 8                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   .
                         - -             -I_.~..                                  -.___                         -
Doch  daar gaat het heen. Daarom is het, dat zoovelen
der Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerk overal  heenloo-                 A Catechism On the History of the
pen, vooral gemakkelijk iemand volgen, die nog eenige                    Protestant Reformed Churches
warmte in zijn prediking openbaart, maar door en door
Arminiaansch is.
        En eindelijk is de voorstelling, die Heyns biedt van                              PART TWO
de waarheid, ook een verderfelijke, omdat ze in den
grond der zaak gespeend is aan den diepen geesteiijk-
zedelijken levensernst, die de Schrift  en de Gerefor-               VI. THE  "SECOND  POINT"  AND  ITS  IMPLICATIONS
meerde waarheid kenmerkt. Het gaat in de beschou-
wing van Heyns niet om God, maar om den zondaar.                       1. What do you mean by the "second point"?
Het gaat om de zaligheid des zondaars en die zaligheid                The second of the three doctrinal declarations
bestaat dan eigenlijk daarin, dat hij bij zijn sterven adopted and added to the Confessions of the Christian
naar den  hemel  gaat. Dit wordt hem aangeboden. Het Reformed Churches by their synod in 1924.
gaat om de gemeste ossen. Uit het motief om die  vlee-                2. Can you quote it?
schelijk-gedachte zaligheid deelachtig te  worden,  wordt             Certainly; it is as follows: "Relative to the second
er bij den zondaar op aangedrongen om  zich te  be-                point, which is concerned with the restraint of sin in
keeren en te gelooven. Men kan het van vele Gerefor- the life of the individual man and in the community,
meerde kansels, zoowel als op de hoeken der straten                the synod declares that there is such a restraint of sin
hooren : "Neem   Christus vandaag  aan, want morgen according to Scripture and the Confession. This is
kon het te laat zijn !" Dat het gaat om den levenden evident from the citations from Scripture and from the
God en om de erkenning, dat Hij de eeuwig en eenig-                Netherland Confession, Artt. 13 and 36, which teach
Goede is, dat onze ellende daarin bestaat, dat we van              that God by the general operations of His Spirit, with-
dien levenden God afwijken en onze zaligheid, daarin out renewing the heart of man, restrains the unimpeded
dat we door eeuwige en souvereine genade uit die                   breaking out of sin, by which human life in society
ellende worden verlost, om te deelen  in de hemelsche              remains possible; while it is also evident from the quot-
volmaking van Gods Verbond,  - och, men verstaat het               ations from Reformed writers of the most flourishing
niet meer ! Wat men verkondigt is eigenlijk een carri-             period of Reformed theology, that from ancient times
catuur van alle ware religie!                                      our Reformed fathers were of the same opinion".
        En daarom eindig ik met de ernstige bede tot de               3. To which passages from the Confession does
Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken, dat ze terugkeeren synod refer in support of this declaration?
tot de oude en beproefde  paden der Gereformeerde                     To Art. 13 of the Netherland Confession, particu-
waarheid ; dat ze herroepen en belijdenis  doen  van de larly to the following sentence : "in whom we do entirely
zonde, die ze bedreven in 1924, toen de voorstelling               trust; being persuaded that he so restrains the devil
van Heyns triumfeerde op de Synode dier Kerken en and all our enemies, that without his will and permis-
toen men Gereformeerde ambtsdragers uitbande; en                   sion they cannot hurt us".
dat ze met ons gaan staan op het eenig ware stand-                    And to the following quotation from Art. 36:
punt, dat God GOD is, en dat Zijne genade particulier              "willing that the world should be governed by certain
is.                                                                laws and policies ; to the end that the dissoluteness of
       Dan alleen is er hoop voor de toekomst!                     men might be restrained".
                                                        H. H.         4. What proof from Scripture does synod adduce
                                                                   in support of the second point?
                                                                      The following :
                                                                      Gen.  6:3: `*And the Lord said: My Spirit shall not
                                                                   always strive with man.
                                                                      Ps. 81:X1,  12: But my people would not hearken
       On Sept. 7, 1933, our dear parents,                         to my voice ; and Israel would none of me. So I gave
                                                                   them up in their own heart's lusts and they walked in
                          HYLKE W.  BOORSMA                        their own counsels.
                                  and                                 Acts `7 :42 : Then God turned and gave them up to
                      ANTJE  BOORSMA,  nee `Visser,                worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book
commemorated their 55th wedding auniversary.  We are thank-        of the prophets ; 0 ye house of Israel, have ye offered
ful for past mercies shown and hope that God may continue          to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty
His blessings unto them in days to come.                           years in the wilderness?
                                 Mr. and  Nrs. William  Boorsma       Rom. 1:24: Wherefore God also gave them up to
                                 Mr. and Mrs. Herman Mulder        uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to
                                 Mr. and Mrs. Peter Bonjernoor     dishonour their own bodies between themselves.
                                   and 12 grand children.
                 .                                                    Rom. 1:26 : For this cause God gave them up to vile


                                    T H E - S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           9
                                    .._--.. -_l______llll.                    .____---              ..-.-.
affections : for even their women did change the natural      remnant of his original goodness or righteousness.
use into that which is against nature.                            10. What is implied in this "natural good" that
   Rom. 1:28 : And even as they did not like to retain        remains in man since the fall, according to the ex-
God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a  rep-         ponents of this theory ?
rebate  mind, to do those things which are not con-               This "natural good", left to man after the fall, in-
venient.                                                      cludes such important elements as a seed of external
   II Thess.  2:6,  7: And now ye know what  with-            righteousness, receptivity for moral persuasion, recept-
holdeth, that he might be revealed in his time. For           ivity for the truth, a will that is susceptible to good
the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only, he           motives and a conscience that is receptive for good
who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the        influences, good inclinations and desires of which the
way.                                                          Holy Spirit can make use in restraining sin.
   5. Does the second point merely teach, that the                11. But how can you prove that this is actually
sinner is restrained, limited and controlled in his out- implied in the teaching of the second point?
ward actions, so that he cannot fully execute and                 This is evident, not only from the language of this
always carry out his evil.intentions?                         declaration itself, for it speaks, not of outward re-
   By no means. For, this is a thoroughly Reformed            straint, but of a general operation of the Holy Spirit;
doctrine. We all understand and heartily confess, that but it is also the explanation which is offered of the
God holds in His power and perfectly controls by His          second point by one of its originators, Prof. L. Berkhof
providence all the deeds of the wicked, both devils and       in his pamphlet on the Three Points.
men, so that they cannot accomplish aught against His             12. But how is it explained that this remnant of
will. He does this directly by His power, frequently          "natural good" remained in man after his fall in Para-
frustrating the counsels of the ungodly in a way which        dise ?
is even beyond our comprehension, for their very                 -Synod offered no explanation, neither do the ex-
thoughts and desires are in His hand and under His            ponents of the Three Points venture an explanation.
control. But He also controls and restrains the wicked        The answer is, however, given by the chief exponent
indirectly and mediately. The ungodly are dependent of the theory of Common Grace, Dr. A. Kuyper, Sr.
on and limited by time and occasion and circumstances ;       He explains that common grace operated  immediateIy
by their place and position in life ; by their talents and    after the fall of man, restraining and checking the
power and means ; by their own ambitions and fears            corrupting power of sin. If there had not been such
and by the powers that be; yea, they are limited by           an immediate restraining operation of common grace
their own character and disposition. This outward re- upon the nature of man, he would have become utterly
straint of the sinner no  ,one denies. But it is not this     corrupt there and then. Man would have changed into
external restraint of the sinner in his sinful deeds to       a devil and the development of mankind would have
which the second point refers.                                become an utter impossibility. But the restraining
   6. What, then, is the teaching of the second point?        power of the Holy Spirit operated upon man as soon
   That there is an inwardly restraining operation of as he had sinned, so that he did not fully die, did not
the Holy Spirit upon the heart of. the natural man,           become all darkness, was not whoIly corrupted, but
which is not regenerating, whereby the progress of the retained some light and life, a remnant of his original
corruption of sin in the human nature is being checked        goodness. And this remnant of good is preserved in
and restrained in such a way, that a remnant of the           mankind  bhruout its development in history.
original goodness in the state of righteousness is con-           13. What is the second element in the teaching
stantly preserved in it and also brought to bear fruit        of the second point?
in many good works in this present life.                          The second element implied in the theory of the
   7. What, then, iys the first element in this teaching? second point is this operation of the Holy Spirit, where-
   That there is in the sinner a remnant of natural           by the original good that remains in man since the fall
good.                                                         is continuously guarded against further corruption, by
   8. Why do you speak of "natural" good?                     checking and restraining the progress of sin. The
   Because the defenders of the theory of common              remnant of original good that is left in man is the
grace, one of the principal tenets of which is adopted        capital with which the Holy Spirit works. It is the
in this second point, always emphasize the distinction treasure that must be preserved. Were there no good
between (`natural" and "spiritual" good.                      left in the natural man after the fall, there could be
   9. What is the difference?                                 no further restraint, The corrupting process of the
   The only conceivable difference is, that by spiritual      power of sin in man's nature would then have been
good is meant the good that is wrought in the depraved        completed.    However, even this remnant of good in
nature by the Spirit of Christ and is, therefore, rooted man would have become corrupted long ago, if there
in regeneration ; while by "natural" good is meant a had not been a constantly restraining operation of grace
good that is not so wrought by regenerating grace, but in the heart of man, which is not regenerating but
remains in man since the fall, and is, therefore, a preserving in nature. This constant operation of the


  3.0                                                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
 -"_-."". .............^ --.--  -.__ll_lll"""". ......................-_-____  _ _ _--.- ...""............__II__    -..- ..^.."- _                 _- -.-..........^
  Spirit, restraining the progress of sin, is the second                                                            cause it to operate? The defenders of this theory are
  element in the theory of common grace as embodied `wont to explain that grace is always unmerited favor,
 in the second point.                                                                                               and this holds true of common grace. But they forget,
         Ii. And what is the third element in this declara-                                                         that the grace God manifests to His people in Christ
  tion of synod ?                                                                                                   is based on the atonement and perfect obedience of the
         According to the explanation of Prof. Berkhof, the                                                         Savior. Because of His righteousness they are right-
 second point also teaches an operation of the Holy                                                                 eous, and they receive all  t,he blessings of grace as
 Spirit, by which this remnant of natural good in the                                                               righteous in Him. But the world outside of Christ
 sinner becomes active. The seed of external righteous-                                                             is without any such ground of righteousness on which
 ness germinates and brings forth fruit, so that the                                                                it can justly be partaker of the grace of God. The
 natural man performs good works in the sphere of                                                                   theory, therefore, is an impugnment of the righteous-
 natural and civil life.                                                                                            ness of God.
         15. What, then, is the practical result of this re-                                                            18. Is there not still another error implied in the
 straining operation of the Holy Spirit?                                                                            teaching of this second point?
         That the natural man, who is supposedly dead in                                                                There is. It is very clear that the entire theory of
 sin and misery, wholly corrupt and totally depraved,                                                               the restraint of sin is based on the error of resistible
 is able to live a naturally `good, a morally sound life                                                            grace. The operation of the Holy Spirit, whereby the
 in this world. He is not regenerated. He is not  en-                                                               process of corruption in the heart of the sinner and in
 grafted into Christ by a true and living faith. He,                                                                the world in general is held in check, is not irresistible.
therefore, performs no spiritual good. But, by virtue                                                               If it were, there would be no development of sin at all.
 of the remnant of good that is in him and of the con-                                                              But it is an undeniable fact, which is also plainly re-
 stant operation of the Holy Spirit upon him, the natural                                                           vealed in Scripture, that sin and corruption do continu-
 man really lives a weakened form of his original para-                                                             ously develop and increase in the world until the
 dise-life. He can perform good works in this world.                                                                measure of iniquity is full and the man of sin can ap-
 To a certain extent he lives a good world-life.                                                                    pear. Now, if you inquire of the exponents of the
         16. What is one of the fundamental errors of this                                                          theory of common grace how they account for this
 entire presentation of the truth?                                                                                  development of sin and corruption in the world, they
         That it conceives dualistically of sin in relation to                                                      reply, that this is due to the fact, that the Holy Spirit
 God and implies a denial of the absolute sovereignty of                                                            releases His restraining hold upon the sinner and gives
 the Most High even over the powers of sin and death.                                                               him over in unrighteousness. And if you inquire
 For, evidently, it presents sin and death as powers next                                                           further how it must be explained that the Spirit with-
 to God and operating quite independently of Him. They                                                              draws His restraining power of common grace from
 are able of themselves, by some inherent principle, to                                                             the sinner, the answer is, that the sinner resists this
 work corruption in the heart and nature of man. But                                                                restraining influence of grace and thus goes from bad
 God checks this power. He, therefore, restpains a power                                                            to worse. This, therefore, is the error of resistible
 that operates independently of Him. ,4nd this is dual-                                                             grace. The power of the Spirit in this case is not
 ism. Scripture, however, gives us a radically different                                                            efficacious.  Man is  stronger--than  God ! And this is
 conception. Sin and death are not powers that work                                                                 an evident deviation from the truth of Scripture and
 independently of God, but they are the result of His                                                               our Reformed Confessions.
 own cursing wrath against the sinner. They are but                                                                     19. But what is the principle objection against the
 the executors of His righteous judgment and do all                                                                 second point and its implcatons?
 that is pleasing to Him. ,4nd thus conceived one can-                                                                  That it is Pelagian.
 not speak of a restraint of sin by God. The theory is                                                                  20. Why is it?
 rooted in a fundamentally dualistic conception and is                                                                  Because t is a very evident denial of the total de-
 a denial of the absolute sovereignty of God.                                                                       pravity of the natural man.
         17. What other error is involved in the theory of                                                              21. Do the exponents of this theory admit this?
 the restraint of sin?                                                                                                  No, they deny this. They profess to maintain the
         It impugns the righteousness of God and His justice                                                        Reformed truth of the total depravity of the natural
 with respect to the sinner. Death, including spiritual                                                             man. They would even maintain that the truth of
 death; which involves total depravity, is the just                                                                 ,total depravity is presupposed in the teaching of the
_ punishment for sin. Thus God had threatened before                                                                second point. And the very bold among them allege
 the fall: "The day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt                                                            that only in the light of the theory of the restraint of
 surely die". Now, the exponents of the doctrine of the                                                             sin by God's common grace is the doctrine of total de-
restraint of sin maintain that God did not  fulfil this                                                             pravity intelligible and tenable.
 threat immediately after the fall. On the  cant-:ary,                                                                  22. How do they go about to maintain this posi-
 He graciously intervened and prevented death from                                                                  tion ?
 wholly corrupting man. But the question arises: on                                                                     They proceed from the supposition that the natural
 what ground of justice did God show this grace and                                                                 man still does many good works. For this position

