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

                                                                ral. It is curious  to! notice how long certain re-
                                                                ligious traditions can be preserved. In our coun-
             E D I T O R I A L S                                try the influence of the old puritan traditions
                                                                may still  b,e witnessed in many customs. Public
                     Yankee-Dutch                               assemblies are frequently opened by calling on the
                                                                name of God. Thanksgiving days are  procIaimed
                              II.                               officially for the whole nation. Special prayer-days
                                                                may be convoked occasionally in the same way. Public
       Now, as I remarked, I am .not at present interested oaths are sworn,  some$imes   wilth one's hand on the
 in Yankee-Dultch  in the lilteral  sense of the word.     I    Bible. Even in political speeches one may hear a rep
 wanted to calI your alttention  to the very ,real and al- lligious note occasionally, and divines will pronounce
 ways present peril of YankeeLDutch  in dloctrine  and in       the benediction per radio  over the entire nation. But
 our practical walk of life.                                    at the  same time the contents of these  proclama'tions,
       The  first .is plainly suggested by the passage which    speeches and prayers plainly reveal that  tthe  Jt~ue
 I quoted from Nehemiah. T!he children spoke half in knowledge of the truth of the Scriptures is not known
 the Hebrew language and half in the language  o'f the or  deliberateIy  denied. They represent a mixture of
 heathen. Their language was a mixture They knew the truth and the lie, modern philosophy in a religious
 /the pure  .H,ebrew   no-  Ilonger.  Their speech was adul- garb. Old religious terms, such as conversion, regene-
 terated. Now, when our children of the  second  and            ration, the kingdom of Go'd, righteousness and ithe like,
 third ,gener&ion  in this country wean away entirely are preserved and employe&  brit they received  a new
 from the language their fathers spoke in the old  coan-        content and significance. The  result is rather con-
 try, the result is not so serious that we need worry a-        fusing and misleading.
 bout the preservation and maintenance of the truth of             If on a Sunday you happen to be away  f&m home
_ the Word of God. Time was when a desperate effort was         and enter tine of the many churches from whose pul-
 made to preserve the Holland language. Fear was ex- pits long ago the gospel was preached, you  wiU  ,notice
 pressed frequently that with the loss of the Holland the same l&&g.                Outwardly nothing seems changed
 language the knowledge of Reformed truth would since the days of &he Puritans. The Bible is still on
 necessarily  deer-ease  and ultimately disappear. And,         the pulpit, ithe old forms of worship are still preserved,
 perhaps, it may be  ,granted  that  &his fear was  no%         reIigious  hymnbooks may  ,be found in the pews, the
 wholly without reason, that it was not quite so foolish minister still wears his toga. The congregation still
 as by <others it was sometimes presented to be. Natur-         gathers to worship, to sing and to pray and to offer
 aIly, with the loss of !t.he D&ch language the last tie their gifts to [the Lord. The mitister still reads it;&
 that still ,connected  the immigrants from the Nether-         Scripture-lesson and chooses a text as a basis of the
 lands to the Reformed Churches of the land of our sermon he delivers. But the language of prayer and
 fathers would be severed, a veritable treasure of Re-          sermon is Yankee-Dutch. The text chosen by  the
 formed  Iliterature  would forever be closed to  bhem.         preacher is only a pretext. In vain one expects to hear
 Bult the Pact remains, nevertheless, that the knowledge ithe truth of jthe Word of God expounded or the gospel
 of Reformed truth  is not inseparably bound up with preached. The preacher speaks half in the "Hebrew"
 the Holland  language. It is, indeed, very well possible language and half in the  ~language   of the modern
 to maintain and propagate and preserve in generations          heathen. But the truth is lost,. It is so hopelessly dis-
 Ithe truth of  ou'r  Confusions in the language of the torted and corrupted that one who entered to hear the
 country of our  cboicei. With Hebrew, however,  +&is           "joyful sound" can only leave with  disapp.ointment
 was quite different. For, iit was the language of revela-      and bitterness in his soul, because of the  thypocrisy  and
 tion, the language of Moses and the prophets, the sole         sham  0 one who pretends to be a "minister of the
 language in which the truth of God's covenant had been Word of God", yet so wantonly offers /lo his flock the
 revealed and preserved. To lose the knowledge of the Yankee-Dutch of human philosophy instead !
 Hebrew tongue was to have no longer  aecw  to God's               But we need not depart so far from home as the
 revel&ion. To speak half in the Hebrew #language  and modern world and  Xhe false church to meet with this
 th.alf in the language lors the heathen n&ions,  ,es was       evil phenomenon of doctrinal Yank-Dutch.
 Idone by the children of those Jews that had married              We may narrow the scope of our observation.
 heathen wives, inevitably `involved a mixture of the              What a  hop.eless  jargon is often  pr~ented aas: Re-
 truth of God and the lie of idolatry. They confused formed  itruth ! What gibberish is frequently' heard
 the two.      Spiritually these children spoke  Yankee-        from  pulpi.ts  that are  suppoIsed  to be Reformed ! How
 Dr&ch.                                                         often the congregation may  ,Bisten to a tolerably sound
       And in our own day lone may (hear a good deal of exposition of the truth of  God's;  sovereign  graocv,  in
 religious Yankee+D~&&.                                         order to find that the Reformed sermon is climaxed
       This  is: true of the modern religious world in gene- by an Arminian `(application".  Wh& else is it than


                                                                                                                             1

                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            53

Yankee-Dutch when a  so-tailed  Reformed Synod de-             they make a common cause with the children of the
clares that God is gracious to  ail that hear the preach- devil !
ing of the gospel, while at the same time they attempt            They serve God  ,and they serve Mammon !
to mai.ntain  the $ruth  that He is gracious only to the          Yet,  &hey serve not God, neither do they serve
elect? What else is it than wh4.ly  unintelligible gib-        Mammon  !
berish when it is synodically established that God                The lines of demarcation between the Church and
offers His ,salvation  well-meaningly, i.e. with the pur- the world, light and darkness, righteousness  an4 un-
pose to save, to thuse  of whom it ,is confessed @hat He       righteousness, Christ and Beliall, are being wiped out
et*ernally  determined  no& to save them? Is it not ikst !
jargon  to declare that the man who is dead in sin and            All things are leveled down!
misery can do good in this world without the regenera&-           To the level of the world !
ing  <grace  of God? Is it not Yankee-Dutch to teach                              (To be continued)
that the tree is corrupt but bears good fruit? Is it                                                          H. H.
not  ha&f Hebrew .and half the  l~anguage  of tthe nations,
when in "De Wachter"  *it is boldly maintained that
both must be regarded: as the truth: that God is ex-
clusively gracious  %o the elect and that He is also
fiavorably  inclined  /to  the reprobate ungodly ; that the
blessing of Gdd dwells side by side with His curse in               Dat Gods Goedheid Particulier IS
the house  of the wicked; that He bestows things upon                       V. Het Begrip Goedheid Gods.
them in His (great lovingkindness  which He uses for
their destruction?                                                Een  :der  redenen,   waarom  Ds. Zwier  de  voorkeur
   But also the testimony that proceeds from the life ,geeft   aan  hot  begrip  "goedheid Gods" is wel, dat
and walk of many a  Chris&ian  today is, as might              "goedheid" een zeer breed begrip is, bet breedste be-
be expected, nothing but the application in practical grip, dat voor hetgeen Zwier bed&t  te bespreken  in
life of this  datrinal  jargon, this Yankee-Dutch that is de Schrift  kan worden gevonden.
employed as the vehicle of instruction. I say,  that              De term "algemeene genade"  wordt door ernstige
this might be expedted.    For, to be sure, doctrine and bezwaren  gedrukt, volgens zijn overtuiging. En daar-
life are closely interrelated. They are ,inseparably  con- om he&t hij getracht een beteren term te vinden,  "die
nected. You cannot divorce doctrine from life, nor de zaak beter en vollediger  uitdrukt".
can you separate dife from doctrine. There is an in-              En dan  schrijft hij:
fluence of  ~doctrine  upon life, just as there  is a  re-        "Daarvoor komt, dunkt mij, vooral in aanmerking
a&ion of life  upon doctrine. The truth, where it is           de uitdrukking,  die we boven deze  artikelen schrijven:
known and embraced, must become manifest in life.              `Gods Algemeene Goedheid'. Immers  van al de termen,
And the &tempt  to maintain the truth while life is            die hiervoor in aanmerking  zouden kunnen komen, is
allowed to become corrupt must end in utter failure.           goedheid  bet  breeds&   begrip,   waarwnder  zich,   naar
Yankee-Dutch in doctrine must needs manifest in lhet mij voorkomt, al de gegevens der S&rift hot best
Yankee-Duitch  in life. And is not the language which l a t e n   b.espreken.
Scripture employs to describe  /the actual life of the            "Om  thans  slechts iets  te  noemen,  de  S&rift  ge-
(heathen that were transplanted into the gland of Ca- waagt van Gods bamnhtigtid over al Zijne schep-
naan and instructed by the Hebrew  prie&,   exactIy            selen. (Let or we1 op : 1. Dat Zwier hier bedo&  ook
suitable to characterize the life of the people of God alle  godelooxm,  en 2. Dat hij tit bier  zoo maar even
tiday? They served Jehovah and they served  their              neerpent,  zonder  ook maar  een paging tort bewijs. Hij
own gods ; they served nwt Jehovah, neither did they maakt zich bier schuldig aan wat men in bet Engelsch
after their own ordinances. Double-lhearted  people ! noemt "begging the question",  H-H.). Nu behoeft  h&
Always halting  betwwn  two opinions! Unsteady in zeker geen betoog, dat de `goedheid  Gods Zijne barm-
all their ways. They serve God in  Chrislt and they hartigheid   in&it.  Barmhartigheid   i s  een  bepaalde
serve the world ; they serve not the Lord, neither do          soort go$edheid  en wol een goedheid  jegens schepselen,
ithey serve the world ! On Sunday they meet with the die hulpbehoevend  zijn, omdat ze zich' in lijden  en el-
people of God, durinlg  tihe week they are of the world. mlende bevinden.        (Let er cxok op, dat Zwier  hier reeds
When they worship w;ith  the people uf God they are            uitgaat van _ een bepa.aIde  voorstellinlg van goedheid,
pious; when they move about in the world, they do n. 1. die van benemolentia,  den wil o.m we1 te doen, om
business  Isike the world, associate themselves with the gehikkig  te  maken.  H-H.).
world, banquet and feast  w&h the world, imitate the              "Alle goedheid is  geen  barmhartigheid,  maar  alle
world,  <as far as they dare, in  sedsing  the  pkamres        barmhantigheid  is we1 go&h&d.  Goedheid is dus het
and amusements of the worl,d ! On Sunday they &a&e             breedere  begrip,  waaronder  we oak dxe! barmhartigheid
hands with their brethren in Christ, during the week kunnen bespreken.


