                             i..

                                                                                                              . High School to expel him as principal. The evident
                                                                                                              reason is, that the Chicago High School is neither  Cltris-
                                                                                                              tia:tt. Reformed nor a Church-school.
                                                                                                                If, then, Dr. Kuiper deemed it necessary to make the
                                             Stor&  $3 The Windy City                                         High School situation public and to write a pamphlet,
                                                                                                              he should have addressed the membership of the High
                                     ^' In conclusion of` this series of articles on the "Chi-                School Association.
                                    cago `Situation" I wish to  criticise  the "Blue Book" as                  But before he should even have done this, he should
                                    the pamphlet published by the Reverend Herman Kuiper                      have exhausted  ,a11 other possibilities. This he did not
                                    is. now generally known.             .'  '                                do. I think it was a mistake that the Reverends  Hoek-
                                       Let me state beforehand,. that I do not consider this. Sema  and Kuiper resigned as board-members.                               They
                                    the  most important phase of the matter. I most  em-                      should have remained at their posts. They should have
                         i.
                         1:                                                                                   prebemed  the entire matter to the association, when the
                ; y.                `phatically disagree  b,oth with the spirit and-contents of
                  :. i              many of the  articles' that were published by supporters                  board did not satisfy them. . And only if this also had
                 .' : .,                                                                                      failed,) and if the majority of the association had proved
                         i :        of. Dr. Wezeman and the Board of the Christian High
                 :.-  i             School, in  Olz,ce  Toekomst   and  The  Ct%cngo  &fe,r,twrt~er.          to be in favor of the board and of Dr. Wezeman, should
           `: :_ :.-:.j.            I do not believe that in matters of this nature the  foM&d                different action have been taken.         This different action
                .-. .j-r_ l         and  `te&Gcul side of' the question is the most important.                must needs have been in the direction of  arganizing   a
                 !: /               Even. though I do not agree with the mode of procedure                    new association and establishing a new high school, And
                        j           followed by the Reverend Kuiper in publishing his  ,Fam-                  in explanation of  such  action Dr. Kuiper might have
                        I.          phlet   ; and even though I believe that his actual criticism             published a pamphlet. As it is the matter is almost hope-
                                    of Dr.  Wezeman's Notes is far weaker than the strong                     lessly confused. Classis Illinois meddles with it, though
                                    adjectives' he employs to characterize the contents of                    it cannot at all expect to solve the case. Even if the
                                    the -Notes; and though  .I> personally, believe that the                  classis has the right to treat Dr. Wezeman as a minister,
     ~                              Christian Reformed ministry hardly.  has  the  right  and                 it cannot exercise authority over him as a teacher.
     ,"                                                                                                                           `.
     !                              power to condemn Dr.  Wezeman,-yet,  the fact remains-                      And I still believe that through the board the matter
     I  ::`._i                                                                                                ought to be brought before the association, a formal
     ~...: ,.                       that there is sufficient reason to conclude that Dr.  Weze-
                I                   man should not be principal of the Chicago Christian                      vote ought to be taken on the matter  ;  and. action ought
                                    High School.                                                              to be taken according to the outcome of. that vote.
                 - ;                  And this' chief issue should not be blanketed.                            This is all the more necessary because in the present
                                                                                                              stage of development in the  case,  the association ought
                                      Yet; I. believe that the publication of the "Blue  Book"                to determine whether or not it will retain a board that,
                                    was premature.                                                            evidently, agrees with Dr. Wezeman.
                                      From the pamphlet it is evident that  the. writer had                     Such action is radical, I realize. But it will certainly
                                    iri, mind the Christian Reformed Churches and their clear the sky.                             And what other course is open  .to the
                                    membership. Them he addresses. Them it is his pur-
                4 i                                                                                           ministers that signed the pamphlet of Dr.  Ku&r and
          `:.: ., .;                pose to inform about the situation and to open their eyes                 with him insist that Dr. Wezeman is an out and out,
           j. ii                    for the danger of the inroads of modernism. This is
          .:                                                                                                  "Simon pure" modernist ? It is no longer a question be-
                        .           due, no doubt, partly to the fact, that Dr. Wezeman, while                tween them and  .Dr. Wezeman  ;  -it is now a question
                                    being a high school teacher, is at the same time. a min-                  between the board and them as well.             Let, then, the
                        `.          ister in the Christian Reformed Churches ; and, partly,                   association determine, when the matter has been fully
                                    to the fact that the Chicago High School is. largely  sup                 explained to them, which way they desire to  go. And if
                                    ported. by members of the Christian Reformed Churches. `they choose the way of modernism, let the rest with-
                                    It  is, nevertheless, a mistake. And the "Blue Book" is,                  draw from the association and start a new school.
                                    for that very reason', incapable of clearing up the situa-                  But this appeal to the Christian Reformed Churches
                                    tion in Chicago. What does it help to appeal  `to the
          :. .'                                                                                               is out of order.
                                    Christian Reformed. public in general? Can they  remedy                     And `the publication of the pamphlet is premature. I t
                                    the matter?  _. Or, can the  C:hristian  Reformed Churches                .will work nothing but havoc and confusion. And after
                                    clarify the situation ? Is even` the Synod+of  those churches,
I                                                                                                             the storm has somewhat subsided, the end will be a com-
                                    capable of rectifyin,u the matter? It must be. evident                    promise.
                                    that it is not. The Synod of the Christian Reformed
                                    Churches has no authority over the Chicago Christian
                                    High School., It may discipline Dr. Wezeman as a min-                       Much has been written about the action of the Min-
                                    ister. It could not expel him as a teacher. It could not,                 isters' Conference (Inter Nos) on March  19,  1935, by
                                    even though it should decide that Dr. Wezeman must                        which they refused the request of the Board of the Chi-
                                    be deposed as minister, compel the Board of the `Chicago                  cago High School -for their  supp0r.t.

                                              _                                                         `.


                                                           THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                     341

                      The minutes of the conference, contain the following             the strong terms of condemnation that are  aboundiljg
                    article in regard  to this matter:                                 in this "Blue Book,`, unless they had read the Notes of
                       "Art. 5.  In.re the request of the Christian  High School       Dr. Wezeman for' themselves ?
                    Board Inter Nos unanimously  .decides  to reply.  as. fol-         My personal experience has, been, that, although  I.`b+
                    lows : We regret to say that we cannot support the High            lieve that  .Dr. Wezeman should not be principal in a
                    School as enthusiastically as we might due to a, general           Christian High School, the impression I received of the
                    lack  .of confidence `in our midst in the High School,             contents  df the Notes from  .the  "Elue Book" was far
                    ptirticularly  in  the Principal. And it is our conviction         worse than that which was made upon me by  the Notes
                    that this same lack of confidence accounts in a large              ?.hemselves.
                    nieasure for the present  lethargy among our  dhurch pub-            I will, therefore, suppose that the fifteen ministers that
                    lic".                                                              endorsed the "Blue Book,' were sufficiently acquainted,
                       This action. on the part of the ministers cannot be             by personal study,  .with the Notes of Dr. Wezeman to
                    approved!                                                          justify their endorsement.
                       In the first place  thei-e is the general reason why this         ,.If this supposition is not correct, their action is morally
t                   decision of  Illter Nos must be condemned, that it is              wrong.
                    purely. negative. To withdraw our  support  from an insti-           And their endorsement in that case `is an empty gesture.
                    tution, without doing anything further, certainly` cannot
                    yield positive results. The& were  only three ways open
                    to the ministers with regard to this request of the Board.           One more point I must make in this connection, before
                    The first is, `that they would simply give their whole-            I  offer my remarks on the contents of the "Blue Book".
                    hearted support to the school  .as it actually is. The  sec-         The investigation committee seriously erred, in my
                    dnd is, that they  give,  their support  to the school, but        opinion, when they found that the  ii;struction  of Dr.
                    insist that it be purged from the leaven of  modertiism.           Wezeman was seriously at fault and unfit for a Reformed
                    The third is,. that they  would.simply  refuse their support,      institution, and yet recommended that he should be re-
                    stating the' reason, but doing nothing. This last course           appointed as Principal of the Christian High School, on
                    meant  -the destruction of the  cnztse,  evidently. yet, .this     condition that he would co-operate with the committee
                    last course the ministers decided to follow.                       to revise his notes.
     : . .             The lack of enthusiasm on the part of. the ministers              As to the opinion the committee had  evefi  at that time
     :              can easily be understood. Their purely negative action             of the instruction of Dr. Wezeman, the following quo-
                    must,' nevertheless, be condemned.                                 tation. may inform the reader :
                       But there is a specific reason, why this action is not            "The previous chapter has  made  it abundantly clear
                    justifiable. It wa.. taken at `a time when the Notes of Dr.        that the Bible-notes of Dr. Wezeman which were investi-
                    PVesenmn   wee being  investignted.   Two of them, the             gated by a sub-committee  .of the Educational Committee
                    Reverends  G. Hoeksema and H. Kuiper were in the  in-              during the school-year 1933-1934 contained a good deal
                   .vestigation committee.      In May, 1934 this committee            of material which was entirely unfit for a Reformed in-
                   had decided to maintain Dr. Wezeman on condition.  that             stitution. There can  be no doubt  .but that any of our
                    he would sign his name to.a promise to amend his Notes.            fifteen. Classes would at once suspend a minister if it
      :
:  _                It was not until  May 17, 1935 that the committee  ,pre-           were proven that he propagated such teachings. No one
     1  :
I'  ..:             sented  its report to the Board. Hence, when Inter Nos             of our Classes would maintain as a minister in good
.:                  decided to refuse their support to  the  S.chool, the  inyesti-    standing any preacher who had ndt merely evidenced
                   gation was still in full swing; and `it was, at  least,  not        Modernistic leanings but had even advocated vikws which
                   supposed to be known to the ministers what the report               were Modernism pure and simple."
                    of the investigating  .committee  would be; still less  .did         A little later we read that "the sub-committee was
                    they know, what attitude the Board would assume  &th               thoroughly convinced that  D1. Wezeman had propagated
                    respect to that report.                                            teachings of a decidedly pernicious character". "The  Chi-
                    It appears as if the Ministers' Conference. meant to               c&go Situation", p. 3.0.
                    force the issue by withdrawing their support.,                       In spite of all this the sub-committee recommended
                      And this  canndt  be, justified.                                 that he be reappointed!
                                                                                         How they could do so with a good conscience, how
                                                                                       they could conceive it their duty to "spare Dr. Wezetian"
                      Whethei-  the fifteen ministers that endorsed the. "Blue         and surrender the children `for another year to  stich  rrper-
I                   Book"  wet-e  morally justified in doing so, I cannot judge.       nicious" instruction, is more than I can understand.
i  ]                   I do not believe that {heir action  co+d be justified if          Here the committee indicts itself.
              I     they did not personally acquain.t  themselves with the Notes        Next time, D.V. a few remarks about the  coritents of
                    of Dr. Wezeman.        How could they possibly. endorse            the  "B&e Book,`.                                    H .   H .
                       c.


                                           Christ; The Light                                  declared by the world  SIe made (general revelation)  ;  a
                                                                                              speech uttered by the li'fe He livc$ by  His own personal
                                                                                              lips and by `the lips of His chosen agents..  Chri& is the
                             Says the prophet: "I will praise thee; for `I am fear-           light of the world, emitting spiritual light.
                           fully and wonderfully made;  marvellous  are thy works
                           . . . . My substance was not hid from thee, when I was               Man is a sensuous being; he lays hold  oti  such things
                           made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts          only which. can be visualized. How then  can.man   knoti
     $
                           of the earth,, (Psa.  lj9:14,   15): What is true of the           God --a Being spiritual and invisible? It pleased Him
                           miniature universe man, is equally true of the cosmos.             td furnish His rational creatures with a tangible and  per-
           !,!             ,It is an orderly system : opposed to chaos.' It is fearfully      ceptabld exhibition of `His glories. As `was pointed out.
     .!                                                                                       the things. seen and felt- exhibit His' wisdom and power.
     .;                    and wonderfully made : a  marvellbus   woik! curiously
           !               wrougl!t..  It is the incorporation of a logical idea, and         &Ience,  the things seen are the stepping-stones to `God.
           /
                           exhibits great wisdom  - the wisdom, power  and glory              The superb  .exhil&ion of His virtues  `is` Christ  and the
                           of its exalted Maker, so  that.the heavens  declare  the glory     cross. His appearance -made it possible for us to see
                                                                                              and handle the life made manifest.
                           of Gocl; and the firmament sheweth His handiwork.,, `Day                                                      Says the apostle':
                                                                                              "That which was `from the  begitining,  which tie have
                           unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth
                           knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their             heard, which we have seen with'our  eyes,.which.we  have
                           voice is not heard. Their line is- gone out through `all           looked upon, and our hands have handled, of  the  word
                                                                                              of life. For the  liie'was manifested, and we  have seen
                           the earth, and their'words to the end of the world, Psa.
                           19 :14.                                                            it, and bear witness, and shew  untb you that eternal life,
                                                                                              which was with the Father, and was manifested unto  us".
                            . .  "We believe," says the Confession, "that the samk            (I  Jqj1ll.l   :l, 2).
                           God, after He had created all  .things, did, not forsake              So, too,  the benefits accruing  `from the death of  the
                           them,  0~ give them up to fortune or chance,  b& that He           Saviour are presented to us by means  .of things per-
                           -rules and governs, and, we may add, sustains them ac-             ceptible.     The life in Christ may be contemplated as
                           cording to His holy will so  that nothing happens in this' bread,  .wine, water and milk. It -appears, then, that. our
                           wd'rld  without His appointment .  ::` .  "                        knowledge of God and of things spiritual and invisible
                            The Logos, then,  .is  ia the' world, and upholding what          begins with sensury  preception.     In the things seen, God
I.              !          He  made, stabilizes and perpetuates its speech, at once           embodied His thoughts. Things. earthy are the images
.  .  /                    His speech, and by it lighteth every ,man that cometh into         of a  mo\re,glorious  world. And it is the duty of man to
     :.
                           the world. `<For the invisible things of Him from the              lay hold on this world, refledted by the sum total of things
                           creation  o.f the world are clearly seen, being understood         earthy.  Wllat applies to the bread and wine in Holy
                           by the  thingrs  thnt  at-e  FLU-&,  even His eternal power and    Communion, namely, that we should  nbt cleave with our
                           Godhead; so that they  a;e without excuse . . . .  " "Be-          hearts unto the external bread and wine, but lift them  up.
                           cause,`, so the preceding verse reads, "that which may be          on hight in heaven, where Christ. Jesus our advocate, at
                           known of God is  n@?est  in them: for God hath  shewed             the right hand of the  heavelily  Father'.`. . . applies to all
                           it' unto them," (Rom. 1  :20, 19).                                 things, earthy. This, however, carnal man  refiises to do.
                              How?;ever, "God, who,  at, sundry times and in `divers            What, then, is his attitude toward the  Jight emitted by
                           manners spake in times  p:ast `unto the fattiers by the pro-       Christ?  .Scripture.   answeres  this question for us.  ?`o
::  1
 :                         phets, hath in these, days spoken unto us by .the Son".            begin with, the true light lighteth him, John  1:9; this.
::  :                      "He came unto  .His own" (John 1  :ll). He; Christ,                light is manifest in him (the ungodly one), he clearly
                           came  &nd, gave us by the  \&ord He spoke, by the life He          sees. and clearly  uliderstands  it, Rom. 1  :19, 20; seeing
                           lilTed and by the Spirit He  mei-ited,  a fuller and clearer       they see, and hearing they hear,  M&-k 4  :12.         T h e s e
                           revelation of the glory and wisdom of God. As the                  scriptures  must be made to apply to carnal man's natural.
                           faithful Witness, He spake of  many  things: of the sorry          (sinful) rational eye with which he sees and lays hold
                           plight of those for  whoa  .He laid down His life; of              on the logical idea incorporated in the  spekch of the.  in-
                           Himself   a_s the true Lamb of God that taketh  ;iway the          .carnate  Word. To begin with, the world made by the
                           sin of  th6 world  ; of  tlje  crqss He bore  ; of the Father's    Logos is, as was before said, a  marvellotis work, exhibit-
:                    :I
       .::-;               house where many mansions are  ; of the  .inheritance in-          ing great wisdom, harmony and order. Facing it, the
 .                   I
                           corruptible and `undefiled. and that fadeth not away,-             spontaneous  ejuculation  of his (the ungodly's) soul is :
                           an  inherit&ce reserved for those kept  bjr the power of           "There is a God,  alwise   a&d almighty -whom I  should
                           God  tlirough faith unto salvation ready  to be  reSealed  in      serve and revere."' Likewise the speech of Christ, it  is-
                           the last time. He informed  ps of the Father's  ,good              contrary to the contention. of the' exponent of  -the theory
                           pleasure of  reconcilin,m by. Him, a,fter having made peace        of common grace who  discoyers  in this speech `many a
                           through the Wood of the cross, all things unto Himself,            contradiction  - a reasonabie,  rational, most logical word.
                            whether  `they be things  in. earth or' things in heaven.         True enough, the unbeliever  .would not have it so. He
                           There is then  a'speech  of the Logos, incorporated in and         insists on  pr&ing about the. absurdities in  .which  the


