                                                        _'

  .'                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                     .55

   Ten slotte staat  h&t  tech zoo, dat de radende God             most perfect revelation of the body of Christ in this coun-.
achter  alles staat en  Zich richt  zoowel  op den bolster  als    try. During these 32 years I have had the privilege to hear
,op.de-  kern. En  we1 heft hij nimmer  cle  redelijk-zedelijke    sermons preached by 10.5 ministers of the Christian Re-
natuur des menschen op en blijft dus de mensch  verant-            formed church. In these 3.2 years I have attended more
woordelijk; hij  "wil" en hij  "wil niet".  -Maar ten slotte than 3,300 church services, and at no time, by not one of all
richt  zich de  levende raad Gods  tech  o@ dien  Gil des          these ministers, in not any of all these places, in  .not one
menschen, ontfermend en verhardend.                                of these thousands of sermons, I have ever received the
   Zoo  zullen de lijnen moeteri  wo,rden  doorgetrokken.          impression that the Christian Reformed church  teaches-
   Want zoo  doet het de  Schrift.                                 that "natural man in this life can do good in the sight of
   Maar  als ook  .Dr. Schilder zoo de lijnen wil  trekken,        God".
.dan begrijp ik niet, hoe hij tevens kan blijven spreken              I am sincerely sorry that 1924 brot the schism it has
van. gemeene gratie. Wat blijft  cr over  van een  vriend-         brat. I did believe at that time and do still believe that
schapsverb,ond,  dat God zou  oprichten  met de afvallige          the exercise of a little more  blrotherly  love, on both sides,
wereld tegenover Satan ?        En waar blijft de  "genade         could have forestalled the split.  B.ut,  I do believe that
`Gods", waardoor  oak de bolster tijdelijk goede vruchten          the  Chr. Ref. church wholeheartedly subscribes to what
draagt? Of ook, waar is er op deze  antithetisch-organi-           the Rev. Ghysels wrote in  .The Banner of Feb. 2.2, 1935,
sche lijn sprake van stuiting, ruimte voor stuiting  ,of           "Even tho he (natural man) `may do what we call good,
behoefte  aan  stuiting?                                           it is not good in the sight of God,`.
  Alles ontwikkelt  zich, op elk oogenblik van de historie            Let's get together again, brethren. We, Reformed,
volkomen  .naar het welbehagen Gods.                               should show the unity of our faith.
  En er is van een stuiten door God van Zijn eigen  wel-                                    Very respectfully yours,
behagen, zeker geen sprake !                                                                        J               .                     VanZwoll,
  Ten slotte nog dit. . .                                                         52 Grove St., N.E., Grand Rapdis,  tiich.
  Als ik mij  zzol&  vfoleas  schuldig maak  aan  verkeerde        Remarks :
probleemstelling, heb ik gaarne, dat pro-f. Schilder mij              1. We sincerely thank brother  VanZwoll  for his kind
het  verkeerde  met den vinger aanwijst.                           attention to the contents of the  S.tandard Bearer. The  ,%B.
  En,  indieti hij  tech  meent te  moeten vasthouden  aan         always appreciates it when its' readers take notice of it.
de theorie der gemeene gratie, zou hij ons kunnen  dien-           And it likes discussion.
en, indien hij precies verklaarde, wat hij daardoor  ver-            2. The statement that the Christian Reformed Churches
staat.                                                             teach that the natural man in this life can do good in the
  Ik  wacht gaarne  op' an'cwoord.                     H.H.        sight of God is not-equivalent to saying that all the Chris-
                                                                   tian Reformed ministers preach`this from the pulpit. To
                                                                   discover what a  chu~ck teaches one does not investigate
                                                                   the preaching of its ministers, but its official standards
                                                                   and declarations.       The testimonial of Mr. Van Zwoll,
  In reply to the "challenge" by  17/I. G. that appeared in the    therefore, does not contradict my statement.
S.B. a month ago I received the following testimonial:               3; The Christian Reformed Churches have adopted
Dear Rev. Hoeksema,                                                three points of doctrines in 1924 and added them to the
  In "The Standard Bearer"  of October 1, 1935, M. G.              Reformed Confessions. In these they teach that there
extends an invitation to the brethren of the Chr. Ref.             is an influence of the Holy Spirit upon the  natufal man,
,Churches to witness for the truth that "The Chr. Ref.             and an influence of God upon him which is pot regenera-
churches teach that natural man in this life can do good           ting, but which restrains sin in him and enables him to do
in  the  siiht of God,`, and  chall&ges  these brethren "to        "civic" good. The question, therefore, is : this good
make  notice of it in our paper" if they consider this state-      which the sinner does is it really good or evil? If the
ment incorrect.                                                    latter, if this. good. must be considered. sin  in.the sight of
  I would appreciate therefore to have you insert in "The          God, how can  .it be the fruit of the operation of the Holy
Standard Bearer" the following testimonial.                        Spirit? And if it is considered sin by the `Christian, Re-
  I was baptized and did  make confession of faith in the          formed Churches, why did they throw out three ministers
"bfgescheiden  Kerk", in the Netherlands. Thirty-two               becaz&e th.iy called it s&z and refused to call it good`?. .' Be-
years ago I came to the United States,. and had my mem-            sides, what business have we to call good what is  cortipt
bership papers from the church at Rotterdam transferred            in:the sight of God?
to the Christian Reformed church at Paterson, N J. I                 4. It is in the nature of  the..case  impossible for me to
have lived in three different states of the  U.S.A-., and          verify or to deny the testimonial of Mr.  Van  Zwoll. There
have belonged to  5 different congregations in four differ-        is.nothing black on  white that would enable me to check
ent places in  these three. states, and I still belong to the      up on. his statement. I will, therefore, not deny that  the
Christian Reformed Church, which I consider to be the              brother speaks the truth. But I will say this : the brother


' 56                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             _I

  fqrig&  have  hen,& sermons by Christian Reformed minis-              Listen: the servant of God speaketh: Lord, Thou hast
  ters, proclaiming that sinners do good indeed. To verify           commanded that from Adam to the end of the old dispen-
  this statement'he only has to peruse the sermon by H. J.           sation I gather  the'poor, maimed, halt and blind from the
  Kuiper on "the good  thjt sinners do".                             streets and the lanes of the city. Well, it is done as Thou
    5. If there is really a return to Reformed truth in the          has commanded, and yet there is room."
  Christian Reformed Churches on this point, I can only                 And the answer I would like to furnish through the
  rejoice.     Only, the plain fact remains that I was thrown        mouth of the writer to the Hebrews in Chapter  11:40  :
  out of those churches among other reasons also for this            "God having provided some better thing for  us,  that they
  that I  ma&ained that the natural man always sins and              without us should not be made perfect."
  never does any good.                                                 And so it happened that the  selfsame servant of God
        6. If in any way I have revealed lack of brotherly love      went out in the highways and hedges in order to compel
  in connection with the history of 1924, let it be pointed          the saints of the New Dispensation to also enter in through
  out to me and I will publicly confess my wrong. On the             the portals into the banqueting halls of the Master Who
  other  hmd I  mc&t&  that in those  dop  wy enemies fell           made a great supper.
 tipon  me front all sides as brzste  beasts a,zd to the  veq end      For there was yet room with God.
  treated nze like (I dog. This I have shown repeatedly. But
  there is no sign of willingness to repent.                           Beautiful thought : there is yet room with God.
    7. To unite again is impossible as long as (1) the three           Man needs room.
  points are not retracted; (2) the Christian Reformed                 Physically, mentally and spiritually, he needs room.
  Churches do not repent of their unrighteous deeds. Even              Some of the poor saints of God in olden times have
  then it would not be easy to unite again,. for we have made        found it out that  man needs rbom physically. They were
  history after 1924. But in that case we might at least be          crushed and broken on the rack. Other things : knives,
  sister churches.                                                   swords, instruments of torture have invaded the room
    I appreciate the brotherly spirit of Mr. Van Zwoll. And          they needed for their little bodies, which room was denied
  who would not deplore schism in the Church of Christ?              them for  the:sake  of the testimony and the faith of Jesus.
  But I hate all compromise. And to compromise on matters            ,And they suffered.
 of  tile truth leads to the destruction of the Church.                It is not much, but a few cubic feet of room is necessary
                                                           H. H.     in order to live our physical life on earth. And God pro-
                                                                     vided  plenty of space. There is place to move for all.
               NOTICE, EXCHANGE PAPERS!                              Crowding is not really necessary. Even if all men that
                                                                     ever lived should stand in the state of Texas, there would
    Please, send all papers to the editor's address: Rev.            be room and to spare.
  H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., Grand Rapids,  Mich.                 Also mentally there must be room for man. You see,
                                                                     all things that God has made, have their speech and their
                                                                     ideas come crowding in unto us and  clamour   that we take
                                                                     them and harbour them. So that  haply we may digest
    Men gelieve de ruilbladen van nu  aan te  zeriden  aan het       them and their wondrous beauty. So that we might  haply
 adres van den redakteur, Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Frank-              meditate on them, understand them and enjoy them. If
 lin  St:, Grand Rapids,  Mich.                                      not, if there is no.room for them, if we are straightened
                                                                     mentally we are in a sorry state.      Then they, that is,
                                                                     created things. of tree and grass; of animal and element,
                                                                     of mountain and  ocean, they all speak to us, but we do
                                                                     not properly digest them, make a hodge-podge of them
    You may  6e certain that when the last of  the Old Tes-          and suffer. When all these things do not find their proper
 tament saints was shown his or her place  in, God's heaven,         place in our soul's mentality then we do not sing as we
 tkat their number was great and their beauty wonderful.             ought. Instead of the harmony they should produce in
 From Adam to John the Baptist : what a glorious number              wondrous singing, they make us rave in the diseased mind
 of elect !                                                          of the pseudo-priest.
   Shall we now begin to be merry? Shall we now destroy.               But above all there should  .be room spiritually for man,
 the old  heaven,and the old earth, so that out of the burn-         if he is to be happy.
 ing elements we may see the regeneration of new heavens               After all is said and done, man ought to be in the arms
 and a new  `earth? Shall we set the judgment seat,  01 Al-          of God. Unless he finds himself there, he can never rest
 mighty Judge? Shall we usher in the throngs  of the god-            in peace. We may talk of the arms of  lusury, of gold and
 less and the throng of the redeemed to hear the contents            silver, of possessions and lands, of gifts and talents, of
 .-of the books of remembrance? Shall we  make an  end'of            h.onor and praise-they cannot give us the room our spir-
 things, so that the blessed eternal dispensation of Thy             its need. You need the room with God.
 Covenant may begin, never to end?                                     Now God has room.


                                            /THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                    57

        The same word used in Luke 14  :22b is translated  /&rcc        Spiritually, there will be no room: the spirit shall be
     in the prophecy of Jesus in John 14: "I go to prepare a           companion to the devil and his fellows. These miserable
     place for you".                                                   people would follow the pseudo-god and make a prudent
       God has room in His house.                                      covenant with hell : and they shall find the reward of
        ;4h, that House of God: what wondrous room it has.             their spirits for unto the wicked there is no peace.
        Room to the Glory of God. That is the purpose for the            Yet there is room with God.
     building that is made without hands.                                Ah, but how shall we, the impure, enter the abode of
        You  see, God dwells in that House of the Father of            the blest?
     Jesus. He dwells there to the glory of His own Name.. In            It is through Jesus.
     that House the room,  all the room, is used to reveal the           He is the King of Glory Who boldly commands the
     life of God which is the life of perfect harmony in love          eternal doors : "Lift up your heads,  0 ye gates  ; even
     and friendship. There Father sings of the-good pleasure           lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory
     He finds in the Son  ; there the Son ever seeks the Father        shall come in".
     and answers in the chorus of Filial love  ; there the Spirit        It is well ; we have, we can have no objection for  Ki@
     searches the depths of God and finds the ever vibrant             of glory He is. But what means that throng of  wondkr-
     chords of everlasting friendship.                                 `full beings that follow Him  LIP  the steep hill of the Lord?
L       And the roof of that House should be over your head            How is it that they also follow and enter  ?
     if  you  are to be happy in eternal life.                           Ah, that is the Evangel of the ages.
        It is to know God and in that knowledge to join in the           He reserved room for countless thousands that could
     song of everlasting friendship.                                   not enter because of their sin.
        Listen :                                                                                          And He earned the room
                     a few of the strains of that happy singing we     by being straightened Himself.
     have heard from the mouth of John: "Blessing, and
     honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth               Physically: there was no room for Him in the inn.
     upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever".              And throughout  Hid life on earth, we begrudged Him
        Room for your singing spirit  you  need, my brother.           the few cubic feet He needed for His holy body. A mere
        That is, room with God.                                        33 years He walked in our midst and we sometimes threat-
     It seems almost as though I hear the anxious quest:               ened to throw Him from the cliff. -4t the end we hung
     But how are we to enter the abode of the blest? What              Him on the Cross. There was no room for Him.
     constitutes entrance through the gates into. the House'of           Mentally, He was distressed, amazed, grieved, troubled
     G o d ? ` ,                                                       even unto death. For surely He bore our sorrows and He
       And the answer is indeed terrible. Because Father is            was acquainted with grief. So utterly straightened He
     very particular whom He invites.                                  was at times that the agony of His soul  fomld expression
       You  .must be a man with clean hands, pure heart, a             in bloody sweat that fell from His  b,row.
     soul that doth not lift up itself unto panity, neither swears       Spiritually, there was no room for Him. Forsaken in
     deceitfully.                                                      His human consciousness from God, He cried: Oh, my
        Only when the above. perfectly fits you may stand              God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? He suffered hell on
     in the Holy place., For such is the room with God.                earth. The torments of the dammed were His portion.
       But this is indeed terrible, for we are the very opposite.        And He did it, so that you might have room with God.
     We have dirty and filthy hands, our hearts are' deceitful           The fruit of all this indescribable suffering in the  "be-
     and impure more than `anything, who shall know it? Our            nauwdheid" of Jesus is room in the banqueting halls of
     ~0~1  is  .vain all the day long and we swear indeed,  b,ut it    the Father for you and for me. Oh, the depth !
     is the swearing of falsehood. Perjurer is the name that             A few cubic feet we need. And there shall be an earth
     f i t s .                                                         in which dwelleth righteousness. It is the earth that shall
       But more terrible is `the  place that fits the filthy, the      never grow old.
     impure, the vain and the perjurers. It is the place that is         .Worlds of -thought, of song and rapturous meditation
     prepared for the devil and his fellows.                           we need. And it shall be given you in the beauty of a re-
       It is a place indeed; but there will bae no room.               created world that eye never saw nor ear  .heard and has
       Physically, there will be no-room : it will be "benauwd"        never entered the heart of man. You shall walk along the
     there. The eternal fire and brimstone will invade your            shores of the river of God and the tree of life that  giveth
     frame if die you must in your sin. They will invade your          a harvest in every moon.
     body and they shall burn but never annihilate.                      God you need, room in His bosom.
       Mentally, there will be no room.: the soul shall be in            Listen, Jesus is speaking: I in them, and Thou in Me,
     "vertwij feling" and "wanhoop,`. Of quiet reflection, of          that they may be made perfect in one  ; and that the world
     harmonious singing because of wondrous ideas, of beau-            may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them,
     teous images in the mind, there is not. There will be             as Thou hast loved me.
     only passive suffering of the soul.                                 Room with God. And yet there is room.

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

Are you entering, brother ? If you are then you will                   and out of the hand of Pharoh, who hath delivered his:
confess that it is the ingathering of the sheep of Christ              people from under the hand  .of the  E,gyptians.  Now
through His Word and Spirit.                                           I know that the Lord is above all gods : for in the  <thing
  There's a land that is fairer than day; and by faith we              that they dealt proudly, he was above them."
can see it afar; for the Father waits over the way, to pre-              And Jethro took a burnt offering and sacrificed for
pare  us  a dwelling-place there. In the sweet by and by               God: and Aaron came and all the elders of Israel. to eat
we shall meet on that beautiful shore !                                bread with Moses' father in law before God. Thus a.
                                                            G. V.      solemn league of friendship was formally ratified be-
                                                                       tween the tribe of Jethro and the Israelites, which lasted
                                                                       through the whole future history of  b,oth peoples.
                                                                         To Jethro was due a modification in the practice of
                           J e&h
                                  PO                                   iVIoses,  in a very important point.      Till now, Moses
  Since Moses departure from Median, the Lord had                      alone heard all causes brought before him from the
done great things for him and for Israel. The fame of                  people, judging between one and another and making
these doings had also reached Jethro, Moses' father in                 known to all the statutes of God and His laws. Thus
law. His interest was aroused and he needed to know                    did he carry the burden alone.
more. So he went forth with Moses' sons and his wife                     So it came to pass that Moses again sat to judge the
into the wilderness. He had not far to go, as the dis-                 people. And they stood by him from the morning unto
trict  where. he resided was near the sacred mountain. So              the evening. J th
                                                                                       e ro saw all that he did to the people.
Moses had the  -joy  of  .seein,0` his  ho,usehold  bcrought  safe-    Then he said, "What is this thing that thou doest to the
ly back to him by his father in law.                                   people? Why  sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people
  The meeting with Jethro was thoroughly oriental.                     stand by thee from morning unto evening." Moses re-
Jethro sent word to Moses that he had come unto him                    plied, "Because the people come unto me to inquire of
with his wife and sons. And Moses went out to meet                     God: when they have a matter, they come unto me; and
him and did obeisance, and kissed him. With all their                  I judge between one and another, and I do make them
friendship toward each other, both men preserve a deli-                know the statutes of God, and his lams."
cate discretion. Jethro does not rush impetuously for-                   And Jethro said, `T,he thing that thou doest is not
ward; he sends word of his approach. "And they asked                   good. Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou and this
each other of their welfare  ; and they came into the tent."           people that is with thee; for this thing is too heavy for
Moses receives him with appropriate reverence, but first               thee; thou art not able to perform it by thyself alone."
leads him into his tent; for whether and "now he may                   This, it must be, had already occurred to him. Yet he
introduce him to his people, is yet to be `determined. Then            has continued to toil on as unassisted, not, certainly, be-
came the narration of all that had come to pass since they             cause he was a man too proud to share his responsibility
had parted. Moses told Jethro all that the Lord had                    but  b,ecause the interests of his, sheep lay so close to his
done  .unto Pharoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's                   heart and because his desire to diffuse in his personal
sake," and all the travail that had came.  up them  bjy. the           contacts with them the knowledge of God's laws and
way, and how the Lord delivered them. Of Israel's mur-                 statutes was so' great that he, had not been able to per-
murings against the `Lord and of Israel's behavior to-                 suade himself' that  it would be right for him to  intrust
ward him he seems to have said nothing. Yet, if  .ever                 them with their matters to others and thus deprive them
a pastor had reasons to complain about the treatment                   of access to his person. The verdict of the judge in Is-
afforded him by his flock it was Moses. How had they                   rael had to be according to a standard comprised of the
already taxed his patience !        Of what had they not ac-           laws and statutes of Jehovah. As no one but he knew
cused him! How had they by their cruel taunts wounded                  thoroughly these laws, who besides him could judge be-
his spirit! Yet, not a word of criticism seems to have                 tween one and another. Se he must have reasoned.
passed over his lips. As a good  shepherd,.he spares his                 Here Moses rises before our eye as a shepherd whose
flock. Besides, it would have taken all the joy out of                 love for his ill-deserving flock-a flock that already had
Jethro's visit, had Moses in the privacy of his tent  ,de-             threatened to stone him because he had brought it on a
cried in his hearing the sins and. shortcomings of his                 way that led to Canaan-was so great as to constrain
sheep. What he would hear from his son in law is what                  him to bear unaided the burdens of each individual sheep
the Lord had done unto Pharoh for Israel's sake. Moses                 and to personally smooth out its troubles. So, to this
takes great  .delight in telling him all. And Jethro re-               extent, would he carry them all upon his breast. How
joiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to                 solicitous he was of the well-being of each one of them!
Israelj  whom he had delivered out of the hands of the                 And consider the size of his flock! How evident that he
Egyptians. And Jethro said, Blessed be the Lord, who                   was the meekest of men ! How in his love for them he
hath delivired you out of the hand of the  E,gyptians,                 makes us think of Christ!


