         VOLUME   XXX11                                    SEPTEMBER   1, 1956  --GRAND   ILWIDS,  MICHIGAN                               NUMBER   20

                                                                                             The word truth is found about two hundred times in the c
                  MEDITAi~lON                                                             Bible, both in the Old and the New Testaments.
                                                                                /            And it is found in many different connections.
                            BUYTHETRUTH                                                       It is found in connection with firmness, stability,  per-
                                                                                          &tuity,  pea&, sureness and certainty, faithfulness, fidelity
                            f'Buy the truth and sell it not." Prov.  23:23a               and constancy, but also with justice and equity  and upright-
                                                                                          ness.
         Our Lord said to Pilate: "Thou sayest that I am a King.
     To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the                               One of the classical texts  <for an understanding of this
     world! that                                                                          concept is in Duet. 32 :4, where we read: "He is the Rock,
                     I  should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone
     that is of the truth heareth My voice."                                              His work is perfect: a God of truth and without iniquity,
                                                                                          just and right is He."
        Was it cynicism, despair or disgust which prompted!                                  This tezt is also our point of-departure in our quest for
     Pilate to say : "What is truth ?"                                               ! truth.
I                                                                                    I
        I do not` know.                                                              I       From this and many other texts it is plain that God is
        This is sure: he did not have the faintest idea' what the                         the Truth, that truth is one of His virtues and that He is
     truth is. If he had, he would have kneeled before' Christ                            His virtues.
     and donfessed Him as  ,the Way, the Truth, and the Life.                                Psalm 31  :5 calls Him the God of truth. as does Isa.
     Why, the truth stood before him when he uttered his strange
     question.                                                                            65 :16, where we read : "That he who blesses `himself `in the
                                                                                          earth shall bless himself in the God of truth, etc."
        The truth.                                                                           These texts surely teach us that the Triune God is the
         A word which we use and use again and again, all the                             Truth personified. And the specific quality of the  concepti
     day long, and throughout our vain lives.                                             truth seems to be that He is the Rock. And this figure
        Yet, how far are we often removed from this mighty                                teaches us that truth means immutability, constancy, fidelity
     concept.                                                                             and faithfulness, but then in justice and equity and honesty.
        And God says to us: Buy the truth and sell it not! So                             Truth is the virtue of a just fidelity.
     we must concern ourselves with it.                                                      As such. He is the Rock.
        A  might? concept is found in my text and the setting is!                             If there were an eternity of eternities He is the constant
     sevetely practical. You find in the context a description of                         Rock, the never changing, and faithful God.                             .  -.
     the whole of oun ethical ,lives in the midst of a deceiving and                                                                                        ->
                                                                                                                    4:  *  *  *
     evil world. In the...mi@t  of that struggle, the Lord tells His
     people: Buy the truth! and#sell  it not.                  7                              Now, we would `never know this if God had not revealed
         What is truth ? ' ."`.                                                           this to us.
                                              *  *  4 *                                       But He did `reveal it. And this revelation of. the Truth
                                                                                          is Jesus. So  th$t'  we. hear `Jesus Say:  T am the Way, the
         Buy the truth!                                                                   Truth ,anfl the Life..
         But what is the truth ?                     *                                       Wh&.we turned from the Rock in the first Paradise, and
         It is npt easy to find an exhaustive answer t`o this ques-                       built  OUF house on the shifting sand of the lie and vanity,
     tion.                            ~ :.
                             ,I.,.                                                        God repealed His  tmchangeable  and faithful covenant  love

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

           in the sending of Jesus. And thus we see the Truth as                  and buyeth that field." Also in Isa. 55 :l-3 we find the same
           applied to our salvation.                                              figure employed, and is the Lord appealing to men to come
                  Spiritually, instinctively the Church has seen this. Listen     and buy the things of the Rock of our salvation.
           to the song which we hear wher,ever  men praise God: "Rock                This figure refers to one point, namely, to our  atiitude
           of Ages !"                                                             towards the Treasure of God Almighty, our Rock, our Re-
               knd the Agent who brings this Triune God of  .Truth,               deemer  aed. Saviour, as He revealed  Himself  in Christ,
           as revealed by Jesus, to the Church is also the Truth.  He             through Spirit and Word.
           is called the Spirit of Truth, John 14  :17. That  Sp&  of                Now all these bounties are called the Truth, and we are
           Jesus Christ brings the firm! constant, perpetual, faithful            admonished to buy this Truth.
           and just love of God to His  people, and tells them in their              And to buy this truth means that, first, you knowlit  `with
           heart that they are safe in the everlasting arms of God.               the knofledge of love: And, second, that you treasure it
              And the medium through which this  S,pirit of Truth                 above all things, and I mean all things.       I
           speaks to us is the Word of Truth, John  17:17.                           It means that you rest on that Rock of thi Truth of .,&do
               Summing, it up we see this : God is truth essentially,             that you place all your trust in that Rock for ti&e and etefi
           without regard -to man or his salvation. He is the unchang-            nity. That you look  >way  from all other rocks, and build
           ing, constant and faithful Rock, full of justice and equity.          your house on the Rock, the Foundation which was laid by
              This' Triune God of truth revealed Himself as our  Re-              the God of your salvation.
           deenier in Jesus Christ, so that  this Redeemer was called                Then let the rains, the fldods  and the winds come: your
           the Truth too. And since this Truth of God, that is, Jesus,           house will not fall, for it was founded on a Rock.
           is brought to the Church, the elect, whom God loved from'
           all eternity, by the Holy Spirit which was given to Jesus at                                     *  *  *  *
           His exaltation, therefore that Spirit is also called the Truth.
           And the Medium through which this spirit speaks is the
           Word of Truth.                                                            "And sell it not !"
             After I saw and absorbed all these truths the following                 The one point of comparison is very clear. When you
           text had a deeper meaning than ever before: "and ye shall             sell a thing you plainly say: I can do without that thing!
           know the truth and the truth shall make you free."                        You do not sell your hands, feet, eyes, do you? What
                                                                                 kind of man. would sell his wife and beloved childreri  ?
                                       *  *  8  *                                    No,' but the things you sell you can do without.         .
              "Buy the truth !"                                                      Those things we dismiss, forsake, and turn to the things
                                                                                 which we value higher, and hold dearer.
              How Strange !                                                          Well, what did man do after the fall in Paradise?
              Who can buy the Rock, that is, God, Christ, the Holy                   He dismissed the Truth, sold Him down the river,
           Spirit of Christ, &d the Word of the living God ?                     turned away backward, and conceived of better rocks than
              Oh, but it is very evident that the words  bz~y  and  sell our Rock.
           are used in a figurative and unreal sense. There is j&t one.              What are his treasures ?
           idea in the concept of  sel,ling  and buying which the Holy
           Spirit wants to use in this connection.                                   There is nothing outside our Rock than the lie of the
                                                                                 devil.
_.            The things of God, the spiiitual  things, are never a mat-
           ter of merchandise.                                                       And around that lie is built awhole world' of iniquity.
              God's Word even forbids and condemns those who would                   And that world of the lie is all vanity, nothingness, emp-
      .
      :  . make  merchapdise  of the Gospel and the people of God.               tiness.
           Think on thg magician who offered big money for the gift                  And when the end of the ages has come the world will
           of imparting `the Holy Spirit `on people.                             for that reason be ashamed. Shame is the being found empty,
              No, but here is the point in the picture: it refers to our         naked, shorn of anything and everything that is goo:l, and
           response, our -reaction to the manifestation of the truth, that       kind, and lovely and constant, faithful and just. In short,
           is, God, Christ, the Holy Spirit and the Bible.                       the being found alone without hope and without God in the
                                                                                 world.
              There is a commentary which we should not neglect in
           this connectiofi  : "Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like unto            That is the terrible shame of the world.
           treasure hid in a field ; the which when a man cath found, he             And we are all that way by nature. And even after we
           hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath,       are born again we are inclined to take the Truth and  sel!


I                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                   459
     it. That is, we will turn our back to the Truth and turn-to
     the lie, the devil, the world, the earth and earthly things.                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   `.
        Until we are sought out by the Truth (you remember,                   Semi-mov~thly,  except  vnovkhly   durimg June, July  amI August
     that is, God, Christ, the Spirit and the Word of God) and                  Published by the  REFORMED   FREE  PUBLISHIN?   ASSOCXATION
     brought back to rest in His loving arms. Safe in the arms                P. 0. Box  S81, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7,  Mieh.
     of Jesus, safe in the arms'of  God.                                                         Editor-  REV. HERMAN HOEKSEMA
                                                                              Commnnications  relative  to coatents should be addressed to Rev.
        Moses found a place near to God in the cleft of the Rock,             H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
     and He covered him there with His wings.                                 All matters relative to subscriptions  shonld be addressed to Mr.
                                                                              G. Pipe, 1463 Ardmore St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7, Michigan.
         Human nature, under the influence of the father of the               Announcements and Obituaries  must be mailed to the above
     lie, ever is inclined to sell the Truth, and prefer the lie, dark-       address and will be published at a fee of $1.00 for each notice.
     ness, sin, the earth and earthly treasures.                              RENEWALS:   Unless a definite request for discontinuance is re-
                                                                              ceived, it is assumed that the subscriber  wishes the subscription
        And when the Truth asserts Itself, and speaks, then the               to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
     world takes the Truth and holds it under in unrighteousness.                                   Subscription price: $4.00 per year
        And it is  a. great pity, but God's children are also in-             E&red   as  Secolld Class  naatter at  Graved  Rapids,  Mickigan
     clined to do this.
         To their shame and misery.
                                                                                                             C O N T E N T S
         Oh no, they do not stay there.
         Our Rock is constant and faithful and just.                       MEDITATION  -
                                                                                 Buy the Truth.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ;. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .:. . .457
         He never goes back on His word.                                           I Rev. G. Vos
I He tells them in such instance: M`y beloved child, do
     not sell the truth but buy it !                                       EDITORIALS          -
                                                                                 Election and Reprobation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
         And He gives the Spirit of Truth in their hearts, so that               The `Christian Encyolopaedia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .461
I    they do.                                                                          Rev. H. Hoeksema
         Beloved, do not sell the beautiful Rocklike, Protestant
     Reformed Truth !                                                      O U R   DOCZTRINE--   L
                                                                                 The Book of Revelation.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .462
         Heaven is. in sight !                                                         Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                -
                                                                  G.V.

                                                                           FROM   HOLY   W&T-
                                                                                 Exposition of I Corinthians l-4 (18) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .469
                           Announcements                                               Rev. G. Lubbers

         The Synod of the Protestant.Reformed Churches has de-             IN  HIS  FEAR-
     cided that each congregation be requested to take two col-                  Praying in His Fear (4)  .;. . . . . I... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,471
     lections a year for Foreign Missions.                                             Rev. J. A. Heys
         Will the consistories -please consider this an official an-       FEATURE  ARTICLE  -
     nouncement to them.                                                         The Pounds and the Talents `in the Parables. . . . . . . . . . . ..473
         Please send to : Mr: Arthur H. Haan, Breton Road, S; E.,                Rev. R. Veldman
     Grand Rapids, Michigan.                                                                                                                                                     Q
                                                                           THE   VOICE  OF  OUR   FATHERS-
                                            G. Lubbers, Stated Clerk             The Exposition of the Canons of Dordrecht.. . . . . . . . . . . .475
                                                                                       Rev. H. C. Hoeksema

           THE MIGHTY GOD, `JEHOVAH, SPEAKS                                DECENCY   AND   ORDER-
                                                                                 The Diaconate and Other Almoners.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .,. . . .479
                 The mighty God, Jehovah speaks                                        Rev. G.  Vandenberg
                   And calls the earth from sea to sea ;
                 From beautious Zion God shines forth,                     ALL   AROUND  U s -
                  He comes and will not  silem be;                               Destructive Labor Union Practices. : . :. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .479
                 Devouring flame before Him goes,                                      Rev. M.  Schipper
                    And dark.the tempest round Him grows.
                                                            Psalm 50 :i


                                                                                                                                                         -

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

II                                                                        God the author of sin, unjust, tyrannical, hypocritical, that
             E D I T O R I A L S                                          it makes .men carnally secure, `teaching them that they can
                                                                          live as they please and commit the most atrocious crimes be-
                                                                          cause their salvatidn is secure anyway ; that the reprobatk
                &lection and  Regmobation                                .are lost no matter if they perfo&  all the good' works of thei
       In his chapter on the above mentioned Subject, Berkou-             elect, and that.God, by His arbitrary will has predestined the
wer presents a caricature of my  vieiv on the relation between            greatest part of the race to damnation ; and that, in the same
election and reprobation, in order thereupon to criticise  his           manner in which election is the cause -and fbuntain  of faith,
own caricature. Perhaps, in a later connection, I may. call               reprobation is the cause of unbelief and impiety. It -is all
the attention of the reader to this.                                     this which the fathers reject and detest with their whole
       In the present article, however, I am rather concerned             soul, and not merely Berkouwer's "parallel."
with his own presentation of the subject.                                    2. From the above it is  evide'nt that it is not true, as
      And then I would ahtiost  be inclined to say that Berkou-          Berkouwer alleges, that in the one sentence. he quotes from
wer does not believe in the Reformed conception of repro-                the "Conclusion" the fathers of Dordt  i,ntended  to reject
bation. Perhaps, this will stilL be my cQnclusion  at the end.           the "deterministic" conception of the doctrine, of election.
But, for the time being, let me put it this way that he cer-             In his book, Berkouwey  repeatedly mentions .the "determin-
tainly has very little sympathy for it, and certainly does not           istic" and the "indeterministic" conception of the truth. He
induce his reader to believe with his whole heart in the                 does not want either, although he never makes it clear what
Scriptural and Reformed doctrine of reprobatibn.                         he does prefer. But it is not true that the fathers had this
       Let me show you how I received this impression- from              distinction in mind. They wanted simply to maintain the
Berkouwer's book on God's election.                                      truth `of predestination over against "all the calumnies that
      Firs3 of all, I wish to call attention to the  f&t that he         .are' heaped upon it." The philosophic distinction between
virtually intrdduces  his discussion of reprobation by a quo- "determinism"and "indeterminism" was not before their
tation from the "Conclusion" of the Canons of Dordrecht.                 minds. Besides, whatever Berkouwer may allege, the doc-
Writ&s he: "This is evident from the fact that in the Re-                trine of election and reprobation certainly maintains that
formed doctrine of election this `parallel' (between election            God, and not man. determines the salvation and damnation
and reprobation, H. H.) was repeatedly discussed, and that,              of every &an, the one in the way of faith, the other in the
then, it is emphatically rejected. A continual serious warn-             way of unbelief. And even the way of both, faith and unbe-
ing is sounded forth in this connection which is neglected               lief, is determined by God.
strikingly in much criticism with the result that one simply                 3.  Hentie, it is not true at all that the intention of the
arrives at a caricature. With this warning we meet not only              "Conclusion" is to warn us against a wrong conception of
in the dogmatic discussion, but it sounds through also in the            predestination. as Berkouwer interprets it. The "Conclusion"
manner in which election is mentioned in the confession of. does not mean to be a warning against the idea that repro-
the church; and is even clearly and explicitly mentioned in              bation is in the same sense the cause of unbelief and impiety
the Canons of Dordrecht, particularly in the defense and                 as election is the cause of faith. On the contrary, it warns
warning which is added to the canons. For there, where the               against those  izalumniators  that thus misrepresent the Re-
doctrine of election is being protected `against misunderstand-          formed faith as if it makes God the %uthor. of sin. And, at
ing and caricatures, the following is rejected `that in the              the same time, it warns the calumniators themselves to con-
same wza.nner .in which the electiorz is the fountairz  and cause        sider the terrible judgment of God for bearing false testi-
of  faitjz and good works,  +eproba.tion  ,i.s  tJze cause of  uvzbe-    mony against the truth.
lief and impiety'." To this the author adds : "Of this thought             4: That Berkouwer approaches dangerously the denial of
it is emphatically declared that the Reformed &r&es  "not                the Reformed conception of reprobation is evident from his
Qnly acknowledge this, but even detest it with their whole               interpretation of Canons I, VI. There we read: "That some
soul."                                                                   receive the gift of faith from, God, and others do not receive
      `Concerning this we wish to remark the following:                  it, Proceeds from God's eternal decree." According to Berk-
      1. The author should have quoted" the context of this              ouwer, election is, indeed, the cause and fountain of all
"Conclusion" of the Canons. By failing to do this, he leaves             saving good, but man is the cause, and his is the guilt of
the impression that the sentence he. quotes contains all that            unbelief. But, then, how is it possible, asks Berkouwer, that
which the fathers of Dordt and the. Reformed Churches re-                Canons I, VI can teach that `the fact that some- do not re-
ject  and despise with their whole soul, i.e. the parallel be-           ceive the gift of faith from God can be explained as flowing
tween election and reprobation. But they reject much more.               forth from `God's eternal decree  ? He could wish, thus he
They refer to  al-1 the -enemies of the true doctrine  .f&ely            .writes,  that the Canons had expressed themselves more
alleged to be the teaching of the Reformed fathers  `anent.              `clearly -on this point. But he, nevertheless, wishes to inter-
the .doctrine  of predestination ; that it is an opiate by which         pret Canons I, VI thus that  it simply refers to God's judg-
men are led away from all piety and religion, that it makes              ment over the ungodly. That God does not give them the


