                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R .  '                                            435
                                                                            --.
 I..





        Er is zulk een gekleefd zijn  aan de  dingen, die  voor-    uws  harten,  her en derwaarts geslingerd tusschen de
 bijgaan !                                                          dingen,  die van boven en die van  beneden  zijn ; al het
        Er wordt gezien zulk een  jagen naar de  dingen,  die       verlangen en begeeren uws harten  op de hemelstad. En
 geen blijvende, geen eeuwige waarde hebben.                 .      dan ten einde toe, strijhende den goeden  strijd, opdat nie-
        Gads volk heeft zoo' weinig het hoofd omhoog en  `t         mand uwe kroon  neme.
 hart naar boven. De verwachting van de eindelijke open-               De Heere komt! En  als Hij komt  zal Hij  geopen-
 baring van Jezus Christus, van de volkomene openbaring,            baard worden  in al de hkerlijkheid Zijner genade!
_ die ons dan van de Goddelijke liefelijkheden zal  worden             En de volheid Zijner  genadef  zal u dan  worden   toe-
 toegebracht, schittert zoo weinig in het oog der  uitver-          gebracht.           ,
 koren vreemdelingen. Het  verIangen  naar die eindelijke              Stroomen van Goddelijke liefelijkheden !       ,.
 openbaring vervult zoo weinig het hart. En de zekerheid               Fonteinen des levens eeuwiglijk springend !
 dier hope is maar al te dikwijls zoo  onvast,  zoo  wanke-            Genade voor genade!                           1-I.  H.
 lend . . . .            t
        En met het verflauwen .dier hope staat dan ook weer
 in het allernauwst verband  het verachteren in de genade,                          CHURCH AND SCHOOL
 het niet toenemen in de heiligmaking, het verzwakken in
 den strijd, het niet aandurven van het `verwerpen  \-an               The gathering of our June  Classis  is again a thing
 de vriendschap dezer  wereld, die vijandschap Gods is. 0,          of the past.
 als we deze hope op Hem hebben en in die hope  Ieven,                 Our readers are, of course, `acquainted. with the fact
 dat we Hem gelijk  zullen  zijn in dien dag Zijner  volko-         that our churches assemble three times a year in Class-
 mene openbaring, dan  zullen  we ons ook door die hope             ical gathering, consisting of two delegates from each
 naar die eindelijke volmaaktheid strekken, en onszelven            consistory of our Protestant Reformed Churches. Orig-
 reinigen gelijk Hij rein is. Als we  onzen   schat hebben          inally these meetings'were quarterly. But for practical
 in den hemel en verwachten in den dag van de voile  open-          reasons, it being rather difficult for our Iowa churches
 baring van Jezus Christus, dan  zullen  we ook geen andere         to send delegates so frequently, they were reduced to
 schatten zoeken en onze  harten  niet zetten op de  rijk-          three per annum.
 dommen dezer wereld. -41s we leven in de zekere  ver-                 Of these meetings the gathering in June is naturally
 wachting van de volkomene overwinning,  als onze Heer              the most important, for different reasons.
 zal geopenbaard zijn, dan zullen we ook niet vreezen in               Just before the sessions of  Classis  begin the  Cura-
 den strijd, maar het genade rekenen, niet  alleen,  dat we         torium, the Board of Trustees of -our,Theological  School,
 in de zaak van  Christus  in Hem. mogen gelooven, maar             a committee of the churches to watch over the interests
 ook, dat we met Hem mogen lijden.            Dan is er mqed,       and development of the school, usually has a meeting.
 dan is er een zoeken van de dingen,  die boven zijn, dan is        Their June meeting is of outstanding importance for
 er een jagen  naar de heiligmaking, opdat we Hem straks            two reasons chiefly. First, because that meeting marks
 mogen aanschouwen! Maar ook, is die hope zwak,  ver-               the close of a school year; the rector of the school de-
 flauwt in  ons'het verlangen naar de hemelsche heerlijk-           livers a report reflecting the condition and progress of
 heid, zijn we niet nuchteren en zijn de lendenen van               the school, the work accomplished and the desirable
 ons verstand niet opgeschort, zoodat we ten  allen  tijde          alterations to be made. And a report is delivered to
 geestelijk reisvaardig zijn, dan is er een hinken op fwee          Curatorium regarding the work and standings of each
 gedachten, een verflauwen in den strijd, een meegaan met           student. And, secondly, this June meeting of the Board
 de  wereid,.  een  zich vermaagschappen met de  kinderen           of Trustees is important because it is at this meeting
 dezer eeuw  `. . . .                                               that prospective students must apply for admittance to
        0, de hope is van zoo groote, zoo allesbeheerschende        the school. And since church and school are, of course,
 beteekenis in het leven van den Christen-vreemdeling,              most intimately related and the condition of. the latter
 reizende door het  midden  dezer wereld naar de eeuwige            is a reflection of that of the former, the importance of
 hemelstad !                                                        this June meeting of the Curatorium usually heightens
        Daarom,  hoopt volkomenlijk.                                the significance of our June Classical gathering.
        En om volkomenlijk te  hopen,  Iaat de lendenen uws            And thus it is an opportune time to reflect and make
 verstands ten  allen  tijde opgeschort zijn, opdat ge  gees-       a few remarks concerning our churches and their school.
 terijke  en eeuwige  dingen  moogt kunnen onderscheiden               First of all, gratitude may well fill our hearts, for
 en ge u  met moogt laten  afleiden  door het schiinschoon          our God did abundantly bless us. It is true, we are com-
 dezer wereld. Weest nuchteren. Wandelt uwen weg                    paratively small in numbers. But it may, in the first
 niet als een geesteIijk-dronken  man, ongestadig in keuze,         place, be questioned, to say the least, whether our small-
 getrokken nu naar de  dingen,  die  beneden,  dan  naar de         ness is in any way a disadvantage. It surely does not
 dingen,  die boven zijn, waggelend op den weg . . . .              hamper our church-life in any respect; there is nothing
        Hoopt volkomenlijk. Niet twijfelend. De  dingen             essential in the life of any of the larger denominations
 liebben  volkomenlijk zekerheid.        Niet in  verdeeldhkid      we are lacking; history teaches that according as a


f                                                                                                                                      ,
                                                                                                                              4
       436                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

       church grows in numbers and strength in a carnal sense,         possess spiritual vitality and strength, that the blessing
       it also declines in spiritual power and life  ; and our         of the Lord is with them.
       smallness is also a means to bring us together in more           ' Six prospective students asked to be admitted to
       intimate fellowship than is possible in the larger churches.    the school next September, the Lord willing. Another
       I think this last advantage of being small was clearly          one will probably be added to this number, so that we
, reflected in our Classical assembly, especially the last             may look forward to resuming our school work next fall
       time. How happy the brethren are to meet one another!           with a comparatively large number of students. This
       How keen is the interest of all in the deliberations of         is a cause for rejoicing and thanksgiving for more than
       the meeting! If I recall how dreary and dead the meet-          one reason. For not only are we in  ne,ed  of laborers,
       ings could be, and generally were, of Classis  Grand Rap-, as we wrote in a previous issue, and may we consider
       ids East of the Christian Reformed Churches and com-            the application of these young men an answer to our
       pare our interesting and lively gatherings, I am not            prayers ; but it is at the same time a manifestation of
       sorry that we are still small, neither do I earnestly long      the fact, that the` Lord creates in the hearts of many the
       for the time, that we shall have passed the age of our          confidence that our  churches,will continue to grow and,
       ecclesiastical' childhood as a denomination. Secondly, it       therefore, will actually offer a field to the laborers after
       must be remembered, that it is very natural, that we are        rhey have been prepared for the work in the Lord's vine-
       still small. And taking into consideration our age, we          yard.
       are not small, but big and healthy. Our mother, who                The report about the past school year was very satis-
       threw us out of the house because she loved us no more,         factory. It may, indeed,  be,expressed without boasting,
       was not big either. Rut besides, we are only three years        that the students worked hard and that their work was
       and a half of age. When a boy of three measures more            blessed. Because of the fact that the Revs. Verhil and
       than three feet in stocking feet, you do not call him           VOS were `temporarily stationed in Hull and Sioux Center
       small but big. And when a church with so small a begin-         respectively, it had not been necessary to interrupt the
       ning and origin as ours may count some fourteen con-            course of the students at school. In former years they
      gregations and approximately seven hundred  and' fifty           were obliged to take each his. turn in serving the con-
       families, after three and one-half years of existence, she      gregations in Iowa and they were absent from school
       is comparatively large. Thirdly, there is nothing to            for several weeks in succession sometimes. This natur-
       worry about our smallness.  Of course, if a child shows         ally had a bad effect upon their school work, and more
       no vitality, is sickly and does not grow, appears anemic,       or less upon the entire work. But this year there was
       there is reason to fear that it  wilr not grow old, that in     no need of these interruptions. Surely, they all had to
       childhood its life  :will be cut off.                           go  our  preaching practically every Sunday, but they
              But how different is this with respect to our little     could follow the different courses regularly. And they
     ' denomination !                                                  made noticeable progress. Further it could be reported
              Remember, as an infant we were thrown out of the         to the Board of Trustees that the past school year was
       house, and mother fervently hoped that we would die.            marked by perfect harmony between faculty and stu-
       She threw us out into the snow, with only a little shirtie      dents as well as among rhe students mutually. There
       to protect us against the cold. And when she was afraid         was no trouble, no manifestation of jealousy and hatred,
       that the shirtie would prove sufficient protection to keep      as was the case in `the past, when evil spirits seemed
       us alive, she sent the police after us to tear it from our      to stalk among us and ample place was given to the
       shivering body. It was bitterly cold and the infant was         devil sometimes. Peace and love and harmony reigned
       expected to die. First it was expected to freeze to death.      within the walls of the school and the work was a joy.
       And when it survived that  first cruel treatment, it was           Also the m$eting  of Classis was a pleasure. The Spirit
       whispered that ir had contracted T.B.S. and that at the         of the Lord was with us and filled us with brotherly
       very longest it could live a year or two.                       love to one another and with the desire to seek, not each
              Thus mere men planned and acted.                         his own honor and glory, but the well-being of the
              But the Lord had determined differently. The poor        churches that were represented and the advancement of
       child revealed a marvelous vitality and power. It sur-          the cause of Christ among us. When that spirit prevails
       vived and grew. It developed into a robust and healthy          and rules in our gatherings much work can be accom-
       child. Even when in its early childhood it had  ro suffer       plished. For then all the brethren do not necessarily
       an operation for appendicitis, it still survived, though        think alike with regard to all matters brought before the
        many prophesied that it would not even be able to take         meeting, but they are spiritually strong enough to differ
        the ether and that it would surely die on the operating        on some matters in brotherly love. And the final out-
        table. And it soon -was back to normal health and              come is harmony and unanimity. There were several
        strength.                                                      rather important matters before the meeting and it was
              Surely, the Lord has done great things for us!           feared that we might, perhaps, not be able to finish all
              The last meeting of  Classis and Curatorium revealed     the work in the afternoon and evening sessions, so that
        it anew, that our churches are there to stay, that they        we would have to meet again the next day. There were
                     Ij


                                   '  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                      437
                                                                                                                   _-_-

 different reports to be considered, there was the question     in accord with the original plan. And to an extent this
 of Sioux Center and Hull with respect to their ministers.      will have to be done another year as well. Yet, the time
 Both congregations very much desired to keep their             is approaching, is really already now, that the students  '
 pastors who had been given them for one year. There            will have to be more definitely divided and the work
 were some of the new students that needed support              will have to be graded. This is a real problem and  ,will
 financially. And there were many minor matters. But            have to be considered by Curatorium in conjunction with
 thanks to the good spirit that prevailed at the meeting,       the faculty. Besides, a definite course ought to be mapped
 and through the instrumentality of the able man we had         out and decided upon, chiefly theological, no doubt, for
 in the chair, the  Classis  worked fast and finished in an     the present, in order gradually to add the necessary
 evening session. .                                             branches for the preparatory course. For we believe
    All the brethren, I think, felt satisfied with the deci-    indeed, that God our Lord must give us the men, that
 sions taken and thankful that once again we might meet         are to labor in His vineyard; He must call and prepare
 one another.                                      /            and fill with His Spirit and grace the men He. would
    Of course, the ladies, who so splendidly served us          have to serye Him ; but we also do believe that those
 with refreshments and supper, and put in a hard day of         men, whom the Lord chooses to work in His kingdom
~  work to do so, were not forgotten.                           must have the best possible training. Curatorium and
    A meeting such as we had certainly serves to                faculty must have an eye to the future. Soon we will,
 strengthen the tie that binds us and may be considered         with the Lord's blessing, be able. to graduate some of
 a real blessing for the Churches in general. Thanks be         our men. These men must have a diploma and pro- .
 to our God!                                                    visions must be made for these diplomas in time.
                       *  *  *  *  *                                   We are glad that the Board decided to give the fac-
                                                                ulty the privilege of making such use of talents among
    I will `close these reflections with a few remarks.         -the students as  lit seems fit and as is possible. Glad we
    First of all, it seems to me that the necessity  ofi are too, that the Curatorium decided to' appoint a com-
 changing the time of our meetings somewhat became              mittee for the purpose of determining upon the possi-
 apparent.                                                      bility of printing the material thus far delivered by the
    This is true both of the meeting of Curatorium and          instructors. That will facilitate the work in the future.
 that of Classis.                                               But still there is a good deal that remains to be done.
    The former opens its session on the evening before                 With the Lord's blessing, however, all these prob-
 Classis and, of course, expects to be able to finish its       lems will be solved.
 work the same evening. But this proves to be impossible.              And that His blessing was upon us so visibly in the
 In the morning of the following day the Board usually          past fills us with hope and courage for the future.
 meets again and had considerable work left. So much                                                                H. H.
 work is left sometimes, that there must be called another       ,
 session in the afternoon, just before the meeting of
 Classis  is scheduled to begin and where a few things
 are still hurriedly decided and a report is hastily drawn                           GEESTELIJK LIED
 up and approved. Is it not possible for the Board to                       -a&                                    I.  :
 begin its sessions in the afternoon instead of at night?              Leid, lief'lijk  Licht, waar `t  duister  mij omringt,
 Or, better still, is it not possible to being the meetings                          Leid Gij uw kind ;
 in the morning and meet all day before the  Classis?  It              Het is zoo eenzaam waar de nachtwind zingt:
 certainly would be an improvement if the brethren could                             Leid Gij uw kind;
 arrange it so. There would be Iess hurry and there would              Eewaak mijn gaan; ik schouw niet verder dan
 be no need of extending the sessions deep into the night.            Het pad van nu, - dat ik nauw loopen  kan.
    The same remark may be applied to the  Classis.  It
 has become a custom to open the sessions of  Classis  in              Ik was niet immer  zoo,  en bad U niet:
 the afternoon. Usually we have an evening session. And                              Leid Gij uw kind;
 this time it was feared that we would have to assemble                Ik zocht naar wegen, waar men U  niet  ziet;
 the day following again. But is it not possible that                                Leid tech uw kind.
 Classis  assembles in the morning? Then there would                   Ik minde hellen schijn, en, angst-beklemd,
 be no feeling of hurry and we would be able calmly to                 Had hoogmoed al het beste in mijn gestremd.
0 deliberate and finish the work. It seems to me that it
 would be an improvement in every respect.                             Zoo lang uw kracht mij zegent, weet ik, dat
    Then, with respect to the school, the brethren will                              Gij leidt uw kind ;
 realize that it will gradually need more attention. Till              Door storm en onweer,  langs het  smalle'pad,
 now, mostly because of lack of time on the part of the                              Leid Gij uw kind.
 two minister-editor-professors, the students were grouped             Tot in den nieuwen  morgen ik ontwaak,
 together as much as possible, even though this is not                 En met de  eng'len  van uw  glorie  smaak.