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                59
_

        But to the task he had taken upon himself, he was  izot            Wliere is Jethro, the father in law of Moses, to be
      equal. For he was but a mere human. Day' upon day                 placed? His story reveals him as a man of  atractive-
     *he sat from morning unto evening, with all the people             ness, wisdqm and  true piety. He seeks the living God,
                                                                        cherishes friendship toward God's people, blesses Abra-
      standing by him, waiting, their turn  to be  h'eard. And          ham's God and therefore shall be blessed. He plainly
      Jethro, observing, was struck with wonder  ai what was            st&ds in the same faith in  wliich the true Israel stands,
     being attempted by his son in law, So under the impulse `and is thus a true worshipper of Jehovah. Thus his ex-
      of pity mingled with disgust, he said to Moses  on. the           clamation "For now I know that the  L&-d is greater than
      evening in the privacy of his tent certainly and thus not         all gods" must not be taken to imply that heretofore he
      in the hearing of the people. "What is this thing that thou       had! been placing the Lord on a  levC1 with idols and that
      doest unto the people ? Why  sittest thou thyself alone .  .I'    to these idols he had been doing homage but that he now,
      Moses was quick to reply, "Because the people come                having heard from Moses all that the Lord had done for
      unto me to inquire of God." Of this Jethro                        His people and thus perceiving that the  Lol'cl  is greater
     was, without a doubt, already aware, for he im-                    than all gods, resolved to forsake his false deities, and
     mediately responds with, "The thing that thou doest                turn to the  ,living God. Jethro;  ,.it is certain, `had been
     is not good .  :  ." To be sure, no one but Moses is cap-          serving the true God all his life, so that the implication
      able of making known the statutes of God'and His laws.            of his exclamation is that now he has  ,become  ftilly con-
     This task is his exclusively.  ' But this need not prevent         vinced that Jehovah is the God.
     him  from'appointing judges to assist  .him in the task of
     judging between one  an&her. For, to judge  b'et&een one             J&hrol  must not be called the firstfruits of the heathen,
     another is one  ; to teach the people ordinances and laws,         as he was no heathen but a Midianite  .and thus an off-
     another.    Therefore Jethro said to  yeses,  "Heaken now          spring of  Midian, the son of Abraham by Keturah. From
     unto my  yoice, I will give thee counsel, `and  God. shall,        Ex. 2  :18 we learn that he is to be identical with Reuel, as
     be with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward, that             in this Scrip&e Reuel appears as the father in law of
     thou mayest bring' their causes unto God  ; and thou shalt         vases.  The meanings of the names that this personage
      teach them ordinances and laws, and thou shalt show               bore-Jethro, "excellency" ; Reuel, "Friend of God"-
     them the way `wherein they must walk, and  the work                agree fully with his character as revealed by his story.
     ,that they must do." Thus  to' stand between Jehovah and              Jcthro was priest in  Midian.     It is worthy of note
     the people as the mouth  of the people toward Jehovah,             that not Aaron but Jethro took a burnt offering and  sac-
     and as the mouth of Jehovah toward the' people, is a               ficed to God and that Aaron and all the elders of Israel
     task  assigned to Moses only and thus one which he  alone          came to eat bread with Jethro,. This suggest's that his
     can perform. This Jethro  well `understood.. But there             priesthood was more excellent that that of Aaron and
     was still another. duty that belonged to Moses's office, to        partook therefore of the character of the.  prieSthood' of
     wit, the duty of judging between one  and another. This            Melchisedec. In fact all that is said of Melchisedec is his
     duty might be performed by others. So Jethro there-                capacity of priest applies with equal force, to Jethro. As
     fore continued, "Moreover thou shalt provide out of all            priest, he, too, was more than Aaron and his sons. His
     the people able men, such as fear  Godj men of truth,              priesthood as compared with theirs was of superior  e%
     hating. covetousness; and place such over them to be               cellence. Aaron and his sons were made after the law
     rulers  bf thousands, and  iulers of hundreds, rulers of           of a carnal commandment. Their office, therefore, was
     fiftces,  and rulers of tens : And let  ,them judge'the people     not a thing impressed upon their being and thus a part
     at all seasons :  and.it shall be, that every great matter they    and parcel of them;  tit it was and remained to them a
     ..shall judge :  SQ shall it be easier for thyself, and they       strange yoke under which they were brought  b,y the law.
     shall blear the burden with thee. If thou shalt do this            Hence; of this office Aaron could be and actually was di-
     thing, and Gdd command thee (that is; under his  -sa&              vested when the hour of his death  finally struck.       0.f
     tion), then thou shalt be  .aMe  to endure, and all this           this  we read in Numbers  23, "And  .the Lord spake unto
     people shall also go to their place in peace.             .:       Moses and Aaron in mount Hor . . . . saying, Aaron shall
                                                                        ble gathered unto his people . . . Take Aaron and  Elea-
        "So Moses hearkened to the voice of, .his  ,father  in          zar his son,,  &d `bring them up unto mount Hor : and
     I&+, and did all that he. had said."         '  `.  :.             strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon  Eleazar
      Th& by Jethro's  advice  `a  ,whole series of greater and         his son : and Aaron shall be gathered unto his people,
     lesser judges  wefe appointed, rulers of thousands, of             and shall die there. And Moses did as the Lord  coni-
     hufidreds, of fifties and of tens. They judged the people          matided."    Thus the priesthood of Aaron was change-
      at all season. Every great matter was brought to Moses            able (Heb. 7  23,  24), that is, it passed, according to
     and every small matter  .they  ~judged:  Tl!ereupon  Moses         the law, from Aaron to his son; and to his son  .only
     let' his `father' in ltiw depari. And he  ,went his way into       might it be made to pass. As  priest, Aaron had  be-
     his own land.  ..                                                  gining of days and end of, life. And as his office  m&lit

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

 be made to pass to his direct offspring only. a record           his faith and as an instrument of praise. But whereas
 had to be kept of his generation. Thus in the  geneologi-        there was a "disannulling of the commandment going be-
 cal table, he was and had to be with father and mother.          fore for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof, Jethro
       But the law made men. high priests which had infinity      offers now the sacrifice of praise as he was a priest of the
 (Heb.:  728).  Whether the hearts of these men were              Most'high  God made like unto the Son of God.
right with God, whether in their engagements as priests             w'echisedec  (Jethro) was greater  thau Aaron. Whereas
they could function as constrained by love, was not in-           `Christ is priset after the order of Mechisedec, He is great-
vestigated. Being sons of Aaron, they were compelled to           er than Aaron. The Writer of the  Heb,rews,  therefore,
allow themselves to be set apart for the service and con-         exhorts his readers to turn from Aaron to Christ.
secrated. But as they were men with infirmities and with                                                             G.M.0,:
beginning and end of days, they could not save and per-
fect God's people. They were men who first had to
offer for their  uwn sins. What the sacred writer (the
author  of. the epistle to the Hebrews) had before his
eye is not in the first instance the priestly  &ice and  func-      In de vragenbus van De (Nederlandsche) Wekker,
tions.but the persons of Aaron and of the order of  high-         Sept. 193.5  kwam een antwoord voor op een vraag  aan-
priests that sprang from him in their capacity of priests.        gaande de gemeene gratie, ingezonden door zekere H.V.
As priests they were sinful and mortal men. P'erfection           van Bellflower,  ,Calif or%.
therefore could not  possib,ly  come by their order, that is,       De vraag luid: hoe is de uitdrukking "gemeene gratie"
by the class of Levitical priests.                                in omloop gekomen en is zij Schriftuurlijk?
 i, Hence, there had to arise another priest, one without           Na een inleidende opmerking over onze gemeene gratie
sin who ever liveth to make intercession for us. For              geschiedenis  hier in Amerika, en eene verklaring van den
such a high priest becomes us, who is holy, harmless and          oorsprong van den term "gemeene gratie"  gaat de  schrij-
undefiled, separate from sinners and higher than the              ver dan voort als volgt :
heavens. And this highpriest is Christ, made not `after                Zoo  Wilde Kuyper het gevaar ontgaan van te  worden
the law of a carnal commandment and without an oath                 aangezien voor een prediker van algemeene genade,
but with an oath and after  the: power of an endless life,          die in algemeene verzoening haar grondslag meent te
a. life that is power-power to function as priest in true           vinden. Dr. H. Bavinck sprak over dezelfde zaak  als
faith and as constrained by love. And this He did. He               algemeene genade. Anderen spraken liever van  alge-
offered Himself up once for His people and was made                 meene goedheid of gunst Gods.. Letterlijk vindt men
higher than the heavens.                                            geen van deze uitdrukkingen  als dogmatische term in
  Christ, therefore belonged to an order of priests other           de  Schrift.
than that which sprang from Aaron. He is a priest forever              De zaak  echter wordt daar  we1 zeer duidklijk ge-
after the  ,order `of Mechisedec. And to this order belongs         noemd. God  zegt in Zijn Woord, dat hij na den  val
Jethro  and every believer. And at the head of this order           de menscheid  nied  10s  last. Het' oordeel treedt niet  on-
stands Christ as Saviour and Redeemer, as the author and            middelijk in  voile kracht in. Er is nog ontwikkeling
finisher of faith.                                                  des levens. Sterk treedt dat  b.v.   aan den dag by Kain.
  Jethro, then, was a true priest in Christ, made after the         Hij. wordt gevonnisd en verdreven.  Tech blijft hij
power of endless life-a life that they born of God have             lever-r,  ja vormt een  ,eigen geslacht, waarin wij straks
in them, a life that is power to believe and to  ,obey and to       de. pioniers der  cultuur aantreffen. Straks bij Noah,
praise: Thus Jethro's priesthood as that of Mechisedec            legt God deze goedheid vast in de  ,ordeningen van het
rooted in the principle of new life and could therefore not         Noachitisch vex-bond. God  last de Heidenen  we1  wan:
be passed on from one to another. He was a priest in-               delen in hunne eigene wegen. `Hand  14:16,  maar  tech
wardly qualified and thus holy in Christ, harmless, unde-           last hij  zich niet onbetuigd, Hand  14:17,  in Hem leven
filed and separated from sinners and also with Christ made          zij, bewegen zij`zich en zijn zij;
higher than the heavens. Thus Jethro as Mechisedec was                Hi j is niet verre van een iegelijk van hen, Hand. 17 :
without beginning of days and end of life. Of his priest-           27. Hij openbaart  zich in de werken der natuur, Rom.
hood he, too, could not ble divested. No record was there-'         1  :19. De Logos, die  alle  dingen heeft gemaakt en  alle
fore kept of his  genealogy.                                        dingen  draagt, verlicht een iegelijk mensch komende
  But Jethro, too, as well as Abraham and Abel and  Me-             in de wereld. Joh.  1:9: Alle deze  dingen  rusten in een
chisedec  offered,typical  offerings. He did so spontaneous-        daad Gods. Men kan hier van lankmoedigheid spreken
ly in obedience to the will of Jehovah and because he               of van gunst, van gratie maar ook van genade. Want
hungered after God and understood that his hunger could             recht heeft niet een  schepsel   op deze weldaden.  We1
be appeased  only.if  his sins were covered by the blood of         zal men altijd  goed in het oog  moeten  vatten het  on-
an atoning sacrifice. He did so because he perceived that          `derscheid tusschen  .deze algemeene  genade  en de  zalig-
the typical offering had been given him for the voicing of          makende genade. De eerste  brengt niet wat nieuws in


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   61

   de gevallen wereld in, zij  last door een voortdurende         bet verbond, dat met de in -de ark geredde Kerk wordt
   werkzaamheid' Gods de  schepselen iets  behouden van           gesloten is algemeene genade ; dat God de Heidenen in
   hun oorspronkeli jke grootheid en aanleg, ja  last hem         hunne eigene wegen laat wandelen (de vrucht  waarvan
   nog veel  doen op aarde. Deze weldaden  rusten dan ook         ons zoo donker geteekend wordt in Rom. I) is genade
  `in  hoofdzaak  in de deugd van Gods lankmoedigheid.            en stuiting der zonde  ; de voorzienigheid is genade voor
   Een geheel ander karakter draagt daartegenover de              allen; de openbaring Gods  aan goddeloozen en duivelen is
   verlossende genade. Zij draagt een nieuw  levensbegin---- genade, dat de Logos een iegelijk mensch komende in
  se1 in uit het vleeschgeworden Woord. Van haar kan              de wereld verlicht, ook al begrijpt de duisternis het  licht
   gezegd: Zoo  iemand in  Christus  is, die is een  nieu.wl      niet, is genade! . . . .
   scliepsel, enz.                                                  En dan kan men daar  we1 heel de  Schrift  tegenover
    `De algemeene genade te ontkennen  is, dan ook  in. stellen en aantoonen, dat de goddeloozen groeien  als het
   strijd met de  S&rift. Anderzijds.  is het in de  prak-        kruid, opdat ze tot in der eeuwigheid verdelgd  worden,
   tijk  soms zoo, dat men uit te sterke beklemtooning            dat de  vloek des Heeren is in het  huis des goddeloozen,
   van het leerstuk der gemeene gratie ziet opkomen een           dat God Ezau eeuwiglijk  haat en zijne  bergen tot eene
   levenshouding,  die.  blijk geeft meer oog en hart te  heb-    verwoesting,stelt,  dat Hij een gruwel heeft  aan  alle werk-
  ben voor het vele  schoone dat de wereld nog heeft dan          ers der ongerechtigheid, dat zijn aangezicht tegen de
  voor  bet. feit en de heerlijkheid der verlossende genade.: hoovaardigen is, etc., etc.,  dat  alles helpt  u niets. De  al-
  `De wereldzin van het "christen"-hart vindt dan in de           gemeene genade smid  slaat zoo hard op het  aambeeld
   "gemeentq grafie" een brug om te komen tot wat men             (ook al werkt hij niets uit) , dat hij  uw geschreeuw niet
   graag wil: een wereldgelijkvormig leven. Men heeft             eens hoort.
 dan vaak meer verstand van de beteekenis der  alge-                Het is  aan doovemans deur  geklopt.
  meene genade dan van de bijzondere en hare vruchten.              Boter  aan de  galg gesmeerd.
   Dat dit een geheel averechtsche orde is voor een                 En' wat dies meer zi j.                            H.H.
   "christen' behoeft geen nader  betoog. En dat men dan
  -gelijk in Amerika-kwam tot een sterke positie  td-
  gen de leer van de gemeene gratie is begrijpelijk.  ' Af
  te keuren is natuurlijk dat men, met het  badwater ook                                       Sinai
  bet kind wegwerpend, kwam tot de absolute loochening
  van eenige  gunst Gods ten aanzien van de verlorenen.             The opening verses of chapter 19  .(of the Book of Ex-
                                                  Kremer.         odus) read, "In the third month, when -the children of Is-
                                                                  rael were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same
  Wij  halen bovenstaande slechts  aan ten bewijze, dat           day came they in the wilderness of Sinai. For they were
men ook in de Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken van               departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of
Nederland zoo hard  op het  aamb:eeld der algemeene slaat,        Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel
dat men  u eenvoudig niet hoort, al schreeuwt ge nog  ZOO         camped  be,fore the mount."
hard.                                                               The distance from the point of the Red Sea, at which the
  Ge kunt soms met menschen spreken over eene zaak                children of Israel had crossed, to Mount Sinai, is only
en al uw redebeleid gebruiken om hen  tech  aan het  ver-         about one hundred and fifty miles. Yet some sixty days
stand te  brengen,  dat ze het mis hebben,  maar  ie nemen        went by before the host of the Lord pitched its tent under
eenvoudig geen notitie van u. Ze zeggen al maar weer              the shadow of the mountain. Thus the average distance
hetzelfde over en geven zelfs  .geen  teeken, dat ze  u  ge-      traversed each day had been two miles and a half. But
hoord hebben, Of  ge wat zegt of niets zegt, het maakt            the host had rested on the way, at some points longer than
voor hen hoegenaamd geen verschil. Ze  doen precies  alsof at others, for refreshments and supplies, so that the days
ge nooit'iets gezegd had.                                         spent in actual travel had been considerable less than sixty.
  Zoo is het  oak met bovengepl'aatst antwoord.                   It means that the distance covered on each of these days
  Zeker, loochening der algemeene genade is in strijd             of travel must have been more than two miles and a half,
met de  Schrift  ! En dan komen al de afgezaagde  be-             perhaps ten.                            `
wijzen, die al honderdmaal weerlegd zijn, maar van de               There is in the vicinity of Sinai a great plain, called Er
weerlegging waarvan men notitie  neemt, Gemeene gratie Rahah-the "palm of the hand,`-which, so the explorers
is gemeene gratie, of algemeene genade, of algemeene of the Sinai Peninsula tell us, is large enough to give room
goedheid, of lankmoedigheid, of algemeene gunst. Dat              for the tents of a host of nearly two million souls. This
de  Schrift  hier nimmer met  geen` woord van spreekt, doet is the plain that the Lord may have selected. It was, so it
er  ,niet toe. De zaak wordt immers  we1 duidelijk geleerd.       is said, the only level ground in. the whole district which
En die leer der  Schrift  aangaande de zaak? Hier hebt ge         could accommodate a multitude of such numbers. What
het : het vervloekte  dolen van Kain is genade, de  godde-        is more, a fitter  stage.could not have been chosen for the.
looze  Kain-cultuur waartegen  Enoch buldert, is genade ;         great events which were soon to occur.  "The  Sacred

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

mountain," known in its different peaks as `Sinai,' the          covenant, then ye shall  be. a peculiar treasure unto me
jagged ;  "Horeb", the dry or bare, or, simply, the mount        aljove  all people : for all the earth is mine : and ye shall be
of God, rose in awful grandeur  b,efore the whole camp.          unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These
   Here before this mount-the  m&nt of God-the chil-             are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of
dren of Israel are now encamped. And Moses without               Israel."
delay and without first being summoned ascends the steep,
goes                                                                Thus the very first revelation made by the Lord out
         up  unto the Lord. .He has confidence toward God
and with right.  Had not the angel of the Lord said to           of the mountain is that only such who love Him and keep
him in the flame  of fire out of the midst of the  b&h, "Cer-    covenant fidelity will and can be His treasure. This cer-
tainly. I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto      tainly can not mean that whether Israel will  be made to
thee, that I have sent thee :  IdThen thou hast brought forth    dwell in His sanctuary  biefore His face as His royal priests
the `people out of Egypt, `ye shall serve God  upon  this        hinges,t1pon  whether they of their own free will, of them-
mountain". The Lord had not said, `And this shall be a           selves and thus upon their own initiative, will choose to
token unto thee that I have sent thee: thou wilt stand be-       hearken unto His voice. The doctrine of a will, morally
fore Pharaoh and declare my decrees. And I will bring            free, is  fhe figment of a willing ignorance. It is this as
to pass what thou  declarest. Stretching out my hand, I          the power to choose for God is solely a gift of grace.; as
will  .smite Egypt with my wonders., Would  not, the  ful-       the condtidn on which salvation turns, He only fulfills;
filments of these predictions of Moses prove, as well as         and as what He demands, He also gives. But what this
anything could, that he was the sent one of the Lord?            preliminary revelation does imply among others is that
With what better evidence of his sending could the Lord          the pure of heart only will and can see God in His holy
have provided him? And the answer; these wonders,                temple ; that the privilege of praising Him in His sanc-
too,`were to be the tokens of his sending. At  the sight of      tuary will fall to such only who love Him; that thus the
them, the people would believe, bow their heads and wor-         Holy One of Israel can dwell with such who are holy and
ship. Howver, of all the tokens that Moses had been sent         &LX partake of His divine nature. This truth is also fun-
by the Lord, their serving Him, Jehovah, upon the moun-          damental. ,4nd it, too, runs as a vein of gold through the
tain, their being brought into the relation of worshippers       whole of Holy Write as every student of Scripture ought
of God, was to be the crown. And it was to be this because       to know and recognize.
it was to form the positive side of their redemption and           What man is blessed  ? Is it not that man only who de-
thus the correlative of their being freed  frbm Egyptian         lights in the-law of the Lord and meditates in His law day
bondage. And what had been promised was not simply               and night? Shall not this man to the exclusion of all those
that Moses alone but that he and they all were to see His        who fear not God be like a tree planted by the rivers of
face. Thus at Sinai they were all to enter into the rela-        water, that  giveth forth his fruit in his season? Ps. 2.
tion of worshippers of Jehovah and in that relation be           Attend further to these scriptures. "For thou Lord wilt
constituted a kingdom of priests for the praise of His           bless the righteous; with favor thou wilt compass him as
name. And the central point of this worship was to con-          with a shield,"  P.s. 5  ;12.    "For God is in the generation
sist  ,in the sacrificial offerings through which Jehovah        of the righteous," Ps. 14  :5. "Many sorrows shall be to the
wouId take them to His heart.                                    wicked : ijut he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall
  It is with this promise fresh in his memory that Moses,        compass him about," Ps. 32 :lO, 11. "The eyes of the Lord
now that he and the people he brought up have arrived            are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.
at Sinai,  goes up unto God in the mountain. The time is         The face of the Lord is  against.them  that do evil, to cut
now at hand for the promised service to be inaugurated.          off the remembrance of them from the  earth," Ps. 34: 15,
What forms this service is to assume, what are to be the         16. "For the  Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh  .not
instruments of its expression, Moses knows not in detail         the saints ; they are preserved for evermore. For the Lord
as the Lord has not yet spoken. So he ascends the steep          loveth judgment, and forsaketh  net his saints;  &ey are
`in search of God. Eut before the children of Israel can         preserved forever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut
b,e formally constituted a holy nation, a peculiar treasure      off ," `Fs. 36 :2S. "For such as bme blessed of. him, sliall in-
unto the Lord, they must first be made to see Him in His         herit the earth; and they that be  cursed of him shall be
character of  co&uming fire and everlasting burnings and         cut off," Ps.  36~:22. And what said John of the  holy
thus  Se made to understand that the just only, they who         city, of the new Jerusalem that he saw in his vision coming
obey  ilis voice and keep His covenant, can stand in His         down from God out  ,of heaven, prepared as a bride adorn-
presence and Iive. And therefore "the Lord  caIIed unto          ed for her husband? He said that there  shaI1  in no wise
Moses out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say           enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatever  work-
to the house of Israel and tell the children of Israel: Ye       eth abomination, or  make& a iie : but they which are writ-
have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare          ten in the Lamb's book of life. And they written in this
you on eagles' wings, and brought  you  unto myself. Now,        book  a're the generations' of the righteous. Where does
therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my         scripture anywhere utter a different speech?           .


