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

  nimmer een macht op aarde of in den afgrond geweest,         immers niet over dat eeuwige en wezenlijke koning-
  die ooit een wending aan de historie gaf, die niet volko-    schap van den Zoon, dat Hij als de eeuwige God met          .
  men naar den raad des willens Gods was. Onze God is den Vader en den Geest bezit. Neen, het gaat hier over
  in den hemel. Hij doet al wat Hem behaagt. En ook een macht, die Hem gegeven is. Het gaat over een
  dan  als goddelooze machten  tegen Hem opstaan, en koningschap, waartoe Hij gezalfd werd van eeuwigheid.
  schuld op schuld vermeerderen, omdat ze bedoelen den Het gaat over de allerhoogste `ontplooiing van het
  Allerhoogste  van den troon te stooten,  doen  ze  tech      koningschap;  wiarvan in Adam een aardsch voorbeeld
  nimmer iets anders dan den wil uitvoeren van  ,Hem, die gevonden werd.
  van het begin het einde verkondigt. Zijn raad zal be-            Want we1 was de mensch een weinig minder ge-
  staan en Hij zal al Zijn welbehagen  doen.                   maakt ,dan de engelen. Doch hij was bestemd om tot
      Dit moet voor oogen gehouden worden.                     de hoogste heerlijkheid en macht verheven te  worden
      En het moet ook op den voorgrond staan. Niet de in den Geliefde.
  mensch, nog veel minder de duivel, moet een hoofd-               En  alle  dingen  worden  zijnen voeten onderworpen.
  plaats innemen in onze beschouwing en voorstelling                                                          H. H.
  maar we1 onze God.
     Vooral in onzen  laffen tijd, waarin het altijd maar
  weer om den mensch gaat, kan dit nimmer met teveel
  nadruk worden  verkondigd.
     En `als we dit voor de aandacht houden, zullen we                   KUIPER ADMIRING VOLBEDA'S
  ook geen moeite hebben om te verstaan, dat de eerste                                BARREL
  mensch, door moedwillige ongehoorzaamheid, we1 dege-
  lijk naar den raad des willens van God viel. Want het           Professor Volbeda recently turned cooper,  figur;
  was niet Gods doe1 met Zijne schepping, om haar onder atively speaking, of course, and he  coopered  a nice
  den eersten mensch tot hare rijkste  openbarmg  en barrel out of the Christian Reformed Churches.
  zaligheid te voeren. Neen, niet Adam was de. koning,            The whole barrel represents the Church.
  in wien alle dingen  in hemel  en op aarde zouden worden        The staves of the barrel symbolize" the different
  vereenigd.    Hij was een voorbeeld Desgenen, Die Churches of, the communion.
  komen zou. Niemand minder dan Zijn eigen Zoon had               And the barrel is held together by three hoops, a
  Hij van eeuwigheid gezalfd om Koning te  worden  van common confession, a common church order, a common
  alle dingen, en om Zijn uitverkoren broederen met Zich liturgy.
  als het koningsvoik in de eeuwige en verheerlijkte              He invented the figure in a last, desperate attempt
  schepping een plaats te geven. Daartoe moest de Zoon to make the balky staves of the barrel submit to the
  vleesch worden  en Knecht des Heeren bij uitnemend-          cooper's operation of hammering a new and beautifully
  heid. Daartoe moest Hij Zich in den weg der gehoor- modern hoop, in the form of a new order of worship,
  xaamheid uitermate zeer vernederen, opdat Gods  eeu- around the barrel. The hoop was prepared and all
 `wig Koninkrijk op de grondslagen van het heiligst recht neatly finished by the Synod of the Christian Reformed
  zou kunnen  worden  gefundeerd. Daartoe moest Hij            Churches in 1928. An element of special attraction in
  Iijden en sterven, om uit den dood het onverderfelijke the new hoop was the beautiful design of the Absolu-
  leven te voorschijn te brengen. En daartoe moest deze tion. And the order was issued by the chief cooper
  Knecht des  ,Heeren,  deze Zoon in het vleesch ook  wor-     (Synod) that all the sub-coopers (Classes) should exert
  den opgewekt, ook ingaan in de hoogste hemelen, ook themselves to the utmost to relieve the barrel of the
  ter rechterhand Gods zitten, ook alle macht gegeven old hoop (the present form of worship) and hammer
worden  in  hemel en op aarde, opdat Hij Zijn  Konink-         the new hoop around it. But the barrel got balky.
  rijk zou kunnen volmaken en straks  zich,  als de eeuwige Approximately ninety-five per cent of the staves re-
  Koning onder God, met de Zijnen en met Zijn  Konink-         fused to be relieved of the old hoop and accept the new
  rijk aan den Vader zou onderwerpen. Zoo stond het one. They lifted up their proud stave-ends and stif-
  naar den raad des  willens Gods. En ook alles, wat er fened their curved backs and said i `What do you think,
  in het eerste Paradijs geschiedt, moet dien raad die- treating us like staves of a barrel? We are not mere
 nen. De eerste mensch, die uit de aarde aardsch was, staves, but we are all barrels and you cannot make just
 moest weg, om plaats te maken voor den Heere uit den one big barrel out of us. We shall decide on our own
 hemel.                                                        hoops, and seeing we do not fancy that synodical  new
     Zoo loopt de lijn.                                        hoop with its decorative design of the Absolution, we
     En dat program van Zijn eeuwigen Raad ontplooit refuse to have it around us and adhere to the old one.`"
 en ontwikkelt de Heere God in den tijd.                          Thus spoke the staves.
     Zoo is het ook  we1 duidelijk, dat de Heere  Christus        And so stubborn were they, that the most earnest
  Koning is aller dingen.                                      efforts of all the synodical  and classical coopers, put
     En dat we1 met een Koningschap, dat Hij als Mid- forth for two years, could not prevail against them.
 de&r en de Knecht des Heeren bekleedt. Het gaat                  Some of the coopers even decided to report. to the


-                         -


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           2 4 7

     chief cooper, that the operation is an impossible one          But even from this viewpoint the figure is neither
     and the attempt must be given up.                           appropriate nor correct.  I
        And the situation is very serious.                          It is too mechanical. It smacks too much of the
        After all, the question is, whether the staves of the outward bond of Roman Catholicism and priestcraft.
     barrel shall be allowed to select their own hoops. or          After all, the three ties of unity Professor Volbeda
     whether they shall submit to the excellent taste and mentions are not to be compared to three hoops ham-
     `workmanship of the cooper.                                 mered around a barrel to keep the staves in place. The
        Professor Volbeda is convinced that the latter posi- ties of common doctrine, a common church order, a
     tion must be maintained by all means.                       common form of worship must be living and organic
        The staves must be taught  a. good lesson. They realities, if they shall mean anything at all. The Con-
     must be cured of their conceited notion, that they are fession, for instance, is not an outward bond, keeping
     all separate barrels and it must be deeply impressed the different Churches from falling apart, but it is the
     upon them, that they are just merely staves and noth- united expression of what lives in the consciousness of
     ing else, that the Synod is the chief cooper, all the       a certain group of Churches concerning the truth of
     classes are sub-coopers, and that they must permit the Word of God. And it is that inner tie of fellowship,
     themselves to be adorned with the new hoop !                of unity of faith, that unites them, not a dead hoop of
        To reach this purpose is the chief practical aim of synodical  declarations. If this inner spiritual unity .
     Dr. Volbeda's articles.                                     does not exist, it will be of no avail to attempt keeping
        To be sure, he also employs a little persuasion and the different Churches together. And what is true of
     highly praises the beauty of the new hoop. But this is the Confession is also true of the Church Order and of
     not the main point. It is, at present, not of chief im- the Liturgy.
     portance whether or not the staves will like the new           Again, Professor Volbeda will probably answer, that'
     hoop. But it is a question of teaching them that they he, of course, knows all this, and that he understands
     are staves and that they have no business to imagine very well, that the outward bond of unity must respond
     that they can select their own hoops. They must be          to an inner tie of agreement and fellowship. He was
     taught to, accept the new hoop, because the chief cooper not arguing this point at all. He was merely writing
     so decided !                                                about the outward manifestation of this inner unity in
        And, hence, the invention of the figure of the barrel Confession, Church Order and Form of Worship.
     and the hoops by Dr. Volbeda.                                  Very well, but the entire argument of the Professor
                                                                 is, nevertheless, based on and proceeding from the
                                                                 error of the figure and not at all taking into account
                                                                 the reality of the inner unity.
                                                                    Fact is, that the figure teaches: (I) that the dif-
        The figure is, indeed, striking.                         ferent Churches are not at all drawn together by an
        But we did not think it a very happy figure. It inner tie of unity, but merely kept together by outward
     struck us as being rather homely, coarse, rude.             bonds. (2) That they did not, realizing this inner
        It surely is not elevating for the Christian Re- unity, unite into denominational union, voluntarily, as
     formed Church to be compared to a barrel with three autonomic Churches, that is, ac Churches, that by rea-
     hoops.                                                      son of the instituted offices have the power of self-gov-
        Neither, when we began to study the figure, did it ernment. The figure of the barrel and the hoops pre-
     impress us as being proper. It is as incorrect as it is supposed a power external to the barrel that unites
     coarse.                                                     the staves and strikes the hoops around them; (3) that,
        Its chief error is, that it implies an entire denial of therefore, the Churches with their consistories have
     the autonomy of the congregation. What is a stave in nothing to say as to the material and form of the
     a barrel? Nothing but a strip of wood, good for kin- "hoops" that unite them into a Church, denomination.
     dling, except for its place in the barrel. The moment it Any change can be made and the different Churches
     falls out of its place it' serves no purpose. Its only have nothing to say about it.
     significance is the place it occupies in the barrel. And       I say, such is the teaching of the homely figure of
     this is certainly a denial of the Reformed principle that Dr. Volbeda.
     every congregation is a true manifestation of the body         And in all three respects  the.figure  is erroneous.
     of Christ in the world. And it denies the autonomy of          Yet, it is evident, that Professor Volbeda argues
     the congregation.                                           from the error of the figure and applies it to reality.
        Perhaps Professor Volbeda would reply to this, that         For, the point is,  that he wants to maintain the
     1 fail to see the point of comparison, that a figure must right of Synod to +mpose a new form of worship upon
     never be applied beyond the point, and it was his pur- the whole  denomination, even though the w..s~  majority
     pose merely to bring out the bonds of denominational of Churches n that denomination have plainly indi-
     unity.                                                      cated that they do not want it.
        I admit.                                                    Synod decided on a new form of worship.


I


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

             Ninety-five per cent of the Churches expressed that        Then, after the editor quoted Professor Volbeda on
      they do not want it, that they do not agree. with it, the subject of the barrel and the hoops, he continues:
      that they will not introduce it. And this implies that            "We are glad that Dr. Volbeda has come out so
      the outward "hoop" prepared by Synod is not in har- strongly and unequivocally against `local option' and
      mony with the inner life of the Churches and with the `home rule' in matters of public worship. The coming
      living tie of fellowship that unites them in this respect. Synod would not only be responsible for the unavoid-
        Such is the situation at present.                           able chaos which would soon settle upon our churches,
             That such a situation can present itself is due to as far as matters of public worship are concerned, if it
      the fact, that a Synod is but a very imperfect repre-         should take kindly to the suggestions of some, viz., not
      sentatisn  of the local Churches of any denomination. only to repeal the new Order of Worship, but to leave
      Six delegates of each classis poorly represent all the it to every local church whether or no and how to
      churches. And if, in addition to this, a certain deci- change its form of worship whenever a change is de-
      sion is passed by Synod with a very small majority, it sired; but it would be introducing an un-Reformed,
      stands to reason that such decision may be directly Congregationalistic principle into the government of
      contrary to the life and will of the local churches.          our churches, which might have grave consequences
          You may judge of this situation as you will, but for the future. There is even now too much of this
     ' such is the case as matter of fact in the Christian Re- leaven in our circles. Some of it has been taken over
      formed Churches.                                              from the Reformed writers of the Reformed Churches
          Synod made the mistake of considering itself a of The Netherlands especially before the Synod of
      supreme body over the local churches. Hence, instead Assen,  which settled the Geelkerken-question, and at
      of referring the new form of worship to the local con- which Synod the fatal weakness. of their extreme
      sistories, before making it binding upon the Churches, emphasis on `de autonomie der plaatselijke kerk' be-
      as it should have done, it simply made a supreme court came so evident that some of its staunchest defenders
      decree. And the Churches arose in open rebellion and forsook it. Thus, for example, we have it drilled into
      outspoken opposition.                                         us, that in cases where local consistories ask permis-
      . Now, Professor Volbeda desires to maintain the sion (sic !) of Classis to increase censure over a mem-
      right of Synod, even over against the large majority of ber, the Classis can merely give advice, not permission.
      local Churches, to impose this new form of worship To what such things may lead can be seen from a state-
      upon all the Churches.                                        ment which recently appeared in the organ of the
       Hence, this figure. He says to the local Churches:           Protestant Reformed Church (should be : Churches,
      "You fail to understand that you are but staves in a please ! H.  H.) that major assemblies have only
      barrel, and that the Synod has the right to hammer advisory powers. This is, of course, (sic !) Congrega-
      any  hoop_ around you it desires."                            tionalism, Independentism, pure and simple. There is
         That is his great mistake. Fundamentally it is a even in our own circle too little respect for Synodical
      complete denial of the autonomy of the local Churches. decisions. Some churches seem to think that they have
         It is sad to say, but a fact, nevertheless, that Pro- the right to conform or not-to conform whichever way
      fessor Volbeda has fallen deeply into the evil of Col- their convenience seems to dictate, instead of realizing
      legialism.                                                    that we have all promised to abide the decision of the
                                                                    majority, unless it can be proved that such a decision
                                                                    was contrary to the Word of Cod or to the accepted
                                                                    Church Order."
         The Rev. H. J. Kuiper, editor of The Bunner,  openly          From all of which it is perfectly evident, that the
     admires the barrel of Professor Volbeda.                       Rev. H.  J. Kuiper is a faithful disciple of Prof. Heyns,
         He lauds its beauty and strength in every detail.          not only as regards doctrine, but also with respect to
         Writes he:                                                 the principles of Church-polity.
         "In his second special article on the new Order of            And at the same time it is manifest how quickly
     Worship Professor  S. Volbeda, the present incumbent the leaders of the Christian Reformed Churches de-
     of the chair of Practical Theology at our Seminary, has velop in the direction of Collegialism.
     taken a strong stand for a uniform, though flexible               Forsooth, the very Church Order is declared Con-
     order of worship. In taking this stand the professor gregationalistic ! The Rev. Kuiper condemns the atti-
     has emphatically endorsed the decision of Synod of tude of those, that ascribe to Classis and Synod only
     1926i  in reply to an inquiry by the Committee on Wor- advisory power, even in a matter of censure. But let
     ship, that the adoption of an order of worship, or of me remind the erring brother, that the Church Order
     important new elements in the order of worship, is not does not speak of permission, but of a&vice. See Artt.
     the province of the local consistory, but of the Synod 76, 77. I know, that in the English translation by the
     only. It declared itself in favor of uniformity, but it Revs. Stuart and G. Hoeksema this word  c&vice  is ren-
     did not want such a measure of uniformity whereby dered consent. But the Holland has "advies"  and not
     all flexibility would be excluded."       .                    "toestemming" of "permissie."  . And what right does