THE INSTITUTION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT                          on the other hand -- sustain to each other, and to Christ.
                          CHURCH                              It was pointed out, further, that the church as an insti-
                                                              tution is a living organism projected for service. It
   In our previous article we dwelt upon the allegory         functions. The question must be faced and answered:
of the vine and the branches. The meaning arid implica-       "What is the order to which this institution adheres
tions of this figure together with the point of converg-      when in action?" Our only source of information is
ence and divergence between it and the true vine, Christ,     Scripture. Fact is, however, that we find in Scripture
were laid hold on and set forth. What (someone may            no ready made Church Order. The Bible says compara-
ask) had this to do with the subject under treatment?         tively little of the institution as such; of the status of
Let us make this clear. The announcement was made             its various parts; and of its proper behavior when in
at the outset that the task to which we set ourselves         action. Scripture even fails to purposely distinguish be-
was to show how the framework of the church as                tween the organism and the institution. In fact these
an institution should be constructed, and what prin-          very terms are foreign to Holy Writ. Yet, the Church
ciples it should be made to incorporate. It was asserted      of Jesus Christ is one of the great themes of Scripture.
further that we purpose to institute an investigation into    The origin,  thb duties and the essential properties of
the following matters: (a) The status of the various          this creation are set forth and elucidated. However,  the
parts of the institution of the church:  (1)) The order to    Scriptural data respecting the Church rather  pre-sup-
which it (the institution) must adhere when in action;        poses the institution and cannot be regarded as constitut-
(0) The relation to which the various local institutions      ing a treatise on the subject of the institutiori as such.
sustain to each other.                                        Does this mean that Christ left us in the dark as to its
   We purpose to function merely as an investigator,          character, the status and rights of its parts, and the mode
being aware of the fact that this frame-work, these prin-     of its operations? No indeed. As was said, Christ, in
ciples and this order are there to be unearthed, laid         His Word, presents to the student of Scripture a descrip-
hold on and exhibited. The question arose, "where to          tion of the duties; of the essential and the peculiar prop-
search ?" Our answer was, "in Scripture." We are not          erties of his Church. Now what kind of an institution
unmindful of the fact that the principles for which we        and order may we expect Christ to approve of? The
search have long ago been found and incorporated in           answer is ready: The kind that will display the peculiar,,
a Church Order. Fact is, however, that both here and          properties of his body the Church; the kind that pro-
in the Netherlands the articles comprising our Church         motes the well-being of the Church: permits it to thrive.
Order are being separated from the principles of which        and prosper and to function to the very best advantage
they (these articles) were the outgrowth and grafted          of Christ and his cause. Hence, our task is  cIear. It is
upon positively un-Reformed and un-Biblical modes of          up to  US  to ascertain the peculiar properties and duties
thought. It's about time, therefore, that we again insti-     of Christ Church. With these in our eye, we can cor-
tute an inquiry into the principles of Reformed church        rectly appraise any given institution or church order;
government. Our Church Order we shall not ignore              ascertain the correct order according to which the Church
but place in the lime-light of Scripture. In this light       must function: and project the body of the Church into
we will experience no difficulty in sighting the meaning      the kind of institution becoming to it. Thus we have
of these articles.                                            vindicated, so we trust, the mode of procedure in these
   Scripture, let it be repeated, is our source of supply     articles.
from which we derive the model to which the organiza-             Let us now return to that point where we paused
tion of the Church must be made to conform, and the           and proceed from there on. We were directing our atten-
elements of truth which this structure in action must         tion to the peculiar properties of the body of rhe Church.
be made to display. As to this model, it was pointed          The specific property upon which we were dwelling is
out that the apostolic church of the New Testament is         that imaged by the vine in nature and the organism
seen garbed in a form of manifestation in which the           man. The plain teachings of these figures are that Christ
body of the church must everywhere appear. We ap-             and the, believers constitute an organism, the seat and
proached one of these local institutions and what did         channel of whose life is the assured human nature of the
we see? A community of believers united under a bishop        Saviour. The expatiation of this truth comprised our
(ruling-elder), teacher (teaching-elder), and a deacon.       preceding article. Before leaving this phase of our sub-
This, then, is the proper arrangement of the parts of         ject, we wish to add that the believers, because of rhe
the institution in which the body of the Church of            operations of the indwelling Spirit, transport themselves,
Christ must everywhere project itself. However, as was        so to say, in Christ and appropriate unto themselves by
before said, we cannot stop here. This model  as such         a living active faith the blessings of which the assumed
must be made an object of study. What we are inter-           nature of Christ is the seat. In a word, the believers
ested in knowing is the status of the various parts of        are united to Christ by a living, active faith of which
the institution  ; the relation which these parts  - the      this Spirit is the workman. Their entire being hungers
bishop, the teaching-elder, and the deacon on the one         for and goes out to the Christ. Thus these branches are
hand and those taught, supervised and administered to         at once consciously, vitally related to the vine, Christ.


442                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
--_I_

This vital relation, known in theology as the  -mystical            come to guide it into all truth. A comparison between
union, includes the element of faith.                               the conduct, speech and replies of the disciples of the
  -Further, the believers, in virtue of their being mem-            humiliated Christ and the speech and behavior of these
bers of one body, are in Christ organically related to              same friends of our Lord on the day of Pentecost, brings
one another. In each member and in Christ dwelleth the              to light that the Church on this day matured. To the
Spirit; and circulates a life, of which Christ is the seat.         pre-Pentecostal Feter, as well as to the other disciples,
       We now pass on to  &at property of the New Testa-            the cross of Christ was an offence; the grave, a tragedy.
ment Church usually signified by the term majority                  To this Peter, prophesy yielded no other message than
(mondigheid)  -."- a term good enough if correctly ap-              that of a Messiah reigning as an earthy king at Jeru-
plied. Its correlative is the word minor. According to              salem; and of an Israel restored to its former earthy
human right a major is one permitted to make contracts              glory. The speech of Jesus  ,to the effect that the Son
and manage his own property. By the law of the United               of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the
States a person is a major when twenty-one years old.               elders! and the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed,
The minor, on the other hand, is' under the control and             and after three days rise again  - this speech greatly
guidance of tutors and governors who act for him. He                exasperates Peter. Taking Christ aside, he administers
is not permitted to manage his own affairs being imma-              unto him a stern rebuke. The disciples at this juncture
ture as to his mental equipment. He does not know as                would frequently quarrel among themselves as to who
he ought; is incapable in a relative sense of judging               would be the greatest in the ,Kingdom  of heaven; and to
and appraising correctly ; fails to discern implied truth ;         be seated either at the right or left hand of its king
neglects to press on toward a conclusion; fails to  sur-            seemed to be the height of their ambition and to them
mize an effect and lacks perspective. His point of view             the high point of  .attainment.  On the morning of the
is-liable to be faulty and his horizon limited.  Tn a word,         resurrection the message of the "risen Christ comes to
he does not know. It is, therefore, not safe for him to             them as a great surprise; and one of their number must
act for himself. The major is one with a matured soul               see,and handle the Christ ere he will believe.
and. therefore capable of attending to his affairs. Not                The question arises whether the pre-pentecostal dis-
that a youth, let us say of six years old, does not know            ciples must, as to their grip upon the truth, be placed
at all and is altogether incapable of judging and render-           in a class by themselves. The answer is ready: "Not
ing a correct verdict. Fact is that every minor, no mat-            so.pp Fact is that their knowledge of the  redemptiye
ter how young, is a potential major. Only, he is lacking            labors of our Saviour and, their insight into the character
in ripeness, and cannot be expected, therefore, to fully            of the blessings of the Kingdom must be taken as ,a fair
realize the meaning and import of a contemplated course             sample of the mental equipment of the Church of the
of action. The law, consequently, refuses to hold him               Old Dispensation. Says Peter, speaking of the prophets
accountable for his actions respecting the management               of the Old Testament : "Of which salvation the prophets
of his property.                                                    have inquired `and searched diligently, who prophesied
       Minority  and  majority  are two words used by the  theo-    of the grace that should come unto you: searching what
Iogian  as significations of two disparate states or condi-         or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was
tions of the church. True enough, the notices of Scrip-             in them' did signify, when it testified beforehand the
ture respecting the church, justify the place of these. sufferings of Christ;and the glory that should follow . . . .
terms in the vocabulary of the dogmatician. Says Christ:            which things the angels desire to look into" (I Pet.
"These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present             1 :l 1, l.2b). Says Christ : "Many kings and prophets have
with you. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost                 desired to see the things which ye see, and  .have not
whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you            seen them" (Matt.  13:17).  Calvin's comment on these
aW  things,,  and bring all things to your remembrance,             scriptures reads  as  follows: "But still more closely does
whatsoever I have said  unro you . . . . Henceforth I call          God's goodness toward us (the believers of the New
you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his              Testament dispensation) shine forth in this case, because
lord  doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things          much more is now made known to us than what all the
that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto               prophets attained by their long and anxious inquiries . .  .,  .
you . . . . I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye             "These two things ought to be clearly noticed: he
cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he the Spirit of                 declares that more has been given to us than to the
truth is come he will guide you into all truth: for he              ancient fathers. in order to amplify by this comparison
shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear,           the grace of the gospel ; and then what is  .preached  to
that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to                 us respecting salvation, cannot be suspected of any
come" (John  14:26;  15:14,  15;  15:12,  13). This promise         novelty, for the Spirit had, formerly testified of it by
was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the Holy                 the prophets . . . . .
Ghost entered the Church-the body of the exalted Christ
-and began teaching it and bringing to its remembrance                 "The prophets ministered to us more abundantly than
all things. The church knows now as it knew not here-               to their own age and that this was revealed to them from
tofore in that the promised teacher- the Spirit-had                 above; for in Christ only is'a full exhibition of those


                                                TI-TE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            . 443
                                    ---_-  ______..  -_-__------

       things of which God then presented but an obscure                    That the church of the Old Dispensation was being
       image . . . ." So far  Calvm.                                     dealt with as a minor, is also evident from the following:
          Two things stand out clear: (a) The Old Testa-                 It, the church, was not permitted to choose by a law-
       ment saints did not have Christ as the direct object of           ful election its officers- the king priest and prophet.
       their vision. Salvation was presented to them in  ,a fig-         God, then, did nor select through, but apart from the
       ure. They searched diligently but without success what            church, which in turn acquiesced  ;n the choice made.
       the Spirit signified. These significations, true enough,          I_Jnto Moses the angel of the Lord appears in the burn-
       were veiled in a figure. However, there was a veil upon           ing bush. Without the people's knowledge, Moses is
       the minds of these saints as well, so that standing finally       called, and sent unto Pharaoh that he may bring forth
       in the shadow of the cross and in the entrance of an              God's people, the children of Israel out of Egypt. The
       empty tomb, the church became none the wiser. It was              notice of Scripture respecting the Divine calling of the
       not enough that Christ had become the direct object               Levites reads as follows: "And I behold, I have taken
      of vision. He must open the eyes or the Church' will               the Levites from among  tne children of Israel, instead
      not perceive. In fin% the Church in this epoch is a minor.         of all the firstborn that openeth the matrix among the
       It does not know as it ought. It is incapable of judging          children of Israel: therefore the Levites shall be mine:
       correctly the things of the Spirit; cannot discern implied        . . . . . (Lev.  3:i2)." Again God acts alone and so he
       truth  ; lacks perspective.  Its point of view is faulty ; its    does rhroughout. The voice of the body of the church
      horizon limited  ; its apperceiving mass comparatively             is not heard. What is more, the church of that day was
      small ; its knowledge meager. We say with Calvin that              not even permitted to discipline, censure and, if neces-
      it was indeed proper, while Christ, the Sun of righteous-          sary, depose its officers. A delinquent king, priest or
      ness. was yet pbsent, that the full light should shine as          prophet had to be tolerated until the Lord saw fit to
      at mid-day. Yet in its state of minority, the church was           remove him. The erring king Saul ruled until the day
 '    nevertheless, a potential major. The term minority must            of his death. Likewise Eli the high priest.
      be made to apply to the true church only. The unre-                 . Further, God's law was so minutely regulative of  '
      generated ungodly one is no saint in the making.                   the forms of worship that the conviction cannot he
          That the church passed through a state of minority             escaped that the church of that day was indeed being
      is evident from the notices of  ' Scripture respecting             dealt with as a minor. Nothing is left to the  descretion
      Jehovah's dealings with Israel. Comparatively speaking,            of the church. For every detail there is a precept. For
      God does things for Israel instead of in and through it.           example, the tabernacle, in all its fine particulars, is the
_  `. He' taught Ephraim to go, taking them by their arms.               realization of a pattern shown Moses on the mountain.
      He was unto them as they that  take off the yoke on                Such were God's ways with the church of that day. For,
      their jaws  (Hosea  11:3a,  4b). `As to the patriarchs,            the  Spirit which leads into all truth was still to come.
      when they went from one nation to another, from one                God spoke to the church instead of, in and through it
      kingdom to another people  ;  He* suffered no man to do            and revealed his thoughts apart from it. For,  thougH
      them wrong: yea he reproved kings for their sakes ;                there were believers in that day, the body of Christ in
      Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets                which the Spirit dwells as a life principle was a thing
      no harm.     Moreover, he called for  a famine upon the            of rhe future.
      land: he brake the whole staff of bread. He sent a man                However, the conclusion to the effect that the Church
      before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant               of the Old dispensation was altogether lacking in insight
      . . .  * Israel also came to Egypt and Jacob sojourned             is rendered invalid by the fact that a minor is a major
      in the land of Ham. And he increased his people greatly;           in the making. As was before said, the only difference
      and made them stronger than their enemies. He turned               be'tween  rhe two is that the latter is matured. His (the
      their hearts to hate his people, to deal subtilely with his        saint of the Old Testament) powers of penetration were
      servants. He sent Moses his servant and Aaron whom                 sufficiently keen to make  It possible for him to realize
      he had chosen (Ps. 105).                                           that he was being saved by grace and fed by Jehovah's
          Further, He sent darkness ; turned their waters into           mercy.
      blood; caused their land to bring forth frogs. He spake               Common to all believers is a search for righteousness
      and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their        and the desire to be delivered from the body of this
      coasts. He gave them hail for rain; smote their vines              death. The divine announcement: "I  *will set enmity,"
      and their fig trees; and brake the trees of their coasts.          and "It shall bruise thy head," was, we may feel assured,
      He spake and the locusts came. He smote the first-born.            heavenly music in the ears of every saint of the Old
      He brought them forth with silver and gold. He spread              Covenant.    This and similar announcements were so
      `out a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in rhe         many lifelines, thrown out, which those realizing that
      night, He brought quails and opened the rock (Ps.  105).           they lived in the midst of death, eagerly grasped. As to
      The point is that these mighty works, though performed             contents, rhe faith of such personages as Eve, Noah,
      in behalf of the church, were nevertheless performed               the patriarchs and Moses, differed not, essentially, from
      apart from it.                                                     the faith of the believers of the New dispensation. As