                                                                                                                                             I
                                       T H E   STAND.ARD   B E A R E R                                                           63

  The truth with which we here have to do, I say it again,         did unto all our `foes-Satan, the world and the flesh,
is fundamental. The denial of this truth, the contention -death,, the grave and hell-and how He bore  us  on  eagles'
that the wicked, too, "the abominable, and murderers, and          kings out of the house of our spiritual bondage unto Him-
whoremongers, and  sourcerers,  and idolaters, and all liars,      self  so'that.we  are now  come unto mount Sion, "and unto
are the blessed of the Lord, the objects of His favor and          the city of the living God (of which Mount Sinai, the
may also therefore, as far as He is concerned, ascend into         mount that might be touched, was `the type as will be
His holy hill,-how unspeakably God-dishonoring! What               proven from. scripture and made plain in the sequence),
a terrible travesty of the plain testimony of Holy Writ,           the heavenly Jerusalem. . .  ." `Let this initial doing of
this contention.                                                   Mine,' the Lord would say, `be unto thee the token and               '
  Hearkell.with  me once more to the speech of  God  out           pledge that ye whom I empower to keep  my covenant are
of the  mounta&,  "Now, therefore, if ye shall obey my             and shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me out of  a<1 people
voice, . . . .ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests . . . ."    for evermore.'
  Let.Moses not fail to tell this to the people of God now            This is God's declaration to His church throughout all
encamped  bef,ore the mount. They need to hear it.  `For           the ages. They are His possession out (Hebrew  71&
they  &-e the house of Jacob and children of Israel. Theirs,       out not above) of all people. The contrast here is not
therefore, are the fathers and thus the promises and the           between the Israelitish nation and all other nations but
covenants. And this promise has even begun to  bk,.real-           between the elect' of God and the reprobated wicked. He
ized on a low earthy plain. The Egyptians have been laid           hath  mrcy on the former and hardens the latter according
low. The Lord has borne His people on eagles' wings                to His good pleasure. This is His prerogative as all the
and brought them to Himself. This the house of Jacob               earth is His.
has seen. How apparently justified they would therefore              His possession are they as He saved them from all the&-
be in concluding that, being children of Israel,  they all         sins. And they are holy, pure of heart, separated by His
without exception are for this reason children of  God and         grace from the world and sin and wholly devoted to Him.
thus  viii11 eventually be with the Lord in His country  to        His holy nation are they and thus  not merely an aggrega-
stand. in His presence,as  priests unto  God. This view, no        tion of individuals sustaining `to each other no relation.'
doubt,  is already being held  ,by many of them, especially        They are born of God and thus all children of His. They
by the children of the flesh. But what sayeth the Lord to          are branches  .of  ,Christ the true vine, His body, the living
Moses?  ,"Tell the children of Israel, If ye keep my cove-         temple of God, a kingdom of priests, who praise Him in
nant.. . . .ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me  ab,ove all    His sanctuary.
people." Truly, God is in the generations of the righteous           Thus, that the Lord said unto His people," If ye hear-
only! But if so, is not then the doom  of  Israel's~children       ken unto my voice ye shall be my peculiar treasure,"
sealed? They hearken not unto His voice. They keep not             should not induce us  to' conclude that the  cover& the
ais covenant. Already have they all turned back, tempted           Lord institutes with  His people at Sinai is a covenant of
God, limited the Holy One of Israel, and refused to  re-           works. This  .-view  is really preposterous. It is a view in
memb,er His hand. And it  Will  hardly do to say that the          flagrant contradiction with the plain statements of the
true sons of  the covenant succeeded in keeping themselves         book  bf  Expdus  and with the teachings of Scripture in
unspotted of the sins of the children of the flesh  ir, the        general.  ,~,This,  too, will be shown in coming articles. Yet
camp. All have sinned and come short of the glory of  Gad.         it `has a meaning that the Lord says to His people," I f
Does not therefore the announcement, `Now therefore,. if           thou wilt hearken unto my voice. . . .  ." By expressing
ye will keep my covenant, ye shall be a possession unto me         Himself as He does, He serves them all notice that,
out of all people," spell their end? It does, certainly,  ,for     though He exalts whom He will and  deljases  whom He
the carnal seed. But as to the others, they shall live and         will, He  ho& every son of the covenant responsible: for
this for the sole reason that they are  ,Christ's, Who of          the attitude he assumes toward Him -and finds fault with
God is made unto them "wisdom and righteousness and                every one who refuses to hearken unto His voice and to
sanctification and redemption". Thus,  ..they are just in          keep His covenant. By putting the matter up to them as
Him  qnd by His Spirit made also to live unto Him. They            He does, He deals with them not as  .with sticks and
form the generations of the righteous in whom God is.              stones `but as  with. creatures  who can and must be  held
For they hearken unto His voice and keep His covenant.             responsible for all their `doings and  Reactions.
To these He therefore says, "Ye shall be a peculiar  tyea-           "And Moses  .came and  chilled for the elders of the
sure unto me out  of. all people, a kingdom of priests and         pedple,   and  Jaid'bsefore their faces all these words which
a holy nation". For they are the children of the promise;          the Lord  commande$   hiin: ,  And all the people answered
counted for the seed, the true  childreq  of Israel.               together, and said, All  that the Lord  bath spoken we will
  Viewing this initial revelation in, the light of the above `do." Thus  do  they voluntarily declare that they are dis-
observations, it  btecomes  unto us a scripture pregnant with      posed to accept  His covenant.
comfort. They  have seen what the `Lord did  pnto the                This reply: insofar as it rose from the hearts of the
Egyptians and  `how' He bore them on  cables' wings  unto          true children of Israel  was sincere and well-meant. Yet
Hi&elf.  `And so, too, we have  se&n-seen  what  Christ.           they did not realize fully the import  &jF their  respons'e.  The

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

church in that epoch was but a child. Being a child it had          Tollenaars  waren  Joden die  zich verlaagd  .hadden om
as' yet no adequate conception of the nature of God, of          voor de gehate Romeinen de belastingen te  innen.  Veel-
His method of redemption, of the character of sin, of the        al kwam daar nog bij, dat zij het volk afzetten door meer
depth of man's misery and of the thoroughness of his             te eischen dan het vastgestelde  bedrag. En zondaars  wa-
depravity. The church therefore is in the need of instruc-       ren de domme menschen die niets of  bijna niets afwisten
tion. Thus  all God's doings at Sinai have: for their, pur-      van de Wet. En onkunde was misdaad in die dagen.
pose the leading of His people deeper into the truth of          Zoo redeneerden het Sanhedrin er over. Wetenschap was
Christ Jesus. Only as mindful of this purpose, can we            vroomheid. Zij  wilden  zich daarom maar liever niet  in-
grasp the meaning of Sinai.                                      laten met de  massa  van de dommen. Vervloekt zijn zi j.
  `"And Moses told the words of the people unto the                Wat al miskenning van  de. door God gestelde relatie.
Lord;:"                                            G.M.O.        Want God  dacht er anders over. Dat blijkt  we1  als Jezus
                                                                 juist dat ddmme volk opzoekt,  Zich met hen inlaat,  Zich-
                                                                 zelf verzoekt  om bij hen in huis te komen  - (denk hier
                                                                 aan  Matthetis-Levi) en met hen eet. Hij, de Groote en
                                                                 Goede Herder, openbaart'hier de  rechte verhouding  tus-
  "Soort zoekt soort  !"                                         schen den herder en het afgedwaalde schaap. Verlaten
  Ja, dat is een  mooi spreekwoord. Dat zeiden de  Fari-         moet den rechtvaardige om den zondaar te zoeken.  Zie-
ze2rs ook: "Hoe komt het  tech, dat uw  Meester   Zich           daar de  rechte relatie.
zoo verlaagt om met het afschrapsel der natie  tiood te
eten  ?" Ter eener zijde, werpt Hij  Zich op de Zone               Hier komt nog bij, dat  dit murmureeren der  Farize<rs
Gods te zijn'; en ter anderer zijde, weigert Hij om met          ook onkunde verraadt aangaande eigen staat en  toe-
ons  bp minzamen  voet te verkeeren. Veeleer wendt Hij           stand. Deze (wat klinkt dat verachtelijk). ontvangt de
Zich steeds tot die verachte tollenaars en zondaars, tot         zondaars. Dat zouden wij niet  doen. En waarom niet?
de  schare die de Wet niet kent en daarom  `vervloekt is.        Omdat wi j beter zijn dan zij. Wi j zijn de  rechtvaardi-
Gebeurt het dan nog eens, dat Hij op zekeren Sabbat  bij         gen. Wij  hebben nooit het gebod  over&eden, zeggen ze,
een onzer het avondmaal  nuttig,  dan  stelt Hij ons in          door den mond van den ouderen zoon in de gelijkenis.
                                                                 In de onderhouding der Wet onberispelijk. Ach, zij
groote verlegenheid door ons zoo laag neer te zetten en
het lage volk te verhoogen. In het bijzijn of tenminste          waren vreemdelingen voor God en hun hart. Nooit  waren
ten aanhoore van tollenaars en zondaars. Eerst verzwakt          ze  ontdekt geweest  aan de breuke van eigen hart en leven.
Hij onze nauwgezette leering aangaande den  Sabbiat  door        Anders zouden ze niet zoo laatdunkend spreken over den
een zieke gezond te  maken, dan keert Hij  Zich, tegen ons       naaste. Al is het ook, dat de tollenaars en het gewone
                                                                 volk misschien in het  openbare leven veel meer  uitspatten.
door ons voor te  stellen  als hoogmoedige menschen; en          in ongerechtigheid. Zij  waren geen steek beter, want
vervolgens wil Hij ons opdringen om niet.  langer ons            Jezus, Die hun hart kende, zeide immers, dat zij van
vermaak te zoeken in gemeenschap met hen die ons gelijk          binnen   vd doodsbeenderen  waren.  Miskenning van hun
zijn,  doch wil Hij  hebben, dat wij de  armen, verminkten,      naaste,  doch ook miskenning van zichzelf was het ziek,
kreupelen en  blinden  zullen verzoeken  op' onze maaltijden.    dat kankerde bij de  FarizeErs en Schriftgeleerden.
`t Zou een mooie  boel  worden,   als wij ons zouden inlaten
met het afschrapsel der wereld!                                    Daarom miskenden zij dan opk  Jezus. Jezus is  Je-
  En men kan het ook merken, dat Zijne leering  ingang           hovah-Heil. Dat  zagen ze niet. Zij  hadden  er ten  eenen-
vindt bij het  volk, want  alle de tollenaars en de zondaars     male geen  oog voor, dat de Drieenige God uit den  hemel
komen om Hem te hooren.                                          nedergedaald was en in den  Pers.oon  van den verachten
                                                                 Nazarener voor hen stond. Dat dit eeuwige heil juist tot
  En. ze murmereerden, zeggende: "Deze ontvangt de
zondaars en eet met hen!"                                        openbaring kwam in het opzoeken van de ellendigen.
                                                                 Neen, zou het  goed zijn, dan moest Jehovah  Zich komen
  Volgens hen was er maar een  conclusie:  Soort zoekt           vergasten bij hun schoonheid en schittering van  uitwen-
soort !  Hij, Jezus van Nazareth, is niet veel beter dan         dige werken.  Jezus moest "op company" bij Kajafas
dat verachte volk : Hi j heeft een duivel !                      en  Annas. Dan  zou `t gaan. En er maar flink  op  los-
  Hij ontvangt zondaars en eet met hen. Een duidelijke           bulderen  tegen die domme, vervloekte  massa op den dag
miskenning van al wat Jezus deed op deze gevloekte aarde.        des  Sabbats in de  synagoge.  En dart zou `t gaan.  Mis-
Doch ook veel meer dan dat  alleen. Zij miskenden                schien  stemmen we Hem dan  we1 tot voorzitter in `t
ook door die uitspraak de juiste relatie tusschen zichzelf       Sanhedrin. Treurige miskenning van zoowat  alles.
en het volk. Zij  waren herders.  Doch om de schapen
van Israel's stal  b#ekommerden zij  zich niet.                    Ook miskenning van de Wet.
  Daar was een groote afstand tusschen de  Farize&-s  en           Op gevoelige wijze wordt hun dit verweten door
Schriftgeleerden, ter eener zijde, en de tollenaars en  zon-     Jezus, nadat zij murmureerden over Zijn omgang met
daars, ter anderer zijde.                                        het  uitvaagsel  van  Judea en  Samaria.  Jezus zegt : Gaat


 66                                       ` T H E   ,-STANDARD   BE,AR'ER

    .~..
       .-  A General ,Offer,  of Grace. and'                           below rather than the things above, Mammon rather than
                                                                       `God, Belial than Christ, that our desires and lusts find
               Worldlv;Mindedness                                      their object in  al1  -that characterizes this temporal-earthly.
                             4                                         life without concerning ourselves with the heavenly re-
    These go  invariably  hand in hand. We propose to                  newal of all things. That church is worldly-minded which
 make clear that worldly-mindedness must inevitably be                 craves not for the truth, concerns itself not with God's
 the-result of a general offer of salvation, that, advocating          Word, manifests no interest in the true revelation of the
 such a presentation of the gospel,' one has already em-               kingdom of God, but busies itself with the beauties, the
braced the principle of seeking the things which are be-               glories, and niceties of this present time.  -
low, and `that a church, continuing upon this principle,
 must perish. Such has  been.the contention of our churches               Now we maintain that to advocate a general  well-
ever since the notorious Three Points  were, f  or'mul%ted in          meaning offer of salvation will result in wordly-minded-
 1924, and subsequent.histo.ry is affirming it;                        ness, must inevitably lead into seeking of `the things be-
    By a general offer of salvation is meant that salvation            low which. is the death of any church. Firstly, because
 is a matter of God offering it and man realizing it. Grace            such a gospel must imply a Christ for all. This lies in
 is merely offered, not bestowed. The Lord then delighteth             the very nature of the case. It. is surely undeniable that  _
 in  .the salvation. of every man,, would save all,, revealing         only then can  grace'be offered to all when it exists for all.
 this desire. and attempt .in the preaching of the gospel              If., as the Christian Reformed `churches teach, God's
 which must be  .understood. as  $.manifest  token of  @d's            promises are intended for,' offered to all, and God's cove-
 grace to all. that hear: Such is  .surely the  implication  of        nant is essentially a promise to  ble conceived of as general
 Point One. A gospel, which is God's grace bestowed upon               &that  all'have a right to eternal life, our  ,salvation how-
 ail  .that hear, can mean nothing less than `that all men are         ever depending upon our acceptance o.f this gracious offer,
 presented. with the opportunity, of. being saved. Hereby              it  .must also be maintained that Jesus' work upon the
 is denied the Scriptural truth that the Lord only calls His           cross is general in character. For all promises are yea
 people by name in His Word,, that the sole positive pur-              and amen only in  (Christ  Jesus. In Jesus alone is'  fore-
 pose of Holy Scripture  Is to acquaint God's elect with               giveness  of'sin and life eternal. Hence, to offer salvation
 their salvation, that the gospel is primarily an announce-            to all, to proclaim `unto all hearers that God would save
 ment of the Lord's particular promises to  His own. Here-             all men, implies that Jesus  is a general Saviour. That the
 by is furthermore denied that salvation is the fruit of               Christian Reformed churches have officially adopted this
 God's irresistible grace,  ,worked, in the hearts of the elect,       view is evident from  .the fact that the late Prof.  Heyns,
 through, which we `alone can believe .in the  .Lord Jesus             writing officially in the'  "Wachter," stated that Christ
 Christ  :and be saved. Moreover, a general `offer of the              died objectively for all but that the subjective realization
 gospel  does not only deny this. positive line of election,           of this salvation depends upon our faith. And this is
 but. it  is-also in violent conflict with reprobation, so that        exactly the arminian teaching of the second point of the
 God  &LIS~S  the gospel to be held forth before the repro-            Five Points of the Remonstrants drawn up in 1610,
 bates in order that they may reject  .it and-trample  .it under       teaching that Jesus died for  ,ail men, but that only those
 foot, seal their own condemnation and thereby realize His             are saved who-believe.             _          ;
,Sovereign  purpose also with regard to the wicked. Well                                                        ~
 may we  ,bear in mind that the question is not whether                   Secondly, -the  theory: of  a. general atonement implies
 Christ`must be generally preached.  .The preaching is and             that the Lord condones sin. Of course, a general' Saviour
 must  be  generai.. All who hear must be  aadmonished  ,to            is no  Saviour.or  one must maintain universalism teach-
 believe  :and repent  -and seek salvation alone in Christ             ing  that,all  menare  actually saved. Surely, if Christ died
 Jesus.; unto all must be preached that God's promise, yea             for all men, one of two things Must be true : all men are
 and  am.en in. Christ.. Jesus, are for those who  b&eve' on           saved, or He is the  S$viour.of  those also who  are not
Him  ;`but never may it be presented that grace is general,            saved. If Christ  upIon the cross shed His blood for all,
 that Jesus. is. for all,,t$rat :God  would save all, and- thatsal-    `His death was-either, an atoning death, all  guilt`was- paid,
 vation is a matter of an offer. Then,we have God power-               .eternal life: was merited for ,211.and.  all men must be saved,
 less to save, a' man who has the power to accept,' so `that           ori Jesus' death did not pay. for sin,' but- the cross is merely
 salvation depends..u,~n..~~".wil.~of -.man. Such is the  un-          an-expression of God's love -for  mankind..and   man'must
 deniablle implication of Point. One.                                  save himself. This presentation  pictures- the Lord as not
   The term, worldly-mindedness, speaks for itself. It                 concerning Himself with iniquity. So great is His love
 signifies- that  we:mind  the things- of the world,.- set. our        for  .mankind that He would. forget our sin. He offers
 affecti.ons-   up&.-them, and seek  them: with ail that  is in        salvation  to.all. regardless of sin being paid for, yes or no.
 us; To be wordly-minded stands opposed to  heavenly-                  But,. this theory of a general` atonement, which is no
 mindedness, implies that,. we  :  love,V the  -temporal  rather       atonement, involves a-. god, who concerns  .himself   .least
 than the eternal, this-earth rather than heaven, the  things-         of: all with  : sin, but would walk in covenant-fellowship


I
     1,             T
       with'."the  ,creature'  `who.  bjr-`:nature `is  worthy,$f  eternal wood. and stone  and all manner; of. creeping things. A
     `;'  death..:..   .'  .-:'  .,:  :  `-                         *.
      -'                                                                         god the  ,,heathen'makes  and serves whd>does not `lead him
            `-`This  view must lead to--wordly-mindedness. My  relig-            but whom  he., can lead, who.  .will'  not:  .trouble . or molest                        _
            30~1s  walk of life is determined by my conception of God.           him in the seeking of the things which he desires. The
I  "-: The  -.Lord.alone  determines--how I must walk for He is                  situation is essentially `identical in the civilized, so-called
1'.  .. the: sole;'  s&&me. Dictator of my walk of life. Whom Christian world of to-day.  .Oh, it  is'true that these  higllli
`. God loves,' I.  nzzt& love; whom the Lord -hates I  rnztst                    civilized and cultured men  *do not bow the knee before.
            hate.  .And  i,f the god whom I serve condones sin,  "hood-          wood and stone or creeping things. This would be far
            winks"< at iniquity, concerns Himself not with  unrighte-            below their dignity. Hence, they look down with disdain
            .ousness, is  .perfectly  willing to forget my rebellion, it lies    and contempt upon these foolish heathen who worship
            in' the very nature of the case that a people will be reared  ' even the lowest animals. -Let us not be deceived,  how-
            who will not concern themselves with sin but will seek               ever. These cultured  ."Christians"  are merely civilized
       the things which are below. How shall a  -god  .condoning                 heathen.    Also the. `civilized Christian of to-day frames
            sin, not concerning. himself with iniquity, ever fill a peo-         himself a god. Be it true that our conception of a general
            ple. with  .fear and reverence for that which is good and Christ must lead us into worldly-mindedness, it is
            holy? Moreover, if the Lord God exercises  covenant-                 only because that conception of God and His `Christ is
            fellowship with all men, loves them and justifies their              the fruit of the principle -of wordly-mindedness within
            walk. regardless whether it be  :of faith or not, I have no          us. Love for the world `produces this conception. This
            right to  .hate what God loves, to condemn what God justi-           is the history of the "Three Points" of 1924.  Hatred,.of __
            fies,  to' shun. with whom the Lord exercises communion.             the antithesis produced this broad  worldview.   For out of  '
            The guilt of sin will then become a matter which we will             the heart are `all the issues of life, also our conception
       no  lqnger  understand; the hatred  for.sin  cannot be ex-                of Jehovah. Man to-day makes God what  .he wants Him                      I
            perienced- for the Sole Dictator of iife and death concerns          to:be. "Common-grace" is indeed the product of man's
            Himself not with iniquity. We maintain  thatla  ,general             evil and carnal. `imagination. Loving the world with. the
            `conception of God leads inevitably into worldly-minded-             things which are therein, he formulates  a. god  iyho. will
            n e s s .                                        I                   support., him in such action, For man must serve a god.
                   However, this is  not] all.  .That  my view of God deter-     He has been created a creature who spontaneously must  '  '
            mines my conscious-spiritual outlook upon life is plain.             -serve. But that god is-made to  fithis sinful desire. Loving
            Yet, that' the  chur& of to-day, serves such a god is cer-           all men, seeking  .fellowship with all, `attracted by': the
            tainly not  b'ecause he exists., Throughout Scripture it is          beauty and power and glory of this present age, he has
            -emphatically  maintained that the Lord cannot forget                found in "Common-grace" a resting-point for his  world-
            nuquity,  that He must and will punish it according, to              sick soul, serving a god who loves all men,  ?pproving   the-
            Divine righteousness, that Divine pardon must never be               actions of those who  ,have no faith, for no other reason
            confused with a human forgetfulness, that, according to              than' to soothe and' set at rest his soul which would  seeks
            our Heidelberg Catechism, sin which has been committed               the things below. Hence, man produces  a.general Christ                             -
            against His most high Majesty shall surely be punished               together with a general offer of salvation. That we are                        :
            with the extreme penalty of external death. Throughout               condemnable, guilty of death, incapable in ourselves  ,of,
            Scripture we. read-that Jehovah hates sin, that He is far            saving ourselves, that.. God's eternal wrath must be borne                               _-
            from the wicked, that His soul  ha& no delight in, un-               unto the.  ve$  ,bitter end, that God hates iniquity  and
            righteousness, and `that the death of the' Lord Jesus                loves the good even through the bitter death of the cross,
            Christ is indeed to be maintained as-solely for His sheep,           his carnal. soul loathes and abhors ; instead, a gospel must
       ,  wherebty Zion has  bleen  purchased by His  ,own precious              be proclaimed. whose. sole message is a story of human  :
            blood; That man  to-day has such a conception  of. God `is           love,  &-esenting   a Jesus for all, doing  .away with the  old-
            not because the' Lord hath thus revealed Himself, but, `it           fashioned conception of  blood~atonement, of  sin and  .'
            is that. my conception of God determines my  .spiritual              guilt.` And the sinner has succeeded in building for  him-
            walk, equally, yea,' far more fundamentally true it' is that         seff  a:.defense,  a stronghold  ,wherein he feels himself very
            my  spiritual outlook upon life determines my conception             secure.. to continue upon the way of godlessness. This
            `of the god whom I serve.                                            must  be the inevitable -fruit. also for the Christian Re-
                   .This we must. understand. Jesus.  .is not a general  Sa-     formed churches who thrust us out  of. their bosom.
            qiour,  ,but a general Saviour is. the product of sinful  man:        . As Protestant Reformed churches we must. beware.
            -It  .is.not true that God loves all men and would save  all-        Such a stronghold is but an air-castle: It is but a vain
            this' god  ,originates in the sinful human brain. For, ac-           .and idle dream.-'  .This bubble must burst, if not in this          '
            cording to Scripture, it is man who -frames himself a                life through the power of' God's  irrisistible  grace, then                         -
            god according to his  heart's. desire. Man produces  a. god          in the hereafter. `For such. a god is but the product of
            in harmony with the vain imaginations of his  own..hea&.             inan3  vain and evil imaginations. The true God Whose
            Ths  it is among the heathen who  bsow  tl&`knee before              Name is Jehovah, seeking the glory of His own blessed

              .          :                        .     .


