  58                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                        - .._- __II .__"                   _           -_           ..,_ -- ._..-.__ __lll_l-l_l_l.. ^-"             A_.
  wil beschermen, en die daarom de levendige bespre-              thans in de "Drie  punten"  schittert, duisternis is,
  king en de polemiek, die zich in den laatsten tijd overal       moeten  dan de Nederlandsche Kerken nog eens die duis-
  ontwikkelde, door een kerkelijke uitspraak den kop wil ternis bestendigen, alleen om de Kerken hier geen slag
  indrukken.                                                      in het aangezicht te geven? Dan komt men  immers
        Vandaar die zenuwachtige haast.                           nooit uit de duisternis!
        Ik verwacht van den arbeid der benoemde-deputa-              Eindelijk doet het argument van Dr. Hepp  oak
  t e n   n i e t   v e e l   v r u c h t .                       vreemd aan, omdat het van tevoren reeds uitgaat  van
                                                                  de veronderstelling, dat het onderzoek, dat door  dc
                                                                  deputaten zal worden  ingesteld zal uitloopen ten .gunstc
                                                                  van de "gangbare leer" der gemeene gratie. Indien dit
        Nog op e&n ding moet ik wijzen in dit verb&d.             niet zoo zou zijn, dan kreeg de Synode van 1924 alhier
        Beide, Dr. H. H. Kuyper en Dr.  V. Hepp, rioemden immers nog veel zwaarder en pijnlijker slag in het
  Amerika in verband met den strijd over de gemeene aangezicht !
  gratie:                                                            Bij Dr. Hepp staat het blijkbaar reeds vast, wat
        Vooral Dr. Hepp wees er op, dat de Christelijke het resultaat van dit onderzoek zal  worden  op dit
  Gereformeerde Kerken ten onzent hare beslissingen nunt.
  inzake de gemeene gratie genomen hebben in  bet                    Dat mocht  echter  bij hem niet vaststaan.
 licht, dat men uit Nederland had gekregen, en dat het               De deputaten  moeten vrij zijn, om in het licht van
  een slag in het aangezicht van deze kerken zou zijn,            Schrift  en Belijdenis ook tot de  conclusie   te komen,
 indien de Nederlandsche Synode nu deze zaak terzijde dat er geen gemeene gratie is.
  zou leggen.                                                        En we hopen  van harte, dat de deputaten deze vrij-
        Dat was, in meer dan &n opzicht, een vreemd argu- heid zullen handhaven in hun ondeszoek.
  ment.                                                                                                                     H. H.
        In de eerste plaats doet het bijna vermoeden, da:
 er van hier reeds zekeren drang werd geoefend  op
 sommige der leiders in  Noderland,  om  tech  vooratl                                      1----
 op het stuk der gemeene gratie de Christelijke Gerefor-
 meerden Kerken ten onzent niet in den steek te laten.
 Er dreigt in dit opzicht in den laststen tijd metterdaad                        Moses  ' Revelation
 gevaar.       Slechts weinige jaren geleden  kon men nog            As has been shown, Moses' petition, "Show me
 schrijven, dat twijfelen  aan de genieene  g-i-atie in Thy glory," is in substance a repetition of the petition,
 Nederland ondenkbaar was. En thans geldt dat reeds previously made, "Show me Thy way that I may know
 niet meer. Het zou geen wonder zijn, zoo men ten Thee." This request the Lord now grants. Placing
 onzent een beetje ongerust werd over `den gang der Moses in a cliff of the rock, the Lord covers him with
 zaken, en dat men ook hier liever zag, dat men in                His hand, while His glory passes by. Thereupon He
 Nederland zoo spoedig mogelijk een kerkelijke  uit- takes away His hand, and Moses sees not the Lord's
 spraak formuleerde, waardoor de `*gangbare  leer" der            face, but His back parts, that is, not His glory in its
 gemeene gratie werd vastgesteld. En zoo zou het niet full brilliancy-a glory that no mortal man can see
 ondenkbaar zijn, dat men vanhier een poging had  .ge-            and live, and that thus God's eyes only can endure-
 waagd, om sommige  leiders in Nederland van de ur-               but the lingering splendor of its effects, the face of
gentie der zaak  te  overtuigen.                                  God's face, so to say.
        Maar in de tweede plaats doet het argument van               The act of God, so  1 wrote, consisting in His giving
 Dr. Hepp vreemd aan, omdat het, uitgaat van de onder-            visibility to His glory is accompanied by another act
 stelling, dat de Kerken hier en daar te recht of te on-          consisting in His proclaiming by the spoken  wor,d
 recht, in waarheid of leugen, door dik en dun heen  soli-        His name in the audience of Moses. Without this lat-
 dair  moeten  blijven en elkander  moeten  steunen. Het ter act the revelation would not be complete. The ear
 zou tech immers  ook kunnen, dat de Christelijke Gere-           as well as the eye must be addressed, if Moses is to be
  formeerde Kerken alhier dien "slag in het aangezicht", actually benefited. As the symbol by itseif is mute,
 waarvan Dr. Hepp  sprak, moesten hebben? Dat zou so, too, the light in which He now robes Himself. As
  we1 kunnen, ook indien het  waar is, dat de Kerken the symbol, it calls for the  explan+ory word. This
  alhies  "het licht" der  "Drie  Punten"  uit Nederland word is not lacking here. It is actually twice given;
  hadden ontvangen. Het licht der "Drie  Punten" kan first when the Lord said, "And I will be gracious to
  we1  duisternis  zijn, en  is  mette?+Jaud   du&?ernis. En whom I will be gracious. and will show mercy unto
  als de zaak nu eens zoo stond, dat'het "gemeene gratie whom I will show mercy," and'again  when the Lord,
 licht", dat in 1924 alhier uit Nederland scheen, en da:          passing by Moses, declared, "The Lord, the Lord God,


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   l3EAkER                                              59
      -.-"-.~ -.-_..".."  -....._. "--.-_- .._. -..~- -_...-"    -_           .-.-.~-_.-                  -^..._
merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in they love Him, without interruption sin, daily in-
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, for- crease their guilt and thus make themselves deserving
giving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that of destruction many. times each hour of their existence.
will by no means clear the guilty ; visiting the iniquity Though  His people, redeemed and sanctified, sin  ,still
of the .fathers  upon the children, and upon the child-                riots in their bosom. How low the flame of their love
ren's children, unto the third and to the fourth gene- will at times burn! How weak their faith! How de-
ration."                                                               vitalized their hope can be ! `How conformed are they
   This is the answer to Moses' question. It carries at times according to their farmer lusts ! How the
us back in our mimls to the threat and the promise light in them is obscured by the old man and his works
aflixed to the second commandment and that reads, when  they.refuse  to lay off this man! How they, too,
"For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting will break His covenant and stand in the way of
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the sinners!  -
third and fourth generation of them that hate me ;                        You would gainsay this? Examine then the re-
and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love cord that Israel made during the period of its wander-
me, and keep my commandments."                                         ings in the desert. What murmurings! What re-
   Let us concentrate on the Lord's reply to Moses. bellions! How  israel   wouId  time and again set its
The clause, "And will by no means clear the guilty"                    mouth against Heaven; how its tongue would run
reads in the original Hebrew, "And I will by no means through the earth, finding fault with God's ways! And
clear." Is this clause. one piece with what precedes in the very shadow of Sinai this people was seen
or with what follows it? Must we read, "forgiving whirling about a .god made of their own earrings. And
iniquity and transgression and sin but that will by how they continued to taunt God to `His face as resi-
no means clear. . . ." or must we take the thought con- dents of Canaan!
veyed to be, "but will by no means clear them hating                      To say now that what is here being depicted are
me but in respect to such will visit the iniquity of the reactions solely of .the reprobated Israel, will not
the fathers upon the children. . . ."                                  at all do. All sin. The whole congregation murmurs.
   How this reply of the Lord is to be punctuated may There is none righteous. All go out of the way. To-
be learned from the original reading of the text, "And gether they become unprofitable. Were not, barring
the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord,                   the few isolated. exceptions, the whole of the Israelites
the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering disobedient in the wilderness ? Did not the carcasses
and abundant in goodness and truth. He is and will. >f them all fall in the desert? Was not the whole of
be keeping mercy for thousands. He is and will be                      the Israelites exiled to Babylon, when the measure of
forgiving iniquity and `transgression and sin but He iniquity was filled?
will assuredly not clear; He is and will be visiting                   ,, But Jehovah is merciful God. The eternal blessed
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children. . . ."                  One in Himself, He efficaciously wills the well-being
   In the original text the three verbs keep, forgive,                 of His ill-deserving people, so that they live, and living
and  v&it are  Pie1 active participles and thus represent hunger and thirst after righteousness and as satisfied
the actions in their unbroken continuity, and so cor-                  by His likeness, experience that to know Him in the
respond to the English auxiliary to be with the present face of Christ is life eternal. And under the impulse
participle-He is,  wccs, shall be keeping, etc. On the of His Spirit, they who seek the Lord and sorrow
other hand, the verb clear (in the original) is a Pie1                 after God go out unto the tabernacle of the congrega-
imperfect, and is joined to the preceding clause by the tion, which is without the camp. And they receive
adversitive conjunction but.                This shows that the from Him the testimony that they are His sons to
statement, "He will assuredly not clear," is a clause whom He giveth all things?
thrown in, so to say, and is to be taken as forming one                   Gracious is He in Himself; glorious God, the in-
piece with what precedes it.                                           clusion of all that is good and lovely, infinite in His
   Thus the Lord is and will be forgiving iniquity. . . perfection.                 And  .He is gracious to His people. He
but he will assuredly not clear. Will not clear who? saves  t'hem from all their sins and by the power of
Those hating Him (the reprobate) and whose iniqui- His almighty, creative word, conforms them according
ties He will visit upon the children? It cannot be.                    to the image of His Son and will adorn them also with
To make  chose  hat&g  Him  the object of the action the beauty of holiness in the day of Christ with Whom
signified by the word clear, is to join the clause, "He they shall appear in glory. And over them as saved
will not clear" to the sequence. This, as was shown,                   and beautified He joys with singing: for He is gracious
must not be done. Those whom He will not clear are God. How longsuffering He .is ! How He bears with
thus the ones whose sins and iniquities He is always His sinful people! How inexhaustible His  .patience   !
in unbroken continuity forgiving,-His people, chosen                   How abiding His love! They forsake Him in the  in-
unto life eternal in Christ, These, His people, though terestof another god and so far is He from consuming


60                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                               -
them in a moment, that, taking them to His heart as that the verb clear is the translation of a Hebrew wore
ever, He renews with them the covenant that they that in the Pie1 means to pronounce innocent, to acquit,
have broken, and as He was wont leads them about,             to absolve, to  let. go unpunished, to forgive.  In con-
instructs them, keeps them as the apple of His eye, nection herewith, it should be noticed that the verb
beareth them on His wings of everlasting mercy, sends forgive in the clause, "He will forgive transgression,
an angel before them, drives out the Canaanite and iniquity and sin" is the translation of a word that
brings them unto a land flowing with milk and honey. means to  take  or carry away.
      And He is abundant in goodness! He is the high-             So then,what Moses hears the Lord say is that
est, the absolute, good in Himself, and therefore the         He will take away the iniquity of His pople, but will
eternal blessed God with Whom are rivers of pleasures. not absolve them, let them go unpunished. Once more,
For He is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.       how amazingly incredible ! How apparently contrary,
And from Him is every good gift and every perfect gift, the actions of the Lord with which we here have to do.
from Him the Father of light with Whom is no vari-            He will forgive them, yet He will not absolve. He will
ableness, neither shadow of turning. And of His own exalt and still debase them; bless them and at once
will begat He His people with the word of  truth              pursue them with His wrath; take them to His heart,
that they should be a kind of first. fruits of and yet eject them from His blessed presence ; lead
His creatures.      And abundant in goodness, He them in avenues of mercy and at once cause them to
forgiveth    all their     iniquities,      heals all their descend into the pit of eternal sorrow and grief; for,
diseases, redeems their life from destruction, crowns he will not clear, He being righteous God.
them with loving-kindness and tender mercies, satis-              This paradoxical reply, it is to be considered, is
fies their mouth with good, so that their youth is re- meant first for Moses' ears. Moses, as was shown, is:
newed like the eagle's.                                       perplexed. There are questions in his soul to which
      Abundant in truth is He, faithful Jehovah. He he can find no answer. The Lord must punish on
keepeth mercy unto thousands of them that love Him, account of its great sin the very people whom He is
His chosen people instituting and perpetuating with in duty bound to save on account of promises made to
them His covenant in their generations, bringing them t?le fathers. As Moses sees it, the Lord must do both
all in the blessed fellowship of Him, the Triune God, yet can do neither. But Moses has still another riddle.
so that all are saved. So does He ever remember His If the Lord is resolved to spare them, the great sin
covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, must be forgiven. But how can a sin, unatoned for,
yea, with Christ, and looks upon His children and has         be pardoned? Moses knows not. Let the Lord tell
respect to them and `hears their groanings. And no            him. So he prays, "Lord show me thy way, that 1
more than a woman can forget her suckling child, that may know Thee better. Show me thy glory." Give me
she should not have compassion on the son of her the answer to the riddle that troubles my soul. Dis-
womb, no more can He forget His people. Yea, they close to me the how of thy salvation.
may forget, yet will He not forget them. Behold, He               And the Lord now proclaims His name and thus
has them graven in the palms of His hands.                    replies. And the substance of that first section of  His
      And He always was and is and will be, forgiving reply is:           I do and will forgive. . .  .but I will as-
in unbroken continuity the iniquity, transgression and suredly not clear. These two seemingly contrary ac-
sin of His people, and justifying them in their hearts        tions Moses in all likelihood never succeeded in har-
as often as they mourn after Him, testifying with their monizing. And apparently contrary actions they in-
spirits then that they are His children whom He fol- deed are. The sins forgiven He will visit upon the
lows by His goodness and mercy all the days of their very people pardoned ; for He will not clear, shut His
life and whom He will make to dwell in His house  for- eyes to their transgressions and pronounce them inno-
ever.                                                         cent, with their moral debt still unpaid. Yet He wil1
      But what must we make of the statement, "But forgive iniquity.
will assuredly not clear." As was shown, the object               Glorious riddle, exalting both the justice and the
of the action designated by the verb clear is not the          mercy of God, but a riddle nevertheless, whose only
reprobate, Chose  hating  Him, but the very people whom answer is Christ. Upon Him the Lord laid the iniquity
He loves and blesses and foregives and saves, to wit,          If us all. For our transgressions He was wounded
those in whose hearts He sheds abroad His love and and bruised for our iniquities. Upon Him was  the
who therefore, love Him their Redeemer-God. These chastisement of our peace ; and with His stripes are
He will assuredly not clear. How amazingly incred- we healed,  - healed in that He, the incarnate Son of
ible ! How apparently contrary, this tenet, to His God, in His suffering and death sustained to His people
former declarations.                                           the relation of head, so that they were with Him oil
      He will not clear. What may the force of this            the cross, in His death, in His grave and thus also
statement be? Turning to the Lexicon  .we discover with Him in His exaltation., It. means that from the


