zijner eigene zonden, noch  veel minder de groote znlig-
heid dier vergeving gesmaakt. Maar ook in betrekke-                         Destroying the Idol
lijken zin is het  waar, dat Gods kind de vergeving                (Address delivered at our Field Day, July 4, 1933)
zijner zonden niet smaken en ervaren kan, dat de Hei-
lige Geest hem die genade niet doet ervaren in zijn              When Ahaziah's mother, Athaliah, heard of her
hart, dat het gebed om vergeving hem op de lippen             son's death, she slew all the royal seed of the house of
besterft en de hemel  voor hem gesloten blijft, zoolang       Judah. One son,  Joash, was saved and hid in the
hij zijn broeder de misdaden niet vergeeft. Wie nooit temple six years.                In the seventh year the priest
vergeven kan, smaakt niet  alleen  geen vergevende  ge-       Jehoinda strengthened himself. Taking with him the
nade Cods, maar diens zonden zijn ook niet uitgedelgd,        captains of hundred, he went through Judah and
hem werd de  schuld ook niet kwijtgescholden in objeo-        gathered the Levites and the chiefs of the fathers out
tieven zin. Maar hij, wiens zonden we1 uitgedelgd zijn of all the cities of Judah. Coming to Jerusalem, he
in het bloed van Christus, smaakt ook niet altijd de          made a covenant with the young king, now seven years
vergevende genade Cods, met name niet, als hij den            old, in the house of the Lord. "Behold", said this
broeder niet vergeeft. In dien zin is het waar,  dat onze priest, "the king's son shall reign <as the Lord hath said
hemelsche  Vader.ons de misdaden niet vergeeft, tenzij        ofi the house of David."
wij ook van harte elkander vergeven. En daarom is                On the coming Sabbath and in agreement with
het juist, voor de vergeving onzer zonden, vereischte,        Jehoiada's instructions a third part of the assembly of
dat we bidden kunnen van harte: "Vergeef onze  schul-         priests and Levites stationed themselves at the door
den gelijk wij onzen  schuldenaren hunne schulden ver-        of the temple ; a third part at the king's house; and
geven."                                                       the remaining third at the gates of the foundation.
                                                   H. H.      The people kept the watch of the Lord.
                                                                 The young king was brought forth and stationed
                                                              at the pillar at the entering in. Trumpeters and singers
                                                              and armed Levites closed in on him. A crown was now
                      GOD'S POOR                              placed upon his head and the people praised the king.
       There are many little children                            Athaliah heard and hastened to the temple. When
           That in destitution roam                           she saw the king standing at the pillar, she understood.
                                                              Rending her clothes, she cried, Treason! treason!
       Through this great unfriendly city,                    Jehoiada ordered her to be brought forth and all those
           Without kindred, love or home.                     who followed her to be slain. When she left the temple,
                                                              they laid hold on her and slew her.
       Cod alone knows where they cuddle                         Jehoiada, the people and the king now swore that
           Down to sleep, when night is nigh;                 they would be the Lord's people. The resolution was
       God alone knows how they suffer,                     . crowned with agreeable action. The house of Baa1 was
           How they live, or when they cry.                   broken down. His images and altars were destroyed.
                                                              His priest, Mattan, was slain. Thus was the worship
       Up some dark or dingy stairway                         of Jehovah restored to its scriptural purity. The king
           You may see them slyly creep,                      was brought from the house of the Lord and seated
       Or within some wretched hovel                          on the throne. All the people rejoiced and the city
           You may find them fast asleep.                     thereafter was quiet.
                                                                 Several years went by. The boy-king was now old
                                                              enough to rule ; so the reigns of government were
       Knowing not the name of mother,                        placed in his hands. Would Joash, now that he had
           They have never heqd a prayer,                     the dominion, fear the Lord? His initial actions were
       Nor have listened to the story                         such as to reassure the faithful in Israel. He made
           Of a heavenly Father's care.                       known his resolve to repair the temple and thus pub-
                                                              licly approved the reformation begun by the priest
       Only waifs are they, - but angels                      Jehoiada.  The priests were instructed to solicit the
           Watch around each chilly bed ;                     necessary funds.     They were bidden to hasten the
       Only waifs  - but Jesus loves them,                    matter. But money was not forthcoming. Twenty and
           Though no evening prayer is said.                  three years went by and the repairs had still to be
                                                              made. The king called the priests to account. They
                                                              told him that the method of raising money was faulty.
       Homeless, friendless, loveless, nameless,              So Jehoiada took a chest, bored a hole in its lid, and
           Yet so precious in His sight;                      set it before the altar on the right side of the entrance
       And when He shall count His Jewels,                    of the temple. The chest was filled several times over.
