March, the consistory of  Loveland informed  tbe
       In the  second place, it  also  means that there was  a  braad    Mission   `Committee  that Classis West had referred the mat-
and thorough discussion of  al1 the matters that were called             ter of  afhliation with our churches to this Synod, and  also
to the attention of synod, a discussion in which the  wholc              asked  LIS  what their relationship was to  the  Mission   Com-
synod participated.                                                      mittee and to  om missionary during the  `few intervening
       Moreover, there were several important matters  brought           months before Synod  meets. The  Mission  Committee  in-
to the attention of synod that had to be and that were decided.          formed  them   :
   The synod held its opening and prayer service on  Tues-                  "  ` (1) That  they are advised to abide by the decision of
day evening, June 3, in  the auditorium of the First Prot-               Classis West and present their appeal to our next Synod.
estant  Reformed  Church of Grand Rapids. This service was                   "  ` (2) That Rev. Lubbers  wil1 advise  them  in matters
led by the  Rev.. G. Vos, vice president of the 1957 synod.              that  may arise in the interim.
Normally it would have been the  calling of  the president, the              "  ` (3  j  That  the  Mission   Comniittee   wil1  recommend  to
Rev. C.  Hanko? to conduct  the service, but the  latter  was            Synod that they be  accepted  into our denomination without
rather seriously ill  and, therefore, the vice president had to          d e l a y . '
take his place. In  this  connection,  1  may  remark  that the              "Thus  we  inform Synod that the only reason  why the
Rev.  Hanko is far on  the way to recovery, in  fact, so far that        Mission   Committee  referred the matter of affiliation to the
for a little while he could attend one of the later sessions of          next meeting of Classis West was  the uncommon request for
synod. The Lord has heard  om prayers and we are  al1 glad               affiliation as a congregation. The  Mission  Committee is
and thankful.                                                            mandated to organize new congregations, but never  faced  a
       In that prayer service the Rev. Vos preached on Psalm             situation like this before. We  also are ready to accept them
18:1, 2: "1  wil1 love thee, 0 Lord,  my strength.  The Lord             as a congregation into our denomination  having had  con-
is  my rock, and  my fortress, and  my deliverer  ; my God, my           tactwith them for the past few years through  om missionary
strength, in  whom 1  wil1 trust;  my buckler, and the horn of           and other visiting ministers. We heartily  recommend  that
my salvation, and  my high tower." He  emphasized   espe-                they be áccepted by this Synod."
cially that God is the rock of His people and that, therefore,               This  advice was adopted by synod by unanimous vote as
we  can trust in  Him and  rely  upon  Hinì in life and in death.        was to be expected. A telegram was sent to the congregation
       On Wednesday  morning   the- regular sessions of synod            in  Loveland  welcoming   them  in our midst,  .and a reply to
began.  It was decided to meet  every day,  except  Saturday,            this  .was  received  by synod on Tuesday.
from 9 to 12 and from 1  :30 to 5 o'clock,  except  that on  Mon-            The Standard Bearer  also  welcomes  om  latest sister  con-
day our meetings began at 1  :30. The synod was through                  gregation in  om  midst.  We pray for the blessing of our God
with its work at five o'clock, Wednesday, June ll.                       upon  them  and hope that they continue to stand and be
       1  wil1 not describe the  werk  of the synod in detail. 1         faithful to  the Protestant Reformed truth.  May they  also
rather  confine myself to some of its highlights.                        grow in the knowledge and  grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
 .- One of these  highlights was  undoubtedly the reception                  Another matter of interest that created  considerable   dis-
of the congregation of Loveland,  Colo. Our missionary, the              cussion was the Foreign  Mission report. What the  discus-
Rev. G. Lubbers, labored faithfully in that area, instructing            sion was about  may readily be gathered from  the report of
the people of the  Loveland church  thoroughly in the  prin-             the  committee  of  pre-advice  on this matter which reads as
ciples of the Protestant Reformed truth before they could  te            follows :


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                    413

      "Re  Point 11 of this report:                                        labor really church extension work? Finally, it is hardly
       "1. That in our judgment the definition and description             correct to let foreign  mission   werk  be determined by  geo-
   given' by the committee is inadequate because  it  conflicts            graphical boundaries. Especially in our day this is virtually
   with the  usus loquendi (the common use of  the word-H.H.)              impossible.
   of the term `Foreign  Mission' and further it is incomplete for :          At  any  rate, the  synod, felt that the committee had  nat
       "a: According to this definition, if  mission  work were            made things  clear and had not finished its work.  It,  there-
   performed  by our churches today in the  nation of Israel, this         fore,  mandated  the  same committee stil1 to do so and report to
                                                                           the nest synod.
   could  nat be called `Foaeign  Mission  Work.'                              One other matter of  importante  and interest 1 stil1 have
       "b. It fails to take into  accomlt, in using the  terminology       space to begin  `CO   discuss in the present editorial.
   of Scripture, the falling away of a part of the Gentile Church             It concerns the important question of a new translation
   as is evident from the  fact that once-orthodox churches are            of the Bible. Concerning this matter our stated  clerk  re-
   no  longer so today.                                                    ceived the following letter, authorized by the Synod of the
     "2. That in our  judgment  the distinction `Church  Exten-            Christian Reformecl church :
   sion  Werk and  `Mission  Werk' should be used. By the                                                                       Feb. 20, 1958
   fermer  is meant that  werk  that proceeds  from the local  estab-         Dear Sir:
   lished church.  (Question  15 of Church Visitors' questions.)              You or  some of your  denomination or organization  may
   By the  latter is meant that work that proceeds  from the               have  -received  a letter like the one enclosed, within the last
   churches (Church Order, Art. 51). If further distinction in             year and a half.
   the  latter term is  .desired, we suggest that distinction.  `Domes-       The Christian  Reformed  Synod of June 1956  mandated
   tic' and `Foreign'  mission  werk  as  determined  by  geograph-        om- committee to make inquiries of that letter to which our
   ical boundaries. Ground : This is  evidently' the  USLIS  loquendi      committee subsequently  received   many  replies, which our
   of the term."                                                           committee presented to the committee of  pre-advice  of the
      `The reader  wil1  notice that the question before  the  com-        Synocl of 1957, together with our printed report to that
   mittee of  preadvice  and alsó before synod concerned  chiefly          synod.
   the  meaning of the term "Foreign Missions" as  wel1 as its                The Christian Reformed Synod of June 1957  con-
   contents.                                                               tinued  -om-  committee with the  mandate to report to the
       The  whole matter was not  clear to the original  commit-           Synod of 1958.
   tee as  became evident  from their report,  nor  tias it, to  my           The committee has a  preliminary  draft prepared to re-
   mind;  clear to the committee, of pre-advice.                           port to the Synod of 1958.
       Thus, for instance, we  may  ask the question whether the               But we should like to have up to date information  con-
   distinction which the committee of  pre-advice   makes between          cerning your denomination or organization or favorable  indi-
   church  ektension and  mission  work is correct. According              viduals. The following questions  may be helpful, to  indicate
   to the committee, church extension work belongs only to the             the  information  sought, but  any reply  wil1 be most  welcome,
   local congregation, while  mission   werk  (foreign) belongs            as  wel1 as  any elaborations.
   to the churches in  general. But is this true  ? As to the                  1. Does your  denomination now take a favorable or  un-
   former,  the `committee  seems to base its view only on  ques-          favorable attitude toward cooperation in this project, if our
   tion 15 for the church visitors. But this is a  mistake.  For the       Synod in June, 1958, should favor this  cproject?
   question to which reference is made reads as follows: "Is                  2. Does your organization now take a favorable or  un-
   the  ,congregation   busy in the extension of  God's  kingdom,          favorable attitude toward cooperation in this project, if our
   especially in the promotion of missions to the best of its              Synod in June, 1958, should favor it?
:* abilify  ?" This certainly does  nat sound as if the local con-            3.  Can  you  mention an individual or  individ-ls,   your-
   gregation  may only be  busy in local church extension  werk            self or another or others, willing and able to cooperate in this
   and not  $n foreign missions. Nor do 1 personally believe               project,  ii  our Synod in June, 1958, should  favor this
   this. There is no reason, to  my  mind, why the local  congre-          project ?
   gation  may not  cal1 and send  out its own missionary if it has        If possible, an answer would be appreciated between
   the  power  to do so. It is true that Art. 51 of the Church             March  1 and  March 15,  when our report  goes to press,  hut
   Order speaks of  the  missionary work of the churches as  fol-          later  replies  wil1  also be reported to the committee of  pre-
   10~s: "The missionary work of the churches is regulated by              advice of our Synod of June, 1958. Enclosed find a  self-
   the genera1 synod in a  mission  order." It is  also true that,         adclressed envelope.
   usually,  the.  churchess in genera1 support this work. But  al1                            Gratefully and fraternally yours,
   this does  n6t  mean that  you  can make a distinction  between                        Martin J. Wyngarden, Corresponding Secretary.
  .chur;ch  extension work and foreign  mission  work as is  de-               Space forbids me to  comment  further on this question.
   fined above. Besides, do we not  regard  Rev. Lubbers as the                Next  time.. therefore, the Lord  willing.
   missionary of our churches and is  nat the character of his                                                                         `H.H.


 414                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                        manifestatiqn of the antichrist,  Who  wil1 judge the world
           O U R   DOCTR.INE                                            in righteousness,  Who  wil1 by His Spirit  cause the people
                                                                  1( whom the  Father has given Him to rise to glory. It is the
                                                                        Lamb  Who thus completes the  kingdom of God. And  when
            THE  BOtDK  OF REVELATION                        .          al1 shall have been  completed,  then the Lamb shall deliver
                                                                        that  kingdom to the  Father,  and, subjecting Himself, shall
                          CHAPTER 111                                   eternally be at the head of  al1 His people,  .leading them unto
                                                                        fountains of living  wat& forever and ever. So is salvation.
        The Song of the  Redeewsed and of the Angels                    Man and the world are the object, never the subject of it.
                                                                        Is it a wonder that in the new world,  when  al1 this shall be
                       Revelation 7 :lO-12                              clearly understood, there shall be no more  controversy   about-
                                                                        these truths, but  al1 shall sing with  al1 their heart and mind,
    Man is  powerful,  man is willing, man is essentially good          "Salvation,  - this  completed  work of salvation,  - is unto
-and is by  nature  a  fnt subject of that  kingdom of God in           our God which sitteth  upon  the throne, and is unto the
Christ. Hence we must simply believe in  `the power and the             Lamb forevermore"  ?
goodness `of man,  and set  to work to realize the  kingdom
and to redeem the world from the  curse  and  the  effects                 The angels respond in one grand eulogy. They  fa11  be-
of imperfection.                                                        fore the throne on their faces, and they worship. And what
    Over against this stands the song of the redeemed in the            is the espression of their hearts in this worship ? "Amen :
new world.                                                              Blessing, and glory, and  wisdom,  and thanksgiving, and
  ._ They do not sing, "Salvation is unto our God and man."             honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and
But they sing, "Salvation unto  om- God which sitteth  upon             ever. Amen." This is a seven-fold ascription of glory to the
the throne, and unto the  Lamb.,'  NO doubt among this throng           Most High. To the relation between their song and that of
there are  many  who did not  confess, this in  al1 its fulness         the redeemed we have  already called your attention. It is a
while they were stil1 in the midst of the world. But npw, in            corroboration,  and at the same  time a more detailed  explana-
perfection, now their  minds have been delivered from the               tion, of what the  redeemed  have sung. The  latter have
darkness of sin and imperfection and they know as they are              shouted that salvation, that is, the  completed  work of  salva-
known,  - now they have  changed  their conception. Now they            tion as it shines forth in the new world, in the new heavens
confess  In  al1 its fulness and in  al1 its meaning that the entire    and the new earth, is the  w.ork of God and of the Lamb
work of salvation is the work of God and of Christ as the               forevermore. These angels now  si@ in  brief that therefore
Lamb that was led to the slaughter and that  overcame  and              al1 the glory and praise and  honor and  wisdom and  thanks-
was raised from the  dead. It is God  Who from  al1 eternity            giving-and power and'might that shines forth from this  new.
-gave unto Christ a people  whom  He  chose to show forth His           creation is of our God and shall be ascribed to Him forever
virtues and His power of salvation. It was God, the Triune              and ever. As in His temple you listen to the songs and sounds
God,  Who ordained the Mediator, Jesus  ,Christ the righteous,          of the new creation, you  wil1 find that notes of praise  reach
to redeem that people of His choice and to  reveal- the love            your ear. And  who is the object of  al1 this praise that  rises
and  grace of their God. It was God  Who sent that Mediator,            from the new  kingdom, from man and angel, and from  every
His only begotten Son, into the flesh at the appointed  time as         creature   7 God, and God alone. As you  iook about you in
the Lamb that would be  slain. It was the Lamb that  obeyed.            this new creation, you find that a wonderful glory shines
It was the  Lamb  Who bore the wrath of God,  Who took  upcm            forth and is reflected in and through it all. Whose glory is
Himself  al1  tlie sins of  al1 the people and  carried  them  upon     it that thus  .shin& forth from the new world  ? It is God's,
the accursed tree. It was the  Lamb  Who fulfilled the  law and         and His alone. As you  walk about in His temple,  in. this
al1 righteousness. It was the Lamb  Who blotted  out  al1 our           temple of your God, you  wil1  mor6 and more  notice   how  al1
sins and transgressions, and  Who,  having fulfilled all, rose          speaks of  wisdom  and  highest  intelligente.   .Whose  is this  wis-
to glory on the third day. It was the Lamb  Who ascended                dom ? It is the  wisdom  of God, and His alone.  Pou  wil1  notice
into highest heaven and  received   al1 power in heaven and on          that under the leadership of the Lamb  al1 creation serves one
earth,  Who realized His  kingdom spiritually by pouring  out           and only one, day and night, and gives  honor to just one.
the Spirit of  grace. It was the Lamb  Who through that                 Who is that one before  whom   al1 bow in humble worship  ?
 Spirit regenerated His  ceople,  ca'led  them  out of darkness         It is God, and God alone. From the  bosom of  creati&  rises
into His  marvelous light,  Who gave them the true and                  a note of thanksgiving and heartfelt gratitude, speaking of
saving faith,  Who justified  them  and sanctified them,  Who           love and of  grace   aid of  mercy that is revealed. For  whom
protects  them and leads them in the way of life in this present        is that note of thanksgiving? It has its object in the Most
dispensatiòn.  It is the Lamb  Who  receives the sealed book,           High God, and in Him alone. Power and talent and mighty
and opens seal  after seal,  Who  controls   al1 things in the          strength is now beautifully revealed, and shines forth  har-
 present world. It is the  Lamb  Who  wil1  overcome  the last          moniously   from  al1 the new creation. It is the power and


