 ' V O L U M E   XxX-Iv           ^.              APRIL  -15,  1958-Gmti   RAPIDS,   MICJXIGAN                               Nuimm14

                                                                          maus. Let  US  fa11 back and see what He wants. Listen, He
            M  i- D  I  XA'T  I  O'.N                                     wil1 speak to our downcast friends.           ~
                            :.                                                What manner of communications are these that ye have
                                                                          one to another as ye walk, and are sad ? -
                      JEWS' RESURRECTION                                  ;  -%h;öh,   thai  -
                                                                                              question' found no friendly home. We  can
                                                    LUKE  24  $3-35       see. that in one gla-nee.  The one, named Cleopas, turns him-
                                                                          sélf impatiently to the questioner with somewhat of a stern
    -1t múst have been rather, late in the afternoon.  when- two          rëbuke: Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not
 of the disciples of Jesus left Jerusalem for- the'village called         known the things which are  come to pass there in these
 Emmaus.  Rather  late, because the distance was about  7                 days?
 miles and  ,when   they, arrived there, it was toward evening                Oh, let 
 and .the' day was far spent.                                                             US not be hard on Cleopas. The intended rebuke
                _'                                                        has a rather weighty reason. The things that happened there
    And what a day it had been !                                          in Jerusalem were to them fhe most terrible that could have
    On the afternoon of that day of Jesus' resurrection, we               happened. Their very lives and hopes for the future were al1
 see'iwo  mén leaving the  gates of  the  holy city in order to           wrapped up in Jesus of Nazareth. We  can understand the
 direct their steps to the .village called Emmaus.                        annöyance of. Cleopas and his friend. Besidës, the things
 _ We  shall. do  wel1 to be  @riet.- We want to listen in on             alluded to are about the most important. ones of al1 the ages.
 their conversation.  They-are  certainly enwrapped in it.  Ques-         So` important that Paul after due study and contemplation,
 tion follows question,  remark follows  remark.  They speak              born of the Holy Spirit of God, came to .the conclusion that
 and ask again. And ever the säme answer : NO,, we cannot                 Jesus' cross would have to be the sum and substance of his
 understan.d  why Jesus had to'die  !' Oh,-why  did He have to            preaching.  Come now, stranger, are you the only stranger
 die?  Who  can understand  that:awful  cross  ? Here we had              here in Jerusalem ? Dost  thoü not kriow of the cross of Jesus ?
 placed  al1 our  hopes on this wonderful  prophet.  He would                 But our stranger on.  the' road  to Emmaus insists: What
 be the great genera1 who would lead our legions in order to              things  ?                       _~            ,.
 once more vanquish the armies of  God's enemies. But no,
without striking one solitary blow, He gave Himself to a                      And then the floodgatesof their: hearts are opened. The
handful of soldiers and servants, armed with swords ánd                   words  gnsh  out.  You cannot help but  notice  how eagerly
 sticks.  When   they scolded  -I!lim  and  struck Him, He grew           they  relate the  wbole grievous story in  wel1  chosen.  words,
 silent. He even rebuked one òf                                           the  whole sad problem, including. the  main question that
                                        US when we*would strike and
 kil1 and destroy !                                                       bother.ed them : "and  how the  chief  priests and our rulers
                                                                          delivered Him to be condemned&'  death, and have crucifled
    And yes, now He is gone ! Nevermore to return. And                   Him !,' -                                 a
 did we not love Him? Oh,  we-love  Him  stil1 even though
He is gone forever. For He was so gòod and wise and                           Two things stand  out in their  version of Goïgotha and
 wonderful in  al1 His  words.  and deeds!  &rr hearts are                al1 that related to it. Firsf that they `could find no place  for
weeping  within US for the Christ. of God who died and went              that cross. Everything else concerning Jesus they could un-
 His solitary way !                                                       derstand,  nay, worship. He was a prophet,  mighty in deed
    And thus they talked and talked.-                                    and word before God  an-d  al1 the  people. In a few words
                                                                         you have al1 their `happy. experience of the last three years.
                           ***1                                          They had been witnesses Òf the p&er  of God unto salvation.
    But, wait, here is another sojourner on thë way to Em-               The  dead arose, the  sick were  healed,  the elements were

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

hut servants in His hand, the poor  received  life and substance.    hung on every  word He uttered. They drink in every  word,
And unto the spiritually hungry the Gospel was given. But            every  phrase,  every  thought expressed. Their eyes shone,
that Cross, oh, that Cross! We find no place for that cross.         their faces lit up, their  every   mien and bearing expressed
We, thought that He would be the promised redeemer from              exultation.
the yoke of the heathen.  But no..He was crucified and is now            What   strange,  passing strange scene we are witnessing.
dead and buried three days.                                              A  preacher  of the Word of God.. Yes, but He is  both
                         .+ *  *  *                                  subject and object of His sermon. He preached the Christ
                                                                     and He is the Christ. What authority rung in every  word.
   And the second thing we note is their love for the Christ.
Listen to Cleopas, he wil1 tel1 you. Certain women have been             And what audience to this perfect sermon. They are silent
at His grave. They  tel1 of a vision of angels, of the unbeliev-     in admiration. They are  taught  heavenly  wisdom. 0 happy
able story that He lives - but, stranger, Him, oh, Him they          souls.  VJould  you  nat have liked to be there? But then, let
saw not !                                                            US make no  mistake.  We have the sermon in Old and New
                                                                     Testament. And when the Holy Spirit has opened our heart
   But as soon as they are silent again, He says to them: 0          we also may sit at Jesus' feet to listen and drink of the water
fools and slow of heart to believe al1 that the prophets have        of life. And we do ,unto God's praises.
spoken ! Your problem is no problem at all. You find no
place for that awful cross, do ye ? Well, that cross is the                                    *  9 *  4
Divine answer to  al1 your sad questions.  It  hits with Heavenly        But watch  the closing scene.
accuracy. But you have been and are fools and slow of heart
in believing. Had you read your Bibles with more belief in               Talking  and listening the  miles  have dwindled away.
your hearts you would have seen that the Christ of God, in           There are the first houses of Emmaus.  They approached their
order to be Christ, ought to suffer the things that you could        own dwelling.' But the stranger held Himself as though He
not understand, in order that He might enter into His glory !        would go farther.
   Don? you know the Scriptures ?                                       `But no, stranger, no, that may not be. Please, enter our
                                                                     dwelling. There must be more to say, to listen, to  enjoy.
   Come, let US begin with Adam. Don? you remember the               This is heaven to our souls. Our hearts are burning within
first Paradise and the happy pair of  mortals that dwelled           US and it is  al1 because of Thy words and sermon.
there ?  How they sinned and  how Jehovah slaughtered an
innocent animal in order to cover their nakedness ? See the              Sweet, simple, lovable children of God ! They had enjoyed
flood of innocent blood that was shed in history by sacrifices       the bread of angels. And would  fain  prolong  such bliss. It
and offerings. Come with me and 1 shall show you, slow of            is not  every  day that we  may sit at the feet of  such  a
heart, the cross in Isaiah's prophecy. Listen to the roaring         Teacher and Preacher. Oh, the Saviour's audience was  in-
of the Christ in the psalms of David. You wil1 hear the exact        deed  appreciative.
words that reverberated the hills of Judah a few days ago.               Yes,  .they  constrained  Him.  It  ïhas become history.
                                                                     Cleopas said : Abide with  US, fast falls the eventide ! The day,
                          4  *  *  *                                 0 stranger, is far spent! Note the words that  convention
                                                                     dictates.  Their plea is : Abide with  US ! And here are the
   NO, we have not the exact words of the sermon, but we             reasons, 0 stranger !  It is toward evening. And: the day
have the beautiful text. It is the Bible. It is the exposition       is far spent ! Yes, but Jesus knew the real  reason : they had
of the Son of God.                                                   learned to love this stranger. Their shining eyes have told
   And here is the emphasis : Christ must suffer and die in          their story.
order to enter into His glory. Do you see it, Cleopas 7 To-
gether with your friend ?                                                                      ****
   It must happen. There was a Divine necessity.  ,God                  And He went in to tarry with them. Angels hovered
wanted to glorify Himself in His children. The elect children        near their Lord and His children. Scene of heavenly harmony
of God whom He loved, had by His determinate counsel fal-            and bliss. Our hearts grow weary with longing for heaven
len into sin and subsequent guilt. Yet He loved them even            and heaven's  G;d.
while they were.sinners.  And He determined to have them
with Him in heaven forever. And since the Son of God was                Yes, and He was invited to sit at meat  with them.
made their Head in His counsel, that Son must needs suffer              When  He took bread, blessed it, and brake, and gave to
and die for them, so that He might bring al1 these sons and          them, their eyes were opened and they knew Him.
daughters to glory.                                                      Do you not  notice  how the mouth of Cleopas  already
   The two wayfarers have grown silent. Not one question             opens to say : My Lord  .and my God !  ? But too late. He
they ásked. Far from interrupting the stranger, they have            vanished  out of their sight. Why ? Because no manner of


                                             T H E   STANDARD.BEARER                                                                                                                                                              3 1 5

misery, despair,  sorrow or anything could ever blot out the
image of their Lord  whom they had learned to know through                                     T H E   S T A - N D A R D   B E A R E R
His Word. NO enemy or  devil could ever obliterate the                  Semi-monthly, exeept monthly  during   Tune,  July and  August
image of Jesus that dwelled in their hearts through the Holy             PubIished  by the  REFORMED   FREE   PUBLISHING  ASSO~UTION
Ghost that was given unto them.                                         P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
   Are they sorrowing because Jesus disappeared  out of their                                        Editor  - REV. HEPXAN HOEKSEMA
midst? Oh, why should we ask  such a foolish question.                  Communications relative to  contents  should be addressed to
                                                                                        Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139  Franklin  St., S. E.,
Watch Cleopas and his companion. They rose up the same                                                               Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
hour and back they went the same journey to Jerusalem.                  Al1 matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
They wil1 multiply the joy that burns within them. Oh, why              G. Pipe, 1463 Ardmore St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mi&
do you think we speak and sing and make music this day ?                Announcements and  Obitoaries  must be  mailed to the above
                                                                        address and  will be  published at a fee of $1.00 for  each   notice.
   The day is far spent and yet our Lord abides  with  US.              RENEWAL:   UnIess  a  defînite  request for discontinuance is  re-
And He shall abide until life's journey is over. Then again             ceived it is assumed that the subscriber wishes  the subscription
                                                                        to continue without the  formahty  of a renewal order.
He  wil1 take the  chief  seat at the table of the Lord in His
Father's house. To take the bread and bless and give it.                                               Subscription  price: $5.00 per year
   Unto our eternal joy and singing.                                    Entered  as  Second  Class matter at  Grand   Rap&,  LMichigun
   The Lord  is'risen   indeed and appeared unto His own.          -                      -
Hallelujah ! Amen.                                                                                                         C O N T E N T S
                                                         G.V.     MEDITATION -
                                                                            Jesus' Resurrection . . . . . . .                                                                                                            .._ 313
                                                                                        Rev. G. Vos
               Eastern  Ladies'  League                           EDITORIALS  -
   The Eastern Ladies' League wil1 hold their Spring meet-                  Diotrephes ..: .                                       ._.          ..___           ._. . . .                                    ._. .                   ..316
ing, D.V., on April 24 at First Protestant Reformed Church.                 Become One With Them?.. .._ ___ _._. ___.____  . .._...__  :... _._... . . . . . . ..317
                                                                            The Declaration of Principles..  ___. __, _._. ______.  __. __ ____ ___. _.. _._. . ,317
Rev. C. Hanko wil1 speak on the topic, "The Mission Calling                             Rev. H.  Hoeksema
of our Protestant Reformed Churches."                             As. To BOOKS -
   We invite  al1  ladies to  come and  enjoy  an evening of                Amreke Jans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Christian fellowship.                                                       Sin, Its Origin and Knowledge.,  ._.  _..  .._. ___  ___.._..____~  _..___  319
                                                                            Gezicht op de Zending (View on Mission) . . 319
                          Mrs.  H; Velthouse, Vice Secretary                            Rev. H.  Hoeksema
                                                                  OUR  DOCTRINE-
                                                                            The Book of Revelation. ___ ._ . .__. .._._____ .__._____.____  . . . . __...._ 320
    THANKFULNESS AND TRIUMPHANT JOY                                           R e v .   H .   Hoeksema
      Ye gates'  of peace and joy untold,                         THE  DAY  OF  SHADOWS  -
                                                                            The Prophecy of Zechariah _____.  __. _..... ._._ .__.____._ ___ _.. ___ . ..321
      Ye gates  of righteousness, unfold,                                   Peniel . . . . . . . . . .                                                                                                                                 ,322
      That 1 may enter in and raise                                                      Rev. G. M. Ophoff
      A song of thankfulness and praise.                          FROM HOLY WRIT -
      Within Thy  gates, 0 God of  grace,                                   Exposition of Psahn 119: 1-8 _.._...,,...._......................................                                                                           324
                                                                                         Rev. G. Lubbers
      Thy saints shall find a dwelling-place ;
      My thanks and praise to Thee 1 bear,                        IN HIS &AR -
                                                                            Freedom From Fear ( 2 )  __. .  ..__  ..___  __  __.  ._. . . . . . . 326
      My Saviour, Who hast heard my prayer..                                             Rev. J. A. Heys
      What wondrous things the Lord hath wrought                  CONTENDING FOR  THE  FAITH  -
      The stone the builders set at naught,                                 The Church and the Sacraments  .______._.:  __._......_......................  328
                                                                                         Rev. H.  Veldman
      Established by no human hand,                               THE  VOICE OF  OUR  FATHERS  -
      The chiefest corner-stone doth stand.                                 The Canons of Dordrecht _______. __ ___. _.. ._. ._________ ____.___..__..._.. 330
      In this day the Lord hath made                                                     Rev.  H. C.  Hoeksema
      To Him be joyfnl  honors paid ;                             DECENCY  ANLJ ORDER -
                                                                            Article 32 ..__ __. ., .__..... . . .__ .._ __.. ___ _._ ____ __ ___ _.. . . .._. ._..___  332
      Let US Thy full salvation see,                                                     Rev. G.  Vanden Berg
      0' Lord, send now prosperity.                               ALL  AROUND  US  -
      Hosanna ! Praise to Him proclaim                                      The State  A Result  Of Common Grace?.  ____ __ ____ ___ .: __...__.  . ..334
                                                                                         Rev. M. Schipper
      Who cometh in Jehovah's Name ;
      May blessing from God's dwellingplace                       CONTRIEWTIONS  -
                                                                             Calvinism  - The Truth ( Continued) ._. __ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
      Descend on US in boundless grace.                                                  Rev. Robert C. Harbach
                                                    Psalm  11s