           These shall shine in heavenly light.               Soon there  was more than enough money. The


                                                                                                   __._ _____ -- ,---.." __--


carpenters and masons were now set to work. The army, he went forth against the Syrian, confident that,
needed repairs of the house of the Lord were made. if need be, he could prevail without the Lord who had
When the work was finished, the surplus money was forsaken him. Defeated, he pacified the victor with
brought to the king and to Jehoiada, who had it con- treasures belonging to the Lord. He died unrepentant.
vcrted into vessels for the house of the Lord - vessels     If he resented there is 1;o &cord of it. &ch conduct,
to minister and to offer, vessels of gold and of silver,    such a disposition and attitude would seem to be in-
and spoons.                                                 consistent with grace. Especially the notice of the
   Judging from his seal, the king was a lover of Lord forsaking him, of his crushing defeat, and of his
Jehovah and was of a mind to impress his pious spirit slaying the man of God  - the son of Jehoiada his
upon the nation to the end of his days by keeping           benefactor  - and of his death at the hands of the
the nation to the service of God. Again several years assassins - these notices coupled with the fact that
went by. The king was worshipping in the court of           this king fails to appear in the sacred record as a man
the Lord. A prophet approached and addressed him:           who bewailed his sin, almost necessitates the conclusion
"Why transgress ye the commandment of the Lord, that he was devoid of the life of regeneration.
that ye cannot prosper? Because ye have forsaken                Remarkable it is, therefore, that he set out upon
the Lord, He hath forsaken you also." The king would his career devoted to the cause of Jehovah, apparently
not be rebuked. Enraged, he commanded the prophet loving his service, seemingly filled with tender regard
to be stoned. The command was hetided.  The prophet for the temple where he had spent the first six years
was stoned in the court  of the house of the Lord that of his  lZe in seclusion. In the beginning his religious
he died. Dying he said: "The Lord look upon it and zeal even excelled that of the truly godfearing  Jehoia-
require it." The prophet's prayer was heard and his da. He might be heard reprimanding the Levites for
prediction realized.    The Syrians marched against their sluggishness in language that would grace the
Jerusalem.  Joash, hearing of it, went forth to stay mouth of any saint. Said he to the chief  of  them,
the on-marching host with an army vastly' superior in Jehoiada, "Why hast thou not required of the Levites
numbers. But in the ensuing battle  Joash  w,as de- to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the
feated. All the princes of the people were destroyed        collection, according to the commandments of Moses,
and the spoil of them sent unto the kings of Damascus.      the servant of the Lord, and of the congregation of
The latter now marched on to Jerusalem with the             Israel, for the tabernacle of witness? For the sons of
purpose  of  sacking it. Joash, having escaped to Jeru- Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house
salem, collected the hallowed things his father had of God; and also all the dedicated things of the house
dedicated and all the gold that was found in the Lord's     of the Lord did they bestow upon Baalim" (II Chron.
house and in his own house and sent them a present to       4 :7).
the Syrian invader with the result that he turned away          This speech sounds genuine enough to be taken as
from Jerusalem.                                             the token of hatred for Baal, of real pious haste, of
   The king was confined to his bed as a result of the a righteous indignation occasioned by the circumstance
wounds received in battle. Then two of his servants that God's things had been given to the vilest of strange
conspired against him and slew him in his bed. So gods. Can it be that Joash, despite his fall, was never-
he died. And they buried him in the city of David, theless a true believer? It is hard to believe this.
but not in the sepulchre of the kings.                      Scripture more than once warns us that godless men
   Here then we have to do with a personage in a are sometimes capable of actions, feelings, dispositions
high place in the church - he was king - who began          and attitudes that, though seen by God as bad fruit,
with building the Lord's temple and ended with slaying seem genuine to men. The reprobated Pharaoh con-
the Lord's faithful servant, doing so under the impulse fessed while being hardened, "I have sinned." The
of a fierce rage aroused by a deserved rebuke.              wicked and likewise reprobated Ahab, having mur-
   What may have been the cause of this wicked in- dered Naboth,  was seen to go about with a sackcloth
eonsistancy in the life of  Joash? Either his weakness wrapped about his frame in token of his contrition.
as a believer or the circumstance that he was devoid Nebuchadnezzar, after his restoration, praised and  hon-
of true piety. This raises the question whether  Joash      oured  God as being One that liveth forever, whose
despite his  apostacy  and crime was nevertheless as to dominion is an everlasting dominion and whose king-
the heart of his disposition a believer or whether de- dom is from generation to generation. Yet for all this
spite his initial show of piety he was a thoroughly         his heart was far from God. Then there are those,
wicked man. There is much to say in favor of the persons in the parable who hear the word and anon
latter view. He forsook the Lord and the Lord forsook with joy receive it. But, their hearts being stony,
him. He killed a man of God because this man was            the word can take no root in them and therefore en-
righteous. The crime was committed not in ignorance dureth but for a while.
but in the knowledge that a faithful servant of the             God only knows what is in man, fathoms his being
Lord was being assailed. The heinous deed left the and knows his thoughts afar off. Man's appraisal of
king cold and indifferent. Placing his trust in his his fellow man is fallible and sometimes, even  con-


jectural especially when the one judged is neither  con-      people with whom it also must have originated as much
sistantly godless or  consistantly  godly.    Concerning      as with the princes. It was the unbelieving among
the wicked Athaliah there can be no doubt about her princes and people alike who were now in open re-
having been a thoroughly  profiigate  woman, but what bellion so that these princes  betook  themselves to the
are we to think of  Joasfi, of the religious ardor he dis-    king as representatives of a dissatisfied and a noisy
played in the pursuit of his measures of reform? Was          rabble.
this ardor the expression of true love for the things            The king yielded. During the lifetime of Jehoiada
above or mere carnal excitement, the glow of an unholy        he "did that which was right in the sight of the Lord
flame, the hustle of sordid ambition? This latter is all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed
probable. Consider that Jehoiada represented, must him." Jehoiada, according to this notice, had been his
have represented, a party in Israel, the company of           instructor and he the doer so that in razing Baal's
men fearing God that during Jehoiada's lifetime was house he had followed instructions. Jehoiada dies.