                                                                                                                              l


                                     T H E   ,STANDARD   B E A R E R                                                         11.
-__I - ..^ ".__                        ___I______..  - . .._..._- "-.^.^ "_.
they do not appeal to Scripture, but to actual experi-              knowledge of God changed into darkness, his righteous-
ence. Anyone can ascertain the fact of the good works               ness into unrighteousness, his holiness into corruption.
of the natural man for himself. He lives a good world-              In Paradise his nature became exactly as corrupt as it
life in many respects. It is even alleged that he often could become.
puts the Christian to shame. This being assumed the                     25. Do you, then, deny that there is development
question arises how this good the sinner does must be               of sin in the world ?
explained. Where is its fountain? Whence does it                        Not at all. Eut we maintain that the manifestation
spring? From himself? In that case, they claim, you                 of this corruption of the human nature in the actual
deny total depravity. And, therefore, you must explain sins of the race, keeps pace with the organic develop-
the good works of the natural man from an operation                 ment of the human race and follows this development.
of the Holy Spirit upon him, whereby the power of                   Adam's sin was a root-sin, which bears its fruit in all
corruption in him is checked.                                       the actual sins of the entire race until the measure of
   23. Do you, then, still maintain that the second iniquity is filled. As the race develops and life with
point is Pelagian?                                                  its many and various relationships becomes more com-
   I do most emphatically.                                          plex, sin also reveals itself as corrupting the whole of
   24. Why do you?                                                  life in all its relations. But upon this organic develop-
   Because, in this the theory agrees with Pelagianism,             ment there is no restraint. It proceeds exactly as fast
that in the fall man did not become wholly corrupt.                 as possible.
Some remnant of his original goodness remained in                       29. But is not this progress of sin controlled and
him. True, there are a few points of difference be- %nited  by many factors?
tween the fundamental tenet of the second point and                     It most certainly is. There is the all-overruling
Pelagianism. The latter attributes the goodness of power of God, who, indeed gives men over into unright-
the natural man to the character of the fall itself, the            eousness, and in His righteous judgment punishes sin
former to an operation of the Holy Spirit. The latter with sin; but who also controls the progress of sin and
maintains that by this remnant of his original good- leads it into those channels which are conducive to the
ness man can attain to the possession and performance              realization of His counsel. There is the limitation im-
of spiritual good, the former does not. But this does               posed upon every man by the measure of his, gifts,
not alter the fact, that both maintain that the natural             powers and talents, by time and occasion, by means
man is not wholly corrupt and totally depraved. Fact               and circumstances, by character and disposition. All
is, that according to this theory there never was  a               men do not commit all sin ; each one sins according to
totally depraved man in the world since the fall of our            his place in the organism of the race and in history.
first parents. For, from the moment of the fall till the           It is determined and limited by various and often con-
present day, there is the operation of this restraining flicting motives, such as fear and shame, ambition and
grace in the heart of man, preserving in him the                   vainglory, natural love and carna1  lusts, malice and
remnant of his original goodness according to which he              envy, hatred and vengeance. And it is influenced by
is able to live a tolerably good world-life.                        the power of the magistrates. But in all these channels
   25. How, then would you characterize the teaching and under all these controlling and determining factors,
of the second point?                                               many and various though they be, the current of sin
   I would characterize the second point with its theory           and corruption moves onward without restraint and
of the restraint of sin as a purely philosophic invention           interruption, until it shall have served God's purpose
to apologize for the severity of the doctrine of total             and the measure of iniquity shall be filled !
depravity and to compromise with the world.                                                                          H.H.
   26. What, then, do you maintain to be the .truth
of the Word of God on this point?
   That the natural man, ever since the fall of our first
parents in paradise, is wholly darkness and foolishness,                                     NOTICE
corrupt before God in all his ways, incapable of doing
anything that is pleasing to Him, always inclined only                 .The league of  ,Men's Societies of the Prot. Ref.
to evil, until he is regenerated by the Spirit of Christ.           Churches will hold, D. V., its first membership meeting
   27. But were no gifts to him left after the fall?               Thursday, Oct. 12, at 7.45 P. M., in the parlors of the
   Certainly, there is in him a remnant of natural Fuller Ave. Prot. Ref. Church.
light. He remained a rational moral being, endowed                      The Rev. H. Hoeksema will be the speaker for that
with reason and will, able to distinguish between good              evening.
and evil. But there is nothing left in him of that light                The topic: "In the Light of the Word."
and knowledge according to which he may know  that                      All men, members and non-members of societies,
which is good and love it, nothing of righteousness and             are kindly invited to attend this meeting.
holiness, nothing of his original moral integrity. From                 Music of some kind will be taken care o?.
the moment of the fall he became wholly corrupt. His                                                     The Committee.


1.4                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                -        -     --    --_-._-_.
                           Youth                                     as one of your special privileges. Besides that you
                                                                     have Christian parents - at least so we may expect -
       Youth, would you pause a moment? If you seri-                 they.have trained you at home, as they said in baptism
ously seek the covenant way, to be comforted ; if YOU                "to the utmost of our ability", and when you became
do not, to be warned and admonished?                                 of age they se& you to a Christian school where the
       Solomon, wisest of men, has a word for  YOU.                  covenant training might be continued. Such youth you
       If you hurry through life with the maddening crave are. You are different. You have a greater measure
to have your fling - pause a moment, if you are too                  of responsibility.
busy with the vanities of youth to make use of profit-                  Remember your Creator, while in those days.
able literature  - pause a moment and read, if  YOU  do                 Your Creator.
occasionally read but fail to meditate on what YOU read                 You must know first of all therefore that your deal-
- pause a moment, read, and consider.                                ing is with God. Not as the humanism of this world
       Solomon speaks. To you all: "Remember now thy                 tries to impress upon you, that your dealing is with
Creator, in the days of thy youth".                                  men, and that you are here to serve yourself and the
       Altho life has various phases, life is one whole. YOU         age in which you live. Yeou deal with God. You stand
cannot break off a part of that life and say of it that              in a certain relation to the God Who is God. Holy,
it does not belong to your life. Xay, life is one whole.             righteous, eternal. And your relation to Him, says
And you pass thru it, in the ordained way of the three               Solomon here, is that you are a creature. Absolutely,
phases, youth, maturity, old age. You do not make                    you are a creature. Only dust. This is easily sorgot-
life, you pass thru it. And it is orbe. One whole. One               ten, especially if you become vain or proud puffed up
immense reality. For just exactly that reason there is               or conceited. You are dust, nothing more, for we all
that close relation of cause and effect between the                  are dust. You are God's creature. God gives you all
phases or stages of life. What you do or have done in that vim, that energy, that power and vitality. Those
the first stage, youth, bears fruit in the other stages.             powers which you feel awakening within you, that
Life is one. Therefore also that close relation of re-               blood which you feel coursing thry your veins, that
sponsibility. Later life does not rem'ove  the responsi-             mind, those hands and feet, that mouth . . . . every-
bility for what takes place in the earlier life. Many in             thing . . . . God is your creator and you are His
maturity or old age would so desire, but it is not so.               creature. And if He is Creator and you are a mere
Life is one whole. Let us not forget it.                             creature, God is Sovereign. You are responsible to `Him.
       And the stage thru which you at present are pass-             Indeed youth must be youth, and you are entitled to
ing is called the "days of youth". Solomon is therefore              covenant joy and amusement, but the Creator gave you
addressing those who are in the early years of that                  what you have and are in order  that you  swvc
one, serious life. Youth has its own peculiarities, its              Him. Youth, that is an alarming thought is it not?
own characteristics.       Your period of life, generally            God gives and supports that mind, whether you use it
speaking, is not the period of deep and profound                     to think on Him or on things of the world. God gives
thought. Yours is the period of almost uncontrollable                and supports that mouth, whether you use it to praise
energy, vigor and imagination. The spring-time of Him, or whether you use it in the service of the world
life. You feel within you an awakening of the physical.              and sin. God gives and supports those feet, whether
mental and sexual powers which God has laid in you.                  you use them to hasten to the world's dens of iniquity
You stand on the shore of an immense sea of experi-                  or whether you use them to go up to His houes and in
ences, and your awakening energy urges you to rush                   general serve Him. Whatever you have, you have
headlong into it. Because it has these characteristics,              from Him. AJarming thought. You are in His hands.
it has also its own dangers. Danger that with all that You are a creature.                        If you mock Him or ignore
energy you fail to use judgment . . . . you become                   Him . . . . remember you are only dust  - responsi-
amusement-mad, careless. Danger that with all that                   ble to God. And He is righteous. Glorious thought.
vigor you run rampant, and you put yourself the more                 As creature God equips you to serve Him. As creature
at Satan's disposal. Danger that you are sowing tears you need not be ashamed to be a covenant youth today.
for your later life.                                                 It is not only your duty, not only your privilege, it is
       You then, who pass thru that period of life, you are          your crown, your glory. He is Creator, and the highest
the ones the wisest of men, the inspired writer ad-                  good for you His creature, is to walk in the way of His
dresses. But no, that is not all. All youth pass thru                covenant.
that phase, but you are surely not as all other youth.                   Remember . . . . your Creator.
YOU  go by the name of "covenant youth". They call                       To remember does not merely mean that you will
YOU  the "youth of the church". You bear on your fore-               please bear in mind that there is a Creator, nor yet
heads the mark and the sign of the covenant, the prom-               that you will occasionally reflect on it that you are
ise that you will walk the way of the covenant. You                  after all a creature. This is not enough. But it surely
hear the Word of God preached, and it is preached and                means that you remember Him In  101%~.  Love for
applied very definitely in catechism, which you enjoy                God must control your life in the days of your youth,


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              15
                                                                                                                     -~ -
-_ll  -                      __..... -- .._,............. -
it must be the positive principle of your life. It must
stand above that energy, that vigor, that imagination.                         Een en Ander Uit Onze School
We cannot tell you all you must do, (your love for God                       Dat mag we1 eens. Menigmaal wordt thans onder
will tell you that) we can tell you what you must do,                    011s  volk gevraagd naar onze school. Niet dat dit in het
love God. And, of course, this implies that you shall                    verleden niet het geval was. Ook werd in het verleden
hate the world and all the things of the world, for                      gevraagd naar  onze school, maar er is tech een groot
surely you are forgetting your Creator if you seek the                   onderscheid. Immers zijn de toestanden in beide school
world and conform yourself to it. Friends of the world,                  en gemeenten nu geheel anders dan in het verleden.  Er
enemies of God, friends of God, enemies of the world.                    bestond toen, zooals nu, nog geen behoefte  aan een af-
Remembrance here implies devotion and dedication. As                     zonderlijk artikel in ens blad betreffende  onze school.
Scripture says, "remember the Sabbath day," that is,                     We stonden immers  aan `t begin van de historie onzer
use it in dedication and devotion. Devote your youth- kerken, niet waar? Om met de gemeenten te beginnen,
ful energy, your powers now fast awakening to the                        kunncn we er op wijzen, dat  toen bijna niemand onzer
service 0 God. In the days of your youth, in the serv- gemeenten haar eigen leeraar had. Vandaar, dat de
ice of God. In the home, in church, in school. Be de- studenten toen zoo spoedig mogelijk uitgingen om in
voted to God in obedience to your covenant parents in de verschillende gemeenten een stichtelijk woord te
the home, in diligence in your church life, its services,                spreken. Bijna iedere week was er dus gelegenheid,
its catechism, its various activities. Be devoted in the                 om uit den mond der studenten het een en ander uit
school. For in all these things you are called in your                   onze school te hooren. We leefden op die wijze beide
youth to remember your Creator. Which does not                           als school en als gemeenten nauwer  aan  elkander.
mean that you must refrain from. all enjoyment, and Thans is dit echter  anders. We staan niet meer aan
that you may have no manner of amusement . . . .                          het begin van den weg van onze school en kerken. Het
far from it . . . . but it does mean that your enjoy- meerder deel van onze gemeenten hebben haar eigen
ment and amusement shall centrally be to serve God leeraar. Deze gemeenten komen dus niet in de gelegen-
and to remember Him. At play or at work remember heid, om wekelijks iets te hooren van onze school. We
your Creator.                                                            leven dus nu verder van elkander. af. Hier komt nog
    If you refuse . . . . this does not change the                        bij, dat onze gemeenten geographisch ver verspreid
Creator. He is God. You may forget Him. Maybe                            liggen, en  daa.rom ook uit dit oogpunt ver van ons
you care no whit about this e-xhortation.  Maybe you                      staan. Weliswaar, dat we groeien  moeten,   doch dan
say, youth must have its fling. God is God. You may                       moeten  we in onzen groei niet van elkander groeien.
forget `Him, but He will not forget you.                        H@ will We moeten  &n blijven in leer en leven. Wet kan daar-
visit you.    God does not forget that you are His                        om niet ongepast geacht, dat een ander wordt medege-
creature, that you rise in rebellion against Him. God deeld uit onze school.
will remember you, and will visit you, and will let you                      Verder is met het oog op het feit, dat de school onzt:
experience that He is God. If you continue in rebellion school is, het niet  alleen  gepast, maar ook principieel
against Him, you will say in your latter days what we                     noodzakelijk, dat  iet.s wordt medegedeeld uit de school.
read in the last part of this text: "nothing to me is                     God heeft ens immers als Protestantsche Gereformeer-
pleasant in them," "nothing to me is in them which de Kerken, in het leven geroepen in bepaalde  ohstan-
pleases". Of the days you once thought so carefree,                       digheden. Deze omstandigheden hebben ons veel te
the days which you once thought so eventful, of those                     zeggen. Immers zijn we Protestantsch Gereformeerd,
days you will say "nothing in them pleases me". The                       omdat we handhaafden de souvereine genade onzes
bitter end. Not of repentance, but of impenitent re- Gods. Omdat we dit  wilden handhaven, werden we niet
morse. Eternal punishment is beginning to break thru,                     langer geduld in de kerken waarin we vroeger een
the sun sinks away in the west, youth has vanished,                       plaats   hadden.  Hiervan  getuigen de artikelen luide,  '
gradually the eternal darkness draws round about you.                     die nu geschreven worden over "Het Evangelie of De
Bitter end. God is God and is righteous.                                  Jongste Aanval op de Waarheid der Souvereine Ge-
    Remember Him. Thru Jesus Christ our Lord, Who                         nade" door den hoofdredacteur van dit blad. Ik meen,
died for us that we might know Him, and that we might                     dat juist in het feit dat we om de waarheid van Gods
have the right to serve Him.  who died for us that                        souvereine genade historisch als kerken bestaan, we
forgiving us our sins, which are many, we might be                        de  ens van God aangewezene roeping zien, om van die
saved thru knowledge of Him and His Christ. Re-                           waarheid getuigenis af te leggen. En het is juist in
member Him, thru prayer, in the way of obedience of                       die omstandigheden, en met dat doel, dat God ons onze
the Spirit. Thru diligence and meditation. Remember schobl  heeft geschonken. Die school is daarom met  na-
Him, and blessed are you. In youth, but also in eternity.                 druk  once  school, met eene bijzondere oorsprong,  roe-
    Therefore, friends, youth, be not afraid to take a ping en doel. God heeft ons deze school als kerken ge-
stand, to stand alone if need be. Fight the good fight schonken, opdat we jonge  mannen  zouden onderwijzen
of faith, and confess your Lord in the midst of the                       in de beginselen der Heilige Schrift, die ons dierbaar
congregation.                                            M. Gritters.     zijn. Er moeten niet alleen nu, maar ook straks in de