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                461
I
      faith is meant as God's act of judgment over man in his                Let us not camouflage and distort it, as Berkouwer does,
      guilt. In other words, God's eternal decree in this respect         but clearly and definitely maintain it.
      simply means that God from eternity determined not to                                                                      H. H.
      bestow the gift of faith on some because of and. on the basis
     of their sin and guilt as His righteous. judgment. Cf. p. 211.                   The 1 Christian Encyclopedia
      This is supposed to be the meaning of Canons I, VI. And
      this is presented as the Reformed truth of reprobation. But            I promised that I would write a little more extensively
      here, to my mind, Berkouwer- is Arminian. Will Berkouwer,           than in a common book review on the first volume of the
      please, explain, if the sin and guilt of man is the cause and       Christian Encyclopedia. In this article I will begin doing
      judicial ground of, not his condemnation, but his reproba-          so by pointing out its good features.
      tion and his not receiving the gift of faith, how it is possible       Let me say, first of all, that I consider the whole set,
      that not all are reprobated and that, after all, some do re-        judging now by its first volume, worthy of giving it a place
      ceive the gift of faith?' Does this cause and judicial ground       in any library, that is, of course, for those that are suffi-
      of their not receiving the gift of faith fall away in the case      ciently acquainted with the Holland language. The price for
       of the elect? If this should be the case, the first cause and      the8 whole set is f 25 per volume.
       de.epest ground of their salvation is in themselves. I realize        The outward form of this first volume is rather attractive
      that Berkouwer emphasizes that he, does not want this.  NW-         and quite proper for a  wo,rk of this nature. It will look
       ertheless, I would. like to have clear explanation of this by      good in any library. I am afraid, however, that, in course
      himself. As it stands now, I can only conclude that he              of time, the binding will hardly stand up.
      favors the Arminian conception of reprobation.                         The work is under the redaction of Prof. Dr.  F.. W.
          The. Canons certainly teach -quite a different concep-          Grosheide and Dr.  G: P. Van Itterzon, both of whom, and
       tion. They trace both, the fact that God .bestows the gift of      especially the first, are well-known to most of us.
      faith on some and that He does not bestow it on others, to             As to its contents, they-are not only biblical and theologi-
       God's eternal decree, certainly not to man's guilt. Besides,       cal, but rather universal. The first volume which covers the
       in I, the rejection of errors, VII, they reject the errors of      subject under the letter A and  B, up to  Bouwoffer,  treats
      those "Who teach: That God, simply by virtue of his                 besides biblical and theological subjects, also the history of
      righteous will, did not decide either to leave anyone in the        church and -mission in the entire world, evangelization,
      fall of Adam and in the common state of sin and condemna-           charity, social work, youth- and other organizations, phil-
      tion, or to pass anyone by in the communication of grace            osophy, psychology, pedagogy, sociology, political questions,
       which `is necessary for faith and conversion. For this is          biology, geology, astronomy, culture and art, medicine, etc.
       firmly decreed: `He hath mercy on whom he will, and whom              It, therefore, covers quite a field of study.
      he  will' he hardeneth.' Rom. 9  :lS. And also this : `Unto            According to the Foreword, this encyclopedia does not
      you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of             intend to represent the views of a particular school or de-
       heaven, but to them it is not given.' Matt. 13  :ll. Like-         nomination, but means to represent all Protestantism in
       wise: `I thank thee, o Father, Lord of heaven and earth,           the Netherlands.
       that thou didst. hide these things from the wise and under-
       standing, and didst reveal them unto babes  ; yea, Father,            A very worthy attempt!                              H.  .H.
       for so it was well-pleasing in thy sight.' Matt. 11  :25, 26;"
       This is certainly not supra, but it is, nevertheless, soundly                             I N   M E M O R I A M   -
       Reformed and Scriptural. It squarely attributes the fact              The Board of the Reformed Free Publishing Association ex-
      that some do not receive the gift of faith, and that they are       tends its sympathy to its fellow  board  member, Mr. Joe King,
       left in their condemnation, to God's eternal good pleasure         in the sudden loss of his son,
      and not to their own sin and guilt as judicial ground for                                 GORDON A. KING
      their reprobation.                                                     Job  1:21, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away;
          Berkouwer does not like this.                                   blessed be the name of the Lord."
                                                                                                                              The Board
I         He does not like reprobation.
          The Reformed view is certainly not that God is the
       author of sin, but whether, though man himself has the                                 Important Notice
       blame and is the author and, as such, the secondary cause
       of his own rebellion and unbelief, God is not the final and           There will be a Sunday School Inspirational Mass Meet-
       deepest cause of man's remaining in his. sin and unbelief,         ing in our Creston Church on September 21, at 8 p. m.             *
       this is an entirely different question. No, it is not a  ques-       - All Sunday School teachers, and. friends are invited to
       tion, but it is  the. truth according to Scripture, and accord-    attend.
       ing to the mildest (infra-lapsarian) presentation of it.                                             Arthur Schuitema, Secretary


     462     -                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
*  (I                                                                  are not the same words as in the words of our passage from
                  O U R                 DO'cTR-IilE  jlRevelation. There, in Zechariah they cast upon Him a
                                                                       saving look and mourn for Him in true repentance, as they
                  THE BOOK OF REVELATION                               did, indeed, on the day of Pentecost, and ever since, when-
                                                                       ever the Spirit of grace touched the hearts of sinful men.
                                                                       For, the "looking upon Him" and the "mourning for Him"
                               CHAPTER  II                             in the prophecy of  .Zechariah  is presented as the result of
                  Sahtatiouz  and  Blessing.  Rev. 1: 4-8.             Jehovah's pouring upon His people the. Spirit of grace and         '
                                                                       of supplications.  Zech.  12:lO. Here, however, in Rev.  1:7
         Nevertheless, in the text here the reference is definitely    they look upon Him in His final coming. They that pierced
     to His final and visible appearance, when "every eye shall see    Him, no doubt, are literally the Jews, and particularly those
   Him." That His coming will be "with clouds" may have a              that crucified Him. But this does not mean that the expres-'
     literal fulfillment, so that He shall appear in the clouds of     sion "they that pierced Him" is limited to them. It has a
     the sky. However, the symbolical significance of these clouds     wider significance. It includes, not only all the Jews that
     must not-be overlooked. Clouds in Scripture are symbols of        rejected Him, but all that ever came into contact with Him,
     majesty and judgment. Thus we read in  Ps. 18: "In my             despised Him, and crucified the Son of God afresh. They
     distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he        shall be from "all the tribes of the earth." And, therefore,
     heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before          seeing. -Him, all the tribes of the earth shall mourn. They
     him, even into his ears. Then the earth shook and-trembled ;      are the hostile tribes, the antichristian forces of the world.
     the foundations' also of the hills moved and were shaken,         They mourn and wail because of Him, or literally according
     because he was wroth. There went up smoke out of his              to the original "towards" Him. Seeing Him, Whom they
     nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were          despised and hated and opposed, in His glory and power,
    kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down ;          they are filled with consternation, realizing that His fierce
    and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a                wrath will strike them down and consume them. But for
    cherub, and did fly: yea, he ,did fly upon the wings of the        the Church it will be the hour of complete and eternal re-
    wind. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round        demption and deliverance, the realization of all their hope
    about' him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.         and longing.
    At the brightness that was before him this thick clouds               All' this is steadfast and sure, for it is God that here
    passed, hail stones and coals of fire." vss. 6-12. And in P.s.     speaks, the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end-
    97:2: "Clouds and darkness are round about. him: right-            ing." He is the "Lord, which is, and which was, and which
     eousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne."          is to come, the Almighty." His counsel shall stand, and He
     On the mount of transfiguration "there was a cloud that           will do all His good pleasure. Alpha and omega  .are the
    overshadowed them," Mark 9:7. And when He was taken                first and last. letters respectively of the Greek alphabet. The
    up from the earth "a cloud received bim out of their sight,"       meaning of these symbols is explained in "the beginning and
    Acts 1 :9. He cometh  with clouds, not again as the suffering      the ending." He is the Lord, the Lord God (R.V.). He
     Servant of Jehovah, but in all the glory the Father  bath,        is the beginning .of all things, and therefore also the ending.
    given Him, in royal majesty and to judge the world in right-       He is their sovereign Creator, the Fount out of which are all
    eousness !                                                         things. And in Him all things have their purpose. Even
         And in His coming He will be visible to all. -"Every eye      as all things are out of Him, so they are also unto Him.
    shall see Him." His own, that looked for Him with longing,         From the beginning He made all things with a view to the
    but also the enemies shall. see Him. The latter even has the       end : the alpha is connected with the omega, the one must
    emphasis in the text. They that pierced Him are `mentioned         inevitably-lead to the other. And whatever lies between the
    particularly. The prophet Zechariah had prophesied that            alpha and the omega is through Him. He controls all things
    "the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem" would        in such a way that His counsel is accomplished, His design
    "look upon. me whom they have pierced, and they  shall1            is fulfilled, His end is reached. And that end is the "revela-
    mourn for him, as one mourneth for an only son, and shall          tion of Jesus Christ," the firstborn of every creature and the
    be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his     first begotten of the dead, as the One in Whom all things  ,.
    firstborn." And, no doubt, that prophecy refers to the             in heaven and, on earth are to be united forever. Then, in
    crucifixion of the Lord, when the Jews literally pierced the       the new creation, the tabernacle of God -shall be with men,
    Son of God in human nature, though also there the words            and God shall be all in all, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
    have a wider significance and may be applied to all the sin           And nothing can prevent this Omega. For, God is Lord,
    and rebellion of the people of Israel throughout their history.    and He is the Almighty. He is not merely supreme in power,
    This rebellion only culminated in the crucifixion of the Ser-      more powerful than all other powers combined, but His is
    vant of Jehovah. But the "looking upon Him" and the                all the power-,-even  the power of the creature, the power also
  "mourning for Him" of which the text in Zechariah speaks             of the forces of darkness. They have no power but from