in power. It may be that the king's zeal was represent-       Other instructors now appear with instructions that
ative of a scheme to gain the plaudit of this company.        depart in every respect from those the king had been
This seems the more likely in the light of subsequent         following. And the king hearkens. What better ex-
events. Jehoiada died. With the decease of this priest planation that Joash was a man whose real concern
there passed a herioc figure. He was a true believer; as was the security of his throne, the safety of his posi-
a friend of God, faithful, fearless and inflexible, a tion in the realm, a man therefore who, because he
man conspicuously strong and eminently capable, a             believed that his strength lie not in keeping covenant
leader of men. Such is the impression gained from             fidelity but in the retention of the good-will of princes
the record of his doings. The God-fearing in Israel           and of an apostate rabble, was ready at any time to
would naturally respect and love him and rally to the yield to whatever element excelled in influence and
support of his measures. But, it may be imagined that         power, to whatever group of men that could be most
the carnally minded, the lovers of idols, hated and           useful to him, irrespective of whether these men were
feared him so that with ,him in the land unbelief dared lovers of God or devotees of the idol.
not  IIX much as raise its head, publicly, much less open        It is doubtful, however, whether  *Joash in apprais-
its foul mouth. Had he not flouted the enemies of ing himself would admit that this was the kind of a
dehovah  in their faces when disposing with the wicked man he was. It is certain that he continued to regard
Athaliah, razing Baal's temple, killing Baal's priests himself as being a good, staunch believer. Consider
and seating the only remaining offspring of David on that the request of the princes is not that the king
the throne? What courage ! Surely he was a man who            permit them to serve Baal. They desired to serve
could not be triflled with. This the enemies of Jehovah groves and idols. But it may be doubted whether in
knew -- knew that the king did his bidding and stood          voicing their complaints that even made mention of
ready to wield the sword in the interest of right             idols. They merely wished to be allowed to worship
principles.                                                   in their respective localities instead of being compelled
   It  IF-as therefore a relief to the enemies of the Lord to appear before the face of Jehovah at Jerusalem.
when the strong man died. The seed of evil-doers now          The notion that the service instituted by the Lord
dared to bestir themselves and must have soon been            God could be performed in the temple only  - how
raising their voices in bitter denunciation of the rigor absurd. Why continue to place the people under the.
with which even after Jehoiada's death, they were necessity  of  passing by the local sanctuary and of
offically being held to &he service of Jehovah. So the        traveling miles for worship ? Could anything be more
princes, as the spokesmen of the people, to be sure, unreasonable? True, Jehoiada had willed this. They
betook  themselves to the king with a view to urging had respected the old priest's feelings and kept silence.
him to show some clemency. Princes and people alike But the king was aware that even during his lifetime
were chafing under the rigor of his discipline. They the people for the most part had been worshipping at
wanted to leave the house of the Lord God and serve these local sanctums of which there were many. Baal's
groves and idols. Would the king allow them to pursue house had been broken down ; but the high places had
their heart's desire. Such was their request. This is         not been taken away.        The people had all along
plain from the record of the matter t.hat reads: "Now been sacrificing and burning incense in these ,places
after the death of Jehoiada came  tlie princes of Judah,      (II Kings  1123). Why should this be considered un-
and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hark-           lawful? Let the king, now that the old priest was dead,
ened unto them.      And they left the house of the publicly spprove the practice, that those indulging in
Lord . . . . and served groves and idols." That they it might no longer be held up to reproach as persons
left the house of the Lord as a result  of  the king committing a crime against Jehovah. For Jehovah
hearkening unto them was an action that implied a was being served in these high places as well as at
request, directed to the king, to be permitted to do          Jerusalem..
that very thing.                                                 So these princes must have reasoned and pleaded.
   There can be no doubt that the revolt included the And the king desiring above all else to retain their


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                                            T H E   STaNbARD  B E A R E R                                                                               443
--..." _.__-._-.._....  - .._..._ -"--_-              .." -................  - .._. ---..."."."  ..." .--- ^_." ..-............  _ -...    -~ -~ ._._.......
good-will must have persuaded himself that they were                            The idol served in the high place was a11 this.' So
right and therefore yielded. Yet. he knew in his inmost then, what moved those princes to  reqtiest  the king to
heart that they were wrong, that they were simulating,                  permit them to forsake the house of the Lord was the
counterfeiting a religious character, that thus he had desire to openly be done with the Lord God and to
to do with false pretenders to piety whose argument                     attach themselves to the idol. They knew this. Yet,
was as untrue as the motive from which it sprang was                    in all likelihood, they feigned love for Jehovah. And the
base. Their argument was untrue. For the high place king hearkened unto them and in his hearkening he,
was the precinct of the idol so that in forsaking the too, must have attempted to make himself believe that
temple for the high place these princes turned from the                 he did nothing amiss as the God served in the high
living God to the image of a false deity. This they did place was Jehovah objectized in stone or wood. But
though they knew that none of the chosen people should he knew the law and that law was being corroborated
worship in private or in public the image of a deity,                   by the voice of accusing conscience.