        68                                     T H E   STAND,ARD   B E A R E R

        Name, will not be mocked. He  ,shall. surely maintain             concentmtie,  hare  religeuxe  .e&-vervu&g  vinden : Ego,
        Himself, will reveal Himself as the Lord, Who  ,hateth            in  Christo  regeneratus,  etiam cogitans ex  Christo vivo,
        iniquity and loves only that which is good. Woe unto             contra het Cartesiaansche `cogito ergo sum' en tegenover
        them who have set their heart upon a god of their own             het irrationalistisch `vivo'.
        thinking, who love this world with the things that are              "Religieuze instelling van het wijsgeerig  denken: het
        therein, and would seek a god in harmony therewith.              eigen  zijn van  Chri.&us in een dagelijkschen strijd, ook
        Their actions shall be revealed as having been in vain,           in het wijsgeeri g  denken, tegen het  `vleesch', d.i. in
        as having sought life and peace where death and `eternal         schriftuurlijken zin,  tegen ons  ufgemllen ik, tegen  `on-
        woe must be reaped. Let us, as Protestant Reformed               zen ouden mensch',  welke in zijn  denken het tijdelijke
        churches, knowing the truth, also maintain it; let us hold       verabsoluteert en aftrekt van God in Christus.
        fast to what we have, that no man take our crown.                   "Grondmotief : de strijd tusschen het Rijk Gods en het
                                                   H.  Veldman.          Rijk der duisternis in den wortel en in den tijdelijken
                                                                         samenhang -in de zinverscheidenheid van  onzen kosmos :
                      .ijsbegeerte                    etsidee            erkenning van het  gestuit zijn van de ontbindende door-.
                                                                         werking der zonde door de  cazgemeene  gennde terwille
          Het derde  deel van het eerste boek van Dr.  Dooye-            van het herschapen menschengeslacht, dat God in Chris-
        weerd's  "Wijsblegeerte Der Wetsidee" behelst conclusies         t&  als het Hoofd, geheiligd en aangenomen heeft (de
        en dient  als een  overgang naar de ontwikkeling van het         bijzondere. genade) . Dit grondmotief leidt niet tot  anti-
<       systeem  dezer wijsbegeerte. Het bevaf twee  hoofdstuk-          nonlie& in het wijsgeerig  denken,  doch tot een  volstrekte
       ken, waarin de schrijver  achtereenvolgens  een vergelijking      antithese met ieder wijsgeerig  denken,  dat'  in de afvallige
       trekt tusschen het synthetisch en het antithetisch  stand-        zelfheid wortelt. Het voert ook tot een  dankbare  erken-
       punt  in'het Christelijk wijsgeerig  denken; en handelt over      ning van de gaven en talenten, die God  aan de gevallen
       de systematische opbouw van de philsophie der wetsidee            menscheid gelaten heeft."
       en hare verhouding tot de vakwetenschappen.                          De  idee van de zin-totaliteit wordt aldus omscheven:
          Belangrijk is hier vooral de, voorstelling in enkele             "De  rich&g van het wijsgeerig  ,denken in het wi  js-
       forsche  trekken van de  antithese.tusschen  het Christelijke     geerig systeem der kennis op  Christus  als wortel en  zin-
       en Humanistisch  denken. Dr.  Dooyeweerd  doet dit in             volheid van den herschapen kosmos, die' de wet in haar
       enkele stellingen, waarin hi j omschrij ft beider  Archime-       religieuze volheid van dienst God met het geheele hart,
     disch punt, religieuze instelling, grondprobleem, etc.  En-         heeft  volb'racht;  niets in onze tijdelijk werkelijkheid is
       kele van deze stellingen, de  grondstructuur van de  Chris-       onttrokken  aan Christus, er' is geen gebied van  `onver-
       .telijke Wetsidee omschrijvend,  willen we hier aanhalen :        schillige zaken' (adiaphora) .
          "Archimedisch punt : de in Christus, als volheid  .der           En over de  idee van den zin-samenhang in de  zinver-
       Goddelijke Openbaring, op God gerichte, den tijd  tran-           scheidenheid  schrijft Dr. Dooyeweerd :
       scendeerende religieuze  wo,rtel der schepping, in  onder-           "In geen der zin-zijden  ligt de volheid der tijdelijke
       worpenheid  aan de religieuze zin-volheid der wet: den            werkelijkheid. Uit den religieuzen wortel (het `hart' in
       dienst Gods met  geheel  bet hart; het wijsgeerig  denken         Schriftuurlijken zin) zijn de uitgangen des  levens.  De
       is in  dit  Arclz&ed&$z   p%%zt  v?rijgeYna&t  van de verduis-. zin-samenhang is geen  constructie  van het wijsgeerig  den-
       tering door de  zonde,  doch Mijft in den tijd nog steeds         ken,  doch wordt onderhouden door de  qoddeZ;jke   werelcl-
       onderhevig  aan dwaling door de werking van den  afval-           orde, die ook het  denken  eerst mogelijk maakt." pp. 471,
       lingen wortel van het bestaan. De  Christefijke vrijheid van      473.
       bet herboren hart,  als  religieuze  wortel van het wijsgeerig      Ten slotte  meen ik, dat ook nog van  belang  is  aan te
       denken, is slechts gewaarborgd in voortdurende  gebon-            halen hetgeen de schrijver geeft ter verklaring van de
       denheid  aan het Woord Gods,  dat ons  aan ons  zelve  ont-       antithese-gedachte : "In dezen  univers,eelen  zin dient  ein-
       dekt. Het `hart' in schriftuurlijken zin mag nimmer               delijk ook de antithese-gedachte van Dr. Kuyper  te  wor-
       worden vereenzelvigd met de `gevoelsfunctie' en de  `ge-          den verstaan, die helaas juist bij vele irenisch  gezinde
       loofsfuntie'  ; het is geen `functie-complex', gelijk het         C?zzrtitenen het slachtoffer van zoo veelszins geborneerd
       metaphysisch `zielsbegrip' der  ,heidensche en  humanis-          misverstand is geworden,  wijl.men niet wenschte te  er-
       tische  metaphysics   ; het heeft niets van  doen  ,met het in    kennen, dat deze antithese geen  $`eersoo&jlze,  maar een
       dit laatste gedachtenkader  thuis  b,ehoorend  dualisme van       py&ci&eele  scheidslijn trekt in de wereld,  .een scheidslijn,
       `lichaam'  (als complex van `natuurfuncties') en `ziel'  (a.ls    die zelfs dwars door de existentie van ieder Christen  per-
       complex van psychische en `normatieve functies'). Het             sooalijk heengaat. Deze antithese  berust  niet op  mensche-
       hart,  schoon  de. grens der tijdelijke zin-verscheidenheid       lijke vinding, maar is de groote zegen Gods, waardoor
       en daarin ook de tijdellijke denkfunctie transcendeerend,         Hij Zijn gevallen schepping voor ondergang behoedt. Wie
       is geen blinde of  stomme getuige,  doch de volheid  unzer        haar loochent, verloochent  ,Christus  en Zijn werk in deze
       zelfheid, waarin al-onze tijdelijke functies hare religieuze      wereld." p. 492.                                     H.H.


                                    T H E   ST,ANDARD   B E A R E R                                                        6      9

                                                                Scripture in general suggests three reasons for subjec-
                                                                tion. They are in order: creation, sin and grace. First of
                                                                all because of creation. Not some cruel happening of
  No, Sarah, the wife of  .Ablraham, had no daughters.          fate but the ever blessed God made the woman to be
Her only child, born in  old age,, was a son called Isaac.      woman, to  be a help  fit for (such is the meaning of  "h@
Yet Scripture does speak of the daughters of Sarah.             meet," of man. Although she is by no means an inferior
It is true but once, but then so clearly that no one can        creature, woman is nevertheless other than man both as to
deny that Sarah has many daughters. The passage of              body and as to soul. Neither was the man made for the
Scripture I have in -mind may be found in I Peter 3  6          woman, but the  woman' for the man. Therefore if God
which reads, "Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling              brings the woman  .her husband, she must  in her married
him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well,        life desire to  b,e her husband's help. She surely must be
and are not afraid with any amazement." The reference           ready to forsake her own name to take her husband's,
is surely not to natural daughters, for we  knsw she had        to leave her previous. activity to help her husband live his
none. Neither does Peter have in mind her Jewish grand-         life and fulfill his calling as his wife. So Eve did in
daughters, for to  bse a daughter of Sarah is not a natural     Paradise. You cannot conceive of  `Eve desiring to live
but a spiritual something. As Abraham is the father of          out her own life apart from her husband. She did not
believers, whether they be Gentile or Jew,, so too Sarah        cry to be emancipated from her husband, but strove to
may be called the mother of bjelievers and believing women      help him  fullfill his calling as his wife. Therein she found
her daughters.                                                  her marital bliss. It is only sin that makes the wicked  Jeze-
  What kind of a woman was Sarah spiritually? Indeed            bels of. the world strive to undo the ordinances of God.
not a perfect woman, for did she not laugh when the             Daughters of  S&ah  .will know that their  God-giveri place
angel foretold the birth of the promised seed? But  izone       is to help and assist, to recognize as their head, their  God-
the less a believing woman, who as Abraham's wife               given husbands. As Sarah of old, who forsaking all went
showed that she was a child of God's grace. For first of        with Abraham into a strange land and called  him'.her lord.
all, according to I Pet. 3 :l-6 she was adorned with true          But, daughters of Sarah, there is another reason why
adornment. And true adornment is something. spiritual,          you must be  subiject to  your husbands, cost what it may.
not something natural; it is a matter of the heart, not a       That reason lies in sin, and the part the first wife played
matter of dress. Her adorning did not consist in the            in Adam's sin. "And Adam was not deceived, but the
plaiting of hair, the wearing of jewelry and the putting        womari being deceived was in the transgression." The
on  of apparel, bat in the hidden man of the heart, in a        first mother, Eve, played the harlot over against God and
meek and quiet spirit, in her love for God, and her long-       her husband, for instead of helping him reject and resist
ing  tb be pleasing in the eyes of God.  The daughters of       temptation, she willingly allowed herself to be used as
Sion are like her, and all that make not the external but       Satan'Cnstrument  for the fall of her husband. She gave
the internal' things of the heart and spirit their true         Adam to eat, and he did eat. Therefore when the curse
adornment are daughters of Sarah and not of the children        came (for God is a righteous and holy God as well as a
of men. But, secondly, Sarah also knew and loved her            God of love) the guilty parties bore the curse each in an
God-given place of wife. She recognized the ordinance of        unique way. The serpent as serpent, the man as man,'
God for her life, and  bmecause   6f this subjected. herself    but the woman as woman.  Untoc her it was said, "I will
to her God-given husband for the Lord's sake. Her  soul         greatly. multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sor-
was not filled with hatred toward the fact that she was         row thou shalt bring forth children ; and thy desire shall
born a woman, her thoughts were not occupied with               be to thy husband,. and he shall rule over thee." As a
equal rights and privileges. No, she  underStood that           mother the pangs of travail should come  upon her. What
Abraham as her husband was her God-given husband, and           shall Sarah's daughters do.7 Refuse to become mothers?
she loved it so. Therefore Sarah called Abraham lord.           Turn to the wicked inventions of sin? No, she will sub-
Although believing  wiires may not in so many words call        ject herself for the Lord's sake, for she knows that in
their husbands lord, still they know that the husband is        child-bearing  lies her salvation, for it is the marvelous
the head of the home and recognize the ordinances of            way in which not  orily the Great Seed of the  `wom%n
God for their marital life. Therefore they are truly appears but also the seed of God's covenant, the multi-
happy,  as'happy  as Sarah of old, whose daughters they         tude of redeemed that shall be saved in  ,Christ. Then too
a r e .                                                         the curse implied that her desire should be to her  husbarid
  Let me  tak& the second matter that has to do with the        and he would rule over her. This rule,. of course, is not
subjection of the wife to her lawful husband first, just        the rule of love as in Paradise originally but the cruel
as in the above mentioned passage it stands on the fore-        rule of a tyrant, the harsh rule that pains and harms her,
ground. Just why was Sarah subject to her husband,              that weakens her body and quells her spirit. For except
and are her spiritual daughters that with her? I think          her husband be born anew he will rule over his wife in


c.

       70                                     T H E   `..ST.~ANDARD,   ,B-EARER
         R=     y     .-_,                         .,                                  -     ._     r     I     r-- _  "."..a..-   *.
       the name of  :sin;..for his own  .sinful ends. What shall  s,he     blessed foundation for wedlock.  :And Sarah's daughters
       do? Strive to dominate him, make him. her slave' by                 will look for.  such husbands. If  i they have sinned in this
       "means  `of physical charms in the,  .service `of sin  z /Shall     respect they will. repent before God, and seek to gain
       she seek a divorce upon  gfounds'of  cruelt.y,  as the daugh-       t&ir  htisbands  b$  t h e i r   holy>  walk.  "-
       ters of Hollywood and Satan do?. Shall she refuse to
       subj6ct herself to this tyiant of  sin, called  her  h&band               All this certainly tends to, explain the true adornment
       (for surely a carnal man is spiritually. never more than .of Sarah's daughters. This adornment does not consist
                                                                          in the plaiting of the hair, in the  wearing  o.f gold, in the
       a tyrant over his wife)  ?.  ~Oh, no Christian' women,` the
       solution lies not in this  diredtion. All these solutions           Gutting  on of apparel. They will put on apparel, you
                                                                          may  b,e sure of that, these daughters of Sion. They may
       simply make conditions worse, and belong to those that             wear gold, and plait their hair. But their adornment will
       love the way of destruction.' Be subject to your husbands,         not consist in these things.
       khowing  that such is the  Lorcl's will. Remember ven-                                                        . A lovely complexion, gor-
                                                                          geous apparel, well-groomed locks, these will not be  thdr
       geance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. S&ah's               spiritual striving.
       daughters will confess their  sins,  and seek their consola-                                       They will seek the adornment. of
                                                                          grace, the beauty of the soul, the robes of righteousness
       tion with their God, and  $6 subject to their  husbarids for       in Christ. I do not  meah that the daughters of Sarah
       God's sake.                                                        will be careless about their external appearance. I can-
         Then there is a third reason why  Sarah'9  daughters             not conceive of a daughter of Sarah as `a slouch. What
       owe subjection to their husbands. That is grace. For               I do mean is that they will be sure to be spiritually busy
      marriage is an `earthly reflection of God's perfect cove-           in the beauty shop of God's grace.
      nant. When  mankind   .transgressed  the covenant of God,
      then its creaturely reflection also  was destroyed. The root               Daughters of Sarah, for such the women of God's
      6f  ,a11 marital troubles lies in sin alone, sin has destroyed      church are called to be, be daughters of Sarah. Imitate
      holy marriage. But God remembered his covenant,' he                 not the Adahs and  Zillahs of the world, neither the
      I'estores  and perfects, it in Christ the Lord. His  a&lter-        Jezebels of Hollywood and Paris  blut take for your ex-
      ous bride, the church, he marries unto himself  with  a             ample Sarah of old. For her beauty was true beauty
      bond of eternal love. For. her he laid down his life, her           and  nevQ perisheth but abideth unto all eternity. It i's
      he blesses,  her he rules by his Spirit and grace. Indeed,          the beauty of Christ. The beauty of the  w?rld fades
      `,Christ as the bridegroom is `no tyrant. His rule is not           away,  blecause it is no beauty. A fair skin, a beautiful
      oppressive, it does not destroy, but it  b,lesses and saves.        cloak, plaited hair cannot hide the ugliness of sin, but
                                                                          neither can the  .most irregular features and plain apparel
      Of this heavenly reality marriage among the saints may              hide the  beauty of grace.
      be an earthly picture. By our sins it is yet often defaced,                                                 All the jewelry of the world,
                                                                          all the purple robes of the rich, cannot hide a Jezebel.
      .nevertheless it is  principly  realized, A Christian  husband
      loves and seeks his wife, he is willing to  lab;or in the                  Daughter of Sarah!                                      P. De Boer.
      sweat of his brow to keep  her, he watches over her. H e
      does not wish to quell her spirit, he does not wish to                                                                                    -
      destroy her, but his- earnest desire is to rule over her as
      Chiist rules over the church. The daughters of Sarah
      on  the other hand gladly have it so. As Christ is the
      heavenly Lord, so too their husbands are their. lords in
      marriage. Sach a husband is no "boss!`,. no tyrant, no
      dictator, but her protector and guard in. love. And so
      the daughters of Sarah taste something of  the'glory of              .         $fijn hart, wees stil, als banden  moeten  breken,
      God's covenant. I know, imperfectly for  their husbands                        Verzet  u  niet,  `t, is  Heeren.wil,
      are `yet so often masters of  sin,. instead of lords  .in love.                Wat Hij u vraagt, leg `t aan Zijn voeten neder,
      Therefore they must also  finally,..be delivered from these                    Houds niets terug - mijn hart, wees stil
      earthly husbands. Nevertheless in as far as grace pre-
      vails Christian women are blessed  in their' subjection                        Kunt  ge nog niet met blijdschap Y.&is  aaniaarden,
      to their Christian husbands..           :                           `.I       '  Misschien   tiordt-  dit nog  `diet   dan u gevraagd;
         But surely in this `light it is of great importance that                    Maar wel,  dat gij in rustig, .l&ilm  vtirtrotiwen,
      the Christian  youn g women wait  .for `a believing young                       Geduldig, stil,  uw lijden draagt.
      mari, with whom alone it will be possible  td attain to the
      bliss of God's covenant. in marital. life. On the other                        Voel,  hoe Gods  adem zachtkens streelt uw  slapen,'
      hand the young man will seek a believing. wife. Marry                          Leg stil u neer bij `s Heererx  wil;
      they may,  but :  6~ the Lord. Only common love of God,                        Hoe meer Hij vraagt, hoe `meer,Hij  u wil geven,
      in other words spiritual unity in Christ, is a safe and                        Hij is  g&ouw  - mijn hart, wees  ~61..