i                                                                                                                     .
                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D ,   B E A R E R
      -
     these hoped, prayed, praised, rejoiced and struggled, so       stood: "Jehovah and blood saves." And the saint would
     did they. The saints of that clay looked for a city having     take David's psalm upon his lips: "Blessed is he whose
     foundations. whose Maker and Builder is God. Such              transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered."
     words of Jehovah as: "The scepter shall not depart from           But for all this, the Church attained to maturity on
     Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh        the day of Pentecost and  not before. On rhat day, as
     comes and unto him shall the gatherings of the nations         was said, the Spirit of Christ entered the church. Then
     b e " -such words became the property of the Church and        a great change came over  it.  Peter, in his reply to the
      served as a source of comfort to every saint.                 taunts of  the skeptics of the upper chamber, is able to
         Without a doubt, the saints of the Old dispensation        account  for what has happened. "But  rhis," says he,
      centered their hopes upon the seed of the woman, the          "is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel." The dis-
      promised Shiloh, the Messiah. The Psalms of David are         course uttered is that of one with breadth of vision and
      interspersed with lively descriptions of the ill treatment    depth of insight. Peter now sees things in their proper
      afforded him by the antagonist. Psalm 22 is exclusively       relation : prophesy ; the counsel of God  ; the cross and
      Messianic. It reads in part: "Many bulls have com-            the outpouring of the Spirit. The church is no longer
      passed me:      strong bulls of  Bashon  have beset me        a minor. Well may John now say: "But ye have an
      Found . . . . I am poured out like water,`and all my bones    unction of the Holy One and ye all know. I have not
      are out of joint;    my heart is like wax ; it is melted      written unto you because ye knbw not the truth, but
      in the midst of my bowels." In respect to such  Scrip-        because ye know it . . . . But the anointing which ye
     `tures the question arises whether the poet was aware of       have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not
      the fact that he was being used by the Spirit to describe     that any man teach you; but as the same anointing
      the sufferings' of him whose Kingdom Jehovah would            teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and
     establish forever. We have reasons to believe that David       even as it has t,aught you, ye shall abide in him" (John 2 :
      knew that his utterances applied to the seed of the wom-      20, 21, 27).
      an. He knew that this seed would be devoted to the               Let us now direct our attention to the change wrought
      cause of Jehovah and that the antagonists of God would        and the  impIic+tions  of the term majority as applied to
      therefore hate him.     In the very beginning God had         the Pentecostal Church. Let us set out by attending
      made known unto the Church that the serpent would             ljriefly to the meaning of the above Scripture. The
      bruise the heel of the seed.                                  aposrle John addressed the above words to the church
           But this seed shall demolish the head of the serpent.    of the entire-epoch beginning with Pentecost. John was
      Such had been the predictions of God. Upon the tri-           an apostle and as such the mouth of God ; an instrument
      umphs of Christ the prophets often do dwell. "Why do          of revelation. By him God transported truth from his
      the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?         own  Divine mind into the mind of the Church. In a
      The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers         word. He spoke to the church through John and the
      take counsel together against the Lord and against his        other apostles. It means that He setting aside Saint John
      anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder and        must do wirhout a word of God. Yet John informs the
      cast their cords away from us .  ., . . Thou (the Lord's      believer that they need not that any man teach them.
      anointed) shalt brake him with a r?d of iron; thou shalt      Whereas God does not speak to the believers directly
      dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel" (Ps. 2).          but through the instrumentality of the prophets and
      The question arises whether the saints of the Old             the apostles it follows that John's words cannot be inter-
      covenant associated the blood of the sacrificial victim       preted to mean that the Spirit has taken the place of
      with the Messiah and sensed the atoning value of his          the prophets and the apostles as the teacher of the
      sufferings. Fact is that Isaiah is the only prophet who       church. Fact is, then, that the Spirit, instead of being
      is made to see that Christ by his suffering atoned for        an independent source of truth to the believer, leads him
      the sins of his people; that he "was wounded for our          into the truth imparted to the Church by the prophets
      transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities." It must      and the apostles. Thus the assertion to the effect: "ye
      be concluded that the Church, for at least many cen-          have no need that any man teach you," can only mean
      turies failed to detect in the rite of expiatory sacrifice    one thing, namely: "Ye have no need that any man, not
      a reference to Christ. Yet did Jehovah pardon and save        even the apostles, lead you into the truth given by the
      the old testament saint. He could do so because this          apostles." That is to say, not only the minister of  the
      saint was a broken-hearted sinner casting himself upon        gospel but every believer, can read, understand and enter
      the mercy of Jehovah. A mercy of which this saint was         into the meaning of Scripture. For  he.hath the anoint-
      convinced that it was just. For his God had demon-            ing. On the other hand, unto the saints of the Old Testa-
      strated unto him that sin must be atoned for; had trained     ment, the Spirit was wanting. They were in the need
      him to expect all from him-both salvation and the             of an instructor, which in that day were the prophets of
      means. Jehovah, he knew, saves, must save in conjunc-         the Lord by whom the Lord both imparted and explained
      tion with blood. Such a one God could pardon. This,           his Word unto the people. Thus the majority of the
      then, the church of rhe Old dispensation knew and under-      Pentecostal Church is due to the presence of the Spirit.
                                                                                                          G. M. 0.


                        *     .        T H E   S T A N D A R D   BE,%RER                                               449

           THE UNBELIEF OF THOMAS                              the form of its practical infidelity. Besides even if there
                                                               had been a large leaven of Sadduceeism working origin-
   Thomas was not present at that first meeting on the         ally in the mind of Thomas, he had already witnessed,
evening of the day of resurrection. We cannot charge           while with Christ, incidents too extraordinary for him
his absence with the same kind of neglect  with which          to refuse credence to the resurrection solely on the ground
now a refusal to join in the services of the Sabbath would     of its singularity. Neither he, nor any of the other dis-
be loaded. For no such services had then been insti-           ciples, would have admitted their initial unbelief to have
tuted. That evening conference was the first of those          proceeded from any such source. it was not the char-
assemblings on the Lord's day which have since become          acter of the event, it was the nature of their precedent
one of the established customs of Christianity. But no         faith in, and their precedent expectations about, their
such custom had as yet been, established. Thomas can-          Master and his Kingdom, which generated the difficulty
not be accused of violating it.                                which was felt by them as to believing in his resurrec-
   It may have been Thomas' extreme incredulity as to          tion. The true fountain of their earlier unbelief lay
the fact of the resurrection, the utter and blank despair      within, and not without; in their prejudices in regard              1
into which the death of his Master had cast him, which         to other matters, not in the nature and circumstances
indisposed him to join the rest. If it were so; if he kept     of the resurrection. There is violence done to the real
aloof from his brethren, as believing that no good could       state of the case, when Thomas is taken, as he so often
come from their assembling; that it was all over with          is, as a type or early instance of that unbelief, belonging
the hopes as to their master which they had been cher-         rather to modern than to ancient times, which staggers
ishing; that they were mere idle tales which had been          at all miracles, and is indisposed to admit anything super-
circulating about his having risen from the dead - then,       natural.                            I
for his neglect of all that Jesus had predicted about his         Thomas' unbelief seems to have outstripped that of
death and resurrection, he was amply punished, in los-         $11 other disciples. They would not believe the woman,
ing that sight of the risen Jesus given to the others.         when they brought to rhem the first reports of the resur-
Whilst the disciples, lifted `from the depths of their         rection ; but they had believed when Peter told them
despair, were congratulating one another on the great          that:  he had seen the the Lord, even before they saw
triumph over death and the grave which their Master            him with their own eyes. But Thomas will not believe,
had achieved, were strengthening each other's faith, and       though to Peter's testimony there is added that of the
heightening each other's joy, he, alone and disconsolate,      two disciples who went out to  Emmaus,  and that of the
was scraping together the scanty food on which his un-         whole body of the disciples to whom Jesus had after-
belief might nourish itself. In the course of the week,        wards appeared. To what is this excess, this peculiar
his brethren made many attempts to rid him of his dis-         obstinacy of unbelief on Thomas' part to be attributed?
trust. But all in vain; the more they insisted, the more       Was he the most prejudiced man among them; the'man
he refused. The stronger they affirmed the truth to be,        who clung most to his earlier ideas and prepossessions,
the more inflexible became, his resolution to resist it.       and would not let them go? Did those common ele-
The particulars of the manifold conversations and dis-         ments of unbelief, which operated in the breasts of the
cussions which would no doubt go on between them, are          athers  as well as in his, yet  ,work in him with so much
not preserved. All that is told is, that he kept to that       greater force as to signalize him in  this; way, and keep
position behind which he entrenched himself, as he said,       him standing out in his distrust for so long a time be-.
"Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails,       yond them? There was one of those elements which we
and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust      have reason to think did work powerfully on Thomas.  1
my hand into his side, I will not believe."' What were         It would be quite a mistake to conceive of Thomas, be-
the grounds upon which this unbelief of' Thomas rested;        cause of his abiding unbelief, that he was cold, selfish,
and how came that unbelief to take such a shape, and           cautious, naturally misbelieving man, hard to convince
to embody itself in such a declaration?                        of anything which lay outside rhe circle of his own ob-
   By realizing the actual condition of things, we may         servations, or did not touch or affect his own interests.
convince ourselves that the unbelief of Thomas was not         Whatever in origin and nature his scepticism was, it
du,e to any reluctance on his part to believe in the resur-    was not the scepticism of religious indifference, nor did
rection, simply because of its being a strange, a super-       it spring from a predisposition to doubt. That this spirit
natural occurrence. In `that age and in that country, a        of curiosity, of inquiry was strong in him; we may per-
belief in the supernatural was almost universal. To with-      haps infer from his breaking in upon our Lord's dis-
hold his belief in any occurrence solely because it was        cussion in the upper chamber saying, "Lord we know
miraculous, would have made a man about as conspic-            not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?"
uous then, as a belief in the alleged miracles of ancient      Fuller evidence that he possessed and knew how to
and modern times would make a man conspicuous now.             exercise the critical faculty; that he liked to search and     p
Between that time and this, the world has undergone            sift the evidence, and get at the real and solid grounds
an entire revolution in the state of its general belief, in    for believing, shall meet us presently.


                                                                                                                          *
             450                                    T'HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                    Escaping out of the hands of his enemies? Jesus had     It was very like the mode of a spirit's entrance: very
             retired to Bethabara. To him, in his retreat, the sor-         unlike the manner in which one clothed with a solid sub-
             rowing sisters sent their message: "Lord, behold, he           stantial body would or could appear, They confessed
             whom thou  lovest  is sick." The messengers were left          to Thomas that unless it were the two disciples who
             without an answer. But after two days of delay and in-         had  jus: come in from  Emmaus,  all of them first be-
             action, Jesus abruptly says to his disciples, without  ex-     lieved that it were a spirit, none of them that it was
s            plaining anything of the object of his visit, "Let us go       Christ: that he had himself noticed this, and had cor-
             unto  Judea  again." Ir seemed a fatal resolution; the         rected their first and false impression. He had eaten in
             disciples try to turn their master from acting on it. "Mas-    their presence, he had shown them the marks in his
             ter," they say to him, "the Jews of late sought to stone       hands and side; he had said, "Handle me, and see, for
             thee, and goest thou thither again?" Their Master, then,       a spirit  bath. not flesh' and bones, as ye see me have."
             tells of the reason of his going, and of his resolution at     Yes, but had any of  rher  : accepted-the invitation, had
             all hazards `to carry out his intention. Then, says one        any of them made such scrutiny of these marks, as to
             of the twelve, if he will go, go to almost certain death,      be sure that they ivere not superficial? They could not
             "let us also go that we may die with him." Had rhe             say they had. Strictly interrogated by one who was anx-
             name not been given, had we not been told which of             ious to detect any weak point in the evidence, they
            them it was who so instantly, so warmly, so generously          could not deny that it was within the limits of the pos-
             declared himself ready to die with his Master rather           sible that there might have been a mistake; that there
             than desert him, we should have said that it was Peter         was a difference, they could not tell what, between the
             who spoke these words; but it was Thomas, to whom              appearance of their Master as they had seen him before
             much of Peter's ardour appears to have belonged. Upon          death, and as they saw him at the evening meeting. Seiz-
             such a man, so ardent in his attachment \, to his Master,      ing greedily upon. anything which could possibly create
             we can readily believe that the blow of the crucifixion        a doubt, and turning it into an instrument of self-justifi-
             came with a peculiar stunning force. In proportion to          cation, Thomas at last declares, "Except I shall not only
             the  eage;ness  of his hopes would be the blankness of         see in his hands rhe prints of the nails, but shall put my
             his despair; nor is it wonderful that, sunk into the depths    finger into the print of the nails, and thrusr my hand
             of thar despair, he would at first refuse to believe in the    into his side, I  wilI  not believe." No small amount of
             resurrection. Still, however, attribute what extra force       ingenious  casuisty  springing out of wounded pride, an
             we may to this one or that -other of the ingredients of        exaggerated feeling of self-consequence working in a
             the unbelief shown by Thomas with his brethren,, it            nature not less strong in will than ardent in -affection.
                                                                              C`
     `..     seems difficult to understand the pertinacity of Thomas                I will not believe." "A4nd  is.  it"even   rhus," we feel
             in standing out so long and so stubbornly against all          disposed to make answer, "thar thy hurt vanity hopes
             attempts of his brethren to convince him. The great .bulk      to redeem itself from the fancied oversight; is it thus
             of them had believed before they had seen the Lord. Why        that placed, as thou thinkest, below rhy brethren, by
             should that evidence, which was sufficient to carry their      not having got the same proof given them, thou  think-
             faith, not have carried his? Yes, but they all at last had     est to set thyself right by putting thyself above them,
             seen; they had seen and he had not. In that very dis-          and declaring that that proof may have been enough
             tinction  do*we  not get sight of the secret bias by which     for them, but is not enough for thee? What right hast
             rhe spirit of Thomas was  swayed  over to an  un&lling-        thou to ask a kind or amount of evidence above that
             ness  to give credence to the resurrection? The others         which has satisfied all these, thy brethren, and which
             had seen him, and he had not; why should he be asked           woufd have satisfied-anyone unbiased by deep precedent
             to believe on different evidence from theirs  ? He had         prejudice? What right hast thou to dictate thus  ro God,
             been as attached a follower as any of them. Why should         and to declare that thou wilt not believe till the form of
             he be singled out, and left the only one who had not           proof thou  prescribest  be `afforded? Thou wilt not be-
4             seen the Master? He did not like  ; he did nor choose,        lieve -and if thou dost not, who but thyself will be the
             to be indebted to others for the grounds of his believing.     loser?  Hadst thou been in the hands of man, in any
             He had just as good a right to ocular proof as they had;       other hands than those of so gracious a Master, thou
             and, in fact, till he got it he would not believe. The         mightest have waited long ere the proof was given, which
             UnwiIlingness  that his faith should be ruled by theirs,       in such spirit was demanded."
             generated a disposition to question the soundness of that              Seven days go past, and the apostles are once more
             faith. The Evangelist has given us only the conclusion         gathered together in the evening of the second first-day
             to which Thomas came, the result of the many confer-           of the week. Thomas is with them now. What brought
              ences with his brethren, and to which he for so many          him there? Why, if he thought them wrong in rejoicing
              days so resolutely adheres. The very terms in which           over an event, in the reality of which rhey had not suffi-
     *       he embodied his resolution enables us to fill up the blank.    cient reason to believe, did he join himself to their com-
             Jesus had come amongst them, the other disciples would         pany? Because, I believe, with all his assumed and de-
             tell Thomas, suddenly, silently  - the door being shut ;       clared unbelief, he was not in his inmost heart such an
             they had not seen him till he was standing in the midst.       utter unbeliever as he would  ha,ve others think he was.