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                       21
                __-- ^ ..__-...........                -"  -..^----.                -
                                                               their substance often increases. They become wealthy.
              Our Church Order                                 But the substance of the pastors cannot increase. They
                T                                              lack these instruments. They are wholly devoted to
                    HE  EMERITI-MINISTER                       the service. But the Lord is there portion. The wheat
   The closing paragraph of my former article on the           and the oil that is first offered unto Him is theirs and
subject reads thus: "The Levites, the pastors and              shall be theirs all the days of their life. The church
teachers shall refrain from ministering to their own           who first impoverishes the aged and disabled pastor
necessities  ; for, doing so, they entangle themselves in      by robbing him of this portion and then tosses him an
the affairs of this life. This they may not do, but shall alms, is as to its action in violent conflict with the
be wholly and permanently devoted to the service.              revealed will of God and will not be held guiltless.
Wrote the apostle to Timothy: `No man that warreth                A pastor, as to his status, can no more in his capa-
entangleth himself with the affairs of this life ; that        city of pastor become an object of charity than a wife
he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier',        in her capacity of wife. Imagine a husband placing
II Tim. 23, 3. But the pastors and teachers as well his invalid wife for whom he provides in a class with
as the Levites must eat. To the priests the Lord said,         some  p.oor  who experience his benevolence. This every
`The oil and the wheat is thine,' and to the Levites,          right-minded person would deem an outrage. A church
`The tenth is thine . . . .  ' It has been shown that,         that will place an invalid minister for whom it pro-
as to the principle circulating through it, this com-          vides in a class with the poor is even more censurable
mand, too, was repeated by Christ and the apostles.            than such a husband. Yet members of a church have
See former articles. One passage from Matt. 10 : "And insisted that this should be done. The very sound of
as ye go to preach . . . . provide neither gold nor            the word "emeritus-fund" aroused their ire; and they
silver, nor brass in your purses, nor script for your          came with various suggestions. Let the ministers, they
journey . . . . for the workman is worthy of his               said, form a kind of "Barnabas club" among them-
hire." It is to be noticed that Christ does not say,           selves that they may have bread when too enfeebled
`Provide neither gold nor silver, for the poor must be         by age to perform the service. How wrong this sug-
cared for and as ministers of the gospel, ye, as to your gestion. Imagine someone saying to an invalid person,
status are poor,' but, "The workman is worthy of his           whom he has impoverished by robbing him of all his
hire." Now the hire turned out to a workman is no alms         substance, `Too bad. Your plight is sorry enough. You
but a stipend to which he has a legal right. This the shouId  have been wise and joined the Barnabas.'
means of living turned over to the ministers of the                Why do some insist that a minister be classified.
gospel has in common with hire (although it is no              with the poor? Does a poor minister need less than
hire) : these means are his rightful possession upon           an emeritus minister? Does he eat less, and need less
which he, as a result of the word that the Lord  spake,        clothes for his body? Can he live in a smaller house
has a legal, juridical claim, so that a congregation with- and does it take less fuel to keep him warm than an
holding from a minister these means, holds that to             emeritus minister? Of course not. What then can be
which it has no juridical right and thus robs the min-         the reason? A study of the history of this matter
ister of his very own possession. A congregation guilty        brings to light that the view of many is that the obliga-
of this sin robs and thieves and cannot prosper spirit- tion the members of church have to a poor minister
ually as long as it persists in this sin. So it appears        is not nearly as great as their obligation toward the
that the pastors and teachers as well as the Levites           emeritus minister. The prevalent view seems to be
were placed by Christ outside of the class of poor.            that helping the poor is a matter of choice in the sense
From a juridical point of view, a poor pastor is a that one may also choose not to help the poor; and that
nonenity. As to his  cond'ition,  he may be poor but not       helping, the emeritus minister is a matter of stern
as to his status in the church.             .                  necessity. Hence the thing to do is to place the emer-
   The only question remaining is whether by divine            itus minister in a class with the poor and thus do away
right the pastor and teacher may be deprived of his            with the emeritus minister altogether. Then we can
portion when disabled by the infirmities of age, be            help him if we like or as less as we like. This view
placed in a class with the poor and be told that what          of course is thoroughly erroneous. Helping the poor
he henceforth will receive is alms. This, as was shown,        is as much of a necessity as supporting the emeritus
might not be done in the Old Testament dispensation;           minister. The one may no more be neglected than the
it may not be done now and that for the same reason.           other. Both must be properly cared for. So it makes
The Lord separates the pastor and teacher for the              absolutely no difference as far as our purses are con-
service, bids him to wholly devote himself to the work         cerned whether we help the disabled minister as an
of the ministry, forbids him to entangle himself in the        emeritus minister as one who is a poor minister.
affairs of this world, to set up a business, to buy and            Consider once more that the Lord said to the priest :
work a farm, to turn tradesman and the like. The               "I am thy portion. All the best of the oil and the wine,
common members may do this. As supplied with the               etc., is thine. The Lord then was the portion of the
instruments for ministering to their own necessities,          priest. This must not be explained to mean that He


22                                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
_-_--.._- __. _I_        -...- -- .__. -_.--..^  """                                                             -..--.-. -.--..- -_._
was not the portion of every believing Israelite. Con-                          (4)    Tithes (Lev. 27:30-33  ; Nu. 18 :26-32; Deut.
sider that the oil and the wine were gifts made unto                        14 :22-29 ; 26 : 12-15) ;
Jehovah and that they were the priest's on the grounds                          (5) Spontaneous offerings (Ex. 22  :29a; Ex.
that the Lord was his. Possessing the Lord he pos-                          34:20a; Lev. 22:13,  19; Deut. 26 :iO-1'7; 12:5-8)  ;
sessed the wine and the wheat, so that the latter could                         (6)    Poll tax (Ex. 30 :12-16)  ;
no more cease to be his than the Lord. The status of
the priest was therefore unchangeable.                                          (7)    Things vowed or devoted (Nu. 6 :2-21; 30 :l-
      Consider, finally, what Paul wrote to Philemon:                       16; Lev. 2'7:1-29;  Deut. 23  :21-23, 18; 12:10-12, 26) ;
"Albeit I do not say to thee how thou owe&  unto me                             (8)    Spoils of war (Nu. 31:25-54).
even thine own self besides." The argument here is                             Scanning the above list, the discovery is made that
this : Onesimus, a slave, had run away from his master,                     the sacred dues imposed by Jehovah upon the people
Philemon. Coming to Rome, he had been converted of Israel are to be divided into two classes, that to the
under Paul's preaching, and, as converted, had attached one class belong all the dues excepting the spontaneous
himself to the apostle's person. After some time the                        offerings and the things vowed, that thus the  last-
apc&le sends him back with a letter in which he en-                         named comprise a class by themselves. What differ-
treats the master to receive his runaway slave now ence between these two classes of dues ? And the
as a brother beloved. Then follows the statement: answer:  Peculiar to the spontaneous or freewill offer-
"If he bath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, put                          ings was that the exact amount to be given was left
that on my account: I Paul have written it with mine                        to the judgment of the offerer. The law bearing on
own hand, I will repay it: albeit I do not say to thee                      this due reads: "And thou shalt keep the feast of the
how thou owest unto me even thine own self besides."                        weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a free-
The conception plainly is : "not to say to thee, that thou will offering of thine hand, which thou `shalt give ac-
(in that thou wast converted under my preaching)                            cording  CM the Lord  thhy God  bath blessed thee," Deut.
owest to me not merely that, which I have just declared                     16  :lO. As to all the other dues, with the exception
my wish to pay to thee, but also thine own self besides."                   of the things vowed, their exact size was  fixed  by law.
The principle coming to the surface in this reasoning                       For each first-born a tax of five shekels was to be paid.
plainly is that the sheep belong to the pastors with For the first-born the Levites were a substitute by
body and soul and thus with all they. possess. How virtue of the great deliverance which Jehovah accom-
then can the pastor ever receive alms from the sheep?                       plished for his  peopIe  in Egypt. The first-born of the
      To the church at Corinth, Paul wrote: "If we have herd and flock and the first-fruits of the soil were like-
sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we                   wise dues of a fixed size. All the first-born and all
shall reap your carnal things?" I Cor.  9:ll. So the                        the first-fruits comprised this due. The tithes like-
apostle might have asked: "If we have sown unto you wise was a due of a size fixed by law. The amount to
spiritual things, is it so great a thing that we reap,                      be given was the tenths. The law of the Poll ransom
while in active service, your carnal things that when                       reads : "When thou takest the sum of the children of
we are disabled by old age these carnal things must                         Israel after their number, then thou shalt give every
be classified with alms?"                                                   man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord . : . . This
      Before taking leave of this matter, I wish to en-                     they shah give, every one that passeth among them
large a little on the matter of giving, with a view to                      that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of
rendering what has already been written on the matter the sanctuary . . . . The rich shall not give more, and
irreproachable. Statements were made from which the poor shall not give less . . . . " According to the
wrong conclusions could be drawn.                                           law, one five-hundredth of all the spoils of war were
                                                           There are two
questions that ought to be raised here and answered.                        to be given to priests and the same amount to the
They are : (a) According to what law or standard must                       Levites as a special gift to Jehovah. As to the vow,
the church of the new dispensation give; (b) Is giving                      no one was obliged to make it; but when he had, he
a matter of choice or a duty or both?                                       might not be remiss in performing it, for negligence in
                                                                            so doing was a great sin against Jehovah and would
      In answering. these questions we set out with the                     incur the divine displeasure.
statement that the church of the old dispensation had
to pay its sacred dues. There were in all eight such                           The question is: How many of these dues were
dues. There were:                                                           carried over into the New Testament dispensation?
                                                                            And the answer: But one and that one is the free-will
      (1) First-born sons (Ex. 34  :19a,   20~;  22:29b;                    offering. All the rest, including the tithes, belonged
13 :ll, 12e, 13c-16; Ex. 13 :2; 3 :ll-13,44-51;  3 :16-M)  ;                exclusively to an economy that with the advent of
      (2)     First-born of flocks and herd (Ex. 13  :ll-13  ;              Christ came to an end. The proof of this is that the
22 :30 ; 34 :19b, 20a, b) ;                                                 only due imposed by the New Testament Scriptures
      (3)     First-fruits (Ex. 23 :19a; 34 :26a; Lev. 19 :24;              upon the church of the New Testament dispensation
23:10,  11; Nu. 15:18-21;  Lev. 2:14-16; Deut. 26:1-11;                     is the free-will offerings. To the church at Corinth
18:4) ;                                                                     Paul wrote: "Upon the first day of the week let every


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           23
 -                                                    .-.
 one of you lay by him in store,  2s God hath prospered        if the member gives far beneath his means while in-
 him . . . . " I Cor.  162.                                    sisting that he gives as the Lord has blessed him he
      Let us now concentrate on the free-will offering.        commits a sin that lies outside the range of church
 As was said, its size was not cast in the mould of a          discipline.
 ~mrr~bar   by the revealed will of God incorporated in            Consider that God's manner of dealing with New
 a written law found in the statute book. The law here Testament believers is in agreement with their major-
 does not read: "Give a fifth or a tenth of your material      ity. In the old  disp&sation  the church was a child
 blessings," but "Give as the Lord hath blessed you."          under the guardianship of the law and thus in bondage
 Aside from what this command may mean, this much              under the elements of the world, Gal. 4:1, 2. The law
 is plain to all who will read, that it is no statement of     in that epoch was regulative of the life of the people
 an amount  ,in  numbers.  The due in question  is not         of Israel as to all its departments and of these depart-
 therefore absolutely exact. It means that the magis-          ments as to all their minute divisions. Nothing was
 trate might not place the Israelite under the necessity       left to the discretion of the believer. No matter in
 of forwarding an amount circumscribed by a number             which direction he turned, no matter where he was,
 and punish him in case he defaulted. This also the            in the field, or in his house or on the way, no matter
 rulers in the New Testament church are forbidden to           what he did, sing or pray or worship, he always en-
 do for reasons to be uncovered in the sequence.               countered the law with its, "Thou shalt" or "Thou
      Observe then that the term  ~r~-u& in the ex-            shalt not". The Lord also told him what to give; com-
 pression "free-will offering" does not signify a will         puted for him the portion that had to be treasured up
 that with the abrogation of the typical-symbolical            for the service. The exact size of his sacred dues was
 statutes of the old dispensation has been disengaged          fixed by law. He did not know as he ought; could not
 from the law of love and thus excused from the duty           judge, lacked perspective. Hence the Lord did things
 of giving so that the free-will offering may be with-         for Israel. The church, though lord of all, went about
 held or be cut down at will with impunity. "Give as in the garb of a servant, observing days, months, times,
 the Lord thath biessed thee" is a divine command to           and years. But on the day of Pentecost, God sent forth
 which the will of the New Testament believer is tied.         the Spirit of His Son "into your hearts, crying Abba
 It is a law that from the very nature-of matters spells       Father". Then the church matured. The yoke of the
 duty, necessity and responsibility for every member           law was lifted and the church set free. For the sub-
 of the church. Neither must it be supposed that it is ject here under consideration, it means that, as was
 a command so infinite as to render it impossible for          said, the believer is no more bound by the law of the
 the New Testament believer to form a notion of what           sacred dues. He himself now circumscribes by number
 constitutes the rightful portion of his blessing that is      the rightful portion to be set aside for the service.
I to be offered so that if he gives beneath his means he       For he is a free man. The law, the schoolmaster, has
 can appear before the Lord with the excuse that he has        been discharged. The believer now stands and walks
 no way of knowing what he should give. The com-               in glorious liberty. But is this trusted? Can it be
 mand, though not absolutely exact in the sense already        considered safe for him to compute his portion? Would
 explained, is definite. enough. The construction to be        it not have been better, had this been left to the school-
 placed upon it is, `Give according to the size of your        master? Is there no danger that, as drawn away of
 material substance (the whole of which belongs to the         his own lusts and enticed, the believer abuse his right
 Lord) with an eye, of course to the need. For the             and willingly miscalculate and thus withhold from the
 believer who loves much this will mean if the need is         Lord what is His? Has he the wisdom to discern his
 great and urgent, `give as much as you can'. What             obligations? There is no danger. They that were under
 now is the freedom of the New Testament believer?             the law were redeemed that they might receive the
 It is the right, given him by the Lord to decide by him-      adoption of sons. And because they are sons, God
 self without any outside interference what portion of         sent forth the Spirit of His Son in their hearts ; and
 his substance or blessing satisfies the command `Give the fruit of the Spirit is love. Now love presents her-
 as the Lord hath prospered thee'. The Lord does not           self a living sacrifice to Him. He who loves wills to
 do this for him. Neither may the rulers in the church         belong with body and soul, both in life and death not
 do this for him. It is a task that devolves upon him          unto himself but unto his faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
 alone. Because the calculation is the  believev,r's  very     He is therefore safe in his freedom because he loves.
 own, a conclusion at which he arrived by an act of his        Our love is the standard of our giving. I can therefore
 own will, and thus not a computation imposed upon             give a definite answer to the question, "Given a certain
 him by an outside power, it bears the name of free-will       need in the kingdom, what must be the size of the por-
 offering, which, it ought to be plain, does not spell law-    tion of my blessing or substance to be treasured up
 lessness and thus place the believer beyond the range         by me for the service?" This the apostle did not tell
 of duty. There is a command here. The believer shall          us. The injunction, "Give as the Lord hath blessed
 compute not only but compute correctly. But the duty you" is rather indefinite and purposely leaves the exact
 here is ethical rather than juridical for the reason that     amount to be given undetermined. Yet we can know,


