

                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                            5
21_11--  -..- ---.p.&  .-,_                       ."--..-___llll_-^_                   -_-.. "__._                       .xi
instruction, and the attempts  ,of  his disciples to ac-                zulk een  Godsbe,4chouwing.   Wensch   alzoo  bekend te
commodate themselves to "`the manner of the God of staan  en ook dat ik er altijd tegen getuigen zal.                                  Zulk
the land", are forcibly described.                                      een  God van haat  is niet  mijn God". p. 3.
   They feared the Lord,  vs.  32; they fear not  ithe                      En  ,d,e   woosden,  die door Ds. Zwier  worden   geko-
Lord, vs.  33.                                                          zen om onze  vaorstelling  te `beschrijven (geen. grijntje
   They feared the Lord, and served their own gods,                     fgoedertierenheid  etc.),  zijn er op berekend om bij
vs. 33.                                                                 de Wachter-lezers den  indruk   te  laten,  dat onze
   So these nations feared the Lord, and served their                   schouwing  metterdaad  Gode onwaardig is.
:graven  images, vs. 41.                                                    Nu ligt  er in  zulk  een bezwaar natuurlijk opzichzelf
   They  fd:o   not  after  their statutes, or after their geen  argument.
ordinances, nor after the law and commandment which                         Dat iemand een zekere Godsbeschouwing  "veraf-
the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, vs. 34.                       schuwt", kan tegen  hemzelf  getuigen. Dat God  met-
   A better picture of "Yankee-Dutch" could not very                    terdaad vreeselijk is  ,tegenover  den  golddelooze,      leert
well be drawn.                                                          de  S&rift  duidelijk  genoeg.  Geeft  een  zekere  be-
   It is "Yankee-Dutch" in practice.                                    sc'houwing  dus een "vreeselijke"  voorstelling van God,
   And do not fail to notice that this evil practice is dan is dit hoegenaamd  geen  bewijs, dat die beschou-
continued in generations.      Their children and their                 wing niet de  Schriftunrlijke is. En  ,hierop  komt het
children's  &ildren   also~ "feared the Lord, and served                ten slotte  aan.  Niet,  hole  wij oas  God{  deriken,  maar
their graven images."                                                   hoe Hij Zichzelven openbaart in de  Schrift, is hier
                    (to be continued)                                   de groote vraag, die  alles  beslist. En' daarom  zegt
                                                  H.  H.                het op  zichzelf niets,  dat  iemand  onze Godsbeschouwing
                                                                        vreeseli  j k vindt.
                                                                            Eigenlijk is deze beschuldiging  altijd ingediend te-
                                                                        gen de Gereformeerden.
                                                                            En dat wordt ze nog.
                                                                            Vraag maar eens  `aan  een der  Arminiaansche  lee-
     Dat Gods Goedheid Particulier Is                                   raars, waarvan  ens   land,  vol is, wat hij  denkt  van de
                            III.                                        Calvinist&he  beschouwing der predestinatie.                    Ge-
                                                                        woonlijk zal hij niet  trachten  uit de  Schrift   aan   te
   Algemeene Goedheid En De Godsbeschouwing.                            toonen, dat deze leer niet de waarheid is. Maar hij
                                                                        zal zeggen : "die God is niet mijn God. Een God, die
   Dikwijls  word?,  door onze tegenstanders het  be-                   van eeuwigheid over  het  eeuwig  lot der menschen be-
zwaar  tegen ons ingebracht,  dat. wij een gansch  zeer                 schikt,  is mij veel  te verschrikkelijk. God is een God
vreeselijke en schrikkehjke beschouwing van God heb-                    van liefde en alle menschen hebbea een kans om zalig
ben. Dat God den verworpen goddelooze altijd  haat,                     te wolrden  !"
op hem toornt, hem vloekt en ook de  dingen  van dit                        Dat men dus met  zulke  bedenkingen  aan  komt
tijdelijke  leven  hem ten kwade  dojet  werken, wordt                  dragen,   getuigt  eigenlijk tegen de  tegenstanders.   Ez
een gruwelijke leer geacht.  Dit oordeel  berust   na-                  umgue   leonem!
tuurlijk op de gedachte,  dat  God veel te goedertieren  is,                Maar  bet  Iran  zijn nut  hebben   tech  eels  even op
veel te veel  een God van liefde is, om den  go.ddeIooze                d.eze  bedenking in te gaan.
enkel  te  haten.  Zoo schreef  Ds. J. van  der  Mey in                     set  kan de moeite  loonen,  om onszelven  eens   een
zijn bezwaarschrift  gericht   aan  den kerkeraad der                   oogenblik voor de vraag te plaatsen: welke  Godsbe-
Eastern Ave. gemeente  in 1924  :                                       schouwing is metterdaad schrikkelijk en Gcde  (zooals
   "Mijn  eerste en grootste bezwaar  raakt  des leeraars               wij Hem uit de  Schrift   kennen)  onwaardig? Welke
verkeerde  Godsbeschouwing. Volgens hem staat God                       voorstelling  van God is in tegenspraak met Zijne deug-
t-egeno.ver  de wereld der niet-uitverkorenen  enkei  en                den, niet alleen van gerechtigheid en heiligheid, maar
alleen  in de verhouding van  haat,   toorn en straf. Zelfs             ook van Zijne liefde, genade,  goedertierenheid  en lank-
de gaven die God  aan  hem mededeelt  dienen  hun tot                   moedigheid?        Is het de onze  of die van Zwier C.S.  ?
straf, en worden  voor dat doe1  hun gegeven".        p. 2.                 Is het  d!e  beschouwing, die God voorstelt  als   goeder-
   Nad'at  de  scbrijver  verschillende  aanhalingen  uit tieren  over de verworpen goddeloozen, zoodat  Hij hun
ooze  geschriften  he& geleverd ten bewijae, dat  dit                   gaven van dit tijdelijke leven doet toekomen in Zijne
werkelijk  onze  voo,rstelling  is, dat vrede en voorspoed              gun&?
lgeen zegeningen voor de goddeloozen zijn en door God                       Of is  het  ,de  voorstelling,  dat God  tin  allen  tijde
niet als  zegeningen   bedoeld,  dat Hij `hen daardcor  op              op de  goddeloozen   to'ornt,  hen voorbereid voor het
gladde  plaatsen  zet   en  in verwoestingen doet  vallen,              verderf, en ook de  dingen  dezer wereld hun in Zijn
ontboezemt hij  zich  als volti:                                        toorn en gramschap  do&  toekomen?
   "Ik vind dit een  gruwelijke leer.  Ik  verafschuw                       Wij zullen in de beantwoording van deze vraag


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                      13
__ .._-  -llll~..-__"-  _.--          -.-                     -    -                                       - . -              -    -

                       Correction                                                 World Friendship - God Enmity
    In the recent article of Rev. L. Vermeer entitled                      M4an  is always standing in Ithe  Crisis.    He is ever-
"News from our Wtesiiern  Churches", in the paragraph                   more in the critical moment in which,,  as a moral-
inquiring "as to the  welfare  of our church in Sioux                   rational, creature, he has been placed by the  Holy
Center" (cf. Standard  Eearer  of Sept.  1) , there are                 One!
statements that are apt to leave unfavorable impres-                       And man, the image-bearer of the thrice holy Gold>
sions of my p.astorate  in Siolux  Center.                              can never escape this divine crisis. He always, in all
    My reply to  -these  statements should not be con-                  his  .thou:ghts,  words and deeds must  .respond  to God.
strued as an attack or counter-attack on the  au$l~or                   He always assumes a certain definite, spiritual, con-
of the article in question. I accept his assurance that                 scious  attitude  to,ward  God.
he in no way intended  tot retieat  on the labors of  thv&                  Man is never neutral !
undersigned in his former field. I appreciate, too, the                     He is never neither nor, but always he is either or.
readiness of the Rev. Vermeer to correct any wrong                      He is either  for God, or against Him.
impressions that may have been left with our readers.                      More still.
However,  th,e paragraph as such does leave  impres:                        Man is also never both  for land n~nin&  God at the
sions that should `be briefly  correated.                               same time. This is just as impossible for man, God's
    It is true,  that Sioux Center had no young people's                image-bearer, as it is for him to be neutral.
society in the past. It is equally true, however, that a                   Man can never be neutral!
little cooperation on  &he  part of both  paren,ts  and                    He can never truly be  double-mindedi
young people w&h  the pastor would have resulted in                        "For the friendship of this world is enmity  ,with
such a society years ago. Until recently there was no                   God", James  4:4.
Sunday School in Sioux Center. The reason was, that                        It is for this reason that  a double-minded man is
there was no one capable of teaching Suntday  School,                   unstable in  .a11  his ways. For no man is ,able  ko serve
whereas  the Miss Jensen mentioned in the article of two masters.                         He will either hate the one  and;  love
the Rev. Vermeer did not afKli&~e  herself with the conk                &he other; or else cling to the one and despise the
gregation until shortly before the undersigned depart-                  other.
ed for his present  fi,eld.     It is not true, that Sioax                 God or Mammon. Either or. Never  b&h.  `For
Center is now being organized into societies. Before                    God is the eternal antithetical God. He is. the Holy
its vacancy  o,f one year there was an active Men's                     One, Who is eternally dedioated unto Himself as the
Society and a very lively Ladies Aid. Neither  is. it                   Summum  Bonum, the Highest Good. And as Summum
true, that the English language was "l.cng  lacking" in                 Bonum He is the eternal I AM THAT I AM.
Sioux Center, if this long lack of which the brother                       Therefore He is the Unchangeable, Self-sufficient
speaks must be interpreted as meaning  that  the young God in Himself. The norm of all moral-rational action,
people could not understand the  Ho1lan.d  language.                    the divine criterion of every inward ithought  of man,,
The statement, "now the young people will also begin. is God!
to receive the benefit .of instruction from God's Word",                   It cannot be without profit to call one another's at-
is misleading. I  canno+,  tolerate the impression that                 tention to these  smatters.   And   i:ndeed  it is necessary
my  consistory od that time, including myself as  shep-                 $0 do so. Especially in the age in which we live.
,herd,  allowed the youth of the congregation to starve                    Godlessness is becoming  more  and more pronounced
spiritually.                                                            on every hand.       The Serpent, is lifting up his vile
    It may be that the  aulthor  .of  the question  did not             head, and seeks the  d&hro,nement  of God.
tanticipate  the impression  th,at  would be left.  N,or is                And God's heritage is beginning to clamor for the
it the question what the brother intended when he                       dainties, and the friendship of this  present  world. T h e
wrcbe.    That the article as such does leave damaging                  children of God are in ,grave  danger of falling in with
impressions every reader may see and judge for him-                     the world. Of not being true and faithful  $0 God;
self. The Rev. Vermeer is not sufficiently familiar                     not being of His party in the midst of this world.
with the congregation about which he set himself to                     So that we go a whoring after the world, becoming
write.                                                                  spiritual adulterers and adulteresses, rather  than  being
    More  co.uld  be written about each of the points                   the faithful spouse of God our Husband.
involved. I trust it will  nqt  be necessary. It is un-
fortunate that these things  were  written as they were.
It shows once again  ,how  careful  ,one  must be when
writing  fo,r the public, especially when persons and                      For this reason man is either a "friend of this
colleagues become involved.                                             World" and `then  ,he  is an "enemy of God",  o'r  he is
                                             IL   Veldman.              la "friend of God' `and tan "enemy of this world".


1.3                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   R E A R E R
.---"  --.. "--111  _.......       ____ ---.......  _111^  -.I______ -_..- __-.._.  I__           --.._--
       This is the unchangeable, .ad.orable   ordinance of obedient. He either loves God or hates Him. He can-
God for man the image-bearer.                                          not do both. He is either or, never neither nor!
       To be a friend of this world, presupposes the high-                 And so (the  friend of this world seeks the dethrone-
est possible likeness to the world. Not the world to                   ment of God. God must be cast out of his heart and
be sure ?n the sense of the creation of God. That is tihough"ts  in all his pursuits. God must not have a
not the significance  uf  world in Holy Writ, when it place, the supreme co,mmanding  position in his life:
speaks of the Friendship of the World. The "world"                         When he goes to work in the morning he intends
is the creation of God  `as it now stands under the to work for a living. What! is it so wrong to work
spiri&ual  domain of the Prince of this world. He has                  for a living, an honorable living? No it is not wrong
.access  to the hearts of men. They do his bidding.                    in itself. But the friend of this world does not go to
They seek the things: below. And all under the do-                     work for a living for God's SAKE.  He does not live for
minion of sin and ethical darkness, stand as one ITeat                 God. He does, not end in Him, "out of Whom, through
machine, standing in reverse. They seek not the Liv-                   Whom and unto Whom  care all things".
ing God! They live in vanity, emptiness, and they                          He does not go Ito work with  "Soli Dbeo  Gloria" as
miss the  mark. They hate \the truth and lo,ve  the lie;               the guiding purpose and motive of his heart.
love the darkness rather than the Light. Always the                        And thus he  m,anifests  himself to be of a repro-
world keeps: the truth of God under in  unrightaous-                   bate mind. He walks in the vanity of his mind,, be-
ness !                                                                 cause of $he  hardness of his heart.
       And so the wrath of God is revealed from heaven                     God is not in all his thoughts !
upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness!
       And they gather [themselves treasures of wrath in
the day of wrath and of the just judgment of God.
For He shall reward every man according to his
works !                                                                    Is the above description of  the friendship of this
       He who is  ~a friend of the "world" must needs be world too dark?
like unto her. He must love what the world  l,oves,
seek and strive as the powers  ,of  darkness only de-                      The Christian Reformed Churches in  w,hose  midst
sire to, must live as the world dictates, must in                      we formerly had our abodce,  but from whose midst we
every sense of the world fall in line, must be con-                    were cast lout, will answer in the affirmative.
formed to the  worU             He never must be out of step,              They will tell you,  rthat  there is still much "gcod"
but must march in line.                                                in the world. i4nd   &is "good" that the unregenerate
       The friend of the world feels  at  home in the courts           sinner does is  the  result of the restraining  in'fluence
of wickedness, rather than in the  congregaticn  of the                of the "Common Grace" of God.
saints. And thus it must be, for God is GOD!                               There still remain "the glimmerings of natural
       But he who will be a friend of this "world" is an               light" in man.
enemy of God. Him he hates. God  is not in all his                         Bujt  what  do  the "erring brethren" who so tena-
thoughts, he can not rest except he has done evil.                     ciously cling to error of "Common Grace" forget?
       He despises  G,od's  law, and ,tramples  it under foot.             This : "That the light of nature is so far from being
And that with his whole heart and mind and strength.                   sufficient to bring him to a saving kno.wledge  of God,
He is  rlebellious   for he cannot  subj<ect  himself to the           and to true conversion, that he is incapable of using
law  of God.                                                           it  aright  even in things natural and civil. Nay fur&her,
       And  rthat  not merely in the abstract. Not merely              this light, s.uch as it is, man in various ways renders
so that this is theoretically so,  <but  that in reality, in           wholly polluted, and holds it in unrighteousness, by
practice not. Man has received a "reasonable service"                  doing which he becomes inexcusable before  God."
a "redelijke godsdienst". G,od has placed him  ia @his                 Canons of Do&, Chapter III, IV, Article  4.
world, with  ,all its <relations, ties, laws  and  content.                 This article teaches as plainly as words are able
It is the capital, the material with which he must  w,o.rk,            to,  thait  man is unable  to. use "the glimmerings of
act, live. In and'through all things man  muse  serve                  natural light"  aright   evm   in things  na,twal   ancL   civil.
the Lord, his Maker. He can never serve God in any                          So  first  of iall the erring brethren err, not having
other way.                                                             read the .articles  of the Canons of Dort corr,ectly.
       Man is a part  of the human race. Fjrom  this race                   But  tthi,s  is not all.
each individual is born. And when man will, desires,                        They also err because they have no eye for the
acts, he alw,ays  [does  so standin,g  in the reasonlable  ser-        truth, the "the friendship of this world is enmity with
vice, in the "workshop of God".                                        God". The principle, spiritual difference between the
       Bnd  in this place of &d's  appointment he is either            church and the ,world  is no more seen.
God%  friend or enemy, He is either  obedient  or  dis-                     The apostle James  empEoys  the figure of the wheel.