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                     4.51

He had taken up a position which it behooved him to                                  CORRESPONDENTIE
 defend; but if .a strong desire, an expectation that it
was even as his brethren had told him, was not working                Broeder de Mey schrijft verder als  volgt:
 latently, yet strongly in his breast. Thomas, being ob-              "Ps.  1:6. Over dezen tekst behoeven we naar  ik
stinately unbelieving, we might imagine ,him to be utterly       meen  geen verschil te hebben.          lMijn opvatting is  als
 so. Not at all likely. There was room in him, for very          volgt'  :
opposite and conflicting states and thoughts and emo-                "Tweeerlei  menschen sluit in  tweeerlei   wegen.  De
tion. We believe, therefore, that it was in a mixed state        weg, des rechtvaardigen, door God daarop geplaatst, is
of faith and feeling that Thomas sat down that evening           een weg des behouds.. God kent den rechtvaardige als
with the rest. They have not sat long when again, in             eenmaal een Abraham, Gen.  18:19.  Het is de weg, die
the very same way in which he had come before, Jesus             leidt naar den hemel. God Zelf heeft den rechtvaardige
enters and stands before them. The general salutation            daarop geplaatst, en `al is het,  ,dat hij  soms op zondige
over, he turns to Thomas and says, "Reach hither thy             paden   tiandelt,  de Heere brengt hem  altijd weer terug
finger, and behold my hands ; and reach hither thy hand,         en zorgt er voor, dat hij het einddoel niet mist.
and thrust  ir  into my side: and be not faithless but               "De goddelooze  echter, ook al is hij nog zoo  deugd,-;;($
believing." How sudden, how unexpected the address.              zaain  in dit leven, bewandelt een weg, die in de Heilig&
Thomas knew that for seven days none of the  discipIes           Schrift de breede weg of de weg des verderfs  genoemd"'   ,
had seen the' Lord  ; none of them could have reported           wordt, welke leidt tot ondergang en eeuwig verderf. De
to him the words that he had used. Yet now are these             z.g.n. goede daden  van den onwedergeborene werpen dan
very words  .repeated. It is the all-knowing Jesus; it is        ook nooit eenige blijvende vrucht af voor de eeuwigheid.
his own well-loved Master who stands before him. In-             Zij kunnen in het gericht voor God niet bestaan. Hier-
stant within him is the rebound from unbelief to faith;          over is dus geen verschil. Ik heb dan ook nooit over drie
. . . to a far higher faith than that simply in his resurrec-    wegen of  drieerlei menschen gesproken."
tion; of that he has no doubr. He does not  .what the                Antwoord  :
Lord desires, and what he himself desired before. He
does not put his finger into the print.of the nails; he does         Ja, broeder, hierover  h+ebben  we  we1 verschil. In de
not thrust his hand into the side. Enough to see that eerste plaats,  omdat u aan inlegkunde doet, om uw stand-
well-known form; enough to hear rhat well-loved voice.           punt te handhaven. U legt in:  "oak  a2 is hij ook  nag zoo
That sight, those words of Jesus, are sufficient to rebuke       deugdzaam in dit  lewen;"   en  :  "de  z.g.n.  goede  daden  van
and remove  his unbelief. In a moment his doubts all             den  onwedergeborene   werpen  dan ook  no&t  cenige  blijvende
flee; faith takes their place; a faith purified, exalted,        vructien   af  ztoor   de  eeutigheid."   (waarom zegt u  tech
strengthened; a faith in the true divinity as  we11 as in "zoogenaamde"? Waarom niet eenvoudig: "goede  da-
the true humanity of his risen Lord; a faith higher per-         den"?).      Daarvan staat niets in den tekst. Dat is uw
haps at thar moment than that to which any of his                derde weg, waarin ge niet beweert te gelooven, maar dien
brethren around had attained. The fervent, affectionate          ge hier tech even inlascht. Ge hebt hier een deugdzamen
Thomas casts himself at his Master's feet, exclaiming,           weg van den goddelooze. De Heilige Schrift kent dien
"My Lord and my God."                                            niet.  Gij wel. De tekst spreekt daarvan niet. Gij wel.
                                                                 Dat is uw filosofie, niet Gods Woord                 ,
   Jesus knew how prepared Thomas was to call him
Lord and God. "Reach hither thy hand," he said to                    In de tweede plaats, omdat u schrijft alsof  het in den
Thomas. The invitation may be safely given to him who            tekst ging over het einde van den weg inplaats van over
is ready to own the divinity of his Lord.                        den weg zelf. U hebt  ilet  over vrucht voor de  eeuwig-
                                                                 heid,  over den hemel, over het eeuwig verderf en het eind-
   Christ administers now a mild but effective rebuke:           doel. De tekst spreekt daarvan niet. Het gaat hier over
"Thomas, because rhou  hast seen'me, thou hast believed.         den weg van goddeloozen en rechtvaardigen. En die vveg
Blessed are they who have not seen, and  bet have be-            ligt door  dit  leven.    Daarom gaat  he't hier ook niet over
lieved." Christ could not mean by saying so, to declare          Gods houding tegenover rechtvaardige en goddelooze
that he who believes without seeing is more blessed than         straks, maar  thans.  Niet over de eeuwigheid, maar over
he who upon sight believes; for that would exalt the             dit tegenwoordige leven.
weakest believer now above the strongest believer of
Christ's own age. The idea that Jesus evidently intended             In de derde  plaats,  omdat u de tegenstelling in den
to convey was this, that of two kinds of faith equally           tekst eenvoudig onopgemerkt voorbijgaat. God  kent
strong, that was to him a more acceptable, and  ro `the          den weg  des rechtvaardigen. Dat is een  .,kennen  der
possessor a more peace-giving one, which rested on rea-          liefde, zooals doorgaans in de Schrift. Die wkg mag nog
sonable testimony in absence of personal observation,            zoo donker  zijn. God kent den weg, naar Zijn eeuwig
than that which would not yield to such kind of evidence         welbehagen. Hij leidt Zijn volk, de rechtvaardigen, in
and demanded that demonstration should be given.                 liefde. Daar staat tegenover, dat de weg der  goddeloo-
                                                                 zen zal vergaan. _ De tegenstelling is: God kent dien weg
                                            G. M. 0.             niet. Hij leidt Zijn volk, de rechtvaardigen, in  liefde.
     .
                        .
                                                                                                                             .


                      A  *REFORbiED  SEMI-MONTHLY   MAGAZINE   p u b l i s h e d   b y
                      THE REFORMED FREE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION, GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN



                                                                                                        tents should be addressed to Rev




Vol. IV, No. 20                                             JULY 15, 1928                                        Subscription Price,  $2.50

                                                                        when they are reviled? Who, that is at all acquainted
             M E D I T A T I O N                                        with actual life in the world, does -not know that the very
                                                                        contrary is true? Where do the meek possess the things
                                                                        of the earth, or even keep &em should they possess some
                                                                        of them for a time? Whkre are they in honor and in
        THE MEEK  - HEIRS OF THE EARTH                                  power? In what country, in which period of history do
                                                                        they sit on thrones to r&e the world? Is it not th<e  man
                Blessed  `are  th,e meek, for they shall inherit the
            earth.                                 -Matth.   55.        of power and of great ambition, that is not  cot&t  to
                                                                        stand at  the edge of the hustling and jostling crowd,
     The meek . . . . blessed a . . . heirs of the earth!               meekly abiding the time that his way may be opened,
     How bold`a statement this! How apparently untrue,                  but will fight  his way through, elbowing and pushing the
 when considered in the light of tangible reality in the                mass aside,  stepping  on his fellows' toes, kicking and
 world !                                                                biting, having in mind his own interests and threatening
     How audacious, even presumptuous this, third of the                a seventy times sevenfold avenge for every injury in-
 beatitudes appears in its, glaring opposition to all the               flicted `upon him? If a nation would remain in undis-
 practical philosbphy of the worldly wise, in its daring                turbed possession of its own country it must arm to the
 contradiction of all actual experience in  ttie world of               teeth and be thoroughly' prepared; if it is not satisfied
 things that are seen and heard!                                        within  .the limits of its  own land and is ambitious of
     For. in this world the meek seem neither blessed, nor              world-power, it must increase its fighting power, for the
 are they heirs of the earth. Oh, if the Lord had pro-                  strong shall inherit the earth! The  weaE  and the meek
 nounced them blessed with a view to the future, if He                  are trampled under foot. Would a man be  succe%sful  in
 had not asserted that. they are but that in some vaguely               business, maintain his place or advance to  betteP posi-
 distant future they  shall   be  blessed; and if He had not            tions, he must develop his power or seek connections  .&th
 made them heirs of the earth but of  heuven,  of some                  others, for the poor and weak are pilshed aside. And  %
 other world than  otirs, the statement might be more                   any sphere of the life of this world, political, social, even
 acceptable to all. For, fact is, that in this world. the               ecclesiastical, it' is the self-ambitious, those that success- '
 meek are generally poor and despised, and they lose                    fully strive for self-aggrandizement, who inherit the
 the earth and all things therein!                                      earth. . . . .
     Shall a lamb be called blessed in the midst of a pack                 Would you possess the world?  Th& be bold, im-
 of howling, ravenous wolves? Is it expected to escape                  pudent., unscrupulous, strong, set your mark and strive
  with' its life ?                                                      for  it: pushing aside whatever of God or  otf man may
     Shall a band of mere pilgrims, defenseless,  re'fusing             be in your way !
 even to carry arms, meeting a.well prepared and trained                   The fittest survive !
 battle-host, be victorious in battle, survive and remain
  sole possessors of the field?                                             But the meek?
     Who are blessed?                                                       They are kicked about, trampled under foot, disin-
   Who are heirs of the  earth'in actual reality?                       herited, left  by the wayside.  They  remain poor if  poor  '
      Are the meek? Are they, who walk about in this                    they are. They lose the earth if anything they possess
  \+orld  humbly and submissively with relation to God                  of it.
  and man, who do not elbow their way into the foremost                     How bold, then, in the light. of. all experience, is"this
  places, who bless when they are cursed,  who turn the                 third beatitude, how daring, is this  pronouncemept.,of
                                                                                                                                                   d
  cheek to them that smite them, who never revile again                 bles&g upon the meek!                                                                `3.
                                                                                                                                        ,, *.?'
                                                                                                                                   ."-
                                                                                          : p                       _  ,.;....   5  a"  *f-,
                                                                                                                   ,,.,H                ""              .
                                                                                          ._       `-?px%~g~~;;
                                                                                           `.h"            .I

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

       Blessed they are  called, for they shall inherit  the      the power of Christ and His grace to be content  with
earth!       *                                                    the last place; it  ,takes   natural  ambition and worldly
                                                                  power and wisdom to defend and maintain one's own
       The meek!                                                  rights and honor `in the world, it requires the love of
       Who are they? What distinguishes them? And where,          Christ to suffer the cross  &d self-denial ?or the defense
in all the world, may they be found?                              of the catise  of Christ and the glory of God in the midst
       They are, to be sure, subjects of a kingdom that is        of a world of darkness.
not of this world. For meekness is a gift of grace, no                Meekness is a gift of grace.
virtue of the natural man, no mere trait of character with            It is the virtue of God's children.
which a man is born and which he may possibly develop                * Only the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven; in as far
and strengthen. By nature, by virtue af .our first birth, as they. live the life of that kingdom in'this wdrld, walk
we are not meek but proud and haughty, lovers of self,            in true meekness before God and men.
and seekers of self, hateful and hating one another,                  They are the same as those that are poor in spirit,
easily  .provoked  and  provbking  one another in an evil         that mourn in this present world.
sense, quick to seek revenge and  $0 strike again when                O+ne must have realized his' spiritual poverty and
we are smitten, seekers of the world and of the  thin@            misery of mind and heart before God, must have expe-
that are therein, enemies of God and of His ways, thank-          rienced his undone condition as he is by nature, his guilt
less in prosperity, rebellious and bitter in adversity . . . .    and his sin, his darkness and his corruption, his t'otal and
       In such soil the humble flower of meekness will not        utter incapability  df doing good or improving  se!f,  in
grow.                                                             order then to be enriched with all the spiritual blessings
   Neither is meekness to be confused with a  ,mere               of grace in Christ, of mere free and sovereign goodness
natui-al' power of endurance in suffering, often hiding a Bnd mercy, to be meek in truth and' uprightness before
prouder spirit of rebellion against the  Most High and            the Lord. He must have become a child of light,  Prank-
His ways; or with a natural show of humility, frequently          lated out of darkness, a friend of God, delivered in prin-
a cloak` to cover an essentially haughtier mind.                  ciple from the power of sin and of the devil, `quickened
   For it is the tremendous spiritual power by which one          unto a lively hope through the resurrect&m of  Jesus
can endure contempt and suffering, equably and submis-            Christ from the dead, made a stranger and pilgrim in this
sively, with an inner calm and tranquillity of soul, for          present world, looking for the blessed hope of final  sal-
God's sake, in the firm assurance that the Father of His          vat&n and not seeking the-things that are below, would
children and the  Frien'd  of His people will, in the end,        he be truly meek and walk the way of the meek in the
make all things well, that the reward is sure and that            midst of the world . .  I  .
all things work together for good for them that love God,             Then only will he be able to display the heroism of
whom He has called according to His purpose . . . . . .           meekness.
   It is humility and patience mixed with  the joy of a               In the world, he is hero that knows how to strike
sure hope !                           \                           harder than his opponent, that can handle  the sword
   It is a submissive following after God in Christ, un-          more skillfully than his antagonist, that can rise in de-
disturbed by the consequences for the present, encour-            tense of the honor of men, of self . . .  *
aged by the hope of final glory.                                      But in the Kingdom of Heaven he only is hero, God's
   For meekness is not weakness but strength, spiritual `herot  that stands for the glory of his covenant-Friend and
power, strength  ,that enables to endure  reiilement with-        for it will suffer reproach and abuse.' The Kingdom-hero
out reviling again, to suffer reproach silently, not only as      never changes his pilgrim-garments for a coat of arms,
far as the outward appearance, is concerned, but with             rhough  an host would encamp against him.  An  armour
peace and serene tranquillity of heart and mind, to receive he wears, but it is the spiritual panoply of the Christian
blows `and be abused without abusing again,  submissive$y,        soldier, the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteous-
with an inner quiet of soul, for Christ's sake. It is no          ness, the helmet of salvation, the sandals of t-he prepara-
lack of a sense of one's honor, but a willingness to have         tion of the gospel of peace, and the only sword hk. han-
one's own honor trampled under foot for  theglory  of Christ      dles is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
atid His Kingdom; it is no indifference with regard to               With these he fights . . . . a spiritual battle!
one's rights, neither a certain sheepishness or cowardice            And if, carrying on this spiritual warfare with these
to defend them and to avenge oneself, but it is spiritual         spiritual weapons only, the world rises against him. re-
heroism born of the firm assurance that the Most High             viling, mocking, threatening and raving, furious against
is on our side and that vengeance belongeth unto Him,             the light because  it is in darkness, and its works are evil,
that He will recompense and speedily avenge the cause             striking and buffetin,,Q he must needs suffer and will, not
of His people. It takes fist power to deal blows, it re-          strike back, and he will do so humbly, silently, equably.
quires grace power to receive blows and be at peace; it           bearing the cross gladly, wirh perfect peace of mind and
takes power of mind according to the world, carnal                heart . . . .
power, to fight one's way to the foremost place, it takes            For he looks for the recompense of reward.


