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                                           EDITOR 2 Rev. &I. Hoeksema                                                                                                                  As To Our Moral Obligation
       Contributing editors-Revs. J. Blankespoor, A. Cammenga,
        P. De Boer, J. D.  de Jong, H. De Wolf, L. Doerema,                                                                                                                         I take it for granted that all  otir readers, even
        M. Gritters, C. Hanko, B. Kok, G. Lubbers, G. M. Ophoff,                                                                                                                 those that thus far have revealed little or no enthus-
       A. Petter, M.  Schipper, J.  Vanden   E?reggen,  H. Veldman,                                                                                                              iasm for a school of our own; and among these even
       R. Veldman, L. Vermeer; P. Vis, G. Vos, Mr. S. De Vries.                                                                                                                  those who definitely opposed it especially by the "moral
        Communications  relative to contents should be addressed                                                                                                                 obligation" argument, will have to agree with me, `that
        to REV. H. HOEKSEMA, I.139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand                                                                                                                    our obligation to the existing schools and school so-
        Rapids, Michigan.  I                                                                                                                                                     cieties can be none' other t.han, and is rooted iti the
        Communications relative to subscription should be ad-                                                                                                                    obligation  of the parents with regard to the education
        dressed to MR. R.  SCHAAFSMA,   1101 Haren St., S. E.,                                                                                                                   of their children.
       Grand Rapids,  Mich.  All Announcements and Obituaries                                                                                                                       These school societies are, with respect to ,Jhe in-
        must be sent to the above address and will not be placed                                                                                                                 struction of our child,ren 
       unless the regular fee of $1.00 accompanies the notice.                                                                                                                                                  only a means to an end.
                                                 Subscription $2.50 per year                                                                                                        If parents were in a position to give their children
                                                                                                                                                                                 all the education they need, `personally and at home,
              Entered   aa  second  clam  mail   rt  Grand  Rapids,  Michigan                                                                                                    there would be no need  df these societies. In fact, in
                                                                                                                                                                                 that case it would be their sacred calling to provide
                                                                                                                                                                                 such instruction  theCisel&s.  Apart from the Church
                                                                             -                                                                                                   Yo which the ministry of `the W&d is entrust&,  they
                                                                                                                                                                                 are the only responsible party before  God with respect
                                                                    CONTENTS                                                                                                     to this instruction.
MEDITATIE-                                                                                                                                                                          Or even, if all could afford to er,nploy a private tutor
ONDERZOCHT DOOR DE PROFETEN *.....*.......................  * . . . . . 389                                                                                                      to educate their children,  `"the school society might be
               Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                  discarded.
                                                                                                                                                                                    However, this is impossible.            I  -
EDITORIALS  -                                                                                                                                                                       Parents  lack time and  ability..to  give their children
AS TO OUR MORAL OBLIGATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3% a  compIete  education according to the requirements
               Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                  and demands of modern life. And `they lack the means
THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE                                                                                                                                                             to employ private teachers. Hence, they band together,
                                                                                                                                                                                 organize societies, in order  t.hat together  aa5 with
EXPOSITION OF THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM . . . . . . . . . . 39.4                                                                                                                  united efforts  :they may accomplish what individually
              Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                   they are not abIe to do. And these societies establish
.THE  PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL  SS KEYS OF THE                                                                                                                                    schools,  determi,ne the character of the education their
KINGDOM . ..*.*...*..*..*.*  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
                                                                                                                                                                        39x children shall receive, and employ the teachers  that
                 Rev. G. M. Ophoff                                                                                                                                               shall furnish such  a&cation  as the parents  ,determine
                                                                                                                                                                                 that their children shall have.
UIT DEN DROM . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*......  * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . f . . . . . . 402
                 Rev. G. Vos.                                                                                                                                                       It should be plain then, that the moral obligation
                                                                                                                                                                                 of these societies can be none other than that of the
EXCOMMUNICATION OF BAPTIZED MEMBERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408                                                                                                              parents individually;
            Rev. L. Doezema                                                                                                                                                         Nor can the obligation of the parent to the society
                                                                                                                                                                                 of wlhich  he is a member  be any other than to cooperate,
EMPLOYMENT OF MOTHERS IN WAR INDUSTRIES . ...407
            Rev. J. Blankespoor.                                                                                                                                                 and put forth all his  effol'ts  to fulfill his obligation
                                                                                                                                                                                 with respect to the education of his children.
KERKNlIEUWS   I...............................................................................   408                                                                                That obligation, as we have seen, is that he shall
            Mr. S. De Vries.                                                                                                                                                     instructthem "in the aforesaid" doctrine to "the utmost
GOD'S COUN,SEL  AND HUMAN FREEDOM.                                                                                                                                               of his power," or "help or cause them to be instructed
                                                                                                                             ..I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...*... 410 therein."
           Rev. G. M. Ophoff.                                                                                                                                                       This Iatter phrase  inelrudleq the instruction  theg
                                                                                                                                                                                 receive in the sch@.


                                     .THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                $93
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       This part of his obligation he fulfills through the     the basis of the  ,constitution  of such a society permits
  means of the school society.                                 him, he will try to make that society and school a                    -
       For the `parent that is Protestant Reformed this means to  instruc't  his children according to Protestant
  obligation, which he aolemnly and very definitely as- Reformed principles.
  sumes by covenant-vow before .God and the Church,                But the above question must be answered with an
  means that  he, will work' to. the utmost of his power,      unqualified No if he is strong enough, has the means
  also through the school society to provide for his and the opportunity, to establish a school of his ow:l
children an education that is in harmony with Pro- choice in  coopera%ion  with other Protestant Reformed
  testant Reformed doctrine  anI3 principles.                  parents.
      It follows, then, that `this is his moral obligation         For in that case he does not "help or cause them
  with respect `to the society of which he is a member.        to be instruct&  in the aforesaid doctrine to Uz.e  utrpzosi:
      He must seek the good of that society.                   of his power".
      That surely is his moral obligation.                         He is satisfied with the line of least resistance.
      And because the society exists for the purpose of            For he knows very well that, whatever efforts he
  so serious a matter as the education of covenant child- may put forth to imvove the school to which he sends
  ren, he certainly has the moral obligation to seek the his children, it is a foregone conclusion that he can
  very best for it.                                            .never  make it the means `to instruct his children ac-
      Hence, he must work to the utmost of his power to        cording  ,to the Protestant Reformed conception of the
  mak& 4he':sooiety  an efficient means .unto the end of truth.
  providing a Protestant Reformed education for his                He may remove. certain evils, protest against the
  chilrdren  and the children of his fellow members.           presentation of all kinds of dramas and moving pie-              '
      Other obligations he may have toward the society tures  in the schools, against the singing of a few
  and toward the school certainly follow from and are          Arminian hymns,, or even against the direct inculca-
  subservient `to this one fundamental obligation. With        tion of the Itheory  of common grace, perhaps ; but he
  a view to this great calling he pays his dues and            will never be able to make the school a means for the *
  schooi  tuition, he takes part in the activities of the instruction of the children along Protestant Reformed
  society, watches over the school and over the appoint-       lines.
 ment of teachers.                                                 This is impossible, first of all, because his influence
      All his effort must be directed to that one end:         is very limited. The Christian Reformed parents con-
  that the society may be a means  "to help him to instruct    trol the existing schools. They permit the Protestant
  his children in "the aforesaid doctrine to the utmost Reformed parent to send  ,his children to their schools,
  of his power.".                                              and to support their  cause financially; but for'the rest
                                                               they pay very little attention to him as soon as he
                                                               insists on positive, Reformed principles. This I could
                                                               easily prove, if it shouId  be required.
      Is it possible for the Protestant Reformed parent            But this is impossible especially because of the
  to do this through the existing schools and  school-         very principle of cooperation. By joining an existing
  societies ?                                                  society he waives the right to insist on positive, Pro-
      Pee,  if there is no opportunity for him to send his     testant Reformed education. He has no right to de-
  children to a school of Protestant Reform&  parents, mand such education of `the existing schools.
  or to organize a society for the establishment of such           And if he had the right it would be physically im-
  a school. In that case he meets his assumed obligation possible to realize it, even in any local school where he
  with a view. to the- education of his children  in the might be represented in substantial numbers of mem-
  cLaforesaid   doctrine"   `to  the  utmost  of  his power,  by hers,. for the simple reason that the whole  school
  sending his children to one of the existing Christian system, as to teachers, books, propaganda, etc. is under
  schools, or to a Lutheran school if necessary, to the        Christian Reformed control.
  best school he can find, and by supplementing and: cor-          Nor can an instance be mentioned where this was
  recting such instruction at home in as, far as it may be ever attempted even by those who insist that it is our
  n e c e s s a r y .                                          moral obligation to cooperate with the existing schools
      No parent dare send his children to the public as long as possible.
  school on the pretext that the existing schools are not          Hence, I maintain, that in such cases, i.e. whereve?
  Protestant Reformed.                                         there are a sufficient number of Protestant Reformed
      And in that case he has the moral obligation to          parents, and they have the means and power, their
  work to the utmost of his power for the good of the          sacred moral obligation with respect to the existing
  society to which he ,belongs,,  and of the school to which societies is to leave them,  and-to establish societies and
  he sends his children. And as far as cooperation on schools of their own, where they may instruct their


  ,794  *                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

  children "in the aforesaid doctrine `to the utmost of        obligation, both with respect to our children before
 their power."                                                 God, and with respect to the Christian School Move-
                                                               ment, that we organize our own societies, and establish
                                                               our own schools.
                                                                  Those who harp on our "moral obligation" as an
     And why, ,pray, should they not do this?                  argument against a separate school movement, have no
     There is nothing separatistic in a movement to ground to stand on.
 establish our own school.                                                                                       H. H.
   . Is not, after all, a Christian school a strictly local
  affair? Does not each school society exist by itself?
  It is true that there is a Union of Christian Schools,                                 -
  and that man,y  local schools, perhaps most  of them, are
 members of this union. But this does not bring all
 the schools under one board, or unite them into one
* body. Each society has authority in its own domain.             The Triple Knowledge
 and is strictly autonomous. The Christian school is
 a local matter.
     But if this is so, what would be more natural, in
 places where there are a sufficient number of Protest-        An Exposition Of The Heidelberg
 ant Reformed parents, than to ban3 `together, organize                            Catechism
 their own local society, and establish their own local
 schools, where their children can be instructed along                              P A R T   T W O
  Protestant Reformed lines?                                                   OF MAN'S REDEMPTION
     There is `then, absolutely no reason why, for in-
  stance, in a city like Grand Rapids, where some six                              Lord's Day XII
  hundred families are found belonging to the four
  Protestant Reformed Churches  ia that city, we should                                     5.
  not have two or three schools of our own.                         After The Order Of Melchisedec. (Cont.)
     By establishing such schools we would simply ful-
 fill our obligation before ,God.                                 In both these respects, that the priestly office and
     We would only be doing what the Christian Re- the kingship were combined in one person, and that
  formed people have done before us.                           he was a priest for ever, Melchisedec is a type of
     We would do the very same thing the Reformed              Christ. Christ is the real Melchisedec, the royal priest,
  (Gereformeerde) people in the Netherlands did years the king of righteousness, and the king of peace. He
  ago, when they separated from the existing Christian functions in both the royal and the priestly office.
  school, and established schools of their own.                   From `this viewpoint it may be said, indeed,, that
     We would do no harm to `the existing schools in any there was, a figure or image of this priesthood in that
  sense. T$hey  can very well get along without us, as far of the first Adam in paradise in the state of rectitude.
  as the financial support of their schools is concerned.      He was an earthly image of the eternal, heavenly
     And we could be of real influence by doing so.            priest-king. For Adam was very really priest of the
     As matters stand now, we have no influence at all. Most High. This we cannot understand as long as
 We are divided. We are scattered over several  societies      we see the essence of the priesthood and of the priestly
  and schools. We have no power. We cannot let our function in the offering up of .bloodly sacrifices. For
  voice be heard, We develop nothing. And we deliver this there was no room in the original state of right-
  our children to Christian Reformed schools and teach- eousness. This was added after the fall, and became
  ers to instruct them according to their view.                necessary because of sin.          But bloody sacrifices are
     If, however, we would unite as one people, loving not an essential element of the  pries.thood.  Even as
  the cause of definite Christian instruction according to the prediction of future events, though belonging to
  "the aforesaid doctrine", and strive for the realization the office of the prophet among Israel, cannot be con-
  of the ideal to establish and  compIete  our own system sidered; essential to the prophetic office, so the offer-
  of e&cation, higher and lower, we ,could, with God's         ing up of bloody sacrifices, though for a time necessary
  blessing, be a power for good even for the existing on account of sin, is not the essence of the priesthood.
  schools and for the cause of Christian instruction in The central idea of the priestly office is that of con-
  general.                                                     secration of oneself and all things to the. living God.
     From whatever angle one considers this matter, A priest is a servant of God. He loves God. He con-
  therefore, the conclusion is always that it is our moral secrates himself to the Holy One. He serves in God's


                                   T H E S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            395

tabernacle, in His house. In this sense, Adam was hood; it was part of the work that must be performed
surely priest of `the most high  Go\31 in the midst of the to build the House of God. It was accomplished in the
earthly creation. All things must serve him, that he perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and there it
might serve his God, and be consecrated to Him with         came to an  end. Of this phase of the priesthood of
all his heart and mind and soul and strength. And           Christ that of Aaron was a shadow. Hence, while the
as priest he was also king. Dominion was given him          eternal priesthood of Christ could be typified in just
over all the earthly creation. The royal and the priest- one figure, that of Melchisedec,  ,the priesthood of
ly offices were harmoniously united in his person. And      Aaron must be spread over a long line of generations.
this was but proper. Only the servant of God has the For the blood of bulls and of goats could never blot out
right to have dominion, for only as long as he stands sin. It must ever be repeated until the perfect sacri-
in the right relation to the Creator of all things, that    fice of reconciliation  ha,d been offered in the blood
is, in subjection and obedience, can he properly rule       of the cross. But it could not last for ever. Not only
over all things in the name of the Lord, and according must there come an end to the sacrificing of bulls and
to His will. Prostrating himself in the dust before the goats, but also the perfect sacrifice of the `High  Priesi;
Sovereign of heaven and earth,. and consecrating him- Himself could never be repeated. This phase of the
self and all his power, together with the whole earthly priesthood of Christ was finished when the High Priest
creation, to the living God, Adam in the state of recti-    lai5 down His life as a ransom for many. But  the
tude might have dominion and sway the royal sceptre priesthood of Christ did not reach its end on Golgotha.
over all creatures. He was priest-king, servant-king,       It is everlasting. He is a priest after the order of
king under God.                                             Melchisedec.    For ever He consecrates `Himself, and
   Among Israel this was different.        Aaron was His people, and all things, in perfect love  to. the
priest, but he  d3 not sway the sceptre. The two            Father. And presently He will come again to perfect
offices were strictly separated in Israel's theocracy.      the work the Father gave  Him  to do, to  finish the
The king might not minister at the altar, the priest        House of God:, and establish it in heavenly beauty in
could not occupy the throne. Hence, Aaron, though the new Jerusalem. Then the tabernacle of God wiI!
prefiguring a phase of the priestly office of Christ,       be with men.  In that tabernacle all things will  be
was not His perfect type. The perfect type is found         sanctified to God. And in that everlasting House of
in the figure of Melchisedec, king of Salem, the priest     God Christ will for ever be the perfect King-Priest,
of the Most High. His priesthood is realized in Christ. the King of righteousness and the King of peace, after
For Christ is the perfect Priest, the perfect Servant       the order of Melchisedec !
of Jehovah, Whose meat it is to do the Father*s  will,
and Who, as the Son of God in human nature is con-
secrated to Him with His whole being. He is the only
High Priest over His brethren, and is set over the                                     5.
whole house of ,God, to accomplish all things pertain-
ing to God. And having accomplished all, and having                            The One Sacrifice.
become revealed as t.he perfect Servant of Jehovah,            The Heidelberg Catechism, as we stated before,
Who became obedient unto death, even unto the death (does not discuss the priesthood of Christ after the
of the cross, He is  exalt& at the right hand of the        order of Melchisedec, but considers it solely from the
Majesty in the heavens, henceforth expecting till all       viewpoint of the iyork of redemption He was and is
things shall be put under His feet. Hence, the priest- to accomplish for His people. We would almost feel
hood of Melchisedec is fulfilled in Him. He entered in inclined to apologize for having gone off on a tangent
the sanctuary above, not made with hands, and con- as far as we did in our previous discussion, were it
stantly consecrates `Himself and all things to the          not true that for a full  unrdterstanding  of the signifi-
Father; and He has all power and authority in heaven cance of Christ as the Anointed of God it is quite
and on earth and sits in His, Father's throne. As essential to consider Him in this wider  ,connection.
the perfect High Priest, He is also King of righteous- Now, however, we may return to the Catechism, which
ness, and on the basis of God's own everlasting right- teaches  `us that to the work of Christ as Priest belong
eousness He is King of peace !                              especially two elements: 1. That "by the one sacrifice
   And His priesthood is without end. It is everlast- of His body He has redeemed us," and 2. That "He
ing. This was not, and could not be true of the priest- makes continual intercession with the Father for us."
hood of Aaron.     Tt represented but a phase of the           The way into the sanctuary of God, and into the
priestly calling of Christ, that phase which had become glory of His priesthood after the order of Melchisedec,
necessary on acccount of sin.     And this phase could lay for Christ over the accursed tree. To His perfect
not be everlasting. It belonged to the way the High         obedience and consecration to the Father belonged "the
Priest must travel to realize His everlasting priest.       one sacrifice of His body." For He was appointed


396,                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

High Priest at the head of a people that were by nature Christ steps in between, intervenes with His sacrifice,
&sinful, guilty and damnable before God, "ths$ he might in order to bring the two parties together. But Scrip-
r&eem  us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself ture never supports this view. It never speaks of Cod
a  peculiar  people, zealous of good works." Tit.  2:l.s.    and the sinner being mutually reconciled. Nowhere
"Wherefore  in all things it behooved him to be made         do we read that God reconciled Himself to us, or that
like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and      Christ  recontciled  God to `His people. But always it
faithful high priest  in things pertaining to God. to        represents God as the Reconciler, and His people as
make reconciliation for the sins of the people." Web.        those that are reconciled to Him by His gracious act.
2  :17. For it pleased God to make reconciliation through ,Christ is not a third party intervening  be'ween  God
Him. For, "God was in Christ reconciling the worl-l          and us, but He is the revelation of God the Reconciler.
unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto             For God was in Christ reconciling, not Himself, but
them; and hath committed unto us the word of recon- the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses
ciliation."      Hence, this faithful and merciful High      unto them. We are in a state of guilt anI& under wrath
Priest is authorized to send out the word of reconcilia- by nature, and God removes the guilt, and translates
tion : "Be ye reconciled to God. II Cor. 5 :19, 20. For      us into a state of favor and friendship.
"when we were enemies, we were reconciled! to God               ,The way of this reconciliation is that of satisfaction.
by the death of his Son." Rom. 5  :lO. The  High, Men may be reconciled to one another by merely "for-
Priest according to the order of Melchisedec, standing getting and forgiving" whatever may be the cause of
at the head of a people in sin, estranged from God, and their separation. But this is impossible with God.
children of  wrat,h, must bring "the one sacrifice of The cause ,of our alienation from God must be removed.
his  bo&y" to make reconciliation for the sins of Hi.3       And a basis of reconciliation .must be established in the
people.                                                      righteousness of God. This" cause of our separation
        Reconciliation is a covenant idea. It presupposes  & from God is our sin, the sin that is ours in connection
relation existing .between  the parties that are to be       with the whole human race in Adam, and which we
reconciled, whether of friendship or of love, or of can only increase daily. For it is because of the guilt
obligation. Perfect strangers are not reconciled. One of sin that we lie under the judgment of damnation,
can speak of reconciliation between man and wife,            and are the objects of the wrath of God. By nature
between friend and friend, between a subject and his we lie in the midst of death. If, therefore, reconcilia-
king, between father and son. With respect to divine         tion is to be established, the guilt of sin must be
reconciliation, the relation that is presupposed is the removed, blotted out, and righteousness must be estab-
eternal covenant of God with His people. When God, lished. But how is it possible to remove sin? Only
through Christ, reconciled us unto Himself He revealed by the satisfaction, the perfect satisfaction of the
His eternal covenant love and friendship toward us. justice of God against sin. There is no other way.
Reconciliation presupposes, however, also that the  rc- Whatever a supercillious  modernism may mockingly
Iation  between the parties to be reconciled has been        object to this truth when it speaks of "blood-theology,"
violated:, so that it cannot function, and the parties and whatever it may try to offer instead about a God
are at varience  with each other. With respect to divine     that is all love, and that is so merciful that He is
reconciliation the cause of this separation and varian:e     ready to overlook sin, to wink at it, simply to act as
lies wholly with man. By his wilful  disobedience he if it had never been committed, the truth of satis-
violated the covenant of God, and became an object of faction for sin is emphasized throughout Scripture,
wrath by nature.         As such  al1 men come into the and must be strongly maintained as belonging to the
world, also God's own elect. They are enemies of God, fundamentals of the Christian faith. God cannot deny
and have forfeited all right sod claim to God's favor.       Himself. And He is righteous and just. Hence, there
And the act of reconciliation consists in the removal  nf    can be no  reconciiiation  without satisfaction.
the cause of the separation and variance. It is that             But what is satisfaction? How can the justice of
act of  Go.d whereby he changes the state of the sinner God against sin be sat,isfied? Only by a perfect sacri-
from one of guilt, in which he is the proper object fice. And what is a perfect sacrifice? It is the offer-
of God's wrath, into one of righteousness, in which he ing up of oneself, with an act of perfect obedience and
is the object of God's love and favor.                       in the love of God, to God's perfect justice against sin.
        These main elements of divine reconciliation must The punishment of sin is death. One, therefore, who
be clearly understood and born in mind; lest we mis- would satisfy the justice of God and make an atone-
represent this fundamenta1  truth of salvation. God is ment for sin, must suffer this punishment. He must
the Reconciler. Never may we represent the matter taste death in all its implications, eternal death. The
as if God were the One that is reconciled. This error vials of God's wrath must be poured out over him, and
is often committed. According to this presentation of must be emptied. But in suffering this' agony of tho
the matter, God and. the sinner are at variance, and          wrath of God, these torments of hell, in  zjying  this