 24                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E ' A R E R
 -         -                  -._- - -..__ "... ..-.  ^  ^
 each for himself. Whereas we are in duty bound to                    All must give with ti view to the need. It is not the
 love perfectly and whereas our giving must spring                    same, as concerns our giving, whether the amount
 from and measure up to a perfect love (though it never needed for the service be a thousand dollars or twenty
 does) all we have to do is to face the question, "How thousand dollars. For a budget  rightly used, much is
 much would I give if I loved with all my heart, with to be said. But the congregation should be told where-
 all my soul, with all my mind and with  all my in this right use consists in order that it may not begin
 strength?" The portion of  oui- blessing that a perfect              to imagine that it has again been placed under the
 love would give is the portion that ought to be given.               yoke of  t.he schoolmaster.
 To the extent, it seems to me, that what we give is less                Let us now pass on to the proposition under d:
 than this portion, do we default and is our love im-                 "The emeritus minister must be provided for not by
 perfect. Because our love is imperfect we always fall the denomination of churches but by the local brother-
 short.                                                               hood  whose pastor he is and remains. This has always
       Our liberty is no license for sin. Our being allowed been the  view  of the Reformed churches. It is the view
 to compute by ourselves our portion does not spell                   coming to the surface in Article 13:" The church
 guiltlessness for us in the event we default. Freedom which they (the emeriti ministers) have served shall
 therefore is the undoing of the man without love. But provide honorably for them in their need," so reads
 only when we love are we truly free also in o,ur giving;             the second half of this article. The church here is not
 for love rejoiceth in the truth. Where love is wanting,              a denomination of churches (our Reformed fathers
 the spirit, though outwardly freed from the yoke of never  held to this view) but the local brotherhood.
 the law, is still in bondage to fear and therefore not               In agreement herewith, the synod of Utrecht, 1905,
 free. A free-will offering in the true sense can only                declared : "De verplichting tot het uitkeeren van  pen-
 be made by one who loves. The others though they                     sioen rust, evenals de verplichting tot de uitkeering
 rejoice by reason of the fact that in their giving they              van tractement, op de plaatselij ke kerk, aan welke
 are no longer being fettered by an objective law cir-                de predikant verbonden is of laatstelijk verbonden
 cumscribing in numbers the portion that must be                      was." The view here expressed is the only tenable one.
 given, should weep; for they having no love are still                The pastor must be cared for by his flock; and whereas
 bound.                                                               the flock is not the denomination of churches but the
       But if matters stand thus, if the right to compute local brotherhood, the latter is the only body that can
 the portion .that must be set aside for the service, now             be held financially responsible for the stipend turned
 belongs to the believer, is not the budget system an                 out to the emeritus minister. In the event the local
 innovation that stands for a departure from right                    brotherhood is unable to meet this obligation unaided,
 principle? It is this, as often as it is representative              it must be helped by the other churches ; but sound
' of the triple action consisting in a consistory com-                principle forbids that the retired minister be cast upon
 puting for the member his portion, in saying to the                  the care of the denomination. Yet this is being done
 member, this sum thou shalt give, and in threatening by the Christian Reformed churches here in America.
 the member with censure with a view to frightening                   These churches maintain an Emeritus Fund from
 him into complying. If the budget be put to this use,                which adequate aid is rendered not to the churches -
 it deserves to be called an instrument of darkness in-               supporting emeritus ministers but to the ministers
 deed. An enlightened and  conscientious  consistory re-              directly. Every synodical  meeting, so the rule reads,
 coils from such action ; for it understands that to place            determines the budget for the Emeritus Fund and de-
 the flock under a yoke of this nature is to entangle it              termines what each  Classis,  proportionate to the  unm-
 again with the yoke of bondage. Under a yoke of this                 ber of families, is to raise for this fund. Synod appoints
 kind the flock must refuse to come, and must stand fast              a committee of five persons to whose care the adminis-
 in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made it free.                   tration of this fund is committed. This committee
 If a rightminded consistory opens a budget, it does so               consists of two ministers and three other members.
 with the sole purpose of encouraging systematic giving,              It is to be incorporated as `The Board of the Emeritus
 of placing the flock in a position to appraise and ap-, Fund of the Christian Reformed Church of America.'
 prove suggested estimates, and of making it possible                 Every  classis determines, subject to the approval of
 for the flock to give with a  definite  need before its eye.         synod, the amount to be disbursed to those persons
 The amount that each member is in duty bound to offer                that by it have been emeritated. The action these
 is not the dollar or dollar and a quarter that the budget            rules call for will not do. The emeritus minister is
 calls for, but an amount equal to the sum that he would either by the churches following it i-egarded  as sustain-
 be giving, if he gave as the Lord blessed him. If the                ing the relation of pastor to the membership of the
 member is abundantly blessed with material substance,                entire denomination of churches and if so the order
 this sum is, ought to be, much larger than the amount                is collegialistic or he is treated as if he were an object
 called for by t.he budget. If'the member is a man of of charity.
 very moderate means the sum will be smaller than the
 amount called for by the budget, perhaps much smaller.                                                            G. M. 0.
                                                                 .


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Vol. X, No. 2                                                             OCTOBER  15,1933                                  Subscription Price, $2.50




                                                                                               Faith founded on it shall never be ashamed. Hope,
                             Saved By His Life                                             appealing to it, can never be disappointed.
                                                                                               Blessed cross of Calvary !
                                     For if, when we were enemies, we were
                                   reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
                                   much more, being reconciled, we shall be
                                   saved by His life.
                                                                       Rom.  5:lO.             And hope maketh not ashamed !
       0, blessed cross of Jesus, my Lord!                                                     Such is the testimony of that cross, by which the
       Rock of my faith, ground of my hope, reason and                                     love of God is manifested to you and to me!
object of all my glorying!                                                                     Manifested, mark, not to the world, for it seeth
       Glorious shaft of heavenly light piercing my night                                  Him not and knoweth Him not and it loveth the dark-
of sin and .shame,  of death and misery; light divine,                                     ness rather than the light. Neither manifest to us as
manifesting to me the love of God, the love wherewith                                      by nature we are dead through trespasses and sins.
He loved me, when I was yet an enemy ; light eternal,                                      But solely by the grace of Him that manifested His
reaching out for_ me in. the darkness of this present                                      love in the cross of the Beloved and manifest to them
time, revealing the mystery of God's sovereign counsel,                                    to whom He will reveal it!
His purpose to draw me out of the mire and lift me                                             For, love, the love of God is manifested in the cross.
up into the blessed glory of His heavenly taber-                                               And love, the love of God, that very love that shines
nacle! . . . .                                                                             forth from the bloody and accursed tree of Golgotha, is
       Behold, what manner of love!                                                        shed abroad, is poured forth into our hearts, so that
       For, in this was manifested the love of God toward we know that marvelous love, taste it as comprehend-
us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into                                       ing us, rejoice in its wonderful riches, experience it as
the world, that we might live through Him. And                                             the love that never fails, that will surely freely give us
herein is love, not that we loved God,  .but that He loved                                 all things . . . .
us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our                                            And from the root of that love of God, shed abroad
sins !                                                                                     in our hearts springs, the ever blossoming plant of a
       Blessed love !                                                                      lively hope, reaching forth to final glory, to the in-
       Unchanging love ! Love that can never fail, be-                                     heritance incorruptible.
cause it has its source in Him that loveth only ! Love                                         It is an assured expectation and an earnest long-
incomparable !                                                                             ing, for it lays hold of the testimony of the love of
       For; when we were yet without strength, in due                                      God, manifested in the cross of Jesus.
time Christ died for the ungodly. And scarcely will                                            When we were enemies, God reconciled us, we know
man die for righteous man. But God commendeth His                                          and taste, by the death of His Son!
love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners,                                             Much more, being reconciled shall we be saved by
Christ died for us.                                                                        His life !
      Sue6 love, as manifested in Immanuei's cross, can                                        The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts!
never fail nor cease !                                                       ._.      -    ) _ Hope cannot make ashamed !


26                                     T H E   S T A N D
--._ - -             "..."  ^..___    .-...... - --.-.    ^- A R D   B E A R E R
                                                             - -                _-_ __-.____- ~______._II  .-..--  - ..__
      Saved by His life !                                      His sanctuary.            Saved personally and clothed with
      We shull be, sometime in the future; we. shall be,       ethical, spiritual, heavenly perfection, with perfection
there is no doubt about it; we shall be saved by the           of body and soul saved in the fellowship of  al1 the
life of the living Lord, that was dead and is alive again      saints, of the perfected Body of our Lord, the fulness
and* liveth forevermore !                                      of Him that fllleth all in all. Saved with all things,
      Such is the testimony of the Iove of God, revealed       with the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that
in the cross, shed abroad in our hearts.                       never fadeth away, in the final manifestation of the
      0, surely, we are saved even now, for God hath           Kingdom, in the new heavens and the new earth, the
reconciled us through the death of His Son; He pro-            final realization of the Promise for which we have
claimed the word of reconciliation to us; He carried           hoped . . . .
the word of reconciliation into our very heart, en-                   Saved with so glorious a salvation, that all the
lightening our minds, opening our eyes that we might           former sorrows shall be forgotten and God shall wipe
see and our ears that we might hear, and we saw and            away al1 tears from our eyes . . . .
heard and understood eternal mysteries of love, of                    For, the former things shall then be no more.
mercy and grace, of righteousness and forgiveness of                  And there shall be no night there!
sin, of adoption unto children of God ; and we re-                    No shadow of death !
pented and believed. We beheld Him, the God of our                    We shall be saved. Saved by His life. By the life
salvation in the face of Christ Jesus, at the cross, in        of Jesus, our Lord !
the resurrection; and we were born again unto a lively                For, He lives !
hope by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.                      Through His death, because of His death, on ac-
Surely, we are saved, for He liveth and we live through        count of His death, are we saved, but we must be saved
and in Him !                                                   by and in His life. The cross  aIone  could not save us
      But we also shall be saved . . . .                       and make us heirs of life and glory. The cross and
      As yet it is all in part; we are saved in hope; we       the resurrection, His death and His life,  His life
have the first-fruits of the Spirit; we have a taste of        through death,  - they are inseparable and together
the glory that lies beyond, an earthly vision of heaven-       they are the manifestation of the power of the love of
ly things . . . .                                              God. It is by His life that we must be saved . . . .
      And by virtue of that foretaste of eternal and per-             And He lives !
fect blessedness, because of those first-fruits of the                Lives, no more in the likeness of the sinful flesh;
Spirit, which are an earnest of the final and full in-         no more in the world ; no more bearing the image of
heritance, our soul stretches itself in longing for the        the earthly; but in the likeness of perfection, in
manifestation of the glory of the children of God. We heavenly glory, with the life of the resurrection, life
know that we are saved and, therefore, we know too             eternal !
that we are not yet saved. We rejoice in our salvation                And we live in Him, by Him, through Him.
and for that very reason we long for it. We are per-                   For He received the Spirit and Himself became
feet and because of it we yearn for perfection and be-         the life-giving Spirit. And He dwells in us, lives in us
moan our imperfection. Righteous we are and, there-            and we in Him . . .  ;  -                 -~
fore, we hunger and thirst for righteousness; holy we                  So that it is no more we that live, but Christ living
are and by virtue of our holiness we long for perfect          in us.
sanctification. We live and we long for life. We are                  And by His life we shall be saved!
set in heaven with Christ and, therefore, we seek the                  His life He. will impart to us, to our soul, to our
things that are above. Citizens of Jerusalem we have mortal body, tilf we shall be Iike Him . . . .
become and always to be in Jerusalem is the desire of                 Heirs of eternal glory !
our heart. By  hope,we  are saved, and therefore, we
groan, waiting *for the final adoption, to wit the re-
demption of our bodies. For hope that is seen is not
hope . . . .
      We shall be saved !                                              Blessed cross on Calvary's brow!
      Saved so, that we shall be perfectly delivered from              Ground of all my boasting! Foundation of my
a11 the power of sin and corruption and death, from the        h o p e !
very last stain of defilement, from every spot and                     For, it tells me of the love of God, wherewith He
blemish; delivered from all the terror of death, of            loved me from before the foundation of the world ; for,
darkness, of the power of opposition in this present           He reconciled me, while I was His enemy, through the
world, from  a11 reproach and mockery, from all shame          death of His Son ! . . . .
and derision, from all suffering and sorrow. Saved so,                 We were reconciled to God, not He to us. He can-
that we shall be delivered, too, from all that is earthy,      not be reconciled, for He is eternal, unchangeable, from
that hinders us to see face to face and to know as we          everlasting to everlasting the same. In Him there is
are known, and to behold the beauty of the Lord in                  no variableness, neither shadow of turning. And .as