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                      ~ 249

  the editor of The Banner have to even make the at- prove to be Congregationalistic in this respect, we wiii
  tempt of forcing his  collegialistic  ideas upon the see, whether the Rev. H. J. Kuiper does not quietly re-
  Churches and to brand those, who employ the very main in those Independentistic Churches.
  language of the Church Order, as Independentistic?                                                        .
      But one may notice the fast development.
      Before 1924 the term permission would always be
  condemned at the meeting of Classis  in cases of cen-          That he is afraid of his own principle may be
  sure. It was always emphasized. that  Classis could deemed evident from a final question and remark of
  give advice, no permission.                                 his in the same editorial.
      But hierarchy was practiced in 1924.                       Writes he:
      And the principle of hierarchy has been defended           "But in this connection we should like to ask  Pro-
  ever since. It is the usual story. First a wrong act is action of Synod of 1928 in so far that those  congrega-
  committed. Then a wrong principle is maintained to by a remark which someone made, viz., that the  pres-
  defend the wrong act. And the result is popery.             fessor  Volbeda a question which  was suggested to us
      Very well.                                              ent advice of the Committee on Worship to rescind the
      But we are confident to prophesy, that neither the tions which do not desire to introduce the new Order
  Rev. H. J. Kuiper, nor Professor S. Volbeda will have shall not be compelled to do so conflicts with Prof.
  the courage of their convictions, when they shall be Volbeda's stand.
  forced to maintain their wrong position to the bitter          "We believe that this is not the `local option' which
  end. That bitter end is, that they shall have to defend Professor Volbeda has so strongly condemned. The
  the proposition that all the consistories that refuse the Committee does not propose to give each consistory the
  synodically decreed new form of worship, must be dis- right to adopt whatever Order of Worship it pleases.
  ciplined even unto deposition.    Synod, not the  con- On the contrary it petitions Synod to urge our con-
  sistory, has anything to say regarding forms of wor- sistories once more that they shall not make any change
  ship. Very well.  ' All those consistories and  office-     in their form of worship than those contained in the
  bearers that refuse to introduce the new order must new Order of Worship. All the Committee desires is
  needs be deposed as disobedient to the ecclesiastical t.hat Synod shall not force any church to discontinue
  anthorities.                                                the old forms, but give them the right to retain these
     That follows.                                            as long as. they feel they are not ready to introduce
     Synod has power to rule.                                 the new Order or in case they have serious objections
     Classes and consistories must obey.                      against it. This, of course, would not lead to the de-
     If Synod is to maintain its authority, according to sired uniformity, at least not at once. But we have
  the principles of' Volbeda and Kuiper, it must dis- nevertheless more than one precedence for such a
  cipline the disobedient.                                    course of action in our church life. The principle that
     It should have before it this -year overtures from Synod, not the local church, should determine matters
  the Neland Ave. consistory and other like-minded  con- the churches will not be jeopardized. This is not Local
  sistories, demanding that all the Churches, that have option  gs we see it."
  openly refused to obey the decision of Synod, be ad-           When one reads this he begins to wonder whether
  monished and if necessary expelled.                         there is something wrong with his own faculty of un-
     Neland Ave. should also prepare an overture for derstanding or with the writer's faculty of reasoning.
  Synod, demanding that Synod declare all overtures that         This is either so deep that I cannot follow the rea-
  ask for a repeal of the decision regarding the new form' soning of the editor, or it is so inconsistent that its
I of worship out of order.                                    paradoxical nature lies on the surface.
     Men like G. J.  Haan, Dr. Beets, G. Hoeksema and            And to my notion it is the latter.
  others, that have openly written against the decision of       Just imagine :
  Synod, should be disciplined.                                  a. Synod only has'the right to determine matters
     These things follow from the hierarchical principle that pertain to the form of worship in all the local
  of Rev. H. J. Kuiper, who declares the very language of churches; the latter do not have that right.
  the Church Order Independentistic !                            b. Synod decides upon a certain definite form of
     But he will not have the courage .of his convictions.    worship for all the Churches.
  I prophesy .that the Churches will not introduce the           c. The churches refuse to introduce it.
  new order of worship, even if Synod this time should           d. Synod decides that it is no violation of its sov-
  emphasize its authority and once more decide that it ereign right, if churches abide by their own forms, dis-
  shall be introduced. The large majority of them will regarding the decision of Synod !
  continue to rebel against the authority of Synod.              Let him that is able explain the logic of t,his. We
     And if this happens, we will scan the editorials'of humbly confess that it appears too profound for us.
  Rev. Ii. J. Kuiper again, and see if he demands that his       And we are very curious to know, how Professor
  principle be rigidly applied. And if the Churches Volbeda will explain this  difficulty.

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

     But all the more we are strengthened in our con-
 viction that neither Dr. Volbeda nor the Rev. I(uiper                                ABRAHAM AND COMMON GRACE
 will have the courage to enforce his principle or to                        In our previous essay, `we were engaged with the
 maintain-it to the bitter end, if it should appear (as it late Dr. A. Kuyper's view of the purpose of Abraham's
 undoubtedly will) that the staves of the barrel will immigration to Canaan and with the construction he
 refuse to receive the new hoop.                                         placed upon the state of existence in which the afore-
     And in the near future history will decide whether said patriarch as a sojourner in Canaan  acquisced.
 we are right.                                                           According to Kuyper, Abraham was sent on his way to
                                                          H. H.          Palestine for the express purpose of interweaving his
                                                                         life with that of the tribes in whose midst he took up
                                                                         his residence, in order that an indissoluble tie might be
                                                                         laid between special and common grace. Accordingly,
                           ATTElNTIE                                     the outstanding feature of Abraham's career in Canaan
     Binnenkort zal er in druk verschijnen een brochure,                 was a studied attempt on the part of this patriarch to
getiteld                                                                 attach himself to the chiefs of the region entered.
            DE GELOOVIGEN EN HUN ZAAD,                                      It was proven that in the light of Scripture this
en daarnevens een net gebonden boek, getiteld                            view shows up false. What secured for Abraham  a
                         FEESTDAGEN                                      place in that cloud of witnesses by which we are en-
van' de hand van Ds. H. Hoeksema.                                        compassed about, is the manner  ,in which he responded
     En naarmate de Heere ons zegent en in staat stelt, to. the Divine injunction to acquiesce in the mode of
zullen  deze opgevolgd worden  door anderen, en met het existence of a stranger and pilgrim in the earth, or of
                                                                               . .
oog op bewaring zooveel mogelijk eenvormig worden a political-social and spiritual-moral recluse.                            That
gemaakt.                                                                 Abraham's sojourn in Palestine was one of spiritual-
    De prijs van "De Geloovigen en Hun Zaad" is 35 ct. moral seclusion is expressly taught by Holy Writ in
en van "Feestdagen" $1.00.                                               the epistle to the Hebrews. "For they that say such
    Indien men ze wil aanschaffen, schrijf dan zoo spoe- things," says the sacred writer, "declare plainly that
dig mogelijk aan den penningmeester,                                     they seek a country. And truly if they had been mind-
                                            F. PRINS,                    ful of that country from whence they came out, they
                                  1010 Northwood St., N. E., might have had opportunity to have returned. But,
                                       Grand Rapids,  Mich.              now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly:
                                                                         wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God:
                                                                       * for he hath prepared for them a city" (Heb. 11:14-16).
                            LECTURE                                         Why then is God not ashamed to be called Abra-
             Thursday, March 6, at 7:45 P. M.                            ham's God? Kuyper's answer reads: "For the mere
                     by Rev. H. Hoeksema                                 reason that Abraham dwelt in a tent. Nothing more."
                                                                         Read again the quotations from J?e Gemeene  Gratie in-
         Subject:                                                        corporated in our previous' article. Turning to the
             "PARIS AND COMMON GRACE"                                    sacred  writer we discover the reason to be that Abra-
First Protestant Reformed Church                                         ham embraced the promises of eternal life, confessed
     Fuller Ave. and Franklin St., Grand Rapids, Mich. that he was a stranger and pilgrim in the earth and
                       English language                                  desired a heavenly country. His being a stranger and
                                                                         pilgrim in the earth constituted the other side of his
                                                                        desiring and seeking a heavenly country. So the sacred
                        IN MEMORIAM                                     writer has it. It must be then that to say that Abra-
   Het behaagde den Heere uit ons midden  weg te nemen, na              ham was a stranger in the earth is but another way of
eene kortstondige ziekte, onze  geliefde  Echtgenoote, Moeder,          saying that the state of existence he adopted was that
Grootmoeder en Zuster,                                                   of a spiritual-moral recluse, so that his ,dwelling in
                  MRS. M. VAN ANTWERPEN,                                 tents must be interpreted as a withdrawing from the
in den ouderdom van 56 jaar.
   Volgens haar eigen getuigenis en levenswandel was haar               society of the Canaanites and thus a rejection of their
leven  Christus  en dies haar sterven voor haar gewin.                  entire scheme of life. It is plain then that it was Abra-
   Des Heeren weg is in het heiligdom  en door ons niet te door-        ham's living alone that constituted the outstanding fea-
gronden. We weten   echter  dat  alles  wat  Hij doet, met wijsheid     ture of his career and secured for him the title of hero
geschiedt en  voor  ons altijd moet medewerken ten goede.               of faith. It was this feature that rendered that career
Hierin  ligt dan ook  onze  troost.                                     of his one of the most remarkable phenomena recorded
                  Namens de bedroefde familie,                          in Scripture, and he who lived it a grand exhibition of
                               M. Van Antwerpen
                               Minnie Van  Antwerpen                    what a man of faith is capable of. He who neverthe-
                                  Negen kinderen                        less labors to prove that not seclusion but amalgama-
                                  En kIeinkinderen.                     tion, intercourse and communion with the reprobate


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                     251

world was the outstanding feature of Abraham's life, tutes the basis upon which the separation of Abraham
arises to the defense of a proposition in flagrant con- reposes" (De Gemeene Gratie, Vol. I, p. XX).
flict with the plain utterances of Scripture. Remarkable        Comparing the above quotation with the one incor-
how the theory of common grace will blind men's eyes porated in the previous article under the above caption,
and poison their minds and thus render them alto-            it is plain, that Kuyper shifted positions. As was be-
gether incapable of discerning the truth and sensing fore said, after devoting no less than ten pages to the
the great object lessons of such personages asAbraham.       defense of the proposition that abraham's  career in
Kuyper not only ignored this object lesson but, what is      Canaan was one of communion and intercourse with
worse, devoted page after page to its denial and there- the Canaanitish tribes, he suddenly changes front and
upon placed in its room, the tenet upon which the theory marshals Scripture to the defense of the opposite view
he hatched out reposes  - the tenet, namely, that Abra- - the view, namely, that Abraham's career in Canaan
ham, instead of withdrawing from the world, courted was that of a recluse. How is this sudden change of
its friendship and lived its life and thus set up a con- front to be accounted for? In this way. It is very
nection between special and common grace, and laid evident from certain statements occurring in the  above-
the basis of a future world culture.                         cited selection, that Kuyper felt very keenly that in his
   Kuyper is repeatedly in conflict with himself. After reasonings he had pitched himself headlong against
describing Abraham as a man of broad tendencies in a the plain teachings of Scripture respecting the purpose
worldly sense, he thereupon insist that the Divine com- and character of Abraham's calling. Whereas De Gs-
mand did involve him in a life of separation.                meene  Gratie constitutes a collection of press-articles,
   Wrote Kuyper : "To avoid the mistake of under- it is also more than likely that the above selection rep-
rating Abraham's high and altogether unique calling, resents an effort on the part of Kuyper to pacify some
we should take account of three matters. The first is critic. For the statement occurs, "Let no one attribute
the true character of Abraham's calling and separation. to our exposition of common  grace  the tendency to
That a separation actually occurred, may not for a weaken or deny the Divine mandate imposed upon
single moment be doubted. Scripture asserts it too Abraham to withdraw from the world and be  sep-
plainly:  `&t thee out of thy country, and from thy erate."           However this may be, fact is that Kuyper
kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that shifted positions even within the compass of fifteen
I will show thee." It is also too evident, among other pages of his first volume. But what is most remark-
things, from the choice of a wife for Isaac, from the able, however, is that the new stand taken is again
strong disapproval of Esau's marriage with Canaan-           forsaken in the next chapter where the reader is again
itish women, from Jacob's marriage, from Dina's  sin told that Abraham's career in Canaan was one of com-
at Shechem, from Israel's inclusion in the covenant, munion and intercourse with the native tribes, and
from the isolation of Israel as a nation among the that this feature of his career gave to the period in
nations, and especially from the question directed by which he lived a kind of distinction that set it off from
Christ to the Phenician  woman whether it was meet to the period of Moses. The statement occurs in the
cast the bread of the children before dogs. Let no one above-cited quotation that Scripture  distinguishes be-
therefore attribute to our exposition of corrpmon  p-czce    tween i-he Mosaic and the Abmhamatic periods. And
the tendency to weaken or deny this Divinely imposed how according to Kuyper do the two periods differ?
separation. This separation comes to the foreground The answer is found in the following selection: "The
as clear as the day in both Old and New Testament.           matter upon which we must fix our minds in the third.
Only this separation in Scripture is not absolute but instance is the prophesy that Abraham's seed would
relative. It is temporal as to its character, not per- be a stranger in `a land not theirs." From this it is
manent. It aims to bring into being salvation' not its evident that, according to the Divine arrangement, the
development. It creates the dispensation of shadows, separation and contrast between Israel and the nations,
not the dispensation of reality.  4nd this, too, it is was brought about not in Canaan but in Egypt. Among
molded upon the concentration of a life of faith, not the Canaanites Abraham, Isaac and Jacob moved free
upon the development of the powers increated by God and unrestricted, formed alliances, were honored and
in our human nature. From this it follows that Scrip- held in esteem, found spiritual  affinity  for the service
ture distinguishes most sharply between the Mosaic of the only true Cod. But in Egypt they were to dwell
and the Abrahamatic periods. Very seldom do the as in a strange land, there slavery awaited them, there
apostles connect up with Moses. Repeatedly do they they were to be oppressed, in order to be formed by
set up a contact with Abraham in order to bring out, this oppression as a nation into a close unity. It should
in God's way with him, in the character of his faith,        be noticed then that not of the chiefs of Canaan but
and in his calling, the indissoluble bond between partic- of the Pharaoh of Egypt it was said that, He raised
ular grace in Israel and common grace operative in the him up, that he might show his power in him, and
nations. `Moreover the law entered'; and not the law that by his defeat His name might be declared through-
`but the promise that Abraham should be a father of out all the earth. It seems indeed that even in Abra-
many nations (and not merely of one nation) consti-          ham's day, the contrast between the idolatry and the

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

service of God was sharper in Egypt than in Canaan. difference*between  the period of Abraham and that of
It also appears  - something which should be noticed        Moses and the Israelitish nation was that in the
- that the" cast-system, by which the unity of our former period the church, represented by Abraham, in-
human nature was broken and man separated from terwove its life with that of the native tribes of
man, constituted even at that time the. basis of the        Canaan, while in the latter period the church in agree-
national existence in Egypt. When Joseph's brothers ment with the mandate of God, lived alone. The  ques-
arrive in Egypt to buy corn, they find a separate table tion cannot be quelled: What  ,was Abraham's view?
prepared for them in Joseph's house, because, so we And the eanswer is ready: The view that Abraham
read in Gen.  43:32,  "The Egyptians might not eat lived along with the Canaanites and thus set up a con-
bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination nection between particular and common grace. That
unto the Egyptians." It must follow that a people, he for a moment relinquished this view and in his rea-
divided into casts and scarcely permitting any inter- sonings completely overturned what he had attempted
course between the several ranks, would be compelled to to establish in the preceding section of his volume, rep-
cut off all intercourse with the stranger. The aristo-      resents, as was before said, an attempt to quiet some
cratical  pride lurking in every Egyptian's bosom would critic for denying the plain declarations of Holy Writ
surely foster a national pride over against the for- respecting the character of Abraham's career in
eigner. Hence, in the land of Goshen  the posterity of Canaan.          That section in which Kuyper  overtnrns
Jacob occupies a separate region. The isolation did what he had established goes to show that he was com-
not exist in Canaan, was also not sought by them in pelled to relinquish his views respecting the matter at
Egypt. It was forced upon them by the particularistic hand as often as someone would confront him with the
spirit of the Egyptian court.                               plain statements of Scripture. For these statements
   "The view, then, that the separation and isolation are so clear and unmistakable that any contrary senti-
of Abraham's generation was sought by the patriarchs ments are shown up as false when placed in their light.
and brought about by the contract  with.the  Canaanitish       More than once does Kuyper turn against himself
tribes, must be relinquished and substituted by a view in that section of his volume from which we quoted.
in agreement with the numerous and plain declarations       On page 340 of the first volume we are told that the
of Holy Writ - the view, namely, that this separation, national isolation of the period beginning with Moses
this national isolation was found by them in Egypt and did not set in until after in the history of the patriarchs
by virtue of their having been ordered to repair to and more particularly in the life of Abraham the broad
Egypt, willed by God. Were we not in the possession basis upon which a higher world development (the
of the record of Abraham's remarkable vision in the culture of common grace) was to repose, was laid:
dream, we could still  concmde  that Jacob's sons on Or, to express it otherwise, Abraham by interlocking
their own initiative repaired to Egypt to outrun a          his life with that of the nations, set up a connection
famine. The transportation of Abraham's  descendents        between special and common grace. However, on page
to Egypt is merely the execution of a decree constitut- 336 of the same volume, the author gives his readers
ing an integral part of the Counsel of Redemption and to understand that the apostles do not connect up with
revealed by God unto Abraham already in the first Moses but with Abraham and thus brings into relief
period of his sojourn in Canaan." So far Kuyper. the indissoluble bond between particular grace in  Israel
This quotation can be found on pages 338 and 339 of, and common grace as operative in the nations. So
the first volume of De Gemeene Gratie.                      then on page 336 we are told that the universalistic
   In the above-cited quotation, let it be noticed, Kuy- features of Abraham's career constituted it a suit-
p& for the third time shifts his position and again able connecting point for common grace. A few pages
arises to the defense of the very view he first cham- further the author insists that this connection was set          '
pions and thereupon repudiated in the beginning of the up with the isolated Israelistish nation. Both cannot
very chapter of the' volume from which we quote.            be true.
Page 320 to page 335 of the first volume constitutes a         Further, the statement (found in the above selec-
defense of the proposition that Abraham's career in tion) that the apostles select as their connecting point
Canaan was one of intercourse and communion with the careers of the patriarchs and thus bring out the
the native chiefs. On page 336 he marshals Scripture connection between special grace in Israel and com-
to the defense of the very opposite view - the view mon grace in the nations, eompels the conclusion that
that Abraham's career in Canaan was that of a recluse. Kuyper thought of the apostles as the messengers of
On this page he even warns his readers not to attribute common grace. We have Paul's very own word for it
to his exposition of common grace the tendency to that Christ and Him crucified constituted the core of
weaken or deny the command of God that came to his preaching. So that very plainly Kuyper's view was
Abraham, the command, namely, to live alone and be that Christ was a gift of grace unto the reprobate
separate. On the following page Kuyper adduces new world residing within the compass of the Gospel
proof in defense of the proposition that this separation preaching. That such was his view is evident from
was effected not in Canaan but in Egypt; and that the his exposition of the parable of the candlestick (see