62                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
7                             _-.-.^ ._--.-                       _-
                                                               discovery is made that what formed the mark of dis-
                The Burnt-Offering                             tinction of this kind of sacrifice is that the  whole  dead
                                                               body of the victim-even the head, begs and  inwards-
      The law of &is offering is contained in Lev. 1. It       were burnt on (the altar and t.hus ascended in fire to
reads as follows:                                              the Lord.      The names  thsJt this offering therefore
      "And bhe Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto          bears are olnh,  a ~&+ng, and kalil,.  th,e whole.
him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying,            But there is still another important mark of dis-
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,          tin&ion   to be mentioned, namely, one that concerned
If  ,any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord,           the kind of sins for which the burn&-offering availed.
ye shall bring your offering of the cattle,  even of the It was found that there  w,ere three classes or kinds of
herd and of the flock. If  ahis offering be a burnt-sacri- sins thaat could *be atoned by the animal sacrifices. The
fice of the herd, let him offer a male  witho& blemish:        first class was comprised of sins  oommitte5d  unwitting-
he shall off,er  it of his own voluntary will at the door ly, or ascribable  ito carelessness or inadvertence The
of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord.         seoond  class was formed of sins of weakness and such
And he shall put his. hand  uplon the head of the burnt        as were committed under the  impule  of passion or were
offering;  .and it  ,&all1 be accepted for him to make         occasioned by temptation. For as many  elf the sins
atonemeat  for him. And `he shall kill the bullock be- in these two olasses as could be compensated, the tresc
fore the Lord: and  It.he priests, Aaron's sons, shall         -pass-offering was appoint&. The rest were to be ex-
bring the blcod,  and sprinklle the blood round about          piated by rthe sinrcrffering.
upon the altar that is by the door of the  tabernads  of                A third class of sins was the one comprised of
the congregation. And he shall flay the burnt offering         the many moral infirmities and miseries that even the
and cut it  into his pieces. And the sons of Aaron the most  d8evout Christians feel in themselves,-such  in+
prie&. shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the. wood        firmities (to, quote from a former article) as imperfeqt
in order upon the fire ; and the priests, Aaron's sons, and weak faith,  &he failure on the part of the believer
shall lay the parts, the head and the fat, in order upon       to -yiel,d himself to serve God with that zeal as he is
the wood that is on the fire which is upon the alltar:         bound, the evil  ,lusts of the flesh  w,ith  wh,ich  every
but his inwards and his leffsl shall he wash in water:         believer has daily to strive,  ithus weaknesses that  are
and the priest shall burn all on the  ,altar,   %o be a found !in the saintliest  od men. The apostle Paul  cons
burnt sacrifice, an 06Eering  made by fire, of a sweet         sents unto the law that it is good; he hates evil and
savour unto the Lord.                                          1Qves and wills the good; the good he would do; he de-
      "And if his offering be  o,f the flocks, namely, of the lights in the law of God after the inward man; he
sheep, or of the goats,, for a +burn/t sacrifice; he shall     serves the I,aw of Cod wijth his mind ; and he thanks
bring it a male without blemish. And he shah kill it Gold through Jesus Christ his Lord for his eventual
on the side of the altar northward before the Lord:            deliverance from the body of this death. And yet he
and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall  ,sprinkle his blood nevertheless complains that he is carnal, sold undcer
around about upon the altar. And he shall cut it .into         sin- in that he does what he hates; that thus  qhe does
his pieces, with his head and his fait: and the priests        evil, yet net he bug sin that dwelleth in him ; that he
shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the  fire knows that in him, that is, in his flesh, dwelleth no
which is upon the altar: but he shall wash the inwards ,good  thing  ; that he finds not how to perform that
and the legs with water: and the priest shall burn it          which is good ; that he sees another law in his mem-
all, and burn it upon the altar: .it is a burnt  sacrifice,    bers, warring against the  `law of his mind, and  bringg
an  offering  made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the .ing him into capacity to, the law of sin which `is in his:
Lord.                                                          members ; that finally with his flesh he serves the law
      "And if the burnt gacrifice  for his of%ring  to the 0.f sin.
Lord be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of              The testimony of the apostle "but the evil which
tmitledoves, or of young pigeons. And the priest I would not, I do" must be made to apply Ito sin not
shall bring it unto the altar, and wring off his head,         as it raiseJsr its foul head in the l'ives of wicked men
.and ,burn it upon the altar; and the blood thereof shall devc'id  $f the life of regeneration and not even as it be-
be wrung out at the side of the altar: and he shall Comes man,ifest  in the walk of life of the unspiritual
pluck  ,away his crop with his feathers, and cast it be- and worldly Christian but as it riots in the flesh of
`side the  al&r on the  east part, by the place of the lthe  h&e&  of men. To quote  from  a former article,
ashes : and he shall cleave i"c with the wings thereof  buk    in the believer, in the essence of his being, mind, will,
shall not divide it assunder: and the priest shall burn there still  ,o,perates a principle  of'sin. Hence, there is
it upon the altar, upon the  wood that is upon the fire:       still a body, an organism, a complete man of  d&h to
it is `z% burnt sacrifice, an offering mad,e.  by fire, of a the believer that forms a part of him. An organism
sweet savor unto the Lord."                                    it is which also go*es by the name of flesh in Scripture.
      Reading  (this description of the burnt-offering, the     This body cannot do otherwise  bult sin. Its lusting is


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                    6.7
                                 . ..."               .1-.......  _l_- --... ll_-"l-l--^..--.-  _..... "-.." "_-.--^ __.._" .-......  -
a neccesity, compdsion,  thus a law in the believer's            say with the Psalmist, "Thou hast proved my heart,
members, that wars against `the law of ,his mind,, in-           thou  hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me,
cluding the will, insofar as these be the seat of the            and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth
operation of the new principle of life and th.at brings          shald not transgress. Concerning the works of men,
into cap%ivity to itself Paul's ego, so that despite his         by the words of thy lips 1 have kept me from the path
best efforts to the contrary, Paul, his ego, dues the evil       sf the destroyer  (Ps. 17). . . . Judge  me Lord,  fo,r
that he h&es  and thus serves with his flesh the law             `I have walked  ,in my integrity: I have trusted also in
of sin ,and bitterly complains, "I am carnal, sold under the Lord ; therefore I shall not slide. Examine me,
sin. . . . 0 wretched man  ithat I am! Who shall 0 Lord, and prove me ; try my reins and my he,art.
deliver me from the body  elf this  death!                       For thy lovingkindness is before mine e>yes : and I have
    There are as many kinds of lusts dwelling in the             walked in thy truth. I have not sait with vain persons,
believer's flesh as there are kinds of pcltential  lusts.        neither will I go in with dis+sembIors. I have hated the
Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought                 ccngregation  of evil  daers; and  wiI1 not sit with the
in Paul all manner of  concupiscents.          So reads his wicked:. I will wash mine hands in innocency  : so will
testimony. Operating from the  .flesh as their  sea&             1 compass thine altars 0 Lord; that  1 may publish
t<hese  lusts, as provoked  by the commandment, bestir           with the  v&e of  Ithanksgiving,   ,and tell of all thy
themselves and bring into captivity the believer's ego           wondrous works. Lord, I have loved the habitation
with the result that he, rthe believer, contrary to his          of thy house, and the place where thy honor dwelqeth."
holy desire and despite all  <his efforts  to be done with       Ps. 26.
sin, does  ev& Though he would not have it so, he                    But, someone may say, is there not a remarkable
becomes and remains tie subject otf his sinful lusts             similarity between this prayer, as to the form od its
Umt reside in and spring from his flesh. So the good             words?  and that prayer ofithe  Pharisee who said, "God,
that he would he does not. Burt the evil that he hates,          I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extor-
that he does. He would render God a perfect service.             ticnlers, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
Yet he discovers upon careful examination that :his              I fast twice in the week, I gave tithes of all  that  I
very best works, such as prayer, are mixed with the
,issues  of his flesh and this. to an amazing degree, so         p(?SSeSS*"
ithat  ,his true obedience, such is his discovery, is but a          These  rtwo prayers differ as do the light and dark-
smal'l  beginniing. But, we say iit again, it must not  be ness. The psalmist in his prayer calls God's attention
supposed that what Paul means to say o,f himself is              to  th.e presence of His redeeming grace in  ihim, the
that in his life these lusts assumed a form identical to psalmist, and to the manifestation  .of this grace in his
the tied way of life of the ungodly or even of the un- jife, and thereupon gives expression to his assurance,
spiritual Christian, so that, at theltime  he penned these       to the testimony  of the Spirit in his heart, that whereas
words of his; men could see him walkingin. the counsel           he is one of God's redeemed, God will not gather his
of the ungodly, standing in the way of sinners and sitr          soul with sinners, nor his life with bloo,dy men. Here,
ting in the seat  of the scornful,  codd thus see him            with the psalmist is implicit trust in God  as the
walking and living in fornication, uncleanness,  covet-          Saviour of His people. The pnayer oif the Pharisee,
eousness,  anger, malice, blasphemy and the like. Per- `on the other hand, is the &terance  elf a man who had
sons who are truly believers and as believers are  spiri$-       sslf before his  mind And this  self  he deemed God;
ual do not walk, stand, lie in sin, but by ;Dhe mercy of         and to this  self  ,he was praying. The wolrks  of this self
God they .crucify  the works  af the flesh, mortify their he was telling.
members which are upon the earth: the sinful will and                As to the Psalmist, he also prayed, "Purge me w,ith
mind, the evil eye, hand, foot  ,and  eer,  tongue and           hyssop, and I shall be clean. . . ." And the apostle,
mouth. In the words of Christ, the offending hand                "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death. . ."
ithey  cut o.ff and the offending eye they pluck out. dc-        This is  not the cry of a man  who, was being made
dually therefore Paul, ,and with him every believer who          to  repenrt of some gross sin into which he bd fallen
walks with Go,d, shas his eye tied not upon the earthy, *but the cry of a man who allI along had been walking
the vile and the obscene, but upon the heavenly  ; and with God aqd who because he saw so much of
his feet are sw,ift not to sh& blood but to walk in the          God saw so much in self that was vile. Being a
way of God% precepts; and his mou@h is fUed  no.t with man with a heart in  which1 the word of God rich-
curses but with the praises of God; and his hand he              ly dwelt, he had so much of the quickness and the
applies  not to the works of sin but to the work of power  and the sharpness of that word to pierce
Christ. And as the elect of God, hotly and beloved, he           "even to  t.he  divid,ing  asunder of soul and spirit,
pub  on  ,bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of               and of  th,e joints and marrow" and to discern the
spirit, meekness and longsuffering. Paul was this kind thoughts and intents of the heart, the vile intents that
of  a Christian.  Rence,  with his walk, his fixed way,          sprang  fr,om his flesh  and that mixed themselves with
of life before his mind, he could and in substance did and polluted his holy strivings. And just because he