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              463

  Him. And He uses them, willingly or in spite of themselves,        apostle further informs us that he was on the isle of Patmos
  for His sovereign purpose. He is coming, therefore, surely         for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.. This
  and irresistibly, always coming through the ages of history,       may mean that  ,he was sent there to preach the  .Word of
  coming from the alpha to the omega, from glory to glory,           God and be witness of the name of Jesus ; or it may signify
  His own glory, until all His glory shall forever shine forth       that he was there for the very purpose of receiving the
  in the perfect revelation of Jesus Christ. Peace, therefore.       Word  of' God as contained in .this book of Revelation ; or
  unto you that look for the coming of the Lord, the peace of        it may denote that he was exiled as a martyr for the sake of
 grace, peace in the midst of the conflict and sufferings-of this    the Word of God which he had preached and the testimony
  present time. For, behold, He  cometh  with clouds ! Faith         of Jesus which he bore. The last mentioned possibility ap-
  is the victory!                                                    pears to be the most probable and acceptable sense of the
                                                                     words. In the first place, this is the most natural signifi-
                            Chapter III                              cance of the phrase: "for the Word of God and the testi-
                           Rev.  1:9-20 .                            mony of Jesus Christ." Most generally these words convey
                                                                     the idea of true martyrdom. In the second place, this is
     CHRIST IN THE MIDST OF THE GOLDEN  CANDLESTICKS                 implied in the manner in which John introduces himself,
                                                                     namely, as the brother and partaker with the Church in
      We are now approaching.`the  main body of the book of          tribulation. This would seem to imply that at the time of
  Revelation itself, and the numerous visions it presents for        John's receiving this revelation a persecution had broken
  .our consideration. In the passage we are to discuss in this       out for the Church ; and that John, partaking of the general
  chapter we have the beginning, the first part of the first main    tribulation and persecution of the Church, had been banished
vision which extends to the end of chapter III. The whole            to the isle of Patmos. And in the third place, this would
  vision may be divided into two main parts. The first part is       be in accord with the records of secular history, which in-
  covered by our passage, which contains the vision of the           forms us that about this time the power of the world, repre-
  glorified Christ walking in the midst of the golden candle-        sented in the person of the emperor Domitian, raged with
  sticks and commissioning John to write the things that he          fury against the followers of Jesus, the despised sect of the
  saw; the second part includes chapters II and III, which           Nazarenes. We conclude, therefore, that John was on the
  contain the sevenfold message of the Lord which John must          isle of Patmos about the year 95 or 96 A. D. as a martyr
  deliver to the churches in Asia. In this vision, therefore, we     for the name and the testimony of Jesus Christ, his Lord.
  deal with the revelation of the exalted Christ in relation to
  His Church as well`as in connection with the things that                  But the Lord, who is the prince of the rulers of the
  must shortly come to pass. It is preceded by an explanation        earth and who causes even their counsels to work together
  of the circumstances under which the vision was received           for the good of His Church, had His own purpose with .the
  by John. Even as the prophets of the old dispensation were         banishment of His servant John. And though the worldly
  wont to give an account of their calling to the  -prophetic        power had exiled the aged apostle in order forever to silence
  office, so. John in this&sage  tells us how and under what         his faithful testimony, the Lord transformed this lonely and
  circumstances he first received the revelation concerning the      secluded isle into a spot that `served as an oracle for the
future contained in this book of Scripture. He was on the            revelation of one of the most beautiful and important parts
  lonely island of Patmos, a forsaken little isle, rocky and bare    of Holy Writ. Without any doubt, the abode of the apostle's
. . in themidst of the sea, not far from the coast of Asia Minor.    exile, where nothing but wild nature surrounded him from
  He calls himself the brother of believers rather than apostle,     day to, day, where he' was separated from the tumult and
  because of the circumstances in which he finds himself. And        bustle of the world, where he could witness the terrible sym-
  he adds that he is a companion with them in tribulation, and       bolism of the restless  sea,`listen  to the monotonous roar of
  in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. We must note          the powerful waves beating against the rocky shores of his
  here that all three: tribulation, the kingdom, and patience,       abode, where, moreover, he had an unobstructed view of the
  are of Jesus Christ. We are, partakers of them only if we          heaven?  and his observation of the four corners of the earth
  are in Him. Secondly, we must note that the Church is              was arrested only by the horizon where sky and water met,
  presented as in tribulation  ; the Church was in tribulation       -this forsaken abode was undoubtedly naturally adapted to
  then, and according to the viewpoint of the book of Reve-          be the scene of the prophet's visions and revelations, offering
  lation she is always in tribulation in the midst of the world.     as it did a natural back-ground for them and being conducive
  And if we are to be partakers of the kingdom of Jesus Christ,      to make the apostle spiritually capable of receiving them.
  it is inevitable that we also partake of the tribulation that      There, then, John was exiled, and he  iells us that he was
  comes upon the Church because of her. relation to, and             in the Spirit on the Lord's day. By the day of  the' Lord
  faithful confession of, her Lord. And lastly, for that very        in this connection we must not understand the final day of
  reason, it is necessary that we partake of the patience of         judgment, for although that may be the meaning of  the'term,
  Jesus Christ, for it is only in the power of that patience that    this interpretation is by no means in accord with what im-
  we can bear the tribulation and persevere unto the end. The        mediately follows.. Much more natural it is to explain that

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

 by the Lord's day John refers to the day of the Lord's resur-         every detail of the vision must undoubtedly serve to em-
 rection, the first day of the week, set aside by the' Church          phasize that one particular idea. The outstanding features
 under the direction of the apostles as a day of special worship `we may take as our starting point in explaining the vision.
 and consecration to take the place of the seventh day Sab-            First of all, it draws our attention that this glorious Being
 bath of the old dispensation. The expression "in the Spirit"         is described as "one like unto a son of man." The expression,
 does not merely mean that he was profoundly meditating on            is familiar to us `all, for Jesus was fond of using that name
 spiritual things, but rather that he was in a state of prophetic,    with application to Himself during His public ministry on
 spiritual ecstasy, so that he was separated from the world           earth. The name is most probably derived from Daniel VII:
 of sense and experience, and prepared to receive visions of           13, 14. There we read: "And behold, there came with the
 spiritual things. We believe that in the visions- which the          clouds of heaven one like unto a son of man, and he came
apostle is priviieged to see there is, indeed, something  oh-         even unto the ancient of days, and they brought him near
 jectively real. They were not merely subjective, so that they        before him. And there  was given him dominion and glory
 consisted only of the spiritual states of the seer, but the          and a kingdom, that all the peoples and nations and languages
object that was presented to his view was of such a nature            should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
that the mere riatural  eye could not perceive it, and therefore      which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall
a translation in the Spirit was necessary to prepare John to          not  ,be destroyed." If we compare this passage from Daniel
receive the visions. In this state. then, John  heard  a great        with the passage  wt are discussing now, the following in-
voice, mighty and clear as a trumpet call. And as he heard            ferences. would seem to be justified. First of all in the phrase
the voice behind him, and therefore turns about, he be-               "one like unto a son of man" we have a  -reference  to the
holds the vision that is recorded in our passage: the glorified       Lord in His human nature. He was truly man and as such
Christ- in the midst of the golden candlesticks.                      He is called the Son of Man. That in the vision He is not
    It will be observed immediately that in this vision there         directly called by that name, but described as "one like
aye two element?. In the fir+t  place, there is the element of        unto a son of man" makes no difference. The form of the
the golden candlesticks, of which it is most natural to assume        expression certainly does `not mean to deny His true and real
that they were standing in a circle around the Saviour ; and          manhood and only to affirm that He bore resemblance to the
in the second place, there is the appearance of the glorified         human form. Rather niust the indefiniteness of the phrase be
Redeemer Whom John describes in detail. To begin with the             attributed to the impression of the overwhelming glory His
litter, what a wonderful appearance He is. In general He              appearance made upon. John. In the halo of glory John be-
made the impression of a being, overwhelming in glofy and             holds the form of a son of man. In this phrase, then, we have
brightness of appearance, for He was as  the sun shineth              a special reference to Christ as the Son of Man, as `the human
iti his strength. It is only after John has become somewhat           Servant of Jehovah. However, He does not appear here as
accustomed to the glory of this marvelous v&ion that he is            the suffering Servant, but as the glorified Lord. If it is
able to note' some of His details. Gradually he begins to             correct to assume that the name Son of Man is derived from'
notice that this being bears the general resemblance and ap-          the prophecy of Daniel quoted above, it is evident that it
pearance of a son of man, of- a human being. His head and             does not refer to His humiliation only, but rather to Christ:
His hair, so he notices further, were white as wool, white as         as He was destined to inherit the kingdom  ; to the Son of
snow. Out of His mouth proceeded -a sharp two-edged                   Man in his humiliation, indeed, but only as a necessary way
sword, and in His right hand He held seven stars. His feet            to His exaltation and Messianic glory. It is to this glory
were like unto burnished brass, His `eyes reminded one of             and dominion that the passage from Daniel refers with
flames of fire, while His voice was like the roar of mighty           emphasis. There the "one like unto- a son of man" is
waves beating against  the rocks, when the storm sweeps               presented as  approacfiing  the Ancient of Days,  dad, to re-
them into fury. His garments consisted of a long robe,. ceive His everlasting kingdom. Naturally, in the prophecy
stately and majestic, flowing down to the feet; and about             of the Old Testament His  glory is presented as to be ex-
the breast He wore a golden girdle, glittering in the general         pected in the future. But at the time John is favored with
brightness and `glory of His appearance. Such is the general          this vision of the glorified Christ, the prophecy of Daniel was
description of the vision. And we ask naturally: what is its          &-eady  fulfilled. The one like unto a son of man had ap-
significance ?                                                        proached the Ancient of Days, through His suffering and
   In order to arrive at a correct interpretation of the whole,       death, His resurrection and exaltation at the right hand of
it will be necessary first of all td make careful study of the        God, and already He had received His everlasting dominion.
details of the vision, in order that then we may combine theln        And as such,  .as the glorified-lord, Who received  His king-
into their proper synthesis, and.  thus obtain a conception of        dom and dominion from the Ancient of Days, He appears in
their essential meaning. Certain it is from  the outset that          this vision. And, thirdly, from a comparison with the text
here we have the appearance of the. Saviour from a certain            in Daniel we may draw the inference that He here appears
definite point of  viey. The vision has a specific meaning,           as being authorized and empowered to function  `as Judge,
purpqses to present the Son of van in a definite light, and           When, Daniel beholds Him, thrones are set and judgment is


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                465

about to take place; it is just before the judgment is begun        righteous indignation and wrath. Somewhat the same idea
that the "one like unto a son -of man" receives His power           is expressed in the symbolism of the feet "like unto burnished
and dominion. And, therefore, a comparison of  the two              brass." They are like white hot, shining brass, burning in a
passages leads us to the general conclusion that the glorified      furnace ; and with them He will tread down the powers of
Saviour here appears as the mighty King- Judge.                     darkness, all His enemies, until they a;e consumed. We may
                                                                    notice here, too, that His voice  -is as the voice of many
   As a secoid, striking' feature in the vision we may point        waters, that is, as the roaring  tumult  of the storm-swept
to the whiteness of His head and hair. Also  iti this detail        deep, when wave after wave breaks against the rocks. It
there is an unmistakeable reference to the passage from             is the voice of thunder, the voice of power, the awe-inspiring
Daniel VIII. In the ninth verse of that chapter we rkad:            voice of the mighty King that is come to execute judgment
!`I beheld-till thrones were piaced and one that was an An-         in righteousness.  And, lastly, this general impression of
cient of Days did sit: his raiment was white as snow and            Christ as the glorious King-Judge is also corroberated  by the
the hair of his head was like pure wool." The reference is          feature of the sharp two-tdged sword that proceeds out of  _
clear. The whiteness of the hair refers to the age of the           His mouth. The sword in Scripture is symbol of authority,
Ancient of Days, and is a symbol of His divinity, because it        of power to punish evil-doers. In Rom. XIII the apostle
describes Him as the eternal-one. In our passage, therefore,        Paul says of, the -powers  that be : "but if thou do that which
the whiteness of His hair pictures the Saviour in His divine        is evil, be afraid, for he bearetli not the sword in vain: for
nature, as very' God, for only as  srch He  is the eternal          he is a minister of God,' an avenger for him that doeth evil,"
One, "whose goings forth have been from of old, from                vs. 5. This sharp two-edged sword that proceeds out of the
everlasting,"  Micha 5 : 2. In Daniel it is the hair of             mouth of Christ, is a. symbol of that power to take revenge
the Ancient of Days, not that of the one "like unto a               and execute wrath upon all the workers of iniquity. It
son of man," that is white  ; here, however, it is the              proceeds out of Christ's  mouth, indicating that it is by the
glorified Son of Man that is thus described. In Daniel,             power of His mighty Word that He will execute wrath and
therefore, the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man are two           vengeance. All these details, therefore,  corroberate  the
distinct persons ; in our passage they are presented `as one.       general impression that the glorified Saviour appears here
And again, this difference is in harmony with the distinc-          to John as the -great and mighty King, Who is coming to
tion between the two dispensations : when Daniel wrote his          judge His Church and the world, till all the powers of dark-
prophecy the Word had not yet become flesh, when John               ness shall be destroyed forever.
received his vision the Incarnation had been accomplished.
God and man, the divine and the human nature had become                However, it is not only as  I&g and Judge that He
united in the one person of Immanuel, God with us, and the          reveals Himself in this vision. He is also the great High
Ancient of Days could therefore appear in the vision as being       Priest, Who is busy for His Church in the sanctuary of God.
at the same time the one "like unto a son of man." The              This is indicated by His apparel, for He is clothed with a  i
glorified Christ, the Son of Man, but also the very Son             garment down to the foot, and girt about the breasts with a
of God, appears here in the vision on Patmos as the glorious        golden girdle. The High Priest of Israel in the old dis-
King; that has entered in His inheritance from Jehovah, has         pensation wore a long robe or upper coat, called the robe           ,
received His dominion, is authorized aid mighty to execute          of the ephod. It is evidently in this long high-priestly garb
judgment and to realize the consummation of His kingdom.            that the Lord reveals Himself here to John in the vision.
                                                                    The fact that the garment is pictured as hanging. down to
   Mqst of the rest of the symbolic details of the vision           the foot indicates that He is not now functioning in the
servi: to strengthen this general appearance of Christ as the       offering of sacrifices of blood, for in that case the garment
powerful King-Judge. This is true, for instance of the eyes         would have been taken up by means of the girdle. The
iike flames of fire. This denotes both His holy anger and           great and final sacrifice has been offered. It is finished. On
His power  ?f omniscience. The  ejes  qf this mighty Judge          the other hand, the fact that He still wears the golden girdle
penetrate into the deepest recesses of the hearts of men ; they     shows that, although the bloody sacrifice is, finished, yet this
discover hidden things. Before them all things are an open          High Priest is still- engaged in active ministration in the
book, even the secret thoughts and intents of men. Under            sanctuary, for the o!d dispensational high priest would wear
the glare of these eyes every evil thought or deed, every           this girdle only as long as he was busy in the temple ; im-
wicked device is exposed. And He comes to judge and inflict         mediately after his `ministrations were accomplished he wotild
punishment upon the forces of evil, whether they be found           lay  it aside. And thus we have here a beautiful picture of
in His Church in the world, or in that world itself. Without        the  Sdviour,  as He has finished His sacrificial work on the
compl;omise  He will expose the evil, wherever it is found, in      accursed tree of Golgotha, but is still engaged as our High
the Church first (for judgment must needs begin at  the             Priest and Intercessor with the Father in the sanctuary
house of-,God), then also in the world ; and having exposed         above. There He prays for us, and from thence He blesses
it in its true character and worth, He will visit it with a just    us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Some
retribution. For, those flaming eyes also express holiness and      think that there is a point of difference with the appearance