  .                _                                    THE  ST'AN,DP;RD~   B E A R E R .                                                                351
                                                                                                                                                          -
 doctrines  of, let `us say, the Trinity  envolves  us. `Fact `is of the type of. the  .fool  in the parable who indifferent
 is,`~however,"that   eve+.doctrine.   of, Christendom is  SLI-                     as to the hurricane' which he knew  would. come, built
 pefbly rational.                      And the' carnal mind  being.  rational       his house upon the sand,  `and said it would stand for
 senses, though, he will not, that `the truth is agreeable                          ever.                          . .  ;..
`td reason.. He grasps `the  `&lea.  conveyed. And Christ                            . Paul, in depictin g, the plight of the carnal man, com-
 purposely spokeiri  parables that seeing he shouId  see and                        pares -him to one  .dinken with wine when he says :
 hearing hear. -That is  to..say, this particular mode of                           "But ye, brethren, are not  .in darkness, that that day
-speech,. brought into bold relief the truth and drove it                           should overtake you as a thief. Ye are  all. the children
-home with such power as to confuse infuriate and com-                              of the light, and the children of the  :day :  we~are  not of
 pletely `disarm the antagonist; In a word, Christ made                             the night or of  the. darkness.            Therefore let us not
 those assailing Him see and feel the point. Indeed did                             sleep, as do others ; but let us watch and  .be sober. For
 they see-and hear. In the parable of the sower,  to'illus-                         they that sleep sleep in the night ; mzd they that be. drwzken
 &ate,-.the ,Pharisee'-is made to see .the attitude he assumes                      MB  d+mzke~z  i*a  tht?  &ght"  (I  Thess;   5 :l-7).    `The term
 towards Christ's `words is due to the depravity of his                             shiety  of `this passage signifies the' spiritual alertness
`heart. . . The. ungodly see and hear. That "there is none,                         of the child of the light respecting the things of the Spirit.
 righteous, `no not one ; that there  is. none that  under-                         He is one keenly aware of the approach of the day- of the
 standeth, and seek after.. God ; that all are gone out of                          Lord. For such  a. one, this day does not come as a
 the .way~and -become unprofitabie  ; that there is none that                       thief in the night in that -it is  expec$ed.   I The term
-doeth good, no:not one" is. speech capable of being under-                         drunkenness, on the other hand, is the signification of
stood by. alI: who read. I .Likewise `that "When the `wicked                        the- wicked one's carnal indifference res%ecting  the things
 spring as the  grass! and when all  t.he workers of  in&ity'                       that shall soon come to pass.  .Str.ong drink, if taken  in.
do  -flourish; it is that they shall-  .be destroyed for ever"                      sufficient quantities, will  stupify man's sensibilities.
 (&a., 92 :?).                     So, too, the  .word :  "I. lay down my life      While in this state he is dull of mind so that  .even the
 for  &l'y  &ep.!' The ungodly see  sand hear.                                      most startling  discl;osures fail  to arouse  .him. He hears
        However, carnal. man, does not perceive and under-                          and sees yet fails to understand.             So, too, does the .
-stand,  .Luke   4:12. The light shineth. in the darkness,                          message  o1 either doom or -bless fail to impress the
and the darkness comprehended it not, John. I  5. Though                            spiritually `diseased soul; He hears in much the same
be-  (the  1 carnal  man) knows -God, he glorifies him not                          tvay.that one will listen  TV the report of the death of an
                                                                                                     .,     :
 as God.                Neither is- he thankful,. but becomes vain in  ; unknown one. The matter-is forgotten the next minute.
                                                                                                                                              .
his imaginations,  and'his foolish heart. is `darkened.  Pro-                       The carnal man, then, -is dead to  .the things of the spirit,
 fess@ghimself  to be wise; he becomes a fool, and changes
                        - l____                                                     and incapable of sensing and appreciating. their value.
the glory of the uncorruptable God into an image made                               To what may his-spiritual  lethar,gy.  be due?  :To a  deep-
like to. corruptable man, and to birds, and  four-footed-                           seated hatred for all things holy. Hence,  hk stands with
beasts, and creeping things, Rom.  1:21-23.                                         his back toward heaven, which, as. far  as  he is con-
        Carnal man though seeing does not perceive and                              cerned,  does. not exist. Yet is he without excuse. For,
 understand. `This verdict must be made  to. apply to                               though not understanding and apprehending the light,  he*
kis`iack of spiritual vision and understanding, so that the                         sees and hears. Why,  ,we wonder, do the exponents of
question arises : What is spiritual sight. And the  `an-'                           the theory of common grace insist `that the maintenance
 swer: Spiritual sight signifies the believer's sense of                            by ,the. Almighty of the ieprobated one's carnal rational
 spi.ritual  values.                   It is the  power  to  2  contempktte  the    perception is an exhibition of His (God's) favor. Surely,
things revealed-- God,  .Christ, the cross'and  the Father's                        they shall have to admit that it would have been better
house, in short, salvation with all that it  .implies  as con-                      for  such's one, had be been deprived of this hearing and
stituting a good, `to be greatly' desired and appropriated.                         sight.
The one  tiith- understanding, sees  he!l, death and the'                             `Man, then, fails to perceive, to understand. That is,
-grave, sin,`.  jud,ment,  Divine wrath and curse as so                             he  is. unwilling to hear the truth -about God, himself
many realities necessitating a Saviour and a Shelter.. and God's eternal purposes respecting His handiwork.
 He, therefore, puts his trust under the shelter of God's                           The pure light from heaven is an eye-sore to him. He
wings and is abundantly satisfied  &ith the fatness of His                          shuts.  it'out of his soul and this -is his fatal mistake.
house, and is made to'drink  from the river of' His pleas-                          For man is  ,creature.  He must be, taught by the Lord                       +
ures.                        ..                                                     God, Who only knows, or he comes to grief. Carnal
  ,To the ungodly, on the other hand, the things con-                               man, however, refuses to receive God as his Teacher.
stituting for the  .believer  the highest possible good, are                        Shutting Him (God) out of the world and himself in
without  valuerand substance. The carnal man has no                                 it, he kindles a fire, compasses himself about with sparks,
 sense of spiritual values.                      The existence of what' he          and. walks in  the, light of his own fire and in the sparks
sees and hears he `denies, and  `shuts heaven' but' of his                          he-kindled, Isa.  5U:ll. The fire in the light of  which`the.
heart. All his thoughts  .a're  that, there is no God. He
   :-         I                                                                     wicked one walks  is. the truth of God changed by him
        :.                                                                                                                                         -       .-
                                                                                                                                             :


 352                                   TI-IE,  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

 unto a lie, Rom. 1  25.       The emanation of his own            the moaning of distant thunder speak to him and to the
 diseased heart, it (this light) is the vehicle of a false,         fool as well of an approaching storm. Unlike the fool,
 grbtesqile,  distorted and incongruous image of actual            however, he acts according and builds his house upon a
 existence, fact, truth, reality  ; a  misreprsentation of God,    rock.
 of heaven and hell, of things earthy, of  Christ and the             In conclusion. Consicler finally that the pure light from
 cross, of man and his nature, origin, purpose and des-            heaven radiated by the Father of light, is seen being
 tiny, in short, of all things. Yet the wicked one loves            reflected by the Word in the world and in Scripture.
 these fantastic images, and signifies their sum total by           The Christ, by the speech falling from His lips, by the
 some such names as  phylosophy,  metaphysics, wisdom.              life he lived,  .by the works, He performed, exhibits so
 It is, however, the  wi.&lom of the world, deemed fool-           majestically the power, wisdom, holiness, love, mercy
 ishness by `God, but common grace  b$ our opponents.               and compassion of Him Who sent His Son into the
 The carnal man, insisting that he sees  aright, refuses           world to be a propitiation for all our sins. The  ,Christ,
 to leave his house on fire and perishes in the'  Aames.           then, is a perceptable and  tangib~le exhibition of the light.
 Therefore he is a fool.                                            `%I  this?`?  says John, "was manifest the love of  God
   He who would see light, that is, know  ancl live? must          toward  us, because that God  sent  His only begotten Son
 walk in the light emanating,, not from the foolish and            into the worlcl, that we might live through Him" (I
 wicked heart of the worldly  wise, but from the Logos.            John 4  :9).
 the incarnate Word. In Him  walking in this light there              Will the redeemed ever be permitted to focus their
 is none occasion for stumbling.       For he then walketh         eye directly upon God the source of Light? No  &ore
 in the light of God. For Christ  speaketh   nbt of Himself,       than man can gaze directly at the sun in heaven with-
 He seeketh not His own glory. His doctrine is not His,            out  impairi!lg his vision, no more can we directly behold
 but His that sent Him, John 17  :16, 17.          He speaks       God and live. Yet shall the pure in heart see God.
 whatsoever he hears.       This light,' then, is a correct        They see Him' now through a glass darkly. They shall
 and reliable image of God and  His eternal thoughts so            see Him face to face. The present mode of revelation
 that he comprehending it knoweth God and all things.              will give way to one of a most glorious type exhibiting
   The child. of the light comprehends the light. For              to the glorified sense organs of the redeemed God's
 him only the light is shed: Such are the plain teachings          face. As it is, they behold, as did Moses (Ex. 33  23)
 of Holy Writ. We present the following selection in               God's back parts.                                G.  M. 0.
 support of this assertion.    "The light is sown for the
 righteousness and gladness for the upright in heart"
 (+a.  97:ll).
   IPZ  Th,v light we see light. To see light one must take
 a position in it. To do so, signifies, to be sure, a changed        The prophetic office should he defined as follows:
attitude toward God, a heart brought under the benign              the right and the capacity to  -receive  and impart a  .divine
influence of His grace. For the light exhibits all the             communication.       The right to speak divine capacita-
 glories of God's blessed being, reflects His mind,  clis-         tion is implied in the calling.
`closes the meaning  of the cross and exposes, finally, the          T et  LX now put the question : What was the essence
sinner in all his wanton  ungodlyness.  Hence, he coming           of the prophetic  of&e?  and the answer,  a  knowledge or
to the light is one who has passed from death to life,             insight into  tile  secret counsel  of. God.    Whereas the
 one  humbled~  one with a heart whose pride. has, been            I ord imparts his secret to his friends only, the `prophet
-thaw&l  out by God's grace, one hungering  and thirsting          was a friend of Jehovah. Let  us incorporate the above
for  I&m whose glorious  .being the light reflects.                cited element in our  defmition,  and it reads as follows,
   We see  Zig.& in Thy light. To see, comprehend light.           A prophet is a friend of God  whom the latter authorizes
What does  it.  inean  ? Physical light, consider, throws          ancl capacitates by his grace to know and to impart his
                                                                   secret counsel and thus he engaged as his friend-servant
upon  the eye an image of the object, it envelopes and
the soul forms a conception agreeable to the object. per-          in his (God's) house.
ceived. The light has entered the soul, and the whole                Let us now show that this definition is derived from
body  is  light. So do the pure hearts receive into their          Scripture. The first person in Scripture called a prophet
souls the pure light from heaven as reflected by the               is Abraham. Said the Lord to Abimelech who had ap-
Word. It means that they are alive. to the realities cor-          propriated Abraham's wife, Now therefore restore to this
responding to this light and sense their value; that these         man his wife for he is a prophet and he shall pray for
realities constitute their treasure, a priceless pearl for         thee and thou shalt live. If we compare Abraham with
which they sell all; that, finally, the believer is light          such  personages as Isaiah  ancl Jeremiah, it is  difficult to
and radiates light unto the  -,$lory of Him in Whom he is          see why the Lorcl ranked him with the prophets. Abra-
light. Such a one, according to the estimation of  Gocl,           ham does not all appear in Scripture crying out to his
is wise. For the flash of  light&&  on the horizon and             contemporaries, Hear ye the Word of the Lord or Thus


                                           T H E      S,TANDARD                 BI?ARgR                                      353

saith the Lord, as a p'ologue  to lengthy discourses. How-            eousness,   the very depository of the revealed mind of
ever, if we take the  l>rophet  to  ,be a friend of God privi-        God.
leged and capacitated to know his secrets,  Ab~raham  was,              The rule that the prophet must be a friend of Jehovah
to be sure, a prophet. He was the friend of God who                   has two exceptions, viz. Balaam and  Caiaphas.        Both
enjoyed intercourse with heaven, was admitted to God's                were destitute of grace yet prophets of the Lord and the
secrets and privileged to know his counsels. The Lord                 former consciously so.      Balsam  was made to bless a
explicitly declared him to be his friend. On his way to               people he hated, was compelled to utter a speech that
Sodom, the Lord turned to his companions and, in the                  was descriptive of. the glory of the. nation whom he would
hearing of Abraham, who had gone along on the way,                    vain have cursed for filthy lucre. In order to explain
said, "Shall I hide from Abraham the thing which he do.               the appearance of  &is personage in history, regard must
for I know him that he will command his children and                  be had to the character of the period of Israel's history
his household after him . . . . .  " (Gen. 18  :17ff)                 in which he was raised up.
  Consider the following Scripture, "The secret of the                  Israel had served it's time in the desert and was now
Lorcl is with them that  .fear  him and he will show them             about  to take possession of Canaan.     The time was at
his covenant." (Psalm 25  :14)             Two other Scripture        hand for the army of the Lord to  figl? the battles of
passages enter in here, Ex. 4  :15,  161; Ex. 7 : 1. The first        Jehovah.  Tlle an was densely populated. The spies had
                                                                                       1 d
of these reads, IThou shalt speak unto Aaron and put                  reported that they had seen giants there. I t   r e q u i r e d
words into his mouth and he shall be thy spokesman                    therefore an heroic faith on the part of Israel to respond
unto the people."            In the second the Lorcl appears as       to the orders of the Lord to advance. Israel was in the
speaking to Moses as follows, "Behold I have made thee                need of some tangible evidence of an extraordinary char-
a God to Pharaoh and Aaron thy brother shall be thy                   acter that it had nothing to fear.      This evidence was
prophet."' Here it is stated in unmistakable speech that              prdvicled them in the person of Balsam. Though a hater
a prophet is one that speaks words put into his mouth                 of  God.  an.d his people, though in grip of a mighty
by the Lord. The secrets of the Lord which it was his                 impulse to curse for the proferred honor and wealth,
privilege as friend of the Lord to know, he the prophet               he nevertheless repeatedly burst forth in prophetic praise
declared.                                                             of Israel in a language  clescriptive  of its eternal well-
  Let                                                                 being.
          us  now briefly delineate  upon  each of the essential                His prophetic outburts were like meat coming
properties of the true prophet of the Lord: 1. His                    from the eater and constituted the unmistakeable evidence
message had to be direct and personal communication                   that Jehovah's reign was so absolute that even the tongue
from heaven. The true prophet declared the word of                    of the wicked must sing the praises of him and his people
God in distinction from the false prophet  `who came with             when he so willed. The people of Jehovah might now
a  me&age that turned out to be the fabrication of his                know that with Jehovah on their side, no one could be
own heart. 2. The true prophet had to be a friend of                  against them.
God for the following reasons : a. God reveals his secrets            The message of the prophet. The view that the utter-
unto his friends only. b. Only the  friencl  of God pos-              ances of the prophet had to be predictive in order to
sesses the necessary receptivity for a divine communi-                deserve the name of prophesy is  in the light of the fore-
cation. Only from such a one does the Word of God                     going  `a mistaken idea.    Christ was pre-eminently the
depart as a living testimony as it is uttered by one in               prophet of the Lord yet a comparatively small part of
sympathy with it. c. The ultimate purpose of prophecy                 his discourses were predictive in the narrow sense. The
is praise. J 1 
               e        1
                     iova. reveals his secrets to his friends that    prophet of the Lord was a revealer of truth, delineated
they might prove the thing he contemplates doing  `and                on the truth revealed, proclaimed and re-enjoiced the
praise his name. The twenty four elders which sat be-                 law of God, imposed as the agent of the Lord duties
fore God in their seats fell  upon  their faces. and  wor-            upon men, dealt with men in God's stead for the interest
shipped God saying, "We give thee thanks,  0 Lord God                 of truth and  righteou&ess.    Of course the prophet also      .
Almighty . . . . . . because thou hast taken to thee thy              foretold, announced beforehand what was to take place.
great power and hast reigned .  ; . . . . and thy wrath is            However predicting the future was by no means the
come and the time of the dead that they should be. sole engagement of the prophet.. His office included much
judged" (Rev. 11  :17, 18). d. Finally the near  par-                 more. On the other hand all the communications of the
pose of prophecy  - the imparting of the divine com-                  gr?at prophets had a bearing on the future, not because
munication to man, in particular to God's people - made               these communications were predictive in the narrow sense
it imperative that a prophet be a friend for only such                of the word but because they set forth heavenly and
a one possesses the necessary constancy and boldness                  eternal truths and dealt with the realities of faith and
which the prophetic engagement required. The  pi-ophet                hope and the great principles of duty as a certain writer
then was in the deepest sense of the word a man of God                expresses it, "The much larger portions of their com-
who entered into God's mind and. breathed the very                    munications were no further  predigtive  of what was
spirit of God. He was one permeated with truth and .right-            afterwards to happen than as the present necessarily


                3.54                                    I'              THE-           S-TA,ND`ARD                 BSARER

                        contain the germ of the future, or the manifestations                           "bidclq"  uitnoodigde, en  daa.rlrij  speciaal  Psalm 110  :25
                then  giren of God's mind and will betoken the re-                                     aanhaalde, en op grond daarvan opriep `om -God den Heere
                        currence of like  manifeSta!ioils,  and it may be, still                       aan te loopen voor- den tertigkeer van de nationale "pros-
                 - higher ones to come."                                            .   .   `G.M.O.    perity" de  idee voorzit, dat  Gods: Gemeente om  een  goed
                                                                                                       gevuld "pocketbook,' bij hare  leden   (maar   .dan een ieder
                                                                                                       .naar  zi jn "stand,`) heeft  te. bidden op Biddag, om  dan
                                           Over  6Qigen"                                               met  "Dankdag,,, wanneer dit  "gebed"  verhoord is, eens
                                                                                                       een extra gift in het zakje  te.  doen of  `in het schaaltje te
                       `Broeder:G. V. B.  vail Kalamazoo-,  Mich.,  .vriagt  :                         leggen.  Dan  mocht dominee den volgenden  -2ondag   b&
                        Is er in den tegenwdordigen tijd, en gerekend voorts                           kend  maken,  dat er met de  collecte op "Darikdag" extra
                       met den oorsprong en de  g&chiedenis van de "bid- en                            giften   waren  ingekomen van .fl.  10; fl. 25, fl.  SO, en  hoo-
                       cl&kdagen, onder ons  gebruikelijk,  almede van  de  bij-.,                     gere bedragen van "door God met aardsche zegeningen
                       zonder  dagen- in Artikel 67 van de Dordtsche  Kerkenor-                        be-weldadigde'f  broeders of zusters  1'
                       dening genoemd nog  wel'  reden   dm die  speciale   "dagen"                       En wat de "christelijke feestdagen" betreft in Art. 67
                 kerkelij k  aan  te houden ?                                                          van de  D.Ic.0. genoemcl, ook  aan  deze.uit den na-Apos-
                          En. zou het, vooral met het  o&g  opi de toenemende                          tolischen tijd  eil de  Roomsche Kerk afkomstige en `fdoor
                       iaggniseering   (verheidensching of  verwereldlijking)  van                     de  Reformatie (of  Herv&ming)   niet afgeschafte" ge-
                 die  `"christelijke feestdagen" .in  orize "`christelijke"  maat-                     bruiken en instellingen, wordt  `conder  .ons" een waarde
                 `. schappij,.  &et wenschelijk zijn om met genoernde bid- en                          gehecht,  die ze niet toekomt, en  die  boven  den  Zondag,
                -  clankdagen  ook de  viering  d&r feestdagen door ons,  ge-                          den  Dig des Heeren, wijl Zijn Opstandingsdag, den  rust-
                       heel af te schaffen ?                                                           dag dien wij, christenen, elken eerstep dag der week vieren
                          TOELICHTING..                                                                ui!gaat.
                 Hooggeachte Redakteur.                            '                                      Terwijl de Kamers  van.  KbophBndel,  in bond met Min-
                         -Het zal voor  u.  onnoodig  zijn te  meiden  bier dat de                     isterial Alliances en  .Roomsche  onderstroomingen;  hoe
                       vragdr principieel niet  &en  bet  houden  van  .bijzondere                     langer hoe meer de `fchristelijke feestdagen't,  plus Goeden
                       bid- en' dankdagen (stonden) is, door personen, .geziinnen,                     Vrijda&   aan  &cl1  trekken,  evenals den  .Zbndag,  om,  ge-
                       of gemeenten,  wq.neer   daartoe  bepaalde,   gbede   reden be-                 steund door de "Almachtige" van. verkeersbehbefte en be-
                       s t a a t .                                                                     drijfs$icht,   burgersaamhoorigheids gevoel en  geldafhan-
                          Hoe. zou  eeli "oprecht" kind  cles Heeren,  een  `in Gods                   clelijkheid,  alsmede  de politieke drijving naar een  buiten-
                       vriendschap  hersteld schepsel, ooit kunnen  onderlateti  om                    sporige stedelijke en nationale-volkseenheid, een valschen
                                                                                                                    .
                       met  dankzegging  en  gebed  steeds Gods  aangezicht,   in                      godsdienst  mgang te  doen  &den,  die  `niet   andeis is dan
                       Christus-door Hem met ons  verioemd,  te zoeken  ?                              een opnieuw kruisigen .van onzen gezegenden  Heiland, de
                         Maar de vraag is  - en het is bij den vrager reeds                            Groote Gave der genade van den  Driegnigen God.
                       eenige  jaren lang een zaak van  overdenking,  en ook  van.                        U  dankend  voqr de herhaalde inruiming van een "plek"
                 besprekirig  met  broederen  in  besloten.  kring,  getieest   - of                   in den nog steeds, tot  zijn.vreugde,  veerkrachtig voor ons
                       de, ohder  ons ook n?gj aangehotiden  "bid- en dankdagen"                       uit marcheerenden "Vaa'ndrig", en  uti antwoord begeerig
                       nog  we1 red&.  vari  bestaan hebben ?                                          tegemoet ziende,  teekent  met  `broedergroete  en Christ&`
                         In  de eerste  plaats,  omdat deze-  oud-kerkdlijke   en- heil%ensch,   uw dienstwillige,
                       Rooms&e  "bededagen" enz.,  "met  de  reformatie  der                                                                         G. Van  Beck.
                 , kerken  niet zijri  afgcschaft," gelijk  Ds,  Job,  Jansen`aan-                     K&mazoo,  Mich.,  1  A$iYl,  1 9 3 6 .
                  .teekent  op Artikel. 66 van zijn  "Korte Verklaring van
                       d e   Kerkenoydeiiing."   `.
                         In de tweede  +ats, omdat, naar  1Uid van de  historic,                                              .ANTTVeORD              :
                       de Overheid in Nederland en in eenige  -andere  lanclen  die                    .  .De  leier zal bemerken,  .dat de vraag van broeder Van
                       d a g e n   kommandeerde.   I                                                   Beek  zich heeft ontwikkeld tot  e& pleidooi voor het  af-
                  :      In de  derde.  plaats,.  omdat  de latere  .& tegenwoordige                   schaffen  der  z.gn. Christelijke feestdagen.
                       "biddagen"  . enz., "bicldagen  yoor het  `gewa$'  en `dank-                      Het zou misschien  inieressant zijn, indien ook anderen
               _ dagen voor den  oogst" heeten  t" zijn, en reeds vroeger                              onzer  lezers eens hunne op&e gaven over de kwestie, hier
                       in de  N'kdeilanden  die dagen streek of  .`provinciale  dig&n
          '                                                                                            door den geachten inzender. aangeroerd.
._                     w&en, hier voor den  l&dbouw  bedoeld,  daar  voo;  de                             In mijn antwoord  aan broeder Van Beek zal ik  kol;t
                       visscherij of andere nering,  negotie of bedrij f, en  .ze  -L                  zijn..
`. -            elders, in de Republiek der Vereenigde Nederlanden en                                    1.  .Het vieren van "dagen"  behobrt tot de adiaphora.
/                      later in het Koningkrijk,  +&et  werden gehouden. . .                           Dat  stemmen  we natuurlijk  allen toe. Er is uit  principieel
                         Ten vierde, omdat bij velen`onzer belijders  - in  na-                        o&punt niets op tegen  0.m de  bijzonderc   Christelij,ke
.;                     volging van Dr. H. Beets  b.v.,  .die namens de Chr. Geref.                     feestdagen te blijven vieren,  noch ook om ze af te  schaf-
::               .Kerk  bier te  lan& de:  geloovigen.tot   zoodan&  .kerkeiijk                        fen.  Indien er dus andere  i-eclenen  zijn, van practischen
:                                                             :         -
::....                                                                  ~     -     `..:


                                                                                       . .

356                                         THI?,  .$TANDARD   B E A R E R

   Ik verzeker U  echter.  Ds. Zwier,  indien  er zulk een
uitclrukking hier in F'ella's  Prot. Geref. gemeente of elders               .Rqticulay Atonement  And  The'  i
gebezigd werd, zooiets maar niet blauw blauw gelaten zou                                      Well-Me'aniag              Qffer
`worden.   We1  heeft de leeraar, dien deze "broeder"  ieer
waarschijniijk `op het oog heeft  tan den kansel `gezegd,                                                  I     *
dat de Leerregels van Dordtrecht voor verbetering vatbaar                    "Common Grace" as a  co&oversy has centered itself
zijn.  El! ik  hen zeker, dat Ds. Zwier  dit ook toe zal  stem-            about the now famous "Three Points of  1924", Many
men.                                                                       there are, also among the clergy, who would soothe their
   Ik  schrijf dit niet qn eens  lans te breken voor den leer-             consciences by' presenting the issue as though it were
aar, die hier in het gedrang komt. Zeker  heeft ook  clie                  but a matter of rain  ancl sunshine, of food and drink.
 leeraar  we1  eens  uitdrukkingen gebezigd, die voor  ver-                Does not God make His sun to rise on the evil and the
 betering vatbaar  waren   ; of ook uitdrukkingen, die, als                good  and cause His rain to descend upon the unjust  as
 ze uit haar  verband  gerukt werden, een heel  andere   be-               well as the just ?      These, however, confuse the issue
 teekenis  kregen,`dan   wamleer  men ze in het  verband   liet.           and deceive the masses. Had the  chuych,   whi.ch denied
 En  nu komt deze "broeder" tot U en  b&chuldigt iemand                    us   its fellowship and so ruthlessly cast us out  6f its midst, .
 achter zijn rug, zonder hem de  gelegenheid  te geven om                  applied  &is doctrine solely to these so-called natural
 zich  t e  vercledigen.   E n   w a t  cleze  "breeder"  t e g e n  6%    gifts, it is  ext'remely doubtful whether we would  ,now
 persoon  heeft, dat  le&t hij  aan de  cleur  .cler Prot. Geref.          be leading a separate denominational existence. Indeed,
 Kerken als geheel.  Foei!                                                 we deny, without reservations, that also these are a mani-
    Waarom schrijft die "broeder" niet  openiijk, zoodat                   festation of grace  unto   all their recipients.       Grace is  -
 iecler  bet lezen kan en zet zij naam er onder? Of kunnen                 never common.         Grace is God's favor, rooted in  His
 zijn bezwaren en  beschuldigingen  het daglicht niet  ver-                immutable love. It is an attitude of friendship and good
 clragen  ?                                                                pleasure.. In grace the Divine countenance beams in
    Ik vraag maar.                                                         friendship  ad  love  upon  the work of His hands. It
    Laat hem voortaan zijn  bezwaren   openlijk  bekend                    seeks  the. positive welfare. of its object. We deny most
 maken.  Dat  zou  broederlijk  en ridderlijk  zijn. En ik  ver-           &phatically  and  uncondit;onally, that the Scriptures any-
 zeker dien  "broecler", clat ik hem openlijk zil antwoorden.              where present the Holy One'  Whq  does  all things for
    En  nu, Ds. Zwier, het spijt mij voor U, dat U  clit nu                His own Name's sake, as assuming such an attitude to-
 een betrouwbare bron noemt. Want dat is het niet !                        ward the reprobate  ,sinner.          For them is naught but
    Hopencle,  clat  U, Ds. Zwier, het verkeerde  hiervan                  wrath from eternity to eternity, rooted in the sovereign
 moo& inzien en  bekennen,   verbllij  f ik.                               good pleasure of the Almighty. All so-called natural
                          Met Broedergroeten,                              g-ifts are the fruit of God's providence and means whereby
                                         Wm. Boencler,                     He realizes His counsel in them, that perish, as well as
                                                  .Pella,  Iowa.           in them, that are saved  .Nevertheless, this does not
                                                                           yet touch the heart of the controversy. Neither should
                                                                           Zion(s leaders present the issue as though it were but
                          C O R R E C T I O N                              a'matter of rain and sunshine, bread and water, health
    In  ens  aitikel "Van Onze Gemeente" sloop- een grove                  and home. What the church, which had place for us no
 foutin. De eerst  Kerkeraacl  bestond  uit de ouderlingen                 more  becailse  of the truths we propagate, understands
 T. Kelclerman, A. Van Mersbergen en J. Van Wijk,                          by %ommon grace"  has been expressed in the three points
 waarvan  de eerste weer tot de  Chr. Geref.  Kerk  terug-                 of 1924. These "points" have since then been the  sub+
 keerde.   Dit  mo&  z i j n : Waarvan de laatstgenoemde                   ject of our controversy.
 weer tot de Chr. Geref. Kerk  terugkeerde.  Dit moet zijn  :-                "Common Grace" is an issue, that tolerates no neu-
 Waarvan  de laatstgenoemde weer etc.. Ouderling  Kelder-                  trality. People often say, "I do not concern myself with
 man is nog altijd bij ons.  :                                             the issue of common grad". Rather common are expres-
    Zoo met'het eerste drietal  waaropl.Ds.  De. Jongs Naam                sions such as this,"Let, us. bury the hatchet as far as these
 voorkomt. Moet zijn: Het  terste drietal bestond uit de                   details are concerned and strive after cooperation upon
 Cancld. L.  yermeer, R.  Veldmjn  en B. Kok.                W.V.          the basis of the many doctrines we have in common".
                                                                           Such people think it possible to remain neutral. They are
                                                                           mistaken' however.          "Comkon Grace" condones no
                                                                           neutrality., It is a most fundamental principle. It deals
                     BEKENtiMAKINk                                         with the' attitude of the Holy  ,God toward the creature.
    Classis-vergadering staat,  D,.V., te  w,orden  gehouden               It concerns God.. Consequently, it forces the issue.  The
 Woens<lag,  June `3, 1936, om negen uur in den  vdormicl-                 words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts
 clag in de Protestants&e,  Ger. Kerk te South Holland, Ill.               are determined, as far.as their spiritual content is con-
                                      M.  VahderVennen,`S.C.               cerned, by our stand versus the three points. We are
                                                                                                                                   -.


for or against. W e maintain or reject, defend or deny               mandate of God, sin came.          The first and immediate
them.      We do  sz, consciously or otherwise.           God is     result of this sin was, that  man  no longer was the object
giacious to all or  lie is  wet.  God desires to save all men,       of Divine favor, but became the object of eternal wrath
or He does not. The preaching of the gospel is God's                 instead. Not death, therefore; is sin's primary result,
attempt to save all sinners', or, it is  ILot.     God loves all     even though it did follow at once upon the sin of man.
men, or He also  Imtes.         Man is  .totally depraved,  0; he    The first result of sin was, that man, in the  ,way  of his
is able, without the regenerating grace in  Chris+. to ac-           disobedience, became guilt-y,   became God's enemy instead
complish what is good  b,efore  G&l. And all these things            of His friend, became the object of wrath instead of
form the contents of the words of our mouths and the                 Divine favor . Upon that guilt followed death with all
meditations of our hearts.                                           that it implies. This relation  sl~oulcl  be well understood.
                                                                     God's wrath is not the result of our death, but the latter
   "Common Grace" is an issue, that concerns all the                 is the dreadful fruit of the former. The moment wrath
fundamentals  of Reformed doctrine. Practical life may               entered for the creature, that very moment death, which
prove this. Begin a discussion with an advocate of com-              is naught but the operation of  the wrath of God in the
mon grace ; do so on any point of doctrine ; do so on any            creature, entered.
subject with the definite purpose of. discussing  su&  a
subject' in the light of God's Word ; then notice how soon             Because of  .this guilt and wrath of  God man's primary
your discussion will be colored by your diverging views              need,' shall he again be truly blessed, is  tq  lx  ~bxo~zciZcd
of this fundamental issue.             You may think you have        to God. Reconciliation to God imlilies,  ,that man's state
drifted from one  sullject  into  an&her.   Yo;l have not.           is again altered, so that he once again becomes the object
The doctrine of common grace is  simplr that compre-                 of favor instead  df wrath, God's  friencls  instead of His
hensive, because it  cleals with God's attitude toward man.          enemy.     It is therefore a, judicial act of God. It does
Thus the three points determine our conception of the                not regenerate or sanctify, although these are its blessed
sovereignty of God, of `election and reprobation, of the             and necessary fruits.     It does not change the  spiritual
fall and depravity of man, of providence and its  piu-pose,          condition of the heart. It alters our relation to God.
of the death and suffering of the Mediator, of the work              This reconciliation is our first need, not regeneration. No
of the Holy Spirit, of the preaching of the gospel, etc.             more than in Paradise our death preceded our guilt does
All these fundamentals are essentially corrupted by the              regeneration precede. reconcilation in the work of sal-
lamentable decisions of `24. Reason in abundance, why                vation. Even as man first became guilty, then died, so
any  coopeiation  with the Christian Reformed brethren,              we must first be reconciled to God shall we be renewed
`also, for example, in the sphere of eclucation, becomes             to a new and eternal life  13~ God's grace. This latter,
increasingly difficult.                                              however, will follow inevitably upon the grace of recon-
                                                                     ciliation. .Even  as it means death to be God's enemy' so
   In this essay I purpose to show how one of these ne-              it implies life in aclunclance to be restored to Divine
farious "points" corrupts one of these fundamental  cloc-            f aver.
trines. I maintain, that "Point" I of `24" constitutes a
virtual denial of the glorious truth of  particzda~   atom-            This supremely blessed reconcilation is possible, how-
~rlzcnt  and  is in principle ahd effect an  embracillg of the       ever, in no other way but the way of  atomvneltt. This
Arminian heresy of general atonement. Proceeding from                is denied, also by many who claim to glory in the cross
the conviction' that the doctrine of a well-meaning offer            of our Lord  Jesus, Christ.      Thousands there are, who
of' salvation to all who hear the gospel  is, rooted in a            speak of the cross and apparently preach the crucified
false conception of the truth of atonement, and, that the            Christ' yet virtually  cleny the real beauty and power of
former is most effectively refuted by.a positive presen-             the bloocl. Yes, Jesus died. Yet, man is actually recon-
tation of the latter, I wish to call your attention to the           ciled with God, not at the moment, that the Lamb of God
significance and particular character of the doctrine of             pours   0th  His life on the accursed tree, but when he
atonement before drawing a brief  cbmparison between it              repents and returns to God as a contrite sinner.          The
and- the so-called "well-meaning offer".                             Canons of Dordt beautifully state the Scriptural position
                                                                     in re the doctrine of atonement., when they say, "God is
                           I      I                                  not only supremely merciful, but also  supremely,  just.
                                                                     And His justice requires (as He  bath revealed Himself
  The historical necessity of atonement must be fought               in `His Word), that our sins committeed against His
in the fact of sin. Man was made good and in the image               infinite majesty should be punished, not only with tem-
of the Creator, in true knowledge, righteousness and holi-           poral, but with eternal punishment, both in bocly and soul ;
ness.    As such creation's crown was perfectly adapted              which we  camiot escape, unless satisfaction be made to
to a place in the covenant fellowship of the ever, blessed           the justice of God. Since- therefore we are unable to
God. He was the object of the favor and love  bf the                 make that  satis,faction in our own persons, or to deliver
Most High. However, through disobedience against  the                ourselves from the wrath of God, He has been pleased


 358                                    THE:  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

 of  H.is infinite mercy to give His only begotten Son,
 for  oilr surety; who `was made  sin,- and  beccme  a curse
 for  LIS  and in our stead, that  He, might make satisfaction       It is a deplorable fact when men, who call themselves
 to divine justice on our behalf."  .(Canons,   HeadzI.1,  Ar-     ambassadors of Jesus Christ, lower themselves and  try
 ticles 1 and  2).    The cause  .of  all the misery of man        to make people believe what they have heard.
 lies in the wrath of God. The  cause of this wrath is the           We know that a great number `of people will not be
 guilt, that became ours through our disobedience in Para-         influenced by such tactics. Especially is this true when
 .dise. Shall we be reconciled to God this must be removed.        one studies the argument of the  ,opponent.      Therefore
 We must be &stored to a state `of innocence. We must              we feel constrained to answer the Rev. Zwier who at-
 be justified. To remove this guilt the debt must be paid          tempts to cast suspicion upon the teachings of some of
 in full. It must not be confessed. No  atnount  of con-           the ministers of our Churches, Hoeksema excluded. When
 fession can every pay a ceftain debt. The mere admission,         Zwiei- wrote in an earlier issue of the Standard Bearer
 that I `owe you a certain sum of money, can never. re-            whether it would  b'e possible for  LIS  to maintain our
 move my debt `to you. Debt must be paid! We need                  distinctively Reformed principles. he referred to  us  as
atonement! God is supremely just! It is therefore an               disciples of Hoeksema, who already have departed  from
 accursed lie, that  Gocl can out of mere  symp@hy excuse          the Reformed Confessions.
 man from the debt of sin. There  is no reconciliation               Particularly we refer to the very evident attempt of
 without atonement. This atonement is possible only                Zwier to characterize our Churches as a sect, that is,
 when punishment is suffered equal to the greatness of             a group of churches, having departed from the truth,
 the sin committed.  .Eternal torment must be borne, and           who simply follow a man and have therefore not the
 that willingly, `in love, in perfect `obedience to God; for       right of existence. Thi+,   Rei. Zwier is not the case. We
 God's sake, because God is  j&t. This punishment mere             are not a sect gathering of disciples following one man,
 man could never bear. He is finite and as  such  could            but a revelation of the body of Christ, worthy of ex-
 never bear infinite wrath. He is enmity. against God              istence, who maintain our confession, have walked the
 and as such could never bear the wrath of God  itz  Zoae.         way of protest unto the end, and for whom it was made
 What man, however, could never have done,  `that God in           impossible to dwell in the fellowship of the Christian
 Christ does for him. Immanuel becomes flesh. In our               Reformed Churches, because we  love and proclaim the
 nature He tal<<s   LI~OII   Himself our"guilt. With that guilt    truth that God is God alone, that therefore His grace is
 im&utecl unto Him He enters our death, willingly, in              sovereingly particular. Zwier knows full well that this
 love supreme. Thus  ?!I% removes our debt by means of             is  .the case, nevertheless he does not hesitate to call  us
 His perfect  s&+ifice, and through His atonement  He              disciples of a man, who in  sl%te of himself remained  rk-
 reconciles lost sinners to the Holy God. No,  He does             formed.
 not merely make reconciliation possible., for  them, who            Is this word disciple not a beautiful word? Yes,  it is.
 are willing to accept it and thus make it effective. :Calvary     In Scripture it is often used to denote the company  6f
 is not a gamble,. dependent for its success upon  the will        the Lord, both in the narrow as well as in the broad sense
 of sinful mortal. Christ  pvcr/ved; He  ntoszed;  He  .Gco~-      of the word. It refers to the most, intimate circle, the
 c&d.  Hisi work is a complete work. God's people were             twelve, and also to the multitude following Jesus. They
 reconciled without a single effort on their part. "God was        were His followers, who believed in Him, preached in
 in Christ reconciling the world.' unto Himself  ." "Behold,       His name and who performed miracles. Even today it
 the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin.of the world.".          is a honorary distinction when one is called a disciple of
 T~ILIS  Cal+ary  retains its glory. There God's wrath was         our Savior.    In fact it is the  expressiori  of the most
 appeased and  si&ers were reconciled `to God in the one           intimate relation conceivable upon earth. To be sure it
 and  o*lly  way of atonement. Whatever  man may ever do           is only in that sense that the  worcl  can be used, without
 in the way of salvation is never the cause, but only the          any bad meaning attached to it.
 fruit of  this atonement wrought of mere  gi-ace in the             A disciple then is a follower of Him who came to save
 mere grace of the Beloved.                   R. Veldman.          His own, who were  choosen  from before the foupdation
                       (to be continued)                           of the world and in whom God manifested His grace by
                                                                   taking hold of them in such a way that their hearts and
                                                                   minds were changed from darkness to light. Hence they
                                                                   follow Him. It is only in that sense that  any one may
                  ATTENTPBN,   HPLEASE                             follow a man. In other words, this word disciple can be
                                                                   used in the good sense only when it refers to and does
    Annual Field Day will be held the FOURTH OF                    express the intimate relation between Christ and His
 J U L Y .                                                         C h u r c h .
    Details will be published later.                                 However, that same word was applied (is applied)
                                            The Committee.         to distinguish between the various classes of philosophers