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                      15
                          -".^ -..-."               -ll^.._              --.                      ____---..-                                    -"_-               --.4
     `H,e  speaks o4 the "wheel of our binth".       The character- God. They are His peopIe  by sovereign, saving grace.
istic of a wheel is that it revolves. And ns  it revolves                  God  has  called them out  of ddrkness  i&o.  His  marvel-
it turns in a certain direction. But turning  ,towards                     Ious light, in order that they might be His friends
on.e  pole it revolves away from another. Never can                        in love land  obedience, and thalt  they might show forth
     a wheel  revolIve  in two  opposirte  direct& at the same             His praises in the midst of the world.
time. If this should happen the wheel would break,                               He has called this people not because  rthey  had
or  $ would no longer be  +a wheel.                                        merited His consideration and  l,ove  above others. They
             Thus  also the `heart  of man is ea;sily  to be compared      were "children of wrath even as the others".
with the revolving wheel. The heart of man, as the                                But God Who is rich in  mercy>  because of His great
"wheel of our birth" cannot seek two opposite objet&                       love, wherewith He  sovereignly  loved us, made us
     at the same time. No one can serve two  masiters.                     alive in Christ Jesus, and transported us out of the
     Man cannot serve God and  Mammon.                                     kingdom of darkness into  rthe  kingdcm  of His Son,
             Now the heart  of man, the "wheel of our birth"  is           Jesus  Christ.
     set on fire of hell ! The heart of man always goes out                     And thus we by grace, through faith may stand in                                                 l
     unto sin, and thus away from the  :living  God. The                   God's own friendship for Himself, and in His enmity
     friend of this world dways  must  be an enemy of God.                 for the World !
             World-friendship is God enmity !                                    And thus also the children of God  can:n;ot  but be-
             They are not two but one! They are two sides of               come infested in the midst of ithe world.
     the same matter.                                                            They  ca.nnot  be  neuitral.  They  cann,c:t  be a friend
             They are like the revolving wheel.                            of the World and of God. They are either or, for His
             Being a friend of  cthe world implies being an enemy          seed remains in t,hem.
     of God. Thus also being a friend of God implies being                       True, we only have Ia small beginning of the true
     an enemy  of the world.                                               obedience. We are not yet what we ultimately shall
             Thus "world-friendship and God enmity" is not a               be, when we shall serve God perfectly in  covenant-
     dualism, but the self-manifestation of the eternal  theL              friendship. Always we shall need to confess this.
     sis, the Holy One of Israel,.                                               But confess it we do. And  khat  is the redeeming
                                                                           feature of it all. Therein w-e become manifest as  God's
                                                                           friends. Sorrow after the Living God. A crying and
             Thus man is always put by God on the "spot".                  a yearning for Him, more than the hart for  &he streams
     Man cannot escape. He must reveal who he is in the                    of living water. But always when we confess our long-
     inmost recesses of his  *heart.                                       ing after God in the consciousness of great imperfec-
             And he is eithm  Gc.d's  Covenant friend-servant, or tion  and  of our many sins, we have the indelible seal
     he is the rebelli,ous  servant who through willful1 dis-              of being the friends of God and the enemies of this
     ebedien:ce  became &he  enemy of God.                                 world.
             He is either or!                                                     In this consciousness the child of God will not be
             And  this always becomes manifest in his  walk and            conformed  to this world, but will be  tr,ansformed,  by
     life.                                                                 the renewal of His mind, and will approve what is
             And therefore there is a twofold people, and $a two-          the good, acceptable and perfect will of God.
     fold manifested people in the midst of this world.                           Soli   Dee  Gloria!
.            On the  on.e  hand there are the children of darkness,                                                                                 Geo.  C. Lubbers.
     becoming manifest in their friendship of this world.
     Man may  itry to cover up his enmity fur God. He may
     play the part of the hypocrite. Aed to a certain degree
     he may also succeed. He  oan deceive his  fell,o:w-men,
     who are not judges of the heart. But God Who tries
     `the heart cannot be deceived. God turns also the hypo-                                         NOTICE SCHOOL VISITORS
     crite inside oti, and searches him. Man cannot escape
     the searching eye of God. And God man must love                              The Curators of the  fclIbwing  churches will visit
     or hate.                                                              the School as per the instructions of  Curatorimm   :
             For God  &her  hates or loves.  Godls  hatred is
     essentially His Self-love. God is His own party, His                  For September  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..Hope and Roxevelt Park
     own friend ! He gives His honor  tcx  none   oth(er.  He              F.x  October . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hclland  and HudaonviilLz
     is a jealous God.                                                     For November . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Creston    a n d Fuller Ave.
             And so man must become maniz&?est as being either             For D(ecember  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ka.lamazco  and Byron  Center
     Ql-.                                                                                                                                          The Curatorium,
             This principle  is also  binding  in the  childr,en  of                                                                            L. Vermeer, Sec'y.


1.6                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B,Y&&R.ER
-                                                     _ _--..........-_" 11~ ...L.. ....: .           .                .                         .
                                                                                                 ____- ......                  --_-._.  ^.........
                                                                           and out of  whose  hills they dug brass. In that land he
        Seeking Fruit And Finding None                                     brought them  rto possess it, and had cast out many
                                                                           nations before them. These the  Lolrd  delivered unto
       Wrote  Yhe   ,a.postle  John to his fellow Christians,              them, And they  sm0t.e  them and utterly destroyed
"Little children  ilt.  is the last  haour.  . .  ." He here               them.
had reference to a period that  selt in with the advent                           So  the Lomrd had established Israel as a people unto
of Christ and that will end with Christ's second cdm-                      Himself, and that He might be unto them a God as He
ing.  AI&her   deesignation  of  this  perio,d  is  It.he  term had said. And Israel was made to suck honey out  of
"New Dispensation". We are living in this last hour,                      %the  reek,  and oil out of the flinty rocks ; butter of ki'ne,
and, judging from certain signs: Bo  which I purpose to                    milk of sheep with fat of l,ambs,  and rams of the breed
call your  atten%.ion  in this writing, in the last half                   of  bashan,  and goats with  t.he fat of kidneys, and  :>f
or quarter of this hour. There is the fig tree,  t,he                      wheat. And he drank it'he pure blood of grapes.
church, presented by Christ  in one of His parables as
barren.      The parable  re,ads, "A certain man had a                            God's fig-tree was Israel. He therefore must bear
fig-tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and                          fruit for his Planter. His commandments, statutes,
sought fruit thereon and  found  none.         Then said  h::              judgments Israel should keep. His name confess, His
unto the dresser of Yhe vineyard, Behold,. these three                     gl,ories  .declar&,  and His praises sing. For he was the
years  I come seeking fruit on the  fi$g-tree  and find                    Lord's  pl.anting.  His ground he  cumbered.  His was
none :  cut  it  d'own,  why  cumbereth  it the ground? An.4               the honey out of the rock, and the butter of kine and
he answered and said unto him, Lord, let it alone for the milk of sheep. His were the lambs and rams and
this year  als.0, till I shall  di,g  abcut  it and dung it.               goats and the fat of those kidneys and wheat and the
And if it bear fruit well; and if not, then after that                     &Tapes  whose blood thiey  drank.
thou shalt  cut  it down." Luke  12:6-9.                                          And how this fig-tree thrived in God's soil. Israel
       The parable concerns, in the  first  instance, the                  waxed fat and was grown thick and was covered with
church of t.he Old Dispensation,-the Israelitieh  nation.                  fatn.ess.  But Israel bore no  fruilt.  He took all and
And it rose becore  the eye of Christ a fig-tree that at                   gave nothing in return. And he forgot God Who made
the time of His soj,ourn  among us, bore no fruit for its                  him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
owner. This it should have done; for it belonged not                       He provoked the Lord to jealousy with strange  go>%
to itself but to  ilts owner  w,ho  had planted it. In his                 and to anger with his abominations:. And he sacrificed
ground it grew. Upon his- soil it fed. The tree was unto  devils and not to God. He placed the gifts of
not  its own but its  plfanter's.    For him it should have                God upon the  altar of  Baal.  What an abominable
                                                                           tree !
keen bearing fruit. Burt it bore no fruit.  Ilt  took all                                                                              L.  `.
and,  gave nothing. What an abominable tree ! `How                                 It was also a ,lying  tree. Peculiar to a fig-tree is
utterly useless! Iit was a tree worthy to be cut  d'zwn                    its  Foliage  betokening the presence  of fruit on it. Israel
and given ,crver  to the flames.                                           had foliage and thus took on the appearance of a  fruit-
       This  tre,e  is Israel,  rthe  Church. The Lord had                 bearing tree,  rthough  no fruit was  to be found on it.
chosen Israel to be  a. people for His own possession                      Israel brought a multitude  <of  sacrifices unto the Lord  ;
above all peoples. H6  brought  #hem  out with a mighty                    burnt-offerings of rams, the fat of fed beasts, the blood
han,d  and redeemed them out of the house of bondage,                      of bullocks, lambs and he-goats. Israel appeared be-
                                                                           fore the Lord and tread His  oourts,  brought olblact'ionw,
from the hand of  Phara,oh,  king of Egypt. Forty
years He led them in the wilderness. He fed them                           burnt incense, kept the new moons and the sabbaths,
with manna which they nor their fathers knew, that                         called assemblies and  ao`emn  meetings, observed the
He might make  rthem  know that man lives not by bread                     appoinked  feasts, spread forth its hands and made
alone,  but by every word that  proceedSeth  out  c#f  the                 many prayers (Isa.  1:11-15)  compassed sea and land
mouth of the Lord. Their raiment had not waxed old to  make  proselytes, sw,ore  by the altar, payed  tithes of
                                                                           mint  an'd  anise and  cummin,  strained at a gnat,  builded
upo,n  them,  neilther   `had  their  feei swelled those forty
years.      As  ,an eagle  skirreth  up her nest, Auttereth                the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the  sepul-
                                                                           chres  of the righteous and said that if they had been
over her young,  spreadeth  abroad her wings, taketh                       in `the  days of their fathers, they would not  .have  been
them up, beareth them  upon  her wings, so the Lord
alone  ,did  lead Israel. And He brought them in a good                    partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
land, a land of brooks of water, of  fovnrtains  and                              What a beautiful appearance this tree presented!
depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a  Iand  of                   It might be expected  tha&!  the tree bore fruit-the
wheat, and barley, ,and  vines and figd'rees,  and pome-                   peaceable fruit  of righteousness, of mercy, faith,  pover-
granates ; .a land  o,f  adive  oil, and honey : a land where              tY  of  slpiriit,  contriteness of heart, meekness, hunger
they did eat bread without scarceness, and where they                      a.nd thirst after  right,eousness.
lacked nothing in it;  aa land  whose  stones were iron,                           So the planter, the Lord God,  cam,+   +nd  soug!$
                                                                                                                                 ._


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              17

fruit thereon in the season of the tree's fruit-bearing.          But this parable has a universal message, a mes-
But, Lo ! He found no fruit. Instead  ciy faith, He            sage for the church of this dispensation. Ht,  too, is
found unbelief; instead of humbleness, pride; instead          a planting of God. To it also  He comes, seeking fruit.
of love,  `hlatred  of God; instead of mercy, cruelty; in-     is the tree bearing fruit? Or is this tree barren, so
stead of contrition, hardness of heart,  extortions  and Ithat  the Planter now, too, says to  lthe  Dresser, "Behold,
excesses.    So did the Planter discover that the appear-      I come seeking fruit on this tree but find none."  is
ance .of the tree belied its true nature, that He had to       the tree about to be cut down? Behold, this fig-tree,
iclo  with a planting that was a hypocrite, devouring          the  church of this present time, as it is spread ov,er  the
widows houses and shutting up the  king&m  of heaven earth. What is the church doing with the Son of God?
against men; a child of the devil, making the proselyte        Crucifying Him afresh. It began  to do this  openiy
for which he compassed  Iand  and sea twofold more             and boldly during and shortly after the Reformation.
the child of hell than himself; a blind guide, a fool,         About the year 1650 there  occured  an: eruption of un-
outwardly dean but within full  elf hypocricies   an&  in-     belief that became more and more violent with time.
iquity  (Ma&.  5). Amazing! All this piety, this tread-        Christianized paganism Lhen began to shed its pagan
ing God's courts, this bringing of many sacrifices, this       shell and the beast of the abyss came forth. The sub-
making of many prayers, this tithing, this building of         terranean stream of unbelief left its cavern then and
the tomb of the prophets, a vain show, a mass of               continued its  course   cabove  ground. The children of
glittering sins, iniquity ! lsa. 1. Attend to the Lord's darkness became bold. Worldly philosophy every-
own appraisal, "I am full of burnt-offerings of lambs          where raised its head in the church and became loud-
. . . . I cannot away with it; it is iniquity. . . . your      mouthed. The movement is known in the  hi&cry of
new moons and the sabbaths, the calling of assemblies.         the church as the Enlightenment. Since that day, out
Your appointed feasts my soul  hate&h."                        and out  unbeiief  in  `the  church has increased with
    Full was He  of their sham piety, their outward,           amazing rapidity. Such fundamental doctrines as the
civic righteousness, their fruits of  commcn-grace.  He        virgin birth of Christ and His vicarious atonement are
could not away with  it.  It  was iniquity. He  abhored        being denied by great numbers of church-men. And
it all. So, when upon one of His journeys Christ came          few indeed are th,e  circles in which such doctrines as
upon lthe  symbol  oif Israel-the fig-tree  by the wayside,    the total depravity of man and the sovereign grace
He, discovering that despite its leaves it bore no fruit,      of  Gcb  can be consistently preached. Even in such
cursed this  tr.ee.    And its subsequent  witherin'g  was     a conservative group as the Christian  Ref,ormed,  the
prophetic of the judgments of God soon to overtake             preacher who attempts  it, is cast out.
Israel,  Gcd's  barren fig-tree. The  $ree  was doomed.            A barren fruit-tree is the church, a sepulchre tilled
For three years Christ, the Dresser of the church,             with dead men's bones. Yet the tree, as did Israel of
had labored with this tree, exhorting it to repent,            old', `especially at the time when  ti was  *about  to be
preaching to it the gospel of the kingdom, presenting cut down, presents a beautiful appearance. There is
:Himself  to it as the Savicar of His people by miracles,      this same bringing of many sacrifices, treading God's
providing it with the evidence that he had come from           courts,, and the making  of many prayers. The church
God. But His words had found no response in                    n*ow, too, the very despisers of  th,e cross, compasses
Israel's heart. Despising and rejecting Him, Israel            sea and land to make one proselyte. The age in which
finally nailed His blessed body to the cross. Then said        we live is the age of missions.
God to Christ, the Dresser of the vineyard, "Behold,               This tree,  aoo,  will be cut down, then, when the
these three  years  have I come seeking fruit on  rthis        elect will have been saved cat of it. Then Christ will
fig-tree, an3  find none ; cut it down. Why cumbereth          come. And then the true church will appear with
it the earth?" But Christ said, "Lord, let it alone Him in glory.
this year also, till I shall dig about  irt and dung it.                                                     G. M. 0.
And if it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that
thou shalt  cut  it down."
     But why would Christ have this tree spared for
yet another brief season? For the elect sake in the
nation, some of which were still groping in darkness
and others  <of  which still  hact  to be born.    So for a                             SO BE IT
season, the  gl,orified  Christ, through His servants, held
 fonth  to this doomed tree Christ and Him crucified.                     $o be it; `tis Thy plan not mine,
And His people believed ,and  were saved. The others
were hardened. So Jerusalem finally was destroyed.                          And being Thine is  good  ;
Thus the type, having waxed old, vanished away. The                      My God, my will shall yield to Thine
shadow tree was  cut down. It had outlived its useful-
ness. And the church emerged from its typical shell.                        Ere it is understood.