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                      253

my former article). `His answer to the question how ing of this entire series of utterances is (the Scripture
this light may benefit the reprobate is that when ap-      having to do with the  wbystery,  G. M. 0.) that the
plied by the Spirit it represses in man the sinful         mystery must be sought on the one hand in the incarna-
tendencies of his carnal self and thus makes possible a tion and on the other hand in the adduction of the
development of the natural powers increated in human nations . . . Both express the same thing. Incarna-
nature. The joint operations of particular and com- tion means: the assuming of human nature and not
mon grace will result in the redemption of the earth,      merely a Jewish nature. And that the nations are
of this world and of the (elect) human race. We            called also means that the Son of God came to redeem
quote  : "Over against this fundamental conception not merely the Jews but the world. And if this is
 (that of the Anabaptist, of the Pre-millennialist and     understood, it also becomes plain that not only in the
that of Roman Catholicism) stands opposed our view. quoted passages but also elsewhere the same mystery
We say that God did not yield his work of creation to is taught. I Tim. 3  :16 speaks of this mystery as con-
Satan with the intention of saving out of it a selected sisting on the one hand in the incarnation and on the
group, but that God loved the world; went out in mercy other hand herein that He was preached not only
to our human race ; checked therefore by common grace among the Jews but also among the heathen and that
the ravages of sin and decay ; throughout all the cen- He was believed not in Israel but in the world" (Vol.
turies continued to operate in the world of men ; also     1,  p. 347).
outside of the province of particular grace  ; and            It is certain that Scripture uses the term mystery
selected out of the world, it is true, a small circle for as the signification of the events of the incarnation and
the purpose of preparing the balm of Gilead  ; but pre- the calling of the nations or the preaching of Christ
pared this balm, however, not that the world should        among the gentiles. Can it be true, however, that no
exist for this balm, but that this balm should serve       one in the Christian church thinks of touching upon
and save the world. And thus the work of God  in these events ; that these truths found no place among
particular and  common grace is suited to re-create this the mysteries of the Christian religion; that before
earth into o new earth, this world into a new world,       Kuyper, devout students of Scripture gave to the
and the human race into a new race. This implies, to apostolic utterances setting forth these events an inter-
besure, that only the elect are aved, that such only pretation so meaningless that we would have lost noth-
who believe in the Son escape disaster, but in, with       ing bad the apostles said nothing? Amazing state-
and for the elect redeemed, that will constitute re-       ments! Our  Confession of. Faith  is a writing appear-
deemed humanity, all that Satan laid hold on (barring      ing centuries before Kuyper. One of its articles reads :
the persons) will be deiivered out of his hand, and the "We confess therefore that God did  fulf?l the promise,
entire original *creation  elevated to that purpose for which he made to the fathers, by the mouth of his holy
which it was called into existence" (De Gemeene Gra-       prophets, when he sent into the world, at the time so
tie, Vol. I, p. 353).                                      pointed by him, his own, only-begotten and eternal Son,
    The above selection is a concise statement of  Kuy-    who took upon him the form of a servant, and became
per's theory of common grace. In the pages preceding like unto man (not merely Jew) really assuming the
he refers to it as some profound: truth unearthed for true human nature . . . .  " Another one of these
the first time by him. This find of his he identifies articles reads : "We believe that all the posterity of
with the mystery of Rom. 16:25-27, and similar pass- Adam being thus fallen into perdition and ruin, bg the
ages. . These scriptures, he states, were understood by sin of our first parents, God then did manifest himself
him for the first time. Says he: "So little is the mean- such as he is ; that is to say merciful and just : Merci-
ing of this apostolic testimony understood that no one ful in that he delivers and preserves from this perdi.
even thinks of teaching this mystery in the Christian tion all, whom he, in his eternal and unchangeable
church. They do teach the .mystery of the incarnation, counsel of mere goodness hath elected in Christ Jesus
also the  mystery  that is great, namely, that marriage our Lord . . .  " And the answer to the fifty-fourth
is a type of the union between Christ and His church, question of the  Catechism  reads: "That the Son of
but this mystery to which the apostle not once but re- God from the beginning to the end of the world,
peatedly refers, is never touched upon. It is not re- gathers, defends, and preserves to himself by his
ceived by Christian consciousness. It has no place Spirit and word, out of the whole human race a church
among the mysteries of the Christian religion. Stu- chosen to everlasting life, agreeing in true faith . . "
dents of Scripture read over it and give to Paul's It is a bold untruth then that the incarnation and the
utterances an interpretation so meaningless that so redemption of elect humanity are doctrines that found
understood we would have lost nothing had Paul alto- no place among the mysteries of the Christian religion.
gether kept silence concerning this mystery" (De Ge- The truth of the matter is that what is new and un-
meene Gratie, Vol. 1, p. 342).                             heard of is the philosophy hatched out by Kuyper, that
    What, according to Kuyper, may this-mystery be? the reprobate world glorifies God ; that this world is a
The incarnation and the adduction or calling of the fit companion for the saint; that by common grace God
nations. Says he: "The key to the correct  understand-     represses or restrains the evil tendencies of the rep-

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

     robate's  carnal nature and by this same grace devel- om ook in dezen engeren zin Zichzelven namen te geven.
     opes the natural powers increated in his nature so that Toegespitst op een enkel woord is Zijn Naam Jehova,
     on this bad tree good fruit appears; that by the joint de in Zichzelven Bestaande, de Onafhankelijke, de  Cn-
     operations of this common and special grace the earth, veranderlij ke, Eeuwige.
     the world and elect humanity are renewed, redeemed,             En omdat de naam een openbaring is van het
     - these are the tenets entering into the make-up of a Wezen, omdat in den Naam de Heilige God persoonlijk
     doctrine unknown in the Christian church before  Kuy-       op ons toetreedt, daarom is ook die Naam een heilige
     per's day, a doctrine Kuyper was the first to broach.       naam.
                                                  G. M. 0.           Nimmer is die Naam te vermengen met eenigen
                                                                 naam van het schepsel. Nooit mag die Naam worden
                                                                 neergetrokken in de sfeer van het gemeene, van het
                        HEILX  OF PROFAAN                        zondige.
            Heilig is de Heere !                                     Dit niet-mogen heeft de  .Heere  God waarschuwend
         En bij Hem is de heiligheid, de deugd van Zijn uitgesproken in het derde gebod: Gij zult den Naam
     Wezen, waardoor Hij met al de eeuwige werkingen des Heeren uw Gods niet ijdellijk gebruiken ! En wij-
     Zijner goddelijke natuur Zichzelven geduriglijk gewijd zende  als met goddelijken vinger op zijn vlammenden
     is en zoekt.                                                "toorn,  voegde Hij er aan toe: Want de Heere zal met
         Bij ons is dit juist andersom.                          onschuldig houden, die ,Zi jnen Naam i jdelli j k gebruikt !
         Heiligheid is bij ons die gave der genade, waardoor         IJdellijk gebruiken is gebruiken als een profane, als
     wij niet onszelven, maar Gode als het Hoogste Goed          een ijdel  mensch dien Naam gebruikt. Het is een ge-
     gewijd zijn met verstand en wil en alle krachten.           meen  maken van dien Naam, gemeen met de namen van
         Maar God is Zichzelven gewijd. Dat kan niet an- het schepsel, ja, met de namen der duisternis en hare
     ders. Hij is geen schepsel, dat Hij van iemand afhan- machten.  De zondaar is profaan. Zijn oorspronkelijke
     kelijk zijn zoude. Er is boven Hem geen goed, waar-         heiligheid bezit hij niet meer, is in haar tegenbeeld  om-
     aan Hij Zichzelven zou kunnen wijden. Hij is Zelf het gezet. Hij is een onheilige geworden. En een  onhei-
     Bonum, het allerhoogste goed.  En daarom is bij God lige is profaan. Profaan is de zondaar in zijn denken,
     de heiligheid dan ook het geduriglijk gewijd zijn van willen,  begeeren, spreken, handelen. En als deze pro-
     het Eeuwige  Wezen   aan Zichzelven.                        fane zondaar in aanraking komt met den Naam des
         Daarom keert zich deze eeuwige werkende heilig-         Heeren, den heiligen Naam, dan sleurt hij hem in het
     heid ook als vlammende to&n  tegen al wat Hem niet          ijdele, maakt hem gemeen, vertreedt hem tot  beneden
     gewijd is.                                                  alle peil van het verachtelijke !
         Want, negatief gesproken, is Gods heiligheid met           Hij vloekt!
     slechts zijn eeuwig afgescheiden zijn van de zonde.            In  arren moede voegt hij dien  Naim  als  allerge-
     maar ook Zijn onophoudelijke  haat tegen de zonde, meenste tusschenwerpsel in zijn vuil-zondige taal in!
     tegen het profane, tegen de ongerechtigheid en het             Met helsche bitterheid der ziel bezigt hij dien Naam
     aantasten van Gods heiligheden.         ,                   als middel om lucht te geven  aan  zondigen   toorn  en
         We1 is God als de heilige ook de Verhevene. Hij is ij dele gramschap  des gemoeds !
     nooit in Ben adem te noemen met het schepsel. In dien          Of in grof-zedelijke verstomping zit hij in het ge-
     zin is er een nooit te overbruggen klove tusschen de stoelte der spotters, om in brooddronkene  gevoelloos-
     oneindige heiligheden Gods en de nietigheden van het heid met dien Naam te spelen, te kaatsen, om te gooien,
     beperkte schepsel. Dit tech te doen  is de goddeloosheid te  spotten . . . .
     van het Pantheisme. Maar tech woont Hij als de Vey-            Of ook, hij spreekt lichtvaardiglijk van dien Naam
     hevene ook bij dien, die van een nederigen geest en van in breederen zin des woords, van Gods heilige deugden,
     een verbrijzeld hart is. Doch bij den zondaar woont Zijn werken, Zijn openbaring.
     Hi j nimmer.       Hij keert zich tegen Hem met de ver-        Hij spreekt over Hem, zing-t van Hem, gedachten-
     terende vlammen van Zijn toornende heiligheid. De loos, gevoelloos, zonder dat de ziel  ooit een  houciing  aan-
     booze kan bij Hem met verkeeren. Er is in God niets neemt van heilige eerbiedenisse !
     gemeens.                                                       Want ons hart is van nature profaan! Het is, in-
         Omdat God de Heilige is, daarom is ook Zijn Naam plaats van een heiligdom des Heeren een moordenaars-
     heilig.                                                     ho1 des duivels geworden !
         In gansch  breeden  zin is Gods Naam geheel Zijne          Het maakt  alles gemeen, wat heilig is.
     openbaring,  alles wat ons God doet kennen, Zijne  wer-        Het bezoedelt  alle heiligheden Gods, waarmede het
     ken;  centraal  in de Vleeschwording, de  Schrift. In in aanraking komt.
     engeren zin is Zijn Naam die taalklank, waardoor wij           En zal dzoo geenszins onschuldig gehouden wor-
     Hem mogen en kunnen noemen, aanduiden, toespreken.          den, maakt  alzoo  zijn  schuld dagelijks meerder, altijd
     Want ofschoon de oneindige heerlijkheden Gods  nim- +weer  openbarend, welk profaan schepsel hij, die naar
/    mer ten voile in een klank der menschelijke  taal zijn Gods beeld geschapen was, geworden is.
     uit te drukken, tech heeft het Gode genadiglijk beliefd,       En geen menschelijke pogingen van opvoeding,  be-


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                   257

wetboek, niet als regel der dankbaarheid. En de oor-
zaak was: de gemeene gratie.                                   A FURTHER EXAMINATION OF KUYPER'S
   Nu kan Ds. Schilder dit niet zien. Maar ik bied                     VIEW OF THE PATRIARCHS
hem vriendelijk aan, om hem dit aan te toonen, zoo
duidelijk, dat hij nooit meer zal schrijven, dat ik de         These various statements setting forth the thought-
dingen  op onlogische wijze aan elkander rijg.              elements constituting Kuyper's theory have been fully
   Maar dan moet hij ook  dieper  op de zaak  willen        covered by quotations from De  Gemeene   Gratie. To
ingaan.                                                     what was given we may add the following. That Kuy-
   Want ook Nederland heeft er  we1 behoefte  aan.          per literally teaches that the ungodly glorify God is
   Kan dat niet, Ds. Schilder?                              evident from the following selection:
                                                  H. H.        "Christ's admonition, `Let your light shine before
                                                            men, that they may see your light, and glorify your
                                                            Father in heaven,' must be made to apply both. psy-
                                                            chologically and anthropologically (menschkundig)
                      L I E F D E L I E D                   altogether to the world as it' is. Christ knew that the
      0, Toevlucht van mijn ziel!                           world continually notices. the redeemed with eagles-
    Mijn  eerste en ook mijn laatste tevens,                eyes, and that the glory of his Father would grieviously
    Gij,  redding  mijnes levens,                           suffer if the confessors of his name do not lead an
      Als mij heel d' aard ontviel !                        honorable life in the world. And yet, distorting the
                                                            profound thought incorporated in this scripture, the
      0 Ster! die nooit moogt ondergaan,                    saints are still inclined to yield the province of common
    Maar blinken moet en god'lijk stralen.                  grace, the only province in which the judgment of the
    Schijn in mijn dalen,                                   world can operate, and to vaunt themselves in a sickly
      En lath mij uit uw boogten aan !                      manner in a separately chosen spiritual circle." This
                                                            is wrong, so Kuyper continues' to reason (and,  _ of
      Verzel mij, waar ik ga of sta!                        course, we agree). The saints must keep themselves
    Laat mij steeds op U staren !                           in evidence in the world and assert themselves, as was
    Uw kracht, Uw troost ervaren,                           before said, as the walking altars of God. Does the
      Mijns Heilands heilgena !                             world admire and love this saint and glorify his heaven-
                                                            ly Father? According to the plain statements of De
      0 Anker, waar mijn schip aan haakt!                   Gemeene   G~utie (Vol. II, p. 337) it does. Try and
    Behoed  mij voor de baren!                              swing this view in line with Scripture. It cannot be
    Voor doods- en doodsgevaren . . . .                     done. In the light of the teachings of Holy Writ also
      Ook  als mijn stervensuur genaakt!                    this thought-element shows up false. .
                                                               Further, that common grace represses the evil
      0 Rots ! Laat m' in U schuilen,                       tendencies operative in the reprobate world and de-
    Gelijk een duif, beangst,, verward.                     velops the natural powers in this world ; that saIvation
    Ach, zonder U verzinkt mijn hart                        is the result of the joint action of this common and
      In diepe kuilen !                                     special grace. is a view circulating through the last
                                                            quotation from  De  Gemeene  Gratie. This  view Kuyper
      0 Vredebode ! zweef, heel zacht,                      interweaves with the doctrines of the incarnation and
             Tot mij neder !                                the calling of the nations, and this strange mixture
             En laat mij weder                              of his he identifies with the mystery kept secret since
      Herleven, door Uw liefdekracht !                      the world began but now made manifest.
Laat, door Uw aam,  mijn aardsche bloemen sterven.              The Standard  Becrrer has always insisted, and re-
           Wat stof is, keer' tot stof!                     peatedly shown, as was before said, that Kuyper's view
           Laat, tot mijns Heilands lof,                    involves its adherents in a.denial  of more than one of
      Een hof, ontluiken, vol van hemelverven !             the foundation truths of the Christian religion, besides
                                                            rendering them insensible to the true meaning of Scrip-
      Vol onvergankb're bloemen, Heer !                     ture. It is not our purpose, however, to delineate upon
           Die U ter eere blozen:                           the fallacies of Kuyper's theory. That his view is
           De heil'ge Passierozen,                          mere human philosophy is sufficiently evident from this
      En lelies, onbesmet en teer !                         alone that he, in the attempt to give to it a semblance
                                                            of truth, so distorted those sections of Holy Writ  mar-
      En allen, om Uw Kruis geschaard,                      shalled by him to its defense as to render them (these
           Uw Kruis, mijn Schat, mijn Krone!                sections) unrecognizable. Take, to illustrate, his ex-
           0 `s Vaders heil'ge Zone !                       position of the parable of the candlestick. How can any-
      Mijn hoogste Liefde waard !                           one, with his eye upon the pages of Holy Writ, main-