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


               .E D  I T 0  R  1. A L  S
                                                          :I               This is not true of men like Diotrephes.
                                                                           He  may have had certain gifts but whatever gifts and
                                                                       talents he had he did not employ for the  wellbeing  of the
                                                                       church but for his own selfish ends. There was nothing  especi-
                                Diotrephes                             ally  preeminent about him, yet he loved to be considered first.
     The name of Diotrephes, is evidently, of  sufficient   im-            Men like that are a very evil influence in the church.
 portance to have a place in the Word of God.                              This is evident from al1 that the apostle writes  about him
     It occurs in the third epistle of John.                           in this brief epistle.
     In that epistle the apostle chiefly writes about three men
 and the name of Diotrephes occurs right in the midst of them.             First of ah, he writes  that he, John, had  written a letter
 He first gives                                                        to the church but that Diotrephes "receiveth  US nat." It is not
                     US some information about Gaius, to  whom
 also this epistle is addressed. He was, probably, an elder in         improbable that the church met in the house of Diotrephes and
 the church. About him the apostle, in  the first place, says that     that, therefore, the apostle had addressed his letter that was,
 he loves him very dearly in the Lord. Already in the address          intended for the church to him. But that letter never reached
 he  .speaks of him as `"the wellbeloved Gaius." Then, in the          the church. Most probably  when the bearers of the  -epistle
 second verse, he writes  once more that he is beloved and that        had wanted to give it to Diotrephes he had refused to  receive
 he  wishes him to  prosper  in  every  respect. And in vs.  5 he      it. And why? Because he loved to be first and, therefore,
 addresses him once more as "beloved" and witnesses of him             was jealous of the authority and influence of the apostle.
 that he does faithfully whatever he does,  both to the brethren          Envy and jealousy is one of the evils that characterizes
 and to strangers. Gaius, according to the apostle, knows the          men that love the preeminence in the church.
 truth and is  walking  in the truth. The truth is in him. He             Another of their evils is that  they lie and slander those
 revealed this especially by receiving and helping  those that         that are better than they, have more God-given power and
 cáme to the church from without.  "Missionaries"   who had           authority than they or even, stand in fhe same position. This,
 preached the gospel to the Gentiles and had taken nothing             too, is evident from what John writes  about Diotrephes. He,
 from them.                                                           according to the apostle, was prating against him with
     This is,  indeed, a beautiful picture of the  `!wellbeloved"     malicieus  words. He, evidently, went around in the  con-
 Gaius. ,                                                             gregation reviling and slandering the apostle. Again we ask:
    Then, in vs. 12, the apostle gives testimony to Demetrius.        why? And the answer is always the same : Diotrephes wanted
 It is much briefer  than that of Gaius, but it is also favorable.    to be first and he loved to have the  preeminence.  Hence,
He  tells  US of him that he has a good report of al1 and of          he could not tolerate that the apostle had greater authority
the truth itself.                                                     than he.
   . But right in the midst of these good reports there occurs            öne can readily imagine that men like Diotrephes had a
the most miserable picture of Diotrephes.                             very evil influence in the cqngregation.
    The chief  feature of that picture is expressed inthe words           Stil1 more.
"who loveth to have the preeminence among them,"  that is,                The apostle also writes  that he not only refused to receive
among the brethren, in the church. The original word means            him and ,that  he babbled against him with al1 kinds of mali-
that he wanted to be first and wanted to be regarded as  such.        cious words and slander, but : "not content therewith, neither
He could not tolerate that anyone was considered better than          doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them
he, that anyone in the church had more influence and power that  would, and casteth them  out of the church." By the
than he, yea, he could not even stand it that someone stood           brethren  whom Diotrephes refused to  receive the apostle,
next to him as regarded as of equal importante  in the church         evidently, refers to those  whom he had mentioned in vss. 5-8.
as he. He wanted to be first.                                         They were those that had come to the church from without
    Of  course,  there have always been men in the church and  who had witnessed the name of the Lord among the  Gen-
that, according to their God-given position and power, had            tiles  without receiving  any reward of them. These Diotrephes
the preeminence in the Church of Christ. To these belong, first       did nat. receive.  And not only did he not receive them, but he
of al1 and chiefly, the apostles, who have the preeminence over       also forbade others that were willing  to receive them to do so,
the entire New Testament church by reason of their apostolic          and these he even tast out of the church. And why ? Because
authority. They were infallibly inspired and to them the en-          he was, evidently,  afraid,  not only that these men might
tire, church is subject. But there  also have been men like           have some influence  in the church by the report of their labors
Augustine, Luther,  Calvin  and others to  whom God has               among the Gentiles, but  also that they might carry an evil
given special power, insight in the truth, and leadership in          report about him to the apostle as  wel1 as to others.
the church. Such men do not love to be first and have the                Jealousy, envy, lying, slander and hatred  of the brethren
preeminence, but they simply occupy their God-given place             were the  evils that characterized Diotrephes.
in the church and use their God-given powers and gifts for               Let US beware of men like him !
the  benefit  of the church.                                                                                                    H.H.


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                317

              Become One With Them?                                 fessed are no  longer  Protestant Reformed and why they
                                                                    were opposed to and rejected the above mentioned Declara"
   In the bulletin of the schismatic Fourth Church of Grand         tion of Principles. The last  time,  you  wil1 remember, we
Rapids, 1  read that the consistory "decided to request Classis,    were discussing our Baptism Form in order to prove that our
to overture Synod to contact the churches with Rev. Hoekse-         fathers that composed  that Form must have nothing of con-
ma with a view to having  them become one with US."                 ditions. This we wil1 now continue for a while.
   This is a strange request and 1 cannot help wondering               We  read:
what is the motive behind this.                                        "And although our young children do not understand
   Do not fail to notice that the request is that we become         these things, we may not therefore exclude them from bap-
one  with  them.  _                                                 tism, for as they are without their knowledge partakers of the
   Not they with  US, but we with them.                             condemnation in Adam, so are they again  received  unto grace
   This implies that we take their stand,  that we confess that     in Christ; as God speaketh unto Abraham, the father of al1
we were wrong in condemning De Wolf and others for their            the faithful, and therefore unto  US and our children (Gen.
conditional theology and preaching, and that we  also  re-          17 : 7), saying, `1 wil1 establish my covenant  between me and
pudiate the Declaration of Principles which they have  al-          thee, and thy seed  after  thee, in their generations, for  an
ready rejected.                                                     everlasting covenant;  to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed
                                                                    after thee.' This  also  the'apostle  Peter testifieth,  with- these
   This, 1 assure the consistory of the Fourth Church               words: (Acts 2 :39), `For the promise is unto you and to your
(schismatic) the Protestant Reformed Churches, which are            children, and to  al1 that are  afar off, even as  many  as the
we, wil1 never do.                                                  Lord our God shall  call.' Therefore God formerly  com-
   Shall we becóme one again ? Who of US would ever dare            manded them to be `circumcised, which was a  seal of the
to answer that question negatively ? 1 least of ah.                 covenant  and of the righteousness of faith; and therefore
  . But  such a  union  can be accomplished only before the         Christ  also embraced them, laid his hands  upon them and
face of God and, therefore, in the light of the truth and in        blessed  them (Mark  lO>."
the proper way. And that is certainly not the case with the         < Now let US attend to these words of our Baptism,  Form
overture of Cammenga's consistory.                                  a little more in detail, particularly with a view to the question
   Hence, 1 would suggest another overture to that  con-            concerning conditions.
sistory which would read as follows :                                  The Form here says that even as our little children are
   "The consistory requests Classis to overture Synod to ex-        partakers of the condemnation  in Adam, withoztt their krtowl-
press'that we desire to become one again with the Protestant        edge, so are they again received  unto grace in Christ.
Reformed Churches, expressing our sorrow that, by  -our                You say,  undoubtedly,  that it stands to reason that. our
erroneous teaching and preaching of conditional theology and        children do not and cannot knöw that they are under the
by our rejection of the Declaration of Principles, we have          condemnation in Adam. And that is true, of course. But it
ever separated ourselves from those churches."                      is, nevertheless, for the question we are discussing at present,
   1 assure the consistory of Cammenga that we would be             important that we understand clearly the implication of this
very glad to  receive  such an overture. But it is  almost   in-    statement. That we are under the condemnation in Adam
conceivable that they  wil1 ever do such a thing even though it     means, of course, that the guilt of Adam is imputed to US so
is the  truth pure and simple. History teaches  very clearly        that we are worthy of damnation and death. This is applied
that a church, that has  once become separatistic and departed      `to our little children. This implies that they can do nothing
from the truth, never returns but  rather  advances  on the         about this. Personally  they  al1  come into the world with
slippery  road of error and false doctrine.                         the guilt of Adam on their head. It is not a question as to
   But we, i.e. the Protestant Reformed Churches that are           whether or not they are able to fulfill any conditions. Their
really Protestant Reformed,  wil1 never become one with them.       being under the condemnation of Adam is without their
                                                                    knowledge and, therefore, absolutely unconditional.
   The truth of God in Christ is too precieus  to US for this.
                                                           H.H.        Now, our Baptism Form  te&.  US that those same little
                                                                    children are in like manner again  received  unto  grace in
                                                                    Christ.  This  means,  of course, that our little  ones are  re-
                                                                    ceived unto  grace in Christ without their knowledge, without
                                                                    their consent, without their  having  done anything about it
            The Declaration of Principles                           and, therefore, unconditionally. For  many so-called Reformed
   We were, and  stil1 are, discussing the  rather important        theologians this language is too strong. They, therefore, in-
question of "conditions"  which was fhe principal  reason why       vent the theory that this refers to the  promise,  that the
those that departed from the faith which we have always  con-       promise is,  indeed, for  al1 the children of the  covenant,  but

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

that, if this  promise  is to be realized to them, they must fulfill    purpose,  although  it must not be overlooked that the sign of
the condition of faith. But how absolutely impossible is this           circumcision and, therefore,  also af baptism, was a  seal of
interpretation in the light of the entire sentence. If this were        the righteousness of faith. For thus we read in Rom. 4 :11 :
true, it must ba applied to the first part of this sentence as          "And  he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the right-
wel1 as to the second part. Then  the sentence would  mean              eousness of the faith which he had being yet uncircumcised."
the following : "Even as al1 om- children are under the guilt           Now, if infants  of eight days old received that seal of God,
and condemnation of Adam, but if this is to be realized to              and if, therefore, infants in the new dispensation receive the
them they themselves must accept this guilt and condemna-               same seal of God in baptism, it is. evident that they cannot
tion; so, also the promise of-salvation is for al1 as far as God        fulfill  any conditions. They  receive the  seal of  -the  right-
is concerned, but if this promise is to be realized the children        eousness which is by faith unconditionally.
must accept it by faith as a condition of their salvation when             The same is true of Jesus' blessing of the little children.
they  come to' years of discretion." That this cannot be the            In the context we read: "And they brought young children
meaning is evident to all. And therefore, the only possible             unto him, that he should  touch them: and his disciples  re-
explanation is, that our little children are unconditionally            buked those that brought them. But  when Jesus saw it he
received unto grace in Christ.                                          was  much displeased, and said  unto them, Suffer the little
   You object, perhaps, that  this cannot be said of  al1 the           children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is
children of the church that are born in the line of the cov-            the kingdom  of God." Al1 these passages the Form quotes as
enant ?                                                                 belonging to the basis of infant baptism. At the same time it
                                                                        proves that  the grace of God and the promise are uncondi-
   We agree. But, as 1 said before, the  Baptism   Farm                 tional. If little children are in the  kingdom  of God they
speaks throughout of the spiritual seed, the elect. It leaves           surely did not fulfill any conditions in order to become heirs
the carnal or reprobate seed entirely out of sight and does             of that  kingdom.  Besides, this is  also  literally  expressed in
not consider them.                                                      what follows in the Baptism Form: "infants are to be bap-
   The same truth is expressed in the rest of the paragraph             tized as heirs of the kingdom  of God and of his covenant."
from the Baptism  Fórm which we quoted above.                              This is also expressed in the exhortation to parents and
   It is the meaning of the texts that are quoted. How ~0~1%            in the first question that is asked them. In  the former we
God establish His everlasting  covenant  with Abraham and               read the well-known  words : "you have heard that baptism is
his seed conditionally so that it would be dependent on a               an ordinance of God, to seal unto US and to our seed his cov-
second party for its realization ? It is true, of course, as the        enant." And in the  latter   the question is asked: "Whether
apostle teaches US in Rom. 9, it is only the spiritual seed of          you acknowledge that, although our children are conceived
Abraham with  whom God establishes His everlasting  cov-                and born in sin, and therefore are subject to al1 miseries, yea,
enant : "they  which are the children of the flesh, these are           to condemnation itself ; yet that they are sanctified in Christ,
not the children of `God : but the children of the promise are          and therefore as members of his church ought to be  bap-
counted for the  seed." And therefore, even in the outward              tized." Little infants are in Christ, are sanctified in Him,
manifestation of the covenant  in the line of generations it is         and are members of His church: Ah', of course, unconditional.
true that "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that                  Finally, attend to the words of the Thanksgiving in this
runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy"  and also that "he              Form :
hath mercy on whom he wil1 have mercy,  and whom he wil1                   "Almighty God and merciful  Father, we thank and praise
he hardeneth." But this certainly does not  mean that the               Thee,  that Thou hast forgiven  US, and our children,  al1 our
establishment of the covenant  or the promise is, conditional.          sins, through the blood of Thy beloved Son Jesus Christ, and
The  very contrary is true for it signifies that  election  and         received  US through Thy  Holy Spirit as members of Thine
reprobation run right through the generations of the people             only begotten Son, and adopted US to be Thy children, and
of God and that, therefore, the promise of God is absolutely            sealed and confirmed the same unto US by holy baptism ; we
sovereign and  unconditioiial.  The same is true of the text            beseech Thee, through the same Son of Thy love, that Thou
quoted from Acts 3 :39. It is truc that the apostle addresses           wilt be pleased always to govern these baptized children by
the entire audience that confronts him  when he says: "For              Thy  Holy Spirit, that they  may be piously and religiously
the promise is unto you and to your children, and to al1 that           educated, increase and grow up in the Lord Jesus Christ,
are  afar OI?`,`~ but that, nevertheless, he does not mean that the     that they  may then acknowledge Thy fatherly goodness which
promise is for  every  one of them individually is evident              Thou hast shown to them and US, and live in al1 righteous-
from what he  adds: "even as  many as the Lord our God                  ness under our only Teacher, King, and High Priest, Jesus
shall  call." He does not leave it up to man, he -does not say          Christ; and manfully fight against and  overcome  sin, the
"as  many as wil1 accept the promise," but it is the work of            devil and his  whole dominion, to the end that they  may
the sovereign God Who calls whom He will.                               eternally praise and magnify Thee, and Thy Son Jesus Christ,
   The rest of this paragraph is of minor importante  for our           together with the Holy Ghost, the only true God. Amen."


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D .   B   E A R ' E R                                             319

    This is the climax of the whole of the unconditional the-        the same author. In seven  chapters, he treats  the question
ology that is expressed in the Baptism Form.                         about the origin of sin, the teaching of Scripture that God is
    Here it is confessed, before the face of God, with praise        not  the origin `of sin, the dualistic conception, sin and
and thanksgiving, that He lzas forgiven al1 ,the sins of these       demonism,  the riddle of. sin, sin and the  law, sin and the
little children that are baptized and who `surely  cannot fulfill    gospel.
any conditions. The forgiveness of sins is, therefore, uncon-            1 have the  impression that the  chief  emphasis of  this
ditional.                                                            volume of Berkouwer's series is  placed throughout on the
    Here it is emphatically expressed that God has received  US fact that sin is essentially  inexplicable,  that it is, as he  ex-
as members of Christ and therefore, we are ingrafted into            presses it, a riddle. This he  already  expresses in the first
Him. And who are the "LIS" to whom the reference is here?            chaptehr  where  he asks the question whether it does not follow
They are the whole church, including the little infants that         from the very essence of sin that  any explanation of sin is
are just baptized. Conditions, you say? 1 say : ridiculous !         impossible, and then answers his own question positively, p.
Our fathers never thought of conditions  when  they wrote this       19. And this idea he develops more fully in the fifth chapter
thanksgiving in the Form of Baptism. Infants are here con-           on the "riddle of sin." In spite of this 1 would have liked to
fessed to be living members of Christ, and infants cannot            see.some explanation of this "riddle" in the light of Scripture.
comply with  any conditions. The  promise of God is  ab-                 1 was glad to  notice that Berkouwer, evidently, rejects
solutely unconditional.                                              the idea of the "covenant  of works" which we, as Berkouwer
    Here it is confessed before the face of God that He              ought to know, have always rejected. See pp. 200-201.
adopted US to be His children and, again, the "US"  includes            1  gladly  recommend this volume to  students  of theology
little children. Is this adoption not a work of God according        who can read the Dutch language.
to which He realizes unto US the grace of justification? Can                                                                     H.H.
this adoption, which is the' realization of His eternal counsel
of  election,  ever be  changed  by anything we  may do ? Of             Gexiclzt   ol) de Zending (View on Mission),  by, Dr. J. C.
course not. But then, seeing that this adoption refers to little     Gilhuis.  Published by J. H. Kok, Kampen, the Netherlands.
infants as wel1 as to confessing believers, is nat also this part    Price f 4.90.
of the promise of God unconditional ? It certainly is !
    Hence, we claim that those that maintain their  condi-               This book is one of the nicest studies on the subject of
tional theology cannot use this thanksgiving. Yea, more: wè          missions that 1 have  read for a long  time. He first of  al1
insist that those  who want conditions cannot possibly use this      has a  chapter  which he calls "The heart of the matter," in
Form of Baptism. They really must become baptists.                   which he describes the biblical basis of missions both from
    And the Declaration of Principles,  which maintains that         the Old and the New Testament. Then he goes through the
the promise of God is unconditional, surely is confirmed by          history of missions, describes the work of missions  "on
om- Form for the baptism of infants.                                 various  fronts,"  discusses  the different methods of mission-
                                \                          H.H.      work, in order to conclude with an answer to  the question
                                                                     how churches ought to  -be dealt. with that have just been
                                                                     organized, through the labors of the missionaries, in heathen
                  AS TO BOOKS                                        lands.
                                                                         The book is clearly written and soundly `biblical  and Re-
                                                                     formed. Hence, 1. recommend it to al1 that are stil1 able to
    Anneke  Jans, by P. J. Risseeuw. Published by  J. H.             read Dutch.
Kok, Kampen, the Netherlands.  Price f 7.90.                                                                                   H . H .
    This, is a romance about life of the Dutch settlers in New
York which was, at that time, the seventeenth century, stil1
called Nieuw .Amsterdam.  The author concentrates  what may                     ATTACHMENT TO THE CHURCH
be called a historica1 novel around the life of Anneke Jans,
whose life was characterized by  many conflicting experiences.                        With joy and gladness in my soul
It is in connection with her life that the history and experien-                        1 hear the cal1 to prayer;
ces of the early Dutch settlers in New York are described.                            Let US go up to God's own house
    A  very interesting book, beautifully  written. 1 heartily                          And bow before Him there.
recommend this  boek to  al1  that  can  stil1 find interest in a
wel1 written Holland navel;                                H.H.                       We stand within thy sacred  walls,
                                                                                        0  Zion,  biest for aye,
    Sin, Its Origin and Knowledge, by Dr. G. C. Berkouwer.                            Wherein the people of the Lord
Published by J. H. Kok, Kampen, the Netherlands.                                        United homage  pay.
    This book is part of the series "Dogmatic Studies" by                                                             Psalm  X22:1,   2