                                                T H E   STANDARD   BEARER                                                                    415

strength and the glorious virtue that belongeth to the  Al-                   In the  second part of this  chapter  we were shown the glory
mighty God,  Who sitteth  upon  the throne. Thus it is and  wil1              of  these  ihat had  .been faithful even in the  midst of the great
be in  t& new and eternal  economy of  al1 things. Thus shines                tribulation and had their garments washed in the blood of
forth the new world. And God's conscious and rational  crea-                  the Lamb. Because,  however,  this seventh  chapter  is an
tures take  notice of  iti all. They find in it  al1 a reflection of          episode, we must now again interpret as if that  chapter  had
the glory of God. And being conscious of this, they sing, sing                not been  written,  and we must connect the eighth  chapter
the new song, sing in heavenly notes of  music, sing with  al1                with the last part of  chapter   six. The  -opening of the seals
their heart and mind enraptured by so  much glory :  "Salva-                  was interrupted for a moment, but is now  continued.  You
tion is of the Lord  Who sitteth  upon  the throne, and unto                  wil1 remember that we explained the first  six seals as  already
the  Lamb." And  al1 the mighty angels  join in the song of                   reaching the  very end of  time. These seals showed  US, first
the  redeemed  as they shout: "Amen, yea, Amen. Praise,                       of all, the four  horses,  or horsemen, that were let loose  upon
and glory, and  wisdom,  and  honor, and thanksgiving, and                    the earth for  the completion of the  kingdom of God. The
power, and  might,  be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen."                 first horse presents the progress of the  kingdom as it is  com-
                                                                              pletely  victorieus  over  al1 things. The  second horse presents
                                                                              discord and  war of nations. The third horse represents  dis-
                            P A R T   TWO                                     harmony  in the  social world because  Of the tremendous con-
                                                                              trast between  rich and poor. And  theefourth  horse portrays
                           Revelation 8 :l-6                                  the terrible effect of death. The fifth seal revealed to  US the
                                                                              cry of the saints that have been  slain for the Word of God
       The Presentation of tke  P~~a.yer.s of the  Sa.ints                    and as  they  cry and long for the day of judgment. And the
                            CHAPTER  IV                                       sixth seal, finally, showed  US the tremendous upheaval in the
                                                                              entire physical universe. With this last seal the seventh  now.
            1. And  when he had opened the `seventh  seal,  there             connects  itself immediately.
            was  silence  in heaven  about  .the  space   oflhalf an  hom.
           ,2. And 1  saw,  the  se+en  angels  which stood before                It  may be observed that those interpreters  who take the
            God;  arid to them were given seven  trumpets.                    seals as being strictly  successive, so that the one is not o'pened
            3. And  another  angel  came and stood. at the  altar,            before the preceding one has been finished, must run into
            having a golden  censer;  and there was given  unto him           serious  -difficulty as soon as they  come to the  interpretation
            much  intense,  that he should offer it  with the prayers         of the seventh seal. It cannot be denied that the  sixth seal
            of all saints  upon the golden  altar which was before            already took  LIS to the  very eve of the  final judgment, to the
            the throne.                                                       end of  time.  ,For  it is evident that it meant nothing else
            4. And  thé smoke of the  intense,  which  came with              than  .that the entire physical  universe was  subjected  to
            the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God  out            tremendous   changes  which  immediately precede the coming
            of the angel's .hand.                                             of the Lord. Now for those that  interpret  the seals as strictly
            5. And the angel took the  censer,  and  filled  it with
            fire of the  altar,  and  tast it into the earth: and there       successive this sixth seal in its fullest realization  places  US
            were'  voices,  and  thunderings,  and lightnings, and an         before the  very day of judgment.  Bit  how then  can  the
            earthquake.                                                       Seventh seal picture events that  merely follow the things  re-
            6. And the seven angels which had the seven  trum-                vealed in the sixth ? In the last mentioned  seal heaven and
            pets prepared themselves to sound.                                earth have  already been shaken, the sun has been darkened,
                                                                              and the  moon has been  changed   to blood.  How  can that which
   What we have in the words of the text quoted  above, is                    is revealed in connection with the seventh seal stil1 take
indeed  a most beautiful and  also a most significant passage                 place if it is supposed to follow in  time  upon the sixth seal ?
of the Book of Revelation. At  the  same  time it is a  portion               As we know, this seventh  seal is revealed as-seven trumpets.
which is not so easy to understand, and which  wil1 require                   And again, the last of these trumpets is dissolved into seven
our  closest  and most prayerful attention. It  wil1 be necessary,            vials, or bowls, of wrath.  But the first  six of these seven
in the first  place, that we understand the connection of this                trumpets  speak of things that take  place on earth, in the
part with the preceding. If you  wil1 refer to the preceding                  physical universe, as  wel1 as in the world of men. Therefore
part of our exposition, you  wil1 find that we explained the                  it does not and cannot presuppose that  al1 that has been  re-
fermer  chapter in genera1 as. an episode, as something  &at                  vealed in connection with the  sixth seal has been finished.
is  placed between. From the end of the sixth  chapter  the                   There is but one possible explanation. The seals do not
book does not  merely continue its course of thought, but  be-                present a  successive order of events  merely,  but they over-
fore continuing  it presents a separate  vision. This  was  chap-             lap. They  aren at the same  time contemporaneous and  suc-
ter seven. In that  chapter we had the  vision  that showed                   cessive.  Al1 the seals are  upon   the earth from the  very  be-
US the safety of the people of God in the midst of trouble                    ginning of this  dispensation.   But there is this  differente,
and tribulation and judgment, as these are to  come into the                  that as  time  advances,  the trumpets and the vials shall force
world, in the sealing of the'one hundred  forty-four thousand.                themselves more and more to the foreground and  draw the


 416                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

 attention of men. The seven  tru,nlpets, therefore, do not               interpretations have been  offered, some even going the length         .
begin  where   the sixth seal ended, but  rather have begun  al-          of explaining that this  silence exhausts the  contents of the
ready with the first seal, only revealing to  US different forces         entire seventh seal, and that it simply teaches  US that the
at  werk  more in detail, and that too, according to the symbol           seventh seal must  remain a mystery to  US until the day of
of the trumpets. The blast of the  trumpet  forces our  atten-            judgment. But we  wil1 not  tire your attention by  al1 these
tion especially to the  fact that judgment is coming.                     different interpretations. To  US it seems that if we  merely
                                                                          allow the scene to impress our  minds,  the  silence is  very
    However,  this seventh seal does not only reveal to  US the           easily explained.  It is connected with the  main theme,
seven trumpets, but  also something else. And to  this we                 namely, with the  fact that the prayers of the saints are
must first of  al1  cal1 your attention.                                  offered with the  intense  from the  altar to God. If we take
                                                                          this into consideration, it seems to  US that the explanation
    Let  US first of  al1  take a close look at the text we quoted        of this  silence must not be sought in the  importante  of the
above, so that we  may have a  clear idea of the symboiism                events that are now to follow, so that the angels and  al1 that
that is  implied. For that we have  symbolism  in this passage            are in heaven stand spell-bound and, as it were,  dumb-
is  ,very plain, and  needs no  proof. The passage speaks of the          founded and holding their breath because of what  wil1 hap-
opening of the seventh seal. It calls  US first of  al1 to heaven,        pen. If that were the case, we  can see no reason why they
to see what takes place there. In heaven we find an  altar,               have not been spell-bound and why they did not hold their
and trumpets given to angels, and  incetise, and smoke, and               breath before. For the events  pictured  in  al1 the seals and
a golden censer, and fire.  When  the  fire is thrown  upon  the          al1 the trumpets are of  sufficient   importante  and  significante
earth, it  creates   voices and thunders and lightnings and an            for  al1 the'inhabitants of heaven to stand amazed. And there-
earthquake. Hence, the presentation of the matter is  pictured            fore, we  rather explain this  silence as standing in immediate
in  such a way that we need not guess whether the language                connection with the  specific  nature  of the scene here  pictured
is  symbolical  or  real. And  this is always  the case in the Book       to  US. It  simply  means that it is  the  silence of  reverence,
of Revelation.                                                            occasioned by the solemn occasion. It is an hour of prayer
    The  text, then, speaks, in the first place, of a  silence in         in heaven. The prayers of the saints are to be offered to
he+Gen for the  space of about half an hour. That is the first            Him that sitteth  upon  the throne. And the solemnity of the
thing  that  strikes John's attention. In  the.  second place,' he        occasion so impresses  al1 that stand by that they are silent
sees that there are seven angels standing before the throne               for half an hom-. Hence, the half hom of  silence has no
of God, and  .thai they  receive seven trumpets. But they do              further  significante than that it befits the scene of the  offer-
not blow these  trúmpets   immedi~tely   ; on the contrary, they          ing up  0 the prayers of  al1 the saints  atid  al1 that is  con-
reverently  keep  silence until something else has been finished.         nected with it. The transactions here  pictured, the  comtiis-
A&+er  angei  comes and  appróaches  the golden  altar that               sion  to- the seven angels and to the one angel  who offers the
Stands before the throne of God. He  bends over it, as  itV               prayers of the saints and  who  casts  f& to the earth would
were for the purpose of serving.  He  carries  a golden censer            take about the  space of half an  hóur.  And during this entire
in his hand, but as yet the censer  is without  contents.  Pres-          transaction there was profound and reverent  silence.
ently,  however,  he  receives  much  intense  in that censer, and            In the  second  place, we must  pay attention for a moment
the  commission  is given him that he add the  intense  to the            to the seven angels with their seven trumpets. We shall have,
prayers of  al1  th&  saints,  and kindling the  intense  with the        of course, occasion to refer to these again. But since these
fire  from  the  altar,   cause it to ascend with the prayers of the      angels stand by reverently while the prayers of the saints are
saints to  Him that sitteth  upon the throne. The angel  obeys.           being offered  and. wait with the execution of the commission
And  having  caused  the perfume of the  intense to rise to  Him          given unto  them   til1 this heavenly hour  Ff worship is finished,
that sitteth  upon  the throne, he takes fire from the  same  altar       we must  also now take a look at  ,them. They are described
and  casts  it  upon  the earth. The  result  is  voices and  thunder-    to  US as the seven angels that stand before God. Mark you
ings and lightnings and an  earthquake, while at  the same                well, they are not  merely seven angels that now  came before
time. the seven angels prepare  themselves  to blow the  trum-            God; but they are evidently  the  seven angels that always
p e t s .                                                                 stand before the  throne  of God, the well-known seven angels
                                                                          whose special place is before God. We know, of course, that
    SUch  is the scene portrayed in  the,text we are discussing.          also in the angel-world there is order and gradation, so that
   It is evident on the  very face of it that the  mairì theme of         there are different classes of angels. Scripture speaks of
this passage is the presentation of the prayers of  al1 the saints.       archangels as  wel1 as common angels ; and Paul speaks  con-
Al1 the rest belongs to the attending  circumsta&es  as far as            cerning the angel world of dominions, principalities, and
this present scene is concerned. To the prayers of  all  fhe              powers. So, evidently, there is a special  class of angels that
saints  belongs;  in the first place, the half hour of  silence in        always stands before God.
heaven. About this half hour of  silence  al1 kinds  oi different                                                                      H.H.


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D -   B E A R E R                                                    417

  ll                                                                       mattkrs.  Besides these passages from Luke and Mark there
              F R O M   HOLY  .WRlT                                  ll is  also the significant passage in 11 Thess. 2:1-5, which ought
                                                                           to be  read by the attentive reader of these lines. This  latter
                                                                           passage illustrates the  very great necessity of the warning
              Exposition of Matthew 24 and 25                              by Jesus in the passage of Matthew which we are now  con-
                                                                           sidering. Shall the church  truly be  streng  and courageous,
                              :    111.                                    and patient to the end, then the truth, which is taught here
                                                                           by the Lord Jesus, should sink deeply into our hearts.
                           (Matthew 24 :5-9)
                                                                               After the disciples  ask this great eschatological question,
        As we  have- attempted to point  out and explain in the            we are told in Matthew, that  "Jesus answered and said."
   former essays, we are here dealing with the great  eschato-             This has in it a certain grandeur and solemnity which should
  logica1  address  of Jesus to His disciples on the Mount of              not be overlooked. Especially since we  read in the synoptic
   Olives.                                                                 Gospel of Mark "Jesus  bega%   to  speak."  It was the  begin-
                                                                           ning of a great  discourse.  The disciples are  silent. They
        We have pointed  out the  historie  occasion of this  address,     only listen. It is a  historie  address,  touching. the  very genius
   spoken by Jesus at the  end of the Old Testament  dispensa-             of history, as it is the unfolding of the Counsel of God, the
   tion and standing on the threshold of the New Testament                 things which  must  come to pass: In this history the church
   era in which  al1 things  wil1 be led so that they are  al1  sub-       is not a spectator of a drama of history, simply sitting on
   jected unto Christ, the First-Born Son, and  delivered  to              the  side-lines.  She is, on the contrary, in the midst of the
. the  Father,  that He  may be  al1 and in all!                           world. In the world she is, yet not of the world. And in
        The disciples  sense that great things are in the offing.          this history she is tempted from  every  side, in the  pulsating
   Hence, they  come to Jesus privately. They  come with the               and throbbing life of the nations! The actuality of the
   pregnant question :  When shall these things be, and what               church  militant  `is here.  very realistically kept in mind.  His-
   wil1 be the  sign of thy  Parousia?  and-of the consummation of         tory is the battle-field of the church. And  the battle-line is
  the ages? It appeared from our former article that in the                not between the nations, but it is most emphatically drawn
   cluestion : the "sign of thy Parousia" and "the end of the              between the  .church   and the world, between those  -who are
  ages" we are not instructed concerning  two  chronologically             of Christ, and between  the  false  christs and those  who  fellow
   separate events, but with one and  the  saqtte event. It is one         after them !
   event viewed from two different  aspects. The  Pa,rousia   is the           Such is the battle-line!
   consmmation  of tlze ages!
                                                                               Let  US keep this truth in  mind. It is the truth of the
        It is  wel1 to  notice carefully the answer of Jesus to this       antithetical position which the world takes overagainst the
   cluestion. He does not oversimplify  the answer. He does not            tthetical (positive) position of the church in relationship  to
   give a simple, factual and predictive answer, giving year and           Christ  ; the church is `the foundation and pillar of the truth in
   date. He  rather gives a word which is profitable for  in-              the midst of the  trouble, turmoil and unrest of the life of
   struction, correction in righteousness,  that  the  waan of God         peoples and nations. And the church must not be moved from
   may be thoroughly furnished unto  every good work. He                   her hope of the heavenly  Kingdom, and of the way of patience
   gives the prophetic word of  Daniel,  or  rather he Iets the            and alertness to the  final Parousia and the consummation
   light of prophecy really shine  unto  the perfect day. And he           of tlie.  ages !
   does so, in  such a manner, that the  .church of the ages is
   warned to  walk  in the light that shines  unto that day.                   Hence the key-note of this entire  address seems to be:
                                                                           Beware  thnt  `no  ma.n deceive  y`ozl! For  such is  indeed the
        We  notice that the text in Matthew reads as follows:              nature  of the battle of the church. The foe works with the
   "14nd   Jesus  amwered and said  unto  them,  Take heed  thaD           art and  cunning of deception. The foe would have the
  no man  deceive   you.  FOY  many  Aal1  co?me   in  w+y  nar+te, my-    church fail to observe the prophetic word of the  real Christ
  ing, I  ,ayL  Christ: and  sha~ll  deceîve  mmy.  And ye  shll           of God, and foilow her pretense of being "saviors of the
   hear of wam and YWLOYS of wars: sce tkat ye be ,not troubled:           world." Hence, we  wil1  needs have to have the  loins of our
  for al1 these &ngs  must come to pass. b,ut the end is not yet.          mind girt up and be  truly sober! For the world is not the
  For  nation   shll  1-ise against  natiion,  and  kingdom   against      victim of misinformation. The prophetical word is known.
   kingdonz: and  therc  shall be  famines, and  sa;vthqzt.akes in         However,  this Word of God is not wanted; it is deliberately
   divers  places.   Al1 these are the  beghning  of sorrows.J'            denied and rejected.
        In the Gospels of both Mark  and Luke we have  substan-
  tially the same wording as here in Matthew. In those pas-                     The world, the children of darkness,  come with the highest
  sages  where  these Gospels shed added light  upon  the passage          possible pretense. They  come to do things in the name of
  under consideration we shall  cal1 special attention to these            Christ. They are the  false  christs.  They are  the false church.