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          61
-.I.-I  ..- I-.._" ""..-                                          -_____.-"         -^-._"   _.....   - -     ~ - _ _ _
point of view of right, His bruising was at once the say, Lord, Thy word taketh non-effect." Not as though
bruising of all His people, so that in smiting Him, the word of God hath taken none-effect. For they are
God smote also them. Therefore could He be raised up not all Israel, which are of Israel; neither, because
unto their justification. Verily, He forgiveth iniquity, they are the seed of Abraham are they all children ;
Jut will by no means clear.                                  but in Isaac shall his seed be called. That' is, They
      But as Moses had not Christ as the direct object       which are the children of the flesh, these are not the
c3f his vision, the action of God here depicted, must ohildren of God ; but the children of the promise are
have stood out before his mind as an inscrutable doing. counted for the seed.
And upon this doing the Lord shed no light, as the                And when he sees the children of the promise in the
  teasure  of Moses' capacity for comprehending  i;he camp, those loving the Lord, making common cause
mysteries of God was not great enough to allow him with the children of the flesh, and hears them justify-
to be benefited by this light, had it been shed, he being ing their complaints and even taking upon their lips
a son of the Old Testament covenant,  - a son moving their vile murmurings, let him not in his extreme
midst the shadows of the dispensation of the promise.        vexation of spirit rail against and revile this people,
      Yet the revelation given was wholly compatible as if it housed no elect nucleus, but let him in all such
with what Moses at that hour had need of hearing. fiery trials consider that he is the servant of Him, the
Moses' heart was troubled. He feared for the life of Lord God, Who keepeth mercy unto thousands  aud
his people. Jehovah must spare, he knew. Yet a great forgiveth iniquity, but will not clear. Consider this,
sin had been committed, and the Lord being righteous let him ever preserve in his intercession for this people
will not clear the guilty. So the Lord speaks, "Have -ill-deserving yet chosen and therefore the beloved of
no fear, I will forgive them," such is the implication,      God.
surely, of the proclamation of His name, "I will for-             Tlhere  is still another word of the Lord spoken by
give them, as I am the Lord God, mercifu1 and grac- Him at this time that Moses had great need of. In rc-
ious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and sponse to Moses' petition, "I beseech thee, show me
truth. I will keep mercy for thousands, forgiving in- thy glory," the Lord replied, "I will make all my good-
iquity and transgression and sin, but know, too, that ness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name
in forgiving them, I do not deny myself by infringing of the Lord before thee," and then follows this word,
upon My righteousness. I will forgive them, but I "and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and
will not clear the guilty, leave unpunished their sin; will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy." The
for I am God, merciful and-just. Such is My name. necessary implication of this latter word is, "And
Glorious name! Let Moses hear and be still. Let whom He will He hardeneth."
this communication calm his troubled soul.                        What may be the connection between this word and
      But there is more `to the Lord's reply that Moses the announcement immediately preceding it, "I will
also had need of, "I will without interruption visit the make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will pro-
iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the claim the name of the Lord before thee."
children's children, unto the third and to the fourth             The name of the Lord is the signification of the
generation (of them that hate me).                           aggregate of His virtues or glories, one with His in-
      As we have said, this second section of the procla- visible being.       This name-all His goodness ; His
mation turns solely upon the reprobated Israel. `As          mercy, grace and longsuffering, His goodness, truth
the Lord will keep mercy unto thousands of them that and righteousness-He will continue to proclaim be-
love Him (though He will not clear) as He will keep          fore Moses and through Moses before His people by
covenant trust with His chosen ones in their genera-         word, deed and symbol. Those hating Him will revile
tions to the end of time and forever, so will He visit His name without interruption, reject His self-revela-
the sins of those that hate Him (the reprobated seed)        tion. But those loving Him will praise and adore His
upon them in their generations to destroy them from          name. Thus to the one Moses, the preacher of this
the face of the earth.                                       name, will be a savour of death unto death, and to
      In view of the trials still awaiting him, let Moses another a savour of life unto life. But let him ever
take home to his heart also this section of the pro-. be mindful of the fact that this also is the Lord's doing,
clamation and exert himself to lay hold on its impli- as He will be gracious to whom He will be gracious
cation. There is present in the people entrusted to and will harden whom He will.
his care a carnal seed that will continue to taunt God            Let Moses then not press on with the thought in
and as a result of their vile doing come to grief before his soul that all will praise. Indeed, some will revile.
Moses very eye. Let him then not be dismayed and But let him not be driven to distraction by the godless
say in his heart, "Israelites, to wlhom  pertaineth the      reactions of sinful men, for it is the Lord Who harden-
promise and the adoption and the glory, perish. Be- eth, and hardeneth who He wiI1.
hold,  taheir  carcasses fall in this wilderness but let him 0    Let us delineate on this word. *`I wiI.l be gracious


fi 62                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
  -            -                                                         _l________l-_._.......__  --~.- --.-- -
  to whom 1 will be gracious." What is the meaning of praved as his reprobated brother. Consider once more
  this ? T,,at the elective love of God is supreme, abso- the word of the Lord. to Moses, "Forgiving iniquity-
  lutely sovereign. Nowhere (I quote now from a pam- of whom? Of them that love me.
  phlet of mine) is this more plainly taught than in the             Now to rebel against the reasoning of the above-
  ninth chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans. Attend cited scripture, is to be compelled to embrace the sick-
  to the argument of the verses ten to fourteen, And not ening lie that the sovereign reason of God's rejecting
  only this ; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, some, is the latter's wickedness, their persistent re-
  even by our father Isaac ; for the children being not fusal to give ear to the pleading of God, Who would
  yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the save but cannot and therefore finally resolves, contrary
  purpose of God according to election might stand, not to His inmost desire to punish the incorrigible  zulpril
  of works but of him that calleth; it was said *to her, with death eternal. And this is equal to saying that
  The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, the attempt of the Almighty to save ends in a dismal
  Jacob have I loved, but Esau have  I hated.                     failure as often as a sinner perishes.
         This passage asserts, mark you, that God loved              But consider that God's will is not bound ; that the
  Jacob before he had done any good, so that the su-              unwillingness of the sinner can spell no defeat for
  preme cause of the divine`love as it developed upon the Him ; that the stone wall of man's opposition stays not
  younger child was not the good works, that he, as a the Lord; that His resolve to save cannot be shattered
  `-historical phenomenon, performed ; but the will, the upon the rock of man's stinking pride, and unwilling-
  good pleasure of the Almighty God. And this is the ness to be saved.
  same as sating that He loved Jacob with a view to                  How preposterous the idea ! No heart so hard that
  create in him life and goodness. For not of works He cannot break. No sinner so lost: that He cannot
   but of Him that calleth, that the purpose of God ac- save. No sinner;  sunken so low that He cannot raise
  cording to election might stand. Verily, God's mercy up and set in heaven with Christ. However, He hath
  is supreme. . The sole factor that determines its course mercy upon whom He will have mercy, and whom He
   is found solely within Him. He has mercy upon whom will, He hardeneth. Let Moses understand this, that
  He  will.                                                       he may not time and again in the future fall into the
         Deny the sovereignty of divine mercy, say that :i frightful error of despairing of them all. Let him
   sinner of himself believes, can believe if he but will, ponder the Lord's proclamation of His name and learn
   and cannot be made to believe, if he will not, and you to say with Paul, "For we are unto God a sweet savout
   brush aside with one sweep. the entire mass of testi- of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that
   mony found in Scripture that God is God, and set man perish."
   in the throne of a dethroned God. For if the spiritual            Did this speech M' to its substance become that of
   Israel, as to its faith, hope and love, as to its hallowed Moses? It did, it must have. The revelation  given
   energies and power, is not of God, the creation of His him was applied to his heart, so that having heard
  almighty will, He is not Israel's Maker, exalted Father, the Lord proclaim His name and having seen His
   King, and Saviour.            '                                glory, he was far more able to lead them than before.
         To say, therefore, that there is something of  gooci-    But did he, as the leader of God's people always stand
   ness in man that is not of God, not the creation of His equally firm on the truths the Lord then proclaimed
  will-some power, however infinitesimal, to appropri- in his hearing? Better than any teacher and pastor
  ate the Christ and the blessings of the kingdom, to             Shat came after him. For he was of all men the meek-
   take hold of the lifeline thrown out, some power to            est. Yet his meekness did not approach that Cerfect
   utter a single faint cry for mercy- is to strip Him bf meekness that graced the heart and conduct of the
   His infmite might, yea, of all His glories, and to draw common with the holiest of men, labored under the
   Him down to the level of the creature.                         Saviour, Whose shadow Moses was. Moses, too, in
         As to Esau, God hated him before he had done any disadvantage of an imperfect faith and love. It mean3
   evil, so that the supreme reason of the divine hatred, that he did not always stand in the faith that had as
   as it developed upon the older child was not his co!=-         its content the revelation given him while he stood
   ruption, the evil works that he as a historical phenome-       in the cliff of the rock. Tlhis is evident from some of
  non performed, but the will, the good pleasure of God.          his doleful complaints that would form in his soul
   For reasons within Himself, the Almighty resolved when embittered by their murmurings and rebellions,
  to hate and to harden the historical Esau, "Therefore and especially from that terrible wrath of his that
   hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy  ; and would not allow him to fetch them water out of the
   whom He will He hardeneth."                                    rock, - a wrath that cried out, "Hear now ye rebels;
         Consider that if Esau's profanity was the sovereign must we fetch you water out of this rock?" Here he
   reason of God's hatred of him, He would have hated             in his rage would see them all perish in the wilderness
  and rejected Jacob as well, as he by nature was as de- of thirst, and thus -momentarily denied that among
                                                                                       .


                                        T H E   STANDARD   B E A R E R                                              63

 those rebels was found a people that the Lord has
 taken to His heart, thus a people of whom He keepeth                     Openbaring of Aanbod
 mercy. Of such behaviour only imperfect humans                   Alhoewel de Schrift verschillende woorden bezigt
 (and I speak now especially of the pastors and o.m het begrip  Openbaring uit te drunken,.  die de alge-
 teachers) are capable.                                        meene beteekenis dragen  van vertoonen',  verschijnen,
        Place alongside of Moses, Christ. What a contrast! onderwijzen, zichtbaar of bekend  maken,  zijn er  be-
 How  firmly Christ was rooted in those very truths, paaldelijk twee woorden die dit  begrip aanduiden.  Hei
 proclaiming in Moses' hearing as he stood in the cliff. eerste beteekent het openbaar maken van eene zaak
 How these  trut,hs  at once awakened in Him and die verborgen of onbekend was. En het tweede geeft
 strengthened His faith in God and flooded His soul te kennen  het wegnemen van een bedeksel, waardoor
 with peace,-a peace that no resistance to Him  an;1           een voorwerp verborgen was. Vooral in  bet, laatste
 .His doctrine could disturb. How He always carried woord  valt de nadruk op het heilige  mysterie  dat God
 His own on His heart! How He loved them to the openbaart en de goddelijke daad waardoor het mysterie
 end ! How convinced was He always that only those             verstaan wordt.
 whom the Father had given Him would be made to                   Verder leert ons de Schrift,  dat.`alle  openbaring
 come to Him, and that they who rejected Him did so uiteraard Theocentrisch is.               We1  zeer terdege geldt
+,under the necessity of an eternal divine resolve that       het ook van de openbaring Gods, dat uit Hem en door
 they should perish.                                          Hem en tot Hem alle  dingen  zijn, Hem zij de  heerlijk-
        As to Moses, that he was actually benefited by the    heid in der eeuwigheid. Van die openbaring is God
:-evelation  he received (how could it be otherwise) that     de Auteur. Die als de  Driegnige  de  sluier wegtrekt
as amplified by the testimony of the law (of the types        van datgene wat Hij der menschenkinderen wil  be-
xnd symbols of God's blessed doings called for by the kend  maken.  De Vader  openbaart   Zich in den  20011,
law) this revelation was in an ever-increasing measure bet Woord, dat ook onder ons gewoond heeft, want
blessed to his heart is especially evidept from this,         alle dingen  zijn Hem overgegeven van den V$der,  en
that the second time he descended from the mountain,          niemand kent den Vader dan de Zoon, en dien het de
after being forty days and as many nights with God,           Zoon wil openbaren. En dat we1 door den Geest, Die
he did so with a countenance that was bright with `ihe        de diepten Gods doorzoekt. Alhoewel de inhoud dier
glory of heaven that flooded his soul.                        openbaring rijk is in de veelvuldige schakeeringen der
by Moses as he stood in the cliff of. the rock. That heerlijkheden Gods is zij  centraal  Zelf-openbaring. God
   One more word about the glory of God that passed openbaart. Zijn eigen schoon en heerlijk deugdenbeeld
glory was the symbol of the radiance of God, of His in het aangezicht van Jezus  Christus  door  een  ont-
mercy and righteousness, seen in the face of Christ,          plooiing van Zijn welbehagen.      De  raad Gods, die
but also of His justice and severity that is seen in the      een levende werkelijkheid is en inbegrip van Gods
manity He reprobated. For, after having given vi&- eeuwige gedachten, wordt naar buiten gereflecteerd
face of that doing of His, consisting in His sovereign- op het spiegelvlak der wereld, opdat het schepsel daar-
ly hating and hardening that unhappy portion of hu-           in mag  deelen.     Daarom hetgeen het oog niet heeft
bility to His perfections, He also in proclaiming his         gezien, en het oor niet heeft  gehoord, en in het hart
name declared, that He would visit the sins of those des menschen niet is opgeklommen, hetgeen God be-
hating Him upon the children. . . .            G. M. 0.       reid heeft .dien, die Hem  liefhebben,  wordt door den
                                                              Geest geopenbaard. En zooals God Zelf de inhoud der
                                                              openbaring is zoo is God Zelf ook het doe1 daarvan.
                   CORRESPONDENTIE                            God vindt geen oorzaak om tot den mensch uit te gaan
   Vragers en inzenders houden het mij ten goede, dat r in den mensch, om den mensch te redden. maar vindt
ik hen ook ditmaal nog moet teleurstellen, vanwege' oorzaak in Zichzelf om Zijne heerlijkheid ten too; t?
gebrek aan plaatsruimte.        In een volgend  nummer        stellen. God maakt ons bekend de verborgenheid van
hoop ik de vragen mij toegezonden te beantwoorden, Zijnen wil, om in de bedeeling van de volheid der tij-
en indien mogelijk ook de ingezonden stukken te plaaf-        den wederom alles tot &5n te vergaderen in Christus
sen.                                           H. H.          tot de eere Zijns Naams.
                                                                 Alhoewel dit  alles geldt van Gods openbaring in
                                                              het algemeen, ligt het tech in den aard der zaak, dat
                 ATTENTION PLEASE ! ! !                       we hier het oog hebben op die bepaalde phase der
   From now on Subscription Price will be $2.00, and openbaring die rechtstreeks  in verband  ,staat met des
Membership Fee $4.00.                                         &enschen  zaligheid.  Oak hier  moeten  we wederom
   Please look at the Subscription Date on your Stan- onderscheiden tusschen die openbaring zooals zij tot
dard Bearer to see if it is correct.                          ons komt in het gesproken, menschelijk woord, een
                            Ralph Schaafsma, Treas.           taal die door menschen verstaan kan worden,  en in de