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

                                                                         beautiful, so ah-comprehensively  abundant, that for it. we are
            O U R   D O C T R I N E                                      wiiling to give our  ah, our life and our possessions. And
                                                                      II with a view to it, in the strength of our Lord Jesus Christ,
                                                                         we  can  wel1  afford to suffer a little persecution and a little
             THE  BOOK OF  RliVELATION                                   pain for a little while. For it quickly passes away, and then
                           CHAPTER 11                                    the glory, everlasting glory, is awaiting  US. Then our  dear
                                                                         Lord Jesus Christ wil1 forevermore be with US, and in Him
                     The  NuuttOerless  Tlzrong                          our God and -our Father  shall have perfect communion  with
                      Revelation 7 : 9, 13-17                            us.  Surely,  then we shall serve Him day and night. And
                                                                         what wil1 be the expression of our service we hope to see in
     But a few words of explanation we must nevertheless                 our next chapter.  Let it now be sufficient  that we have again
 stammer.  We  often forget, perhaps, that Christ  wil1 be our           by faith grasped a glimpse of that everlasting bliss,  and that
 head and our all, even in eternity. He is not a Savior  that            we have learned to understand the words of the apostle : "For
 serves only in this dispensation, unto the end of time,  and            the suffering of this present  time is not worthy to be com-
 that  wil1 leave  US again as soon as we are perfectly redeemed.        pared with the glory that shall be revealed in US."
 Oh, no: Christ is now our head in the absolute sense of the
 word, our Lord and our King. He now sits at the right hand                                           CHAPTER  111.
 of God, and rules over US in perfection. The time shall come
 indeed that He  wil1 deliver His  kingdom,  deliver it to the                 The  Song  of  the  Redwmed   a.nd of  the Angels
 Father,  and  also shall be subject Himself. This,  however,                                     Revelation 7 :lO-12
 does not mean that then He shall disappear as our Savior,
 lay aside perhaps His human nature,  or abdicate entirely and                          10. And  cried with a  loud  voice, saying, Salvation to
 occupy no place in the new creation. On the contrary, then                             our God which sitteth  upon the throne, and unto the
 He shall occupy the place of our head and of our King under                            Lamb.
 God as the second Adam, and that too, forevermore. Also in                             ll. And  all the angels stood round about the  throne,
. eternity we shall be organically one with Christ. Also then                           and about the elders and the four beasts, and  fell  be-
 He shall be our head ; He shall be our King, our leader, in                            fore the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
 the new creation. Also then we shall have our  al1 in Him, and                         12. Saying, Amen:  Blessing,  and  glory,  and  wisdom,
 our life we shall draw from Him forevermore, and through                               and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might,
 Him from God. He is now our redemption and our  sanctifica-                            be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
tion: and  al1 we receive in the line of  grace we receive by                1 think that we have a perfect right to cal1 this outcry of
 faith from Him. But also then He shall be the fount of our              the numberless throng and of the angels that surround the
 life, through which we shall draw the living water of eternal           throne and the elders and the four living creatures  a song.
 life from the Lord our God. That is the meaning of the ex-              For, in the first place, it is safe to say that in the perfected
 pression that He shall lead  US to fountains of water, of the           economy  of things  al1 our  exm-essions  shall be in the form
 water of life. NO more suffering and no more want there                 of a song in a certain sense of the word. If we-take song now
 shall be. And why not? Because the Lord Jesus Christ shall              as a  higher  and  fuller  and more beautiful,  harmonieus   ex-
 forevermore be with US, and shall forevermore give US the               pression of al1 our conscious life in glory, then indeed it may
 true life, the abundant, perfect, eternal life, life without the        be asserted that in heaven and in the state of perfection and
 taste of death in it, life of everlasting satisfaction and glory.       glory we shall always sing. There our human language shall
 And God shall remove al1 the causes  of suffering and sorrow            have reached the  height  of perfection. There the  human
 from our body and from our soul and from the entire creation,           voice shall sound in  al1 the  fulness  of its  perfected  beauty.
 and thus He shall wipe away al1 the tears from our eyes.                And there we shall be able to give the most harmonieus  ex-
    Thus we also understand the meaning of this particular               pression to what we think and feel, to  al1 our conscious life
 portion, and that too, in distinction from the  immediatdy              and experience. In that sense we shall always sing in heaven.
preceding. The first  portion  contained  for  US the comfort               But also the text itself indicates  that we have to think here
 that the Lord  keeps   US in the midst of tribulation and that          of a song, which these redeemed of God and the angels sing
 we shall not be harmed, however  high the billows of. afflic-           together to the glory of the Most High and of the Lamb.
 tion  may go over our líeads. For we are sealed, and the                This is not so apparent as long as we take these expressions
 Lord through His Spirit keeps  US and always gives  US                  separately, and look upon them as two separate expressions,
 strength according to the tribulation. But this second  por-            the first of the redeemed and the second of the angels. But
tion pictures before om- eyes what wil1 be the outcome of the            that is evidently not the case. It is true that in our text
tribulation, in order to inspire US with confidence and courage,         they are separated by a few  clauses.   .Besides,  they are  ex-
and to  cause   US not to be  afraid of the tribulation of  thic        pressions of different beings and with different  contents
present time. The glory that is pictured  to US is so great, so          apparently.                                                     H.H.


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                    321

 (/                                                                      that the  wórds of our  prophet  refer  to  a working of God
            THf `DAY OF SHADOtiS                                     7 identical to that foretold by the prophet  Joel. But how easy
                                                                         it would have been for our prophet  .to have said simply, "The
                The  Prbphecy of Zechariah                               stars  wil1 be  withdrawn,`> or "the sun  shall be turned into
                                                                         darkness," if  this is the  message  that he meant to  convey.
                           The  Only Day                                 Besides, according to verse 7 the dimness is continuous during
                           Chapter  14:6, 7                              this entire present dispensation, which could not be the case,
       6. And it wil1 COWW  to pass in. that day tht there wil1 not      if .it were a dimness that is caused  by an occasional blacken-
 be preciozts  Kght, but dinmess.  7. A+zd the day wil1 be one, It       ing of the sun. For such wil1 be the character of this working
 wil1 be known to Jelaovajt,  not day and not night. And it wil1         of God in this last hour ; it wil1 be occasional. For if it were
 come  to pass at the time of the evening that ,it wil1 be light.        otherwise,  ,if in this Christian dispensation the sun were
       Also the' thing of  which this verse speaks  wil1  come to        permanently  blackened, al1 life on earth would soon perish.
 pass in. "that day," this present dispensation of grace.  "That         Also it may be questioned whether the "glorieus  or precieus
 day," therefore, is not a day of twenty-four hours, but a               ones" are the stars of  the firmament. The expression  &n
" period or epoch. Denoted is what is called in John's epistles          also denote God's people, the true believers of this dispensa-
 the "last hom-." In "that day" there wil1 not be the precieus           tion. What it means is that the view that the message  of the
 light but dimness. And the day wil1 be one, one of its kind.            verses  under consideration is, that the stars of the firma-
 There has never been, nor is there now a day like it. It's a            ment of the heavens  wil1 withdraw themselves is without  any
 wonderful day. 1 wil1 be known to Jehovah, to Christ. He is             real support in any of the Handwritings. In no Handtiriting
 its Lord; it  wil1 be His  gracieus  gift to His people. This           does the Hebrew of these  verses  literally set forth  such an
 only day wil1 not be wholly day, clear, bright; on the other            idea. And therefore it is nat necessary to choose between the
 hand, it  wil1 not be wholly night,  dark. It  wil1  thus, be           two readings. For not only that there is no conflict between
 characterized by a dimness in this Christian dispensation.              them, but both set forth the same thought  esse&ially  and
 But this only day wil1 be freed from its dimness.  At the time          therefore supplement the one the other.
 of its evening it wil1 be light, that is, break forth in heavenly           What then is the message  of these ierses  ? If the idea of
 brilliance. It is, therefore, an only day  also in this respect         this message  is to be grasped, understanding must be had of
 that it is not characterized by alternation of light and dark-          what is meant by the expression "only day" in this context.
 ness.                                                                   Indicated is the eternal day or Sabbath  as  begurt by God's
       What precisely  may be  the meaning of this all? Is the           believing  people. rin this life.. It would be a mistake  - a mis-
 reference here to that working of God in nature predicted by            take some make- of identifying this  "only  day" with this
 Joel, "And 1 wil1 shew wonders in heaven above, and signs               Christian dispensation called "that day" in these verses. This
 in the earth beneath ; blood and fire and vapour and smoke;             "only day" is eternal  ; it is  the everlasting Sabbath that Christ
 the sun  shall be  turned  into darkness, and the moon into             merited for His people and that, as the resurrected and  glori-
 blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come."             fied Christ, He has entered with them.  Th& Christian  dis-
 When  Qrist was on the cross the sun was turned into dark-              pensation is tempora1 ; it wil1 be terminated by the second
 ness for three dreadful hours. Before His second return and             coming of Christ. The expression "only day" as a sentence
 as this dispensation draws to a close, the sun wil1 again and           element of verses  6, 7 may best be clarified by a paraphrase
 perhaps  ovey and over be  turneb  into darkness and the moon           of these v.erses  as follows :
 into blood. In the vision of John the sun becomes black as                  It wil1 come to pass in that day - this Christian dispensa-
 sackcloth and at another time a certain part of it is smitten.          tion- that there wil1 not be the precieus light of this "only
 Is this the dreadful `phenomenon of which our  prophet  is              day," everlasting Sabbath, eternal rest. In "that day" this
 speaking in the verses under consideration ? Those who hold             Sabbath  "only day" wil1 be dim. This  wil1 be owing to the
 to this view point to the fact that in some Handwritings the            fact that in "that day," thi&  present dispensation, the precieus
 Hebrew of verse 6 reads (in translation), "Not wil1 th&-e be            or glorious ones - God's believing people - wil1 be dimmed
 light ; the precieus.  or glorious ones wil1 be dimmed" (literally      as to their heavenly light by the issues of their sinful flesh.
 congealed). The disputed expression is the verba1 form wil1             This light  wil1 not  y& shine as it one day  wil1  when the
 be di,mmed.  In most Handwritings, according to the author-             Church is with Christ in  glory. Hence, this "only  day"  wil1
 ities, the reading is di"H.ness, which is a nominal.  Those who         also be dim in "that  day." For seeing that this "only day"
 favor the reading, "the  precieus   ones  wil1 be dimmed,"  in-         is the everlasting Sabbath as kept and lived by the believers, it
 stead of, "there wil1 not be the precieus  light but dimness,"          follows that this "only day"  can be no brighter than the
 take the expression  `precieus  or  glorious  ones," to  indicate       believers are perfect. This "only day" therefore wil1 not be
 the stars of the firmament of the heavens including the sun,            day in  "that  day;" that is, it  wil1 not be clear as day  ; nor,
 and accordingly take the meaning to be, "There wil1 be no               on the other hand,  wil1 it be night, that is, total  darknkss;
 light  ; for .the stars  wil1 be dimmed" (or the stars wil1 with-       but it wil1 be characterized by dimness as are the believers
 draw themselves) . In this way  proof is provided for the view         themselves. This glorious day, eternal Sabbath, is surely one,