418                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

In the name of Christ they would  tast  out devils, and  per-             8 of the same Psalm, "God reigneth over the  heathen: God
form  many wonderful works of  making this world  "a better               sitteth  upon  the throne of his  holiness."  For do we not
place to live in." They are the false heralds  who  woukl                 further sing : "God is our refuge and strength, a  very present
usher in a new and  lasting.  era of "peace on earth." The                belp in trouble. Therefore  wil1 we not fear, though the
goal is to bring about the  "kingdom of God"  upon  earth.                earth be removed, and though the mountains be  carried  into
They  desire no consummation of  the ages, nor do they look               the midst of the sea. Though the waters thereof roar and be
for and love the Parousia of Christ. They are enemies of                  troubled, though the mountains  shake  with the swelling
Christ and of His church ; workers of iniquity are they. Yet,             thereof"  ! Psalm 46  :l-3.
they  come as angels of light. It is the lie :  al1 these things  wil1
1 give thee, if thou wilt worship me. Matt. 3  :S-ll.                         Thus  the church heeds the injunction of Christ, "see that
                                                                          ye be not troubled," that is, do not cry  out and scream  with
    In our day there are  many with these post-millennia1                 fright, do not be terrified  with the terror of the wicked. For
dreams. But that is as Jesus, said it would be.  "Many   wil1             al1 these things "must  come to pass," And this "must" is
come in my name" and  "deceive  many."  :B,ut that is not                 because God sitteth on the throne. He alone determines the
strange. Did not the  Devil  come to Eve as  an angel of light?           times and seasons, and the destiny of a  nation, Acts  17:26.
Did he not  pretend  that God was not wise and good and  justi            Christ is given  al1 power in heaven and on earth. The
in His dealings  ? So  it is  ' in the history of the church in the       counsel of God demands that there be wars. and rumors of
world ! For these  "many that  come" and that, too "in the                war. And  also the  justice-of  God demands that the nations
name of Christ" do not rise  out of the nations, but they                 be  punished with a rod of iron. For God is in heaven, and
arise in  the  bosom of the church in the midst of the world.             performs  His good-pleasure and  executes  His mighty  judg-
They are the false church, hypocrites, and  al1  these  who               ments !
love and  teach the lie! They preach a  social gospel which is
no gospel! It is pure humanism. God is not in  al1 their                     When  we see  al1 these things as church we -must not be
thoughts! Think of  the promises of politicians in our day.               deceived to think that the end is  soon, that it is "by and by" !
Think of the  "cold  war"  ! How is this not proclaimed, to               God has determined otherwise. He that sits in the heavens
be a  "war to end wars." And churches in their synods  ex-                shall laugh and have the nations in derision, and  wil1 vex
press themselves on these issues and "make the front-pages"               them in His sore displeasure. These judgments, these wars
of the daily papers ! And  many are deceived thereby !                    and rumors of wars, must work together for the good of them
                                                                          who love God,  who are the called according to His purpose.
   But God is not  mocked. God's Word shall stand. He  wil1               Romans 8  :28-31.
perform   al1 His good-pleasure. Therefore, be `not deceived
by the words of bread-eating prophets.                                       And what is God's purpose ? It is to magnify the "little
                                                                          stone"   which  rolls down the mountain to fill the  entire earth,
   Listen to the prophetic word which  resounds to our ears               Dan. 2  :34. He  wil1 raise his Son,  King of  Zion. He  wil1
from  every page of Scripture. Al1 these things must  come                declare of the  Decree, Psalm 2. For the First-Born Son
to pass. What things? The answer is  :  "zet'zrs and  rz~~ors             must be born. The grave had birth-pangs, Acts 2. Jesus
of wars. The church shall hear of wars and rumors of wars!                arose the First-born of  al1  creatures  as the First-born from
These wars  wil1 be near and far. They  wil1 cover the entire             the  dead. And so  al1 things stand in `the service of God's
globe.  They  wil1 not be the exception but the rule ! Always             glorification as the First-born Son, the  %irst-born  among
one  nation  shall rise against the other. Babel and its  con-            many brethren, Col.  1:15-18;  Rom.  8:28-30.
fusion is the  pattern  of' world events.                                     Hence,  al1 the judgments in the world are  birth-pangs.
   Yes, these events  .touch the life of  God's people. It  en-           They are birth-sorrows. They increase in rapidity and in
tails our sons going off to  war, taxes, etc. It  means a  cer-           intensity as history draws to a close. These  wil1 issue not
tain constant battle in the field of economics. The Red horse             in the false dreams of a post-millennia1 world, but they  wil1
runs over the entire earth, as do  also the Black horse and               issue in the Parousia of Christ and the consummation of the
the Pale horse. And they do so  upon  the  command  and the               ages,  where  Christ  wil1 be the exalted head of  al1 things,  bot11
authority of  Him  who. sitteth on the throne, and  who has               in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen.
given power to His Christ to break the seals of the Book.
Revelation 6.                                                                 It  wil1 require  many birth-pangs in history. These are
                                                                          b,ut the  beginning.  History  wil1 run a long course.  Many
   Hence, the church sings in joyful  triumph,   when she                 wars and  rumors  of wars have been. .There  shall be more.
hears of wars and rumors of wars:  "0  clap your hands  al1               But let  US  lift.our heads in the certain and joyful hope, that
ye people  ;  -shout unto God with the  voice of triumph. For             when the "Man-Child" is exalted at God's right hand in
the LORD most high is terrible  ; he is a great  King over  al1           His Parousia, the sorrows of history  wil1 be remembered no
the earth. He shall subdue the people under  US, and the  na-             more !
tions  under`  om-  feet," Psalm  47:1-3. And, again in verse                                                                            G. L.


                                             T H E   STANDARD.   B E A R E R                                                           419

                                                                        were a  creature  ancl not God. As we wrote before, to fear
              IN          HIS FEAR                            -         Him surely  means  that we know that He is God. Of course
                                                                        He is our  Father  Who is in heaven. Of course He loves  US
                                                                        with an exceedingly deep and unchangeable love. But in  al1
                  Freedom From Fear                                     this He remains God! It is to be understood that in this
                                                                        age  when respect for superiors is  hard to  find,  when chilclren
                            CG)                                         have no respect for their earthly fathers that  also in the
                                                                        sphere of worship  (?)  ancl things heavenly respect for our
   "Say unto God.  How terrible art Thou in Thy works  !"               Heavenly  Father is hard to find and men pride themselves on
    "0 God, Thou art terrible  out of Thy  holy  places."               their intimate relationship with Him, actually speak (  ?) to
                                                                        Him in a way which shows that they are on His leve1  -  or
    "Let them praise Thy great ancl terrible name  ; for it is          even perhaps above  .Him. The terribleness of His majesty
holy."                                                                  they know not. Trembling at His word is far from them.
    Such  is the  testimony of God in Psalm 66  :3, Psalm 68  :         They have freedom from His fear in the wrong sense.
35,  .ancl Psalm  99:3. Ancl we could multiply greatly  the                 And that is what this age in which we live clesires.. Oh,
number of passages in  Holy  Writ which declare this same               a God is a  handy  thing to have  when one gets into trouble.
truth. Job  writes, "Pair weather cometh  out of the north:             .One to  whom we  can run  when the going gets  hard ancl
With God is terrible majesty," Job 3722. Nehemiah  tells                who has more power than we is to be  clesired. A  gocl  who
the, Israelites not to be  afraid of the enemies, but "rememher         is not God is the clesire of  al1 men. There is nothing  re-
the Lord which is great ancl terrible," Nehemiah  4:14. But             ligious about that. There is nothing of the fear of the Lorcl
he speaks the same way  when he speaks of Him as the  cov-              in that. But a God  Who is God in  al1 that which the word
enant God  Who loves  Hispeople  ancl looks clown  upon   them          implies is different. And  although we cannot agree with the
in mercy. He  writes,  "Ancl 1 said, 1 beseech Thee, 0 Lord             Roman Catholic  stancl that  Gocl  is the unapproachable  .one
God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth                 -ancl even Christ is the unapproachable one  except  through
covenant  and mercy for them that love Him ancl observe                 the instrumentality of Mary, we far prefer this attitude to
His  collllllancllllents," Nehemiah 1  :5. Samson's  mother  tells      the  moclern one that God is  after  al1 no  higher  than we  ancl
her husbancl,  "A man of God  came unto me,  and His  coun-             that we  may speak to Him and behave before Him in a
tenance was like the countenance of  an angel  .of God,  very           way that His  holy angels woulcl not  clare  to imitate.
terrible," Judges 13  6.  Moses  writes,  "Por the Lord your                Now in  al1 these  passagesin  which we  read that God is
God is a God of  gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a                terrible that word terrible is the  very same word from which
mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not  persons,  nor              we get the Hebrew word for fear. It does not  mean terrible
taketh  rewarcls," Deuteronomy  10:17. Or again the worcls              in the sense of dreaclful. And those  who tremble at His word
of  Moses in Deuteronomy 7  21, "Thou shalt not be affrightecl          are  nat those  who clreacl to hear that word. NO, it  means   ter-
at them : for the Lord Thy God is among you, a mighty God               rible in the sense of awe-inspiring. In  fact we have  such  a
and terrible."                                                          translation of this  very word  twuible  in Psalm  111:9  where
   However,  although this last text unclerscores what we               we  read,  ". . . holy  ancl  reverend  is His name." And then
have repeatedly pointed  out in this series on  Frsedom   ~YOM          the psalmist  goes on to  state that the fear of the  Lord, the
Fear  that  h.e  who fears-the Lord neecl not have fear of man,         reverence  ancl awe before God as  Gocl,  is the beginning of
the  fact remains that this terrible God is  also a terrible  Gocl      wisclom.
before the eyes of His  elect, sanctified people. This is  em-              Certainly we must fear God. We must do that now in this
phasized in  those~texts  which declare that these  elect,  sancti-     life  ancl we  wil1 do that presently in the life to  come.  Those
fiecl people tremble before Him. God declares in Jeremiah               who.  walk the street of gold in the New Jerusalem  wil1  live
5  22, "Fear ye not me : saith the Lord :  wil1 ye not tremble          in His fear. For then, too, He does not  cease to be  Gocl  ancl
at my presence  ?" The man  acceptable  in God's sight is  pre-         we do not become God. That relationship of Creator  and
sentecl in Isaiah 66  :í! and 5  thus, "But to this man  wil1  1        creature   wil1 remain  unto  al1 eternity. The  creature   can
look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit ancl            never become Creator or the Creator's equal. That is  abso-
trembleth at My word," ancl  "Hear the word of the Lord,                lutely impossible. Ancl it belongs to the lie of Satan,  sown
ye that tremble at His word." And the Psalmist declares in              in Paradise that man  can become like God. Therefore we
Psalm  119.:120,  "My flesh trembleth for  fear'of.Thee   ; and 1       clo not hesitate to  state that  al1 this  "chumminess,"   al1 this
am  afraid of Thy  judgment."                                           boldness before God,  al1 this attitude of equality before  Him,
   There is  al1 too  little of that consciousness of the  fact that    al1 this fearlessness to stand before His face without bowing
Jehovah is a terrible God and of that trembling before Him.             the head is a reflection of wickedness of man  when he  fel1
It is downright sickening to hear some of the sentimentality            into the cleception of Satan to think that  he could be God's
that oozes forth ancl  flows in  some- circles as though  God           equal.