18                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
- -                                                               _.I-              --___.                              ----..-
                                                                     that would give to the enemies of the Lord occasion to
                   The Sin-Offering                                  pIaspheme.          Thus when on the great day of atonement
                                                                     the offender  was the whole congregation and the sins
       In the previous article on this subject we were               otoned those of the entire year, the blood of lthe  sacri-
occupied with the action of the blood of the  sin&Yer-               fice was  br,ought  into the very place of Jehovah's
ing. From scriptures already quoted we learned &at                   throne. How this action must have impressed the
on  ordinary  ,occasimons  the  b,lood  was collected by the         worshipping assembly as witnessing for the truth that
priest and sprinkled by him  upcn  the altar round a-                it was with Jehoivah  that the offender had to do, that
bout. The significance of this was found to be that, as when sin was corm&ted, it was His law that was be-
sprinkled upon the altar, the blood was upon Jehovah's               ing transgressed and His  magisty that was being of-
table before His very countenlance  as a blood that He               fended and that therefore it was also His justice that
accepted as an atonement for the  w:orshipper  in respect            .had  to be satisfied and His wrath appeased and that
to his sins. And the evidence of its acception was                   solely by a sacrifice provided, accepted and approved
that the worshipper lived and continued to have access               by Him, if  tihere   was  to be for the offender a living
&al the worldly sanctuary. And the latter in turn                    way by which he  ccaid draw near unto God. And
was made to stand out in the minds of true   beliewers               the blood as carri,ed  into the very presence-chamber of
as the undoubted testimony Ithat,  being forgiven, they              God witnessed for this truth that sin had been  so, com-
had access to the fellowship of God and to the ex-                   pletely and perfectly expiatetd  by the shedding of this
perience of His goodness-a goodness that they were                   blood, that with it sinful man could come into the very
also made to taste.                                                  presence of God and live.                I
       But, as was said, this action with the bl,ood  was  but               There was then this variant action with the blood.
symbol and shadow.            The body is Christ. In Him             And as a result  alf each `distinct action, that is, whether
priest and sacrifice are one. And He offered Himself                 as  sprinkl,ed  upon the horns of either of the altars (the
for  #he sins of His people, satisfied the justice of God            altar of the burnt-offering or the altar of incense) or
by His  suff.ering  and death in respect to their sins.              as sprinkled upon the  mercy-sea*  of the ark,. the blood
Having put away sin, He, the  tru.e  priest, placed His              was in Jehovah's presence before His face ; and its be-
blood  upon God's  table  in the sanctuary above, when               ing there bespolke  its acceptance by Him.
by His own blood He entered in once into the holy                            Closely related to this action with the blood was
places.                                                              the action with  the  flesh of the slain victim. When
       Let us now bring to c,ompletion  our delineation on           the sin-offering was for the common member, or the
 this particular phase of our subject (the action with               single ruler in the  conpegation,   the  flesh, with the
the blood). It was only on ordinary  occasi.o&, when                 exception of the fat, had to be eaten by the priesthood;
the offering had respect to a single individual, a ruler             but when the offering had respect to a sin of the high
 or a private member of the congregation+  Ithat  the                     priest or of the whole congregation, then the  ,flesh
 blood was to, be poured round .about  the altar and some                 was to be carried without  the camp, `and  burned in a
of it sprinkled upon the horns of the altar-its promi-                    clean place. (Lev.  4:12,  21, 6  :3(I).  But there were
 nent points of sacredness. But if the offering was for                   also portions of the carcass  of the animal that were
 the sin of the high priest, or of the community, in addi-                burnt upon the altar, to wit, the fag,  the kidneys, and
 tion to these actions in the outer court, the blood had                  the greater lobe of the liver-the fat because it "was
 to be carried into the  sanctuary and sprinkled by t.he                  the indication of.life  in its greater health and vi,gor",
 priest seven times before  ithe  veil of the holiest place               and the kidneys because of their being so cl.osely  con-
 and  upon  the horns of the altar of incense.        And on              nected with the fat.
 the great day of atonement' the high priest, clad in the                    Regard must now be had to this action with the
 insignia of his office and freshly bathed, went  witi                    fat, first, to its being burnt, consumed by fire. In its
 the blood ,of  his own and the people's sin-cbfering in                  state  of being burnt, the fat (representing, let it once
 the inner  r.oom of the sanctuary-the holiest  place-                    more be said, the sacrificial animal in its health and
 where  he sprinkled with it the mercy-seat and the space                 vigor), pointed to the holy zeal of God's house by
 in front  cgf  it. The scriptures that set forth these re-               which Christ was consumed while expiating, during
 quirements are the following. Num  15 :22-26; Lev.                       the entire span of years of His sojourn among the
 4  :X3-21  ; 22-26 ; l-2.                                                men of this world  but  especially upon the cross, the
        Thus in the action  with the blood as well as in                  sins of His people. In its state of being burnt, the
 the offerings, there was a graduated scale, mutually .fat  was thus a type of Christ, performing, as one bap-
 related to the ascent in the rank of the offender. Un-                   ;tjzed with the fire of the Holy Spirit, the work that the
 .doubtedly  hhe  reason again was that sin was conspicu-                 Father had given Him to do and that consisted in
 OLIS and thus offensive in t,he  degree that the position                ,saving  a  *guilty  and  co,ndemnable  people from its sin.
 of the  oflender  was high. As has already been re-                      This work, as performed by Him, was an *act of pure
 marked, it was especially  corrupti'on  in high places                   love and perfect obedience.


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   19
---..                        -    -
   But let it be considered further that, as the bbo~d,          then, do all the redeemed everlastingly receive. They
so  `the fat,-it was placed upon the altar (after the thus are and eternally bremain  the receiving tines and
slaying of the victim) and this in token of its being            God  in Christ is and everlastingly remains their living
presented  to Jehovah for acceptance. And the notice             God.
"And Jehovah smelled a sweet savor" signifies that by               Christ then, is everlastingly upon God's altar in the
Jehovah it was accepted.                                         holy place. So  it is and so it must be. And so also tlue
   So,  tool,  ;the  flesh and blood of Christ, the human        scriptures have it. Holy Writ teaches, does it not, that
nature in which He suffered, the Lamb "as it had been He is the Head of the church, the true vine with the
slain", it was placed by Him, or, better said, He the            redeemed as the branches, the true bread, &he  living
Lamb, placed Himself upon the altar, that is, presented          water, the sanctification and the righteousness, the
Wimself  to God  :falr   acceptation  in the holy place in       wisdom and redemption of His people, not merely for
heaven, the place that He entered by His own flesh and           the time being but everlastingly. The implication of
blood, that is, by the vintue  of His human nature that &his  is that if for one instant the  glorif?ed  church in
had been bruised for "our iniquity", thus a place that           heaven were  seperated  from Him, it would again stand
He entered on the ground of His own satisfaction and             before God in all its guilt and polution. But  Ithe  redeem-
righteousness. And &he Father smelled a sweet savor.             ed abide in Him. Never shall they be seperated from
The Lamb  `Yas it  ,had   been  slain" was thus  acepted;        Him. Everlastingly shall they eat His flesh and drink
for was He not raised unto the justification of His              His blood and thus receive of His fulness-a fulness,
people? And the Lamb, Christ, is still there on God's            a river of grace, of which He the Fathe,r  is the ever-
altar in the heavenly place. He still holds up before            la,$!ng  fountain. And this fulness Christ everlast-
the fac*e  of the Father &he Lamb "as it had been slain".        ingly seeks, asks for. For God will be recognized and
And there upon the altar, He, His flesh and blood, will          praised.      Besides, prayer is an action indicative of
eternaly remain, not to be sure as a Lamb Z%U~  is being a mind and heart receptive to what  Ged  gives.                  SO,
dzin,   not as a flesh and blood that is being perpetually       if there be no prayer, no asking, no se&ing, there can
broken and shed (the task of atoning sin has been                be no receiving. And if there be eo receiving, there is
completed) but as a Lamb "as  i,t  had been slain" as            no giving.      So does Christ, then, everlastingly seek
a flesh and blood that they have been broken and shed.           of the Father in behalf of His people the very benefits
This, certainly, is the teaching of scripture. There accrued from  I-I%  suffering and  death.  And the ground
always lay upoln  the altar of the- burnt-offering that          of His seeking, His asking, is  &he very virtue of His
stood in the court of the worldly sanctuary the flesh            flesh and blood. He therefore presents Himself. The
of a slain (sacrificial animal in a state of being burnt.        Lamb  `%.s it had been slain" is and must be  everiasting-
The fire upon that altar was never  ex$inguished.       A n d    ly on God's table in the holy place.
upon the table that stood in the outer room of the sanc-            And as to His people, they, too, present themselves,
tuary always lay bread,-the shew-bread. Now that                 their bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, to God,
flesh upon the  aItar  in  i&s state of being burnt and that     "which is your reasonable service". Rom. 12  :l. The
bread upon God's table is, the Christ "as He had been            body  $0 be presented is  #the  entire man,  the  one  re-
slain" eternally upon God's altar in the heavenly place.         de,emed  human  .organism,  as it is constituted of body
   And so it must be. For this His everlasting pre-              and soul. This body is to be presented a sacrifice, that
senting Himself to the father is an act of prayer. l&            is, it is to be placed upon the altar without spot. or
is the expression of His constant will that His body,            blemish, a living, holy, and thus acceptable body, man.
the church, be everlastingly filled with all that fulness        Now according  k&o the context, a holly body is one
of which He is the  meritolrial   .and   Fhe  Father, the transformed by the renewal of the believer's  min$.
creative fountain. And this prayer must everlasting-             Transformed ! This body then has a form, that con-
ly be in the Father's audience. For to pray is to seek           cerns the hidden man (the hidden thoughts, desires,
and to ask. And to seek of God is to acknowledge Him             aspirations, ideals and strivings of the heart) and the
as God and thus as the fountain of life and blessing,            visible man (the expression of the hidden man in
is [thus  to cry ,o:ut  His praises. It is therefore His will    w~clrd and deed). Now  hhe  form of  t&is man or body
that Christ be everlastingly seeking-for His people,             is the ethical mold, the fixed way, the scheme, the con-
eternaly presenting Himself to the Father, everlast-             struction, of the entire walk,  conversati,on   (bo'th  the
ingly placing Himself as the Lamb "as  4t: had been              inward and outward)  .of  this man. The  tied way of
slain" upon the altar. And so  H,e does.  &ch is and             the conversation of the wicked is ever in a direction
will be eternally His engagement. And the Father away from and thus contrary to God. Thus the form'
smells a sweet savor, and everlastingly responds  to this of this age, is the sinful mode  of existence of the
prayer, and responding, eternally fills Him, the La,mb,          ungodly as seen in their entire conversation, in their
with all that  fuln;ess  of which He is and remains the          manner of life, their methods and policies, in  the
seat  and channel-fils  Him that He in turn may  ever-           speech by which they give expression to their view of
lastingly  fill  His  body, the church. Of this  fulness;        life and of the world. The expression "renewal of

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

your mind,' occurs in the  fcllowing verse  tnat  reads,         tion.    His desire to be done with sin in his body will
"And be not conformed to this age, but be ye trans-              therefore be  fuifill,ed.  When Christ shall appear, he
formed by the renewing of your mind." The expres-                together with all  .such  as love His appearance shall
sion must be taken as  (r;he  signification of the mind          appear with Him in glory in the ,holy plats upon God's
(and will) in the essence  csf which operated a new              altar, as cleansed from every spot and blemish. And
principle of life, thus a mind reborn and as a result            as a man made perfeot,  he with all the redeemed will
thinking God's thoughts and minding His things, thus             everlastingly cry out  the praises of Him by W:hom  he
a mind that has undergone a fundamental and radical              was saved. And smelling a sweet savor, God will shine
change. What now is that living, holy body,  f$ for              upon them all with the light of His blessed counte-
God's altar? It is the Christian man so influenced,              nance. And they will see His face. And their joy
so under the sway of the renewal of his mind, that is,           shall be full.
of a mind as redeemed, that he is a man with a walk,                 There are still these observations to be made. `Be-
a  cc:nversation,  the form of which is according to the         fore the fat of the sacrificial animal was presented,
image of Christ. And the man, body, conformed to                 placed upon' the altar by the officiating priest, the
the world, is he with a conversation, the form, the animal was slain.  So,  too, the believer, he presents
ethical mold, the fixed way of which is identical to the         himself a living sacrifice but not until after he, as a
form of the walk of life of  rthis  world. Such a man            result of having been brought under khe  conviction of
thinks, wills, desires, speaks, acts, plans, strives and sin, has died,. that is, has come to stand out in his own
seeks as does this world.                                        mind a man by nature dead in sin. And  it. is as one
      Now the believers must recoil from placing upon            hanging to Christ,  this resurrection and life, that he,
the altar; a self, a body, conformed to this age. It             as one raised from the dead with Christ, presents his
must be their holy ambition that  (the  body presented body a `holy  sacrifice to God. And this is indeed his
be living, holy, thus a man, a self, transformed. For            reasonable service. Thus, as was said, the exhortation
it is only the Christian man, living and holy, who is            comes to believers. It is one according to which  bei
praising, and witnessing and confessing, who is fight-           lievers are .admonished  to strive to attain by the mercy
ing the  go,&  fight of faith,  .and  who is thus seen as one of God &o the ideal of the perfect life in Christ.
bcrn of God. A dead or deathlike sacrifice upon  khe                 As  to Christ, after He had been slain and had risen,
altar  is  not to the praise of the Father. It is then           `He presented Himself.  Yet from this it may not be
to holy living that the apostle here exhorts. And the            concluded that before His death upon the cross, He
exhortation comes to believers, to those raised  wi'th           was not upon God's altar. As baptized with the fire
Christ and thus empowered by grace to heed this call.            of  ithe  Spirit,  H.e-  was presenting his unblemished body,
And they doa  heed it. All their life they make it their         His spotless self, a holy and altogether acceptable
task to prepare them selves, their bodies, for the altar;        sacrifice  to God during, the entire span of years that
for  )t is their genuine desire that the body presented          He sojourned among the men of this world. But it
be holy and living, a credit to God's redeeming grace.           was not until after His resurrection that He by the
And preparing they present and presenting they pre-              virtue of His flesh and blood, properly entered  th,e
pare. The two actions. go hand in hand. Rightly con- holy place in heaven.
sidered, the two are one. The  .apostle  d.ces  not say in           In the light of what has here been presented, it is
this connection just wherein this  task of  preparin,g           plain that Christ's mediatorship shall  nclt. come to an
the body consists. But we know that it is a task,                end, when the church shall have appeared with Him
an action., that consists in mortifying members which            in glory. How can anyone take this view with such
are upon the ear$h  ; fornication, uncleanness,  incrdi-         scriptures in the Bible as the following, "And the city
nate affections, evil  concuspiscense,  and covetousness,        had  nu  need of the sun. . . . for the glory of God did
which is idolatry; that it consists in putting off all           lighten it, a;nd  the Lamb Zs  the light  thereof. . . . And
these  ; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,  filthy  com-          heshewed  me a pure river of water of life, clear as
munication "out of your mouth". Ilt consists, positive-          crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God ati of tha
ly, in putting on, as. the elect of God, bowels of mercy,        Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and ca either
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness,  longsuffer-             side of the river, was there lthe  tree of life, which bare
ing; . . . . Doing this, by the mercies of God,. they            twelve manner (of  fruits and yielding her fruit every
are being transformed by the renewal  a9 their mind.             month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing
      Yet despite all his striving to be holy,  $he  believer    of the nations." Rev.  22,.  23.
in thsis life does not attain. His body remains a sacri-             Thus out of the Lamb, too, pro,ceedeth  the river of
fice with numerous spots and blemishes. How then                 life. Also the Lamb is the light of the city. And the
can God suffer him, his body, in His sanctuary on His            tree of life is likewise  :the Lamb. And of the better
altar? Because, though sin still riots in ,his  flesh and        covenant, He is:  Uie  Mediator (Heb. 8). If this cove-
defiles his sacrifice, he is perfect in  Chrisp,  Who is         nant is eternal, and it is this, His Mediatorship must
his righteousness. But Christ is also his  sanctifica-           likewise be eternal. It was the Father's pleasure, such