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                     -..                         897
death, he must not be merely passive, still less dare he for them all, and redeem them unto life. All the vials
be rebellious against the heavy hand of God upon him:                  of God's wrath, under which we all would have had
he must perform an act in suffering, he must be                        to perish everlastingly, were poured out on Him in the
obedient in dying, he must still  ldve God when His moment of the cross, and in perfect obedience He bore
heavy hand oppresses him. Mere passive suffering that wrath even unto the end. For "Christ being
is no sacrifice. Even the  damn& in  he11 suffer  the come an high priest of good things to come, by a great-
wrath of God, without ever atoning for their sin. To er and more perfect tabernacle, not  ma,de with hands,
satisfy the justice of God one must perform an act that is to say, not- of this  buislding;  neither by the
that is the perfect antithesis of the act of  willfu1                  blood of goats and calves but by his own blood he
disobedience of man in the first paradise. His  act                    entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
must be the perfect Yes over against the sinner's No.                  eterna1  redemption for  us." It is finished!
He must will to die for God's righteousness. He mu$
offer himself.
    And that is the meaning of the cross!                                 Some of the elements of this doctrine of vicarions
    On Golgotha our only High Priest offered the "one atonement by the one sacrifice of Jesus on the cross
sacrifice of his  body"  to satisfy the justice of God will have to be discussed more elaborately in connec-
against sin. And this sacrifice was vicarious, substi- tion with other parts of the Heidelberg Catechism.
tutional. Voluntarily He entered, into death, and suf- But even here they had to be briefly touched upon, in
fered the deepest agonies of hell, not for His own sins,               order to set forth the meaning of this sacrifice of our
but for the sins of those whom the Father had given                    High Priest in our stead and in our behalf, and to
Him.     And thus our only High Priest "by the one maintain the truth of vicarious atonement over against
sacrifice of  Hi,s body, has redeemed  us," purchased us several false theories that have been developed to ex-
free from the bondage of sin in which we were held,                    plain the death of Christ.
obtained eternal and perfect righteousness for us, and                    First of all, there is the so-called  mot-a.4 theory of
merited for us the favor of God. Thus His sacrifice the suffering of Christ. It denies that the death of
is  ,the offering of reconciliation. God was in Christ Christ was a sacrifice for sin in the proper sense of
reconciling us .unto Himself.                                          the word, and, of course, also that He died in our stead.
    .He was able anod! authorized to make this, perfect                Christ's death was no satisfaction of the justice of
sacrifice, and to make it instead of all His own.                      God in respect to sin. According to this theory, the
                                                              For,
as to the first, He is without sin. He had no original true purpose of the death of Christ is to exert. a salu-
sin, for He is the person of the Son of God in human                   tary, reformatory influence upon, the moral condition
nature, so that the guilt of Adam's transgression could                of man. Christ left us a worthy example, when He
not be imputed unto Him ; and He was conceived of                      willingly sacrificed His life for the truth. Or, He re-
the HoIy Spirit, so that His nat.ure  was undefiled!. "For             vealed that God will suffer with us, and that He
such a high priest became us, who is ho.b, harmless,                   entered into all our afflictions and death, in order that
undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than He might be abIe to sympathize with us. But in what-
the heavens." Heb.  7:26.  He is the Lamb without                      ever way this theory may try to explain the real char-
blemish. He was able to become perfectly obedient,                     acter and purpose of the ,death of Christ, it denies that
even unto the death of the. cross. He could offer to it is an offering for sip, ar,d that He died in our stead
God the perfect Yes over against the terrible and                      to satisfy the justice of God; and it in&&s that Christ's
wanton No of sin. And He could lay down His life,                      suffering meant to make a moral impression upon  uti,
that He might take it again, for voluntarily He ha.3                   and to exert an improving influence upon mankind.
assumed human life, and from the Father He had                         To consider the suffering Man of sorrows tends to the
received commandment and authority to lay it down. moral upIift  of men.
And, as to the second, namely, that He was able and                       It is hardly necessary to point  out that this theory
authorized to bring that perfect sacrifice for His own, s,tands  in direct contradiction to the testimony of
we must remember, first of aII, that He represented                    Scripture.
them all in virtue of His eternal anointing. God had                                                                    H. H.
chosen His elect in Him, and He was the head of all
His own. Election is the basis of vicarious atonement.
Without eternal, sovereign  eI,ection,  substitutional
atonement is impossible.          Either Christ represented
His elect on the crossi and died in their stead ; or He                         Our help is in the glorious Name,
represented no one, and His death is in vain. And                                    The Name of matchless worth;
because He is the person of the Son of God that died,                           Of Him to Whom all power belongs,
fk  cc)u!d suffer death  fey  all  Flr$j   qyg  so  aa  tcz satisfy                  The Lord of heaven  and earth.


m-3                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

         The Preaching of the Gospel                          the gospel as the keys of the kingdom to the church.
                                                                  We speak here of keys plural and not of key because
            as Keys of- the Kingdom                           the  BibI,e  does so. The kingdom has but one key; but
                                                              this one key, as all keys, opens and  closes,  unlocks
       The kingdom of heaven has keys. Christ tells us so and locks the kingdom.                  Therefore the Scriptures
in saying to Peter, "I give unto thee the keys of the speak of the ,kev.s of the kingdom of heaven. Whereas
kingdom of heaven. . .  ." Through this speech, He the preaching of the gospel are the keys, I think that
set the  kingdorn--iHis  kingdom-before us under the an answer to the question, "What is the gospel," fits
image of a walled city with a gate that is locked and         logically into the thought-structure of this speech of
unlocke~d,  opened `and shut  - opened to admit the mine. It is necessary to first raise and answer this
friends, the rightful residents, and closed to shut out question if thetreatment of our subject is to be brought
the enemy. In his vision, John sees this same king- to a successful issue.
dom-the holy Jerusalem-ascending out of heaven                    The gospel is glad tiding, according to the Greek
from God with its gates not closed at all, the reason word of which our word gospel is the translation. But
being that there is no necessity, as the earth has been a glad tiding concerning whom anda what? The answer
cleansed from the godless race of men that corrupted is the phrase, occurring over and over in the New
it. But as this cleansing has not yet taken p&e, the Testament Scriptures, "Gospel. of Christ," and the
gates of Christ's kingdom at present `are also closed phrases, "Gospel of peace," and "Gospel of the king-
to shut out this "godless race.                               dom," and "Gospel of God."                The gospel is a glad
  The conclusion to which this brings us is that Christ's tidings of Christ. As the genitive here is objective,
kingdom is a present reality and that the view accord- it means that the gospel sets forth Christ in the re-
ing to which it will not be brought into being until the      Iation which He sustains to the triune Jehovah, to His
second return of Christ is fallacious. "The kingdom people, and to all things, sets forth Christ in all His
is within you," said Christ to His militant church; its       worth, significance and glory in these relations. The
laws are written on the tables of the heart of all its gospel then is the glad tidings concerning the Christ.
citizens so that t.hrough  their good conversation the And this is at once the Bible. The entire Bible as to
kingdom attains visibility also before the eyes of its        its whole content is gospel in that all the  ,Iines of
enemies. This already suggests that Christ's kingdom thought that run through the Scripures  converge in
is a heavenly spiritual entity. Nothing that is  of this Christ. The Bible reveals-the Christ as the Christ of
earth and of sinful flesh belongs to it. It excludes God and the triune God as the God and father of Christ
the carnal see& in the church and all that is of the          and of Christ's people, thus reveals God in the face of
flesh in the believers. As to its origin, it is God's con- Christ as the God of our salvation. The gospel is also
ception and creation and His alone. As to its character the glad tidings of peace and of the kingdom because
it is the kingdom of righteousness-the righteousness it sets forth that peace and that kingdom that God
that God prepared for it through, the atonement of prepared for His people through Christ. The gospel
His Son, its eternal king. Therefore of all the king- is the glad! tidings of God. Here the genitive is pos-
doms that be, it is the only abiding entity. It is the sessive, so that the thought conveyed is that the gospel
only kingdom that comes. And: it comes through all            is  Go,d's.  He conceived of it and realized it. This then
the opposition of wicked men to it. And when Christ is the gospel.
shall appear, it will appear with Him in glory.                  IHowever,  we should be  inore definite and also can.
   It is for this kingdom and its coming, and `for this be by briefly answering the question: Just what does
kingdom only, that God's believing people pray. " Thus the gospel tell us concerning the Christ. The heart
they pray not for the coming of the kingdoms of this of the matter can be set forth  ig the following lan-
earth; for, doing so, they pray against the Scriptures guage.
and thus pray in vain.                                           Christ is the Christ of God by  God:`s eternal ap-
   Boeing  what it is, a heavenly-spiritual entity, this pointment and anointing in time. Thus Christ is very
kingdom as was said, has enemies. To these enemies and true eternal God, the only begotten Son of God,
the kingdom must be closed. To the beiievers it must co-essential and co-eternal with the Father. Through
be opened. Both are done by the preaching of the His atonement He, as the Christ of God, redeemed His
Gospel. Thus the keys of this kingdom are verily people from all their sins, realizes in them the fruits
the preaching  of the gospel. This is the subject  oh        of His cross, and thereby  leaids them, through sin and
which I speak.  I have arranged my material under `suffering and  ,death, to their everlasting  destination-
the following three points. First, how the kingdom them, His  peopIe,  chosen with Him before the founda-
is opened! and closed by the preaching of the gospel ; tion of the world to life everlasting, crucified with him,
second, the necessity of the opening and  cIosing  of the     (Address delivered on t;he occasion of the commencement exe?
kingdom; and finally, the giving of the preaching of
                     .             I  .                      cises   af  pq  Theologic3!  Seminary.)


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                    399
                 . ,.)
 buried with Him, raised with Him and thus also se',               and fellowship of God and of Christ and all the treas-
 with Him in heaven  and blessed with all spiritual                ures of the kingdom and the, privileges of those whom
 blessings approximately 1900 years ago. This is the God calls His sons. But  as. to the unbelievers, the wick-
 gospel, the heart and soul of it. It is a good gospel, a ed, the impenitent, Ithey are shut out from the kingdom
 glad tidings, exceedingly so. For according to this `with all its blessings and treasures-shut out before
 gospel all the elect of the past and the present and              their own consciousness by this same preaching of the
 the future-the sum-total of elect, thus also the elect gospel and thus shut up now an,& everlastingly in outer
 still to be born-are legally in heaven, saved to the              darkness. This is the work, the operation of the gospel
 uttermost in Christ their head by a faith that cannot as preached, as truly preached, rightly preached.
 cease and is thus indestructible because Christ prays                This raises the question, just how is the kingdom
 for them. According to this good gospel, each one of opened and closed by the preaching of the gospel'!
 God's people---thus also each one of those of His people And how is it to be explained: that the gospel, as
 still to be born-is in heaven and occupies his own preached, has this effect?
 place in that great family of redeemed and from that                  If the how of the matter is to be understood, we
 place he shall never be moved. According to this good must *consider first of all that the elect, i.e. the be-
 gospel, all the  wicked even now are in the place of lievers, are justified and that the sins of the wicked are
 eternal desolation. According to this good gospel, the retained.             As to the believers, their justification is
 church is glorified, the new heaven and the new earth             implicit in their being chosen unto life everlasting in
 are here and the tabernacle of God is with men on the Christ and predsstinated unto the adoption of children:
 new earth. Does this sound strange to your ears? implied further in their being  .crucified,  buried, raised
 Don't we understand our own <doctrine of sovereign                and set in heaven with Christ. Being justified and for-
 election? Thus to preach this good gospel is to preach            given, they are as guiltless as they would be had they
 a finished work of Christ, finished in the legal sense. never sinned and as positively righteous as they would
 We therefore would not trade in this gospel for the be had they themselves all their life kept the law of
 pseudo-gospel of the Arminian, according to which the God with all their mind,. heart, will and strength.
 salvation of a man is contingent upon his own capric-             God justified them. IHe did so through His vesting
 ious will and not on the will of God:, according to which them with the satisfaction  and righteousness-with
therefore a true believer-mark you, a true believer-               all the good works-of Christ; and so, in the point of
can plunge back into hell even as standing in the very view of His own personal righteousness, He made it
 shadows of the gates of the kingdom of heaven.                    Iawful for Himself to actually save them from all
    Now this good gospel, as preached,  as rightly their sins. There could be no actual deliverance from
 preached, to be sur.e,  opens the kingdom to believers sin and its consequences were God's people not right-
 i.e. to the elect of God who in time become manifest as           eous in Christ, were they thus guilty and condemnable.
 believers and shuts the kingdom to the unbelievers                For guilt calls for wrath and  .death and everlasting      '
who in time become manifest as unbelievers, persistent desolation.             All the treasures of the kingdom, every
 unbelievers.             And, mark you, it does so before their blessing that God bestdws, are included in the fact of
 own consciousness. For consider that we now have to the justification of God's people. Hence, only the
 do with the preached gospel, with the gospel as preach- believers, the elect of God, such as repent of and for-
 ed to men and in men, their hearts and minds.                     sake their sins, are blessed: and none other, for only
    Now just what  *does it mean that the preached the believers are justified.                   "
gospel opens the kingdom to the believers before their                Now consider further that the written record of the
own consciousness and closes the kingdom to unbeliev- justification of the believers is our Bible, the gospel,
 ers. What does it mean when you open your house the glad tidings. The scriptures, the gospel pronounces
ta your friend? It means that you bid him to come God's people justified, that is, righteous in Christ and
in and to be thoroughly at home in your domestic circle. thus forgiven. And it declares, does the gospel,  the
It means that you render accessible to him all the good           sins of the wicked retained. Just because of this, the
things in this circle, namely your very self, your society gospel, as rightly preached, opens the kingdom to  the
and fellowship and the society and fellowship of your believers and closes it to the unbelievers before their
loved ones. And when you close your home to the own consciousness. The gospel justifies, forgives God's
hurtful person, you forbid him to set his' foot on your people, pronounces them forgiven.
doorstep and thereby shut him out from your fellow-                   The author of our Heidelberg Catechism has a  fine
ship and from the society of your family and from all und:erstanding  of these matters. He puts the question,
the rights and privileges of a beloved friend. So does "What are the keys of the kingdom of heaven?." Ans :
the preaching of the gospel open the kingdom to the "The preaching of the gospel and Christian dicipline
believers, render accessibIe to them before their own or excommunication." Excommunication, rightly con-
consciousness God's throne of grace, the blessed society sidered, is essentially nothing else but the preaching

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

of the gospel. Then this author puts the question,           penitent in the hearts of men, believers and unbelievers
"How is the kingdom of heaven opened and shut by the alike, so that the former know themselves as righteous
preaching of the gospel?" Ans: "When it is declared          in Christ and the latter as men  .with sins retained.
to all and every believer that all their. sins are really Thus it consists-does this work of preaching the
forgiven them of God; and on the contrary, when it is        gospel-in sanctifying the gospel of  .forgiveness  of
declared unto all unbelievers that they stand exposed sins unto the hearts of the believers, in causing this
to the wrath of God and to eternal damnation." The           gospel to dwell richly in them and in speaking  the
thought conveyed is that the gospel as preached opens gospel of the retention of sins in the hearts of the
the kingdom to the believers because it justifies them wicked, so that they actually know themselves as un-
and that this same gospel closes the kingdom to the          forgiven and shut out of the kingdom. Who is equal
unbelievers because it declares unto them that their to this task? The angels in heaven? No, not the
sins are retained. It ought to be plain also just why angels. Not one of them even if that one were GabrieI.
the preached gospel, through its justifying the penitent The apostles, were they still with us in person? NO,
sinner in his heart, opens to him the kingdom, renders not the apostles. Not one of them even if that  on?
that kingdom with all its treasures accessible to him were Paul. There is but One who can speak this gospel
before his own consciousness. If a man knows that of the forgiveness of sins in the heart of the believers.
his sins are forgiven, that thus he is righteous beforz      but One who can tell them that they are justified  an:1
God in Christ, he knows at once that he is God's son         saved, tell them so that they believe and are assured,
and thus God's heir and a joint heir with Christ and         and that One is Christ. 1He tells His people, speaks
that therefore the kingdom with all its treasures and the gospel of forgiveness of sin in their hearts, and
blessings are rightfully his in Christ. For those whom certainly in their hearts alone and not in the hearts
God justified, them He also glorified. How needful           of the wicked, the impenitent.        The gospel of the
this knowledge of their justification is to the believers forgiveness of sin is a gospel only for the penitent and
is apparent. Consider that the believer, in himself not for the wicked. The latter can derive not an atom
guilty and condemnable and vile and worthy of, hell,         of comfort from it. The human bearer of the gospel,
does something amazing. He calls God, that great             in his carnality and for the sake of his bread and
and terrible  Go3, Father. And he appears before butter, may justify in his perverted preaching the
the face of that  terrible  God and petitions Him for carnal seed in the church, may tell this seed that they
grace and life and forgiveness, and for His fellow- go to heaven even though they forsake not their sins,
ship in Christ, yea, he petitions Him for all things,        yet this seed is still ill at ease in Zion and this because
for heaven and earth for the kingdom and ail its             Christ does not speak.      Yea, he does speak in the
treasures.     How does he have the courage? He. has         hearts of this .evil seed- speaks the gospel of the re-
the courage because he knows himself justified; knows tention of sins.           But the believers, as assured by
therefore that being justified, all things are His.          Christ, knew themselves as the justified one. Justified
       So, too, it is plain why the preached gospel, through is their new name ; and this their name, they find in
its retaining the sins of the wicked in their own minds the scriptures. Looking into the scriptures, they see
and hearts, closes to them the kingdom before their themselves in heaven, set there with Christ. And they
own consciousness. If a man knows in his heart that have peace and joy for they know that their salvation
his sins are not forgiven, that God sets his sins before is near.
His face, he, that wicked one, concludes at once that the       It is plain then that the preached gospel that opens
kingdom and its blessings and treasures are not his          and closes the  ki,ngdom  through its justifying the
and that in God's house there is for him no place. It believers and retaining the sins of the impenitent is
is God's will that the unbelieving have knowledge of the gospel as preached by Christ. The church how-
this. For the unbelieving are the wicked who do not          ever has received from Christ the mandate-the right
repent, who cannot will. to repent.        They are the and duty-to proclaim, bear the gospel of God through
wicked who hate God  and despise His Christ. God             which He, Christ, preaches. Said Christ to Peter and
cannot, without denying Himself, look on, while the. to all His apostles and to the church of all ages, "I will
`wicked hate Him, without telling them in their hearts, give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:
through His preached gospel, that He judges them in          and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound
this life and will judge them in the life to come.           in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth,
       As all these statements strongly suggest, the true shall be loosed in heaven," or, John  20:23, "Whose
preacher of the gospel is. Christ and none  .other than soever  sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and
He. This is plain from a consideration wherein the whose  soever  sins ye retain, they are retained." This,
work of preaching the gospel consists. It consists in in other words, is what Christ said, "I will give unto
speaking God's gospel-the gospel that justifies sin- you the keys of the kingdom of heaven," i.e. `I will
ners who truly repent and retains the sins of the im- give unto you my gospel and the authority to proclaim


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          401

  it. Proclaim then this gospel of the forgiveness and        SO that they will know themselves forgiven." "And
  the retention of sins. Publish unto my people that tell the wicked that., according to God's gospel, their
  their sins are forgiven them and unto the wicked that sins are retained; and I assure you that I will put this
  their sins are retained. And knew for certain that, message in the hearts of the wicked and thereby shut
  through your proclamation of God's gospel, I justify them out from the kingdom and so prepare them for
  my people in their hearts before the bar of their con-      the doom to which they have been appointed,." It has
  science and retain the sins of the wicked likewise in been said that the servants of Christ cannot preach
  their hearts before the bar of their conscience.' Cer- the gospel of forgiveness of sin to the penitent, the
  tainly, the church forgives sins but only in the sense elect of God, because, not being able to judge the
  that she proclaims the gospel of forgiveness through heart, they do not know who the penitent and the im-
  which Christ forgives.                                      penitent are. This is true. The servants of Christ
      It is thus the calling of the church, through its cannot judge the heart. But Christ can. He knows
  ministry, to publish God's gospel, the gospel through who His people are; and this is sufficient, as He is the
  which Christ accomplishes His work, His great, glori- true preacher of the gospel. These faultfinders should
  ous and terrible work.     As was said, the work of realize that their criticism strikes at the very scrip-
  Christ consist in His gathering His sheep, His elect, tures and at their own Heidelberg Catechism. Cer-
  further in His opening to them the kingdom through tainly the servants of Christ, being mere men, do not
  His justifying them in their hearts by their living know the heart. An therefore t.hey  publish to every
  faith in God's gospel, thus by their faith in Him and man, not that God forgives them, but that He pardons
  in His God,-the faith that God gives them. Thus it          and saves whosoever believeth, namely, His people,
  consists, does this work of Christ, in His sanctifying the penitent ones, and that He retains the sins of the
  His people wholly-spirit, soul and body,-in order `wicked.
  that they may be preserved blameless unto His coming.           But certainly, there are other requirements. The
  It consists does this work of Christ, in shutting the full truth of the salvation of God's people must be told
  kingdom to the carnal seed in the church and thus pre- and  expl,ained,  that faith is of God and that faith
  paring them for the doom to which they have  beeu           is the  fruitage  of the working of His mighty love
  appointed.                                                  and that its source is His sovereign election and further
     Now if Christ performs His work, through the that God sovereignly hardens whom He will through
  gospel, as preached by His church, it follows that the His gospel. Further, sin must be exposed and de
  church must make it her aim to preach God's gospel          nounced,  sin as to all the forms which it assumes in
  purely and fully, and thus must certainly refrain from the present time and as it riots in the carnal seed of
  adultering an.d corrupting God's gospel, from obscur- the church and in the flesh of the believers. And this
  ing it, from mixing it with human philosophy, with the preaching must be directed to every man and every
  lies of the devil. The church, in a word, must preach man must be told that he must repent and that re-
  God's gospel and not the wisdom of man. All that is penting and believing, he is forgiven and saved, and.
a of man, of sinful flesh. in the proclamation of God's that persisting in his unbelief, he is damned.
  gospel by the church, is so much useless material, use-         In the light ,of these observations, it ought to be
  less to Christ for the accomplishment of His work. plain that the task of handling the keys of the kingdom
  Examples of such useless materials is the heresy ac- is a difficult one. It is a task from which sinful flesh
  cording to which God well-meaningly offers His sal- must needs recoil. For to handle these keys, to truly
  vation, the forgiveness of sins and life eternal, to al!    preach God% gospel, is to tell men the full truth about
 men and the heresy that, in consequence thereof, the God who is God, about God as reveaIed  in the face of
  salvation of man is contingent on man's own capricious Christ. To preach God's gospel is to preach a gospel
  will instead of on the unchangeable will of God. "I through which Christ shuts out of the kingdom the
 give unto you the keys of the kingdom," said Christ wicked, the carnal seed. And that seed is the preach-
 to His church. "Whose soever  sins ye remit are re- er's own brethren according to the flesh. It may even
 mitted unto them; and whose  soever  sins ye retain are include his own children. To truly preach the gospel
 retained." What now is the mandate implicit in this          is to expose sin. Therefore the preacher who truly
 declaration? Not this certainly, "Offer the forgive- preaches God's gospel cannot avoid stepping on the
 ness of sins unto all men indiscriminately and tell them toes of men. And he will be hated for it. But he may
 that if they choose to receive this divine pardon, I and     console himself with the thought that it is better for
 my Father will forgive them? Not this certainly but          him to step on the toes of unspiritual men than to
 this, "Preach to my people the gospel to the effect that step on God's toes through his obscuring and adulter-
their sins are pardoned, that my God and their God ating God's gospel. Doing the latter he will loose his
 forgive  them,  the penitent ones, and I assure you,         life, though for the present he may be saving it. Christ,
 `my servants, that I will put this gospel in their hearts    while He walked among men, truly preached God's

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

  gospel and see what befell Him. Paul truly preached
  `the gospel and see what befell him; and see what befell                             Uit Dien Dsom
  all the. prophets.
      It requires a great love to truly preach  God'3                                 (Psalm 73; Tweede  Deel)
  gospel, a love so great that the servant of Christ has
  great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart                       De vorige  maal  hebbeil  we gezien hoe Asaf in
  for his kinsmen, his unbelieving and impenitent breth- groote moeite gekomen was in zijn harteleven.  Hi-j
  ren according to the flesh, to whom Christ shuts the ha,& de goddeloozen gadegeslagen. Dat wil zeggen, de
  kingdom. Paul knew this sorrow. It shows that he                    rijBe goddeloozen van zijn tijd. En hij had hun deed en
 `was a true Christian. For those kinsmen over who-m                  leven vergeleken bij het deel der godvruchtigen. En bij
  he grieved were always on his track. Like dogs they die vergelijking was hij  aan `t  weenelz  gegaan. `t Was
 were houding him to the death on account of his                      dan ook vreeselijk. De goddelooze rijken ging alles
  gospel. Had he not grieved over these kinsmen, had                  we1 : er waren  geen banden  tot hunnen dood toe en hua
  the thought that God was shutting them out of His                   kracht  was frisch  elken morgen. En zij gebruikten
  kingdom filled his soul with a carnal glee, he would                hun kracht om  te vreten en te zwelgen, te  onderdruk-
  have been committing murder in the pulpit and he ken en te spotten, te blazen en te woeden. Doch Gods
 himself would have been reprobated.                                  volk leed. Hun straf of kastijding was er elken Mar-
     Who then is equal to the task of handling the keys gen. Hun deel was tranen en smart.
 of the kingdom? Nobody. But God calls His servants                      Hij had eindelijk gevraagd, bevende, Zou God het
 and those whom He calls He also qualifies.                           eigenlijk  .wel  weten?    Misschien heb ik tevergeefs
     But preaching God's gospel is certainly a task as mijn hart gezuiverd eil mijne handen in onschuld ge-
 glorious as it is terrible and impossible. For through wasschen. Wat voordeel heb ik wanneer ik mijzelven
 God's gospel as truly preached Christ accomplishes all kruisig en tracht om God te dienen? Zij doen het niet
 His work. He gathers His church and shuts the king- en hebben rust in de wereld. Zij vermenigvuldigen
 dom to the wicked. And through His realizing the hun vermogen. Wat er over is laten zij na  aan hunne
 promise, the prophecy, in that gospel, He does a great kinderen. Dus het liep over lange jaren. Neen, God
 work: He destroys the  ,work  of the devil  and' all weet het niet.
 violence which exalts itself against him till the full                  Tech wilde hij niet  alzoo spreken. Asaf was een
 perfection of His kingdom takes place wherein God leider in Israel. En terwijl  hij zoo leed en vroeg heeft
 shall be all in all. It means that. the gospel of God as hij  tech niets uitgelaten.  ,Hij gevoelde dat  zulks
 truly preached by God's servants under the impulse of                trouweloos zou zijn. Als Asaf die beschouwing van
love is the faith-the faith of the church-that  over-                 de wereld aan Gods volk verteld zou hebben, dan zou
 cometh the world.                                                    hij  velen. hebben  ,doen struikelen.  `En dat  Wilde  hij
                                                       G. M. 0.       niet.Maar, hij wilde het verstaan. En dat ging niet.
                                                                      `t Ging hem als met de Emmausgangers veel later:
                              -                                       hij vond geen plaats voor het lijden en het kruis.
                                                                         En het  einde  was  -moeite,  moeite, des avonds en
                                                                      des morgens.
                         IN, MEMORIAM                                    Totdat hij inging in Gods heiligdommen.
                                                                         En daar ligt het keerpunt.
    The Consistory of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed                Wat zijn Gods heiligdommen?
 Church hereby wishes to express its  sincere sympathy to  one           Gods heiligdom is de plaats waar God woont op
 of its members,  Mr.  Henry A.  Schut,  in the death of his          aarde.
 youngest child,                                                         Ge zult dan tot mij zeggen: maar hoe heb ik het
                         JOAN SCHUT                                   nu  ? Woont God niet  overal?  Is er  we1  6%  plekje
                                                                      in den hemel,  op de aarde of in de he1 waar God niet
 who the Lord took unto Himself at the tender age of 8                woo&? ,God is tech de alomtegenwoordige?
 years.                                                                  En dan is het antwoord van God zelf: Neen,  Ik
    May  the ever faithful covenant God, Who doeth all things         woon niet  overal.  Ik woon alleen waar Ik Mij thuis
 well, comfort the bereaved family with His Holy Spirit,. and         ,gevoel. Go& heiligdom is God's tehuis. God  is  we1
 give grace to abide in His will.                                     overal,  doch Hij  woo% niet  overal.  Waar God woont
                                                                      daar openbaart Hij  Zich in al Zijn deugdenbeeld. Daar
                                   Consistory of Hudsonville,         laat Hij  Zich zien in al Zijn liefde en genade. Waar
                                         Rev. Bernard Kok, Pres.      God woont daar omhelst Hij de aarde en den mensch.
                                         Mr.  `I'. Miedema, Clerk.
                        .-                                            Deze laatste zin is een uitdrukking van Zijn verbond.