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         27
     ---.-..^      ..-___-- 11_.-.-"_--.. "-..                                            -
      He is, so is His love. He loved us sovereignly, freely.    never doubting, never wavering, always rejoicing to do
      His love is first. It is not the result of anything out- the will of the Father; tasting death as no man could
'     side of Him, it is not based on anything in us. It is      taste it, giving infinite value to His perfect offering. . .
      not the final outcome, but the ultimate source of our          For us! For, as  ,our Head He had been ordained,
      salvation. He does not love us, because we were recon- He suffered, died !
      ciled ; but He reconciled us, because He loved us.
      Reconciliation is not the basis upon which He loves us,        The perfect answer He gave to God's : Love Me !
      but the manifestation of His love.                             And by Him God reconciled us to Himself, trans-
         We were reconciled.                                     ferring us from the state of our guilt and damnation to
         Not we are, He is the author of our reconciliation.     that of perfect righteousness!
     We did not reconcile ourselves ; He reconciled us to            The righteousness of God !
      Himself.                                                       Glorious manifestation of the love of God!
         For, there was no other way. Reconciliation to God          Blessed cross of Jesus, my Lord !
     implies the removal of a11 that makes us children of            Much more then !
     wrath because of sin. It means the blotting out of the          We shall be saved by His life, once being recon-
     handwriting of sin that was against us. And sin can- ciled !
     not be blotted out except through the removal of the            No, hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of
     guilt of sin. And the  guilt of sin cannot be removed,      God, that marvelous, that never failing, that ail-giving,
     except through the satisfaction of the unchangeable         that incomprehensibly wide and deep, that incompar-
     justice of God. And the justice of God cannot be satis- able love of God, that was manifested on Calvary's
     fied except by an offering, a perfect offering, an ade-     brow, in that bloody tree, was shed abroad in our
     quate offering. Not the mere passive bearing of the         hearts.
     punishment can ever atone for sin. There is no atone-          That love we know, we taste, we experience  ; and
     ment in hell. But the active suffering of love, the sacri- we taste it exactly as such a love that was mindful of
     fice of obedience to the Most High, and, therefore, the     us while we were yet enemies!
     perfect sacrifice, by which the Offerer would oppose           Much more then !
     the terrible No of sin by His perfect Yes is the price         Not, indeed, as if the one were more difficult for
     of reconciliation to God !                                  God or more certain with Him than the other. Not
         And it is God that reconciled us!                       less divine, nor less marvelous and incomprehensible
         Through the death of His Son !                          is the work of God, whereby He draws us out of death
         We could not, for how could we bring the perfect        into life and presently shall save us to the full, glorify-
     sacrifice that is able to blot out the guilt of our own     ing us with the eternal glory of our Lord, than is the
     sin? And where could we find the offering that might Iove He manifested, when He reconciled us to Himself
     atone for the sin of us all ? Had we been our own by the death of His Son. But surely, much more
     party over against the living God, we must needs have easily for us to conceive and to beIieve  it is, that we
     died in our sin forever. For, what could we do but shall be saved by His life now we are reconciled, than
     ix%2ease  our guilt day by day? And who or what             it is to appropriate that He would. reconcile us by the
     would atone for our terrible sin against the infinite       death of His Son, while we were enemies. Much more,
     majesty of the Most High?                                   because the one follows from the other: He died that
        Neither would we !                                       we might live and be saved, because the love that loved
        For, mark you well, the text emphasizes, not that        while we were enemies, will love us unto the end ;
     we were guilty, not that we were wholly incapable of        because, He that did not hesitate to give His Son into
     satisfying the justice of God, but that we were God's       death, that we might be reconciled and live, shall not
     enemies !                                                   fail to save us to the full through the life of His Son,
        Guilty and corrupt we were, but in our corruption        now we are reconciled !
     we foolishly gloried. Departed we had from the living          For, note the awful contrast!
     God, the sole Fount of all good, not only, but brutishly       We were enemies and He loved us! We hated Him
     we rejoiced in our death and misery. We hated God!          and He gave His Son ! We gloated in our rebellion
     Never would we have thought of returning to Him.            and He sent His Son into death for us! We would
     The desire to be reconciled to Him was far from our         never return to Him, and He reconciled us!
     wicked heart . . . .                                           And through the power of the cross the contrast
        While we were enemies!          .                        is obliterated. We are reconciled, His love is shed
        God reconciled us!                                       abroad in our hearts, we seek Him . . . .
        And He did so through the death of His Son !                And hope for His salvation ! Surely, we shall be
        In His Son He entered into our flesh and blood; in saved by His life !
     our flesh and blood He descended into our death; and in        Much more than we were reconciled by His death!
     our death the Son, God of God, Immanuel, our Lord,             Glorious cross of Christ, my Lord !
     brought the perfect sacrifice of absolute obedience,                                                         H. H.


28                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
--... ..- --.... ^^^        __       -___I"    -.-._ .._. -.-.--.-.-                                     --..,._ - ".._^_" -....-
                                                                 ever so humble, there is no place like home.               The
                                                                 closest earthly, human relationships are formed and
                                                                 sustained and enjoyed in our "house". There are the
lL?eLz- -1
                                                     -..-- love-relations of man and wife, of parent and children,
                                                                 of brothers and sisters. The home is a man's earthly
      When Thou  Sittest In Thy House                            sanctuary.      It is his haven of rest after a day of
                                                                 strenuous toil. His home is strictly private. Into his
      The season is there again, when more than in the           home he wishes no one to intrude.
\\-eeks  and months of summer-vacations, our attention                  And the text draws before our mind the picture
is concentrated upon the instruction of our covenant-            of such a home and of the actual enjoyment of home-
children.                                                        life. When thou  sittest in thy house! The parent is
      Schools that have been closed for several weeks            at home, and he is not nervously pacing the floor or
have again opened their doors and resumed their work             busy with all kinds of outside work, but he is at leisure.
of training the young.                                           And he is not sitting in his house alone, but his chil-
      Catechism classes are again conducted to instruct          dren are with him! For the text speaks of his instruc-
the children of the Church in "the aforesaid doctrine",          tion to his children. The family, therefore, is together.
that they may be founded in the truth. Sunday schools            A picture that is much more rare in our modern world,
are prepared to add their efforts to those of the Church         even including the people of God, than it was among
and of the School to instruct the children of the cove-          Israel of old. Partly, no doubt, this is due to the fact,
nant in the knowledge of the Word.                               that life in all its forms is different from the life of
      And the long winter-evenings are more adapted              Israel in the promised land. Our life has become much
than the sultry summer-nights to home- and family-               more public.       Many matters, much business, many
life, to the "sitting in our house", so that also in the         meetings, draw us away from home, sometimes every
home special attention may be paid to the bringing up            evening of the week. Some of this cannot be helped.
of the children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.          Much of it is also beneficial. It is a joy to see our
      Home-instruction is fundamental! `Let us never             young people make the Church their central meeting
forget it! The instruction a child receives at home is           place, where they congregate to be instructed in
basic with respect to all other instruction, and the             doctrine, to enjoy one-another's fellowship in society-
character of his bringing up at home reflects itself             life, to sing, to discuss the Word of God and to pray.
in his manifestation everywhere else, in Church, in Yet, even good things can be overdone and thus be-
Catechism, in Sunday school and in the Primary School.           come harmful. All these things ought not to destroy
It is true, that we cannot easily over-estimate the value        our home-life. There should be time, especially in the
of a Christian education throughout, in Church and               winter-months with its long evenings, when every-
School as well as at home. It is equally true, that the          thing beckons us to stay inside and gather around the
danger is not imaginary, now we have so many institu-            home-hearth, to "sit in our house". And we need not
tions for the purpose of instructing our children out-           emphasize that the pleasures, which draw the people
side of the home, that we trust too much in those                of the world from their fireside, should have no attrac-
institutions, as if they could bear the entire burden of tion for the people of God whatever.
responsibility, and that we grow negligent with respect                 But there is more.
to the bringing up of our children at home.                             Even when we do sit in our house, and even when
      Scripture emphasizes the need of home-instruction.         the whole family is at home an evening, we often do
Ultimately it places the responsibility for the educa-           not enjoy family-life and fellowship. Many a family
tion of our children upon the parent.                            might just as well go out and spend the evening else-
      Beautifully and very emphatically this is expressed        where, as to sit in their house, as far as actual  home-
in the well-known injunction to Israel: "And thou                life is concerned. Such is the case, to mention just
shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, when one of our modern habits, when, as soon as supper is
thou  sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by              finished the radio is turned on and we open our home
the way ; when thou liest down and when thou rise,&              to the outside world until it is time to retire for the
up?" Deut. 63.                                                   night.      Regardless now of the question as to the
      When thou sittest in thy house !                           material we re&eive  over the radio and the character
      A wonderful, and, alas ! a rare picture is brought         of the program to which we listen, the fact is, that to
before our imagination by these words! A man, a                  enjoy the radio is something radically different from
father, a parent, sitting in his house ! Our house is            sitting in our house and enjoying family-life and
not the building in which we dwell, no matter how                fellowship. And thus there are many different things
magnificent an edifice it may be. Our house is our               that might be mentioned in this connection, that pre-
home. And the home consists of the fellowship be-                vent us from actually "sitting in our house" when we
tween the various members of one family. Be it ever              are at home.
so splendid, a mere house is not a home; and be it                      The text draws a different picture.


                                                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                            29
__-"._. ........... .._-......^ -.... -_- .__     _--......._ _ -. .._...." _..---.-  ." _-......._ -.~.                        --_--      .-_ ."_ ..-........- ".". .......^I.......-..... "".."".-..---^  ..3
         Thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children!
         Concretely Scripture here draws before our imag-                                                                    Our' Church Order
ination the attractive picture of a parent, sitting in                                                                       THE  EMERITUS   MINISTER
his house, entirely at leisure, and with the purpose
in his heart to spend an evening at home ; his children                                                        It ought to be plain that wh'en  the churches at large
are with him and sitting about him; snd he is busy                                                          place themselves in the room of a local congregation to
teaching them.                                                                                              assume anancial  responsibility for the pension of an
         Teaching them what?                                                                                emeritus minister,. it departs from right principle.
         Thou shalt teach  them!  That is, the precepts of                                                  The only body from which a pastor can receive his
the Lord our covenant-God. For, this is the first and                                                       emeritation is not the classis or synod, but thk brother-
great commandment: Thou shalt love the Lord, thy                                                            hood whose minister he is. To this body only he can
God, with all thy heart and mind and soul and strength!                                                     sustain the relation of emeritus pastor. This body only
And, therefore, the fear of the Lord is the beginning                                                       can be held responsible for his stipend. If provided
of wisdom, and all instruction is, as to its spiritual-                                                     for by the aggregate of churches, it means that he has
ethical nature, instruction in the Word of God !                                                            been placed in a class with the poor so that the stipend
         And in general it is evident, that Scripture here                                                  he receives is now alms. The denomination is, cannot
places the entire burden of responsibility for the in-                                                      be, his flock. it can therefore care for him only under
struction of the covenant-children upon the shoulders                                                       the stress of a moral obligation. To say that he has a
of the parents.                                       ,                                                     juridical ciaim upon the support of the aggregate of
         Home-instruction is basic.                                                                         churches, is like saying that the denomination is the
         Let us not neglect it!                                                                             institute. As wrong as it would be to hold the churches
                                                                                                            at large responsible for a certain minister's salary, so
                                                                                              H. H.         wrong it is to hold the churches responsible for the
                                                                                                            pension of the emeritus minister. If a congregation by
                                                                                                            itself caonot provide for him, it is needy and as such
                                                                                                            should be aided by the churches at large.
                                                                                                               So, then, the only body that can provide for the
                                                                                                            emeritus minister without denying his prerogatives, is
                                                 TER  KERKE                                                 the local congregation whose pastor he is. This is the
                                                                                                            view of Article 13. It is the view Prof. Rutgers vigor-
                        Sluit de heil'ge poort mij open !                                                   ously defended all his life in the school as professor
                              Laat +j binnen in Gods huis!                                                  and in synodical  gatherings. To a correspondent, who
                        Hier mag ik op blijdschap hopen,
                              Hier vergeet ik leed en kruis,                                                had sent him a copy of a report adopted by a certain
                                                                                                            classis and setting forth opinions that stood opposed
                        Hier zie ik Gods aangezicht,                                                        to the aforesaid view, he wrote: "Ja, wat zal ik U
                              Hier is enkel troost en licht. .                                              daarvan zeggen? Ik sta werkelijk verlegen, als ik uit-
                                                                                                            drukking geven  zal  aan de klimmende verwondering,
                        Heer, Gij zijt tot mij gekomen,                                                     en zelfs verbazing, waarmede ik dat gedrukte rapport
                              Laat mij komen  aan uw zij !                                                  gelezen heb. Doorgaans kan ik denkbeelden  en voor-
                        Waar Gij  intrek hebt genomen                                                       stellingen, die geheel van de mijne afwijken,  tech nog
                              Is de zaligheid nabij.                                                        we1 begrijpen. Maar hier gaan zij inderdaad boven
                        0, vervul mijn hart en zin,                                                         mijn begrip."
                              Wijd ze tot Uw tempel in.                                                        As.was  said, the  view we here broach was adopted
                                                                                                            by the Synod of Utrecht (1905). Soon, however, dis-
                        Laat me u eerbiedig groeten ;                                                       senting voices were heard in several quarters. The
                               Heilig hart en mond en oor;                                                  main objection was that many congregations were
                        Last mij knielen voor Uw voeten ;                                                   financially too weak to provide for two pastors (the
                              Dring mijn lofzang tot U door;                                                regular pastor and the emeritus minister). Whereas
                        Zie mij  aan met liefd'rijk oog;                                                    the "Gereformeerde" churches (of the Netherlands)
                               Trek tot  U mijn hart omhoog.                                                recoiled from forsaking the principle of Article 13, the
                                                                                                            question became how the churches might circumvent
                                                                                                            the objection without abandoning the principle. It was
                        Spreek, o Heer ! Uw knecht wil hooren,                                              advised that this could be done by the churches agree-
                              Houd mijn aandacht steeds geboeid ;                                           ing among themselves to jointly bear the financial
                        Last geen ijdelheid mij storen                                                      burden. Each church could then contribute to a  com-
                               Nu de bron des levens vloeit.                                                mon fund from which the congregation with an  emer-
                        Vader, troost me in allen  nood,                                                    itus minister on, its hands could draw. It seems to me
                               Spijs me met  `Uw hemelbrood.                                                that the principle underlying an action of this nature

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

is thoroughly socialistic. The idea is that the debt and       ister, I wish to add a word to what was written on the
thus also the possessions of the congregation is in the proposition under c : the emeritus minister is no object
juridical sense common property. Aside from this,              of charity ; the material support he receives is there-
nothing is gained ; for why the burden is lighter when         fore no alms, that is, no gift to a poor man, but a
the churches contribute to a common fund than when             stipend to which he has a juridical right. In order
they turn over their donations directly to the needy           to get a clear view of the matter, we must distinguish
church, is hard to see. The entire plan springs from           between the office of minister of the gospel as such
an unwillingness on the part of churches with emeritus and the actual performance of the duties belonging to
ministers to be placed in a class with needy churches.         the office. The sole question is whether the material
      In some large denominations endowment funds              support a minister receives should be conceived of as
have been created not for needy churches with emer- affixed  to the active service or to the office as such. This
itus ministers, but for needy emeritus ministers. This,        is a reasonable question. So it could be asked whether
too, is an overturning of the principle set forth by           the material support a wife receives from her hus-
Article 13. In fine, the only view to take on the              band should be thought of as af-hxed to the active serv-
matter is that the church unable to meet the obligation        ice belonging to wifehood or to wifehood as such.
it has toward its emeritus minister, is a needy church         If the former, it follows that a wife disqualified for
and as such must be helped by the churches at large.           service by reason of sickness or old age loses this sup-
The aid tendered such a church must be classified with         port and is to be cared for by her husband as one who,
alms and thus with gifts to which it has a moral right         according to her status, is  a+poor  woman ,and thus the
only. All other methods are so many expedients repre- object of her husband's charity. Not so, however, if
senting departures from right principle. As it seems           this stipend be regarded as afhxed not to her active
to be a disgrace to be poor (it is not a disgrace to be        duties out of her wifehood. And so it must be re-
poor, if poverty  is not the result of a previous wanton garded.         It means that, whereas her status never
life) we may not like this. But the question is not            changes, that is, whereas she remains the wife of her
what we like but what is truth. We must like truth             husband as long as she lives, she retains her claim upon
and right action.                                              her husband's substance also when invalidated by sick-
      The ideal then is that an emeritus minister keep         ness or old ag? so that the support she continues to
himself to his flock and continue to perform as many           receive is no alms but an allotment upon which she con-
of the duties belonging to his  office as his strength will    tinues to have a legal claim. This, of course, every
allow. In that final lapse of his career he should re-         right-minded person is quite ready to admit. An in-
frain, it seems to me, from taking up his residence else-      validated wife, cared for by her husband as on who
where with a view to spending the remaining years of           according to her status is now a poor woman, is a cast-
his life in idleness. If completely disqualified for serv-     off wife. So it is with the minister of the gospel. The
ice, he -is entitled to a complete rest.      But why a        material .support  he receives from his flock was afhxed
capable and healthy old minister should be set free            by the Lord God not to his active service but to the
from all the duties belonging to his office, is hard to        office  $0 that even as one retired by reason of sickness
see. Keeping himself to his flock, co-operating with           or old age he retains his hold upon the material sub-
the younger minister who now stands in his room,               stance of the flock from whom he receives his emerita-
making himself useful to his people, he will not be            tion. To care for him as one who according to his
abandoned by his flock in which is the love of God.            status is a poor man, is to depose him from office. The
Breaking away from his fold, he becomes more or less           statement, "The disqualified minister retains the name
of an abstraction to the churches. The people can be           and honor of his office," and the statement, "The emer-
expected to abandon abstractions. If the above order itus minister loses his legal claim upon the support of
were followed, the troubles of the emeritus minister the flock and thus becomes as to his status a poor man,"
would disappear into thin air. An aged minister and            are contradictory. If the former be true, the latter is
his wife can get along on comparatively little and             false; if the latter be true, the former is false. Both
would not become to a church a burden so heavy as to           cannot be true. If the emeritus minister retains the
warrant a departure from right principle. But we               name and honor of his office, he must retain his claim
realize that sin renders right order, however excellent        upon the support of the flock for the reason that this
by itself, unpracticable to the flesh. Aside from this,        support was attached to the office. If, on the other
the condition of a minister may be such as to warrant          hand, he loses this claim, he is no longer in office and
a change of residence. He may be an invalid and alone,         emeritation spells deposition. But it has been shown
and the persons capable of caring for him may live             that he does retain the name and honor of his office
elsewhere. Still other considerations enter in here.           and thus his legal claim upon the support of the flock.
But the order suggested above should be the rule.                 But can it be maintained that this support has been
Providing for an emeritus minister also implies                affixed by the Lord not to the active service but to the
providing for his dependents.                                  office? This has been proven. It was shown that the
      Before taking leave of the subject of emeritus min-      Levite possessed by divine statute the tenths as an