cut out of wood or stone, nor any representation of any                         That these princes dared to appear before the king
object in all the universe; that, further, no ,Hebrew                   with the request that they be permitted to worship in
should in imitation of the Canaanites plant him a the high places need occasion no surprise. Consider
grove or poles of any tree as sacred symbols beside an that, though in agreement with Jehoiada's instructions,
altar which he should rear to God. Neither should he the house of Baa1 had been razed, the king had failed,
set him up any image or pillar which was revered by yea, in all likelihood, refused, to take away the high
his heathen neighbors but which was loathsome to                        places and thus, by this negligence, had, be it un-
dehovah.  Yet such were now to be the doings of the officially, sanctioned the idolatry of the people. This,
princes in the high places. Their attempt to soothe                     certainly, was the construction the people could be
their conscience by the argument that these images expected to place upon this negligence. The more so
were the .representations  of the invisible Jehovah so since Moses in his capacity of spokesman of the Lord
that in sacrificing to these images they sacrificed to had given emphatic command that these high places
Wim, must needs have ended in failure. Yet this, no                     be removed. The Israelites had to destroy all the.
doubt, they attempted  - attempted to persuade them- ancient shrines on the high places and beneath the
selves that in forsaking the house of the living God                   sacred trees where the former idolatrous inhabitants
they turned to this same God in the high place. And of Canaan worshipped their heathen gods. They had
this though they knew that Moses in solemn address to tear down  their altars, shatter their stone symbols,
exhorted the Israelites, about to enter the land of their burn their sacred trees, cut into pieces their wooden
abode : "Do not make the mistake of your heathen idols that they might obliterate all traces and sug-
neighbors and think that the form of anything that gestions of the old debasing cults (Deut. 7:5, 12  2, 9.)
lives in earth, air or water, or even the heavenly bodies               But exactly this the king, in defiance to the command
represents the invisible Jehovah who has revealed His of Jehovah, had failed to do. Baa1 was destroyed but
true nature, as. a God of omnipotent might, infinite the idol in the high place was spared. How ridiculously
love and strict justice, in the remarkable deliverance inconsistent! Though  Baa1 may have represented  a
which has come to you as a nation."                                    more licentious form of idolatry, there was no essential
     The idol is of necessity a false God; for it is not,               difference between  Baa1 and the Idol, so that in destroy-
cannot be, the exhibition of God as He is, but of God                   ing the one and in sparing the other, the king was
as man, who spurns God's self-revelation, imagines                      beating the air.
Him to be. The idol is representative of an action an                           With this. failure on the part of the king, Jehoiadn
the part of man that consists in his changing the glory should not be held to have anything to do. There can
of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto                   be no doubt that this faithful priest had all along urged
corruptible creature, man or beast. The objectizing the king to pursue the proposed measures of reform to
of this (mental) image in wood or stone gives the idol.                 the very end by also destroying the groves and the
To the idol man ascribes ail the vile attributes of the idols. The proof of this is that it was not until after
god of his imagination. Man therefore loves ,his idol. Jehoiada's death that the king was requested to pub-
And love for the idol is hatred for that simple, spirit- licly sanction the idolatry of the people. But the king,
ual, eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, immutable instead of first completing the task of ridding the land
infinite, almighty, perfectly wise, just and good Being of idols, began to repair the house of God. But his
who calls Himself God.                                                  half-way measures rendered this work `a superfluous
     Man loves the idol because the latter is vile. Man and thoroughly useless and vain engagement. What
loves the idol because the latter is impotent, vanity, gqod  sense  was there in repairing the temple with the
a base nothingness that can be taken up, stationed in land infested with false gods? The. god-fearing  Je-
a corner and stay put : a figurehead if you will, trained               hoiada felt this. It must have made him heavy of
to take orders; an ornament, an extension of man him- heart and rendered him cool toward the work of re-
self; a god who will talk along with man and agree                      pairing the temple. He must have known that the
with him on every point.                                                lethargy of the king sprang from a desire to be friends


444                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
-".-"                  --_- - _.--     -----A .-.. -                                    -.-.- ..__-_ -_-~..."-
with both the friend and foe of Jehovah,  and realized, the demands of the lovers of the idol, if expediency so
therefore, that he was no man to hold after his death dictates.  * They are therefore personages who ride the
the people to the service of the temple and to champion crest of whatever happens to be the wave of doctrine
the cause of God in the face of the fierce and de- of the moment. If to remain in a good standing it is
termined opposition of the seed of evil-doers in the       necessary to champion the truth, the truth they will
land.                                                      champion with a vigor that amazes. But when after
         Bible students in general opine that Joash was a the death of Jehoiada the lovers of the lie began to
weak character. We won't gainsay this. But, however clamor for the idol in preaching and writing, these
paradoxical this may sound, his weakness was at once Joashes will change front overnight, as it were, and
strength, but a strength that was carnal. Now the          serve notice that the temple of truth may be forsaken
carnal strength of the wicked is hardheartedness. This and in company with the devotees of the idol bctake
strength can be known ; for it sets its mouth against      themselves to the groves. Then such propositions as
heaven and persistently says  `no to the Almighty. "The good that sinners do" become the favored themes
Joash did so. As a result of his doings, `wrath came       in the pulpit.
upon Judah and Jerusalem for their trespass. From             These `Joashes, as that king of Judah, are often
the narrative it is evident that strange gods were conspicuously zealous. They are avowed enemies of
brought to Jerusalem and set up in the very precinct the Baa1 of the Modernists. The word Culvinism lies
of the temple. It is not affirmed that  Joash himself on their tongue always. They wage war with Baal's
forthwith took part in the worship of idols, but that priests and will not rest until Baal's house lies in ruins.
he, besides bearing full responsibility of it, afterwards The failure on the part of their fellows to heed the
took a direct part in the impiety, is plain from verse     summons to battle, riles and perplexes them. When
21 of Chron. 24.        `He thus officially sanctioned the the war-cry is given, they shout loudest. You find
idolatry in his realm by word and example. Yet the them where the fighting is heaviest. Yet their eager
Lord sent prophets to them,  tq bring them again unto readiness, their briskness, their activity, however com-
the Lord. And they testified against them, But neither mendable by itself, is vain. Their energy is illspent.