i


                                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                            65
     _._-.-___ __ "_.^  ..^, --l--l.^.l^ -... ^--"--                   - _-... "^ .-._. -^"-       -.^ .._ ^- .._-............  -.._ ..___...
     is. Daarom is het zoo volkomen waar, dat diegenen oordeel werd verzwaard en zij  kwamen  voor God te
     die Hij te voren  gekend heeft, Hij ook verordineerd staan zonder verontschuldiging. (Rom. 1  :%I).
     heeft, ook geroepen, ook gerechtvaardigd en ook ver-                             Daardoor is Gods raad uitgevoerd, want zij hebben
     heerlijkt. Rom.  8229, 30                                                 gedaan datgene waartoe zij ook gezet  waren. De ver-
         Daartegenover openbaart God  Zich naar Zijn  vrij-                    zoening wordt gebracht, de zaligheid verworven en de
     machtig welbehagen ook aan de verworpenen, maar gemeente gaat de vervulling der belofte binnen om te
     dan tot hun eeuwig oordeel. Ook tot hen spreekt  Hij                       wachten op de eindelijke vernieuwing  dler  dingen,  de
     roepende door de prediking des Evangelies. Hij  ge- volkomene realizeering der heerlijkheid Gods, waarin
     tuigt van zonde en schuld, straf en oordeel, en eischt                     zij eeuwig verzadigd  zullen zijn met Zijn goddelijk
     bekeering. God vergt ook van den goddelooze: Gij                           Beeld.                                                           C.H.
     zult mij dienen ! Want  allen die in aanraking komen
     met de prediking des Woords  moeten  hoorende hooren
     en ziende zien. Duidelijk wordt voor oogen gesteld
     bet kruis van  Christus als de eenigste mogelijke en
     volkomene verlossing, de rijkdommen des heils die God                                      Entrance Into The Kingdom
     gewis en zeker.schenkt  aan een iegelijk die door Gods
     genade zich bekeert en gelooft, zoowel als de geluk-                             There will be many thousands of miserable men
     zaligheid dergenen die vruchten  dragen  in  Christus                      and women in the Day of Judgment who will clamor
     tot heerlijkheid Gods.              Duidelijk komt dit uit, om and wail when they see the door of heaven shut in
     maar Ben voorbeeld te noemen, in de gelijkenis van their faces. And at that time they will begin to say:
     den Onvruchtbaren Vijgeboom. Luk.  13:6-g. Eene "Lord, Lord, do open unto us ! We `cannot understand
     gelijkenis die maar al te vaak voorgesteld wordt als that Thou would thrust us out! Just outside the door;
     een algemeen, welmeenend aanbod van genade. Israel so near and yet so everlastingly far!" these people
     als natie, die als een vijgeboom staat in den wingerd will at that time recall that they said very often : Lord,
     van Gods verbond, heeft nooit vruchten gedragen. Zij Lord ! thinking that such pious exercise would assure
     is onvruchtbaar gebleken, en dat we1 terwijl zij die them an entrance into the Kingdom of heaven. But
     voortreffelijke plaats heeft ingenomen, waar  Christus                     they shall experience too late that the real entrance
     als de wijngaardenier ook dien vijgeboom  bearbeid                         into that Kingdom is : "to do the will of Christ's Father
     heeft, getuigende  eerst in de profeten zelfs tot  Johan-                  which is in Heaven". They shall be people who lived
     nes den Dooper toe en daarna persoonlijk in het among God's people, for they will say at that dread-
     vleesch.      Drie  jaren, als het ware, zijn heengegaan ful day: "We have eaten and drunk in Thy Presence,
     zonder dat de vijgeboom vrucht gedragen heeft en hij                       Lord! Thou hast taught in our streets! And yet:
     is waardig om uitgehouwen te  worden. Reeds spreekt "ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all
     God Zijn oordeel uit over goddeloos Israel, hen ver- the prophets in the Kingdom of God and you your-
     zekerende dat hun huis hun eeuwig wordt woest ge-                          selves thrust out !"
     laten.      Maar nog pleit  Christus  voor  Ben jaar ; een                        Dreadful !
     tijdperk waarin de aarde random  den boom omgegra-                                But oh so true !
     ven en bemest zal  worden  door de machtige prediking                             For it is the Kingdom of Heaven !
     van Zijn lijden en sterven van de opstanding en hemel-                            Which means first of all that it is not in any sense
     vaart, van de uitstorting  des Geestes, en van het Woord of the earth earthy. It came forth from the bosom of
     des kruises verder verspreid door de apostelen en  evan-                   the holy Triune God Himself. He thought of it eter-
     gelisten. Dit kan nooit anders beteekenen dan dat da                        nally in His Counsel. He saw that Kingdom from
     Heiland smeekt om het kruis op Zich te nemen ; dringt                       everlasting to everlasting. Thinking of it, He deter-
     bij den Allerhoogste  aan om de  vaten des toorns  tijde-                  mined it in all its phases, with all its subjects, with all
     lijk nog te  dragen,  terwijl Hij Zijn werk der  verzoe-                   its enemies, with its entire history. No one appeared
     ning volbrengt. Dit geschiedt ook. Zij verwerpen to become His  counsellor.  There is not anything in
     den Christus, nagelen den Heere der heerlijkheid  aan that Kingdom that is human, earthy or temporal in
      het hout met spot en hoon, dooden den Vorst des Le-                        its origin. Before time, space, earth, heavens and man
     vens en verachten het bloed der verzoening. Zij ver-                        were created, that Kingdom existed really in God's
     loochenen de opstanding en verwerpen de prediking counsel. In its entirety, as it will shine and glitter
      daarvan. En het oordeel vertoeft. Eindelijk blijkt everlastingly. Its origin is entirely heavenly.
     de boom geheel verdorven te zijn en is gereed om  uit-                            Therefore its character is also heavenly. It is true
     gehouwen te  worden.  Goddeloos Israel maakt te mate that in creation we have many pictures, symbols of
      der ongerechtigheid vol. Zij hebben de prediking des many phases of that Kingdom, but a picture and a
      Woords gehad en het was hun een reuke des doods ten symbol are no characteristics. Its flavor and taste,
      doode.      Zonde kwam tot openbaring als zonde, het its dimensions and laws are purely heavenly. There-


66                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
___-._l_---                  -.._..           ..." II__-.-          ._I _,_ -"--_."  ..-.- _-_-........_-"  ,-.-__,.........._..  --. --__ __-.-" - _____
fore the earthy eye cannot see it. It may come very                       world, in connection with our dear ones and friends,
nigh unto that earthly eye in the days of John the                         but also in connection with our enemies, in connection
Baptist and nearer still in the days of Jesus, still, the                 with the Law of God and all His statutes, in connection
human, earthy eye cannot see it. And only because it with the devil and his angels, but also in connection
is heavenly in character.              The human, earthly ear with the holy angels of God  - in all the ramifications
cannot hear one single stanza of the heavenly songs of our entire life, the call is to be heavenly through-
that are sung in the midst of that heavenly Kingdom,                      out. Never may we assume the viewpoint of the earth.
even though these songs may resound and do resound Always we hear the resounding cry from the heavenly
around about that earthly ear. You may sing of that Lord: Set your affections on the things above and not
Kingdom for 6000 years and never will the earthly on the things below. Quit yourself as heavenly  aol-
ear know of it. It is folly to the mind that is earthly.                  diers, sighting the heavenly battle till the very end,
The reason is that this Kingdom in its flavor, taste, so that you may be worthy citizens of the heavenly
and all .characteristics  is only and entirely heavenly. kingdom.
It belongs entirely to other worldly spheres. It belongs                       That Kingdom made history and its history is not
to spheres that are not as yet revealed on earth. Not yet finished.
so that the earth can see it. It is revealed on earth,                         It was announced by God in very creation, so  that
but with the revelation of it you must receive Kingdom Paradise was a picture, a visible symbol of that King-
ears, eyes, hearts, minds and souls in order to perceive dom. The first page of Genesis and the last page of
it. Except a man be born again he cannot see  the Revelations fit. The one is the picture and the other
Kingdom of heaven.                                                        is the spiritual, eternal, glorious, heavenly realization
      That leads us to the third qualification. This King- of it. And between these two you have the history
dom is heavenly in its King and subjects.                                 of its coming.
      Christ Jesus, the Son of God is the heavenly or-                         After the announcement in creation and the earthly
dained King and the Christians are its subjects.                          Adam we have the fall. But immediately we see the
      And Christ Jesus is heavenly. Why, Is He called unfolding of the same Kingdom, in types throughout
the Lord of heaven? It is because His blessed life the Old Dispensation.
from all eternity .is only heavenly. He is the essentiai                       And we learn ever clearer that its foundation is
Son of God, Second Blessed Person of the everblessed blood. For a while, it is true, we only see the blood of
heavenly Trinity. And for that Son heaven is His lambs and of goats, but finally we see the heavenly
throne.                                                                   blood, as it were. And Hebrews tells us that Christ
      Moreover, that Christ as to His humanity is or-                     went into the heavenly. sanctuary with His precious
dained from eternity by the father to be the King of blood.
that heavenly Kingdom. Of that Son the Father hath                             The Kingdom, that is, the realization of God dwell-
said: Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of ing with us in His eternal palaces as friends, is
Zion! And that holy hill of Zion is but another name founded in the blood of Jesus. And that blood spells
for the heavenly Kingdom.                                                 obedience to God's will from the motive of purest love.
      And the Christians are also heavenly. They hail When the elect of God, elect to become citizens, became
from  ,heaven because they are eternal thoughts of the sinners and worthy unto death, Jesus came, the
heavenly God. From all eternity the Lord God thought heavenly King, in order that He might liberate them
of them in thoughts of heavenly peace.                        They are from the prison of sin, guilt and death and bring them
thoughts of the Almighty. Their birth as Christians into the Kingdom. That is the meaning of the Blood
is from the heavens. They are born not by the will of that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel.
man, but by the Spirit of Christ that is heavenly.                             And this Kingdom  .is still future in the days of
Therefore their life, their aspirations , their longings Jesus. True, its foundation, its basis He laid, but it
and yearnings are all heavenward. And when they is still future as to its full realization. He builds on
look around them they cry: Father which art in the foundation of His blood throughout the ages. And
heaven, give that Thy will be done here on earth as  1: its principle is in our hearts. The Kingdom of heaven
is done in heaven. They would never be satisfied ex- is within you.
cept heaven appears around them and entirely within                            You must enter into that Kingdom if it is going to
them. Their Lord is in heaven and so their walk is                        be well with  370~ and me.
in heaven. Their brethren, very many of them, are                              You must enter it. What does that mean?
in heaven and so they are entirely, as to the new man                          Its entrance does not consist of outward things in
heavenly creatures.                                                       the first place, and as to its idea it is spiritual, in-
      And  finally,  that kingdom is  heaven1.y  in its obli- visible, of the inmost heart.
gations. In all of them. For the body and for the                              The text says that its entrance does not consist of
soul   and for all the time we spend in this miserable                    saying Lord, Lord. And when you read the same  his-


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          67
 -111"                    -.__ ..___-     -_--- ..-.-                                          .--- _ll_l._--l^.-.-----
 t.Jry   in Luke  I<'.J :BG-BY, you hear the very same thing.    the God-Man, the  Emmanuel. It is Jesus Christ, the
 There will be people in the Judgment Day who ~111                Son of God.
say to the heavenly King; We have eaten and drunk                    And here is the blessedness of the Gospel: He as-
in Thy presence and Thou hast taught in our streets.             cends the holy hill of Zion in purest obedience sub-
 But He shall say, I tell you, I. know not whence ye stitutionally for you and me. For all the elect of God.
are, depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity. There * He pays the awful price for all your and mine dis-
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye  shall           obedience and that is the story of His Blood. That is
see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets shed for me, even for me !
in the Kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out.                 When He became obedient unto the death of the
    Also from that Scripture we learn that entrance              cross, He did it in my stead. And when He has
into that heavenly Kingdom does not consist of external          finished all the labor of His soul, it is as though I have
observances. True, we cannot do without externals.               done it. That is the sweetest strain of the Gospel.
But Jesus does not condemn externals as such, nay, He Henceforward Paul determines not to know  anything
condemns it when you have nothing  .9ut externais.               but Christ and Him crucified. Do you see the blessed
Externals are good when they reveal what lives in                reason?    The Cross of Christ is. the entrance.
the heart.                                                       Hallelujah!
    Therefore birth in the line of the Covenant, to have             But this is not all.
God-fearing parents, church attendance, catechism                    Because, even if Christ is the Obedient One, we are
teaching, confessing the Name of God, partaking of on the contrary very disobedient by nature. And so
Christ's Supper - all these things are nothing but He comes by His Holy Spirit and regenerates us so
terrible condemnation if they are all you possess. Then that His life of perfect obedience enters us and re-
you surely will not enter the blessed Kingdom of creates us unto new creatures. And through daily
heaven.                                                          conversion we are taught by the, Selfsame  Spirit to be
    What then is the entrance?                                   sorry for our sins and to fight the Sght of faith against
    Doing the will of God constitutes the entrance ac- all unrighteousness. Instead of lifting up our souls
cording to the text. And we realize that this answer unto vanity we receive the wisdom from heaven so
has a pelagian sound, as though after all man by his that we may walk in the right direction, having our
own work of obedience could enter the Kingdom of reborn souls filled with the sweet meditations of right-
heaven. And I would make answer that I do not care eousness, holiness and spiritual knowledge. And we
how much it sounds like pelagianism, that obedience become lovers and speakers of the truth, every one
to the will of God is the only door heaven possesses.            with his neighbor.
There is no other  entrace.  And the door to hell is                And this is principally true of every child of God.
the door of disobedience to God's will. That is the              As to the new man he sinneth not, but doeth the will
truth which you will fmd on every page of the Bible.             of Christ's Father in heaven. As to the old man, we
   But let us explain.                                           night against him every day and mortify him, so that
    We  fmd the whole matter beautifully stated  i,n             haply  we may enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
Psalm 24 3-6. There we read : "Who shall ascend into                For Jesus' sake.
the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand at His holy                                                         G . V .
place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart,
who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn
deceitfully."
   There is the answer. And you have noticed that                                       Sngezonden
also there we have the matter of entrance into the
Kingdom, that is, the holy hill of Zion.                            Hooggeachte Redakteur :
   The only answer is purest obedience, from the                    Nieuwsgierig nam ondergeteekende begin der  vori-
love of God.                                                     ge week kennis van wat, onder het  `hoofdje:  "Nog  iets
   But then I hear you make answer and say: Who over christelijke feestdagen" in No.  1 van den Dertien-
can then be saved? For we  ,have  very filthy hands;             den Jaargang van den Standard Bearer publiek werd
our hearts are cesspools of unholiness; continually I gemaakt doos U.
lift up my soul unto vanity : and as for truth in the in-           Immers ondergeteekende was het die de zaak van
ward parts : all men are liars and I am one of them !            het al of niet vieren dier dagen door ons (dat  wil
And we would say: that is true of all natural men.               zeggen: onze Kerken) in No. 15 van den 12den jaar-
But there is one man among men who is not so. He gang van den Standard Bearer het eerst in bespreking
fulfills the requirements of the heavenly entrance to bracht.  Een daad, om het zoo stout eens te noemen,
the very last  .and-  minutest  detail,  And that  MEW  ia waarwer hij tot heden nog geen berouw heeft gehad.


 70                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                         _~ . .._...._ -..""ll.^"."l.                                                    -             -_1
   The Protestant Reformed Churches                                  provided the opportunity and paved the way for this
                                                                     issue. By careful analysis, it reveals that after all,
                       In America                                    there were in the Christian Reformed Churches but
       It is our privilege, although a difficult one, to re-         two groups-it was said that three was the correct
 view this latest publication in our paper. The latest number, Janssen, Berkhoff  c.s; and Danhof-Hoeksema,
 work of the Rev.  H. Hoeksema is given to  our                      the consistent and inconsistent Janssen men and the
 Churches and especially to the younger generation,                  two ministers Danhof anl Hoeksema. Since 1922  iL
 for the purpose that they may acquaint themselves with became plain that there was a fundamental agreement
 the origin, the developments leading up to it, as well in principle of those who cling to the view of common
 as the doctrinal differences between  our Churches  and            grace, while it was also plain that the two ministers,
 those that are known by the name of the Christian,                 who rejected this theory, could expect, that a  struggIe
 Reformed Church of America. Such, according to the about this erroneous doctrine could not be avoided.
 "Foreword", was .the aim of the writer and we adti                 Pamphlets and articles were written and answered and
 that he could not have rendered a better service to                the contents of the opponents made it plain from the
 the younger element of our Churches. True, it  ls,                 start, that the issue was to be followed by classical
 that the author happens to be one of the main charac- and  synodical  actions.
 ters of this history, and consequently, could not e+                   The following ten pages deal with the protests
 cape the possibility, while dealing with a part of his             and accusations against the two ministers and the  un-
 life-story, that he was in danger to lend color to ths             chivalrous manner and unchristian methods employed
 facts and citations as they were to be narrated in his             by the brethren of "the cloth" of whom especially a
youngest publication. Generally speaking, no history                castor  of Kellogsville,  Mich., made himself notorious,
,writer  can escape this fact when he tries to make                 when according to the title-page of his brochure, it
 fiction out of history. But even apart from that, the was to have the support of his consistory, this  consis-
so-called neutral historians, cannot and do not give the tory  nev?r lent its support. And while most of these
correct interpretation bf the actual facts and are not              men are living and therefore able to confess their
able to find a public that is willing to read or to ac-             evil-doings in this matter, they do well to read this
cept those productions. Hence, in this book we do not               book, and after their memories are refreshed, come to
meet with a writer who belongs to the above  men-                   confession before God and the men against whom the)
t3oned  class, but with one who has lived this history committed such grievous sins. It will make preaching
and whose life is closely connected with it. Why  do. about sin much easier.
we make these statements? Because it is our purpose                    As to the contents, the opponents in their writings
to do justice to this book and its author. This book                made plain that the issue after all was:
will not be read only by our people, but also by others.               1. Against particular grace in favor of  common-
Therefore, we wish to point out first of all, that not              grace.
all that could be said was written, and many things                    2. Against  aecacious grace in favor of a well-
that were omitted would surely vindicate the state- meaning offer.
ment, that, as much as possible that writer refrained                  3. Against emphasis on predestination in favor
from referring to facts which happened, and  t.hat of man's  responsibi%y.
zmight seem to be an effrontery to the person (s) or                   4. Against insistence on total depravity in favor
parties concerned, were they written. After careful                 of good that sinners do.
reading, the impression left is, that the writer, without              In one word a protest against what is and always
malice in heart and mind, gathered the facts,  com-                 has been fundamentally Reformed and a  defence  of
piled, explained and appraised them, co that even the               what bears  all the earmarks of Pelagianism and
most severe critic, if acquainted with the events, must             Arminianism.
admit that this book is a faithful reproduction of what                !Phe following chapters III-V deal with the classi-
happened in the past.                                               cal tianglings, the 1924 Synod ; how it worked and
   Let us briefly give the contents of this book. The               what it decided. No less than thirty pages are written
first sixteen pages deal with the past history of the               to describe this part of the history. Some  of, the
common grace question. The writer proceeds from the material is rather lengthy, yet; for the sake of clarity,
time of the Janssen case and treats the teachings in-               it couId  not be dealt with in any other way. Once more
valved, the -protests against them, the parties in thfs             we walked to the Classical meetings, that were to be
struggle, the method of procedure before the  ecclesias-            the prelude of a  seemingly  lost  cause.  And we, who
tical bodies and the final result of this case when "Lt             with the Rev. Hoeksema were witnesses of the classi-
terminated in 1922. That is the historical background              cal hierarchy and corruption, feel the injustices done
for the common grace controversy. The Janssen case once more. However, when we compare those cold