  466       ;      ."                       *THE   S T A N D A R D   BEARER

 of the Old Testament in the fact that the Lord here wears           lamps had to be kept burning continuously and symbolized
 the girdle about  ,the breast. But this does not seem to be         the truth that Israel was the light of God shining in the
 based upon fact. The high priests, as well as the common            darkness of the world to the glory of Jehovah their God.
 priests, wore their girdles about the breasts and  nqt about        In our vision the seven candlesticks represent, not Israel of
 the loins. But a real point of distinction may be seen in the       the old dispensation, but the Church of all  ages in her
 fact, that our High Priest in this vision wears a girdle            ideal perfection. They convey the truth that the Church is
 of gold, while the ordinary girdles of the priests were of          a light, even 5s God is a light arid there is no darkness in
 fine twined linen and purple and scarlet, reminding us once         Him. She is a light, not of herself, but, as is clearly indicated
 more of the royal character and dignity of this High Priest         by the fact that Christ stands or walks in the midst of  ttie
 after the order of Melchisedec.                                     seven golden candlesticlfs,  only through her fellowship with
                                                                     Christ in the Spirit. The Lord is her light, and apart from
     Finally, it is evident that the Lord in this vision also re-    Christ she is in darkness and lies in the midst of death. We
 veals Himself in His prophetic office. This cannot be de-           may notice, however, that there are two points of difference
 duced from His appearance as such, unless it. be implied in         between the candlestick as it stood in the temple and the
 the detail of the sharp two-edged sword that proceeds out of        seven candlesticks as they appear in this vision. First of all,
 His mouth. For, although it is true that this sword denotes         it- may be observed that. the former consisted of one lamp
 .chiefly His authority and power to execute judgment, it            whose arms all stood in a straight line, while in our vision
 may very well'also  refer to His power as a prophet. For, as        the seven candlesticks evidently stand in a circle around
 we have seen, that sword is the Word He speaks, and                 the Saviour, for we read that Christ stood in the  +d# of.
 that Word  is.  f'quick and powerful, and sharper than any          them, and in the first verse of the next chapter "we even
 two-edged sword, piercing  &en to the dividing asunder. of          read that he "walketh in the midst of the seven golden
 soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a dis-        candlesticks." This distinction is  iti harmony with the
 cerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Also as           diffkence between the Church of the old dispensation and
 prophet He speaks His &%cacious  Word. Besides, the offices         the Church in her ideal perfection or as  .she is already
 of Christ may be distinguished, but they can never be               being realized in the new dispensation. In Israel the Church
 separated. However, apart from any detail  in,His  appearance,      was'confined  to a single nation: the covenant line ran in the
 He reveals Himself as prophet by the word he speaks. First          generations of Abraham according to the flesh. But  `the
 of all, He addresses John in the vision, and enjoins him            Church' is gathered from every nation and tongue and tribe.
- to write. He must -write' all that he sees in a book and send      And already this is being realized for the Church is gathered
 it unto the seven churches that are in Asia ; and particularly      from Jew and Gentile both. And, secondly, we  tiay notice
 he must write what he has seen, and the things which are,           that the candlestic&  in the temple was once piece of furniture,
 and the things which shall be hereafter. Besides, He  ap-           so that there was a material and visible connection between
,' pears as the prophet in the consolation He gives to. John         the seven shafts ; while in our vision there are seven separate
  and to the Church, vss. 17,  1s. And in the chapters that          lamps without any visible connection. The significance of
 follow He certainly functions ai the Prophet of His Church,-        this is plain. Among Israel the Church was `united by the
  addressing to the seven churches of Asia words of instruction,     physical bond of the nation and the theocracy, but the true
 consolation and encouragement, exhortation and rebuke. We           and eternal connection between the Church `and her Lord
 conclude, therefore,  that in the vision the glorified Lord         and between believers mutually is a purely spiritual one.
 appears in. His threefold office of prophet, priest and king.       It is in the Spirit through faith that we are connected as
  And as such He stands here in the midst of the seven golden        one Church with Christ our Head in the  commu&on  of
  candlesticks.                                                      saints. That these candlesticks are golden denotes the perfec-
     These `seven candlesticks are a symbol of the Church in         tion and purity, the  incorruptibleness  and the preciousness of
  her ideal existence and relation to her Lord, as  d light          the Church of Christ, which He has purchased with His
  shining to the glory of God in Christ. They represent the          own precious blood. The Church is more precious than the
  Church in  perfect holiness and righteousness, as she is in        finest gold, she  ,is pure and holy and more glorious than
  the counsel of God, and ai she once shall be when the Lord         the noblest of metals, and she is incorruptible and imperish-
  shall present her as His perfected and glorified `bride with-      able because of her union with her Lord, the Son of God in
  out spot or blemish. The symbolism reminds us, of cotirse,         the flesh, Who died and was raised and lives forevermore:
  of the seven-armed candlestick or lamp that once stood in          death  -bath  no more dominion over Him !
  the holy place of the temple in Jerusalem. In that, sanctuary          In the seven stars which Jesus holds in His right hand
  there w&e the altar of incense, the table of shewbread, and        a transition is made to the Church  as she exists in the
  the golden candlestick. The last mentioned piece of temple         world, represented by the seven churches of Asia. For, in-
  furniture consisted of a perpendicular shaft from each side        directly,  .these seven stars' also represent the  Church.  Thd
  of  .which  three arms branched out, so curving that their         Saviour's own  inferpretation  is that they are the angels of
  tops were on a level with thaf of the central shaft. The           the seven churches, vs. 20. But interpreters differ with


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 467

 respect to the question, just what is meant by these seven           right hand. This symbolizes not merely that He controls and
 angkls. Some would explain  ;he term as denoting real                holds in His power the angels of the seven  chtirches,  but
 angels, heavenly spirits, and think that they are the guardian       also indirectly that the entire Church is held and preserved
 angels of the several churches. But this would not seem to           by His power alone. No one can pluck His own out of His
 be a very plausible explanation, for John is commissioned            hand !
 to address letters to these angels, and it is rather difficult          And thus, finally, we come to consider the Church as
 to conceive of the possibility of writing letters to such guard-     she is represented by the seven churches of Asia. That there
 ian angels. Others would spiritualize and idealize the term,         is an essential connection between these and the seven candle-
 and maintain that the expression refers to the peculiar and          sticks is evident from the number seven. Repeatedly this
 distinctive "spirit" of each congregation, to its individual         number occurs. There are seven churches to which  Johnmust
 dispositiori,  in some such sense as even now we speak of            write, there are seven candlesticks in the midst of which the
 "the spirit of the age." But also this Interpretation must be        Lord. appears, there are seven stars in the right ha&l of the
 rejected as impossible, in view of the fact that one could           Saviour, and, as `we  .have seen before, there are also seven
 not very well address a letter to such a "spirit of the church."     Spirits before the throne of God, seven lamps of fire burning
 And still others, more correctly, have applied the words' to         before that throne, seven eyes of the Lamb, chs. 4.5  ; 5  :6.
 the officebearers or overseers of the churches, especially to        Seven denotes a fulness and perfection of grace. It contains
 those that were busy in "the Word and doctrine." Let us              the numbers three and fozcr,  and it is also the sum of S&V and                '
 bear in mind, first of all, that the symbol of the star refers       one. In the latter sense it denotes the perfection of all that
 to a light that is conspicuous and yet dependent and sub-            God does in time with a view to an including the eternal
 ordinate. Further, we should also remember that in the               sabbath, the rest that remaineth for the people of God, the
 Word of God the original term for angel  (malakh  in the             consummation  df all things in the eternal kingdom and taber-        .
 Hebrew, angelos in the Greek) does not always -refer to              nacle of God.  ,In the former sense it symbolizes the perfected
 one of God's spiritual servants in heaven, but may also              communion of God (three) and the kosmos (four), the
. simply denote a messenger or servant from among men,                perfected covenant of God's friendship in Christ, God's dwel-
 called to fulfill some important mission in God's Church or          ling with  inen. And for the same  Leason  it denotes the  ful-
 Kingdom. With reference to John the Baptist, Malachi                 ness of the Spirit that dwells in the Church, the fulness of         ,
 prophesied: "Behold, I send my angel (messenger) and he              grace and spiritual blessings, and the fulness of the Church
 shall prepare the way before me," 3 :l. And, finally, as we          itself as the Body of Christ. This is the essential connec-
 already remarked, we niust remember that John is ordered             tion between the seven candlesticks and the seven churches
 to write to these seven angels of the seven churches of              in Asia. They are not the same. The former denote the
 Asia. All these considerations establish it beyond doubt that        Church in her ideal existence and eternal perfection, her
 the angel of the church in this case is a human servant of           essence, as she appears in the eternal counsel of God, and
 God, the overseer or elder  that is busy in the Word and             as she once will appear in the eternal  kingdom   ; the latter
 doctrine, the minister of the Word of God. They are called           represent the Church as she is in the world, essentially the
 angels simply because they are God's servants  and. mes-             same as the Church as represented by the seven candlesticks,
 sengers. And they are symbolized in the stars, not because           but an earthly manifestation of the latter, the historic Church
 the churches receive their light only and absolutely from            on earth with its essential holiness and actual imperfections
 them, but because it is the Lord's good pleasure to enlightep        and infirmities, the Church of Christ, indeed, but as she is
 and instruct His Church in the world through their ministry.         still in constant need of consolation and encouragement, of               -
 Through them especially it pleases Christ to preach and              exhortation and rebuke, the House of God from which judg-
 preserve His Word. And yet, by these stars that are held             ment must needs begin. That, therefore, exactly seven
 in the right hand of the glorified Lord, the churches them-          churches are selected indicates that in these the-whole Church,
 selves' are `also indirectly indicated. On the ,or,e hand, you       as she exists in the world at any time of the present dis-
 caiir& separate these "stars" from Christ. He holds them             pensation, is represented. They, no doubt, actually existed at
 iri"His   riiht hand.  Withput  Him they are nothing. Unless         the time. They are no mere fiction, but historical churches.
 Christ Himself works through them, they cannot  functiori.           And they are mentioned here in the order of their geograph-
 Only when Christ, as the chief Prophet, speaks His Word,             ical position in Asia Minor: from Ephesus north to  Per-
 can there be preaching: But on the other hand, they cannot           gamum, and thence south to Laodicea. However, these
 be separated from the churches. They represent the churches.         churches were chosen because they were prepared by God
 The churches function through them. This close connection            through Christ, that together they might constitute a picture
between the stars and the churches is evident from the seven          of the -entire Church in the world, with its perfections and'
 letters that follow in the next two chapters. For it is .evident,    defects, its, strength and its weaknesses, its trials and tempta-
 that in these John does not merely address the angels, but           tions. And thus it happens that in the sevenfold message to
 through them writes to the churches they represent and               these churches in Asia we have the Word of Christ to His
  serve. The glorified Lord holds the seven stars in His              Church  iq.  the world at any time and in all lands, even


        468                                      - T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                             ._

        until the coming again of the Lord. These messages, there-       His coming we have need of His comforting words: "Fear
        fore, concern us as .-directly as they concerned the first       not !"
        seven churches to which they are addressed.
               Now let us try to view the whole significant picture.         It is, of course, also in the vision and "in the spirit" that
        Christ, Who walks in the midst of the seven golden candle-       Jesus laid His right hand upon' John, an`d that he addresses
                                                                         him :
        sticks, the Head of His ideal Church given Him by the                      "Fear not; I am the first and the last; I am he that
                                                                         liveth, and was dead ; and behold I am alive for evermore,
        Father, also is in the midst of His Church in the world. He      Amen ; and have the keys of hell and of death." This is the
        is her light and life. Without Him she is nothing and can        message of comfort in all our fears, and how perfect a com-
        do nothing. He is in her midst as her merciful High Priest,      fort it conveys ! Let us notice that it entirely consists in
        praying in her behalf and blessing her with all the blessings    calling our attention to Christ and to what.,He  now is. And
        of salvation. He is with her as her mighty King, ruling over     what else could possibly be our comfort in life and in death
        by His grace and Spirit, protecting her in the midst of          than that Christ, our Lord, in.Whom we believe, to Whom
        hateful enemies, and leading her unto victory and glory. He      we belong with body and soul, is the first and the last, the
        comes to her also as her righteous Judge, commending what-       one that liveth and he was dead, the one that holds the
        ever good there is found in her, rebuking and admonishing        keys of death and of hell ? He is the Alpha and the Omega
        her for her sins and weaknesses, calling her to repentance       (vs.  ll), the first and the last (vss. 11, 17). In vs.  8 this
        and threatening her with His wrath and judgments. It  &          was said of God, here it is attributed by Christ unto Him-
        because Christ is in the midst of His Church in the world as     self. Nor is there any conflict here. For Christ is not only
        her Judge that the Church must ever reform, even though          very God, but also as the Mediator, the Son of God come in
        separation from a certain manifestation of her is the result.    the flesh, the first begotten of the dead, He is the firstborn
        And He is in her midst as her only Prophet, giving her the       of every.creature,  through Whom and unto Whom all things
        stars, instructing her through His Word and  Spircit, and        were made. And he is the Risen One! Note the order of the
        causing her to know the things that must shortly come to         words. He does not say: "I was dead and am alive again";.
        pass. Look on Him and be filled with that fear and trembling     but:  "I am he that liveth, and was dead !" He is the living
        in which you must work out your own salvatioh! Behold            One! This clause should stand by itself. It is is first. It is
_~      Him, and be assured that the Church can never perish ; she       the cause and reason of all that follows. He is the life! He
        is safe though all hell come raving against her !                has life in Himself, for He is the eternal God come in the
               The appearance of the glorified Lord has a terrifying     flesh! And He became dead ! The living One entered into
        effect upon John. He tells us, vs. 17  :. "And when I saw        death, into our death in the human nature, in order that as
        him, I fell at his feet as dead." The sight of so much           the great High Priest He might finish the sacrifice for sins.
        majesty and glory fills him with awe. Some understand this       But death could have no dominion over Him, for He is the
        as indicating that -John had not recognized the Lord, and        living One! And so He issued forth out of death into the
        that he does not know Him until the Saviour addresses him        glorious resurrection, and now He is alive for evermore!
        in the words that follow. But in the light of the preceding      And the keys of death and hell are  .His. -"Hell" here is
        verses this is very improbable. For, he had already received     "Hades," the abode of the dead, the grave, the place of
        his commission to write, and he had seen Him as the  .one        corruption. It is presented here as a mighty fortress: the
        "hke unto a son of man." But although he knows it is the         power of all death. And Jesus has the keys, the power to.
        Lord, he is filled with fear by the awe inspiring glory of       open and no one shutteth, and to shut and no one openeth.
        His appearance. Once he had seen. a shadow of this power         He has the power and authority to open the jaws of death,
        and glory, when he and Peter and James were with Him in          the gates of darkness, in order that His own may come forth
        the holy mount, but now "in the spirit" he beholds the           into the glory of eternal life ! Fear not! Ah, the essence,
        reality of that awful majesty, he is stupefied and falls at      the real cause of all our fears is death. But for them that
        his feet as dead. All this must be understood as belonging       trust in this glorious Lord, this fear is not only `removed,
        to the vision, and takes place "in the spirit." And this be-     but is changed into the sure hope of eternal life and glory
        comes the occasion for the Lord's comforting words,. ad-         in  God's, everlasting tabernacle with men! Blessed are they
        dressed to John, but also to the Church of all ages. For also    that put their trust in Him!
      we tremble at His glory. When like John we stand face to
        face with this mighty and righteous Judge of heaven and             Having thus quieted the fear of. His servant John, the
        earth, we realize the sinfulness of our own condition and        Lord -gives him his commission: "Write the things which
        we are impelled to fall down before Him and cry out with         thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things
       the prophet of old : "Woe unto me, for I am undone !" Even        which shall be hereafter." These words, no doubt, character-
       as we are discussing the vision. of this glorious and majestic    ize in general the contents of the whole book of Revelation.
       Judge, we realize that we would not be able to stand in His       John must write "the things which he has seen," that is
       presence. We are inclined to fear at His coming, rather than      the vision we have been discussing.
       hope for it. And, therefore, both now and in `the day of                                                                     H.H.