                                      T H E                     .RD
                                                 STANDA                  B E A R E R                                         ,45?

    He is assured that he stands in  c&enant with the           jet like a sheep he was silent, dumb. Never did He
Most High  :Potentate  of potentates,  Who will  suiely         open His mouth . . . .
avenge his cause and set all things right.                            f\nd from this Meekest of the meek, they took all!
   The meek are blessed.                                              He lost rhe earth!
    For they shall inherit the earth. .                              m Neither did He ever make an attempt to regain it!
                                                                      Yet, He is Lord of all! He inherited the heavens
                                                                and the earth lies at His footstool !
                                                                      Ah, brethren, can there, then, be doubt,  rhat the meek
    Blessed they are.                                           shall inherit the earth?
    They are  .ZCW,  kven in the midst of the suffering of            Heirs we are with Him, for His sake ! His victory
this present time.                                              through meekness is our victory by grace!
    For they possess a peace which the world knows not,               For  B while we must suffer with Him, for His sake,
which the world with all its ambition and strife aft& the       for His &use. His cross we must needs bear. For
things that are seen, cannot possess-the peace that             a little while the principalities of this present world must
passeth all understanding.                                      needs be in p'ower, apparently at least, and it must needs
    But blessed they are, too, with a view to the future,       seem as if they shall inherit the earth. More than  mere.
for it is rhey, not the mighty and powerful of this world.      show and a semblance of things this  iS not. For  the
that shall inherit the earth. The very thing they seem to       world passeth away and the lust thereof . . . .
lose, they shall ultimately possess even as the very thing            And when all this world of power and lust and un-
the  proud and strong of this world seem to gain they           righteousness shall have passed away, He, the Lord, shall
shall surely lose.                                              create new heavens and a new earth.
    They shall inherit it. Not `by  m:ght and strife  a&              In that earth only righteousness shall dwell.
contention shall they gain the earth. They that fight                 And because righteousness alone may dwell therein,
with the sword must needs by the sword perish. But it           the meek, which are the righteous, whose cause was  SO
shall be given them and ultimately they shall be the            frequently trampled under foot in this world" of un-
 sole possessors of all things, the sole dwellers in the        righteousness, shall inherit it and dwell therein.
earth !                                                               Then they shall be in everlasting power and glory.
    Of this they may be confident.                              *     Reigning in that new earth with rhe Lord!
    Their own Lord is also in this respect their forerun-             Blessed, indeed, are the meek !
ner.                                                                                                                     H. H.
    He was not a mere teacher of precepts He would not
' touch with a finger Himself; He did not point a way Hk
 would not have courage to travel. He is the Author and
 Finisher of their faith  and Himself trod the way He                                       BELOFTEN
pointed out to His disciples. Among the meek He was
 the meekest; among all that suffered for  Gbd's sake, He                  Ik ben  uw  schuld,  u& loon  zeer  groot!
 suffered most deeply; our crosses are but slivers of His                  Die Mij verbeiden, zal Ik geleiden
`cross ; our sufferings are `bur the remnants of His afflic-                   Door nood en dood.
 tions  ; when they revile us it is only because they. want
to revile Him; when they hate us it is only because they                   Als gijt u nergens veilig bindt.
 hate Him. His meat it was to do the Father's will and
 never he shrank from the way of humble obedience, even                    Schuil in Mijn hutte, waar `k u beschutte
 though rhe way led over darkest Golgotha, through a                           Voor  Weer  en  wind.
 suffering so deep and dark, that we shall never be able
 to fathom its amazing depths, There are, indeed, no                       Klem  u  aan Mij in vreugde en  rouw,
 depths in the pathway of the meek in this world, where                    Al doe Ik lijden, Ik blijf in  `t strijden
 they do not  find rhe impressions of his footsteps. Was                       .tJ  hou  en  trouw.
 ever man pure as He? Did ever man reveal a love as
 His? Was ever  .man obedient to the full as He was                        Ga op den weg naar `t Vaderhuis
 obedient?    Yet, was ever man hated for His purity,                      Mer Mij te rade; want Mijn genade
 despised in his `love, furiously persecuted for his obe-                      Geeft  krucht   nmr  k&s.
 dience as He? Besides, was ever man more able to strike
 back when he was struck, to avenge his own cause than                     -41s Ik  Mij,n woning u ontsluit
 He? Able He was to consume His enemies by the
 breath of His mourh! Yet, was  &Yle silent, as no man                     Daq  zult  ,gij juichen, Mij dank betuigen,
 ever was silent. He was led to the slaughter like a lamb.                     Eeuw in  eeuw  uit!
 He was robbed of all He had, like a sheep that is shorn;                                              F                 H. P.

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

OP DEN BODEM ALLER VRAGEN LIGT DER                                       THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA
                WERELD ZONDE SCHULD
                                                                                The Church in Tribulation           '
   0, dat we  tech zonde verstaan !
   Zeker, zonde  hecft  ook uiterlijkheid.                                              (Continued)
   In de  daden  van onze  vingers,  van onze oogen, van
onze voeten, van ons lichaam, van onze verbinding met              III. But we must still consider what word of advice
de stoffelijke  dingen.                                         and comfort the Lord has for His church in tribulation.
   .Maar   d5t is  tech eigenlijk de zonde niet.                It, is, indeed, one of the most beautiful messages the
   Zonde is geestelijk.      Zonde is de geestelijke breuk      church ever received. Also in this case we may call
met God . . . .                                                 your attention in the first place to the manner in which
   Na den zondeval, na de geestelijke breuk met God             the Lord announces Himself to the church of  Spyma.
. . . . o, daar is het begin van de ellende . . . .             We observed in connection with the former letter, that
   Het conflict fusschen den mensch en zijn God, was            these announcements, these self-introductions of the Lord
ook het conflict tusschen Kain en Abel, tusschen  Noach         to the churches are in harmony with the condition of the
en het menschengeslacht.                                        church that is addressed. Thus it was with regard to
   Daar begint de ellende !                          '          the church of Ephesus, where the Lord introduced Him-
   Dan slaat de een den ander dood, en druipt het               self as the One that walketh in the midst of the seven
zwaard van bloed.                                               golden candlesticks and that holdeth the seven stars
 Daar worstelt de mensch met de krachten ran de                 in His right hand. Thus it is also in the case of the
natuur ; en de heerlijkheid en de rijkdom en de volheid         church of Smyrna. Here He introduces Himself as the
dei natuur stort  zich over* hem  heen  in den zondvloed,       One that was dead and lived again, as the first and the
en de wereld wordt verdelgd!                                    last. It is scarcely necessary to point to the appropriate-
  Zoo is het dan ook verder met de historie der  wereld         ness of this announcement, especially with a view to the
gegaan.                                                         condition of the church of Smyrna.           IC is certainly
   Niemand weet beter de historie der wereld dan die            adapted to fill the members of the faithful church with
trouw den Bijbel lezen, het Woord van God kennen!               courage and hope in the midst of tribulation. Christ is
   Daar staat de historie der wereld in het groot in!           the first and the last! He was before ~11 history and will
Ach, het  meet alles uit elkaar.                                be when this dispensation shall have come to a finish.
   Het  is zoo  mooi niet, dat ze elkander niet meer  vcr-      He is the principle of all that  is  and its purpose. He
staan konden bij Babels toren.             8                    stands above all time and controls all history. He will
   Dat was een oordeel over de zonde!                           be the last, also in the sense that He shall prevail in battle
   Het moest om der zonde wil!                                  against the devil. Not the devil shall be last on the
   Dan gaan ze uiteen in talen en voelen, en in allerlei        battlefield, but Christ shall be. He shall be victor. Even
volken.                                                         with death He was in battle and remaihed victor, for
   Ze moesten onder uitwendige macht  bewaard worden,           He was dead and lives again. He stands as it were before
en ze moesten blijven worstelen met de krachten der             the congregation in tribulation holding the keys of death
natuur.                                                         and of hades in his right hand and saying: "Behold,
   ,4ls God Israel uitverkiest, dan is het  CCn  voortdu-       my people, I have overcome death and have  powei-  to
rende worsteling van dat ware,  gqestelijke,  heilige volk,     open and to close,  td condemn and to deliver. I,* even
om te staan in dat geestelijke.                                 I alone, am He that controlleth all these things !" And,
   Israel gaat onder in ballingschap !                          therefore, with that powerful Victdr as their Savior and
   Dari komt alle onderscheidenheid  op in het leven der        their King they need not  fea.r the enemy. The devil
volken, allerlei jammer en ellende, en in de volheid des        may cast them into prison and terrible tribulation may .
tijds heeft dat groote conflict plaats gevonden in het offer    come in the near future, what of it! Christ has overcome
van den Heere Jezus Christus.  1                                the devil and he is subject' to their King. Yea, even
                              J. C. Sikkql, in ."Preeken.".     death may threaten them as is implied in the admonition
                                                                that follows, nothing can harm them. Christ has power
    They went to meet Thee by a way                             even over death and in due time He shall deliver them
    That pilgrim feet still tread today,                        and give them life and glory.
       And counting all rhings dross            :                  This latter assurance the Lord gives them directly
            Love Him they in long patience sought,              in the admonition: "Be thou faithful unto death and I
           Let me press on through pain and loss,               will give thee a crown of life." Faithfulness surely is one
           Bending beneath by Master's cross,                   of the most beautiful virtues that exists, even from a nat-
             Learning as they were taught ;                     ural point of view. It implies in the first place that
    Jesus, Beloved of my heart,                                 there exists an established relation between two persons
    I feel  Thin?  answer  - mine Thou art!                     or parties, whether it be a relation of friendship or mutual


                                                          ^
\
      468                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

      contract and agreement.' It implies in the second place           cause of Christ's obedience that this life is ours. But if
      that this definite relation is put to the test, whether it be     once we shall stand in glory among the 144,000 of the
      by a long period of time  or. by adverse circumstances            elect of God, we shall notice that the glory of that throng
      that make it difficult to keep the agreement or the bond          is varied according to the different. degrees- of reward
     "of friendship. And in the third place it implies that in          each.shall  receive. And among them shall also be those
      spite of these adverse crcumstances  the relation remains         that wear the &-own of life, those whom eternal life
      as it always was.        A friend in times of prosperity is       adorns as a crown of victory in a special sense of the
      nothing special, but in  adversi,ty  the faithfulness of a        word. They are the ones that have .been.in  special trib-
      friend is put to the test.                                        ulation, that have not loved their lives even unto death,
             Faithfulness is in the spiritual sense the chief virtue    that have been faithful even unto death in the most literal
      of the covenant people. They belong to God's party in             sense of the word. More than others they shall appear
      the world, they confess Christ as their King. The ques-           as victors and occupy a victor's place of honor in the
      tion is whether at all times they will be loyal to their          new creation.
      King in the midst of the world. There exists a certain               And, finally, the Lord closes also this letter to the
      definite relation between the I(ing and themselves. The           church of Smyrna with the general admonition and prom-
      question is whether they shall publicly confess that rela-        ise : "He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second
      tion, never deny their King or be ashamed of his name.            death." We all are in the midst of the battle of faith.
     `" Thus it was in the congregation of Smyrna. In times             .We may not all be called to sacrifice our lives upon the
      of prosperity it is not so difficult to  ,confess  the King.      altar of faithful confession, we surely must all fight. And
      When He scores victory upon victory and it is  rin honor          in the battle against sin, the world and the devil and his
      to belong to his army, our faithfulness is not manifest,          whole dominion we must overcome.          Not in our own
      but when because of his name we are subject to persecu-           strength, not by sword and canon, but spiritually in the
      tion, the objects of the mockery and reproach of the              power of our Lord Jesus Christ. And to him that thus
      world, when the confession of his name is the cause of            overcometh the Lord promises that he shall not be hurt
      trouble and much tribulation, then to confess that name,          of the second death. From our point of view the first
      that is faithfulness.  '                                          death is the separation of body and soul, physical death.
             The church in Smyrna was in tribulation could ex-          The Lord does not promise his church that they shall
      pect a still more severe form of persecution in the future;       not be hurt of it. Surely, also his  peopIe  die that death,
      yea, according to this very admonition might expect that          often die it violently. But though they may experience
      their lives would be demanded a toll for their faithful           temporal suffering and want, though they may be oalled
      confession, and, therefore, to them comes the  kxhorta-           upon voluntarily to descend into the valley of death for
      tion : "Be faithful unto death." For this last phrase             the Word of God and -the testimony of Jesus, they shall
      does not merely, exhort to a faithfulness unto the hour           not be hurt in the real sense of the word. The second
      of death. It is not merely a phrase denoting extent in            death does not touch them, and, therefore, the first death
      time but it  indidates  a causal relation between faithful-       is merely transition to Iife. This second death is eternal
      ness and death.       Be faithful even if confession of my        death, absolute separation from the Fount `of all good
      name should cause physical death !                                in everlasting woe. Of that death the fornicators and
             History informs us that this exhortation was literally     unfaithful shall be hurt, but he that overcometh shall
      heeded by the gray-haired angel of the church in Smyrna.          pass through the first death into glory everlasting!
      He was placed before the very alternative of denying                 "He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit
      the Lord or be put to death. PLnd placed before this defi-'       saith unto the churches  !" What doth the Spirit say?
      nite choice he answered : "Eighty-six years have I known          Be faithful unto death ! Seek not the things of this world.
      and confessed my Master and He has never done me                  For the things of the. world pass away and behind them
      harm, shall I, then, now deny Him? Never  !" And he               lurks the second death, I Be faithful, 0 church of God, in
      died the martyr's death. History speaks also of thou-             the midst of the world. In serious times we are living,
      sands upon thousands that have followed old Polycarp              indeed. Serious because we hear of wars and rumors of
      in this path of martyrdom. But they have  be`come  par-
      takers of the beautiful promise the Lord adds to this             war as never before, but serious still more because of
      exhortation : "And I will give thee a crown of life  !"           the rather general apostacy  from the truth and the God
             By crown in this connection you must not think of          of our salvation. Be faithful and confess Him that is
      the royal diadem, for the original indicates that a wreath        your King. And if. the struggle should become hard, and
      of victory is meant. Evidently the meaning  is? I will            the battle well-nigh to be endured, then look upon Him
      give thee eternal life as a crown of victory. ^4nd do not         that walketh in the midst of the golden candlesticks, who
      imagine now that this is merely a meaningless form of
      expression. Surely, we all shall inherit eternal life. Nor        is your Guard and Protector at all times.        He is the
      is the relation such that shall merit that eternal life in        First and the Last, who was dead and He lives, and He
      our own strength or by our own faithfulness. It is  be-           holds the keys of death and of hades forevermore !