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

tain that the ungodly glorify God. One must have his is, that the Egyptians soon knew so much about the
eyes closed to the plain teachings of God's Word when Hebrews in Goshen that they began to regard them
saying so. The lover of this word will overturn what with grave suspicion. Besides this literal alienation
he sought to establish as soon as he again gets in his there is still' another kind of separation called  sodal-
eye this word. Kuyper did so. What he teaches on political. One may be thoroughly acquainted with a
one page respecting the attitude the unregenerate social group but refuse to join himself to  it: The lone
assume toward God, he overturns on the page follow-         individual in relation to this group is said to be a social
ing. Says he, "This glorification must not be mis-          recluse. Though constantly thrown in contact with the
understood. In the actual higher sense the world will       Canaanites as a result of his having taken up his resi-
never glorify your God and your Christ. To the con- dence in their midst, Abraham refused to enter the
trary, the world always opposes him . . . " (Vol. II, society of the people in whose land he dwelt but volun-
p. 338).                                                    tarily acquiesced in the state of existence of a social
       Perhaps one of the best examples of how Kuyper recluse in Palestine. It was this second kind of social
mutilates Scripture is his exposition of the character seclusion only that was forced upon Abraham's seed in
of Abraham's career and' the purpose of his calling.        Egypt. As was before said, the cast-system had
Let us conclude this particle by fixing our minds, inso- fostered in the bosom of every Egyptian a contempt
far as this has not been done, on what he set forth in for the foreigner. It is doubtful,  how.ever,  whether
the chapters from which we quoted, respecting the social seclusion was forced upon the Hebrews. Fact is,
aforesaid matters. To begin with, the proposition that that the Hebrew from his side shunned the higher com-
the separation between the world and the church of the      panionship of the Egyptian as well. The dislike was
old dispensation was not affected until after the arrival mutual. The ambition of Abraham's seed in Goshen
of the children of Israel in Egypt, is thoroughly false.    as well as of Abraham in Palestine was to continue as
It has been shown that Kuyper in one of his better a seperate and distinct social and political and religi-
moments, admitted  this.       It was shown that he ous unit. For this seed entered Egypt with the prom-
in the attempt to render this particular thought-ele- ise of a distinct national existence in Canaan. It was
ment acceptable to his reader, delineated upon the          because of this tribal ambition that the Egyptian
matter of Abraham's pilgrimage in Canaan in such a Pharaoh of the oppression soon began to contemplate
manner as to leave the impression that it was a matter the Hebrew as a grave menace to the safety of his
of no import. That Abraham adopted the mode of throne. What the Hebrews refused to do is to allow
elcistence  of a monad, dwelt in tents, and thus. con- themselves to become an integral part of the Egyptian
tinued as a stranger and pilgrim in Canaan, means, if commonwealth, and to swear allegiance to the then
it means anything at all, that he lived alone, and thus ruling dynasty, so that it is altogether incorrect to
constituted a distinct social and spiritual unit in say that in Egypt separation was forced upon the holy
Canaan, so that the separation between him and his seed, the church. "Come on," said Pharaoh, "let us
seed had its inception not in Egypt, as Kuyper teaches, deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come
but in Canaan. Further, though it is true, of course, to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join
that the Egyptian had been trained for centuries to also our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them
look upon all intercourse with the foreigner as an out of the land."
abomination, the fact remains, nevertheless, that              What may be the real difference between the state
Israel's rallying about a golden calf shows that from a of existence of the Church in Canaan and in Egypt?
spiritual-moral point of view, the separation between And the answer is ready: Both in Canaan and in
Abraham and the Canaanites was more rigid and com- Egypt the people of God lived alone with this differ-
plete than the separation between Israel in Egypt and ence, however, that in Egypt the church was op-
the Egyptians. And the issue raised by the theory of pressed, persecuted and enslaved while in Canaan
common grace is, as was before said, whether Abra- Abraham dwelt unmolested, for the Lord permitted
ham in Canaan dwelt on a common spiritual-ethical rw one to do him  harm.  So Scripture informs us.
floor with the reprobate world.                             Israel in Egypt is a subject which must be reserved for
   Further, in one sense separation was forced upon a later date.
Israel in Egypt and in another sense not. Two people           Another absurd statement of Kuyper is that the
or groups of people may be separated by a wall of apostles set up a contact  not with Moses but with
literal estrangement. One moves into a new locality Abraham. A most absurd statement, I say, because
a total stranger to those among whom he takes up his the apostles preached the very Christ whose outstand-
residence. However, an unavoidable contact with the ing features the typical-symbolical apparatus of Moses
neighbors soon puts an end to this literal estrangement so clearly set forth. Snother  theme of the apostles was
and soon the new resident knows and is known by the that very church of which the theocracy of the old dis-
men in whose midst he dwells. To continue a stranger pensation was the typical replica. And the pattern of
in the aforesaid sense is impossible and was impossible this state was sketched out in the legislation of Moses.
for Abraham in Canaan and for his seed in Egypt. Fact In short, the entire preaching of the apostles had to do


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              269

  erractly with those realities of which the typical-sym- late one with more children than the married wife.
  bolical apparatus of Moses constituted the shadow.            Isa.` 54 : 1.
  HOW  Kuyper could say then that the apostles seldom               A remark or two by way of conclusion. The non-
  set up a connection with Moses is a conundrum. It sense found on those thirty pages of the fn-st volume of
  simply goes to show what the theory he broached will De Gemeene  Grutie continues throughout the entire
  do to an otherwise excellent mind.                            work. Yet it was hailed by the Reformed world both
     Further, Kuyper is compelled to admit as we have here and in The Netherlands as the crowning achieve-
  seen that the outstanding feature of Abraham's and ment of Kuyper.`s  career. Amazing! It simply goes to
  Israel's careers  w,as  seclusion. When he adds, how- show that the majority of men.are ignorant respecting
  ever, that this feature disappeared with the shadows the views circulating through this work. In other
  of the old dispensation, he is again at variance with words, small indeed is the number that ever read it.
  the plain teachings of Scripture. The command to                  In the year 1924 the Synod of the Christian Re-
  "come out from the midst of them and be separate" is formed Church of America, without being  &ware of
  still `in force. What disappeared is the  tytical  replica what it was doing, cast in the form of three proposi-
  of this spiritual-moral seclusion, to-wit, Abraham's tions what may be said to constitute the very nucleus
  dwelling in tents, his nomadic state of existence, his of Kuyper's philosophy. The three propositions read
  refusal to take up his residence in Canaan as a settled respectively : (a) God shows grace to the reprobate ;
  land owner.                                                   (b) By common grace God represses the evil tendencies
     Finally, Kuyper averred that Abraham by his occa- and dispositions of the reprobate ungodly and thus
  sional dealings and negotiations with the Canaanitish confines them to' the most hidden recesses of his soul ;
chiefs and by his marriage with a woman of strange              (c) The reprobate sinner though thoroughly carnal is
  blood, rendered himself in distinction from the Israel nevertheless the subject of works which. are positively
  of the period beginning with Moses, the connecting good. In the attempt, to substantiate the first of the
  point between special and common grace. The ques- three above-cited propositions, this Synod declared
  tion cannot be quelled whether Kuyper was ignorant itself for a general offer of salvation. This last propo-
  of the fact that similar contacts were set up between
                                            `.                  sition, of course, is nowhere found in De Gemeene
  Israel and adjacent pagan nations?. To Illustrate: the Gratie.
  Israel of the desert period entered into a covenant rela-         I cannot refrain from asking one more question.
  tion with the Gibeonites. In this same period the Whereas Abraham was the beginning of a  genealogical
  Kenites were seen attaching themselves to Israel. Then line running through Israel and terminating in the
  there is the case of Rahab the harlet, of David and the       Christ, and .whereas  he was the father of both Old and
  Philistine chiefs, of SoIomon  and  Hiram.,Solomon  even New Testament believers, how could Kuyper maintain
  married an Egyptian princes. Could we not with as that the Israelitish nation constituted the interlude
  much propriety conclude that the connection between of the history of God's church? Not the Old Testa-
  special and common grace was set up in the latter ment church as such, but the typical-symbolical mold
period as well as in the former? What nonsense to into which the life of this church was cast, aged and
  single out Abraham because of his occasional dealings finally disappeared, so that. this so-called interlude
  with the Canaanites !                                         viewed from its spiritual-moral aspect was the chief
   ' So it appears then that the contention of Kuyper and the abiding phenomenon. This is a matter with
  that the "isolation of Abraham and Israel was an inter- which we shall deal in some subsequent article.
  lude, a side issue, turns out to be false. Striped of its         Kuyper erred, then, in supposing that -4braham's
  typical-symbolical shell and viewed from its  spiritual-      career constituted the  hrm foundation  upon'which  he
  moral aspect, this isolation is a permanent phenom- could let' his philosophy repose. It means that this
  enon. There is, however, this difference to be noticed. philosophy of his is still without a basis. Let the pres-
  In the old dispensation the church was seen to draw its ent-day exponent of the theory of common grace get
  materials chiefly from one nation, to-wit, the Israel-        busy and supply what is still lacking. Herewith we
  itish. After the ascension of her Redeemer, however, take leave of Kuyper.  Kufier's view of the patriarchs
  Zion enlarged the place of her tent, stretched forth the is just a sample of what is found in the three  volnmes
  curtains of her habitations ; lengthened her cords and of -De Gemeene Gratie.
  strengthened her stakes : For she .broke  forth on the                                                       G. M. 0.
  right hand and on the left and her seed inherited the
  gentiles. Isa.  542, 3. The enlarged place of Zion's
  *tent, however, is still occupied by a group with a career
  the outstanding feature of which is a moral and spir-                            Klaag niet over `t lot,
  itual seclusion. It is the same place only enlarged. so
  that the true Israel of the old dispensation is not an                         Maar besnoei uw wenschen!
  interlude as Kuyper would have us, believe, but a per-                    Zoekt het nimmer bij de menschen,
  manent creation described by the prophet as the deso-                            Zoek het meer bi j God !


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         263

     toch bij broeder Beets opkomen? Geldt het  spreek-                      EUROPE'S TOO MANY MILLIONS
       woord hier misschien: Zooals de waard is, zoo  ver-
       trouwt hij zijn gasten?                                         So reads the caption of an article appearing in 7%
          Wanneer of op welke wijze heeft Ds. OpholI nu ooit Literary Digest on the subject of the increase of the
       te kennen gegeven, of  oak maar eenige  reden gegeven population in Europe. The continent of Europe is over-
       om te denken,  dat zijn geweten hem plaagde over het crowded, declare some German scientific observers. The
       standpunt, dat hij heeft ingenomen? lmmers nooit 1           perpetual increase of humanity, they say, is little
       Net tegendeel is altijd waar geweest. Van het begin          affected by a fall in birth-rate of this or that country.
       van den strijd af aan heeft hij geheel vrijwilliglijk en "Comparing," says  The  Digest,  "that continent
       zelfstandiglijk en welbewust partij gekozen. Hij zag         (Europe) with the rest of the world as to population,
       de waarheid, droeg haar in zijn ziel, werd er~door  be- this German authority (Wolfgang von Lengerke) in-
       heerscht en als een man van  beginsei  kon .hij niet  an-    forms us that today about 1,950  ,million people dwell on
       ders dan aan de zijde der waarheid te staan en te strij- the earth. They are distributed as follows:
     den, ook al wierp men hem daarvoor ook onbarmhar-                     Europe . . . . .  " 625 million people
       tiglijk en zeer onrechtvaardiglijk de kerk uit.                     America . . . . 147 million people
          Hoe komt broeder Beets er dan bij om te schrijven:               A 4 ma.
                                                                              '        . . . .    1,030 million people
       "Of zulk geschrijf misschien psychologisch te verklaren
       is uit het feit dat de broeder zooveel aan onze Kerk                Africa . . . . . 140 million  peonle
                                                                           Australia . . . .
       heeft te danken, zoodat hij het voor eigen geweten soms                                       8 million people
      moet goedpraten dat een man als hij haar verliet  ?"             "These figures show plainly," so this authority con-
          Wat soort psychologie is hier de maatstaf,  waar- tinues, "that our old Europe is the second most densely
       naar broeder Beets wil oordeelen? De  psychologie  der peopled continent. Ahead of it comes Asia with her
       "gemeene gratie" ? De  psychologie  van een goddelooze, immense mass of mankind.              America, Africa, and
       die zondigt tegen beter weten  in, en die, als de waar-      Australia are, however, the least populated, and afford
      heid zoo nu en dan eens in zijne ziel opkomt, haar in room for many millions of people still.
      ongerechtigheid ten onder houdt?                                 "If we consider the holding capacity of the single
          Ret schijnt we1 zoo.                                      continents, we arrive at the ensuing figures:
          Maar wat  recht  heeft broeder Beets om Ds.  OphocE          "Europe has today 625  millon people, and could
       naar zulk eene  psychologie te beoordeelen? Hoe haalt make room for some 1,500 millions. The corresponding
      hij het in zijn hoofd?                                        figures are for America 147-3,300,  Asia 1,030-1,700,
          Welk een gruwelijk schrijven!                             Africa 140-2,300, and Australia 8-700.
          Ds. Ophoff een man, die op de Kerk teert, die dan            "There might accordingly be housed in Europe 875
      ondankbaar is, die  aan blinde partijzucht  zich  over-       millon more people, in America the enormous addi-
       geeft, die tegen beter weten  in het kwade doet en die tional total of 3,153 million, in Asia, on the other hand,
       dan zijn eigen geweten het zwijgen tracht op te leggen,      only 670 million, in Africa .decidedly  more, that is to
       door op de Kerk te schelden !                                say, 2,160 million, and in Australia 692 million.
          Neen, ik moet er niet langer over denken  of schrij-         "At the present rate of increase of population, we
       ven, want dan zou ik werkelijk in gevaar komen, om are told, Europe in some hundred years will be
       ook mijn broederlijken  toon,  dien ik tot hiertoe  be- crowded to its capacity, Asai much sooner."
      waard heb, te verliezen en Dr. Beets eens hard  aan  te          We may add to the observation that, according to
       pakken, in plaats van op zoo liefelijke wijze, als ik het the above calculations, this world of ours will be
       thans gedaan heb.                                            crowded to its capacity in some five hundred years if
          Maar in echte broederzin hoop ik tech van harte, the population increases at the present rate. The whole
       dat Dr. Beets, hetzij op zijn reis om de wereld'of als hij. world will then be as crowded as the subways in any
       weer thuis komt, tot achter  zijn ooren mag kleuren van great city. The authority quoted by  The Digest  de-
       schaamte, als hij dit leest, en dat we van hem een hart-     clared that "the result will be rivalry, conflict  - per-
      grondige belijdenis mogen lezen over de taal, die hij in haps another titanic war. No one," says he, "can look
       zijn Jaaroverzicht uit de pen liet vloeien ten opzichte forward to the addition of so many more human beings
       van Ds. Ophoff.                                              in Europe (he confines his observations to Europe,
          Hier kan het punctum  staan.           .                  G. M. 0.) without a feeling of dismay. The question
                                                       H. H.        of where to live, as effecting the population of the
                                                                    whole continent, will precipitate grave political and
                                                                    social transformations. Who knows whether the com-
          God neemt niet op, dan de verlatenen; maakt niet ing centuries may not bring a return of the tremendous
       gezond dan de kranken  ; maakt niet ziende, dan de  blin-    migration of man such as transplanted whole civiliza-
       den  ; maakt niet levende, dan de dooden ; maakt niet tions in the remote period before the Christian era?
       vroom,  dan de zondaars; maakt niet wijs, dan de on-            "It is today practically impossible," so this con-
I      wijzen.                                                      tributor remarks, "to foretell the political balance of
            *