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   tiEARER                                                      469

   I                                                                          In passing we may notice that most of the New Testa-
               F R O M   HO'LY  WRIT                                 1 ment Scriptures were written by Paul. At least he wrote
                                                                          more alone than all the rest together. What would the New
                                                                          Testament Scriptures look like should they be minus the
        `.      Exposition of I Corinthians 1-4                           writings of Paul ? What would we understand of the explicit
                                                                          implication of justification by faith alone, were it not that
                                   18.                                    Paul had written the great letters to the Romans and to the
                                                                          Galatians  ? What would we know about the interpretation of
                        (I Corinthians  2:10-15)                          the Scriptures in regard to the doctrine of the return of
        This beautiful and instructive passage to which we would          Christ, the resurrection of the body, had Paul not written
   call your attention in this essay reads in part as follows  :` I Corinthians 15? And, again, what would we know about
   "`According to the gmce of Gqd which is given me, as a z+se            the" Gentiles sharing in the promise to Abraham had not
   master-builder, I  have laid the  fotinda.tion, and  ano  fhev         Paul written on this so extensively, and shown  us  how all
   buildeth  thereon.  B,ut let every  whan   heed how he  buildetlz      the lines of Scripture converge in Jesus Christ, and in Him
   themupon.   For other foundation                                       crucified  ?
                                          can  no man lay  than   that
  is laid,  which is Jesus Christ. Now if any  ma.n  b$iLld                   To ask all these question is, for the student-of Scripture,
                                                                ufio,n
   this foundation gold, silver, precio,us stones, zvood, thy, .&h-       to answer. them !
   ble; eves-y man's work sha.11 be made ptzanifest:  for the day             He laid down the foundation. He showed the archi-
  shall declare it, because it shll be reve,aled by fire; and the tectural lines of all the truth as it is in Jesus Christ and Him
  j&e shall try every man's work of z&at sort it ,is . . ."               crucified. All the wisdom of God in him. That is the founda-
        We should not lose sight of the general argument' of the          tion of all the teaching in the church. Helpers, evangelists,
  Apostle. He is still engaged in refuting the boasting in the            shepherds and teachers may be ever so eloquent, yet they
  wisdom of men, wisdom of words, rather than glorying in                 all must simply exegete Paul, follow his exegesis of the
  the Lord and, therefore, in the Word of Wisdom which is                 Scriptures, or all will be so much nonsense and folly !
  manifested in the Cross of Christ.                                          For Paul laid the foundation .as .a "master-builder." The
        What Paul had written. in the -foregoing verses was the           term in the original Greek is "architektoon," which literally
  death-blow to all the wearying and foolish attempts to boast            means : giving original birth to something, begetting first?
 in one man, one servant of God overagainst the other. Strictly           The New Testament truths in Christ were first,made  known
  speaking, Paul is nothing and Apollos is nothing. God, who              to Paul as to none other. Thus Paul writes to the church
  gives the increase, is everything.                                      at Ephesus, "If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace
        This does not mean that Paul does not have his own                of God which is given me to you-ward : how that by revelation
  singular task in the church, in distinction from Apollos, and           he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in a
  in distinction from everyone else!                                      few words, whereby when ye read, `ye may understand my
        The reason ?                                                      knowledge  ipz  tlae  mystery  of  Cl&St) which in other ages
        Is`it that there is, after all, a little in Paul, which Paul      was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now
. or `others may make as a ground of boasting overagainst                 revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit"
  others ?                                                                (3 :3-5). And does not Paul speak of the fact that  -he had
        Not at all.                                                       been caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words
                                                                          which it is not lawful for a man to utter ? II Cor. 12 :4.
        On the contrary we will notice from the text, that, even
  when Paul comes to stand out head and shoulders above                   . Does Paul then glory in himself? Nay, writes he, but
  others in the church, it still is all mere grace to Paul. Thus          he will glory in his infirmities.
  whatever is said about the  preminence  of Paul is still all              Howbeit, he cannot deny the "grace that has been given
  God's sovereign; matchless grace !                                      him." When we read in verse 10 of the "grace of God given
        Let us give heed to the text. We will notice the following        me" we must make a twofold distinction in this one grace
  particulars :                                                           of God.
        That Paul indeed had a unique labor to perform in God's               First of all, this "grace" undoubtedly refers to the
  church ; a labor for which he alone was prepared by -God and            personal grace of adoption, of justification, sanctification -
  which, therefore, no one else could ever perform. For it is             of complete redemption. Paul personally is a poor sinner;
  as "to each it has been given." And Paul's singular task is             he accounts himself less than the least of all the saints.
- to lay down, with apostolic insight into the Scriptures of the          Particularly does Paul thus think of himself because in his
  Old Testament, as these have been fulfilled in Christ, the              Pharisaic pride he had presecuted  the church of God ! Com-
  fundamental tenets and teachings with all their far-reaching            pare Eph. 3  :8; I  Tim-1  :12-17. Paul obtained mercy!
  implications for the'church of the New Testament Dispensa-              Secondly, all that Paul is as an apostle, his rich insight
  tion.' ,.                                                               into the truth as it is in Jesus is also a matter of "grace,"


470                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
-         -
the grace of the Holy Spirit, so that he can be a  "master-            be praised. I count it an honor that I may bear the reproach
builder" in the truth in Jesus. It was wholly "gift" to Paul,          of being called "spineless,"       '
                                                                                                       a "jelly-fish" by those who do
gift of grace. It is a false humility which will not acknowl-          not have the holy fear and trembling at this Word of Paul !
edge and recognize gifts in the church. Paul does it. But,             In that day it will count what the righteous Lord will say
when this is done, man does not receive acclaim  ; it is a             of my work. f am certain, that in respect to the "statements
recognition of the great grace of God !                                of De Wolf," my repudiating them as heretical will stand in
       Hence, both they that plant and they that water are in-         that day !
deed wholly dependant upon God, who giveth the increase,                  And whom do I fear?
yet, even so, he that planteth in this instance had received a             I fear the Lord, lest upon me come the judgment : you are
singular grace- for this work of "planting" which he` that             saved, but your work must be destroyed!
"watereth" could not receive. However, both live by grace.                And I fear no one else.
Yet, he that watereth must surely water what is planted by                 But when a faithful servant or servants show conclusively
another.                                                               that certain teaching is so much "hay" and "stubble" -it
       Thus also it is with the preachers in God's'church!             would cease to be courage` to maintain such teaching, ,but
       We are to study the "blue-print" of Paul, the  Master-          would prove to be the daring of the fool! There is, thanks
builder !                                                              be to God, a distinction and distance between courage and
       It requires great carefulness in  .the  "workmen.`~  Says       foolhardiness, between "stubbornness" and steadfastness,
Paul,' "But let every man take heed how he buildeth there-. which is not simply as wide as the poles, but are as far
upon !" This certainly. means that every minister be a good            apart as heaven and hell!
exegete, that he read carefully, that he draw no unwarranted              To exclaim "Good land, must that teaching be so exact"
conclusions, which are in anyway-contrary to the foundation,           shows little respect for the Architect, for the faithful builders
the truth in Jesus Christ.                                             who have hewn to the line in the Confessions, and does not
       This injunction of Paul is for "every man." This means          bespeak a tender conscience.. I have heard that remark
even Peter, John and James. So confident is Paul about what            made at a crucial moment during the time of Classical
he had laid down as the foundation, that he utters the strong          Sessions !
warning in Galatians 1 :8, "But though we, or `an angel from              The Lord, no doubt, wrote it down in His book of re-
heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which               membrance !
we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." And, again,             Meanwhile, the injunction stands: Let every man be-
in verse 9 of the same chapter Paul writes, "As we have said           ware !
before, so say now again, if any man preach any other gospel              Only the careful builder looks for a reward. What is it?
unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."             It is, no doubt, the reward of hearing from the lips of
       Strong warning indeed. Here we indeed feel the serious-         Christ himself: Well done, thou good and faithful servant. It
ness of preaching the word of God, of writing "From Holy               is having the honor from God in' the entire church, which is
W r i t . "                                                            due to careful builders. Think of  f,he Augustines, Calvins.
       The question is : will the work of a preacher stand the test    Their work stands. The gate of hell cannot prevail against it.
of Christ, the great Prophet in that day ?                                Many a preacher in that day will look upon his preaching
     Paul employs the figure of speech (metaphor) of two               and teaching ,as being so much "hay !" It will go up in fire.
kinds of materials in a building. It is either that of endurable          Blessed is the man who buildeth carefully- upon the
metal such as "gold," "silver," "precious stones." On the              foundation beside which there is none other.
other hand it is also possible that the materials of a preacher           He shall indeed be saved by' grace and his work shall
are comparable to perishable materials, such as "wood,"                stand unto all eternity !
"hay,". "stubble.'                                                                                                                  G.L.
     When we have any teaching which is not -fully in agree-                                                   .., I: ,
ment with the foundation, does not fit into the design of the
Architect, then it is to be likened unto perishable -wood,  hay,
stubble. Such a man will himself be saved. But his work                      THE MIGHTY GOD, JEHOVAH SPEAKS
will be proven to be so much hay which burns in the fire.                            He calls aloud to heaven and earth
That is often the issue in a careful exegete. Will my work                             That He may justly judge His own;
stand  ? That is not the issue with the slothful worker. He                          My chosen saints together bring
spurns this careful teaching as being "stereotyped." It does
not give sufficient room for "individual expression."  Now                             Who sacrifice to Me alone ;
I have never in all of my nearly twenty five years in the                            The heavens His righteousness declare,
ministry felt that my individuality was cramped by my being                            For God Himself as Judge is there.             .,'
a minister in the Protestant Reformed Churches.' The Lord                                                                    Psalm  5d:2


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 471

!                                                                    approach in Cain and in Abel. Abel came in obedience- to
              I N   H I S   F E A R '                                God with the sacrifice designated by God and according to
                                                                     the instruction concerning God which his believing parents
                                                                     had given unto him. Abel came in His fear. Adam and
                   Praying in His Fear                               Eve had been taught by God Himself when He shed the
                                                                     blood and took the skins of a lamb to clothe them. In that
                                (9                                   act God also taught them concerning Himself and the God
                                                                     `that He is. They knew God because He revealed Himself
     "Not my will but Thy will be done."                             to them. Knowing Him from the instruction of his parents
     He who.prays in His fear not only says this to God in           and by the application of the Spirit in his heart Abel sought
prayer but also means every word of it.                              God in-His fear, sought Him as the God that He is.
     So, we wrote last time.                                            It was a seeking in prayer there in that offering. This
     We wish to discuss this important element of prayer in          relationship between sacrifice and prayer is clearly indicated
His fear further at this time. '                                     in the Hebrew parallelism of Proverbs  1.5  :8, "The sacrifice
     Of utmost importance it is, then, to consider the fact that     of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer
to pray in His fear we must `know Him -as He is. Any wrong           of the upright is His delight." Sacrifice and prayer are
notionwe may have concerning Him will surely show itself             presented as having essentially the same idea. _
in our prayers. Simply by listening to one's prayer(s) you              Cain's offering or prayer revealed his opinion of God.
can learn the beliefs of that one concerning God. Whether            It revealed that his heart was not right with God  ; but it
he be a premillenialist or not  ; `whether he believes the Scrip-    also revealed that in his mind he harbored an evil opinion
tural truth of sovereign predestination or not; whether he           of God. The very thought that God would and should
believes in the sufficiency of Christ or the need of His mother      accept what he offered according to his own standards and
as an intermediary  ; whether he believes a spiritual salvation      in opposition to what God had expressly taught makes plain
or a "social gospel" for this life alone ; whether he is a Bap-      to what degree he had dethroned God in his mind and denied
tist, a Methodist, a Calvinist, a Lutheran or the like will          ,Him to be the God that He is.
become evident in the prayer that is offered. What is more,             The Publican and the Pharisee in Jesus' parable likewise
for this very reason one's prayer also reveals one's beliefs         illustrate this fact that one's prayer shows. one's belief c-on-
concerning God.                                                      cerning God. The Pharisee did not know God and did not
     A prayer'; such as we heard once as uttered by one who          come in His fear. Actually he exalted himself above God in
had a name for being a Calvinist (a "Reformed" man) that             his prayer.  '
expressed this thought, "Lord, add to the number of the                 To be sure, he exalted himself above man, above the
elect+"  surely revealed an unscriptural idea concerning God's       publican. That is why Jesus says in the parable, "Everyone
sovereign, unchangeable, eternal election from before the            that exalteth himself shall be abased ; and he that humbleth
foundation of the world. But it also revealed a wrong con-           himself shall be exalted." And the parable was spoken, ac-
ception of the God who elects, and, therefore, how He                cording to Jesus' own words, "unto certain which trusted
elects. In fact we have always insisted that in whatever             in  theinselves  and despised others." The Pharisee despised
point of doctrine you depart from the truth, you touch .God          the publican  and exalted himself above that sinner, that man
Himself. Whether your departure is in the field of Theology,         who stood afar off in the temple. The  publican  humbled
in its narrowest sense of use, in the field of Anthropology,         himself, however, before that Pharisee ; and before God he
Christology, Soteriology, Ecclesiology or Eschatology you            confessed that he was more sinful than the Pharisee when
always touch God for the simple reason that all these                he cried out, "God be merciful to me the sinner.'
branches of theology are just exactly that: Theology. `Be-              Yet it must not be overlooked or ignored that in this very
cause it all is the work of God and the revelation of the            exaltation above man the Pharisee exalted himself also
God Who creates, saves unto everlasting glory and casts              above God. Do not be misled by his pious words. "God I
into the everlasting perdition of hell, whenever you take a          thank thee . .  ." For he did not thank God. Analyze his
certain stand in regard to anyone of these points of doctrine        "prayer" carefully and you will note that instead he came to
you say something about God. And in prayer, when we                  the temple to tell God how thankful HE ought to be that he,
speak to Him, we also say something very definite about              the Pharisee, was not like other men. He did not know
Him and who and what we believe Him to be.                           God. He did not pray to God. Jesus says, "The Pharisee
     He that cometh  to God must believe that He is; and that        stood and prayed thus with. himself." He was himself the
He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him," Hebrews          god to whom he prayed. What an evil conception of God
11 :6.                                                               he nourished in his soul!        ,
 It stands to reason, therefore, that one's prayer to                   He did not know sin !.
God will be controlled by one's conception of God. This                 He confesses not one sin ! He contradicted God 1
fundamental principle manifested itself in the difference of            He did not know what pleases God!  -