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64                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
..--_--_-_I_^   ..---                 .ll-__--_lll- .1-.--  I---.-                 -.-__ .-..-.....-. -- _.........  ".__-^.- _... _.-_---.-"--.^. .._
:sa &sired to be done with sink was he so aware of the               acting business with him. And so we cou!d continue.
strength of sin's  hold on him, a strength so great,                 The list is a long one an3 ccncerns every  one of the
that, he realized, if he was ever to  ,be delivered,                 ten commandments. What a pity that the minister of
Christ should have  rto come to  his. rescue. Paul was  no,          the gospel must  spend `so much of his time in  tie
introvest. He was net a man who tc;ok a mor'bid  de-                 pulpit exposing .and rebukiqg in believers sins of this
light in celf-introspection. His confession, "For 3 know character. And whaS, IS, so extremely sad is that be-
that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth  nu good thing'           lievers (including the pastors, of- course), when they
sprang not from a sickly subjectivism tha?c is at bot-               hear themselves rebuked for sins of this kind, will at
$crn pride, and that is seemingly much concerned R-                  times react as  do, the children of darkness.
bout and occupied with sin but in reality not so,-                      Now as to the burnt-offering, it was appointed for
~1 subjectivism that ;holds doubt to be a Christian -&=              the spiritual believers, th.us for the God-fearing  Israe!-
tue and that thus is never  `heard   saying,  "Therefo~z             ite who by  st'he  mercies of  God had succeeded in  scv
being justified by faith, we shave pe.ace with God $hru              crucifying the works of the flesh *and mortifying his
our Lord Jesus Christ," and rthat Elooks askance at who-             members whi,ch  were on the ,earth,  that his walk oi life
ever does take upon his lips; this song of redemption.               was plainly that of a child of the light; thus a believer,
To the contrary. Paul was a Christian. He belonged                   who, aa constrained by love, was walking in Lhe way
in a class with the holiest of men. In every sentence of the covenant and was thus walking with God, and
of the epistles from his pen, one feels the beat of a who therefore, at that. particular juncture that he
heart aflame with love of Christ. Paul was a man who                 brought his burnt-offering, did not find himself under
FtpCd in his faith and whc thus made sure his calling the necessity, on accounrt of some  patiicular  or special
NIP e'&&m in the way of an upright and godly walk                    sin or sins th& he either wittingly ,had committed, of
of  <Ii&. His hope was that he would see God as He  ir,              bringing the sin- o's the trespass-offerirqg.                     The truth
in that he would be like Him. This hope being in him of t.his statement is borne  ou$ by the fol,lowing. First-
and knowing stha't in his flesh dwelt no good thing, he,             ly, the description ob the burnt-offering (Le+. 1) does
Paul, as  cc&rained  by the  Iove  o.f Christ, would turn            net set  oc% with some such statement as, "Speak  unfo
to himself, to  the intents of his heart, to his thoughts            the children of  IsraeI,  saying, If  a soul sin through
and volitions, to his prayers even  .and to all his  works1 ,ignorance  against any of %he commandments: of the
in  aelarch of that thing:  tile  evil  lust,  ,tmbition,  striv-    Lord concerning the things which  ,ought not to be
ing. And searching he saw-saw another  3aw in  his done, land shall do against any of them: . . . ." and as,
members, warring against the law of ftis mind; and                   "If a  so,ul commit a trespass a.gainst  the Lord. . . ."
bringing him into captivity  it.0 the law of sin which The opening sentence of the description uf the offering
was in his members. And  se,eing  he would  cry-  `9                 under consideration simply reads, "If his o!ffering be
wretched  -man that I am. . . ." and so crying, would                a burnt sacrifice of the herd,  le%  h,im offer a male
c*ling ever  faster to Chri& and as standing firmly in               without  b,lemish:  . . .  ." Secondly,  the burnt-sacrifice
the  .fai+h  that sin in  his flesh had been condemned,              was one that the worshipper off,ered  "of his owm volun-
;jray, "Deliver me, 0 God, from the body of  thili;                  ti.q~  will" at Ithe door of the tabernacle o,f the congre-
*.`~nth."                                                            gation before the Lord.  I* was thus  no:t a  sacrifi'ce
      So prayed one of the  saintlie&  of men. And  th:              that had'to  be brought on account of the oEerer's  hax-
reason he so prayed ,and the reason that he could know ing committed some ,ontstanding  sin. However, where&
whereof he spa,ke  when he so prayed, is t.hat he dwelt              as the holiest o'f men have but a  sm,all beginning of
in the light of God's, presence. This is Kot the prayer trre obedience, whereas also such men despite all bheir
of an unconv*erted  man, as some Bible students have                 striving to attain to the ideal of a perfect life in Christ,
been maintaining. One unconverted cannot pray this                   oxtinue in this life to lie in the midst of death, do
prayer  wi;th true  underst,an\ding. And even among the eel-the evil  athat they would n&--and thus daily
trLae believers there are to be found those wh3 never                increase their  gui,lt,  the burnt-sacrifice  als:o had to be
yet have gotten close enough to God to appreciate this               one by blood. And because he saw so much of his own
prayer. Their  w&k of life is  ~`0 very faulty at  all               vileness as a result of his having  gotten  so close to
t,imes  that. the sins with which they  must be occupied             God, the bebieving  wozshipper  whose right it was to
in their prayers mare  sins  that should hot even have               bring this particular offering, woild not have dared
to be  menticqed   amo,ng  believers. Sins  the,y are for Lo  venture into  Ithe presence of the Holy One without
which the sin- and the  trespesxxfferings  were  ap-                 the priest first having made atonement  for him in rei
pointied  ; sins! like unto. these : wilfully  wi$hholding'or        spect to his sins. For this his consciousness od his
diminishing the gifts that should go to the suppo,rlt of ttwn  moral  unfitness  was too highly developed and the
the ministry of the Word and of the pocr; lieing unto                realization of his not even being worthy to direct his
the neighbor in that which was .deiivexd  to be kept;                gaze toe God's s:an&uary  too lively. Thus, also in the
,taking away a thing by violence o,f whatever character description  @f  th.e  burnteffering, we come upon the
Ithat violence may be; defrauding the neigbor in trans-              notice,  *`And he shall put his hand upon the  bur$