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                    71
 l__l lll-............"...I  "--_l-"..    ,-_ ---_.--  .._._-  ^
facts with the result they brought about, we can only                ourselves of Reformed brethren? Men, who in the
do one thing, that is, to express our thanks, and praise             Janssen case just about wore out the threshold of  the
`our God for the deliverance out of so much corruption. home of the writer of t.his book, turned their backs
      The younger generation will find some instructive              upon him when their own ambition was realized. Af-
 pages concerning the questions of what a consistory ter reading the book, we wish to state here, that the
and Synod should be and what the relation is between Rev. Hoeksema has been very lenient with his op-
these  ecclesistical  bodies and the local consistory. The ponents by not making use of nZE that could be used.
writer tried and succeeded in answering these ques-                  He does not  eIaborate upon the closed door sessions of
tions and they are instructive to the older generation               both Classis and Synod, where the Rev's Danhof and
as well. It has been said, and rightly so, that apart                Hoeksema were not asked to appear. We also have
from the doctrinal differences, the matter of Church in mind the fact that the Faculty of the Theological
Polity as applied in this controversy; would indeed be               School of the Christian Reformed Churches were never
sufficient to sever connections with the churches where- seen or heard at  Classis  personally, but lent a willing
in WC formerly had a name and a place. Anyone who hand to help to depose a faithful minister of the Word
was an eye witness of the way matters were brought                   in secret sessions. And was it not a foregone con-
before and  deaIt with by the broader  ecclessiastical               clusion that, "He must be put out, but that it could
gatherings, and as they are again placed before out                  not be done on the basis of the Confession"?
minds in this book, cannot come to any other con-                       Those things are omitted, but belong also to  ' this
clusion, that the whole procedure from the beginning                 history. God has heard and seen it all and it ~shall
to the end was not `in conformity with the Reformed                  be revealed sometime. Let me repeat, the writer re-
conception of Church Polity. What belonged to the                   frained from making use of all the material mentioned
local consistory was brought and received at Classis.               above and perhaps it was for the better, so that even
what should be discussed on the floor of Classis was                the enemies must admit that nothing less than the
sent to Synod, that what should be the property of th?              cold facts were given.
churches in general was without them decreed by  Sy  -
nod. Doctrinal points were not dealt with or  brougl:`                  Once more. After a period of more than ten years.
up for discussion and one present at those meeting  :               we again lived through this struggle and again we felt
received the impression, that it was not done because               the injustice of the whole of the procedure that ulti-
no one dared to show his ignorance. Thus for instance,              mately led to the existence of our Churches and sealed
we find it written in this book in re the protest of the theirs  right of existence (hun rechtsbestaan) .
t,hree men, of the Rev's Schans, Van  Baalen, Van der                   In detail and very minutely the writer recorded
Mey and after the 1924 Synod of many more. The                      every document as it was sent to and discussed at the
only thing  Classis busied  itseIf with (both Grand                 broader gatherings of the Churches.  Painstakingiy
Rapids East and West) was, whether or no the pro-                   he avoided to distort the actual facts, neither does
tests were, from a formal point of view, legally before             his last brain-child breathe an air of vindictiveness. It
her. On the basis of what happened eleven years ago                 is almost  unbehevable  that such is the real history
an officebearer may be stabbed in the back at any time              as one finds it in this book, yet, whereas we were one
and is therefore never sure how long he will be a                   of the many eye and ear witnesses, nothing less (and
minister in good standing. Anybody can, without in-                 much more) could have been written and we dare say,
formink or discussing his protest with the party                    that no one in the Churches wherein we had our places
concerned, bring his grievances to the "higher church               formerIy, will be able to contradict the facts as .given
courts" at any time and can find a ready ear either                 in the chapters VI-XIII. And well may the writer of
in  Classis  Grand Rapids East or West of the Christian             this book close this part of the history and with the
Reformed Churches. After reading that part of the                   warning: "Well may the minister that dwells in the
history one is amazed of the brazen-facedness of men                dominion of Classis  Grand Rapids `West (and East)
who are called leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ.               daily, with fear and trembling, apply the words which
Their dealings and their methods remind the reader                  Jacob spoke concerning Simeon and Levi, to himself:
of the dealings and the tactics of gangland, wherein                "0 my soul. come not thou into their secrets, for in
no law and order except their la-w and their order, are             their anger they slew a man, and in their self-will thev
the standards whereby the accused is iudged.  Or is                 digged down a wall" Gen. 49 :6.
it not proven beyond any doubt. and written in this                     Naturally the following chapters (XIV and  XV'
history-book. that from the outset it was not a questio:l           deal with the subsequent history of the beginning nf
of seeking the wellbeing of the Churches that was                   our own Churches. First  as protesting and  finallv
uppermost in the minds of the leaders or it was, what after 1926 as the Churches of the Protestant Reformed
is the benefit derived from it?) but, how we can rid                denomination. These chapters contain primarily the


72                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
-z4_.... _____I"  -.._-_-----                                                                          --"__--"
temporary organization and consequently our cxpan- are faded and others were not sent in( as is the case
sion.                                                          with my own congregation).
      Without going into detail, for this would tiecessi-         T,he second part of this book is a catechism  aspeci-
tate another book, the reader is given a bird's-eye vie<;      ally adapted for our Churches. It deals with the fol-
of the temporary organization, to wit, the basis of lowing subjects : On the Arminian doctrine of com-
agreement as combined consistories, the plan of action mon grace; on the Kuyperian view of common grace;
without respect to propagating the views of the con-           the common grace theory of the first point ; the general
sistories in re the Three Points and the appointment of grace theory of the first point; sundry arguments re-
Rev. Hoeksema with power to act according to circum- futed, (explanations given and texts made plain that
stances. It reveals that it was after all not  a  question,    seemingly favor the idea of universal atonement)  ; the
to depose a few ministers with their congregations.            second point and its iniplications; Synod's proof for
but that in many communities people were eager 21              the second point;  t.he third point and its implications;
know what had be&n decided and done in 1924 and                Synod's proof of the third point, and finally Synod's
why. Also this history concerns itself with the actual         proof for the third point from Scripture, covering no
facts without addition or subtraction. The writer dis-         less than 118 pages. This part of the book is very
carded all the elements that did not have direct bear- elaborate and contains a wealth of material that can
ing on the history proper, sometimes ommitting that            be used in the home, societies for young and old both.
which would be unfavorable for the parties involved.           Personally we doubt whether it would be wise to use
To a certain extent this fact makes that Carticular part it in the Catechism classes except in a class of sonfess-
of our history rather brief.                                   ing members. The whole of it is carefully arranged
                                                               and may be considered a thorough'study of the whole
      The internal strife is dealt with in a manner that       issue that was at stake throughout the controversy,
is pleasing. We do not mean that the history as to             including its'implications.
content is such, but that what is written must be re-             In his foreword the author gives several reasons
corded for the sake of the truth ommitting those things        why he deemed it advisable to write this book at. d
which perhaps should have been preserved (meetings rather early date. His first consideration and chief
held in public both in Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo).            one is, that the rising generations in our churches
But also here the ommission is to be commended, for must have an opportunity to acquaint themselves with
it prevents the appearance of evil. Pet, this seemingly the history 04 the churches of which they are members.
little part of our history is of a more grievous nature We agree fully and to our mind this must be added to
than the preceding chapters that deal with the rupture it, that this book is also indispensible for the older
and final separation with the Christian Reformed generation as well. And in making this statement I
Churches. How could ,it be otherwise? When in the              mean the whole book.
midst of the brethren, cast out of the synagogue to-              The writer lived up to the expectation, that gram-
gether for the sake of principles dear to their hearts,        mar  a,nd style and composition are above reproach.
defended till they had no place any more, I say, when          The writer did not make himself guilty of prolixity.
in their midst there steals in the green and yellow mon- This, however, does not mean that the latest publi-
ster of jealousy and distrust, is it not a cause for in-       cation is an `easy' reading book. It takes the nature
tense suffering? It always is, if God's cc~use is dear to      of a study book and demands one's full attention from
our heccrts. Instead of finishing this part of the book the beginning until the end. But after all, the history
with some of the gloomy episodes, the writer sum-              of our Churches is not a fairy tale.
marizes the closing pages with the existence of our               The index of subjects and texts are a great help to
denomination, number of our Churches and their Io-             one who likes to make a special study of the con-
calities, our Theological School, our Mission Work, the troversy and a greater help it would be if all the books
Standard Bearer and its publication and closes the             and brochures had such an index.
history with the warning never to compromise when                 One of my remarks is, that the second part could
our Reformed principies  are at stake in the following         have easily published as a separate book.
sentence : "When the truth of God is concerned every              The book is neatly finished, both the binding and
form of compromise is accursed". The book is deco-             printing, although a little heavier paper could have
rated with the pictures of the deposed Fuller (Eastern been used and a trifle lighter color.
Ave) consistory, the Church buildings of some of our              The book may be had at the Zondervan Publishinq
congregations, the deposed consistory of the Hope              House, 813-15 Franklin St. S. E., Grand Rapids, Mich.
Church with their deposed minister, the Rev. G. M.             (Price $1.75).
Ophoff, and the pictures of our ministers up to the               May this book serve the  purpose  it was written
class that graduated in 1935.  Some of the pictures            for.                                          w. v.


                                    A   R e f o r m e d   S e m i - M o n t h l y   M a g a z i n e
                  PUBLISHED BY THE REFORMED FREE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION, GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.

           8cription  should be addressed to
                                                                                                           3


- .-.... _ll_~-."  ---.  ^.._I__-                                          -
Vol. XIII, No. 4 Entered  BS second class  mnil
                            -  matter  at  Grand   Rapids.   ?a&.    NOVEMBER 15, 1936                            Subscription Price. $2.00

                                                                                  seen and that never will be ! Hear him sneer : Where
11  isthehopeofHiscoming?   Donotallthingsre-
               M E D I T A T I O N                                                main as they were from the beginning? Where is now
-..-__^                                                                           thy God? He trusteth in God ! Let Him deliver him
                               The Answer                                         if He will have him! . . . .
                              Let thy mercies come also unto me,                     0, for the answer!
                         0  Lo,rd,   cue-n  thg salvation  accord@                   For, mere approach does not satisfy the furious
                         to thy word. SO shall I tive wherewith                   hatred of him that thus relentlessly pursues the Chris-
                         to newer him t/z,&  reproacheth  me; for tian sojourner on his course through the world. Pre-
                         I trust in thg word.                                     senting him as a spectacle he attempts to make him
                                                            Ps.  119:&l,   42.    such; deeraring  him to be nothing but an object of ridi-
     0, for the answer!                                                           cule and derision he tries to realize his reproach:
    The answer to him that reproacheth me !                                       loudly proclaiming that the Christian has a. thousand
                                                                                  reasons why he should be ashamed to show his face,
    Always he is there, the reproacher, that bitter he at the same time would fill him with contempt;
enemy of God and His Christ, wherever the people of cruelly insisting that the folIower of Christ is the most
are in the world and become manifest as of the party of miserable of all men, he would fain make him an out+
the living God !                                                                  cast. And he persecutes and oppresses, and he leaves
    Relentlessly he pursues, with words more bitter for the faithful no room to stand, and he deprives him
than gall, sharper than the newly whetted sword, of his name and honor and reputation and position,
dealier than the poisonous arrow, the Christian pil- and he casts him into prison and leads him down into
grim, the stranger-elect, begotten again unto a lively death? . . . .
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead !                                                                               0, for an answer!
    Insolently he mocks and scoffs, he sneers and jeers,                             For, why should this vile reproacher always be on
he reviles and derides and gibes ; he ridicules and fY.ls the heels of him that professes to be but a sojourner
with contempt and scorn him that has become a in a strange country?
stranger in the earth, that has left his country and kin                             Indeed, such he is and such he professes to be!
in order to seek the better country, that is the heavenly, He was separated from the world and unto God, from
the city that hath foundations, whose Builder and Arti- the darkness and unto the light, from sin unto right-
ficer is God ! A thousand words he has, this re- eousness, from death unto life, from earth  unto heaven,
proacher, this instrument of Diabolos, this embodiment from time unto eternity, from depths of misery un-
and representative of the Slanderer and accuser of speakable to heights of glory inconcievable, from dark-
the brethren, wherewith to hurt and pierce the very ness to hell unto the very light of God's countenance,
heart of God's child in the world, as he walks in the from the shackles of Satan's bondage unto the glory
light and eschews and condemns the unfruitful works of the liberty of the children of God. Separated he
of darkness.              A spectacle he would present him, a was, not by an act of hs own, neither through the
x-orthiess fellow he would picture him to be, a good-                             choice of his will ; not because of any works of right-
for-nothing fool, for whom there is no place in this eousness which he had done nor for any personal worth
world and who vainly hopes for the things that are that distinguished him from his fellows  ; but by the