 420                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D  IBIEARER

     Let that fear of reverence  ancl awe be seen in our prayers.                    wil1 and to  clo of His good pleasure. It is a sign that
The saints of olcl  fel1 prostrate on the ground in prayer before                    we have been born again with  the life which is from above,
Him. The Publican  who went home justified  dicl not dare                            that we are the chilclren of God and that He. loves  US. Then
to look  LIP  but smote his breast while  hanging his head in                        we know from this testimony that  al1 things  wil1 work  to-
shame and criecl  out for God's  mercy.  Indeed,  then, let  LIS                     gether for om- goocl and that we neecl not fear anything pres-
be afraicl to speak with God and to God as though we stand                           ent or that might arise in the future.
on equal terms with Him. Let  US retain the  Thee  and  T~w,                             Let the church, then, live in that fear of God  ancl in that
not because the words themselves contain anything spiritual                          freeclom from fear which His fear realizes. Let  ,us not live
that  yo~ ancl  ~OZU'  do not contain. But let  LIS  by these  ex-                   in the fear of what man might  desire  to do to  the Church of
press a humble  heart  that recognizes Him as God  and far                           God Let there be no catering to the carnal whims and
above  US. Let  us bow our heads  when we pray to Him.                               fancies of men  ; let there be no yielcling to the  weaknesses
Let  US fold our hands and withdraw them from earthly                                of sinful men as though we must clo these things for the
activities to be united with Him in the solemnity and  rev-                          goocl  of the church. Let there be no fear of  violente and  per-
erence of worshipping Him in prayer.  Ancl let  US  teach  OLX                       secution; of tribulation and suffering. It is the testimony of
chilclren that He is God.                                                            history  that the faithful to the truth never feared what men
     Never, of course, must that fear of the Lord be a fear of                       might do to them. They went forward in faith. They lived
being punishecl by Him in the lake of eternal torment. That                          in  the fear of  the Lord ancl refused to  .yield  ancl  tater to the
woulcl be the fear of unbelief. A  child of  Gocl must not have                      carnal  clesires of men. They clared to break with the carnal
that fear.  When  he  lives by faith he never  wil1 have it. Does                    element in the church. Had they feared the wrath of men
not the Apostle cleclare in Romans  8  :l, "Therefore being                          ancl  the opposition of men, there never would have been a
justified by faith, we have peace with  Gocl through our Lord                        reformation.  Nay,  instead' the church suff ered hardships
Jesus  Chris?  ? To have that fear before God is to have nu                          ancl  10s~.  She did not ask what men preferred  ; in His fear
faith in Christ. To believe in Christ is to have this peace                          she  sought  after God's  will. She  dicl not seek peace at  any
with  Gocl and the joyful freedom from the fear of  hel1  ancl                       price. She  clid not hold back because she knew that there
its torments.  Then, too, David  writes in Psalm  27  :l, "The                       were those  who  woulcl  not approve.  She asked  after the
Lord is my light  ancl my salvation  ;  Whom  shall 1 fear  ?  The                   way of which God approved. She feared to go contrary to
Lord is the strength of my  life  ; Of  whom  shall 1 be  afraid?"                   that way. She  feared  the punishment He is able  to inflict
Indeed, God is  om salvation in  Christ. He is our  light  and                       and in  strict justice  wil1 inflict. She feared it not in the
drives away  al1 the darkness of sin, cleath,  hel1  ancl.the grave.                 unbelief that her  sins were not blottecl  out through the  bloed
By faith we shall not fear what man  can do to  US. Nor  shall                       of the Lamb, but as something she  hatecl because she lovecl
we fear that God  wil1  clamn                                                        God ancl as something of which she  could  never have  the
                                        LIS  everlastingly  for' our sins.
And does John not  write: "There is  no fear in love, but                            peace of forgiveness while she  walked' contrary to God's  will.
perfect love casteth  out fear : because fear  hath torment. He                          So let the Church face the future. So let her observe the
that feareth is not made perfect in love,`: 1 John  4:lS.  How                       signs of the rising  up  of the Antichrist. Let her do so in
in the  light of  al1 this  woulcl we dare to maintain that the fear                 the freeclom from fear which the Scriptures  promise to
of the Lord is a certain  clread and terror of His righteous                         those  who fear God. Let her sing with Davicl,
wrath to punish  US with everlasting torment? NO, a  thou-
sancl  times,  N                                                                                  The Lord is my  light and my salvation  ;
                    O ! We have freeclom  from that fear !                                        Whom  shall 1 fear ?
    He  who has the fear of the Lord has insteacl a fear of                                       The Lord is the strength of my life  ;
displeasing   God He has a fear of doing too little  ancl of                                      Of  whom shall 1 be afraicl ?
falling short in his  calling. It is not a slavish fear. It is a                                  Though  an host shoulcl encamp against me,
fear of love. It is a fear  that is rooted in the knowleclge that                                 My heart  shall not fear:
He is powerful and mighty, a God of majesty and terrible in                                       Though  war  shoulcl  rise up against me,
His glory. But  it is a fear that is  rooted in a love to Him                                     In  this  wil1 1 be confident.
as  such a mighty, powerful and majestic  God It is a fear                                                                                        J.A.H.
rooted in the  desire to  please one  whom we love  rather than
in  clread  ancl terror of one  whom  we  hate.
    Having  that fear we have no fear of what man  shall do to                                               ANNOUNCEMENT
LIS.  Having  that fear we are free from the fear of  heil, of                           Classis East of the Protestant Reformecl Churches  wil1
cleath and of the grave.  Por that fear of reverence and awe,                        meet Wednesday, July 9, at 9 A. M. in the Hudsonville
of love and the  desire to please is a testimony to  US that                         Protestant Reformed Church. Consistories  wil1 consider this
Jehovah is the God of our  salvation.- It is the undeniable                          an official  notice.
evidente  t h a t   H e   h a s  already  w o r k e d   i n   U S   b o t h   t o                                          M. Schipper,  Stuted  Clerk


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 421

ll~~~--------------------------~~~~~                                 tendom for it. It was in danger of  becoming  a French  insti-
           Contending For The Faîth  .. ll tution. Not only were the  popes  al1 Frenchmen, but the large
                                                                     majority  of the cardinals were of French birth. Both were
                                                                     reduced to a station  little above that of court prelates  sub-
            The Church and the  Sacraments                           ject to the nod of the French sovereign. At the  time, the
   VIEWS'DURIN~   T                                                  popes  continued  -to exercise their prerogatives  overthe  other
                           HE  THIRD  PERIOD  (750-1517 A.D.)        nations of Western Christendom, and freely hurled  anath-
                  THE  SUPREMACY OF THE  POPE                        emas at the  German  emperor and laid  the interdict  upon
 T                                                                   Italian cities. The word  might be  passed  around,  "where  the
      HE  DECLINE OF THE  PAPACY AND THE AVIGNON  EXILE.
                           A. D. 1294-1377.                          pope is, there is Rome," but the wonder is that the grave
                                                                     hurt done to his  oecumenical  character was not irreparable.
Tlte  Tra.nsfel~  of the  Papacy to Avignon.                             The  morals  of Avignon during the papa1 residence were
  The successor of Boniface,  Benedict  X1,  .1303-ï304,  a          notorious  throughout  Europe. The papa1 household had  al1
@mi+ca;,  was a mild-spirited and worthy man, more bent              the appearance of a worldly  court, torn by  envies and troubled
on  healing ruptures than on  forcing his arbitrary will.  De-       by  schemes of  al1 sorts.  Some of the Avignon  popes left a
parting  from the policy of his predecessor, he capitulated to       good name,  hut the genera1 impression was bad  - weak, if
the  state and put an end to the conflict with Philip the Fair.      not  vicieus. The  curia was notorious for its  extravagante,
Sentences launched by  Boniface  were  recalled  or modified,        venality, and sensuality. Nepotism, bribery,  ar+  simony
and the interdict  pron.ounced by that pope  upon  Lyons was         were unblushingly practised. The financial  operations of the
revoked. Palestrina was  r&tored  to the Colonna.  Only              papa1  family  became oppressive to an extent  unknown  be-
Sciarra  Colonna and  Nogaret  were escepted  from the act `of       fore. Indulgences, applied to  al1 sorts of cases, were made a
immediate  clemency and ordered to appear at Rome.  Bene-            source of increasing revenue. Alvarus Pelagius, a member
dict's death,  after a brief reign of eight months, was ascribed     of the papa1 household and a strenuous supporter of the  pa-
to poison  secreted  in a dish of  -figs, of which the pope  par-    pacy, in his De  plan&  ecclesae, complained bitterly of  the
took freely. As an  example  of Benedict's sanctity it was           peculation and traffic in ecclesiastical  places going on at the
related that  after he was made pope  he was  visited by his         papa1 court. It  swarmed  with money-changers, and parties
mother,  dressed in silks, but he refused to recognize her  til1     bent on  money  operations. Another contemporary,  Petrarch,
she had  changed  her  &ess,   and then  he  embraced  her.          who never uttered a word against  the papacy as a  divine
      The conclave met in Perugia, wheré  Benedict died, and         institution, launched his satires against  Avignon, which he
was, torn by factions.  After an interval- of  .nearly  eleven       called "the sink of  every vice, the haunt of  al1 iniquities, a
months, the French party won a complete triumph by the               third Babylon, the Babylon of the West." NO expression is
choice of  Bertrand  de Got, archbishop of Bordeaux,  who            too strong to carry his biting invectives. Avignon is,  the
took the name of Clement V. At the  time of his  election,           "fountain of afflictions, the refuge of wrath, the school of
Bertrand  was in  France.   He never  crossed  the  Alps.  After     errors, a  temple   óf  lies, the  awful prison,  hel1 on  earth." He
holding  bis court at Bordeaux, Poictiers, and  Toulouse,  he-       speaks of it "as filled with  every kind of confusion, the
chose, in 1309, Avignon as his residence..                           powers of  darkness overspreading it and containing  every-
      Thus began the so-called Babylonian captivity, or Avig-        thing fearful which had ever existed or been imagined by a
non exile, of the papacy, which lasted more than seventy             disordered mind." But the corruption of Avignon was too
years and included seven  popes,  al1 Frenchmen: Clement V,          glaring to  make it necessary for him to  inverrt charges. This
1305-1314; John XXII,  -1316-,1334;   Benedict  X11, 1334-           ill-fame gives Avignon a  place at the  side of the courts of
1342; Clement VI, 1342-1352  ;. Innocent VI, 1352-1362  ;            Louis XIV and Charles 11 of  England.
Urban V, 1362-1370;  Gregory  X1,  1370-1378.  This  pro-               During this  papa1 expatriation,  Italy  fel1 into a  deplor-
longed  absente  from Rome was a great shock to the papa1            able  condition.  Rome, which had been the queen of cities,
system. Transplanted  from its  maternal  soil, the papacy was       the goal of pilgrims, `the  centre towards which the  pious
cut  loose  from the hallowed and historica1 associations .of        affections of  al1 Western Europe turned, the locality  where
thirteen centuries. It no  longer spake as from the  centre  of      royal and princely  embassies had sought ratification for  ambi-
the Christian world.                                                 tious  plans  - Rome was now turned into an arena of wild
      The way had been prepared for the abandonment of the           confusion and riot. Contending factions of nobles, the  Co-
Eternal City and removed to French territory. Innocent 11            lonna, Orsini, Gaetani, and others, were in constant feud,
and other  popes had found refuge in  France.  During the last       and strove one with the other for the  mastery  in  municipal
half of the thirteenth century the Apostolic See, in its  strug-     affairs and were-often themselves set aside by popular lead-
gle with the empire, had leaned  upon   France  for aid. To          ers whose low birth they despised. The source of her gains
avoid  Frederick  11, Innocent IV had fled to Lyons, 1245. If        gone, the city withered away and was reduced to the  propor-
Boniface  VIII represents a-turning-point in the  history of the     tions, the poverty, and the dull happenings of a  provincial
papacy, the Avignon  iesidence shook the  reverence  of Chris-       town,  til1 in 1370 the population numbered'less than 20,000.


422                                          T H E   STA-NDARD   B:E-ARER

She had no  commerce  to stir  her-pulses  like the young cities            in the  dust, and a large carbuncle, which adorned it, was lost.
in Northern and Southern  Germany and in Lombardy.  Ob-                     Scarcely ever was a papa1  ruler  put in a  niore'comproniisi~g
scurity and  melancholy   settled   upon  her  palaces and public           position than the new pontiff. His subjection to a sovereign
places,  broken  only by the petty attempts at civic displays,              who had  defied the papacy was a strange spectacle. He owed
whiCh were like the actings of the circus ring  compared  with              his tiara indirectly, if not immediately, to Philip  thc  Fair.
the serious manoeuvres of a military  campaign.  The old                    :He was the man Philip wanted. Dollinger says Clement
monuments were neglected or torn down. A papa1 legate                       passed  completely  into the service of the king. It was his
sold the stones of the Colosseum to be burnt in  lime-kilns,                task to appease the  king?s anger  against  the memory of  Boni-
and her marbles were transported to other cities, so that it                face, and to meet his brutal  demands concerning the  KnightS
was said she was drawn  upon more than Carrara. Her                         Templars. These, with the  Council of Vienne, which he called,
churches became roofless. Cattle ate grass up to the  very                  were the  chief  historie concerns of his  pontificate.
altars of the  Lateran   and St.  Pe'ter's. The  movement  of art              The terms on which the new pope  received  the tiara were
was stopped which had begun with the arrival of Giotto,  who                imposed  by Philip  himself,   atid, according to Villani, the
had  come to Rome at the  cal1 of  Boniface  VIII to adorn St.              price he  inad? the  Gaston  p+y included  six  promises.  Five
Peter's.   NO product of architecture is handed down  from                  of them concerned  %he total undoing of what  Boniface  had
this period  except the  marble   stairway of the church of St.             done in his conflict with Philip. The sixth article, which was
Maria, Ara Coeli, erected in 1348 with an inscription  com-                 kept  secret, was supposed to be the  destruction  of the order of
memorating  the  deliverance   from the plague, and the restored            the Templars. It is true that the authenticity of these  six
Lateran church which was burnt, 1308.  Ponds and debris                     articles has been disputed, but there  can be no doubt that
interrupted the passage of the streets and filled the air with              from the  very outset of Ciement's  porrtificate, the French kin
offensive and deadly  odors. At Clement V's death, Napoleon                 pressed their execution  upon  the pope's attention. Clement,
Orsini assured Philip that the Eternal City  .was on the  verge             in poor  positiori to  resist,  confirmed  what  Benedict had done
of destruction and, in 1347, Cola  di Rienzo thought it more                and went  farther.  He absolved the king; recalled, Feb. 1,
fit to be called a den of robbers than the residence of civilized           1306, the offensive bulls  Cl&&   laicos and  Unam   sauzctaw,
men.                                                                        so far as they  implied  anything offensive to  France  or  any
    The Italian peninsula,  at least in its northern half, was a
                     . . . .                                                subjection on the part of the king to the papa1  chair,  not
scene of politica1  dlvlslon  and  social anarchy. The country              customary before their issue, and  fully restored the cardinals
districts were infested with bands of brigands. The cities                  of the Colonna  family to the dignities of their office.
were given to frequent and  violent  changes  of  government.
High officials of the Church paid the  price of  immunity  from                The proceedings touching the character of  Boniface  VIII
plunder and  violente by exactions levied on other personages               and his right to a  place among  the  popes dragged along for
of station.  Such were  some of the  immed?ate results of the               fully  six years. Philip had offered, among others, his brother,
exile of the papacy. Italy was  ili- danger of  succumbing  to              Count Louis of Evreux, as a witness for the charge that
the  fate of  Hellas and being turned into a desolate waste.           *    Boniface  had died a  heretic.   There  was a division of senti-
                                                                            ment  %mong  the cardinals. The Colonna were as hostile to a
    Avignon, which Clement  chose as his residence, is 460                  memory  of  Boniface  as they were zealous in their writing
miles southeast of Paris and lies  South of Lyons. Its  prox-               for the  memory  of Coelestine V. They pronounced it to be
imity to the port of Marseilles made it  accessible to  Italy.              contrary to the divine ordinance for a pope to abdicate. His
It was purchased by Clement VI, 1348,  from  Naples  for                    spiritual marriage with the Church  `cannot  be dissolved. And
SQ,.OOO gold  florins, and  remained  papa1 territory until the             as for there being two  popes at the same  time, God was  him-
French Revolution. As early as 1229, the  popes held  terri-                self  nat-sble  to  constitute  such a  mqnstrosity.  On the other
tqry in the vicinity, the  duchy of Venaissin, which  fel1 to  them         hand, writers like Augustinus  Triumphus  défended  Boniface
from  the  domain  of  Raymond of  zculouse.  O n   every  side             and pronounced  him a  martyr to the interests of the Church
this free papa1 home was closely confined by French  terri-                 and worthy of canonization.
tory. Clement was urged by Italian bishops to go to Rome,                                                                               H. V.
and Italian. writers gave  as-wone  reason  .for his refusal fear
lest he  should   receive meet punishment for his readiness to
condemn  Boniface  VIII.                                                                  FOREIGN MISSIONS
   Clement's coronation was celebrated at Lyons, Philip  and                   The Synod of the  Proiestant  Reformed  Churches  an-
his brother Charles of Valois, the Duke of Bretagne  and                    nounces that, through its  Mission Board, foreign  missioa
representatives of the  king of  England  being  present:  Philip           work is being done through the  means of radio  broadcasting~
and the duke walked at the  side of the pope's palfrey. By                  from the Virgin Islands. Expenses incurred in connection
the  fa11 of an old  wal1 during the procession, the duke, a                with this labor are being met from the Foreign  Mission  Fund,
brother of the pope, and  ten  ether   persons lost their  lives.           supported by the offerings of the churches.
The pope himself was thrown from his horse, his tiara rolled                                                G.  Vanden   Berg,   Stated  Clerk.