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             65
-...           lll__.^        ..-_"       -.I___._              -      -    -
offering; and it shall be accepted for him to make                   The carcass: of the burnt-offering in its lying oa
atonement for him.                                             the altar in a state of perpetual consumption was but
   The victim having been slain and thus having been shadow, the body of which is f+&ly the ascended and
made to atone by its death the sins of the  worshipper,        glorified Christ everlastingly upon God's altar in the
its blood was collected in a basin and thereupon pre- holy place of the heavenly sancituary,  His glorified self,
sented  tto Jehovah  `izs a covering for the worshipper        bcdy, human nature, sti,ll wholIly  consumed with the
through its  b'eing  sprinkled by the  olhciating  priest zeal  of God's  ,housenonsumed now and everlastingly.
"round about upon the alitar". With the exception of And in this zeal-the same zeal in which He atoned
&he skin,  which was all that could be given to the            by His suffering and death the sins of  His  bret,hren-
priest, the whole offering (including the head, the            He shall everlastingly be representing His: very Self,
legs and the inwards) *after being cut into "his pieces"       ,&e Lamb "as it had been slain" a living and holy
and the filth that might adhere to any of these washed sacrifice. In His zeal, He shall be about His Father's
off, was laid upon the altar and burnt. It'will be re- business ~everlasttingly,  praying for His church, lead-
called that when the sacrifice was a sin- or trespass-         ing and feeding His flock and /thus filling `it with that
offering, only the fat of the victim was laid upon             inexhaustible  fulness with which the Father, smelling
the altar ,and burnt and thus not the whol,e  oarcass.         a sweet savor, fills him because He  prays For He is
But it can readily be seen that the burr&g af the whole our true burnt-offering eternal in the heavens.
ati  the  bum&g of  the fat  on& were  tw,o  signs that              So was that carcass of *the burnt-offering perpetual-
Ideclared  to the worshipper the same mercies. Why,            ely upon the altar the shadow of the abiding and ,habit-
it may be asked,, was there appointed a sacrifice the ual  sta$e of perfection and glory of the glorified Christ
whole  of which was 4~ be consumed. The O&d Testa- and His body, the church. Now the consumption upon
ment believer had need  also of this sacrifice then when,      the altar of the fat of  ithe sin-and  trespass-s8ering
as a result of his havi,ng drawn near unto God, the con- ,betokened  these  .same  heavemy  realities, yet not so
sciousness of his own  unworihin~ was exceptionally plain and emphatically as the consumption of the whole
lively .in him and +his desire of hearing the Lord tell carcass of the burnt-offering.
him that he was beloved and forgiven exceptionally                   We have then a burnt-offering eternal in  th,e. hea-
strong.    In such times the believer had need of the          vens-the glorified Christ, the Lamb "as it had been
burni+offering,  and this for the reason that the laying slain". To be sure, also in His state of humiliation,
of the whole of it on God's table and the ascending            during the time that He sojourned  ,among  us, He
<of the whole in fire to God, formed  &he most vivid was on the altar, bearing the burden .of God's wratih
testimony that the sacrifice was accepted, that thus against our sin. But having fulfilled all righteousness,
sins had  actual.ly  been (symbolically) atoned and that He entered By His own flesh into the heavenly place
iniquity was no longer being imputed.                          where He continueth  ever tails the true burn&offering of
   But this  is not all. What rendered this testimony His church.
the more vivid was that when the altar was required                  For, as has been shown from Scripture, Christ's!
for no, other use, there always lay upon it, day and mediatorship shall  no8 come to an end, when the church
night, a carcass of the burnt-sacrifice in a condition of shall have appeared with Him in glory. The better
being consumed. This kind of  of&n-ing was presented covenant of which He is the Mediator is eternal and
morning and <evening for the whole congregation and            thus likewise His mediatorship. As the chief Prophet,
especially during the night  it  w,as so slowly consumed the only High  Priest, and the eternal King  d His
that it lasted  till the morning. Thus the carcass of church, He shall abide everlastingly, walking worthily
this offering was perpetually or nearly so  on Jehovah's of the calling whierewith  the Father shall~ call Him-
table before His face a sweet-smelling savor. What             a calling that shall ever consist in  His. praying for
stronger evidence that sins had actually been atoned           His redeemed and glorified body t,hat He may ever-
could the worshipper have desired:                             lastingly be able to reveal unto it the glory of the
    Funther,  the fire by which the whole carcass of the       Triune Jehovah and b lead and f.eed His, flock. And
burnt-offering  was consumed,  si~gnified  the fire-the this He shall do to the eternal glory of the Father and
fire of ,hdy zeal and *love-with which the Spirit first Ro the everlasting well-being of His  church Verily,
baptized Christ and #then His redeemed body. It was            He is our burnt-offering, eternally upon Gods'  alt,ar
therefore  Rspecially  through the instrumentality of the in the heavens.
burnt-offering  thalt believers gave expression to the               It is precisely the presence  oif His resurrected  and?
hope that w,as in them-the hope, namely, that when gIorified body, human nature, on God's altar in the
`@hey would awaken from the sleep of death, it would heavenly place that forms for all those who believe the
be to appear upon God's altar in the true sanctuiary,          certain and undisputed evidence that their sins were
a living and holy, a spotless and  unblemis,hed  sacrifice,    truly expiated by His  suffering&  and death. If all
whoily  yielding themselves in perfect love.  ito their that believers coul~d  llearn from Scripture is that Christ
Redeemer.                                                      died for their sins:, their faith could not possibly flower.

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

If this were all that Scripture revealed, it is  questioln-    the branches are full on account of their being in the
able whether there could be faith. But there is more           vine, they could not be disconnected from it and con-
to be said on this. It is the presence  09 that body tinu.e to live  *and bear fruit. For the fulness dwells
of His upon the altar that at once forms  the sure ia the vine and of this inexhaustible store the branches
pledge "ihat He, as 4he head, will also, take up to. Bim-      must continue to receive :in order to abide as living
self His members". Such  .is  tthe Father's will. For          and fruit-bearing branches. Hence, the branches must
the Father smells a sweet savor as He Who presents             be allowed to e&2% in the vine. In the mind of Christ
Himself is the Lamb "as it had ,been slain" and Whol,          the emphasis lay on the fact that the believers are
as aflame with that same zeal in which He laid  down           made to  ubich  not for a kime only but everlastingly in
His life for His brethren ; devotes Himself  to2 His           Him and that solely because  of this they live and bear
eternal calling wherewith He ever shall be called. And         fruit now and for ever. "Aabide in me and I in you. . ."
that He is the eternal  del.ight of the Fagher, alil His          Thus the truth that  undhrlies  this discourse of
brethren well know. And they know it now even while            Christ is that the church now and ever moves and
still lying in the midst of death For He may and does lives and has its being in the Father @he Triune Je-
send them `all His Spirit as an earnest, by whose power        hovah, Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and in Christ-
they seek the things which are above, where He, their          in the Father as the creative fountain and in Christ as
[true burnt-offering, sit&h on the right hand of God,          the seat and channel of itsl heavenly existence. Now
and not things on earth!.                                      of this truth especially  tthe burnt-offering (and also
      Once more, Chr,ist  is the true burnt-offering eter- especially the meat-offering) in its lying perpetually
n*ally upon God's altar in the heavenly. The stignifioa-       (or nearly so) upon the altar of the worldly sanctuary
tion of this is that He is indispensible  to His people        .in a state of being burnt as to the whole of it, was
,not only now while they lie in the midst ad death the type and symbol. This carcass of  ithe slain victim
assailed on all  s.ides  by  ithe powers of darkness but       that by its death had (symbolically) atoned the sin of
ever. For in Him dwelleth  ah fulness bodily-the ful-          the entire congregation might never be allowed to
ness-all that great good  that accrued from His suffer- *disappear  from  God%  table, the altar. As soon as the
ing and death. N.o blessing of whatev,er  ch,aracter and one  caroass had been wholly consumed, it immediately
however infiinitesimally  small can be had apart from          had  to be replaced by another. And this was done
Him. Life apart from Him  ia  solely death and hell.           morning and evening. Hence, the savor of this offer-
The Scriptures teach this. over and over, teach that           ing was perpetually rising heavenward and this in be-
in Him  uZZ fulness dwells. Col.  1:19. Hence, in Him half of the entire congregation. So, too, Christ our
we have  redem&ion  (Eph.  13) and forgiveness of true burnt offering-ever shall1 He be presenting Him-
sins and, the apostle might have added, sanctification self in  <the heavenly place. And the savor of this offer-
and (glory-in Him, that is, through our being in Him ing shall be ever in God's holy nostrils. And the Father
legally, and mystical,ly  by a living faith we have re- shall fill Him thait the church as abiding in Him may
demption,, not stingily, not meagerly, but copiously,          hav~e life everlastingly.
according to the riches of His grace ,and (so the apostle         Fact is therefore that what forms the heart of all
continues) through His blood, that is, through the the preaching of the apostles (and also of the pro-
Lamb " cas it thad been s;lain", thus in the way of strict     phets of the Old Covenant) is the resurrected and
justice. And we have and retain this grace o,nly thru          glorified  ChrisS, &he Lamb "as it ,M been slain". It
our abiding in Him and abiding in Him everlastingly.           was always with this Lamb, with the  gl,orified  Christ
"Abide in me," said Christ to. His disciples, "and I and His redeemed and  lglorified body, the church, be-
in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, ex-         fore their mind, that they penned their epistles. But
cept it abide in the vine; no more can ye, excel& ye           as the Christ glorified includes the cross, they, through
abid,e  in me. I am the vine, ye ,are the branches: he it;heir preaching the former, of  neoessity  preached also
that Labideth  in me, and I in Ihim, the same bringeth the latter.
forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."              To preach Christ glorified is to preach Him as He
This discourse concerns the believer not only in his           Fjas  been crucified  and therefore raised unto the justi-
present state but in zhis glorified state as well. It is       fication of His people and of His people only; it #is to
true now and ever that without Him the redeemed                preach Him as One who offered Himself ortce and who
can do nothing. For all fulness  dwellls   ezr.e?+la&i?&~      thus needeth not daily  to o&r up sacrifice first for
in Him. What an apt and striking figure of the eternal         His own sins and then for tihe people's: it is thus to
importance of Christ for His people.         The life-sap      preach Him as the One who bath  an unchangeable and
<of lthe branches (o*f the vine in nature) dwells bodily thus eternal priesthood in that He continueth ever
in the vine. Thus, of this fulness not the branches            and Who therefore lis able to save them to the utter-
but the vine is the seat and channel. And with this ful-       most Chart come unto God by Him ; it is to preach Him
ness, yet without in the least diminishing this store,         as the true bread and the li.ving  water and as the ever-
the vine perpetually fills all its branches. Thus, though lasting redemption and sanctification of His people.