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               359

and also then the word was not (and is not) meant as a            to the  fa'ct that we ministers, are consistently maintaining
mark of degradation.         The different types of learning      the views of the Rev. Hoeksema. So that, finally,  Re<
each with their own method of approach and dealing with           Hoeksema is fundamentally not reformed, he has de-
the sciences had and have their followers, and whether            parted from the reformed confessions, which is to be
one belonged to the one or to the other, it did and does          explained by the fact, that he even must have done so
only signify a difference of class.       Both are  acknowl;      in 1924 in spite of what that Synod  had"said.  Hence,
edged, be it that they each move in their own sphere.             ii a departure from the confessions characterizes the
   But this same word used in the ecclesastical sense never       teachings of Rev. Hoeksema, Rev. Zwier should state
signifies a favorable meaning. To be call&l a disciple            that H. H. is not fundamentally reformed, that he was
in the realm. of the church, except of course when it             not in harmony with the reformed confessions in 1924,
refers to the relation of the Savior and His people,              that therefore the Synod made a mistake at that time.
points to a certain sect and has therefore, a bad odour.            Now take note how much better  ZC'E understand the
For a sect is a gathering of people holding to a particular       principles than Rev. Hoeksema ever did.
creed or  pi-actice,  dissenting from what one considers             Listen. Rev. Zwier has the difference  betweefi the
the established church.         We do not care to discuss         teacher and his former students solved.        There is no
whether or not the church to which Zwier.,  belotlgs  has         difference at all between the two, "But the pupils felt
any right to be called the established clzz~rck.  With a view     the inconsistency of their instructor, they want to be
aS to the  Sciiptural usuage of this word it `means : A           consisent  in their theological thinking, and therefore they
false church  departin,c from the truth once delivered            openly admit at this time, that they do ndt agree with the
unto the saints. One of the  .characteristics of a sect is,       reformed truth, as we find it in the Canons of Dordrecht"
that besides clinging to. false doctrines, those who belong       -follow with the solemn admonition at the address of
to it follow a certain man for some reason  6r other..            Rev. Hoeksema : "Bear in mind in. which direction  you
Needless to say that a so-called  church-  or churches en-        lead your followers".
joy only a short lived existence. That has been pre-                To be sure, no one needs to be in the dark in regard
dicted more than once in  comiection with out churches,           to Zwiers opinion concerning  gur churches.       Neither is
as we all know. This is the impression the article of             it difficult to understand why he reveals such a paternal
Rev. Zwier made upon  us  when he refers to some of our           attitude over against some of  us,  who serve as ministers.
ministers,  more particularly to those who are serving, our       Reading his letter, .it strikes one as a very friendly note,
Iowa  .congregations.  Writes Rev. Zwier : "It happened           to uswarcl. Rereading it, it is in our opinion a  catspaw
before that the disciples went much further than their            covered with a silk glove. Unbiased reading of his last
teacher".      Surely, if such is the true character of our       letter  will  substantiate our statement. Zwier does not
churches as presented here, there is  not much to be ex-          recognize our churches but only an erring brother with
pected from us as to the purity and, soundness in  regard         whom he wishes to exchange a friendly chat. O,, yes, and
to Reformed doctrine and preaching. Zwier in his re-              that same brother has a few followers, instructed by him,
marks, concerning  the above mentioned ministers, seems           who are called ministers-not even worthwhile to be
to have expected this for some time. How then does he             mentioned-who being misled have already denied the
come to this conclusion ? Well, what he finds wrong with          confession of the Reformed Churches. How benevolent
us  he expected from the Rev. Hoeksema sooner  .OI!  later.       even to mention  thnt  `much  in connection with them.
  `Besides, our teacher is  inconsistently-.reformed  accorcl-      The Rev. Zwier must understand however, that the
ing to this presentation and therefore unreformed. Notice         Protestant Reformed Churches do not find their origin
the following  ill the writing of' the brother of Holland,        in one single man. Neither is it true that the Rev.  Hoek-
Mich.  .First, `we must bear in mind that the Synod of the        sema made some disciples who were `begeesterd' by him,
Chr. Ref. Churches of 1924 declared the Rev. Hoeksema             but on the contrary who were motivated by the dictates
fundamentally reformed, in harmony with the reformed              of their hearts and the light of Scripture to preach the
confession.      0, yes, `with a tendency to  onesidedness,       truth of the Word'of God as expressed in the  Reformecl
yet that  broad'gathering  had not in mind nor did it ex-         Symbols. Something  that cannot be done in the Churches
press that Hoeksema had departed from the truth. ET;en            wherein we formerly had  a name and a place, if the Three
Zwier  must admit that to' be fundamentally reformed              Points are maintained. As they should.
excludes the possibility of being unreformed at the same            It  & not  truf: that we have departed in any way from
time; From this official declaration it follows as a matter       those Standards and Zwier will not be able to furnish
of course, that  thos'e instructed by Rev. Hoeksema, Will,        proof. We are certain of this last statement and chal-
if they adhere to his teachings, be fundamentally  re-            lenge Zwier to produce proof to the contrary. HOW any-
formed.        Secondly, Rev. Zwier writes that we, the  dis-     one dares to  say that he is not afraid of polemics and at
cipl& of Hoeksema, are already denying the purity of              the same time declines to enter into any debate concern-
the reformed confession, namely the Canons of Dordt.              ing the things so close to the heart of a man of Reformed
Third, this departure from our Canons  must he attributed         persuasion, we do not understand.        Furthermore, any

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

one, who .from the outset declares that he will not discuss            we have in mind, was fomerly an officerbearer in our
the question of grace either particular or `common', said              congregaion, drew  up this interesting list, without. ever
party should not open his mouth, nor should he be led                  having submitted the same to his minister. He must have
by hearsay. The Rev. Zwier declines to exchange views                  heard the undersigned  .state publicly that the Canons
but lowers himself by throwing with stones gathered by                 of Dordt are all but pure, without ever having brought
someone else.                                                          this to the attention of said speaker or his consistory. He
   Moreover, Rev. Hoeksema cannot be  held- responsible                left  us,  without ever having walked the way of legal
when any one of our ministers deviates  fro&  the truth,               protest.
but only we who commit such sin. It is an accepted  fact!                 This, Rev. Zwier, is the source of your information, if
is it not, that every minister is responsible for.  wha&..he           our assumption is correct. This source is  tiost clearly
says in the pulpit.? Hence, Zwier. while  &owing so `corrupt.
much concern about                                                        Yet; we request of you to make his namk known. That
                        us,   sl~oulcl   have sent that list to the
address of the minister involved. Instead of doing so,                 list we refuse to discuss because it does not belong in pub-
he makes  it public property by means of the Standard                  lic.
Bearer, and with one'  senteljce tries to smear something                      But we certainly maintain that  we- are in  accOrc1 with
on one of our Iowa ministers without giving him the op-                our Reformed Confessions,. that your Churches  have  cor-
portunity to  clefencl  himself. Such methods stand con-               -rupted   the, same, and that we are Reformed also in  main-
demned even in  .the  worlcl'that  is void to grace. Zwier             taining,of   all what is contained in The Forms of Unity.
mentions one sentence, without any connection and we                           Moreover, we are not a sect, but a revelation of the
assure him that it would not be difficult; i-f the same                bocly  of Christ, and are convinced of the righteousness of
methticl  is to be employed whenever he preaches a sermon              the cause which we champion.
or delivers a speech, to detect all kinds  of heresies. Let                                                       Rev. H,  Veldman.
him beware,  for some clay someone in his audience                                                               Rev. Wm. Verhil.
may have  .the same  auclacity  and the result will be that
Zwier will fall on his own sword.                                                               A N N I V E R S A R Y
 We would like' to ask him a few questions. First of                      On  May fifteen, 1936, we hope to commemorate with
all, why is it that you did not mention the name of your               our parents :
informant? In this way Rev. Zwier makes it possible                                          MARTIN  ZUIDEMA
for someone to stab us in the back and he, Zwier, makes it                                               and
a point to place all of our ministers in Iowa in a bad                               RENA ZUIDEMA  - HAMSTRA
light. Why is it that Zwier reveals these things? We will              the thirty-fifth anniversary of their marriage. We are
refiain from judging motives, altho it seems to  us  that              grateful to our covenant God for the blessings He has
they were not of the purest kind. But we will not dis-                 bestowed ~ypon  them and us, and our earnest prayer is that
c u s s   them.                                                        God may continue to show them His grace. We hope
   The fact  is! that  th,e Rev. Zwier has listened to a               that it may be in harmony with God's will that they may
`brother' of  Io\ya,  who is a tale-bearer. We believe we              be spared for one another and for us for  s&netime to
are not ignorant of the name of the person involvecl, who              come.
has sent that "interresant  Iijstje" to him. We request                                      Their children
the Rev. of  H&land,  Mich.  to, reveal his name. If we                                              Mr. and Mrs. Albert Zuidema
are: involved, we have a right to know and so has our                                                                    Ruth
people. And tale-bearing it surely is. A tale-bearer is                                                                  Donald Marvin
first of all one who has a certain purpose in mind, desires                                                              Sylvia Mae
to- reach a certain end, and does not concern himself with
the question whether his mode of attack can be justified                                   C H R I S T I A N   C O U R A G E
in the light of  Scripure.     Especially is this true when               Stand but your ground, your ghostly foes will  fly,-
such a person was formerly a member of our churches,                      Hell trembles at a  heaven-clirected  eye ;
yea was clothed with the  off& of elder, but for reasons                  Choose rather to defend than to  assail,-
only known unto himself? deserted  our  churches. One                     Self-confidence will in the conflict fail:
of the  ulidersigned.   cati' speak concretely in this instance,          When  you  are challenged,  you  may dangers  meet>-
being reasonably sure that the above has happened in                      True courage is a fixed, not sudden heat;
his congregation.  Proceecling from the assumption that                   Is always humble, lives in self-distrust,
this is true, we would like to warn  pev. Zwier `to beware                And will itself into no danger thrust.
of the source of his  information.`t  as well as condemn his              Devote  yourseIf to God, and you  wiI1 find
attitude in being only too willing to publish such "rot"                  God fights the battles of a will resigned.
in the Standard Bearer. We acquaint h.im with the fact                    Love Jesus ! love will no base fear endure  ;
that the writer of "het interresant lijstje", if he he whom               Love Jesus! and of conquest rest secure.


                                        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  TEE REFORMED FREE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION,  GRAND  RAPIDS, MICH.
                                                                          EDITORIAL STAFF
    ommunications          relative     to               Editors-Rev.'  H. Hoeksema, Rev. G.  M. Ophoff,
         scription  should   be  addressed  to                      Rev.  ,Wm.  Verhil, Rev. G. Vos                        should   be  addressed  to
                                                       Associate Editor=--Rev,  A. Cammenga, Rev. P. De                    REV.  H.  HOEKSEMA,
                                                          Boer, Rev.  ?f. Gritters, Rev. C. Hanko, Rev. B.                            n  street. s. P..
                                                         Kok, Rev. G. Lubbers, Rev. J. Vander Breggen,
                                                                        Rev. R. Veldman.

Vol. XII, No:  161' Entered  as  second  class  mail
                              matter  at  Grand   Rapids,  Mich.             MAY 15, 1936                                 Subscription  Price,  $2.50

                                                                                          world has been cast out? Where is the power of His
                                                                                          coming? . . . . .
                                                                                            And the Church that was justified appears none the
                                                                                          better for it!
                                                                                            It is true, when He first appeared His own were justi-
                           And  wdo them that look for' him                               fied, but according to all appearances they are  still mere
                                                                        &all   he  ap-
                         Pear  the  secofad  time  wtto  salvatiolz.                      miserable, guilty sinners.     They were delivered from
                                                                    H e b .   933.
  Blessed hope !                                                                          death and made heirs of eternal life,  .but they die like
 He shall appear the second time!                                                         men and suffer the pangs of death with  all. the children
  He appeared once; but He disappeared again ; for, the                                   of Adam. Kings they are and all  the world is theirs,
heavens must needs receive                                                                but they appear like poor beggars. All the glory of their
                                                  Him until it is time `for the
restitution of all things, the things which are in heaven                                 risen and exalted Lord is their own, but' in the world
and the things that are on the earth.                                                     they appear  as the most miserable of all men . . . . .
                                                                                            He appeared once and He disappeared!
  And having disappeared from the world of our per-
ception `and experience                                                                      And with Him  disappeared  from the midst of the
                                         we see Him not, neither do  the
things that are seen reveal that He once did appear.                                      thin& that are seen all His glory and blessedness!
                                                                                            ,But He shall appear the  second  time !
  He came  and. went; and where are the visible effects                                     And then He shall appear without sin, unto salvation,
of His appearance ? In the fullness of time He came.                                      to them that look  for Him!
And He suffered and died and bore the sins of many.                                         He shall become manifest in all the power of His
Through the  l$or of His soul many, indeed, were justi-                                   accomplished salvation !
fied. For, God was in Him reconciling  th-, world unto                                      Never to disappear again!
Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.  Gol-                                     We are  save*d in hope!
gotha was the tribunal of God  ; the  ho&- of Golgotha's
darkness was the hour of judgment.                             Then was the
judgment  of the "world". Then was the prince of this                                       Glorious appearance !
world cast out. Then was Zion redeemed through jus-                                         He shall appear the second time!
tice. And the verdict was rendered from  heavefi  in the                                    As He appeared once, so that He was seen and heard
resurrection of  Jesus Christ from the dead. Righteous-                                   in the world of our experience, so He shall appear' again.
ness; life from death; eternal  `joy and glory from the                                     -The  "cloud" that removed Him from our sight, shall
misery of this present  darkneSs!                                                         serve to carry Him back.       Was not this the heavenly
  All this was accomplished, when He appeared the first                                   comfort which He sent to His  church  the very moment
time.                                                                                     of His departure from them : "this same Jesus which is
  And having accomplished it, He went into the highest                                    taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
heavens. And a  "c!oud"  `snatched Him from our sight.                                    manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven"?
  But the things that are seen on the earth do not mani-                                    Also His first coming was an "appearance". For, He
fest the effect of that first appearance.                                                 is  in Himself in the form of God, from everlasting to
  The world that crucified. Him is none the worse for it.                                 everlasting the glorious Invisible.     And in  the, fullness
They still boast in. their ungodliness, for God is  fiat in all                           of time He  appeared;  not, indeed, in a vision or  appari-
their thoughts  atid there is no fear of God before their                                 `tion ; nor in the minds of men  ; nor in the Spirit ; nor,
eyes. Who can tell that He has overcome  the  "world"?                                    even, as He appeared to Abraham, who talked with Him
And where is the visible proof that the prince of this                                    as a friend with his friend, by assuming a temporary


 362                                      T H E   .STANDARD   BEA.RER

 form adapted to the world of our experience and senses;             An-d that second time He shall appear without sin !
 but He appeared by coming into our world, by entering                For, He died once, and that death ended forever all
 into our flesh and blood, biy takin.g upon Him the likeness       His connection with sin.
 of sinful1 flesh, so that the Word of eternal life could             The first time He appeared with sin ! No, indeed,
 be heard by our ears, and the glory as of the only be-            He had no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.
 gotten God could be beheld!                                       He knew' no sin! The guilt of sin did not defile His
    But the appearance was but for a moment..                      conscience; the corruption of sin did not pollute His  soul.
  For, He vanished from our sight!                                 He was holy and  unblameable  before the Father in most
                                                                   perfect love. Yet, He appeared the first time with sin,
    Nor could it be different: the heavens must needs              the sin of His  o.wn,  whcm the Father had given Him,
 receive  Him: For, He did not appear the first time, in           and whose Head He was anointed to be from before the
 order to leave the world in its present state of darkness,        foundation of the world.        The sinner of sinners He
 sin and death ; in order to become permanently like unto          appeared. And as the sinner of sinners He appeared be-
 this world, but to lift it up, from death unto life, from         fore the tribunal of God, there to lay down His life and
darkness into light, from the image of the earthy into             to bring that perfect sacrifice` of loving obedience that
 the image of the heavenly. And into that sphere of                would satisfy eternal Justice and make Him, with His
 life and glory, of light and joy, of heavenly beauty and          own, heir of all things.
 eternal perfection .He must needs be  lif.ted up first, in          But when He comes again He shall appear without
 order that presently He may draw all unto Himself and             s i n !
 by His glory and power subdue all things unto Himself !             Without that sin, their sin, the `sin of His. own !
   For this purpose He disappeared!                                  His former relation to sin is no more!          He shall
  Not, indeed, as if He put off the human nature He had            appear as perfectly justified, at the head of His elect.
 assumed at His first appearance, in order to merge again            The Lamb that standeth as though it hath been slain!
 into the invisibility of the Divine ; nor did He obliterate         Blessed appearance !
 the infinite difference between His Godhead and His man-
 hood by changing the latter into glory of the former.               Appear unto salvation !
 But He entered into another sphere, that of the highest             Always He comes to save.
heavens, and' into that heavenly sphere His human na-                For His name is called Jesus, Jehovah-salvation !
 ture merged. From the mount of Olives He departed                   To save He appeared the first time. For, the beloved
into the place of heavenly glory  ; and His human nature           of God, the chosen unto everlasting life and glory, were
 was endowed with a glory and power that enables Him               from all eternity inseparably united with Him in the
 to `sit at the right hand of the Most High, far above all         counsel of God. And these must be  saved: For, in time
 principalities and powers and every name that is named,           they appear as children of Adam. And in him they
 in order that He might be heir of all things, Lord of             lie in the midst of death. From his loins they appear
 lords and King of kings. And that heavenly world and              as children of wrath, guilty from their mother's womb,
 glory cannot be seen from our present position. It lies           `objects of condemnation; polluted with sin, darkened of
 beyond the scope of our senses.           It  is far above the    understanding so that they love the lie, perverse of heart
 world of our, experience. The spiritual cannot be per-            so that they seek unrighteousness," obdurate of will, so
 ceived by the natural  ; the heavenly things lie beyond the       that they refuse to seek God. But before God they are
 earthly sphere of our present  .life.                             in Christ. And this Christ, therefore, must save them.
    Him, Whom we love, we see not!                                 He is their Redeemer, their Deliverer, their Life and
   But He shall appear the second time!                            their Resurrection . . . . .
   He shall come again ! Indeed, He did come again, for              Such is His name ! Jesus!
 He did not leave us orphans. When He poured out His                 And, therefore, when  .He appears, it is to salvation.
 Spirit upon all flesh, He returned to us in a very real             Unto. salvation He came in the likeness of sinful flesh.
 sense of the word, to dwell with us and in us and to              God-incarnated! For, only the arm of Jehovah could
 abide with us forever. But His return in the Spirit was           redeem and deliver. Human help was vain. Unto sal-
 no appearance, and, therefore, in no way affected the             vation He tabernacled among. us and spake the word of
 things that are seen.          And He must  appear.  He will      eternal life, revealing unto us the God of our salvation.
 come in His glorified body. He will return out of heaven          Unto salvation His soul was exceedingly sorrowful even
 into our world. He will be seen in all the manifestation          unto death in the dark garden  ; and unto salvation He
 of His heavenly glory.          And that final coming will be     descended into the lowest parts of the `earth, to atone
 the beginning of His appearance' for the second time,             for our proud and rebellious No with His humble and
 then unto the salvation of them that look for Him, to             obedient Yes! Unto salvation He arose from the dead
 make them like unto Himself, that they may see Him                and ascended into highest heavens and is exalted at the
 face to face  ,f  orever  !                                       right hand of the Most High.