                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              3 1
---.--                                  ".."^_-                .---.--.                                       --_
inheritance forever, that this allotment was his as long
as he lived thus also during the years of his retirement.                      De Onderstelling
It was an allotment therefore attached not to the active          Hetgeen we de laatste  maal schreven, n.l., dat Ds.
service but to the office.                                     Diermanse, als hij beweert, dat het standpunt onzei
   Let no one say that we here draw wrong  con-                Belijdenisschriften eensdeels dat der veronderstelde
elusions. What we have to do with here are principles          wedergeboorte is, andersdeels dit standpunt  tech  last
of truth that abided. Consider that the priest had to varen, niet rekent met het feit, dat onze Belijdenis-
stand before. the Lord to minister unto Him and to             schriften tech ten slotte Pen zijn, en dat daarom de
bless His name unto this day. He might never abandon opstellers dier Belijdenisschriften zeker niet de  tegen-
his office in the interest of a secular pursuit. The same stelling, waarop Ds. Diermanse wijst, hebben bedoeld
is true of the minister of the Gospel. Further, the            of aanvaard, heeft de geachte schrijver zelf ook we1
priest might have no part or inheritance in Israel,            gevoeld,  doch hij meent desniettegenstaande, dat de  on-
Deut.  X3:1. It was unlawful for him to provide for verzoenbare tegenstelling werkelijkheid is en dat de
himself. So, too, the minister of the gospel. This has eene reeks van uitspraken behoort te worden  gewijzigd
been proven. So far then the lines run parallel and co- in den geest van de andere. Hij tech schrijft in hfdst.
incide at every point. The last point is that as the           6, p. 131: "Men zou kunnen zeggen: maar dat de be-
stipend of the Levite, so the stipend of the minister of teekende zaak niet ten deel valt  aan de `goddeloozen,'
the gospel, it is atied  not to the active service but         niet  aan al de kerkleden, dit wordt tech ingesloten ook
to the office. Why should the two lines diverge at this gezegd van den Doop, en  we1 niet in de gedeelten, die
point only while coinciding at all the rest.                   gaan over den Doop, en  zelfs niet in die van beide sacra-
    So I have written on this matter at some length.           menten samen, maar tech verscholen ingesloten in den
The reason I did so is, of course, not the minister; is tekst van het artikel over het Avondmaal. Maar daar
not the notion that it is a disgrace for a minister to. staat het dan ook we1 duidelijk. En immers, dit heeft
receive alms. How could it be if he is one who all his nu ook vanzelf, behoort te hebben zijn wettige  erken-
life faithfully devoted himself exclusively to the serv- ning en toepassing op het stuk van den Doop ! Echter,
ice, and with a view to setting the flock an example           hierop moet geantwoord,  dat,het  opvallend is, dat niet
made it a point to also treasure up for the service as alleen in de gedeelten over de sacramenten zelf,  hier-
the Lord had blessed him so that he arrived at the             over gezwegen wordt, maar dat nu dit zwijgen wordt
end of his active career a penniless man? If our de-           voortgezet door een zwijgen daarover ook in al de  uit-
lineations turned upon the minister, it would have been spraken over den Doop in het bijzonder, die alzoo in
better we had kept silence. The reason is not the              het oogloopend zich hierbij aansluiten. En zonder eeni-
minister but the flock. When a flock insists that the          ge wankeling wordt dit ook voortgezet in de wijze
stipend it tenders a disqualified minister is alms, it         waarop hier bepaald de te doopen kinderen  voorkomen.
virtually deposes him from office and cast him aside.          En dit alles vindt ten slotte dan zijn ontwijfelbare  be-
It is to be remembered that the pastor, notwithstand-          vestiging ja goedkeuring in den inhoud van de beide
ing all his shortcomings and imperfections, is, if truly Doopsformulieren, waarin wij tech als vanzelf voor ons
called of God, Christ's very own gift unto His church.         vinden de practisch-kerkelijke toepassing van de be-
To throw this gift aside because worn and broken is to         doeling der kerkelijke belijdenis betreffende den
commit a wrong. It is a question here not of the min-          Doop."
ister but of God's will. This will of God in respect               Dit is echter  niet overtuigend. De geachte schrij-
to the matter under consideration i,s plain. And this          ver  zegt, dat het "verscholen  ingesloten"  ligt in den
will cannot be trampled upon with impunity.                    tekst van het artikel over het heilig  avondmaal,  dat
                                                               niet alle kerkleden, dat niet de goddeloozen de  betee-
                                                   G. M. 0.    kenende zaak van het Sacrament ontvangen. Ik zou
                                                               staande .houden,  dat dit duidelijk is uitgedrukt in de
                                                               woorden : "Voorts,  hoewel de sacramenten met de  be-
                                                               teekenende zaken tezamen gevoegd zijn, zoo  worden  zij
                                                               nochtans met deze twee zaken door  allen niet  ontvan-
    Consider that all which appears beautiful out- gen. De goddelooze ontvangt wel het sacrament tot
wardly, is solely derived from the invisible Spirit            zijn verdoemenis, maar hij ontvangt niet de waarheid
which is the source of that external beauty, and say           des sacraments; gelijk als Judas en Simon de toove-
joyfully, "Behold, these are streamlets from the un-           naar beiden we1 het sacrament ontvingen, maar niet
created Fountain ; behold, these are drops from the            Christus die door datzelve beteekend wordt, welke den
 infinite Ocean of all good ! Oh ! how does my inmost geloovige alleen medegedeeld wordt." Duidelijker  zou
                                                               het tech moeilijk kunnen worden  gezegd, en dat niet
heart rejoice at the thought of that eternal, infinite slechts van het Avondmaal, maar ook van den  Doop.
 Beauty, which is the source and origin of all created         Het artikel spreekt hier immers van de sacramenten en
 beauty  !"                                                     het sacrament in het algemeen. En niet minder dui-


42                                           T H E   STAND~ARD   B E A R E R
-_-                                                ___--         -......  "..~...                 _...........  -".--______---
uitgedragen worden  naar onze laatste rustplaats, en                   May the Lord bless Rev. Vos and family and give them
we van uit dit aardsche Bethel mogen opklimmen langs                   to be a continual blessing for us.
de ladder Jacobs naar ons eeuwig huis.                                       Well, there is plenty work for him to do. House
       En nu laat  zich een kerk, of liever gemeente, zonder           visitation was started soon after he returned and for
een leeraar moeilijk  denken.  Een gemeente zonder                     four weeks he met us with the elders in our homes. TO
leeraar is als `t ware gelijk  aan  kinderen  zonder                   inquire after the spiritual state of our souls. Also the
ouders. En nu hebben wij het groote voorrecht een societies and the Young People's meeting has started
herder en leeraar te bezitten voor dat we een eigen                    after a summer's vacation. Also the catechisms are
huis  hadden.         En thans, geliefde leeraar, moogt ge             started again, by the time this will reach you. Rev. VOS
met ons  intrek  nemen in ons bedehuis, alwaar ge zoo                  was also elected board member of the local Christian
we hopen en bidden, nog vele jaren  ons moogt leeren                   school. Some more work for him and more work for
en leiden op den weg des heils, waar ge den  recht-                    the Master. That He give grace to do it always to
vaardige zult aanzeggen, dat het hem we1 zal gaan,                     His honor.
doch ook den goddelooze dat het hem kwalijk zal gaan.                        And Labor Day we. had a Mission Day. An all-day
Waar ge tot den een een woord van troost zult spre-                    meeting. We met with the Los Angeles congregation
ken, doch voor den ander een woord van bestraffing                     in Sylvan Park in Redlands. Two fine addresses were
zult hebben.                                                           given. One by Rev. Cammenga and one by Rev. Vos.
       Ook in dit huis zal voor den een de prediking des               A collection was taken for the Missions and surely we
Evangelies een reuke des levens ten leven zijn, doch                   had a blessed day. Every member of our church was
voor den  ander een reuke des doods ten  doode.  Een                   there and quite a few strangers. And the Spirit of love
door velen gezochte, maar nog nooit gevonden midden-                   and unity was there. Such meetings are encouraging
weg is er niet. Dat dan gelijk als in het verleden  uw                 both for the pastors and for the people. The good
bazuin nooit een onzeker geluid mag geven, maar ge                     influence is great. To have all the families there with
als een dienstknecht des Heeren alleen zijn werk moogt                 all their children both young and old. It is almost un-
verrichten, en de gemeente die u thans dient, mede                     heard of. And then together to enjoy the great works
door uwe prediking moge worden  opgebouwd in het                       of God in nature and grace. What a blessing ! How
allerheiligst geloof, opdat waar we thans nog gebonden                 good it is that they also dwell together.
zijn  aan `t stof, en onze woning nog zoeken in aard-                        Surely, it fills our hearts with thanksgiving to our
sche tabernakelen, we hiernamaals mogen ontvangen                      Lord, Who gave us all this in Redlands. And what a
een huis niet met  handen  gemaakt maar eeuwig in de                   hope for the future, for our young people who need
hemelen.  Ps C. 19`7
                         
                      Id.-3
                               *                                       guiding and who are very willing to follow our leaders.
                                                                       And finally what a testimony for the world ! To see
                                                                       God's people bound to one another in love and unity,
                                                                       sharing one another's burdens. And testifying herein
                                                                       that we are His children. Sure the world does notice
                                    Redlands, Cal. Sept. 11, 1933.     such things. More than once has  i$ been said to me:
                                                                       How these church-people are united and how they do
Dear Rev. Hoeksema:-                                                   appreciate one another. May this ever continue, yes,
       May I use a letter-space in the Standard Bearer for even increase. To the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
some California news ? Thank you.                                             I thought it would be good news for our churches
       First of all let me tell you, that the Redlands Pro-            to hear such tidings. Therefore I wrote to you.
testant Reformed congregation was glad to have Rev.                                     Your brother in the Lord,
and Mrs. Vos and their family here in Redlands  again.
They arrived in good health from a five-week's vaca-                                                                 Barney Leest.
tion spent in Michigan, where Mrs. Vos was operated.
       We had a welcome-home meeting for them and
with them, giving thanks to our heavenly Father for
His care and guiding. Words of welcome were spoken
and hearty handshakes were given. It was altogether                         `To the many friends and neighbors who helped so kindly
a wholehearted welcome home for them. And the whole at the time of the death of our dear Mother,
congregation was there. "Blessed be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love."                                                             MRS. KATE DEKKER,
       And where hearts and minds are thus opened by and to all who by word and deed have shown their sympathy
the Holy Spirit of God, there we are ready to receive                  in our hour of bereavement, we wish to express our sincere
the word of instruction and of admonition and of com- appreciation.
fort again. And those words are appreciated. His                            Nothing can repay the kindness our friends have shown us
sermons we listen to with attentive ears. We notice during these dark days.
that there is joy and happiness experienced by many.                                                                  The Children