                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               69
                            --.--.                                                     - - -
It is to preach, finally, that even when His people were           was one hundred years old and Sarah ninety, he was
dead in sins, God  qu.ickened them together with Chris% still without seed. Realizing that without seed, Canaan
(legally) and raised them up together, and made them               would of necessity be lost to him, Abraham  .in his
sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus "that              concern, said to the Lord, "0 that  Isreal might live  be-
in the  ages  to come He might show the exceeding riches           for It.hee." What he desired is that the Lord establish
of His grace in His kindness  tolward us through Christ His covenant with Ishmael. But the  Lord replied,,
Jesus."                                                            "Sarah thy wife shall bearsthee  a son indeed; and thou
   To truly preach Chr.ist  glorified is to make it im-            shalt call his name Isaac : and I w.ill establish my cove;
possible for oneself to preach any other Saviour than              nant with him" thus noit with Ishmael. The Lord kept
the One Who ,died upon the cross with the intention in             Him to His word. He visited Sarah as He had said.
His heart of expiating only the sins of His people, of             She co,nceivod  and bear Abraham *a son.
those raised up together in Him.                                       Ntaw this son was his  ~&y. He was this as a
                                                  G. M. 0.         son with whelm  the Lord would establish His covenant,
                                                                   and in whom the seed would be oalled. And so Abra-
                                                                   ham also lvved  him, to wit, as a son in whom, so he
                                                                   was made to realize, his whole salvation was somehow
                                                                   bound up. For in the final instance this seed is Christ.
                 Abraham's Faith                                   ht is plain then that in the Iabove-cited  Scripture, the
                                                                   adjective only as ia modifier of the word ~0071. signifies
                   By faith Abraham, when he was tried, of-        not number but dignity. It denotes this son's position
                fered  up Isaac;  and he who had received the      in the covenant. In him the Lord is to call Abraham's
                promises offered up his only begotten son.         seed. Hence, though Abraham have many sons, Isaac
                   Of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall        would still be `his  on.& begotten.
                thy  .seed  be called:                                This son, his o&y, Abraham is now asked to offer
                   Accounting that God was able to raise him       for a burnt-offering, is thus  itold to slay. Why this
                UP, even from the dead:  frzm whence  also         trial? Abraham's faith must be  exercized  in order
                he received him in a figure.                       that it may take on such power as, will! render him
                                                Heb.  11:17-19.    capable of bringing himself to the fore as a man with
                                                                   an implicFt  faith in God, that says that with Him all
   Abraham was severely tried. Said God  ta him, things, are possible ; an'd as a man who loves God only
"Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou                 and thus to whom `there is none other in heaven or
Iovest,  and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer           upon earth that he desires beside God. Then Gold will
him there for a burnt-offering upo'n one of the moun-              be ~gl~orified,  as faith is his gift and as true love,is  His
tains that I will tell thee of."                                   love shed  *abroad in  the hearts of His people.
   To understand the severity and the true character                  Abraham is commanded to slay his only son. But
of this trial, it must be clearly seen that Isaac was              is he then not being placed under the necessity 09 slay-
not tha only, in the ordinary sense; for Lshmael,  too,            ing  the very promise of God? Would not as a result
was  Abrahiam's s.cn by Sarah's handmaid Hagar, an of the disappearance of this son from the face; of the
Egyp'tian,  so that  *if the reference o,f th,e Lord, to Isaac     earth through death all his expectations perish? Should
as the *`only son" be taken to mean that he had an only he execute this command, would he not then be waiting
child in the sense that this may be true of any parent,            henc&orth  in vain for the salvation of the L,ord? How
we would be a,t a loss to know how t,s harmonize this              could th'e Lord save him witth  Isaac in the grave, per-
,reference  with the facts about Abraham's household               manently removed ? God cannot, to be sure. And
as reported by  Scripiture.                                        therefore He could not possibly leave Isaac's soul in
    Isaac was an only son in  `a unique sense.  Statei             Hades, in the state of death. He would most certainly
ments occur in the above-cited passage from the He-                find Himself under the necessity of raising him up
brews that clearly suggest this, these statements, "And            from the dead. For He  is, resolved by Himself to call
he  who1 received the  pro8mise.  . . . of whom it was             in him Abraham's seed. He has promised. Being God
sdd, That in Isaac  shall thy seed be called." Let us              unchangeable, faithful and true,  H,e would indeed call
consider  She following. The,Lord  had, given to Abra- this slain son, this only son, back  .to this present life.
ham a promise. The Lord had said that He would                     And this Abraham must believe-believe that Go.d is
maike of him a great  natio.n,  would bless him,  mlake            both willing and able to raise him up from the dead.
,his name great, cause him to be a blessin,g, give him And he is .oalled upon to exhibit this faith by actu,ally
the land of Canaan for an eternal inheritance, him and             slaying his only son. Rightly considered, what he is
h,is seed, and make this seed as the dust of the earth.            to'rd to do is to act upon lthe conviction that one saves
This  premise   4he Lord  h!ad repeated over and over his life through loosing it, and that life is lost through
without even initially fulfilling it. When Abraham the attempt to) save life; to tact upon the conviction


68                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
          -    -    -    -                      - . -                                                               -__
tth& he who would live must  dije, that the way to from the dead unto the justification of  dl those cruci-
iglory *is the way of the cross and is thus a way that        fied with Him. Faith discerns that only when a man
leads through suffering and death. For consider  that,        d,enies himself, takes upon him his cross and foIlows
awording tcr the command, .h.e is to offer Isaac for a Christ, is he Christ's disciple and shall live. Abraham
burnt-offering. What is thus required of him is that had this faith. The inspired. writer says of him that
he cover himse1.f  in respect to his sins wicth the shed he accounted that God was able to raise him, Isaac,
blood of this only son. Su is this son `by the command        up, even from the dead, and (adds, "from whence also
now made to stand out  .in his mind as his saviour,           he received him in a figure." That figure must be
better said, as the prophetic type cf the Lamb that the entire action of Abraham with Isaac: his binding
God would provide  Him&f. Thus Abraham is here him in obedience to the command ; his laying him as
requested to give expression to a faith  khat says that so bound  u,pon the altar %o be slain ; his actually slay-
God is able to raise from the dead one who through            ing him as to his intention ; his loosening  `his chords
`His death will atone his sine. He must believe               in obedience to *he voice of the Lord; his receiving him
that God will provide  I%imself with a crucified and          back again  frum the Lord alive and unhurt.  E:igur-
resurrected  C%rist in whom Abraham and his seed              atively,  then, Isaac was slain sand raised up from the
shall have redemption through His blood.                      dead. And  it was by faith that Abraham "did this
      Further. It is required of him that he give, offer,     l%ing".
Isaac to God in order that  .it may appear that his God          By faith, by the power of the love of God, he denied
is not Isaac but Jehovah  only,  that thus he  has no himself, crucified his flesh, his natural parental love,
other gods before Jehovah's face, that besides Him and then with his flesh in subj.&ion to the law of his
he has nothing either in heaven or on earth. Should mind, `he. placed his only son and so also his very self
he withho!id Isaac, he ithrough  his disobedience would       upon God's altar of burnt-offering. Truly, he feared
declare that the  gcd before whose shrine  <he prostrates     God. Him  only did he love. And as to Isaac, he  reL
himself is not  *Jehovah  but Isaac. And Isaac too must sisted not. He yielded, and yielding became obedient
allow himself to be offered. Should he refuse, <he would unto death. Thus both he and Abraham acted upon
be pitting himself against God and then Abraham the conviction tihat then only does one save his: life,
would be in duty bound to repudiate him. For  dis-            when he loses it for CXrist's sake, and that the way
.clbedient,   Isaac would  n.ot be one in  butt one beside    to the Father's house leads through death.
and thus hostile to Christ. They who are in Christ               What has this+ all b say to us? Gertain it is thet
are clothed, with His righteousness and. cleansed in tihe command in the fo,rm in which it came to Abraham
His blood fro%m their sin and thus partake of God's           is not for us. But as to its essence, this command, does
very nature. To love such, is to love God as mani-            concern us  all. For as to its essence, the command
fested in His children, .is thus to love Him only. Such lays every man under ,the necessity of believing that
then is God's command to Abraham. And  ithis  co.m-           God is able to raise from the dead with all that this
,mand he obeys. He rises up early in the morning.             implies, thus of believing in God through  Ghrist. It
He takes Isaac his son, and, having supplied himself further requires of us, does  this command, that we
with wood  for the burnt-offering, goes unto? the place       withhold nothing w,hatever  from God but that we yield
of which God had told him. Having reached his des-            our entire selves unto him to Whom we belong, thart.
tination, h.e builds there an altar. He lays the wood         we together with c~ur sons and daughters present our-
in ord'er. He binds his son and  #Ilays him on the altar      selves to God a  livingg, holy  and  lacceptible  sacrifice.
on the wood. He takes. his knife to slay him.  Bultr          It was a burnt-offering that Abraham was commanded
cas he sets himself to deal the fatal wound, he hears         to bring. It requires of us that we die-die as to our
a voice out of heaven that says, "Abraham, Abraham,           flesh, die lt;o *the world and to all that is out of &he
lay not thine *hand upon the lad, neither do thou any world and that we, through our doing so, witness for
thing to him: for now I know that thou feares!t  God,         the truth that the world passes away and that the only
seeing that thou hast not withheId thy son, thy only abiding thing is  the everlasting kingdom of our G-ad-
so,n  from me."                                               a kingdom destined to appear with Christ in glory.
      Abraham in his intention and thus actually has Doing so by &e mercies of God, we are true children
offered Isaac for a burnt-offering. Such is the test%         of  Abr&am.
mony  elf Scripture, "Abraham, when he was tried,                And consider how the Lord responded to Abra-
offered up Isaac. . . ." It wbas his faith that rendered ham's expression of his obedience. We road, "and the
him  cap&e  of this. For faith is love-love of God,           angel. of the Lord  called unto Abraham out of heaven
of the h,eavenly,  of the invisible. Faith discerns that the second time and said, "By myself have I sworn,
God is able to raise from the dead. It sees through saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this  tihing,
the medium of the Scriptures God's accomplished salva- and  host not withheld thy son, thine only son,  that
tion, a blessed reality. Faith sees Christ, obedient  unto1 in bIessing  I will ,bless thee, and in multiplying I will
death and raised by the power of God% rdeeming  love multiply thy  soed as the stars of the `heavens,, and as