~  ~$~~~~.,~  .:,;   :.(.~~~:;j.~.y~'   ~:  .:  "                               .                                        `..F              -
                                                                                                    :                                                                                                                                                `:
:                                        ,;         _          _
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      :;                                 "
      I                                                             r
           .!                                             ,
           .                                                                                             THE  :S+ANPARQ  BEARER                                                                                                                      363
I                                                                                                        .
                 ,i.
     .I                                          And,  indeed, at that first  appearande   and  re&n  to the rcorifess   that  `Jestis. is' Lord, to  .the glory of God. the
      :.  1' `Father  `&lvation was  finlly accomplished.                                                                          ..  _.  ' ikather.  Bitt even, as they do not  lbve  `His. appearance  *
                                `_.
           ./                             ., Nor can  ii  ioiever be undope. In  the  &oss  ,arid.  &e                                                   n'ow, they shall be  terrotized by His  minifestation then.
                                i  .-.  exaltatibn of our Lord  Jesus Christ  salvat'ion `is  betiotie                                                   Not, unto  Sal&ion,  but unto.  damt?a&&  shall  He,  ap$ar
      ..,:  j
     `-,  1.  an'  a&ompl&hed   f$.  .._.  !  `.                                                                                                       the second time  untocthem   that  look.& `for  .Him. `And
      ._'  i
      "  I I Untb  -salyation   : He came,  wheri He  returned  to  us.  in. after  He shall, have appeared to them they shall go into
           :`i the Spirit. For,  .He  came `to  dwell- in  US  thr&igh `that                                                                             e&lasting desolation  and darkness,  &th the testimony
                                i. Spirit; in  order that  .He might  make  Us  partakers of that in, their  c&iousneSs  that He, Whose  -a@carance  they
     ._,  I', great  sa&ition He  accomplish&   .f&:, us. in His death and                                                                               hated  the f&t time, an& dreaded the second time; is Lord
           .:  i r&&&ion.                                                Righteousness of God He bestowes,  oti  .l.lS  Of  al1  !  ' .  -  .*  *                                              :
           .'  ..,
      b  'j,  : by. `faith, thk  fo@iVeness of sin He  causes  US  to'  pite,                                                                            Btit,  tinto  them   that look for  XIim!                                                              _
                           1. the  ado$ti&  unto  chii'dren  `of God He grants us  lby  Bis
     ..I                                                                                                                                                 T h e y   a r e   d e s c r i b e d   f r o m   t h e   viewpoint   o f   t h e i r   atti-
      :;. I grace ;  .the  liberty of the  childre'n,   oi  God,.He   causes  us to :tude towards that final coming  ancl appearance.  They
                '  I  .' enjoy, the;  shackles  `of  sin He breaks ; thk  ble&edness   of                                                               look.  for Him!,                                                                       -.
     `;::! :. His  r&&rectiofi  He makes us to  experience,  the bonds
                           : `of  death  Be  c@troys  ; the. joy of God's blessed  fe!lo%:                                                                      To be sure, they are the elect of God, but election is
           i:                                                                                                                                   :
                           :             ship, He  ,pours  gut  intd',our  hearts . .  `1 . .  ..                                                       tioi  ihe.viewboi&   ffbiri'which  they  &e  `considered.  They
      ..>I                                      : 0, indeed, saved `we are!                    . .                                                   are those for  Whoin He died, His own, the sheep for
     j;,,  `y'
       ._._. . .                                                                                                                                        which' He laid down  his. life, but as redeemed  they are
                           .
      .;;ii ,:" Dead i&h kini and raised with Him u?to' a.  ?ew and not described.  .They  are the believers,  &rafted into  Him.
     ;?`i  gloridus  ces@rection  l i f e !                                                   `:                                    `.                    `,
                                                                                                                                                        by  a'trie  and.  liyin'g   fait@, `so that they  are'united  with
      :  1                                      -But `it  .do& not yet  appear   !                                                                      Him'  as the members of  `His body;  but even this union  :.
      .-I
      `,  i .' Beloved, now  &e,we children  .of  God;-&& it  doth-not                                                                                  with,`Christ  i.s.not their characteristic feature'with a view
     ,I  3  yet appear what we  :shall   +! Still we do not  `@oss&s `to `the  `tippearance  of the Lord
                                                                                                                                                                                    ,                          -  *  -  .f  -
                      ; the full,  atid' fiiial inheritance,' though it be  ail"prepared                                                                   They are `those that look for Him!  '  :  I
                                aficl  &itrall~ realized `in' our glorified'  Lo?d  !, Still we                                                          .`. They stand in a certain attitude with a yiew to that,
                 :                       appear to  be  ,beggars,   while.  we are kings and priests! Y.
      .,. .!                             Still  we  loOk  like  singers;'   ihou&  `we  h  saints  !  Still  we                                         b1essed   :  *and   final  aPParanc%  the  attitude  of  eaW@st
     -...,
     :-.: ,;I.  ,are  ifi  th<  `hdi of this' death,.  subject to  the'suffeiiigs   .of  e?pctatlon. '                                                                                   .          :           '
                !  _ this  piesent time,' though we carry in our hearts the be-                                                                            Oh,  -ho  .do&t, this, implies that they ark God's own
                      ;                  ginning o$ kternal life and .joy!                                                                              beloved from before the  foundatiqn.  of the world, for
                      i                          The  h&av&ly   -glory which is ours `is not seen.  AAS  yet                                            how  -Shall  we look' for  Hini if we do riot  love Him, and
                      1                  it is .hid behind the `veil of our present earthly. existence!                                                 .how shall we ldve  .unIess we  are first  belsved  ? It i&plies
                      '                   '  B u t   i t   s h a l l   a p p e a r ! .                              .                                   that  they"are'  the redeemed, purchased by the' precious
                      !
                 :  `,                          For, He shall appear the second time  &to  salvat&n  !.  : blood  df the Lamb, for how shall  we'look.for Him unless
                                                                                                                                                        He. is their Lord, and  how  shail. He be. their Lord unless
                                         `- Then; when all the eledt shall  hake  been gathered  .in  ;                                                 He purchased them? It implies that they  .are,  one with
      : 1                                when all God's  gqod  $e&ure with  respetit  to  the things blood of the Lamb, for-how shall we look for  Hiti  unless
      1.:: of this'
       .:.*                                           pre$nf time shall have  bee@`  accomplished, He                                                   they'  are conscious. of their union with  Him; and how
     .:I . .
      ,,_ shall appear again !                                                                                                                          `can they be conscious, of' that union  unltss,  they  believe  _-
      ..\                                 And with His appearance shall become'  manifest  all
     ._/                                                                                                                                              in.Him?' But it implies more! They ark in this world.
     `1                                  the blessedness and. the  glory  ihe Father h&h given Him  .Thej confess  His name.                                                                        They are heirs of  glory,  yet  :
                      I` and His  own!                                                                                                                  .thejr are strangers; hated  .by the world  &en as the world
                 i.                           Then we shall be  like.  .Him ! .                                                                         hated Him. And in longing they seek  the things  gbove.
                ./I' And with Him inherit the incorruptible and  undkfil-., They stretch their neck  to look for His  co+@; For,  '
      :  `.  ab!e inheritance that never fadeth!  "                                                                                                     they love "His appearance . . .  ~  .
      .I
     .;,.                                       Tb` hwell in God's tabernacle forever !                                                         .         And' they shall not be  ashgmed!
     ::;j:
     ..j,:  -
     ::i  .r
                 I                              Unspeakable joy !                                             `.                           :               For, to them He  shall. appear!                                       '                         I
                 !  .`.                                   .' . .
      .I  .-                                                                                                                                              .And- appearing He shall realize their boldest  .expec.ta-                                                  t
       ,`:I                                                         :                                                                                   tions, deliver them from sin and death, clothe them with
                 !                              Imperishable hope!  ._                      _  ,l;`z,  -                                                the -glory which  the Father gave Him, reveal  that  they
                 i                              He  :hall appear to. those that  look for  Hi,                                                          are `more than conquerors!                        _
                                                .Hefe  the  wicked  a+ left but of view. For, He shall                                                    Unto salvation He shall appear.! To them that look  .,
                      A. appear, indeed, to  them   also. Every  eye `shall see  Hiin.                                                                  forHim!             .-            _'                                     :
                 ,.  : Every  knee.shall  bow before Him. Evdry tong&shall                                                                                B l e s s e d   e x p e c t a t i o n ! '                                   `H&I.                          _.
                 1.  :  ..'


 372                                           T.HE,  STAN:DARD   B E A R E R

 The Covenant Ratified and  Br&Fn part  ,of the  .remnant according to the election. The
                                                                      hearts of the rest are  far from Him. The possessors
   Moses is in the mountain with the Lord. Aaron, Nadab               qf these hearts are thus not actually being possessed by
 and Abihu and seventy. of the elders of  .Israel worship             Him as His covenant people. For the covenant as to
 afar off. Returning to the people, Moses tells them all              its. true essence is God taking His chosen ones to His
 the words and  judgments  of the Lord. And they an-                  heart through the cross and. is His people loving and
 swer with one voice that-all the words the Lord tells them           praising Him and tasting that He is good. The latter
 they will do. Hereupon an altar is built under the moun-             are. the children of the promise.       But all in that vast
 tain. Pillars are erected: to the number of twelve ac-               gathering,  standin,v in the shadow of Sinai, are not
 cording to the twelve tribes of Israel. Burnt offerings              children..      Yet` upon all the blood  ,of the covenant is
 are now offered and peace offerings sacrificed of oxen              sprinkled, thus also upon the carnal seed. This can be
 unto the Lord. Moses takes half the blood and  cuts it              explained. The carnal seed is related to the elect family
 in -basins and half he' sprinkles on the  .altar.      He reads     by ties of blood and thus form with the elect the one body
 in the audience of the people the book of the covenant-             -the seed of Abraham-with whom the covenant was
 the book in which, all the words the Lord has thus far              and `is established Further, this carnal seed, though by
 communicated to Moses have  .`been written.            And the itself a seed  to. which  the,.&mise does not pertain, is
 people again say that all the Lord hath said they will do           nevertheless in duty bound, as  .well  as the others, to love
 and be obedient.        .Nlow Moses `takes the blood and            the Lord and to honor the blood of the covenant. Its
 sprinkles `it upon them and says,  ,"Behold  the blood of           inability to react to the revelations of Jehovah's majesty
 the covenant which the Lord hath made  with you con-                as true children of the promise does not free it from the
 cerning all these words".                                           obligation to' serve and to glorify God. Finally this seed,
                                                  :                  too, through its representative-the' elders of  Israel-
   This is the ceremony by which Jehovah sanctions His               also declared that it would belong to Him, when it said,
 covenant -with His people Israel. That the covenant is              "All that the Lord has spoken we will do". So, upon this
 wholly His is evident from the -prologue of the law                 seed, too, the  blood is sprinkled.  ~ Yet the speech that
 of the `ten commandments and from all the successive                rises from' this action forms a particular gospel. to the
 steps  in the transaction. The prologue reads, "I am the            effect that God saves according to His eternal sovereign
 Lord thy  .God, which have brought thee out of. the land            resolve His'chbsen people-they capacitated by His grace
 of Egypt, out of the house of `bondage". The announce-              to keep His.covenant-from all their sins and constitutes
 ment "I am the Lord thy God', is tantamount to the                  them heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ-heirs to
 declaration "Thou Israel art my people". The Lord                   whom He will give all things. This is the speech rising
offers-, not Himself  to. them.  : He inquires not whether           from the blood, also as sprinkled upon the carnal seed.
 they consent to their being His. But He tells them that             This is the testimony  .of the seal of the covenant, also
 they are  His.  according to His very own- `sovereign re-
                                         _.                          as impressed upon the flesh of the reprobated Israel. Thus
 solve to be. theirs.. Consider that the nature of the Lord's        this testimony is not that the blessings of the covenant
 approach to His people is ever  .that of' sovereign  God.-          belong also to this seed, that it, too, has  .a claim upon
 He said not `to Abraham, " ` I   0ffk.i'  tliee'  t h e   b&i&i     the benefits accruing from the suffering and death of the
 0.f my covenant, if thou wilt deign. to' get' thee out .of :`thy    Saviour,.  that  `its`salvation  `was`made  objectively possible
 country to the land that I will shew  `thee;,, but' He said,
                                                       ..:           by the atonement made by Christ, that thus the sin of
 "Get thee hence . . . I am thy God . : :` ,All'thk Ia.Sl which      this seed, too, was taken away by the lamb of `God and
`thou  seest,  to thee will I give it and' to, thy seed .-for-       that  He offers  the. good things of the covenant also to
 ever . . .  ", And when .the cry .of the op$reSsed' children        this seed `in  ,token that,  according.to His inmost desire,
                                                                      .:
 of Israel was come unto Him,  .`He `again tells' them what          He.  wouid'also save, this seed if it would but yield to His
 He  ,tiill"do, to wit, bring them `up  .out:`of the land  .of       p l e a d i n g s .   "  '  "
 Egypt: `into the promised land of their'  abode.`,           And           Though'the:pedple  of Israel, when beholding the blood
 having brought them to Himself in the wilderness,                   of `the  `t&i&l  sacrifice, could not set before its mind the
`IIe again declares that He is their God and communicates            salvation of God, as' it is `now being contemplated by
 to them His law and through this action proclaims  that             New Testament -believers, it must not be supposed that
 they form ,a\ people that belongs exchisively to Him and            this "sacrifice  :was to them a meaningless transaction,
 are thus in duty  .bound to obey, love, and revere Him,             a `symbol without  s&r&cation.  The sacrifice was an
their God. And they all on their `part  op&ly recognize              in&&on   of' Jehovah and, therefore the embodiment of
                                                                     . .      `.*.
His claim upon them, own' Him as their God  .and express             a  divme.  idea. Now. G&l's symbols  ,or signs such as the
their  :willingness to, be' His people,  when as awed by .the        typical sac&e  `are by themselves mute. They therefore
to&is of His majesty they. exclaim with one; voice,. "All            must' be `explained' if they are to serve as. a means for the
the words the Lord hath said, `we v411 do,." This  avowal            communication of the thoughts. of .God. The sacrifice
 of obedience can be well meant.' :to be sure, only `on the was `explained by Jehovah Himself in connection with


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D  BEAeEI?.                                                   375

.a most impressive and transparent doing of His. When                   ceive  %e tables of stone, and a law, and commandments"
     the Lord smote all the  firstb'orn in Egypt, He suffered           which He, the Lord, has written, that Moses may teach
     not the destroyer to come into the house of His people             them". Now the mount is covered by a cloud, and the
     for the sole reason that they had covered themselves with          glory of the Lord abides upon it. And the cloud covers
     the blood of His slain lamb. Of this they were also                it six days. "And the sight of the glory of the Lord is
     fully informed. Said Moses to them,  "For  the, Lord will          like a devouring fire on the top of the mount in the .eyer
     pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth             of the children of Israel." And the seventh day Moses
     the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the          goes into the midst of the cloud and is in the mount forty
     Lord will pass over the door, and  will not suffer the             day and forty nights.
     destroyer to come in unto your house to smite you". Such             The instruction Moses receives' concern the ark and
     speech, certainly, is equivalent in signification to the           the tabernacle and its service. The patterns of these
     speech, "Know my people that thou livest only because              things are shown Moses. While these communications
     an innocent creature died in thy stead and for thee". It           are being made, His people turn to the idol. What a
     would occur to. every thoughtful and believing Israelite,          horrible contrast !    Even while He is instructing His
     contemplating the word of Moses, last  ,quoted  and the            servant to prepare for Him the things that were needful
     doing of God of which it was the record,  .that  by reason         for His residence in their midst they are clamoring for
     of his sins he stood condemned before the tribunal of              gods that are no gods.      Gathering themselves together
     God and that thus the sole reason he perished not with             unto Aaron, they say unto him, Up, make us gods. The
     the ungodly is that his sins had been atoned for by the            curtness of their demands betrays a vexed spirit, a fierce
     creature that had died by his own hand.           This much        determination to have their way.
     they were all made to see. In fact, it was told them in              What could have induced.them  to clamor for the manu-
     the wilderness that the "priest maketh atonement there-            factured god? They wot not what it was become of
     with (with the sin offering)  ." `Whether the  .average            "this Moses, the man that brought them up out of the
     Israelite perceived, as taught by the Lord, that the atone-        land of Egypt. He must have either perished in the fire
     ment was made but  tyl;ical, is impossible to say. But             on the top of the `mountain or, having despaired of ever
     this much is certain: what was made to stand out clearly           reaching with them the promised land of their abode,
     before the minds of all through the atoning sacrifice is           passed on to the other side of the mountain with a view to
     that man by himself is an i&deserving and condemnable              leaving them to their fate. They are thus, such is the impli-
     sinner; that there can be no forgiveness of sin. without           cation of the speech they direct to Aaron, without one to
     ,shedding  of blood  ; that the only reason a people can           lead them on the way. Let Aaron now s~~pply the lack `by
     stand in the presence of God without. being consumed               making them gods which shall go before  .them.  0, the
     is that by this blood it is covered so that its confession         foolishness of it! What can they expect in the way  o.f
     must be that every blessing bestowed has been forfeited            leadership of a god made with hands and that therefore
     and  ,is therefore to be received as a gift of His sovereign       must be carried.
     mercy. These thoughts must have been present in the                  Are the people here voicing their belief? It is doubt-
     hearts of the people of Israel when the. Lord was trans-           ful. There must have been present in their soul the con-
     acting with them at Sinai. For offerings  ,were sacrificed.        viction that Moses would return to them. It could. be
     And with the blood of these offerings they were                    expected that his disappearing in the cloud in the moun-
     sprinkled. They must `have seen that they were a people            tain and his delaying to come to them would set them
     singulary favored; Though deserving to perish with the             inquiring after his well-being. Could a man do without
     Egyptians, the  Lord, has spared them,  .and delivered             food for so long a time ? Yet they could know that all
     them from bondage. And their representatives are with              must  ble well. with him. True, Moses return will be a
     the Lord and do eat and drink. And upon them He lays               wonder. But will it be the first wonder that  they:  witness?
     not His hand.       How the treatment He affords them              But even if he will not return, can a God made. with
shows forth His love for His ill-deserving people! But                  hands serve as his substitute? They -know better. Be-
     He also comes to them in His character of a consuming              sides, there is the pillar of cloud, the angel of God (Ex.
     fire. The tokens of His terrible holiness are being seen           14:19), that goes before the camp of Israel? Then there
     and understood by them, so that they know, too, that               is Joshua and Aaron and Nun. What need have they of
     the despisers of God and of the blood of His covenant              new leaders to go before them?
     reap destruction. Yet with all this'  knowled.ge  of God             What then could have induced them to say to  .Aaron,
     in their hearts they in the very shadow of Sinai forsake           Up make  LIS  gods to go before  us?  The very circum-
     Him their God and turn to the idol !                               stance that the god desired is one of their own making,
.      Let  US,  trace the events leading  LIP  to this great sin  ;    thus an idol that can be taken up, carried and set down
     for a great sin.it is, `The covenant having been ratified,         again and stay put; thus a puppet, a figurehear, trained
     that is, sanctioned, the Lord now commands Moses to                to take orders; an ornament, an extention  .of man him-
     come up to Him in the mountain and be there and  re-               self, a god who will talk `along with man and condone