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

       He boasted of God's indebtedness to him.                     the things about which we complain. And remember that
       He did not know God!                                         every time men come to God with the idea of persuading
       He prayed to himself and not to God!                         Him to change things that they do not like, He considers
       To come to God in His fear we must know Him to be the        it exactly to be a complaint, to be finding fault with His
God that He is and recognize Him as such in our every peti-         work !
tion and utterance of praise and thanksgiving.                          Let a man pray in His fear instead..
       And now we come to the point of this installment of              Let a man pray to God for grace to suffer this misery,
the matter of praying in His fear: knowing God as He is             these pains, this deprivation, this horror and woe in such
we will not pray under, the mistaken and Goddishonoring             a way that he recognizes God's sovereign right to send it
misconception that prayer changes things !                          and in such a way that he praises God for being an all-wise
       Prayer does not change things, because prayer does not       God Who knows what is best for His creatures and Who
change Him Who causes all things and controlls them to              knows how to save and glorify His Church through tribula-
the realization of His unchangeable purpose !                       tion and affliction, Who knows how to work ALL things
       Shall we form an opinion of God that declares that He        together for the good of those that love Him, because
no longer is God ?                                                  eternally and unchangeably it pleases Him  .to purpose to
       Do we dare try to whittle Him down to where we control       call them.
His thoughts, desires and actions ?                                     Let a man pray for
       Can He be influenced by any creature ? -                                                  grace to continue to acknowledge
                                                                    Jehovah to be God!
       Can that which depends upon Him for every breath of
life, for every throb of its heart, for the very earth upon with        Then, and then only, we can speak in a limited, special       .
it walks twist and turn Him and gain control over Him               sense of prayer. changing things. For that prayer will be
upon Whom it depends?                                               heard, being a prayer in His fear, and God will change the
   In prayer we want to remember that we are seeking                troubled heart  -of His people who pray that way into a
God's face. We have to do in prayer with a divine being, a          heart that has peace and comfort. Then, through that prayer
sovereign being, a God Who declares Himself that He is              God will work a wonderful change in the mind and thinking
a jealous God. We want to remember that He is unchange-             of His troubled child. Yea,`in  that very prayer He is already
able. All that which has taken place, all that which shall take     working a wonderful change in the heart and mind of His
place in the future is unchangeably determined by Him from          troubled child. He will even in that very prayer cause His
before the foundation of the world.                                 child to look `away from the things which caused him to
   In prayer we must remember that He is God!                       come to God in prayer and turn him to the things in His
   He is not less than man who sees the wisdom of planning          word of -promise. He will make him see that our light
some great engineering feat with great care and caution be-         affliction which is but for a moment worketh a far more
fore one bit of labor is performed in its'execution. Where          exceeding and eternal weight of glory, II Corinthians 4 :17.
will the world come presently if God is "open" to all kinds         He will make him say with James, "Count it all joy when ye
of ideas and suggestions of men, if men are able by their           fall into divers temptations, knowing that the trying of your
repeated and, massed prayers to make  Him.change  His plans         faith worketh patience."
and mind the work having been begun, and do what He                     In His fear we will pray that God be magnified, exalted
did not plan to do.                                                 and `glorified and that- we receive grace  a.nd faith to live
   He sends war and pestilence and famine.                          out of the principle that He is God in all that which we
   Does He wait then till men have offered sufficient prayers       see of Him and which He causes us to experience.
and prayed enough days before He brings these to a- halt?               Then, truly, we say, "Not iny will but Thy will be done."
Can we change things by coming- to Him in prayer? Can we                Otherwise our use of that phrase is mockery and an
by force of numbers weary Him or gain control over His              abomination to Him.                                    J.A.H..
thoughts and desires ?
   All such thought flows forth from an unscriptural opinion                      . .
of who and how God is ! And only as we recognize Him to
be the God that He is and behave that way in our petitions                               Notice for Classis West
do we pray to Him ; do we pray in His fear. Otherwise we                Classis  West' of the Protestant Reformed Churches will
have no more than the Pharisee. We have  prayed  witi1              meet, the Lord willing, in Oak Lawn, Illinois, Wednesday,
ourselves. Men have heard it and thought that we offered
a pretty nice prayer. But God has been  insul.ted,  for man         September  .19, 1956. The consistories are reminded of the
has exalted himself above God ! God has had no more                 rule that all matters for the classical agendum must be in the
respect for our prayers than He had for Cain's offering.            hands of the stated clerk thirty, days before the meeting of
   Prayer does not change things.                                   Classis.              .'
   That is, we do not by our prayers get God to change                                             Rev. H. Veldman, Stated Clerk


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              473

   THEPOUNDSANDTHETALENTSINTHE                                      be given ; but he that hath not, even that which he hath shall
                          PARABLES                                  be taken from him." The language may differ ever so
                                                                    slightly ; the sense in both parables is identical.
    No two parables in Holy Writ are more nearly alike than             The similarity, therefore, is striking and we do not wonder
 these to which, reference is made in our subject. Little           that even competent students tend `to view the parables as
 wonder, that they are frequently identified.                       identical, in- essence, though uttered perhaps on different
    Both parables, that of the Pounds and that of the               occasions.
 Talents, the former recorded in Luke  19:11-28, the latter                                   8  *  *  *
taken. from Matthew 25  :1430,  have in view the  .second
 advent of our Lord Jesus Christ.                                       However, they who do so are in error. The similarity
    In both the subject of the parable leaves on an extended        between the parables may be striking enough ; the differences,
 journey to a distant land. The reference is  .obviously to         however, are obvious.
 our Lord Jesus Christ, Who came to earth in the fulness of             The respective occasions governing both parables are
 time, then left again to return to the Father and receive          different. That of the Talents was spoken after Palm Sun-
 from Him the everlasting Kingdom, and after a long ab-             day, on the Tuesday evening preceding the crucifixion of
 sence will return to judge and reward according to works.          our Lord ; that of the Pounds was uttered a few days befor-
    In' both parables this man, before leaving, summons his         the royal entry. The former was spoken by Jesus while
 servants and entrusts' to them certain goods with the mandate      seated on the Mount of Olives  ; the latter while the Lord
 and in the expectation that th.ese servants. would labor with      was approaching Jerusalem. The one was spoken to the
,the master's funds during his absence to his advantage.            disciples only; the other was addressed to the multitude as
    Both parables reveal how the servants involved did work         well.
 with these goods-of their lord. In both there are two servants         Consequently, there is a marked difference between the
who labor diligently and scrupulously, according to the             parables as far as the purpose is concerned for which they
 master's mandate, while there is one who does nothing with         were uttered. Both are related to the return of the Lord
 the entrusted goods. True, in the one parable the indolent         Jesus, but in a somewhat' different manner. The parable of
 and- irresponsible servant "hid the talent in the earth ;" in      the Talents follows upon these significant words, "Watch,
 the other he kept his pound "laid up in a napkin." The             therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein
 meaning is the same. `Instead of laboring for the-profit of his    the Son of Man  cometh." In view of that coming the dis-
 lord he does nothing,                                              ciples are spurred on to diligent and faithful labor until
    Both speak of the return of the master in due time and          that advent shall have become reality. The determining
 his dealings with his subjects, good and bad. The faithful         context in the case of the parable of--the Pounds is indicated
 servants receive their just reward in language strikingly          by these words, "And as they heard these, things he added
 similar. In the parable of the Talents we hear the master          and spake a parable, because He was nigh to Jerusalem,
 speak,, ?Well done, good and faithful' servant, thou hast been     and because they thought that `the kingdom of God should
 faithful. over, a few things, I will place' -thee over many        immediately appear." Here, too, the parable intends to
 things ; enter thou into the joy of thy mastef" - Matt. 25 :21,    spur on to zealous labor during the Master's absence. His
 23. In  .that of the Pounds  we. hear  -him say, to the one,       own must not simply wait. They must work while it is
 "Well done, good servant; because thou hast been faithful in       day and be busy in the things of the Kingdom. But there
 a very small matter, have thou power over ten cities," and to      is' more. Both the disciples and the multitude must be set
 the other, "And be thou also ruler over five cities." The          right on this question of the immediate appearance of the
 indolent servant makes excuses, evilly accusing his lord, and      kingdom of God. They imagined that the time was at hand
 again the language is almost identical. "Master, `I knew           that Jesus would establish His kingdom in all its glory and
 thee that thou art a harsh man, reaping where thou didst           assume the rule over all the house of David. He was drawing
 not  sow, and gathering where thou didst not scatter: and,         "nigh to Jerusalem? There was a strong' feeling among the
 being afraid, I went away, and hid thy talent in the earth."       disciples and the crowd in general that something great
 Thus he speaks in the parable of the Talents. In this of           was in the offing. Also, it  was2 the time of the Passover,
 the Pounds we hear him say, "Master, lo, thy pound, which          when large throngs would travel to the city of the great King
.I have kept laid .up in a napkin ; for I feared thee, because      for the purpose of celebrating this greatest of all Jewish
 thou art a harsh man: thou takest up what thou didst not           festivals.  Josephus tells us that upward of two million people
 lay down, and reapest what thou didst  not. sow."          *       would be at Jerusalem at this time. Something great was
    In both parables the slothful slave in reprimanded and          bound to happen, now. They felt sure that at th+ time the
 condemned in the same `scathing language. His goods are            kingdom of this Jesus would come to clear and open mani-
 taken from him (the one  ta1ent;`th.e one pound) and  given        festation. A crisis was approaching. Momentarily He would
 to him who had most; and in either case the same expha-            assert' His Messianic authority, take the government into His
 tion is given by the master, "For to every one that hath shall     hands, break the Roman yoke, free the nation of Israel from



                                                                                         .


  474                                            T.HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   .

  all foreign tyranny and at long  last bring to concrete                   Also these are given with `a view to the service of' God.
  realization all their Messianic hopes and notions. The multi-             Those -possessing them will- have to render account in His
  tude, and the disciples too, still entertained such premillenial          day.      -
  notions about this entire kingdom and kingship of the Mes-                   Therefore these talents are received in different propor-
  siah. Hence, the parable of the Pounds. The people.  must                 tions. All receive, but- not'in identical measure. The parable
  know the truth about this whole matter ; know that they were              states : "And to one he gave five talents, and to another
  all wrong about this imminent appearance  of the kingdom of               two, and to another' one  ;  to every man  _accqrding to  his
  Christ; that any open assumption of the kingdom was yet                   own ability." The reference is to natural ability, capacity,
  far distant; that He must first go away and return only after             also determined by God alone. Spiritual gifts do not ignore
  a long while. Meanwhile, they must also be informed as to                 the difference between individuals, but the one is according
their calling to labor diligently during that period of His                 to the other. The natural is the vessel, the container, as it
  absence with the means He would give them to that end.                    were, which is filled by the spiritual. The one vessel is larger,
  They must not be sluggishly inactive, but faithful in the                 the other smaller. Accordingly they receive their talents.
  hope of His return, assured of the abundant reward of                     Hence, the servant receiving two talents `was not inadequately
  fidelity as well as the dreadful punishment in store for the              furnished compared with the one receiving five, nor was
  indolent and wicked. Hence, between the two parables there                the one receiving only one talent more incompletely furnished
  is by no means sameness of purpose.                                       than the one receiving two. Each received  accor.ding to
         In harmony with the above, there is also a distinct dif-           capacity. The one was not fit for as wide a sphere of life as
  ference between the  !`talents"  in the one parable and the               the other. Nevertheless, he was just as well equipped for
  "pounds" in the other. An important clue to this difference               the place and task ordained for him. All determined by the
  is given in the fact, that whereas the talents are bestowed               sovereign good pleasure of the Lord.
  on the servants in varying measures, this is not true of the                 On the other hand, what is indicated by the "pounds"
  pounds; In the parable of the Talents the one servant receives            in the parable recorded by Luke  ? Here each servant receives
  five talents, the other two and still another only one. In                the same amount. Here you do. not find the limitation : to
  the parable of the Pounds each of ten servants receives one               every one according to his own ability. Clearly, therefore,
  pound  .with which to labor until the return of the master.               the reference is to something else. The talents refer to
   What then is meant by the "talents" in the parable re-                   personal and diverse gifts. Not so' the pounds. These refer
  corded in Matthew  25? They are bestowed, in different                    to the outward means which all have in common and which
  proportions. The reference is to the excellent gifts which the            they must employ faithfully with the talents. received, such
  Master bestows on the children of men and with which they                 as the ministry of the Word, the offices of elder and deacon,
  must be active in the service of their Lord. They are spiritual           the sacraments, etc. We are called to labor with these
  powers, first of all. These are given not only to the apostles            means diligently and conscientiously until Jesus returns to
  with a view to the special labors they must perform, but                  establish His kingdom forever; work with them in the
  to others as well for mutual edification and the service of               home; in school and church, in our mission endeavor and              -
  gratitude in the cause of the-Lord Jesus Christ. I Corinthians            the Christian training of our covenant seed. Hence, the
  12 speaks of these gifts which are bestowed on the people                 "pound" refers to equal opportunities and means. Every
  of God, on the Church, through the Holy-Spirit. "Now there                Christian has that pound. All do not possess ten talents, or
  are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.. And there are             even five, or even two. But all have the pound.
  differences of administrations, but the. same Lord. And there                According to the-respective purposes of the two parables
  are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which               is also the reward given. This reward  is  not according to
  worketh all in all  1 . . . For to one is given by the Spirit             things accomplished, but according to faithfulness and con-
  the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge . . ?;               secration revealed in the use of the means. Reward of grace
  to  ,another faith .  -. . .; to another the gifts of healing . . . .;    according to the works of grace. Therefore the reward of
  to another the working of miracles ; to another prophecy ; to             the two faithful servants in the parable of the Talents is the
  another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of                 same. True, the servant with the five talents gained other
  tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues : but all               five talents  ; the servant with the two gained other two.
  these worketh that one and the selfsame  Spirit, dividing to              The returns in  .the one case are greater than in the other,
  every man severally as He will"- Cf. I Cor.  12;4-11. Also                due to the difference in talents. However, the faithfulness
  the ungodly in the church on earth possess these means in                 is the same. The one with five produced other five. That
  varying measure; though, void of all grace, they reject them              is a 100  % gain. The one with two gained other two. That,
  and use them only to their own condemnation. Still, they                  too, is a 100% gain. No less. And if the third servant had
  receive means wherewith to work and have the responsibility               gained one other talent, his profit, too, would have been
 to use them in the service of the Mighty God and His Christ.               100 70. Therefore the reward is precisely the same. To both
  Nor do these talents exclude other means and opportunities                the master speaks the same words, "Well done, good and
  such as wealth, learning, faculties of mind and body, etc.                                    (Co~btimwd   on page 476)