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                     43
  -.,---                 ..-._- --_.. ^^^^                                 "--       ..^  .._
                                                                 salem  is Christ's exclusively. He bought her with His
        Calvin College, Or Jerusalem                             own precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all her sins,
                     And Athens                                  and delivered her from all the power of the devil, of
                                                                 Athens.
     So reads the subject of Dr. R. Stob's inaugural ad-             Jerusalem cannot love and serve Athens and Christ.
  dress. "What then is and should be the relation be-            Either she loves Athens and hates Christ or she loves
  tween Jerusalem and Athens?' asked the doctor. And             Christ and hates Athens. For between Athens and
  his answer: "In opposition, then, to both those who            Christ there is no fellowship, no communion, no con-
  advocate a companionship marriage and those who be- cord, no agreement; for Christ is righteousness and
  lieve in the divorce of Jerusalem and Athens we main- Athens is unrighteousness ; Christ is light and Athens
  tain that the two should dwell together in holy matri- is darkness ; Christ is the temple of God and Athens is
  mony. These two shall dwell together in peace and              an idol. The doctor knows this. He told his audience
  harmony within the walls of Calvin College in order            that "Jerusalem signifies to you and me the truth given
  that the -whole  man may be equipped for the true serv-        by God Himself in a special way. It means therefore
  ice of  God.* They shall dwell together as a unit, mani-       the true religion and the true religious concepts. It
  festing a oneness that can be attained only in Christ          stands therefore for absoluteness and  finality.  God
  and by His grace."                                             hath spoken. Thus saith the Lord. I am the truth."
     Here we have it. Jerusalem and Athens must be               The doctor continued : "Turning now to Athens, we
  joined in holy wedlock. For more than one reason               find that in the realm of the spirit it signifies some-
  the question may be put whether such a joining is pos-         thing else. No one goes to Athens for true religion.
  sible. Consider that Athens is on earth and that Jeru-         The apostle Paul is unspeakably shocked and dismayed
  salem is above. Attend to this Scripture taken from            to read on an altar the inscription, `To the unknown
  the Hebrews : "But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and             God.' "
  unto the city of the living -God, the heavenly Jerusa-             But if matters stand thus, Jerusalem much choose.
  lem . . . .  ") Heb.  12:22. Then there is this Scrip-          And she chooses Christ forever because He first chose
  ture from the pen of Paul:  "&t:  Jeru.salem   which is         her.
  ubove is free and the mother of us all," Gal.  4:26.               Jerusalem and Athens shall dwell together in holy
  Would the doctor bring down Jerusalem from heaven               matrimony?      How preposterous ! How unspeakably
  and lead her to a husband? Doth she than abide                  horrible the idea ! Is Athens holy? No, said the doctor,
  solitary? Not so ! The bride of Christ is she. With             not holy, but glorious. And her glory is something else
  Him, her Saviour, she dwelleth in holy matrimony.               than the true religion. Athens' glory .is her natural
  Said He to her by the mouth of His prophet: "And I science, philosophy, ethics, literature, . and art, in a
v will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth         word, Athens' culture. But is glory, that is unholy,
  thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in          true glory? And how can unholy glory and holiness
  loving kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth            be joined in holy wedlock?. The doctor's answer is
  thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the           contained in the following excerpt : "And we also main-
  Lord,"  Hosea   11:19,  20. Has. the doctor no ear for          tain that  no  amount of culture can ever become a sub-
  this speech of Christ to His bride? If so, why then             stitute for the true knowledge of God. This is so be-
  did he in the presence of the chairman, of the honor-           cause all our culture has a meaning before God only
  able members of the board of trustees, of the esteemed          then when it is permeated with His Spirit through
  co-laborers of the faculty, of the students and friends         faith in Christ. Without that it is empty of vital con-
  of Calvin College (such was the composition of the              tent, and becomes as sounding brass and tinkling cym-
  august body addressed) declare it to be his burning             bal."
  desire that Jerusalem might be heard crying out: "I,               The implication of this reasoning is plainly this:
  Jerusalem, will be joined to thee, to thee, 0 lovely            Athens' culture, though glorious, is by itself devoid of
  Athens, in thy pagan culture. 0 Athens, let me hear             the Spirit of God through faith in Christ and thus
  thy voice ! Speak according to my heart ! Say to me,            without vital content. The task of Jerusalem's chil-
  I will betroth thee, 0 Jerusalem! I will betroth thee           dren is therefore to make this culture their own and
  unto me forever. I will even betroth thee unto me in to vitalize and sanctify it by their faith. That I have
  faithfulness: and thou shalt know me, Athens, thy grasped the tenor of the doctor's reasoning is plain
  husband."                                                       from the following: "Therefore our culture, the
      Did at the hearing of this the chairman, the honor- Athens that is among us, must have the specific color-
  able members of the board of trustees, the esteemed  co-        ing of our religion. These two must be brought into
  laborers of the faculty, the students and friends of            rapport in our souls. If this is done, your and my life
  Calvin College, cry out their protests? It seems not,           will be the expression of a real oneness, and a per-
      But what is Jerusalem to do with her lawful hus-            manent peace will ensue." Amazing ! The will of God
  band, Christ? Cast Him off? No? Is Jerusalem than               as I have learned to know it from Scripture is not that
  to have two husbands? But this would not do. Jeru-              the unholy thing be appropriated, and mixed or colored


     44                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D '   B E A R E R
     -__                                                             ___ - . . . .._.. - ..___.....    _- ..._" ..___.._  "."-..~
     with the truth and as so mixed be stored away in the            that calls for a being capable of rational behaviour and
     soul as some precious memory gem, but that the un-              for an object that can be acted upon, such as the soil
     holy thing, the lie, be put off. Attend to this from yielding grain or any object  dealt with by the empiricai
     Paul's pen : "But now put off all these: anger, wrath,          scientist. The term culture properly denotes the cul-
     malice, blasphemy, filthy communications out of your            tural action or labor applied, together with the fruit of
     mouth . . . .  ", Cal. 3  :8; and this: "Wherefor come          labor; the yield of the land (if the cultivator be the
     out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the              tiller of the soil) the information gained, the data
     Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will re-           accumulated, the skill acquired and also the practical
     ceive you . . . .  ", II Cor. 6  :I?.                           use to which this knowledge is put. The cultural man
           The doctor would improve upon, correct Athens'            is said to be him shooled in the sciences and arts.
     culture by coloring it with the truth. This, as I will          Whereas the act reacts upon the doer and when oft
     show in the sequence, has been tried before, many               repeated passes into a habit, the cultivators of the
     times; and the resultant product was always a mon-              more spiritual sciences (philosophy, ethics, history
     strosity.                                                       and the like) develop a certain mentality and elegance
           The doctor told his audience that Jerusalem, though of manner, speeoh andtaste  that the world calls refine-
     she be the capital of the kingdom of God who is light,          ment, which, if he who has it be a man devoid of the
     has by herself no culture; that the cultural center of          life of regeneration, is refined sin. In a word, the
     the universe is Athens, say Babylon, the whore. Let             term culture stands for the entire complex of sciences
     me quote from the written report of the address: "Re- and arts, engagements, attainments and achievements
     stating it, Jerusalem signifies to you and me the truth         of a civilized people.
     given by God Himself in a special way. It means                       The above delineation, I feel certain, contains all
     therefore the true religion and the true religious con-         the elements needed for a  fomnnl  definition of  culture.
     cepts. It stands therefore for absoluteness and final-          The question is whether Jerusalem has by itself cul-
     ity . . . . Turning now to Athens, we  find that in the         ture. What says Christ? Attend to this from His
     realm of the spirit it signifies something else . . . .         lips : "I am the true vine, my Father is the husband-
     that which is designated by the term culture."                  man. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he
           The implication is that Jerusalem by herself has          taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he
     no culture. What! Has that city, blessed common-                purget it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye
     wealth, assembly of just men made perfect, upon whom            <are clean through the word which I haveaspoken  unto
     that being of infinite perfection Who calls Himself             you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot
     God, has written His very name, by itself no culture?           bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no
     What is culture? This the doctor did not say. He                more can ye expect ye abide in me. I am the vine and
     for some reason or other failed to define the very terms        ye are the branches; He that abideth in me, and I in
     upon which his argument turned, such terms as ,phi-             him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without
     losophy, science, culture, religion. What is science?           me ye can do ,nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is
     What is philosophy? What is religion? What is cul-              cast forth as a branch, and is withered ; and men
     ture? W7hat did these terms stand for in the address            gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are
     of the doctor? These certainly are fair questions.              burned . . . . Herein is my Father glorified, that ye
     Take the term  philosophy. The meaning and scope of bear much fruit . . . . ", John 15 :l-8.
     this term have varied considerably according to the                   Has Jerusalem by herself culture? Let us take
     usage of different authors and different ages so that it        our answer from this allegory of the vine and the
     is quite impossible to divide the science denoted by            branches. Culture, I said, calls for a being capable of
     this term in such a way as to command the adhesion              rational action and for an object that can be acted
     of  a11 the philosophic schools.                                upon.           In respect to Jerusalem, this being is the
           Once more, what is culture? Let us see what we            adorable God (my Father is the husbandman) and the
     can do with the dictionary. Culture, from Latin colere,         object, the true vine and the branches (Christ and His
     cultum,  ,to till, to cultivate.                                people). Further, the term  culture  denotes the cul-
1          1. The act or practice of cultivating; cultivation;       tural action, the labor applied, and the fruit of labor.
     application of labor or means in rendering productive,          Respecting Jerusalem, this action is the labor expanded
     in reducing, in refining  and ameliorating, in cherish-         upon Christ's branches by the divine husbandman,
     ing, promoting or advancing ; as the culture of the soil,       God, and the fruit of this labor, the fruit borne by the
     of the mind.                                                    branches who abide in Christ: and  this fruit is the be-
           2. The state of being cultivated; result of cultiva- liever himself, called into being by the word of the
     tion  ; physical improvement  ; enlightenment and disci- divine husbandman, the believer's hope, faith and love,
     pline acquired by mental training; civilization, refine-        his works of love, his praise, his prayer and thanks-
     ment.                                                           giving, his affections, set upon things above, the new
           So, then, the basic meaning of culture is to till. The    man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image
     verb from which the term is derived signifies an action         of him that called him ; the bowels of mercy of this


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   BE'ARER                                                                45
                            -..." . .._.__ -____I  ..__.    " .____ ".^-               " .._.. -..- _-......-...."  ..-.." ._____    _I___.--
man, his kindness, his humbleness of mind, his meek-                        Athens? Athens, too, has culture and her culture is
ness, longsul?ering  and forbearance. .And he shall be                      beautiful. True, but know that the beauty of Athens'
like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth                   culture is the beauty of death ; for Athens, from whose
forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not                      heart and mind this culture issues, is dead through sin.
wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.                              Athens is the world. Athens is Babylon, the whore,
   Jerusalem hath true culture ; and her culture is her                     arrayed it is true (for Babylon hath culture) in purple
righteousness and her salvation, destined to go forth                       and scarlet  colour,  and decked with gold and precious
as brightness and to burn as a lamp. Then Jerusalem stones and pearls, but with a forehead upon which is
will be beautiful with the beauty that is the brightness                    written, Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of
of holiness and the eZulgence  of true goodness. And                        harlots and abominations of the earth, Rev. 18. John
how overpoweringly splendrous her beauty will be:                           saw this woman drunken with the blood of saints, and
"And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high                       with the blood of martyrs of Jesus.
mountain, and  shewed  me that great city, the holy                            Mr. chairman, honorable members of the board of
J,erusalem,  descending out of heaven from God, having trustees, esteemed laborers of the faculty, students and
the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone                       friends of Calvin College, do ye love Babylon? No,
most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as                           but we love  .Babylon's  culture. But the two certainly
crystal; . . . . And the building of the wall of it was                     cannot be separated. Babylon's culture is the effluence
of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like unto clear                      of her very soul.
glass. And the foundations of  t.he /wall  of` the city                        There was a voice, John heard, saying, Babylon the
were garnished with all manner of precious stones . . . .                   great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation
and the twelve gates were twelve pearls: every several                      of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage
gate was of one FearI: and the street of the city was                       of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations
pure gold, as it were transparent glass,"  Rev. 21.                         have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornica-
   But, someone may say, if matters stand thus, the                         tions, and the kings of the earth have committed for-
term  true  culture  is but another term for true religion. nication with her, and the merchants of the earth are
To be sure it is. Jerusalem's culture is her religion,                      waxed rich through ,the abundance of her delicacies.
her salvation, her righteousness, het Christ, her God.                      Verily, Athens has culture !
Say not therefore,  Jerusnlem's  religion and her'  cd-                        There was still another voice, John heard, saying,
turc, but say,  Jerusalem's religion, namely, her culture. ,"Come  out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers
What the doctor held before his audience is a pagan                         of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For
dualism.                                                                    her sins have reached unto heaven, and God  bath re-
   Jerusalem holy and glorious is above ; but of this                       membered her iniquities," Rev. 18.
Jerusalem there is a manifestation on earth, the true                          The doctor told his audience that Athens, Babylon,
remnant,-scattered over the whole earth, the sons and                       was at Calvin. Said he: "Therefore our culture, the
daughters of Jerusalem, who still bear the image of                         Athens that is among us . . . .  " Is this true? He
the earthly. In principle they are lovers of Jerusalem went on to say that "these two shall dwell together in
and of her culture. Jerusalem they therefore seek.                          peace and harmony within the walls of Calvin College
Upon Jerusalem's culture they set their affection. As                       as a unit . . . .  " Will they? "Even as a unit mani-
Abraham, their father, they seek a heavenly country.                        festing a oneness that can be attained in Christ and
   Mr. chairman, honorable members of the board of by His grace." This last statement because of its
trustees, esteemed laborers of the faculty, students and                    rankness defies all criticism !
friends of Calvin College, Jerusalem's culture thou                            But how about Athens' sciences? Must these, too,
shalt seek. I say this to you in all love. Not Athens,                      be declared to be out of the devil? Let me say some-
but the Jerusalem, which is above and which is the                          thing about this. The question here also is: What is
mother of us all is our cultural center. Listen not to science? What did the term stand for in the doctor's
the doctor, for he bade thee to forsake Jerusalem and                       address? He did not say ; but he should have. He
to go to Athens, to Babylon.                                                mentioned in one breath Athens' natural science, phi-
   YOU  say, this is a terrible, shameless indictment?                      losophy, ethics, literature and art, but failed to dis-
Know, that I am not indicting at all. What I do is to                       tinguish, to classify and to define. The term science,
repeat the doctor's very own words. He said, did he                         like the term philosophy means most anything under
not: "That means that you and I must go to Jerusalem.                       the sun. Science is used by some as the signification
That  is the only way by which we can gain the truth.                       of an office consisting in the investigation of bare facts
We must travel from  Jerusalem to Athens."' Would                           and phenomenon  ; by others of an-office consisting in
that he had said instead, `We must first go to Athens.                      the investigation of the ultimate nature of existence;
We must travel from athens to Jerusalem'; for had                           by still others of an office consisting in the analyzation
he said this, he would have advised you to set Jerusa-                      of the conceptions or hypotheses which are assumed
lem before your eye as your final goal.                                     by the particular sciences; by still others of a task
   But what, someone may ask, are we to do with                             consisting in showing that the subject matter dealt