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

  only. There is no day to be compared with it. It is known              is the Mediator  of an eternal  covenant.  The night is past; it
  to Christ, seeing that He merited it by His death on the cross         is day. For as the Lord of the Sabbath He shines inyhe  hearts
  and is therefore its Lord. The dimness of this "only day" wil1         of His own and 10, they are conformed  according to His like-
  surely end with His return. For then God's  people  wil1  ap-          ness.  And their light shines. But the light is not  clear.  It is
  pear with Him in glory. Then the righteousness of this "only           not day  ;  it is not night. But at  the  time of the evening it
  day," which is the righteousness of Christ and of His people,          wil1 be light, gloriously light in the New Jerusalem, the
  wil1 go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a            Holy City.                                                G.M.O.
  lamp that burneth.
         And so it is plain that keeping this "only day" is to cease
  from sin and to yield oneself to Christ; it is to see al1 God's                                    Peniel
  marvelous works that He accomplished through Christ and                   Jacob was on his way back to Canaan, after an  absente
  to say from the heart: Behold, it is  very good. And so it is          of twenty years, - years that he had spent  with his uncle
  also plain that the light of which these verses  speak is not sun      Laban to  whom he had fled from the rest& of his sin. He
  light, light physical, nor natura1 light, the light of unsancti-       now finds himself on the outskirts of Canaan with his house-
  fied reason, hut true light, the light of life, the light of ,true     hold. He is  afraid of  Esau,   whom he thinks stil1 angry  i
  knowledge of God, of righteousness and holiness. It is the             with him, and doubtless he thinks right. So on his fear he
  light of the everlasting day, eternal Sabbath. It is the light         sends messengers to  Esau with gifts,  hoping  in this way to
  that wil1 shine in the new Jerusalem and with what saving              pacify his brother. But apparently the  attempt  ended in
and healing and beautifying effect is revealed in the vision of          failure. For the messengers return with the terrifying tidings
  John. The great city descends  out of heaven from God. It              that Esau came to meet him with four hundred men. Jacob
  has the glory of God, for the tabernacle of God is with men,           fears  the worst. He beseeches the Lord to deliver him  out
  and He, himself, dwells with them, and they are His people.            of the hand of his brother. Rising from his irayer,  he again
  And He wipes away al1 tears from their eyes ; and there is no          sends to  Esau  by the hand of his servants. Then he  sends
  more death there, nor sorrow, nor crying. nor any more pain.           his entire household  over the brook Jabbok, and Jacob is left
  And there is no more night there ; and they need no candle,            alone. And there wrestled a man with him until the breaking
  neither light of the sun, for the Lord giveth them light.              of the day. It was the Angel of the Lord, Jehovah Himself.
         It is to this light that the expressions occurring in these     But Jacob knew  it not.  When  the unknown antagonist saw
  verses, "There is not the  precieus  light," and, "it  wil1 be         that he prevailed not over Jacob, he  touched  his thigh, and
  light," have reference. And so the darkness of which these             the hollow of Jacob's thigh was  out of joint. Then Jacob
  verses speak is the darkness of  sin., the  night  of the wrath        lmew that it was the Lord. Our source of information of
  of God and of the curse stalking the earth and of death and            what took place is not alone the book of Genesis but also the
  hel1 and the grave and  al1 the nameless suffering of this             prophecy of Hosea (12  :3, 4). The passage in its entirety
  present  time.                                                         reads, "He took his brother by the heal in the womb, and by
         Once it was`day and once it was light in the first paradise.    his strength he had power with God. Yea, he had power
  The light shone there in the first man, created as he was in           over the angel and prevailed  ; he wept and made supplication
  God's image. Not that the light shone in him with a heavenly           to him." This  then.took  place:   When  Jacob perceived that
' brightness. Surely no. It could not, seeing that, being of the         it was the Lord, he stopped wrestling with him in the physical
  earth, earthy,  and as yet having  no need of Christ as Saviour,       sense, and began to weep and supplicate Him instead, saying,
  he was'not seeing God in Christ's face but only through the            "1 wil1 not let thee go, except thou bless me." And the Lord
  medium of this earthy. And through this medium God shone               blessed him there. So did Jacob end  with  weeping  and
  upon him and in his heart. And  walking  in the light, his             making  supplication unto the Lord.
  fellowship was with God. For God is light and in Him there                Surely, it was only in the way of weeping  and supplication
  is no darkness at  all:                                                that Jacob could obtain the  covenant  blessing. To  under-
         But the first man did not abide in the light, continue in       stand this statement, we must consider Jacob's calling.  This
  the rest of that first day, the rest of creation. He subjected         calling is known from his name, Jacob, which means nat de-
  himself to sin, and the sun of righteousness went under, and           ceiver but supplanter. As borne by Jacob, the name  bas  a
  the day was turned into night. Then God manifested Him-                good meaning. This is plain from Isa. 44:45,  "One shall say,
  self as Saviour. He came with the promise of that only day.            1 am the Lords, and another shall subscribe' with his hand
  And the heirs of the promise were persuaded, and by faith              unto the Lord, and name himself by the name of Israel." The
  they saw afar  off the glimmering of that day and rejoiced.            prophet  is here speaking of the calling  of the Gentiles. The
  And hope made not ashamed. The promise was fulfilled by                converts cal1 themselves also by the name of Jacob. The name
  Christ in His blotting  out by His death  al1 the sins of the          therefore denotes  the  calling of the patriarch Jacob. In the
  heirs, and in His being raised because of their justification,         final instance it denotes the calling of every  believer. Jacob's
  and exalted at the right hand of the throne. In Him the sun            calling  was to supplant  Esau in the matter of the covenant
  of righteousness rose never again to go down, seeing that He           blessing. Though  Esau was the firstborn, the blessing was


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  323

     Jacob's, he being the object of God's eternal and sovereign love      thigh is  out of joint as he wrestles with the Lord.  After
     in contradistinction to Esau  who was reprobated. This bless-         having  laid him low the Lord does as if he wants to leave
     ing was in one word the Heavenly ; it was and is the salva-           him there alone in his sorrow. "Let me go for the day
     tion that God has prepared for His people through Christ              breaketh," says He to Jacob. But Jacob cleaves to the Lord.
     Jesus.                                                                "1 wil1 not let thee go, except thou bless me," is his answer.
         But there is this question.  How must Jacob supplant              He is  hanging  to  @d now. He has learned his lesson as
     Esau with respect to the blessing ? Not certainly by a carnal         taught by the Lord. He weeps and  makes  supplication. "Bless
     warfare, but solely in the way of implicit  faith in Christ and       me," is now his prayer. Bless me, 0 Lord, and 1 shall be
     through Christ in God, and in the way of fighting the good            blessed. The Lord inquires  after his name. "What is thy
      fight in the firm belief that the victory over the' world as         name," says He to Jacob. This name is important. It is  ex-
     represented by  Esau was his in Christ. He must confess               pressive of his  calling  to supplant  Esau,  to  overcome the
     from the heart that in himself he is nat better than Esau and         world as represented by  Esau,  as understanding that the
     that his only hope, therefore, is Christ. And as'so confessing        victory that overcometh the world is faith and faith only.
     .he must walk as a child of the light  in Esau's presence and         Thus as understanding that to fight the world with its own
      rebuke   Esau for his profanity. This is his  calling.   This was    weapons is to be overcome  by it and to perish with it.
     his calling.  And in the way of walking  worthily of his calling         So the Lords question to him, "What is thy name," was
     and as becomes the Gospel he wil1 triumph over Esau and               like His saying to His servant, "What is thy  calling?"  And
      obtain the blessing. But Jacob's warfare was at times  carnal,       he returns answer, "And he said, Jacob." His reply is his
      as  when, taking advantage of Esau's hunger he got him to            owning his calling  and a confession that he has been a dis-
      sell his birthright for  some food. He should have rebuked           credit to his name, to the calling  denoted by it. His reply is a
     Esau for his profanity and admonished him to set his affec-           confession that he has not walked worthily of his calling,  and
     tions upon the blessing and to fear the Lord. Then he posed           that, if the' Lord would enter with him into judgment, he
     as  Esau in his vain effort to get Isaac  to bestow  upon him         could not stand. For he weeps and  makes  supplication. Would
     the blessing. Isaac, too, had fault to- be sure. He was deter-        that the Lord forgive him in the greatness of His mercy.  And
      mined to bestow the blessing upon the profane Esau  though           the Lord says now to him, "Thy name  shall no more be called
      he knew, could know, the wil1 of God. It had been revealed,          Jacob but Israel,  for as a wrestler thou hast wrestled  with God
      "The  elder  shall serve the  younger."  Jacob's` deception of       and with man and didst overcome." Overcome whom ? Over-
      his father was a great sin nevertheless. It proceeded from the       come God and man,  overcome  man in overcoming God by
     vain imagining that the Lord cannot take  care of His own             weeping  and supplication. So reads this verse in the originall
      cause  and that He is served by deceit. Jacob was here again         The meaning is that Jacob wrestled  .with God in prayer. So in
      making   fles11 his expectation. He was trusting in  self.           principle  he had been wrestling  with God through  al1 the
      What he loses sight of is that He with whom he has to do is          years of the past, but in  principle  only. At  times  his faith
      nol: Esau  but the Lord, and that unless blessed of the Lord         had been so weak. At times  he had been so carnal. He had
      he is not blessed  at al1 but cursed. True the believer may not      not been serving God with that  zeal that he was bound.
      be passive. He may not sit still. Rebecca's  duty was to use         There were  times   when the evil  lusts of his flesh had  the
      every  right means for preventing the blessing for persuading        upperhand. Of the true obedience he had but a smal1 be-
      Isaac. And she should have considered that it is only God            ginning. He weeps therefore and  makes  supplication. And in
      who can bless and not a man. Having exhausted every  right           the way of his  weepin,m he has power with God. For his
      means, they should have left the matter entirely to the Lord         weeping  is of God through Christ in His Spirit. And the
      as believing that He is able to do  al1 His goodpleasure.            Lord  honors  His own work in Him. He overcomes there-
         Jacob's great fault is plain.  After  an exile of twenty          fore. He prevails with God. And therefore, "Thy name shall
      years he is again re-entering Canaan. `But before he can be          no more be called Jacob but  Israel."  The thought contained
,     permitted to continue his way, he must be taught a lesson.           in the name Israel is precisely, "One who wrestles with God
      He must get right with God. He must be brought to a point            and prevails." Thus the idea of the statement, "And thy name
      that he  expects  al1 his salvation only  from the Lord. He          shall no more be called Jacob," is not that the Lord now
      must be made to understand and confess that it is the Lord           frees him of this name because the name means deceiver.  He
      with whom he has to do, and not Esau.  He must be made to            really retains this name Jacob.  But the Lords speaking as
      discern that, making  flesh his arm, he wil1 perish at the hand      He does has as its purpose this, namely, that Jacob  .must
      of God.                                                              know that he has supplanted Esau indeed, and this, surely,
          So the .Lord comes to him there in the thick darkness of         only for Christ's sake, and nat because of any merit on the
      the night and wrestles with him in that same natura1 strength        part of Jacob. And so the Lord  blesses  him there. And he
      in which Jacob contended with Esau,  no not with Esau but            goes his way rejoicing in the knowledge that he, the  ill-
      with the Lord. Jacob goes down in defeat with  the muscle            deserving and condemnable Jacob, has seen God's face and
      upon which he had most depended contracted. He knows now             lived, been blessed of the Lord,  received  of the Lord the
      that he is in the hand of the Almighty. The hollow of his            covenant  blessing.                                        G.M.O.


324                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D ,   BEARER

                                                                              Does not Question 114 of the Heidelberg Catechism' teach
11  FROM  HOLY  WRIT  11 "that the holiest men, while in this life, have only a smal1
                                                                              beginning of this obedience ; yet so, Haat  with cc rincere  resoh-
                                                                              tion they begin to l,ive, not only accordiag  to so,me, brti al1 Of
                          Psalm 119: 1-8                                      God's commamdments" ? We should, while emphasizing the
                                                                              former overagainst the "perfectionist,>' not forget to  em-
       The Christian in the midst  of the world is an a-b-c child             phasize the latter overagainst the propensities of the flesh to
of God. He must learn the first  principles  of  walking  as a                walk in sinful licence!  IBoth the perfectionist and the  anti-
child of  light  in a  ,world of darkness, sin and death.  Such               nomist are a great and perpetual evil under the sun.
learning is really a lifelong  task  !                                            How different it is with the psalmist. He does not desire
       That we are such little children, who must daily learn to              to  walk according to his own  lusts, which  war against the
give heed to the law of God is.very evident from our entire                   soul, but he would walk according to the "law of the LORD"
life as a Christian in the midst.  of this world. Think, for in-              with his whole heart. He would be "undefiled" in the way.
stance, of our Sabbath. To keep the Sabbath implies that we                   The Hebrew term for "undefiled" really  means  that which
maintain the  ministry of the Word and the schools, diligently                is perfect,  whole, sincere. The German  tiianslation  has
come to the congregation of God to  lmrn  His  .Word, use                     "ohne  Tadel," that is, without rebuke, reprimand, censure,
the Sacraments,  give alms to the poor, and thus begin in this                reproof or fault. The Holland translation has "de  oprech-
life the eternal Sabbath, by  ceasing   al1 the days of our life              ten," that is, the upright,  who do not  depart  from  the  per-
from sin, entering into the rest!                                             pendicular line of God's precepts.
    Whoever  has made even a superficial study of the 119th                       The straight line here, the norm of al1 godly conduct is
Psalm wil1 häve noticed that this Psalm is preeminently an                    the law of Jehovah.
alphbet   Psalm.  It. is formally  controlled by the Hebrew
alphabet. There are one hundred  seventy-six   verses  in this                    This is not a grievous yoke in the eyes of the Psalmist,
Psalm. These are divided into twenty-two sections of eight                    hut it is the object of al1 his delight.
verses   each.  Each verse in  each  of these sections begins                     The  law of the LORD is not simply the law  upon  tables
with  the character of the Hebrew alphabet. In  fact,  each                   of stone, the letter which kills (11 Cor. 3) but it is the  law
Sine in each of these sections begins with the Hebrew char-                   as it is fulfilled in Christ, and as it is ours in the ministry of
acter of that section.                                                        the  Holy Spirit. In this Spirit we have been renewed  after
    Thus in the  verses   l-S, now under consideration,  each                 God's image so that with  o~l,r  entlile  lifs  we  may show our
line begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It                  thankfulness to God ! (Question 86 of Heidelberg Catechism) .
begins  with aleph. We have the a-b-c of the Christian's life                 And thus the law is the rule for a life of thankfulness. Good
of thankfulness portrayed here in this Psalm. It is the song                  works ought to be performed. Sanctification must be perfected
upon the law, the blessedness of those keeping the command-                   in the fear of God (11 Corinthians  7:l). And so the law is
ments of the Lord.                                                            here the law as it is the rule of good works having  the sanc-
                                                                              tion  Of God. Thus the law stands forth here as the rule for
    This  section reads in full as follows:  Blessed  are  tlze u.n-          the people of God, who are a holy nation, a royal priesthood,
defiled-irt  the way, who walk in, the lazv of the Lord. Blessed
aYe_  they  tht keep  his  testimonies,  and that seek  J&t  with             a peculiar treasure of God, called out of darkness into God's
                                                                              marvelous light to declare His praises !
the  whole  kea.rt.  They  a,lso do  `PZO  ~iniquity:   thej  walk in  bis
zwys. Thozt.  bast  colmnaanded   ZU  to keep  thy  precefits   di&-             This  law is found under the mercy-seat ! Its  just demands
gsntly. 0  tht  IWJP  wa.ys  were  diyected to keep  thy  statzttes!          have been fully satisfied in Christ's death. But now he writes
Then  slza.11  I not be  ashamed,   when  I have respect  u.&o  al1           it in our hearts through the Holy Spirit and by the preaching
thy  covlma?zdments.  I  wil1  praise thee  witlz  uprightness  of            of the same! It is taken up in the Gospel  promise.  The law
lzea.&,  when I  hall  haave  lemmed   tlzy righteous  judgments.             is established by faith (Romans 3 :31) !
I wil1 keep thy statzttes:  Oh, forsa,ke  me-net utterly.                        Thus we have the law here in this beautiful Psalm. From
. It should not escape our  notice that in this  section the                  many  aspects  its beauty and grandeur are recounted. It is
psalmist  strikes the key-note of the entire Psalm. We have                   the joy and delight of the reborn heart.
here the "theme"  of this entire marvelous composition  from
the.heart and pen of the psalmist. This implies that in this                     This  law is called by various other  names  and  qualifica-
"aleph"  of this psalm the entire  "alphabet"  is implied. For                tions here in this "Aleph"  section,  verses  1-8.
the  law of God is one. Thus it is in the great  "Shamah"                        It is called preeminently by the term "way."  This implies
(Hear, Israel . . .) and thUS it is also here. Thus the church,               that the law is a rule for our entire life and that we are to
who  can put spiritual things with spiritual, has always  in-                 "walk"  according to it. Of course,  such a  walk does not
terpreted the law as the rule of good works of thankfulness.                  mean:   merit! It  means that  we  walk   in the  law of the Lord