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                    475
II                                                                       that they may be on the alert continually. In the second
         , The Voice of Our ,Fathers                                /I place, it is the duty of the church, and particularly of the
                                                                         officebearers (cf. also the Formula of Subscription) to do
                                                                         their utmost by way'-of instruction that the "incautious. and
                 The Canons of Dordrecht                                 inexperienced" should become cautious and experienced.
                                                                         And in the third place, this. example of Article VI points
                             PART TWO                                    up the fact that the preaching  a%d teaching must be clear,
                   EXPOSITION OF THE CANONS                              concise, and distinctive, in order that, the error may be
                   SECOND  HEAD OF DOCTRINE                              exposed and in order that no one may entertain any doubts
                                                                         as to what is meant. The minister of the Word should not
       OF  THE DEATH OF CHRIST,  AND THE REDEMPTION                      have to say when he is finished preaching, "I didn't mean
                        OF  MEN  THEREBY                                 what you think I meant." His preaching must clearly con-
                      REJECTION OF ERRORS                                vey his meaning.
             Article VI. Who use the difference between meriting            The distinction between the objective and subjective as-
              and appropriating, to the end .that  they may instill      pects of salvation, between salvation as it is wrought for US
             into the minds of the imprudent and inexperienced           and salvation as it is wrought in us, between the meriting of
              this teaching, that God, as far as he is concerned, has
             beeh minded of  applying  to all equally the benefits       the forgiveness of sin and life eternal and the- actual applica-
             gained by the death of Christ; but that, while some         tion of this grace to us so that it becomes our personal and
              obtain the pardon of sin and eternal  .life, and others    conscious possession, is a sound distinction, we said. We must
             do not, this difference depends on their own free           emphasize, -however, that it is a two-fold distinction in the
             will, which joins  itself to the grace that is offered      one salvation, and that this distinction must not be changed
             without exception, and that it is not dependent on
             the special gift of mercy, which powerfully works in        into a division of salvation into a divine factor and a human
            them, that they rather than others should appropriate        factor. That this distinction is legitimate is also implied in
             unto themselves this grace. For these, while they           the article, which does not attack the distinction as such,
             feign that they present this distinction in a sound         but attacks the corrupt and deceitful use of the distinction on
             sense, seek to instill  into.the  people the destructive    the part of the Arminians. Furthermore, the fathers all
             poison of the Pelagian errors.                              make use of this distinction in their written critiques of the
      We  must  call  attention  to the fact that the translation        Arminian position which were presented at the Synod before
would be  more accurate  if throughout the article we had                the Canons were composed. Only, they without fail make
the verb  "apply" rather  than, the verb "appropriate." We               it clear that also this application of the benefits of salvation
niust  also note that in  the clause, "that God . . . has been           is of God by free grace.
minded of applying to all equally the benefits gained by the                There are, I think, especially two factors which enter
 death of Christ," the word "aljplying"  should really be "con-          into this deception of the Arminians, which facilitated it in
 ferring." Lest one think that, the expression "special gift             a way. In the first place, they made capital of the truth
of mercy" implies the existence of a "common gift of mercy,"             that the grace of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life is
 it would be better to translate by "singular" or "unique."              in the preaching set forth, presented, promiscuously. We
 And finally, the very last clause in the first, lengthy sentence        may note in this connection that the Canovts have the word
 of this article should for the sake of clarity be introduced            "offered." This is not to to be taken in' the current sense,
 by "so that" or "in  .order that." This shows more clearly              but in the original sense of setting forth, presenting, putting
 the relation between the two ideas: "but that it is not de-             on display. In the general  l%oclamation  of the gospel the                 '
 pendent on the singular gift of mercy, efficaciously operating          benefits of the forgiveness of sins and life eternal in Christ,
 in them, so that (in order that) they rather than others                as merited by Christ, are set forth to all who -hear the
 apply to themselves that grace."                                        preaching. The Arminians used this in order to leave the
      Here you have an instance of the insidious and crafty              impression that "God, as far as he is concerned was willing
 technique which the Arminians followed in order to instill              to confer to all equally the benefits acquired by the death of         .
 their doctrine into the "incautious and inexperienced." They            Christ." In our day, of course, there are those who do not
 made use of what is in itself a perfectly legitimate distinc-           hesitate to express this very literally and openly: God wills
 tion between the objective and subjective sides of salvation            the salvation of all men. He offers well-meaningly the- for-
 in order to propagate their heresy of free  willism.  This              giveness of sins and life eternal to all. One gets the impres-
 leads  US  to emphasize at the outset three things. In the              sion, however, from this article of the Rejection. that  .the
 first place, in Reformed churches. there should be no "in-              Arminians were very crafty about this in the days of the
 cautious and inexperienced" people when it comes to  ,4r-               fathers. They were not open. And to be sure, the impression
 minianism.  All. should be very cautious and should be thor-            can very easily be left that salvation is for all without literally
 oughly acquainted both with the Arminian error and with                 stating it. All that need be done is to omit any and all
 the Arminian method of propagating his error, in order                  distinction. One need not expressly state that God is willing


                                                                                                                               :
 4      7    6                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

 to confer these benefits of the death of Christ upon all men            the fact that some are saved, others not; some join their will
 equally. He need only omit to say that "this was the sover-             to God's will to save, others do not. And thus it also becomes
 eign counsel and most gracious will and purpose of God the              evident that in this cooperative venture the divine part and
 Father, that the quickening and saving efficacy of the most             the human part are not even equal. Man's will  is. determina-
 precious death of his Son should extend io all the elect, for           tive. And if man does not join his will to God's, then God
 bestowing upon them alonethe gift of justifying faith thereby           is helpless, even though He wills to confer the benefits of
to bring them infallibly to salvation." One sometimes hears              the death of Christ upon all.
 the criticism' voiced that it is not always necessary to refer              And again, let us not imagine  ~that  this view must be
 to the fact that the benefits of Christ's death are for the             literally propagated. This Arminian conception can be in-
 elect only, that Reformed people are supposed to know that,             stilled into people's minds without even mentioning "free
 and that the preacher may take this for granted in his                  will." All that need be done is to omit the fact that the
 preaching. But this is incipient.Arminianism.  One may never            obtaining of the pardon of sin and eternal life is dependent
 leave the impression, either by overt statement or by the sin           on "the singular gift of mercy, efficaciously operating in them,
 of omission, that there is anything general about the benefits          so that they rather than others appropriate (apply) to them-
 of Christ's death. One may never leave the impression,                  selves this grace." All that need be done is to disconnect the
 either by expressly stating that God is minded to apply them            gift of faith itself from the merit of Christ, in order silently to
 to all men equally or by neglecting to state that God is                leave the impression that faith is of us while forgiveness and
 minded to apply them only to *the elect, that these benefits            eternal life are from God, but dependent upon our faith. All
 of grace are for all men. It is exactly by way of such  non-            that need be done is to emphasize strongly the command to
 distinctive preaching that heresy is instilled into the minds           repent and believe, while neglecting to state specifically that
 of the imprudent and inexperienced.                                     faith is "not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." All that
      But we are reminded of something else in this connection.          need be clone is to omit to preach that "it was the will of
 It is exactly this error that has been instilled in the minds of        God, that Christ by the blood of the cross . . . should effectu-
 many in Reformed circles by means of the First Point of                 ally redeem . . . . all those, and those only, who were from
 1924. The `Christian Reformed Synod of Kalamazoo by its                 eternity chosen to salvation, and given to him by the Father;
 "general offer of the gospel" .as proof of the "favorable at-           that he should confer upon them faith, which together with
 titude of. God toward humanity in general and not only to-              all the other saving gifts of the Holy Spirit, he purchased
 wards the elect," could mean and did mean nothing less than             for them by his death . . ." Thus it is that Arminians deceive
 such a well-meant offer of salvation by God to all who hear             men, corrupt the gospel of grace, -and instill false doctrine
 ~the preaching. They meant that God was minded to confer                into the minds of  the,incautious  and inexperienced.
 the benefits of Christ's death to all equally, though they also             For false doctrine it is. As the fathers rightly remark,
 claimed to be Reformed, and even attempted to substantiate              this view is nothing less than the pernicious venom of Pelagi-
 the position of the First Point by citing the  Ca.nons.  And            anism. And do not object that to attribute Pelagianism to
 the same is true of the statement of more recent origin in              the serpent is too- heavy a charge. Once again, Arminianism
 Protestant Reformed circles that "`God promises salvation to does not merely differ on some points with the gospel of the
 everyone of you, if you believe." These, and all theories of            Scriptures : it is fundamentally divergent, and has nothing
 such ilk, are condemned as Arminian by Canons II, B, 6.                 in common with  the,faith of the gospel of Jesus, Christ. It
      In'the second place, the Arminians made capital of the             has its origin in the devil, and is some of the most pernicious
 fact that in the subjective aspect, the application,"of  salvation      venom ever to issue from his mouth.
 to the elect sinner is not .a stock and block, but is as a rational-                                                               H.C.H.
 moral creature active. The very nature of that application
 of the benefits of salvation to the elect sinner is such that his        THE POUNDS AND THE TALENTS IN THE PARABLES
 heart and mind and will actively apprpopriate those benefits.                               (Continued  from  Page 474)
He believes. He is sorry for his sin. He repents. He clings              faithful servant; enter thou in the joys of thy master." In
 to Christ. He walks in a new and holy life. Now what did                the parable of the Pounds this is different. There each re-
 the Arminian do ? He used this very fact in such a way as to            ceives the same pound. There the one servant's pound
 leave the impression that in this work of the application of            gains tenfold  ; the other's fivefold. The measure of faith-
 salvation the sinner who hears the offer of the gospel is active        fulness is different. Therefore the difference in the" reward,
 without being activated, applies these benefits of the death of         according to difference in the works of grace.
 Christ to himself. The Arminian position is that the will of               In the case of the third servant there is no real differ-
 God and the will of man meet in a cooperative venture. God              ence between the parables. He is wicked and slothful. He
 wills to confer the benefits merited,by  Christ upon all men            is a servant outwardly, but not really. He is no child of
 equally. Man, on his part, joins his own free will to that grace        God. He does nothing. And his reward is, accordingly,
 that is indiscriminately offered. And thus the work of salva-           ending in eternal destruction. Matthew 25 :30.
 tion is completed. This, according to the Arminians, explains                                                              R. Veldman.         '


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               477

                                                                      are smitten by floods, fires, tornadoes, etc., organizations such
            DECENCY atidcOkc/ as the Red Cross; Community Chest, and others offer. assist-
i                                                                     ance to the distressed. In view of the numerous agencies
                                                                      which today are engaged in various forms of relief work,
                        Article  26, D.K.O.                           doesn't the task of the diaconate become virtually nullified ?
        The Diaconate and Other Almoners                              Sometimes it almost appears so and because of this the
                                                                      diaconate has fallen into disrepute even among those who
     The last time we quoted the twenty-sixth article in  full        are members of the church and who, in times of need, prefer
.and will, therefore, not repeat it here. The reader may con-         to seek assistance in the world rather than turn to Christ's
sult his church-order or the Stand&d Bearer of. July 1, 1956.         ministers of mercy.
     The original rendering of this article as taken from                 The provision of our church order here is no solution
Jansen's  `Korte  Verklaring" reads :  `:De Diakenen zullen,          to the problem involved. It merely stipulates that the deacons
ter plaatse waar huiszitten-meesters of andere aalmoezeniers          shall seek a mutual understanding with these other agencies
zijn, van deze begeeren goede correspondentie met hen te              so that duplication of assistance is avoided. This stipulation,
willen houden, ten einde de aalmoezen te beter uitgedeeld             it seems, implies that it is legitimate practice for those of
mogen  worden  onder degenen  "die meest gebrek hebben."              the household of faith to seek and receive aid in times of
     Freely translated this is : "Where  there.are  administrators    need from worldly institutions of charity and, furthermore,
of pensions and other almoners, the deacons shall seek to hold        that the church may share her responsibility to care for her
good correspondence with them to the end that the alms may            own poor with them. This synthesis is in conflict with all
be better distributed among those who have greatest need."            Reformed principles and if the church order leaves the im-
     This article is considerably shorter than the one that ap-       pression that this practice is just, we have need of a revision
pears in our present church order. It contains only one of            which clarifies the proper position and function of the diacon-
the three elements found in the latter, which in.1914 was re-         ate in these circumstances.
vised so as to fit present circumstances. The sole provision             Sometimes the wording of this article of the church order
of the original article arises out of historical circumstances        is defended with the argument that the "other charities"
peculiar to our father-land. This historical background is            refers exclusively to agencies of the government and
described in the following quotation taken from the pen `of           at the time of the origin of this article the govern-
Rev. G. M.. Ophoff :                                                  ment of the Netherlands was Reformed. The conclusion is
     "The Roman hierarchy possessed much  -propert;J, most            drawn that this article instructs the diaconate to work in
of which was confiscated by the state when the Netherlands            cooperation with governmental agencies of charity only if
adopted the principles of the Reformation and became Re-              and when the government is a Christian one. This, however,
formed. A good share of this property was being used for the          does not alter the matter as we see it. It- is not a question
care of the poor: There were many homes for the aged                  that concerns a Christian or non-Christian  government that is
poor in the land and still other institutions of charity. The         the important matter here but rather it is the question whether
position of our Reformed fathers was that the task of caring          any government is instituted to dispense charity ? Does this
for the poor was not.fhat.of the state but of the church and,         belong. to the domain of government? To this our un-
therefore, it requested that fhe state turn over to the diaconate     quivocal  reply is, "No, it does not !" The `government is in-
these institutions of .charity.  But this was done only in some       stituted with sword power. Its calling is to rule under God
provinces while in others these institutions of mercy con-            and thus to punish evil doers and protect the righteous.
tinued to operate independent of the diaconate. This ac-              Notwithstanding the fact that governments engage in this
counts for it that we have in our church order this article           sort of thing, it is not their prerogative to do so. The church,
according to which the deacons shall seek a mutual under-             through its diaconate, has the calling to exercise charity and
standing with such institutions to the end that the alms may          thereby reflect the virtues of Christ's Highpriestly office. She
all the better be distributed among, those who have need, and         alone by .the power of the Spirit and the grace of Christ is
also that the deacons shall make it possible for the poor to          able to rightly perform this spiritual labor. She neither may
make use of such institutions."                                       nor can share it with worldly agencies and where this is
     Originally then the subject matter of this article stems         attempted the result can only be that her spiritual labor of
from the question as to what, is the calling and duty  and            love degenerates into a mere humanistic work of alleviating
proper relation of the  chur&`s diaconate to government relief        physical distresses. That is not the essence of Charity!
and other organizations which are engaged in secular work                The very presence of an article of this nature in our
of charity  ? It cannot. be  gainsaid  that this question affects     church order reminds us of the fact that we are still in the
US  today as much as ever. Many of our readers have not               midst of a sinful world. Rebellion to God's ordinances is
forgotten the depression of the  30's when members of the             everywhere present. The various departments of our com-
church as well as others stood in line to receive bread from          plex social structure disregard `the will of God and fail to
the government. In times of disaster when entire communities          confine their functions within God appointed limitations.