73                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
          -_         ____--              l-..---"ll-..ll                              -..           "_..~---   _  .._
sovereign will and grace of Him that called him out            And therefore I must have an answer,  the  answer,
of darkness into His marvellous light. Separated he         Thinc own answer to him that reproacheth me, Thee
was before the world was, for a stranger-elect he is, in me!
by the act of Him,  Wmho sovereignly designs vessels           For, therein that I have trusted in Thy Word and
of honor and vessels of dishonor, and no man has the still do confide in that Word, I truly represent Thee
authority to say: what doest Thou? Separated he was and Thy cause in the world; and it is the steadfast
in Christ Jesus, when He died on the accursed tree walk in this way of absolute reliance, that brought me
for his sin and was raised for his justification. And this reproach  ; and therefore, I must have the
separated he was, when the marvellous grace of God answer! . . . .
united him with the risen Lord, implanted into him
the seed of the resurrection-life which is not of this         To trust in the Word of God. . . . how terrible,
                                                            how utterly impossible for mere, sinful man!
world, and called him out of country and kin to go
to land which He would show him! . . . .                       For, it signifies no less than that you risk it ab-
      Thus he became a citizen of the New derusalem.        solutely, wholly and only, to the extreme, with that
                                                            Word of God ! It meas  that you renounce all things
      A stranger and sojourner in the world.                visible while you cling to the Invisible. It implies that
      And this he professes in word and walk. For, he you will lose your life that you may find it, that you
that complains in the psalm of him that reproacheth renounce the world that you may become hier of it,
him, is not the double-hearted man that is unsteady in that you take up the cross and confess that it is the
all his ways, that hides his light under a bushel and way to the crown, that you follow the call of that
carefully avoids to bear the reproach of Christ in the      Word even through utter darkness confident that it
world. On the contrary, it is the child of God, whose leads to the light, that you cast yourself down from the
sincere desire it is to be undefiled in the way and cliff into the bottomless ravine, trusting that invisible
to walk in the law of the Lord, to have respect unto        omnipotence will save you from destruction. . . .
all His commandments and to praise Him in upright-
ness of `heart. Him the reproacher hates and scorns.           Such it is to trust in the Word of God !
      No different it is today.                                Was it not this unconditional confidence in the
                                                            Word of God that was manifested by the Servant of
      The Christian pilgrim is a stranger in all his con- Jehovah, when He descended to the infernal darknesses
versation. He refuses many things the world offers of death? How, then, could He so walk the way of
while his. delight is in the things the world does not suffering and grief? How could He humble Himself,
know; he will not assume one yoke with the ungodly empty Himself, even unto the death of the cross? How
in the fellowship and societies of the ungodly, while he could He steadfastly set His face to Jerusalem, know-
rejoices in the fellowship of the saints ; he condemns ing that untold agony awaited Him there? How could
the unfruitful1 works of darkness, even when they are He deliberately choose that bitter sorrow of the soul
done with a claim to righteousness, and confesses the even unto death t,hat pressed out of Him the bloody
name of his Lord.                                           sweat in the garden of Gethsemane? And how could
      He represents the cause of the Son of God in the      He freely descend into that depth of hell where only
world and fights the good fight.                            the awful cry could be uttered: My God, my God, why
      His doctrine is of the living God! His confession hast Thou forsaken me? Was it not, because He, the
is of the Most High ! His walk is in Christ Jesus Word of God become flesh, left all, renounced all,
his Lord !                                                  risked all with the Word of his God? . . . .
      And therefore the reproacher hates him.                  And that Word of God to His Servant was. . . .
      Because and in as far as the Christian becomes the Word of the resurrection!
manifest as the party of the living God, Who is really         The glory that was set before Him !
GOD, he is derided and scorned.                                And thus it is always!
      The bitter words are directed against the Most           Always the Word of God is the Word of the resur-
High !                                                      rection, through Jesus Christ our Lord.         It is the
      It is the reproach of Christ, of God that is upon Word of the Promise. It is the Word of justification
the saints in the world.                                    in the midst of condemnation. It is the Word of light
      And, therefore, there must be an answer!              in the midst of darkness. It is the Word of life in
      0, for that answer!                                   the midst of death. It is the Word that calls you
                                                            to renounce the things visible that you be heir of the
                                                            things invisible, to renounce your righteousness that
                                                            you may be righteous, to renounce your wisdom that
      1. trust in Thy Word !                                you may be wise, to renounce the crown that you may


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
---....._l__                                                                                                     75
                --.^ll_^_              7
                                  --.."_                                                 -__..lll______-_
be crowned, to renounce glory and honor that you               And how shall we give it to him that reproacheth
may be glorified, to renounce the earth that you may       us in the hour of the cross?
inherit it, to renounce your very life that you may            Again, only by the Word of God in which we trust.
live. . . .                  .                             Hence, the prayer of the psalmist: Let Thy mercies
    The foolishness of the cross!                          come also unto me, 0 Lord, even Thy salvation accord-
    He that will lose his life shall save it!              ing to Thy Word, so  shall I answer him that  re-
    And to trust in that Word means that you uncon- proacheth me!
ditionally risk it with your God only !                       Jehovah's mercies, and His salvation, and His Word
   And when you do so risk all with the word of God, are all one! For, His  mercy,  as a divine virtue in and
exactly because of it, you expose yourself to the re- by itself, is the unchangeable will of the Most High
proach of the enemy. For, when you do fling your- to be the Most Blessed in Himself. And His mercy in
self  ,down from the precipice, and when you do for- relation to the people of His love, chosen in Christ
sake houses or brethren or sisters, or father or mother, Jesus, is His eternal and unchangeable purpose and
or wife or children, or lands, or possessions, or honor will and desire of His heart, to bless them as He is
and glory, or names and positions, for Christ's sake,      blessed, to make them partakers of His blessed cove-
and when you do lose your life, the reproacher jeers nant-life, to receive them into the blessed fellowship
and casts into, your teeth : Where is now your God?. . . and friendship of His tabernacle, to make them see
   Thus it was supremely and uniquely with Christ.         God face to face, and to make them heirs of all things
   Thus it was with the youthful author of psalm one in Christ Jesus their Lord. And His mercies are the
hundred and nineteen.                                      concrete and several gifts that flow from this will and
   It was the experience of all the saints of the old desires to make Him people blessed in the highest pos-
dispensation, that "had trial of cruel  mockings  and sible sense, mercies of redemption and justification, of
scourgings,  of bonds and imprisonments, were stoned, forgiveness and adoption unto children  ; mercies also
were sawn asunder, tempted, slain with the sword, of actual deliverance, of regeneration and calling, of
wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being sanctification and life; mercies, finally, of the redemp-
destitute, afflicted, tormented, wandered in deserts, and tion of the body, of public justification before the eyes
in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth". . . . of all, even of him that now reproacheth us, of resur-
                                                           rection and eternal glory, when the tabernacle of God
   And why? , . . .                                        shall be with men. . . .
   Because they trusted in the Word of God,. the Word
of the resurrection !                                         And that is salvation !
   For, they "were tortured, not accepting deliverance,       Thy mercies, even thy salvation !
that they might obtain a better resurrection"!                Let them come unto me, 0 Lord !
   But exactly because of this, because it is his trust       0, in their final sense and realization they do not
in the Word of God, in the Word of the promise that come to the saints until the day of Christ. Not here.
exposes the Christian sojourner to the cruel mockery For, if they did, there would be no occasion for the
of the reproacher, his reproach is the reproach of reproacher to scorn and mock and say: Where is now
Christ, of God !                                           thy God in whom thou  trustest?  Here, according
   And he must have an answer to him that  re- to the flesh, and judged in the light of things that are
proacheth !                                                seen, we lie in the midst of death and are the most
   The answer of God!                                      miserable of all men. But then, after the "moment",
                                                           when the "twinkling of an eye" is past, the salvation
                                                           of the Lord shall have come and be manifest. Then
   0, for the answer!                                      there shall be revealed the glory of Christ and we
   The answer of the Word of God ; and, therefore, shall be manifest with him. Then there shall be re-
the answer of faith!                                       vealed the glory of Christ and we shall be manifest in
   The answer of the victor in the midst of defeat, Him. Then there shall. be adoption, namely the re-
with which we may face him that reproacheth us and demption of our body. . . .
say: Take my liberty, my life, my all, yet I rejoice!         And the prayer: "Let Thy mercies, even Thy sal-
Condemn me, yet I am justified ! Fill me with shame, vation come unto me according unto Thy Word," ulti-
yet I am glorified ! Kill me, yet shall I live ! I am more mately tooks toward that glorious day of final and
than victor through Him that loved me and even now, perfect deliverance.
in my reproach, God is not ashamed to be called my            In the last instance it is the prayer of the Spirit,
God, for He hath prepared me a city! . . . .               of the Bride: Come, Lord Jesus, yea, come quickly!
   But how shall we have that answer?                         Then also the  sants  shall have their answer, their


16                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
..-                          - -        -....-I_           --                                              V._"_
final, their eternal answer, God's own answer to them equal abhorrence the Modernist "spiritualizing" or  ex.
and through them, to him that reproacheth them now, plaining away of that doctrine.
and who then shall be in utter darkness: "God is faith-          "Both these groups of people are represented in tht
ful ; and not in vain did we trust in His Word of the ministry and eldership of the Presbyterian Church  01
resurrection !"                                             America.     Have they both a right to be so  repre.
      Yet, evidently, even now the psalmist desires that sented  ?
answer! To the glory of God in Whose Word he puts                "The answer to that question can be found only  il
his trust, and Who is not ashamed to be called his the doctrinal declaration made by those who took par1
God, he desires to have wherewith to answer him that in our first General Assembly and prescribed for al:
reproacheth him. He wants to glory in tribulation. those who may subsequently become ministers or elder:
He desires to utter the shout of victory in the midst or deacons.
of apparent defeat, of life in the midst of death. And,          "The first clause in the declaration Declares thai
in order to be able to do this, he must have God's `the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are .thc
mercies and His salvation even now. They must come Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and prac
to him, and abide with him in all his reproach! . . . . tice'. There is obviously no difficulty about that. Thai
      H o w ? . . . .   ,                                   clause obviously can be subscribed to both by  Premil
      In hope, through the Word of Promise !                lennialists and those w*ho are opposed to the Premil
                                                            IenniaI view.
      For, hope is the personal assurance of things not
seen as yet, the joy of eternal glory in anticipation!           "The second clause declares that `the  Westministei
                                                            Confession of Faith and Catechisms contain the sys.
      Let, then, in that hope Thy mercies even Thy sal- tern of doctrine `taught in the Holy Scrptures'. Car
vation come unto me !                                       both Premillennialists and those who are opposed tc
      And I shall answer him that reproacheth me !         the Premillennial view subscribe to that second clause'
                                                H. H.            "We think the question should be answered in  the
                                                           affirmative. We think that both Premillennialists  ant
                                                           those who are opposed to the Premillennial view  maa
                                                           subscribe to that clause.
                                                                 "It is true, the Westminister Confession of Fait1
             E D I T O R I A L S                           and Catechisms teach not the PremilleniaI  view  but
                                                           a view that is opposed to the Premillennial view.. Thai
                                                            is particularly plain in the Larger Catechism (Q. 85
             A Significant Concession                      and 88).
                                                                 "But subscripton to the Westminister  Standardr
      In  The Presbyterian Guardian  of Oct. 23, 1986 our in The Presbyterian Church of America is not to ever7
attention was attracted to an editorial under the head- word in those Standards, but only to the system oj
ing Prem-illenn~Eism,  in which the editor defended the doctrine which the Standards contain."
position that a premillennialist could very well be
admitted to the ministry of the newly-instituted Pres-           In the same number of  The Presbyterian  Guardia%
byterian Church of America.                                we found a report of a resolution passed by the  Phila.
                                                           delphia Presbytery at its meeting of Oct. 13th, to the
      I quote:                                             effect that a Premillennialist may be  recieved   .a,s  z
      "The Premillennial view of the return of Christ is minister,  el,der or deacon in The Presbyterian  Church
that our Lord will return before a thousand year of America.
period held to be mentioned in the Book of Revelation,           It is not very clear, neither from the editorial no1
that during that period He will reign upon this earth, from the Philadephia resolution, whether the reference
and that after that period will come the final judg- is merely to the question of the "thousand years"  anC
ment.                                                      the Lord's return before or after the  "t,housand  years'
      "Many Christian people, believing in the full truth- mentioned in Rev. 20, or to all that is implied in the
fulness of the Bible hold that Premillennial view.         Premillennial view. It seems to me that it is peremp
      "Other Christian people, believing wth equal firm- tory that this be clearly defined and expressed. A:
ness in the full truthfulness of the Bible, reject the the matter now stands it appears to me that The Pres
Premillennial view and hold that our Lord's return byteran  Church of America made a significant  con
will be followed immediately by the last judgment.         cession and, at the very beginning of its course, openei
      "Both these groups of Christian people accept with rather wide the door to those that after all are nof
equal clearness and firmness the great doctrine of the Presbyterian.
personal and bodily return of Christ and reject with             Perhaps, it may be granted that one could believe

                                                                                                      .


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        77

in a literal reign of our Lord on the earth after His        Confession does not make separation between the Jews
coming and before the final judgment, while he does as the Kingdom and the Church as the Body of Christ;
not hold the other, more serious errors of the Premil-       On the contrary, it expressly identifies the two when
lennial system. But this is not consistently  possible. it states that the Church is the Kingdom of Christ.
And while t.he implied inconsistency might be found             No consistent Premillennialist can subscribe to this
in some of the common members that are not versed article of the Westminister Confession.
in systematic theology, it is hardly conceivable that           And an inconsistent Premillennialist is an equally
ministers of the Word could be so inconsistent as to inconsistent Presbyterian.
believe in a Premillennial eschatology and a Calvinistic
christology or ecclesiology.                                    And inconsistent Presbyterians certainly ought not
   And to be sure, the Premillennial system of doc- to be recieved  into the ministry of The Presbyterian
                                                             Church of America.
trine cannot be harmonized with the Reformed system
of the truth.                                                   By this concession The Presbyterian Church of
                                                             America will, no doubt, increase its number of mem-
   The Premillennialist is a dispensationalist.              bers and ministers.  '            .
   And the dispensationalist cannot, consistently be-           But it also left the straight path of Presbyterian
lieve in the essential identity of the ofd and new cove- doctrine. In the direction of this step lies, though it
nant, the unity of the Church throughout the ages, may seem far distant at this moment, every error, even
the Kingship of Christ in relation to the Church. And the return of modernism.
if a minister of the Word maintains these fundamental
Reformed truths, he connot  consistently hold the re-           No Church can compromise on principles with im-
turn of Christ to reign on the earth a thousand `years, munity.
in Jerusalem and particularly as King of the Jews.                                                        H. H.
   And, therefore, a Premillennialist cannot honestly
subscribe to the Westminister Standards. For, these
are rather explicit on the question of the unity of the
Church and the Kingship of Christ over the Church.
   In Chapter XXV of The Westminister Confession
of Faith we read :                                                           WET VADERHUIS
   "I. The Catholic or universal Church, which is                     Oord van vrede en liefde en reinheid,
invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect,                 Plaats van hemelweelde  en lust,
that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under             Met uw vele, vele woon'gen
Christ the head thereof; and is the spouse, the body,                 Huis des Vaders ! Huis der rust!
the fulness of him that tllleth all in all.                           0 wat zoete melodi&n
   "II. The visible Church, which is also catholic or                 Ruischen als met vol accoord
universal under the gospel (not  conf?.ned to one nation              Mijn verlangend harte tegen
as before under the law) consists of all those, through-              Uit dat schoon en heerlijk Oord!
out the world, that profess the true religion, and of
their children ; and is the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus                 Hebt gij in die hemelzalen
Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there               Armen zondaars plaats bereid,
is no ordinary possibility of salvation."                             Zult ge  66k mij daarbinnen leiden,
   There can be no question that this passage from                    Heiland, in Uw heerlijkheid?
the Westminister plainly teaches the unity of the                     0 hoe zalig zal `t mij  wezen.
Church of all ages, both of the old and of the new dis-             Jezus, Redder mijner ziel!
pensation. The Church comprises all the elect, of the                 Als ik daar in blij aanschouwen
past, the present and the future. In the old dispensn-                Aan ,uw voeten nederkniel!
tion the Church was under the law, in the new dispen-
sation she is under the Gospel, but it is the same                    Ah ik in Uw oog mag lezen
Church. In the old dispensation the Church was con-                   Loutre ontferming en gena,
fined to one nation for a time, in the new dispensation               En mijn oor Uw stem vernemen:
she is found among all nations, but there is no essential             " `k Heb voldaan op Golgotha !
difference. The Jews and the Church are not two                       Ook voor u aan `t kruis geleden,
peoples but one.                                                      Al uw schuld betaald bij God ;
   And with equal clearness it is stated that Christ                  Ga de vreugde uws Heeren binnen,
is the King, not of the Jews, but of the Church. The                  `f Huis des Vaders ! `t Huis bij God !"