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 69
-                      --"_                  --                 -.-.._
the sand which is upon $he sea shore; and thy seed having formed in his soul and passed  his lips, and
shall possess the gates of his enemies;  and in thy seed especially in view of  w,hat the Lord said of him in the
shall la11 the n&ions of the earth be blessed ; because                  audience of Satan, namely, that there was none like
thou hast obeyed my voice."                                              him in the earth, "a perfect and upright man, one that
       How pleased the Lord is with him, with His own                    feareth  God, and eschew&h  evil," it may awaken some
workmanship  1 And wehat peace  and heavenly gladness                    surprise that the above  corrective address was actually
must have come to him through `his obtaining this                        meant for  Jo,b's  ears. Yet it is true.  And, it is well
witness. And a witness it indeed is, of God in Abra-                     that it is so. For if Job had as uncomplainingly en-
ham's heart. The Spirit of God in and throu'gh these                     dured as is commonly supposed, the bo'ok  that bears
words is here testifying anew with Abraham's spirit                      his name would not be to the believers the source of
that God is  b Redeemer-Friend and  i&at thus he conrfort  that it now is. The kind of perfection that is
with and in his seed (for the seed is Christ, will possess               commoaly  boscribed  to Job, we find only in Ghrist. Job,
the gate of his enemies  and inherit the earth.                          despite his being a  believer  of singular piety, was
This testimony he receives at this time when he "does                    nevertheless a saint who also  bed reason  to say of
*this thing'. For doing "this thing" he is close to God. ~himself  that in him, that is,, in his flesh there dwelt
He walks with God now, as he walks in the way of                         no good thing. And he did say this of himself. When
obedience. He has close  fellows'hip  with God. The his disquieted soul was aigain  still and he was seeing
Lord speaks to his soul! And so does the Lord speak                      God  witch his eye (chap. 42  5) he said, "I  am vile,
!to and in the ,heart of every son and daughter of His,                  what shall I answer thee (40 :4). . . . I abhor myself,
not to be sure, when they stand in the way of sinners,                   and repent in dust and ashes (42 :6) ." '
but when they "do this thing" and w,alk with Him.                           It is well that Jotb was a man of like passions as we.
                                                     G. M. 0.            For if it were! otherwise we would not be seeing God in
                                                                         this book as we now see Him. In his great and con-
                                                                         tinuous anguish of body and soul+ Job could not re-
                                                                         frain from crying out. His language becomes violent
                                                                         and sinfully so. And God bears with him. Like as a
     Wilt Thou Disannul My Judgement?                                    Father He pities him. He knows his frame. He re-
                                                                         members t&t he is dust. In His condescending love,
                     Then the Lord answered Job out of  the              he comes to Job, remonstrates with him, corrects him.
                 whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth         He binds up his wounds, stills his troubled (heart,  re-
                  counsel by words without knowledge ?                   stores his soul, heals his disease, vindicates him, de-
                     Gird up thy loins like a man; for I will            fends him ,a8gainst  his accusers, and 1,avishes upon him
                  demanlt  of thee,  and  answer thou mc.                honor and riches ! So was Job delivered from all his
                                                     Jo!..  Sy:l-3.      troubbes.
                                                                            But while in these troubles he had sinned. IIe had
                     ..Vo~over  the  Lo~xi answered  Job  Jtld  said,    darkened counsel by words without knowledge. He
                  Shxil  be that contkndeth  with the Ah&&y  in '        had censured God as to His dealings with him. He
                  strurt him ? He  <ihat reproveth God,  ?et  htn:       had, according to  40:6-8,  annulled God's judgment,
                  answer it.                                             that is, sought ito substitute what he assumed to be
                                                   * Job  409, 2.        right, his idea of righteousness, fo.r that of God, in
                     Then answered the Lord unto Job out of              order that he might be righteous.
                  the whirlwind and said, Gird up thy loins now              Let us listen to some of Job's complaints and ex-
                  like a man: I will  demand of thee, and declare        amine these charges lodged against J,ob by the Lord
                  thou unto me.                                          Himself in the light of these co,mplaints  in order that
                     Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? Wilt           it may.be  seen just w,herein Job's sinning consisted.
                  thou condemn me, that thou mayest be right-                Chapter 3 is the report of a lamentcation,  the first
                  eous ?                                                 one, in which he curses the day of his birth. He spake
                                                                         and said :
.kf                                                   Job  40:6-g.
       The  sabove-cited  passages contain a series of re-                    "Let the day perish wherein I wlas born, and the
bukes directed by the Lord to no one less than Jo,b,                          night in which it was said, There is a manchild
the saint of Scripture-and a saint  he indeed  was-                           conceived.
whose patience became proverbial.                  Mark you, the              Let that day be darkness ; let not God regard it
Lord severely rebukes Job. It was with reference to                           from  labove,  neither let the light shine upon it. . .
Job that He asked, "Shall he that  con~endeth  with the                       Why died I not from the womb? Why did I no,t
Almighty instruct him. . . ." In view of the name thlat                       give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?"
Job  ha+`3  of `having endured  without   a single complaint                 This speech marks the beginning of Job's sinning.

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

     If a  believer  on  la,ecount of suffering, wishes to die              Neither is there a daysman betwixt us, that might
     early or not to have been  born at all,, he is in a st&e               lay his harid  upon us both.
     of opposition to God and is unmindful of the blessed                   Let him take his rod away from me, and let not
     fact that God #designs the highest good of His people                  his fear terrify me: Then would I speak, and not
     even in their severe& sufferings.                                      fear him; ,but it is not so with me."
                                                                                                                  chap.9  230-35.
            "If I had called, and he  ,h!ad  answ:ered me;  yet
            would I not believe that he had hearkened unto                 In  other words, "I am to be guilty, that is, God
            my voice.                                                   &w&s me so even  me of all men. I was selected for
            For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multi-               this. treatment. It is utterly vain therefore  ,that  I
            plieth  my wounds without cause.                            weary myself in trying to be innocent that I may be
            H,e will not suffer me to, take my breath, but filled       acquitted by God. If I should wash  myself in  snow-
            me with bitterness.                                         water ,and cleanse my hands with lye, thou would&
            If I speak of strength, lo, `he is strong: and of           plunge me in the ditch so that my clothes would cause
            of judgment, Who shall set me a time to plead?              me to be abhored. For  God is not my equal, standing
            If I justify myself, mine own  mo.uth  shall  eon-          on the same level with  me that I should answer him,
            demn me: if I say I am perfect, it shall also prove that  .6, reason with  him about my  innocence.  And
            me perverse.                                                there is no arbiter between us to whom we could  bolth
            Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my              betake  ourselves and accept  his decision. Let Him
            soul: I would despise my life.                              then take away his rod with which he smites me and
            This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroy-         let him not overawe, stupefy me with his terror. Then
            eth the perfect and the wiched.                             will I speak without fear before Him; for  not thus am
            If the scourge slay suddenly, `he will laugh at the         I with myself, that is., I am not  conscio,us  of anything
            trial of the innocent.                                      in me,  some sin or sins, of such a character that I
            The earth is in the hand ob the wicked: he  cover-          must be afraid of Him.
            eth the faces of the judges thereof; if not, where
            #and who is he?" Chap. 9 :16-24.                                 "My soul is weary of life; I will leave my  cotm-
                                                                             plaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness
           Job's reasoning here is briefly this : "Should I call             of my soul.
     to God, and he ask me what I wanted, I would not                        I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me
     believe &hat he wo.uld  listen to me should I tell Him.                 wherefore thou  contendest  with me.
     He  woa1.d  overwhelm me with  calamaties  even if I                    Is it good unto thee that thou should& oppress,
     were innocent. He would not suffer me to draw my                        that thou  .shuul;dest   dVespise   @the work of thine
     breath. If it be a test of strength between God and                     hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
     man, whether physical in  B trial-at-arms, or moral                     Ha&  thou eyes of flesh? Or se&h thou  as man
     staength, in a trial-at-law, &a& hope would there be                    seest  ?
     for a weak and mortal man 1% I am. And even were I                      Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years
     right, my mouth would not know how to make the                          :a.s man's days, that thou  enquirest  after mine
     right answer land would therefore confess me guilty,                    iniquity, and searchest (after my sin?
     though I should be innocent. ,4nd truly I corn ~?&.&ly
     innocent. And I will give myself no concern about my                   Thou kno&est that I am not wicked ; and there is
     life. I  w,ill freely utter that  co,nfession,   cost  vfhat it         none  that can deliver out of tine hand."
     may. Therefore I will out with it: God destroys the                   Otherwise said, "Is it good unto  theme  that  tholu
     innocent and the wicked alike. It is alI the same to               shouldest shine upon the counsel of the wicked, that
     Him whether a man is innocent or wicked. Both r+                   is, favor it, cause it to succeed?  Ha&  thou eyes  of
     ceive an  identical  treatment. If a calamity suddenly             flesh, perceiving only the surface of things, or seeth
     overtakes a people, then he mocks at the dispair ogf               thou  1~ men seeth, with a vision shortsighted and
     the innocent, his desire and `delight are in  the suffer- superficial as that of man? Aret thy days as the days.
     ing of the innocent."                                              of a mortal, or thy days as the days of man? that is,
           This perhaps is the most bitter speech  thba& was            are thy days numbered as that of ,a man, art thou a
     spoken by Job in the  whoie  book.                                 limited changeable cr&ure,  that thou seekest after
                                                                        my guilt, and  searchest  after my sins, that doest what
            "I am to be wicked, why then labor I in vain?               short-sighted men would do, seekinig  ko wring out of
            If I wash myself with snc~w water, and make my me the confession of guilt that has escaped thy vision
            hands never so clean; Yet shalt thou plunge me in           by decreeing  lthat I should suffer, although  tho,u
            the ditch, and mine own clothes shall~ abhor me.            knowest  that I am not  guillty."
            For he is not a m'an, as I am, that I shoald  answer           So in this vein does Job, the man of rarest piety
            him, and we should come tog&her in judgment,                speak.  He utters hard  word8  ,against  God; `He says
                                                                                                             .