                                    T H E   " S T A N D A R D   - B E A R E R                                  406

     Excommunication of Baptized                            is appealing, did not receive wider recognition. Upon
                                                            further reflection they could see several reasons why
                    Members?                                such a position of Voetius was accepted above that of
                                                            John  a Lasco. Two main reasons given are:  1. That
     This subject as we wrote in our last article is put    in the. growth in number in the Reformed Churches
 in question form because there is no unanimity of there wasat the same time a loss of spirituality, which
 action and conception about this matter in Reformed made it difficult for+ the church to maintain the old
j IChurches. It concerns the important question of disci- firm position, 2. The position of the Reformation to
 pline of adults who were baptized but who refuse to admit those of twelve to fourteen years of age to the
 make a confession of faith and partake of the Lord's       table of the Lord was no longer followed. As the age
 Supper, and also such adults who have committed sins of the years of discretion was changed so it also bc-
 Eor which members of the Church of Jesus Christ are came evident that the reasons for not coming to the
 disciplined.                                               table of the `Lord were not only ignorance and mis-
     I also gave in my last article a brief sketch of some conduct but other serious objections such  as'lack of
 of the actions and opinions of Reformed leaders from confidence and assurance. And ther.efore  the church
 the sixteenth century, up to the recent discussion in      could not exclude such from its communion.
 the Netherlands at the interrupted Synod of 1939.             However, a very good. observation made in this
     Since writing the last article I have borrowed report ought to be kept in mind in our consideration
 Rutger's Kerkdijke  Adviesen, which contains the re- of this question of excommunication of so-called bap-
 port of Bavinck and Rutgers on this question which tied members. The report makes the point that there
 they gave to the Synod of Middelburg in 1898.' This        is no principle difference. It shows that the position
 report states very clearly the difference of opinion. which says excommunication does so upon the prin-
 In the main there are two positions.                       ciple that baptized members who because of their own
    The one position is that which was originally the guilt do not come to confession ought to be formahy
 position of John B Lasco in the Old Netherland Church      declared not to be members of the Church. The other
 in London. The other position is that taken by Gijs-       position which says "not to formally excommunicate",
 bertus  Voetius and followed generally by Reformed does so on the principle that they are not at all mem-
 Churches.                                                  bers even. EssentiaIly therefore the position is the
    It was the practice of John  B Lasco to urge the same.
 children, (of believing parents) twelve and fourteen          The problem is to make a clear statement of advice
 years of age, to partake of the Lord's Supper. And for the ,Church  to fohow  in its practice. Bavinck and
 if at the age of fifteen yet one was refused permission Rutgers'attempted to do that. They attempted to keep
 to come to the Lord's table because of ignorance or the good points of both positions. They condemned
 misconduct such a one was seriously admonished: Fin- the practice of some congregations which gave a
 ally if such admonition or censure was to no avail when church position to adult baptized members, for example,
 such a person reached the age of eighteen or at the to allow them to remain undisturbed in their church
 most twenty, they were  excluded and no longer con- membership, or even to give them attestation of mem-
 sidered to belong to the communion to which they be- bership by baptism when they left for other churches,
 longed as children, and were formally excommuni- or other such rights in the church. They gave a three
 cated.                                                     point advise, which is as follows: 1. Baptized children
    On the other hand there was the position of Voetius. are members of the Church even though they are in-
 Voetius considered baptized children to be members of complete members. And as members of the Church
the Church of Jesus Christ. These children who had they are objects of discipline but this must also be
not yet come to years of discretion he called incom- "incomplete" consisting only of admonition.
plete members of the Church.                                   2. Such baptized members #coming  to years of dis-
    His position accordingly is that these can only cretion and still not making confession must be ser-
be treated as incomplete members also. But -with iously admonished by the ,Church.                If they through
respect to the adults who refuse to make a confession their own guilt ldo not come to' confession and heed
and become united with the communion of the Church,         the admonition,  ,it must be considered that they have
Voetius  zdenies  that they can be excommunicated. The lost their membership, and it is desirable that the
argument is that they are not members and therefore consistory express this not later t.han their thirtieth
cannot be treated under Church discipline.                  year. These baptized members thus cease to be mem-
    In the main, it is pointed out by Bavinck and Rut- bers of the church and thus are not obj.ects of church
gers, this is the position of the Netherlands Reformed discipline either.
Churches. They remark, however, that it was strange            3. That these are not members of church means
that the simple, clear statement of John a Lasco, which that they are not to be considered such either from any

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

 aspect. Their ,chibdren  are also not to be considered           The above conclusions are not at all  ,different  from
 "children of believing parents".                             the  ,well-known  Reformed teachings. However, com-
     From this advice af Bavinck and Rutgers it is            ing to the question of what this- final action of disci-
 plain What their istand is in regard to the principle        pline should be, whether it should be merely erasure,
 of the matter and the action to `be taken with such          "royeeren", or excommunication, my conclusion is that
 so-called adult baptized .members.      Tine only thing we should  `use the word excommunication in order to
 that is not clear is whether they  favol:  the more          avoid misunderstanding as to the seriqus principle
 formal excommunication by the church or the mere and action involved.
 announcement that N.N is no longer a member.                     I am aware of the fact that the brothers Bavinck'
     In our church the custom has been to treat all and Rutgers do not become explicit about this in their
 such cases of discipline of  so-called1 adult baptized       report, although Rutgers himself at another time said
members by having the consistory seek the advice of not to excommunicate. I am aware too that the dif-
 Classis and upon approval of  *Classis  to announce that ferent Synods of the Netherlands with the exception
 such a member  :las been erased.                             of the last inerrupted Synod of 1939 either did not
    My conclusions in regard to these matters are 89 care to make an explicit statement or advised against
 follows :                                                    excommunication.
     1. It seems that everyone would agree that each              But I believe this liesitancy  is due not to a lack of
 consistory and pastor should very seriously begin to         insight  int.0 the principle of the  niatter  but to lack
 labor with its young people to show them their calling of courage of decision.
to confess their faith and to come to the table of the            The Churches of the Netherlands do not care to  USC
Lord.                                                         the term erasure. But our  ,Churches  in America from
     2. In the second place it seems to me that with their decision in the Christian Reformed Synod of 1918
regard to those who do not do so each consistory should expressed themselves further than the Churches of the
consider the circumstances  and attitude of each indi- Netherlands by committing themselves to definite  ,disci-
vidual separately. An age limit cannot be set for all plinary action of such members. They, however, only
upon which labor should cease, and final action taken. came to the conclusion, final <erasure.
Although the age limit set by Bavinck and Rutgers  `Is            Because of the principle involved, that baptized
not without value. Such an age limit will become much children are in the covenant, that is in the communion
clearer and mor,e defined in a church where faithful,         and fellowship of Jesus Christ, therefore I ,believe they
systematic, and serious labor is expended.                    should be treated in cases of discipline in the usual
    3. It also is my conclusion that where there is in-       way,  excommunication. That is the idea of the Re-
difference, or enmity shown that in such c&es final formation expressed in the action of John  d  Lasco.
action must be taken immediately.  By  that I mean            That is the principle recognized in all Reformed
.disciplin,e  must be exercised and seriously and system-     Churches.     That is how some leaders, for  exampIe
atically executed. This is evidently necessary in th?         J. Jansen  .in 1922 have expressed themselves. The
case of public sin. It is altogether a wrong notion that term erasure it seems to me is contradictory to the
with such young people, from the ages of eighteen and         disciplinary action itself to which our Churches are
above who show definite hostility to the Church of committed. That finally is in harmony with the teach-
Christ or even indifference that an attitude of watch- ing and action shown in the Bible.                        Compare the
ful waiting should be taken with them, with the hope words of God to Moses and the actions taken in Deut.
that sometime in the indefinite future they may be            13 r6, 11; Lev. 24 :lO ff.                           L. D.
converted. The correct view of discipline wil,l refute
such a conception. True discipline seeks to bring the
command to repent seriously and effectively to such
young folk.     Such action would  .be sanctifying for
other young folk, for the entire church, and for those                               IN MEMORIAM
disciplined themselves if they were truly covenant               It pleased our heavenly Father to take out of our midst1
seed. I thing it is an Arminian influence that gives          and unto Himself our beloved husband and father,
rise to the conception that the Church should be
lenient and allow young folk plenty of time to deci,de.                       PETER VANDER GUGTEN
The Arminian influence is that it presents the matter May 25,`1944,  at the age of 55 years.
`in such a way that it is up to the individual to "accept"       We are abundantly comforted in the knowledge that his
Christ at his own time. It is a serious calling which         declining days were filled with strong hope and  peace, through
must be heeded in the acceptable time of the Lord,            the grace of our God Who doeth all things well.
and the refusal to heed such must also therefore be                                    Mrs. P. Vander Gugten--.Toldersma
looked upon as a serious sin.                                                          Miss Gertrude Janet.


                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEA.RER                                                407

     The Employment of Mothers                               A women on the grave-yard shift drives her car cJose
                                                             to the windows of her, place of employment and her
              in War Industries                              four children sleep in the  ,automobile.  Others are
                                                             chained to a tree or a trailer camp while the parents
    Long range guns which can shoot twenty years are at work.                   Such cases, our papers say, can be
into the future are now firing on the United States multiplied by the thousands. Some mothers turn them
in a war potentially as destructive as that being fought;    over to day nurseries, others have maids, still others
around the world today. No section of the country            have grandmothers willing to care for them, and in
is out of their range. We refer to the employment            some homes father is home with them one half of the
of mothers in War Industries and consider the children       day when he is not employed and mother the other
the victims of this prevalent destructive power. In half when she is home. Most of these naturally realize
the comparative quiet Mid-West this is no problem,           that these means are very inadequate, but the cause
but it is a very real one in many Industrial Centers.        of our country must not suffer. They are quite de-
This, however, does not necessarily exclude all those        termined and  wilaing  to sacrifice all for the latter.
not living in such'cities because principly this subject Therefore they are making all kinds of attempts to
includes all mothers engaged in work other than that solve this problem.
of the home. It incI,udes all those not found in their           Many arguments have been given, pro and con.
homes, be they part or almost full time farmers (such Those defending the employment of mothers forward
being the case with many in agricultural districts)          the  ,following  arguments. Mothers  ,are needed in
or be they found busy with some work other than the          industry, if it is to fulfill its vital part in the  way
home. Some mothers seem to have a delight in doing effort.                Our country, they say, is facing a crucial
most anything except filling their place in the home.        shortage of labor, and about the only resources we have
    The war, however, has increased this tremendously, are the able and willing mothers.. Besides as a practi-
making drastic inroads into millions of American cal matter the  empl,oyment  of mothers is entirely
homes. Due to a patriotic spirit (though they be few         feasible.     The individual community normally can
ia number) or financial needs or that almost indomit- provide whatever child-care facilities are needed and
able desire for more money and higher standards of           the economical support obtained by it is very desirable.
living many mothers have left their homes and the            Such employment will even help to  reduce  the per-
sacred heritage of their children to work in war             centage of juvenile  delin,quency.     Those  _ opposing it
industries. A few statistics will suffice to show how        advance these arguments: There is no need for  ct
great this number has become. In 1943 from 17 to 20 general policy of employing mothers. They say in th?
million women were employed in this country of which first place that we are not fully and efficiently using the
several million were mothers.      As can be expected        services of those already engaged in War Industries
today this number is even larger. But it is also             as a source of workers. Moreover, we have not yet
natural that this change has caused untold alterations fully employed women other than mothers. They also
in the American homes, including many problems and advocate that women with children, as a group, make
evils. The foremost question which faces them seems the least dependable source of workers. Finally, such
to be that of their children. What must they do with is bound to mean inadequate care for their children,
them? Their chil'dren,  given of the Lord, are no long-      even if adequate care could be provided. The result
er an asset but a liability and a burden. Where there of such improper care we see before our owln eyes in
are no children the question of the advisability and         the increased juvenile delinquency.
right of wives being employed doesn't even seem to              We could give many more of their arguments, but
arise. Broken homes, one often working on a night            the above will suffice to show us how the people at
.shift  and the other on a day shift, doesn't even seem      large view these things from a purely natural view-
to phase them. But those having children are con-            point. We naturally agree with the latter. This, to
fronted with a problem. IHence  the world has found my mind, must become evident from the pure utilitar-
"reason" to practice birth-control and have few or no        ian viewpoint. The resulting evils and deficiencies of
children.                                                    the employment 02 mothers of which we read in almost
   But this matter of the children of these employed         every paper is most natural. It would be a wonder
mothers has become such a great problem that even the        if there were Ino increase in juvenile delinquency. The
world sees it and apparently has no real solution. And children of teen-age need mother's care just as much
when the world* sees problems of this nature the evil        as the younger ones. Think of all the sex immorality
is quite well advanced and the results appalling. The and corruption found among this group. Take mother
most extreme cases are almost unbelievable. Let me out of the home and you undermine the `basis of all
narrate a few. A twelve-year-old child is locked out society, state and government. Nevertheless millions
of the house all day while her parents are at work. are seeking the solution to their problems 3n having

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

others care for their children. By trying to suppress           government needs help? By no means. They are
one evil across the ocean they cause many more to most patriotic when they take their place in the home.
arise in their own homes.                                       Taking  the future  into consideration, as we  always
       However, to all this we as Christians must add           should do, they really do much less for their children
another objection which really is the most important            both as image-bearers and citizens of their country
of all. Mother has only one place and that is in the            when in the factory than in the home. The  above-
home. God has placed her there. The covenant mother ,mentioned  arguments, which can be proven with statis-
has received children of the Lord and she with  her tics,  aIso show that there really is no need of mothers
husband is called upon to instruct them in the way of           being employed in War Industries. .And even if tha+
the Lord  and the "aforesaid doctrine". Even many need would be there, mother cannot and may not be
in the world realize that the home and tlie parental            taken from her children and home.
instruction is of fundamental importance. And they                  In conclusion we can give a few remarks. With
view the child only from the viewpoint of the body              the several million mothers employed in  factor&  we
and this life. The child must be taught good morals,            see another sign of the times. In the midst of all
behaviour and  condsuct and must become a respectable the abnormalities of our day the home has and is be-
citizen and a worthwhile contribution to society. True coming another addition to the list. But let us beware!
as this all may be, they "forget" all about the precious Now more than ever do we need Christian mothers in
souls of their children. They fail to see the Divine            the home. Through the means given us of God, namely
calling in respect to those little image-bearers of God.        the Word, they. with their husbands are laying the
In connection with this we can also add that many s             foundation of the future course. With a Christian
"Christian" mother fails to see this; or at least fails to      home we can expect Christian children in a christiax
live and act accordingly. Many a mother in our own church with a Christian school.
homes is so busy with the  physica needs of her child-                                                          J. B.
ren that she fails to  provi,de  for the spiritual.     She
finds time, no, makes time to provide for the body, for
clothes and food, but just doesn't seem to be able to
find time  t,o instruct and  t,each her  owjn dear offspring
the precious things of God. But this we do find with a
christian   mother.    This is her solemn duty. With
baptism she with her husband has made that pledge                                  Kerknieuws
to God. True it is that the father is first of all re-
sponsible for these things in respect to his children,          Het schijnt we1 of de oorlog de menschen meer ems-
but the mother too has a very important calling in              tiger  do& leven ; tenminste wanneer men ook, hier en
respect to this matter. She is with her children mos:           daar, van ginds en elders berichten hoort, dat ook de
of the time, while father often and usually is absent           werel,d meer biddende wordt, zou men bijna tot de
during the <day. What a wholesome influence she can             conclusie  komen dat  ze nog niet zoo slecht is, `t is
exert by' Christian teachings, examples and morals ! omdat de Schrift  aiet wordt geloofd, die zegt dat het
This a Christian mother does too. Her main interest tegenovergestelde de waarheid is. Men sIuit dan ook
is her home, her children. She doesn't want to be in moedwillig  de oogen voor de werkelijkheid. i
every place and do most everything except the things               Ook het goddelooze  Rusland dat zich in bet verleden
God has called her to do. If she #doesn't  have this de- er op beroemde met God te hebben afgerekend, schijnt
sire she isn't worthy of the name of a Christian mother. nu tech weer een god te willen omhelzen. De kerk di?
Scripture teaches very plainly that father and mother           er eertijds werd vervolgd mag nu weer een beetje
are the first ones called upon to instruct their children       ruimer  adem   halen; en  w&t christen verheugt  zich
and not the church or the school, much less a certain           niet  i,n deze  dingen?  Tk heb er  echter niet van  ge-
nursery or maid. Neither can anyone replace mother, hoord dat Stalin hartgrondig is veranderd. De Rus-
not even with the best of care. There is no one in the sisehe beer is dunkt me niet  .te  vertrouwen.                    `t  Is
whole world who can replace mother's care, love and             niet meer als een poIitieke  streek, en hij zal achter  de
patience.    It, moreover, is her God-given duty to be          oorlog met Stalin  aan `t hoofd  we1 weer zijn venijn
in the home and in no other place. Our children are uitspuwen tegen de Kerke Gods.
not little animals, for whom most everybody can pro-               Ook `Amerika  beroemt zich er op ,dat het zeer gods-
vide, but they are precious souls of God given to that          dienstig is, en er wordrt veel - gedaan om een beetje
particular father and mother.        These children they godsdienstig te blijven. We vechten tech ook voor de
must instruct. Take this important cog out and the              vier vrijheden, en een van deze is vrijheid van gods-
evil and detrimental results are inevitable.                    dienst. De geestelijke arbeid onder de soldeten laat
   Are Christian  mothers then unpatriotic when the             in het geheel genomen veel tot wenschen over. In het

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

Bearer verschijnen over het voor en tegen van onze
eigen scholen. Wet wordt  m.i. langzamerhand  goed            God's- Counsel and Human ?Freedom
duidelij,k  door  dit schrijven dat bij ons  allen  er een
groote  verantwoordelijkheid bestaat om. mede werk-              Our first task is to define terms. In  :the abstract,
zaam te zijn  aan dit voortreffelijk werk, dat zeker we can speak of three kinds of human freedom, to wit,
Gods goedkeuring zal wegdragen. Dit kan natuurlijk moral freedem,  metaphisical  freedom and psychological
niet worden gezegd wanneer men d.e `.kinderen onder- freedom. MoraI  freedom is to be defined as the ability
wijs doet ontvangen in de  publieke  school; en hoe           of man-the natural man dead in his trespases and
christen ouders dit soms nog kunnen goed praten is sins-to do the right and (or) the wrong as he chooses.
onbegrijpelijk. Zij verstaan zeker niet de  verant-           Metaphysical freedom has reference to the counsel
woordelijkheid.                                               and providence of God. Here the question is whether
   Hier in Amerika wordt van  verantwoordelijkheid            God's counsel is the determining necessity of man's
tech  niet veel meer verstaan. Dat komt maar al te deeds (works, words and thoughts) and thus whether
dikwijls uit in de menschelijke samenleving. Terwijl these deeds proceed from the store of God's sovereign
de oorlog bij de dag ,verschrikkelijker  wordt en meer providence. To maintain the affirmative is to hold that
en meer  slachtoffers  vraagt kondigen de  (X.0. en man, God's rational creature, is metaphysically bound.
A.F.L. maar doodeenvoudig hunne "strikes" aan, en To answer in the negative is to hold that man is free.
men trapt  alle  rechrt met  voeten en men laat alles         Psychological freedom raises the question whether
draaien om de dollar, ook ten koste van eigen  vleesch man is the subject of his own actions and can act in
en bloed die  moeten  vechten in de vreemde voor eigen agreement with his nature and thus whether his works
Vaderland. En als aanstonds de bange ure van "in-             are the free and unhampered expression of his true
vasion" nadert en dit wordt werkelij;kheid,  dan maar inner self. To say that they are, is to maintain that
bidden voor de overwinning, waarvoor men nu klaar-. man is psychologically free. To maintain that they are
blijkelijk geen gevoel heeft. De kerk die de oogen sluit not, is to hold that man is psychologically bound. Now
voor dit "Union Monster" gaat niet vrij uit, en de the position which I occupy in this essay is the follow-
christen die lid is van zoo'n union mag ook we1 eens          ing. Man, is morally bound, i.e. being, as he is, by
eventjes  stil staan  op pad en weg en gehoor geven aan       nature dead in sin, he can only will to do evil; he
9, woord der Schrift  als het komt met de vermaning:          cannot will to do, think or desire the truly good. IP-
Komt uit van haar mijn volk en heb aan hunne werken it were otherwise, man would not be spiritually, ethic-
geen deel.                                                    ally dead. One of the certain implications of the theory.
   Ge hebt zeker  we1 in Concordia gelezen  dat Ds. R.        of common grace is, that man is morally-spiritually
Veldman van d!e 1st Church werd beroepen in de 4th            free. He can will to do also the truly good. For,
Church om onder hen het brood des levens te  breken.          according to this theory, there resides in this man,
Men heeft er aldaar aardig wat moed toe. Zooals het devoid of the life of regeneration, a principle of true
meestal gaat met beroepen, is di,t ook nu het geval:          goodness, from which his good deeds proceed, must
Er worden  vele gissingen gemaakt. Ret voor en tegen procee,d,  if they are truly good-good in the spiritual-
wordt van beide gemeenten overwogen. De eene ge-              ethical sense: And as this principle of true goodness
meente wil gaarne houden wat ze heeft, en de andere in depraved man, must certainly be a part and parcel
wil gaarne hebben wat ze ni"et bezit. +t Is echter ook of him, fundamentally and radically changing his nat-
in dezen: de mensch wikt, maar God beschikt. Ik               ure, the theory of common grace is a negation of the
hoorde  oak iemand zeggen, eerst gaf Fuller Ave.              doctrine of the total depravity of man. If the exponents
$15,000  aan deze gemeente, en nu ze dit hebben of common grace reject these conclusions-conclusions
probeeren ze ook nog om onze Ds. zien tekrijgen. I-Iet        that .logically  follow from their premises,--they find
werd eenigzins verwijtend gezegd.                             themselves shut up in their thinking in an unscriptural
   Nu is dit natuurlijk  foutief gezegd. De vierde and thus impossible psychology.
)gemeen,te  heeft natuurlijk  bet volste  recht om een           The position which I take in this essay is further
Ds. te beroepen en is zeker vrij in hare Beuze. `s Heeren     that man is metphysically bound. By this  I mean that,
aangezicht wordt in dezen  gezocht door beide  ge-            as an ethical-rational creature, he in all his. works,
meenten.      Er wordt gevraagd om licht en" wijsheid.        is the product of GodTs counsel, which is sovereign and
En zoo indien weg ontvangen beide gemeenten waft hen that he comes forth out of the womb of a sovereign
van Gods wege toekomt. Het menschelijke moet dan              providence, yet not so that God is the author of sin.
ook nooit op de voorgrond. Waarschijnlijk is het al           Our position is, that God determinately wills sin, is
beslist als .de Junie 15 Standard Bearer verschijnt. thus the determining necessity of sin without being
De Concordia zal ons er  we1  i&s van mededeelen. Daar its author. Sin, as a historical phenomenon, origin-
rekenen  we dan maar op.                                      ated not in God but in man. Another certain  implica-
                                            Sf  B.  V!        ition   of  the theory of common grace  is that man is