84                                        T H E   ST'ANDARD  B E A R E R                                             -       -
meent tech in het zelve het eeuwige leven te hebben.              honour to God, that HE may be ALL, alone, thou must
En dat  Woord is het, dat daarvan getuigt. Onderzoek              surely thyself become nothing in thine own eyes ; and
de Schriften. Wordt rijk in God, mediteer over Zijn entertain a very low opinion of thyself, and of thy
Woorden en deugden. En smeek Hem om Zijn mede-                    profiting in spiritual things. For how is it possible
deelbare eigenschappen U te schenken. Dan wordt that God should be all, whilst thou thyself continuest
ge wijs. en zult niet zoo dom doen met de aardsche                to be something? By this self-exultation, thou  in-
schatten die ook in uwe hand zijn.                                vadest the sovereignty of God, and appropriate& that
      Misschien  zegt ge: Ik heb God lief en ga ook wat to thyself, which is his proper due and prerogative.
opsparen voor den ouden dag. Toe dan maar. `k Moet                    A man that will be something, is the matter out
eerlijk zijn. `t Wil er maar bij mij niet in.  "k Ben of which God is want to make nothing; and he, on
er bang van. Evenwel, gij zijt ook  profeet.   Profe-             the contrary, who loves to be reputed as nothing, and
teer maar.                                                        who, in his own judgment, is so, is the matter out of
      Alleen  dit nog: Zorg allereerst en steeds voor uw which the Almighty maketh something. He that will
ziel.                                                             be wise in his own opinion is the matter out of which
                                                                  God maketh a fool ; and he who is truly sensible of his
      En het beste doet ge dit door uw oor te luisteren te own folly and nothingness, is that of which God forms
leggen naar dit  schoone  woord, hetwelk dan maar het
slot moet zijn :                                                  a wise and a great man, he, who before the Lord sin-
                       "Vertrouw op den Heere en doe het cerely confesses himself to be the worst and most
goede ; bewoon de aarde en voed U met getrouwheid ; miserable of men; is, in the estimation of God, the
en verlustig U in den Heere, zoo zal Hij U geven de
begeerten uws harten." Ps. 37:3, 4.                               first and greatest of all men. He, who believes himself
                                                                  to be the chief of sinners,- shall be honoured  by the
      En vergeet tech niet den arme, mitsgaders de we- Lord as the chief of saints.
duwe en wees.                                                         This is that humility which God exalts ; that misery
                                                     G. V.        which he regards ; that nothing from which He createth
                                                                  something. And as at the creation, the glorious frame
                                                                  of heaven and earth was brought forth out of nothing;
                                                                  so must man be reduced to a deep sense of his vileness
                                                                  and nothingness, if ever he be exalted to glory and tc
         The Blessedness of a Broken. and                         dignity.
                       Contrite Spirit                                Reflect upon the example of David, who, then de-
                                                                  spised by Michael, his wife, for dancing before the
      "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor ark of the Lord, declared that he would be "base in
and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word".               his own sight ;" and with whose self-contempt and
These comfortable words, our gracious and merciful humility God was so. well pleased, as to make him an
God hath spoken by the prophet, in order to cheer our astonishing instrument of promoting his own glory.
hearts,' when they are most oppressed with misery Consider again the example of Jacob, who confessed,
and sorrow. Be not thou therefore ashamed to be                    "I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies." But
bruised in spirit, and abased in thine own eyes. Hum- above all, lay to heart the example of Christ, the grand
ble thyself to the dust and deem thyself unworthy of and blameless pattern of a Christian. He was abas-ed
all grace and favour; so shalt thou be raised out of below the meanest of men ; was made a worm and a
thine  .own vileness, and obtain, in Christ, acceptance curse for our sake. But the lower he sank, the higher
with the Almighty God.                                             did he afterwards rise, when He received a name which
      He, therefore, who is still something in his own is above every name.
estimation, is not duly humbled and depressed in his                  But who is that blessed and lowly one, who is
heart; nor can he expect to be regarded by that Being nothing in his own eyes. It is he, who inwardly and
Who  Iooks upon the poor and the contrite only. "If", in his heart esteems himself worthy of no divine  bens-
says the Apostle, "a man think himself to be some- fit, whether bodily or spiritual.  .For he that arrogates
thing, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself :" and anything to himself, esteems himself to me something ;
the reason of this is, that God is all in all, alone ; `and        and is therefore the farthest removed from divine
the creature must consequently become a bare and grace and from this new creation.
empty nothing. So great and so practical is this truth,                So destructive is the spirit  .of self,. that it renders
that man is not only to believe it in his heart, but to even grace of no effect, and. shuts out that which con-
express it in his life and conduct.                                tains all things  in. it.  ,For if.  a..man  judge himself
         If ever thou designeth then to give up all glory a.nd worthy~ of ,.anything;. he: then rdpes,~not:tnk~..all'..thi^ngs

                                  .


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B ' E A R E R '  ,,.  *I.                       sa
-                       -"--.-___----  -.-.-.                                         ._---
as a free gift from the hands of God. Whatever we           contrite objects, to whom the Lord graciously looks.
are, however, is of grace and not of merit; nor has Without this previous brokenness of heart, man cau-
any man a propriety in anything at all, except in his       not expect to enjoy this blessed aspect of God, nor in-
wretchedness.                                               deed that sweet grace and kindness which is promised
     A man considered in himself, that is, independently    to the poor in spirit only. In this weakness and pover-
of God, by whom he subsists is-no more than a shadow. ty the apostle glories, when he says: "If I must needs
And as the shadow of a tree constantly follows the glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine
motion of the tree from which it depends, so should         infirmities ;" and he adds the reason: "that the power
man follow the motion of God from Whom he has his           of Christ may rest upon me." For so great indeed is
very life and being; and thus become a shadowy repre- the mercy of God, that he will not see the work of his
sentation of God. It is true, the fruit will sometimes      hands destroyed ; but the weaker the creature is in
appear in the shadow of the tree, yet it does not there- itself, the more it is sustained by the power of an Al-
fore belong to the shadow but to the tree ; so all the      mighty Being. For in the weakness of the creature,
good fruits that may appear in thy life and conduct the power of God is exalted, as the Lord declared unto
are not the product of thy own self and capacity, but       Paul : "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength
of God alone, who is the original source whence all         is made perfect in weakness."
good fruits proceed. And as the apple grows not from           The more vile and abject therefore, a Christian is
that gross substance which is seen by the eye, but from in his own opinion, the more freely God looks upon
the seminal virtue which the tree contains, and with him, to the greater manifestation of the riches of his
which it is impregnated from above ; so the new man,        glory. And in bestowing this heavenly consolation,
and the fruit he bears, spring not up from anything he does not look at all on man's merit, but barely on
that is gross and visible to the eye, but from a super-     his want and poverty. And this comfort can in no
natural and invisible seed grafted upon the mind.           degree be compared with any human comfort, all which
     Thus is man by nature a fruitless and dry tree,        it infinitely exceeds.
but God is his strength, whereby life is renewed in            By "the poor and contrite man," mentioned by the
him, and he himself is made fat and green in the house prophet, is not to be understood, a man that is poot
of God. God is the "strength of our life," says the         in the outward sense of the word, and who is alto-
prophet: and hence we "shall bring forth much fruit gether destitute of human help and relief; but he is
whilst we abide in Christ."                                 the poor man, who  labours  under the load of his sins,
     When a man is thus wretched and poor in his own and is grieved for them. If sin were not in the world,
eyes, and has nothing in the world on which to trust there could be no misery; but now so much misery can:
but the pure grace of God, manifested in Christ Jesus,      not befall a man, but that he is still worthy of much
then God graciously looks upon him. This divine re- more. Far be it from us to grieve, because we who
gard must be understood in a divine sense. The look have not many temporal benefits conferred upon us;
of countenance of God, is not as the countenance of since we are not worthy even of the least of them, no
man, destitute of life and virtue; but it is accompanied not life itself. Nature may think this a hard saying,
with a real power and influence that supports and re- yet every penetent sinner ought to be a severe judge
vives the faint and penitent sinner. Bnd as none but against himself, and not make the least allowance to
humble and contrite hearts are capable of this heaven- his carnal propensities. And this is the order in which
ly regard; so the more clear and blessed it is, the less we are to obtain God's  f&our and mercy.
do they think themselves worthy of it. Such a one               And what has man now left to boast of, or with
 ?eems  himself unworthy  of, all blessings divine and what language shall he open his mouth? The  best
temporal. He is ashamed to receive any divine com- course he can take will be to say: "Lord, I have sinned ;
fort, be it ever so little; and says with Jacob, "I am have Thou mercy upon me." And truly God Himself
less than the least of all the mercies, and of all the      required no more of a man, than that he humbly de-
truth -which thou hast shewed  unto thy servant," for       plore his sin, and in the unfeigned language of re-
behold;`since  thou gavest me thy son, I come with two pentance crave pardon; and whoever neglects this may
hands, with the blessings of grace and of glory. And be said to have slighted the best and most needful part
truly, if a man should weep a sea of tears, it were by of his life. Weep not therefore, 0 Man! on account
no means sufficient to purchase the least part of of thy body, that it is naked and sick, pinched with
heavenly comfort ; the grace of God cannot be  meriteti     hunger and cold, insulted and persecuted ; or because
by men, who deserve nothing but wrath and eternal           it is confined by bonds and prison ; but humble thyself
damnation.                                                  before the Lord, and bewail the woeful condition of thy
     Whoever thus acquaints himself with his own worth- soul, which is constrained to dwell in so wretched a
less life and condition, is truly one of those poor and house as thy body is, a house of bondage and misery.


$6                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                        .-"  .-... --  ._-....-_   -.l_l--_ll_.._l            -..-.           --.- ..- _I_- .._..- ^-
"Wretched man," says the apostle, "who shall deliver
me from the body of this death?"                    This free and             Geen Verdere Ontwikkeling
Christian acknowledgement of thine own inward
misery, this godly sorrow, this thirst after divine                      Het schijnt  we1 schering en inslag  te zijn, wanneer
grace, faith leaning on Christ alone, opens in Christ iemand eenige studie tracht te maken van een zeker
the door of grace, by which God enters into thy soul. onderwerp, om hem dan zoo spoedig mogelijk den pas
"Be zealous, therefore, and repent. "Behold,  I stand," af te snijden. Zoo ziet ge het telkens weer op kerke-
saith the Lord,                                                       lijk gebied. Wij, vooral  weten  we1 bij ervaring, hoe
                     "at the door and knock ; if any man
hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to                   ongeveer een zaak verloopt en zich afspeelt. De eigen
to him and sup with him, and he with Me:" which geschiedenis kunnen we  IHI  eenmaal niet vergeten.
supper is nothing else but the full remission of sin,                 Geheel in `t algemeen genomen, is het we1 waar, dat
                                                                      men op Gereformeerd erf zich zoo maar niet uit het
attended with heavenly comfort, with life and happf-
ness. This is the sacred door of faith, through which veld laat slaan. Ook dan niet als de tegenstander het
                                                                      verwijt doet hooren, dat de Gereformeerden eigenlijk
the Lord, at His own time, enters into the soul; and                  niets anders zijn, dan  conservatieve  menschjes, bij
after the day of toil and sorrow is over, refreshed her wie het altijd maar bij het oude moet blijven, en die
with the light of his countenance. Then it is, that het woord progressief met in hun woordenboek heb-
"mercy and truth meet together, righteousness  anti
peace kiss each other; that truth springs out of he                   ben, het althans zoo min mogelijk gebruiken. En zoo
                                                                      schijnt het ook vaak het geval te zijn. Zelfs  Dr. Kuy-
earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven." per Sr., klaagde hierover in zijn voorwoord op de Ge-
Then it is that the woman, that great sinner, but now meene Gratie op deze wijze: "Van dogmatische ont-
a returning penetent, anoints the feet of her Lord,                   wikkeling is na 1650 noch in Zwitserland, noch in de
washes them with tears, and wipes them with the Nederlanden, noch in Schotland  sprake meer. Niet &n
hairs of her head, expressing thereby all the marks oorspronkelijk talent is op leerstellig gebied  na de
of an unfeigned and deep humility. Then it is, that eerste bloeiperiode meer opgestaan" ; en : "De eens zoo
the spiritual priest, in the holy ornaments of faith, frische stroom van het Gereformeerde  denken  op  god-
offers up the true sacrifice, even a broken and lowly geleerd gebied verzandt". En zoo schijnt het dan ook
spirit, with the incense of true contrition and prayer. inderdaad het geval te zijn. Wie  als Gereformeerd
      And thus, 0 Christian ! is seen how by the sense of mensch meeleeft zal mij toestemmen, dat over vele
thy own misery, and by faith in Christ attending it, en velerlei onderwerpen geschreven wordt, doch, dat
thou mayest attain the grace and favour of God. To bij nader onderzoek, het telkens weer blijkt, dat er
conclude, the more wretched and miserable any one is niet veel meer gedaan wordt, dan het oude stroo maar
in his own judgment, the more dearly he  is  beloved of weer wat overdorschen. Ge gevoelt het aan den toon
God, and the more gracious is the regard which the en behandeling der stof, dat men angstvallig schrift
Lord will at last bestow upon him.                                    en zooveel mogelijk tracht alle schijn van zelfstandige
                                                                      studie van zich te houden, en dat, door zich krampach-
                                                       M. J. P.       tig vast te houden aan hetgeen door anderen, groote
                                         Grand Rapids,  Mich.         marmen,  is gezegd en geschreven.       Het  mocht   tech
                                                                      eens gebeuren, dat we de dingen eens anders zouden
                                                                      zien en daarom ook eens  anders zouden zeggen, dan
                                                                      voorheen het geval was. Tot dien einde heeft men dan
                                                                      al vast maar onder iederen elboog een werk van een
                                                                      ander en zoo leeft en werkt en beweegt men  zich dan
                           1891-1936                                  in het nauwe corset van de traditie. Een nijpend en
      Op den  13den  November herdachten  onze  geliefde broeder      gedwongen leven en werk. En aldus staande met de
en zuster                                                             beide voeten op het verleden, de goede oude tijd, komt
                                                                      men natuurlijker wijze nooit  vender.       Het zou der
                       PIETER PASTOOR                                 moeite  loonen  als men minder schreef en meer  zich
                                  en                                  toelegde op ernstig onderzoek van wat uit de "oude
                    GRIETJE PASTOOR-BOS                               does" alzoo  te verbeteren viel.
hunne  45 jarige  echtvereeniging..  Dat de Heere  bun   verder          We1 te verstaan, dat men dit zal tegenspreken,  wan'
rijkelijk moge  zegenen  en dat  bun   levens-avond   green   en      neer ge deze dingen  zegt of neerschrijft. Men is waar-
frisch moge zijn  om te verkondigen de  weldaden  des  Heeren         lijk niet verlegen om  u te laten  weten  dat, ten eerste,
buns  Gods is once wensch  en bede.                                   men zich bewust is van het Reformatorisch beginsel,
                               Namens  de broeders en zusters         waardoor 8de waarheid Gods, zoo kennelijk werd ont-
817 Dunham St.,  $3. E., Grand Rapids,  Mich.                         wikkeld, ten tweede, oreert men daarna over  bet over-