264                                   THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
-
power in Europe a hundred years or a hundred and the book of Revelation, one happens upon a prediction
fifty years from now . . . The individual  Enro;ean of various kins of disasters partaking of the character
powers will hardly be able to do otherwise than open of the miraculous. As a result of the plagues predicted
their colonies up to the surplus human element, and in the eighth and ninth chapters of Revelation, no
that indeed without regard to the nationalityVof  the less than one-third of humanity will perish. The open-
settlers. This necessary safety valve, in the interest of ing of the six seals of Revelation 6 bears a similar
all European humanity, will have to be opened in a result with this difference, however, that a fourth part
hundred years. It will determine the main line of of the earth is smitten. Rev. 16 which tells of the pour-
European politics.                                           ing out of the vials, adds new elements. Mention is
       "For the moment England is the nation with the made, to illustrate, of a great earthquake, "such as was
greatest colonial possessions.       America, England's not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earth-
rival, already deliberately persues  the policy of barring quake and so great. The great city was divided into
the ever-swelling stream of emigration from the three parts, and the cities of the nations fell . . . .
European continent in order to leave room enough for every island fell away, and the mountains were not
her own population.                                          found." The wicked than are approaching an unusual
       "In like fashion proceed England, France, and Hol- miraculous exhibition of  Divine wrath,  such as the
land - in a word, all other nations with colonial pos- world has never before witnessed. The ranks of hu-
sessions so far as regards permission to the subjects manity will be thinned out as never before, a third part
of an alien country to establish settlements within the of men will be killed . Immediately thereupon Christ
limits of such dependencies. If in another century will appear upon the clouds of heaven so that the smit-
this selfish  idea persists among the separate govern- ten world will not be given time to recover.
ments concerned, grave war developments are inevit-             Let it be remarked in passing that the aforesaid
able."                                                       predicted display of Divine wrath has  its. typical
       Keeping his eye fixed on the distant future, the      replica in the ten plagues of Egypt.
writer continues :                                              The question is how long-the Lord will wait with
     "The cities grow into gigantic concrete stone piles,    His judgments. He waits, some six or seven hundred
covering a tremendous area of ground looking like huge years, the conclusion of the calculator whose figures
honeycombs. Every auxiliary in the way of food, of &e quoted - the conclusion, namely, that in time this
technical engineering and of science is employed to earth will be overcrowded, - is altogether warranted.
yield this human flood its daily bread.                      However, there is sufficient reason for believing that
     "Every square mile of European soil is brought into the catastrophe of Revelation is a matter of the near
requisition and exploited, and still  all this barely suf- future, so that the prediction of the aforesaid scientist
fices. Conditions of existence grow still more painful.      will not come true.
     "At last, under the frightful pressure, the safety         The growth of the human family, however, may not
valves into the colonies of the single nations are be seriously interfered with within the immediate
opened. A great portion of the mixed population of future. Men for a season will continue to multiply `on
Europe streams over the whole globe."                        the face of the earth. It will mean a multiplication of
     In commenting upon the above calculations and the world problems. The question what to eat will become
conclusions drawn from them, we set out with the ob- more pressing as time goes on. The struggle for exist-
servation that we are indeed surrounded by the evi- ence will become more intense. In view of what human
dence the testimony of which is that the human family nature is what it is - totally .depraved  - there will be
since the day of Noah, has been steadily growing, so war, strife and contention on an even greater scale.
that today it numbers some 1,950 million living souls. On the other hand, men will bend every effort to relieve
It means that to date and on the average the rate at the situation by science. In the words of the scientist
which  humans have been passing out of this life - and we quoted, every auxiliary in the way of food, of tech-
at various intervals, this rate has been exceedingly nical engineering and of science will be. employed to
rapid as when humanity in one or the other of its yield this human flood its daily bread. The world will
branches would be visited by some such disaster as a glory in the  achievements~  of science. Humanty will
flood, or war, pestilence or plague  - has not been as continue discovering and harnassing the powers in-
great as the rate of birth. The conclusion is warranted created in nature. Man will glorify the creature more
then that, barring all extraordinary and unheard of than the Creator. When the world-culture shall have
interferences, the human family will continue to in- reached the high point of its development, God will
crease so that if this process of growth is not checked, come with His judgments, and man will perish by
our race is indeed approaching a time when this earth the very elements and forces to which he looked for
will be filled to its capacity.    Barring, we said, all relief. In other words, the Almighty will smite the
extraordinary interferences.       However, these inter- god of the world - nature, as in time of old He smote
ferences are sure to come and that in the form of a the gods of the Egyptian Pharaoh.                *
special Divine interposition. Perusing the pages of                                                       G. M. 0.


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                                                                         pressed these words of bitter grief chiefly because of
           MEDITATION                                                    his own reproach and suffering. The Root of David
                                                                         was in him and he, in his historical circumstances, with
                                                                         his enemies and battles, his suffering and grief, was
                   CRUEL MOCKERY.                                        His prefiguration. Of Him had he sung, impelled by
                                                                         the Spirit of Christ that,was  in him. And now, these
                       He  trnsted  in God; let  Eim deliver  Kim        leaders of Israel, supposed to I be well versed in the
                   now if He will have Him; for He said, I am            Scriptures, assume the role of the enemies of David and
                   the Son of God. - Matt. 2'7~43.                       his antitype  and fuhil prophecy as they mock at the
   He trusted in God !                                                   Lord of glory ! Do they not know ? Or, perhaps, are
   Now look at Him, as He is helplessly hanging on they uttering these blasphemies in wicked profanity?
the accursed tree !                                                      Surely, the same devilish mind that was in David's
   Would not God hasten to His deliverance, had His enemies is in them ; the same wicked purpose that was
trust not been vain and had His claim been true, that before. the eyes of David's foes is theirs; for they in-
He is the Son of God?                                                    tend to discover the very tenderest spot in the Savi-
   Thus, standing at the foot of bloody Golgotha, and our's heart in order then to stab cruelly, that His suf-
watching with devilish delight the wasted form of the fering may be as deep and keen as possible. But also
Man of Sorrow, shout Israel's leaders, the chief priests;, the same God that moulded the life and history of
the scribes, the elders.                                                 David in the midst of merciless and wicked enemies
   But are they insane?                                                  into a figure of the sufferings of Christ, is here over-
   Did diabolical hatred so blind their eyes, that they ruIing   the  cruellest mockery  to  fulti His Word and
are utterly ignorant of what they are doing as they counsel.
utter this cutting mockery? Do these men, that are                            He trusted in God !
leaders in Israel, that know the Scriptures, not at all                       Let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him !
realize that in casting this reproach in the teeth of                         Thus they shriek in furious hatred.
their victim they are but agents to  fulfll what the                          And their words do net intend to be a thrust at God.
prophets of old had foretold of the sufferings of Israel's They do not at all purpose to be a denial that it is
King? Centuries before this the inspired poet had always vain to trust in God. Their bitter sarcasm is
sung lamentingly :                                                       not of the nature of Elijah's irony on Mount Carmel,
                                                                         when he urged the priests of  Eaal to persevere in
       "My words a cause for scorn they make,                            praying to their god till he should give them audience.
        The lip they curl, the head they shake,                          They do not mean to say: the fool trusted that there is
        And mocking bid me trust the Lord                                a God and that He would help him in the hour of need!
        Till He salvation shall afford."                                 Such language wouid  be highly improbable from the
   Or, in slightly  different  words, he had complained:                 lips of Israel's leaders. Presently they.would  leave this
       "With anguish as from piercing sword                              cruel scene and return to altar and temple to sacrifice
                                                                         to the God of Israel in whom they professed to believe.
          Reproach of bitter foes I hear,                                No, they believed and professed that God 
        While day by day, with taunting word                                                                                     ia and that
          Where is thy God, the scoffers sneer."                         He is a rewarder of them that diligently  SC& Him,
                                                                         that He will surely deliver the righteous out of all his
   Neither had David, though the words of grief he                       troubles. God will have the righteous! He takes de-
sang were applicable to himself too, no doubt, ex- light in them that fear Him and truly confide in His

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

 saving help! He never fails or forsakes those that put                 From birth Thou art my God alone,
 their trust in Him, provided their confidence is well-                 Thy care My life has ever known."
 founded and their cause a righteous cause. Thus they
 taught in Israel. And this truth they place at the very        Had He not always cast all His care and burdens
basis of their cruel mockery. They apply it to the          upon the Most High? Had it not ever been His sole
Man of Sorrows. Let us see, they say, if his trust were concern to do the Father's will, and doing this had He
true, if His cause were righteous, if He spoke  ,the        not trusted that the Father would deliver and glorify
truth, when He claimed to be the Son of God ! Surely,       Him ? From the very first, when the tempter had ap-
if all this were true, God would have delight in Him ; proached Him with the challenge upon His power to
He would be near to help and to deliver Him from the make bread of stones, He had revealed His perfect trust
cross and out of our hands. But Jehovah does not help in the answer: Man shall not live by bread alone ! Every
Him! He has forsaken Him. His claim was false. offer of glory He had rejected, if it could not be ob-
His confidence was unfounded. He is neither' the Son tained in the way of most perfect and absolute obedi-
of God, nor will God have Him ! By so utterly for-          ence, when He sent the tempter away from Him with
saking Him the Lord of heaven and earth, Who .alwayc        the ultimatum: The Lord thy God and Him alone shalt
is near to help the righteous, sets His seal of approval thou worship !
upon our work in condemning Him and nailing Him to              And from this He had never departed !
the accursed tree !                                             Always it had been His meat to do the Father's
    Cutting reproach !                                      will. Never had He deviated from the path of truth.
    He trusted in God !                                     Often had He been reproached and frequent contra-
    i?Lnd trust in God is rooted in the consciousness that dictions from sinners He had to endure for the Father's
the Most High loves us, that He takes delight in us,        sake and because He gave testimony to the truth.
that He will have us! It is the calm assurance that Never had He taken vengeance, but He had entrusted
God wills our eternal good, because He loves us; and His cause and Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.
willing our salvation and being absolutely powerful to When He was reviled He never reviled again. When He
deliver us, that He is our sure refuge in the time of suffered from the cruel hands of ungodly men, He did
trouble and that no enemy can harm us ! It is the           not even threaten. And to the very last He had re-
deeply rooted conviction that we are righteous before mained faithful and persevered in this confidence, never
the Most High and that He never faileth the right- doubting that the Lord would deliver Him out of all
eous . . . .                                                His troubles. Even in the garden of Gethsemane He
   Hence the cruelty of the stab !                          had cast Himself on the Lord. For twelve legions of
   It is a denial of the love of God to Christ!             angels He might have called, and they would have
   It implies the denial, that the cause for which He       hastened to His aid. But He had refused and calmly
stood was a righteous cause !                               had suffered Himself to be  dehvered  into the hands of
   It is a cut at the tenderest spot in Jesus' heart.       sinners.
   For always has  His trust in Jeliovah been perfect.         Surely, it is true what these crue1 scoffers cast in
Always had He Iived in the deepest consciousness that His teeth!
the Most High had His delight in Him. Flawlessly                For, He trusted in the Lord !
righteous had He been and very righteousness was His           If ever man had perfect confidence in Jehovah, it
cause !                                                     is He!
   And now?                                                    And all His life had been one continuous teaching
   In apparent helplessness He is compelled to listen of His absolute reliance on the Most High.
to the cutting mockery of His enemies:                         Nor had His trust been without basis in reality. It
   Let God deliver Him, if He will have Him !               had not been vain imagination, when He, knowing that
   For He trusted in God!                                   His cause was a righteous cause and that God loveth
                                                            the righteous, was conscious of God's faithful love and
                                                            of His saving help. In Him there was no unrighteous-
                                                            ness. No guile w2s found in His mouth, no deceit in
                                                            His heart, no perversity in His will, no lie in His mind,
   Awful paradox,!                                          no unholiness in His desires, no iniquity in His way.
   The Man that most perfectly confided in the Most When He spake words of eternal life flowed from His
High is most utterly abandoned by Him in the hour of lips. When He acted, righteousness and mercy kissed
bitterest need!                                             each other. To the very last He could challenge every
   For: indeed, in their fullest sense the words of the man that had come into contact with Him to convict
psalmist He might make His own:                             Him of sin. His very trial before the leaders of Israel
                                                            and the judge of the world had only served to em-
           "My trust on Thee I learned to rest              phasize His righteousness. Surely, if ever man lived
           When I was on My mother's breast;                that had reason to put His trust in the Lord, that the


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          267

righteous God would be His refuge and would deliver           .Then, indeed, there is nothing but despair on Gol-
Him, it  w2s the Man of sorrows !                          gotha,  the last ray of hope for the world is  forever
   And yet?                                                swallowed by the awful darkness that envelops the
   mat a cruel paradox !                                   cross of the man of Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth. Foi*,
    For the enemies empty the vials of their wicked surely, Golgotha is a witness, an undeniable test&on]
hatred over His righteous head and mockingly they of our hopeless wickedness, of the darkness and un-
shout: Where is now Thy God?                               godliness of all the world. It loudly cries out, that we
   They performed all their devilish purpose with re- love darkness rather than light, and that, therefore, as
spect to Him!                                              soon as a man appears among us righteous and wit-
   They took Him, judged Him, falsely accused Him, nessing of the light, we must needs seek his destruc-
denied His righteousness and exposed Him as a male- tion. Nor is this the most horrible feature of  Gol-
factor; denied His  Sonship and called Him a blas- gotha,  if the Man of Sorrows is a mere man  among
phemer ; denied His works and made Him a co-worker men, a lonely righteous one among the witked, over-
with Beelzebub! maltreated  am,  buAEeted  and beat come by them, swallowed up in the grave as the reward
Him! mocked and spit upon Him, scourged Him and of His righteousness. For, were this true, the cross of
pressed the crown of thorns upon His brow; condemned Jesus would loudly proclaim, that it is vain to trust in
Him to death, nailed Him to the cruel cross ! And even the Lord, that He is not concerned in the cause of the
now they triumph in their ungodliness, they mock and righteous whatever, that all reliance on Him must end
scoff, they rave and blaspheme . . . .                     in bitter disappointment and despair . . . .
   Yea, they even call God to witness that this Man is        But God forbid !
a malefactor and that they are righteous !                    That Man of Sorrows is not mere man, but -even as
   God will not help Him ! they shout.                     He claims so He is the very Son of God, God of God in
   The Most High has no delight in Him! they shriek.       the flesh, the Head of His people according to God's
   And if God does not come quickly that `Man of sor- eternal good pleasure, representing them before the
rows will breathe His last, the Righteous will suffer face of a holy and just God, standing in their stead,
defeat and the ungodly eqemies  will return to the Holy being made sin for them, that we might be made right-
City in triumph !                                          eousness of God in I3im !
   Yet, heaven seems closed and God is silent!                It is eternal love, that keeps Him nailed to the ac-
   The powers of darkness seem triumphant and the cursed tree !
Most High disappears from view at the cross of Jesus!         Love', seeking and paving the way, through sin and
   The most perfectly Righteous is most utterly for- death, for the object of that lovk, to Father's heart tind
saken !                                                    home, His friendship and fellowship!
   Cruel paradox !                                            Love of the Triune God !
                                                              Love of the Father, Who delivers His only begotten
                                                           Son and offers *Him a sacrifice for our sins ; love of the
                                                           Son, Who as the faithful Servant of Jehovah sur-
   Yet, blessed harmony !                                  renders Himself and humbles Himself into the deepest
   For, paradoxical though it may seem, the harmony agony of death and hell; love of the Spirit, Who SLIS-
of it all is hid in the truth that here, on Golgotha, the tains and equips Him, that He may finish the work, the
righteous God forsakes the Righteous, in order that all Father gave Him to do.
righteousness may be  fulfilled  !                           Love  tq them, whom in predestinating love the
   Such is the cross of Jesus.                             Triune Jehovah ordained to be made like unto the
   Apparently it is the triumph of the hour and power image of the Son !
of darkness, in reality it is its defeat. Seemingly the       4nd heaven's silence at the cross of Jesus is no
righteous is here utterly abandoned and wholly de- sign that God will not have Him, as the priests would
livered in the power of the ungodly, in reality all the interpret, but that God is longsuffering over the wicked,
righteous are here forever delivered from all iniquity ! till they shall have accomplished His purpose !
According to all appearance, here on Golgotha trust in        The eternal Son will not perish ! God will surely
God is forever put to shame, but actually it is here that have Him, raise and exalt Him through suffering to
Jehovah reveals Himself in all the beauty of His love highest glory !
to the righteous, as the One in Whom we inay put our          And with Him all His brethren!
trust forever and ever !                                      Blessed harmony !
   For consider again ; Who is He, that hangs on the                                                        H. H.
tree and sheds `His lifeblood on Golgotha?
   Is He mere Man  ?
   A man, perhaps, more righteous than ever man was
in the world, but, nevertheless, simply a man among           De  ,jonge  leeuwen lijden honger,  ma,ir  die den
men ?                                                      Heere vreezen hebben geen gebrek aan eenig goed.