                                                    T H E   STANDARD   BEA~RER                                                                     423

I/                                                                              sion or non-conversion  ? But  notice, in the  second  place,
             The Voiee of Our Fathers                                      íl that the question must be narrowed.down stil1 further. For
                                                                                it does not concern the work of conversion entirely in  gen-
                                                                                eral, nor simply the  werk  of conversion in its continuance  ;
                    The Canons of Dordrecht                                     but the article  speaks of conversion as  $0  its  beginning,  its
                                                                                initiation. It might be conceivable that one might claim  that
                                 PART 'I'WO                                     the work  of conversion in its  contiwmnce   is entirely due to
                                                                                the operation of God's grace,  atid that without the grace of
                      ESPOSITION   OF  'I'HE  CANONS                            God conversion is impossible. In  fact, in a way it  may be
                                                                                said that the Arminians  teach this. They speak of God's
              THIRD  AND  FOURTH  I-Tu~s   OP  DOCXRINE                         grace, and they  wil1 even emphasize the need of grace. They
                                                                                certainly do not want to leave the  ,impression  that they rule
      OF  `I`HE   CORRUPTION OF  MAN,  Hrs  CONVERSION   TO  GOD,               out the work of God's grace altogether. For it is their
                     ' AND  THE MANNER THEREOI;                                 -purpose to deceive the undiscerning. But'if,  after all,  con-
                                                                                version in its  continuance is the work of God's grace,  hut the
                     REJECTION OF ERRORS                                        initiation   of conversion is due to  man's free will, then  con-
                                                                                version is basically not the  work~of  God but the  werk  of man.
                    Article, 9.  Who  teach:  That grace and free will are      In  such a case one  can  lay  al1 the stress he wants to  upon  the
                partial causes, which together work the beginning of            necessity of God's grace: the  fact~remains that the grace of
                conversion, and that grace, in order of working, does not       God is not the source of that conversion and cannot function
                precede the working of  the  will; that is, that God does       until man himself initiates the  werk  of conversion. Hence we'
                not efficiently help the wil1 of man unto conversion until
                the  wil1 of man moves and determines to do this.  Fpr          have  indeecl an important question here: what is the  cause
                the ancient Church has long ago condemned this doc-             of the  beghni~ng,  the  very first step, the  very   principle,  seed,
                trine of the Pelagians according to the words  -of the          of conversion ?
                Apostle: "So then it is not of him that  wille&  nor of
                him that runneth, but of God that hath  mercy," Rom.                We do well, perhaps, to delineate this issue a little more
                9:16. Likewise: "For  who maketh thee to differ? and
                what hast  thou  that thou didst not  receive?" 1 Cor,  4:7.    thoroughly. And we  can  probably  best do this in a negative
                And: "For it is God  who worketh in you  both to  wil1          sort of way. Along this line we  may note that the article
                and to work, for his good pleasure," Phil. 2:X3.                does  kot  speak as  such of the  effect  of this  cause, and it
                                                                                does  not  speak of the  cgntinuance of the work of conversion.
        As to the  translation   of  this article,  we offer the  follow-       We say  ,this because Arminians like to maintain that if  you  do
ing corrections : 1 j "in order of  werking"  should be "in or-                 not give their answer to this question about the  cause of
der `of causality." This is according to the  originil  Latin,                  man's conversion, then you are shut up to the theory  oi
om%e  ca.~t.sa~litatis,  And it  also expresses the point at  isstie            dead passivism, the theory that man is nothing but a  stock
much more clearly. 2) "of the Pelagians" should be "in the                      and  black. But  this is not at  al1 the case. The issue con-
Pelagians." 3) "according to the words of the Apostle"                          cerns only the question: what is the  caL&se of conversion ?
should be  "from"  or  "out of the  ?vords of  ,the Apostle." 4)                And it  is  confined stil1 further to the  cause of the  beginning
The Scripture passages should  be quoted as they occur in the                   of conversion. And therefore the  Reformed  answer to this
accepted  English translation, and not as they are here  trans-                 question, namely, that  God's  grace is the sole  cause of  con-
lated from  the  Latin.                                                         version,  leaves plenty of room for  the truth that "the  wil1
                                                                                thus renewed, is not only actuated and influenced by God, but
        The error  trc+ed in  th&  article  is not clifficult to  discern,      in  consequente of this influence, becomes itself  active.  Where-
and does not require lengthy discussion.                                        fore,  also, man is himself rightly said to believe and  repent,
        The  Arminians   teach here, first of  all! that God's grace            by virtue of that grace  received."  111, IV,  4, 12. Hence,
and man's free  wil1 are partial causes, concurring or  werking                 we must not  allow ourselves to be led away by  al1 kinds of
together to bring about the beginning of conversion. In this                    Arminian "red herrings" from this issue of what is the
connection we  may observe, in the  first  place, that the  basic               rame.  For no matter what  the effect of this  cause  `may prove
issue is : what is the  cause   of conversion  ? This is, of course,            to be,  this. question of  cause must be answered. And  the
an  esseritial question. It is; in  fact, the question which  di-               criterion of  -the answer is not what  you  may or  may not  be
vides the Reformed from the Arminians as to the doctrine                        forced  to say about the effect ; the standard by which the
of the application of the  merits of Christ's.death. Just  be-                  answer  must  be given is solely the Word of God.
cause it is a  question.which  déals with the  came  of  ionver-
sion, it becomes the question ultimately :  who is the  sozbrce                     After this little  diversion,  let  US next  notice that the
of om-  salvation? It is the question : in whose hands, or                      Arminians give their  usual evasive answer to the question.
r.ather, in whose  wil1 lies the  dehmhmtion  of man's  conver-                 They do not say flatly : "Not grace, but free  wil1 is the  cause


 424                                          T H E   S T ' A N D A R D   B E A R E R

 of the beginning of  c&version."  But they try to say : both           the Arminianism which characterizes the evangelism of  re-
 grace and free will. Their answer is:  "Grace  and free  wil1          vivalists  such as Billy Graham,  about which even so-callecl
 are partial  Causes. which together  werk  the beginning of            Reformed people  can wax enthusiastic. This article finally
 conversion." This is the theory that is  known doctrinally as          makes it plain that the Arminian doctrine is that man, not
 "synergi&n,l' a  rather accurate term, which simply  means tha         God, is ever first and  decisive in the matter of salvation, and
 "ism" or theory of a "working together."                               that therefore salvation is  nat- of the Lord, but of man ! NO,
                                                                        ultimately there is no  such thing as synergism  ; and the
        But the matter cannot rest there.                               synergist himself does not believe it. One or the other, God
  For there are questions which remain, and which the                   or man, grace or free will, must be first  ; one or the other, God
 Arminian cannot  avoid answering.  How is it that these two            or man, grace or the  wil1 of man must be independent, and then
 causes cooperate  ? What brings about that cooperation  ? It           the other must be dependent. And then  it is  also.plain that
 is inconceivable that there are two  un-caused  causes  :. hence,      when it  comes to  very first beginnings, determinations, thera
 which of the two,  God's'grace  or man's free will, is in this         is no working together,  no co-operation, but a cause and  311
 instance the un-causecl cause ? As between the two  caüses,            effect. Either  the  wil1 of man is the cause,  Laving its effect
 which initiates the cooperation ? Which  makes the first move ?        in  this, that the grace of God becomes  active. Or the grace
  Or, in the language of the article: in order of causality,            of God is the cause,  having its effect in this,  that in  conse-
 which is first. and which is  dependent   upon the other ? What        quence of its influence the  wil1 of man becomes itself  active.
is the  very beginning of the beginning of conversion?                  The former is Arminian; the  latter  is Reformed. And thep
                                                                        are mutually  exclusive.  To maintain both is a contradiction.
        Hence, the Arminians cannot ultimately escape the  al-          To maintain the former  means  that one rejects  ihe  latter
 terntitive,  Gocl or man, even with their synergism.  Atid to          with  al1 his heart; and to maintain the  latter  requires  that!
 their synergistic error  belongs,  also this  second proposition       one rejects, with om- fathers, the former with  al1 his  heart.
 of the error condemned in this ninth article : "and that grace,        And let  LIS not hesitate to be Reformed, antithetically  Re-
 in order of  causality, does not precede the  werking  of the          formed!  Let  LIS,.  for'.God's sake, not  fa11 behind the enemy
 will;  that is, that God does not efficiently help  the  wil1 of       in this business of hating and rejecting.  Real Calvinism,
 t>lan.unto conversion until the  wil1 of man moves and  deter-         the Reformed truth, the Arminian hates and  opposes with
 mines to do this." This is a negative proposition, we  may             al1 his heart, ancl  minces no words about it. Too  many  Cal-
 observe. But its  positive   implication  is plain. Does the           vinists toclay' try to assume the position of "both . . .  and."
 Armi&an   merely   mean  ..that the two partial causes, grace          They do not  -1ike  a "Rejection of  Errors."  Let 
 and free will, go into  action  exactly simultaneously by  an                                                                     US beware
                                                                        that we do not hesitate to  hate and reject the lie'with  al1 om-
 act of free  and uncausecl cooperation  ? That would be a bad          heart  any less than the opponent hates and  rej&ts  the truth
enough error in itself.  Wil1  the..&minian  also subscribe to          with  al1 his heart !
  the  converse  -of this proposition, namely, that free will, in
 order  of causality,  do& not precede the working of grace,                For do not forget that  when our fathers refer to the
 fh"t is,  ,the man does not  decide and move unto conversion           condemnation of this synergism long ago in tha case of  the.
  until the grace of God efficaciously helps his  wil1 ? By no          Pelagians, they do not live by the tradition of men, but by
 means   ; that would involve him in plain  contradiction. The          the Word of God. The Felagians were condemned by the
 Arminian  means positively that in order of  causality free            church of old  under-the  guidance of the  Holy Ghost  indeed.
 wil1 is before grace, and that God efficiently helps the  wil1  of     But for  .that  very reason they were condemned  out of  the
 man  unto conversion only then,  when the  wil1 of  manitself          words of the apostle Paul quoted by th'e fathers in this article,.
 moves and determines  to do  this. The Arminian proposition            Detailed exegesis of these  texts  -is not necessary here.  Suffice
 quoted here  may be negative; but in its  exclusive  form of           it to say that  al1 three passages make it abundantly plain
 "nat . . . until" it shuts the Arminian  up  to the position  that     that in order of causality not the  wil1 of man, but the grace
 Z@ to the cause of the initiation of conversion, man's free  Wil1      of God is first and sovereign.
 is  fïrst and  decisive, ancl God's grace is  secolíd and  depend-                                                                   H.C.H.
 ent  upon the  wil1 of man.