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          89
--~                   __l_-.  *        -..--.I                                      ..-.                             z
der wil, zoo spoedig mogelijk onschadelijk worde ge-
maakt. Van ontwikkeling kan  er dan ook geensprake                               Contribution
meer  zijn. Men komt nooit verder dan het te  betreu-         The Rev. H. Hoeksema.
ren, dat het er zoo slecht bijstaat en men laat het ver Editor, Standard  Beurer.
volgens  blauw  blauw.
   Net is daarom mede, dat we met belangstelling Dear Sir and Brother:-
wachten op dat men in het oude Vaderland zal doen,               Comprehending that, as a minister of the Gospel
vooral met bet oog op de gemeene gratie.                      you as well as your brethren, pastors of the P. C. K.
   Gelijk  alreeds bekend is,  we&t men  zich  aan' de Churches are deeply interested in Christian Education;
overzijde meer en meer 10s van de traditie. Er komt the undersigned deemed it proper to bring a few things
hoe langer hoe meer een geest tot openbaring, die  niet to your attention.
Ianger in het  gelid wil  loopen,  zoo gewoon weg op             If you publish my remarks in our esteemed
het comaande af. De tijd kwam, dat de werken der STANDARD BEARER, I hope that you, as Editor,
groote  mannen (Kuyper en Bavinck) eens onderwor-             add a few words to my remarks.
pen zullen worden  (of werden) aan het mes der critiek.          Reading in THE EDUCATIONAL CONVENTION
Vandaar de zoogenaamde onrust  en in verband  daar-           PAPERS of 1936, the report of the, proceedings of
mee de besluiten der laatst gehouden Synode te Amster- the Christian School Union Meeting, held at Pella,
dam. We merkten  alreeds eerder op, dat,  wanneer             Iowa, in the latter part of August, I noticed that a
ghet zoo "rustig" is in de  kerken   er meestal ook wel       part of said proceedings were not published.
iets aan het "roesten" is. Dat men  zich dan ook niet            The reasons why a part of the proceeding failed to
late afschrikken, ook dan niet a1 geldt het de werken be reported is beyond me for explanation.
van groote  mannen, die  wellicht  veel (te veel) geschre-       In a report of the Secretary, Page 89, the esteemed
ven hebben en zie die werken ernstig na ; indien noodig brother hints that other Christians, not of Christian
herzie men, zonder zich veel te laten gelegen liggen Reformed persuasion, are supporters of the Christian
aan de publieke opinie. Want wie meent, dat een Schools.
enkele leider langer invloed uitoefent dan een men-              This needs clarification.
schenleeftijd,  die houdt zeker geen rekening met de
geschiedenis, dat is met  *de werkelijkheid.                     When this Union School Meeting was held, the
                                                              undersigned attended, being delegated from the 108th
   Ret schijnt ons anders  we1 wat eigenaardig toe, Street School of Roseland, Illinois.
dat  zoolang  niemand  zich bezondigt   aan de Belijdenis,       Having noticed that for a period of 10 years the
er we1 grond voor bestaat, om `als breedste vergadering Union Officers deliberately ignored a certain group
der Kerken commissies te benoemen, die wat meenings-          of churches, and, knowing that our local school-society
verschillen  zal behandelen.  Tweeerlei  kan hier door consisted of fair-minded men, I felt myself duty bound
yes&eden,  eerstens,  dat men aldus over het hoofd van to protest in said Union Meeting against the un-
het volk heen  dingen  uitspreekt,  die door het volk nog brotherly actions of the Union consisting of SCHOOL
niet verwerkt zijn; en, ten tweede, dat ge  onvermijde-       SOCIETIES which have no, or should have no interest
Iijk de  toestand   zult zien verergeren, doordat men in church quarrels.
de meest natuurlijke, vrije ontwikkeling in den weg
gaat staan. Alleen  aan wat in de Kerken volkomen                It was understood that I referred to the group of
zekerheid heeft verkregen, op grond der  Schrift  en churches passing under the name of Protestant Chris-
der Belijdenis mag niet worden getornd,, in alle andere tian Reformed. I proved beyond dispute that this group
zaken hande1e men steeds met volkomen vrijheid, daar-         with its ministers inclusive, were as much in favor of
bij steeds bedenkende, dat men ook de groote  mannen          Christian Education as the Christian Reformed  *group
niet belemmere.                                               with their pastors, a fact well known by the Union
                                                              as well as by the different societies.
   En niemand sta dan verdere ontwikkeling in den                Speaking of these things, I dwelt for a moment
weg.                                            w. v.         upon the fact that it could not be possible, that, if we
                                                              ignore one another; God could bless our schools.
                                                                 Now, Rev. Paul De Koekoek from Ot,ley, Iowa, hav-
          My Father! what am I, that all                      ing  feIt the force of my argument agreed with me and
          Thy mercies sweet like sunlight fall                advised that the Union should recognize these breth-
              So constant o'er my way?                        ren by changing the wording of the report of the secre-
         That Thy great love should shelter me,               tary as read there by the Secretary.
         And guide my steps so tender1y                          Thinking I was dealing with honorable Christian
              Through every c.hanging  day?                   gentlemen, imagine now my surprise when I find that


90                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                _-_..        ---.                 -.-_-- . .._...  -_l___     -.--.-
not a word of the entire transaction is reported in the         Daar komt nog bij, dat het gestorven zijn aan de
under the heading: WHITHER BOUND.                           aarde een proces  blijkt, dat steeds voorgaat of voort
      If the secretary, Mr. Mark Fakkema is at fault,       dient te gaan hier beneden. Ge zijt gestorven  aan de
or some other head of the UNION SCHOOL for aarde en de aardsche  dingen en daarom moet ge voort
CHRISTIAN education, is not for me to say, but this gaan  te sterven. Daarom vervolgt Paulus in het vijfde
is SURE, that what Mr. Fakkema says on page 9'7,            vers : "Doodt dun uwe leden  die op de aarde zijn" ; en
where he states that: "What particularly undermines dan  volgt een opsomming van die  leden, namelijk:
report of the secretary published upon the pages 88-98 hoererij, onreinheid, schandelijke beweging, enz.
the cause (Christian Education) is not FINANCIAL               In de derde plaats blijkt het uit het  7de vers, waar
depression, but a SPIRITUAL depression."                    staat dat we eertijds in die dingen  leefden.  Altemaal
      And so it is, and the CAUSE is to be found in the bewijs van de stelling,  dat het doodzijn  slaat op het
SCHOOL UNION itself.                                        zondige bestaan op aarde. Ten overstaan van dat zon-
                       Your Lamenting Brother,              dige bestaan op aarde zijn we dood.
                                    J. H. Hoekstra.            Ook vinden we bewijs in het meer verwijderde
                                                            verband  van dezen brief. Zoo wilden we U wijzen op
                                                            vers 20 van het voorgaande hoofdstuk. Daar staat:
                                                            "Indien ge dan met Christus de eerste beginselen der
                                                            wereld zijt afgestorven. . . ." Zie ook vers 11 en 12.
          Het  Leven Der Gestorvenen                        Ook in het eerste hoofdstuk van Collassenzen  en dan
      In II Cor. 5:14 lezen we het wondere getuigenis,      we1 de verzen 20-22. En daar wordt  shet dood-zijn
dat als de liefde van Christus  ons dringt, we oordeelen, der gemeente verbonden aan den dood van Christus.
dat wanneer &n voor allen  gestorven is, ze clan allen         Verder geeft Gods Woord een  verklaring van dit
gestorven zijn. En in Coil. 3 :3 wordt het eenvoudig gestorven zijn der gemeente in plaatsen zooals Rom.
,als een feit geconstateerd, dat de gemeente gestorven 6 :2.           Daar wordt het dood-zijn der gemeente ver-
is. Daar tech staat : "Want gij zijt gestorven  !" Ook klaard te zijn een dood-zijn ten overstaan van de zonde.
is er geen twijfel aan of we1 de gemeente van Christus      Ook Rom. 7, het eerste gedeelte, verklaart het sterven
bedoeld  is, want in het onmiddelijke  verband  is het der gemeente te zijn een sterven  aan de zonde. En
overduidelijk, dat het  gaat over dezelfde menschen dan we1 een sterven aan cde wet. Niet  natuurlijk alsof
waarvan  gezegd  wordt : "Indien gij dan met Christus       de wet geen beteekenis meer voor ons heeft,  doch een
opgewekt zijt."                                             sterven  aan de wet als de vloekende en verdoemende
      Deze uitdrukkingen mogen niet verward met het wet, die steeds het lichaam der zonde vervloekt.  Eer-
gedurig getuigen der Heilige Schrift,  dat het mensch-      tijds leefden we de zonde in het lichaam des vleesches,
dom dood is in zonden en misdaden. Want dat is een het  lichaam van Adam.                  Doch doordat Jesus dat
geheel ander dood-zijn dan het gestorven zijn der ge- lichaam der zonde en des  vleesches  stierf  aan het
meente. Het gestorven zijn der gemeente en het dood-        kruis zijn wij, gestorven zijnde met Hem en  begraven
zijn in zonde en misdaden staan juist lijnrecht tegen zijnde met Hem door den doop in Zijn dood, ook ge-
elkander  over. Net eerste is een vreeselijke vloek en storven aan dat lichaam  der zonde en daarom kwamen
het  tweede  is een zegen.                                  we onder de vloekende wet weg. Nu zijn we der wet
      De beteekenis van het gestorven zijn kan gemak-. gedood door het lichaam van Christus. En  rechte-
kelijk verklaard uit het onmiddelijke verband.  Aller-      lijk en organisch-geestelijk, opgestaan zijnde met Hem
                                                            werden we nu  eens anderen, namelijk den opgestanen
eerst zien we dat het gestorven zijn van de gemeente        Christus. Doch  Hij is in de hemelen en daarom is ons
te  doen  heeft met de aarde en de aardsche dingen. De
uitdrukking of verklaring, dat de gemeente dood is,         leven uit den dood nu hemelsch,  geestelijk, glorieus,
gestorven is, is een reden die Paulus aangeeft voor zijn    eeuwig. Die gelooft in den Christus heeft het eeuwige
vermaning om niet de  dingen  van de aarde te zoeken,       leven.
noch ook de bedenken. Net redebeleid is : Bedenkt niet         Zoo zijt ge gestorven, geliefden.
da dingen  die op de aarde zijn z-cant gij xijt dood aan       Doch, gelijk we hierboven neerpenden, het is een
die  dingen.  In de tweede  plaats, merken we het ook proces.
uit de positieve zijde der vermaning.      Paulus wijst        Ge zijt  we1 dood,  doch  ge moet nog meer dood
de gemeente er op, dat haar leven nu in den hemel  is       worden.
en dat ze daarom de hemelsche dingen  bedenken.  Ge            Ge zijt we1 gestorven aan de zondige wereld en bet
zijt levend den hemel  en moet de hemelsche dingen  be-     zondige wereldleven,  doch ge moet nog meer sterven.
denken,  zoo zegt hij. Daarom moet ge de aardsche           Ge zijt we1 de wereld gekruisigd, doch ge moet nog
niet bedenken, want  ge zijt dood  aan de aarde. De         veel meer der wereld en der beginselen der eerste
aarde is uw leven niet.                                     wereld gekruist worden.


 92                                        T H E -   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
-          ---_ I_- ---......--  -__".~..- _"""  ..-.-..            .----_ - -^.....  "--       ----  --.-.-  ---_-
       Wat ge  nu er van hebt is de voorsmaak, het eerste found grace in Thy sight, 0 Lord, let my Lord, I pray
beginsel. Jezus Zelf is de Eersteling. En gij  allen thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and
zijt de eerstelingen van den oogst die eigenlijk nog pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as thine
wacht. Verborgen met Christus in God.                          inheritance." With this petition he concludes his medi-
       Is het dan wonder dat de gemeente van Christus ation.
zing%, ter eener zijde, "Maar `t blij vooruitzicht dat
mij streelt  !"                                                   This final prayer of Moses calls for some explana-
                    En ter anderer zijde, zucht: "Ja, Heere, tion. The stubborness, the perverseness, of the 
Jezus, Kom  haastelijk!"                                                                                           people
                                                               he brings forward as the reason why the Lord should
       Het is, dat  tech spoedelijk het verborgen leven der
gemeente en den Christus,  mitsgaders  de jubelende go  among them. Previous to this, the Lord had said,
wereld uit den `boezem Gods, dat is, uit Zijn Raad te "For I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou
voorschijn trede.                                              art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the
                                                               way." What the Lord said in effect is that, `because
       Opdat God zij alles en in allen:                        thou art a stiffnecked people, I will withdraw my pre-
       Dan zullen ze eerst vroolijk beginnen te zijn.          sence from thy midst.' What Moses now prays is in
       Daarboven bij God.                                      substance, `Because it is a stiffnecked people, let my
       "Hoe  lange, Heere  !"                                  Lord go among us.' In the communication of the Lord,
                                                   G. v.       the obstinacy of the people forms the reason why `He
                                                               will not go up in their midst; while in Moses' prayer
                                                               this stubborness of the people appears as constituting
                                                               the reason why the Lord should go with them.
                                                                  These apparently contrary sentiments can easily
                                                               be harmonized. Let us first have regard to the, com-
                   Moses' Final Prayer                         munication of the Lord. Kt raises this question: If
                                                               God is omnipresent, if heaven and earth do not con-
       The great sin that the people of Israel has com- tain Him, so that His being fulfills even the infinite
mitted is pardoned, and thus the nation will live and regions surrounding the space of our universe, how
enter with the Lord into His rest. This the Lord now can He say of Himself that He will not go up in the
definitely declared. It is the plain implication of His midst of His people, and later that His presence will
proclamation of His name, made when He passed be- go with His servant Moses. This manner of speech
fore Moses. Be is the Lord God, merciful and gracious, implies that the Omnipresent One shuts Himself up
longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth. He within the confines of space and fixes Himself down,
will keep mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and so to say, to a certain place. And this place was, is,
transgression and sin, but will by no means clear the and ever will be, in the midst of His people. But, in
guilty. He will then assuredly take, as ever, His ill- the words of the king, will God indeed dwell on earth?
deserving people to His heart, but in and through Behoid, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot con-
the cross. He will keep covenant trust to the end of tain Him; how much less this house. . . .
time and forever with those deserving in Christ, the
children of the promise. But all are not Israel which             There is no conflict here. What is bound to a place
are of Israel ; there are those who hate Him because is not certainly His infinite being, but the revelation
He shows them no mercy. These He hardens in His of the infinite perfections of His being through a
sovereign wrath, and visits upon them in their gene- creatural agent. In the dispensation of the promise,
rations their iniquity. Thus He will shew mercy on this agent was the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire;
whom He will shew mercy, and harden whom He will. the Angel of the Lord-in conjunction with the law
Such will be the doing in the face of which all His vir- and the tabernacle and later the temple in which
tues or perfections will be seen.                              the Angel of the Lord reposed between the cherubim
                                                               of the ark of the covenant that stood in the holy place.
     Thus the prayer of Moses is heard and so it again This agent is now Christ and the church in which
appears that the effectual fervent prayer of a right- He dwells. He is now the Face of God as He is the
eous man avail&h  much.                                        incarnate Word, the radiance of the Father's glory
     Hearing the proclamation of the Lord and behold- and the express immage of His likeness, the seat and
ing the lingering splendor of the radiance of His per- channel of divine grace and power, in whom dwelleth
fections, Moses makes haste and bows himself to the, bodily all fullness. 4nd He too, as the Face of God,
earth and worships. And so solicitous is he for the fixes Himself down to a certain place, and this place
well-being of the nation, that, assured now that the is the Jerusalem above, the tabernacle of God not made
great sin has been forgiven and that Jehovah will for- with hands, the true church in which He dwells by
give iniquities, He once more prays, "If now I have His Spirit and grace and that therefore is being seen