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             21
                                                       .__..-_____  __ "ll__--....  --"---  ..- - _.-.-......-  - -..."_-.--
is Paul's teaching, that in Him should all fulness dwell wi&hout  ceasing. And praying, He will be full ever-
-dwell everlastingly. Praying ;to the Father to1 glori-          lastingly ; and of  His  fulness the church, too, will  ever-
fy Him, he said, "That they may be oee ; as thou                 l`astingly  receive. And the ground of that prayer will
Father art in me and I in thee, that they may be one             be the Lamb "as it had been slain". He thus will ever
inus: . . . .And the glory which thou hast given me, be presenting His body a living, hoiy and acceptable
I have given unto them; lthat  they may be one, even             sacrifice to God.
as we axe one: I in them and thou  in me, that they                 And let us consider now what is concluded in this
may be made perfect in one."' John 17.                           fulness. All things, to be sure. But we now mention
     The name Father here si.gnifies  not merely the first       these: firstly, the imputed righteousness of the re-
tierson  in the blessed trinity, buit. the Triune Jehovah.       deemed, which is the righteousness of Christ; secondly,
In this prayer the Triune  CZd  appears as being in              Ithe  life and the sanctification and the glory of th.e
Christ as to His human nature and the latter in the              church. Now these mercies the church must and shall
Triune God. And the. church appears here as being eternally receive from Christ and possess for the sole
in God and in Christ. And this is given as the reason            reason that they, the redeemed, everlastingly shall be
for its perfection and oneness. It follows, then, that           in Him. For, as was said, He .zS  their righteousness
the breaking of the conneotion  between Gcd  and the             and  sancrtification.  Let it  therefo,re  be repeated that
human nature of Christ (in which dwells all the ful-             if the glorified church were ever for one instant sepa-
ness)  and between this nature and the church, would             rat.ed  from Him, they in that very instance wouldJose
spell the immediate destruction of the perfection and            every mercy and again stand before God in all their
oneness of the church, and the destruction cf Christ sin  .and  pollution. For, in Him all fulness dwells. A n d
as  &OS `His human nature. For this nature, being crea-          this was the `Father's pleasure. For as Christ is God's
ture, receives of God's fulness as  w,ell  as the church.        gift unto an, ill-deserving and condemnable yet elect
But the fulness dwells first in Christ and then in the           race of men, it follows that nothing can so gloriously
church, His body, so that Christ first receives of God           reveal who God is,. and so enhance His glories  ever-
what the church receives of Him.                                 lastinlgly,  than  the presence in heaven of the Lamb "as
     It is not  frequently that Holy Writ literally asserts      it had been slain", everlastingly presenting Himself
that the glorified Christ prays far His people in the            a holy sacrifice to God in behalf of His people, and the
holy place in heav,en.      The statement occurs but thrice      presence of a church, constituted of men, saved by His
in the New Testament. scriptures. The Evangelist John mercies from all their sins and now cleaving to the
reports Christ as saying to His disciples, "And I will           Christ, Who bought them, that they may  everlastingIy
pray the `Father, and He shall give you another Com-             receive out  of Him and  out  of the Father the grace
forter."       John 14  :16.  Rom.  8534  is a scripture that    that He merited for them and that in Him  everlastin:g-
reads, "Who is it  hhat  condemneth? It is Christ  ihat          ly dwells. The conception rthen  that the church  glori-
died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at           fied will have no need of Christ is thoroughly wrong.
the right hand of God, who also maketh interecession                And finally prayer is praise and  adorat,ion.  It
%3x   us.`7    And John in his first epistle declares, "And      is the whisperings of a sanctified heart that God is
if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,             Gcd  and as such the thighest  gcod for His people. To
Jesus Christ the righteous. . .  ."  1 John  1%                  such a heart prayer is necessihy  and a joy like breath-
     Not once do the scriptures literally affirm that ing. How then could Christ and with Him His body,
Christ will pray also for the church in glory and &his           the church, ever cease praying. And how could the
everlastingly.       Yet that He will indeed be so  occu-        Father, in, through, and to whom are all things, ever
pi,ed  eterna!ly  is certain. It follows from the character have with Him in His house sons and daughters who
of prayer. It  fo~llows  from the faot that Christ  as to        were  nclt  everlastingly telling His praises also by ac-
His human nature is creature *and that the Church is             knowledging Him as  9he  fountain of their heavenly
God's workmanship created in Christ.                             existence through their seeking and asking. It is the
     It follows Srom  the character of truce  prayer. "Open      wicked who do not  ask, `as  all their thoughts axe that
thy  mouhh  wide," says the Lord to His people, "and             (there  is no God. And how appropriate and necessary
T will fill it." Ps. 81. Now the praying man is  he              this asking, if God, because of His being God, everlast-
with an open mouth, with a mouth, soul, heart, opened ingly remains the Giving One  a.nd Christ  trend  His
wide. Only such a mouth-the mouth He has  opened-                people the receiving ones.
does God fill. Cc,nsider  in connection herewilth  th.at  the       As was said, when the offering had  respect   to  a
nature of Christ in which all the  fulness  dwells is crea-      single individual, a ruler or a common member of the
ture and that therefore this nature, being creature,             congregati,on,  the flesh, with the exception of &he fat,
must everlastingly be replendished by a river of grace           was eaten by the priesthood. When tk.e  of'r'ender  wax
of which not this nature  bti God only can be the                the high .priest  the flesh was carried to :t  dean place
fountainhead. And this implies that Christ's mouth  is           outside the camp and burnt. Such,  too,  was the action
svide  open  ev&&ipgly  and that thus He will pray               with it on the great day of atonement when the sins


22                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
- -^-                                                             "----"-__l___.. __1_1-..._  "- ..." ._.  -".--^_ _._-_" _-._ II__.
expiated had respect to the whole congregation. The
whole  hods of  the beast was carried out of  t,he camp                     We Have An Altar. . . .
and coasumed  there as a holy of holies  unto the Lord.                                Hebrews  13 :  16.
No sin-offering, whereof any of the blood was brought                                                                       I
into the  t.abernacle  of the congregation, "to reconcile          Let us briefly explain the above-cited scripture.
withal in the holy place" might be eaten. Lev. 6  236.         It forms the final link in the sacred writter's  chain of
      `How is this eating of the flesh to be understood?       reasoning  t.hat  the ceremonies of Moses' law have
Some have regarded it as an eating of the sin by the           waxed old and vanished away and $hat  the believer's
priest and thus as his bearing it,  .cr making it his own. whom this epistle directly concern shall eject them from
The priests, by the virtue of their office, took the sin of itheir  service and be occupied solely with the realities '
the people upon themselves and consumed them. This             of which they were the pre-figurations. These breth-
view proceeds  Qa the wrong foumlation  that after the         ren had not yet came  toa this. It was hard for them
penalty of <death  had been borne by the sacrificial ani-      to believe that the typical things of the law had actual-
mal thru it.s dying, its flesh was  still charged with sin.    ly served their usefulness now that the law had been
Now this could not be. If the flesh of the victim was          fulfilled by Christ. So, being men who feared God,
still laden with the guilt of the offender, after its hav-     they, in their  mista.ken  zeal, were still through the
i~~g   been slain, it had  buit imperfectly or not at all      typical priesthood oflering  gifts  .and  sacrifices for sin.
atoned sin by its dying. The view therefore must be            So the writer addresses himself to the task of showing
set aside as untennable as it deprives the dying of them from scripture that the commandment going be-
the victim  off  its atoning power and places this power       fore had been disannulled for the weakness and un-
in  the priest. This should not be done. The  atoniement       profitableness,  .thereof.      "For the law made nothing
must be held to have been completed, when, after the           perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope; by which
laying on (of  hands, the victim was made to suffer the        we draw nigh unto God." The writer's argument
penalty of death, and its blood sprinkled on the altar         ends  with chapter ten. The chapters that follow are
of God. And the eating of the flesh by the priest is to        comprised of a series of exhortations  and thus form thte
be  re,garded  `as a symbolical representation of the com-     practical section of his missive. The above scripture is
plete  removal  of guilt and thus of the completeness          contained  in this section and well near the end of it
of the reconciliation. The atonement had been so per- which indicates that before he could bring himself Ito
fect that sin had been taken away so that it no more           pen the cl,csing  word of his writing, he had once more
existed than the flesh of the victim as eaten by the           to reason with them from scripture respecting their
priesthood.      This, too, is the idea expressed by the       error.
burning of the flesh outside the camp. But there are
other interpretations of this latter action. Some have             "We have an altar," he `says to them, "whereof they
regarded it as betokening the suffering of Christ upon         h.ave  no right to eat who serve the tabernacle." What
the cross and in the  final instance of the suffering of       this altar is that the believers of the new dispensation
the lost in hell. This view seems to have the support          have, all are not agreed. The Papists have it that it is
of a scripture contained in the Hebrews (chap. 13)             the material altar whereon what is held to be the un-
and  that reads, "We have an altar, whereof they have          bloody flesh of Christ is offered by the priest. Others
no right  (to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the          !-hink  that the reference is here to the table which the
bodies  of those beasts, whose blood is  broaght  into the     church uses when it eats the Lord's supper, because
sanctuary by  4:he priest for sin, are burned without of the communication of the sacrament which is made
the camp. Wherefore J'esus  also, Ohat  he mighh  sancti-      at it. However, the altar which  w,e now have is Christ
fy the people with His own blood, suffered without the         as sacrificed by Himself when He presented His
gate." But this scripture cannot be taken as proper            body a living, holy and acceptable sacrifice to God.
esp!ana&ion  of the rite in question. A body, dead and         This altar the sacred writer justly places in juxta-
thus incapable of feeling pain, cannot very well do ser- position to the  al&r of burnt-offering, that is, to
vice  as. a symbolical representation of the "suffering" the victim that was placed upon this altar, as it had
Saviour.                                                       been slain  for the sins of  hhe  congregation on the great
                                               G. M.  0.       day of atonement.             Thus the altar now in use is
                                                               opposed to the entire typical-symbolical service of
                         -         -                           whi.ch  the sacrifice  folrmed  the nucleus: So the  c'on-
                                                               trast here is  between  signs and things signified, shadow
                                                               and body, type and the reality typified. The design
         O Lord, I know that Thou wilt give to me              of the apostle is thus' again to d'eclare  the gIory  of the
               All that I really need;                         new covenant above  that   of the old. The altar to
         And yet with heart insatiate and ahthirst             which believers  now  have accesq  is Christ "as  He  had
               For more of Thee I pant,                        been slain",


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              28
---.^.-  _"-.      -ll--"----._"                                                       .---_             - -            -._
      Of the altar which we now have, they who serve            was expressly forbidden them to eat from this (typi-
the tabernacle have no right to eat. "They who serve" cal) sacrifice. However, all is  different  now. "Our
were  the priest and the  Levltes  who performed the            altar" is now Christ. Hence, all are now commanded
&service  at the worldly sanctuary. They did have right lti eat of "our altar" the Christ.                `therefore,  those
to eat of the typical altar of the worldly sanctuary.           who in this dispensation, are serving the Tabernacle,
This right was theirs by divine institution. For they cleaving to the ceremonies of the law, instead of turn-
who minister about holy t.hings,  eat the things of the         ing to  *the living altar Christ, are disobedient and
temple ; and they that wait at the altar, partake of            reprobated.        CharaCteristic  of the  rieprobated  Jews
the altar, that is, of the flesh of the animal sacrifice,       was and still is that  they serve the worldly tabernacle
the fat of which w,as presented thereon to God. And and thus refuse  $01  own Christ as their Saviour. Such
this flesh the priesthood might eat. Yet it had no right have no right to eat  o,f "our altar" Christ. The elect
to eat of our altar,  no right by divine institution. T V of God alone have this right.
follow the reasoning here, it is necessary to bear in                Now whereas  &he  sin-offering on the great day of
mind that, as has already been made plain in my other atoneme&  was the principle type of Christ's sacrifice,
articles on the subject of the "sin-offering", when the         Christ, in agreement with the burning of the flesh of *
offering was for  the high priest and for the whole con-        this sacrifice outside the camp, also suffered without'*
gregation on *the great day of atonement, the flesh of          the gate,  ,that  "he might sanctify the people (the
the animal  sacrifi,ce,  instead of being eaten by the          whole congregation, which on the grealt  day of atone-
priesthood, was carried to a clean place outside the ment  was  typically sanctified by the blood of the animal
camp and burnt, and that the blood of such sacrifices,          sacrifice in respect to all their sins) `with his own
instead  ,of  being sprinkled upon the altar, was brought       bl,ood."'    Hence, that Christ suffered  ou&ide  the gate
into the sanctuary. It  ,is  ito this offering-the  sin-        instead  ,of  in the court of the temple of the earthy
offerin;-and  to the one for the whole congregation             Jerusalem, need  n.ct  stand in the Hebrews' way of
on the great day of atonement, that the sacred writer           turning to Christ as the true sacrifice; for, such Es.Ybe
refered  when he wrote (verse  2), "For the bodies of           implication of the sacred writer's reasoning here, the
those beasts whose blood, being a sin  offering,  is            flesh of the principle type of this true sacrifice, was
brought into  tc'he   sancteary by the high priest, are         burned outside the camp.
burnt without the camp". Now this sin-offering (on                   Thus, lo,oking  at .the  type (the slaying of the victim
the great day of atonement) was the principle type and the burning of its flesh outside the camp) Jesus
of Christ and His sacrifice  amon:g  all the sacrifices of      under&cod that He  ,must   suffer-suffer outside the
the law. It was an offering appointed by "an everlast-          gate, as the type, so He was made to realize, was, the
ing statute, to make an atonement for the children of           expression of the eternal and determinate will of Cod,
Israel, for ail their sins once a year". It was the blood And, as the obedient servant, He did suffer, outside
of that sacrifice alone that was. carried into t.he holy        the gatie,  that, as the ascended and glorified Lamb of
place by the high priest. And the institution for  the          God "as it had been  slain"J  He might sanctify His
burning of the bodies of the beasts  whose blood was            people by bringing through the Spirit the virtue of
thus offered, reads, "And the bull,ock  for the sin-offer-      His flesh and blood in actual connection with that
ing, and the goat for  $,`he  sin-offering shall one carry      people  for whom He had shed His blood with the in.
forth without' the camp; and they shall burn in the             tention  in His soul to save alone that people.
fire their skins and their flesh and their dung." Now                H.e  suffered outside `the gate. It shows that the
whereas, as was said, this offering was t.he principle object of  His  work was not alone  `the  Jews but Jews
type of Christ and `His sacrifice for reasons just men-         and  GenLtiles.      But this has still other significance.
tioned, and whereas  fr0.m  this altar or sacrifice the         It  was without the gate that He suffered, Ithat  is, of
priests were forbidden to eat, the expression "our offer-       the city, to wit, Jerusalem, which corresponds  Itb  the
ing" must be taken ato signify in the first  instance  th,is    camp in the wilderness. And here.in  is concluded that
particular offering and in the final instance Christ and He forsook the typical  Israelitish state and that thus
His sacrifice. The proof of (this  is that all the tenses       the time for its destruction was  alt  hand, which de-
of the verbs in the statement "we have an altar, where-         struct% He also announced as He went out of the
of they have no, right tv eat whoi  serve the tabernacle"       city's  ,gates,  Luke 23: 28, 29. Thus His going  out  of
are present. In the Old  Dispens&ion  "our offering"            the ga&e  terminated all sacrificing in the city and thus
was this sin-offering. This day "cur offering" is Christ.       put an end to the entire typical  service of the dispen-
And of this offering, they who serve the tabernacle             <sation  of the law. For His suffering and dceath  were
have  no  right to eat.  Sol it is now; so it was then.         not  only a sacrifice but a  pzLn+hment   for  sCn.     For,
Ilowever,  that they who serve the tabernacle, have no          He  wenit'  out of the city esteemed a  malefactor,  and
right to eat of "our altar" did not in the dispensation         died the death which was a sign of the curse, Gal.
of the law, spell their condemnaWn  and eternal doom.           3:1X
For, they had no right then by divine statute. It                    Whereas, then, Christ suffered outside the gate,