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                     71
                 .".                    ._           ..---.                               -...---                 _..-
that God destroys the wicked and the innocent, laughs an itching, so intolerable that a piece of  potsherd  was
;;ct the trial of the innocent and gives the earth into taken to scrape the sores .and the feculent  discharge,
the hands of the wicked. And him, Job, He breaketh          2% The form and countenance were so disfigured
with a tempest and multiphes  his w,oands without a by the disease that the sufferer's friends could not
cause. Thus, to  Iserve God is vain.                        rcmgnize  him, 2 :12. The ulcers seized his whole body
   T.h,is complaint is identical to the one coming from both without and inwardly,  19:20, making the breath
Asaph. IIe, too, said of the wicked that they are not       fetid, and emitting a loathsome  smell that ,drove every-
in trouble like other men, that they prosper in the         one from the sufferer's presence, 19  :20, and made him
world and increase riches, but that he has cleansed         seek refuige  outside the village upon;the  heap of ashes,
his heart in vain in that al1 the day long he has been 2% The sores which bred worms.,  7:5, alternately
plagued and  chastenf~% every morning.                      closed, having the appearance of clo*ds  of earth, and
   As to Job, his soul is full of gloom. His great faith opened land ran, so that the body was al.ternately  swol-
for the moment is paralized. He judges as a critic God len and emaciated, 16  :8. The patient was haunted
and finds Him unfair, unjust. He seems near dispair. with terrible dreams, 7 :14, ,and unearthly terrors, 3 :25,
   What is it that occasions this violent language? and harassed by a sensation of choking, 7 :15, which
The doleful plight of the man, the intensity of his suf- made his nights restless and frightful, 7:4, as his in-
ferings. Job is being assailed by a secret invisible cessent  pains made  hi days weary." (Davidson).
enemy. The history of his case can be briefly stated.          While in this state he was assailed by Satan first
The patriarch Job hailed from the  lank of Uz. He           through the (agency of his wi.f.e, who said, "Dost  thou
was rich in material substance. He had sons to the          still hold fast thine integrity? Renounce God and die,"
number of seven, and three daughters. He was perfect and then of the three friends who came to comfort
and upright, a man who feared God and eschewed evil.        him but who (turned  out to be the to&s of the devil.
He was an example  TV his children. He was kind and ,4nd attend to Jobs answer to his unbelieving wife, '
,hospitable.  All men respected him. He was  ,a judge.      "What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and
His decisions were much sought and after he had done        shall  w.e not rexeive  evil?" "And in all, this, did not
speaking men remained  silent. He helped  ithe poor,        Job sin with his lips." "but in his thoughts he already
the fatherless and the widows, and was  a tower of cherished sinful words."
strength to the weak. So the man stands befo,re us             Job's pains must have daily increased. His bodily
in Scripture.                                               anguish becomes unendurable. Such anguish as Job's
   Then Satan accuses him of serving God for gain. continuing on cannot be endured. His friends are there
But God says that there was none! like Job in the earth,    with ,him now. They Ihad heard of the evil that was
a perfect and upright man. SQ, to silence the accuser, come upon him, and they came, every one frocm his
God  *gives  him power over all that Job has but not as     own place. When they saw Mm, they did not recog-
yet over his person. Satan now laid Job low. Job was nize him, so his coantenance  had changed. And they
striped of  dl his  wealth.-  Fire from heaven consumed, wept and rent every one his ma,ntle  and sprinkled dust
his sheep and those that cared for them, and all his        upon their heads toward heaven. And they sit down
children are hurled into eternity by a mighty wind.         with him upon the ground. `The condition  o,f their
Hearing, Job rends his mantle,  `tand shaved his head,      friend confounds them. They have come  to comfort
land fell down upoa the ground, and  worshipped.  He him. They  w.oald  fain speak. But no word they
blessed the name of the Lord. This is the fmst trial.` deem appropniate  will come to them. "For they saw
It has come and is now gone. Job stood unmovable. that his grief was very great." They have been with
He had overcome. And his victory was his faith.             him seven days now. And still they  tare silent. 0, if
Satan wes rebuked. But once again the sons of God they would only say something! Job can stand it no
come to present themselves before the Lord. And longer. So finally, in his unendu~rable  agony, he cries
Satan, too, is again among them. He must hear from out fiercely and curses the day of his birth, "Let the
the Lord that he ,has been foiled in respect to Job. But day perish wherein I was born," he says, "and the
he will not admit defeat. "Put forth thine hand now tight in which it was said, There is ZL man child con-
and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee ceived. Let that day be darkness ; let not God regard
to thy face." To this the Lord replies, "Behold, he it from above. . . ." And the friends, they are aston-
is in thine hand ; but save his life." Satan renews his ished at his wild outburst. They begin to imagine that
attempt to destroy Job's  faith He smites Job with a ther,e  must be so.mething  terrible in the state of the
terrible disease, with the worst kind of leprosy. A man. It seems not to occur to them that what they
description ob Job's illness can be had from the book are listening to nolw is the involuntary language of un-
of Job. He was stricken with boils from the sole of endurable suffering. His violent language sounds to
his foot to the crown of his head,  `%e took him a them like an outburst of profanity. He ought not
potsherd  to scrape himself therewith ; and he sat so to speak. So when he is silent, the oldest of the
among the ashes"`, `<The ulcers were acco!mpanied  by friends is ready to answer. He cannot withhold him-


72                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
           ___-_I__^,             - ..__ l_l -.._"                              1_1__-.                   ---
self from speaking, "If we assay to commune with                  That he has been  guilty  of no denial stands  out  in
thee, wilt thou be grieved?" he asked Job. But with-           his mind as a fact. Therefore he has confidence in
ant waiting for a reply he continues `+but who can with-       his distress and feels assured that his righteousness
ho;Itd  himself from speaking? What now comes from             will show itself, even in desth, .and that thus in death
this friend's mouth are words  *hat sting.  ?3ehcld,"          he will be with the Lord. His  so% longing is that
says Eliphaz to Job, "thou hast instructed many, and           he be freed from his sorrows through death. He con-
thou hast  stren;gthened  the  lyieak hands. Thy words siders his disease incurable, so why should his life  be
have behold& him that was falling, and thou  hast              prodonged?
strengthened the 4feeble  knees. But now it has come              "What," so  he continues,  " is my strength, that
upon thee, and thouiast  troubled." He would say that          I should hope (for recovery) ? And what is mine end,
Jsb found it  <easy  to! comfort others but now that           that I  sho,uld be  pa&&?"  His strength, he means
suffering and misfo,rtune  has overtaken him, i8 unable        to say, is net in proportion to the weighh  of his cross.
to console  himself. Now were &this  true, then  the word      He sees before him no end of his plight, if he lives on,
with which Job had come to others in their distress,           for, humanly speaking, he cannot regain his he&h.
dwelt not in his own soul. Job, this friend  w&d say,          Why then n&t he live? His  suRerings  are to intense
should examine himself and discover the hidden qvil            to* be  en!dered. "Is my strength," so he asks, "the
within *him. He continues, "Is not thy fear thy con-           strength of stones? or, Is my flesh of brass? Is not
fidence and  the uprightness of thy  w*ays thy hope?           my help in me brought to nought." Chap. 6 :18.
Remember, I pray Ithee, whoever perished,, being in-               He now upbraids his friends for their lack of sym-
nocent? or where were the righteous cut  off? Even             pathy and understanding. He reproves them for their
as I have seen$ they that plow iniquity, and so#w wicked- mean insinuations.
ness reap  the same."                                              "To him that is afflicted pity shoalId Be shown from
      Even from this initial reply, it is plain that these     his friends  and not reproach, even if he should have
friends are wholly incapable of placing themselves in forsaken the fear of the Almighty. My  brethren
Jdb's position and thus of correctly appraising his vio-       (speaking of these friends who came to comfort him)
lent language. Therefore were they unfit to! properly          have been false as a torrent,, and as the stream of
deal with Job in his present state. Here at the very           brociks  that pass by, which are bl'ackish by reason of
outse't,  Elipbz  reasons as if Job's raving were due to       the ice, and wherein the snow is h,id: . . . . For now
his lack of faith and confidence in God and thus to fear ye `are nothing; ye see my casting down and are dis-
th*at God was about  to destroy him with 4he wicked.           mayed. Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward
Whereas, so he reasons, Job lacks confidence, he  mu&l         for me of your substance? or, Deliver me from the
have sinned perhaps without himself being aware of it.         enemies? or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty?
Therefore let Job search  ,himself, his life, for that sin.    Teach me, <and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to
Let him confess it and he will live and not perish.            understand  whe-ein I have  erred.  How forcible are
T,his is the fo,undation  upon which they proceed in all       right words ! But what does your arguing reprove?. . .
their replies.                                                 Yea, ye ovewhelm  the fatherless and dig a pit for your
      Now, the fact is, that Job does not lack confidence      friend. . . . Is there iniquity in my tongue? Cannot
in Go& The fear that he will perish with the wicked            my taste discern perverse things." Chap. 6 :14-30
is not in him. How could it be. He is a man of                     Instead of insinuating  &hat the grief by which Job
singular piety. The cause of his violent outburst is ' has been overtaken in his sin returning to him in the
not his fear of perishing but solely the hugeness off tis-     form of punishment, l&t them give him a true solution
suffering. Therefore  h4e raves as he  doq. Now this           <of his present pligh,t. $50. far from the truth it is that
is  wheat he attempts  tot explain to  them  in his first      he dreads deathsbecause  he fears that death will1  be to
reply,  when he says, "Oh,, that my grief were thorough-       him what it is to the wicked, that he fervently longs to
ly weighed and my calamity  laid in the balances to-\ die, that he may be at rest.
gether!     For now it would be heavier than the sand                                (To be continued)              G. M. 0.
of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up, that
is (in the original), therefore I rave as I do. My                                    IN MEMORIAM
sufferings are  unendurablae.  They madden, bewilder               Op den 17 October 1938, behaagde het den Heere, plotseling
me, so thlat I speak like a madman. "For," so Job conL         uit  ons midden  weg te nemen, onze  getrouwe en geliefde  ambts-
tinues in chapter 6,. "the arrows of the Almighky  are         drager,
within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit:                                 MR. ADAM  BUMA
the terrors of God do set themselves in  mray against          in den ouderdom van 55 jaar.
me. . . . Even that it would please God to destroy                 Na een leven  van blijde geloofsverzoeking is hij ingegaan
me; that h$e would let loose his hand and cut me off!          in  de vreugde zijns Heeren.
Then should I yet have comfort : let him not spare : for                                 Namens de Kerkeraad
I have not denied the words elf the holy One."                                                                   .T.  Buma,  Sec..J . ..-I