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

 When then the government (and other worldly organizations                   The implications of the first provision in Article 26 are
 of charity  ?) pretend to institute "offices of mercy" their       very dangerous and misleading. If the article simply means
 activities so overlap a function that belongs exclusively to       to express that the deacons should not duplicate aid given to
 the church that where she is not carefully zealous and con-        the needy through other agencies, the matter is redundant.
 stantly faithful her work of charity is obliterated or coerced     The deacons should not have to be told this by a,ruling  of the
 into a cooperative role with the world. On that basis the          church order. It stands to reason that where a material
 church cannot perform her God-given duties. And, certainly,        need is already met, there is no more need left for which
 what the world does may never serve as an .excuse for the          further aid must be provided. To do so leads to excess
 .neglect  of the-diaconate.                                        through which greater sin is frequently committed than
        From this the conclusion may not be drawn that the- -through lack: If the provision of this article means that
 assistance rendered to the poor and distressed by the  govern-     the diaconate shou1.d perform her work of charity in coopera-
                                                                   '  tion with worldly institutions, the article is, as we have
 ment and .other  worldy agencies, of Charity is to be entirely
 condemned. Such aid is necessitated by the fact of sin in the      shown, wrong and the entire provision ought to be eliminated
 world where men, devoid of the knowledge of God, refuse to         for it violates the principle that the church must provide
acknowledge and in time of need turn to the proper in-              for her own poor and the needy of the church should not
 stituted agency of charity which is the diaconate of His           seek aid from the world but should be assisted by their
 church. Because of this they receive aid in their distress         brethren and sisters in Christ. The whole provision then
 from the world but never do they receive charity. It does          leads to the practical error often committed by diaconates
 not require grace to recognize that one whose home and pos-        which is that as long as the material needs of the people of
 sessions have been destroyed by fire or flood needs help.          God are provided from some source (be that what it may)
 Common sense dictates that. Neither is it an evidence of           there is no need for the labors of charity. The results of this
 !`common grace" that the world affords such assistance. This       is that true charity becomes obsolete and "without charity
 help is not charity in the Biblical sense of the word. It          we are nothing," (I Cor. 13  :3).                      '
 cannot `be. Charity requires grace and that the world does                  Our space for this issue is about filled so we wi!l have
 not possess. The world's assisting the distressed is never         to wait till next time, D.V., to write on some of the implica-
 performed in the consciousness that, "Inasmuch as ye have          tions of this provision of the church order for both the
 done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have        diaconate and the members of the church. We also have two
 done it unto Me," (Matt. 25 :4Ob).  Even the "tender mercies       other provisions in` this article that are worthy of some
 of the wicked are cruel." (P rov. 12  :lOb). They are moti-        attention.                                                              GVdB.  -
 vated purely by humanistic desires. This is evident, for
 example, from the vast program of foreign aid that is carried
 on in our present day by our own government. Its aim is
 man! It purposes to win self-respect, recognition,.and praise                I WAITED FOR THE LORD  M&T HIGH
 among the befriended.. The thought of God is not in it nor
 is it the consciousness of duty toward God that compels                            I waited for the Lord Most High,
 such action. Materialistic and selfish ends are sought under                       And He inclined to hear my cry ;                  `.
the guise of a charitable work. Likewise, the program of do-                          He took me from destruction's pit
mestic handouts that has reached fantastic proportions  under-                      And from the miry clay;
the present economy. and by which the murmuring dissatis-                             Upon a rock He set my feet,
factions and rebellions of certain segments of a carnally                           And stedfast made my way.
minded citizenry are temporarily restrained. No different is
it with the various independent relief societies of the world.                    0 Lord  ,my God, how manifold
 Man, living a distorted life in defiance of God and therein                        Thy wondrous works which I behold,
encountering the  .miseries  of His holy wrath, attempts to                           And all Thy loving, gracious thought
alleviate or escape these miseries WITHOUT GOD. He                                 ,Thou hast bestowed on man;                  :.
seeks to accomplish in defiance of God what can be attained                           To count Thy mercies I have sought,
only in the way HE has appointed and approved. If then                              But. boundless is their span.
all things-were done properly, all charity would be dispensed
through the media of the diaconate of the church. She alone                         Not sacrifice delights the Lord,
has the right and the ability to perform his labor and she                          But he who hears and keeps His Word ;
must always safeguard herself against the imminent danger                             Thou gavest me to hear Thy will,
of degrading her spiritual function into a mere humanitarian                       Thy law is in my heart;
work by putting it on a cooperative and equal basis with                              I come the Scripture to fulfil,
those who neither -have the right not the qualifications to                         Glad tidings to impart.
engage in such enterprise.                                            `..                                            Psalm  46: 1, 3, 4


                                              T H E   S'fANDARD   B E A R E R                                                     479

 r                                                                  even happy about the union he had helped to form, evidently
         .A11  A R O U N D   U S                                II a local union covering 14 barbershops in the metropolitan
                                                                    area and run by one boss.
                                                                        Then, we are told, Joe got "caught in a squeeze he still
 Destructive  La.bor Union Practices.                               doesn't understand." No one it seemed could help him. Not
      We take our suggestion for our remarks on this subject        his union, nor his boss, nor the boss's landlord, the hotel.
 from a well-written and informative article appearing in the       Even under the law he could find no relief, or rather, the
 August issue  of  the  ReadeYs Digest.  In `it a Mr. Lester        law'would  not protect him. All this began when the national
 Velie writes under the title : "Labor's Dreaded Squeeze Play :     union of barbers began to pressure him into abandoning his
 The Secondary Boycott."                                            independent union and join up with the big one, when Joe
      Mr. Velie borrowed for his title the well-known baseball      and some 300 other members of his union decided to remain
 expression  : The Squeeze Play. This is a play used by the         independent. But the national union did not rest here. They
 batting team to force a run at the plate. Those acquainted         went to Joe's boss and still later to the boss's landlord with
 with the game understand well how it works and how the             their demands. Even the protestations of Joe's boss, that
 field team is forced to use every strategy and power to block      should he bow to the pressure of the national he would have
 its impact and thus save itself from being scored on. There        to transgress the unfair-labor-practice provisions of the
 .are other games, for example football, were this strategy is      Taft-Hartley law, did not help.
 employed though it does not have this name. All the power             The national union placed pickets around the hotel. All
 of the offensive team is concentrated at  one.vital spot.          illegally, of course. It did not represent the union inside.
      The writer applies this expression to the  ~operation  of     With parading signs the national declared that Joe's boss
 labor unions in their all-out endeavor to bring management         was "unfair to organized labor." This, the writer suggests,
 and the working man, and even the government in line and           is the initial boycott.
 under its control. He calls it the "Dreaded" squeeze play             However, when it became apparent to the national that
.because he sees in it the loss of complete freedom for both        this method of coercion would not bring Joe, or his boss, ,or
 management and labor to work out -unmolested and without           Joe's union to time, for Joe's customers  boldly*crossed  the
 encroachment its own problems. He sees the end of free             picket line and his business continued .as usual, the second-
 enterprise, and the end of our democratic way of life. This        ary boycott was then brought to bear.
dreaded squeeze play of labor unions he- denominates : "The            The national called on the brotherhood of Teamsters, an
 Secondary Boycott."                                                affiliate, to step in. No, one could go through the picket line
      What Mr. Velie has to say about this presents nothing         to deliver the materials the hotel needed to operate. The
 new to the citizen who is well aware of his times and who is       hotel would have to close if it did not bring Joe's boss to his
 informed either by reading or experience of what is going          senses. It had to threaten Joe's boss with the loss,of his lease,
 on in the spheres of labor and management, and I might add         and this would mean the loss of Joe's job. So there was .no
 also in the government- in recent years. He shows us by            other choice than to acquiesce `to the national union. Joe had
 examples the things that are apparent to all, things that have     to join a union he didn't want.
 been with us for a long time. But the poignant aspect of his:         The writer of the Digest article proceeds to show with
 article points up a condition which if not soon remedied will      other examples how that small businesses which it took as
 jeopardize our whole economic system and, still more im-           much. as 15 years to build are put out of business by this
 portantly, as I see it, make it impossible for the Christian       squeeze play overnight. Further, that in many instances even
 laborer, who is opposed for religious reasons to godless           the National Labor Relations Board was helpless to inter-
 unionism, to live ; and for management, that will be stub-         vene. We are informed that it is the very intent of the Taft-
 born enough to defy these ruthless tactics of unionism, to         Hartley Act to protect the worker's freedom to organize his
 continue. In a little note affixed to the article in the Digest    own union or to join the union of his choice. Yet in many
-we have an esplanation of what the article purports to be:         instances this law is not  inforced  or over-ruled so that the
 namely, "Vicious examples of how collective bargaining is          N.R.L.B. stands helplessly by when an appeal for help is
 turned into collective bludgeoning." The latter expression         raised by those caught in the union's squeeze play,, the
 must be understood also figuratively, of course, but it means      secondary boycott. The writer also notes that though the
 literally a beating with a heavy club or some other instru-        main national unions (A.F.L.-C.I.O.) mean not to be run
 ment used as a weapon to beat one to death,                        by racketeers, that racketeers nevertheless have` complete
      The writer starts out with an illustration of a man whom      control in many unions.
 he calls "Joe the Barber," who for some 15 years  thought             It stands to reason, therefore, that so long as this ungodly
 he was one of the happiest men working in one of New               business continues, and no provision is made to rule out the
 York's most popular hotels. He liked his job. He enjoyed           pressure methods of godless unions, the laborer, manage-
 in this country the freedom, so he thought, from  tyranny          ment, and even the government can no longer boast of free-
 which he could not have in his native land. In fact, he was        dom. And to think that there is a political party in our


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        480        .`.     ;                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

        country that under the pressure of so-called neutral unions        of the children of God which no man, nor union of men can
       would even destroy the Taft-Hartley Act,, as it boastfully          take from us.
         declared it would do in the Democratic Convention in Chi-            That does not mean that we do not also cherish the
        cago if and when it gets back in the driver's seat- in-the         other so-called freedoms. We do, and for these we are also
        government, should make our citizenry sit up and take              willing and ready to exert ourselves. The constitution of our
        notice.                                                            country is  .supposed  to guarantee `them to us. Those who
                                                                                                       .
            It is our contention that this Act should not only be          are clothed with the mantle of government in our land are
        preserved, but legal machinery should be set in motion that        sworn to preserve this constitution. Ours~is then the duty to
        will put more teeth in it to preserve the rights and privileges    put into office men. who will dare to keep it, and to remove
        of what we boast is the possession of a free people.               from office those who flinch. Moreover, so long as this is
            The religious freedom of'our Christian labor men is fast       possible, we can still raise our voices in protest against these
        being choked out. Where he insists that under the Bill of          ungodly practices by instructing our constituency in the art
        Rights he should be allowed to work where he can make              of blocking the place so. that the strategem of the squeeze play
                                                                           becomes non-effective, dreadful as it may be. This we can
        an honest living without any coercion, where he can utilize        do in our churches by maintaining the incompatibility of
        the gifts and talents God gave him to realize his vocation in      union and church membership. If all.Christians  were of the
        this world,  all.  hjs insistence falls on deaf ears when such     same caliber as the members of the Protestant Reformed
        pressure is brought to bear. When he declares that he may          Churches there could be, it seems to me,  .a  .considerable
        not for conscience sake and according to the Word of God           blocking at the home plate that would put the .unions  back
        be unequally joined with the ungodly unions, even manage-          on their heels.
        ment and government cannot help him to realize this religious               -.                                                 M,S.
        freedom when such ungodly pressure gadgets  ar.e allowed to
        be manipulated by these unions. To sign with these unions
        is to subscribe to the Beast. There can be no question about
        that.                                                    .                GOD LOVETH THE RIGHTEOUS, HIS
            uet, I see many so-called. Christian labor-men  doing just                        GOODNESSSIS  SURE
                                                                                                            :
      _ that very thing. And some even persecuting their Christian           God loveth the righteous, His goodness is sure,
        brethren who still have the courage to refuse to bow their           He never forsaketh the good and the pure ;
._      necks under this ungodly pressuring. .I can understand some-         Yet once my faith faltered, I envied the proud,
        what the strain and `stress, the anxieties and cares `of the         In doubt and disquiet my spirit was bowed.
        Christian labor man whose livelihood  -for himself and for
        his family is threatened, but I cannot understand how one            The wicked are prospered and firm in their strength,
        can be call Christian who would persecute a Christian brother        No pangs do they suffer, though -death come at length
        who has enough spiritual fiber to say no to a godless union:         They are not in trouble as other men are,
        I have often said to my people that when the day of anti-            The plagues of their fellows they. view from afar.
        christ comes we will have no trouble to discern who our              In garments of boasting .and violence decked,
        brethren are. And I  ain inclined to make that judgment            With wealth more abundant than heart could expect,
        even now. Those are not my Christian brethren who would              They scoff, and the helpless they proudly oppress,
        cast me from my job because I refuse to with them join               The heavens and the earth they assume to possess.
        such ungodly pressure organizations for material ends. I
        denounce them as hypocrites who purport themselves to be             Despising `God's people, they cause them to drain
        Christian and so conduct themselves.                                 The cup of oppression, injustice, and pain;
           And what shall we say about this so-called squeeze play           They question God's knowledge and boldly defy
                                                                             The might and the justice of God the Most High.
        of ungodly unionism ?' Unless it is stopped, (and as I see it,
        it can be stopped only temporarily if at all), we are fast           The wicked,qgrown,  wealthy, have comfort and peace,
        running into `a state of affairs that could easily be the end        While I, daily chastened, see troubles increase,
      of  all,our so-called freedoms. I say so-called freedoms be-           And, wronging God's children, 1~ cried in my pain,
        cause in the strict sense of the word they do not properly and       That clean hands are worthless and pure hearts are vain.
        correctly evaluate and express true freedom which can never
        be lost.. I can lose economic, social and even religious free-       As when one awaking forgetteth his dream,
       1  dam and still be perfectly free. The latter is the portion of      So God will despise them, though great they may seem  ;
        the child of God who though he is persecuted and loses every-        My envy was senseless, my grief was for nought,
        thing even his life, still stands in the  ,liberty wherewith         Because I was faithless, and foolish my thought.
        Christ has made US free. This is indeed the blessed heritage                                             Psalm 73: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,  7,