                                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                         469
                                                                                                E
                    The Church in Pergamum                                                           called the throne of Satan and the very dwelling place
                                                                                                     of the devil. What is meant by these expressions in
             And to the angel of the church in Per-  p                                               the general sense of the word is not difficult to under-
          gamum write: These things saith he that                                                    stand. A throne in the book of Revelation occurs fre-,
          hath the sharp, two-edged sword: I know
          thy works, and where  ,thou  dwellest, even                                                quently as the symbol of dominion, as the center whence
          where Satan's throne is; and thou holdest                                                  the authority of the king emanates throughout his entire
     a    fast my name and didst not deny my faith,
          even in those days wherein  Antipas was                                                    kingdom. Satan is the adversary of God, and the  great<
          my faithful martyr, who was slain among                                                    opponent of our Lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom in
          you where Satan dwelleth.
             Rut I have a few things against thee,                                                   the world, forevermore endeavoring to organize and
          b e c a u s e   t h o u   h a s t   t h e r e   t h e m ,   t h a t   h o l d              bring to development the power of opposition against'
          the doctrine of Balaam, who taught  l3alac
          to cast a stumbling block before the chil-                                                 God's Anointed in the world. Throughout this dispensa-
          dren of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto                                              tion he is the instigator of all opposition that manifests
          idols and to commit fornication.
             So. hast thou also  *them  that hold the                                                itself against the Church of Christ. And, therefore,, if
          tzltrme  o f   t h e   Nrcolartanes,   which   thmg  1                                     we read in this., letter that Pergamum was a place `in
             Repent: or else I will come unto thee                                                   which Satan had his throne the city is' pictured to us as
          quickly, and will fight against thee with the                                              being dominated by this power of opposition, as being
          sword of my mouth.
             He that hath an ear let him hear what                                                   dominated by the prince of darkness, -as being a strong--
          the Spirit saith unto the Churches; To him                                                 hold of the devil, where he could have full and undis-
          that overcometh will I  give to eat of the
          hidden manna, and will give hi a white                                                     puted sway except for the little bulwark of Christ that
          stone, and in. the stone a new name. written,                                              had been built in the city.
          which no man knoweth save he that  re-
          ceiveth it. Rev.  2:12-17.                                                                    And this must be taken with special emphasis in
                                                                                                     regard to Pergamum. In. general it is, true of this, entire
          The Church Growing Lax in Discipline                                                       dispensation that the world is under the dominion `of
                                                                                                     the prince of darkness. The whole world, John-tells  us:
   The church of Ephesus` was characterized by  many                                                 lies in the evil one, and the kingdoms of the world belong
good features but also by a falling away from its first                                              to his dominion. But it is  also*  true that in one place.
love; so that it was in grave danger of ultimately seeing                                            this dominion of the devil becomes more clearly mani-
its candlestick removed out of its place. The church in                                              fest than in another. In our own time it is generally
Smyrna was  a picture of the church in tribulation, poor                                             evident that in the larger cities, like London and Paris,.
and despised in the world'but  rich in the spiritual bless-                                          New York, Chicago and San Francisco, sin comes to
ings. of  &ace.  The third congregation addressed is the                                             a higher and bolder form of development, the devil exer-
one  in. Pergamum in which we find- a representation of                                              cises more absolute and undisputed sway than- in the
the church that bears with evil men and is, therefore,                                               smaller towns or rural communities. At any  rate,~  of
growing lax in discipline. We will consider this church                                              Pergamum it  might,be  asserted in a special sense that.
from that point of view and study:                                                                   it was the throne of the devil. He dwelled there. While
   I. Its Precarious `Position in the World.                                                         in other places he also manifested his presence occasion-
   II. Its. Faithful Profession.                                                                     ally, Pergamum was his continual abode. If he would
   III. Its Dangerous Weakness.                                                                      go out as a roaring lion seeking whom he might devour,
   IV. The Message It Receives.                                                            I         he would always return to Pergamum. There you could
   It cannot escape our attention that from the outset                                               always find him home, `there he had his headquarters.
the position which the Church of Pergamum occupies                                                   there was his permanent abode, there was the center and
in the midst of the world receives all the emphasis in                                               seat of his authority and power.
the text. It is the church that dwells where Satan dwell-                                               If we inquire more specifically and ask the question
eth and where he has established his throne in a very                                                in what sense thus dubious prerogative could be claimed
special sense of the word. Pergamum was a rather large                                               for the city of Pergamum, the text does not supply the
city situated somewhat farther north from Smyrna than                                                answer. But from history we know two things. First
the latter was distant from  ,Ephesus.  If Smyrna was                                                of all, we are informed that among other forms of idolatry
the competitor of Ephesus, Pergamum emulated both                                                    practiced in the town, Pergamum was famous for its
the former in striving for the honor of being the fore-                                              worship of Aesulapius as its chief god. Characteristic
most city of Asia Minor. Commerce and  industry'found                                                of this god was that its chief symbol representing him
in Pergamum a center, science and art their home. Also                                               was that of the serpent, the symbol also of the devil.
in this city the Church of Christ, which certainly is not                                            The special power attributed to this god was that he
called to retreat into the smaller towns and villages of                                             could save people from the miserable effects  of. sin,
the world or to hide in the outskirts of the larger cities,                                          from disease and sicknesses of all kinds. People from
had come to manifestation and was established.                                                       the city and from all the surrounding country flocked
   Judging by the contents of this letter, addressed to                                              to its temple for help and recovery, and because of
them by the Lord, it had a hard time of it. The city is                                              this imaginary power of the god he was generally


4 7 0                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D '   B E A R E R

 known as Soter, that is savior. Thus we obtain, indeed,            where Christ is humanized and man is deified, where the
 a striking symbolism of the power of anti-Christ and               worship of humanity is preached and taught in its bold-
 the dominion of Satan, consisting ultimately in this that          est and rankest aspect and the blood of Christ is trampled
 the serpent, the symbol of the devil, was hailed as the            under foot, Nay, still  stro,nger,  the devil has succeeded
 savior of men and worshipped as such. And in the sec-              in ousting the true Savior from many a Christian church ;
 ond place we are informed, too, that the city of  Perga-           his portraiture is upheld from many a modern pulpit no
mum was one of the first centers' of worship of the                 more, or if it is, his features are so distorted that you
 Caesars,  the emperors of Rome. As we may know, the                can recognize Him no more! Surely, also today the
 emperors of Rome had themselves deified and worshipped             prince of darkness has his throne and dwelling place ;
 as gods: and in the city of Pergamum there was a tem-              he has them in the midst of the Christian world  anJ
 ple erected in honor of Caesarland  dedicated to his wor-          he has succeeded in charming the minds and the imag-
 ship. In short, it may be said that in Pergamum we meet            ination of men by upholding before them the image of
 with a rather striking manifestation of the anti-Christian         a  m,odern Aesculapius called Humanity ! Also today the
 power and dominion, not, indeed, in the same form as               church is established where Satan has his throne, and
 anti-Christ rules today or as he shall come in his mani-           its relation to the world is not so much different from
 festation in the future, but nevertheless the similarity is        that of the church at  Pcrgamum.  May she also be found
 striking. Satan, the  serpent: is honored and worshipped           as faithful  as  that congregation of the  earIy Church !
 as the savior of men instead of Christ, and Caesar, man,               II. We read of the church in Pergamum in. the first
 is worshipped as lord of all instead of Him to whom is             piace that it kept the faith. "And thou holdest fast my
 given all  power in heaven and on earth. Truly,  Per-              name," is the testimony Jesus gives of it in this letter.
 gamum was the throne of Satan, the place where the                 The question might be raised whether it were not advis-
 prince of darkness had his permanent abode.                        able for  *the  little church to migrate out of that wicked
         Of course, in principle, the position of the' church of    city where the devil had his throne and dwelling place.
 Pergamum in relation to that city is the position of the           It might be more safe for it in other cities in the vicinity.
 church of all ages in relation to the world. As we have            But that is not the message John must deliver to the
 remarked, the prince of darkness is the ruler of this              church. Nor is this the attitude of Scripture in general.:
 age and he still exercises dominion over the kingdoms              Mark, we are dealing with the church as a whole, not
 of the world. He is in principle hailed as the savior wher-        with the individual Christian. The Word  of God does
 ever the Christ is rejected, and the divinity of man is            not approve of the dangerous worldly-mindedness of
 proclaimed wherever the divinity of the Son of Man is              many a Christian, who for material advantages separates
 not acknowledged.                                                  himself from the communion of saints and lives in isola-
         But this relation of the Church to the world is not        tion from the church of Christ in the,midst  of the world.
 always equally vivid, nor does it manifest itself in the           Much rather does it call our attention to the sad history
 same form in every period of history. During the period            of Lot's family in such cases.
 of the early Church, Rome, with its emperors raging                   On the other hand, the Scriptures never tell us that
 against the little flock of the Good Shepherd, was no              the church of Christ as such must emigrate from the
 doubt the throne of Satan and his abode. In the age of             world and live in literal and local isolation. This were
 the Reformation the Roman Catholic Church might suit-              impossible. No, in the world, though not of the  &ox-Id,
 ably be designated as the throne of Satan, more specific-          is the rule that holds for the church of all ages. And,
 ally so the seat of the pope and all connected therewith,          therefore,- the church of Pergamum is not commanded
 and when finally the Reformation was initiated, it soon            to leave its wicked and devilish surroundings, but rather
 became evident that the little church of  Protestant&m             to be a faithful witness of `the  ,name of its King and
 dwelled where Satan had his abode.                                 Savior. And faithful it had been in the past. It had kept
         `But, again, a sad and fatal mistake we would make         the faith, and held fast the name of Jesus.
 if we would imagine that also today the center of Satan's             Naturally, this must be understood in contrast with
 authority must be sought in the Roman Catholic Church,             the -environments of the little church. In the city, the
 as some interpreters have it. It would blind us to the             name of Jesus was not honored or confessed. It was the
 tremendous movement of modernism, of humanism, of                  name of Aesculpaius and of Caesar that was on the lips
 man-worship that is sweeping over the world of Chris-              of all.  (I And in the midst of these idolatrous surround-
 tendom and developing with astounding rapidity. Today              ings they heId fast to the only name that is given under
 man is his own savior, man is the savior of humanity:              heaven for salvation, they confessed the name of Jesus
 today man is his own god, not, indeed, because he wor-             Christ. They. kept the faith. They were not seduced.
 ships any particular human being, be he Caesar or king.            They were not shaken in their faith and hope and love,
 but because he has generalized his worship of man in               but they clung to the name of Him that walketh in the
 the worship of humanity.                                           midst of the golden candlesticks.
    _  Also  today Satan has his throne and dwelling place.            Still more, the Lord witnesses of them in their favor.
 He has it in many a school and college and  university
                                                      I             They were not only a believing church, but they also

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

publicly confessed the name of their King and Lord. It          killed for the testimony he had given, but surely, this
were conceivable that they kept the faith and clung to          incident is proof of the fact that the church had experi-
the name of Jesus, but that they kept it all for them-          enced dark and evil days, days of tribulation, even as
selves, that they lived in seclusion, rather timed to pub-      the church in Smyrna experienced. And in all this they
licly express their relation to the Christ, so that they        had been faithful and not denied the name of Jesus!
avoided an open clash with their wicked environment.               III. From what we have considered of the church in
But once more, this is not the calling of the church of         Pergamum thus far we would be inclined to draw the
Christ. Christ does not establish His Church in the             conclusion that it was a beautiful and most perfect speci-
world in order that it should exist in oblivion, hiding it-     men of a church, in no respect inferior to the congrega-
self in some secluded little corner of the world or seek-       tion, of Smyrna. And we would surely not anticipate any
ing refuge on some solitary little island far from society.     form of rebuke in this letter addressed to it. Also here
It is in the world to let its light shine, to witness of the    we have the picture of a church in tribulation, in  the
grace  and  -the  glory of its King; it may not hold its        midst of a world that cannot tolerate its existence, yet
peace even when the world threatens with devilish fury.         flourishing spiritually and faithful to the Lord, its King.
The church must confess and not to confess is to deny.          Yet the Lord holds a few things against it. And in
And also in this respect the church of Pergamum had             order to understand how this is possible we must notice
been faithful. For the Lord testifies of it, "and hast          in the first place that there is a noticeable difference
not denied my name." They, therefore, confessed. They           between this church and the one in Smyrna. The latter
were not silent. How could they? There they lived in            was right in the midst of tribulation; in fact, the darkest
the midst of an environment that proclaimed a false god         days for it were still in the future, but with Pergamum
savior and a man their lord and god ! Would it not have         it is somewhat different. The Lord refers to the days
been unfaithful of the church had they been silent and          of  Antipas  as belonging to the past. The church. still
kept their peace? Would it not have been a dishonor             lived in the midst of a hostile world; it had experienced
to the name of their Lord and their King if they had            the hatred of that world and had been persecuted for
left the impression that they lacked the courage to con-        the testimony they had. But evidently, the  first wave
fess Him? They could not. Over against the cry of the           of fury had passed. Pergamum had lived through its
town, "PLesculpaius  is savior  !" they boldly maintained :     first attack from Satan and the world, now it was a time
"There is no other name than that of Jesus  !" When the         of relief for the church. And history plinly shows that
world proclaimed that Caesar was God and as such was            such times are dangerous for the church of God. In
to be worshipped by all they could not submit, but oppos-       close connection with this fact stands the other, namely,
ing the world also in this respect they confessed that          that the church in Pergamum was defective in discipline
Christ was King and that the Lord God and He alone              of its own members. This is a feature not mentioned of
is worthy of worship. And thus it is also the calling of        the church in Smyrna ; in fact, I imagine that there was
the church of today to let the testimony go forth over          not much occasion for discipline in that congregation for
against the man worship of modernism. "Jesus Christ is          the simple reason that it was a church in tribulation.
King and He alone is the Savior of the world !,'                But in Pergamum discipline had become lax, while there
    But still more there is implied in  this- faithful con-     was abundant occasion that called for strictness in this
fession of the name of Jesus over against the world on          respect. No, the situation in Pergamumwas not as seri-
the part of `the church in Pergamum. The Lord speaks            ous as that in  #Ephesus,  but the defect was of such  :I
of days of persecution and tribulation' the church had          nature as to call for a rebuke from the Lord nevertheless.
experienced in the past, the days of Antipas, one of            Discipline is the Christ-ordained guard in the church of
Christ's faithful witnesses, who had been killed among          Jesus. It is the sentinel standing watch by the purity'of
them, where Satan dwelled. Nor does it cause us sur-            doctrine according to the Word and the holiness of the
prise that the world could not tolerate the witnesses           sacraments, as well as over the walk of believers. Where
of Christ in the city. Surely, the church may escape            that sentinel is not placed on guard, or is sleeping while
the bitter hatred of the world and persecution from its         on duty, the church is exposed to the evil, seducing influ-
side for a long time, as long as it will only be silent         ence of false doctrine as well as to the degenerating
and unfaithful and hide its light under a bushel, as long       influence of the world upon the life of its individual
as it does not condemn the world in its self-made religion      members.
and man worship and boldly confess the name of Jesus.              In Pergamum that sentinel was fast  asIeep,  for the
But no sooner does the church realize its calling and           Lord reprovingly calls its attention to the fact that it
faithfully unfurl the banner of its King than the hatred        has there "some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who
of the world of that detestable Jesus of Nazareth and           taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the chil-
His "blood theology" will manifest itself in bitter per-        dren of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to
secution. Thus it had been in Pergamum in the past.             commit fornication," some that "hold the teachings of
Nothing else is known of the  nntipas mentioned in the          the Nicolaitans in like manner." There were, therefore,
letter  -than  that he was a faithful witness and had been      evil men in the church of Pergamum, men that did not