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                      271

           ABRAHAM'S CLASH WITH THE                        these tribes, Chedorlaomer will have nothing to fear
                                                           from them in his passage southward on the other side
                    FOUR HINGS                             of the Jqrdan.  Continuing westward, he reached the
                                                           plains bordering the Desert of Sinai and marking his
   Abraham, the saint of outstanding meekness, takes furthest point south and west. Here he turned and
the offensive against the nucleus of the world-power made for the vale of Siddim, smitting as he went "all
having set up its kingdom in the precincts of the prom- the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites,
ised land. The events leading up to this struggle are that dwelt in Hazezon-tamar, i. e., Engedi, on the west-
found in the fourteenth chapter of the book of Genesis. ern shore of the dead sea. The army must have past
it appears that twelve years previous Chedorlaomer only a few miles from the encampment of Abraham.
in alliance with three other kings has successfully Pressing on they at length reached a point overlooking
waged war against the five kings of the vale of Siddim the vale of the five revolting cities, who having learned
and had reduced them to the status of vassal kings. of t.he advance of the victorious host perhaps weeks be-
The names we read in this chapter can be traced on fore, had prepared themselves. Chedorlaomer's troops
bricks now preserved in the British Museum.  Chedor-       dropped down through the passes into the  vale.   A
laomer is the Hebrew equivalent for Kudur Lagamar ; battle ensued.          The feeble kings of the  Pentapolis   1
and Lagamar was a name borne by one of the Chal-           could not hold the four kings already flushed with vic-
dean deities. Kudur means son and thus the combina- tory. The five kings fled. The vale of Siddim was full ,
tion Kudur-Lagamar son of  Lagumar. The personage of slimepits which could have been used to good ad-
having adopted this name was, according to the sacred vantage against the invaders. As it was these pits be-
record, king of Elam, a region comprehending the came a snare unto the retreating native troops. T`ne
broad and rich plains to the east of the lower course of rout was complete. The cities of the vale were sacked
the Tigris, and situated some two hundred miles to by the invaders who move on laden down with spoil.
then north-east of Palestine. The vale of Siddim lay Lot and his goods were also carried away. One that :
west of the Jordan some twenty miles to the east of had *escaped  came and told Abraham. Hearing of the !
tne plains of Mamre were Abraham at the time of the fate of. his nephew, Abraham, quick to mobilize his 1
second invasion had taken up his residence. It (this three hundred and eighteen servants born in his own I
vale) constituted the main route for trading caravans house, set out in persuit. The departing host moved
and for military expeditions between the Euphrates with surprising swiftness. They reached Dan before
and Egypt. Whoever had this valley was in a position overtaken by their pursuers. Abraham divided his
to interrupt the commercial relations between Egypt small band and by a night attack threw them into
and the Eastern powers. When twelve years later the utter confusion and pursued them as far as Hoba'h, a i
cities of the plain  - Sodom, Gomorrah, Zeboiim, city near Damascus. Victoriously he recovers the whole
Admah and Bela  - threw off the foreign yoke there- spoil of the enemy. Lot is again a free man.
fore, Chedorlaomer as soon as he heard of it, made            Let us now appraise Abraham's act of deliverance. ^  j
preparations for a military campaign. These com- That he had acted in agreement with the will of God 1
pleted, he set out for the scene of rebellion, attaching to is certain. Had he remained inert upon the reception
his army as he went, his tributaries Amraphel, king of of intelligence of the fate that had befallen Lot, his
Shinar,  arioch, king of a region east of the Euphrates brother in the faith, he would have made  himselfi
and Tidal, i. e., the great chief of nations to the north guilty of most sinful negligence. The kind of pacifism
of Babylonia.                                              that refuses to interpose even when a brother, having
   The route Chedorlaomer followed took him to the been laid hold on by the thieving murderous imposter,
north-east up the Euphrates, southward to Canaan,          faces the prospect of life-long slavery, is denounced
and through a country to the east of the Jordan in- by heaven. The capture of Lot then gendered for
habited by warlike and thieving tribes. The tribe he Abraham a duty which he might not shirk, the duty?
first encountered was that of the Rephaim or giants namely, of redeeming the captive. He therefore set
in Bashan, the northerly part of the country first in- out in pursuit of the four kings with the conviction
vaded. Their stronghold was Ashteroth of the two surely that his cause was just, that he was about to
horns, the seat of the worship of the goddess Astarte fight the battle of his God, ,that therefore his invisible
whose emblem was the cresent.  The two tribes that companion was dehovah,  and that the victory would be
next felt his sword were the Zuzims and the Enims, a his. If the war-lords of history had refused to carry
people described in Deuteronomy as great and many out their marshal programs without a similar convic-
and tall and occupying a territory further to the south    tion, it is safe to say that many a war would never
They. were gradually exterminated and replaced by have been fought.
Amorites, Ammonites, Moabites and the Israelites. The         It was faith that had rendered Abraham bold. Fear- ;
Horites,  i. e., cave-dwellers, were the original inhab- ing God he feared no man. From the point of view of i
itants of the country of the Edomites. They, too, had nature his undertaking was a fool-hardy one. To set
to yield before the invading host. Having smitten out with a body of approximately three hundred men
                                                                            f

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

in persuit  of a host numbering many thousands, is to ner af attack, purposely made, let it be noticed, under
court certain disaster. So nature reasons. It is for the cover of the night, that was brought home by the
this reason t&at the war-lords of the one nation do not Almighty to the consciousness of the invaders in such
rest until their machinery of destruction can compete a way that their first and only thought was that they
with that of the competitive state, and that no one of had been overwhelmed by an innumerable company.
the potentates of the world will make a beginning of          The reason why Abraham se out in pursuit of the
executing a program of reduction of armament. The invaders was that they had left with Lot as their cap-
one waits for the other to show his good faith by taking tive. Other reasons have been advanced for this mili-
the initiative. And apart from the scraping of obsolete tary expedition. "But this march and victoryt" says
bat.tleships,  this first move will never be made. And Kurtz, "have another and a higher reference in the ob-
yet the conference across the sea is being hailed as the ject of the history. Even here it is not to glorify
crowning achievement in the way of peace-making. Abraham, but rather the wonderful providence of God
The world puts its trust in horses and chariots, in-the over his chosen, through which he here enters immedi-
arm of flesh. Abraham, on the other hand, trusted in ate in connection with the Divine plan. Abraham is the
his God and set out with God. The united forces of the designated possessor of the land; it is his concern,
woi-ld will have to retreat therefore when he advances ; therefore, to guard this land from all assaults, and to
will scatter and take to flight when he appears. For avenge its injuries; it is the part of God who has
his going forth is the sign that God arises. They are designated him to this end, to give him the victory"
driven away therefose  as smoke is driven away; as wax     (Kurtz,  History   of  the Old  Covenunt,   p. 171). The
melteth before the fire, so they perished before the same sentiment circulates through the following selec-
presence of God.                                           tion. "His title to the land involves bim in a war. He
   Abraham was joined by his three confederates, must defend that wihch is given to him. He is no sooner
Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner. Their setting out with him, confirmed in his title, than the land is invaded by a
when placed in the light of the above considerations, confederacy of h&tile kings. Thus the kingdom of God
shows them up as men with a faith akin to  th& of is no sooner set up anywhere, than there is a rallying
Abraham. Had they not' feared God, they would have of the world kingdoms against it" (JOCUDUS,   p. 2.27).
feared the departing host, and remained in their tents;       Here then the view is clearly expounded that Abra-
deeming themselves fortunate that the plain where ham in that he had been constituted the designated pos-
they dwelt lay outside the range of the sweep of the sessor of the land, must guard this land against all
invaders. For the intelligence of the initial victories assaults and avenge its injuries; that his title to the
of  Chedor-loamer  must have penetrated the interior of land involved him in a war since he must defend that
Palestine and hearing of his success must have pro- which was given him. In replying, we set out with the
nounced his an irresistible warrior. The only tribes remark that this view is a conclusion drawn from a
that showed fight were those that lay within his path, thoroughly fallacious premise, the premise, namely,
so that the conviction cannot be escaped that the three that this patriarch possessed the land. To be sure, had
confederates  6s' Abraham set out with their eye fixed he possessed the land, he would have been for this
upon Abraham's God.                                        reason under the necessity of waging war against the
   This much must also be said of Abraham's three invaders. Fact is, however, that the outstanding fea-'
hundred and eighteen trained servants. They were ture of his career was that the mode of existence in
men initiated into the faith of their chief and there- which he, in response to the Divine mandate acquiesced
fore set out with the conviction that "they that were was that of a stranger and sojourner in the land of
with him were more than they that were with the ad- Canaan. It meant, as was pointed out in previous
versary." Together did these servants constituted a essays, that he possessed no land whatever, that he
band akin to that of Gideon.                               dwelt not in  .a  la@ actually possessed, but in a prom-
   The question whether each of Abraham's confeder- ised land to be placed in the actual possession of his
ates - Mamre, Eshcol, and Aner, also set out at the seed some four hundred years later. Hence not upon
head of a company of soldiers, must be answered in the Abraham, but upon this seed devolved the task to
negative. For Abraham only is reported to have armed guard Canaan from all assaults and to avenge its in-
his servants. What is more, the sacred record  ex- juries. At the particular juncture of Abraham's so-
plicidly  states that the departing host was thrown into journ in Palestine, the task of repelling the invader de-
confusion by Abraham's servants only. He it is who volved upon the Canaanites as this land was possessed
"divided himself against -them, he and ~L&Z servants." by them. But the Divine speech directed to Abraham
Why then did he attach to his company these chiefs. was: "And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after
The reason is obvious. What he contemplated doing thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land
was to place in the command of each of them a separate of Canaan, for an everlasting possession ; and I will be
division of his band. This would make it possible for their God." The Hebrews make special mention of the
him to swoop down upon the unsuspecting hords from fact that Abraham died without having received the
four different directions. So he did. It was this man- promise. The land then wherein he dwelt remained in

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

 the possession of the Canaanites so that the view that of Divine avenging justice and at once the typical
 Abraham was obhged  to smite the thieving host that replica of the doom awaiting the wicked in the day of
 had swept Canaan because of his having been design- Christ Jesus.
 ated the possessor of this land, falls to the ground.        As for Abraham, the above-cited reasons. did not
 What had sent this patriarch on along a road leading exist. In view of the teachings of Christ, how then is
 to the camping grounds of the booty-laden host, was       his military campaign to be justified. That he did right
 the capture of a brother in the faith for whom he felt    in unsheathing the sword against the thieving and
 responsible. Would not Abraham, if the reason ad- murderous imposter, is certain. Fact is, that he was
 vanced by Kurtz is valid, have prepared himself for the acting in agreement with the revealed will of God and
 conflict long before he heard of Lot's capture? Would thus in harmony with the doctrine of Christ respecting
 he not have marched out against this invader the mo- the character of His kingdom and the behavior of His
 ment the report of his presence in Canaan had cir- servants. What Christ forbade His servants to do is
 culated through the plain where he dwelt? As it is, he to attempt to estabhsh  His kingdom by the sword or
 shows no sign of at all being inclined to wage war with to avenge themselves when wronged. Abraham, in set-'
 him until he heard of, what had befallen his brother. ting out in pursuit of Chedorlaomer did neither. But
Then,and not before did he arm his trained servants just how is Abraham's military campaign to be justi-
 and set out in pursuit. To say that his was the duty fied? Not surely by an appeal to the fact that he had
 to guard the land against all assaults is to place a been constituted the designated. possessor of Canaan
 wrong construction upon his career in Canaan. Nay and was therefore obliged to avenge its injuries, but
 more. To declare with Kurtz that Abraham had to by an appeal to the inauguration of capital punishment
 avenge the injrries of Canaan, is to give unmistakable by Jehovah. One of the articles of the covenant in-
 evidence that the purpose, import, and meaning of his stituted or rather renewed with Noah reads: "At the
 sojourn in Palestine, has not been grasped.               hand of every man's brother will I require the life of
    The question remains, however, whether Abraham man. Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall
 in compelling the imposter by force of  arms to release his blood be shed." The Lord here invests man with the
 his hold upon Lot, was not acting in conflict with the sword both for the punishment of evil-doers and for
 express teachings of and the example set by Christ. the protection of them that do well through duly ap-
 To Pilate Christ said, "My kingdom is not of this pointed organs, of any particular social unit. This
 world; if my kingdom were of this world, then would sworh was first placed in the hand of the righteous
 my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Noah to be wielded by him as the head of his family.
 Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence." From his hand this sword passed first into the hand of
 Christ's servants then do not tight. Crippling a de- the head of the cian and finally into the hand of the
 moniac power by the sword appears to be a kind of civil magistrate.          Abraham, then, as the head and
 engagement unbecoming to the citizens of Christ's organ and as the representative of God of a distinct
 kingdom. Their sword is the word of God ; their shield social unit bore the sword.  IJpon him therefore de-
 is faith; their helmet, hope; with the Gospel of peace volved the task of punishing the evil-doers of that
 do they shod their feet; they are strong and undaunted particular social circle in which he functioned as chief
 because they pray without ceasing. They are expressly and to protect this circle against a11 injuries. What
 told not to resist evil but to turn the right cheek to had happened? Lot had been carried 08 a captive and
 whoever smites them on the left. Those cursing them, was facing the prospect of live-long slavery which is
 they shall bless. To those hating them, they do good. worse than death.         Though Abraham and Lot had
 For those persecuting and treating them despitefully separated, Abraham nevertheless still felt responsible
 they shall pray. Yet is Abraham reported to have for the safety and well being of his brother so that
 brought back Lot by force of arms. The difficulty is when he was taken captive by the foreigner, Sbraham,
 not removed by  an appeal to the holy war,. waged by since he bore the sword, felt himself obliged to  un-
 Joshua and the army of God of which he was captain. sheath it in defense of his brother. The fact that God
 The two cases are not similar. The reasons for the granted Abraham an overwhelming victory, proves.
 exterpation of the Canaanites are plain. The seed that that the latter had correctly sensed his duty. Only in
 was to take possession of Canaan had appeared. What this way, we feel assured it is possible to justify Abra-
 is more, the Cnaanites had made themselves ripe for ham's military expedition.          '
 judgment. Their destruction therefore was not at             Abraham's rescue of Lot was not without a typical
 variance with the teachings of Christ to the effect that prophetical significance. In Chedorlaomer may be seen
 his servants do not resist evil and that, ~whereas  His the germ of that world-power apposing and exalting
 kingdom is heavenly and therefore must be made to itself above all that is called God, that combine of
 come by the operation of heavenly spiritual forces, iniquity whose sphere is darkness, whose dynamic is
 they do not fight for Him. For the Canaanites were a trust in  .an arm of flesh. whose glory is its shame,
 reprobated race having wholly corrupted their ways whose' doom therefore, is certain. Abraham and his-
 before the Lord. Their extermination was a matter band may be taken as the type and representative of