374                                   THE  STAND'ARD  B E A R E R

his sins, a god before whom he can dance and play and             its divine  .birth,  was brought on a sacred ship to Mem-
in whose temple he may serve the vile lusts of the flesh.         phis, with great pomp, and conducted to a splendid
A `God righteous and pure and sovereign, abundant in              palace-temple, where exclusive courts and shady walks
goodness and truth, a God who is truly God, man will              were provided for his pleasure, and hosts of servants
have nothing of. His heart is set on the idol. Says he,           attended to wait on him. He was allowed to drink only
Up`make us gods.                                                  from one special well, and his food was carefully chosen.
  But can it be maintained that the people of Israel mean         He received the constant adoration of multitudes who
to reject Jehovah? Does not their demand for the idol             came to worship or to consult him as an oracle. When
rather spring from their need of some tangible, visible,          he died, every one shaved his head, and gave way to
.object that they can regard as a proper image of Jehovah         lamentations, which continued until a new Apis was
and to which they therefore can point and say, These              found, and then the rejoicing was as universal.
be thy gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up out of                 Before this god the apostate people do homage in their
the land of Egypt ? And if so, should they be accused             hearts. They mean to serve him. It is the god they
of rejecting the Lord? The prevalent view seems to be             place in the room of Jehovah and  cerdif with having
that they shouldn't. It is said that they had no thought,. brought them up out of Egypt. Consider that their "play"
apparently, of worshipping any other being than Jehovah           in the presence of their idol, is the licentious  .play of
.but wished to do so under the form of a familiar idol.           .paganism.
There is some truth in this statement. Few devotees of                          They give themselves up to the wild license
                                                                  with which -the worship of Apis had been associated in
a false God will freely admit that the diety before whom          Egypt. This is evident from some of the recorded in-
they bend the knee is not the true God but an idol, the           cidents.
vile figment of their depraved mind. The apostates in-                        We read, "And when Moses saw that the people
timidating Aaron do not admit this, To the contrary,              were naked  ; (for Aaron had made them naked unto
                                                                  shame among their enemies) . .  :  " This has been called
pointing to their idol they shout, These be thy gods, 0           a difficult passage.. Calvin's comment on this passage
Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. And          reads, "The exposition which some give of their naked-
the proclamation of Aaron is that to-morrow is a feast            ness, i.e., that they were stripped of their ornaments, is
to the Lord. Even the very forms of the true religion             by no means consistent . . . There is no  doublt but that
are preserved. It is recorded that they rose up early on
the morrow, and offered burnt offerings and brought               he signifies that they were rejected of God, who was
peace offerings.     What mockery! The sacrifice is a             to them, as it were, their sole ornamental garment, and
sacred institution .of Jehovah and the offering of the            under whose protection they were secure. The enormity
                                                                  of the evil is, therefore, set forth in these words, because
offerings solemn religious acts by which the contrite of          they were only deprived of  &d's assistance, who is
heart obtained witness that they were righteous.. Acts
they were through which the believing Israelite de-               called "the dwelling-place" of His people, but also
                                                                  abandoned to ignominy, whilst they were surrounded on
clared that he knew himself to be at one with Jehovah             all sides by their enemies."
and was of mind to be wholly devoted to His service.
In these solemn acts the apostate Israelites engage with            There is no reason why the passage under considera-
their. affections set upon the, devil-god before whose            tion should not be taken as the vehicle of the thought
image they play.     With Jehovah's institutions forming          that what the howling, leaping crowd had in their  .frenzy
a part of the ritual of their vile worship, this worship,         stripped themselves of is also their garments.          This
at least in some of its parts, takes on the appearance of         corresponds to. the licentious play, associated with the wor-
genuiness.                                                        ship of Apis. Thus the very character of their wild
  So do they dance  ablout  the golden calf with Jehovah's        play plainly shows that God was not in all their thoughts.
name upon their lips.     They cannot get themselves to           As they play before the golden calf they have not dared
admit much less to openly declare that they have done to play before the face of Jehovah. The sort of religion
with Him. Their feast is to the Lord. Aaron has said              which they have evolved is one in which the basest im-
it. And to this they do not object. Yet despite  .this            morality is virtue. And here we have again hit upon
outw?rd shew of godliness, the diety before whom they             the real reason why men make themselves gods.
eat and drink `is, an idol, the image of their own mental           It must follow from the very nature of things that
fabrication, and a replica, in all likelihood,  ofi the sacred    the idol is always the symbol of a devil-god.       For the
ox-Apis-of Memphis, Egypt. Apis was one of the                    idol is always the concrete image not of the conception
greatest of Egyptian gods.        It was worshiped under          that God has of Himself and that He also by the things
three names, at different places, as Apis, Basis, and the         made revealed in man, but an image, a  symbiol of what
Black calf Mnevis, whose shrine was at On, almost in              man, holding the truth ni unrighteousness, by himself
the  midst.of the Hebrew population. But of these three           makes out God to be. Thus the idol is ever the symbol
Apis was the most famous. A calf, affirmed by the                 of the glory of God changed "into an image like to  CO?-
priests to show the mysterious markings which proved              ruptible man . . .  "


                                       T H E   STANlsiARD   B ' E A R E R .                                                      375
                                               =-
   And to think that to this symbol, image, lump of                  mountain - the holy mountain of God-whose flanks
earth or piece of wood, the apostate Israel, man, turns              were swathed with the holy fire of His presence. It
and says,. "Thou art our God `who brought us up out of               trampled under foot the covenant- as encompassed by the
the land of Egypt." Is this not a horribly foolish- and              twelve pillars that had been erected as a memorial of
a terribly irrational action on the part of these apostate           its pledge that it would do all that the Lord had spoken.
Hebrews? Is there any of their number who actually                      The nation despised the blood of the covenant with the
believe' that a thing made of their own earrings, a lump             very mark of the covenant upon their flesh. Such was
of gold, spread over the frame of a wooden calf, is the              its sin.                                              G.M.O.
thing that delivered them from the  cluth of  Pharabh                                                           -
and is thus a thing that they can put their trust in? This
is held to be impossible. It is said that  the worshper
of the idol clearly distinguished in his, mind between
the idol, the concrete image, and the spirit or force                                         (Continued)
 (forces) in nature of  which  the idol was the symbol.                 The message of the prophet. The view that the ut-
What  he therefore worshiped in his heart was not the                terances of the prophet had to be predictive in order to
lump of stone but the spirit or force symbolized.                    deserve the name of prophesy is in the light of the fore-
   Scripture  iti against this view. According to Scripture          going a thoroughly mistaken idea.               Christ was pre-
that spirit or force and the graven image were united                eminently the prophet of the Lord yet a comparatively
in  the'minds   bf the devotees of the idol, and the idol            small part of his discourses were predictive in the narrow
was held to be divine and so wbrshiged. With' this the               sense. The prophet of the  Lcrd was a revealer of truth,
fruits of  `the study of mythology  ,agree.          What an  in-    delineated on the truth revealed, proclaimed and  re-in-
sufferable fool, man through sin became!                             forcea  the law of God, imposed as the  .agent  of the
   What are we to think of Aaron? He weakly listens to               Lord duties upon men, dealt with men in God's stead for
th& -clamors of the crowd,  that he should provide them              the interest of truth and righteousness. Of course the
with gods and thus  bririgs  himself forward on this oc-             prophet also foretold, announced beforehand what was
casion as deficient  Yin the qualities of a leader, which            to take place. However predicting the future  was by  30
marked his brother' Moses.         He  m&y have refused to           means the sole engagement of the prophet. His office in-
yield until awed by the fear of personal violence. Had               cluded much more, prediction was but accidental. Or,
he set his face as flint against their' demand, he by his            the other hand all the  communcations  of the great
firmness might have crushed the movement in the bud.                 prophets had a bearing on the future, not because- these
Instead of `this, he invites the men, with their wives,              communications were predictive in the narrow sense of
sons and daughters, to give him their golden earrings to             the word but because they set forth heavenly and eternal
melt into thk image  ,they desire. If he hopes that `his             truths and dealt  .with the realities of faith and hope and
request for their valuables will quench their illicit desire         the great principles of duty as a certain writer expresses
for  `gods,  he is sorely disappointed.      They will  :have        `it, "The much larger portions of their communications
their gods at any cost.       So they brake off the gold&            were no further predictive of what was  `afterwayds to
earrings in their ears and bring them to Aaron. And he               happen than as the present necessarily contain the germ.
receives them at their hands. The collection is melted               of the future,  or the manifestations then given of God's
and the rough mass formed by Sculpture into the shape                mind `and will bespoke the recurrence of like manifesta-
of a calf.     A long time must have passed by before                tions, and it may be, still higher  ones  to come."
everything was in readiness, but at last, six weeks after              What we mean by prediction in the narrow sense is
Moses had gone up into the mount, Aaron announced                    a specific prediction respecting particular personages or
that the next day would  ble  kept  as a feast day to Je-            events in the future. For convenience sake then let
hovah.                                                               us speak of general prophecy and particular prophecy.
Arognd the golden calf,. mounted in all likelihood upon                Particular prophecy in history. Perusing the pages of
a pedestal, they whirled, in mad `circles, men and women,            the Oid Testament Scripture the discovery may be made
working themselves into a frenzy by wierd song and rapid             that not until the period of the breakdown of the Old
motion.                                                              Testament typical theocracy. and the casting of the life
 Where  were the true people of God when this was                    of the .church into a new mold, does particular prophecy,
going on? Some perhaps were in with the crowd. Others,               i.e., prophecy predictive of specific   events,.revolving  about
standing at a distance, it' may be,  d.enounced  this wild           particular personages, become copious. This does not mean
revelry in their hearts, but held their peace. Few, it must          that particular prophecy was altogether a more or less
have been, cried out their indignation. However this mav             rare phenomenon in the preceding periods; In the words of
be, the #whole  nation is  charged  with having defiled itself.      Davision, "In the Old Testament it (particular prophecy)
  Just  .what  was the nation's sin. It rejected Jehovah,            appears somewhat like a river small in its beginning and
and reared altars to the idol in the very shadow of a                though still proceeding yet after losing itself for ages

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

underground, then bursting forth anew with increased                3. From Moses to the beginning of the `fall of the
volume and at last rising into a swollen stream, greatest ,.typical  theocracy.           After centuries of silence Moses
by far when it has come within prospect of its tern&a-           appears. With him the expiring flame of prophecy again
tion." .                                                         flares tip into a blaze of unprecedented proportions and
   Let us institute an inquiry into the amount of specific       brilliancy. As a prophet Moses task was not to predict
prophecy found in each successive period of the Old Tes-         coming events but to build and to set in order the gov-
tament dispensation. This will at once afford us an op-          ernment of the house (Old Testament theocracy) in
portunity of noticing the character of Old Testament             which he was servant, and to proclaim and elucidate the
prophecy. 1. The prediluvian period. During this  period         fundamental. principles of this government.           .
particular  pIdoph;ecy  scacely exists. Jehovah himself             Let us enlarge upon this idea. We set out with the
directly,  w,ithout the aid of a  prollhetic agent, uttered      statement that as a prophet Moses towers above all the
a prophetic word, viz., the word respecting the two seeds.       prophets. Of all the prophets,  Christ excepted, was
Though a word vital and fraught  .with meaning, it is            Moses the greatest. Such was the magnitude of the task
too vague to indefinite to be, classified with specific          he was called upon to perform that he ranks not with
prop!hecy.  The thought circulating through it consti-           `Isaiah but with Christ. What was his task? The an-
tutes the nucleus idea of the divine scheme of  re!emp-          swer found in Hebrews 3  :1-S "Wherefore, holy brethren,
tion, `viz., the  ascendency  of the seed of the woman over      partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle
the malice of the devil. It is a word so comprehensive           and High-priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, Who
that it reaches in its effect to the second coming of Christ,    was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses
Its fulfillment is a process of as many ages as this world       was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted
in the eternal counsel of God is  old                            worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as he who
  In respect to.  the prophecy of Enoch (Jude 14, 15) we         bath  builded the house hath more honor than the
may say that it is little more than a restatement of the         house . . .    For every house is builded  by some man ; but
prophecy uttered at the time of, the fall, and an applica-       he that built all things is God. And Moses  verily, was
tion of this principle to an age of extreme wickedness:          faithful in all his house  as a servant,  fey a testimony of
The Lord. was to come with ten thousand of his saints            those things which were to be spoken after; But Christ as
to execute judgement upon the ungodly to convince them           a son over  his own house; whose house are we . . . .  "
of their ungodly deeds.                                            The passage asserts that Moses as Christ had a house,
                                                                 that of his house Moses was the builder and the faithful
  The prophecy of Noah respecting the flood is the first         servant in it.     Moses' house was the Old Testament
sbecific  prediction recorded in Holy Writ. This prophecy        church or theocracy. This church he built and set in or-
however is also a repitition, an actual realization of the       der as the instrument of God. The entire house together
prophecy of Enoch.                                               with its foundation, occupants, machinery of govern-
  2. The period from the deluge to Moses. This period            ment, social and religious institutidns was nothing but
also had its prophets. The first of these was Noah. The          a mass of legislation which Moses had taken with him
prophecy he uttered had to do with the future  careir of         when he left the presence of God, a legislation setting
his three sons in their generations and the relation they        forth the principles of divine truth, justice and love.
were to sustain to each other. It was a prediction con-          whereas it was the execution by Moses of what this
siderably more specific than that made immediately after         legislation presented that converted the Jewish nation
the  fali, yet too general to be called a specific prophecy.     into a typical house or temple of God radiating his
  The  sanle  -must be said of the revelations made to           glories, this house is said to be of Moses. Of this house
Abraham.     They are indeed  interspersec!  with specific       he is the builder, and the faithful servant in it.
prophecies, e.q., the prediction respecting the  .birth of         As may be expected Moses fellowship and manner of
Isaac, the Egyptian, bondage and the announcement that           communion with God was altogether unique. It was  and.
Abraham in his generations was to possess the land of            had to be congruous with the magnitude of his task.
Canaan. Aside from these interspersed statements, these          So he knew God face to  .face,  he received his revelations
revelations  partook of the character of general announce-       not in vision- and by dream but by direct discourse. He
ments respecting the future-prospects of races and tribes.       talked with God as a man with a man. Accordingly we
The promise of the  Shiloh  was the  mqst specific of this       read in Deut. 34: 10, "And there arose not a prophet
group  in so far as it had to do with a single Individual        since in Israel like unto Moses  .whom the Lord knew
that would appear in the future.                                 face to face."     ,41so Numbers 12  6-8: "And he said,
  As a whole these patriarchal blessings had to do with          Hear now my words: If there  ble a prophet among you,
general matters, set forth the fundamental principles of         I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision,
divine government and pointed out the line of descent            and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses
selected by Heaven to serve the scheme of redemption as          is not so; who is faithful in all mine house. With him
a channel of grace.                                              will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not