        Here in this article we have at last the fruit  !of the  Ar-
 minian position on the corruption of man and the  marmer   of                                    IN MEMORIAM
 his conversion. It is the position that is so  well-known  and            The  Ladies'  Society "Eunice" of the South-West Protestant
 so bluntly proclaimed in our day by the majority of Funda-             Reformed Church of Grand  Rapids, Michigan,  sorrowsj  with our
                                                                        fellow member, Mrs. T. Engelsma,  m the loss of her  father,
 mentalist .preachers.  Almost  any Sunday one  can turn in  oa
 such preaching over the radio,  snd hear men bluntly stating                          MR. WILLIAM MASTENBROEK.
 that Christ is willing to  receive  lilen, waiting, earnestly  beg-       Our prayer is that God's  promi&+  that His grace would  be
                                                                        sufficient  for  every need, be  fulfilled in her and her family.
 ging men to  come to Him and be saved, but that if they  ara
 unwilling He is helpless,  can  do. nothing about it. This is                                                 Rev. M. Schipper, President
                                                                                                               Mrs. M. Schipper, Secretary


                                                  YHE  S T A N D A R D  BEARER                                                                    425

                                                                               howé+er;  i5 not an ideal  practice  since  the clerk is  busy
                  DECENCY  and ORDER                                           enough with  bis own duties and it should be understood that
                                                                               the function of the président consists in  much more than
                                                                               simply  holding the gavel. The rule that is observed in at
                      THE MODERAMEN                                            least one of  the Christian Reformed Classes is a good one.
  "In.  al1 assemblies  these  shall be not  only  a. president,  Out          In Classis  Pella the minister next in order to preside  accord-
also a  clork to  keep a  faitkful record of  al1  ~impo?ta~nt   ht-           ing to Article 41 (following the alphabetic order) acts as
teu."  Art. 34, Church Order.                                                  assistant-president. This enables him not only to  assume the
                                                                               chair  when  the matter being treated concerns the  person of
      "The office of  tlte  pl-esident  is to  stats  und  cxpbaìn  th         the president or  when the president  wishes  to  participate  in
b~usiness  to be  tl-amsa.ctcd,  to sec to it  tht  cve~~yo~~.e'  o  bsetve    the  debate but it  also enables him to function so as to aid
&e order in speaking, to sìlence the ca.ptious  a~nd those W~O                 the presiding  officer in  al1 matters of proper procedure. The
a,f*e  veheme&   in  speaking; a.nd to properly discipline the?x,              latter  is no doubt the  main function of the vice-president. He
,ìf  tlzey  ~efuse  to listen. Furthermore  his  ojjcice  Aal1   ceme          is an  assista,nt   to the president!
when  the  assembly   arises."   - Art. 35, Church Order.                          Om- last held Synod adopted  & series of  rules which  also
      In the Christian Reformed proposed revision of the                       include a more elaborate description of the duties of various
Church Order, the two articles  quoted  above are  combined                    officers of the ecclesiastical assemblies. We  cite the pertinent
i.nto-ane  article that appears under the heading,  Gene&   PI-O-
. . ..i  -,I <                                                                 parts here :
zrisions, and  reids as follows :
                          ._
      "In  every assembly these shall bc a. president  arzd  a, vìce-                  C O N C E R N I N G   T H E   P R E S I D E N T   A N D
presidcrtt.  It  Slìall be  tke  duty of  tlqe president to  state  a.xd                              VICE-PRESIDENT
exphin   tlze  bu&~ess to  be  hansa.cted,   a.nd to see to it  that
tlae  stip~&tiom   of  tlw  Clm~ch  Or-dm  are  observed   nnd  that           The Presiclent :
rveryone. observes dm or~der and decomm in spea.king. There                        "1. The president or vice-president of the previous
shallalso be a: clerk OY clelrks  whose task it  shall be to keep              Synod shall officiate as president pro-tem at the opening of
ati  a.cmrate  record  elf  al1  proceedhgs.  As  to.  ma,jor  assem-          Synod. At the appointed  time  and  place he shall  cal1 the
b&.s,  the  nbovc-na.med   offices  slzall   ceaxe   zvlzen  the  omemOly      delegates to order; he opens with prayer and the reading of
edjo~ms." - Art. 44 of the Proposed Revision.                                  Scripture, and presides over the acceptance of the credentials
     It  may be  noted here that besides  combining  two articles              and the  electi8n of  officers.
there is a  very definite revision in the proposal. Our church                     "2.  After the elected  officers  have taken their  place, the
order speaks of only two  officers, the president and the clerk.               president shall  read the prescribed Public Declaration, to
Some of  the older redactions of our church order that go                      which  every  member  of Synod shall rise to give heed and
back to the  latter  part of  tbe sixteenth century spoke of a                 respond  by expressing assent. The Declaration is to be
third  officer,  an  assessor,  who was an assistant to the  presi-            presented  to  each  delegate   who  assumes  his  seat at a later
der?. Later this provision was dropped, probably because it                    time, and he shall be asked to  voice his approval thereof.
was judged that ecclesiastical bodies do not always require                        "3. The president shall appoint a  committee  for advisory
an assistant president. The  result is that today our church                   committees  of three  members.
order speaks of only  the  tw8  officers in the ecclesiastical                     "4. The president shall  cal1 the meeting to order at, the
assemblies.                                                                    proper  time,  and shall see that  each session is properly
                                                                               opened and  closed.
     Current  practice,   however,   cloes  not always conform  lit-               "5. He shall  enforce  the  rules of order, must rule at  once,
erally to the  rules. Synods, for  esample,  generally  have four              on  any point of order presented, and shall see to it that
officers while the Classes dispense with the vice-president                    business is transacted in the proper order and expeditecl as
and have  dy'  one clerk. Literally the Classes conform tó' much as  possible.
this article of the church order. With consistories this is                        " 6 .   H e   s h a l l   place before the Synod  every   motion.
again  quite different. In large consistories there  may be                    properly made,  may  make suggestions as to the proper
more than  ene president, a vice-president, two (or even                       formulation  of  &otions,  and shall clearly  state  every  motion
more)  clerks, a  treasuier and other minor  functionaries. It                 before a vote is taken.
is evident, therefore, that the proposed revision is  composed                     "7. Being a  duly.  chosen delegate to Synod, he retains,
with a view to  the  functionaries  of the Synod  rather than                  al1  the rights and privileges of a delegate. As  sùch he has :
tthe other assemblies.                                                                 `Ia. the right to take part in the deliberations of
     The Classes, as we wrotë, do  nat have a vice-president.                      Synod. In case,  however,  he  wishes to  .express  ,himself
If'thé occasion arises  when the president must or should                          on a  pending question, he shall relinquish the  chair to
temporarily relinquish the  chair  (whiGh  may be  quite fre-                   ._ the vice-president and not resume it until the question
quent), his duties are  ~usually relegated to the clerk. This,                     has been disposed -of. This does not apply  when the


426                                            T H E .   STANDARD:.   B E A R E R

    president  speaks to elucidate a  motion,  to present matters         president or his  aide is to maintain good order. This is not
       of  fact, or to  inform Synod  regarding  points of order.         always an easy task although it should be in  "che church of
          "b. the, right to vote on  any question before the              Jesus Christ. The presence of sin in the church  makes his
    gathering. He invariably  vot&  when the vote is taken                task as difficult as  it is important. He must allow  freedom
       by  ballot, in case of a tie, or in cases  where  a  voice vote    of discussion and yet he must keep the discussion within
       is so close that a raising of hands is called for.                 proper bounds. As  much as  possible`the  discussion must be
The Vice President:                                                       `kept   upon,the business at hand. He must restrain those  who
       "1. He shall function in the  absente'  of the president,          become  vehement   a n d   i f   neces&ry   e x e r c i s e   disciplinary
whether the  absente be temporary or permanent.                           powers in order that a proper sphere of Christian brotherhood
       "2.  When not occupying the chair,  he shall  assist   the         may be preserved wherein the work of the church  can be
president in enforcing the  rules of  debate.                             performed  with dispatch and. justice. Closely related to  al1
                                                                          this is his task of explaining and clarifying the business
                                                                          before the assembly for unless the body understands clearly
                 C O N C E R N I N G   T H E  CLERKS                      ,what  the issue before it is, further  disorder   wil1 ensue.
       "1. The clerk shall conduct roll-cal1 at the opening of            Indeed, the president's task is one of great magnitude.
each session.                                                                 Perhaps the most undesirable task,  however,  is that of
       "2. The secretary shall  keep an exact record Of the  pro-         the clerk. His  main  duty is to keep an accurate  anti complete
ceedings of Synod. This record shall contain:                             record and that in  such a way that the recording of  rhe
          "a.  the opening and closing of sessions, and roll-call.        meeting  does& become cumbersome,. , Before the turn of
          "b.  al1  main motions, whether  carried  or lost, as  wel1     th6 century it  was common  practice to record parts or  sum-
       as  al1 points of order and appeals.                               maries of the discussions as  wel1 as the decisions that were
          "c.  al1 reports by  committees,  duly  marked as  supple-      taken.' This is neither advisable nor necessary. To do  it
    ments,  with the supplement  numbers appended to the                  accurately,  trained stenographers would have to be employed
    pertinent motions.                                                    who are expert with short-hand. This would involve needless
          "d.  al1  committee   appointments, whether by the chair        exp&se  since the expressed opinions of the delegates is in
       or by vote of Synod,          I                                    no way a  part  of the official ecclesiastical record and these
          "e.  al1  documents  treated by the Synod, and  any part        opinions have no binding power.  Sufficient  it is that the
       of clebate or  address which Synod by a  majority vote             actual decisions, together with the adopted grounds, be
    clecides to insert in the  minutes.                                   recorded. and preserved for posterity.
       "3. The assistant secretary is no't a vice-secretary, but              The decisions that are  recorbed  must be  read and  ap-
the Synod shall have at  al1  times two  secretaries.  The  duty          proved by the assembly prior to adjournment. This is, firstly,
of  thé assistant-secretary is to keep a parallel record of  ,all         to assure accuracy which is all-important  and., secondly since
the decisions of Synod,  so,that in case of  differente  of opinion       the Classis and Synod are not permanent bodies but they
between the secretary and the  members  of Synod,  Syno"d                 cease to exist  when they are  aclj&rned,  they must approve
may have greater certainty.                                               their own minutes. For the same reason the  offices of the
    "`4. At the close of  each day's sessions the secretary, with         ?>todera?+aen  are not permanent but temporary so that  each
the cooperation of  the  assistant-secretary,  shall  read the            time an  assembiy  is convened, new  functionaries  must be
script  minutes for Synod's  `approval  and/o?  correction."'             chosen or, as  in the case of the classis, assume these  duties
                               1:  4:  *  *                               according  to an established rule. (Art. 41,  D.K.O.). This
    The function and duties of the treasurer do not  come                 is  clifferent  in the case of Consistories for these are per-
within the scope of these  rules since he does not belong to              manent bodies. This  differente  we  wil1 consider, D.V.,  in
the  mqdemw~ert  of  the  Synod. Neither does his office  cease           connection with the next article.                    ,-
when the Synod adjourns but he is an elected official  who,                                                                    G.  Vanden  Berg
like the Stated Clerk,  !erves  a definitely  specified  time.  His
relation to the Synod  can only be advisory and even  then,
limited to matters of  fmance.
   Most of  the above  rules are generally  taken for granted.                                      I N   M E M O R I A M
It is  hardly felt that  it is necessary to express these details            The Mary-Martha Society of the Protestant Reformed Church
in writing.  Many of them  wil1 probably never  `or only  very            of Redlands, California, extends its sincere sympathy to two of
rarely  be used in reference in cases of dispute.  Nevertheless,          its  members,  Mi-s. John Ekema, in the loss of her  father-in-law,
                                                                          and to Mrs. Otto Gaastra, in the  loss of her grandfather,
their  importante  must be seen in that through  their proper
execution  dccyency and  o&eer   wil1 be  maintained  in the  as-                                      B. EKEMA.                              4
semblies and  ,whereas  without  rules of  decor&  the doors                May our Heavenly  Father  comfort-  tlie bereaved, and give
                                                                          them the assurance  thcat to die in Christ is gain.
swing wide open to anarchy and chaos.
   In that `light it  may be said that the  principal  task of the                                                Rev. H. H. Kuiper, President
                                                                                                                  Mrs. H. Sawyer, Secretary


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                       427

                                                                        group  action are asserting authority over  almost everything
            '  AL1  AROUND  U S                                         except religion.
                                                                  II                        Not  Voice of the  Chwch
Reafirming   tlze  Refommtion.                                             "These  pronounceménts  are not the voice of the Church.
                                                                        If  they were the voice of the Church, they would have to be
    Through the  eourtesy  of a friend and brother, the paper           debated, in  e;ery session, in  every Board of Deacons, in
"Christian Economics,"  published  in New York City is sent             every  congregation, debated back and forth  until they  actu-
to my  address.  The issue of  May 27,  195S,   contained an            ally expressed the judgment of the responsible courts of the
interesting article with the same title as above. It purports           Church. This, hpwever, is not what  happens.  The pronounce-
to be  excerpts  from a sermon  preached  by the Rev. Paul              ments represent the politica1 maneuvering of a hard  core of
Wolfe, D.D., pastor of  Brick Presbyterian Church of New                committee-entrenched individuals  who use a majority vote
York, on October 27,  1957.                                             of a council to  promote their social  prejudices.  .These per-
    We are quoting the article as it appeared without  fur-             sons work at this task year in and year  out. Some of them
ther comment except to say this that the Rev. Wolfe points              are part of the  paid.secretariat  of the Church. Delegates and
up  a sound  principle  which Protestant Churches, churches of          Commissioners to Church bodies rotate, but these permanent
the.Reformation,  do  wel1 to remember and to  practice.  We            office holders are there year  after year writing their  `pro-
refer to  .the  principle   expressed  in the Presbyterian  Confes-     phetic' resolutions.
sion, namely,  "Al1 synods or councils since the Apostles'
times . . . may err and  many have erred; therefore they are                                    Not  Prophetic  Action
nat to be made the rule of faith or  practice."  "Synods  and               "Such  action  is not prophetic  action.  Prophecy  does not
councils are to handle or conclude nothing but that which.              count noses or  operate  through majority votes. The  proph-
is ecclesiastical: and are not to intermeddle with  civil  af-          ,ets of the Old Testament were lonely men. Amos,   t h e
fairs which concern the  commonwealth."  Here follows the               prophet  of social jus'tice, asked that he be not called a  prophet.
article.                                                                He did not want his name associated with the schools of mass
    "Om  real concern is not with the Roman Church, but                 prophecy. The same was true of Jeremiah. The men  who
with the Churches of the  Reformation.  They do not  officially         were defeating righteousness were the organized prophets
deny the right of private judgment, but in  practice   they are         who set their truth in  place of  God's Truth. The true  Prophet
approaching the Roman position and affirming that the                   said  - 1 stand here alone and 1 speak alone because God
Church has authority over social and politica1 problems.                commanded me to speak.
    "Whepe   once they stood for liberty of conscience, these               "B& the  final  critic  of these pronouncements is Church
Free Churches today are stressing `group  thinking'  and the            law. The words of our Confession in  regard  to Synods ancl
`collective  mind.' Pronouncements and'resolutions on social            Councils are:  `Al1 synods or councils since the Apostles'
and politica1 problems, purporting to represent the `group              times . . . may err and  many have erred  ; therefore they are
mind' of the Church, are used to  compel the individual  Chris-         not to be made the rule of faith or  practice.' `Synods and
tian to conform.  S&etimes  we are told that these pronounce-           councils are to handle or conclude  nothing but that which is
me&  carry `authority' to  compel the inclividual Christian             ecclesiastical; and are not  .to  intermeddle  with  civil affairs
to conform,                                                             which concern the  commonwealth.'
                    Clzwcl~  Pron0,uncement.r                               "One  can understand the Pope of Rome claiming  author-
    "The pronouncements are on  al1 manner of  subjects.  Is            ity over social and politica1 problems  ;  hg does not believe
it. foreign affairs? The government of the United States is             in the right of private judgment. What is  tragic is to have
told  how to  Conduct its diplomacy. Christians are told what           ,the  churc+es  that do believe in religious  libeity attempting
they should think  about the United Nations. Is it domestic             to  play Pope to their own  peopl?.
politics? The individual Church member is told whether he
can approve  Federal- appropriations for education or  Fcderal                              Right of Private Jztdgwmnt
%ppropriations for housing ; he is told what should be his                  "We should  remember  that the  law of our Free Churches.
attitude toward  public schools and private schools. A short            stil1 protects the right of private judgment. Our councils
time ago one of our Church bodies had before it a resolution            and assemblies, being made  up  of  al1 kinds of men  wit11
to  tel1  the President of the United States  when he should            varying  capacities for judgment, probably  wil1 continue to
speak and what he should say in his speech. There is hardly             be  ,the victims of politica1  pressures.  You should know,  how-
a meeting of a Church body in which some representative                 ever that these pronouncements carry no authority and  you
of an  `action  committee' does not bring in a resolution  and          are not obligated to  obey them.
ask that `the prophetic voice of the Church be heard on                     "Finally,  may 1 remind  you that the right of private
 (whatever he considers) the social and politica1 crisis of             judgment is a solemn responsibility exercised  under  God.
this hour,' The Free  Christian Churches in the name of                     "Frequently  our Roman  brethren..speak  as though the