  24                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
  ..-.-  ---.- .a-- _.-.......  -           --.-"~-""..-        -..           ----..-             ---._                     -___
  "Let us go forth therefore," so `the sacred writer in                an atom of strength to contribute anything  nt  all to
  conclusion exhcirts, "unto Him without the camp, bear-               their salvation, and unwilling to be saved, as men
  His reproach.       For here we have no abiding city,                guilty and condemnable, and whose only hope there-
  but we seek  on'e  to come." This, the apostle means                 Ezre  is the God and Father of Christ.
  to say, is their duty.         For, being His disciples,                Thus, seeing and hearing Him, sin in men, in the
  they must follow Him where He leadeth. What                          IJews,  in His awn,. became exceedin,gly  sinful and tak-
  will their abiding in the city profit them, if He                    ing occasion by the revelation of  &d's  glory in the
  has gone  ou&  of it? They will perish with the                      face of Christ, nailed His body to the cross, and thus
  city.      Going out, however, they must go to Him,                  slew God.
  Hte  being their altar. The voice of unbelief says
  that, heeding, they will lose  much,  yea, all, in                      What then is the reproach  ,cf Christ?  %t  is the
  that the city was the seat of all the  pn:lltical  and               wicked response, the godless reaction,  of unbelief to
  religious converse of the Jews. There in the city was                the revelation of God's glory in the cross.
  the whole divine service of the tabernacle. Thus to                     And this reproach the Hebrews are admonished to
th,e Jew the  grea&est  conceivable calamity by which                  bear. And we bear it when we own Him, and believe
  He could be overtaken was to be exiled from that  city.              in Him and confess His name before men, and walk
  Xn   Jerusal,em  God had recorded His name. There                    in newness of life in the way of His  covenan&.  This
  in the ho,ly  place, His people through their representa-            reproach we bear  when, as a ree,ult  of our profession,
  tive, the High Priest, stood before His face and were                His shame-the shame of the cross-is also upon us.
  blessed. Yet faith says that he who would live must                  And if we go to Him, and through our doing so for-
  go out of  ,the  city. And what faith says must be                   sake, renounce, denounce and condemn all that which is
  heeded. For Christ went  aat.  God therefore is still                opposed to Him-the world and all that  eti  out of the
  there, indeed, but only to curse and to  des~tr,cty. For             world-forsake all that stands opposed to Him, who-
  Jerusalem  ,had  through the ages killed the prophets                ever and whatever it may be--whatever friend, what-
  and had finally crucified God's Son. Hence, Jerusalem                ever privilege, whatever worldly advantage-His re-
  is now  #he  world. Jerusalem is Babylon. It is there-               proach will be upon us. But let us not be deterred by
  fore about  to pass away, to be destroyed.                           this  from going out of the g&e unto Him. For we have
        Let the Hebrews then go out of the city. How is                here no abiding city. This city, this world, passeth
  this done? It  is of course  eo,t  a l,ocal   departure  out of      away. Babylon will be destroyed. Besides, our heart
  the city that is intended in the first instance.          Yet in is not in this city. Our heart is in the Jerusalem
  vi'ey  of Jerusalem' impending doom, the Hebrews,                    above ; for there our treasure is. We do, indeed, seek
  would they noit;  perish with the city, must depart out              that city to come, to nppear  in glory with Christ. Let
  of the city  locaily.    Still, what is properly intended            us then go forth unto Him `wit-bout  the camp, bearing
                                                                       His reproach.
  is an ethical and religious going forth  from the
  city, which consists in the Hebrews renouncing all                                                               G. M. 0.
  their old ceremonies, in their going to Christ and His
  altar and sacrifice, thus in their  ksetaking  them-
  selves unto Him as the true King, Pries&  and Prophet
  of the church, in their owning Him under all the re-
  proach which was heaped upon Him in His suffering
  outside the city gate.                                                                         A WISH
           Let them go forth and bear His reproach. How
  great His reproach! How  H:e was contempted, scorned,                     Oh that with ready grace my heart could give
  despised and reviled ! What occasioned all this abuse                                  What God  Fe.quires  ;
  was His bringing Himself forward by word and deed                         That there within it lived  n,o  grasping wil!
  for what He actually was, to wit, the Son of God that                                  No fond desires.
  taketh away the sin of the world, the true altar, the
  true sacrifice who suffered khat  He might sanctify His                    It  grieves, it pains me that I do not fly
  people,  ,the way,  thle  truth and the life, the resurrec-                            0 Christ,  t,o Thee,
  tion and the life, Gold  manifested in the flesh, the in-                  To lay this treasure at Thy feet, with sweet
  carnate word, the redemption of His people. Thus be-                                   Alacrity.
  holding Him, men &saw  God, both in His infinite love
  and  in His terrible  wrath,  in His power and  saver-                     Yet take it from me; if I love it  milch,
  eignty, in His holiness and rightzusness;  and hearing                                 I love Thee  more,-
   Him, men heard themselves condemned and described                         BL$ pity, as  Th.ou  takest,  for it leaves
   as sinners, perverse, vile, dead in sin and thus without                              My  heart so sore)


     TH A Reformed Semi-Monthly Magazine
                 PUBLISHED BY THE REFORMED FREE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION, GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.





.                      _.___.-._  - -_                        -           "."-_..             ._-I__..-_--  .._      -^_                    _-.
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     Vol *  XV , No.  2. matter at Grand  Rapids.   ML+             OCTOBER 15, 1938                                 Subscription Price, $2.00

     R to eternity, in God's eternal good pleasure, a.ccording
     i  M E D I T A T I O N  IIto which He willed that His beloved Son should, as the
                                                                                     Christ, be the Firstborn among many brethren, or-
     !I,.,,-,-                                                                       dained Him as their Head,  sstablished  by His sover-
                        Constraining Love                                            eign, ,elective  grace the inseparable bond of union be-
                                                                                     tween Him and us. And having its fountain in  ithe
                           For the love of Christ:  conatikneth                      Most High, and tracing its source to the eternal good
                        us,   becu%W  we thus judge, that  if one                    pleasure of Jehovah, it cannot rest  until  ,in heavenly
                        did  for  crll, thm  wwc   all dead. And                     perfection it has lifted us up unto Himself in most inti-
                        that He died for  all that they which live                   mate union and highest possible likeness.!
                        should henceforth  nnt   live unto them-                       As such this love of Christ is reveal,& in time,
                        selves, but  W~&O  Him  ,which   died   for                  Idescends,   eolmes down to our level, into the lowest
                        them wui rose ngnin.                                         parts of the earth, seeking, reaching down to  that
                                                        II Cor.  5:1+$, 15.          which is lost; descending into our darkness to lift us
         Marvellous,   unfathomabl,e  love!                                          up into the light, into our sin to translate us into the
         One died for all ! He died for us !                                         state of perfect righteousness, into our corruption to
         FIX,  it is to this love of Christ to us, not to our cleanse us from al1 our pollution, into our deepest woe
     love  $0 Him, that the text refers.                                             to draw us into eternal bliss with Himself,  into  our
         True, the expression "the love of' Christ" might death to make us partakers of  13s  own glorious fife,
     very well be interpreted to signify our love of Christ.                         into our hell to lift us with  Himself into heavenly
     And, wholly misunderstanding the meaning of the text,                           glory! . . . .
     as if the apostle meant to say ,tihat he and his  fellow-                          For such must needs be rthe revelation of the love
     laborers in the gospel were motivated, were urged on                            of Christ!
     by.  their love  tot the Lord in their preaching of the                            We were in the prison of sin and death, when He
     Word of God, many have thus understood the expres-                              decended  to seek us, to take  us unto Himself. Slaves
     sion. Pet, the  res$  of these verses, speaking of the                          of sin we were justly, because of our guilt, shackled
     death of Christ for all as the manifestation and reali-                         with bonds  <of  corruption from which we could not and
     zation of this love of Christ, clearly indicate that His                        would not  Iiberate  ourselves.  No right had we  toI
     love to us is meant.                                                            ought else than to be called cskildren  of the devil and
         It is  tha$  love whereby, on His part, He is eternally                     servants of sin.
     and inseparably united with His brethren, among                                    But He loved us with the eternal, infinite,  un-
     whom He appears as the Firstborn.                                               quencha,bIe  love that has its origin in eternity.
         .For,  love is the  bond  of perfectness.                                      And He did not cease to seek us, He did not
         It is stronger than death. It is a fire that cannot be                      abandon His purpose to libe.rate  us and take us unto
     quenched.  Iti longs for its object, yearns for perfect                         Himself, even though He reach out into the depths
     fellowship with that object, cannot rest until it has of  heII!
     found its object and, in the sphere of eternal perfection                         He died for all  !
     pressed that object forever to  i&s  heart.                                       In  behalf of all He died.    Such is most  nrobably  the
         And lotve  is of God, for God is love.                                      meaning of that frequently occurring and significant
         Such is the love of Christ to His own, to us all.                     It little word for in this  conneation.  He died for the
     has its spring in the love uf  Cod. Its fountain is traced                      sake  of all, for the benefit of all, `that all might die


26                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                               _____I  __ llllll..l-.        -_-_-  -_...  """--..^  ..,.... -.                            -_l__
in Him, that all might  iive  with Him. As is evident                         The love of Christ constraineth us !
from the rest of the &xt, this is the primary meaning                         Tt constrained the apostle and his fellow-workers,
that has all the emphasis. Yet, never so, that He                     so that it alone could explain their toil and labor, their
could have died in behalf of all, unless His death were               patience in suffering, their zeal and perseverance in
also vicarious, substitutional, so that He also, died in- the work of rthe Lord.
stead  ,of all. In rthe  place of all He died that He might                   And it always constrains, must needs constrain the
die in behalf of all. And mark you well, He died for                  inner `life and outward walk of those who by faith
all  ! All the misery, all the darkness, all the terror of lay hold of that love sf Christ. It: limits, even  th,ough
hell, all the wrath of God, all the agony and amazement               it be  with the limitation of freedom; it holds within
there is in death He tasted ! He died! Ris death was                  certain boundaries that cannot be passed, even though
an act!       For,. He died as the manifestation of His               within these boundaries one moves with perfect liberty.
marvelbus love to us. No one took His,  life from Him.                For, such is the significance of this expression. The
He laid it down of Himself, willinlgly,  obediently, con-             apostle does not mean to say  rt;hat  the love of Christ
sumed with zeal for the righteousness of God, filled                  impels him, urges him on, that his love of Christ is the
with the love of the Father and the love of His                       motive of his whole life and all his work as an apostle ;
cmn!  . . . .                                                         but that the love of Christ to His own,  tl-& love in
      For all He died !                                               its true meaning, its power and fruit, keeps them
      Instead of all and for the  benefti of all, not one             within certain limits of life and walk, gives direction
excepted !                                                            tto all their conversation.
      Nor can it ever  f&l that these  all  for whom He                       For, first of all, this love of Christ leads us to
died should be glorified with Him.                                    judge, that if one  (died  in behalf of all, then are all
      False, utterly false is the presentation of those               dead.
that would, after all, make this love of Christ impotent                      And,  as. evidently implied in the rest of the text,
to perform what it would, to find what it seeks, to be- the judgment continues,: if one arose for all,  &en  were
stow the benefit of that amazing death of the cross                   all  ,alive.
upon all for whom  irt was suffered. Oh, it sounds so                         One  dead,. all dead !
sweet: Christ died for every man as far as His in-                            One alive,  all  alive !
tention is concerned, but whether you and I shall re-                         Such must needs be the judgment if the relation
ceive the saving benefit of His loving death depends                  between the one and the all were such that the one
on our will to accept Him !                                           stood in the place of all,  ithat  he died and arose in be-
      But it would enervate this saving love of Christ                half of all !
and render ti utterly powerless.                                              In the death of Christ, through the power of the
      He died for all, yes, but the all are those whom                death of Christ all that are in Him are  surely dead.
the Father united with Him in that eternal good plea-                 Christ died the death  &,o  sin and all its power. He went
sure where this love has its source. Not for all men,                 into the death with all our iniquities upon Him, made
but for His own He died.  F.or,  this is the current                  sin for us; He appeared out of death perfectly free
teaching of the Word of God. This is in harmony with                  from those transgressions that were laid upon Him
the context, fur the apostle is writing to the Church                 ito bear. The strength and power of our death in sin
of Christ's love. This is the indispensible condition                 is our guilt. Because we are guilty we are under the
of his vicarious death, for either He died for all men                condemnation of death, all death. And thus we are
and all men are surely saved, which is not true, or He                justly and righteously, according to God's own judg-
died instead of and in behalf of the elect only and these             ment over us, slaves of sin and have no  rsght  to be
are surely saved, which is, indeed, the, truth. And                   liberated. But Christ bore all our sin and carried them
this, finally, is in harmony with the way in which His                away forever by an act of perfect obedience in His
de&h and resurrection are applied t.o us.                             death. He paid for our sin. He fully satisfied' the
      For, even this is not of him that  willeth,  nor of             justice .of God in our behalf. His death is, therefore,
him that runneth.                                                     the freedom from sin. Sin hath no longer dominion
      Christ Himself, loving His own even unto the end,               over Him as the  I&ad  of  ,His  people, no further re-
makes us partakers of the power of His death and                      quirements can be made of Him as the Mediator of
resurrection.                                                         God in behalf lof His people. He has  $a right to life ;
      He died for all !                                               He  issuses  forth into the justified life of perfect free-
      He saves all !                                                  dom from sin in the resurrection !
      Wonderful  love  of Christ?                .'                           One dead, all dead !
                                                                              What is true of Him is true for us!
                                                                              For, first of all, when He shed His lifeblo,od  on the
                                                                      cross, when He accomplished His act of most  perfeact.
      Cons.training        love         1              1              olbedience  to purge away ithe  guilt of sin, we all were


                                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         27
                                  ._.-.-._ -_."_-_
in Him according to God's eternal counsel. He was  or-                           New, indeed, for you and for me, if we have tasted
dained our Head and we were  ~a11  members of His body,                  that the Lord is  !good!
reckoned in Him. His death is the death of all! There                            Not if merely you look at that  Iove of Christ with a
on the cross died forever, as far as Christ and all His                  natural eye and remain a &ranger to its power; not if
own are concerned, the man  that  was bound with                         your knowledge of that love of Christ is merely  in-
shackles of sin. In that sense we all died on the cross. tellectual,  theoretical, external, kn,otwledge  as any man
And, secondly, when by the grace of Christ that death                    may gather from books, B knowledge about that love,
is applied to us, when the power and benefit of that                     that fills the head and touches not  khe  heart; no, not
death is bestowed upon us, and God through Christ                        such natural contact with the love of Christ can ever
calls us into perfect liberty, we die the death  tol sin                 cause  you  to experience its  ,constraining  power, shall
forever. It  hath no more dominion over us. BY  grace ever make  a11 things new for you.
we are liberated.                                                                Sach  knowledge of Christ's love is cold, powerless,
   Formerly we were alive unto sin.                                      dead !
   Through the death of Christ unto sin we have died !                           How different  3, is with the true, spiritual know-
   One dead,  a.ll dead !                                                ledge of that love !
   And all are "living", because He lives !
   Plainly it is to that new life, which the believers                           It is like the difference between eating bread and
have in Christ and not merely to their natural, earthy                   aualizing  it in the laboratory. It is the fruit of that
life, that the text refers in the last part, when it blessed work of grace whereby this love of Christ is
speaks #of  "they that live". Does he not add that Christ poured out, is spread abroad in our hearts. And, mind
not merely died for them, but also arose in their  bei                   you, even so it is still the love of Christ,. the love of
half?  H,ence,   even  as all are dead in the death of Christ,           God in Christ to us. Then,when thus that love of
so all are alive in the resurrection of the One that Christ, is spread ,abroad  in you hearts, you know not
arose for them.                                                          merely about  Bim, but you know HOWL;   then you see
   Christ arose!                                                         Him in all  hhe  beauty and power of that love that
   He did not merely become alive again, but He  isr                     .sought  you in the depths of hell and found you ; then
sued forth from Hades with the life of perfet freedom                    you long for Him, seek Him, turn to Him, by faith let
and  vict,ory,  justified,  glo!rifM,  exalted   ! He died your sins be swallowed up by His death ; then the
once and death  bath  no more dominion over Him. His power of His resurrection touches you, makes you
resurrection is the perfect, glorified, eternal, heavenly                free. . . . .
life unto God ! And  He  arose for us ! Even here it may,                        And His love to you constrains you !
indeed, be said, thti  He arose in our stead, as our Re-                         Constrains now from  wiit;kin!
presentative,  for His justification is our righteousness,                       With the constraint of true Iiberty  !
our perfect and eternal  righteou~sness  with God. Yet,                          Constrains you no longer to live unto yourselves,
here too the emphasis falls rather on the truth. that                    bu unto Him, Who died for you and arose in your
                                                                            t
His resurrection is for our eternal benefit, that even behalf!
as we were in Him when He arose, so all the glorious                             Without the power of that love you live unto your-
power of that resurrection might become ours through                     selves.      From your own  selves  you derive the standard
grace.                                                                   of your living; you will be your own lord. Unto your
   All alive when  the  One lives! Because I live, ye own  gorod   pl,easure  you live, think, desire, will, see, hear,
shall live also!                                                         walk, speak and act. Yourselves you serve,  yourse.lves
   Alive with the perfect resurrection-life  otf the                     you seek,  yourseIves  you obey, yourselves," you please.
Lord !                                                                   And that means that you are the servants of sin, even
   Alive with the life of freedom from the dominion                      in the very b&  #and  apparently noblest of your deeds.
and power of sin, with the life of liberty unto                          You fulfill the lust of the flesh and the Iust of the eyes,
righteousness, unto God forever!                                         you satisfy the pride of life!
   Such is the judgment implied in the love of Christ!
   For the  love  of Christ constrain&h us, because it                           But by that constraining love you live unto the
                                                                         risen   Lordr
involves this judgment :
   One dead,  all  deadi;   :&he  One  alive,  all  livin'g   !                  His will is become your delight! To please Him is
   Dead to sin are all in the One !                                      become ltie inmost desire of yuur  heart !
   Alive unto righteousness !                                               You Iive unto rilghteomness,  free from the dominion
   Powerful  love  of Christ!                                            of sin!
                                           -                                     Old things have passed away!
                                                                                 Blessed  love  of Christ!
  All things are become new!                                                                                               H. H.