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                     325

    by a true and living faith. For it is impossible that they who                BUL he has a constant battle !
    are ingrafted into Christ by a true faith should not  bring                   He has to battle with the assaults of the devil, the world
    forth fruits of thankfulness. (See Heid. Cate., Questions 64,          and his own flesh, And that, too, without ceasing  ! And he
    86, 87 ; Belgic  Confession, Article 24; Romans 6 :l, 2; Ephe-         is so weak ZAL &tzself  that he cannot stand a moment. Hence,
    sians 2110, etc.  )                                                    the longing  outcry of the psalmist. He would diligently keep
        Then too the law is called "precepts." The Holland trans-          these  commandments.  But, the good that he would do he
    lates "bevelen." The German translates "Befehle." Precepts             does not do. But the evil which he would not, that he does !
    are the law from the viewpoint of its being a sacred charge            He is wretched in his lot. He  langs  for thc perfection. He
    to  US. It puts  US under obligation, under the "ought" of             longs to the "blessednesses"  of the perfect in the way. The
    grace! Since we are  "under   grace"  we ought to  place  om-          perfect satisfaction of those who fully  walk  as image-bearers
    members  servants of righteousness (Romans 6 :l-14) !                  of God he covets for himself.
        For these precepts are really  "statutes." This refers to                He  langs  in this  "Aleph"  not .only to live according to
    law which is established by authoritative legislature. In the          some but according to  al1 of  God's commandments, and
    statute book of God as this lies upon the throne of God this.          that perfectly.
    is established. Heaven  and earth may pass' away but not one                 But he  also fears that he  shall  not. He knows that the
    iota or  tittle of this  law shall pass away  til1 it  al1 be  ful-    Lord must constantly teach  him. He would "learn"  the right-
    filled (Matt. 5 :17-20).                                               eousness of God's judgments.  When  he learns this he  wil1
                                                   1                       more fully seek these commandments with al1 bis heart, wil1
        Furthermore, it is for this  very reason that this  law is         more and more crucify his old  nature and  walk  in a new
    als0 "commandments," that which ought to be done, and                  and  holy life. For  when a Christian does not seek the Lord
    which cannot be neglected with  impunity.                              with al1 his heart he comes to grief, falls into temptation, faith
       Yet, even so, this  Iaw of Jehovah is a "righteous  judg-           is interrupted, the Holy Spirit is grieved. And that to God's
    ment."' -The Holland translates "de rechten uwer gerechtig-            child is worse than death. Then he does not taste the blessed-
    heid." Thc German translates "die Rechte  deiner   Gerech-             ness of the LORD.!
t i g k e i t . " Here the psalmist qualifies the law from the view-             Hence, he prays: 0,  fovsake   *me  nat  zctterly!  The  Ger-
    point that there is nothing unfair in the  law.  It is  al1 just       man translates: forsake me nevermore. The Holland trans-
    what the  law demands. For here the  "can,"  the  "will"  and          lates  : verlaat mij `niet al te zeer, that is, do- not forsake me
    the "must"  can perfectly find their  ultimate  expression in          beyond measure ! How wel1 we too know what  that means
    the glories of heaven. The law of God is ethically altogether          when the Lord seems to forsake utterly. But we have a right
    lovely in divine perfection as the rule for the child of God,          to pray this prayer. For our Lord Jesus Christ by his inex-
    conformed  to God's image. Is the law then evil, or has the            pressible anguish, pains, terrors and  hellish  agonies, in which
    good become evil to me? God forbid! For the  law- is  holy,            he was plunged during  al1 his sufferings, but especially on the
    and the commandment holy, jtut  and good. Romans 7:12.                 cross, hath delivered  US from the  tonnen% and anguish of
       Now the psalmist would keep this  law with his  zer7zoZe            hel1 !
    hm?.  He would not  s&$ly speak of it with his lips. His                     Now, we have a  smal1 beginning of the new obedience. 0,
    lips too must rejoice in the law. But with  al1 his  kea;ut. The       do not forsake  US utterly.  Rather give  US the blessed  as-
    heart is the seat of our life in relationship to God and our           surance that thou wilt make  US willing henceforth to live unto
    neighbor. "Heart"  is not to be identified with  "mind."  In           thee !
    the Great Commandment Jesus notes: Heart, mind, soul,                        Such is the a-b-c of the life of God's child in the world.
    strength!  Notice the order. He  places   "heart" on the  fore-              Such is the struggle. But the victory is sure. 1 thank
    ground. Only  when the heart is right toward the  law  wil1            God, through  Jesus Christ, my Lord !                         G<L.
    also the mind, soul and strength stand in the proper relation-
    ship to God. The mind is the conscious service of God with
    the heart. The soul is serving God with  al1 our affections.                        ATTACHMENT TO TH-E CHURCH
    And the strength is serving God with al1 the strength  of the
    heart, mind and soul ! That wil1 be heaven's great joy. The                               They  come to learn Jehovah's  will,
    Greát Commandment in our hearts !                                                           His mighty deeds to own,
                                                                                              For there is judgment's royal seat,
       That life of heaven, of  God's- tabernacle with man, the                                 Messiah's kingly throne, -
    psalmist would here  achieve. He  cries  out: 0,  that  199,~  ways
    were  difected to keep thy  statzttes.  When'he hears the Lord                            0 pray that `Zion may be biest
    say : Keep my statutes diligently, his heart responds : 0 that                              And have abundant peace,
   al1 my affections were directed,  aimed at the keeping of thy                              For al1 that love thee in their hearts
    Iaw. For the psalmist has a delight in the law of the LORD,            *.                   Shall prosper  and increase.
   after the inward man.                                                                                                        Psalm 122 3, 4
                                                                                                                       \

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

                                                                       in fear of sudden and unprovoked attack from the enemy or
                I N   H I S   F E A R                                  in fear lest our own leaders plunge  LIS into an indescribably
                                                                       terrible war by their hysteria or unwarranted suspicions. We
                                                                       read  -somewhere  of the possibility that either an accidental
                     Freedom From Fear                                 H-bomb explosion or an attack by another  nation could
                                                                       exactly  result  in our immediate attack  upon Russia in the
                                 (2)                                   mistaken  notion that Russia had begun the conflagration. At
                                                                       any  rate,  so  smal1 is  the world today, so do we live on top
        "Whom shall 1 fear ?"                                          of  each other, so to speak, so involved and intricately  re-
     That, indeed, is an interesting and important question.           lated are the nations of the world today that one little spark
     And let no man accuse the psalmist, who asks this ques-           in one corner  can  touch off a universal powder keg with
 tion in Psalm 27, of speaking  from the heights of a shielded         its world-wide devastation and agony.
 life. The psalmist is David and he dwelt in the walled city               But apart from al1 this, assuming- what c.an never be in
 of Jerusalem surrounded by his mighty army  that had. tri-            this world- that  al1  nuclear  weapons are banned and the
 umphed in giving to Israel the whole land promised by God.            ones now in  existente.  are dismantled, granting that  al1 the
 He had hundreds and thousands round about him ready to                power of the atom as man has learned to harness it is used
 defend him and to die to shield his life. Indeed,  whom shall         only in peaceful pursuits, man  finds  that he has not at  al1
 the king fear  ?                                                      freed himself from fear. Even in peace (so-called) man finds
     However, make no  mistake  by drawing the conclusion              hundreds and thousands of things to fear. Oh, he does not
 that he did not know what it is to have fear. He is not speak-        fear polio as he formerly did. Cancer's fear is being presented
 ing here theoretically from the heights of a shielded life. He        as not as dreadful as before. Hope also is given for preven-
 speaks experientially as a man who knows what terrors and             tion of the dreaded heart-attack. But man continues to fear
 fears there are in being a hunted man.  !Before he ever  as-          death. And until death has no more fear for him, he does
 cended to the throne he had to  flèe repeatedly for his life          not have freedom from fear.  After   ah, do not forget that
 from before the sword of wicked king Saul. The javelin of             man's fear  -of death is his fear of God! At the end of this
 this wicked king came frightfully near the point of terminat-         life' he  comes to stand before God. Man knows that. And
 ing his earthly life. He had to flee from  place to place as a        therefore it is not only a very interesting but also important
 wild beast is pursued by the hunter.  Even after`  he became          question. "Whom shall 1 fear ?"
 king he knew the terrors of fleeing  before the treachery of             However, we must not  lose sight of the  fact that we
 his own son. And in Psalm 27 he does not write as one sur-            stand before Him every-step  of our way also in this life. We
 rounded by the arm of flesh and shielded by earthly might.            stand before the Judge of heaven and earth every  moment of
 He does not ask,  "Whorn  shall 1 fear?" because there was            our earthly  existente.  And He does not reserve judgment
 no earthly power to assault and trouble him. Not at all!              til1  al1 the  "evidente"  is in, as an earthly judge must do
 He writes  in the psalm, "When  the wicked, even mine ene-            until he gets the  whole picture. He knows the beginning from
 mies and my foes,  came  upon me to eat up my flesh, they             the end and the end from the beginning. Every moment He
 stumbled and  fell." He writes  in the vivid consciousness of         is passing judgment  upon the deeds of  al1 men as to the
 one who has had some very terrifying experiences. And he              ethica],  mora1 value of their works. At the moment of death
 adds, "Though an host should encamp against. me, my heart             and to an even greater degree at the end of  time His sentence
 shall not fear : though  war should rise against me, in this  wil1    wil1 be meted out, but we stand before His judgment  every
1 be confident." He wil1 have no fear in the midst of terrify-         moment of our lives.
 ing days.                                                                Even then, the meting out of that sentence is not wholly
    We say, therefore,  once again, an interesting question:           reserved  til1 the day of days or til1 the day of death. It is an
 Whom shall 1 fear ? Surely today there are sufficient  things         evident  fact from the testimony spread  `upon the pages of
 that surround  US and. are reason enough for our flesh to             Holy  Writ as  wel1 as  from our  every  day experiences that
 tremble  `with fear. Ever since we moved into the  "atomic-age"       God punishes sin in this life, yea that He punishes sin with
 there have been added to our life  many new terrors and fears.        sin. Why do men live today in the fear of what men wil1 do
 And we do not now have in mind those of which we spoke                to them ? Why is there this tension which is called the "cold
 last time. The awful armament race, the feverish intensity of         war"?  Why is not the whole world one loving brotherhood ?
 the East and the West to  produce  the most powerful and              Why is there the continual struggle between capita1 and
 most  destructive weapons of warfare is  sufficient  to  cause        labor ? Why are juvenile delinquency and teen-age crimes
 every  man, woman, and  child to ask, `!Whom shall 1 fear ?'          becoming a very serious menace  to the peace and wellbeing of
 Shall we fear Russia or shall we fear our own leaders? Is             our day ? Or, if you will, why does man constantly live in
there more danger for US in what Russia might do or in the             fear of what his fellowmen might do to him? The answer to
polities and maneuvering of our `own leaders ? Must we live            al1 these questions is that God punishes sin with sin.


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                    327

   In  fact that is the  very  nature of sin. We need nót at         promised land yet for some time to come because, "the iniq-
this time go into detail to show that man can keep the second        uity of the Amorites is not yet full." Was there any intention
table of the law only as he keeps the first table of that law.       whatsoever of God to restrain the sin of these Amorites  ? NO,
We need only remind you that Jesus said that the whole law           but according to His sovereign counsel sin would develop in
is contained  in this that we love God with al1 our heart and        these Amorites til1 the measure was full ; and then He would
soul and mind and strength. When  we do not love Him, we             destroy them and give  Israel  their land.
cannot possibly  love our fellow men whom He places  next to            `B.ut what God did in chastising Israel with the rod of
US and with  whom He demands that we serve Him.                      wicked men He also does when He punishes the ungodly  na-
When  we do not love Him, we are going to  hate our                  tions in this life by the ungodly deeds of other godless na-
neighbour and be a constant  menace  to him. The sin                 tions. And that is why we have al1 the bloodshed, violente,
Adam and Eve  committed  did not in  any way bring  any              greed, immorality,  deceit,  fraud, intrigue and deception in the
physical discomfort, pain or bloodshed to each other. Their          world today. God is punishing  mankind  in this life with the
initial sin was entirely one of rebellion against God. It was        rod of wicked  mankind.  And  when he,  who in Scripture is
strictly a sin of the first table of the law. What dreadful con-     called  the man of sin,  shall appear, the world  wil1 rush  to-
sequences, though ! And what a brutal act of violente  breaks        ward its most perplexing and terrible moments of anguish in
forth in their firstborn! Those  who  desire to maintain that        that great battle of Armageddon.
man always sins by imitation, who want to deceive themselves
and others into thinking that a child  comes into this world            An important question it is then,  Whom  shall 1 fear ?
with a soul that is a clean  slate,  and that you and 1  can         Shall we fear man through whom God afflicts the world and
write on it what we please  and mold and form his character          ignore Him Who sends them to chastise His people and to
as to whether it wil1 be good or evil, wil1 have a difficult time    give tempora1 punishment to the  wicked   ? It does make a
of it to show where  Cain learned to murder his brother. Did         great deal of differente  whether our fear is fear of man or
he learn it from the beasts of the field ? Of course not ! Cain      fear of God. It  makes a great deal of differente  in our fear
did not slay Abel for food as the beast wil1 do. Scripture gives     whether it is due simply to the fact that we see man in al1
                                                                     his cruelty and wickedness  as our enemy or whether our fear
US  quite a different picture. It was  hatred  in his heart that
moved him to `murder his brother.  Johntells                         is due to the fact that we see the sovereign God in  al1 His
                                                   US in 1 John
3 :12 that he slew him because his works were wicked and             majesty  and glory. It  makes  a world of  differente  whether
because Abel's were righteous. From his parents he inherited         our fear is a matter of the painful emotions of the flesh or
a corrupt heart, a heart that could do nothing but  wickedness,      whether it is an act .of faith in the living God.
that could only  hate God. In that  hatred  he  came with his           One who sees nothing more than the man who confronts
sacrifice of the fruits of the ground. And in  that   hatred  he     him with danger and peril for his flesh shall  never obtain a
rose up against Abel who displayed a love to God which he            true freedom from fear even when that particular enemy is
had  received  through the regenerating  grace of God. And           removed.  Death  wil1 stil1 stand before him in another form  al1
al1 the murder, theft, adultery, deceit  in  al1 their forms and     too soon. But he who sees the living God by faith in Jesus
combinations are here because man hates God.                         Christ, the Prince of Peace, can say with David, "Though an
   And rather  than to restrain sin in the unregenerated by          host should encamp against me, in this wil1 1 be confident."
His Spirit God uses sinful men as  they develop in sin to            He wil1 have no fear in the midst of terrifying days.
punish man in this life for his sinfulness. Do we not read in                                                                    J.A.H.
11  Samuel   7:14 the word of God to David, "1  wil1 be his
father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, 1 wil1
chasten  him with the rod of men, and with the stripes  of the
children of men"7. To be sure, here we read of God chastising                     THE  CONFIDENCE  OF FAITH
His elect  people. He wil1 correct them with the rod of men.
But the fact remains that God uses men in their sinfulness to                  My heart had failed in fear and woe
correct His people. What,  shall the Babylonians be able to                      Unless in God 1 had believed,
say in the judgment day : "Lord, we served the correction                      Assured that He would  mercy show
and instruction of Thy people, Israel, when we took them cap-                  And that my life His grace should know,
tive into our land. We did Thy goodpleasure. Bring  US,                          Nor was my hope deceived.
therefore up out of this awful torment of heil"?  Not at  ah.
They plundered and captured  not in any love to God but in                     Fear not, though succor be delayed,
hatred of Him and of His  cause. Yet God used them in                            Stil1 wait for God, and He wil1 hear ;
their sinfulness to chastise His people. They in their  sin-                   Be strong, nor by thy heart dismayed,
fulness were the rod wherewith He chastised  them. Or, again,                  Wait, and the Lord shall  bring theë aid,
if you will, God tells Abram that his seed shall be afflicted                    Yea, trust and never fear.
for four hundred years in Egypt and  shall not inherit the                                                                Psalm 27 :5, 6