                      A,  ._:  ^  =    $  .$3-I  Fis  T_,A  N D A  R.D B-E A  R E  R                            ..".    _  ?I,

                                                                sion listed in the third chapter of  EccIesi&es  as `having
                                                                particular bearing upon their circumstances.
   The divinely inspired writer in Ecclesiastes calls our          However sad these things are we may b&eve that there
attention to the indisputable fact that there is a season       is not only a "time of war" but also. "a  tinie of peace."
and a time for all things. The writer emphazises his state-     We' sigh at that which has occurred and  look longingly
ment by citing numerous contrasting events in the life          for the break of a new day wherein our congregation shall
of mankind. For  the'most common and everyday occur-            again stand shoulder to shoulder, and filled with the love
rences there is a. time and a season. He continues,  in the     to God and  td, His word, fight the good fight of faith.
third  &apter,  bg stating that there is a time to be born      Dedicated to the Defenders of The Faith we pray for
and a time to die ; to weep and to  laugh  ; to get and to      the Lord's blessing upon us in the future. May we forget
lose, etc. This reveals the divine regulation and super-        that which is behind and-Press On! Amidst these cir-
vision of all things which occur. We,  & Christian men          cumstances our pastor received the call from the Rock
and women, accept these `statements as the truth of God's       Valley congregation. To him the call came again-"Come
Word, yet we often forget that the Lord has set a time          over and help us" in Rock Valley. Considering our cir-
and  a season for each circumstance, for each happening,        cumstances it appears paradoxical that any congregation
for every occurrence, great or small, in our  ipdividual        shotild need their pastor more than Los Angeles needed
l i v e s .                                                     h i m .   -
   This truth of "time and season" was brought to the             After internal difficulties there is always so much to be
foreground by a speaker at a farewel gathering to our           done to restore  tiutual  confidence and prepare the way for
                                                                         .
pastor and his family. They. were  pyeparing  to leave          harmombus  effort for the cause we  haSe in common. At
the Los Angeles `congregation to return to their former         such a  tima it requires  the steady hand of the captain to
congregation in Rock Valley, Iowa. It was a surprise            lead the ship away from the turmoil of the breakers to
party. Before the festivities were ended it became ap-          safe waters. It requires leadership emphasized  by- per-
parent that the surprise was complete in every way. They        sonal example to point others the way which should be
had not expected this event. The evening was spent in           travelled. It requires the exercise  of, personal faith and
wholesome enjoyment by children and adults. Neverthe-           conviction to bring before the congregation the impera-
less  the joy was mingled with sorrow and regret. Barely        tive necessity of walking even as we believe-to walk in
eighteen months had passed since the congregation gath-         the light  as children of Light.
ered to welcome their pastor and `family and to rejoice            In view of the congregation's dire need there was gen-
with them in his improved physical condition enabling           eral disappointment at the announcement "that after
`him to carry out his expressed  `earnest  desire to "come      it necessary to accept this call." It brought to mind the
over and help us."                                              sacrifice of our sister congregations  vi;hich enabled Los
  The congregation felt that their prayers had been             Angeles to bring their pastor to his  new field of labor.
answered and was at. a loss what they should render to          It recalled to us the unusual circumstances necessitating
the Lord for all his benefits. Our `joy  was, spontaneous ;     an extended leave of absence to permit his recuperation.
the heart of the congregation went out to their pastor          It also reminds us how faithfully the congregation stood
and to the Lord who had one marvellous things in our            with the  Consistory  in' the mutual task  of continuing the
midst.                                                          work which had been begun. And now the congregation
  Since that time much has happened. We have rejoiced;          is without a shepherd.
we have also sorrowed. We have hoped  ; we  haye also             What shall we say? What must we do? Should we
had disappointment. We have pictured the future bright-         give  up in despair?
ly, and have seen clouds arise to darken the future. At            Considering  thevisible things the future indeed looks
times the sky seemed overcast with clouds; sometimes the        dark but by faith our eye leaves that which is earthly
clouds seemed to settle upon the face of the earth  ; making    and we vision the responsibility the Lord has given us
our progress slow and difficult. Often we despaired of          in this  ,large. city. We still believe the Lord has placed
retaining that which had been  accbmplished. Los Angeles'       us  here to manifest ourselves  ai His children. He has
congi-egation of the Protestant Reformed church has' given us a task which is yet  uricompleted. Shall we then
experienced dark days and is even at this writing face          give up in despair ? No-we may not pursue this course.
to face with many difficulties.                   .               Although the flesh may  bje inclined to follow the way
  The summer months have  .been tumultuous for our              of least resistance, our hearts look earnestly at the ob-
congregation.                                                   stacles and say: "If, God be for us,  who) can be against
  The foe, within and without the gates, has harassed  the      us ?"
peace and good name of our congregation. The congre-               If for a season we must hear the  b'eautiful  doctrine
gation could underscore many of the contrasting  occa-          of  the Sovereign and Particular grace of God brought


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   . .                     . .  >-
                          :  72        ._         :_ . .                      I  :,,::,-  +f;:e.@   .,`.:~:.T_~,.~~.~"~~~,`~   `B'E'P;   R  .j$R  `.  "  c"::.:.  _,,                                                                ,;;  .:.  I.`,;-  `;'  ,_  `-
                                                                                      -.,                                                                 I . .  il.:,.  ,:,..  I_  ..:/  .t  .::
                                                  I                             _,      :r `? :                _.              i
                           to  ,us`  :in  r&ding                         -it-~  ~~  ,:~ell,  `fan  ,we  ihair~  .~~C;i-"~                                .t.                :.
                                                            servis,Fs                                                                                     j ..  I  _ _.:                                                ._
                                                                                                                                                                                                      IN  ME~O$I~@  -'  1':  /
                                                                                                                                                                                                             :                                      .'  1.  f  .`(
                          .taught`  and  have  experi&i$d:  th& `also &ough   .&&e`  `tk;e                                                                                                             .,                                 :_     ..y               j
                           Lor$`s-   ble{sing  may  lo?  &l&ed  ,i.ipon   our  labo&.,-:  ,.j  '  `.                                                    Zondag   de& 1st Sept. behaagdehet.  den Heeie   &`I ons Geg'  te
                                                                                                                                              `nem&  dnze  geliefde dhtgenoote,  VadCr `en.Grootvader.  en- Uncle;
                         ..  But it is imperative  -fhat such  tiate$al   `beiniade  &ail: :I  1
                           &le for our congregation. -Thus we may' face  the  f&i-~. .  .'  .:.                                                                                           ~&!ER  _                            -WILDE&M,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              _
                           with confidence; committing  our  -c&giegation   &to the-  *  '  '
                                                                                                                                              !n  deti  ouderdom  van 76  jaren;  6  maqden.   4'.                                                                           . .
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     c
                         Great Shepherd  who `leads His people -in love:                                                                      Wij.  zijn-   zeer' bedroefd  doch Wij  wet&   flat  h$  `5s' ontslapen in.
                                                                                                                                                               .                                                  ..          .
                            - After enjoying the  temp&ary  services of  Mr.  be: Wolf                                                        !ezus'   I                                                                 :
                           and the  paStors  of Los  ALgeles and Redlands,'  Bellfldwei-                                                                Zalig  zijn  de dooden die in den Heere. sterven.
                           has been gladdened by the acceptance of the call' &tended                                                                                                 Mr. and Mrs.  Peter Deckei.en   4 kl&k&deren
                                                                                                                                                                                     Minnie Provoost
                          to Cand. Petter. This brother  -ivas  or&ined   by.&~s.   Vos                                                                                             Mr.  F.  Proiroost
                          .and  Cammenga   the.26th  df'  %$&ember. We congratulate                                                                                                  Mr. and Mrs. Knoper                             i
                          the  .Bellflower  ,congregation  arid their  .newly ordained                                                                                               Mr. and Mrs. Vander Weele.                                                         :
                          minister  &nd express our `sincere hope that together they                                                                           .
                          may labor- and flourish.  in  their labors unto the  `gldry
                          bf our God.
                             -+hough. small in, their beginning the  BellflowEr   &n-.                                                                                                                CARE, .Divine
                          gregatiqn  has already  expeiietice$  a  notab growth in
                          their numbers. As they commence'. their labors as  shep.                                                                                   What  &en?  Why,  then  &other   pil&im   song;
                          herd and- flock we trust that they may.. also experience                                                                                           And then a hush to rest,: di&$y  granted;
                                                                                                                                                                     And then a `thirsty stage (ah' mej so long!)                                `&..;.T
                          @o\Vth   iti the spiritual things. Such growth is-  `funda-                                                                                        And then a brook, just where it niost is warited.`.,I:;:!:`.                                           .'
                          mental..                                                                                        `
                                                                                             -.                                                                                                                                                   , . .  I,.,
                           Redlands  has  eirfieriendd that there-  was*  a  `t@e. to                                                         ,                What then? The  pit&in&  of  the  ,eveninglte'nt   ;                                  :
                          build-&and : they tiilded.                                               -.                                                                        And then, perchance, a  piildw rouih &nd `thorny;
                                                                                                                                                               And then some sweet; and tender message, se&
                             Through the -generosity of members and friends, they                                                                                            To cheer' the faint one. for to-m&row's .jotiney.
                         .have prepared a  n&v parsonage for their pastor. It re-
                          veals appreciation for' services rendered and a `desire to                                                                                What then? The dailing .of the midnight wind,
                          give their .pastor the be& they can. possible give. The  riew                                                                                     .A. feverish sleep, a heart oppressed and aching;
                                                                                                                                                                    And then a little  water-c&e  to find
                          parsonage is built ona lot acijoining   fhe church  andxr&pr;e-                                                                                    Ciose  by' my pinbw;  ready fo; my waking.
                          sents a  yery respectable appearance both within and with-                                                                                                             -                                 . .
                                                                                                                                         :
                         out. `We rejoice with t$e `friends: in'Redl&ds:at  this; new                                                                               What then'? I am not careful td inquire  ;
                          in@rovemetit   and  hope  that'  thejr may long enjoy the                                                                                         I know  there.will'  be tears, and fears, and sorrow,;
                                     - .  .._'
                          services of their energetic and devout pastor.  ;  1                                                      '                               And  th-en; a lovirig  Saviouq  drawing nigher,
                                                                                                                                                                            And saying, "I will answer for the morrow."'                              .
                             In closing  we' ask you, fellow members, to remember
                          the  needs  o-f the Los  Angeles  congregation before the                                                                                 W$at then?. For all my sins his pardoning. grace;
                         throne of  grace.  .Labq'with  us'in prayer for this. small                                                                                        For all my wants and woes, his loving-kindness;
                         congregation-in' a  large, wicked city.                                                                                                    For daikest shades, the shining of God's fack,
                                                                                                                                                                            And Christ's own hand to lead me in my blindness.
                                                                                             James Zoetewey.
                         Los Angeles,  Calif.                                                                                                                       .Whai  then? A shtidowy  valley, lo& and dim ;
                         October 3, 1935.                                                                                                                                   And then, a deep and darkly .rolling  river;
                                                                                                                                                                    And then a -flood of light, a seraph's hymn,
                                                                                                                                                         .:                 Atid  God's otin smile forever and forever !



   L:_
  gi`              `,      If `we  sin,  we are  Th&e;   know&g   Thy  power::   but we  .wilJ not                                                 i
  t,,y.
  ii;:;.                 sin,  klzowitg  that we are counted Thine.  For to kmw.  Thee  is per-                                                         As thy dayS; so shall thy st&gth -be. -_ Deut. xxxiii.  25.
g::         .;           feet  righ;eoatsn&s:  Jiea, to know Thy power is the root `of &n&v-                                                                                                    `*
p.:;;                    `t&y.-Wisdom  of  Sblomon   xv:  2, 3.
  ::+-                                                                                                                                                  gufficie&   &to the  day  2% the evil  therkof.LMatt.   vi. 34.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  _
  g
  $y;;                             - Oh, -empty  us o'f self, the world, and sin,                                                                                                        ._.                                                                 `.
                                                                                                                                                                                  Oh, ask  ribt t&u, How shall I. bear
p;;,:             `..                And then in all Thy fulness  enter in;                                                                                            .
  L@  \                                                                                                                                                                            `The burden of' to-morrow?
                                     `Take full possession, Lord, -and  let each thought                                                                                          Sufficient'~for  to-day, `its care,
  E  .s                              Into bbedience  unto Thee be brought;                                                                                                         Its  evil-z&d  its sqrrow.;
                                     Thitie  is the power, and Thine the will, that  we                                                                                           God. imparteth by the way
                                   Be  tiholly  sanctified, 0 Lord, to Thee.                                         ,                                                            Strength sufficient for the day.
                                                                                                         C.`E..  J .                                                                                                                 J. E.  Saxby.
                                                               \                                               ._


                               A  R e f o r m e d   S e m i - M o n t h l y   M a g a z i n e
             PUBLISHED   BY  THE  REFORM&   FREE  PUBLISHING   ASSOCIATION,.   GRAND   RAPIDS,  MICH.
                                                                   EDITORIAL  STAFF
                                                  EditorslRev. H.  Hoeksema,   Rev.   G.  M.  Ophoff,
                                                             Rev.  Wm.   Verhil,  Rev.,  G.  Vos
                                               Associate   Editors-Rev.   A.  Cammenga;   Rev.  P.  De
                                                  Boer,  Rev.  M.  Gritters,   Rev.  C.  Hanko,   Rev.   B.
                                                  Kok,  Rev.  G.  Lubbers,   Rev.  J.  Vander  Breggen,
                                                                    `Rev.   R.  Veldman.
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                                                                                     How well-nigh perfect  .appears this mediator of the
                                                                                  old covenant! How deeply he feels and grieves over the
                                                                                  awful nature of their sin! How perfectly he identifies
                                                                                  himself with them and makes their cause his own! How
           An  Impossi                      ubstitution                           absolutely prepared he is to sacrifice his own life and
                                                                                  salvation for theirs !
                      And Moses retzmaed  rrrtto .thc Lord, and said,
                    Oh, this people kavc simrd  a g-eat sin, and have               He to whom Jehovah had spoken :  .Them I will con-
                    made  them  gods of gold.  Yet  stow,  if thou  wilt          sume and I will make of thee a great nation!
                    forgive their sin,-and  .if not, blot  4nc, I  pray
                   out of  thy  book which thou  kast  curittm           &d       He now implored the Lord for the very opposite: de-
                    the Lord said  irxfo  l%!!osas,   T/Vhosocver   bath  sin-    stroy me,  blut save them!
                    m-d agaimt me, him will I blot out of my book.
                                                             Ex. 32 :31-33.         Yet, how clearly manifest becomes the imperfection,
   Amazing prayer !                                                               the ultimate impotency of  .this mediatorship of the old
   Blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book!                                         dispensation and how it cries out for the blood that  speak-
   Some such prayer as the apostle to the gentiles, cen-                          eth better things than Abel!
turies after,                                                                       With heavy heart, oppressed by a thousand fears,
                  could  conceive of sending to the throne of
grace, when he                                                                    tossed  b;v doubts and dark uncertainties, he had ascended
                     could  wish that himself were accursed of
Christ for. his  lxethren, and kinsmen `according to the                          the Mount of `God that morning, not at  ,a11 certain that
flesh !                                                                           his intercession would be accepted of Jehovah, for to the
   And yet, there is a difference.                                                people he had spoken: 1Se~&entzzre I shall make an
   The apostle of the new dispensation could only con-                            atonement for your sin ! How different from the atti-
ceive of the  possib'ility  of desiring the substitution were                     tude of Him, Who on the eve of His descent into the
such vicarship acceptable with the Most High  ; yet, he                           lower parts of the earth, could triumphantly announce:
clearly realized the impossibility of the substitution and,                       Now is the judgment. of this world  ; now is the prince
therefore, refrains from praying.                                                 of this world, cast out; and I, when I shall be lifted up,
   Moses, however, does not merely conceive  o,f himself                          will draw all men unto Me!
as  bleing able to wish but actually utters the astounding                          And how imperfect the meditation appears in the light
prayer: Blot me out of they book!                                                 of the answer this tremendous prayer receives: Whoso-
   The apostle,  .living in the new dispensation, considered                      ever sinneth aganst me, him will I  `blot out of my
his wish in the light of the atonement that had already                           book! . . . ,
been made for the sins of the people, and knowing that                              If thou wilt forgive their sin,-and if not, blot me out
no other sacrifice remained for the blotting out of sin,                          of the  blook thou hast written!
realized that his conceivable wish could never be changed                           And the divine reply : the soul that sinneth, it shall die !
into actual prayer. The man of  <God  of the  old,dispen-                           Apparently hopeless prayer !
sation stood in the time of shadows, himself belonged to
the shadows, the greatest that would ever be witnessed                              If thou wilt forgive!
in the  )old covenant times, .for he stood as its mediator                          Only then is there hope!.
before the face of God. And it is in the profound con-                              For, oh! this people have sinned a great sin and have
sciousness of his mediatorial position that he utters this                        made them gods of gold!-
otherwise incomprehensible prayer: blot me out of thy                               And the man of `God realizes keenly that as yet the
b o o k !                                                                         great sin had not been forgiven. True, he had  inter-

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

  ceded. for the people, on the mount, when the Lord had            If the covenant were wholly the Lord's, and if the
 threatened that He would consume them, one and all,              realization of the promise were not contingent upon the
  and make- a great nation of Moses.         He had appealed -will  o<, the people  ; if it were part of Jehovah's covenant
 to the great power of Jehovah that had delivered them           with His people that He would forgive . . . .
 out of Egypt, to the glory of His name which would be              Then there is hope !
 slandered by the nations, to' the promise of the covenant          Forgiveness, the reality of sin blotted out, is indeed,
 sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. . . .                        the indispensible condition  of. God's covenant with His
   .And the Lord had repented !                                  people., For, sin incurs guilt, and Jehovah is righteous
    For the moment the evil had been warded off!                ' and just. And what this signified the man of God  ex-
    And yet, unless the sin were forgiven, how could they        perienced the day before, when the Lord. had threatened
 proceed ? For, a great sin, the people had committed,           to consume the people in His  .fierce anger.
 and somehow the man of God realizes that this sin must             But forgiveness means grace and blessing,  righteous-
 be' the end! The` people had sinned before. `Even in  ness   before God and, life.
 Egypt, when redemption had not come at once, in their              If, then, thou wilt forgive . . . . is it possible?
 ..way and at their time, they had begun to murmur against
 the Lord and His servant. Repeatedly they had rebelled             And if not . . . .
 in the desert. and shown themselves to be a stiffnecked            Blot me out of thy book!
 people; Even recently, when they found `no water to               .The wonder of forgiveness seems too great in view
 quench their thirst they had rebelled  .and expressed the       of this great sin `which the people committed, too  amaz-
 ungodly wish that they had never left the house of bond-        ing for the man of God to comprehend and to conceive
 age! . . . .                                                    of its possibility even with  :God!
    But this was different!                                         A n d   i f   n o t !
    Different because of the circumstances. For, they had          Great, indeed, had been the manifestation of Jehovah's
 been in the very presence of Jehovah. They had `seen            glorious power, when with a mighty arm, He had led
 the smoke and the darkness, they had been witnesses of          His people forth out of the house of bondage, when He
 the thunderings and lightnings, and they  had'heard the had made Egypt to tremble and fear before Him, when He
 voice of the trumpet. And' the covenant had been  re-           had cleft the sea and made a path for His people through
 vealed, had been ratified with blood, sprinkled on them         the deep and when, by the turbulent waters He had  de-
 all  ; and they had entered into  Jehovali's covenant with      troyed the pursuing enemy.
 then solemn vow that they would observe `to do all the            : But forgiveness? . . . .
 Lord had commanded them . . . .                                   Is it not a far greater wonder than all the mighty acts
    Different, too, because of the character of their sin!       performed in Egypt combined? Is not forgiveness with
They had broken the covenant, trampled it under foot,            God a contradiction in terms ? Is it not one of those
reje,cted  God that redeemed them and revealed to them           vain imaginations of man's heart that are impossible of
`His mighty arm and glorious power when He delivered             realization, impossible even with God, because it is  con-
 them from Egypt.          And they `had preferred gods of       trary to  Hi3 very nature and He cannot deny Himself?
 gold . . . .                                                    Is He not holiness. and righteousness and are not justice
                                                                 and truth the very foundation of His throne? And does
   And thus it had become evident, at the very moment            it not belong to His very Name that He will  by no
 when Sinai's, covenant was established  .and the law was       .means clear the guilty? . . . .
 imposed upon the promise, that a covenant that depended           Peradventure! If thou wilt forgive ! And' if not! . . . .
 for its stability upon the will of the people, upon their         Forgiveness? Does it not imply that we can ignore
 faithfulness in keeping His precepts, could never stand;        the precepts of the Most High, despise His glory, trample
 that the promise must fail if its fulfillment were  contir-     upon His name, and live?        Does it not imply, that the
 gent upon the  obledience  of the heirs of the promise.         Righteous One will clear the guilty, that the Judge of
 The matter between Jehovah and Israel was hopeless!             heaven and earth will justify the unjust, that He will
 By their  oyn act the people were blotted out of. God's         crown him with His favor who is worthy to be  con-
 book. If no more were to be said of God's  covenant             sumed by His anger, that He will press to His bosom
 the sin of Sinai must needs be the end. For,, oh! the           him whom He must righteously cast from Him in eternal
 people had sinned a great sin this time ! . . . .    .-         desolation, that He will receive in His house him that
   All. that night the mediator of the old covenant pon-         is properly a child of hell? And is not, then, the for-
 dered on the question.                                          giveness of sin the most amazing of all the marvellous
   And he had seen only one solution, one possible ray           wonders in which Jehovah manisfested Himself to His
.of hope. If thou wilt  .forgive! . . . .                        people? Is it surprising, then, that at this moment, now
 Forgive, even this great sin!                                   all looked so hopelessly dark that it seemed impossible


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  75

to proceed with this people through the desert, impossible            Hardly would we expect of the mediator of the old
because they had violated God's very covenant, the man             dispensation that he would so lightly despise the recom-
of  Gocl  approaches the Mount of  %od with a timid "per-          pense of the reward!
adventure" and stands before the Most High with a                   Besides, he is profoundly moved by Jehovah's threat
 doubtful : "if thou wilt forgive,-and if not?" . . . .            of yesterday to consume. the people in His wrath. He
   And do we not begin to understand how he could add:             had been pondering, on the things of God's covenant.
 blot me out of thy  biook?                                       And before leaving the camp that morning he had de-
   Oh, the man of God was the divinely ordained media-             clared to the people that, peradventure, he would make
tor, appointed by  ,God over the entire house of the old           an atonement for them. And had not some possibility
covenant! Was he not qualified by Jehovah to function              of such `atonement been suggested by Jehovah, when
`in that mediatorial position?      Was not the Spirit of,         He had said that He would make of Moses a great
 Christ, always in the prophets of the  old, dispensation, nation, when He would have destroyed the people? Per+
filling him with a zeal for the house of God that con-             adventure, then, it is possible that he atone for the  pea-
sumed him  7 Were not these people, that had sinned so             ple and that his soul perish instead of theirs? . . . .
 deeply, placed in his very bosom, so that he must needs              If thou wilt forgive this great sin which the people
bear them there even though often the burden seemed                have sinned against thee, it is well.
too heavy for him to carry ? Was not the cause of Je-               But if not . . . . And did forgiveness not mean to pass
hovah his cause and were  .not God's redeemed people               by in the dispensation of the shadows, when grace and
his people in a unique sense of the word? . . . .                  truth had not yet been manifested by Jesus? . . . .
How, then, could he forsake. them in this critical                    And was, then, forgiveness not a thing which might
moment ?                                                           well be regarded as almost impossible with respect to
  `And,  therefore,`if  there be forgiveness with the Lord,        this great sin?
`it is well; but if not, nevertheless the cause of God must           If not . . . . if forgiveness proves impossible, let me
not suffer, the `people of Jehovah must not perish,-blot take the place of this people, take my soul instead of
me out of thy book!                                               theirs, let me bear thy wrath and perish as their sub-
   No,-  `the book of God to which Moses here refers is            stitute !
not a mere registration of all' actually living men in the          Amazing prayer, indeed!
world, and the plea of Moses does not merely seek, the                Yet, to the mediator of the old testament, who was
 end of his earthly life, nor is this statement a proud            ordained over  th.e entire house of the old dispensation,
and sinful utterance of a despairing soul!          Mistaken       it. was  impossibae that  <God's  covenant should fail, that
are they, who would so interpret this astounding pe-               His promise should not be fulfilled, that His name should
tition.    For, the book of  .God is the record of: His elect,     be blasphemed among the nations.
of the heirs of the promise, of the beloved from before              And these people that had sinned were the redeemed !
the foundation of the world, the "book that was sov-               In them the Lord had' revealed His mighty arm.
ereignly written, which is not the result .of a divine cen-           What would the Egyptians say, not of the people,
 sus  taken of all that would believe and perservere, but          but of the Lord that had redeemed them?
 out of which the elect are called to life and faith, to              What would become of the promise of God  sho,uld
 righteousness and eternal glory. In that book he was              these people be consumed?
assured, his own name was written; because he was of                No, they must not perish ! He will offer himself in
them whose names were written in that book of life he              their stead !
 had accounted the reproach of Christ greater richer                  Blot me out of thy book!
than all the treasures, of Egypt; and he had forsaken
them, for he looked for the recompense of the reward.
 But`now he prays that the Lord may blot his name out              Wonderfully clear shadow of Him that was  -to come !
 of that book!                                                        Yet, still a shadow and, as such, incapable of accom-
                                                                   plishing the atonement for this great sin !
   A n d i f n o t ! . . . . .                                        For, as type of the Mediator of the better covenant
   Take away my portion from among them that are                   Moses is here, indeed! He was faithful .in all things,
 ordained unto eternal glory!                                      faithful to the end in all the matters pertaining to the
   Cast me down, away from thee, accursed! . . . .           ,     house of God. The zeal of God's house consumed him.
   But what then  ;     Does the man of God merely.  ex-           Even as our Lord actually gave Himself to bear the
Jpress that he would not care to be saved if the people            wrath of God against sin, so the mediator of the.  oldi
 must be consumed and if their great sin, which they               covenant here offers himself an atonement for the people!
 have  sinned, cannot be forgiven? Is it the purpose of               Yet, as type he was characterized by all its imper-
 this amazing request that he may perish with the people?          fections.