                  __.                               _..                 __.`.L                                                                                                                                                                                                             377
                                                                                            ._. .                      ~gm                                     STANDAR.?                                                    BEA.RER
                                                                         :
!in dark.  spe6ches   ;  a;i;d  the-.  sir&itude  v of the  Lord. shall
he  behold .  : . .  j?.                                                             .:          .,,          :                                                                                                                      Het Hart  Ve&ht  :
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      .
:~~Mos'&~vir~s   surpa&ed`by"Christ orily. The latter is the                                                                                                                                                         Dieper  d a n   l;let  h a r t   k a n   h e t   tech niet.  -,  :
Son  c&r `his  o&n house, the' church universal. Chr'ist.:s                                                                                                                                                        . .
                                                                                                                                                                                                                   .: Het hart  is het diepste in den  mensch.:                      :
fellowship with God was of a surpassing  .glory arid  `ititi-                                                                                                                                                         Uit: het hart zijn de uitgangen  des. levens.  Zooals,  het
matip.  : He  ,is  .the Son that lieth in  the.   bosom of the                                                                                                                                                     hart is, zoo is de mensch. . .                     . .  :  :
Father.:.,   .Foc him; God bad no. secrets.,..                                                                                                                                                                     Uit  het hart.  komen alle onze gedachten. en  qverleggin-
       Herewith we have set  fort@ the character of Moses'                                                                                                                                                         gen  -op;  doch hetzelfde hart  is ook  bx-on   dey  .begeerten  en
task. Because it was the. t&e for the building afsd  set&g                                                                                                                                                         verlangens,, fontein van.alle hunkeren  en vragen.
in  p~fcr of, God's  house., it  follqws from  the very nature
                                                                                                           . . .             ,.                                                                                      .En dan niet zoo, dat het inbegrip van alle denken,  over-
of  th!ngs  *that   .%qses   3s a  prophq; was engaged. not so
                                                                                                                                   I                                                                               ;eggen,-  begeeren,  willen,  verlangen,  hunkeren  en vragen,
much.  with the future  as:,yvith   his present. He  too deals                                                                                                                                                     teza,en   bet  h?rte van den mensch zijn. 0  neen,   a$e  die
with.  piedictions,.   however,   on& in  so .far. as his present                                                                                                                                                  werkinien zijn  siechts  uitgangen  v&i dat hart. Zi j zijn
coqtaised   `t&9,  *germ `of the future,,  sq  ,that aside  from  a                                                                                                                                                het  hart  zelf niet.
~f&y~$&ptip~~   his  .prec$ctions   qnnot  be classified.-with                                                                                                                                                        Het hart is wat onder alle die werkingen ligt. 0,  bet
s~y~f+~ypBhecy.                                                                             :                                 :.                              ,. G.,M.O..                                          is een zeer diepe  lx&. De,Schrift  noemt het hart zeer
. `:                                     ; ,...(                   `. I.                                                                                                                                     :     diep  en Jeremia  klaagt aangaande  bet  bondike  hart, dat
                                                                                                                                                                                                                   bet  n&3 te kennen is. Ook  D.avid   sprtiekt  vin de  verbor-
                       / . :.                          CChNFiDENC$;                                                  t?H3I$TIAN                                                                                    gene"zonden  of afdwalingen. Het  zijti`  de  bnzichibue
                                                                   :                             . .                                                                                                               schuilhoeken  van dat diepe hak des menschen.
                                              I know  noi `if the  daik  pr bright.                                                                                                                                 En zoo  belangiijk  iS dat diepe hart, dat de `Heere dwars
                                                              " Shall'  ble my lot;                                                                                                                                door het aangezicht d,es me&chin  naar dit diepe`hart ziet,
                                              If, that wherein my soul delight                                                                                                                                     als Hij den mensch  wfi  ketinen,  Keer  op keer  lezen  `tie
                             :I                                    Be best  b`r not.                                                    `.                    _                       '                            dan  bok in de Heilige Schrift, dat de  Heere  njet het  aan-
             .:                          `.:,,                                :.:                . .                                                                                                               gezicht,  doch het hart des  menstihen  aaniiet.   En.ook,  dat
                                  -           It may be mine to drag for years                                                                                                                                     Hij dat hart proeft, ddorgrondt.
                            ..:                        . Toi.l?s.  h e a v y   c h a i n , . ;  .:                                                                                                                   "t Is dan ook zeker, dat, wanneer de Heere straks  zal
                                              Or  ,day and night my meat be tears                                                                                                                                  oordeelen  de levenden en  `de dooden, Hij alle  harten  der
                            .  -`,.`                    i .On bed  .of pain.  :.                                                             .i'                    -1;                                            menschen,  engelen'en  duivelen binnenst  .buiten zal keeren
 _.  ,:                                                                              ,.                                .i                                                                                          en' oordeelen naar dat hart. Daar in dat hart lag de diep
..i:.                             ; Dear  facee6,kai  s&o~nd.m~  h e a r t h . `   ,..                                                                                                                             ste drij fveer van alle  deriken,  spreken en handelen: Dan
       . . _.                                 "              ". With  ,+miles   atid glee;                                                                                                                         zal het  openbaar  worclen, dat men vaak glimlachte met
                       i                      O r   I   mq  .d>v,ell  alqne,,  a n d   mirth.                                                                                                                      een vloek in `t hart.
                                                              -1;  B e  .stran.gF   to  .me.  _.                                                                                                                      Alle  harteq der menschenkinderen  nu' zijn boos van
                                                                                                                                                                       \.                                          der jeugd  aan.
                                              $4~ bark' is  &!&i to the  ,stra&
                                                             ._                                                                                                             .                                _.
                                                                                                            `.  i                                                                                                   j .Gods Waord .,gaat  ons voor en .leert ons aangaande  .ons
                                                                   ,By  I$-eafh.   dlvme,
      . .                                                                                                                                                                                                          hart, dat "het  gedichtsel  van des menschen hart  *boos  is
.:                                            .A&`,  tfi:  `hel$ there' rest's a  hand'  :  "..                                                                                                                    van, zijne jeugd  aan". Veeltij.ds  en op  velerlei   wijze
             ,                                                     `Qt$er  `tf+n .mi;ie. :'  l.  -                                                                                                                 spreekt  de  Heilige Schrif t aangaande  de. boosheid van
                                                                                                                                                                                                                   des  mens&en  hart. Zoo noemt zij dat hart boos,  iteen-
                                        I',One   !who,&s  l&otiti'in  ,st+m-g  to  s+il                                                                                                                    1 ,,    ac,&ig,  hoerachtig,  o n z i n n i g ,   h a r d ,  bnverstandig  e"
                                                                   I have on b&d ;                                                                                             . .                                 dwaas,  qnbesnede?,  verheven,  v&duisterd,  achterwaarts
       :.                    Above'   t h e   i - a g i n g  of  t h e   `galk                                                                                                ,:  ,                                w;  jkend{  vloekend, huichelachtig, dubbelzinnig,  God-ver-
.                                      -.>                         I   h e a r   my  Lord:  '  '
                                                             ::                                                        ,' , :.                                              ..>~.                            .,    zoekcnd,  dwalend, verkeerd,  arglisti'g,   ,.en doodelijk.  En
                                                                                                                                                                                                                   deze lijst  sou nog  we1 verdubbeld  k&&en   wbrcle?,  we
                                              He holds me with the  bi,llow's  might-
      ?-                                               ".                                                                                                                                                          ;hebben   slechts   bier en daar een  greep   gedaan.  Het woord
                                                                   ,I'sliall  not fall;                                                                ..             '                    '                       (`h&-t'!.   kotit' een kleine duizend  malen   - in de Heilige
                                              If sharp,  `tis' short'; if long, `tis  light;"                                                                                                                                                                                       `*      :
                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Schrift  voOr:
      `,           :,                                              He ?.er@ers all.                                                     -                                                       .' .: .:
                                                                                                                                                                                           .                         Als het slechts  duidelijk is, daf het  er  treu&  bijstaat
                                       .   .                        . .                              .,                                                                           i.                               met het hart des menschen. Er is een floers des  doods'.
                                         I  Safe.  to the land-safe  tb the land;                                                                                                                                  oyer  dit, hart getrokken,, een floers der  `dui&r$s   d&s
                                                                   The-.end   is  this  :                                                            .'               i                              *.            doods. Zoo waren  wij dood door de misdadeti  en de' zon-.
                            _.                And:then. with .Him go hand in hand                                                                                                                                  den van dat hart.
                  :                                                 Far into bliss,  ..                                                                        .-                               :                   En die dood des  harteti is maar geen  stilstaand  iets,
                                                                   .'                                              D e a n   .6f  Ctinterbary.                                                                     doch is een akelig  proces dat steeds doorgaat.  Jacobus


                                                                                                                                                                    .
          `.
     :                                                                       THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R ,                                                              379       '

               wekte Jezus' hart en God vervulde dat menschelijke hart
     : met Licht. Aanvankelijk op dien eersten dag der week                                                             Particular Atonement a&l the                                   ,*.  .
                &I  mekr nog  toen   Hij later de "bklofte des Heiligen                                                      W&Meatiing  O f f e r  -.
               i. Geestes verkreeg" zoodat Hij `dan ook kon `%itstorten dat                                                         r
               .`). gij  mi ziet en hoort" op den Pinksterdag.                                                                                   I        I        I
               '  8,.  als' we  geen oog hebben voor hetgeen plaats vond                                             `Atonement, because it+  atoneyen.t, is  necessarily  par-
               `.  `. bij het lijden, sterven, en  -opstaan  van Jezus,  naar  .Ziiti                         ticulav.         "
                                                                                                               `.
               :  .im&sckilijke.   ,natuw,  dan verliezen we zoo ontzettend                                          Arminianism'begs  to differ. It insists, that the atone-
     ;.                1 ' .
                       veel troost.  Vergeten  we  tech nooit, dat `er niet alleen                           ment realized by Christ crucified is divinely `intended for'
     / plaatsen zijn die spreken van Jezus'  opstanding,   ,doch-oak                                          all men.              No, Arminians are not Universalists, even
     i:  -.I plaatsen die spreken van. Zijn opwekking. Zoodat niet
     ! -.                                                                                                     though the true conception of atonement applied to  .a11
     ;  -> alleen geleerd wordt dat Jezus God was,  doch dat Hij                                             men' must inevitably lead to' the latter. They grant, that                                 . .
     i                oak: waarlijk mensch was. Nu, dan, naar Zijn mensch-                                    not' all people are actually saved. They, do maintain,
     i .- heid is Hij bpgewekt, is Hij vervuld met ongekende heer-                                           however,' that the blood of the cross purposes to save all,
                -  lijkheid,  is Zijn hart vervu!d met  Iiefelijk Licht van den                              and, `that the, cross must be viewed as' ,the attempt of the
                ._  eeu.wigen.   dageraad..                                                                  Christ to bring salvation to all, who are willing to accept.  c
                       ...l$r hier is uw troost. Hij. ontving al dat Licht en leven &s.tiot,  the keynote of most  .preaching in our day, "Jesus                                              :
                ;.  plaatsveivangend. 0 ja, eerst  we1 voor Zichzelf, zoodat                                 died for  -all;  He died also for  yo,u"?
                      Hij- poorts mag'wandelen in `t  -vroolijk  levenslicht.  Doch
               _.J                                                                                                   Arminianism claims to have  GodTs own Word as the
                      ook  .vooi U mijn broeder en mijn. zuster.
                                             `:.                                                              basis  for its view of a general atonement.  `Is not the
                        -`Daarom staat er in, Efeze 1, dat  `dezelfde   almachtige - grace of  God. eternal, infinite, unfathomable? Must not
          "      `. kracht die God' gebruikte in de opwekking van Jezus; nu                                  all men necessarily be included in a' grace,. that is bound-
                .bok in ons werkt die gelooven.                                                              less? Besides,  .is not Scripture incontrovertible on this
                                                                                           --.
                ,.; En  -de.eerste  vrucht van die almacht Gods is de  .weder-                               point 7 Does not the Word of God. speak' repeatedly of                                            (,
                                                                                                             "all", "all men", "whosoever", "the world", "the whole
          *           Lgeboorte.
'                        .                                                                                   world" and "every one", in connection  .with the blood
                 :  Als dat- Licht van Jezus' opstandingsleven in ons hart                                   of atonement? Does not Hebrews 2  :9 very clearly state,
                 straalt, dan .wordt er een geestelijke zuigeling geboren.                                    "that He by the grace of God should taste  :death  for
                              En dan wordt alles anders.                      .                              every  wmd') ? Is He not a "propitiation. for our sins:
                                                                                          .
                              Dan `wordt het  licht in het hart van zulk een mensch;                         and not for ours only, but also for the sins'of the  whole
                      wien `t. mag-.gebeuren; ,Dan;wordt  hij rein van hart en                               world"? Arminianism is amazed at the very'possibility,
                 oprecht, wijs, verstandig,  teed&, liefelijk van hart. Dan                                  that there can be  -some,. who deny, the' very  piain  testi-
                      wprdt  zijn weg. ook licht en leven. Dan  w,ordt zijn spraak                           mony` of Scripture, that atonement is general.               -
               .- en zijn  handel  leven en  li&t. Dan  iyordt`hij  bm-ger  van                                      Arminianism, nevertheless, errs. grievously..             The
                      een ander vaderland. Dan  vraagt hij naar God en'  Zijne                               reasoning, that because God's grace is infinite it must
                      ..smrkte,   naar Hem` die al zijn heil  bewerkte: Het  ver-                            necessarily embrace all men, is nonsensical.  ~`?lnfinite"
                      blijdende resultaat is dan, dat er geen  zonde.  is die hij                            is not synonymous with "general". God's wrath is also
                      liefheeft.  .Hij  haat voorts alle kwaad. En er is geen                                infinite, yet it abides upon them only, `who do not believe
               _  -1iefelijkheid  die hij  haat. Hij mint  alle  goed, want Gods                             in the, Son of God. The passages, which Arminians
                zaad blijft. in hem.                                                                         quote:  in support of their doctrine of general atonement,
                                                                                                             serve best of all to  .expose the superficiality of Arminian
                              Zou  .dan ooit een kind  -der  duisternis nog een  goed en                     exegesis. The word "all", for example, in no language
                      beschamend  voorbeeld knnnen zijn voor den oprechte                                    has necessarily the `meaning: all human beings in the
     `. van hart? Die gedachte zij vervloekt !                                                               entire world. Numerous examples from daily life could
                       Hoort `slechts naar hem : "Geef mij het  v&stand, en                                  be adduced to prove, that also in our daily conversations
               ik zal Uwe wet houden, ja ik zal ze onderhouden `wan                                          the word is generally used with a limited sense.. Thus
                ~anscier   harte!`:                                                               G . V .    it is also in Scripture. The words "all"., "every" and
                .-              .     ,.            :     .'                                                 similar expressions invariably refer to a limited group,
                                                                                                             with this understanding, however, that of -that certain                               ;
                                 :                                                                           group all individuals are meant. Thus the conscienscious
                                                          EEKENDMAKING                                       exegete, whenever and wherever he meets with the above-
                      "  Classis-vergadering   `staat, D.V.,  te'  worden  gehouden                          mentioned expressions, will search. the context most  dili-
                      .;Woensdag,  Juni 3,  ,1936, om negen  uur in den  voormid-                            gently in an effort to determine the precise limits  Scrip
                      `dag in de  Pro&tan&he  Ger. Kerk te South Holland, Ill.                               ture'sets for these various terms in their specific settings.
                                                                     M .   VanderVennen,   S . C .           The purpose of these reflections as well as the familiarity

                                                                .


3501                                                T H E :   S ' T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

of these things among  us  render further elucidation of                     death had had the purpose of saving all men, Jesus wotild;
the above superfluous.                                                       have had to  suffer  .no  m&-e than He now did. Christ
   Arminianism,  colisequently   muSt be rejected as an                      borp the full, eternal  wrath.  of  Gtid.     There were no
accursed  .heresy  and the doctrine of a general atonement                   vials  of wrath remaining, that were not emptied upon
as an infernal lie. They deny all the Scriptures, which                      our Redeemer. There  ,iYas  no depth of suffering in
incontrovertibly emphasize the truth, that atonement is                      which He did not enter for  our  justification. Yet, pray,
particular. John C  1
                              a viii, also a man of "strong expres-          what  does this expression  meal?  for them who perish?
sions", brands the doctrine of a general atonement as an                     It is but: a hollow statement,  ,designc$,  very likely, to
"insane presentation". Dr. A.  Kuyper quotes the  Gen-                       privily leave  the impression, that salvation is possible for
evari Reformer as, saying in  comJe$ion  with  -1 John 2  :2,                all members of the human race after all. The death of
`fEn nu spreek ik nog niet eens van de krankzinnige voor-                    Christ was sufficient for the  devils also.. Does this mean
stelling  ,dier verwatenen, die  zeggen  durven, dat de  ge-                 that it was intended for them also?  The light of the
nade ook verworven is voor allen, die ten verderve gaan".                    sun is sufficient for all men, even for the dead. Never-
Arminianism virtually denies atonement itself. It im-                        theless, the  sun  prpvides  light. for them only, who are
plies, that Christ did not actually pay at all.  :If He did,                 living and have the ppwer  ,to  .;jee.. That  the, suffering of,
and that for all men, no one could  possibly be lost. Sins,                  Christ would suffice to save all men, if such were. the
once paid for, are simply no more. Payment, once  inade,                     Divine intentions, does not yet answer the question,
may never be demanded again. Those  for  whpm  Christ                        whether this suffering is for  all men.' The question is :
has atoned,  cdotzed,  you  uncl,erstand,   mre saved.               For     is, according to God's intentions,  atonem$t  `g&era1   ? Did
that  reasdn,'  general atonement, general  &onc+tze&,  must                 Christ actually  shed  His precious blood for all?
inevitably imply universal salvation. However,.  Armin-                        Both Scripture and our Reformed  confessions answer
ianism has  taken'the  n,toltenl,ent out of &one&ent.              OA$       with a most emphatic no. That  the Christ was  not in-.
in this way has it succeeded in escaping the very obvious                    tended to save all is very  c!early,  and  -forcibly expressed
folly of Universalism.                     It presents Calvary as merely     in.  the. Canons of Dordrecht, Head II, Article 8, where
making reconciliation' with God  possibli.                   T h e   a+al    we read, "For this  tias the  sovereign counsel, and most
fruit of  tile cross remains to be  seen. Golgotha is not                    gracious will and purpose of God the Father, that the
more than a blessed fount, where "whosoever will" may                        quickening and saving efficacy of the most precious death
drink of the water of eternal life. Calvary, far indeed                      of His Son should extend to all, the elect, for bestowing
from actually  r&onciling lost sinners with `God, has but                    upon them alone  the.  gi'ft of justifying  faith, thereby to
realized a certain general fount, where any "dear brother"                   bring them infallibly to salvation : that is, it was the will
may find forgiveness-of sins, if only he decides to "tarry                   of God, that  Clii-ist by the blood of the cross, whereby
no  l?nger",  grasp "the  lif,e-line" and  ,"come to  Jesus                  He confirmed the new covenant, should effectually `re-
nod'. There, at  tile cross, all men  Ilzy.be saved; whether                 d&em  dut of every people, tribe, nation, and language,
they  nre depends solely  on them. The gate is ajar, if                      all those only, who were from eternity chosen to  Sal;
only they will pass through. Salvation is there, if only                     vation, and  giv&n,.to  Him by  thi Father ; that He should
they will  accep!.         This then is the value, the beauty,'  the         confer upon them faith, which together with  till the  othei-
significance  6f the cross. Friends, if this is atonemdnt,                   saving gifts'of the Holy  Spil'it,  He purchased for them
there is no atonement. Atonement `for all  &`at&nement                       by His death; should purge them from all sin, both origi-
for none. Then Christ's death witb all  the  uniold.suffer-                  nal and actual, whether committed before or after be-
ilig that  preceeded  it is but a gamble on the part of  the                 lieving; and having faithfully pi-eserved  `ttiem even to
Mediator. Only time will reveal, whether Calvary will                        the  end, should at last bring them free from every spot
bear"much  fruit, little fruit, or no fruit at all.  Actual- and blemish to  the'enjoyment  of glory in His own pres-
payment has not been made, neither has salvation been                        ence forever". Neither is it difficult to prove from Scrip-
a c t u a l l y   p r o c u r e d .   "                                      ture, that the blood of atonement has been shed for the
   This heresy, I am convinced,  lies'?  tile  root:of the                   elect only. It is the general teaching,  of.:..God's' Word.
"well-meaning  off& of salvation", maintained by the                         It is also taught in specific places. "For  -I came down
Christian Reformed Churches in the  fifst of their ne-                       from heaven, not  to do mine own will,  but the will of
farious "three points". If we err,  .w.ould that some                        Him,  .that sent Me. And this is the will of the Father
would  `make plain what  haimonf  there may be between                       which hath sent Me; that of all which He hath given Me
the truth of particular atonement  and. the  .dotitr&e  qf  a                1. should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the
"well-meaning offer".                                                        last  day." John  6:38,  39.  "`"I lay down my life for the
   Atonement is necessarily particular.                                      sheep." John 10 : 1.5. And  t$at not  al! men. are sheep
   Remember  the issue at stake. It  is not the question.                    is plain when the Lord speaks to the unbelieving  Jears.
whether the suffering  arid death of Christ were  s'@iciegzt                 "But ye believe not, because ye are. no$.,:of. my sheep, as I
to save all men. It may certainly be said, that, if Christ's                 said unto you".  Idem   :26.