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

  the kingdom of God. The principle of this kingdom is of the apostle, not counted. Melchizedek, then, in his
  a living faith. The route of Chedorlaomer's army by capacity of priest is one whose parentage, generation,
 Abraham is then the assurance that upon the faith of birth, and descency  was not entered by the Holy Spirit
  this kingdom the power of the world and of hell in all in Scripture, evidently for the reason that his priest-
  its various and successive forms will continue to break hood did not depend on any such descent or geneology.
  itself. For this faith is of a kind that unites man Shem, on the other hand, was one whose descent was
  with God. It is of a kind to which the Almighty cove- counted. It will not do, then, to identify him with
  nant God responds by placing at the disposal of the Melchizedek.
  believer none other than himself. "Fear not Abraham,           In the light of the meaning of the Greek equivalent
  I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward." He of the word descent the conviction cannot be escaped
  then having to do with Abraham has to do with God that Melchizedek was nevertheless a  historica person-
  and must therefore go down in defeat.                      age. What is more, the entire account of what trans-
          The demoniac world-power, we said, is destined to pired between him and Abraham is fitted to leave the
 break in pieces upon the believing power of the king- impression that Moses was indeed recording events in
  dom of God. From haughty confidence in its own history.
  achievements it will pass to trembling and despair, to        According to the sacred record Melchizedek was
  r,uin and utter oblivion when Christ comes for that final king of Salem. That Salem must be understood Jeru-
  display of the power given Him. Then the scene en-         salem is evident from Psalm 73 where with unmis-
  acted before John's eye on the island of Patmos  will      takable clearness this same name appears as the signi-
  pass to an event in history. Then she upon whose fication of Jerusalem of his being king. In addition he
  forehead was written mystew, Babylon the great, the        was priest of the most high God. Not God as the
  mother of harlots crnd abomination of the earth, shall highest among many (Polytheism) but the only God
  go into perdition. And they that dwell in the earth who is most high. Of the religion of this God, he was
  shall wonder, whose names are not written in the book a devotee. This God he worshipped. The historical
  of life from the foundation of the world, when they be- account in Genesis, together with the data found in the
  hold the beast that was and is not and yet is. And the Hebrews, compels the conclusion that Melchizedek was
  kings that gave their power and strength unto the a true worshipper of God,  - one having been brought
  beast shall make war with the Lamb and the Lamb under the regenerating influence of the Holy Spirit.
  shall overcome them, for He is the Lord of Lords and For he is a  priest of the one true God. Nowhere in
  the King of kings. And they that are with Him are          Scripture are the ungodly so designated. Further, he
  called, and chosen and faithful. Of this final display is reported to have blessed Abraham. Hence he was
  of Divine avenging power, the victory gained by Abra- blessed by Abraham's God according to the. Divine
  ham is prophetic. Rev. 17.                                 declaration, "Those blessing thee,  I (Jehovah) will
          Returning from the slaughter of Chedoriaomer, bless." To be blessed by God is to be God's friend.
  Abraham was met by the king of Sodom and by Mel- Again, Hebrews  7:2 reads: "First being by interpreta-
  chizedek, king of Salem, the latter bringing forth bread tion King of righteousness and after that also King of
  and wine, at the valley of Shaveh, i. e.,  the kings dale Salem which is King of peace." The fact that the
  so called in all likelihood because of the congregating sacred writer stresses the meaning of these names
  of the six kings (Abraham, Melchizedek, the king of must be taken to signify that Melchizedek was a lover
  Sodom, and Abraham's three confederates) in it.            and champion of righteousness and that the city over
     Melchizedek is a personage whose appearance has which he reigned was indeed at that time a realm of
  given rise to various opinions respecting who he might peace. From this it may be concluded that this king
  have been. According to some he might have be- together with his subjects constituted in he land of
  longed to the Hamitic race. His name, however, is Canaan a distinct commonwealth where the name of
  Semitic.      The  Gnostics   heId him to be Christ of the the one true God was honored and blessed, and his law
' heavenly world.       The Rabbins identified him with obeyed. If so, Abraham cannot very well be regarded
  Shem; the Church fathers with  Enoch.  That he was as the sole survivor of the seed of the woman, as the
  either Christ or Henoch is a view to extravagant for lone trustee of the sacred traditions of Paradise. Fin-
 earnest consideration. The view that he was Shem is ally, the purpose of the apostle is to show that Mel-
  not at least weighed down by the difficulty that Shem chizedek typified the Christ in a manner in which the
  had already passed. out of this life. Nevertheless also typical priesthood could not in that it was made after
  this view must be set aside as altogether untenable. the law of a carnal commandment. Christ, on the other
  For Melchizedek was without father, without mother, hand, was a priest in whom inherit an indestructibie
 without descent, having neither beginning of days nor life that rendered Him inherently fit for His office.
 end of life. The key to the correct understanding of Melchizedek, then, could he serve as a more excellent
 this Scripture, so we wrote in a former essay, is the emblem of Christ than the sons of Levi, must likewise
 word descent, Its Greek equivaIent  signifies a genera- be a priest not devoid of priestly capacities, but in-
 tion not described or recorded, or in the express words     wardly qualified for the office in which he functioned,


                                    THE  S T A N D A R D   R%!ARER                                             o-fr
                                                                                                               "id

the office, namely, of priest-king. To say with Kuyper unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make inter-
that grace which according to his own concession, cession for them. For such a highpriest became us,
leaves the subject totally depraved, could have quali- who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
fied Melchizedek for the aforesaid office, is as ridiculous and made higher than the heavens ; who needeth not
as it is untrue. The truth of the matter is, then, that daily, as those highpriests, to offer up sacrifice, first
Melchizedek was a priest-king by the right and power, for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he
by a holy life implanted in his bosom. He devoid of did once, when he offiered up himself."
this life is' a priest not of God but of the devil. That        Abraham acknowledged that Melchizedek was
Melchizedek possessed this inward fitness, the apostle superior to him for he gave him tenths of all the spoil.
expresses by saying that he was king of righteousness Melchizedek on his part brought forth bread and wine.
and of peace.                                                That this was a sacerdotal act appears from the fact
    It is plain, then, wherein the superior excellence that the record of it is immediately followed by the
of the priesthood of Melchizedek as compared with that statement that Melchizedek was a priest of the most
of Aaron consisted. Aaron was made after the simil- high God. By this priest Abraham and his God are
itude of a carnal commandment. What,  is manifestly blessed. "And he blessed him and said, blessed .be,
meant is that the  priest,hood  of Levi was of a kind im- Abraham of the most high God, possessor of heaven
posed upon those who bore it, by law. Whether the and earth: and blessed be the most high God, which
serving priest was spiritually qualified, whether the bath delivered thine enemies into thine hand."
law he served constituted the mold into which he could          These events also have typical significance. Abra-
freely and spontaneously project his inward self, ham-had been given a victory over his enemies, repre-
whether he was a lover of the name of God, co-inciding sentative of the demoniac world-power, so that the
as to the inward man with the mode of thought cir- meeting of him and Melchizedek was a type of the
culating through the transactions in which he was en- glorious meeting of Christ and His people at that day
gaged, was not inquired into. Being a son of Aaron when the army of the Lord shall have finished its' war-
he was compelled to acquiesce in his induction into fare over world, sin, death and hell. As Melchizedek
office.    In a word, he was made after the law of a brought forth bread and wine for the victor, so Christ
carnal commandment. So it happened that many of brings out the stores of heaven for the eternal refresh-
these sons were godless men, hating and desecrating ment of his church in the fulness of His blessing. And
the very services. to which they were attached. "For His people do and will acknowledge his love and favor
the law maketh men highpriest which have infirmity. in the conquest and deliverance and do Him homage `as
Melchizedek, on the other hand, was a priest after the Abraham gave tenths of the spoil to Melchizedek.
power of a holy life, by a fitness inhering in his person       Lastly, Abraham's entire behaviour in this hour
and therefore capable of performing the service. A of triumph is significant. On his return from the
priest was he, then, because of his capacities to be slaughter of the kings, he had passed through a land
priest, and not because of his priestly lineage. For he weakened by disaster. How easy it would have been
was without father and mother, without descent. for him to set himself up as master of this land. How-
Hence his priesthood was not one transferred from ever, he believed that God would make good his prom-
father to son. His lineage therefore was of no account ise and therefore felt no urge to resort to violence.
in this connection and was therefore omitted. There-            Finally, he turned down the offer of the king of
fore the priesthood of Levi was destined to age and dis- Sodom. ' Naturally, his right to' the spoil was undis-
appeared with the advent of the true priest who was to puted. Sodom's king  acknowiedged  this right in all
enter with his own blood the holiest of all. Not so likelihood. for the purpose of expressing his indebted-
the priesthood of Melchizedek. Being of a kind that          ness to Abraham. Said he, "Give me the persons and
involves, identifies itself with, and constitutes the take the goods for thyself." Abraham, however, had
ebullitions of a regenerated nature ; being of a kind made up his mind, even beyond revisal to refuse the
that involves the priest in the sacrifice of self upon the offer if made. "I  haye sworn."         He knew that he
altar of service and praise, it abides forever. Finally, would rise. He also knew that the offer if accepted
Melchizedek was both king and priest. He was a king- would be pointed to as laying the foundation for his
priest. For these reasons the priesthood of Melchiz-         wealth. Hence he will not take  as much as a  shoe-
edek as compared with that of Aaron was of superior latched from Sodom. He will not furnish men with a
excellence, and Melchizedek a loftier type of Christ reason for saying that he. had not received all from
than Aaron, and thus exhibiting certain features of God. Abraham's faith, so it again appears, was a
Christ's priesthood which the Leviticai priesthood deep-rooted principle.
failed to foreshadow. Christ also was a priest not                                                      G. M. 0.
after the law of carnal commandment, but after the                                            -
power of an endless life. Then, too, he abideth priests         Christus schijnt ons nimmer zoo liefelijk en heer-
continually. Finally, He is king-priest. Therefore he lijk toe, als wanneer Hij zich buigt over de zee van onze
is able also to save to the, uttermost them that come        zondigheid en ondankbaarheid.

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

         THE  ARK AMONG THE PHILISTINES                          beauty and the hands of sinister power in the world,
                                                                so that this image as a result of the disaster befalling
       The Philistines took the Ark of the Lord and it is so defaced as to lose its intelligent and potent
brought it from Ebeneazer to Ashdod, one of the capital aspect. Whereas the image and the god it represented
cities of the five Philistine princes, the seat of Dagon were identified by the heathen, Dagon is here shown
worship. According to Josephus  it was a border city up as an unintelligent and impotent god. `His downfall
of Dan and assigned, according to Joshua 15 :45, 46, to is emblematic of the downfall of the dark power, wis-
the tribe of Judah but never captured by this tribe dom and beauty of heathendom. God reigns in the
thought the Philistines of this city were at times sub- midst of His euemies. He defeats them in their own
jected to Israel.                                               territory.
       Dagon was one of the chief Philistine male deities.          Further, the ruins of this image were found lying
To him corresponded a  ,female  deity called by the upon the threshold, hence he was exposed to contempt
Syrians Derceto. The male Dagon, it is known, had a for what lies upon the  t.hreshold  is exposed to be
human head, face and hands but a fish body ;, he was            trodden upon. Jehovah is here seen casting Dagon
thus a sea deity and symbolic of the fruitfulness by            down in the dust before Him and exposing his com-
water. That the Philistines ascribed the victory over plete nothingness.              That we must here think of a
the Israelites to this deity is evinced by the fact that the    divine arrangement and not a mere accident is certain.
Ark is brought as a trophy of war into his temple. It The fate that overtook this deity is plainly a speech of
can well be imagined that the Philistines felt greatly Jehovah directed against the Philistines, the speech,
elated over their capture. To be sure, they had gained namely, that Jehovah is God, that the deity Dagon is
an unprecedented victory. After having captured the a mere idol devoid of power and intelligence. Instead
Ark they press on to Shiloh, destroyed the city and             of putting away their idol and giving honor to Whom
massacred the priests there. They left Shiloh a mass honor is due, the Philistines set Dagon in. his place
-of ruins never to be rebuilt. The victory, as it seemed again and continue to honor him as god even after the
to them, was complete and as was said it filled them loss of head and hands. For we read that neither
with great joy for the God of Israel was known among Dagon's priests nor any that came into his house tread
the nations as a most powerful deity.                           on the threshold of the house of Dagon until this day.
   The great ruin He had wrought in Egypt was Dagon's priests, then, cleave unto him and imagine
still fresh in their memory. In Canaan, further, God            the very means of his destruction, the threshold, to
had established Himself with His people and none of have been converted into a spot too holy for their feet
the heathen nations thus far, either singly or jointly to tread upon for having been in contact with him.
had been able to unseat Him. This God, they thought, Such is the foolishness and vanity of sinful man. The
had fallen in their hands. The fact, that they de-              Philistines, then turn a deaf ear to Jehovah; they re-
stroyed the city wher He resided shows that they gard the catastrophe as having been purely accidental
would wipe his memory from the face of the earth by and continue to regard the Ark as a trophy to their
heaping upon Him so much shame and humiliation that god Dagon.
His devotees would refrain from ever mentioning His                However, the hand of the Lord is heavy upon the
Name again, or would think it useless to appeal to Him men of Ashdod. The Lord smote them with emerods.
for help.                                                          The men of Ashdod resolved to rid themselves of
   It appears then that God had indeed lost His repu- the Ark. They say, "The Ark of the God of Israel shall
tation among the heathen. The children of Israel, not abide with us for His hand is upon us and upon our
likewise, thought that the Ark together with God had god Dagon." Their love for Dagon continues as strong
departed. This is evident from the last recorded utter- as ever, the lords of the Philistines convene and hold
ance of the wife of Eli's son. Said she, "The glory of a consultation of which the outcome is that the Ark is
Israel is departed." And the message of the capture sent to Gath. The Philistine lords are loathe to set
of the Ark had so greatly shocked Eli that he fell the Ark at liberty ; the fact that the Ark is sent to
senseless to the ground.                                        Gath indicates that these lords still insist that Dagon's
   Jehovah must regain His reputation with the destruction and their inflictions were accidental and
heathen. For His Name sake He lets the enemy feel maintained no relation to the presence of the Ark in
His power.                                                      their midst. There is a reason for the stand they take.
   The men of Ashdod  find Dagon fallen upon the To admit that Dagon's ruin had been worked by
earth before the Ark. They took him and set him in Jehovah,. the symbol of whose presence they had con-
his place. For a second time the men of Ashdod fmd. quered, would be equal to admitting that their victory
their deity fallen to the ground, this time not without amounted to nothing, that Israel with its God was to
injury; the head and both palms being cut off, and              be feared as much as ever and that, finally, they were
lying upon the threshold, so that only the fish-stump still at the mercy of Jehovah. Small wonder then that
was left to him. The human head was signification of the Philistines cling to their original notions.
intelligence and worldly wisdom, the face of worldly               The men of Gath are likewise made to feel the hand


                                                     T H E   STANDAR.D  B E A R E R                                                  285

               of the Lord. Also this city is smitten with a great de- doeth with men as He pleases and Who shapes and de-
               struction. They had emerods in their secret parts.             termines the destinies of the world ; that Israel, finally,
                   Then the Ark was sent to Ekron. The people of was still a nation superior to them, a nation for whom
               this city raise a protest. They cry out, "They have the Philistines must tremble. The Philistines, then will
               brought the Ark of the God of Israel to slay us and            not admit that Jehovah is God but, as Pharaoh of old,
               our people.`" Their cry was occasioned by the deadly continue to harden their hearts and say, "Who is the
               destruction wrought in Gath. Here also the hand of Lord?" That we correctly interpret the conduct of
     _         the Lord was heavy and a great toll of life was taken.         these Philistines is evident from vs. 6 of chapter 6 (I
               Those that died not were smitten with a disease sim- Sam. 6:6:), "Wherefore, then, do ye harden your
               ilar to that with which the men of Gath had been hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their
               smitten. The cry of the city went up to heaven.                hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully among
                   So the men of Ekron sent for the Philistine lords them, did they not let the people go and they de-
               and urged them the Ark be taken back to its place. parted ?" It is evident further from vs. 5 of the same
               It should be noticed that not the people but the lords chapter, "Wherefore ye shall make images of your
               were retaining the Ark.       These chiefs continue to emerods and images of your mice that mar the land,
               speak as Pharaoh spoke,  "Who is the Lord?" Their and ye-shall give glory unto the God of Israel, perad-
               pride shall receive a severe blow and they shall  finally      venture he will lighten his hand from off you and from
               be compelled to admit defeat.                                  off your gods and from off your lands."
                  The Philistines in terror send back the Ark. After             The kine drawing the cart bearing the Ark made
               the Philistines had been repeatedly smitten for retain- for the territory inhabited by the Israelites. The Phil-
               ing the Ark, the Philistine lords are prevailed upon to istine lords may know now that the grief to which
               send it back. The destruction within the borders they had been brought has as its cause the retention
               of Ekron had been so deadly that the cry went up to of the Ark as a trophy to their god Dagon. For the
               heaven. So the Philistine lords sent for the priests kine were separated from their calves and in setting
               and diviners to learn from them what could be `done out for Beth Shemish these animals must go contrary
               with the Ark,' and wherewith it should be sent to its to their natural instinct of remaining with their
               place. The advice is given that the Ark shall not be young. The Philistines then had put the matter to a
               sent away empty, a trespass offering must be returned. most severe test. They watch and even, follow the
               This offering, as to (a) character; (b) motive; (c)            departing kine that went along the highway, lowing
               purpose, must not be identified with the.trespass  offer- 8s they went and turning neither to right or to the
               ing made to Jehovah.           The modes of thought left.
               upon which the trespass offerings reposed do not                  The construction to be laid upon the returning Ark
               enter in here. What is attempted is to appease the             is that of Jehovah returning to his  peopIe  after having
               anger of God by a gift. It should be noticed that in furnished the adversaries with concrete evidence that
               bringing their gifts they are not being actuated by the He was God. The adversary was finally compelled to
          .    conviction that the plague was actually sent by Jehovah admit defeat. The Philistines, however, though they
               for the retention of the Ark. The bringing of the gift had outraged God by placing His throne in Dagon's
               is to be a  ?fieuns of  asccMa&nin.g  whether the plague temple as a god conquered, stubbornly refuse to repent
               is of Jehovah or whether it befell them by mere chance. and confess their error. Had they repented, their at-
               This is very evident from vs. 9 of chapter 6 where the titude toward Israel would have changed. It means
               following appears: "And see if it goeth up by the way that  as  Pharaoh they continued to harden their hearts.
               of his own coast to Beth Shemish, then HE hath done               It was not necessary for the people to recapture
               this great evil ; but if not, then we shall know that it is    God's throne. He was very well able, without the assist
               not His hand that smote us, it was a chance that hap- ante of man, to tight His own battles and to release the
               pened to us." This verse surely verifies our interpreta- hold of the enemy upon His throne. Israel should have
               tion of the Philistine act of holding the Ark and the taken this matter to heart by contemplating their
               reluctance to return it to Israel. . As was said the Phil- defeat as due, not to the impotence of Jehovah to save,
               istine lords persisting in regarding the capture of the but to their own wanton ungodliness.
               Ark to be equal to the capture of Jehovah. However                The kine arrive at Beth Shemish in harvest time,
               evil had befallen them they stubbornly refuse to ascribe the inhabitants were reaping their wheat in the valley.
               it to the hand of Jehovah and insist it was a chance The kine came into the field of Joshua near a great
               over them. As was before said it can easily be ex- stone where they came to a halt, manifestly of them-
               plained why the Philistines insisted upon separating selves. The villagers, through the priests, clave the
               this evil from God. If it were of Jehovah it would cart and offered the kine as a burnt offering unto the
               mean that the victory which they had gained amounted Lord. The  Levites  took the Ark and the coffer con-
               to nothing. It would mean that God had not been con- taining the jewels of gold and put them on the great
               quered and that He was still the Invincible God, the stone. The entire transaction was witnessed by the
I              Almighty and Supreme Lord of the universe. Who. Philistine Lords standing at a distance. When they