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

      For, hear the answer to his plea: him that sinneth            Zoo is de aanloop. En nu geven we Zwier het woord:
will I blot out from my book, not thee !                               Hoe  hoog we de  algemeene genade ook mogen
      The atonement is impossible !                                 schatten als een leerstuk, op Gods Woord gegrond, dat
      Until He come, Who is not another, the very Son of            ons verklaart, hoe het mogelijk is, dat er in de wereld
 God, Who is able to bear the sin of all the people, be-            rondom ons, ja in de heidenwereld, nog zooveel  gevon-
cause He is from eternity anointed to be their Head.                den wordt, dat waar en  goed en  schoon mag heeten,
 He? Who can take the place of the accursed, yet with-              nimmer mogen we uit het oog verliezen, dat ze ten
 out His name  b!eing blotted out from God's book!                  eenenmale onvoldoende  is- tot zaligheid.
      He did not say:  ~erc&x~t~lwe, but : Father, I will!             Door de algemeene genadewerkingen Gods is nog
      Wonderful Saviour !                                           nooit een enkele ziel gered van het eeuwig verderf.
                                                                      We1 wordt door de algemeene genade het  door-
                                                                    breken der zonde tot in haar vreeselijke uiterste  tijde-
                                                                    Ii j k verhinderd.    Er gaat een beteugelende werking
                                                                    van uit. Zonder deze genadewerking Gods  Zou de
                                                                    doorwerking der zonde in het maatschappelijk leven
                                 Bgemeeae                           reeds lang tot ontbinding hebben geleid, gelijk dit  ge-
                                                                    schiedde  v66r den zondvloed. Maar  in Zijn  lankrnoe-
      In De  @`u:cktey schrijft Ds.  D:.  Z-@er enkele artikelen    digheid stelt God het strafgericht uit, tot de  maat der
onder het opschrift "De Zaligheid Der Heidenen."                    ongrechtigheid is volgemeten. Eerst in de  he1 zullen
      Zooals de  ,scherp onderscheidende lezer aanstonds zal.       de verlorenen van deze genade ten eenenmale verstoken
opmerken, is het een niet al te scherp geformuleerd,  .zoo-         zijn.
als het met zoovele  onderwerpen het  geval is.                       We1 is het voorts  aan de algemeene genade te  dan-
      Verstaat men  tech de term  ke'dene%  in Schriftuurlijken     ken, dat er ook in de heidenwereld elementen van  waar-
zin,  d.?n zijn er geen heidenen meer. Immers  staat het            heid, goedheid en schoonheid  worden  aangetroffen.
woord dan tegenover  Jodem. Het zijn eenvoudig de                   Daar is, om de Leerregels van Dordt te spreken, nog
volkeren buiten Israel. Spreekt men dus in dezen zin                overgebleven  eenig licht der natuur, waardoor de
over de zaligheid der heidenen, dan staat men voor de               mensch behoudt eenige kennis van God, van de  natuur-
vraag of in de oude bedeeling de heidenen ook  .zalig               lijke  dingen, van het onderscheid tusschen hetgeen
werden.                                                             betamelijk en  onbsetamelijk  is, en waardoor hij betoont
      Trekt men  echter de beteekenis van de term heidenen          eenige betrachting tot de .deugd en tot uiterlijke tucht.
door tot in de  qieuwe bedeeling, dan blijft er eigenlijk           Daar is nog zin voor waarheid en deugd, daar is nog
geen vraag over, want de zaligheid is reeds den heidenen            uiterlijke plichtsbetrachting, daar is nog natuurlijke
geworden.                                                           liefde tusschen man en vrouw, ouders en kinderen, enz.
                                                                    In de  dingen, die dit aardsche  lever+  aangaan, vermag
      Bedoelt men met heidenen de  thani nog ongekerstende          de  knensch nog veel goeds tot stand te brengen,  natuur-
volkeren, dan zijn die heidenen  voorwerp van  zendings-            lijk, burgerlijk en zelfs  uittiendig godsdienstig  goed.
we+,' en  is. de vraag of ook de heidenen zalig kunnen              Dat alles en veel meer nog op het terrein van  weten-
worden  eigknlijk overbodig.                                        schap en kunst is te verklaren  als vrucht der algemeene
      Of,  bledoelt men met dien term volkeren, die ook thans       genade.
niet onder het  evangelic komen, menschen, die  wegster-               Naar beide zijden is men op dit punt in uitersten
ven, zonder dat  ze ooit het evangelie gehoord hebben,              gevallen.
dan staat men voor de vraag of buiten het evangelie ook               Ter  CCne zijde is er de dwaling van het Anabaptisme
menschen  zalig  worden.                                            en  PiCtisme,  verachting van al het ware en goede en
      Zwier kan dan ook heel  wat behandelen onder dat              schoone, dat in de wereld gevonden wordt. Wetenschap
kopstuk.                                                            en kurst, burgerlijke gerechtigheid en uitwendige  gods-
      Hij heeft ruimte genoeg om te  "zwieren".                     dienstigheid-het is alles uit den duivel.
  In het artikel,  waarop' mijn aandacht werd gevestigd,               Ter andere zijde is er de  dwaling van het  Pelagian-
behandelt hij dan ook terloops "De Algemeene  Genade".              isme en Arminianisme, overschatting van de vruchten
      Er zijn namelijk  menschen  geweest, zoo schrijft Ds.         der algemeene genade -Gods. Het Pelagianisme  leer&
 Zwier, wier aandacht getrokken werd door de deugden                dat deze genoegzaam is tot zaligheid en dat de heiden,
der heidenen, en die de  conclusie trokken, dat ook  som-           die vroom en ernstig leeft volgens het hem geschonken
migen uit die  vdken, die geheel buiten het evangelie  leven,       licht der natuur, zeker door God in genade zal  worden
we1 zalig  worden. En de oorzaak van deze dwaling`zoekt             aangenomen. Het Armianisme gaat niet geheel zoo
Zwier daarin, dat men niet scherp genoeg onderscheidde              ver maar beweert, dat de algemeene genade een schakel
tusschen de bijzondere en de algemeene genade.                      is in het  proces der verlossing  .en dat de natuurlijke


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                81

                          Sinai                                   Even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God,
                                                                               the God  o,f Israel."
                                                                  "His lightnings enlightened the world :
  The Lord has called  `tintb  Moses out of the mountain          The earth saw and trembled;
saying that he tell the people of Israel that if they would       The hills melted like wax at the presence of Jehovah,
obey God's voice and keep His covenant, they should               At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth."
be a peculiar treasure unto Him above  all.people. Moses
laid before the faces of the elders of the people all the            Moses brings forth the people out of the camp to meet
words which the Lord commanded him.              And all the      with God. They take their stand at the nether part of
people answered together and said that all that the Lord          the mount. Moses now speaks and God answers him by
spoke they would do. Moses returned the words of the              a voice and calls him up to the top of the mount. Moses
people unto the Lord: Thus the way has been opened                goes up. The Lord now  bids him to charge the people
for the establishment of the covenant with the  descen-           "lest they break through unto Him  .to gaze and many of
dents of Abraham in fulfillment of the promise made               them perish." The priests may draw  a, little nearer unto
centuries before. Let  tls first set before qur mind the          the  Lord, but let them sanctify themselves, lest He break
details of its institution, sublime beyond those of any           forth upon them. In response to Moses' complaint that
other transaction in the Sacred History anterior to the           the people cannot come up to Mount Sinai in that the
advent of Christ.                                                 Lord charged them to set bounds about the mount and to
                                                                  sanctify it, He replies that Moses shall get him down and
  The Lord says unto Moses that He comes unto him                 that he and Aaron shall come up. Moses goes down
in a thick cloud that the people may hear. when  &l'.e  speaks    unto the people and tells them what  the Lord has said.
with him and believe  him for ever. Moses. in obedience           Now follows the promulgation of the law of the ten
to the Lord's command now goes unto the people and                commandments, "`And God spdke' all these words, saying,
sanctifies them "to-day and to-morrow"  by letting them           I am the Lord thy  .God, which have  .broughi thee out of
wash their clothes that they may be ready against the             the. land of  E,oypt, out of the house of bondage.
third day on which day the Lord will come down in the                                                                    Thou
                                                                  shalt . . .  ." When the  Lord,has done speaking, Moses
sight of all the people  @on mount Sinai. He must  ajso           comes and tells the people `all the words and judgments
set bounds unto `the people round about and warn them             of the Lord. And all the people answer with one voice
to take heed to themselves. that they go not up into the          and say that all the words which the Lord has said, they
mount  6r touch it. For whosoever will touch even the             will do.
border of  ,it shall  .surely be  .stoned or shot through,                      Moses writes all the words of the Lord in a
                                                                  book. The following morning he rises up early and
whether beast or man. When the trumpet sounds they                builds an altar under the hill and  eredts twelve pillars,
shall come up to the mount. Moses  did as bidden.                 one for -each tribe. He next sends twelve  young men
  On the third  day in the morning there are thunders             of the children of Israel who offer burnt offerings and
and  lightnin&. A thick cloud is upon- the mountain.              ,sacrifice  peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord. Half
The mountain is altogether on a  snioke, because the              of the blood Moses takes and puts in basons.            The
L.o,rd   has descended upon it in  fire.     And the smoke        other half he sprinkles on the altar. Then he takes the
thereof ascends as the smoke of a furnace.  dnd the               book containing the words that the  .Lord has  spoke%-
whole mount quakes  ,greatly.       Presently the voice of        the book of the covenant (so it is called)-and reads
the trumpet sounds long. It waxes  loud&r and louder.             from it in the `hearing of the people.  ,Once more they
And all the people, hearing, tremble.       So terrible is the    all say that all the Lord has said, they will do and be
sight that even Moses exceedingly fears and quakes.               obedient. Moses hereupon takes the blood and sprinkles
The scene can best be realized from the description of            it on the people and says, "Behold. the blood of the cove-
ii in after ages  by Israel's inspired. poets :-                  nant which the Lord hath made  With you concerning
"The earth shook and trembled:                                    all these words." Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and
The foundations. of the mountains moved  atid  wer&               Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel go up unto the
          troubled :                                              Lord. So He had bidden. And they see the God of
He bowed the heaven and `came down,                               Israel.     And there is under his feet  2s it were "a paved
And darkness was under  his, feet.                                work of sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven
He rode upon a cherub and did fly:                                in its clearness. And upon the nobles of the children
Yea, He did fly upon the wings of the wind.                       o,f Israel he laid not his hand  ; also they saw God and
He made darkness his secret place ;                               did eat and drink."
His  paviKon  round him were dark waters and thick                  What we have to do with here at Sinai is the official
          clouds of the skies."                                   and formal institution of the covenant with Abraham's
"The earth shook; and the heavens also dropped at the             seed, family. The Lord in accordance herewith deals
          presence of God ;                                       directly with the entire nation and joins it to Himself

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

 in covenant union.         The Israelites are not sprinkled      This man, justified  by the deeds of the law, would be one
 with the blood separately but the blood is sprinkled on          whose works in addition to being declared righteous
 the people. All are thus  bsaptized, children as well as         would have to be received as  ari atonement for sin and, if
 adults. Let they who reject infant baptism take notice           his justification was to beget him the blessings that come
 of this.                                                         to those justified by faith of Christ, as a meritorial cause
       At Sinai the covenant, the church of God, formally         of eternal life. As man can merit nothing with God, it
 enters a new dispensation, to wit, that of the law. Under        is wrong to say that the righteous deeds of a sinless man
 the `law the church is now brought.          This is the un-     would beget him the heavenly.         But how utterly pre-
 mistakable teaching of Paul.        Consider his reasoning      posterous the contention that fallen man, guilty and thus
 in his  epist1.e  to the Galatians, "Wherefore then serveth      without strength because he must be, is or will ever be,
 the law? It was added because of transgressions, till           capable of establishing before God a righteousness for
 the seed should come to whom the promise was made ;             himself that can serve him as a meritorial ground for his  *
 and it was ordained by angels in. the hands of a medi-          being raised by the Almighty from the very pit of hell to
 ator . . .  : But before faith came, we were kept under         the state of glory of the heavenly. It is this notion that
 thk law, shut up unto the faith which should after-             Paul so vehemently denounces in his epistle  to the  `Gala-
 wards be revealed.`,                                            tians. The truth he champions in his epistle to the church
   The key to the correct understanding of all the occur-        of Rome and in his missive to the  `Galations is that a man
 rences at Sinai is exactly that at Sinai the children of        " is not justified by the works of the law but by faith of
 Israel passed under the law.  "Now the law," says the           Jesus Christ." Now the man  so. justified is one declared
apostle ( Gal. 3  :12), "is not of faith: but, The man that      just in his  he&-t  not on the grounds'of his own works, by
 doeth them shall live in them." The man (and now I              reason of a righteousness he succeeded in establishing, but
speak of a mere man and of a man not effected by Adam's          by reason of the sinless works, the spotless deeds, the
transgression and thus conceived and born in purity of           immaculate life, career, of the suffering servant of
heart and mind) justified by the works of the law would          Jehovah-Christ Jesus--'imputed to him, placed to his ac-
be one  who: ddeth the deeds of the law perfectly by the         count, by virtue of his being planted together in the like-
power of a life -of which he and not Christ is the seat          ness of Christ's death. It is these deeds of Christ, His
and of which  ,God and not Jehovah, the  God and Father          obedience, His righteousness, if you will,  iri which the
of our  Lo,rd Jesus Christ, is the creative source and           guilty, condemnable, spiritually dead yet elect sinner is
Sustainer.     This man's works God would take notice of,        robed.    Now the perfect obedience of the Saviour was
and declare righteous and on the ground  o,f these works         accepted as an atonement and rewarded with eternal
justify the doer  of them., And they would at once form a        (heavenly) life. The justification of the believer. there-
kind of sufficient ground (not meritorial cause) of the          fore spells fbr him forgiveness of sin and also life, blessed
life that would continue to be his.                              immortality, heavenly glory. `Consider therefore that the
   Of Adam in the state of integrity it can be said that         righteo,usness   o,f  IChrist is the meritorial source of every
-he lived  .in the deed of the commandment, in the way of        blessing.  And' as it is this, it, this righteousness, flowers
doing. Yet he had no reason to boast as God was his life.        in elect as regeneration, and sanctification, as faith, hope
Had life been of him and not of  ,God, he would have             and  love, as good works, as power to walk in the way of
been his very own and God would have found Himself               the covenant and to confess His name and to witness for
under the necessity of rewarding his service. But Adam           His truth. In  d word, this righteousness of the Saviour
was  God's.     S,o, when he had done all the things which       is the meritorial source of all fulness.
were commanded him, it still behooved- him to say that             Let us now see what this of necessity implies. If
he was an unprofitable servant, having done that which           Christ's righteousness spells for us perfect pardon it must.
was his duty; to do. And his calling was to continue as          nee'ds be that He is the end of  the law. And so He is.
an unprofitable servant in the way. of the covenant. And         Q'uoting Paul, "For Christ is the end of the law for right-
as long as he kept to this way,  he lived.                       eousness to every one that believeth." Rom.  10:4. Christ
  It is the sinner'only  whom  He can will to actually de-       is the end, that is, the completion, perfect fulfilment, of
stroy. But as to the just, they must and do live. And            the law and thus its termination. He so filled righteous-
they, just in  C%hrist,  have life eternal. But it is only       ness' measure that to the content of this measure absolute-
through their  bleing made  t& bear the image of the Lord        ly nothing more in the way of righteousness can be added.
from heaven,  iChrist Jesus, that they eventually. appear        He so satisfied all the demands of the law, that no claim
in the glory of the heavenly. This glory not Adam but            remains. And the law demands perfect obedience and as
Christ only could merit.                                         transgressed eternal death not in the room of obedience
  However, when Paul asserts that  "the man that doeth           but in addition to it. And these demands Christ satisfied
them shall live in them" he has before his mind not a            by His obedience unto death even unto the death of the
sinless man but a man dead through trespasses and sin.           cross.    In Him therefore the law terminates, comes to


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 83

an end, so that it can have no jurisdiction over the man             how faith wrought with his works, and by works was
included in Him. How could  It if He fulfilled it, satis-            faith made perfect?        And the scripture was fulfilled
fied all its requirements and through His obedience es-              which  saith; Abraham believed `God, and it was im-
tablished for His people a perfect and complete righteous-           puted unto him for righteousness: and he was called
ness? What. can the law still demand of us? Nothing                  the friend of  ,God. Ye see then how that by works a
whatsoever. It means that the elect of God have been de-             man is justified, and not by faith only." Actually these
livered from the law and its curse under  which they by              statements are in perfect harmony with Paul's doctrine.
~rcrtwre  were. Over them therefore the law has no domin-            The sentiment rising from them is thoroughly Pauline.
ion. To the law they are become dead by the body of                  What James here teaches is not that Abraham was justi-
Christ: "that they should be married to another, even to             fied by faith of  iChrist and in addition on the ground of
him who is raised from the dead . . .  ."Rom.  79-4.                 his good work. Such would be  the teaching if in this
                                                                     reasoning works stood in  juxfaposition  to faith. But
   So then the juridical tie by which the believer by nature
                                                                     the contraries here are not faith and works but faith
tias  b,ound to the law has be& dissolved. His husband is
                                                                     that is dead and faith that is living. And the flower of
Christ. And thus to the  Gdd and Father of Christ  he
                                                                     a  li+ing faith is obedience to the command of  Je,%ownk.
brings forth fruit, Rom.  7:4. And Christ is his very  lifz
                                                                     Only the man who stands in this faith-the faith that
as all fulness of which His righteousness is the  merjtorial
                                                                     lays hold on  J&o&z-will  come to the certainty in his
source also dwells in. Him so that of it He is the seat and
                                                                     heart that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to him
channel.           In  Him all fulness was deposited. In Him
it abides eternally so that He is the true bread,  the wine,         and  ithat  .as robed in this righteousness he is being de-
                                                                     clared just before the tribunal of God. James reasons,
the living coinerstone  o,f the temple, the head of the  body
                                                                     does he not, that the very evidence that a man is justi-
also in the,mystical  sense. Eating Him therefore we have
life in ourselves. Abiding in Him, we bear fruit. Com-               fied by works is that Abraham believed God and that it
                                                                     was imputed unto him for righteousness.
ing to Him, as unto a living stone, we also, as lively  s'ones
are  build up a spiritual house, "an holy nation, to offer up          So then, by faith is a man justified. Not, to be
spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to  ,God  by Jesus Christ."         sure, on the ground of faith (to say this is tantamount
Holding  Hi&, the Head, we live.                                     to saying that  the  b,eliever is under the law) but  igt  the
   Thus, though delivered from the Law, the delight of               &aly  of a living faith of Christ. And the man so justi-
the' believer is nevertheless and, better said, for this very        fied lives.  Fork   .thei just live by faith. But they under
reason,  .in the law. It cannot be otherwise. The law                the law are eternally cursed and thus doomed to destruc-
is the expression of the will of the God  o;lzd  Fcz~hu              tion, as all fallen man can will to do is to transgress the
o f   c-1zrist.     Not to delight in the law  o,f God is to walk    law. Thus-in the reasonings of Paul the contraries- are :
in the counsel of the ungodly. But  o,f this the believer is         law and faith, Gal. 3  :ll; law and  ,Christ; justification
no more capable, as he has been buried with Christ by                by faith and justification by the  wo,rks of the  law; serv-
baptism into His death: "that like as Christ was raised              ants of the law and servants of Christ; children of the
up from the  dead'by the glory of the Father, even so                bondwoman, the outcasts in the covenant, cursed and
he also should walk in newness of life."  Ro&  6:4.                  doomed and the children of the free, who receive the
Thus being raised with Christ, the believer, as the serv-            adoption of sons and cry, Abba Father, Gal. 3 and 4.
ant  no,t of the law but of Christ, spontaneously reaches              But now if they under the law are doomed and if the
out for the mind and will of  CVzKrt..  And he does so as            Israel' of the Old `Testament Dispensation was under the
one who stands in the liberty wherewith Christ has made              law, how is it to be explained that Israel, the church of
him free. His rule of faith is the kingly law, of liberty.           the  <Old `Dispensation (I speak- now of the remnant ac-
   Never should it  bc said that believers are under the             cording to the election), perished not but lived.        That
law except, of course, by nature. He saying so gives                 Israel  waS.under the law is the plain teaching of Scrip
evidence of having failed to grasp the very  .heart of               ture. Attend  to, the following statements, of Paul, "But
Paul's reasoning on this point.             The man, who must        before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up
abide under the law is doomed.             "For as many as are       unto faith . . .  ." Gal. 3  :23. And again, Now I say,
under the  work? of the law are under the  cur& : for it             that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing
is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in               from a servant,  though he be lord of all; but is under
all the things which are written in the  bo,ok of the law            tuters  atid governors until the time appointed  bzy the
to do them."                                                         father. Even  so. we, when we were children, were in
. In the epistle of James we come upon a me&age that                 bondage under the elements of the world:  but when the
at first glance seems to set forth a doctrine at variance            fulhless of time was come,  ,God sent forth his Son, made
with Paul's doctrine of justification by faith. I quote,             of a woman; made under the law,  td redeem them that
"Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when                 were under the law . . .  ." Gal. 4 :l-4.  The  apostle also
he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou              plainly  states that `those under the- law are  cursed- and