i

                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D  -BEARER                                            93
     ".--.----__           ---  ..-.  --_^      __~..---..".--                      .-.-              - -.-_
     as the face of Him-the  Chris+Who is the  Face of            of angels, to the general assembly and church of the
     God.                                                         firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God
          During the period of Israel's wanderings in the         t;he Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
     desert, this holy place was the region where the taber- perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenunt,
     nacle was pitched and the locality surrounding it-that and to the blood of sprinkling, . .  ." The  apost&y
     district where the host of the Lord (the people of of the carnal seed is still the other side of an act  con-
     Israel) would be encamped. In this region the glory srsting in its refusing God's Face, that is, His Chrisi
     of the Lord was seen,-in the face of the Pillar. of and the true church (on earth) in which He by His
     Cloud that reposed on the cover of the ark of the Spirit dwells. And this seed will no more escape than
     covenant in the Holy place. And the temple of the they who refused Him that spake on earth from the
     Lord was this same tabernacle and later on the struc- summit of the mount from out of the Pillar of Cloud,
     ture built by Solomon. Yet this tabernacle (temple)          His Face.
     was but a shadow, the body of which is Christ and               In the light of the above observation, the action of
     that spiritual house-His Church-of which He is the Lord consisting in His withdrawing Himself from
     the corner-stone and in which He dwells by His His people, when they sinned, can be understood. What
     spirit.                                                      departed was the Pillar of Cloud, His Face, the radi-
         Because the Omnipresent and invisible Triune Je- ance of His mercy and truth and the seat of their
     hovah gave and has given Himself a Face, and asso- operations. The refusal of His Face to again dwell in
     ciated His Face with a certain place, His people can their midst would have spelled their eternal doom.
     and do approach Him, enter His presence and appear However, viewing the above-mentioned act of the Lord
     before His Face. And the place where they then stand from our vantage point, we clearly see that it was a
     is holy ground.                                              gesture of mercy (regarding those "who sought the
         Whereas the land of Canaan was holy grqund,  it Lord") that, as applied to the hearts of His true child-
     being the region with which the Triune Jehovah  asso-        ren, worked in them repentance.
     cated His Face, the people of Israel were always walk-          The removalof the Face or Presence of the Lord
     ing before His face. And the verb walking is here being from the midst of the encampment of the people of
     used as the signification of the entire complex of doings Israel is a happening that may and does occur time and
     -also the sinful doings-of the nation.. Hence, the again in this present dispensation. It occurs as often
     nation could not sin, prostrate itself before the images as Christ takes away His Spirit from an apostate
     of strange gods, than in His presence, before His very church or group of churches.             Such a loss of the
     face. Its other gods it of necessity had before Him.         Spirit the church of Ephesus was to undergo, except
     This the Lord in the first commandment also gave His it repented. . This church had fallen from its first
     people to understand. Should they turn to other gods, love.         Except it repented, Christ would come to it
     set up the images of these gods in His land, they would      quickly and remove its candlestick out of His place.
     have these deities before Him, in His Presence, before          We are now prepared to concentrate on the de-
     HIS very Face.                                               claration of the Lord to the effect that He would not
         So then, for the above-cited reason, Israel' could go up in the midst of His people, lest He consume them
     not otherwise sin than before that Face of His in in the way, they being a stiffnecked people. This say-
     which  u,U His goodness-His mercy, grace, longsuffer-        ing raises a question. Consider that it is the God and
     ing, goodness, truth and holiness-was seen. Their            Father of our Lord Jesus C,hrist,  Who is speaking here,
     idolatry therefore was in the supreme sense.  sniritual      the triune Jehovah, the Redeemer-God, Who saves His
     whoredom and necessarily sprang from a conscious             people from all their sins, the Saviour, abundant in
     and fierce resentment to the glories of God of which mercy and truth, Who forgiveth iniquity through vest-
     that Face (to be connected of course, with the law and ing His people with the innocence and positive right-
     with the entire program of redemption that turned eousness of Christ. How can the residing of Him,
     upon the people of Israel) was the radiance.                 the Saviour, in their midst result in their being con-
         And so it is today. The entire conversation (walk sumed? Is He rightfully bearing such titles as Saviour
     of life) of the sons of the covenant of this present dis- and Redeemer, the gracious and Merciful One, if He
     pensation of the Gospel, is ever before God's Face or destroys them in the way? Does not the very circum-
     Christ.        As Israel of old, so the apostate modern stance that He is their Saviour make it altogether  j
     Christendom of today, it has its strange gods before         permissable and possible and even imperative for Him
     Yis Face. For in the words of the sacred writer, "ye         to dwell among them in their very midst without con-
     (the church including the carnal seed) are come unto suming  them? Is this not the unmistakable testimony
     Mount Sion and unto the city of the living God, the of the institution of the sacrifice?
     heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company               What is the Answer? This: although the doleful


94                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
~-                 ----- .-.._" -....._             -.".."".- "____ _...-              -                        --c------F-  _ _
declaration of the Lord has certainly a meaning for the for leading His people, those "who sought the Lord"
israel  according to the election, it concerns the re- deeper into the truth about God and themselves and
probated seed, they for whom Christ died not and who                    thus to open their eyes to the necessity of a priest
therefore have no share in the benefits  accruing from who should daily make atonement for their sin.
His suffering and death. They cannot be forgiven
but must reap destruction in His presence. And of                            In the light of the above observations it ought to
the fate that overtakes them, they also make them- be plain that between the declaration of the Lord,  `For
selves continually worthy as they spurn the goodness I will not go up in the mist of thee ; for thou art a
                                                                        stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way,"
and mercy with which He follows His people and set
their affections upon devil gods.                                       and Moses' prayer, "0 Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee,
                                                                        go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people," there
      But if as a result of His eternal and sovereign re- is not the slightest <discrepancy. They whom He will
solve to condemn them on account of their sins, He                      consume are the reprobated Israelites for whom there
must consume them, how can He make it permissable IS no forgiveness, they being not included in Christ.
for Himself to spare them by removing His presence But His people He forgives. Being covered by the
out of their midst? He cannot. Through His either blood of the atoning sacrifice. they dwell in His pre-
permanently or for a season withdrawing His Face sence and live. He forgives them. It means that by
from this carnal seed, He would merely make it pos- themselves they are as stiffnecked as the others. Such
sible for Himself to longer defer the final execution being their moral plight, they are in the need of Je-
of their sentence, as with His Face withdrawn from. hovah, of a Jesus, to save them from all their sins.
before their eye and from their presence more time Was it this that Moses had before his mind when he
would be needed for the  ftlling of the measure of prayed, "I pray thee, go among us, for it is a  stiff-
iniquity. And eventually this measure was  filled.,Then                 necked people". It would seem so, judging from the
was their sentence executed by the triune Jehovah, concluding petition, "and pardon our iniquity and our
operating from out of the Pillar of Cloud, His  Face,- sin, an't take us for thine inheritance." Does not this
thus executed by Christ Himself.             **                         last request plainly indicate that Moses was thinking
      But though the Lord can dwell with the Israel of the Israel according to the election and that for
according to the election without consuming them, He the salvation -of this Israel, by nature as stiffnecked
by removing His face outside the camp deprives for as the others, he prayed? Or was it perhaps the con-
a brief season also this Israel of His presence. The sideration that without the presence of the Lord in
reason for this is found in the circumstance that Israel t-heir midst, this people, being stif?necked,  would prove
first had to be made to understand that by itself it was altogether unmanageable, that prompted him to pray,
sinful and-depraved and thus unfit to dwell with Him, "Go among us Lord, for it is a stiffnecked people."
the holy God, in His house. He therefore so arranged Whatever. the consideration, the prayer can be applied
His providence that the whole nation fell into the  tir-                to the nation as to its elect nucleus. only.
rible sin of worshiping the golden calf. Thereupon                           As to the children of disobedience (the carnal,
He immediately in connection with this great sin de- reprobated seed) in the nation, for these this prayer
prived all of them of His presence, and simultaneously has a terrible significance. For, being the effectual,
threatened to destroy them. All these doings of His, fervent prayer of a righteous man, it will be heard.
it is plain, were designed to bring them to the realiza- The Lord will return and go among them. IJnable  to
tion that the reason of His insistence that they keep bear His Holy Presence, this carnal seed will be con-
themselves at a distance from His Presence or Face sumed in the way. How the subsequent history of
(the Pillar of Cloud) was their depravity. Later, the nation bears out this statement! From the very
after "they who sought the Lord" repented of their beginning of its national existence and throughout the
sin, He returned to them. But fact is that even then ages that followed, Israel rose up and went a whoring
and throughout the Old Testament Dispensation, He after the gods of the strangers of the land and thus
might be seen holding them at arms length. The forsook the Lord and persevered in reviling His cove-
only one who was allowed once each year to enter His                    nant that He had made with them concerning all His
immediate presence, to appear before His Face in the words. And the anger of God was kindled. His wrath
Most Holy place of the tabernacle (temple) was their went forth. It pursued the nation during its wander-
highpriest. As was fully explained in former articles, ings in the wilderness. It stalked through the land
it was through all such doings of His that He prepared of Canaan. -4nd destruction and misery was in its
His people for the coming of Christ. Viewing all these way. It consumed the godless. It crushed to earth
events from our vantage point, we clearly see that the nation and by its billows the remnant was swept
they were made to transpire with a view to their into exile. For all had sinned and come short of the
being used by Him, the Lord, as so many instruments glory of God. And how His wrath burned against the


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                     95
          --"                  ".---                                -~I
sinful nation. They were made to serve their enemies closed, neither bound up, neither molified with oint-
that the Lord sent against them in hunger and in ment. Isa. 1. 6.
thirst, in nakedness and in want of all things. The            A
enemy ate the fruit of their cattle and the` fruit of           S  to the true church, the remnant according to
                                                            the election, how. well it understood that the nation
their land until it was destroyed. He left not to them had become the object of divine displeasure `and was
either'corn,  nor wine or oil or the increase of kine or being consumed by a fire that went out from God's
flocks of sheep. He beseiged them in all their gates presence. And it would utter prayers such as this,
until their high and fenced walls came down. And "For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy
they ate the fruit of their own body, the flesh of their wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities
sons and daughters, in the seige and the atraitness        before thee, our secret, sins in the light of thy counte-
wherewith their enemies distressed them.         And the nance. For all our days are passed away in thy
`tender and delicate woman among them, which would wrath. . . ." Ps. 90. It was as the spokesman of the
not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the         remnant that Jeremiah, lamenting the misery of Jeru-
ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eyes were salem, complained, "How hath the Lord covered the
evil toward the husband of her bosom and toward her daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger, and cast
son and toward her daughter and toward her young one down from heaven unto earth the beauty of Israel,
that came out from between her feet, and toward her and remembered not its footstool in the day of His
children which she bore; for she ate them for want anger:The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations
of all things secretly in the seige and straitness, where- of Jacob and hath not pitied : He hath thrown down in
with the enemy distressed them in their gates. And His wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah:
the Lord made their plagues wonderful and the plagues He hath cut off in His fierce anger all the horn's of ,
of their seed, even great plagues, and of long continu- Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from be-
ance, and sore sickness. Moreover He brought them fore the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a
all the diseases of the Egyptians, which they were flaming fire, which devoureth around about. He hath
afraid of; and they clave  unto them. And every sick- bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right
ness and every plague, which was not written in the hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant
book of the law, them also did the Lord bring upon to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion:
them, until they were destroyed. And they were left he poured out his fury like fire.. The Lord was an
few in number, whereas they were as the stars in enemy : he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed
heaven for multitude ; because they would not obey up all her palaces: he hath destroyed her strongholds,
the voice of the Lord their God. And it came to pass and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning
as the Lord had rejoiced over them to do them good, and lamentation. . . ."
and to multiply them ; so the Lord rejoiced over them
to destroy them, and to  bring%hem  to nought; and             What we here listen to is not an outburst of a rc-
they were plucked from off the land whither they went bellious spirit but the outpourings of a spokesman of
to possess it. And the Lord scattered them among Zion who as taught by grace understands and con-
all people, from the one end of the earth even unto        fesses that the woe that overtakes him and his people
the other; and there they served other gods, which is the weight of divine `wrath and that this weight
neither they nor their fathers had known, even wood now crushes because he and his people have sinned,
and stone. And among these nations they find no ease, transgressed the commandments of God. Hearken unto
neither does the sole of their foot have rest: but the     this prayer of his, "The Lord is righteous; for I have
Lord gives them a trembling heart, and falling of rebelled against his commandment: hear I pray you,
eyes, and sorrow of mind, and their life hangs in doubt    all people, and behold my sorrow: my virgin and all
before them, and they fear day and night, and have my young men are gone into captivity. I called for
none assurance of their life. . . .                        my lovers but they deceived me: my priests and mine
   How all this unutterable grief that overtook the elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought
nation betokens that the fire of divine indignation had their meat to relieve their souls. Behold, 0 ,Lord ; for
leaped forth and swept the land. The curse begins to I am in distress : my bowels are troubled ; mine heart
claim its victims even while Israel stands in the is turned within me ; for I have grieviously re-
shadow of Sinai. Even here and from here on sin belled. . . . Lam. 1: 18-20.
abounded. And as the motions of sin gained in  ac-             But in view of the fact that the heathen nations         '
cumalative  strength, the blows of the Almighty in- surrounding Israel were also steeped in idolatry and
creased in number and in violence.          `How was the throughout the centuries pitted themselves against the,
sinful nation stricken  !, From the sole of the foot even Lord and His anointed (the people of Israel) how is
unto the head there was no soundness in it; but wounds     it to be explained that while He bore the nations, He
and bruises, and petrifying sores that had not been was all along enveloping His people in a cloud of His


       96                                     "'  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
       -               -    . - .-..-- _.-         -l_____.l..l.                                              -                                      -                   -
      anger and making their plagues wonderful? And the and come up in the mountain to Mount Sinai and
t      answer : Israel was His people in -whose midst He present himself there to the Lord. He is again for-
      dwelt, thus a people whose sinful walk of life was be- bidden to take any man with him and to permit any-
      fore His very Face.                                                one to show himself throughout all the mount. Moses
                    Yet `how great the evidence, that He is the          did as he was commanded. Then the Lord descended
      Lord God, merciful and gracious. . . . keeping mercy in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed
      for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression., . . His name.
      "And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal," so we                                                                                       G. M. 0.
       read in the bobk of Judges,, "And the anger of the
      Lord was hot against Israel, and He delivered them
      into the hands of the spoilers. . . . Withersoever they
      went out, the hand of the Lord was against them. . . .
      Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges which deliver-               Regeling  voor het  Classicaal  Examen
      ed them. . . . And yet they would not hearken. . . .
      but they went a whoring after other gods. . .  ; And                  Dogmatiek Woensdag morgen van 10 uur tot 11:30,
      when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord als volgt :
      was with the judge, and delivered them out of the
      hands of their enemies all the days of the judge: for Theologie en Antropologie  :-
      it repented the Lord because of their groanings by                                       Ds. G. Vos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lo-10 :30
      reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them." Christologie en Soteriologie :-  '
     II So did He deal with them throughout all the ages of                                    Ds. R. Veldman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 :30-11 :00
      their repeated  apostacy.  And when the fulness of Ecclesiologie en Eschatologie  :-
      time was come, He sent His Son and laid upon Him                                         Ds. P. De Boer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 :00-11 :30
      "the iniquities of us all."                                        Practica :-
                                                                                               Ds. B. Kok . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 :30-11 :45
              7.                                                         Bi j bel-kennis :-
       ..*                                                                                     Ds. A. Cammenga . . . . . . . . . . 11 :45-12 :00
                    As to Moses' final prayer for the life of his people, Kennis onzer belijdenis schriften :-
      that it is heard is evident from the response of the Lord                                Ds. W. Verhil................,... 1  :30-l  :50
      "And He (the Lord) said, Behold, I make a covenant:                Co&rovers  :-
      before.. all the people I will do marvels, such as have                                  Ds. C. Hanko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1:50-2:15
      not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and
      all the people among which thou art shal1 see the work                Woensdag avond om  730 vergadert de  classis met
      of the Lord: for it is a terrible thing that I will do de gemeente van Fuller Ave. om te luisteren naar een
      with thee." Ex.  34:lO.                                            predikatie van Cand. H. De Wolf over Matt. 6~33 en
                    The marvels that the Lord will do are the series of van Cand. M. Schippers  over II Petrus 2:2, 3.
      miracles that He will still perform in realizing all His              Om 9 uur vergadert de Classis  weer om de preeken
      promises made to the fathers. From this statement te beoordeelen.
      it may again be known how a miracle is to be defined,                                                   Namens de Class. Comm.
      to wit, as a doing of the Lord that has not been done                                                                       D. Jonker, Sec.
      in all the earth, thus as a new phenomenon. Whereas
      only the wonder spells, the salvation of His people, the
      promise here made ljy t.he Lord is again that He will
      be gracious to them and will shew them mercy by an                                  ALONE WITH THEE!
      outstretched arm, to His  ,glory.  So will He make a
      covenant, that is, keep covenant trust for the thousands               Thy beauty, 0 my Father ! All is Thine ;
      that love Him and keep His commandments. So does                        But there is beauty in Thyself, from whence
      the Lord here declare that He maintains and perpetu-                   The beauty Thou hast made doth ever flow
      ates His covenant that was broken by His people. Tn                    In streams of never-failing affluence.
      agreement herewith, He has already ordered Moses
      to hew Him two tables of stone like unto the first and                Thou art the Temple! and though I am lame,
      added that He would write upon them the words that                     Lame from my birth, and shall be till I die,
      were in the first tables, which Moses had broken.                      I enter through the Gate called beautiful,
      Moses further was ordered to be ready in the morning                    And am alone with Thee, 0 Thou Most High!