     46                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   E E A R E R
      . ..--. ___I - -... ..- __"."  -...           -..-  -....                  __ .  ..- ..___I
     with by the separate sciences are one whole. Then amine the cogitations of him who is called by his
     there is the classification: natural and spiritual                   admirers divine. I mean Plato.
     sciences. Again, which of these offices did the term                     What did Plato do with God? He reduced Him to
     science stand for in the address of the doctor? Let us               an unthinkable abstraction, by stripping Him of all
     take it that he used the term as the signification of an             His virtues, and thus &,st Him into a great deep. The
     office consisting in the investigation of bare facts and             Platonic Socrates had much to say about goodness, wis-
     phenomenon.          The engagement of science, so  eon-             dom, truth, and justice. But in the conception of
     ceived,  consists solely in dissecting God's creatures and           Plato, beauty and justice, etc., are not one with the
     in counting their parts; in measuring magnitudes, in essence of God but mere concepts to which Plato gave
     computing positions, in observing laws that govern                   content as it pleased him. What content he pleased
     the relation of things made. This is science. Have we                to give to just& can be gathered from his social phi-
                                                                          lmophy. In the words of Prof. Rogers: "Plato's Re-
     to do here with an engagement that as such is out of
     the devil? Surely no.                   Can science, the natural,    public presents the carrying out, in the strictest and
     physical, empirical, science, and, let us say, the entire            most logical way, of paternalism in government.
     complex of sciences, be honored and cultivated by the                Everything must bow to the supposed interest of the
     Christian? They surely can. I have no Quarrel with whole. To produce the right kind of citizens, there is
     science as cultivated by the Christian, but with science             devised a most elaborate social machinery. In the first
     as cultivated by Athens. A third kind of science there               place children are to be examined at birth, and those
     is not. Consider that science is not an abstraction, a who do not appear to be physically strong and perfect
     mere phantom suspended in mid-air, but a thing of                    are to be put out of the way, with due regard to de-
     flesh and blood that can and is being cultivated, both               cency and order. The survivors are then to be sub-
     by the believer and the pagan. Now believing science jected to the most rigid system of state education,
     is one thing; Athenian science quite another. Believing              whose provisions, when once established, are not to be
     science tells me that the canyon of the Colorado river altered by a hair. Ideally, even wives should be held
     is of great depth and praises God; but Athenian                      in common, and children  shouId  be brought up by the
     science declares that, such being the case, the world is             state and kept in ignorance of their parents."
     millions of years old. Believing science dissects the                   The moral quality of the ideal coming to the sur-
     organic structure we call man, and, observing the                    face in the above excerpt is the moral quality of the
     likeness between this structure and the structure we                 whole of Athens' or the world's philosophy, wisdom,
     call animal, declares that as the animal was created in              and culture. This culture is vain, foolish, devilish. I
     the image of man, so man was created in the image of                 invite the doctor to point to a thought-structure of any
     God.  A!henian  science makes its observations and                   of Athens', of the world's cultured, wise, that is not.
s    concludes that man has descended from an ape. This                      Athens' culture, what is it? In the words of John,
     conclusion is properly Athens' science, Athens' culture,             the aggregate of things that are in the world and not
     wisdom. Believing science declares that existence, (the              of God, I John 2  :15. These things (the things  $n
     things earthy) according to its ultimate nature, is a Athens) are not creation, the earth and its fulness as
     grand figure of the heavenly. This Athens denies ; for,              counted, weighed, and measured by Athens' empirical
     being unbelieving, she ends in the earthly and has no                scientists, are not statements to the effect that the
     vision.                                                              frame of a dog or cat or human is comprised of so
                                                                          many bones ; that the planet Mars is so many light
           But has Athens not made some notable contribu-                 years distant from the earth; that the sun is the center
     tions to science which we must gratefully receive?                   of our solar system ; that water is a colorIess,  odorless,
     Athens had measured, weighed and counted, tabulated                  fluid, consisting of two volumes of hydrogen to one of
     and described; and these measurements and computa-                   oxygen, that the forces which attract material bodies
     tions we receive ; for Athens can count as well as the               to each other are so and so great. These  things, the
     believer  ; but, having appropriated these computations cat and the dog and the human together with the num-
     and measurements, you do not have Athens, Athens'                    ber of bones that enter into the make-up of their
     real culture, the wisdom that is peculiar to Athens.                 mortal frames, the planets and the fluids and the gases,
     All you have is a description of God's creatures in                  distances, weights, and magnitudes, in a word, the
     numbers. This is not Athens  herseIf,  Athens' heart,                earth and its fulness, are things of God. What God
     soul, mind, the science peculiar to  Athew. The be-                  has made, Athens weighs, measures, and counts. And
     liever, with faculties unimpaired, can count and                     Athens' computations in so far as they are correct
     measure and  weigh&s  well as Athens.                                together with Athens' skill and accuracy as a com-
           Let us convince ourselves that the science, culture,           puter, are also of God ; for Athens, too, lives and moves
     peculiar to Athens is foolishness, darkness, indeed by               and has her being in God. Appropriate these things;
     attending to her cultivation of the ,so-called  spiritual            but consider that having done so you have not Athens'
     sciences. Let us direct our minds to Athens' ethical                 things, Athens' wisdom or culture, but God's things.
     philosophers and their thought-structure. Let us ex-                 The  things  of 1% them, Athens' culture, are, in the words


                                           T H E S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                            ^  --.._   1__11.--... --          "_" __......._.....  ^-._II -...___..
       of John, the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the eyes,    And these things Zion contemplates, because they are
       and the pride of life reduced by Athens' wise men to a        the things that she loves. This in the deep sense is
       philosophical system,  extoIIed  to the heavens and           Zion's true cultural engagement. This is true science.
       eulogized by Athens' poets and immortalized in granite        And the fruits of this science? In the words of Paul,
       and stone by Athens' sculptors. And in this vile sys-         a coming into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge
       tem, the glory of the incorruptible God appears as an         of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the
       image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and         measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. This
       four-footed beasts, and creeping things; and the earth        is true culture: this unity of faith, this perfect man,
       and its fulness, God's things, as creatures, yea, as gods,    his knowledge which is the knowledge, the wisdom of
       whose sphere of existence is their very self, as things       God. Do you want this culture? As lovers of this
       therefore  sufKcient  to themselves in which man can          culture, you need not, may not, turn your back upon-
       end and rest, and which he may use for the gratifica-         God's creation. Take into your laboratory things, the
       tion of the lusts of the flesh. This is properly Athens'      birds and the flowers and whatever He hath made, dis-
       culture, the vile thing in Athens !     I challenge the       sect their structures and count, weigh and measure
       doctor or anybody else to deny this. The doctor cer-          their parts, but in doing so set these things before
       tainly must be conversant with the fact that the poet         your eye not as they appear in the thought-structure
       Homer puts a devilish element in his gods;  t.hat in          of Athens' wise men, but as they appear in God's
       Greek and Roman gods he saw and worshipped the                word. Behold them as the earthly lustre of the wisdom
     weaknesses and vices of the Grecian character; that             and power of their Maker and as the earthly replica of
       the noblest ( ?) of the Greeks  - Plato and Socrates  -       the heavenly economy to appear in glory with Christ.
       gave to the most revolting of all vices, the sin of               The doctor' may say that this is exactly what he
       sodomy between males, the sanction of their great             meant to held before his audience. Attending to the
       authority?    Does the doctor suppose that the moral          things he wrote, I cannot believe it. He s'aid in un-
       quality of the culture, of the civilization, of Athens        equivocal speech that Jerusalem must go to Athens
       differs essentially from that of the culture of the world     and appropriate Athens' dark culture, make that cul-
       at any period of its career?                                  ture her own, join herself to it, vitalize and sanctify
          Indeed, Athens hath culture! But Jerusalem, too,           it by her faith. To Athens, he said, Jerusalem must
       hath culture; and, as was said, her culture is the new        join herself in holy matrimony. `Know that Israel of
       man, the faith, hope, and love, the praise and good           old did this very thing and came to perpetual grief.
       works of this man. And the culture of Zion is beauti-         He went a whoring after the gods and culture of the
       ful, with the beauty of holiness. To this, however,           Athens surrounding him, offered God's things to
       something must be added. Zion's culture is her faith,         Athens' deities. And look at the Jewish people today.
     ' her good works, etc. Of this faith, of Zion's culture,        The same thing .was attempted again at the beginning
       her God is the subject as creative cause and she herself      of our Christian era, now by Athens herself, when she
       the subject as God's instrument. Zion praises and loves       saw her vile culture, her civilization, yielding ground
       and hopes, and minds, and considers. What doth she            to the irresistible progress of Christianity. That pan-
       mind, consider, contemplate? And the answer. God theistic eclecticism and  philosophico;religious   syncret-
       as revealed in Scripture and in creation ; God as she         ism, known as Neo-Platonism, what is it, but a com-
       sees Him now through a glass, darkly. And this glass          pound of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy,
       is Scripture on the one hand and the earth and its ful-       Oriental religion and some Christian ideas? From the
       ness on the other hand. This glass He made. It is the         very beginning to the present day, the unwearied at-
       instrument of which He now avails Himself to make             tempt of the children of Athens in the church of Christ
       known unto Jerusalem's children His glory. In Scrip-          on earth has been to marry off Jerusalem to the world.
       ture we see Him in the face of Jesus Christ; and the          And the attempt has and always does meet with
       firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day                 success..    But as to the true church, the remnant
       uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowl-          according to election, against her, the gates of hell will
       edge. There is no speech nor language where their             not prevail.
       voice is not heard. Scripture. and creation are not two           Strange it is that the term common  yrace does not
       disparate sources of knowledge of God. The one sup-           once appear in, the written report of the doctor's ad-
       plements the other and the  t.wo constitute a unity.          dress. According to this theory, it is Athens' nobility
       Creation is the symbol of the heavenly ; and the henven-
,                                                                    that renders her an acceptable husband for Jerusalem.
       ly of which the earthly creature is now the symbol is         In the address of the doctor, Athens' culture is referred
       described in Scripture by the word. Christ takes that         to as being by itself vile  ; but strange to say, as a
       natural bread with which we nourish our mortal                counterpart of Jerusalem's religion, pure and holy.
       frames and breaking it says that it is His body, the              Prof. Van den Bosch's comment on the doctor's ad-
       symbol of Him who is  the true bread  of  life.  Before       dress reads  : "The choice of the subject was as happy
       this earthly glass, the children of Zion on earth take        as it was pat. It showed that Dr. Stbb is thoroughly
       their stand and in this glass behoId  heavenly things.        at home in the field of educational thought and that he


      48                                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
      --......-  -.- - -.......__  -. -- . . .._.._.- - __ ".- __-... - ..__ -.I___  - .-._ "._ ..-_ -.- ..-- - .._. -- I__-._.- .._-- ..-_......__  ^^ .,-__,_-..... ",-
      knows full well what is the heart of the task of a                                             Maar nu komt het probleem, want de  vraag dringt
      college that wishes to be not merely Christian in a                                      zich direct aan ons op, is het onderwijs aan de Christe-
      general sense, but specifically Calvinistic. This task is                                 lijke school de waarachtige en volkomene leer der
      nothing less than the working out of the proper re-                                       zaligheid? Is dat onderwijs in de Christelijke school
      lationship between Jerusalem and Athens, between                                          conform met de leer,  zooals zij geleerd wordt daar
      religion and culture. Prior to a discussion of these                                      waar  de ouder zijn kind heeft laten doopen?
      relationships Dr. Stob briefly sketched what Jerusalem                                         Van uit ons oogpunt en beginsel is dat niet zoo,
      and Athens respectively stood for in the history of                                       maar juist het tegenovergestelde, dat onderwijs is in
      thought. As possible relationships the speaker men-                                       conflict met de leer, zooals die bij ons geleerd wordt.
      tioned companionate marriage, or union on an experi-                                      Hoe kan het ook anders, de leer der algemeene genade
      mental basis, and absolute separation  as  advocated by heeft diepe wortelen  geslagen in de Christelijke school,
      extreme fundamentalists or out and out liberals, both                                     en het gaat van kwaad tot erger. Daar is geen stil-
      of which he rejected  as being incompatible with Scrip-                                   staan in dezen. Ook is hier  we1 terdege ontwikkeling.
      tural teaching and the essential nature of each. With Leer en leven gaan samen.
      conviction Dr. Stob reiterated the Calvinistic position                                        En waar is dat gevaarlijker, dan onder de jeugd?
      that religion and culture must live together peacefully Wanneer het kind dagelijks voorgehouden wordt op
      in holy wedlock, a union which can be achieved only in                                    allerlei wijze, in het zingen  en leeren der lessen, dat
      Christ through divine grace."                                                             God alle menschen lief heeft, en dat alle kinderen  die
            Astounding! If the address shows anything at  a11 it                                gedoopt zijn, wanneer  zij in hun jeugd sterven, dat zij
      is that the doctor, to put it mildly, has no clear idea of                                dan allen  naar den hemel  gaan. Zooals laatstleden nog
      what true education consists in. About the only point                                     een zeker predikant der Chr. Geref. kerk de jeugd dier
      he was clear on is that as he sees it a child of God may                                  school inpompte, ter gelegenheid van een begrafenis
      appropriate and glory in Pagan culture.                                                   van een der scholieren dier school.
                                                                        G. M. 0.                     Is het wonder, dat de jeugd der Christelijke school,
                                                                                                hand aan hand gaat met de wereld? Het besef, dat zij
                                     Ingezonden                                                 een bijzonder volk zijn is er niet meer. De grenzen
                                       .                                                        en het particuliere vallen weg. Hun Godsbegrip leidt
                                             Pella, Iowa, 20 Sept. 1933.                        hen op allerlei dwaalspoor en leidt hen af van den weg
                 Geachte Redacteur  :-                                                          des verbonds.
            Mag ik, en nog anderen, tot u komen met een pro-                                         Allerlei vragen rijzen op, aLs men de zaak goed  in-
      bleem om door middel van onze S. B. een antwoord van                                      ziet, en als men de lijnen consequent doortrekt, dan
      u te ontvangen? .Hopende,  dat alzoo het probleem op-                                     vraagt men onwillekeurig, wat is nu gevaarlijker, een
,.    gelost mag worden.                                                                        onderwijs in de publieke school, dat op zijn sterkst uit-
            Dat Geref. ouders een dure roeping hebben i. b. tot                                 gedrukt uit den duivel is ? Of een leer van algemeene
      het onderwijzen van hunne kinderen  in den weg des                                        genade, die ook op  zijn sterkst uitgedrukt uit den
      verbonds, behoeven wij hier niet  aan te toonen.                                          duivel is? Als ik mij  plat uitdrukken mag, dan zou ik
            Menigmaal is het bun-voorgehouden,  dat het onder- het zoo voorstellen  willen:  In de publieke school komt
      wijs dat hunne  kinderen  in de publieke school ontvan-                                   de duivel aanstappen met zijn klompen aan, maar  in
      gen, niet is naar den Woorde Gods, ja daar geheel lijn-                                   de Christelijke school komt hij op zijn  sol&en en heel
      recht tegen ingaat. En  op zijn zachtst uitgedrukt een mooi  aangekleed.
        leer uit den duivel is.                                                                      Nu weet ik wel, men zegt dan, ja, maar het is  tech
            Deze ouders hebben dan ook plechtiglijk beleden in                                  nog  beter een half ei, dan een  leege dop. Zoo is de
      de tegenwoordigheid der gemeente en voor God, toen                                        zaak echter  met,  het is geen half ei, wat het kind in
      zij hunne kinderen  lieten doopen,  dat deze kinderen  ge-                                de Christelijke school  ontvangt.  Het is  we1 terdege
      heiligd  waren,  afgezonderd van de wereld en toegewijd                                   een heel ei, net zoo goed  als in de publieke school.
      aan God en daarom ook beloofd, om wanneer die kin-                                              Doch  een gedeelte van dat ei mag nog goed zijn,
      deren tot hun verstand zullen gekomen zijn, om hen maar het andere dat is absoluut niet  goed.
      te onderwijzen in de leer des Ouden en Nieuwen Testa-                                           Nu ligt Bit gevaar er in, dat het kind het geheele
      ments en in de Artikelen  des  Christelijken  Geloofs,                                    ei voor goed  aanziet, en alzoo ook aanneemt.
      zooals zij daar  geleerd  wordt,  waarvan zij, de ouders,                                       Bij voorbaat  onzen  hartelijken dank.
      bekenden de waarachtige en volkomene leer der  zalig-                                           In afwachting, de uwe
      heid  te  wezen. Hunne  kinderen  in die voorzeide leer
      naar hun vermogen, te onderwijzen of te doen en te                                                                                                  Wm. Boender.
      helpen onderwijzen.                                                                            Ofschoon broeder Boender niet bepaald zegt, wat
            Zooals reeds gezegd is, zulk een onderwijs ontvan-                                  het probleem is, dat  ik moet oplossen, zal ik trachten
      gen onze kinderen  niet op de publieke school. Daarom                                     het uit zijn schrijven af te leiden en de volgende maal
      moeten  zij naar een Christelijke school.                                                 beantwoorden.                                                          II. H.