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         411

metaphysically free, for it-this theory-holds to  :t          trary to what he would like to be doing.         Hence,
well-meaning offer of salvation to all men-an offer though psychologically free-he chooses to obey  hia
that is well-meaning on the part of God.                      parent-he would rather go fishing. Fact is then
   Finally, my position is that man, though morally           that man is hemmed in on every side, restricted to and
an,d metaphysically bound, is, in his moral and meta- directed in, a definite course of life by Circumstances,
physical bondage, psychologically free. And by this the setting of his life, which has largely been deter-
I mean, as has already become plain, that, in his mined for him. There is then also such a thing as the
moral and metaphysical bondage, man remains  the bondage of circumstances. But the point is that also
willing and desiring subject of his deeds, his deeds are in this bondage, man is still psychologically free. Be-
truly the man, the index to his character and nature.         cause what he does, he chooses, wills to do. Some one
that thus, with the sovereign counsel of God, suspended may ask: Is this always true? Does a man will to b?
over him as the sovereign necessity of all he desires,        sick'and does he will to die? Only the Christian does.
wills, thinks and does, he is not, under the mighty hand      But. let us consider that being sick and dying is not a
of God, compelled to do what he hates and to refrain          man's own act. But even in sickness the wicked one
from doing what he has willed and purposed, so that he        is still psychologically free. Fact is that he does not
would pursue a course of life opposite to that which          want to be sick. He is rebelliolls. His rebellion is his
he now follows if God would only leave the man alone.         ad. And what  hfe `does-he rebels-he wills to do.
So absolutely free, in this sense, is man-psychologic- Thus,  he is certainly  psychologi&ally  free. Yet he  i'3
ally free in his metaphysical bondage and also in his not truly free, for he is in rebellion against God.
moral bondage-that the wicked boast of being the                 Thus, we come to our final observation on this
masters of their own destiny and, contrary to the wit-        point. Psychological freedom does not spell true free-
ness of their own conscience, conclude that there is no       dom.    This brings  us-to  the question, what is true
God. So absolutely free is man psychologically, as far freedom? This question may be briefly answered thus.
<as his consciousness is concerned, that his metaphysical     True freedom is to love  God and, under the constraint
bondage is not a  mattei- of experience but a thing of this love, to will what He wills and to abide in the
that  mu3 be believed.                                        sphere of His law, His ordinances, for man.
   Man, then, is psychologically free, though morally            Psychological freedom then does not speel "wille-
and metaphysically in bondage. Let us now see what keur". Nor does it mean that man, before his bwn
this does not mean. It does not mean that a man, at consciousness, does not act under constraint. He al-
any moment can will to do anything. I can name a              ways does. He acts under the stress,  coinstraint  of
thousand things that I at this moment and in the              circumstances and the setting of his life. And as ths
present setting of my life, I cannot will to do. For          latter proceed from the sovereign counsel of God, the
example: I cannot at this moment will to walk from Christian plainly perceives, spiritually discerns, and
here to Lansing, or  evei attempt it. I cannot even acknowledges, that he is being lead onward, directed
will to stop reading to you this essay, leave this house      by God's counsel ,led by his very hand. But the point
and walk around the block. I could will to do such a          is that also in what we may call the bondage of cir-
thing, at least, I could, and certainly would leave this cumstances, man is still absolutely psychologically free,
house, could and would will to do so, if it were              in that, what he does also in this, let us say, bondage,
burning down over my head. But this detracts noth- he chooses and wills to do. That man in all the kinds
ing from the truth of my previous statement, as,              of bondages, enumerated  * above, is absolutely psycho-
in this case, the setting has changed. In a word, logically free, must, by all means be maintained. To
psychological freedom does not spell, to use a dutch          deny this is to negate human accountability. I, of
term  "willekeur",   i:e., arbitrary, purposeless and un- course, am not unmindful of the fact, that there are
motivated and thus erational conduct.         There are       different degrees of moral responsibility, `depending
then definite limits even to man's psychological free-        on the character and measure of the constraint and the
dom. The setting of his life at each successive mo- menta1 state of the subject man.
ment of his existence, compels him not to do the                 Now the term freedom, appearii?g in my topic, is
thing that he will not, but to will to do the thing that the signification of psychological freedom. Having
he does and this often contrary to what he would at           now, to the best of my ability, stated what is to be
the moment like to be doing. I here distinguish be- understood by this freedom, we may now confront the
tween liking and desire and will, the determinate will q,uestion  how this freedom is to be harmonized with
of a man, that srystalizes in action.       To illustrate,    the conception of a sovereign counsel and providence
A lad has just been asked by one of his companions            of God. Before we make any attempt at harmoniza-
to go fishing. But. the errand that he is doing under tion, let us emphasize the fact as such. And the fact
the instructions of his parent causes him to refuse.          is that, according to Scripture. man is  psychologi6alls
That Iad wills ta do the thing that he does, but con-         free even with his deedg-desires,  vqlitionq  and  hi8


 412                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                            . .

thoughts-sovereignly determined by the sovereign God           freedom, with the construction of the exponents of
through His counsel and providence. We need not                (:ommon  grace upon it, does indeed involve us, in our
pause here? at least not very long, to prove from thz          thinking, in a logical difficulty, contradiction with re-
Scriptures the truth of this statement. Human ac-              spect to  `the point at issue.  ILet us make this very
countability  is implied in divine punishment. And if          plain. If man works independent of God's sovereign
man is accountable, he must be psychologically free.           will, He, too, is sovereign,-sovereign as God is sover-
The exponents of common grace charge us with deny-             eiga. Now the proposition: man is sovereign, is equiva-
 ing or at least minimizing human accountability. The          lent in mzaning  to the proposition: God is not sover-
 charge is as absurd as it is untrue. If man is not ac-        eign. Now the two propositions: "God is sovereign",
countable, psychologically free, it is wrong even to con-      and "God is not sovereign", are certainly contradictory.
 front him with the law of God. If man is not account- Fact is then that there is no logical conflict at all be-
 able, all exhortation and admonition is senseless and         tween the'right, the Biblical conception of human free-
 useless and strictly unnecessary and uncalled for. As         dom and the Biblical doctrine that God's will is the
to the sovereignty of God's counsel, certainly one of the      sovereignly determining factor of man's works, deeds,
foundation truth of the Bible is that this  counse1  is        including desires, volitions and thoughts.
sovereign and  absoIutely  so, and that it is according to             4               (To be continued)                          G. M. 0
the counsel-the counsel of His will-that God worketh
all things. Fact is, that what meets us on every page
of Scripture either directly or indirectly, is the teach-
ing that God is sovereign, that He is the sovereignly                            WEDDING  ANNIVERSRY
determining God with respect to all things, that thus
,He doeth all things.                                             On May 28, 1944 our  dear parents,
    But the question is, how can man be psychologically                          MR.  KLAAS  TIGCHELAAR
free with this counsel of God suspended over him, so                                                and
 to speak, as the determining factor of all his deeds?                       MRS.  I<. TIGCHELAAR-Sybcsma
Do not the conceptions of psychological freedom and a
 sovereign counsel exclude each other?         Is not the      commemorated their 40th Wedding Anniversary.
 sovereignty of the counsel necessarily destructive of            We, their children, extend to them our most sincere and
psychological freedom and thus also of moral responsi-         hearty congratulations.            Together with them, we thank our
bility? As we are dealing here with facts, they do not heavenly `Father, Who has spared them for one another and
 exclude each other, sovereignty is not destructive of         for us, and it is our sincere prayer, that  the Lord  may con-
psychological freedom in man.                                  tinue to be with them the remainder of their pilgrimage.
    But can the two be harmonized? Can we harmon-                                               Their grateful children :
ize the two to our own satisfaction? We'certainly  can,                                                     Mr. and Mrs. Peter Vos
 if what is meant whether the two can be harmonized                                                         Mr. and Mrs. HaroId  Glupker
logically. Fact is, that logically, purely logically, there                                                 Mr. and Mrs. Donald Tigchelaar
is no conflict at all between the two. We emphasize                                                             and 4 grandchildren.
this and shall  a'lso demonstrate it, in opposition to            Grand Rapids, Michigan.
the exponents of common grace, who maintain that
logically, that, at least according to human logic, there
is indeed conflict here. But this contention is wrong                                     IN MEMORIAM
and as dangerous as it is wrong. The logical conflict
here is of man's own making. It is not found in the               Whereas it pleased our Covenant God to take out of our
Scriptures. Logical conflict arises from a doing that          midst on May 25, 1944, our brother-elder
consists in placing a wrong, unbiblical construction                         MR. PETER VANDER  GUGTEN
upon the proposition that man is psychologically free.
Logical conflict there is only if it be maintained-in          the Consistory of the Protestant Reformed Church of Grand
opposition to the plain teachings of God's Word-that Haven, Michigan, wishes hereby to express sincerest sympathy
psychological freedom in man implies that man thinks           to the bereaved family.
and wills and works independent of the sovereign will,            May the God of all grace speak to their hearts words of
counsel and providence of God. Were it true,  there            consolation, and apply this affliction to their spiritual well-
would indeed be logical conflict. For were thi.s true, being. May He cause them also to glory in tribulation, know-
man, too, would be sovereign in his doing as God is            ing the hope that is set before them.
sovereign. Now a sovereign  creatur,e and a sovereign                                                        IThe  Consistory,
God are Togically  exclusive entities as there can only                                                          Rev. A. Petter, Pres.
b~ we sovereign ruler in the universe, Thus human                              ".,        ..          .-         Mr, C. Vander Lee, Clerk,


 VOLUME  XX                                                  JtJLY  1, 1944                                     NUMBER 19

                                                                      delight in it. IHe would exchange it for nought in al!
           M E D I T A T I O N                                        the world. He would devote his chief attention to it.
                                                                      All this Jehovah is to the psalmist, to the Church,
                                                               -      athe every believer in distinction from the world. For
                                                                      the Lord gave Himself Qo us, and bestowed upon us
                                                                      the right and the grace to call Him our God. He re-
        A Companion Of God's People                                   vealed Himself to us, and we know Him. He spread
                                                                      abroad His love in our hearts, and we taste that He
                  I' am Q companion of nit thorn that few             is good above all things. His lovingkindness is better
              thee.  and  of  them that keep thy precepts.            than life.      In Him we have our delight. To Him.
                                            Ps.  .119:6.?             His Word, His service, His precepts, His cause and
        Thou, 0 Jehovah, art my portion!                              glory, we devote our chief attention. His knowledge,
        That, evidently, is the dominating thought of this His favor and fellowship are precious to us. He is
particular section of Psalm the one hundred nine- our portion !
teenth.                                                                  The world, too, has its portion.
        And that, too, is the basis, the background, of the              Its por,tion is the world: the lust of the flesh, th.e
confession the psalmist makes here, that he is a com- lust of the eyes, the pride of life.
panion of all them that fear Jehovah, that keep His                      But in sharp distinction from the world, the be-
precepts.                                                             lievers confess that the Lord is their portion.
        We remember that this psalm is divided  into                     Hence, they  intreat  His favor, and long  .for His
twenty equal sections, according to the number of mercy.
characters in the Hebrew alphabet, each verse of each                    They think on their ways, in order that they may
section, in the original, beginning with the same let- turn  their feet unto His testimonies; they make haste,
ter. And each of these sections is controlled by one that they may not delay in keeping His command-
main *thought, while the entire psalm sings of t,he ments ; even in the midst of the oppressing wicked.
beauty and preciousness of the Word of the Lord. they do n,ot forget His law; and at midnight they wii!
In this section the preciousness of the precepts and                  rise to  gire thanks unto Him because of His righteous
.revelation  of Jehovah is considered from the view- judgments. vss. 59-62.
point of the fact .that the Lord is the poet's portion.                  And because of this fundamental truth, +hey love
        Because of this fundamental truth, the poet longs the fellowship of the people of God.
for and  intreats Jehovah's favor, and implores His                      Jehovah is their portion, His people are there
mercy. Vs. 58:                                                        companions !
        For one's portion is one's own peculiar possession,              Thou art my portion, 0 Lord !
in  distinotion  from the possession of others.              It is       I am a companion of all them that fear thee !
one's inheritance.       Or, perhaps, it is a possession                 That keep thy precepts !
which he acquired with great difficulty, or purchased
at a great price. Or, among Israel, it was a part of                     A companion of all that fear the Lord!
the land of promise that was apportioned to him by                       A comprehensive, yet very distinctive fellowship
lot.      Such portion was held especially dear by its is expressed here.
owner.       It was very  p.recious  to him. He prized it                Of a strong bond of fellowship the poet is speak-
.dve a?  thh?g,s,   He  get his  &prt on  it!  He had  hiq ing, of a union with all that fear the Lord, for thlti

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

is the meaning of the original word.         There is an         And it excludes all  #that fear not the Lord, whether
actually existing bond between him and God's people,          otherwise they may be united by the most common
so  that he is spiritually united with them.                  interests, or related in the most intimate natural  bon!
       And, secondly, on the basis of this spiritual bond,    of love!
because of it, he associates .with those that keep Jc-           For what unites them is the fear of the Lord!
hovah's precepts, and  they  with him. He is in al-              And the Lord is God! And God is good! He  i4
liance with them. `He delights to be in their company,        a light, and there is no  darknea  in Him at all! He
to talk with them, to walk with them. For they love is the implication of all infinite perfections! He is
the same things, they strive after the same object, truth, and righteousness, and justice, and love, and
they walk in the same direction, they speak the same grace, and mercy, and faithfulness.  ,He is the Holy
language, they do the same thing. They understand             One! And by the fear of Him is not meant any
one another, and exercise actual fellowship.                  slavish terror  lik,e that of the  bo,nd-servant  for his
       And this companionship has its root in, and is master, whom he really hates, but who obeys him in
motivated by a common principle.                              constant dread of the whip. Thus the devils fear
       Companions must have something in common.              God, and they tremble.          Thus all the ungodly  ars
       Some common principle must unite those that are filled with terror for the Judge of heaven and earth.
friends and associates in life. Man and wife are and they call upon the mountains to cover them before
united by a community of nature, a community of life,         His `face. 53ut the fear of the Lord is the reverence
a community of love, and by the common purpose to             of a childlike love. It implies the deep consciousness
build and keep their home. Two partners in business           of His glorious majesty, of His infinite immensity,
are united by their common interest in their business,        of His spotless holiness, and of His absolute sover-
and by the purpose to seek its advancement. An al-            eignty, so that we prostrate ourselves before Him in
liance between two world-pow-ers is rooted in the mu-         the dust, and bow down in humble adoration before
tual desire to be strong against a common foe. Friend- the throne of His glory. But it aIso implies the con-
ship presupposes a measure of similarity between  t!le        sciousness of His great love toward us, which He
friends. Like knows, and understands, and seeks, like.        hath revealed in the cross and resurrection of  OUT
       And no different it is with the companionship of Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, the consciousness
which the poet is speaking.                                   of the reconciliation which He hath established u-ith
       Only, the principle in which this companionship        us in .His Son, the knowledge of faith that our sins are
is rooted is  not natural, but spiritual.                     blotted out,  thalt we are righteous before Him, and
       It is the fear of the Lord!                            that with Him there is forgiveness that He may be
       For this is, evidently, the meaning of his confes-     feared. And it implies the spiritual knowledge that
sion: I am a friend, an associate, a companion of all the Lord is good, and that it is good for us to be near
#that fear Thee! With them I am united, and  thej:            unto Him, that we may declare all His wondrous
with me. To them I am ever attracted, and they to             works !
me. Their fellowship I seek, and is my delight, and              That is the fear of `the Lord !
they delight in my communion. With them I desire                 And the fear of the Lord cuts deep ! It is a matter
to walk my life's path, and they with me. With them           of the heart! It is a principle that concerns our re-
I delight to work, to toil, to suffer, to speak and sing, lsiton to God who is GOD!
and they with me. They are my friends, and I am                  And it governs the whole of our life !
theirs; their enemies are my enemies, and mine are               It unites and separates!
theirs.     And all this, not for any carnal or earthly          It transcends all natural relationships !
reasons; not for selfish ends, not for filthy lucre and          A companion of them that fear Thee !
material gain; not even because they are nice char-              Wonderful fellowship !
acters, friendly and lovely and helpful; but only and
exactly because they fear the Lord, even as the Lord             Marvellous  fruit of grace!
is my portion!                                                   For by nature we are not friends of those that
       That fear of the Lord is the deepest uniting prin-     fear the Lord.
ciple of this companionship  !                                   And, to be sure, the psalmist has no intention to
       It is a very distinctive, a strongly uniting, and a    declare his own goodness, and to exalt himself above
very exclusive principle.                                     those that are not united  with him in this fellowship.
       It unites  in8 that fear the Lord, no matter what         He rather considers himself a wonder of the  graze
may be their name and position in the world, whether          of that Lord that is His `portion.
they be high or low, rich or poor, master or servant,            By nature  .we have a fellowship with  *those that
king or subject; and whether they be similar in char,         ~iove iniquity. For we are in darkness, and we  love
act=, or of the most widely different dispositions,           the darkness rather than the light, Enemies of God,
                                                                          ._~~ /  :,  i  .


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          415
-
and enemies of one another are we.                       But even in his own significance for the whole.
this enmity against God, in virtue of which we also                       The fellowship of friendship in the fear of the
h&e one another, there is a certain affinity and com-                 Lord !
mon interest that impels us to seek one another in                       A fellowship `that includes nil that fear the Lord.
the, friendship of the world. For the children of dark-                   Strong this bond of companionship is all the more,
i:ess not only commit the works of iniquity and  de-                  because the life they have in common that are partak-
Iight in doing  ,them,  but  they also have pleasure  in              ers of Christ, and that are members of this com-
them that do the same things. And even as they hate munion, is not of' this world.
the light, so they hate those that walk in the light.                     By  iIt they are separated from the world in its
     Never could we possibly declare by nature that  wo               evil sense, so that they have no fellowship with the
are companions of them *that fear the Lord.                           unfruitful works of darkness any more'; but also
     What fellowship is  `there  between  darkn,ess  and from the ,things below in the natural sense, so that
light?                                                                they dwell in tents, seek the things which are above,
     What part has the infidel with the believer'!                    and set their hearts on things heavenly.
     What concord could there be between the  devil                      They are sojourners and strangers in the earth.
and Christ ?                                                             Pilgrims they are, dwelling in tents.
     Nor could we possibly by our own efforts join                       And the world hates them.
the company and enter the fellowship of those that                       And  #the more they seek the things that are above,
fear the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the indispens- the more they feel how strange the world has really
able and sole condition unto this companionship. Un- become to them.
less that fear be in our hearts, we cannot feel attract-                 Citizens they are of another country,  .that is  3n
ed to the people of God. We do not know them, be- heavenly.
cause we know Him not. And that fear is a matter of                      And companions of them that fear the `Lord!
the inmost heart, out of which are ,the issues of life.                  Wonderful grace of God!
And the heart is beyond our control. No efforts on
our part, no amount of reformation, not the most                         Companions in light !
strenuous application to the building of character,                      For only in as far as we actually walk in the light,
can possibly change the heart.                                        can the fellowship we have  togather  in Christ operate.
     The companionship with the people of God is a                       Hence, the poet adds: "and of them that keen thy
matter of grace !                                                     precepts."
     And grace is solely of God.                                         Not as if those that keep the precepts of the Lord
     It is the sovereign gift and work of Him Who                     are another class of companions, distinct and differ-
quickens ,the dead? and Who calls the things that be                  ent from those that fear Him. They are, of course,
not as if they were.                                                  the same people. They that fear the Lord keep Je-
     For by the power of that grace we are quickened hovah's precepts, and they that walk in the way of
indeed, delivered from the dominion of death, raised His good commandments surely fear the Lord. The
unto a new life, that is not of this world, neither of                two are inseparable.
the earth earthy, but from above, through the resur-                     Yet, it is not a mere repetition.
rection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. Bg                       For the keeping of Jehovah's precepts is the real-
the power of that wondrous grace we are called  out                   ization, the manifestation of the fear of the Lord in
of darkness into the marvellous  light of God, that we                our actual life and conversation in the midst of the
might know Him, and declare His glorious praises.                     world. And, therefore, it is through the keeping of
Through  (that grace a new love, the love of God  in                  His precepts ,that we reveal ourselves as those t.hat
Christ, is shed abroad in our hearts, so that we taste                fear the Lord, (that we know one another, and that we
~that the Lord is good, and trust that He has b1otte.l                can have fellowship with one another as friends in
out all our sins, and that we are righteous before ,Him.              Jesus Christ our Lord.  If we say that we fear and
And so, by His own grace we love Him, and fear love the Lord, and walk in darkness, we do not the
Him, and keep His commandments.                                       truth, and we cannot possibly realize the companion-
     And thus we become companions of those  ,that fear ship of the saints. But if we walk in the light, even
Him !                                                                 as He is in the light, we have fellowship with Him,
     ,Companions  that seek one another's fellowship,                 and are companions of one another, and the bIood  of
because, while they are all partakers of the same re-                 Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin!
surrection-life of their Lord, yea, of Himself, in unity                 And so, we are companions of them that fear the
of Spirit, and unity of faith, and hope, and love, yet,               Lord, only in as far as they walk in the light. . . .
they are not identical, but individually distinct as                     And we walk in the same light with them.
t?lffmbgrs  of one body, setch. in his  ow:o place  ant! wit11
                          *-*  ":  ",,*  ,__.-  v  9'                    Holy friendship!                            11, H,