Joash  nor the people would give ear. Then the Spirit For, though Baal's house is broken down, the idol of
of the Lord came upon Zachariah, the son of Jehoiada Pelagius and the grove of Arminius with which the
the priest. Betaking himself to the scene of idolatry,     home-land is infested, is spared. What good sense is
he took his stand on some elevation overlooking the        there in destroying Baa1 if the idol be spared? None
worshippers in the court of the temple and cried:          whatever. For between Baa1 and the idol there is no
"Why transgress ye the commandment of the Lord,            essential difference. Both are offsprings of the mind
that ye cannot prosper? Because ye have forsaken the of man. The children of the flesh are quick to surmise
Lord, he hath forsaken you." And they, Joash and his that these idols and groves are being spared out of
henchmen, conspired against him. What is here design- consideration for them. They know well that after
ated is a crime identical to the one committed by Ahab     the death of the Jehoiadas their demand to be per-
against Naboth. Before Zachariah too, the enraged mitted to forsake the house of the Lord will be heeded.
king and his courtiers set two or three sons of Belial     So they abide their time.
to falsely accuse him of a sin - perhaps blasphemy -          King  Joash, let it be considered, had no small task
calling for death by stoning. So the true- servant of to  perform;  He had to raze Baal's house, destroy idols
God paid the penalty which the law of Moses im- and groves, repair the temple, and keep the people to
posed upon the kind of a man - idolator - the king the service of the t.emple.  Now the action consisting
had degenerated into. The king is here designated as' in destroying Baa1 and the idols are one, the action
the perpetrator of the blackest crimes, not for mere consisting in repairing the temple another and the
silent connivance at the wicked deed but for positive      action consisting in keeping the people to the service
and direct participation in it. As a result of his com- still another. The three actions comprised the one
mitting this crime, Joash must be placed in a class of task to which the king had been assigned. The same
criminals of the type of the wicked Ahab.                  task is ours. Do we perform it? If so, every sermon
                                                           is a temple, a thought-structure, in which the beauties
                          -       -                        of the Lord may be seen. But know that by nature
                                                           mantis an idolator, a lover of Baal. He has his false
         The church of God is never without. men of the    deity in which he trust, some god of his own fabrica-
type of Joash, personages in high places in the king-      tion whatever it may be. To these idols the flesh
dom whose sole concern seems to be the security of cleaves. And on the Sabbath, also flesh seats itself
their position. Their aim is to be popular with what- in the pew and must be dealt with. War must be
ever element or party in the church that can be useful declared upon its iddls. In our sermons, the house of
to them for the strengthening of their position. If the Baa1 must be seen as lying in ruins, and the idols and
exponents of the truth are in the ascendency,  it is with the groves as destroyed. It means that what is known
these that they identify themselves. But they yield to as controversy or polemics has a legitimate place in our


                                   `l'H&.i      S'I'ANUAK,lJ           l5JSAJXCBK                                      449
-_--__--_--  .___--..  ""                            .".^l__l-"  .._ ^-_--.--  -..-... --".                       l."-.".-
sermons. This some deny. They say: let the false deity        to their faces, instead of denouncing their clamoring
be. Preach the gospel, be positive and constructive.Your      for a change, they, these princes talked along with the
attacks on Arminius and Pelagius or whatever the god          people, justified their complaints, expressed themselves
assailed may be, wearies our soul. Give  us Christ. As as sharing their grievances and promised to speak to
if the Christ is not being preached! Let these com-           the king in their behalf.
plainers consider that the Lord gave command that                  The church is never without its Joashes.  The church
the temple of truth be reared but also that the house         is never without its fleshly seed. But neither is the
of Baa1 be razed and the idols and the groves be de-          church ever without its princes, men of influence, who,
stroyed. I venture to say that this decrying of all though they as defenders of right principle and action
controversy in'the pulpit and in The Standard Bearer and as rebukers of sinners, could be a power for good,
finds its explanation in the sad circumstance that we talk along with the wayward in the church, justify
love our idols and would see them spared. The flesh           their groundless dissatisfactions, place the rulers in
will consent to the razing of Baal's house and even           the church in the wrong and speak to the king in behalf
fiance the repairing of the temple if only the idols          of the lovers of the idol.          I
and the grove be spared. For it knows that the idol                                                         G. M. 0. ,
is Baal. We preach sermons that from a technical point
of view are models? It is well. In these homilies the
truth-structure of God stands out in all its glory?
Splendid. We break down Baal's house? So we ought                                    IN GOD'S OWN TIME
to do. But let us remember that this entire engage-                     In God's own time - and yet we pray,
ment is vain if the idols and the groves be spared.                     Thy kingdom come ! Oh, haste the day !