40                                      TBE   STANDARD   B E A R E R
_I__                -.-..                ...l_l__-               -..                               -         _~___..II
                                                                 all that he hath  d,one  in trespassing therein.         Chap.
              The Trespass-Offering                              6 :1-7.
                                                                     "When a man or woman shall commit any sin that
      The explanation of the sin-offering has been               men commit, to do a trespass  a'gainst  the Lord, and
brought  to completion. The offering next in order and that person be guilty; then they shall confess their sin
She one to which attention is now to be directed is the          which they have done: and he shall recompense his
trespass-offering. In the original  tshe  name found for         guilt  (asham)  with the principle thereof, and `add to
this offering is the wordi asham,  the primary meaning the fifth part thereof, and give ict unto him to whom
of  whidh  is  guiEt.   In its nature and design it was          he has  become  guilty. But if the man have no kinsmen
nearly identical to the sin-off~ering,  as is evident from       to recompense the guilt  (asham)  unto, let  t,he guilt
the  description of it given in Lev. 5 :14  ; 6  :7 and es-      (asham)  be recompensed unto the Lord, to the priest,
pecially from the statement in chap.  7:7, "As the sin           besides the ram of $he  atonement, whereby an atone-
offering is, so is tie trespass-offering : ther,e  B one law     ment shall be made unto him." Num. 5 :5-8.
for them." "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,                   Many Bible students have found it difficult for
If a soul  co,mmit  a trespass, and sin through ignorance,       themselves to precisely state how this guilt- or tres-
in the holy things of *the `Lord; then he shall bring for        pass-offering, as to its nature and design, differed from
his trespass unto the Lord a ram without blemish out th,e sin-offering.  Gesenius,  in that paragraph  of his
of  the  flocks, wiW thy estimation by shekels of silver,        lexicon in which he gives the sense and meaning of
after the shekel of the sandtuary,  for a trespass offer-        Ithe word Asham,  says that the exact  point  09 distinc-
ing; and he shall make amends for the harm that he               tion between the kind of sins to be expiated by the
hath done in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth             cne  offerinlg  and the kind to be expia.ted.  by ,&he  other
part thereunto, and give it unto the priest; and the             has hitherto been  soaght  in vain. What may have been
priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram S3ze  cause of this failure to dtetect this difference and
of  <the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him.        this distinction? According to Fairbairn, it was the
Chap. 5 : 14-17.                                                 mistake of supposing that the d,escription  of the tres-
      "And if a soul sin and commit any of $hese.things          pass-offering begins with the first verse of chapter 5.
which are forbidden to be done by the commandments               Now to suppose this is  indeled  plainly a mistake. The
of t,he  Lord ; though he wist it not, yet he is guilty and      description of this latter offering begins not with chap-
shall bear his iniquity. And he shall bring a ram with-          ter 5,  but  with the 14th verse of this chapter. The
out blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for           section beginning with chapter 5 and continuing
a trespass offering  unto,  the priest : and the priest shall    through verse  13 concerns the sin-offering. There is
make  an.atonement  for him concerning his ignorance             conclusive evidence of this. In 6 of the 13 verses of
wherein  ,he erred and wist it not, and it shall be for-         this section the offering is mention,ecl  by name and the
given him. It is a trespass offering: he hath certainly          name employed in each instance is "sin-offering". This
trespassed  agabst  the Lord. 5 :X8,  19.                        section then  ,beIongs  not to what follows but to what
                                                                 immediately precedes. And what precedes is what con-
      And the Lord  spake  unto Moses saying, If a soul          stitutes the principle section of the d.escription  of the
sin, and commit a trespass against the  Lcrd, and lie            sin-off,ering.    In this disputed section provision is made
unto his neighbor in  that  which was delivered unto             for a cheaper kind of sin-o~ering-for  an offering (of
him TV keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away          fine flour) that the circumstances of the poorest among
by  violence,  or  bath.  deceived  his neighbor; or have ,the  Israelites  would  allow them to bring.
found  ,&hat  which was lost, and lieth concerning it,               That the  sin and  trespass~ffering  were two distinct
and sweareth falsely; in any of all these that a man             offerings is a contention firmly substantiated by the
d&h, sinning therein: then it shall be, because                  circumstance `that +,he requirements for each differed.
he hath  sinned   andI is guilty,  th& he shall re-              The sin-offering had to be a female from the flock,
store  thaf  which he took  violenitly  away, or the             a lamb or kid of the goats on ordinary occasions, while
thing  which he hath deceitfully gotten, or that was on the great day of atonement the animals for the altar
delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he                were to be a bullock for the high priest and a goat
foun,d,  or all that about which he hath sworn falsely;          for the  conlgregation.  The trespass-offering, on the
he shall  ,even  restore it in thee principle, and shall add     other hand, called for a ram. There are still other
the  fifth more thereto, and give it unto him to whom it         differences to be  niorciced~.    The blood of the sin-offering
appertaineth,  in the day of his trespass offering. A n d        was put upon the horns of the altar and what remained
he shall bring his trespass offering unto the  Lo&,   a          of  iti was poured oat at the altar's,  base.-As  to  the  blood
ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estima-           of the trespass-offering, all of it was poured out at the
tion, for a trespass offering  unto  the priest: and the         base of the altar  and thus not put upon its horns, nor
priest  shah  make an atonement for him before the               carried into the holy places of the sanctuary.             A n d
Lord: and it shall be forgiven him for any thing of              when, on the  mo,re  solemn and public occasions,  it was


                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            41
                  ..____....__.^._  - --.---..                   ___I_-.^__I_  -_..-                                          --__-.-
     required that a whole series of offerings be brought,            the  d,ependent  members of the community and especial-
     the trespass-offering was not of the required series.            ly with $he  Levi&s. Deut. 14  :23-2'7  ; 15 :19-22.
     The conclusion is warranted therefore that  this  offer-            2. The first fruits-Each year every Israelite shall
     ing, as compared with the others, was of an inferior             put the first-fruits  off  his ground in a basket and bring
     kind. And,  finally, there was also a difference between I&em  rto the sanctuary. After the priest has placed
     the kind of sins that call,ed  for the si,n-offering  and the    them before the altar, the offerer shall recount  how
     kind to which the trespass-offering had respect. What            Jehovah has cared for and led His race, delivering it.
     this  dcifference  was is clearly enough indicated by state- from the bondage of Egypt and giving  it the fertile
     ments made in respect to sins expiated by the  tres-             land of Canaan. Having thus expressed his apprecia-
     pass-vffering-statements  that read, "And  he shall              tion of Jehovah's care, he and his family shall joyfully
     make amends for the harm that he has done in the                 eat the first-fruits, sharing them with the Levites and
     holy thing.  : . . Then it shall be, because he hath             &he resident aliens. In addition  to the first-fruits of
     sinned, and is  .guilty,.  that he shall  restore ithat  which the grain, wine and oil, every Israelite shall bring to
     he took violently away, or the  thing that he hath die-          Jehovah the  first  fleece of the sheepshearing. All the
?    ceitfully gotten,  or that which was delivered him to            fruit which a tree bears on its fourth year shall be
     keep, or the lost thing which he found, or all that about presented to Jehovah At harvest time a sheaf of the
     which he hath sworn falsely; he shall even restore it            first-fruits shall be  wavedi  by the priest to Jehovah.
     in principal, and shall  adld the fifth part more  there-        The first of the grain of the threshing-flco'r  and a cake
     unto." Chap. 5:15; 6:4-5.          "And he shall recompense      made of the first coarse flour ground in the mill shall
     the guilt with the principal  tihereof,  and  aldd  to the       also be presented to Jehovah.  Deut.   26:1-11;  18:4;
     fifth part thereof, and  give  it unto him to whom he has        Lev.  23:10,  11; Num. 15:18-21;  Lev. 2 :14-16.
     become guilty." Num.  53. Thus the sins that  re-                    3. Tithes-The Israelites shall bring a tithe of  all
     quired the trespass-offering were sins the resulting             the products of their fields and vineyards to Jehovah at
     harm of  ~which  the offender could make amends for              the sanctuary two out of every  three  years  and,  there
     and the guilt of which could be recompensed. The sins eat it, sharing  it! with the dependents in the  co,mmunity;
     to which the sin-offering had respect were not of this           but the tithes of the third year shall be stored up in
     kind. They were no4 si'ns  the guilt of which could be (the  different towns for the use of the Levites and the
     compensated.                                                     needy. Ea,ch Israelite after setting aside the triennial
            Now this class of sins  (&he  class that could be com-    tithe shall solemnly swear before Jehovah that he has
     pensated and for which the trespass-offering had been            withheld nothing of that which was due. A tenth not
     instituted) permitted of being divided into two groups.          only of the products of the land  and1  trees but also of
     To the first group belonged the sins committed directly          the herd and flock shall be given to Jehovah. Any
     a.gainstf  Jehovah, while the other was comprised of sins        man attempting to substitute an inferior for a good
     that directly concerned the offender's neighbor. Just            animal shall forfeit both to Jehovah, together with  the
     what sins they were that formed this first group may             right e,f redeeming Ithem.      Otherwise,  ,if a man desires
     be known from Scripture itself. According to Lev.                to purchase  back `any  part of the %i@he which he owes,
     5 :14,  they were trespassers "in the holy things of the he shall pay its value and one-fifth in addition. Deut.
     Lord".      The text reads, "If a soul commit a trespass         14 :22-29 ;  26  :12-15;  Lev. 27  :30-3X
     in the holy things of the Lord ;". . . . Now according               The  Levi&, whose income is the  :tithes  of the
     to Deut. 26 :12,  13, "the holy things" of the Lord that         people,  shal,l  likewise turn over as their  offerin'g  the
     the trespass-offering concerned, were the firstfruits            choicest  tenth  of the same t,o the priests. Num. 18  :26-
     and the  itithes.    In this passage statements  Occur  that 32.
     clearly show this, "When thou hast made an end of                                                                             `&.
     tithing all the tithes of thine increase. . . . When thou            4. Poll-Tax-Every male  Isra&te,  twenty or more
     shalt say before the Lord thy  God,  I have brought              years old shall pay, whether he be rich or poor, an
     away the  mlow&   things   out of mine  huuse.  . .  ." In       annual poll-tax of half a  tempel  shekel (about 35
     this scripture, the "tithes" and the "hallowed  thin,gs"         cents). The income from this sonrce  shall be devoted
     appear as being one and the same.                                to the support  olf the service  uhf  the sanctuary.  %x.
            Thus the sins expiated by the trespass-offering 30  : 12-16.
     were firstly those that consisted in the unconscious                 B,esides  these dues, there are (to  be mentioned the
     transgression of the laws that concerned the sacred voluntary offerings, the things vowed, and the spoils
     dues. NOW there are several such d*ues to be mention-            of war.
     ed.                                                                  1. Voluntary Offerings-Of the abundance of their
            1. The first-born of the herd and flock-after hav-        fruits and of the products of the vine shall the Israel-
     ing been properly  s-acrificed,  such were to be eaten           ites give  to Jehovah. When they go to worship him at
     by those presenting them to Jehovah, and shared with             the  sanduaries they shall never fail to bring some