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

                                      The Standard Bearer
             Semi-Monthly, except Monthly in July and August                                                                                                                           EDITORIALS
                                                                 Published by
                          The Reformed Free Publishing  Associatien
                                                  1101  Hazen Street,  6. E.                                                                                            The G.L.A. And The Strike Question
                                           EDITOR  - Rcr.  .H. Hoeksema
        Contributing editors-Revs. J. Blankeapoor,  A. Cammenga,                                                                                                           From the June issue of tile Christian Labor Ncrnld
        P. De Boer,  J. D. de Jong, H. De Wolf, L.  Doezema,
        M. Grittertr, C. Hanko, B. Kok, G. Lubbers, G. M. Ophoff,                                                                                                       we learn that the annual business meeting of the  CL.
        A. Petter, M.  Schipper,  J.  Vanden   Breggen,  H. Veldman,                                                                                                    A., held on May 13 in Grand Rapids,  `the proposal
        R.  Veldman, L. Vermeer, P. Vis, G. Vos, Mr. S. De Vries.                                                                                                       that the Alliance declare itself opposed to the use of
        Communications relative to contents should be addressed                                                                                                         the strike weapon was discussed, and rejected by a?
        to REV. H. HOEKSEMA, 1139 Franklin St, S. E., Grand                                                                                                             overwhelming majority.
        Rapids, Michigan.                                                                                                                                          .       We quote from the Chtistian  Labor Herald:
        Communications relative to subscription should be ad-                                                                                                                  "On one proposal there was considerable
        dressed to MR. R.  SCHAAFSMA,   1101  Haaen St., S. E.,                                                                                                              debate. That was the proposal of Building
        Grand Rapids,  Mich.  All Announcements and Obituaries
        must be sent to the above address aud  will not be placed                                                                                                            Trades Local 12 to adopt a policy that the
        unless the regular fee of $1.00 accompaniee  the notice.                                                                                                             C.L.A. will not use the strike weapon at any
                                               Subscription $2.50 per year                                                                                                   time. Altho not worded thus bluntly  ithat
                                                                                                                                                                             was the intent of the originator of the pro-
                                                                                                                                                                             posal.    The Executive Committee had de-
                                                                                                                                                                             cided to limit debate to one hour, and had
                                                                                                                                                                             gone on record as opposed to the proposal.
                                                                                                                                                                             The discussion brought out that the delegates
                                                                                                                                                                             who were to defend the proposal were them-
                                                                 CONTENTS                                                                                                    selves not at all clear as to the meaning of it.
MEDITATION-                                                                                                                                                                  It was finally determined that they were in
A COMPANION OF                                                                                                                                                               principle not opposed to the position of the
                                                       GOD'S PEOPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . r'....,....... 413
               Rev. H.  Hoeksema                                                                                                                                             C.L.A. in regard to the use of the strike
                                                                                                                                                                             weapon, but that they object to the use of
EDITORIALS  -                                                                                                                                                                the word `strike' because of its many offens-
THE C.L.A. AND THE STRIKE QUESTION . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416                                                                                       ive implications in the public mind. It was
              Rev. H. Hoeksems                                                                                                                                               pointed out that in that case there should
GOD'S                                                                                                                                                                        have been a proposal to drop the use of that
                     COUNSEL AND HUMAN FREEDOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418                                                                                   word to substitute another for it, instead of
                Rev. G. M. Ophoff                                                                                                                                            the proposal before the meeting. When the
THE VICTORY IS THE LORD'S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .420                                                         matter came to a vote the proposal was de-
           Rev. G. M. Ophoff.                                                                                                                                                feated by an overwhelming majority. It was
HOE LANGE, 0 HEERE! . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . , . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . .                                  made plain that Local 12 can present another
                                                                                                                                                         423
                Rev. G. Vos.                                                                                                                                                 proposal, to substitute another word for
                                                                                                                                                                             `strike' if that is what it seeks, to the next
PREACHING ON THE PARABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424                                                                annual meeting."
           Rev. L. Vermeer                                                                                                                                                 We are sincerely sorry that the C.L.A. rejected
FREEMASONRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . **... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                                                                                                                                                         426            the proposal of Local 12, and went on record as in-
           Rev. R. Vseldman                                                                                                                                             sisting on the use of the strike weapon.        We cer-
THE REVELATORY DREAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  i429 tainly would like to give our wholehearted and un-
           Student J. Van  Weelden                                                                                                                                      qualified support to the Christian Labor Alliance.
                                                                                                                                                                        And the Consistory of the First Protestant Reformed
THE SIGN OF JONAS THE PROPHET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433                                                                       Church did recommend membership in  i't by means of
           Rev. C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                its pamphlet "A Testimony." However, a one hun-
THOMAS AQUINAS AND  COM,MON   GRACE;  ,..,....I...............  435                                                                                                dred percent endorsement of the stand of the C.L.A.
          Homer C. Hveksema                                                                                                                                             is impossible for undersigned, as long as it does not
                                                                                                                                                                        change its policy with regard to the use of the strihe
                                                                                                                                                                        weapn, To ~nv it tsigaifies  that on this cardinal point

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

   there is no principle, but only a relative difference         their legal employer, whose employees they still con-
   between the C.L.A. and ,the worldly unions. And the sider themselves to be.
   overwhelming majority with which the proposal of                 And thus, by keeping the factory idle, they intend
.~ Local 12 was rejected simply proves how difficult it          to force their employer to concede to their demands.
   is to maintain a strictly Christian Labor union, and             If the C.L.A. is opposed to this conception of the
   how much easier it is to follow after the dictates of strike, let them openly and officially denounce it, and
   our flesh.                                                    clearly explain what is. their own conception in dis-
       From the report we receive the  i,mpression  that tinction from it.
  athe representatives of Local 12 who were to defend               But thus defined, the strike is certainly un-Chris-
   its proposal, and, perhaps, others that supported them, tian, contrary to Scripture.
   were but poorly prepared to do so. For although  thz             It is, first of all, rebellion against authority.      '
   report states very plainly that it was the original in-          Scripture has a good deal to say about the relation
   tention of the proposal, "altho it was not worded thlub       of servants to their masters, and of masters to their
   bluntly," that (the C.L.A. should declare' itself uncon- servants.' For instance : "Servants,, be obedient to
   ditionally against the use of the strike weapon at them that are your masters  acording to the flesh,
  any time, its defenders left the impression that they with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart,
were fighting about a mere term. And the "over- as unto Christ; Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers,
   whelming majority" were evidently willing to have it          but as the servants of Christ,. doing the will of Cod
   thus, for they suggested that Local 12 attempt to from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the
   find another term for the C.L.A.`s,  conception of the        Lord, and not to men. Knowing that whatsoever good
   strike.                                                       thing  say man doeth, the same shall he receive of the
      This may mean that the defenders of the proposal           Lord, whether he be bond or free. And ye masters,
   were, after all, not principally opposed to the strike        do the same thing unto them, forbearing threatening:
   in the accepted sense of that term.                           knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither
       It may also mean, that the C.L.A. at its annual           is there respetc of persons with him." Eph.  6:5-g.
  meeting succeeded to convince these defenders of the And again: "Servants, obey in all things your masters
   proposal from Local 12 that its conception of the             according to the flesh; not with eye-service, as men-
   strike is principally different from that of the worldly      pleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God:
   union.                                                        And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord,
       This latter possibility I consider very improbable.       and not to men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall
       I had hoped that the Christian Labor Herald would receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve
   have given me a clear and  Coilcise  answer to my             the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall re-
   question on this point in the previous issue of  the, ceive for  sthe wrong which he hath done: and there
   Standard.  &a.rer. But I was  disappoimed.  As long           is no respect of persons.      Masters, give unto your
   as I do not receive an answer, I take for granted that        servants that which. is just and equal; knowing that
   the strike-conception of the C.L.A. is principally the ye also have a Master in heaven." Col. 3  :22-4:l.
   same as that of the worldly union.           And that con-    And again : "Exhort servants to be obedient unto their
   ception is un-Christian to say the least.                     masters, and to please them well in all things; not
       What is a strike?                                         answering again: Not purloining, but  shewing  all
       It is a united refusal to work on the part of  3          good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of
   certain group of laborers on a job or in a position to        God our Saviour in all things." Tit.  2:9, 10.  Azd
   which t.hey, in the meantime, claim to have <the sole once more: "Servants, be subject to your masters with
   right, and that for the purpose of attaining a certain        all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to
   end, whether it be higher wages, shorter hours, union the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a man for
   recognition, or something else.                               conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrong-
       The point is, as we have pointed out before, that         fully." I Pet. 2 :X3, 19.
   to strike is not to quit, or to relinquish one's right           Please, do not object, that I am ftrying  to defend
   to and hold on the job. On  <the contrary, the strikers the position of the fat and cruel capitalist, who sucks
   mean to keep their job.      They consider themselves ,the lifeblood out of his laborers, and grows rich by
   employees of the employer or firm for whom they IV ' oppressing his starving employees.                I have no sym-
   fuse to work. This is evident from'the fact that they pathy wit-h them whatsoever. Neither has Scripture.
   allow no other, workmen to take their places, and Just listen to this : "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and
   that they introduce the system of picketing to prevent howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
   them from entering the factory in which they Zhem-            Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are
   selves refuse to work.                                        motheaten.    Your gold and silver is cankered ; and
       In other words, they simply refuse to work for            the rust of them shall be a witness against you, an'1

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

shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped to work for him, whom he still  w,ould consider his
treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire           employer, and to whose job he wpuld still lay claim,
of the laborers who have reaped down your fields,               he is not serving the Lord  Chr$t,  but rebelling against
which is kept back by fraud, crieth, and the cries of           Him. He is a revolutionary.
them which have reaped are entered into the ears                   He may quit his job, of course. As soon as he does
of the `Lord Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on              so, provided he does not break an agreement, his em-
the earth, and have been  wanton; ye have nourished             ployer is his master no more:
your hearts as in a day of slaughter. Ye have con-                 But to refuse to work for one's employer  (th(%
demned and killed the just, and he doth not resist              strike) is rebellion, contrary to the plain Word of  God.
you." Jas. 5 :1-6.                                                                                            H.  ET.
       And these words apply no less to our modern times,
and to the modern capitalist that piles up riches at
the expense of those that are employed by him, as to
the days when the epistIe  of James was written.
       Neither object that the passages of Scripture that
speak of the proper relation of servant and master are God's Counsel and Human Freedom
antequated and obsolete; that they refer to the time
of slavery, when a servant belonged body and soul to               It is certainly a precarious business to  maintail
his master.       For that fact, that these admonitions         that human freedom and God's sovereignty are con-
were written with respect to the relation of master             tradictory, logically. For t.he mind of man is so con-
and slave, gives them double force in our own day.              stituted by God that it simply does not tolerate  :t
       The question is one of obedience to those  <that have    logical contradiction. It can't. And it may not.  Tt
authority over us.                                              is impossible to hold to two contrary propositions,
       0,  I understand quite well, that in our God for-        contrary in relation to each other. Let us make this
saken age and world, that is thoroughly permeated               plain by returning to the two propositions in ques-
with the ungodly spirit of the French revolutioil,  the         tion. If I declare that man is sovereign in his work-
truth concerning authority is laughed out of court.             ing and that thus God is ,nol: sovereign, and if I be-
There is no respect for authority anywhere, not in lieve what I say, I deny certainly that God is saver-
the various social relations, not in the home, in the           eign, and I deny it with all my heart, and thus re-
shop, in the school, nor in the State. That true  fr&           nounce it-the proposition that God is sovereign--as
dom is not licentiousness, nor fear of might and force,         a lie. Now how is it psychologically possible for  ma9
but obedience to  wuthority  for  God's  sake  in  Christ       to accept, embrace, ,believe  with his heart a proposi-
CLS  C)ZLT La&,---that is no longer understood even by          tion, that according to his conviction, sets forth  the
those that profess to be Christians.                            lie. This, of course, is absolutely impossible. Man
       But that does not alter the truth.                       must reject what'he holds to be a lie. The exponents
       Nor does it change the fact, that violation of this      of common grace therefore do not believe both. They
truth by an ungodly worId leads that world to inevit-           believe one or the other, in their hearts. The result
able destruction, even though it may appear for a time          will be that eventually either of two such contradict-
as if by substituting our own philosophy of human               ory propositions will openly be repudiated. They will
relationships we improve conditions.                            say either that God is sovereign or that he is not
       I know quite well that in modern society the re- sovereign. But they cannot continue to say both.
lation of master and slave does no longer subsist.                 Now I know, of course, that the exponents of com-
       And I am not pleading for its return.                    mon grace do not say that they believe in both these
       We have the relation of employer and employee,           contrary propositions.    They  d,eclare  only: God is
according to which the latter freely sells his time sovereign, and do not add, "God is not sovereign,"
and labor for certain wages, and with definite yuali-           but with us, they say, certainly, man is free as crea-
fractions  as to hours  and labor conditions.                   ture, which means that in all his works he is bound
       Does that alter the principle concerning authorit,y      to  `the will of God. Yes, this  iS what they say. But
and subjection to it for God's sake?                            they at once insist that the two are logically contra-
       I most emphatically insist that it does not.  I dictory. It means that, irrespective of  what they say,
maintain that an employee during the hodrs  lke has             they at once profess to believe in two propositions con-
agreed to work stands in relation as servant to his             tradictory in relation to each other. They even pride
employer, and he is to show him all fidelity in work-           themselves on being capable of this' and maintain that
ing for him to the best of his ability, serving him,            such ability is an  earmar,k of true faith. They pride
not as an eye-servant or men-pleaser, but as a servant themselves on being capable of this, and maintain that
of Christ, and for Christ's  ,sake!      And if he refuse       propositions : God determinately wills to save all men ;


                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                       419

He determinately wills to save only His peopl'e.            mouth of the unbeliever is equivalent to the affirma-
    We reaffirm, human freedom and t he sovereign tion, to the charge,  "Ft is unjust." Paul, in answer-
counsel, of God do not involve us in a logical contra- ing his critic, further directs his attention to the fact
diction at all. What we do deal with here is a mystery. that man is bat clay in God's hand, and that God
God maintains Himself in the heart, desires, will and therefore does man no injustice in maintaining Him-
mind and all the works of His rational-moral crea- self as sovereign God in his heart and thought and
tures, without destroying their psychological freedom works, even though He harden a man, in preparation
and thus their human responsibility, and without in- of eternal damnation. For man is but clay, says Paul,
volving Himself in the sinfulness of their doings. a vile lump of clay, in himself, impotent, lifeless,
&How  is this possible? As far as I know there is no spiritually, without power to make anything of him-
answer. Alt least I have no answer of such a kind,. self at all, either a vessel unto honor or a vessel unto
an answer so penerating that the matter with which dishonor. Man cannot as much as harden himself,
we here deal ceases for us to be a mystery. After all       except God harden him. In God he lives and moves
has been said, the matter continues ,to defy our pow-       and has his being. If there were hidden in a man
ers of penetration.    We certainly cannot get at the an element of #true goodness, n& put there by God, so
bottom of the bottomless. Gad's people walk in  thogc that a man had it within himself to make of himself a
good works which God in Christ prepared for them vessel unto honor, and if  Ithen God would harden that
and realizes in them. This is already wonderful., But man in preparation of eternal desolation, God would
the mystery deepens when we come to the wicked              certainly have to be charged with  ,injustice  in His
works of the godless. God sovereignly hardens them.          dealings with the reprobated. For a man, with an
He gives them over Ito a reprobate mind to do things        element of goodness in him not of God, would not
that are wicked, says Paul in Romans. Then there            be God's creature absolutely, and God would be obliged
is the scripture to the  effect  t hat He turned the henrt^ to leave him alone. But such is not the case. Man is,
of the Egyptians to hate His people. He forms the           in himself, absolutely nothing. He is wholly  God%.
light and creates. evil. Though His counsel and pro-        Certainly, God can do with His own as He pleases.
vidence, is the sovereignly determining factor also of The potter indeed has  righst over the clay, of the same
all wicked deeds of men, yet man remains free and lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto
thus `responsible and God goes out blameless. Ex- dishonor. Would it not among men be considered the
planations have been given, which I do not produce height of the absurd to deny that the potter has this
here. But let me repeat, after all has been said, the       right. And would it not be the height of arrogance
mystery remains.                                            for the dishonorable vessel, a mere lump of clay, to
    I know, that the brethren try to save .themselves       say to the potter, "`why hast thou made me thus?"
by distinguishing  betw.een  God's logic and Man's Such a question on the part of the dishonorable ves-
                                                            sel, would needs impIy  that the vessel, if left alone,
IOgiC.    They maintain *that the laws of thought ac-
cording to which God thinks, differ from the laws of could have made an honorable vessel of itself.
thought  acording to which man thinks. But such  2             In fine,  &d's sovereignty as operative in man,
conception is a negation of revelation and all religion.    in t he reprobated, is not cruel, it is not unjust. But
    The question has been raised whether it is not it is terrible. But God is a terrible God. And it is
cruel on the part of God to hold men responsible for this terrible God that the believer  ,wants and loves
their deeds, wicked deeds, with Him sovereignly de- as the father of .our Lord Jesus Christ.
termining all that they do. It is not  crue1 because           Pelagianism represents an attempt to improve up-
it is just. But is it just? The opponent with whom on  4he God of Scripture. Improve upon this God and
Paul deals in the ninth chapter of the Romans says you reduce him to a monstrosity. The made-over God
that it is not. What is Paul's answer? He sets  ou? of the Pelagian is indeed a monstrosity. For if God
with the affirmation that  it is just on the ground that, is not the sovereignly determining factor in the life
according to Scripture, God does it. He hardened of every man, elect and reprobate, his saving the one
Pharaoh. And since God does it, it is just, it must and punishing #the other are not to His glory, supreme
be, for with God <there  can be no injustice. This is the glory.    They are works  `that fall short of himself,
answer of faith. This is the answer of every believer. works therefore that must be denominated sin, dark-
Rightly considered it is the only answer that satisfies ness.       And if God cannot punish to His supreme
and brings peace to the soul. It is enough to know glory, to His glory only, the question arises, why does
that God does it. It is just therefore. Because God he punish some with eternal desolation. The  onIy
certainly is His own standard of justice. It is well answer that can be given to this question, if it be
to raise such questions as, "is it just," if we actually denied that God is sovereign, is that He does so be-
have a question and if we mean to be instructed by          cause he takes a fiendish, devilish, delight in the
God in His Scripitures.  ..But the same question in the     misery and suffering of men in hell.      Certainly, to

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

deny the operation of the sovereign will of God in the       Lord and Gideon." Certainly: the tactic employed
life of His moral creatures, is to reduce God to a fiend,    excluded boasting; and the only truly rational explana-
a devil.                                                     tion of the effect of this tactic-the terror and disorder
       There are of course other questions that could be     that ruled the hour in the Midianite camp-is that
asked.      This question for one: How can God mean          God, in response to the living faith of Gideon and His
what He says in demanding of  (the reprobated that           band and through the working ,of this faith, accom-
they obey Him, if, according to ,His determinate will        plished His work-the work of setting every  Midian-
they must be disobedient. This is a question of God's ite's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the
moral will versus His determinate will.        Can it be host, so `that the host fled, ch. 7 22. Thus that tactic
said that according  cto God's moral will, He desires the -the cry of Gideon's men, the blasts of their trumpet,
repentance of the reprobate? Another question is :           in a word, the working of the faith of the three hun-
how could God determinately will sin, if He hates it? dred-were of God, His very own provision and as
                                            G. M. 0.         such merely means through which He troubled thos?
                                                             heathen hordes and put them to flight. How could it
                                                             be otherwise. How  cou1.d those hordes of fierce  mea
                                                             have been routed by the sight of a few burning torches,
                                                             by the sound of the blast of a few trumpets and the
                                                             shouts of a few men and by the noise of the breaking
          The Victory Is The Lord's                          of some crockery, if God had not worked? What folly
                                                             to begin an.d end with the dispersion of those hordes in
       Enormous, so we saw, was the panic that seized        Gideon an.d his military tactic and not in God. Yet,
on Midian,  when the trumpets sounded, the pitchers          the infidels of this day and age, who refuse to give
crashed, the battle-cry broke out and the torches            God glory, commit this very folly. And likewise the
blazed. The terror Rhich seized  Midian  was the terror unbelieving Jews in Israel of Gideon's day-Jews bent
of God. The narrative brings this out. "And the Lord         on vaunting themselves before God.  - Deism and Athe-
set every man's sword against- his fellow even through- ism are not modern phenomena.                They date from
out the host: and the host fled."                            man's fall in paradise. Yet that tactic of Gideon must
       Let us pause here and delineate on the great prin-    not be minimized.       Those blazing lamps, trumpet
ciple of truth which this war of liberation, as thus         blasts, and cries of Gideon's men, in the dead of the
far waged, so remarkably demonstrated. This truth            night, did certainly strike terror to ,the hearts of the
received statement by the Lord Himself in the follow-        Midianites, but only because God worked through this
ing language. "The people that are with thee are too tactic-worked another wonder of `His grace in behalf
many for me to give the Midianites into their hands,         of His oppressed people. Thus that tactic-the cry
lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine of Gideon's soldier&the cry: "The sword of the Lord
own hand hath saved me" (Ch.  7 22). In other words, and Gideon"-had great significance indeed. As was
Israel is saved not by his own hand but by that of the       sai.d, that cry was the working of the living faith of the
Lord; and thus. the victory that overcometh the world true church. It thus overcame--did this cry and those
is solely Israel's faith-faith  ia the wonder-working ,trumpet  blasts-the world as represented by those
power of his redeemer-God. By no other war in all .heathen  hordes by which northern Canaan was being
,Israel's history was this truth brought into such bold      overrun.    For  .the Lord responded to that cry-His
relief as by Gideon's conflict with these Midianite own work in His people-and through it worked a
hordes. Herein precisely lies the significance of this miracle.
conflict and of Gideon the mighty hero.                         Thus the victory that overcame the world was not
       How plain that Israel's victory was not by his own the force of arms but the faith of the three  hundred-
hand. The Midianites formed a mighty host. They faith in the willingness and the power of Jehovah to
had come up in great hordes "as grasshoppers  few            save His people that He might be feared. God made it
multitude: for both they and their camels were without. so plain that Gideon's war with the Midianites WRS
ilumber."      How apparently preposterous to send, in purely a venture of faith and therefore successful.
the dead of the night, against such a multitude a band       First there ia that reference to Gideon's faith in the
of three hundred men armed with nothing more for- Lord's greeting to him, "The Lord is with thee, ,thou
midable in the way of weapons of war than trumpets mighty hero." The sacred narrator describes in detail
and empty pitchers with burning lamps in them. The the working of this faith, first in Ophrah, than in the
pitchers were broken and the soldiers stood there, not other fields of conflict. There were other ways in
otherwise attacking, but simply holding the lamps,  2s       which the Lord, at that time, even before the com-
freed from their opaque encasements, and alternately mencement of the war with the Midianites, made it
blowing the trumpets and shouting, "The sword of the plain to His people that at all times the secret of their