Spare the false deities and you are the friend of the                   And look to see the morning break,
foes of the Lord. After the death of the  ,Jehoiadas,                   The darkness fly, the sleeping wake.
you will join their company and  betake  yourself in
your sermons to the groves and the idols and finally,                   In God's own time - afar or near -
to the  Baals.  You will end in persecuting just men.                   Th' awaking trumpet we shall hear;
The destruction of the idol is a matter of vital import-                Shall see with clear and joyful eyes,
ance !                                                                  The light of heaven upon these skies.
   It is doubtful whether Joash for his own conscious-
ness was stirred to action as a repairer of the temple                  In God's own time  - that is the best  -
by the ambition to render himself acceptable to the                     We shall have peace, and joy, and rest:
order of priests, which in his kingdom was well con-                    The strife removed, the labor o'er,
solidated and must have constituted the body of op-                     Then care and weariness no more.
position  tc the patronage of heathenism. His docility
as a pupil of Jehoiada was enough to endear him to                      In God's own time we all shall see,
the priests. In repairing the temple, he may have been                  What now is hid in mystery ;
acting under the impulse of a purely fleshly regard for                 Shall walk no more by faith this road,
God's house and of a fleshly attachment to the religion                 But stand with angels near to God.
of his pious- forbears  - a religion that again had be-
come strong since the days of Asa and Jehoshaphat.                      In God's own time - be patient thou -
It is a fact that the princes had to beg earnestly and                  Although the burden may thee bow ;
long - the Hebrew plainly implies this  - before the                    According to thy day thy strength -
king would consent to them following their heart's                      The end of this will come a length.
desire. That he yielded shows that his fear for princes
was stronger in him than his regard for God's house,                    In God's own time - ah ! yes ; and soon
that in all his actions he was guided by e-xpediency  and               These twilight skies will glow at noon;
not by right principles.                                                Not long amid these clouds we stand,
    But what are we to think of these princes? They                     For God's own time is near at hand.
were the men of influence in the church, in all likeli-
hood, local magistrates who judged the people in their
respective territories and thus stood between the people
and the king. As was said, in beseeching the king to                                           NOTICE
serve the groves, they must have been speaking for                  The July 15th issue of The Standard Bearer was
the  lovers of the idol among the people as much as for omitted on account of the annual vacation of the
themselves. In their ears the people had poured their          Editors.
complaints; in the audience of these princes, the dis-              The Board of division I of the Reformed Free
satisfaction with the existing order of things must have       Publishing Association meets every Third Tuesday
first been voiced. But instead of resisting the people         evening in the First Protestant Reformed Church.


                                                              period of peace and undisturbed pursuit of joy de-
         The Ark Among the Flags                              veloped a strong attraction for  Goshen. Their hold on
                                                              the promise relaxed somewhat and they said in their
    The plight of Israel, God's people, in Egypt had          hearts, "This land is good ; here we will dwell." So
 become sorry enough. A new king which knew not               their hope must have lost some of its vigor. Joseph's
 Joseph had risen. Frightened by t,he consideration last word had been that the Lord would bring them up,
 that the people of the children of Israel excelled in But an ever increasing number, it may be imagined,
 might and that, so excelling, they would be sure to had begun to inquire why they should be brought up
 make common cause with the adversary if war should at all. Was Canaan a beter land to dwell in than
 break out and that, as joined to the enemy, they would Goshen?          They knew approximately when the Lord
 fight themselves free and get them out of the land, the      was due to come. But during that era of prosperity
 king set over them taskmasters to afflict them with and undisturbed rest, a feeling of sadness would creep
 their burdens with a view to wearing them down, to over their souls as often as it would occur to them that
 sapping their vitality by hard and grievous labor that their stay in Goshen  was to come to an end. How they
 as a people they might be stunned in their growth.           had come to love this land, its gardens and fields, yield-
 But the more they afflicted them, the more they grew.        ing rich `crops ! How they could feast on  Goshen's
 So they were made to serve with even greater vigor.          cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlick and on
 Hard was their bondage, in mortar, in brick, and in          the fish with which the river Nile teemed ! `Even when
 all manner of service in the field. And to supplement on their way to Canaan, they wept, and weeping said:
 these measures for reducing the size, of the hated race "We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt
 to safe proportions, the king instructed the midwives        freely ; the cucumbers and the melons . . . . " So we
 to kill all the male children as they were born.             wrote in a former article.
    Then there went a man of the house of Levi, and              True, in the hearts of the people of God, the prom-
 took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman con- ise had struck deep and lasting root. But were the
 ceived and bare a son . . . . He through whom the            faithful standing in their faith? This is to be doubtful.
 Lord would deliver His people was born.                      Nowhere do we read of them saying during that time
    But this babe had first to become a man before the        of prosperity : "Come, 0 Lord, come quickly  !"
 yoke under which Israel now groaned could be lifted.            But then the new king arose, who knew not Joseph.
 For it was through the agency of this babe that the          Then was that fire of fierce and prolonged persecution
 Lord had resolved to work for Israel's deliverance.          kindled. Not until they were well on their way through
 Some eighty years had to go by before he would be            it did they begin to sigh by reason of their bondage
 meet for the Master's use. And in the meantime the           and to cry unto the Lord. Turn to your Bibles and
 hard bondage would continue. Could the Lord not have verify this statement. Verse 23 of the second chapter
 brought this child into being and prepared him for           of the book of Exodus reads: "And it came to pass
 service before the oppression began? Was the hard            in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and
 servitude of His people a small thing to Him. This           the children of Israel sighed by reason of their bond-
 could not be. Israel was His beloved people. But whom age." In the process of time did they sigh. The Lord
 the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every          prepared for them a deliverance not only but also to
 son whom He receiveth. What son is he whom the               prepared them for the deliverance.