428                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEAR,ER

Reformation stood for religious laissez faire, meaning  re-            such sturdy  independente  under God and to stand fast in the
ligious  anarchy.. They assume that the  right  of private  judg-      liberty wherewith Christ hath made  US  free."
ment  means  that one may.think what he  wishes and worship            What  Shall  the  CJurrch  Do?
as he pleases.                                                            In the same vein of thought expressed in the article
       "To assert this is to  indicate complete  ignorante  of the     above, W. H. Beckmann, pastor of  the Red Bank  Presbyte-
tcaching of the Reformers. In his statement on the freedom             rian Church in  Chattanooga, Tennessee,  writes in the  May
of the Christian man, Luther pointed  out that the individual          26, 1958, issue of Christianity Today. In answer to those
Christian is at one and the same  time the most free and the           who claim that the Church should be a part of the  commun-
most bound of  al1 men  ; he is free from the authority of men,        ity, he informs his readers : "Surely it is in the world, but
but he is bound by the revelation of the Bible and  thee truth         not of the world." And just so far as the Church becomes a
of God's Word. He is bound by the  voice of God  speaking              part of the world, so far does it  cease to be Church." In  an-
to his own conscience.                                                 swer to  ,the question : What shall the Church do ? Beckmann
                       The  CizristiiaJn  Is  Frce                     writes  in part:
       "Om Confession of  Faith  teaches  a similar doctrine : `God        "Sometimes it appears that the Church is being  prosti-
alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath' left it free from the       tuted for purposes that were  .not given  to it by its Lord.
doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything                These  may even be questionable  ones, but most  often they
contrary to His Word.' The Christian.is free. He does  nat             are good and things with which  any Christian should concern
stand in intellectual or mora1 bondage to  any man, to  any            himself. But Christ, the head of the Church, has given it a
council, Presbytery, hierarchy or priesthood. Nevertheless             purpose- which  oight to occupy  al1 its  time. And  any  pui-
the Scriptures are to be studied and the  wil1 of Gocl is to be        poses other than the one only serve to divert its attention.
obeyed. The Christian stands responsible before the most               It is true, there are various ways by which the Church's aim
august court of all, the court of the Living God. `He is  con-         can be served, but becoming involved in those things which
stantly referred beyond the Church to the Lord of the  Churcli         have only a remote connection, if  any,  with the Church's
and summoned as a free man, to make his solemn answer                  chief end must be avoided. . .  :
`to  the rightful Lord of his life.'  When  Martin Luther set the          "In our day, and in  any day for that matter, the  Church
Western world free from the commandments of men he bound               must especially beware of three pitfalls : (1) Misleading
it to the  Law of God.                                                 men, or supporting those  who do mislead people into  think-
       "There is a scene in Luther's  life which no liberty loving     ing that the Church is an agency for securing certain rights
Christian should ever forget. A lone man, isolated  and                or tempora1 benefits for men; (2) Lending itself as a pressure
seemingly forsaken, stood before the Emperor of the  Holy              force  upon  the  state to  brìng about reforms needed and even
Roman Empire and representatives of the Roman Church.                  desirable from the Christian viewpoint  ; and (3) Confronting
On the  table, before them were the  man's writings. Had he            unregenerate men with a regenerate pattern of life and  ex-
written  them?  He had. The writings had been condemned                pecting them to  walk in it. . . .      :r
by the Roman Church: Did he stil1 believe what he had  writ-               "With  regard  to  the  second pitfall mentioned  above, the
ten  ?  He did. He  knew the penalty for heresy  ? He  did.,           Church cannot lend itself as a power  lobby to bring pressure
Would he retract and  recant?  The man paused before he                on the  state. There is grave danger  ,that in joining  human
answered and then spoke in measured words,  `1 cannot  sub-            agencies to support actions in the community at large (which
nlit  .my faith either to the Pope or to the councils because          we must admit is  composed  mainly of unregenerate men, or
t.hey have frequently erred and contradicted  each other.  Un-         certainly of men little concerned with the  wil1 of God), the
less  1 am convinced by the testimony of Scripture or by  clear        Church  wil1 play false even to those it professes to help.
reasoning since my conscience is thus bound by the Word of             People  wil1 thus  receive a wrong conception of the Church's
God,  1 cannot and  wil1 not retract; for it is unsafe and             true purpose according to Jesus Christ, and for man, this
injurious to act against  one's conscience. Here  1 stand:  1          wil1 be travesty and  indeed  tragedy. . . .
can do  no other.  May God help me. Amen  !'                              "To `be sure, the cry is raised that the Church must take
                       Stwdy  Indefiendence                            its stand on issues facing our  world  today. But  who says so?
                                                                          "During the last great  war  one~`wise churchman even
   " `Amen'  and. `Amen' and yet again, `Amen.' And let  al1           suggested that even in  time of  war the Church has  some-
of  the Church- courts, councils, presbyteries and assemblies          thing more important to consider. Does not the Church have
of our Free Churches re-echo that Amen. In  such sturdy                something more important to say and do today than become
inclependence is the foundation of politica1 and religious lib-,       involved in the petty issues of the hour  ? (In the light of
erty. To  attempt  to substitute for  such  independente  the          eternity,  which of our disturbing issues is  nat petty  ?)
`servile group mind and the standardized  social thinking of              "Surely Christian citizens as individuals must take the
our  time is, in the words of the late Genera1 Smuts of South          lead in seeing there is righteousness and justice in their  gov-
Africa, `the greatest  human  menace' to religious, and  al1           ernments, and as individuals exercise  and fulfill  their  respon-
other.liberties.  May this sermon  assist  some of you to  achieve                            (Continued  on Page 432)


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER                                                         429

                  THE ANGEL OF JEHOVAH                                  Angel of the Lord said unto her. .  ." are the words recordecl
     The subject matter of this essay is  quite well-known and          in vs. 9. Concerning Abraham, as he was  offering  a burnt
 yet  rather   mysteriops. Probably it is so well-known because         offering instead of his son  having been told by the Angel
 the title-Angel of Jehovah or Angel of the Lord-appears                not to  lay his hand  upon  his son, we  read, "And the Angel
 so frequently in Scripture. While on the other hand we  may            of the Lórd  called unto Abraham  out of heaven  the  second
 say with certainty that this matter is  indeed  mysterious for         time, and said, By myself have  `1 sworn, saith the Lord, for
 when we begin to examine and  make an  attempt to under-               because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy
 stand the Angel we sucldenly  come to the hallowed realization         son, thine only  sen" . . . etc. Genesis 22  :15,  16.
 of the depths or unfathomableness of God's works  atid ways.
 Hence  while we spend a few moments on  thi's honorable topic              In the  second  place the angel of Jehovah appeared in
 and scriptural title let                                               peculiar forms. Oftentimes he is clothed in  the creaturely
                              US live in the  consciousness  of the
 great thought that lingered in the mind of the apostle,  who           form-the appearance of a man. Although we do not  read of
 under the guidance of the Spirit, wrote, "0 the depths of              the Angel in the  sacred  history  recorded  of Joshua in
 the  riches  both of the  wisdom  and knowledge of God."               Joshua 5, we  may conclude that it was He of  whom the
                                                                        narrator  waS  speaking  in the words, "And it  came to pass
    As a brief introduction  1 choose to press  upon   om- mincls       when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his  eyes and
 one important  fact. This  fact is the spiritual  economy of the       looked,  and, behóld, there stood a  utza,n over against hìm
 Old Dispensation, especially in distinction from the New.              with his sworä drawn in his hand: and Joshua sent unto
 Of course there is no essential  differente  between the two,          him, and said unto him, Art. thou for  .us, or for  our  ad-
 but  the  differente   lay primarily in the measure or  means          versary ? And he said,  Nay  ; but as captain of the host of
 of revelation and  coupled with this, of course, the point of          the Lord am  1 now  come." Our spiritual  father  Abraham
 development of those  who  received  this revelation, namely,          experienced something  quite  similar  when the Lord appeared
 the church.  After  al1  the,church  in the Old  fiispensation  was    unto him beyond doubt in the form of man  throughout  the
 yet as a  child  who understood the revelation of God only             entire  chapters  17 and 18 of the book of Genesis. This was
 in types and shadows; later  when reality  forced  thè types           the Angel ! Then again at  times the Angel is clothed in the
 away then the church  also grew to maturity or manhood.                creaturely form-the appearance of a  cloud. Saith  om- God
 These thoughts are  basic for our subject because the matter           unto  Moses as he and Israel are- before the thunderous
 before  US belongs in the  strict  sense'  of  the, term to the Old    mount,  "Behold,   1 send  an Angel before thee,  to keep thee
 Dispensation. And  thus as we develop our thoughts we  may             in the way, and to bring thee into the  place which  1 have
 live in the anticipation of  having an answer to the question:         prepared.,  " Ex. 23  :20. This  place which is  prebared  is the
 If the Angel existed in the days of types and shadows,                 earthly Canaan as occupied by  al1 the  `ites'  of vs. 23. And,
 then what is He in the days of reality  ? Or is He no more ?           the guiding angel is the Angel of Jehovah which God himself
    We shall develop our thought on this score along the                calls,  mine  a.ngel (vs. 23), only here in the form of the  cloud
 lines of Revelation and Identity of the Angel of Jehovah.              by day and the pillar of fire by night. Of course  al1 angels
                                                                        are  creatures;  to employ the language of the Scriptures we
                         R E V E L A T I O N                            may  cal1 them created spirits. But the distinctiveness of the
    The pertinent  portions of  Scripture  which contain this           Angel  lay in the  fact that while  ether angels appear as spirits,
 concept are too  mímerous to record in their totality. Yet             He appears in a variety of forms. He is unique !
 it is only good  ethics. to include as  much of God's Word as
 possible in our allotted lines. To  achieve this end  1 intend            Whether or not He is always  the same personage is
 to posit several important  proposi&ons which these manifold           beyond  proof  but  .I  fee1 this should  -by   al1  means  be  main-
 Scriptures  teach, and,  also  cite several passages to prove          tained.
 these points.                                                             In the thircl  place  al1 those  who  received  a  message   from
    In the first  place the Angel of Jehovah (of the Lord)              God as delivered by  thek Angel, recognize him, without
 was the  zre7aicJc   of  communication  between God and man,           hesitation, as Jehovah-God. This is true of  Moses at the
 always on  the part of and in behalf of God.  Al1 angels serve         burning bush, "And the angel of the Lord appeared unto
 this  cause  afid, because of this, no doubt, the. Angel of            him in a :Elame of fire  out of the  midst of a bush . . . ancl
 Jehovah is called an Angel in distinction from servant or              Moses hid his face  ; for he was  afraid to look  upon God."
 any similar title. But yet the Angel is to be distinguished            Ex. 3  :2, 6. Jacob arrives at the same conclusion as he
 from angels. This should become increasingly evident as                fought with the man at the river Jabbok,  whom  he recogniiecl
 we continue  ; for to Him strange activities and speeches              moments later and  declar8es, "1 have seen God face. to face
 belong. Aside from  al1 this the  Holy Word teaches that the           and my life is preserved." Gen. 32  :30. This was the Angel
 Angel was a vehicle of communication between God and                   in  the creaturely appearance of man. In a passage made
.  man. Of Hagar we reaci in Genesis  16:7, "And the angel              mention of in  an earlier paragraph concerning Abraham in
 of  th,e.L.okd found her by a fountain of water . . . And the          the plains of  Mamre we found that Abraham addresses his