                                                                             .-                                       .
t     972 j                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                                            \
      belong to the church in spirit and in truth. And they               the children of Israel, he cannot but pronounce upon
      w e r e   a l l o w e d .   *                                       them the blessing of Jehovah which the Spirit gives him
          The reason why the church was lax in disciplining               to speak, and in spite of his own miserly soul and the
      these men is not revealed. Hardly would it seem con-                provocation of the king of Moab he must confess that
      ceivable that the church was not aware of their exist-              he cannot curse whom the Lord Jehovah would bless.
      ence in its midst, for they  must'have  labored for the             And what now does this debased instrument of Satan
      spread of their evil influence. Perhaps it was afraid               do? He gives the king some practical advice and accord-
      that, since the congregation already had to cope with               ing to Num. 31:16  he counsels him how he may shrewdly        '
      so many difficulties and had a hard battle to fight against         bring destruction upon the people of God. He speaks:
      the world, the disciplining of its own members  wquld               "YOU send some of the nice girls that are connected with
      weaken it still more. Perhaps  the. excuse was given                the service of Baal-Peor into the camp of the Israelites
      which is so often offered for laxity in discipline in our           and the sons of the Israelites will surely commit fornica-
      own tim-e, namely, that the church must save. The                   tion with them and eat of the sacrifice to your idols.
      church must save and not reject, so we often hear it in             Thus  you  will wipe out their distinctive character as a
      our time. Who knows whether these evil  members;if                  people of Jehovah and accomplish by strategy what force
      they are borne with patience and longsuffering, will not            cannot bring about!" That was the advice  ,of Balaam
      came to repentance ! On the basis of such false excuses             to the king. Its immediate object was the obliteration
      evil men are tolerated within the church of Christ. Some            of the distinctive character of the people of God, their
      churches defend the membership of those that belong                 amalgamation with the people of Moab.
      to secret societies on that very basis: if only they are               And now the text compares the Nicolaitans to this          '
      in the church once, they may be persuaded to sever their            Balaam who offended the people of Gad. I imagine that
      connection with the lodge! Men-that hold a false doc-               they were a sort of Antinominians, people who deliber-
      trine are  .t'olerated,  and the church that does not  exer-        ately taught that it mattered not how the Christian lived
     ,,  cise  discilpline   ofer them is rebuked,, because true faith    here upon earth, since Christ fulfilled the  iaw and the
      is after all not a matter of doctrine, but of the heart, and        old Adam was doomed to destruction anyway. They
      it would be cruel and indicative of a "holier than thou"            were not very scrupulous as to their own lives, would
      spirit of intolerance if such men were excommunicated               feast with the heathen and eat of their sacrifices. In a
      from the church of Christ. We are, perhaps, acquainted              word, they were a class of people that threatened by
      with the flimsy arguments that are used in defense of               their doctrine and life to obliterate the distinction be-
      a laxity of discipline. Jesus will not have it so. And              tween the church and the world in Pergamum, even as
      whatever may have been the cause of this laxity of dis-             the counsel of Balaam was calculated to wipe out the
      cipline in the church of Pergamum. the Lord holds it                characteristic difference between the people of Israel
      against them and in His letter speaks of it rebukingly.             and the Moabites.
          Exactly in what manner these evil men in the church                And thus the church of Pergamum by allowing these
      of Pergamum had made themselves objects of discipline               people to exist in the church was in grave danger of los-
      the letter does not tell us. They were Nicolaitans, here            ing its distinctive character as a church of Christ. The
      as in Ephesus where they were hated and not tolerated.              plan and subtilty. of the devil in this scheme is trans-
      In this letter, however, we receive some more definite              parent. In the recent past he had made an attempt to
      information about them. They are compared with  Ba-                 wipe out the church and make it unfaithful to its Lord
      laam, that most abominable of all false prophets pic-               by subjecting it to bloody persecution, but he had failed.
      tured in the Old Testament. Second to Judas, who                    For the time being he now abandoned this course of
      betrayed the Savior for thirty pieces of silver, it is per-         action in order to try the method of corrupting the
      haps difficult to think of a meaner, more abominable                church and thus wiping out the distinction between the
      and debased creature mentioned in Scripture than this               church and the world. I think in this respect the letter
      Balaam, that agent of the devil. You are acquainted, of             of Christ to the church in Pergamum has a great lesson
      course, with the history of the man. Sent for by Balak,             to teach us. Is not obliteration and amalgamation char-
      king of the Moabites, to curse the children of Israel that          acteristic  .of all the devil does today? Are we not told
      are encamped in the plains of Moab, the thing appeals that it matters not what form of doctrine we embrace if
      to Balaam, though he knows it is wicked and against the             only we will all be brothers? Is he not busily engaged
      will of Jehovah, for the simple reason that there is money          in  sscializing and secularizing the church of Christ?
      in it. Repeatedly the hypocrite implores the Lord to let            And, on the other hand, is not the church of Christ grow-
      him go with the king's ambassadors till finally because             ing more lax in discipline and weaker in its hold upon
      of his importunacy Jehovah grants him the wish of his               the truth of the Word every year?  f am convinced that
      heart-and lets him walk in his evil way.  On the way                such are the conditions indeed.      And, therefore, the
      thither he receives another warning through his mute                church in Pergamum, in this respect at least, is a true
     beast, but without effect; he travels on. Arriving at the            picture of the church of today, and the message which
     place of his destination and beholding from the heights              the Lord instructs John to write to that congregation
                                                                                   .

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

may also, be applied to us: "Repent, therefore, or else I                            THE SABBATH
will come to thee quickly and I will. make war with them
with the sword of my mouth  !"                                     In our first article under the above caption we made
                    (To be continued)                           the assertion that the materials with which he, writing on
                                                   H.  H,       the subject of the Sabbath, must deal may be grouped
                                                                under the following headings : (1) The sabbath of Para-
                                                                dise; (2) the rest of Canaan; (3) the sabbatism of heaven.
                                                                The first and last of these have partially been dealt with.
           AREN  VAti  ANDERE AKKERS                            The sabbath of heaven - the rest remaining to the peo-
                                                                ple of God - was extended, so to say, in time and is en-
                  Opgelezen door G.  V. B.                      tered by the saints as often as they congregate on the
                                                                first day of every week with their God. Our last article
   Niet alleen iigt er in bet kruis van'christus  alles voor    consisted of an enumeration of the duties of this sabbath.
de geloovigen wat tot hunne zaligheid van  noode is,            In this essay we purpose to enter a little more thoroughly
maar ook heel het menschelijk leven op aarde  vind;             into the character of the eternal sabbath and its prolonga-
alleen zijne opheffing uit ontluistering en ellende, zijne      tion into time (our Lord's day).
vrijmaking uit de  macht   der verderfenis,  zijn  recht, en       Question 103 of the catechism reads: *`What doth
van God gewilde ontplooiing, in de verzoening en  ver-          God require in the fourth commandment?" And the an-
nieuwing, die  een  vrucht is van Christus' kruis . . . .       swer : "First, that the ministry of the gospel and the
Huisgezin, school, maatschappij en Staat neigen tot  ont-       schools be maintained ; and thar I, especially on the sab-
binding, en keeren  zich tegen God die ze schiep, zoo het       bath, that is, on the day of rest, diligently. frequent the
Kruis van  Christus  de bittere  wateren  van  Mara  niet       Church of God, to hear his word, to use the sacraments,
zoet maakt.                                                     publicly to call upon the .Lord,  and contribute to the re-
                                       H. Hoekstra.             lief of rhe poor, as becomes a Christian. Secondly, that
                                  in "Uit het  ?Voord."         all the days of my life I cease from evil works, and yield
                                                                myself to the Lord, to work by his Holy Spirit in me: and
   Het kruis van  Christus  is het  teeken,  dat scheiding      thus begin in this life the eternal sabbath."
maakt tusschen de gemeente en de wereld . . . .                    Attention was called to the fact {see THE STAND-
   Het is nog steeds,  allen  die den  Joden gelijk zijn in     ARD  BEARER/p.   lSl> that the rest of Paradise was
het begeeren van voor het vleesch opzienbarende  teeke-         constituted of both positive and negative elements. On
nen, en in het schuwen van smaad en lijden, een ergernis,       the seventh day God, having created heaven and earth,
en  allen  die  den-`Grieken  gelijk zijn in het zoeken van     made an end of uttering such words as had been respon-
vleeschelijke wijsheid, een dwaasheid . . . . .                 sible for the appearance of the cosmos. Man, too,
   Het maakt onderscheid uit tusschen de lieden  die van        ceased from those engagements peculiar to the work-da:
de wereld zijn en die geen deel dan in dit leven wachten,       of Paradise - such engagements as keeping and dressing
en het volk des Heeren, dat het woord leert verstaan:           the garden. The rest-period of the state of integrity was
",41 gaf  iemand, al het  goed van zijn huis voor deze          not, however, a day of idleness.       God rejoiced in the
liefde, men zou hem ten eenenmale verachten."  -                works of his hands, pronounced them blessed, and dedi-
                                                                cated them unto himself.  I-\s for man, he rejoiced in the
                                       H. Hoekstra,             works of his Creator, blessed his God and consecrated
                                  in "Uit het Woord."           himself unro his service. On the sabbath, man (providing
                                                                it may be assumed that he did not immediately fall)
   Wij menschen, zooverre wij van oorsprong  leden van          entered the sanctuary of his God to commune with and
de wereld zijn, zijn  aan de Romeinsche krijgsknechten          bless his Maker. God blesses man who, in turn, blessed
en overheden gelijk.                                            God. In a word, the negative element of this rest has as
   Jezus wordt nooit en nergens in  -de wereld voor iets        its signification the expression cessation of the works of the
gehouden dan een onruststoker en bproermaker.                   rix days. Of the positive elements of this rest, the terms
                                                                blessing, r&&&g, communion may be taken as the sign.ifi-
                                       H. Hoekstra,             cations.      '
                                  in "Uit het Woord."              The rest with which the Lord's day above quoted, has
                                                                to do, is the eternal sabbath entered by Christ and en-
   Wij menschen zijn van nature niet alleen gevaarlijk          joyed as a primordial good by the saints even in this life.
voor onze naasten, inzonderheid  voor de ware vromen.           The above selection, then, must be made ro apply to our
.voor de leden van Christus, maar wij zijn ook schenders        sabbath. Comparing the rest of Paradise with that of
van den Naam en de heerlijkheid Gods.                           heaven (rest eternal) we notice certain points of  con-
                                                                vergences and divergences to which we purpose to direct
                                       H. Hoekstra,             our attention in this essay. To begin wirh, the former
                                  in "Uit het Woord."           was, according to the author of the epistle to the He-


I                                                                                                                          `

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

      brews, entered by God, and is spoken of as the Creator's        period  was not that  committed by themselves, but  by
      rest. The latter was entered by Christ and is known in          Adam when he ate of the forbidden tree, Thus the sin
      Scripture as his rest. Further, the rest of the garden of       of the father of the human race was placed to the account
      Eden was, as was said, a cessation of the works of crea-        of his posterity and therefore it as well as he is visited
      tion; that of heaven, of rhose redemptive labors performed      by death. The reason, then, for the extention of Adam's
      by the Mediator in behalf of the elect. Finally, as far as      corrupt nature to all mankind is that Adam's transgres-
      the rational creature, man, is concerned, the rest of crea-     sion. became common property, which means that the
      tion was, as to its negative side, a cessation of sinless       source-sin of the wanton ungodliness raising its foul
      engagements ; while the rest of heaven is, to express. head in the lives of men is the dffence  committed in the
      ourselves in the words of the Catechism, a ceasing from         garden of Eden. -
      evil works. However, there is also a point of converg-             Thus man comes  inro  the world with a nature cor-
      ence to be noticed. Both rests, as to their positive side,      rupt, which, awakened and exasperated by the law, pro-
      may be signified by the terms praise and communion.             duces in him all sorts of sin, being in him as a root
      But here again we notice another point of departure.            thereof. He cannot think, speak or act but what he sins ;
      The redeemed in heaven praise, God with glorified organs        and every sin is a violation of the law  Mihose speech is,
      of sense, and that for redemption from sin. Not so the          every time: "Thou shalt die." Thus fallen man is per-
      man of Paradise whose mode of existence Scripture calls         petually accumulating guilt. Now guilt is the obligation
      natural;  and whose praise was not that of the saved who        ro  suffer punishment; to toil under the  D,ivine  curse
      know God as one capable of loving the sinner.                   operative in one's life. Man does so and, being  a  spiritual
         Let us now attend more in' detail to the features pe-        and moral bankrupt, his toil  ?s sin, transgression of the
      culiar to the rest of Heaven; those features namely             law, and meant to be such. His reward is an' increased
      enumerated above. The facts in  fhe case as stated  by-         guilt or debt impelling, ever, the righteous God to re-
      the Confession are these: God made and formed man               veal from heaven his wrath against his (the sinner's)
      after his own image and likeness, good, righteous and           ungodliness and unrighteousness; to give him up to
      holy, capable in all things to will, agreeably to the will      uncleanliness and vile effections and over to a reprobate
      of God. But man, giving ear to the words of the devil,          mind, and to exile him, finally, to that region where men
      wilfully  subjected himself to sin, and consequently to         weep and wail only. Thus are the wages of sin death.
      death, and the curse. Man transgressed the command-             Death, sin, guilt and more death is then the whirlpool
      ment of life, which he had received ; and by sin separated      into. which man was cast and by which he, unless he be-
      himself from God, who was his true life, having cor-            lieves, is being drawn down into the abyss of death eter-
      rupted  his  whole nature. Through the disobedience of          nal.
      Adam, original sin is extended to all mankind; which is            &fan,  then, is laboring under an ever increasing guilt.
      a corruption of the whole nature, and an hereditary dis-        His roil is that of one accursed, which the natural man,
      ease,~wherewith  infants themselves are effected even in        instead of admitting, denies. Yet he knows that all is
      their mother's womb, and which produceth in man all             not well with him and his fellows. Looking about him
      sorts of sin, being in him as a root thereof ; and therefore    he sees death at work silencing his contemporaries; and
      so vile and abominable in the sight of God, that it' is         the grave opening its jowls to receive and devour death's
      sufficient to condemn all mankind. Such is the descrip-         victims. He knows, too, thit death is circulating through
      tion of man's plight found in our Confession (Art.  XIV,        his  o&n frame. His diminishing strength, his  `furrawed
      XV). Why man's corruption was extended to all man-              visage  ; trembling hand, impaired hearing, dimmed vision
      kind is a question which the document quoted leaves             and faltering step tell him this.       He feels constantly
      unanswered. Scripture, however, does not leave us in            death's sting piercing his bones. Then he fears.
      the dark. The plain teachings of Romans five is that by            Further, the policeman going his rounds, armed with
      one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;           gun and club; the caged criminal; crime boldly stalking
      and that so death passed upon all men, for that all have        on  rhe  streets of his city and in high places; crime's
      sinned ; that by one man's offence death reigned by one ;       filthy and offensive breath arising from hidden wells of
      that the  offence of one came upon all men to condem-           corruption ; the beast raging in his own bosom tell him
      nation ; that, finally, by one man's disobedience many          only too plainly that  al1 is not well with man. Natural
      were made sinners. The apostle has it then that sin, i.e.       man will not, however, admit the real nature of these
      the  offence,  the transgression of one came upon. that is      disturbances. He refuses to recognize their inner reality
      to say, was imputed unto all men. His proof is that in          and source. On the other hand, he in whose heart God's
      the period when there was no law  - the period termi-           grace is operating, acknowledges the extreme sinfulness
      nated by  rhe  inculcation of the law from the summit of        of sin ; and associates sin with death, the law, guilt, God,
      the mount  - sin was in the world and death- reigned.           the grave and hell. This one groans under a weight of
      Whereas (verses 13, 14) sin was there from Adam to              sin and guilt and knows himself embraced by the body
      Moses, though there was no law, and whereas sin is not          of this death which he would fain shake off  bur  cannot.
      imputed where there is no law, it necessarily follows           But let such a one be glad. He shall enter the rest.  For
      that the imputed  offence or sin of those living in this        Christ labored and entered his rest.