                                                                                                                                       ,


      81                                    T H E   S'I'ANDARD  B E A R E R

      cast out. Consider the teaching of his allegory  oaf Agar           ant, is at once by virtue of the promise a  so,11 before
      and Sara, Gal 4. "Tell me," wrote the apostle to the                God as to its status and as such the possession of Christ.
      Christian church at  ,Galatia, "Tell me, ye that desire to          The true church, therefore, could not be cast out. The
      be under the law, do ye not hear the law?            For it is      jrery  reason that it was entrusted to the law is that it is
      written that Abraham had two sons, the one  by a  bond-             heir and son. The son had to be trained unto Christ his
      maid, the other by a free-woman. But he who was of                  Redeemer. And the trainer, schoolmaster, was the law
      the bondwoman was  blorn after the  flesh; but he of the           even in its cursing.
      freewoman was by the promise. Which things are an                     The church then was the son, Now the son, as long
      allegory : for these are two covenants; the one from the           as he is a child under the law, differed as to his condition
      mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which             of life nothing from the servant.
      now is, and is in  bsondage to her children. But Jerusa-
      lem which is above is free, which is the mother of us                 But the servant, (reprobate Israel) was no son. To
      all .  _ . . Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are children of        him therefore the law was no trainer unto Christ  tit
      the promise . . . . But as then he that was born after              a savor of death unto death. According to the  good-
      the flesh persecuted him that was  b,orn after the spirit,         pleasure of God, he must `be servant. His place is un-
      even so it is now.       Nevertheless what saith the scrip-        der the law. And the curse of the law abides on him
      ture? Cast out the  blondwoman  and her son: for the               eternally. He is cast out. And he also wills to be serv-
     son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of              ant. He will have nothing of the promise. He chooses
      the freewomen. So then,  bmrethren,  we are not children           to abide under the law and to perish.
      ,of the bondwoman,. but of the free."                                 The being under the law as son was to live.                   It was
        The argument here is so clear that  comentary  on it             only the being under the law as servant that then spelled
      comes pretty near to be superfluous.                               for a man eternal doom.
                                                   From the state-
      ment, "Tell me,. ye that desire to be under the law," it is           But as to the son, when properly trained and matured,
      evident, that in this reasoning we must permit  Ishmael            he passed from under the tutelage of the law and was
      to rise before our eye as being under the law. Doing               joined to Christ. When the  fulness of time was come,
      so, it is plain that the. point to the  ap-ostles reasoning is     God sent forth His Son to redeem them that were under
      that all those  under'the law are in bondage, as was  Ish-         the law. Because the law was to the son a schoolmaster
      mael  ; are born further after the flesh  ; persecute the          unto Christ, it did not disannul and was not against, the
     children of the promise  ; do not heir with the sons of             promise but instead served the promise. Only if the
      the freewoman (the people of God) are therefore ejec-              law could have given life, would it from the nature of
     ted from the covenant and cast into eternal darkness. It            things, rendered the promise, that is, the atonement of
     is plain that those  .under the law are the reprobate. And          ,Christ, superfluous. To quote the apostle, if there had
     the speech of the law to them is, `Be cursed and perish'.           been a law given which could have given life,  verily-
                                                                         righteousness would have been given by the law and
        Yet, Israel of old, the remnant according to the elec-           thus not by  ,Christ, as in that case it would not have been
     tion, was under the law and lived. How is this to be  ex-           necessary for Christ to establish for His people right-
     plained?    Paul tells  us.  The heir, as long as he is a child,    eousness.
     differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of
     all  ; but is under  tuters . . . .                                    It is in the light of the above observations that the
                                                                         Lords  do,ings at Sinai must be viewed, if they would
        The contraries here are the son, the heir-the true               be understood. This will be done in articles following.
     church of God (the remnant according to the election)                                                                         G.  M. 0.
     and the servant, the son of the bondwoman.             Now in
     the Old Dispensation, when yet a child, this son, the
     heir, the church, was under tutors and governors, to wit,             Ye have med of pata'enca,  that, after ye have  do11c  the will of God,
     under the law. Among the  ,Greeks a tutor was one to                ye might receive the  promise.-Heb.  x.  36.
     whose care or honor anything was intrusted, `thus a cura-
     tor, a guardian. And the governor was one to whom the                                SWEET  Patience, come :
                                                                                   Not from a low and earthly source,-
     master of the house intrusted the management of his                           Waiting, till things shall have their course,-
     affairs and the duty of dealing out the proper portion to                     Not as accepting present pain
     every servant and even to the children not yet of age.                        In hope of some hereafter gain,-
     Now how could the church in its youth  bie under tutors                       Not in a dull and sullen calm,-
     and governors, under the law, and live and thus not be                        But as a breath of heavenly balm,
     cast out with servant?  #Consider  that the church, though                    Bidding my weary heart submit
                                                                                   To `bear whatever God sees fit:
     by nature dead in sin and misery, ill-deserving and con-                             Sweet Patience, come !
     demnable and thus worthy to be cast out with the serv-                                            Hymns  of the Church Militant.

.


                                             T H E   S T A N D A ' R D   B E A R E X                                                     89

                                                                              Christ called to the task of leading the flock under the
                                                                              law and word of Christ. This is his sole right and duty,
                   The  ofice of Elders, in addition to what  -was            The authorityy of the special office.
                 said in Article 16 to be their duty in COIIZIPIOI~ zoith
                 the  Alilaistcrs  of  the Word,  is  to  take  heed  that      A distinction therefore must be drawn  .between  the
                 the  iUinisters,  together  zwitlt  their follow-Elders      authority of the special office and that of  ,Christ and His
                 and  the  Dcacow,   faithfully  discharge  their  oflice,
                 and both before a-& after the Lord's Su~piher,  as           word. The authority of the special office is merely the
                 time md circumstances may denzaud,  for the cdi-             right and duty to lay  upo,n the flock  the.yoke of Christ's
                 ficatiou  of the cJ%ra-ches  to visit the families of the
                 congregation, in  order  partic$arly  to  comfort and        word. The authority of  &Christ  is the right to lay upon
                 instruct the nzcwAm,~  and also to e.zhort  others in.       the flock the yoke of His very own word. Rightly con-
                 respect. to the  Chrishan  Religion.                         sidered, it is this word and thus not the person of the
   What  "was said" in Article 16 is that the Elders ex-                      officebcarer that rules, binds and looses.       The special
ercise church discipline and see to  it that everything is                    office rules only in and through its proclamation of this
done  descently and in good order.                                            word.
 Three matters then  blelong to the work of Elders : a. the                     It is here that we and Rome arrive at the parting'of the
rule of the church with the Ministers of  .the Word, in                       way. Rome maintains that not the living word-a word,
which is included the  excercise of discipline and the su-                    quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword,
pervision of the congregation; b. supervision of the fel-                     piercing even to the dividing  assunder of soul and. spirit,
low-elders, Ministers of the Word and the Deacons;                            and of the joints and morrow, capable of discerning the
c. house-visiting.                                                            thoughts and intents of the heart-but that, the priest
                                                                              (the Pope) condemns and forgives, binds and looses as
  The rule and discipline of the congregation. It is the                      the. viceregent of Christ in the church on earth. The
plain teachings of scripture that the relation  the elder                     right to forgive sin, so it its held, was affixed to the per-
sustains to the common members is that, of ruler. At-                         son of the pope and thus divorced from the word. It
tend to the following scriptures,  "F6r  if a man know not                    is not Christ who speaks to the soul of the penitent
how to rule his own, how shall he take care of the                            through His word  but the priest. Hence; the priest is
church of God" (I Tim. 3  :5). "Let the eiders that rule                      indispensable to the soul in quest of peace.       This was
well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they                       the fallacy under which the church labored when God
that  labior in the word and doctrine." (I Ti. 5  :13). "Re-                  brought peace to Luther's disquieted heart not `through
&mber them which have the rule over you, who have                             the declaration of some priest absolving him but through
`spoken  unto1 you the word of God; whose faith follow,                       His very own word, received by Luther from the page
considering the end of their conversation" (Heb. 13  :7)..                    of Holy Writ and applied to his heart by Christ's Spirit.
`<Obey  them that have-  .the  rule over you, and submit
yourselves : . . . . Salute them that have rule over you.. .  ."                Thus it is the word of Christ as such that rules. The
(Heb. 13: `17, 24).                                                           rule of the special office over the flock resides. in this
                                                                              word and is  tied to it so that he vested with the office
  That the elders have the rule  over the flock of Christ                     of necessity has the rule of  the  worcE.
is a truth that must be maintained. A group of  b,elievers,
bent on pleasing Christ, organize and esteem those se-                          There is then an authority of the special office (the
lected for and vested with the office as Christ's official                    mere right of exercising #Christ's rule as expressed in
agent and organs clothed by Him, with the right to rule                       His Word) and the authority of the special office is, of
His church. Yet, many frown upon the  con`ception that                        course, Christ's.
the office-bearer (in this case the  ,elder) is one set by                      Some will  speak of only one authority in the church,  "
Christ over His church, one whom  ,Christ vests with the                      to wit, that of Christ. An assertion of this kind, how-
right  to  fupction  as His  ~official  ambassador, so that he                ever, sounds too much like a denial `of the special  office.
rejecting him rejects Christ. The church, so it is held,                      There is  *indeed also an authority  affixed  by Christ to
is merely a society. Its office bearers comprise a board                      this office  and consisting, as was said, in the right 2nd
or committee formed for the purpose of  exectiting  the                       duty of exercising His-rule and of proclaiming His word.
resolutions which the congregation may be  plea'sed to                        But this right is of Him, not of the flock.         A n d   t h e
make and of functioning as presiding officers on the                          office to  which'it is affixed is His creation, instituted by
meetings  qf the. flock. But the teaching of God's word                       Him in His Church. The officebearer  .is' His servant who
is that the elder has the rule over the flock.                                brings His Word. An he  do& so with the authority
  Yet the king supreme  ,of the church is Christ. He                          of one  who has been called and sent. But the sole  SOV-
therefore is its sole law-giver and the source of all rule                    ereign in the church is Christ. His word only is bind-
exercised in the church. It means that he  ,vested  with                      ing. The officebearer detaching himself  .from this word
the special office is no legislator, but merely the agent of                  is to be rejected and deposed.

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

    The Belgic confession speaks of two kinds of  "gezag"                 (Forwa   for  the  InstitAoyL of  Pvofessom  of Theology)
  (authority) in the church.         I quote, "As  fo,r  the min-
 isters of God's Word, they have equally the same power                     It should not escape our attention that the church
 wheresoever they are, as they are all  millisters  of Christ,           is placed side by side with the professor of  theolo,T.
 the only universal Bishop, and the only head of the                     The  Porm+ asserts that the  oricles of God were en-
                                                                         trusted in the first instance not to the minister of the
church". And in the second  Helvetic Confession we come                  Gospel or to'the professor of  theolo,gy  but to the church;
upon a statement that reads,  "Deze macht behoudt de                     that it is in the first instance the task of the church
 Heere  aan zichzelven, en draagt Hij  aan niemand anders                in distinction from the minister of the Gospel to pro-
 over zoodat Hij vervolgens een ledig toeschouwer  .is,
 terwijl zijne dienaars werken (to this conclusion the                  claim the Word of `God, to collect from the Word of
                                                                         God her standards of faith and to study theology.
 Romish doctrine of absolution must lead). Want de                                                                                        The
 regeering  legt Hij niet  aan anderen  op de schouders,                church  coasequently,  in distinction from the minister of
                                                                        the Gospel and the professor of  theolo, establishes a
 maar Hij behoudt en gebruikt tot  nu toe zijne macht,                  theologic&l  school and calls capable persons to devote their
 doordat Hij alles regeert. Eene  ander  wmcht is  dawen-               talents to this school.  In  behalf of  th,e  church,  finally,
 tegek  .die  wags  bet  an&t, of de dienende macht, bepaald            the curators charge the brethren to instruct the stu-
 door Hem, die het  voile gezag uitoefent."                             dents . . . .
    But if the officebearer is an organ of Christ, he is                   With this the speech of  the  Form  of  Ordination  of
 alid for that very reason also and  at.once  an organ of, the .lUissio~~aries is in. agreement. We quote: "And besides
 body over which he has been set, to wit, the church. This,             ali  this it is evident that the work  of missions is the  task
too, scripture plainly teaches. The believers, many, are                of  the  cJzztr& since the Lord Jesus himself calls the
 one body in Christ,  I and every one members of one an-                church the salt of' the earth, and says : `Ye are the light
 other. They have, gifts differing according to the grace `of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hid. Neither
 that is given them, whether prophesy, according to the                 do men light a  k&p, and put it under  th.e bushel, but
 proportion of faith; or ministry, on ministering; or he on the stand,' Matt. 5. That unto the dispersed also
 that  teabhetb,  on teaching . . . . Rom. 12  5-7.                     these glad tidings. must be brought is plainly inferred
    In I Cor. 12, the church is likened                                 from what  ,God says in Ezekiel 34: 11-16: `For saith
                                                unio  a  body.  As
 the  bbdy is comprised  o,f members-the eye, the ear,                  -the Lord God : Behold, I myself, even I, will search for
 the foot, the hand-so too the church. It is a body. And                my  sheep. and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh
 its members are' the teacher, the pastor, the  o,ne gov-               out his  flock in the day that he is among his sheep; and
 erning, the prophet . . . . Now if those vested  iyith the             I will deliver them out of all places whither they have
 special office, function as organs of the church-the                   been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I  .will
 body  ,of Christ-it follows that  the office is seated not             feed them with good  past&, and upon the mountains
 in the officebearer but in the church to which also there-             of the height of Israel shall their fold be: there shall
 fore the rights and  duties of the office must  bielong. Such          they lie  do,wn in good fold, and on fat pasture shall they
 has always been the view of men of Reformed  pursua-                   feed upon the mountains of Israel . . . .  '
 sion, as appears from the Forms for the ordination of                     "That the Lord does this by means of His servants,
 officebearers.    I quote (from the  Form. for the  ordina-            is clearly shown by the way wherein God, in the same
tiqn of ministers of the gospel),                                       chapter, rebukes the unfaithful shepherds . . . .
   "Since, however, Paul in Rom. 3  :2 expressely declares                 "The same also  follows  from the fact that  gesus
 that the church of the Old Dispensation, was given the                 who Himself was sent `to the lost sheep of the house of
 special prerogative that to her. were entrusted the oracles            Israel,' calls the church the salt of the earth, while be-
 of God, it follows, therefore, that  tFye  &U&L  has  a di-.           sides all this, the example of the Apostle Paul teaches
 c+ze  miss&z  to proclaim the Word  of God, to collect                 us plainly that it  iS our (the church) high calling to bring
`from the Word of God her standards of faith, study                     the Word of life to our dispersed brethren after the
 theology according to these words, and further to ad- ,flesh  everywhers,  and therefore certainly first of all in
 vance what is in direct connection with this study.                    our own country, to gather them, if possible, as the
                                                                        congregation of our Lord."
    "~&zscio~~~   of  tF;is   call&zg   OUT  c%zc& has also  `estab-    It is, then, the plain teaching of these  Fomzs  that
 lish.ed a Theological School and called  &e reverent                   the tasks constituting the particular office belong in the
 brother N. N. to devote his talents to this school.                    first instance to the body of Christ. The contents of
   "IVL behalf of the  c~u~c,$  the curators charge thee, es-           these  F'orq~ were taken from Scripture. "And has put,"
 teemed brother, with the task of  instrqcting  and  &tab+              so wrote Paul, "all things under his feet, and gave him
 lish.ing in the knowledge of God's Word, the  ,students                to be the head over all the things to the church, which
 who hope once to minister in the church . . . .  "                     is his body, the  fsblaess   of l&n  that  filleth  ad1  &Z all" (Eph.


                                                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D  .BEARER                                                                  91.
                          .

                          1 1:22,` 23). . In the  $ody of Christ, then, was  .deposited                           HCeft .Goh De Zgxk Gewild?
                     ; the  fulness. If so, those inducted in the particular  office
                     j                do not have a  .thing not belonging in the first  .instance           Op die  vraag hebben we,  zdoals de lezers  weten, altijd
                          ,_ to this body."                                                               geantwoord, dat God radend de zonde heeft gewild.
                          :  1, `However, though.  -the special office was instituted in
                     `. the church, the duties belonging to the  qffice are  per?                          ,Om  de aanvallen af te  weren. dergenen, die ons  wilden
                                                                                                          aanwrijven, dat wij  op die wijze God  voorstelden.als een
                     1' -`: And the right (authority) these duties,. the officebearer                     vreeselijken tyran,  als een-  boqzen  God, Die  auteur. der
                     ;                does not receive from  the. congregation but from Christ.           zonde is en in de zonde dan ook wel een  welgevallen  moet
                     i This right goes with the office so that he vested `with                            hebben, zeiden wij  ,het dan soms zoo : God heeft' radend
                _I; this office has this right.                                           G. M. 0.  '     gewild `datgene, wat  Hij'  haat,  .opdat  `Hij Zijn  haat zou
1:  V'  :                                                                                                 openbaren en hetgeen Hij  haat tot Zijn eigen  verheer-
                                                                                                          : lijking zou gebruiken en dienstbaar stellen.            ;                     -
                                         -_      As To The Proposed Plan                                     En ofschoon men ons van  alle  kanten  soms over dit ons
                                                                                                          standpunt aanviel; en ons in heilige (  ?) ontroering niet
                               . .       Up1 to date the responses to the proposed plan regarding         zelden  allerlei leelijke  dingen  i,n de schoenen  schoof,  heb-
                                      the publication of the  History of  ow  Chwches   is very           bten  wij altijd volgehouden,.  dat dit het eenvoudige  Gere-.
                          d i s a p p o i n t i n g .                                                     formeerde- standpunt is, niets meer en niets minder.
                                         In  .fact, if a change for. the  .better  does not come, I          Men  mocht  dit soms eens wat anders  zeggen., Men
                                      will draw the conclusion that there is not sufficient in-           mpcht  er de voorkeur  aan geyen om te spreken van eene                              *
                                terest among us to guarantee the possibility of its pub-                  toelating Gods,  of: ook van een  willend toelaten, in den
                                      lication  and.! will abandon the plan.                              grand: was men het hierover  tech eens  :. God  ,heeft in
                                                                                                          Zijn eeuwigen  raad:.ook  besloten, dat de zonde er zijn
                                        The  .reader  must understand two facts:                          zou.
                                        .First  of all that the undertaking will be too great a             Zoo leert het de  Schrift  in de sterkste bewoordingen.
                                      risk financially, unless I have at least five hundred or-             -En zoo  ligt het  we1 in  deu aard der zaak. `Want God
                                      ders `for the- book in advance.  .The idea is not that you          is  souverein over  alle  dingen.
                                      pay in advance,. but that you send in your order black                Maar  als Hij niet souverein beschikt heeft over  de
                                      on white and promise to send the money as soon as the
     ::                                                                                                   zonde, als de zonde er  tegen,  of ook  btiitew  Zijn raad  o++z
                                      book will. be ready for delivery.                                   is, dan is er veel meer, waarover de Heere God niet  sou-
                                      Secondly, that the publication demands considerable                 verein is.
                                      work on my' part. The material appeared in the Stan-                  Dan  hangt  God af van den wil des menschen.
                                      dard Bearer, but I don't intend to publish in the form in             En dan is  alles  een groot ongeluk, dat God door de'
                                      which it appeared in the Catechism, at least not the first          verlossing in  Christus weer wil herstellen.
                                      part of it.`           And this means that some two hundred          Het  is thans  ,niet ons  doe1 over dit onderwerp te
                          pages of it will have to be re-written.                                         schrijven.
                                        With this work I was busy, but because of the meager                Hettro'f   ens  echter, dat in het  Gereforlneerd  Kmkblad
      .i
     2. ?                             response to the proposition  5: quit for the time being.            Yoor  Drente en  oi~erijsel  de  ,onder ons niet geheel  onbe-
::                                      One brother assured me  :` "There will be plenty of               kende Dr. C. N.  Impeta van Kampen. een artikel schreef
     :  /
j                                     buyers for the book  when. the  b'ook is out.`,.                    onder het opschrift: Heeft God  de, Zonde Gewild?
                t                       Another sending in some names wrote: "There are                   (No. 1252).
                many more that  $11 want the book, but they simply                                          We  willen een gedeelte er van overnemeii..             .  n
                                      wait."      .'                                                        Nadat de geachte schrijver eerst  goed duidelijk gemaakt
                                                                                                          heeft, dat er geen sprake van kan  zijn, "dat God op
                I                       Perhaps, this is. true.
                                                                                                          eenigerlei wijze de zonde heeft gewild met eenig  goed-
                .                       But on, this basis  .of uncertainty the book will not be
: j                                                                                                       keuren van,, met eenige' verlustiging, eenig welbehagen
     ,.i  p u b l i s h e d .
:.f. ;.                                                                                                   in de zonde en het zondige," gaat hij aldus voort :
.I                                      And if there are, indeed, such waiting brethren I
           ; would  %indly urge them to send in their order  imme-                                          "Maar : nu is er  bij God  66k een wil des besluits.            .           . .
           j_ diately. If they don't, they will be the cause  that. the                                     Zijn Raad gaat over  al wat geschied is, nog geschiedt
           j proposed plan will not be executed.                                           ._             en geschieden  zal, tot  aan het einde der eeuwen en tot
           `_                           If within a month from the date of this number of                 in eeuwigheid.
           j                     the  S. B. you don't hear of the proposed plan again, you                  Niets  gait buiten de ontwikkeling en verwezenlijking  `.
           f                     may consider it dropped.                                        H. H.    van dien Raad Gods om:  `%`ijn' raad  zai  bestaan"
           I
           1:.                                          I                 -".         .,,I                                                                                         :,;