286                                      T H E '   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
_-
had seen all they returned to Ekron the same day.                example we must .follow  and do good as He did. We
       The question arises why these lords abided till  after    first need a Saviour who delivers us from our sins and
the Tsraelites had taken possession of the Ark. The misery and only after He has become our Saviour do
answer is, most likely, that they waited to see whether we need Him as our example and teacher.
the arrival of the Ark would be accompanied as by dis-              After we have preached Jesus as the only Saviour
tress. The sacred writer gives for the second time we must teach the way in which He saves us, namely,
the number of emerods and mice.                 There were by His suffering and death on the cross. The cross of
but five emerods, one for each of the five cities. There Jesus must be the center of all our teachings. The
were as many golden mice as there were fenced cities resurrection of Jesus and His ascension into heaven
in Philistia. This shows that the plague of the mice must not be omitted.
must have spread over a much greater territory.                     We can include in this gospel of salvation all the
       The men of Beth Shemish looked into the Ark and doctrines taught in Holy Writ. ' This is very p!ain from
the Lord smote of them 50,070. Verse 14 tells us that the words we have quoted,  namely? "Teaching them to
they rejoiced when they saw the Ark, their joy, how- observe .all things whatsoever 1 have commanded you"
ever, seems not to have been of the right kind.                  and also from the words of the Apostle Paul: "1 have
                                                 G. M. 0.        not shunned to  decIare  unto you  all the counsel of
                                                                 God" (Acts  20:27). There are people who have the
                                                                 conception that we cannot preach doctrine in mission
                                                                 work They claim this can be done at home but in doing
           THE TRUE MEANING OF MISSIONS  ::                      mission work in heathen lands we must forget doctrine
                                                                 and just preach's little gospel. By gospel they mean,
       In recent years our Protestant Reformed Churches of course, the lie that Jesus loves everybody and would
have been frequently accused of not possessing the true like to save all. All that is necessary is to believe on
mission spirit. The remarks have been made that our this Jesus and accept Him as your Saviour. People
denomination cares not and cannot do mission work who hold this view do not understand Scripture and
because we deny the well-meaning offer of salvation to care neither for doctrine at home. But we must never
all that hear the gospel. If the gospel is only meant forget that we cannot change the truth of the gospel
for the elect, they remark, we do not have to do mission no more than we can change the Jesus who is preached
work, for God will see that the elect are saved. To              in this gospel.  The truth of particular atonement and
combat these statements we will try to show in this              God's sovereign grace must be preached in all mission
essay what constitutes  th.e proper or true mission work whether at home or in heathen lands. We have
spirit.                                                          Jesus as an example. He preaches the doctrine of pre-
       Let us first define the word mission. What is the destination very plainly. In the parable of the Good
meaning of it in Scripture? It is clearly taught in Shepherd and the Sheep (John 10) Jesus teaches that
Matthew  28:1X3-20 where Jesus said: "All power is He is the Shepherd of the sheep which the Father bath
given unto Me, in heaven and in earth, Go ye, there- given Him and that the others believe not because they
fore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name           are not of His sheep. In John  15:16 we read: "Ye
of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost. have not chosen Me but I have chosen you and ordained
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have you that ye should go and bring forth fruit." The
commanded you, and lo, I am with you  alway, even church must be the faithful witness of Jesus Christ by
unto the end of all the world. Amen."                            preaching all that God has revealed in His Word.
       From these words of Jesus we find by the word Otherwise how must we explain Paul who is called the
mission is meant the act of sending or of being sent to greatest missionary apostle and who taught this doc-
preach the gospel of salvation. The gospel of salvation trine very definitely  ?
includes: Jesus Christ as the only Saviour for sinners ;            Let us next consider the true motive in mission
the only Redeemer and the crucified and resurrected work. Our motive should be the gathering of the
Lord. In order to preach Jesus Christ as the only members of the body of Jesus Christ. ' His elect chil-
Saviour we must first preach sin and the results of sin. dren must be gathered in order to complete His body.
If man were not sinful and corrupt there would be no As we do not know who are the elect, He commands us
need of a Saviour. The total depravity of man must to preach and He will draw all those which the Father
be preached first of all. Further, that God is not only hath given Him. It is Jesus Himself who is gathering
a God of mercy and love, but also a consuming fire. His Church and not we. Our motive should never be to
That He hates all workers of iniquity and will punish            win souls for Christ. This is a very prevalent motive
them with eternal destruction unless they repent.                in mission work today. Most of the mission hymns are
       Further that man cannot save himself but needs also saturated with it. Take for example the following
Jesus Christ as a Saviour, who is also God and there- hymn :
fore able to deliver from all sin and death. We may not
present Him as a mere example or teacher whose                              Men redeemed we strive to bring,


I

                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           287

                    If to Christ our only King                  of the Church has ordained that this work should be
                    Just one way may this be done  -            accomplished by His church. Each member of the
                We must win them one by one.              *     Church of Jesus Christ must be a missionary. Testify-
                                                                ing for Jesus in all circumstances and occasions where
                    Side by side we stand each day,             God places us is doing mission work. Where the truth
                    Saved are we but lost are they ;            of Gods Word has been misrepresented or denied if is
                    They will came if we but dare               our mission to preach the truth. It is to this particular
                    Speak a word backed up by prayer.           mission work that we as a denomination have been
                    Only cowards dare refuse,                   called. We must be witnesses of the truth that God
                    Dare this gift of God misuse ;              shows grace only to the elect and that  hit is a free
                    Ere some friend goes to his grave,          sovereign grace. As we all know these truths have
                    Speak .a word his soul to save.             been denied not only by the world but also by so-called
                                                                Reformed Churches. Our church must defend these
                `Not for hope of great reward                   truths. Above all, we should remember missionary
                    Just to see a saved man smile               labors in our prayers, because all can do this, though
                    Turn men's hearts unto the Lord:            all cannot be missionaries in the narrower sense. By
                    Makes the effort well worth while.          this we mean that all the members of the church of
         Chorus :                                               Jesus Christ are not called to work in foreign lands or
                    So you bring the,one  next to you,          even to spend all their time in this work.
                ,4nd I'll bring the one next to me;                Jesus commands His church to witness for Him
                In all kinds of weather,                        and to preach the gospel to all nations, but in studying
                We'll all work together,                        Scripture we find that the apostles were commanded
                And see what can be done ;                      to preach the gospel to the Jews and in their own
                If you'll bring the one next to you,            country first. In proof of this we quote Rom.  1:16,
                And I bring the one next to me,                 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is
              In no time at all we'll have them all,            the power of God unto salvation, to every one that  be-
              So win them, win them one by one.                 lieveth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." And
                                                                Luke 2427, "And that repentance and remission of
        If we were to do as this hymn bids us, not a person     sins be preached in His name, among all nations be-
     would be saved, for Scripture teaches that salvation is ginning at Jerusalem." Our first duty and love must be
     only of the Lord. This is a blessed truth because if to those at home. Persons who have so much love
     results of missionary labors were dependent on man or for the heathen children and would do all that is in
     the work of man missions would be a dismal failure and their power to give them a Christian education and
     the body of Jesus Christ would not be gathered. This who nevertheless neglect or oppose Christian schools
     is the Christian's comfort in al his labor for Christ at home have not the true mission spirit. Before we
     that it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do    begin to witness for Christ outside of our own sur-
     of His good pleasure, and that He is doing His work        roundings we should be sure that we have not neglected
     through us.                                                our calling at home. If we are faithful in thus  pez-
        All missionary efforts should be prompted only by forming this great work which Jesus has'commanded
     the love of God. Paul said: *`The love of God  con-        His church to do, we `as well as the faithful mission-
     straineth us." We should also be constrained by this aries on the mission field have God's promise that He
     love. It is this love which He has shown us when He will be with us  alway even unto the end of all the
     redeemed us with His precious blood and which He has world.
     now spread abroad in our hearts. All the so-called                                     MRS. J. VANDER WALL
     medical, educational and social enlightment of which
     we hear so much in our day has nothing to do with             *) The above essay was delivered at a banquet of the Eng-
                                                                lish spkaking  Ladies' Aid Society of the First'Prot. Ref. Church
     mission work. These have the love for humanity as 3s       of Grand Rapids. It was published upon request of the editor
     basis. Christianity should never be. confused with of the S. B. - H. H.
     education or civilization. Striking esamples of human-
     itarian efforts are seen in the work of most of the
     modern churches and missionary societies of today.                        LECTURE AT HOLLAND,  MICH.
        Let us finally consider who Jesus commands to               Lecture given by Rev. H. Hoeksema, under the
     preach this gospel and where must it be preached ? auspices of the Prot. Ref. Men's Society, Thursday,
     The disciples primarily received this command and `March 20th, at 7:45 in the Christian High School.
     through them the church. The disciples constituted
     the church at the time when Jesus was about to ascend          Topic :
     into heaven. He departs with these words: "Go ye                 "THE SIGN OF JONAH THE PROPHET"
     therefore and teach all nations," etc. Jesus the Head          The public is cordially invited.

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

                  REFORMATORIES THAT DO NOT                         and garnished house, to which the unclean spirit re-
                                                                    turns in company with seven others.
                                REFORM                                  However, that no Reformatory system will reduce
                                                                    a culprit to change his habits when again set free is
             Under the above caption appeared an article in The certain. The theory on the basis of which this system
      Literary   Digest  of March 6. It reads in part as fol- operates is that the criminal grows into and identifies
      lows :                                                        himself with a certain routine of duties to which he.is
             "Contrary to popular belief, graduates of reform- tied down for a season, and thus forms habits of in-
      atories are not reformed.                                     dustry ; that he ,becomes  honest by listening to lectures
             "At least this is the astounding discovery made by on honesty, that he becomes thrifty by listening to  lez-
      Dr. Sheldon Glueck and Mrs. Eleanor T. Glueck in an tures on thrift. In other words, the theory is that
      audit of the lives of 510 men who left the Massachu- virtue can be taught and drilled into a man.
     setts Reformatory during the  ,years 1911-22.                     This cannot be done. Hence, any roformatory sys-
             "Eighty per cent of them were not reformed five to tem must prove a failure. The astounding thing is that
      fifteen years later, but were continuing in their crim- the world comes to this knowledge only after a long,
     inal careers.                                                  arduous and exhaustive survey, which took the larger
             "It is `a damning piece of evidence,' says Dr. Rich- part of three years and costs $11,000.
     ard  C. Cabot, Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard              If man would take to heart the anthropology of
     University, in his foreword to the Glueck's book,  `500        Scripture, it would not commit itself to the blunder of
     Criminal Careers' (Alfred A. Knopf, New York)  ,- spending thousands of dollars in the attempt of drill-
     not against that reformatory in particular, which prob- ing into a man virtue. Here again it appears that the
     ably stands high among institutions of its kind, but wisdom of the world is foolishness, that to fear the
     against the reformatory system in general. Here it             Lord is to be wise.
     does not work. No one knows that it works any bet-                In the attempt to drill virtue into the criminal, the
     ter elsewhere.                                                 reformatories appeal to that base instinct in man
        " `500 Criminal Careers' is the result of a long, ardu- called self-lust or selfishness.  They tell the culprit it
     ous and exhaustive survey, which took the larger part pays to be honest. If this culprit is of the conviction
     of three years, and cost $11,000, the money being sup- that crime pays better, why should he not follow a
     plied through grants from the Milton Fund of Harvard career of crime? In other words, let the moralist
     University. Dr. Glueck is Assistant Professor of Crim- separate his moral code from God, and furnishes the
     inology at the Harvard Law School, and Mrs. Glueck, criminal with a fair reason for a criminal career.
     who holds the degree of Doctor of Education, is an .ex-                                                          G. M. 0.
     perienced social worker and educator, as well as re-
     search worker, and at present is a research assistant
     connected with the Harvard Crime Survey and other                                    IN  JUEMORIAM
     projects. Obviously the book is peculiarly timely."              Het behaagde den Heere den 21sten Februari een onzer
         It is a popular belief that reformatories reform. leden,
     To reform, according to Dr. Cabot, is to prevail upon                              MRS. KOTTLEBRINK,
     the criminal to permanently change his bad habits for door den dood tot Zich te nemen in den ouderdom van 79 jaar.
     good ones. This, according to the above report, does             Haar heengaan was vrede.  Zij verwachtte de stad die fun-
                                                                   damenten  heeft,   welker  kunstenaar en bouwmeester God  zelf is.
     not happen. The criminal career is continued.4 The .Haar  geloof en hoop was op Jezus Christus.
     culprit remains as to his habits what he was when the               Namens de Hollandsche Vrouwenvereeniging "Weest een
     Reformatory began experimenting with him. This is                          Zegen" van de Eerste Prot. Geref. Kerk,
     considered an astounding discovery ; one, therefore,                                              Ds. H. Hoeksema, Pres.
     running contrary to expectation.        Dr. Cabot voices                                          Mrs. J. Cammenga,  Seer.
     the opinion that he doubts if any one knows what will
     change such habits within a short time and under the
     conditions of institutorial life.                                Het behaagde den Heere den 17den Februari een onzer be-
        In offering our comment we .may set out with the mtigersJ
     remark that it is, of course, a matter of common knowl-                       MRS. M. VAN  ANTWERPEN,
     edge that the natural man is often known to take him-         in den ouderdom van 56 jaar, door den dood tot Zich te nemen.
                                                                      Zij  ging  heen  naar het Vaderhuis met de vele woningen,
     self in hand and by a mighty exercise of the will  curb waar  niemand  zal zeggen: ik  hen ziek, want God heeft Zijr
     certain habits which he deems harmful. Criminals fol- volk verlost van ongerechtigheden.                              .
     lowing a career of crime, have been known to turn                Door dezen betuigt de Hollandsche Vrouwenvereeniging
     over a new life and "go straight." Also according to "Weest een Zegen" van de Eerste Prot. Geref. Kerk, haar  op-
     Scripture there is such a thing as a washing of the out- rechte   deelneming  met de treurende  familie.
                                                                                                       Ds. H. Hoeksema, Pres.
     side of the cup. Christ makes mention of the swept                                                Mrs. J. Cammenga,  Seer.
I