328                                        T H E   STAN.DARD  BEAR-ER

                                                                        The Reformatory councils of Pisa,  Constante,  and Basel
11 Contending For The Faíth  11 turned Europe for nearly fifty years, 1409-1450, into a plat-
                                                                    form of ecclesiastical and religieus  discussion. Though they
                                                                    failed to provide  a remedy for the disorders prevailing in the
          The Church and the  Sacraments                            Church, they set  an, example of free  debate, and gave the
  VIEWS  DURING  THE  THIRD  PERIOD  (750-1517 A.D.)                weight of their eminent constituency to the  principle  that
                                                                    not in. a select group of hierarchs does supreme authority in
               THE  SUPREMACY OF THE  POPE                          the Church rest, but in the body of the Church.
 TIXE  DECLINE OF THE  PAPACY   AND THE  AVIGNON  EXILE.                The hopelessness of expecting  any permanent reform  from
                       A. D. 1294-1377.                             the papacy and the hierarchy was demonstrated in the last
                                                                    years of the period, 1460-1517,  when ecclesiastical Rome
                                                                    offered a spectacle of mora1 corruption and spiritual  fa11
                                                                    which bas been compared to the corrupt age of the Roman
   The two centuries intervening between 1294 and 1517,             Empire.
between the accession of  Boniface  VIII and the nailing of
Luther's Ninety-five Theses against the church door in Wit-             The religious unrest and the passion  for a better state of
tenberg,  mark the gradual transition from the Middle Ages          affairs found expression in Wyclif, Huss, and other leaders
to modern times, from the universal acceptance of the papa1         who, by their clear apprehension of truth and readiness to
theocracy in Western Europe to the assertion of national in-        stand by their public utterances, even unto .death, stood far
dependence,  from the supreme authority of the priesthood to        above their own age and have shone in  al1 the ages since.
the intellectual and spiritual freedom  of the individual. `Old         While coarse ambition and nepotism, a total perversion of
,things are passing away ; signs of a new order increase, In-       the ecclesiastical office and violation of the fundamental vir-
stitutions are seen to be breaking up. The scholastic systems       tues of the Christian life held rule in the highest  place  of
of theology lose their  compulsive  hold on  mens minds, and        Christendom, a pure stream of  piety was  tlowing  in the
even become the subject of ridicule. The abuses of the earlier      Church of the North, and the mystics along the Rhine and in
Middle Ages  cal1 forth  voices  demanding reform on the basis      the Lowlands were unconsciously fertilizing the soil from
of the Scriptures and the common well-being of mankind.  The        which the Reformation was to spring forth.
inherent vita1 energies in  the Church seek expression in new           The Renaissance, or the revival of classica1 culture, un-
forms of piety and charitable deed.                                 shackled the minds of men. The classica1 works of antiquity
   The power of the papacy, which had asserted infallibility        were once more, after  the churchly disparagement of a thou-
of judgment and dominion over  al1 departments of human             sand years, held forth to admiration. The confmes of geog-
life; was  undermined  by the mistakes, pretensions, and worl&-     raphy were extended by the discoveries of the continent in
liness of the papacy itself, as exhibited in the policy of Boni-    the West. (The Renaissance, although undoubtedly used by
face VIII, the removal of  #the  papa1 residence to Avignon, and    the Lord unto the furtherance of His Cause, even as He uses
the- disastrous schism  which, for nearly half a century, gave      al1 things unto the furtherance of` His Cause' and Ringdom,
to Europe the spectacle of two, and at  times three,  popes         was in itself a spiritual movement and conducive unto the
reigning at the same time and al1 professing to be the vice-        principles  of the Reformation - H.V.)
gerents of God on earth.                                                The invention of the art of printing, about 1440, forms
   The free spirit of natjonality awakened during the cru-          an  epoch in  human advancement, and made  it possible for the
sades grew strong and successfully resisted the papa1  author-      products  of human thought to b.e circulated widely among the
ity, first in France and then in other parts of Europe. Princes     people, and thus to train the different nations for the new age
asserted supreme authority over the citizens within their           of religious enfranchisement about to  come, and the sover-
dominions and insisted upon the obligations of churches to          eignty of the intellect.
the state. The leadership of Europcpassed from Germany to               To this generation, which looks back over the last four
France,  with  England  coming more and more into  promi-           centuries, the discovery of America  and the pathways to the
nence.                                                              Indies  was one of the  remarkable  events in history, a sur-
   The tractarian literature of the fourteenth century set          prise and a prophecy. In 1453, Constantinople easily passed
forth the rights of man and the principles  of common law in        into the hands of the Turk, and the Christian empire of the
opposition to the pretensions of the.papacy  and the dogma-         East fel1 apart. In the far West the beginnings of a new em-
tism of the scholastic systems. Lay writers made themselves         pire were made, just as the Middle Ages were drawing to a
heard  as pioneers of thought, and a practica1 outlook upon         close.
the mission of the Church was cultivated. With unexampled              At the same time, at the very close of the period, under
audacity Dante assailed the lives of popes, putting some of         the direction and protection of the Church, an institution
St. Peter's successors into the lowest rooms of hell.               was being prosecuted which has scarcely been equalled in the


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R ,                                            329

  history of human cruelty, the Inquisition, - now papal, now         storm burst over the city while the solemnities were in
  Spanish  - which punished heretics in Spain and witches in          progress and extinguished every  lamp and torch in the church.
  Germany unto death.                                                 The  following  day the pope dined in the  Lateran,  the two
      Thus European society was shaking itself clear of long-         kings  waiting behind his  chair. Incidentally, there is no doubt
 established  customs  and  dogmas based  upon the  infallibility     about the manifestation of popular joy over the rumor of the
  of the Church visible, and at the .same  time it held fast to       pope's death. At the announcement of the  election,  the people
  some of the most noxious beliefs and practices the Church           are said to have  cried  out, "Boniface is a  heretic,  bad  al1
  had allowed herself to accept and propagate. It had not the         through,  and has in him nothing that is Christian."
  original genius or the conviction to produce  a new system of           While these brilliant ceremonies were going on, Peter of
  theology. The great Schoolmen  continued  to rule doctrinal         Murrhone was a fugitive. Nat willing to risk the possible
  thought. It established no new ecclesiastical institution of        rivalry of an anti-pope, Boniface' confined his unfortunate
  an abiding character like the canon law. It exhibited no con-       predecessor in prison, where  he soon died. The cause of his
suming  passion   such as went  out in the preceding period in        death was a matter of uncertainty. The Coelestine party
  the crusades and the activity of the Mendicant Orders. It           ascribed it to Boniface, and exhibited a nail which they de-
  had no transcendent ecclesiastical characters like St. Bernard      clared the unscrupulous pope had ordered driven into Coeles-
  and Innocent 111. The last period of the Middle Ages was            tine's head.
  a period of intellectual discontent, of self-introspection, a
  period of intimation and of preparation for an order which it           With Boniface  VIII began the decline of the papacy. He
  was itself not capable  of begetting.                               found it at the height of its power. He died leaving it humbled
                                                                      and in subjection to France.  He sought to rule in the proud,
                                                                      dominating spirit of Gregory  VII and Innocent 111; but he
  Po@e  Boniface   VIII.  1294-1303.       '                          was arrogant without being strong, bold without being saga-
     The  pious but weak and  incapable  hermit of Murrhone,          cious, high-spirited without possessing the  wisdom to discern
  Coelestine V, who abdicated the papa1  oflïce, was followed by      the signs of the times. He has been called "an unfortunate
 Benedict  Gaetani, - or Cajetan, the name of an ancient family       reminiscence" of the great  popes. The  times  had  changed.
  of  Latin counts, known in history as  Boniface  VIII. At the       Boniface  made no allowance for the new spirit of nationality
 time of his election  he was on the verge  of fourscore, but like    which had been developed during the crusading campaigns
  Gregory 1X, he was stil1 in the full vigor of a strong intellect    in the East, and which entered into conflict with the old  theo-
 and will. If Coelestine had the reputation of a saint, Boniface      cratic ideal of Rome.  France,  now in possession of the  re-
 was a politician, overbearing, implacable, destitute of spiritual    maining lands of the counts of Toulouse, was in no mood to
 ideals, and  controlled  by blind and insatiable lust of power.      listen to the dictation of the power across the Alps. Striving
     Born at Anagni, Boniface  probably studied canon law, in         to maintain the fictitious theory of papa1 rights, and fighting-
 which he was an expert, in Rome. He was made cardinal in             against the spirit of the new age,  Boniface  lost the prestige
 1281, and represented the papa1 see in France and England            the Apostolic See had enjoyed for two centuries, and died of
 as legate. In an  address  at a council in Paris, assembled to       mortification over the indignities heaped  upon him by  France.
 arrange  for a new crusade; he reminded the mendicant monks             French enemies went so far as to charge  Boniface  with .
 that he and they were called not to court glory or learning,         downright infidelity and the denial of the  soul's immortality.
 but to secure the salvation of their souls.                          The charges were a slander,  but they show the reduced con-
     Boniface's  election  as pope occurred at Castel  Nuovo, near    fidence which the papa1 office inspired. Dante, who visited
 Naples,  Dec. 24, 1294, the conclave having  convened the day        Rome during Boniface's pontificate,  bitterly pursues him in
 before. The election  was not popular, and a few days later,         al1 parts of the Divha  Covmxedia.  He pronounced him "the
 when a report reached  Naples  that  Boniface  was  dead, the        prince of modern Pharisees," a usurper  "who turned the
 people celebrated the event with great jubilation. The pontiff       Vatican  hill into a common sewer of corruption." The poet
 was accompanied on his way to Rome by Charles 11 of                  assigned the pope a place  with Nicholas 111 and Clement V
 Naples.                                                              among the simoniacs- in "that  most afflicted shade," one of
     The coronation was celebrated amid festivities of unusual        the lowest circles in heil. Its floor was perforated with holes
 splendor. On his  way to the  Lateran,   Boniface  rode on a         into which the heads of these popes were thrust. "The soles
 white palfrey, a crown  on his head, and robed in full ponti-        of every  one in flames were wrapt - . . . whose upper parts
 ficals. Two sovereigns walked by his  side, the kings of             are thrust below, Fixt like a stake, most wretched soul . . .
 Naples  and .Hungary. The Orsini, the Colonna, the Savelli,          Quivering in air his tortured feet were  seen."  Contemporaries
 the Conti and representatives of other noble Roman families          comprehended Boniface'd  reign in the description, "He came
 followed in a body. The procession had difficulty in forcing         in like a fox, he reigned like a lion, and he died like a dog."
 its way through the kneeling crowds of spectators. But, as if                                                                  H.V.
 ,an omen of the coming misfortunes of the new pope, a furious


330                                                TtiE  STANDARD-  BEARE"R

Il                                                                              trui Conversion of man. And just as he denies that in spirit-
           The Vake of Our Fathers                                              ual death the spiritual gifts are separated from the  wil1 of
                                                                                man, but maintains that the  wil1 has only been hindered
                                                                                through  the darkness of the understanding and the  irregular-
                  The Canons of Dordrecht                                       ity of the affections, so here he does not want to speak of
                                                                                faith as a quality or gift that is infused by God into the will,
                                PART  TWO                                       but maintains (in full harmony with the idea that the wil1 is
                                                                                only hindered) that faith can only be called a gift in respect
                    ESPOSITION OP THE  CANONS                                   to the power to attain to faith. Hence, these three proposi-
            THIRD  AND   TOUR-ra   HILADS  OF  DOIXRINE                         tions  maybe distinguished in the Arminian doctrine of man's
                                                                                conversion :
OF  THE  CORRUPTION OF  MAN, Hrs  CONVIIRSION   TO  GOD,                            1) In true conversion no new qualities,  poweri, or gifts
                     AND THE  MANNER  THEREOF                                   can be infused by God into the will.
                                                                                    2) Therefore faith is not a quality or gift infused by God,
                    REJECTION OF ERRORS                                         but only an act of man.
                                                                                    3) Faith can be called a gift only in respect to the power
               Article 6.  Who  teach:   That in  the  truc conversion of
               man no new qualities, powers or gifts can be infused             to attain -to this faith.
               by God into the will, and that therefore faith through               Looking  ahead to  the-   next article, which speaks of the
               which we are &st converted, and because of which we              grace of God whereby we are converted, we can see at once
               are called believers, is not a quality  or gift infused by
               God, but only an act of man, and that it can not be              why it is necessary for the Arminian to maintain this view.
               said to be a gift, except  in respect of the power to attain     If  grace is to be an offer and is to be resistible, so  that the
               to this faith. For thereby they contraclict  the Holy  Scrip-    matter of salvation is entirely up to the  wil1 of man, to be
              tures,  which declare  that God infuses new qualities of          accepted  or rejected by him, then it must needs be,maintained
              ftith, of obedience, and of the consciousness of his love         that there is no work of God's grace whereby the wil1 of man
              into our hearts: "1 wil1 put my law in their inward parts,
              and in their hearts wil1 1 write it," Jer. 31:33. And:            receives  new qualitics  and powers prior tci the point at which
              "1 will pour water upon  him that is t!nirsty,  and streams. man faces the question whether he  Wil1  believe or not believe.
              upon the dry' ground; 1 will pour my Spirit upon thy                  Now let  US try  to understand the Arminian position  some-
              seed," Is. 44:3. And: "The love of God hath been shed
              abroad in our hearts  through the Holy Spirit which hath          what. The first two propositions mentioned above are rather
              been given US," Ram. 5:5. This is also repugnant to the           clear. The first, as we said, is closely connected with what
              continuous  practice  of the  Church,  which prays by the         the Arminian has taught  concerning man's creation and fallI
              mouth of the Prophet  thus: "Turn thou me, and 1 shall            He simply maintains that it is impossible to speak of spiritual
              be  turned,"  Jer.  31:lS.                                        gifts belonging to the will, that therefore it is impossible to
                                                                                speak of spiritual gifts of the wil1 being lost in the fall, and
       The above translation of this article is quite accurate.                 that therefore it is impossible to speak of`new spiritual quali-
       While the preceding articles of the Rejection of Errors                  ties being infused into the  wil1 in conversion. The  wil1 is
in this chipter  of the CanorLs  dealt with errors concerning the               neutral.  It Is in itself neither good nor evil, though  it is cap-
corruption of the natura1 man, this and the remaining articles                  able of willing either good or evil things. That wil1 with its
in this chapter  deal with errors concerning man's conversion                   capability for either  good or evil comes through the fa11 en-
and the manner of that conversion. And just as in connection                    tirely unscathed. The only thing that can be said is that the
with the positive part of this chapter  we pointed out that the                 will, though itself untouched by the fall, is now hindered in
Reformed doctrine of  man's corruption and  ,the Reformed                       its operation through the darkness of the mind and the ir-
dóctrine  of man's conversion to God are intimately related,                    regularity of the affections.
so that the former is the foundation of the  latter,  so here                      Hence, it is both unnecessary and impossible to speak
we point  out that the Arminian doctrines of  man's corruption                  of new qualities and powers being infused into the wil1 in
and man's conversion sustain the same relation to each other.                   conversion. In this light the second  proposition is also plain.
The very language of this article strongly reminds US of this                   While in Reformed doctrine we make the distinction between
relation. Just as we found that the Arminian wants to speak                     the faculty, or power, of faith and the act of faith, or  be-
merely of the act of sin, so we find here that he wants to                      lieving, the Arminian wants nothing of this distinction. He
speak only of the act of. faith. Just as previously he has                      wants to speak only of the act of  fa&%.  And this prepares
denied that any spiritual gifts, or good qualities and virtues,                 the way also for him to speak of faith, the act of believing,
such as goodness, holiness, righteousness, could belong to the                  as solely  th@ act of Naax.  And it must be granted, of course,
wil1 of man when he was first created, and could be separated                   thàt if the first of the Arminian propositions mentioned above
therefrom in the fall, so here he denies that any new qualities,                is true, the second, namely, that faith is only an act of n&n,
powers, or gifts can be infused by God into the will- in the                    necessarily follows with inescapable logie. And so the Ar-