                                                                                                                                          _.
                 .--.                                          _            ,-
                   I          *,,
                        .     .                ___       !           .`-                         :
                  -_,_.                                                                                    .-  T H E .  -S'TAN\J.DA'tiD.   B E A R E R                           I-                             ;3
                 : -                                                                                                                                                                     . .
                                                                                                                                                       There is one more  ideal--wliich  parents; `at least in our
                                                                                                                                                Modern  day, often- try to reach  throtigh, the  ,Christiti
                 >.           :                         .,  1.  :have-,-.&en   asked' by  yotir  .comm$.tee  .to offer  an. School. They say : We  a&. called upon to give our seed
                 ::y..        -
                                        I,
                  . -.-.:.:
                  ;,:.ianswer. this  ev&ing.to the question :  Why should Chris-                                                                a'  IChristian education.  s6 that  .' they-  may  becoke good
                 `*.  .?$.i&,   par@& give  &jr  chijdern  Christian Instruction ?                                                              capable.  citizens  .of  ,our  country,..iYolthy  members of  .Z$-
                 `~$?&.xd   `.it  s,eems to me that  on..the   b&is of. our  .Bil$cal,
                                         :                                                                                                      ciety  atid a  con+-uctive force in our  .troublous  age.  -          -
                 .  ..`..Refo&.ed   &c&ption  of  all things tie can only  corni to
                 ..: . .                                                                                                                               Also this  reasoni  if properly conceived,' has some  claiti
                   _`.this tremendous conclusion : Unless' our  khildren receive                                                                to  conis`deration.      For to be sure; we must be `worthy
                 '  Xhristian  In&ruction they cannot be saved.                                                                                 citizens of our  riation and  const%-uctive members  of.  So-
            ~.:..=:. : Now  1. know,  &at  when  we first  fat+ this  ,question icety.                                                                          -                                                .
                                                                                                                                                                                                .
            `:-there are several ideas that  suggest themselves as reasons
                 _ :-                                                                                                                                  But  also: here. the  fir& purpose may  ne$er be in the
                 `2: `for' Christian Instruction.
            y.  .                                                                                       Some  psrents  will, for  .in-          State or  in Society  ,but  always,in  God and  for..His   giory..
                  ..: stance Say : The thing `that  mak6.s me  feel `for Christian And then, in the  firs!:  place, our aim is surely as our
            :is'.:  Insttictitin  is the fact  that.  in the Public School  tiy  chil-                                                          Heidelberg Catechism expresses it: that by our godly
                 :  .::  dren.  tiom,e  in  cdntact pith all the  rotigh  life and, corrupt-                                                    walk others may be gained to Christ. dnd the negative
            i  .-  .iog influences of the children  of the world.                                                             And in            purpose is just  BS  $ainly : that when God calls  all  men'
                         ,,, a sense tie must admit that that `is a  very serious con-                                                          before His judgment, the world  shall have  to. admit that
                        .sideration.                                              And yet the  argument when  `@ut'  to  ihe test               the  bristians,  God's people, those who had  I%- life-  in-
                  :  -$rpves   very weak  .indeed  ; and the parents who send  their                                                            their hearts, were  12-16  good and profitable citizens,-were
            :                 childreq  to the Christian School..  for. that. reason "are the helpful, -the  tiilling,  the benefactors' of  t& world.
            ,,,  ..usually  ,first  to. forsake the cause.  '  `Wheh  times become                                                              ' Yet, `not  6x5  of these may be the  highest   aiti of. our'
            `.  `1 a little -hard  or the  -,distance  a  litfle long they will  sooti.                                                         liv&, towards  which.we. would use the Christian School
            `- tell  you: that  if, they only keep their  childi-eg  awiy from'                                                                 as `means; We may certainly not end with our children
       j  th& parties. and  .entertainments,   there is very little  dan-                                                                       in,Qurselves in the sense that we take  pride.in  their  good
       : ger. And they. will even  tell you that after  all there is                                                                            behayiour,   ,neither may we aim at the rescue of our  chil-
       I  `tie difference.  .Our children are  just as mischievous and, d;en from the results of the fall' merely- for  the!?  .sakes,
        `.: :  .:iough and bad as the children of the Public School.  `And                                                                      nor' may we even make our aim the welfare- of-  SociCtp
       : they often are. $Lence, from the  m6tiv6 of-  separatiofi                                                                              and. all  niankind.
       :. there  can  beno urgent necessity for Christian Instruction.                                                                                 T6at is  why I say: The real  re$on for  Christ%n In-
       -                                       Again,  the+` are parents who place great  va+e upon- struction  is,  ?hat our children cannot be saved without
        : `the  missionary   irifluerice that' touches our children  in the                                                                     it.
       '  !Chri$ian  School. They ask the question with  empha-
                                                                                  -.  ._                                                               For, what is the meaning of "being  stived" ;  whit is
                              sis: "Where, pray, can  we devote out time and  money                                                             salvatidn   ? hd we answer : Salvation. is  deliverence
       I                      more profitably  than: in bringing our children  tb  .Jesus  ?"                                                   from the deepest misery to the highest blessedness.  That
,;`I                          And again the argument is not an  insigni+ant  one.. misery is that we may not, will not and cannot serve
                              Every parent bears his -child upon his  \heart  and every                                                         God Who  alo_ne  is God. And blessedness is that we  .may
                              parent seeks  fro&  ti  God-given desire  that which is good                                                      and will and  can. serve Him.
       `i  ,V for his child.                                                           :                                                               To  that  biesstidtiess,  to, that salvation, the Church with
       ?                                       Yet; neither  can that be  the leading purpose of  our                                           her children  iS called. She  has `a new life;  i new hope,
       i. Christian Schools. For, in the first place, that would                                                                                a heavenly aim.
       / not' be  necessary:`fo,r many of  the covenant childi-en.                                                                                     That is our position before God and in  the world.
       i .Many boys and  girls. from  ,Christian homes -begin early                                                                             It means that with heart and soul, with  int+ect and
       :                      to show signs of spiritual life and a desire to walk in                                                           will, with every affection, desire,  @nging, we shall try
       i                      God's way. They manifest clearly  & the age of 12, `13                                                            to  serve Him. And the children of the Covenant must
 ;                            or 14, `though they have  tiot  .made public  c&fessio& that                                                      also be taught to  1iSe that  new life. In every sphere of
       ; "they have come to a `decision," as such-  "evangelic5l,' - life he must  be prepared  to. fulfill that  blesskd calling.
       )  parents  .usually  c a l l   i t .                                                          Surely, from this missionary              With the open Word  6f God  .-before him he must  lx?
      -1.                     motive  there  wcjuld-.then  be no use for Christian  Hi& taught  to  see that all things are made by and for God.
       ; ,S&ools  a n d   i<olleg&. That first of  a$ But,  more-                                                                                      When he studies nature he must see the trace of the
       I                      over should the school aim to labor for the conversion                                                            Divine hand in, every fish and fowl, in every tree  and
       [. of the  child&,  ihe  w6uld plainly be transgressing upon                                                                             flower.
       !`4 the sphere of the church. For it is the  .latt$s  duty,                                                                                     In  Gedgraphy  he will see that God hath  layed out the
       i through her  ,God-given   $f%s,  in preaching and-  Cate-                                                                              cpntinent  and circled the earth with waters to appoint
       ! ;!' chetical instruction to labor  .for' their conversion, "bring to  m& the  bqunds of, his habitation.
       1.  .th%ri  to  a decision," if  yo& will.  .Evid&it$:  also  that                                                                              In' history  ,he will trace the footsteps of God, his
      {f may not  be the  aim..of  the'Christian School. .  `.                                                                       -          Covenant  God,  .gathering  His  peo&, building His  %;ing-
      h 5..                             `,              ,j'                                 .

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

   clam, and he sees  that-.a11  paths  .lead over Bethlehem and
   Calvary and converge in the Eeternal Kingdom  osf. His             The Christizh ReE Churches; .Begin-
   Son.                                                    ..                 -nitig to Protest  A&Gist Their
    And,  _ finally, he will learn that he must love. that
   Father, serve -that King, in  .the, way of a struggle and                        Oivn Decisions .of 1924,,,                                   :
  selfdenial  in's world that'does not  ,love God.
      And so in the `home, with his family in the Church,             U n w i l l i n g l y   a n d   s l o w l y   t h e   ,Christian   R e f o r m e d
   in his daily labor, as a tiller  o,f the soil, `in business or     Churches  a& beginning  to raise their voices against
   in the government,' or engaged in educating others, he             `the sin they have committed in 1924.  .The  ' sin
   will'have  to live from that principle of the love of God,         they committed in 1924 is briefly that they expressed
   and as a prophet and priest in the midst of this present           in the Third Point that "Natural and unregenerate man
   evil world  I he must pray:      ,Our Father which  are. in        does good in the eyes of the Lord,`. Gradually we hear
  Heaven : Hallowed by Thy Name; Thy Kingdom come  ;                  voices within that Church `which rise up against this
   Thy  will..be done! !  !.        -     .a                          statement.       The. readers know. that the Rev. Ghysels in
                                                                      the Banner of Feb. 22, 1935 deftly answered Synod and
    That is our calling, that is our glorious calling, that           wrote "Even tho  he. (natural man) may do what we
   is our salvation!                                                  call good, it`is not good in the sight of God,`. This is `a
     And  fpr that high calling the child of the Covenant             direct contradiction of what Synod expressed. And pro-
   must be  trained:early  and late.                                  test No. 1.  Th.e readers might be interested in know-
  :  .~Now, `dare you entrust that training to a stranger,            ing that even tho Rev. B. J. Danhof left our  ,Churches,
   to one who does not know `God, an unregenerated  .man              carried a part of what he used to confess in our churches
   who cannot even see that Kingdom? Then you entrust                 with him. He wrote a Catechism, entitled "Essentials
   your children, nay, God's children, to the enemy, .-for  .t.he,    of Christianity". He also has something to say on the
   carnal mind is  enmity'.against  God.  tie that is not for         matter of `the good sinners do",. He writes  (p; 98)
  is  .against:  He.that  does not seek the Kingdom of Christ,        "Some unbelieving men call works good because they
  must seek the-kingdom of An&Christ, for he is a child of            afford pleasure, or  bmecause  of service to the greatest
   the devil  :: the  .works of his father he will do and all his     number, or because they are useful, or because they are
   love and purpose and work is- for the .cdming of that king-        in  .harmony with public opinion, or for some other  reai
   dom  .of Anti-Christ, whose kingdom shall be forever
                                    `_                                son.      What sinful man imagines., to be good,. or what
  -destroyed.                                                         human institutions label good is not necessarily good in
   That is  why- children of the Covenant, must have a                God's sight, or `in the  .light of His law and revelation."
   separate school, maintained by the. parents  who. have             The word "necessarily" might trouble us a bit until we
   he&l  them up for  `the seal  of  God's-   ,Covenant  with a       read a little further on "The civic righteousness of an
  Tprayer  in their heart  ; a school under supervision of a          unbeliever is not good when judged in the absolute light
   Board who seeks to help the `parent in fulfilling that             of God's  Law',... This too is a direct contradiction of
   vow; and above all, teachers  ,who may have that same              Synod.        And' protest No. 2.              In the last Standard
   life of Christ in their hearts, who reach out for  that-           Bearer the readers listened to another protest. We refer
   same hope,. who do not seek the things of this world               to the testimonial sent in `by one J. Van  2~011, and aptly
   but the Kingdom of God for  h&self and all  .those in his          answered by the Rev. H. Hoeksema. What does Van
   care, in planning their studies, in ordering their recre-          Zwoll  say: Van Zwoll simply says that in all his 32
   ations and in inspiring them with ideals for  ,, `the life         years of listening to sermons (and that ought to make
  -which they shall have to live as children of God's  Cove-          for good judgment) he has never once heard the doc-
  `nant.                                                              trine preached that natural man did good "in the sight
   Such a school' Christian parents are called to establish           of the Lord,`.' That is a mighty accusation of Synod.
   and maintain  Y                                                    Synod boldly said her Third Point was and had really
     He must, because anything  else would be helping the             always since even the days of the "flourishing period of
  enemy.                                                              Reformed Theology"  .been the doctrine of this Church.
   He wills, too, because he has' the desire to serve God             This Van Zwoll has been in her midst for 32 years and
   and awaits His Kingdom with a longing heart..                      has never heard such a  .thing. Here at least is another
   And he can, because'it is God's cause Who supplies all             man who even as Revs, Hoeksema, Danhof,  Ophof and
  things'  ,to `realize that Kingdom and `He has given us "a          Jonker denies that what the Synod expressed in- her Third
  place in it-us and our children after us-even as many               Point was the truth as the `Church of God understood
  `as `the Lord our God shall call.                                   it and as the Confessions formulated it. What is the
                                                Andrew Petter.        only possible conclusion of Van Zwoll's writing, this:
  Speech rendered, September  13, 1935, at the  Dedi-                 that Synod has in 1924 corrupted the true doctrine. But,
,  -cation of the new Christian School at Bellflower,  Calif.         further, Van  ~Zwoll's writing is also proof that the


                 !i:        .                                         T.HE  ST.AND.ARD   B             E    A    R      E     R                                       95
                 !                                                                                                                                                    -
                 1, Christian Reformed Churches have not preached it as                        En nu, wat was Ds.  H.`s Godsbeschouwing  ?
                 i they were instructed to do since -1924. In 32 years Van                     Zooals het bij hem altijd was en  ndg is.             .
                 :  `Zwoll has never heard a minister defend or explain Syn-                 "E,,  dat  was  en  i s  als  volgt  .,
                 i,  ad's point of the good which `sinners do in. the sight
I of God, not before 1924, nor after.                                    But lastly Van      .,Z. E. zag  .eene  .Goddelooze wereld  liggende   .in het
/ `Zwoll, sets himself next to Rev. Ghysels and  with..him:-booze. Niemand hunner deed  goed,  <en,  crlle  men&en.
                                                                                           waren en zijn  tota&  ,bedomen.  Nu behaagde het God om
                 :.      contends that natural man can  :do no good in the sight of
                 `- God. And protest No. 3..                     '                         `enkelen dezer  GoddeZooz&z  `te verkiezen als.  zijne  v@ige-
                           At least three men who `-raise their voice against `24.          kochte  .kinderen,   die Hij zoo lief had,  (alzoo lief  heeft
                         But what right have they to protest publicly? Did not              God. de wereld) dat Hij Zijn Zoon gaf opdat die voor
.: -; those very Churches drive us out, of their midst for                                  hen zou gaan in  do&? en  hel, voldoende  voor ken de
.doing this in  `24? Must we conclude that the Chr. Ref. rec&a&dig?&d  Gods, zoodat Hij,  .om  Zich  Zelfs en
                 j Churches don't dare to  enfore now what once they en-                    Zijn`  Z o o n s   r&L.&m  genadig  k a n   z i j n .                :
                 , forced? The three "protestants" remain where they are,                     Zoo,  in  kort, was  en is  Ds.  H.`s Godbeschouwing. Hij
                 and the Churches leave them where they are. Must we                       liet God  Go,d   blijven.         Ds. H. zag  .dat God was  oak,
 ..)
c..' conclude from this that the  ,Christian Ref.  .Chrs.  are sin-                        in de  herschepping  de  Alpha  en de Omega,  bet  begin.en
 `.                      ning wilfully-?    Actually, brethren, we write this not          het einde. Die God  van  Ds. H.  was Liefde,  `@a&,
                       to  pick, some words. This matter is serious.             No,' I    Rechtva&digh~eid.   Deugden en eigenschappen van God
1:.  j, don't and can't hope that we shall unite again. As  `Rev:                          die. altijd  samen  passen in de grootste.  harmonic. Zoo                        .
y_"! H.H. answered, we have made history since `24. But                                    was, tot dus  ver,' immer de  Godsb&chouwing.   dezer  ker-
., i vi;ould to God that the eyes of your understanding might                              kengroep'  geweest. >Z;liver   ,Bijbelsch  ,`en zuiver  Calvinis-
                                                                                                                                           -:.              -
            1 be opened and that you might confess your guilt. But                         tisch:      -
            i then please, don't confess your guilt without yourself                         `M'qr, zoo,, dank Dr. A. Kuyper, en de humanist&he
            1 being aware of it, as did the three protestants above, but                   leiding van een zekere Dr.  Jan&en met zijn  bende  Jehu
                 j confess it wholeheartedly. And protest against the lie                  drijvers;ioo was en zoo is de  Godsb&chouti~g  van deze                               .
            : which your churches have embraced in `24  in. respect                        kerkengrqep niet langer.
            : to the Third Point.                                              M: G.          De  Synode  had een gansch. andere Godsbeschouwing..
                                                                                           Zij  sprals die uit in  dris  punten, die in welsprekendheid
1.i                                                                                        de  geest  der.  tijds wedergeven.
 .; :                               De  Godsbescliouwing                                      De  d&e  wnten. luiden: (1). De- gunstige gezindheid
                                                                                           Gods jegen  die  men&en, en niet alleen jegens de  on-
                                              ( I n g e z o n d e n )                      wedergeborenen:
            ,              In de "Standard Bulletin". uitgegeven door Mr.  -.M.               De Synode vermeende dat zij die  declcwatie kan staven
            1 Berghage,' 146 Louis St., Grand  Kapids,  Mich.,  .versche-                  met  denBijbeZ,daarom   gaf.zij  voor Punt  Een de  volgende-
            1  nen den  20sten Sept., 35, twee  opimerkelijke   artikelen.                 texten. Ps. 145  :9, Math. 5  :44,45;Lukas   6:35,36, Hand.
            I Het eerste art. was gepend door Dr. J. R. Mulder. Prof.                      14  :16,17;  1 Tim. 4:10, Rom. 2 :4, Ezech. 33 :ll en Ezech.
            t Hope College, en het tweede door Ds. W. Groen,  predi-                       18 :23,
            : kant bij eene Chr. Ger. Gemeente.
  .i                                                                                          Het is klaarblijkelijk de bedoeling van de Synode om,
1 i
:. ,                       Beide de schrijvers  hadden  den moed om hunne  re-             in deze  texten  die zij  niet  I-derhlmrd;  ,de aandacht te  ves-
. .  i spectieve kerken-groepen te  bepalen bij het achteruitgaan                          tigen op het  goed dat God doet, hetwelk'zij vertaald in een
!.  :der kerken in kerken en in ledental; alswel als in  levens-                           zuelgemet?nd   aanbod van  geatide  LUI)Y~.   alle  menschem.
       `i beschouwingen.                                                                     Dan  lezen die  texten,  verkort,  als  volgt : De Heere
                           Onwillekeurig vraagt iemand,, waaraan is die merke- doet  goed  a&  `alle   menschen,   die  wij  moeten  liefhebben
       1 lijke achteruitgang  te  wijten'? Is het niet  aan eene  `veran-                  daar God op  /zem regent en Zijn zon laat schijnen, zijnde
            [ ,, derde C;odsbeschotiwivzg?                                                 bun  barhhawtig;   doende van den  hemel. hen  goed,  allen
                          Hij die. dat antwoord  op die vraag in deze voege  zbu .,beho.udende, geen  lust hebbende in den dood der  Godde-
       Ii  willen geven, is in volkomene  h&rmonie met de Chr. Ger. loo&?n.
 .lf Synode van 1924.                                                                         (Hetzij  opgemerkt dat `de  Synode  die eerder  "Pre-
       !!                 Slaande de  acte dezer Synode open lezen wij onderaan            Millenialisme met hare regels veroordeelde, nu zelve de
  .I op bldz. 121 onder een  11. tal betichtingen ook dit : De                             regels van het  pre  v&t door die  texten te lezen  niet in
       I  Godsbeschowwing   W&S   Ds..  H .   Hoeksima.                                    bun  verband,   WKXW in  dood!  tetterlijken  sin, `vergetende
       I                  `t  Scheen dat de Godsbeschouwing van Ds. H. niet                dat  wijlen Dr. A. Kuiper in zijn boek,. Dat  .de Genade
       ; strookte met die van de Synode.  .Dat feit geconstanteerd Particulier is, er gedurig op wees dat die  allen. in deze
       ,. zijnde, werd hij, later, door een mindere kerkelijke  autori-                    en dergelijke  texten  alleen  zagen  op  de  :ktve&or&ien  en
       9. teit als leeraar afgezet en uitgeworpen.                                         nimmer`  op  alie  -men.schem  in de  w$eld.)             .-.
       f