430                                          T H E   STANDAR~?   B.EAR.Ek

visitors as  nren, but these were the Angel. Then as they hold               But  much  moré must be said !
communion,. with one another  ,Abraham  continues to  recog-                 Even as the Angel was recognized as God with  US and
nize them as Lord. Gideon's mouth  overflowed  with an                   of necessity revealed Him, so toq He must have revealed the
expression of excitement as he recognized God near him                   triune God. This  certainly seems to be the case for we  read
because of the Angel, "Alas,  0 Lord, God! for because 1                 of  tlzme   men (obviously angels, and one of  them  being
have seen an angel of the Lord face to face." Judges 6. It               The Angel) appearing unto Abraham in the plains of  Mamre.
was a historica1  fact that seeing God face to face  ca!led for          There, as you recall, Abraham took the men in and fed them
death, obviously  Gideon  irrterpreted   this  incident  of the angel    and repeatedly  makes  mention of  ihe name of the Lord in
appearing to him as identical to the appearance of God  &to              addressing them. Is this  triplet  without meaning? NO,
him. And finally, the pregnant prophecy of Isaiah, to  whom              scarcely so,  rather 1 think it is safe to say that this was
was given  &e  clear and far searching eye into depths and               a reflection or indication of the Trinity. The reason is  clear   :
heights of  many truths previously hidden,  declaris   con-              for if God  revealed  Himself then He revealed Himself even
cerning the  promise  of the Angel to  Israel  &d  Moses at              as He is. We admit that revelation is not sufficiently  lucid
Sinai, "In  al1 their  aff&tïon he was afflicted and the  u.vzgeZ of     on this point and thus let  US  beware.lest  we tread  upon   holy
luis  pr-escnce   saved  them." Isa 63  :9. Here the` reference is       soil.
to the cloud of God's presence and the cloud was  the  Angei.                Stil1 more must be said!
The Angel is recognized as God's presence.
       In the fourth  place,, and finally, the Angel `not only is            Moreover  as God, and we  state this with deepest  rever-
recognized as Jehovah-God but he reveals himself as God.                 ence,  can only and does only reveal Himself in and  thr&gh
Probably we could better say that He identifies Himself                  His  Son-whom  He  sends- so we must conclude that the
with  God. To Hagar the Angel saith: "1  wil1 multiply thy               Angel is to be identified with this Son, that is,. the Son as
seed exceedingly that it shall not be numbered for  multi-               Mediator;  How this is possible, that is  how it is possible
tude . . . ." Gen.  16:lO. To this list other passages could be          that before the coming into the  flesh of this Son at the fulness
added but let this be  sufficient.  The conclusion to the matter         of  time we have' a glimpse  already,  is and shall remain  a
is plain : although the Angel of Jehovah is specifically called          mystery. Is the Angel then a type of Christ? Yea, more than
an angel He is truly distinct from angels ; He appears in a              a type-in  `fact  He must` have been the  rather hidden Christ
variety of forms; He is recognized as  Jehovah;God  and He               in the  Old  Dispensation   economy  ; while in the New we have
speaks as God.                                                           the  -fulness of that revelation. Therefore as the Angel is
       Let  US  discuss his. identity !                                  recognized as God and  sbeaks as God so  also doth  the Christ.
                                                                         John 1  :l, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
                               IDENTITY                                  wás.  tiith God,  and the Word was God." John 10  :30 reads,
       Now it must- be emphatically declared  t$at the Angel             "1 and my Fafher are  ene." These passages  clearly   teach the
was God. The saints of old made  no  mistake  when they                  identification and  recognition  of,,,,Fhrist  with God and as
recognized Him as  such. With  al1  reverence   &d  an  un-              God. And there are  many other passages.
shakeable   knowledge   however  s h o u l d   such  a   declaration         Hence we  can  conclude  that the Angel is God, revealed
proceed  from the heart of the believer  ; for he knows  per-            in and through His Son. Thus  whe.n that Son finally  came
fectly  wel1 that God is essentially invisible. He is pure spirit;       into the flesh as our  Mediator  and  Christ,  that then the days
He is exceedingly far away and unbridgeably removed  from                of the Angel,, the special manifestation of God. with  US
al.1  tbat which is creaturely. He is far away not according             thr&gf; His Son, had to  cease and make room for the  dis-
to  .the measurement of  space and distance but according to             pensation  oi reality. The spirits that serve God's  ,causE are
His infinity. He is infinite. We are finite. Yet it  píeascd  God        never done away with; they shall  forevermore  be the blessed
to reveal Himself, not only in and through the works of His              an&.  Bit the Angel of the days of types and shadows
hand but especially as the God of our salvation  who  keepest            became flesh  `and he  .is none other than Christ Jesus, the
covenant  faithfulness with His  childreti   and  brings   them          Mecliator,  o.ur Lord and Christ. For that reason the  Angel
infallibly to glory. In  al1 this revelation God  reinains and           had  to, be the same personage whether in  o8e form or
reveals Himself as a God of  order  so that to an  Old  Dis-             another, whether at one  time or another.
pensation people He reveals Himself in Old Dispensation
language. Since that language was a language of types,  each                 Now the  .perfect  messenger is here  who brings  US into
type spoke a word concerning salvation. Bearing this in                  the perfect knowledge of  al1 truth through His Spirit,
mind we conclude that in those days  of. old the Angel  `also            whom He sent to tabernacle in our hearts. Even then we long
played an intimate, exciting and esteemed role. The word                 for the days of perfection  when we shall see God face to
concerning salvation which He spoke was truly  : God with                face in this  pérfect messenger  when  the days of this dark
US: He was  ,God with  US in fashion that fit the days of  01~1.         glass through which we peer are past and perfection is our
Hence the  saints or  patriarchs  recognize  yim as God and              l o t   f o r e v e r !
correktly  so.                                                                                      '
                                                                                             &                                A .   A .   M .
                                                                          -- .I.~      I                 -. :  w.


                                                 T H E   STANDARD'   BEfiRER                                                                 431

                                                                           efforts and labors of Rev. Mensch that our churches  found,
II                                                                         contact with  Loveland and with the  IsabePForbës   group:   `.
                                                                               At the present  time both the Forbes and  Isabel  churches
                                                                           are studying the  Canons  of  Dö&.  What  a' joy  it is to  con-
                          Missionary  Notes                                duet these  gath@rin,s
                                                                                                  w ! We look to the Lord for His  cbntin-
                                                                           ued'blessing  upon our labors.                      .
         It was a  very distinct  and spiritual joy of heart for  the          In closing 1 might  remark  that  if  any of our people, young
      undersigned  when the Synod of our churches voted to accept          or old,  come west to the Black Hills, they should remember
      the Reformed Church of  Loveland into the fellowship of the          that  Isabel  is on à fast highway, only 150  miles from the
      Protestant Reformed Churches.  possibly  no one in that  gath-       "hills" !  `Often our people went to Loveland, Colorado to
      ering felt in his soul what 1 did at that moment: what God           see the Mountains  in'colorado,  to find,  upon returning home,
      hath wrought ! A firstfruits, from a  certain. viewppint, of         that this had somehow  become secondary, while the  associa-
      the labors of the present-Home Missionary.                           tion with  the Lovéland congregation had become primary ! 1
         Now there is a  Protestarït  Reformed Church in Colorado.         am  &re  that  thös@  who go  `tö  see the "Black  Hills".and   who
      By unanimous decision of the consistory and the  congrega-           iisit  in  Isabel and Forbes,'  So.* Dakota,  wil1 not  place that
      tion their status has, by their acceptance, been changed.'           experience on the bottoin of the list of values.
      Loveland, 1 know, is  very happy' with this decision. Not                And finally, "lest  \ve forget" : pray for your. Home  Mis-
      that suddenly now everything has changed in their  liie,             sionary, that  boldness  may be  given him in the opening of
      either as  indi%duals  or  as: a congregation. They  we?e  a         h i s   m o u t h !
      congregation. They stil1 are  the same congregation,  believ-
      ers in the Lord,  who love the Reformed faith, and  confes? it.                                                               G .   L u b b e r s .
      Their ecclesiastical status in  om- churches has been  estab-
      lished! They are recognized as one of them.
         Thanks be to God for His grace and  guidance  in this all.
      It  seeined like a long road to travel together as Home  Mis-               Report of the Western  Ladies' League
      sionary and congregation.  However,   each meeting was  an-              The Spring meeting of the Western League of Laclies'
      other  event, so it  prove-d to be. It required consecration to      Societies was held at Edgerton, Minnesota, on April  1s.
      the Lord to labor in Loveland. And He has given that                 We sang Psalter numbers 394 and 346  after  which our presi-
      grace of devotedness to  duty and  holy  calling.                    dent, Mrs. Gerhart Broekhouse, opened with a word of
         As for  Loveland 1  can only repeat what 1 preached in my         prayer and  read Proverbs 31  verses  10 through 31. She then
      last sermon in their midst, as. Home Missionary, "Be  ye             extended a word of  welcome to  al1 present.
      stedfast,  imm8vable,  always abounding in the work of the               The minutes were  read and approved  after which the
      Lord, forasmuch as ye  kr~ow' that your labors are not  vain         financial report was given by the treasurer. Our speaker
      in the Lord."  That was on'  %I&ch  16, on a Sunday evening.         for the  afternoon  was the Rev. H.  Veldman,   who  spoke on
         The following morning Mrs. Lubbers and. 1 traveled  to-           the topic, The  Woman's  Place  in the Home, Church,  ancl
      ward  Isabel,  South  ,Dakota, a distance of 560  miles to the       School.
      north and east. With  a heavily loaded  car we drove that               The Rev.  Velclman  explained to  0s first that the  woman
      distance in one day. We left our belongings in  Isabel  and          mentioned in Proverbs 31 could be taken literally or  figura-
      came to the meeting of Classis West at  Doon, Iowa.  After           tively. And he made  plain that we as  women~  have a  calling
      the meeting of this Classis we went to Michigan for two              to be godfearing in three spheres. First he spoke of the
      weeks and returned to the  Fqrbes-Isabel  area. For the past         sphere of  thc home  il! which we are to be as an help meet
      nine weeks  Mrs' Lubbers and 1  have labored in this area.           for our  husbands..  And we  must  cling to our  iusbands  til1
      The congregation at  Isabel  had the faith and foresight to          death  parts  US. The  p!ace of  the  woman  is in-the home. This
      purchase a  sinall home  where  the Home Missionary might            is ruthlessly violated  todey. For the world is carnal. What
      live. In the Forbes church Mrs. Lubbers and 1  stay at the           is a home  ? he  asked. Is your home a house? Or is it a hotel
      home of Donald Hauck. This  means   &ne days in  Isabel              where   you. simply  eat. and sleep  ? Is it so that in  .your home
      and five days in Forbes  every two weeks.                            your children cannot  receive a  covénant training because of
        It  m«st be  ti-uthfully  said that in both  Isabel  and Forbes    T.  V.? A home is a community of Christian fellowship  be-
      we  can build forth in our  teaching  upon  the foundation which     tween parents and children to help one another spiritually.
      was laid in the preaching  and teaching of Rev.  Herman              We as mothers must be spiritual help  meets for our  husl
      Mensch.  Time and again the  brethren  and sisters in  Isabel        bands to stand at their  sides in  times of poverty and to dis-
      and Forbes  mention Rev. Mensch and the  fact of his  preacb-        cuss  ~with our husbands the weaknesses, faults,  and  needs of
      ing and teaching. For this 1  am sincerely thankful. It must         our children.  '
      be  stated here and now that it was under God through the                 In the  Churcti: Here our speaker said we could be brief.


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                                                                                       7:    .,,           i.                    .      :     `.     1                                               `.
                432                                          -  THE   ST'ANDARD   BE-ARER

                We must be silent  accor&ng  to 1 Corinthians 11.  We have  a                                                                                           IN. MEMORIAM                                             /
             .  calling.in the  so-ciety  life of our church  ancl in regarcl to  cate-                                                The Hope Protestant  Reformed School Board hereby  wishes
                chism instruction to our children.. We must be ïnstructed                                              to-express its sympathy  to fellow school board members, John  /
                by the preaching of the Word and  also enter into- the organic                                         B. Lubbers in the loss of his  mother-in-law
                life of the church in our spcieties. It is our  callihg  as mothers                                                                                     MRS., G.  KL0M.P.
                to  exercise our talents which God has given  us so that in the                                        and Ted  Engelsma  in the loss of his  father-in-law
-..             home; school or  social  life we  may  uSe them to the advantage                                                                          MR. WILLIAM  MASTENBROEK.
                and welfare of our fellow members. NO one  knows the                                                                   May they experience that God's grace is  sufficient   also in
                child better  than its  mother.   How  much  time do we spencl                                         times  of sorrow.
                spiritually with our children ?                                                                                                                                    D. Meulenberg, Vice President
                       In the school: First of  al1 we need our own Protestant'                                                                                                    J..  Kalsbeek,  Secretary
                Reformed School. We  may never have anything but  Fhe
                best in  schooling  for our children, especially in these  times
                and in the light of  om- past history. Because of  om- baptismal
                pledge as we  find it in  o.ur  baptism  form, we must have                                                                                                  IN MEMORIAM
                such schools. What are we doing about it?                                                                         . The Priscilla Society of the First Protestant Reformed Church
                       After this  jnstructive  and edifying  sp&ech   w e   w e r e                                   wishes  to  express its  ,heartfelt sympathy  to one of its members,
                                                                                                                       $Iiss  Bertha Mastenbroek, in the loss of her  father,
                favored by a piano solo by a member of  om-  Doon Society.'
                The collection that was taken was for the Edgerton Free                                                                                        MR. WM.  MASTVENBROEK,
                Christiän School.                                                                                      dn June 2,  1958.
                       The Rev. Heys conducted  om-  question   hom- and  very                                                         "1 am the resurrection and the life: he that  believeth  on me,
                capably answered the question handed in by  each society.                                              though he die, yet shall he live."  John 11  25.
                After this we were favored by a trio from our  Hul1 Society.                                                I                                                   Mrs. B.  Woudenberg,  Sr., President
                                                                                                                                                                               Mrs. R.  C. Ezinga, Secretary.
                       Om- afternoon ended with refreshments served by  the
                Edgerton  ladies. We  fee1 that God has  richly blessed  US in                                         I
                giving to  US that we might meet in true Christian fellow-                                             :
                ship; and we pray that He  may give  US grace so that our                                              ;.                                         .
                                                                                                                                                                             IN MEMORIAM
       ~.       future activities  may be done to the glory of His most  holy                                          :
                name.                                                                                                                  The  :Ladies'  Society of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed
                                                                                                                       Church hereby expresses its sympathy with our fellow  member,
                                                Mrs. H. J. Blankespoor,  Rejm~tel                                           Mrs. Harriet Lubbers, in the loss of her  mother,
                                                                                                                                                                MRS. GERRIT KLOMP,
                                                                                .*'
                                             AL1 AROUND US                                                                  aged  82 years.                                        . .
                                         (Continued  from  Page `428)      '                                                           May the God of  al1  grace comfort  #her and  al1 the bereaved
                sibility wherever it  may fall. But  tiho says the Church as j with-the thought that the death  of. God's saints  .is a door through
                such must do this  7 Does the Lord of the Church  command                                              which they enter the New Paradise of God.
                it ? And  who or what is `the Church' that must do this  ?-                                                                                                       Rev. Gerrit Vos, President
                Who is to  decide on which  side:  thc  ,. Church  wil1 take its  1  -                                                                    c                       Mr. Harry Zwak, Vice-President
                stand  ? Do  Fat the teachings of the Lord of the Church  rather :
                cut right  across the issues and those  who are in  con8ict
                over them  ?'
                                                                         Rev. M. Schipper. VISITORS  TO LOVELAND, COLORADO !
                                                                                                                 .1
                                                                                                                                        The  Loveland Protestant  Reforined  Church  meets in the
                                    WEDDING  ANNIVERSARY                                                                    Proctor School on  highway  .no.  287, three  miles north of
                   Tlie Lord has given our  parents                                                                    Loveland.
                                  MR.  AND MRS. JOHN  KNOP'ER                                        `-                                .Morning   worship _... ._: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 :00 A. M.
                Thirty-five years of married life  tògether.  They hope to  celebrate
                their anniversary on July 5; and we would like to take this  op-:                                                       Evening worship ..__.,...._ i . . .._.............. . . . . . . . . 7 :30 P. M.
                portunity  to express our thankfulness to God for their  continued
                auidance and  sniritual instruction  whi'ch  thev have  m-ovided  for                                                   Sunday School .._.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 :30 A. M.
                Üs in the  years^gone by.  May the  bles&ng  Óf  our  cóvenant  God
                rest  upon   them in the years to  come;                                                                    For further  informatiofi  cal1  :
                                                           Mr. and Mrs. G.  Bouwkamp,                                                                          MR. ALBERT GRIESS
                                                      * Mr.  anti Mrs. .D.  Knoper
                                                           Rev. and Mrs. H. Hanko                                                                                      444 East 7th Street
                                                           and ten grandchildren.
                Grand Rapids, Michigan.                                                                                                                           Loveland, Colorado