Father chasteneth not. The oppression, then, was to              But should the Lord not have hastened? W&`the&
 be the Father's scourge, the fire He would kindle. And no danger that before the child should attain to the
 this scourge God's people had to feel and through this       season of manhood, that before He should have done
 fire they had first to pass that the dross might be          preparing him for the service for which he had been
 burned out of them. So purged they would set their           destined, the king would have succeeded in crushing
 effection upon Canaan and begin to wait for the con- that people, in breaking its spirit and in reducing it as
 solation of Israel.                                          a race to a negligible quantity? Consider that the hand
    As it was, ,their hearts clave to the land of Goshen.     of the king was even then reaching out to lay hold on
 Consider that they had been allowed to retain their          the Hebrew man-child to crush out its frail life. Should
 hold on the province originally granted them. And            the Lord not have caused His deliverer to have been
 that province yielded abundantly. It was the richest         born years before? No, indeed! Consider that His
 district of Egypt, and even now could support a million      is all the power; that nothing can befall that people
 more inhabitants than it numbers. On the east of the by chance but only by His d?rection ; that He watched
 seven mouths of the Nile, it extends toward Canaan.          over them with a paternal care, keeping the cruel
 Those of the Israelites who were keepers of sheep found      adversary under His power, that therefore without
 excellent pasturage for their flocks on the border-land ;    His permission he could do nothing, Consider that
 while those who took to tilling the soil would be at-        afRiction  is His tire, that it burns and is extinguished,
 tracted to the banks of the Nile. .It could be expected,     consumes or spares and purges according as He wills.
 as was said, that the people of Israel in that initial           Why  shouId  the Lord have hastened? All things


                                                                                                     .---.-..  .-  .


are His to be used by Him as He wills: heaven and          day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
earth and all creatures the devil and his henchmen            Sometimes the people of God in their impatience,
included.    By Him they were created. By His hand         also say that the Lord is slacking. The thought may
are they upheld and governed, so that without His will have occurred to Israel in Egypt during the oppressicn
they cannot bestir themselves.                             The truth is that He suffers long with His people ;
   And Israel as to its faith was also His. Though for, as the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit
Israel for the Lord's sake would be killed all the day of the earth, and hath long patience with it, until he
long there in Egypt, though the people of God would        receive the early and latter rain after which the fruit,
be accounted as sheep for the slaughter, nothing could     now ripened can be harvested, so the Lord : He waiteth
separate them from the love of God which is in Christ for His precious fruit  - His people. For He is un-
Jesus.                                                     willing that one should perish. In the meantime He
                                                           suffers long with His people and.bears  the wicked who
   The Lord therefore need not hasten. Nor does He.        persecute them. And in the harvest day, the people of
That nervous excitement, that feverish hustle so con- God will be given the kingdom, and the wicked, having
spicuous in man, that worry occasioned by the              filled their measure of iniquity, will be destroyed. Let
thought that the sun might set before the task is fin-     Israel in Egypt, let the true church in the world there-
ished,that  fear occasioned by the consideration of being for, be patient, stablish your hearts : for the coming of
outdone, outwitted and overreached by the competitor, the Lord draweth nigh.                                             z
is foreign to God. He rests when He works and moves           What a fool that king, to return to him, turned
with a majestic calm. For `He is God. In Him all           out to be ! Necessarily so, for in pitting himself against
things subsist and have their being. The sole deter-       God, he pitted himself against Him Who is wisdom.
mining factor of all He wills and thinks and does is       He was therefore provided with the unmistakable evi-
Himself. Things, death, life, angels, principalities,      dence that his wisdom was foolishness and that God
powers, things present, things to come, height and         alone is wise. And that proof was the circumstance
depth are but His instruments. How can it be said          that through the very abuse of the king, the Lord
of Him that He arrives upon the scene of action too        increased His own people and thus produced an effect
late, or that there is danger of His purposes falling the very opposite from that contemplated by the king.
by the way as a result of Him being outwitted by the       But the king continued to do foolishly. He gave com-
creature. He is God. He takes the wise in their own        mand to cast all the man-children into the river Nile
craftiness and not in spite of but through the very        as they were born. He thought the command wise.
machinations of the wicked saves His people unto           But how utterly foolish it turned out to be. There
His glory. The more they afflicted them, the more they     went a man of the house of Levi and took to wife a
multiplied and grew.                                       daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bare
   If the Lord does not hasten, neither does He slacken a son. And the child was goodly, exceedingly fair
in His pace. Why should He? Who is there to impede         before the Lord. And his beauty was to the parents
His progress. Sovereign God is He, high above all          the token that he was destined by God for some special
nations, exalted far above all gods. His will is bound     purpose, that in connection with him the `Lord would
by nothing but His own good-pleasure. The opposition bring deliverance. And so it was. In that child the
of the creature spells no defeat for Him; for He is God    salvation of Israel was bound up. His life must be
who measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, spared. -But there was the command of the king.