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                           381

   Both Scripture and our Reformed confessions present
but one view: atonement is particular. Christ  atonej for
certain definite people. This lies in the very nature of            (The following  lecizcre  was delivered  i,t  the Roosevelt  Chzrrch,
atonement.    His work as Mediator is a  conq!dete   work.        February  20, under  the  imspices  of the  J4rrt's  Society. The lecture
Christ did not `merely make something  possible ;  He  UC-        follows in unchanged f ornz.>
compl&ed what He set out to do.          He paid the debt;           With the narrative told in the book of Esther as such
removed the guilt; reconciled with God.  .This atonement          I presume everyone in my audience is in the main ac-
He realized for the elect only. In these elect the full           quainted. It is one of those dramatic and lively, not to
benefits of atonement are also realized through the ir-           say even thrilling, narratives with which well-nigh every-
resistible grace of God; not because they ask, but when           one of us has been familiar since early childhood years.
they are yet in the power of death ; not because they             Especially those of us that enjoyed a Christian training
desire it, but while they still choose to serve sin and the       at home, school and church. Who did not early learn to
world. These elect God regenerates through the Spirit             listen with intense interest when told about Ahasuerus'
of the risen Lord. In them He works the gift of faith.            feast and the divorce of Vashti, of the. kings' preference
With  .a view to these elect God sends His servants to            of Esther above all the maidens, of proud  Haman's  anger-
proclaim the gospel of the crucified Christ. God does             because Mordecai the Jew would not bow before him
this, not with the intention or desire; that all who hear         and of his wicked plot  to.carry all the Jews, of Esther's
shall believe and be saved, but with the Divine purpose,          decisions to seek the audience of the king although such
that those be drawn unto eternal salvation in Christ in           was not according to the law, of her banquets of wine
whom He Himself, of sovereign grace, works the power              and designation  o,f  Haman as the man, of Ahasuerus'
of faith. This, and this only, is the positive purpose of         anger and the hanging of  Haman upon the gallows he
`the preaching of the gospel of salvation.         These elect    had made for Mordecai; of the Jews' stand  .in defense of
God justifies and sanctifies, protects and preserves, until       their lives and their great victory, of the feast of Purim
they shall enter without spot or blemish in the mansions          and Mordecai's glory. With that story and the develop-
prepared for them.                                                ment of its plot most of us have been well acquainted
  Thus all is of grace, Calvary retains all its significance,     from early years.        In view of this I shall not attempt
and God receives all the glory, now and unto all eternity.        to repeat the narrative but will presuppose that in the
  Proceed from this Scriptural doctrine of  particu!ar            main we are quite familiar with the plot and the various
atonement, believe it, live it, and there will be no diffi-       steps in its solution.
culty in re the question as to how we must conceive of              It is rather to the questions and problems to which
the preaching of the gospel of that salvation. That gos-          study of the book gives rise that I ask your attention this
pel does not come with an offer of salvation to all who           evening. For certainly there are, in respect to the in-
hear the Word. It `is the "power of God unto salvation            terpretation of the book, a sufficient number of problems
unto every one that believeth". This matter, however,             to make it worthwhile to address  you  on the subject of
we reserve for a final article.             R. Veldman.           the book of Esther. Even children in their teens begin
                                                                  to ask questions about the  .book, as for instance. Was it
                                                                  right for Esther to marry that wicked king? Later when
                   FAMHEH   WORSHIP                               in one way or another the discovery is made that the
                                                                  name of God is not mentioned even once in the entire
  Fair is the sight, by Israel's psalmist sung,                   book the question is sure to arise why that should be so?
     Of those whom God hath in one household joined,              Is there perhaps a reason for this? A little more study
     In peace, and unity, and love combined;                      of the book will investigate a still profounder question,
  Most fair, when all assemble, old and young,                    namely, What part does faith play in the book, if any at
  Parents and children; those who serve, among                    all? Were Mordecai and Esther believing Jews or not?
                                                                  In short there are many questions that a more. or less
    Those whom they serve; with social feelings kind              thorough study of the book of Esther is sure to suggest.
    Each to the other, and with knees inclined                      Now  .naturally  it is, quite impossible to answer every
  In patriarchal worship, heart and tongue.                       question that has been or might be raised about this book.
  List to the Savioui's words  !' "Where two or three             Time forbids it. Neither is it necessary. My chief
     Meet in My name, there in the midst am I."                   purpose is to place this book in its proper setting and
  Believe, and welcome to thy family                              suggest a solution for some of its difficulties, and espe-
    The gracious Guest; and by His blessing try,                  cially to. note the place the book of Esther fills in Scrip-
                                                                  ture. To three things your attention will be called; to
  How much  dpmestic  bliss and amity                             the historical character and setting of the book, to its
    Hang on domestic worship's hallowing tie!                     place in the canon as such, and finally I wish to explain
                                         Bishop  Mad.             the book in view of its lasting significance.


a2                                      THEJ  S T A N D A R D   BEARER

   I. The book of Esther  ai well as every other book of            speaks as real history. This so plain by all its references
the Bible has been assailed by unbelieving critics,  b,oth of       to Ahasuerus, to time and place,  alld  to the chronologi-
the past and of the present. Some of them have denied               cal records of the royal archives that only unbelief could
the historical -character of the book in its entirety.              question it. Besides a feast of commemoration, such as
Esther,  Haman, Mordecai and even Ahasuerus never                   the Purim kept unto this day by so-called orthodox Jews,
lived  ; they are `all fictitious characters, wholly imaginary,     certainly has real history as its basis.  Fictiqn does not
and the product of an over active brain.  The  whole book           give rise to annual  commemorattiqns.        Finally even
is simply romance without any basis in fact whatsoever.             though it does not strengthen faith one bit it is interest-
Others of the  crictics  refuse to go that far, and will            ing to note that all that is known  .from secular history
admit that there  `is some historical basis for the book of         and archeological findings about the Persian court in the
Esther,  .but  con&d that the writer has exaggerated and            days of Ahasuerus fits in with the picture presented in
-enlarged upon what actually happened'to such an extent             the book. Just so unchangeable were the laws of the
that we must purge it of what is false. They maintain               Medes and the'persians. Just such a "passionate. capri-
that there are several things in  the book  tl-+at are wholly       cious and profligate monarch" was Xerxes, the  Ahas-
incredible and could never have happened.  ,One of these            uerus  of this book. And if it seems strange that  Vashti
is that Esther could never have been  queen of  Persia.             was divorced- in the third year of the king's -reign while
One reason given is that Herodotus tells us that a certain          Esther did not become queen until ,his seventh year, secu-
Amestris, a very cruel woman,. was queen at this time.              lar history tells us that between these years the king
Now we might remark that Herodotus as an historian is               waged  wa`r in Greece. But the  ckmpaign  was  ti dismal
far from reliable.      Besides, the  words'  Ame,stris  and        failure, and the king came back to forget his failure in
Esther both  mean   stcsv and can very well refer to the            women and wine. So that it was. in the 7th year maidens
same woman. Finally such a queen as Esther is  p'ictured            were gathered at Shushan the palace, and Esther was
in the Bible might very easily be construed  .hy popular            elevated as queen.
and hostile opinion to  b,e a very cruel queen. Then again
these critics  say that it is entirely  .impossible  that  Haman      As to the time of the book the  fqllowing must be said.
,would send out a decree to kill  .the Jews during  the first       The book itself was written some years after the events
month of the year when the decree was not to be exe-                therein `portrayed had transpired. The first verse carries
cuted until the twelfth month.         Why the Jews would           us  btack to former years and the last chapter tells how
escape? they say. But the Persian empire controlled                 Mordecai reigned successfully for many years  after
the world of that day, how then  could  the Jews escape it?         the deliverance of the Jews. Who wrote the book we do
Besides we must remember that  -.the heathen  Haman  had            not know. The  b,ook gives no intimation that its author
consulted the lot to discover an auspicious date. for the           was Mordecai. Perhaps it was Ezra or Nehemiah; it
destruction of the Jews. So implicit was the obedience              surely makes no difference, for God is its author and
of the heathen, and especially of the `Persians, in the lot         His Word it is. (To be continued).
that thky would never consider the rest. If the gods
declared that, date to  .be auspicious, the  iods would care          The events portrayed in tlie book themselves took
fpr the Jews in tlie meantime.                                      place over a period of  so&e ten years. In the third year
                                                                    Vashti was divorced, in the seventh Esther became queen,
   So we might go on to  Answer  the objections of the              and in the twelfth year  Haman attempted to destroy the
critics. But  to say the least all their'  dbjections are only      Jews. These events took place many years after Judah
the product of unbelief and sin. Faith which receives               had been taken into captivity. Chapter'2  :5,  6 inform  us
the Scriptures as the Word of God, inspired in the de-              that Mordecai represented the fourth generation in cap-
tail as well as in the main, can never assume this attitude         tivity the third captivity born, reckoning from the first,
toward the Scriptures.      Only unbelief and sin lords it          captivity which took place during Jeconiah of Judah in the
over the Bible ; faith is child-like. and docile `before that       years 597 B.C. If we compute a generation at 33
Word. Moreover we  mi.+ht  reinark, in the  defence  of             years, it was more than one hundred years after the first
the historical character of the various parts of  the.book          group of Jews were carried away. In the second place
of Esther, as one writer does, that  .truth is often stranger       these events took place after the first return to Jerusalem
than `fiction. I would, add, especially is that  true' in the       under  Zerubbabel:    The Jews were. in captivity 70 years,
case of the history of God's covenant.                              so that these 70 years were some time past. Besides we
   Still the question is proper, Does the book                      know that it was under the first of the Persian kings,
                                                     qf  Esther
mean to be real history, a statement of real  .happenings;          Cyrus by name, that the Jews were allowed to return to
-or does  it intend to be a sort of protracted parable with         Jerusalem to rebaild the temple and city.       Ahasuerus
only an important lesson,? The latter were conceivable,             ruled much later than Cyrus. He is usually associated
abstractly speaking. Yet this is surely not the case, the           with Xerxes of  se'cular history, who reigned from 485
very contrary is true  ; the book  is,, purports to be and          to 464 B.C., so that it was some fifty odd years since


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              353

the first group returned to Jerusalem under Zerubbabel.           In answer to that question let it be understood for
But in the third place it must be remarked that these          once and all that the book nowhere intends to stress faith,
events took place some time before Ezra and Nehemiah           and the power and victory of faith. There is always a
journeyed to Jerusalem.                                        desire, quite natural in itself, to interpret the Bible char-
                                                               acters as men abounding in faith, even when Scripture
   In general then it is plain that these events took place    is silent on this score. Of course, we like to imagine
during one of the darkest periods of Israel's history. By      Esther as a woman of faith and Mordecai as a man of
the hand `of Nebuchadnezzar Jerusalem and the temple           faith, who lived and acted  `out of faith. But the book
had been destroyed, and the people were led away. Ever         offers you very little ground to stand on. If you search
since Israel's history had become inseparably connected        for faith the book is very disappointing to say the least.
with that of the world powers.       Never again did the       0 yes, fasting and mourning are mentioned, but these
glory of Judah return. Even when the temple was re-            are in themselves only external. rites.       Prayer is not
built it never measured up to the beauty of- the former.       mentioned once. Some have tried to interpret the word
temple, besides the ark was missing, and the priesthood        `<cry"  of 9  :31 as prayer, but the more natural meaning
was in the hands of the political victors.      Israel had     is  si.mply "cry".    Not once do Esther and Mordecai
become a pawn of the nations because of its sins. But          mention God's name.          Of prayerful humiliation and
all the chastisements of captivity had effected repentance     thanksgiving to God  you  read not a single letter. The
only on the part of a small remnant whose hearts the           feast of Purim was a day of feasting and of giving of
Lord inclined to return to Jerusalem. The great majority       presents, but nothing is said of praise to God. Although
were well satisfied in the land of captivity, and felt no      one longs to think of Mordecai's refusal to bow before
urge to leave their new homes to return to Jerusalem. It       Haman as springing from religious conviction, this is ex-
was while that small remnant was laboring in Jerusalem.        ceedingly difficult  t'o maintain. Surely it was not wrong
the remnant that represented the line of election, laboring    to bow before Haman, surely Mordecai must have bowed
under adverse conditions of every, kind, that these events     before the king. In the light of what is said in 5  :9 it
of the  book,  of Esther took place in  Sushan the palace.     seems rather to have been obstinacy and personal hatred
It was while Haggai and Zechariah were urging the              for  Haman for "he stood not up, nor moved for him".
people to build the temple, and warning them against           Then again it seems quite difficult to think of Esther sub-
mixed marriages and intermingling with the heathen,            mitting to marriage to the king, while all the prophets
that Esther was Ahasuerus' queen.                              of the time back in Jerusalem were warning against
  II. So much for the historical character and setting of      mixed marriages. Besides for five long years at least,
the book. The more important question is now, What             from the seventh to the twelfth year, the queen kept her
significance does this book of Esther have? What does          nationality a secret. How could she serve the Lord and
it mean to show? What place does it fill in  .Scripture?       keep that a secret? The two seem well-nigh incompati-
                                                               ble. Then if you compare Mordecai and Esther, their
  Of course the question is not at all whether the book        speech, with that of Daniel and his friends, with that of
has a place in the Bible or not. Wicked criticism may          Ezra and Nehemiah and the remnant at Jerusalem, how
make that a question, but faith certainly cannot. There        great the difference is. It is true Mordecai says, "Who
is one thing that grieves me when I think of this criti-       knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such
cism  and. that is that it points to the great Reformer        a time as this ?" but that is still only a question. Mordecai
Luther as on its side. The critics love to point to  Lu-       believes the Jews will somehow be delivered if not by
ther's estimate of the book of Esther. In his  Table  Talk     Esther, and Esther says "If I perish, I perish" but how
he declared that he was so hostile to the book that "I         different from Daniel's trust in God, from Nehemiah's
would it `did not exist; for it Judaizes too much, and         `(The God of heaven, he will prosper  us." You place
has a great deal of heathenish naughtiness." Luther did        them in the very best possible light if  you  grant them
not always assume the right attitude toward the Bible.         faith, but then it. was at a very low ebb.
Also of the book of James he spoke disparagingly. In             In view of all this, faith and the power of faith cannot
all justice to Luther, however, it must be said that he did    be the main theme of the book. Unless-yes there is an
not exclude these books from his German translation.           unless-unless one admits as part of Scripture the apoc-
nor was his opinion the fruit of willful unbelief but          ryphal book called the Rest of Esther. There one finds
rather of a misunderstanding of the books.       Calvin is     a dream of Mordecai, prayer and the mention of God's
also in this respect far more our guide than Luther. For       name time and again  ; exactly the things that are lacking
whatever may be the meaning of the book one thing is           in the book of Esther as we have it.       Only those addi-
plain that from of old it was counted among the Bible          tions are so evidently spurious that the first attempt to
books.    For faith it is therefore, I say again, not a        insert the passages where they were intended points them
question whether the book  beelongs  among the Bible           out as wholly fictitious.     They even contradict things
books, but simply what does it mean.                           said in the book proper. Finally it is very easy to  ex-

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

 plain how these additions came into existence. Some              simply the work of God's unseen though ever near provi-
 Jew or Jews long ago, who didn't take the matter of              dence. In the divorce of Vashti and the choice of Esther,
 inspiration any more seriously than the higher critics           in the king's sleeplessness and  Haman's gallows, in the
 do today, tried to correct what was thought a shortcom-          king's, capriciousness and his attachment for Esther; in
 ing of the book and made these additions. But the  Jews          all these and the rest the hand of God`s providence was
 never counted these additions as a part of the Bible.            busy for the safety of His covenant people, that all the`
                                                                  earth might fear.
    Rather than attempt to construe the book as a testi-
 mony to Mordecai's and Esther's faith, we may well al-              In this way this. narrative is another link in the chain
 low that matter to rest. We need not justify Esther's            of evidence for the truth of Rev. 12. The woman great
 marriage with  the king, her banquets of wine and  Mor-          with child is the 0. T. church, laboring to bring forth.
 decai's refusal to bow, nor their contented living in  SIiiu-    The dragon, that' old serpent, stands ready to swallow
 shan ever after. The matter of faith we do nbt know,             the child and attempts td hinder its birth. So it was before
 and we must be satisfied in not knowing it. Were faith           the flood when Cain slew Abel and God supplied Seth,
necessary to an understanding of the book, the book               so it was when the earth was filled with violence and God
 itself would make this evident.                                  saved Noah by the flood. So it was again when Israel
                                                                  was in bondage in Egypt and God saved his people by
   But from `what viewpoint then must the book be con-            the miracles of his grace  ; so it was when wicked  Atha-
 sidered, you ask. I would answer simply from the view-           liah attempted to wipe out David's seed, but God spared
 point of the preservation of the Jewish race. How its            Joash. Hell must have rejoiced when Jerusalem and the
 extinction was threatened and overcome during these              temple were destroyed and the people sent into captivity,
 dark years the book means to show. In one of the dark-           and  trembIed  when God inclined Cyrus to let the people
 est, yes, the darkest periods of all the history of God's        return to build the city  atid the temple. At Jerusalem
 Old Testament. people they were saved from an  ignd-             Satan had Sanballat and  Tobias  to hinder the temple
 minious destruction. This is the significance, the only          building; at Shushan hell's plot was concocted to once
 one, which the book of Esther has in the Bible.                  for all make an end of all the seed of the covenant. But
   Let me explain this for herein lies the lasting signifi-       glory be to God.     In the darkest period of  history-
 cance of the book.                                               just before the dawn- t h e darkest plot of hell was set at
                                                         .
  In the light of all Scripture, and Scripture must m-            nought, and God saved his people and put the terror of
                                                                  them upon all. For the woman must bring forth her son.
 terpret Scripture, the Jews at that time were not merely         Therefore the Jews were delivered. Not because they
 a separate nation and race but the chosen nation and             deserved it. Surely the unfaithful in exile did not, but
 chosen race, whose history was not merely secular his-           neither did the  ren&ant that returned.     Only for His
tory but the history of God's covenant. This nation had           name's sake.
 the covenant and the prbmises, and from it the `Christ
 according to the flesh was to spring forth.       Until the        If you now should ask why the book fails to mention
 Christ had come the Jewish nation could not be de-               the name of God with these events at Shushan there is
 stroyed. Now it was this peculiar nation whose very              one suggested by one of the writers. It is that although
 existence was at stake when  Haman plotted to wipe out           God could not allow his people to perish, he nevertheless
 all the Jews of the Persian Empire. The decree was so            will not have his name associated with that of those that
 general that it meant  not only the destruction of the           did not long after Jerusalem and were satisfied in their
Jews in Shushan the  .capital,  but also the remnant at           foreign home. His name will be associated with the
Jerusalem. All the Jews in all the provinces, men, women          remnant that labored in Jerusalem.
and  children  were to be killed. And even had this failed          So then the lasting significance of the book lies herein
the first day, the only result of such a murderous day            that it forms an integral part of the age old battle to
would be that the Jews would soon be destroyed com-               destroy the seed of the covenant. As such it is proof
pletely.    But God would not allow the Jews to be wiped          that in the darkest periods of the church's life God's
 out, not those at Jerusalem neither those in captivity.          inscrutible providence is ever active keeping her, active
The Christ was to come, and his purposes concerning               in king's courts. As it was once for the 0. T. church
them must be fulfilled. Therefore God watched over                so it is now for the N. T. church,. she is preserved of
them and delivered them from  Haman.                              God. God  has set aside a place for her in the wilderness
   For even though the book does not speak of God and             which Satan cannot take away. The church of God
his providence with so many words, it  is clear that such         cannot perish till she has brought forth all the seed of
was the case. Whose  hand  besides His controls, governs          the covenant. Not because'the church is faithful, but
 and directs the destinies of men and the  .history of the        because God's purpose cannot fail.       Israel cannot be
world? All the intricacies of the plot of the book are            destroyed !                                       P.D.B.