42                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
--.                              .___.-.....  _I___-__ ..-- II______                         -I_-
offering. Ex.  34:20;  22:19.                                                 of the  and<,  which thou, 0 Lord, hast given me."
      At the three  great annual feasts every male Israel-                    Deut. 26 :5-10.
ite shall bring to Jehovah at  &he  central sanctuary
voluntary offerings in proportion ,as. he has been pros-                    Thus  the   braelite,  who purposely  held  back his
pered and is able. These  shaI1  be eaten by the offerers               firstfruits, wilfully neglected to come forward with
and their households. Deut. 16 :lO-1'7; 12 :5-8.                        the memorial of his (typical) deliverance and with
      2. Things  Vo&wed-No  one is obliged to make a the evidence of Jehovah's supreme Lordship. Such
vow; but, when he has, he must not be remiss in per-                    a one, therefore, through his act of disobedience  d,enied
forming  ,it, for negbgence  in so doing is a sin against               his own (typical) deliverance, rejected and disowned
Jcehovsh  and will incur the divine  displeas,ure.             Deut.    J,ehovah  as his redeemer-God, usurped God's place in
23  :21-23,  18 ; 12 : 10-26.                                           His own house to place in the serviae  of self what be-
                                                                        longed to God and what he, Ithe  Israelite, might there-
      3. Spoils of  War---One   one-thousandkh  of all the              fore will to  holld   .only as a trust. For it is  t,o be con-
spoils of war were to b,e given to priests and the same                 sidered  th& the fir&fruits and the tithes were repre-
amount to the Levites as a special gift to Jehovah.                     sentative. of the entire  ,harvest,  so that through his
Num.  31~25-54.                                                         wilfully withholding these offerings, the offender de-
      These are the laws  tha& the trespass-offering first              clared  #hat  the  suprem  owner of all  tihe  yield of his
of all  conoerned.  But this offering might be brought                  land was not Jehovah but himself.
only if the transgression was the result of ignorance                       But there ,is more to say aa  this. These firstfruits
or oversight. It thus might not  be brought if  the.                    were also the sign of  &he  firstfruits of the Spirit of
transgression had been deliberate and intentional, the                  Christ, the earthy token of the sacrifice of the praise
issue of a heart wilfully disobedient. Here also the                    of that body, that self of his, that the believer presentrs
presumptuous sin cried for the immediate death of the                   to God a living, holy, and  acaeptable  sacrifice. Thus
offender. And it is not difficult to: understand why it                 those firstfruits were art once a sign of heavenly reali-
should. Israel was a people that has been delivered                     ties, of the gifts of the Spirit that believers in  this)
by Jehovah from the  bondasge  of Egypt. The land of                    life receive out of Christ's  fulness.    Wrote the apostle,
Canaan further was Jehovah's rest which He had pre-                     "but ourselves also  wlhich  have the fir&fruits of the
pared and entered with His people. He therefore, as                     Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, wait-
redeemer-God was the supreme Lord of this land and ing for the adoption. . .  ." Rom. 8  :23.   N:o~w,  as these
of its redeemed inhabitants-the people of Israel. That                  firstfruits of the Spirit are pati  and parcel of the man
there now might be in Israel a perpetual memorial of                    endowed with them, offering these fruits must consist
Jehovah's past accomplishment and tangible evidence                     in the believer offering his very self, in his yielding
of His supreme Lordship, he commanded His people                        himself to God in a heartfelt  service.  Now of this
to separate unto him the tithes and firstfruits of all                  spiritual act of  ,dedication,  the Israelite's presenting
their earthy gain and, after having placed them before                  his material gifts to the Lord  w.as the sign.        And if
His altar, to declare while still  standjing  in His pre-               he was a believer,  ithis act of his at once betokened
sence :                                                                 his dedication of self to the'service of ti God.
                                                                            It is plain therefore, that the Israelite who wilfully
       "A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he                  withheld either the whole or a part of his firstfruits,
       went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with not only deliberately refused  to.bring forward the mem-
       a few, and became there a nation., great, mighty,                orial  ,of Israel's deliverance and the  evid.ence  of the
       and populous :                                                   supreme Lordship of Jehovah but also refused to bring
       "And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted into being the very signs  of the things heavenly.                      F&e
       us  wi'h   ,a hard bondage  :                                    was thus a man who, through  hs wilful negligence, de-
       "And when we cried unto the Lord of our fathers,                 clared that he could rightfully and with impunity with-
       the Lord heard our voice and looked upon our                     hold his very self from the God Who h&l  (symbolical-
       afflictionq  and our  labour,  and  olur  oppression:            ly) delivered him and in Whose house he dwelt as God's
                                                                        creature.
       "And the Lord  brought  us forth out of Egypt
       with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched                          But  thk is not all. The  firstfruirk  and the tithes
       arm,  and  with grea$.  terribleness, and with signs             were almost the sole source of support of the priests
       and with wonders:                                                and the Levites by whom the service at the sanctuary
                                                                        was performed and of the stranger, the fatherless and
       "And he bath brought us into this place, and thath               the widow in  k'he   land.  We learn this from  Deut.
       given. us this land, even a land that  flow&h with               26  :12.    The p.assage  reads, "When thou hast  made an
       milk and honey:                                                  end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third
       "And now, behold, I have brought the first-fruits                year, the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  43
                                     ..--  .._.                         -.            ..l_l_ll...^  _... _ .._-
Levite,  the  stranger,  the  fakherless,  and the widow,        the offender had  to give whatever he had withheld and
that they may eat within thy gates and be filled  :. . . ."      in  addiltion  a fifth part thereof. I$ was in this addition
And that the Is,raelite  migh;t\ always  necoil  from yield- that the penalty was proportioned  to lthe  offence.             The
ing to the sinfd inclination of diminishing his  ti%hes,         reparation having been made, then, with the ram "the
the Lord placed him under the necessity of saying be-            priest shall make an atonement."
fore His face, when an end of tithing had been made,                Thus taking from the sacred dues, was a sin so
"I have  brought away the hallowed things out of mine            serious  thalt,  if committed  intentiona!ly,  it could not
house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and             even be atoned (symbolically). It shows that here
unto1 the stranger, ete the fatherless, and to the widow,        again we have to do with a sin that if int.entional  and
according to all Thy commandments  which  thou hast              persist&  in,. was one inconsistent with grace. For
commanded me: I have not transgressed  4%~ com-                  the above-cited reasons, no Israelite,  w&h  the love of
mandments, neither have I forgotten them: I have not             God in his heart, could persistently walk in this sin.
eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken               Even if unintentionally committed, the sin had to be
away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given                atoned and the offender  fo'und  himself under the neces-
ought  tthereof  for the dead : but I have hearkened unto        sity of making amends in a manner  just described.
the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according Thalt  amends had to be made even before the sin might
to all that thou  ha&  commanded me. Look down from              be atoned, had  ids reason. The offender had to: provide
thy *holy  habitation from heaven, ind bless thy people          the priest with some evidence that hie had unintantion-
Israel, and the land  which thou hast given us, as thou nully  defrauded Jehovah and that he was truly sorry
swarest unto our fathers, a land  rthat   flow&h  with for his carelessness. And this evidence consisted, in
milk and honey." Deut.  26:13-15.                                his making amends for the harm  khat  he had done.
    Thus the Israelite who knowingly diminished  hB                 What now has all this to say to ursl?          It, of  oourse,
tithes was one who said  in his heart, "As for me, the           will not do to say that these requirements, as they con-
indigent in the land and the ministers of Jehovah may            cerned a service `that has vanished away because of its
starve and the service at the sanctuary may disappear            having waxed old, may be altogether  igno'red  by us.
from the face of the earth." And what greatly aggra-             All scripture, thus also the ceremonial  l,aw,  "is given
vated his sin is that  wiitih  the knowledge in his soul         by inspiration of  Go.d,  and is profitable for doctrine;
of wilfully having defrauded Jehovah he would solemn-            for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous-
ly declare before the face  0-f the Lord that  `he had           ness. With what reproof, correction and instruction,
brought away God's "holy things" out of his house.               then, do these requirements come to New Testament
    In the light of the above  observati:08ns,  it can not       believers? What is their power to bind the coInscience
be thought  &range thah  the sin of taking away from             even in this day? Let us see. The  statement  that be-
these sacred  dues  called for the instant death of the          lievers are still in duty bound to support by their ma-
offender. For such a one there was no sacrifice.                 lterial  gifts the ministry of the word  is, one that cer-
    So, then, only he who unintentioaally,  by mistake           tainly needs no proof. But the question whether our
or oversight, had withheld from Jehovah His just due, -offering has the significance that it formerly had, must,
might  brin*g  the  .trespass-offering.  And this  offering      of course, be answered in the negative. In presenting
he had  to bring. For "though he wist it not," that is,          their material gifts unto the Lord, believers of this
though he without  his knowledge had sinned in "the              day do  no!t  bring forward  tie memorial of  their de-
holy things of God", " yet he is guilty, and shall bear          liverance from a typical bondage as did the believers
his iniquity." Thus  his ignorance did not excuse him.           of the Old Covenant when they offered. Neither must
"He hath certainly trespassed against the Lord." Lev.            it be said that they give to the church and to, the poor
5 : 17-19.                                                       with a view to keeping alive the memory of !their  de-
    But more was required of him than this. Even  be-            liverance from  their spiritual bondage. Were this
,fore the priest was all,owed  to, make atonement for him        true, the  sction  would partake of the character of a
in respect $os his sin, he was obliged to "make amends           sacrament. And as to the contention that these ma-
for the harm that he had done in the holy thing," and            terial contributions are to be regarded as special signs
to "add the fifth  ,part  thereto, and give it  unto  the        or symbols of the fruits of ,righteousness  that believers
priest." The clause "and shall add a fifth-part thereto" bear-this contention, too, is wrong. This, to be  sure,
proves conclusively that  the offenses under considera-          is not denying that! in a general sense the  earthy is
tion did actually consist in the offender having taken           a symbol  o,f the heavenly.
from the firstfruits or from the tithes. There is also               If these observations are correct, and they are this,
other evidence of this, found in the 15th verse of chap.         it follows  hhat  our contributions are no "holy things
5, a verse that reads (in khe original), "If a soul com- of the Lord" in the same sense that Israel's  firstfruits
mit a trespass, and sin  tihrou,gh  ignorance,  t&$zg or         and Zithes  were this: These gifts, on account of their
diminishing from the holy things.  . .  ." If these  ha.d        being what  rthey  were,  fir&fruits and tithes, that is,
been diminished,  ux+wittingly  und thus not  delibercltlely,    tenths (ten is a symbolical number signifying  com-


44                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
-        -                   .~.-
pleteness)  witnessed to the truth that the people of            not  Chris't,  through His suffering  aad  death redeem
.Israel  were a people delivered from (a  :$ypical-sym-          His people,  certainly,  but with them the entire  cos-
bolical) bondage, that the land in which this people re-         mm? So He did. The earth and the  fulness  therefore
sided was Jehovah's, that thus this people, together             is rightfully His. And the wicked, by whom this. earth
with the entire yield of the soil of this land, belonged         is now being  co,rrupted,  must therefore  b,e destroyed.
exclusively to Him.           This was the speech of which       The earth is not their's but Christ's. And for this
their tithing was  tihe  expression. Offering the  first-        truth, believers must witness. And  tiheir  witnessing
fruits and tithing were very plainly typical-symbolical          must consist in their yielding their very  s.elves to
insti%utions  that, together with the ceremonies of the          Christ and in their serving Him with all their earthy
law, vanished away.                                              substance.  A.nd  this by God's, mercy, they  do.  And
      Herewith the question has been answered whettier           loving the kingdom causes, they freely and gladly give
the Church o,f God still  findts  itself under the necessity     of  itheir  substance to the support thereof, us  the Lam!
of tithing. It does not. Yet,  us a  ~method  of  giving,        blessed  them.  But he who wilfully diminishes these
tithing is to be  reco~mmended.  Only, what  must be             sgifts,  deliberately takes from that which should go to
realized is tiat  givmg  the tenthshas now noI  more sig-        the support of the ministry of the word, commits a
nifican~ than the giving of the elevenths or the                 grave sin. Such  ,a one, as well as  that  disobedient
tweltihs.         For the ceremonies of the law have come        Israelite of old, sets  ~himself  up as supreme Lord over
t o   a n   enId!.    God must now be served in spirit           self and his substance. And h%  too, through his wilful
and in  Truth.  Thus,  the  sacrifices that  b&eve&  now         negligence declares that as for him the service of God
bring are s*piritual,  those of praise. The gift is their        may perish from the earth.            ,
living, holy body Ithat  they present unto Gcd,.  and this          But this is not enough said. Certain it is that  the
body is now the memorial of their spiritual redemp-              memorial of the believer's redemption and actual  liber
tion. The apostles in their epistles everywhere em-              ation  from the bondage of sin, is now  ithe  spiritual
phasize this. "By him therefore"," wrote the apostle             fruit that he as a good tree bears,  but   80 beers that
to the Hebrews, "let us offer the sacrifice of praise  to1       men see his good1  works and glorify God. Now a good
God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving work can be aeen only when God's  love in rthe believer
thanks to His name." An!d, the apostle Peter tells the           is allowed to express itself in deeds of mercy. The
(tspiritual)  strangers scattered abroad that "Ye also,          believer must do  <good  if he is  tv be seen  as a monument
as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy        of Christ's accomplishment in him. "But to do  .good
priesthoo'd,   qto  offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable    and to communicate forget not: for with such sacri-
to God by Jesus Christ."                                         fices God is well pleased." Heb. 13 : 15.
                                                                     The conclusion to which we are driven is that the
      The matter then is  tis : In the Old Dispensation all a& of wilfully withholding or diminishing the gifts
was type and  s,ymbol:  the deliverance from the bon-            tha#  should go to the support of the ministry and of
dage of Egypt, Canaan and  its redeemed  sesident,s,             the poor is still a great sin. Can this sin, if deliberate-
the sanctuary and the sacrifices, the tithes and the ly done, be forgiven? As has been shown (in former
firstfruits together with the people's voluntary  o'ffer-        articles), in the Old Dis.pensation  it could not be sym-
ings.         But the true deliverance is from a bondage that bolically ,atoned  for and forgiven. But from this it does
is spiritual. The  itrue  sanctuary is  the  church. The not follow, as  h= also been  expla.ined,  that this sin and
true sacrifice is Christ. And the memorial and evi-              the class of (symbolically) unpardonable sins to which
dence of the believer% redemption are the good works             it belonged, could and can not be truly forgiven. If
in which he is empowered to walk.                                repented of, it will be. And  iti will be repented of, if
      1%  is then the sanctified self that believers now place the offender be truly ,a believer. For what man with
upon God's altar. But this self necessarily includes             the love of God in his  iheart  can deliberately  and\  per-
their entire earthy substance, all their material gain.          sistently walk in this  si,n?  What truly Christian man
For this gain is God's. It is a gain that He bestows             can shut up his bowels from the poor and destitute
in  His  love. It is an earthy reward that comes to              brethren  and  from  ;the  ministry of the word? Says
them in conjundion with the exercise  of sanctified              the apostle  John  in  <his  first epistle, "But  whoaso  has
powers and talents uf  which not they but Christ's God           this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need,
is the  Creatofr  and Sustainer. And though the land             and  shutteth  up his bowels of compassion from him,
in which they live is not a Canaan, the earth and the            fhow   dwielleth  the love of God in  ,him?"    I John 3 :17.
fulness thereof is as ;truly  God's as was Canaan. A n d         And if he  wb  has offended in this respect, truly re-
it is wirth  the yield of this earth that the Lord sustains      pents of his sin, will he not  want  to make ,amends  for
the lower nature of His people in  ord.er  that, as so           the harm he has done, as far as he is able? Will he
sustained, they may work His works. How can  Christ's not, as well as the offender of old, have to1 do this, if
God possess  ,His  people and not their material  sub-           he would be forgiven?
&ance,  if this substance, too, is His creature? And did                                                         G. M. 0.


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 45
                                           ~__---~.-~-
   First Be Reconciled To Thy Brother                            are fhe only sins mentioned. Let us examine them.
                                                                     "If a man lie to his neighbor in that which was
                   Therefore if thou bring thy gift to  the      delivered him. . .  ." This has reference fto  a deposite,
               altar, and there rememberest that thy brother     a  Ithing  entrusted to be kept. The sin in this case
               has ought against thee; leave  there  thy gift    would consist either in the offender denying that he
                befoxe  the altar, and go thy way; first be      had received it at  ,all, or in his denying that  i% was
                reconciled to thy brother, and then come and     received in trust, or in his refusing to restore it
                offer thy gift.                                     "Or in fellowship. . .  ." or pledge. This differs
                                                                 from the former in its being not simply a trust but a
                                           Matt.   5:23,  24.    pawn. The  offence  might also consist in appropriat-
   Let us now briefly consider the second group of ing the thing by violence or by deceit; or even in deny-
sins that the trespass-offering concerned. As was said,          ing that what was lost  had  been found and in confirm-,
characteristic of this second group is, that they were ing  !the  denial by an oath. This false swearing refers
committed more diredtly against the  neisghbor.  . The           to all the sins mentioned in  this passage.
sins belonging to this second group were again of two               The sins here mentioned ,are  to be taken as repre&
kinds: 1. Sin in which pecuniary compensation could              sentative   of a class. This is certain. For if moral
not be given, but punishment had to be  infliotedt  in           weakness, embodying itself in the sinful  a.cts  examined,
,some way ; 2. Sins that could be compensated by could be atoned by the trespass-offering, there could be
money.                                                           no reason why this same weakness  could  not be ex-
   The ritual for the first kind elf sins is given in Lev.       piated wlhen  expressing i&self in other directions. The
2 : 17-19. The passage  Teads,  "If a soul sin, and commit       sins here mentioned could not, to be sure, be com-
any of these things which are forbidden #o be done by            mitted through ignorance. They were sins of moral
the commandments of the Lord: though the wist it not,            weakness, committed under  the  stress  oiE sinful passion
yet he is guilty and shall bear his  miquity.  And he            or occasioned by temptation and yet not  chara.cterized
shall bring a. ram without blemish out of the flock,             by that  s&led  and deliberate malice that marked the
with thy estimation for a  ttrespass   ofiriag,  unto the        presumptuous sins. Thus they were sins not incon-
priest:  andI the priest shall make an atonement for             sistent with grace. They are sins in whieh believers
him  ,concerning  his  iIgnorance  wherein he erred and          can and do fall. That sins such as these could be sym-
wist it not, and it  (shall  be forgiven him. It is a tres- bolically atoned and forgiven should cause one to be
pa&offering: he hath certainly trespassed against the on guard against hastily concluding  that  this or t,hat                     .
Lord."                                                           unspiritual and ill-behaving member of  C.hrist's  church
   The  Petiateuclh  contains but one specimen of this           is  ndt  true Christian. An examination of these sins
kind of sins. This is given in Lev. 19  :20.  Here we            should cause us to say that it is `astonishing in what
read, "And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman sins a true believer under the impulse of a carnal pas-
that  i's  a bondsmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not         sion will fall.
at all redeemed, nor freedom given her:  t.here  shall               Now all these sins here mentioned could be com-
be punishment, they shall not be put to death, because           pensated with money. And this the offender had to
(she  was not free. And he shall bring his  trespass-            do. "Then it shall be, because he bath  sinned, and is
offering unto the Lord. . .  ."                                  guilty, that he shall restore that  wbhich  he took  violent-
   Adultery was a sin that had to be punished by                 Iv  away, or the thing which he  bath deceitfully gotten,
death. But  this law was inapplicable in its full force or that which was delivered  ~hirn to keep, or the lost
in the case  of a slave, since she could1  not legally con- lthing  which he  harth  found,  o:r that about which he
tract marriage. Still the moral offence  had to be pun-          hath sworn falsely ; he `shall even restore it in principle,
ished. Probably both panties were punished when the              and shall add the fifth  part more thereunto, and give
acquiescence of the woman might be presumed, and                 it unto him to whom it  ,appertaineth,  in the day of his
the man alone in the  opposite case. The punishment trespass-olffering."
$having  been  melted  out,  the  male offender brought a           The amends for the harm  dcne  was to be made to
ram and the priest made atonement for him.                       the per,son wronged before %he offence  could be atoned
   Of the second kind of sins of this last group for             by the priest.
which the trespasseffering  availed, several specimens               From the law of the trespass-offering it is clear
are mentioned in Lev. 6 :l-5, "If a soul commit a tres- that the wrong  done  to a man had  b  be: restituted if the
pass against the  Load,  and lie unto his neighbor in that       sin was to be forgiven.         The two principles here
which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship,  09           brought out  is Ithat  there must be both the desire, as
in a lthing  taken away by violence, or haith deceived           far as  poss,ible,  to make amends for the harm done
his neighbor; or have found that which was lost, and,            and that there must be also the sacrifice appointed1  for
lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely; in any of             "the covering" of the sin. Here are brought out two
these that a man doeth,  sinning therein;. . . ." These          principles  which eveehere,  under the Old and  Nem