meted out heavens with a span, comprehended the dust Still the parents were not afraid, for they had faith
of the earth with a measure, weighed the mountains         the content of which was the promise of God and the
in scales and the hills in a balance. Before Him the speech that had come to them through the child's
nations are nothing. He bringeth the princes to nought beauty that somehow. in connection with him that
and the judges of the earth as nothing.                    promise was now soon to be fulhlled.  We come upon
   It is the scoffers who say, Where is the promise of a passage in the epistle to the Hebrews that bears
His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all testimony to this : "By faith Moses, when he "was born,
things continue as they were from the beginning of was hid three months of his parents, because they saw
creation, meaning by this speech to deny that the          that he was a proper child; and they were not afraid
heavens were made by the word of God and subsist of the king's commandment." The command could not  l
in Him and thus affirm that, being devoid of. power,       be the undoing of the child; for he was the Lord's
He cannot bring to pass what He purposed. Thus they, chosen vessel. Though the spies of the king were
these scoffers, reason, though they know that the prom- everywhere, the child was safe. Such was their belief.
ise has already been fulfilled on a low earthly plain      But this belief did not make them careless. The mother
when the first world was engulfed by the waters of the hid him three months. She acted under the impulse
flood and perished. But let them remember, says the of a maternal love for her child to be sure but of a
apostle, that the heavens and the earth by the same        love sanctified, a love mixed, so to say, with a love for
word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the God and the larger interests of His covenant. But the


babe grew. His wails became more lusty every. day.           He had not selected but prepared them. Hence, they
She saw she could no longer hide him. But he was the         had to serve His purposes. And so they did. The
Zordls, so she resolved to cast him entirely upon His        command  of the king was but one of the events that
mercy. Let Him take  care of His own. She cannot.            led, had to lead, to the appearance of Moses at the
How dark that particular period was! The woman               court of Pharaoh to be trained by him for his task.
had arrived at the end of her resources. .So she looked         It is not  difilcult to show that the  comp,assion  of
away from seIf and fixed her eye upon God. It was the Pharaoh's daughter was after a11 cruelty. The spectacle
crisis in her life. Now that it had come, she hung of the ark among the flags incasing a weeping infant
upon Him." So she made for the chi1d an ark of bul- must have risen before her eye as representative of
rushes and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and          an act by which she was being besought to spare the
put the child therein ; and she laid it in the flags by      child's life and to order it returned to the bosom of
the river's brink,  just.where  Pharaoh's daughter was       its anxious mother. And she had compassion on the
wont to bathe."                                              child. But instead of ordering it returned, she claimed
    Ostensibly the cause of Israel was now hopeless.         it for herself. It was of little concern to her that as
For that basket among the flags housed the deliverer,        a result of her theft some mother would grieve. It
a helpless, weeping infant, exposed to a thousand            may be objected that only by making the child her own
dangers. Might not one of the spies of the king find         could she spare its life. The objection is not sustained
it and kill it? Have no fear. The prospects of the           by the sacred record. Evidently she was accustomed
church were now as bright as ever. For the Lord to having her way about things, and doing much as
 reigned as He ever does, so that the placing of that' she pleased. Consider that without consulting the king
 basket with its precious burden among the flags was she resolved by herself to adopt the child and to pay
in actuality a stride forward.                               the Hebrew nurse wages for nursing it. This was done
    The daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash at             to encourage the nurse to properly care for the child.
 the river. Her maidens were with her. Walking along To this child her heart went out because she, too, saw
the river's side she spied the ark among the flags, and that "he was a goodly child." Had it been deformed
sent her maid to fetch it. Removing its lid, she found       or otherwise ill-favored she would have left it among
herself gazing upon a weeping child. The sight touched       the flags to perish. But the child was well-favored.
her. The appeal to her womanly feeling was too strong.       Instantaneously she resolved to adopt it. Being one
Though an offspring of the doomed race, she could not whose word seemed to be law, she would have gotten
 bring herself to have it killed. Then the sister of the her way with the child, had she decided to permanently
 child drew near and suggested that she be permitted restore it to its mother.
 to call a nurse of the Hebrew women that the child                                                             G. M. 0.
 might be nursed for her. The suggestion was followed.
 Moses was brought to his mother who received from
 the Egyptian wages for nursing for her the foundling.
 When the child was grown, he was brought to
 Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she
 called his name Moses because she had drawn him out                        HE NEVER FORSAKES ME
 of the water.                                                       I have a friend of all others the best,
    Behold now in this the wisdom and power of God.                    He- never forsakes me;
 The adversary would train the deliverer'of Israel! At               Trusting in Him I am sweetly at rest,
 the court of the oppressor, Moses had to be learned in                He never forsakes me.
 all the wisdom of the Egyptians and thus become a
 mighty man in word and deed. There at the court he                  Trials lnay compass me, sorrows be mine,
 had to be brought in contact with the vanity and               .      He never forsakes me ;
 ungodliness of the world and learn to abhor it. And                 Closer the arms everlasting entwine,
 he would receive strength from on high to refuse to be'               He never forsakes me.
 called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, strength to choose
 rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than
. to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, and to                 Tho" the world sever my tenderest ties,
 esteem the reproaches of Christ greater riches than                   He never forsakes me  ;
 the treasures of Egypt.                                             Tho' the stars fade, and the light from the skies,
    Humanly speaking, Moses was born at the worst                      He never forsakes me.
 possible time, at a time when the life of all the Hebrew
 men-children were in constant peril. Yet it was in                  He  thro'  the valley my soul will  atend,
 this time and under this condition of life that God's                 He never forsakes me;
 deliverer had to appear. There was no danger. For                   Praise to His name, He'll be true to the end,
 this time and condition were the issues of His will.                  He never forsakes me.