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

 power was solely their faith-faith attaining  expre&            therefore there was no connection whatever between
 sion in true penitence, implicit trust in  God,~ un- their b&g sent home and their inward disposition and
 wavering loyalty to His cause, and a holy eagerness to antecedent religious habits-this view is likewise in-
be of His party in His warfare with darkness. There capable of being held. Certainly who and what a man
 was the doing  of God that consisted in His diminish- is shows itself in the unrestrained motions of the body.
 ing the host of Israel until all that remained was a Though it need not be maintained that, to the last
 handful of men--Gideon's three hundred, they that man, all these kneelers were apostates, who had been
 lapped with their hands from the water as lappeth  a crowding Baal's temple, yet what their posture must
 dog with  his tongue from the water and thus did not,           be taken to have  mdicated  is that, in the eyes of Him
 as *the others, lie down by the edge of the brook by            who alone judges the  hfeart,  they were spiritually un-
 putting their lips to the wa'ter. The different manner qualified for the conflict. This being true, the Lord
 in which each group satisfied their thirst could not set them aside before the eyes of men to accomplish
 have been without significance. Just what was indi- His work through the three hundred, His purpose being
 cated of inward disposition and habits of life  .tbe            to stress the great significance of faith, of true re-
 sacred author does not say. Thus there is more than ligion in the heart, and thereby ,to drive home to the
 one conjecture among interpreters. According to one heart of the nation that it is solely by faith ,that Israel
 view, the three hundred who drank after the manner lives and triumphs over the adversary,-triumphs even
 of dogs were the fainthearted. But  <ihis view contra- though that faith be shut up in the hearts of but 300
 dicts the spirit of the  whole narrative. It militates          men.    Wherein  the:n  may these kneelers have been
 ;xgainat the notice that the fearful were sent home. deficient.              Consi,der that in the present crisis they
 If  ,the fainthearted were demanded, the brave should quenched their thirst with leisure and with the enemy
 have been dismissed. God saves by a few in,deed but poised for the attack. These men were lacking in
 by the few in whose soul ,He genders by His spirit and spiritual alertness, zeal, and consecration  .to the cause
 His word, implicit faith in Him. To say that God                of God. That wherein they were deficient, the `three
 saves by the few devoid of this trust is equivalent to hundred excelled. Hence, the latter did not so drink,
 saying that what overcometh the woman is not  `fai,th           that from eagerness to quench their thirst, they forgot
 but cowardice. How could it be said that God, through the adversary. They had power to cry from the heart,
 sending deliverance, shows what He does for men who "The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon."
 place their confidence in Him, if it were true that I&             That cry calls for explanation. It was a meaning-
 wars His warfare through the agency of infidels.                ful cry, full of dreadful implications for the ad-
     According *to another view, those who in order to           versary.    For it had reference  ,to but one sword,
 drink threw themselves down upon their knees showed             the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. The cry
 thereby that they were devotees of *Baa1 and `this be- .thus proclaimed that Gideon, as the Lord's anointed,
 cause their posture in drinking indicated that they warred the warfare of God and that therefore the doom
 were accustomed to pray as kneeling before idols. of Midian was sealed. It proclaimed, did this cry, the
 This view is weighed down by the difficulty that those covenant of God as being with His people, the calling
 who lay  ,down to drink were not of the fearful and of this people, the rights and privileges implicit in this
 the afraid. At least they had not availed themselves calling-the right to fight the fight of the Lord-the
 of the opportunity, given them by the proclamation,             power and willingness of God to save according to  Ris
 to leave the field of conflict and return to their homes.       promise,  and the victory with which He crowns the
 If kneelmg  must be taken as a certain indication of faith of His, people. And God, the true preacher of His
 grow idolatry than also the fear by which the first word,   spake  this cry-His word-in the hearts  of  the
 and much larger group was driven home. In that case heathen ; and they were afraid and they fled. Thus
 only 300 of 33,000 men in Israel served God. Though the sword employed in the first and decisive stage of
 possible, this is not likely. ,Certain  it is, however, that this war was the word of God as born to <the heathen
 the hearts of the fearful ones were not right with God.         by faithful men and as  1ai.d upon the hearts of the
 What can be said is that many in this group, though             heathen by the Lord.
 true believers into  ,the hearts  of their disposition, were       A meaningful cry. And faithful men of God,  the
 nevertheless defiled  by'the idolatrous practices of the prophets of the Lord, still utter that cry. Through
 ungodly and that many more were no true believers ,the ages to the end of time they prophesy of the  doon;
 at all. But what is to be said of the 9,700 who were of the world and the deliverance of  God's people.
 dismissed on account of their having drunk kneeling? And the wicked are afraid, for the cry is on their
 The view that their posture is meaningless, that all of hearts laid their by Christ. `An.d their final terror will
 these men or at least many of them were spiritually             come at His sudden appearing in glory-a terror
qualified, that the only reason of their dismissal wad           wherein the earth shall be smitten by the rod of His
 that God  "was resolved to  sgve by  the few, and that mouth an,d all  *the wicked shall be slain by His breath,


422                                     T H E S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         .      -

a terror wherein the trump `of the arch-angel shall
sound and the firmament shall pass away with a noise                       Hoe Lange, 0 Heere!
and the elements shall burn that there may be new
heavens and a new earth. Of all these things the .war                                     (Psalm 74)
with Midian  and its successful issue spake. For con-
sider the time of the attack-in the night-and its                  Het is niet met zekerheid te zeggen, wanneer dezen
suddenness.       Consi,der  its issue-the complete dis- psalm gedicht is,  noch ook door wien. Het is  een
persion of the enemy. And consider finally that the             onderwijziag voor Asaph, doch  bet is moeilijk te ver-
weapon employed was the efficacious word of God. Let staan, dat deze Asaph dezelfde is die leefde ten tijde
the people of Israel therefore not vaunt themselves van David. Eerst, omdat er gesproken war&  van de
before the Lord. But let them give God all the glory. verwoesting des tempels. Dit kan niet gezegd  worden
One more remark and then we pass on. The men of van den tijd waarin David leefde. Tweedens, omdat
zeal and holy daring and devotion in Israel were ex- er  gekIaagd  wordt over de ontstentenis der profetie.
ceedingly few at that time. So it always is. But it is             Mijns inziends, past tdeze psalm meer in den tijd
well, for God so wills-wills to accomplish His work van Antiochus Epiphanes, want  toen   waren  er geen
through the few.                                                profeten meer. Dan is de Asaph van dezen psalm ecu
       As to the dispersed Midianite host, it fled to  Beth-    godvruchtige jood dier dagen,  toen Gods bondsvolk  ge-
shittah in Zererath and  <to the border of Abelmeholah, marteld  wend gelijk nooit te voren.
unto Tabbath. The mention of these places had a local              Een  onderwijzing.
significance for the people of Israel who were acquaint-           Als men dezen psalm aandachtig  leest en bestudeert,
ed with their situation. What the mention of these dan klimt onwillekeurig  de zucht: hoe vreemd klinkt
places tell us is that the Midianites did not flee in one deze klacht in den monld van het Israel dezer dagen!
body, but in two divisions  an.d directions. This ex- Wie roept vandaag : "Hoe lang, o God ! zal de weder-
plains the measures adopted by Gideon. Unable to partijder smaden? zal de vijand in  eeuwigheild  laste-
pursue both himself, he calls on Ephraim to cut off the ren? Waarom trekt Gij Uwe hand, ja, Uwe rechter-
other line of flight across the fordes of the Jordan.           hand, af? trek haar uit het midden van `Uwen boezem ;
Also  the fearful ones, the troops  ,that had been collected    maak een einde." verzen 10 en 11. Vreemd, want waar
from Manasseh,  Asher,  Zebulun and Naphtali, now Israel ziet hoe [de Heere eindelijk Zijn rechterhand ont-
gather themselves together and pursue the Midianites. blootte en het schijnt alsof Hij dan tech een einde zal
Now they have courage, now with the victory achieved maken,  nu roept men met geweld : Haal Uw hand ,terug,
and the enemy on the run.                                       Heere!  Breng ons  tech weer den vrede ! Men zit er
       The Ephraimites, responding to Gideon's call, came       in't geheel niet over in, dat de vijand God  smaadt
down against the Midianites, "and took before them gelijk nooit te voren. Men zit er veel meer over in,
the waters unto Bethbarah and Jordan. And they dat God de massa `s doodt, dan dat Zijn Naam gelas-
took two princes of the Midianites: Oreb and Zeeb:              terd werd. En dat Hij Zich nu aan `t wreeken is.
and they slew Oreb upon the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they               En  tech: een onderwijzing.
slew at the winepress of Zeeb, and pursued Midian.                 Zullen we `t leeren?
and brought  the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on              0 God! waarom verstoot Gij in eeuwigheid? waarom
the other side of the Jordan."                                  zau Uw toorn rooken  tegen de schapen Uwer weide?
       The names of the two princes ,captured  and slain           Ach! zoo schijnt het vaak. De goddelooze heeft
are suggestive,- suggestive of the character of thoa? rust en vrede in de wereld en hij vermorzelt het volk
Midianite hordes and of the character of the kingdom van God. Zoo was het gegaan met Israel in de dagen
of this world in general. Oreb means wolf and Zeeb van  iden onbekenden Asaph. Lettende op wat volgt in
means raven. Under these names the two princes had dezen psalm, stand het er hachelijk bij met de kerk
been dreaded. They were fierce and brutal men, who van het Oude Verbond.
lived by #their swords and with whom might was right.              Van allen  kant werden ze omsingeld en benauwd.
                                             `2. M. 0.             We  worden  hier onderwezen in  twee  zaken  `die
                                                                nauw aan elkaar verwant zijn. Eerst, dat het Gods
                                                                volk aan het hart gaat, dat Gods `naam gelasterd wordt
                                                                en de Godsopenbaring op  aarde met voeten getreden.
                                                                De vijand, wie hij dan ook geweest is, "heeft alles in
                                                                het heiligdom verdorven" ; de "graveerselen  samen
                       - NOTICE  -                              het hauweelen en beukhamers in stukken geslagen";
                                                                "Uwe  heiligdommen  in het vuur gezet"; "de woning
       Classis East will not meet July 5, as previously Uws naams ontheiligd!' ; "Gods vergaderplaatsen in
announced, but July 12.                                         het land verbrand", enz. Tweedens,  dat zij achter den
                                      D. Jonker,  S. C.
                               -.                               gerwogster  den Heere zien.
                                                                            _>,..  ..,

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

 teederen min. Hebt ge het gezien? Die  aimen Gods
 in kleurenpracht van alle deugd Gods verdwijnen  aan                 Preaching On The Parables
 den gezichtseinder.       En  udat is. theologisch correct:
 Van onderen eeuwige armen !                                         In the outset of this essay, it is perhaps well to
        Asaph wil den Heere attent maken  oi die eeuwige          answer the questions as to what the parables are and
 armen.      Heere, ik  versta  niet waarom wij zoo  ver-         the purpose of Christ in introducing parables in the
 trapt moeten w&-den! Ter eener zijde, zie ik den god-            course of his instruction and preaching unto the people.
 delooze. Hij tiext en raast tegen U en tegen Uw ge-                 The very word parable means the placing of two
 zalgden. Ter anderer  zijde, zie ik de boog, Uwe armen  ! or more subjects together, in order to compare them.
 Ik kan het niet rijmen!                                          The parables spoken by `our Lord during H,is public
        Het is alsof ik de Emmausgangers wee? hoor  kla-          ministry were the earthy and the heavenly objects,
 gen : Jezus is gekruisigd ! Vreemdeling'  in Jeruzalem,          which He compared together, and found them to be
 wij verstaan dat vreeselijke kruis niet! Hij werd den VERY COMPARABLE. There was utmost and per-
 ganschen  bangen dag van  verleden Vrijdag gedood.               fect comparison to be mad,e between the earthy  05,
 Men heeft Hem geacht als een Slachtschaap! zijt  Gij
 alleen een vreemdeling in Jeruzalem?                             jects of our sight and touch and the heavenly objects
                                                   Waarom lict
 Jehova het toe, dat dit Lam geslacht  werd?                      of God's kingdom which "no eye hath seen, nor ear
                                                                  hath heard, nor which have entered into the heart  OP
        Neen, zij verstonden het niet. En Asaph ook niet.         man." Therefore only through comparison with the
        En de verloste zielen onder het altaar in den hemel       earthy objects which God has made, can we know
 verstonden het ook  niet.          "Hoe lang,  `0  Heilige en the things of the heavenly and eternal kingdom of
 Waarachtige Heerscher !            Waarom wreekt Gij  ond        God. This is #true in a sense even of the spoken word.
 bleed niet van degenen  die op de aarde woonen?"                 Only thru the spoken Word can the things of God
        Zij  allen  bidden: Hoe lange, o God!                     be brought to our  atten'tion.  But this is alsd true
        Bidt gij ook zoo, geliefden?                              of all earthly creation. All creation is a sermon con-
        Hoe Iange Heere, wreekt Gij U niet op alle  godds-        cerning the things of `God's kingdom. Every earthy
 loozen  in anno Domino 1944?                                     object is a revelation of the kingdom of heaven. This
   En ah Hij dan begint te  doen,  wat Asaph Hem                  is clearly taught us by our Lord in Mark 4  :11, where
 smeekte ; als ,God het verbond  gaat aanschouwen,  zult          we read that the things of the kingdom "ARE  DONE':
 ge dan zoo  vreeselijk  onnatuurlijk  handelen en Zijn in par&es. So that it is plain that .parables  are the
hand afslaan en zeggen: Wat doet Gij?                             day by day happenings all round us,  Fnd that con-
        De.Heere  verbiede het !                                  tinually before our very eyes, of the things of God's
        Wij bidden: Hoe lange, He'ere!                            kingdom. This preaching of all earthy objects, of
        Jezus  ook : Waarom, Mijn God !                           very creation, was brought to our attention by our
        En er is slechts  6Bn antwoord: Totdat Mijn, raad Lord. Surely the preaching of the earth was there
 vervuld is, totdat alle Wijsheid geopenbaard is, totdat from the very beginning, when God made the heavens
 alle'goddelooshei,d  rijp is, totdat alle  verkorenen  gered     and the earth. For He made them as images of the
 zijn, totdat het tooneel van `t heelal  vertoonen zal a1         heavenly, spiritual things above. When Christ how-
 Mijn fdeugdenbeel,d  in vl&kelooze  heiligheid, onkretik-        ever began ,to preach in parables, He merely called
 bare gerechtigheid en  zachte,  teedere, lieflijke min!          attention to the plainness and visibleness, of the
        Tot zoo lang is Mijn' duive in de. handen  van `t god- things of the kingdom of heaven. So plain  ,were  thn-
 delooze rot. Tot zob' lang moet Gij zingen  (herinnert heavenly realities  and so visible that daily they were
 ge het  TJ?) : Maar de Heere zal uitkomst geven!                 being preached to us by all the earth. The things of
        En als die uitkomst komt, dan ial `die duive over-        the heavenly kingdom were preached daily in the
 dekt zijn met zilver,  welker vederen zijn met uitge-            sower that goes out to sow, or in the seed that dies in
 graven, geluwen goud !                                           the earth and thus multiplies a hundred fold, or in the
                                                     G. V.        bride that goes to meet her bridegroom, or in the
                                                                  family with two sons, etc. Thus parables are the
                                                                  comparisons of earthy objects  wi'th  the heavenly.
                          -                                          The foregoing somewhat reveals *the purpose Christ
                                                                  had in mind when introducing the parables in His
                                                                  -preaching.  We must remember that Christ did not
              T$ou  hast upheld me in Thy grace                   immediately in His public ministry speak in parables.
                                                                  The first year and a half, or two years, He never
               -Prom,  childhood's early days ;                   spoke in parables. But when gradually the opposition
              To Thee from Whom 1 life received  "                to Christ was  crystalizing  and the disciples were more
                Will I give constant praise. ,                    and more being revealed as devotees of the Lord,


I                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         425
     then He began speaking to the people in parables. such as teacher, preacher, Sunday-School instructor.
     And He did that to such an exterlt that it elicited from    or leader of any society. It is essential to proper
     the disciples the question: "Why speakest thou unto         interpretation of parables to follow these rules, else
     them in parables?", Mark  4:10,  The answer of our one will fall into all kinds of absurdities and  wi!il
     Lord gives us <the reason or purpose of preaching in speculation and in the end will fail to even touch upon
     parables. The purpose is twofold. The positive pur- the idea which Christ wished to convey with any par-
     pose is of course the making ever plainer the things ticular parable. There are many wrong views con-
     concerning the kingdom of heaven unto the disciples cerning the interpretation of the parables. One `ex-
     of Christ, so that they may understand the things of treme view is that parables are  mereIy supplementarg
     God's kingdom and  ,so be enabled to give ever clearer stories, supplementing some truth which Christ had
     testimony and witness concerning the hope that is in already or was about !to expound. The parable the!!
     them.    However, there is I also a negative purpose,       is merely a sort of ornament to some other truth.
     which is rather lengthily explained by our Lord, in It is really non-essential, or a kind of drapery and
     Matt. 13  :ll-17 and Mark 4  :12. This negative  pur-       not the vehicle of the actual truth. On the other ex-
     *pose is served in those that Christ calls "them that treme are those who extend the interpretation into
     are without.." Unto "them that are without" (the all the minutest details of the parable and affirming
     kingdom) parables are preached, so that  ,"seeing  they all parts of the parable to be of great significance.
     may see and not perceive and hearing they may hear From every detail a spiritual lesson should be found,
     and not understand; lest at any time they should be         it is claimed.      Both these extremes are of course
     converted and their sins should be forgiven them"           wrong. Therefore it is absolutely necessary  :to follow
     Mark 4 :11-12. It is plain therefore that Christ preach- certain guiding rules in the preaching and teaching
     ed the parables unto them that are without the king- of parables. Parable preaching is never an easy mat-
     dom, for the very purpose of making plain to them           ter, but good and scriptural interpretation will acruc
     the things of His kingdom, thereby to PROVE AND to the one following the following rules.
     REVEAL THEIR ATTITUDE OF UNBELIEF AND                          In the first place there is the historical occasion
     :HATRED.      In 4he parable the wicked clearly and em- which called forth the parable. It is true that oftell
     phatically and continually see the things of God's it is very .difficult  to find out the re&on for a certain
     kingdom. Never can the wicked have an excuse that           parable.    Rowever  most of the time this can and
     the things of God's kingdom were kept from them,            should be done. As for instance in the parable of
     or that they were not clear. Never can the wicked           the m,erciful  Samaritan, it is very plain that it was
     claim the  t.hings  of God's kingdom were not sufficient- occasioned by the question of the lawyer, who asked:
     ly and continually brought to their mind and attention.     "Who is my neighbor?"         Sometimes the o'ccasion  is
     For it is plainly taught by Christ that THEREFORE a dispute of Christ with the hearers, or while ex-
     the parables were preached and are daily preached to pounding a certain truth, the particular truth Christ
     the wicked. Daily cthe things of God's kingdom hap- is emphasizing is made plain' by a parable. Thus it
     pen before their very eyes. They see these things           is always of primary importance to study the histori-
     happen. They" daily hear them happen. There is, cal occasion for the parable first of all.
     exactly because of this parabolic preaching, a clear,          Secondly,  and in close connection with the first
     emphatic, and continual making konwn to them, the           rule, the scope of the parable is often determined by
     things of God's kingdom, and also a making known the historical occasion. A parable does not teach all
     of their unbelief and hatred of the things of God's tha,t its form may imply. But the Lord Himself
     kingdom. Ignorance can never be an excuse there-' limits the scope of the parables often by applying
     fore. Not clearly seeing  the things of God's king- the parable to a certain occasion. Thus for instance
      dom, may and can never be raised as a cause for in the parable of the unprofitable servant in Luke
     not entering into the kingdom of God. Surely the 173-10, the scope of the parable is determined by
     wicked of Jesus' day, as well as throughout all his-        Christ in the 10th verse when He says: "So likewise
     tory,  did and do understand and clearly and distinctly ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are
     the things that are preached concerning the kingdom commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants:
     of God. BUT THEY HATE THAT KINGDOM, and we have done that which was our duty to do." That
     that hatred is revealed by them, when' the parables are determines  the scope of the parable. It would be
     brought to them as daily happenings of the kingdom wrong therefore to see in the parable a justifiable
     of heaven.                                                  reason for slavery, even as the servant in the parable
         When preaching on the parables it is necessary was a slave unto his master, or for justifying an un-
     for the preacher to follow certain rules that guide scrupulous boss who would force his servants to work
     us in the proper interpretation. These rules should for him as this servant of the parable worked for
     also be followed by anyone explaining the parables,         his master.       For the simple `reason that Christ  ir

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

speaking of man's relation to God and not man's re-
lation to other men. Toward ,God man must always                                   Freemasonary
say: I am unprofitable. Therefore secondly the scope
of the parable must also be considered when preach-           Orga.ni.za  tion-
ing on the parables.
       Thirdly, the point of comparison is a vital element       The Masonic lodge is only one of some 800 secret
in parable preaching.       As we  s:tated before in this societies in these .Uni:ted  States of America. Nearly
essay, a parable is a comparison of some earthly ob-          half of our adult population, including multitudes of
ject with a spiritual, heavenly object. When preach- our most prominent and influential people, politicians,
ing on the parables therefore, we must carefully seek business men, preachers, lawyers, judges, etc. are
the point of  comparisoil  which the Lord makes.  A11         affiliated with these numerous secret orders for both
the various elements in  tine parable are not points          men and women.
of comparison to heavenly truths. There must not                 Of these 800 secret societies Masonry is  :the oldest,
be found all kinds of different heavenly truths  in the largest and most influential. It is the parent of all
parable, but only one essential truth. That one es-           secret orders, of which all the rest are born and after
sential truth is brought out in a parable, and therefor?      which all the others are patterned. When, therefore,  *
that one essential point of comparison must be sedn.          you speak of Freemasonry you speak of lodgism in
The rest of the story or parabie, is used to embellish        general.
and fill in, in  orIdes  to make the story or parable            The full name of this secret order is "Ancient
complete.                                                     and Accepted Freemasoilry."      The "Ancient" in this
       Finally the spiritual lesson which the Lord wills name has reference to the allegation of Masonry that
to bring out, must be ever kept in mind. 0 how                this order had its inception in the very distant past.
often little spiri:tual lessons are sucked out of a par- According to some Masons it is of divine origin. We
able, not having anything to do with the intended are told that Noah and  Enoch passed on certain
lesson Christ willed to bring out. And often these secrets to Masonry, that King Solomon himself or-
little spiritual lessons sucked out of various non-es- ganized a Masonic lodge, that Zechariah was a Mason,
sential elements in the parable, causes both the preach- and that John the Baptist and the Apostle John were
er and the hearers to lose sight of the main lesson of        patrons of this order. Boastful talk, of course, so
the parable. However, we should seek to find  out characteristic of all secret orders. One who has read
the one main truth that is, to be made plain in the           anything at all about Masonry and has watched them
parable, and then subordinate all the other elements parade in their Halloween regalia, is familiar with their
under that one main truth. Then those things which bombastic tendencies and is no Ionger surprised at
also Christ intended to be accidental in the parable          anything they claim and do. Their claim of ancient
remain just exactly that, and  ;the main tenet or truth       and even divine origin are not supported by a single
comes ever clearer to the foreground also before the          proof. It is all a hoax to deceive the simple. The
consciousness of the hearers. Then also we see the            Encyclopedia Britannica, which should  khow,  tells us
beauty of all the parables in that each one brings that Masonry had its inception no earlier than 1717
home, in the most  clearcut  manner, one blessed truth A.D. The "Accepted" in the name given above im-
concerning the kingdom of heaven or  its righteous- plies, that "the ,candidate  accepts the lodge as it is,
ness, to the end that the people of God will hearken          though he knows nothing about it when he joins."
more and more to the admonition  of" our Lord : "Seek         And the "Free" indicates that the applicant joins of
ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,            his own volition. This is true, by the way, of the
anld all these things shall be added unto you."               first degree. Thereafter, however;all succeeding de-
                                                 L. v.        grees are mandatory.
                                                                  In all there are 33 degrees in Freemasonry. The
                                                              one foundation of all Masonry. is called the Blue Lodge,
                                                              consisting of the first three degrees, that of Entered
                                                              Apprentice, Fellow Craft  anld Master Mason.  All
                                                              Masons, whoever they be, must pass through these
               God's word shall surely stand;                 degrees. Then comes the separation. So-called Chris-
          ' His Name through every land                       tians follow the York Rite, consisting of the degrees
               Shall be adored;                               four to thirteen; while Jews, Gentiles and Moham-
             Lord, who shall lead our host?                   medans follow the Scottish Rite, which comprises the
               Thy aid we covet most,                         degrees four to thirty two.  .Having  gone as far as
             In Thee is all our boast,                        possible in either Rite one is eligible for the thirty-
               Strong in the Lord.               .-_.         third degree, that of the Mystic Shrine.