4    6                                          T H E   STANDARb   B E A R E R
_I__. ."" .-.....  ".-..--.._  .--.___-... I___-  -...  --."--.-  .-_...  II_--  ..-  ^._       -.-.-^  ._.. ____-..lll_._
Dispensation alike, ,are  concerned in the forgiveness  ob                  Nim, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
sin. Sin to be forgiven  mu&  be repented of. And                           is His promise to us. Said  Ch&t,  "Blessed are the
,there  is no true repentance for wrong done,  Jf the                       pure in heart, for they shali see God." And in John's
offender will not make amends, if he possibly can.                          firsti  epistle we come upon this statement,  "BeIoved,
It is certainly also for this reason that it is easier                      now are we the sons of God,  *and it doth not yet appear
for a camel to  go through a needle's eye, than for a what we shall be: but we know that, when it shall ap-
rich man to enter  into!  the kingdom of heaven-the                         pear, we shall be like Him; for wo  shall  see Him as He
rich man,  U&t  is,  Ithe  man with many possessions.                       is." We will then be seeing Him, not, to be sure, His
In amassing his wealth he did much harm. Making                             essence which is invisible but His face and thus, Him.
amends for his  *harm  would therefore have to consist                      For His face is radiant wikth the beauty of His infinite
in his parting with most of his  posisessions,  as much                     .virtues,  the glory of His invisible self, so that behold-
of his goods he gained by d,ishonest  methods.                              ing  tiis face, we see God, His  very h.eart, the love od
     "If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the                      His heart by the power of which we are  saved1  to the
Lord and lie unto his neighbor. . . ." To lie, to offend                    uttermost. And God's face is Christ Jesus. Did not
against man, was at once to Itrespass  again&  rthe Lord.                   Philip's question, "Lord, shew us the Father, and  it
One could net  offend against man without also offend-                      sufficeth  us," draw out of Him the reply, "Have I been
ing against God, yet the  offence  which had God directly                   so long time  with you, and yet hast  tibou  not known me
for its objective point was necessarily more  sarious,                      Philip? ; he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;
since it involved a deeper tort than  tha,t  which was                      and how sayest thou  tihen,   S'ew  us the Father?" Verily
direoted  only against man. Hence, the trespass that                        He is the face of God. For He is in the Father, ,and  the
consisted in withholding from the Lord the tithes and                       `Father in Him. And the words that He speaks, He
other offerings. for the support of the service  at the                     speaks  no% of Himself: but the Father that dwelleth in
sanctuary, could not be atoned by the priest.                      Such     Him, He doeth  the works.
sins, let it be repeated, had I% be punished by death.                           God's face, then, is  Chris~the Christ as He brings
But even if the trespass was deliberate, if it was                          Himself forward for what He is. And He is the Lamb
against man  dire&y  and did  noit  fall in the class of                    ;of God, Who took away the sins of the world by His
unexpiable sins, it was. atoned.                                            Isuffering   ,and  `death;  the way, `the truth and the life;
     Whereas all sin is guilt, the question might be                        the resurrection and the life; the Christ with Whom
asked why the trespass-of&ring, in distinction from the                     we'  were crucified, buried and raised up together and
sin-offering bears in the original the name of  guilt-                      made Itb sit in heavenly places in Him; the Christ Who
offering. In all likelihood, the reason was  that  tie guilt                ascended into heaven, Who was  croiwned  there with
of the offences  for which Qhe tres,pass-offering  ava&cl:,                 power and glory  and  Who now gathers His church and
was rendered exceptionally prominent by the require-                        rules His people by His Spirit and His Word; the
ment that amends be made  for the  haarm  done.                              Christ  who can pray for  us' and save us to the utter-
                                                       G. M. 0.             most, as He is the Lamb "as it had been slain" and as
                                                                            in Him now  dwelleth   all  fuIness  bodily: the Christ,
                                                                             finally, who shall roll up the heavens as a scroll and
                                                                            cause the elementi to burn that the new `heavens and
                       Now And Then                                         the new earth may appear and that His people with
                                                                             Him may appear in glory. This  Christ, in the central
                        For now we see through a glass, darkly;              sense, is the face of God. Beholding Him, we see
                                                                             God.
                    hut then face to face; now  1 know in part;
                    but then shall I know even as I am known.                    Now this face we see in  &is life  #hrough  or in
                                                                             a glass. It is a mirror to  w&h  the `apostle here re-
                                                       I Cor.  13:lZ.        fers. Now what a man beholds in a mirror is the
     In this scripture the apostle compares the now with                     image of wha&ver  object lies in the path of the Iight-
the  t$,en,  the  preset  witih the hbure, the earthy  with                  waves that the mirror reflects. If that object be  the
the !z+eaven@  mo<de  of existence of the children of God.                   man himself, it is the reflected image of his very self
And  the  apcstle discovers a remarkable difference.                         that he beholds. Now the scriptures  tare such a mirror
Now we see through a glacja.  . . .but then face to face.                    as in them we behold an image of God's face, which
What is it that we now see? A face! This must follow                         is Christ. In  this life, therefore, we stand nolt  before
from  the circumstance that we. shall see face `to face.                     God's very face  bu$  before His  faoe  as reflected by
The meaning .is that there is a face that we shall have                      the scriptures. It is for this reason that the children
 as the  dire&  obj.ect  of our vision, and that we now                      of God feel themselves attracted to the  Wiord.  It is
 behold indirectly ,in or through a glass!.            And this face (through  the Word that they behold the adorable face
 is  God's Has He then a face? If  H.e had- not, we                          o$ :tb.eir  God Whose ,grace  they are ever being made to
 would never be seeing Him. And that we shall see experience. Let  `them take away  `&e&ore  from- the


                                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        47
_-II  ____...."  .-....- - ..-_  _-"-e..-..-. ..E....-.               __II                    I__."-                 l_-.-ll.
believer what they will, but let them leave `him his                           God's face with our earthy and sinful eyes? The dazz-
Bible, and he will still count himself blessedt.                               ling radiance  ,of that face would destroy us. In his
      However, we now see through a glass darkly, that                         vision  Jolhn  saw one like unto the son of man with
is, what we behold in this mirror  (l&he  scriptures) is hairs white  lik,e  wool, as white  Snow  and with eyes
but a rather dark, vague, reflection of God's face. To                         as a flame  sf fire. It was the glorified Christ. And
understand this speech  otf  .the apostle, we should know                      when John saw Him, he fell at His feet  as dead. A n d
that the mirnor to which he here compares  the  scrip-                         John rose ,egain  but only as a result of Christ's hav-
tures is not of a kind in use in these modern times of ing laid upon `him His right hand.  Mopes. besought
ours, but of a kind in use in the apostl&s  day. What                          God to show him  His glory. He realized not wjhat  he
in that day did service  % a mirror was a piece of                             asked. But the prayer was partly heard. But while
polished metal, usually brass. Now the image  tihat                            Gods  glory past by, God put him in a, cliff of the rock
a.man  would see of himself in such an ancient mirror and covered him with His hand. And not until He
was  d!ark  in the sense of vague. So, too, the image of                       had passed did  He remove His hand, so that all that
God's face which we behold in the scriptures is char-                          Moses saw of God's face is the back parts  o,f His glory.
acterized by a certain vagueness. How is this  toi be ac-                      We  ca,nnot,  while in the house of this our earthy taber-
counted  for?              Objectively by the circumstance that                nacle have the heavenly as the direct object  aif our
tihe  language of scripture is earthy as are also the                          vision. For we are men with eyes  oarthy.         It is only
symbols  l&rough  which Christ in His Word speaks to                           the heavenly eye that can directly behold the heavenly.
His people of the glory oif-His  Father and of Himself.                        Hence, we now see through a glass darkly.              A n d
In  scripture, to illustrate, Christ  appears  as the true                     therefore in the words of the apostle, we know in part
bread, the living water, wine and milk, as  Ithe dour                          sLlld we prophesy, praise, in p,art. For it follows from
and the way, as *he  lamb and the altar, as the morn-                          the nature of things that our prophesying is always
ing star, as the sun that shines in our heaven.                         Now    according to the measure of our knowledge. For to
these creatures, every one of them, are earthy. Thus                           prophesy is to give utterance, as  pro8mpt,ed  by love,
the word or names by which they are known are like-                            to what may be known of God from His face, which
wise earthy. They are this as they do service in the                           is Christ.  Hen.ce,  as a result of our  ateeing  through
first instance as significations of things earthy. As a glass darkly  with earthy eyes, it cannot be otherwise
buil,t  up into sentences, therefore, they  form an earthy                     but that we prophesy in part. And so we do.. We are
speeoh,  language. It is in a  speech  of this character,                      but children now,  ,and  this on account of our still bear-
thus not in a speech directly heavenly, &hat  our scrip-                       ing the image of  *the earthy. In our present unglorified
tures were written. In the scriptures therefore, we                            ,state,  we speak as children, as we speak `in terms of
behold an earthy  im,age  of the face of God. The                              fan  earthy language of things heavenly. We under-
scriptures being earthy, the image of His face that                            stand as children, in that we mind the things of the
we behold in them must of ,necessity  be an earthy re-                         Spirit with an understanding that is earthy  an5  that
plica of  the  radiance of the Father's glory. Thus as                         is occupied with an image of the `heavenly that is
compared with God's very face this image, this glory                           earthy. We do and can not speak of things heavenly,
of God as reflected by the earthy, must be vague.                              in terms of a heavenly language; for, as yet, we are
      In  the Book of the Revelation of  Jo:hn,  one comes                     not  hea,venly  and we have not the heavenly as  the
upon a descriptio-n  of the *heavenly  beauty of the New                       dir&  object of our vision. We speak as children, even
Jerusalem. In this Book one beholds this city, having                          <apart  from our being sinful  peojple.      Adam in the
the glory of  Gold%,  with light like unto a stone most                        state of righteousness  spake  as a child and likewise
,precious,  even like ,a jasper stone, clear as crystal and                    the prophets and the apostles and this for the reasons
with streets like unto pure gold. This, we say, is                             just  ,&en.
 heavenly  .gold. True, but Phe  lonly  gold ever seen by us                       Paul knew a man (the apostle is here speaking of
is earthy. Setting this gold and those jaster stones                           himself) in Christ above fourteen years ago, whether
 before our mind's eye, and what are we face to face                           in  tie body  &he   could  not  sell,  or whether out of the
 with? An earthy  mirro'r  in which we behold  an earthy                       body, he could not tell, caught up to the third heaven,
and thus dark  tige of the heavenly glory of a  h,eaven-                       in paradise, where for a brief space of time (such is
ly reality. As the (heavenly  far surpasses  $heearthy  in                     the implication of his experience) he stood face to
glory, the earthy can not otherwise but vaguely, darkly, face with the  .hwvenly.                           And  w#tit  were Paul's re-
 reflect the glory of the  heav,enly,  the heavenly radiance                   collections? He tells us, "and {heard  unspakable words,
 of Gd's  face.                                                                which is not lawful for a man to utter.' II Cor. 12 :4.
      And it is  well  that it is  *thus. Can we look into the                 Unspeakable words, Paul heard, words, a language,
 face of the isun  that  shines in our heaven and retain                       heavenly, and that therefore no man, still bearing the
 our vision unimpaired? We cannot. The dazzling                                image of the earthy,  ca.n  utter.
 brilliance of that face would blind us so that  we would                          In th*e  light of &he absove  cbservati,ons,  we can now
 never again see. How then cculd  we look directly into                        understand the apostle when  ,he  wrote,  "Love never


4 8                                       TBE   STANbARD   B E A R E R
        _II__  --.^.."    ___- -           -.---"       ..-" .-....  "__""            -_.-.              ___I_               - -
 fail&h  ;  but  whether their be prophecies, they shall Father of our Lord,  Jesus Christ. They know Him in
 fail; whether their be  tonlgnes,  they shall cease;                Christ. Incessantly does He cause them to experience
 whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.                   His love as their redeemer Ccd.  t1 is by the power
 For we know in part,  #and  we prophesy in part.           But His love as their redeemer God.  Zt  is by the power
 w.hen  that which is perfect is come, then that which &e sake  o'f  His Son Who died for  a11  their sins, and
 is in part shall be done away.                                      thati  He calls them out of the world into the light of
       The meaning  of this statement is clear. When                 His blessed Presence. It is by the power of His love
Christ shall have appeared, this glass, through which                that He preserves them and shall finally cause them
we see  darkly,  will have served its usefulness and  t.here-        to `appear with His Christ in glory. They know Him,
 fore  vank  h away as did the ceremonies of the law                 do His children. They also have in their possession
 at the first coming of Christ. Hence, the  knowledge                a letter of Him, the Holy Scriptures. But the Scrip-
 that we have of Him, God, through the earthy scrip-                 tures are earthy, an earthy `glass, through  which  they
 `tures shall also pass away and so, too, our present see, darkly, the image of His face. But He promised!
 prophesying. This does not mean that the people of                  to  take  them all to Himself in Christ. And by this
 Gcd  will cease to prophesy and to praise (how could                prcmiae  they live.         For they want to see His face
 it be) and that the knowledge of the heavenly that                  directly, behold  with heavenly and pure eyes the
 came to them, through t-he scriptures shall  he  lost,              heavenly radiance of His face. And  $hey   twill   have
 but it means that in the state of glory, believers shall            that face of  His as  the direct object of their vision
 know and praise as perfected and glorified &i&en  of                and be satisfied by His  likeness and eternally be made
 God, who have God's face, the heavenly, as the direct               to fully experience the love that shines in His eyes.
 abject of their vision, ,that  is, who see God face ,to face        And with Him  sha.11   th.ey  have fellowship  ,through
 and see Him with glorified and sinless eyes. They                   Christ, His face. And Itheir  joy will be full. And in a
 shall know then as they are known, as God knows them.               heavenly speech and with a mouth cleansed from every
 And He has His children ever before His eye directly                trace of its former vileness, and in a speech of heavenly
 and thus not indirectly thr,ough  the instrumentality of            perfection, they will everlastingly cry out His  pra,ises.
 a mirror reflecting their likeness.                                 For they then see Him face to face and thus see Him
       It is clear that no one has a right to conclude from          as He is. For they  shall then be like Him, their God.
 Pauls  reasoning in the passage explained in this writ-             He, Himself, has  said  it. "And we shall see Him as
 ing, that the self-revelation of God in the scriptures              He is, for we shall be like Him." It is not the idea1 of
 is incorrect and  t.hus  unreliable. The image of an                essential likeness that is promised us in this scripture,
 object that the ancients beheld in t'heir  mirror, corres-          but a likeness  ,that  shall consist in our  bein,g  holy, as
 ponded perfectly,  as, to its form and all its features,             He is .boly.       It is the promise to the effect that God's
 to the very object. So, too, the self-revelation o,f God            peopIe  shall then be His grocwn-up  children, spiritually
 in Scripture,-though given through the instrumen-                   mature, on account of His `having saved them to the
 tality of an earthy language, it is unfailingly correct              uttermost. Being like Him in this respect, they can
 and infallibly true. The only  ,d.ifference  between  Gzd's          then see Him  and,  walk with Him as with a friend.
 very face and His face as seen  throu,gh  the glass of               It  is, the mature son and daughter only that can know
 the Word, is that the latter as  eo,mpared  with the                 the greatness of a parental love and devotion, and ap-
 former, is dark, vague. Earthy words and symbols                     preciate the  pare&. So,  too,  `here, the sons who see
 are not by themselves corrupt on account of their being              Him, are the sons, mature. And they shall  then know
 earthy. It is only as  buiI,t  up into sentences by de-              as they are known, that is, they shall know Him  as
 praved man that they  form a speech that is a lie. But               children who have His face  difrectly  before their eye
 as built up into sentences by the Lord God, through                  and thus not as a people who see through  ,a glass
 His organs of  rev&ation,  they form  a,n earthy speech              darkly.                                         G. M. 0.
 that is infallibly true, a speech Wat sets forth the
 truth about God unerringly.                                                                      -
       In this life, then, we do not see God as He is.                                                                    -  _._.
                                                            A n d
 the reason is not only that we are elarthy  and that the                                      THE SAFE PLACE
 image of God's face that He  se&  before our eye in
 scripture is earthy, but the reason  is also that sin                           I went to Jesus with a prayer
 still rijots  ,in our fles'h.  To see God as He is, His children                      upon a suppliant's knee;
 must be not  only  heavenly but also spotlessly clean,                          Low at His cross I laid me down,
 pure of `heart. But we shall see Him  was  He is ; when                               Nor asked His face to see,
 w,e see Him face itro  face, and are like Him, sinless as                       Yet whispered in His ear the tale
 He is. Seeing His face directly is the blessed anticipa-                              No mortal ear could hear;
 tion of all God's children.                                                     The story of a faithless heart;
       God's people have an only friend, the God and                                   And of  its self-despair,