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                    331

minian  always reads the term fa& in Scripture in-the sense            resistible. Or, to illustrate somewhat more plainly the  Ar-
of `man's act of believing."                                           minian  idea, think of the following example. 1 am in my
                                                                       car on the way from Chicago to Grand Rapids when. 1 am
   Thus far the Arminian position and intention is  quite              stalled by a barricade in the road. There is nothing wrong
clear. It is the position which is so wel1 known in our own            with my car. NO new qualities or powers need to be infused
day, the position according to which al1 the emphasis is put           into it. If only the hindrance, the obstacle, is removed, then
on, "You must believe 1 You must believe !" The activity of            1  can attain to my goal. But  when by some power that ob-
faith, that is the thing ! And, of course, with this stress on the     stacle  is removed, 1 have not yet achieved or attained that
necessity 01 responsibility  of believing is either expressed or       goal. The removal of the obstacle is not the gift of the goal.
implied the ability to believe. With the rankest Arminians             In fact, the removing of that barricade cannot  even be said to
thisability  of man to believe is frequently openly expressed.         be the same as the act of travelling toward that goal. It is
With the more subtle Arminians who often try to sail under             merely of some assistance, if 1 should want to go on my way
the Reformed flag this ability of man to believe is more often         toward Grand Rapids. At that point  I  can put my  car in
implied, but then very plainly implied too by the very fact            motion and proceed  along the road ; but 1 can also put my car
that they put  al1 the stress on this act of faith and by the          in motion and drive it into the ditch or turn around and go
fact  that they present the gospel as a well-meant offer of            back to Chicago if 1 so  desire.  Thus it is  also with  that
salvation to all, or a promise of salvation to all, qn the con-        power to attain to the act of faith. That power. removes the
dition of faith. For what pray, is the sense of such a genera1         hindrances of the darkness of mind and irregularity of affec-
well-meánt  offer, or genera1 conditional promise,  if those to        tions. But then the wil1 of man is able to wil1 and to choose,
whom the offer or  promise is made have not the ability to             or not to wiI1 and not to choose, al1 manner of good which
meet the condition 1                                                   `may be presented to it. It is able to wil1 to believe, but also
   The third proposition of this Arminian error is, however,           not to wil1 to believe. Grace is not irresistible.
more subtle and dangerous. That proposition is that faith  can             The fathers  once again do not  engage  in an extensive
be called a gift only in respect to the power  to attain to this       argument about `this error. They do not even bother  to point
faith'..  Now what does this  mean  ? And what does the Ar-            out that the Arminian expression concerning the "power  to
minian  intend to do with this proposition ? Answering the             attain to this faith" is a piece of deceitful sophistry. They
last question first,  .we must remember  that the Scriptures           simply point to the Scriptures, Scriptures which  deny the
certainly  speak of faith as a gift; and the Arminian, if he           first and `the fundamental proposition of the Arminians, name-
is to appear at  al1 Biblical, -which he must if he is to get          ly, that no new qualities are infused into the wil1 in conver-
a following,  - must  adhere  to this Biblical language. This          sion.' The first two passages, from Jeremiah and Isaiah, teach
he certainly wants to do, and he attempts to do. If he is con-         this truth  rather  in  general.  The writing of the  law in our
fronted by anyone with the plain teaching of Scripture that            hearts certainly implies the infusing of  such spiritual qualities
faith is a gift of God, he wil1 certainly freely admit this and        and powers as righteousness, holiness, the love of the Lord
enthusiastically embrace this statement. Yet he wants nothing          our God, and obedience. And the pouring out of the Spirit
of the  -distinction  between the power and the act of faith.          upon spiritually dry and thirsty ground implies the infusing
And he wants only to speak of man's act of believing. What             the  al1 the spiritual qualities and powers that are wrought
then does  -he  mean by this third proposition  ? In the first         only by the Spirit of Christ. The passage from Romans 5
place,  let it be noted that the Arminian does not here speak          speaks specifically of the infusing of the love of God in US :
of the power or quality of faith. He does not  after  al1  con-        the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. And the pas-
tradict his iïrst proposition by the third one. But he speaks          sage from Jeremiah 31:lS is important because it teaches not
of the  "power  to attain to this faith." This  very language          only  that before we turn God must turn  US, but  also and
makes  a distinction between the faith and the power.  The             especially because it teaches that there is a necessary and in-
power is not faith itself, but it is a power to czttain  to faitlz.    evitable relationship of cause  and effect between God's turn-
Hence, in the second place, the Arminian plays itoc~s-poczts           ing of US and our turning : if God turns me, 1  &all be turned.
with words again. The Bible speaks of faith as a gift. "Yes,"          Hence, God's converting grace is irresistible, or, if you will,
the Arminian says, t`but that does not mean that faith itself          efficacious. And  notice  that the fathers emphasize that the
is a gift. Faith itself is only an act of man, and you cannot          continuous practice of the church has been to pray as Jere-
speak of it as a gift. An act cannot be a gift. What the Bible         miah prayed. This is a worthwhile point. And the power of
means is that God gives the power to attain to faith. He helps         this point lies in the  fact that the prayer here quoted, of
man to believe. He removes -the hindrances of the darkness             course, is an infallibly inspired prayer, taken directly from
of  man's understanding and the irregularity of his affections,        Scripture. It is therefore the  wil1 of God that His people
and thus He makes it possible for man to perform the act of            should thus pray and should thus acknowledge the absolute
believing." Thus the grace of God is reduced to a mere help-           sovereignty and efficacy of His converting  grace.
ing power, faith is reduced to a mere act of man, and salva-
tion is made to be dependent  upon  man's will.  Grace is                                                                        H.C.H.

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

ll                                                                              also been present  witlz  Tlzy  Holy Spirit  hz  our  assembly,
              DECENCY and ORDER                                            ll guiding OW deliberations accord,irzg to Thy will, and binding
                                                                                our heayts togetjzev in mutatal  peace and ,zmity.
                                                                                    "Wilt  Tlzou, 0  faithful God and  Rather,  graciously   bless
                              Asticle 32                                        the efforts that we purpose to put fortjz, mzd wilt Thou  fìrzish
               LITURGICAL PRAYERS                                               in  power  the work which  Thou   ha&  b,eguw.  Continue to
                                                    (Cont.)                     gatizev unto  Thyself a  truc  Church,  a%d  cause it to preserve
       In our last article  mention  was made of the liturgical                 tlze  p`z&ty of doctrine; yzzide it in #ze proper me of the holy
prayers that have been adopted in' Reformed Churches but                        sacramerzts; and inspire it  with  zeal for  tIze  mairztenapzce  of
which are used  very little, if at all, in our present tïme.                    church purity.
Historically, these prayers also belong to our churches and                         "Bring  to noazgkt  al1 wicked and subtle counsels  tht are
may be used in them although they have not been incorpor-                       devised  agaipzst   Thy  PVord  mzd  Church. Give  strength to al1
ated in the back of the Psalter with the rest of our liturgy.                   whom  Thou kast placed in authority over Thy Cizur&z,  to the
       We cannot devote space  to quote al1 of these prayers here               end thut they may preach Thy Word in faithjulness  and stead-
but since Article 32 deals with  the matter of prayer in  ec-                   fastness.
clesiastical assemblies, we  wil1 quote the two prayers that                        ciStrerzgthen  tlze civil nzagistra.tes  of Thy people,  in -order
have been composed  for the opening and closing of these as-                    tr'za.t  they  may  wield  the sword of  worldly   power  in  justice
semblies;-.  They are :                                                         and wise restraint. Itz particular do we pray for civil  rulers,
                                                                                both  hig/zev   a.nd  lower   oficers of  governmerzt,  whm  Tizou
        OPENING PRAYER FOR ECCLESIASTICÁL                                       bast  been  pleased to appoint over  US. We  commend  unto
                           ASSEMBLIES                                           Thee especially tlze esteewzed  council of t?zis city. Grant that
       "Heawenly   Father,   etenzal  a.nd  ~~@ul  G o d :   It  bas their rule may be entirely directed  toward the supreutzacy of
pleared Thee  accop-ding  to  Tizy  injìnite  wisdom  and  loving-              the King of kings over vzhlers `and ruled alike. Muy througlz
kindness to gather  a Churck unto Thyself out of the peoples                    their  labovs the slza.mefaJ  apzd wicked  dominion of Satan be
of  al1  the  earth, and to  goverpz  Tizy  Clzurck   tjzrough  the             irtmea.singly  disturbed and  broken  dom.  May   it be given
service of men.  Tizou  ïzast  graciously   called   US to t!zis  office        aznto a1.s to lead  a quiet and peaceable life  in al1 godli%ess  and
of  govemment,  and hast enjoined  ~1s to  wat& over  our-                      gravity.
selves and to bestow due  care  upon  the  flock  which   Clzrist                   "Hear  u.s, 0 God and  Father,  thro`zzgh  Thy deur Son,
purchased   with His  precieus blood. .                                         Jesus  Christ,   Wko  with Thee  and  tlze  Holy  Spirit,  the  only
       7Ve ,aue pzow assezfibled  in tlzis placd in Tlzy holy Name,             and truc God, is worthy of eternal praise und glory. Amen.`>
irz order to  dea,l,  after  the  fasJzion   of the  a*postolic   chzzrches,        Whether  any prayer is proper for a given occasion cannot
witlz  such matters  as slzall covvze before  zts and conceqrpz  the            be determined alone from the material content of the prayer.
ed~ijïcatio~z  and welfare of  T/ty  clzurch,es,   a~greeably  to  our          A prayer, beautiful in composition,  may be abominable in the
ofice.  We  couzfess  that we are  unworthy   ,a*nd   uuta~ble  of OW-          sight  of God. God looks  upon the heart and attends unto
se%ves to accow&islz  ,any good thirzg.  We beseech  Thee, Uzere-               that heart that is  broken,  contrite and humble before Him.
fore,  jaithjul God  arzd  Fatker,  thnt,  in  accordunce   with  Thy           However, whether a prayer is materially in harmony with
promise,  Tlzou  &Et  a.bide jn the wzidst of the present assembly              the prayer that our Lord taught  US and other prayers of  Holy
through  Thy  Holy   Spirit,  arzd  that He  way  lead  US into  al1            Writ as wel1 as the more genera1 principles  set forth in the
@ae tm&.                                                                        Word of God with respect to prayer, is another matter. NO
       "Remove al1 yr.ismderstandings  and guard US ,against  the               prayer that is materially in conflict with the instruction God
~influence  of our sinful  lzearts. Gra.pzt that Thy Word may be                has given US concerning prayer can be acceptable  in His Holy
our only mie mzd standa,vd,  in order that ow delibevations                     sight !
may  redorznd to  the glory of  Tlay Name,  the  edijîcation  of                    With this in mind we  may  attempt  to evaluate these
Tlzy  chmhes,  autd  tize peace of OW own consciences.                          prayers for ecclesiasticl assemblies. There are several  ele-
       "Tjzis  we  ,ask in  the Name of  Clzrist Jesus,  Thy Son,               ments in them that are commendable since they form an es-
Wizo with Tlzee  and the Holy  Spirit, the only and truc God,                   sential part of al1 prayer and are certainly necessary in con-
is  deseming of eternal  praise a.nd glory. Amen."                              nection with the prayers of the office bearers of the church of
                                                                                Christ who are confronted with the important labors of the
      CLOSING PRAYER FOR ECCLESIASTICAL                                         spiritual Kingdom of Heaven as it is manifested in the midst
                           ASSEMBLI!ES                                          of the present world. Thus the confession and acknowledg-
       "Lord God,  heavenly   Father.,  zwe  thcmk  Thee  from   our            ment of human  inability and unworthiness must be deeply
harts  .tkat it  plea,ses  Tlzee to  gatheT  a  Cizzz~ch in  our land           sensed. It is, to our way of thinking, worthy of more  em-
an.d to emzploy our services to Uzat  end. Thou  dost graciously                phasis than is given to it in one brief sentence in the prayer.
so order  Cr.11  thiuzgs  tlmt we  can  preach the gospel without               Every delegate in the assembly has need of this conscious-.
any hindrance and wzay enguge in public  worship. Thou  host                    ness because the-lack  of it tends only to human  pride which             .


                                              T H E   STAN-DARD   B E A R E R                                                             333

 Jehovah  hates. In close connection with this is the  petition        the press of circumstances. During  these days the. congrega-
asking  God to abide in the midst of the assembly by His               tional worship was often disturbed by the interference of the
 Spirit. Since we are unable of ourselves to deliberate and            government or antagonistic citizens. The office bearers, in
 decide according to truth, we are wholly dependent upon the           charge of the services, felt the need of asking  for Divine pro-
 strength and guidance of His good Spirit. Let the conscious-          tection and blessing, particularly petitioning  ,God to give
 ness of this need be ever expressed in fervent prayer. It is our      courage  to His people and to strengthen and qualify His
 most fundamental need.                                                servant  to bring His Word without fear and hindrance. Later,
     Also comniendable in the prayer for the opening of ec-            during the  time of the  Doleantie,  1886,  this  practice  was
 clesiastical meetings is the acknowledgment  that the Word of         readily adopted and has become common practice since. It is
 God is the sole  rule and standard by which  al1 decisions must       only proper that the office bearers, in whose charge are the
 be taken. Anything that is not harmonious with this is un-            services for Divine worship, seek the  benediction  of God
 worthy of the church of Jesus Christ and can never be blessed.        upon the minister and the congregation that is about to serve '
 What is done according to that standard tends to glorify the          Him.
 Name of God and serves the edification of the church. And                 A few remarks concerning this  practice  are necessary.
 peace to the conscience can only be had by .abiding  by the           First of ah, it should not be a  mere  czcstopa  OY  tradifiìon  but
 rule and standard of the Word which is truth.  Al1 this is            must  needs be as keenly felt today as in the days of its
 worthy and necessary to mention in prayer and, therefore,             origin when threatenings and slaughters were breathed out
 our criticism of the opening prayer does not lïe in what is           against the church as she gathered for Divine service.
 said but  rather  in what is left unsaid and, further, in the             In the second place, the prayer that is offered should be
 genera1 and indefinite form that characterizes this and  al1          limited and appropriate to the occasion. It is made particularly
 liturgical prayers. Thus, to cite but one example, no mention         with a view to the service that is about to take  place. In
 is made here of thanksgiving while the Heidelberg  Cate-              that service the worshippers are actively engaged in song,
 chism expresses that `prayer is the chief payt of tlzankfztlness      prayer,  communion  of the saints, hearing and attending to
 whiclz God reqztires  of US." Also, therefore, at the opening of      the Word, etc. To properly engage  in these spiritual exercises
 the assembly it is fitting to express thanks to God Who has           necessitates the Spirit and  grace. Let these be earnestly
 made the gathering possible and  Who has committed to it the          sought in behalf of the congregation. The office-bearers in
 work to be performed. That work of the Lord may never be              whose charge is the service have the particular functions of
 regarded as a burden and tedious task but  rather  must al-           their office to perform. The minister must bring the Word,
 ways be approached in the consciousness that it is a privilege        unfolding the mysteries of the faith for the instruction and
 indeed and to be engaged in it is an occasion for most joyous         comfort of Zon. The elders must prove the preaching of
 thanksgiving.                                                         the Word, taking oversight thereof that there be no intrusion
    The prayer for  the closing of assemblies  also has in it          of false doctrines. The deacons must  gather  the alms and
 several worthy elements. Here proper thanks is given. Note-           see that proper provision is made that the  needs of the gospel
 worthy are also  the various petitions  asking   God's blessing       may be provided and the poor and indigent properly cared
upon the  werk accomplished, His continuance and  further-             for. The  needs of  each  may  wel1 be committed in brief to
 ante of that work, His blessing  upon His Church and the              the throne of grace from whence alone a sufficient  provision is
 prayer to destroy the works and  kingdom  of darkness. A              made so that these functions may be rightly and profitably
 revision of the entire  section  dealing with the prayer for          performed.
 civil  magistrates is recommended. Scripture, in 1 Timothy                                                                        G.V.D.B.
 2 :2 enjoins US to pray for "kings,  a4nd  for al1 that are in au-
 thority"  and, therefore, the prayer as such has its place but,
 if it is to be included in the prayer of the assembly of the
 church at the close of her labors in the interest of Christ's                                       IN MEMORIAM
 cause, a more definite and specific  expression in the light  of
 Psalm 2 and other Scripture passages is desirable. There is              The  Ladies'  Bible  Class of the  Gram3  Haven,  Mich., Protestant
 indeed a grave danger in a general,  indefinite prayer of this        Reformed Church herewith expresses its heartfelt  sympathy  to one
 kind of coming into sharp conflict with the prayer of Jesus in        of our members, Mrs. George  Lanting,  and to  our President, Rev.
 John 17 where  He said, .`I pray not for the world."                  George Lanting, in the recent sorrow  they  experienced in the death
                                                                       of their sister,
  PRE-SERVICE  PRAYER BY THE CONSISTORY                                                    MRS. TILLIE FISCHER (nee Rutgers  )
    A few words may yet be written concerning the practice             of Oaklawn, Illinois.
 of pre-worship service prayers by the Consistory. This cus-              We  desire  for them the comfort of de Lord in  this experience of
 tom,obviously  originated during the days of the Afscheiding,         deep sorrow.
 1834, in the Netherlands and, hence, was brought about by                                                    Mrs. Fred J. Peterson, Secretary