                                    T.HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              427

   The  purpose of this world-wide organization is            Name of the Lord in its meetings and on its funerals,
manifolld.     One joins  rthis order for the sake of ad- and it professes to show the way to heaven. In ad-
vancement in politics and business, of prestige and           dition, there is the testimony of leading Masons them-
position in society and even the church. Preachers selves. "The religion of Masonry," writes A. G. Mac-
are told that Masonry will be a great help to them in key, "is pure Theism." The same author gives us
-their office and work. After all, Solomon and Zecha-         this sample of Masonic bombast, "A Master Mason
riah. John the Baptist and the Apostle John, and even has Idiscovered  the knowledge of God and His salva-
Noah and  Enoch  were Masons. There is also  .the             tion, and been redeemed from the  death of sin and
purpose of material gain. All Masons are sworn to the sepulchre of pollution and unrighteousness."  AmI
show partiality to fellow members of the order  anOj          another leading Mason, T. S. Webb, tells us,  "The
to favor them, even above their fellow Christians,            meeting of a Masonic lodge is strictly a religious
in business and politics. In fact, Masons are bound           ceremony.    The religious tenets of Masonry are few.
by the  ,most  bloody of oaths to protect and deliver one simple, but fundamental."
another from any kind of  ,trouble,  whether they be             It is equally evildent,  however, that the religion of
right or wrong.       Besides, there is the element of Masonry is not that of Christianity. That stands to
`social security. The Masonic lodge provides for sub-         reason, since all men are eligible for membership.
sidy in sickness and old age, help for widows  an4            Th'e .Jew,  denies and rejects the Christ; :the Moham-
orphans and aid in financial distress. They also havn medan, who says that Allah is God; the Hindu and the
their   `~Homes" for aged Masons and their wives as Buddhist, both blind heathens, are as welcome in  th?
well as for the orphan children of their  members.            lodge as the so-called Christian. If only the peculiar,
And so Masonry offers advancement to the politician,          distinctive views and convictions of all are left out-
prosperity to the business man, aid to ,:he distresse:?       side  the brotherhood.     The religion of Masonry is
and aged and bereaved. In addition to all this Mason- necessarily such that all men can subscribe to it, ex-
ry also prides itself on being a center of morality and cept the true child of God. It calls on God, but out-
religion;     It sheds light on all spiritual matters; Ii: side of Christ, and that god is whoever the individual
shows the way to heaven itself; it holds in trust pre-        Masons think him to be. The Name of of Christ  i3
cious spiritual truths which all non-Masons lack.             omitted from  :the Masonic prayers as well as from
Rcligion-                                                     many passages in Scripture.         One can blaspheme,
                                                              deny the miracles of Scripture, ridicule the Virgin
    That Masonry claims  ta be a religious organiza- Birth, mock with the deity of Christ, deny the aton-
tion is indisputable. From this point of view it dif-         ing power of the blood and trample under feet al!
fers from unionism, with which it, in many respects,          that is essential  :to life and salvation,-and still be :;,
has much in common. Roth the lodge and the union respected and prominent Mason. Christianity, to the
are open :to all men, who are willing to subscribe to Mason, is a sect, and the Bible is no better, or worse,
their pure worldly laws and requirements; wherefore than the Mohammedan Koran.
their mixed constituency, their amalgamation of church           In  tru.th,  the religion of Freemasonry is a con-
and world.. In both the members are sworn to sec-             glomeration of all that is anti-Christian.  `It is  PeIa,-
recy, promising under oath not to divulge the doings gian, Unitarian, modern, pagan, everything,-nothing.
of their respective organizations to even their closes? This is evident from what Dr. A.  G; Mackey, Past
friends.      Both lodgism and unionism have as their General High Priest and a famous Masonic  auth0rit.y.
purpose the material gain and advancement, the tem- wrote in the  Encycbopedia   of  F~reemasoruy.   "The se-
poral protection and security of themselves. Both ligion of Masonry is not sectarian. It admits men of
glorify the brotherhood of man, and both are commit- every creed within its hospitable bosom, rejeciing none
ted to force if it can promote their own interests.           and approving none for his peculiar faith. It is not
CHowever,  in this they differ, that lodgism rea,ches  out    Judaism, though there is nothing in it to offend  ;2
into the domain of the spiritual as well as tha:t  of the     Jew, it is not ChristiaLlity,  but there is nothing in it
natural and claim to show the way to heave2  as well          repugnant to the faith of a Christian. Its  religioil
as to the abundant life in this world.                        is that general one of nature and primitive revelation
    That Masonry purports to be such a religious or- -handed down to us from some ancient and patriai'-
ganization and claims a place in the religious sun chal priesthood-in which all men may agree and none
alongside the church of Jesus Christ is evident.  It may differ." Again: "If Masonry were simply a Chris.
speaks about God and salvation; it has the Bible,             tian Institution, the Brahmin, the Moslem and  the
although it (does not hesitate to mutilate it as it sees      Buddhist could not conscientiously  parfake  of its il-
fit; it has its priests and 2s chaplains, and its meet-       lumination, but its universality is its boast; in its
ing places are usually called temples. Masonry speaks language citizens of every nation may converse;  ni
of immortality, resurrection and heaven; it calls on the      its altars all religions may kneel, and to  itd  crco~.l


I                                                                                                   _... .- -    .     ---_~
     428                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

      every faith may subscribe."        Such is Freemasonry. ry "under a no less penalty than that of having  rn)
     It accepts no Trinity, no divine Savior, no atonement left breast torn open, my heart plucked out  aild given
     in the blood of Christ. It needs no regeneration or as a prey to the beasts of the fiekl, and the fowls cf
     conversion. It speaks of salvation by character, by the air." The Past Master invokes the penalty  of
     works, by subduing of passions, especially by favor- having his "tongue split from tip to roots," and  the
      ing fellow members. To the Mason salvation is sim- Most Excellent Master swears to have his "heart
      ply  "the just reward of a pious and virtuous life." taken out and exposed to rot on a dung-hill." These
      And besides all this Masonry is rank paganism. are only a few samples of the shocking brutality and
      Writes A.T.C. Pierson, another authority on the sub- godlessness of the Masonic vows and penalties. Ri-
     ject, "The religious system of Masonry comes from diculous, were they not so murderous and blasphem-
     the East, and has reference to the primitive religion,         ous. Obviously, they make of every Mason a  potcn-
      whose first occupation was the worship of the sun." tial murderer.
                                                                       The evils in these oaths and in Masonry in general
      I+&+-                                                         lie at the surface.
            One does not speak of Masonry without referring             There is the grievous sin of being yoked together
      to its horrible, blood-curdling oaths. I shall quote with unbelievers and professed infidels, on a basis
      the oath, that must be sworn when one receives `the that can satisfy the most vindictive Jew and the
      first degree of Masonry, that of the Entered Appren-          most hateful Mohammedan, and that under a yoke in-
      tice.      "I, of my own free will and accord, in the tended ,to be more binding than any relationship on
      presence of Almighty God and this Worshipful Lodge,           earth. Tihe lodge yoke presumes to be even more sa-
      erected to Him and dedicated to the Saints John, do cred than the marriage vow. A Mason's fellow lodge'
     hereby and hereon, most solemnly and sincerely pro- members are nearer to him than his own wife. He
      mise and swear that I will always hail, ever conceal swears to keep the secrets of his order even from her.
      and never reveal any of the secret arts, parts  01            He may stay out all night, but may not divulge to
      points of the hidden mysteries of Ancient Freemason- her what took place. The lodge yoke super-cedes the
      ry, which have been heretofore, may at this time, or          du:ty  of a man to his church. Under no circumstances
      shall at any future period, be communicated to me as may a Mason discuss the doings and secrets of his lodge
      such, to any person or persons whomsoever, except with a brother in Christ, or with his pastor, even in
      it be :to a true and lawful brother of this degree, or        sickness and death. .
      within a regularly constituted Lodge of Masons, and               Stronger even t.han  the obligations .of citizenship
      neither unto him nor them, until by strict trial, due         is the yoke of Freemasonry. Members of the order
      examination, or legal information, I shall have found are sworn to show partiality to one another, even in
      him or them as lawfully entitled to the same  as  I           preference to fellow members of the church of Christ.
      myself. I furthermore promise and swear that I wJl1           Masons are under oath to deliver one another from
      not write, print, paint, stamp, stain, cut, c.arve.  ma?ie    any kind of trouble, including, it seems, crime. The
      nor engrave them nor cause the same to be  *done  upon        oath of the  seven.th  degree Mason vows:  "I will aid
      anything movable or immovable, capable of receiving a companion Royal Arch Mason when engaged in any
      the least impression of a word, syllable, letter or           difficulty ; and espouse his cause as far as to extricate
      character, whereby the same may become Iegible or him from  :the same, if in my power,  whether he  brx
      intelligible to any person under :the canopy of heaven."      right  or  u-`rong.J'    It is not difficult to imagine how
      And mark the penalty attached to this oath: "AI1 of this must effect the integrity. of our judges, jurors,
      this I most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear, witnesses and policemen when dealing with fellow
      with a firm and steadfast resolution, to keep and per- members of the Masonic order.
      form the same without any equivocation, mental re-                Finally, there is the element of their secrecy. It
      servation or secret evasion of mind whatever, bind- is well to remember, that much of their hullabaloo
      ing myself under a no less penalty than that of hav- about deep and wonderful secrets is nothing but a
      ing my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by its           hoax and so much Masonic "big talk." Masonry dotes
      roots and buried in the rough sands of  ::he sea at           on bombast and sensationalism. That is revealed in
      low water mark, where the tide ebbs and flows twice           all they say and do. Think only of all the  fallfare
      in twenty-four hours, should I ever knowingly violate connected with their funerals, and parades, the gaudy
      this my solemn obligation of an Entered Apprentice uniforms, the plumed hats, fezzes, scarlet sashes, white
      Mason. So help me God, and keep me steadfast in the gloves and tin swords. Like so many children on a
     I due performance of the same."                                Halloween parade ! Child-play; tomfoolery unworthy
               Every succeeding degree of Masonry has its own of a sane, self-respecting man; laughable, were it not
      bloodthirsty oath and corresponding penalty. Thus so serious. In like manner they speak much of their
      the Fellow Craft swears to keep the secrets of Masgn- marvelous secrets, and men pay great sums of money

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

for degrees on the claim that they will acquaint the cial revelation of God, since Et is the inspired, infal-
candidate with wonderful secrets and lessons, which lible Word.
are never forthcoming. The Masonic oath speaks  of              This revelation is that which has been given in the
"secret arts, parts or points of the hidden mysteries consciousness of the prophets and apostles through the
of Ancient Freemasonry." More boastful talk ! All external and internal address, through inspiration,
the secret signs, grips, oaths, degrees and symbolism dream, ecstatic vision as well as the trance. The dream
of Masonry are in print, and leading Masons them- as a medium of revelation is  ,that with which we shall
selves make use of the books available to anyone to          deal tonight.
study up on their own lodges. The secrets *they  do             Speaking on "The Revelatory dream," we would
have pertain especially to their evil practices, the like to call your attention to:
secrets revealed of and unto one another, and the                T. The dream as such
ways and means they devise to promote their own                 II. Its significance
interests wherever possible. With respect  :to these            The dream is a very strange as well as most mys-
they are secret societies. These secrets they are  bledg-    terious phenomenon. This is because our dream takes
ed to keep until death. And such  secresy  is out of us to another world so to speak, a world which is im-
hell. No Christian many or can possibly pledge fi- possible to be known by us as we do our own living
delity to that which is not even known ,to him ; much world. The workings of our living world are known
less can he swear .to keep faith with that which he          and unders,tood  by us to a very large extent. because
knows  will involve him in all sorts of corruption.          of the great advance which has been made in modern
Besides, in this way of secrecy one withdraws  himse1.f      culture. Men calculate the distances of the luminary
from all the influence of the church and covers him- bodies in the solar system from the earth; by the
self with a darkness which even the discipline of God's modern systems of communication men speak with
church cannot penetrate. Only that which is of Idark-        one another though they be separated as far as the
ness need be kept secret. That which is of God can East is from the West; the modern means of travel
stand and seeks the light, even as God is light. How reduce distances so greatly that we may eat our sup-
completely contrary to the principles of Scripture per in New York and have our early breakfast in
and  ,the  t,estimony  of the Lord Jesus Himself, "In London. The world has become very small and has
secret have I said nothing."                                 been placed at our front door, and shall television be
   More could be said, no doubt, in proof of what has perfected the world shall even be brought into our
been adduced, but space does not permit. Even so, living rooms.
it should be evident, that Masonry and Christianity             However, even though there have been recent ad-
can never go together and no Mason can have a place vances in the field of physiology and psychology, yet
in the church and at the table of our Lord Jesus Christ.     it is remarkable that  when it comes to the phenomenal
                                               R.  v.        world of dreams, little more is known today than  wa.3
                                                             known in very early times. The definition of dreams
                                                             as given by  #the famous Grecian scholar Aristotle who
                                                             lived in the fourth century B.C. approaches the mod-
                                                             ern version of the deram.      We may go back even
         The Revelatory Dream                                further yet to Solomon who gives us some factual
                                                             information on the dream in his inspired writing,
                                                             and who knows but what we could go back further
                Commencement  AIddress                       yet and find that men long before this knew and un.
   God is a God of Revelation. `He is such because He jderstood  the nature of dreams as well as or nearlv
is the self-concious, all-knowing, personal God,  fall as well as we, even though modern terminology was
of infinite perfections. And that we may know Him, not employed, of course.
Whom to know is life eternal,  is only possible because         Whenever there are phenomena which are very
God has been please I tc make Himself known um 1 strange and mysterious to men, there is usually some
His moral rational  cr.cature.   T!his revelation of God fear, apprehension, or superstition connected with' it.
is twofold: general and special. B:; general revelaricn Thus dreams have been the cause of much fear and
is meant that God makes Himself known to all men superstition.                `Homer, the Greek poet and author of
as their Creator through the medium of creation and ,the eighth century before Christ, who was of great
providence, that no man may be without excuse. Spe- repute, declared that dreams came from the god Jove,
cial revelation, however, is that act of God whereby as signs and warnings to men. Especially among the
He makes Himself known unto His people as  tlneir heathe;l  were the superstitions regarding dreams ram-
Deliverer in the Son of His love ia the proclamation pant, and even today there. are a great many who
of the Scriptures.    These Scriptures only are the  spe- attach certain mealiings  to particular dreams. Many

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

of  YOU  perhaps have noticed in Almanacs a  portion       ness. On the one hand we enter into the events of
devoted to dreams and their interpretation. If  on2        the dream as real, and are actors in the drama por-
dreams of a marriage, one must understand this as trayed, while on the other hand it seems as though
an omen of the death of a relative or friend. Likewise we are also spectators, watching sthe dream. In these
the entrance of fish in a dream has the same signifi- cases by our reason we induce ourselves to sleep
cance.                                                     on, fearing lest our dream be broken off. But even
    Against all such heathenish superstitions the Word at that our minds do not weigh .and judge the ideas
of God warns. While  it is true that the ordinary          presented in the dream, but remain passive and accept
dream has significance as we shall see later,  so that them.
they have a great effect on our lives, even Idetermin-        As to the content of the dream, we may say, no
ing occasionally the careers of men, yet the heathen- matter how absurd, or how terrible the dream may he,
ish  significances  attached are without basis, being out that it is none other than is in our heart in our
of the darkness, and not out of ,the Light.                waking hours. Solomon says: "As a man thinketh,
    By devoting ourselves briefly to the ordinary dream so is he!" This is  certainIy true. If our thoughts
as such, we should be able to glean a little light on are constantly full of carnal, wicked and godless things,
the special dream which in many respects is compar- we  are carnal, wicked and godless, while on the other
able to it. The `dream is ordinarily the re-embodiment hand, if our thoughts are the spiritual discernment
of thoughts which have before, in some form or other of spiritual things, we a;re spiritual. Scriptures and
occupied our minds. They are broken fragments of our own lives testify to this as the truth. And even
our former conceptions revived an,d thrown together .though our minds are asleep,  and our reason has no
in an unorthodox way, so that if broken off from their control over our dreams, yet as a man thinketh, so
connecting chain and become loosely associated, absurd also shall his dreams be.         I know-we do terrible
combinations are often exhibited.  ,However,  even at things sometimes in our dreams, which we would
that the elements still exist. New elements thus are never do in our waking hours (that is, we would
never introduced into our dreams which we have not         not do the deed, even though it does enter into our
been conscious of in our waking hours.                     minds), but this merely goes to show that God em-
    The main difference between our sleeping and           ploys the &earn  to turn us inside out, exposing us to
waking thoughts appears to lie herein, that in sleep- ourselves, so that we may see our wicked and carnal
ing thoughts the perceptive faculties of the mind (the inclinations. Therefore we are also accountable for
sensational powers and the imagination which com- our dreams, whether they be good or evil, and must
bine impressions derived from them) are active, while pray forgiveness for those sins committed in our
our reflective powers (the reason and  jmlgment by dreams.
which we control those impressions) are asleep. Thus          As ,to how the material is supplied for the dream
it is that impressions of dreams can often be so vivid,    we may answer threefold. As in our waking hours,
`natural and picturesque, so that rather than seeming so also in our (dreams is the material furnished firstly
to be mere dream images, they appear to be very real, by ourselves, secondly by other men, and thirdly by
and to objectively exist in the consciousness of the the direction of the Spirit of God as with the prophets.
dreamer. Because of the richness and depth of our             In the first place, most of the material is supplied
soul life, in dreams we therefore seem to have great by our own imagination and memory, so that in our
intuition far beyond our ordinary powers.                  dreams we are taken back  oftimes  to the scenes of
    In sleep therefore, the mind seems to be in the        early childhood. Yet there are also  physica sensa-
control of the powers of  association.   aHowever,  very tions such as heat and cold, pain or fever, sound or
often in our waking hours this also seems to be `the light which often suggest and mold our dreams. Ner-
case when we lend ourselves to "musing."         While vous disorders, indigestion, an uncomfortable lying
musing, the mind is carried through a series of position may also bring them on. Solomon in his Pro-
`thoughts which are connected together by accidental verbs tells us that dreams are caused by <the multitude
associations.    When we come to, and our minds begin of business.
to be active again, we can hardly trace the line of           In the second place, other men may suggest and
connection. I think that we have all experienced that bring on dreams. Experiments show that by whis-
rather often. There is, however, this difference, name- pering into the ear of one asleep may bring on a dream
ly, that while in "musing" we are aware that the con-      corresponding to the subject whispered. In another
nection is of our own making, in sleep it appears to be    case the tickling of the sleeper's ear caused the sleep-
caused by the actual succession of events.                 er to dream that he was being subjected to horrify-
   Yet there is also a certain class of dreams, (and ing tortures.
I know that we have all experienced this class  of            We may make two general observations on the
dream), wherein there seems to be a double  conscious-     above mentioned two sources of material for the


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D .   B E A R E R                                      481

dream. Firstly, that in both instances, though the            inspiration, of the apostles as we do *the sermonizinX
soul in distinction from the body is a spiritual sub-         of the minister. However the dream is comparable to
stance, it is nevertheless joined to and penetrates the the ordinary  <dream in some respects.
body, being dependent upon it, and the .two forming              First of all, as does the ordinary dream take place
one organism. Dreams are not thus the functioning in sleep, so also the revelatory dream took place when
of some spiritual substance alone, but involve also the       sleep isolated the recipient from the waking world,
body, especially the nerve centers. Secondly,  all  or-       his mind being surrendered to the sensational powers.
Idinary dreams come forth out of the store of God's And the dream-images which he saw are not to be
providence, and are thus to be included in His  all- explained by external stimuli upon the sensory or-
embracing sovereign counsel. As God guides and con- gans. To the recipients the images were as vivid and
trols our waking life, so also He guides and controJs         natural as though they were real.
our sleeping hours, so that by these our determined              In the second place, these dreams resemble  the
destiny is realized.                                          ordinary dream in that though their dreams resembled
   The third source of dream material, or associations,       waking experiences,  Zhe various elements were not
is the Spirit of God directing them in a special way,         reproduced in the order of their happening. Further-
whereby the revelatory dream is given.          ,God com- more, some of them appear very ridiculous and ab-
municated (directly, with the spirit of man in his            surd as  ;do some of our unreasonable dreams. For
dreams being pleased  ,thereby  to reveal Himself. There instance, that  ,seven thin cows should eat seven other
are at least  18 such dreams recorded in the  Holy            cows is in itself ludicrous, but that they eat seven fat
Scriptures,  14 persons being the recipients.  Wit11          cows and become no fatter makes it more ridiculous
many of these, if no,t all, we are acquainted.                yet. The same also applies to the seven small ears of
        These dreams we may classify into three groups:       corn consuming the  ,seven  large ears. Most of the
the visual dream engaging the eye only, the auditory          dreams are in themselves meaningless. However,  the
dream engaging the ear only, (with the exception how-         dream-images were symbols that bore resemblance
.ever  that they also saw the angel of the Lord who           to familiar objects, and hence could be, interpreted.
appeared to them}, and the semi-auditory, semivisual             In the third place, the minds of the dreamers
engaging both the eye and ear. The visual dreams are were receptive, and not active, so that they had no
those of Joseph,  Jazob's  son, of the butler, baker,         control over the images which flitted before their
Pharaoh, `and that of the Midianite who dreamed of            minds.
a barley roll tumbling into a tent of the  MEdianites            Fourthly, the ,dreamers.  were both spectators and
and crushing it,  imerpreted  by Gideon as their  dc-         actors in the dream taking place.
liverance into his hand.        The auditory dreams are          (However, though in many respects they may be
those of Joseph, Mary's husband, Laban's,  Solomon's          comparable, nevertheless they differ essentially. Therc-
and Abimelech's. Semi-auditory,semi-visual are those fore we cannot explain them rationalistically as  iq
of Abraham (in which he was overtaken in a horrible           done by some.     Joseph for example was a prided
Idarkness)  and of Jacob at Bethel.        The dream  3f young fellow having quite an opinion of himself. He
Pilate's wife (if it were a revelatory dream, as it           very likely had helped his brothers set up sheaves, ,
most likely was), and the dream of the magi  we do and hence it was but natural that he should cdream
not classify since the Scriptures give us `no light 011       as he did. Many of the dreams of warning such as
them.       In this connection we might also add that         Abimelech's and that of the Magi, of Joseph and
Daniel's "night vision upon his bed" were very likels         others are, so they say, merely providential premoni-
dreams, although there is a great difference of opin-         tions or warnings.    Nor can we say with them of
ion.      Although we cannot state definitely, we  take       Peter's trance, `(very much like a dream), that  the?
.these to be Idreams  since they correspond a great den1      fact that Peter saw the food before him of which he
to the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar, and secondly in all          was commanded to take and eat, was because he
probability the dream is used here to put to shame was half-starved when he fell into the trance.
the falsehoods of the Chaldean belief in prophetic               These dreams are truly miracles worked by God
dreams and in the power in interpretation, and yet Himself, so that instead of the subconscious life of
to bring out that God does reveal Himself by the true         the soul being without control of the mind, the mind
dream.                                                        of the Spirit of God takes control, and weaves the
        In all these dreams .these characters are all pas-    various elements so as to serve as a divine revelation,
sive with the exception of Abimelech and Solomon              thereby making His will known to *the one receiving
,who speak with the angel of the Lord.                        the dream.
        Because of the revelatory character of these             This does not mean, however that there were no
dreams,  `we cannot explain them as we would the              antecedent or mental states which have some rela-
ordinary dreams anymore than we would explain the             tion to the dream itself. The apostle John was.  R