                                                                  9
r  ~
                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D '   B E A R E R   '                                         47,'

             Christ labored. For the Lord had laid on him the              the devil - for his kingdoms and the glory thereof; and
          iniquities of us all. Hence, the travail of his soul: For        cast him down from the temple. Ever did he keep to
          our transgressions he was wounded, oppressed, despised,          the way  ~of the cross.- the only way leading home and
          confounded and condemned to death.            Having taken       to glory. Not once did he withdraw from under the yoke
          upon himself our curse; he suffered his body ro be affixed       laid on him by the Father.  loot even when he finally
          to the cross and entered into the deepest reproach and           stood in the presence of the awful  crbss and it was time
          pains of hell. So did he travail. For the Father had             for him to make the supreme sacrifice. Then,, too, he
        . given  hip a work to do. Those given him were dead               sanctified himself and said: "Sacrifice and offering thou
          in trespasses and sin. Children of wrath were they and           didst not desire ; mine ears hast thou opened : burnt offer-
          to them was due the curse. They could not stand in the           ing and sin offering hast thou not required. Lo  I come:
          judgment and would  have  been destroyed forever had             in the volume of the book ir is written of me, I delight
          he nor so travailed. To him had been. assigned the task          to.' do thy will,  0 my God : yea, thy law is within my
          of fulfilling for those given him all obedience to divine        heart." Despising irs shame, that cross he endured; and,
          law, and righteousness and freeing them from their  sin?         having offered one sacrifice for sins for ever; and, having
 *        by fixing on the cross the handwriting of their sins that        by one offering perfected for ever them that are sancti-
          they might be acquitted at the judgment-seat of God and          fied, sat down at the right hand of God ; and was set a
          be filled with his blessings. We have his word for it that       high priest over rhe house of God,
          he finished this work, ere he returned ,to his Father. He           As the exalted Christ in whom all the fullness was
          did so by engaging in the painful labors of which we             made to dwell he set and ever does set himself aside for
          spoke. Having finished his work he entered his rest and          the service of God by applying himself with holy and
          with him those for whom he had laid down his life.               undying zeal to the task assigned him by the Father, -
             The rest of our Saviour, as  well as that of God, is          the task namely of sanctifying  a'nd blessing them given
          constituted of both negative and positive elements.              him ; of setting them, who by  r@ure are children of
          Christ ceased from his own works, as well as God did             wrath and slaves of sin and engaged in the service of the
          from his. What works may they have been? The afore-              flesh,  aside for the service of God. He does so in the
          said engagements. Of the positive elements constituting          Spirit by washing them given him in his shed blood
          Christ's rest, the terms  sanctify and  bless  are the proper    from al! `their sins  ; by incorporating them into the fel-
          significations.                                                  lowship of  .his death and resurrection ;  a&l by filling
             Ceasing from the aforesaid works, Christ sanctified           them with his fullness. To make it possible for him to
          himself and his people. We have his own word for it              be so engaged, he was mightily exalted; made  to.sit at
          that the term self-sanctification signifies his  enga'ge-        God's right hand, and given all power in heaven and in
          ments both as the humiliated and glorified Christ. Says          earth; and set a High Priest over the sanctuary of
          he: "And for their sakes I sanctify myself,  ihat they also      heaven. Such are the engagements of the exalted Christ :
          might be sanctified through the truth" (John  17:19).            sanctifying and blessing those he and the Father knew
          Let  .us now define the word -sanctify. In Scripture its         from before the foundations of the world, and thus  Iead-
          primary meaning is  to set apart for God;  to dedicate, de-      ing many sons to glory. "When  rhou shalt make his
          vote and consecrate to God and his service. When                 soul an offering for sin," so spake the prophet, "h'e shall
          predicated of Christ the word denotes  Bn unwavering,            see his seed, he shall prolong days, and the pleasure of
          persistent &d intense application on his part to the work        the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the
          given him by the Father. So indeed do the scriptures             travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowl-
          present to us Christ. His reply to his disciples who were        edge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he
          praying him to take food was: "My meat is to do the              shall bear their iniquities" (Isa.  53:10,  11). "When he
          will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." Con-          ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave
          sumed was he by the zeal of God's house.             In the      gifts unto men" (Eph. 4  53).
          prophetic vision of Isaiah he appears as one upon whom              Such are the engagements  constituting  the sabbath
          the Spirit of the Lord rested, the Spirit of understanding       entered by our Saviour. These very activities are rest to
          and wisdbm, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit          him ; and meat and drink to his soul. Thus at work his
          qf knowledge and the fear of the Lord ; and made  <hiA           spirit thrives, prospers, rejoices and exalts, so that the
          oi quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. When             proper designation of our Lord's rest is the  expreksion
          the ignominious cross with all its  atending  horrors            joyous  a&&y.  Of the humiliated Christ the prophet
         loomed  ' up before his mind's eye, he prayed : "Not  my          says that he was poured out like water, that all his bones
          will but thy will be done." The main-spring of his devo-         were sundered ; that his heart was like wax, melting in the
          tion was a sinless, perfect love. Its other side was an          midst of his bowels ; that his strength was dried up like
          eschewing of evil and a constant looking away from the           a  potsherd   ; that his tongue  clave  to his jaws ; that he
          path of least resistance as presented to him by the devil        was brought into the dust of death (Ps. 22 :14,15). So did
          when he came to  him, with the suggestion that he com-           he travail and merited for himself the right to sanctify
          mand the stone that it be made bread; worship him  -             and bless as the exalted Christ those he had loved unto


                                                                                                             i
176                                     T     H    E       STANDARU   BEARER   r

death. Therefore it is said that  he_entered   his rest, that      gebod is ceremonieel en vindt zijne vervulling in  Chris-
is, a rest earned and well-deserved. Now we know, too,             tus. De eenheid van de zedewet staat daarvoor niet in
what our Saviour meant when he replied to the Jews                 den weg. Dus het vierde  gcbod beslist niet voor  ens de
charging him with desecrating the sabbath that'he was beteekenis van den Zondag en de  viering  ervan. Dus
its Lord. He meant to inform his critics that he made              zelfs afgedacht van het feit dat de Sabbat is afgeschaft,
this day in that he finished his works and sanctifies and zooals we hebben gezien, is  bet vierde gebod niet van
blesses. The day, then, is his. He may, therefore, con- kracht `op den eersten dag der week. Dat komt hier op
duct himself on it as he sees fit without answering for neer: die het vierde gebod wil gebruiken  als grond  voor
his behaviour to man.                                              Sabbatviering, zal den zevenden dag der week  moeten
       Christ also brings those for whom he labored  - the houden en op Oud-Testamentische wijze. Dan ziet men
weary and heavy laden -into his rest. He does so by ook hoe alle verschil van dagen vervalt. Voor den Chris-
making them whom he redeemed to God' out of every ten zijn alle dagen Sabbatdagen. Niets is zondig omdat
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, kings and het gedaan wordt op Zondag. De kerkelijke discipline
priests unto their God. The eternal day dawns in the mag niet gebruikt  worden  tegen eenig  persoon,  om iets
lives of such, for they `no longer toil under the oppres-          gedaan op den Zondag, omdat- het op dien dag is  ge-
sive weight of their guilt. They know themselves justi- daan." So far Wieringa.
fied through faith and have peace. Being priests, they               The above considerations must be termed a strange mix-
cease from their evil works, set themselves aside for ture of truth and error. Synod, in dealing with the erring
God's service, and bless him, he working in them the brother, compared his  deliverences.  with the  6 points
willing and the doing.                                             adopred  by the Synod of  .18&l,  carefully tabulated the
       The day has but dawned, however. The journey is points of departure, and thereupon ordered Wieringa to
made in the dusk. The redeemed do not walk in the full swing his views in line with these points or be deposed.
light of day until they tread the streets of that city hav- The brother refused  to comply. His deposition followed.
ing no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in The sad feature of the entire procedure was that the first
it: for the glory of God lightens it, and the lamb is the three of these points, when submitted to a careful scru-
light thereof. Then do they see face to face, have Christ tiny, turn out to be so many dark and dubious sayings.
as the direct object of their vision, and behold him with These points read:
glorified organs of sense.                                            (1)    There is in the fourth Command of the Divine
       However, the radiance of God and the lamb, pene-                      Law a ceremonial and an ethical element.
trating the darkness of this world, illuminates the minds
        .                                                             (2) The ceremonial element was the rest of  .the
and hearts of those known by God and lightens their                          Seventh day after Creation, and the strict ob-
path, thus removing for them every occasion for stum-                        servance of that day imposed  .especially  on the
bling.       The believers do radiate the light kindled                      Jewish people.                 ,/'
within them, every day of the week. It means the pro-                 (3) The ethical element, that a certain definite day
longation of eternal day in their lives. They walk in the                    be appropriated for religion and for that pur-
light of Jehovah's countenance  a11 the way and safely                       pose so much rest as is needful for religion and
arrive at the portals of heaven to be welcomed by him                   .    its hallowed contemplation.
who led them `and, to be invited by him to inherit the.               (4), The Sabbath of rhe Jews having been abolished,
Kingdom of light. It is true, then, what the Catechism                       the day of the Lord must be solemnly hallowed
says, that the believer, ceasing all the days of  ,his life                  by the Christians.
from his evil works, and yielding himself to the Lord                 (5) The day since the `time of  the apostles has al-
to work by the Holy Spirit in him, begins  iti  thir  lifz  the              ready been observed by the primitive catholic
eternal sabbath. In a sense, explained above, the entire                     church.
life of the believer (not merely one day of seven} is one             (6)    This day must be so consecrated to religion that
unbroken sabbath prolonged eternally in heaven - rest                        on that day we rest from all toilsome works,
without end.                                                                 except those of charity and present necessity.
  However, it must not be supposed, as some do, among                        Also from all such recreations as hinder religion.
others Mr. H. Wieringa, a former pastor in the Chr. Re-               Let us now pay close attention to the first of these
formed Church, recently deposed  ,for his views on the             six points. There is, so the first point reads, in the
sabbath, that the entrance of our Saviour into his rest Fourth Command of the divine Law a ceremonial and
affected the abrogation of the fourth commandment so an ethical element. The two terms ceremonial and ethical
that the believers of the New' Dispensation need no                were thought of, by him responsible for this proposition,
longer single out one of seven days to hallow it.  Wie-            as signifying two contrary ideas.          The author of this
ringa's  reasoning may"be found on pages 187. 188 of the point has it rhat the one term is the opposite of the other :
Acts of Synod of 1926. Says he: "Tndien ge zegt dat that the ceremonial precepts were non-ethical and the
een gedeelte van* het vierde gebod is ceremonieel, dan ethical non-ceremonial. The truth of the matter is that
mag ik zeggen, op grond der  Schrift,  dat het geheele the ceremonial precepts of the Old Testament were at


r i                                            T H E S. T A N D A R D- B E A R E R                                                  477

         once ethical.    Let us face the question: "What is an        pointing or signifying a spiritual reality. What else does
         ethical precept  ?'    And the answer: A Divine ethical       this mean but that the first part of this law as well as
         precept is a Divine law published for the purpose of the last, was, in that day, ceremonial? Fact is that the
         regulating the actions of God's rational creatures. The entire law, in that day, was, as to its positive and nega-
         ethical, then, has to do with man's  ' rational will. Man tive elements, symbolical-ethical. The second and third
         is said to be a rational creature in that he is-able to sense of the six points are so many dubious sayings.
         the value of the law or precept and either practices or       Their author, it is plain, failed to penetrate into
        opposes it intelligently. What now were the ceremonial the meaning of the fourth commandment.                    Also the
        laws? They constituted a sysrem of rites published by statement to the effect that "the ceremonial element was
        Jehovah for the purpose of regulating the actions of the rest of rhe Seventh day after creation" is palpably
         the Israelites, and in particular the  p&e&s, engaged in incorrect. Fact is that the sabbath was not made a part
        worshiping their God.       It is plain that the ceremonial    of the symbolical apparatus of the Old Testament until
        iaws  also had to do with the Israelites',rational  will. It about the time of the Exodus.
         was  the.duty of the ancient worshiper to lay hold on the        Because Wieringa's views did not agree with these
         meaning of these laws and to keep them intelligently. It doubtful points, he was deposed. It means that the
        appears, then, that the ceremonial laws of the Old Tes-        deposed brother was ill-treated, Synod failed to provide
        tament were at once ethical and that the distinction his deposition with the proper grounds. Synod is morally
         drawn by the author of this point, is faulty or  at.least     obligated to re-instate Wieringa, and permit him ro func-
         incomplete and, therefore, confusing.  ' He, wishing to       tion in his office until it (Synod) shall have succeeded in
        distinguish between the two systems of laws in question,       exposing the errors of his views. These points mean
         should employ the terms  ethical  and  ceremonial-ethical. nothing to anybody.
            Further, the term symbolical-typical would have been        * Synod of 1926 also declared that, although they (the
       more fitting than the term ceremonial.         In religion a six points) are  kerkelijke  bepdingen,  their  ?tiure deter-
         ceremony is a divinely prescribed course of action to         mines their authority, in as much as it is self evident that
         which one adheres when worshiping and by means of they are doctrinal in character. In that sense they are,
         which one gives expression to a spiritual reality. A sym- therefore, "vast en bindend."
         bol in Scripture is anything used to signify a spiritual         Thus, anything doctrinal in character, irrespective
         reality. A type is a symbol pointing to a future reality. of whether it is true or false doctrine, is binding in char-
         The difference, then, between the two terms ceremony          acter. This is also something new under rhe sun in re-
         and  symbol  is that the former stresses the action, the formed circles.
         latter the thing signified. The issue in the Wieringa case       We shall write one more article on the Sabbath enter-
         was whether the Sabbath as an institution merely pointed ing a little more thoroughly into the implications of the
         to a present or future reality (the eternal rest) and was fourth command.
         therefore rendered void with the advent of Christ or                                                          G. M.  0:
         whether in addition the fourth commandment signified
         the sacred engagements of the reality as such and there-                         ,
         fore abided.
            Again, the author of the six points was of the convic-
         tion that the fourth commandment is constituted of two                         ALL IN ALL TO ME
         elements: the ethical and the ceremonial.      The author
         errs. This command is not composed of two parts, the                   All in all to me is Jesus!
         one ethical, the other ceremonial. Fact is that the entire                  Every need His grace supplies;
         command is at once purely ethical and at once ceremo-                  Day by day He guides and keeps me,
         nial or better typical-symbolical. Let us make our mean-                    No good thing to me denies.
         ing clear. The first part of the law, which according to
         the second and third of the six points in question, is                 All in all to me is Jesus,
         ethical, reads : "Remember the sabbath day to keep it                       Lord, Redeemer, Savior, Friend ;
         holy.,' The Israelite is here requested to set aside the               Tender Shepherd, He will guard me,
         hours constituting the seventh  day for the service of
         God and to fill them with sacred engagements; or, to                        And from. ev'ry foe defend.
         express ourselves in the words of the author of the
         points, "appropriate for religion a definite day and for               All in all to me is Jesus,
         that purpose SO  much rest as is needful for religion and                   Blessed One pf Calvary ;
         its hallowed contemplation." What now were the pri-                    I will never cease to love Him
         mary hallowed engagements of the sabbath of the Old                         Who has done so much for me.
         Dispensation? The sacrifices and their contemplation.
         The sacrifice, as we know, was a rite or institution                                          (By Chas. H. Gabriel).