     3 3 4                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                              The First Amendment was written to prevent favoritism,  de-
                A L L   AROUND   U S                                          vised to keep Congress from giving to one religiosity the right-
                                                                         11 of-way and so put the other religiosities at a disadvantage.
                                                                              The First Amendment does not intend to commit America  to
     The State A Rem& Of Covtzmon  Gram?                                      religious vacuity, as is sometimes imagined. It does not
        The above question was evoked by the reading of an                    commit America  to secularism, as is sometimes said. It does
     article appearing in the March,  1958 issue of The Reformed              not seek nor anticipate the cessation of religious commitment
     Jourptal, entitled  Reformed   Theology   a,nd  the First  Avwnd-        on the part of its citizens. In  fact, it not only  expects them
     ment, written by the Rev. Leonard Verduin.                               to .continue  to have such commitments  but it seeks to provide
                                                                              a climate where religious commitment  is most likely to flour-
        We cannot quote  al1 that the writer has to say on  this              ish. It does this by providing that every  religious conviction
     subject, nor is this necessary for our purpose. But that our             shall have the same status at  law, the same protection, the
     readers may know a little of the argument Rev. Verduin  sets             same opportunity. The intention of the First Amendment is
     forth in his article, and to meet the charge that we might be            not to carve out an anti-Christian or anti-religious State.  As
     quoting him  out of context, we  fee1 it necessary to summarize          far as the Constitution is concerned America  is not, and can-
     briefly,what  the article is about.                                      not become, a `godless America.' There may be godless people
        The First Amendment refers  "CO the Constitution of the               in America  - we have our share of them - but there is no
     United States which stipulates that "Congress shall make no              `godless  America.' A godless  State is a non-neutral  State.
     law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting              It  precludes  religion and the free exercise thereof, things
     the free exercise thereof . . ." Concerning this Verduin  asks           which in the American  State are guaranteed by constitutional
     and attempts to answer the question: "What  are we to think              provision. Not only is this the theoretical intent  of the First
     of this amendment? That is, what are we to think of it as                Amendment;  it is likewise the  practice.  Any one  who is in
     Christia.ns  who take the Word of God seriously?'                        position to speak with authority on the matter knows that
         The questions propounded by Rev: Verduin  suggest the                on the American scene religion and the free ,exercise  thereof
     problem that he wishes  to solve, at least to his own satisfac-          are not obstructed hut encouraged - within the framework
     tion. The problem is this. On the one hand, the First                    of the First Amendment, of course."
     Amendment of the Constitution declares that the  govern-                    Rev.  Verduin  is convinced that "non-neutrality  where
     ment of the United States must remain  neutral in matters                neutrality is enjoined is just as  vicieus  as neutrality  where
     of religion. It must condone  al1 religions, whether true or             non-neutrality is commanded."
     false,  .as  having   equal right of  existente   under  our  govern-       What is written so far should give the reader some idea
     ment. It must sustain the right of our citizenry to worship              as to what the Rev. Verduin  is concerned about in his article.
     as they please or not to worship as they please ; to be Prot-            Though we did not desire to comment especially on this part
     estant, Catholic, or Jew, 11'Iohammedan  Buddhist or Atbeist  ;          of his article, it is difficult to refrain from  asking the ques-
     ,without interference. Very simply, the position assumed by              tion: But does not the government have the bounden duty
     our government as expressed in the First Amendment is a                  to maintain  botb  tables  of the  law? And if this is so,  can
     hands-off policy as far as the matter of religion is concerned.          the government be  neutral  when these commandments of
         On the other hand, Rev.  Verduin  foresees the objection             God are transgressed ? Can the government keep still when
     of Reformed Christians that  al1 neutrality is wrong, in fact            for instance a false religion sets itself up on the basis of prin-
     they  may conclude that government is even antichristian that            ciples that deny the very God of Scripture?
     does not avowedly acknowledge the kingship of Christ.                        But, as we noted in the title of this article, we are more
         Now Rev. Verduin  does not go along with the idea that               interested now in the question: is the State a result of com-
     neutrality is always wrong. He concedes that it may,be wrong             mon  grace?  Verduin  answers this question affirmatively in
     in certain cases.  Al1 depends on the question, "What does               the following quotation.
     God ask? If He asks non-neutrality, it is sinful for US to be                "If impartiality on the part of the State is not only per-
     neutral  ; but if He asks neutrality, as we think He  some-              missible but actually  in keeping with God's will, then there
     times does, then non-neutrality is sinful. The question that             must be a theology  upon which such impartiality rests. Do
     needs to be  faced  is, What does God ask of the  State,  His            we have such a theology ? We think we do have - in the
     creature   ? If He asks neutrality, then  the First Amendment            doctrine of  God's common  grace.   Although the doctrine of
     is right in His sight. If He asks non-neutrality, then it is             common grace is stil1 largely a tract of virgin territory, one
     wrong in His sight. And in that eventuality we Christians                that calls for frontiersmen of great stamina and strength, we
     had better try to do something `about it."                               fee1 that the  main lines of this doctrine are  already  visible.
         In  regard  to the First Amendment's  "neutrality,"  Rev.            The brush has been cleared sufficiently so that we  may see the
     Verduin   writes, "It should be pointed  out that the `neutral-          sunlight and the soil. We wish to put forth an exploring foot
     ity' of the First Amendment is better called impartiality.               upon this  terrain.




L


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                    335

    "It  wil1 perhaps be granted by  al1 that the State results       only, but which may lead to some serious debate within the
from God's common grace. `Now if that be granted then it              Christian  Reformed  constituency itself. The foot-note reads
follows that the rule-right that  comes to expression in the          as follows :
State is not of a piece with the rule-right that expresses itself         "The writer of these lines has always felt that it is not
in the area of God's special or redeeming grace. We may put           good schematization to treat (as did the Synod in the now
this in mathematica1 formula. The rule-right of the State is          famous Three Points) of the  `well-meant  offer of salvation'
to the rule-right on the redemptive leve1  what common grace          under the heading of `common grace.' The problem of the
is to special grace. Just as it is a serious fault to deal with       bona fide offer of salvation to al1 who hear is a problem con-
common grace and special grace without further distinction,           cerning  the  advttinistration   of special grace  rather  than a
so is it  quite erroneous to talk  about  rule-right without          problem of common grace. One of the first points made by
further diff erentiation."                                            Dr. Abraham Kuyper in his monumental work on  De  GF-
   Verduin  further develops his philosophy (for philosophy           meèrte Gratie is that common grace `does not have so much
it is, pure and simple, without Scriptural or Confessional con-       as the germ of salvation in  it. and for that reason is of a
text) in the remaining part of his article.  However, we are          totally different natswe (italics are Kuyper's) than is the case
concerned now only with the statement "It wil1 perhaps be             in both particular grace and Covenant grace.' It would  there-
granted by  al1 that the  State results from God's common             fore be better to discuss  the question of the well-meant offer
grace."                                                               of salvation not when non-redemptive grace is in focus but
                                                                      when redemptive grace is being treated."
    Now we are not ready to grant this at all. We repeat, this
is pure philosophy. We know the presentation of those who                It is quite gratifying, at least to the undersigned, to learn
teach  the theory of a certain common grace of God. Their             from the above foot-note tlìat at least the schematization of
contention is that government was instituted as a blessing of         the Three Points is not above criticism in the Christian Re-
common grace for the restraint of sin. Accordingly, so we             formed Church.  After  thirty or more long years this is the
are told, this is especially emphasized in  the establishment of      first public criticism offered against the formulation of the
the  covenant  with Noah. Here, so it is said, God gives the          First Point, at least to our  knowledge.
government the power of the sword in His common grace for                We realize, of course, that Verduin  in the above foot-note
the restraint of sin.                                                 is not critical of the "wel1-meant  offer of salvation"  to al1 who
   Though we  also believe that the government bears  the             hear the Gospel.  Al1 that he is insisting  upon is that this
sword, and that the sword is given to the government for the          conception does not belong in the context of the Three Points
punishment.  of evildoers, this does not imply, as is the con-        of Common Grace.  To him it is merely  a matter of schema&
tention of the common grace theorists, that government itself         zation.  To  US,  however,  it is a matter of  principle  and of
is instituted because of sin, and for the restraint of sin. It        truth, as has been clearly enunciated throughout the last
should be very plain to the student of Scripture that govern-         thirty or more years in  Tlze  Standard  Bearer,   which  inci-
ment is not instituted because of sin at all, hut it rises  organ-    dentally has been the cause  for The Standwd Bearer's very
ically and directly from the family. Sin and the restraint of         existente.  We have denied the theory of common grace not
sin had nothing to do with the institution of government. And         only, but, relative to the  "wel1meant  offer of  salvation"   to
what was-true in the creation of man and of the world, is             al1 who hear the Gospel, as stipulated in the First Point, we
true also in heaven  among the angels  where  there are prin-         insist that this is the doctrine of Arminius.
cipalities and powers, and this is true also in the kingdom  of          At  any  rate,  it  wil1 be  very interesting to see whether
Christ  where  there is  govermnent,  authority and obedience         there  wil1 be  any repercussions to Verduin's foot-note. If
to authority apart from any consideration of sin. It must be          there are, and these are made public, our readers  wil1 be
plain  also to  al1  who are acquainted with our Reformed             kept informed.
Standards that this is the view expressed by our fathers and                                                                        M.S.
is clearly the principle  set forth in the exposition of the Hei-
delberg Catechism  in Lord's Day 39 relative to its treatment
of the 5th Commandment. Let Rev. Verduin  prove the con
trary, if he can.                                                                     AN INVITATION  TO, WORSHIP
   But if  Verduin   wil1 grant that our contention is right,                          0 comé before the Lord, our King,
it seems to me that  al1 the rest of his argument becomes                              And in His presence let US sing;
exceedingly faulty. And he wil1 have to answer negatively  the                         Let US in glad and joyful lays
question we raised above, namely, Can the government be                                The Rock of our salvation praise;
neutral  when the commandments of God are transgressed ?                               Before Him come with thankful song,
    In conclusion, we cal1 attention to a foot-note which Rev.                         In joyful psalms His praise prolong.
Verduin  attached to his article which is very interesting not                                                              Psalm 95 :l


                                     ~.--  ._   - -    -           
                                                                   TaIE'.STA.~N-D   AR.D-   .B'EAR`ER   -..  .-
 336

                                                                                den under foot the Son of God,? etc., (Heb. 10  :29). In-
 Il                  CONTRiBUTIONS  :                                           deed, for the sake of Christ's cross God does nat determine,
 1'                                                                      `I-    by an indisputable wil1 to- ieave  anyone in the' Fa11 of man,
                  CALVINISM  - THE TRUTH                                        nor to pass by or leave anyone  in the state of sin and  con-
                                                                                demnation. For "God is ñot  willing. that any should  perish,
                         (Arminianism the Lie)                                  but that al1 should Come to -repentance"  (11 Pe. `3 :9). Then
 As Based on the Canons of Dordt, Popularly known as the                        it cannot  be,  absolùte   predestinätión  which detérmines the
             .
        .              Five Points of' Calvinism:           1     ;..           reason `why `God sends the- gospel to one people and not to
                                                                                another; bùt rather  because ene. is better and worthier than
                     óy  REV. ROBERT  C.  HAIIBAIZH                             the other to. whom the gospel is not sent : "`But seeing ye put
                          lJYtcondi&mal                      Election           it (the gospel) from you, and judge yoztrselves  unworthy of
                                   (Continued)                                  .everlasting  life, 10, we turn to the  Gentiles" (Ac. 13  :46).
       _ CALVINISM maintains with Scripture that the Lord                       Why is one consigned  to perdition ? Not as the result of an
 chose US, not because we were holy, but `(he hath chosen US                    arbitrary partiality. ("there is no respect of  persons  with
 in Him . . . that  (in order that) we should be  holy" (Eph.                   God," Rom. 2  :ll), büt because one is good and the other
 1:4); nor  -because He foresaw our obedience; but we are                       bad  ; the one is a believer and the other an unbeliever  ("some
 "elect . . . ztnto obedience"  (1~ Pe.  1:2)  ; nor because He                 believed. the things which were spoken, and some believed
 foresaw our faith. For "God hath from the beginning chosen                     nat," Aë. 28 :24) ; or the one is obedient  and the other rebel-
 you to. salvation, thru . . . belief" (11  Th..2:13).  The effect              lious (`2. "Come,  ye blessed ; . . For 1 was an hungered  and
 is that none believe  except those ordained to eternal life,                   ye gave Me meat," etc.; with  "Depart  from Me, ye cursed,
 chosen   to  faith, and  to  every  saving good. The word  "or-                .into everlasting fire . . . For 1 was an hungered, and ye gave
 dained"  pertains  to the eternal, sovereign -counsel of God.                  Me no meat,"  etc. Mt. 25 :34f, 41f).
 According to that counsel it means,  "to place"  : "as many  as                    CALVINISM declares that we know only so much about
 were placed-to  eternal life believed," i.e., to be rooted in and              reprobation as God has seen fit to reveal, and it is important
 invested with eternal life ; "to give" : `<as many as were given               we  know  tlzat.  much.  .The Bible teaches that the elect are
 to eternal life," i.e., those under the dominion and ownership                 by  nature just as wicked, depraved and worthy of damnation
 of eternal life believed. And since the word is a passive verb                 as the reprobate: "Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopi-
  ("had been ordained"), it implies that a word omitted is                      ans unto Me, 0 children of Israel? saith the Lord" (Am.
 to be understood. That word can be nothing else but "Lord,"                    9 :7). Yet the Lord has chosen the Israel  of God (Ga. 6:16),
 which appears in the first part of the text. "As many  as had                  and rejected the rest. For there is a personal  election  of
 been ordained" - by whom 7 by the Lord! It is not man%                         some to salaation (11 Th. 2 :13). There must, then, be other
 act, but  God's. "`1  speak not of you all: 1 know  whom  1                    persons   who'ar.è.-bot-~~lected  to salvation. God has not  ap-
                                                                                                  .
 have chosen" (Jn. 13 :18), for, "ye did not choose Me, but 1                   pointed His ele$ `unto wrath (1 Th. 5 :9) ; there must, then,
 chose you, and  .ordained   you" (15  :16). Our  election  does                be others  who are. appointed to wrath, and to fata1 stumbling
 not  depend   upon anything in  US, therefore, but  upon His                   (1 Pe. 2 $3). There aresome  God gave to Christ (Jn. 6 :37) ;
 own sovereign ordination. From  God's point of  view, it is                    there are othersHe  didnot, give  to Christ (Jn. 17:9). There
 absolutely and eternally firm and sure. Our diligence cannot                   are some whose narnes  -&ere written  in the -boek of life (Re.
 make His  decree   any more secure ; but  rather furnishes  US .21:27).;  there are others whose  names  were  not  written in
 with the comfort and joy which knowledge of election  affords                  the book of life from the foundation of the world (Re. 178).
( 1   T h .   1:4). G o  s  cl'
                            election  guarantees that none of His               To some "it is given `to know the mysteries of the kingdom
 elect  can be fatally deceived (Mt.  24:24), fhat none  -can                   of heaven;  but to them (others) it is not given" (Mt. 13 :ll).
perish (Jn. 10  :27ff), nor be lost  (,6:39).  For His people,                  `:Art Thou not from everlasting, 0 Lord my  God~ . . . ?  zere
 tlzei?p   names were' forever  written in heaven (Lk.  10:20),                 shall not die.  0. Lord,  Thou-  bast ordained  them  for  judg-
 and He unconditionally  promises  that He wil1  not  blot  out                 ment" (Hab.   1.:12). The reprobate are such children of dis-
 their name from that record (Rev. 3 :5).                                 ~. obedience that they judge themselves unworthy of eternal
                                                                                life  ; they make a covenant  with death (Is. 28 :15) : To that
                                   Reflrobation                                 disobediënca they were sovereignly appointed (1 Pe. 2 8) !
4. ARMINIANISM  `bitterly  repudiates the doctrine  off and that  unworthiness  is their actual  state and  condition to
 sovereign reprobation. It is this point which raises the most which they were of old (from eternity) ordained (Jude 4).
 controversy.  When  we ask the question, What of those who                     "For our  God is a  consuming   fire." He is not only  sover-
were not "ordained to eternal life"  ? the answer often given                   eign in His  ~goodness, but.  álso in His severity. "He hath
is, that "God never sends anyone to-heil," for His cross bars                   mercy on whom.  He will, and whom He wil1 He hardeneth"
the way thence, so that the damned send themselvesthere,                        (Ro.  9:18).
 as a result- of treading the cross underfoot : "who hath trod-                                        (To be  continued)