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  simple fisherman, while Luke was the bel,oved  physi- dream to expose the falsehood of their belief,s  in and
  cian  ; and even though  `they  were both inspired when      interpretation of  *dreams. In both instances the di-
  they wrote their Gospel narratives, there is neverthe- viners and magicians and all their wise men through-
  less a great deal of difference in their writings. Luke's out their dominions were unable to interpret  thr?
  grammar, style, and expression are polished, while dream, and in the case of Nebuchadnezzar they were
  that of John is relatively simple. As the apostles unable :to tell him what he had adreamed. Thus they
  were prepared by God for their special calling, so           were exposed, showing  ,that their interpretations  were
  were also the recipients of  the divine revelation by mere fables and inventions, and it also shows them
  the dream prepared for receiving their particular that the dream itself, as well as its interpretation is
  dreams. Peter's trance was  ncht caused by his hunger, from God, and not from man, as is always emphasized
  yet God links his vision  *to his craving hunger. So         by Daniel and Joseph. Thus the wisdom of  .the world
  also  ,God links Joseph's dream to his somewhat prided       is made foolishness by means of the revelatory
  character, and links Nebuchadnezzar's huge image to dreams.
  his day-dreaming about his great world empire. Thus             In the second place we would like to point out the
  we could continue to show how their various charact- significanoe  of the dream as a medium of revelation.
  ers and experiences are linked up with their dr&m.           Scripture very decidedly lays much more emphasis
  However, they are not the cause of  ,them, since in upon the divine influence whereby all the understand-
  all these cases it is God Who affects. the revelation con- ing is affected. Hence the dream is the lowest form
  tained in their dreams, weaving those elements to- of revelation.
  gether which He had previously put into their souls.            That,.this  is true is evident- from several things.
     Some of the dreams, the auditory and semi-audi- This is plain first of all from Numbers 12:6-8, which
  tory naturally differ froni the ordinary dream in that       deals with the sedition of Miriam and  Aaro:n who
  the angel of the Lord actually spoke to the dreamer, thought that they were equal to Moses as prophets:
  the latter understanding the voice of the angel as a "Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses ? hath
  living voice, although  <the voice so miraculously  was      he not spoken also by us?". God  the.n comes to the
  weaved into the dream so that it was a dream-ex-             defence  of the meek Moses, and addresses Aaron and
  perience.                                                    Miriam to this effect: "if there is a prophet in their
    II. Speaking on the significance of the revelatory midst, I will make known to him in a vision and will
  dream, we should ,note  that, first of all, the signifi- speak to him in a dream. However the most faithful
  cance lies herein: that the Word of God claims  th?          Moses is different, so I will speak to him mouth to
  dream, as it does every  &her action of the human mouth, ,not in dark speeches, and he shall beho1.d my
  mind, as a medium through which God can speak to similitude. How do you then dare to speak against
  man His special revelation.                                  your brother?" (I paraphrase).  (Here together  wi,th
     Now as I have said before, the combinations or the vision the dream is called a  ,dark speech, and it  is
  associations in our dreams are often very grotesque plain that as a medium it is inferior to the medium
  and absurd, often so ridiculous that they are frequent- wherqby  Moses received the Word of God.
, ly the cause of great laughter. They appear to make             This is plain in the second place from the fact
  absolutely no sense. Certainly therefore, dreams are that many took advantage of the ordinary dream, set
  a manifestation of the disorder and corruption that themselves up as dream prophets, and  cau&ed the
  has been caused in the deepest recesses of the soul people to err. More easily than any other could the
  of man by sin. While man may play the hypocrite dream be falsified, since everyone dreams. This  is
  in his waking hours when his reason has control, his the reason Jeremiah says in chap. 20  :32: "Behold,
  dream exposes him. However, in spite of this God             I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith
  uses the dream as a medium of revelation, thereby ,\;the Lord, and do `tell them, and cause my people to
  again showing the miraculous power of our wonder- err by their lies." Furthermore in Deut. 13 Jehovah
  fully Almighty God.                                          expressly forbids His people from observing dreams
     Then, <too, it is significant that God uses the dream,    and consulting the interpreters of them.       He even
  not cmly in spite of the abominable heathenish usage condemned such a dreamer to be put to deatb, even
  and interpretation of dreams, but also because of it.        though what he f,oretold  came to pass, if his. dream
  This is manifested especially in two cases, that of the in any way promoted idolatry. However, anyone
  dream of Pharaoh and that of Nebuchadnezzar, which thinking he had a significant dream was not forbidden
  dreams correspond a great deal. Both in Egypt as to receive an interpretatian  from the prophets or the
  well as Babylon was <there  a great heathenish belief high priest.
  in the prophetic `dream and the power of interpreta-            In the third place, that the dream is inferior as a
  tion. The lpumber  of diviners and magicians in both medium can be seen from  th,e fact  ,that it is a medium
  lands is not. small. God therefore uses the revelatory passed away long before any of the others. Only  d


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                       $33

     few dreams are recorded in the New Testament and credentials for assuming authority in the  ternpIe. They
     those   arc found  in Matthew. After the death of demanded a sign, and He answered them that they
     Christ they are used no more. Nor did Christ ever           would  #destroy this temple, but in three days He would
     make mention of the dream in the Scriptures.                raise it up. After the resurrection the disciples under-
        Finally, the dream is the lowest form of revela- stood that He ha,d not spoken of the temple of stone,
     tion as is evident from the fact that of all fourteen       but of the temple of His body, which the Jews wou%-l
     recipients of dreams, at least half of them are from crucify, but which He would raise from the dead on the
     the heathen world, aliens to the Jewish Covenant. third day.
     The objection might be raised that although half were          Again the scribes and Pharisees ask for a sign, a;;
     from heathendom, the rest were included in the Cove-        they repeatedly did.    And again, instead of  givincr
     nant, several being some of the greatest men in that them a visible, tangible evidence of His power and
     Covenant, as for example: Abraham, Jacob, Joseph            authority He sends them on their way pondering on
and Solomon. However, we should not fail  ,to aotice             the Mashal that refuses to be ignored. They go their
     that in all these cases the dreams always refer to the way wondering about Jonah, that well known prophet
     periods of their early acquaintance with and know- of the past, who spent three days and `three  ,ilights in
     ledge of God. The only exception is that of Daniel's the belly of the fish, and was spewed out again on
     dream, and I think that we have demonstrated quite          dry land to be sent to preach to Nineveh. And again
     clearly why  ,the medium of revelation to him is the        they are forced  ao consider the warning that when
     dream.                                                      they break `down His temple, He will build it up agaiu.
        In conclusion, we confess that there remains much For Jesus gives  SHis own interpretation of this  Mashal
     unsaid on the subject. Furthermore we have not re- by saying, "For as Jonas was three days and three
     moved the mysteriousness of the dream, and because nights in the whale's belly ; so shall the Son of Man
     of its very nature it shall never be unveiled here be- be three days and three nights in the heart of the
     1OW.      However, from the study of the subject we can     earth." Matt. 12 :39, 40; 16 :4; Luke 11:29,  30.
     understand in a little way, more of the glory of the           That they could not erase this saying from their
     Omnipotent One, Who is God of Revelation.                   memories is evident from the fact that they petitioned
t                                                J.  V.  W.      Pilate to set a watch over His grave until the ,third
                                                                 day, because they remembered" that that  ,deceived said,
                                                                 while He was yet alive, `After three days I will rise
                                                                 again'."
                                                                    There is nothing strange about the mere fact that
                                                                 these Jews demand a sign. It was still the time of the
       The Sign Of *Jonas The Prophet                            old dispensation when God spoke to Israel through
                                                                 types and shadows, and by sign and wonders. Since
                                                                 the HoIy Spirit was not yet poured out into the Church,
       At least on two separate occasions during His  public they still had need to be taught by the outward sign.
     ministry Jesus made the candid remark, "An evil and In the past others had asked for ,signs and had received
     adulterous generation seeketh after a sign  ; and there them. Israel had received signs from Moses when he
     shall  `no sign be given to it, but .the sign of the prophet was sent to them by God to deliver them out of the
     Jonas."                                                     bondage of Egypt. Gideon had received the sign of
             It bears the earmarks of a Mashal, that is, a pro- the fIeece. Hezekiah received the sign on the sun-dial.
     verb, or dark saying, frequently used in Scripture It was even the expectation of the Jews of those days
     for the purpose of forcing itself upon the attention of that when the Messiah would come He would make
     the audience to set them to thinking, so that they can- Himself known to them by signs and wonders. As
     not forget it  an,d must ponder its significance, whether the believing Jews in Jerusalem asked toward the close
     they will heed it or not.                                   of Jesus' ministry, "When the Christ cometh, will He
             Many times Jesus made use of the  Mashal instead ,do more  m,iracles than which this man hath done?"
     of speaking outright or `plainly', as the disciples once They may well have based their expectation on the
     remarked, "Now speak& Thou plainly, and speakest prophecy of Joel, "And I will shew wonders in the
no proverb." John  16:29.             One significant incident heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of
     took place at the beginning of His public ministry when smoke. The sun shall be turned into ,darkness and the
     He answered the Scribes and Pharisees, "Destroy this moon into blood before the great and the terrible day
     temple, and in three days I will raise it up."              of the Lord come." Nor did Jesus disappoint the
                The occasion was the cleansing of the temple at expectation of true Israel, for no one had ever seen the
     Jerusalem, when `He drove out the buyers and the sell- like of it. The blind received their sight, and the lame
      ers, and ,the scribes and Phariqeeg  asked Him fey His walked, the leperq were  cleansed, and the deaf heard,

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

the dead were raised up, and the poor had the gospel God did not leave donah out of His sight. Jonah went
preached to them.                                            to sea, but  God,followed  him by sending a storm upon
   Yet in spite of all these wonders which Jesus per- the sea which threatened  .to destroy the ship, its crew
formed, the scribes and Pharisees still clamored for a and passengers. He was thrown into the sea, yet  Go:1
sign. Not once, but repeatedly. In a deceitful cloak had prepared a special fish which was ready at that
of sham-piety they ask at any and every occasion,            very.momeint  to swalIow him up. Jonah spent a living
`fMaster,  we would have a sign of thee." Once, accord- death in the belly of the fish for three days and three
ing to Matthew 12, He had just given an amazing testi- nights. Then the fish spewed him out on dry land,
mony- of His power by casting, a .devil out of a man         and went to Nineveh to preach, with the result that
who  was both blind and dumb. The people considered Nineveh repented in dust and ashes upon the preach-
this  sufficie;lt evidence to declare Him to be the Christ ing of Jonah, who had passed through death and
by saying, "Is not this  ahe son of David?" Which only lived.
served to stir up the ire of the scribes and Pharisees          How entirely proper it was, that this evil and adul-
against Him, so that they accused Him of casting out terous generation should be reminded of donah as a
devils in the name of Beelzebub, the prince of the           type of Christ. `They claimed to believe Moses and the
devils. But Jesus, in turn, accused them of bl?,sphemy,      prophets, let them, then, believe the sign of Jonah, the
and therefore of being a party to the devils which He Old Testament type of the risen Lord. They would see
cast out. Whereupon they pretend to have a sudden before their own eyes the greater Jonah swallowed UP
change of heart and ask Him for a sign. If He is the by the power of death, bide his allotted time in the
Christ, let Him present His credentials.                     heart of the earth, to  arise again in power on the
   Upon which Jesus responds by c,alling them an evil third day. Unwittingly they would help to fulfill this
and adulterous generation. They are a troublesome,           prophecy. For with their own wicked hands they would
burdensome generation that is always ou,t to offend take Him and crucify Him, casting Him into the sea
the living God. Evil in  all their thoughts and ways,        of death, even tihile the storms of God's judgments
they forsake the living God to go a whoring after vain       raged and surged about them. They would seal His
Gods. As their fathers were, so are they, lovers of sin,     grave with an iron chain and set a watch to hold Him
forsakers of God, who have trodden His law under there until the third day, and th'ereby  they themselves
foot, broken His covenant and live in a spiritual forni- would give evidence through the empty tomb that He
cation before His face. Alway,s  they clamor for a sign. was actually risen from the dead.
But it must be a sign according to their own dictates.          What greater sign could anyone ask? When Jesus
Seemingly they will believe, if He but grant them such goes to the cross He presents His credentials before
a sign as they demand. In reality they are determined *the eyes of the whole world as the Christ Who is  se:`lt
to reject any and every sign He might give.  An,d if of God. He is pow8erfulIy  proven to be the Son of God
He dares  .to refuse they will brand Him as an imposter.     through the resurrection from the dead. Rom. 1  :.-I.
To the clamoring of that generation there is but ox          He showed Himself to be the Resurrection and the Life,
answer : "no sign shall be given them, but the sign of for He willfully entered into our death, spiritually a!-
the prophet Jonas."                                          ready on the cross in the body of the flesh, and after-
       What sign could be more fitting? They knew the ward He gave Himself into .the bonds of physical death
history well. Jonas had been born and reared amonK           to be laid away in the grave. God spoke from heaven
the ten tribes of Israel, of the tribe of Zebulun, during    with mighty signs and wonders while He hung  on the
the days when God was about to visit apostate Israel cross and when He gave up the ghost. It was the time
with His  ju5dgments  by  .banishing  them into captivity. of bloo,d and fire and pillars of smoke, of which Joe!
The God-fearing prophet, who seemingly had so  much had spoken. God laid His divine seal upon His finish-
work to do among his own people, was suddenly called ed work of the cross by raising Him from the dead on
away to go to Nineveh to preach repentance. Jonah the third day "according to the Scriptures".
knew full well that God could have no other  intention          If this evil and adulterous generation actually be-
with sending him to  Ni,ileveh than to bring this heathen lieves Moses and the prophets, let them take note. For
city to repentance and to the knowledge of salvation. the grater  Jonah will continue to witness from heaven
Evidently God was about to turn to another people, as the risen Lord. He will pour out His Spirit upon
which until now had been outside of the sphere of His His disciples on the day of Pentecost. He will  sen.J
covenant, with the sole purpoise of taking (them unto pthem out to preach the gospel to all nations, in order
Himself as His people.  j What else could that mean than     to provoke Israel to jealousy by them that are  nn
that the day of reckoning  had come for the kingdom of people, and by a foolish nation He will anger them.
Israel. God would turn away from them and cast them          Nineveh  repenbed. on the preaching of Jonah, but
away forever. That seemed so entirely wrong  ,to Jonah Christ will witness through His apostles of His cross
I&& .He refused to obey, and tried tg run away, But and resurrection, the fulfillment of al! the promisea


              -                       T H E    S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                       435

spoken by the fathers. The Jews will continue to
clamor for a sigri and the Greeks will seek after wis- Thomas Aquinas and Common Grace
dom, but Christ's  skrvants will preach Christ  cruciiied,
"unto the  Jew6 a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks                 (With Respect to Nature and Grace)
foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ the  pow'er of God, and the wisdom            The accusation has often  been directed at us Pro-
of God." I Cor. 1:23, 24.                                     testant Reformed people that we stand outside of  .the
                                                              historical line of the Reformed Faith; this is  indteed
   An entirely proper sign. Yet just because it is so a powerful argument if it can be  ,substantiated.  But
entirely proper, that wicked generation is bound to if, on the other hand, .the exponents of common grace
reject it. Already by demanding a sign they show the can be shown .not only to stand outside of the histori-
rebellious wickedness of their hearts. Already  they          cally Reformed lin'e, but to stand in a line which has
are prepared to rej'ect the testimony of Jonah. Al- been strongly and bitterly opposed throughout church
ready they declare Christ accursed of God, worthy to history by all who stand for the  (truth, the central
be condemned to the death of the cross, and already
they are preparing to say that the disciples came at truth, of the Sovereignty of God, we have indeed a
night an.d stole His body while the guard slept. There- powerful  argument.           Our purpose in this essay is
                                                              to investigate the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas and
fore this sign must serve as a greater condemnation
to them. The men of Nineveh will arise in judgment his followers, to determine his views, if any, on the
                                                              doctrine of common grace, and to criticize  .those views.
against them in that Great Day and condemn them.
These men of Nineveh experienced a godly sorrow that          For this purpose we shall appeal both to Thomas's
works repentance unto salvation, upon the preachina           works and to commentaries upon his works.
of Jonah. They will stand with the  righ.teous  when             The nature of man, as Thomas views it, then, shill
Christ and His saints appear to judge the world. They be our first object of investigation. Before proceed-
will call that evil generation to trial, accuse and con-      ing it might be well to ask what is understood by the
demn them. It will be more tolerable in that day for -nature  of any creature or thing. Then we answer:
Tyre and Sidon, and for Sodom and Gomorrha than the nature of anything is its essence, as delineated  b:y
for them. For they will stand guilty of despising the         the quality or qualities  which distinguish it.  .And of
blood of the New Testament and of crucifying the course, the first clue to the nature of man is found
Lord of Glory.                                                in Genesis 1 :%a and 27 by St. Thomas as we11 as by
                                                              us. Thomas takes the text of the Vulgate which reads.
   Nor will it ever be different. That evil and adulter- "Faeiamus hominem ad  ;i;m~aginem et similitudinem
ous generation within the church always clamors for nostram" and "Et creavit Deus hominem  ad  imcxgincm
a sign. They prefer outward emotionalism to the
inward working of the Spirit. They  dema'nd stirring suam;  a;cl*  imaginem  Dei creavit illum." This in con-
signs and wonders, altar calls and saw-dust trails, trast to the correct version, wher,e  we read, "Let us
instead of the "dry" preaching of the Word. They pre- make man in our image, and after our likeness" and,
fer a diet of water because they cannot digest the "So God created man  in his own image.  in the imugc
                                                              of God created he him. . .  ." This point is held to
unadulterated milk of the Gospel. They will believe if tenaciously by Thomas in order that he may interpret
qnly the church will cater to  t.heir carnal whims. For the text as meaning, "Let us make man in such a wav
them there is but one sign, the sign of Jonas, the that our image may be in him," the preposition ad
prophet; but one message, the preaching of the Word pointing to the term of  thee making. (See Qu. 93,
of the Cross, whi.ch  is the one and only power unto          Art. 6, "Summa  Theologica"  I). This interpretation
salvation.                                                    seems to be of import for the whole ethics of Thomas,
   That generation, unless it repents, is bound to re- as will appear shortly.
ject it. If they will  no.t believe Moses and the pro-           From this poi,nt Thomas proceeds to develop  h.is
phets, they will not believe, no, not if Christ personally ethical views, which remain substantially the same
arises from the dead to witness of His power. Even throughout all his works, although expounded in dif-
while they clamor for a sign they are busy crucifying ferent form and not always with equal clarity- in his
the Christ and endeavoring to undermine God's Church. various works. Incidentally, Thomas is fundamental-
But they shall never succeed. For through it all God ly Aristotelian in his ethics as well as in his ontology
works His work. He gathers His own unto Himself and epistemology. The image of God in him is dis-
from generation to generation until the fulness of tinguished by Thomas as follows:
the elect is gathered in.                                        First of all, Aquinas speaks of the natural state.
   `Let the Church be on the alert, determined to According to Thomas this man  in  puris  naturalibu,:
preach  no.thi'ng  but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. is a complete man. Btu he is a mai1 without the done
"For more  $hgn  J'onas  is here."                            su~er~&&tn,  the supernatural gifts, which are often
                                                 (;`  II,
                                       . .                    referred to by Thomas as the  real image of  Cik~d~


                                                                                                                       .._  ..__"
                                        TH-E  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

 This man  in puris naturnlibus is a good man, in fact in hc was created that he could advance merit, but b!
 he is a man of many virtues. And it is to this state           virtue of the grace which was added.`"
  that man reverted when he fell, losing tha image :>!:                 But one  need not quote more. This scheme is
  God. Furthermore, man in this natural state consists e.vidently  the foundation of Aquinas's anthropology
 of higher and lower states.        Ueberweg, in volume         and permeates all his teachings on man and his re-
 oile of his "History of Philosophy," outlines this very        lation to God and the universe. (See works previous
  neatly as follows: the lower state is exhibited in the        to the Summa, and Qu. 23 of Summa I).
 ethical (practical) virtues, namely, courage,  ternpEr-                Hand in hand with this teaching, moreover, goes
 ante, liberality, high-mindedness, and love of honor,          the doctrine that God is favorably inclined to all men.
 mildness, truthfulness, urbahity, and friendship, and In his discourses on "The Justice and Mercy of God"
 justice. The higher state of man, in pure nature is a:ld on "Predestitiation"  Thomas brings this out mar+
 exhibited in the dianoetic (intellectual) virtues of than once. In Qu. 21, art. 4, Summa Theologica  I, for
 art and practical wisdom-capable of variation-and              example, we read:
 science and reason-not changeable by our agency.
 These dianoetic virtue&  man must follow in his pur-                      "So in every work of God, viewed at its
                                                                        primary source, there appears mercy. I'n all
 suit of ultimate happi,ness;  but he is hindered in this
 pursuit by the ethical virtues, in which he is in <turn                that follows, the power of mercy remains,
 hindered by the flesh. In all this it m&t be remem-                    and works indeed with even greater' force;
 bered  tliat the object of all moral action is the attain-             as the influence of the first cause is more
 ment of happiness, and that .the highest happiness ;q                  intense than that of second causes. For .this
 connected with the highest virtue.                                     reason does God out of the abundance of His
                                                                        goodness bestow upon creatures what is due
     In the second place, Aquinas distinguishes the state               to them more  bouniifully  than is proportion-
 of grace. In this state Adam stood in Paradise. Into                   ate to their deserts: since less would suffice
 the man in puris mnturaJibu.s  are infused the three so-               for preserving the order of justice  tha,n  what
 called theological virtues of faith, hope, and  10~0.                  the divine goodness confers; because between
 This infusion known as the  dowa  supemdidita,   the                   creatures and God's goodness there can be
 supernatural, superadded gift to which the man  i?z                    no proportion.
 puris  m&.walibus   is adaptable. However, even in this                "Reply, obj. 1. Certain works are attributed
 state of grace man does not attain .to ultimate hap-                   to justice, and certain others. to mercy, be-
 piness, to pure act., to pure intellection. This is only               cause in some justice appears more forcibly
  reached in the third state, the state of beatitude,                   and in others mercy. Even in the damza-
where man knows  and loves God perfectly.                               tion of .the reprobate mercy is seen, which,
     The exposition of this theory may be found briefly                 though it does not remit, yet somewhat al-
  in "Summa Thelogica" I, Qu. 93, art.  4, where we                     eviates, in punishing short of what is deserv-
  read as follows:                                                      ed."                                    H. C.  H.
         "Wherefore we see that the image, of God                                     (To be continued)
       is in man in three ways. First, inasmuch
      as man possesses a natural aptitude for un-                                                                            I
      derstanding and loving God; and this apti-                   _
      tude consists in the very nature  of the mind,
      which is comnion to all men. Secondly, in-                                    NOTICE- FIELD DAY
      asmuch as man actually or habitually knows                  As is  customary,  o& churches of Grand Rapids and vicinity
      and loves God, though imperfectly; and this               will again have their Field-Day on the 4th of July.
      image consists in the conformity of grace.                  This year,, however, it will be different from other years. We
      Thirdly, inasmuch as man actually or habit-               hope to have a special program commemorating the fact that it
      ually knows and loves God, perfectly ; and this           is twenty years ago since our mother-church refused us a pIace
      image consists in the likeness of glory. . . .            in her midst. The memorable year of 1924 should not be for-
      This first is found in all men, the second only           gotten' by our older people, and our younger generation should
                                                                be taught  the occasion for our separate existence.
      in the just, the third only in the blessed."                The highlights of our program will be a recorded speech by
     He speaks similarly in Qu. 95, art. 1, reply obj. 4,       Rev. H. Hoeksema who cannot be present in person on that day,
  where we reads as follows: "The Master here speaks bein&  away on his vacation, and a speech by Rev. J. De Jong.
                                                                Thea@  speeches will, of course, be appropriate for the occasion.
  according to the opinion of those who held that man           `Bet.*reen  speeches there will be singing of Psalter numbers and
  was not created in grace, but only in a state of na-          Hdandsche   psalmversen.  As usual there will be games for the
 ture. We may also say that, though man was created             &l&en,  and ball-games fbr the men.
  in grace,  yet it was not by virtue of the ,nature  where0             We sincerely urge ALL our people to be: there,