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8-l temptations, its beautifying of "the world", its craving
           MEDITATION                                                         after the  things that are below,  i&s voluptuousness, its
                                                                              dust of the flesh and lust of the eyes and its pride of
II-4                                                                          life.
               A Walk In Contentment                                     .        Is not covetousness a deeply rooted sin, one of the
                                                                              chief characteristics of our sinful nature? The sinner
                          Let your conversation be without turned away from the living God, departed from the
                     coveteousness;  and be co&e& with such overflowing Fountain of all good, does not seek, does
                     things   ox ye have: for he  h&h said,  I not know, is not rich in God. Hence, he seeks  h.&
                     ,will  neuer leave thee, ,nor forsake thee.              ri&es, his life  and joy, the satisfaction of his soul,
                     So  tha$ we may boldly say, The Lord is in things apart from Him What was designed to be
                     .my helpe+r, cznd I wilt nxrt fear what man no more than means he considers and seeks as an end.
                     shall 0% u-n&o me.                                       Small wonder that covetousness characterizes all his
                                                   Hebrews IS :5,6.           walk and conversation. . . .
                                                                                  Nor does our sinful heaqt trust in the living God.
    Much needed admonition! *                                                     Rather do  w.e put our confidence in things, in pos-
    Let your conversation be without coveteousness ; sessions, in riches. With sufllcient for the present we
be content with the present!                                                  cannot be satisfied. To be content with bread for toL
     How frequently the Scriptures sound this same. day, assured that He  W~Q provided it will feed us to-'
note *of warning,, now in one form then in another! morrow, seems  impossibIe. And we want more! We
Flee from coveteousness  ! The  love of money is a root must be able to see ahead ! We want the assurancw
of all evil ! Seek  {the things which are above, not the that the bread basket is f&d to-morrow, next week,
things which are on the earth ! Do not gather unto for long time to oome.  . . .
yourselves treasures that are on the earth, where moth                            And anxiously we ask : what &all we eat? what
and rust doth currupt'and where thieves break through shall we sdtink? wherewithal shall we be clothed?
and steal ! Beware of the deceitfulness of riches ! Do                            Let your conversation be without  ooveteousness!
not ask, as the heathen do,. what ye shall eat or what                            Be  ocrntent  with what ye have!
ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be clothed!                               Sorely needed warning!
Ye cannot serve God and Mammon ! Be not anxious
for the murrow, for the morrow shall take care for
the  thinfgs of itself! Seek the kingdom of God, first,                                a
last, all the time ; al1 other things shall be added unto
you ! Let  year treasure be in heaven, for where your                             Contentment
treasure is there shall your heart be also! . . . .                               Precious boon !
    And there is a reason for the frequent repetition                             Rarely found among the children of men
of this same exhortation.                                                         What is it?  W,hat is its secret power? How can
    And the actual life and walk of the children of God it be cultivated?
in this world shows that this note of warning cannot                              Plain it is from the text that it is fhe very opposite
be sounded too often.                                                         of covetousness. Contentment and covetousness ex-
     Especially  is  this  itrue of our own age with its clude each&her. Where the latter rules the former re-
"@is-worldliness", its thousands of attractions end fuses to dw@. Never will the covetous man find con-


74                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
           .-..l.l                                                -
tentment,  and upon the heart wherein dwells content- have a house to live in, bu$ it is not a pal,ace. You have
ment covetoasness  has no hold.                                  the fulfillment  of your  needs,   but you  ,bathe not in
      A sore evil is covetousness !                              luxury. You have enough for today, but you know
      Literally the word that is used in the text for covet-     nccthing about the morrow. . . .
ousness signifies love oC money. "Geldgierigheid" as                   And you say : it is enough !
the Dutch translates the word.                                         You crave for no more. The lack of more than
      Money ! ! Magic word ! Fascinating power! In the things that are present does not  fill your heart with
itself it is worthless. You cannot eat or drink it. You envy and mali,ce,  with bitterness and dissatisfaction.
ca.nn~$ put it on to cover yourself with it and protect The inner state of your soul is in harmcny with your
yourself against the  cold But as a means of exchange outward condition.
it provides you with the key to all the treasures of                   Let your conversation be without covetousness, in
"the world". With it you clbtain  food and drink and contentment !
clothing, pleasures and honour,  pwer and influence.                   Your conversati'on  is your walk, your life, inward
And love of money does not mean the desire to have and outward, personal and in relation to others, in
enough of this  powerful1  means  tot provide for the daily `your home and on the street, in your shop ,and in your
needs of yourself and your family. It is the craving officre,  in the church and in the world, in business and
for more, always more, the insatiable desire for riches.         industry, whether  you buy or whether you sell, whether
And how this love of money controls the lives of men,            you emplo:y men or whether yuu are employed.
off individuals, of c?orporations,  of nations and common-             And let this entire conversation be without covet-
wealths I There are those who, ~ind&.d,  love money for ousness, be characterized always by contentment!
its own sake. In the solitude and quiet of the night                   Let the love of money never be the motive  x;d your
,the miser will rise and turn to his steadily growing thinking and planning, your speaking and acting.
treasure, to count and recount, to let the glittering gold             But let contentment become manifest in your whole
glide through his bony fingers, loving the feel of each -life !
<of the precious coins, gloating on its  glistering  gleam,            Clearly motivate all your dealings with men!
.his face aglow, his eyes shining with the lustre of his               BI,essed life !
greed. He knows the power of each coin,. yet he dare
not use it. Others crave money because of the love
of the things of the world that may be procured with it,
and because of the feeling of safety, the sense of se-
curity it afl?ords,  the consciousness of power and in-                WonderfuI  grace !
fluence it--gives $0 him that possesses it.                            The power to be content with what we have, with
      For money is power!                                        the present; without covetousness:!
      And it is largely its power that rules the world.                The grace to let our walk and conversation be quite
      For the love of money a man will murder his fellow-        contrary to all that controls and motivates sinful men
man and lose his own soul ; the employer will suck the           and becomes manifest in the  wlorld  that walks. in dark-
blolod  ,out of his employees ; the  ,latter will seek refuge    ness !
in the power of strike and boycott; the rich oppresses                 For grace, indeed, and grace only can enable us to
the poor and the poor curses Lhe rich ; the bigger finan-        heed this <admonition  so that we truly hea~ t.his Word
ciers, industrialists, and businessmen will swallow up of God aand do it. A hard speech this is for the flesh,
the smaller; nation will  ris.e against nation and drench in conflict with all our carna1  nature desires. Harder,
the battlefields with the lifeblood of their youth!              indeed, this Word of God is than any mere do&r&e,
      Cut out of the heart of the world .&his  evil power of because here we are directly told what to do, how to
covetousness, and ho~w different all things would be- walk in the  midst  of the present world. A mere doc-
come !                                                           trine, however, contrary it may be to our sinful mind,
      Let, in the midst of this world, your conversation may be heayd, may be accepted and believed. But here
be without covetousness !                                        the Lord our God Himself approaches us with His
      Be content with  the things y.e have !                     Word, points out the way and  b&G  us walk  thewin!
      Or, as the original has it, be content with the things           Do othis!
that are present! It does not mean that you long not                   Let your conversation be without covetousness !
for  ,the fulfillment of your earthly wants and physical               Be content with the things that are present!
needs, that you desire no bread when you are hungry,                   And immediately our flesh rebels against the Word
no drink when you are thirsty, no clothing to put on,            of God!
no  rsof over your `head. On the contrary you have                     Oh, we may not express it in just that way; we
these things for the present, for today. You do not may not admit it to ourselves,  #and to the brethren, that
go hungry or naked or homeless. But you have no we stand opposed to the Word of the Most High, that
surplus. You have bread for today and no more. You we refuse to obey it. But we find a thousand excuses


                          .._-.       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           75
c_---.-.--_-."...."
wherewith  to1 circumvent it. Very well, we will say,             Add, then,  to the things that are present this sure
for those that have plenty of this world's goods, for Word of promise, and can you, can I not be without
whom "the  thin,gs that are. present" mean abundance, ocvetousness  in the world?
and who have  no reason to be anxious about the  mor-             Have we any more to covet, when we know that
b%v,  t@ speak of contentment and a  wcalk without covet- Jehovah will never leave nor forsake  us,?
ousness:  but we live from hand to: mouth, we must                Is the assurance that He, Who loved us from be-
buy our measure of wheat for a penny and our three            fore  ,the  feundation  of the world,  Who! ordained us
measures of ,b,arley  for a penny every day; and often unto eternal ,glory,  Who gave His only begotten Son
we know not how to earn the penny wherewith tot buy even unto the death of the cross, W,ho will give us all
even this daily provis,ion  ! And, besides, how impos-        things with. Him,  wh;o( is the  Allwise,  so that His
sible to walk in oontentment in the midst of a world I counsel never fails, hhe Almighty, so that He 4s surely
that is motivated by covetousness ! Dot not always the abIe1t.o  accomplish all His Word ; Who also gives us the
rich strive to keep what they possess ,a,nd to increase things that are tiresent  and that with a view to His
their riches? Do not  zv@rywhere  the poor  struggk? purpose of love over ,us,-is the assurance that He will
to procure as much as they can of this world's goods? never fail nor forsake us, not sufficient  to1 fill our soul
Is, then, not this doctrine of contentment, a fine            with the peace of contentment?
ideal though it may be, impracticable in our present              He will never forsake us, always be near!
world? . . . ,                                                    He will never fail us ; always will He be ready to
    The flesh, even the flesh of the children  of God, can    help, to lead, to protect, to strengthen for the fight,
never hear and do the perfect Word.                           to fulfill all our needs !
    Always it wiii  opjpasof                                      0, it is good for me to be near unto God!
    But the Word of &d here is not addressed to lthe              Having Him I lack nqthing  !
flesh, but to the church in Christ, redeemed not with             Glorious graoe !                     .
gold or silver, but by the precious blood of Him that
was always content ; of Him Who was  content  to become                  ,     -      ,-     2
pcor  ,that we might be rich, Who was content, though                                `#           (
He had less than the foxes that have  their holes and
the birds that have their nests; Who was content with            BIessed  confidence!
the Father's will over Him, though obedience  to that             The Lord is my helper!
will pressed out of Him the bloody sweat in the garden            What shal,l mere man do unto me?
and caused Him to endure all the agonies of `hell on             He, the Almitghty,  Whose are a11 things, Who made
the accursed tree! It is addressed, not to our sinful `them ,acco:rding to His eternal purpose, in order that
nature, b,ut to our new heart, delivered from the power they might serve the end whereunto  I& made them ;
anId dominion of sin, filled with the sanctifying grace       Who1 holds every creature in the hollow of His hand,
of the  good Spirit, a.ccording to which we hate sin and supplies them with power, keeps  them  in their position,
rejcice in righteousness, and  hav,e  ,an inner delight in controls their every movement, so that they cannot
the Word of God to do it!                                     move but by His o:mnipotent  will; He, the Lord, W'ho
    And by that same grace we lay hoI'd upon the Word         revealed His unfathomable  love to: me, when He gave
of God, not cnly as it exhorts us to be content and to        His only begotten Son that I might have eternal life,
walk without covetousness in the world, but also as           and Who will surely cause all things to work together
it gives us the blessed assurance: 1 will not fail, nor       for my good, unto my eternal salvation,-He is my
forsake thee !                                                helper, He is for me, He cares and leads and  prom
    He hath said !                                            vides. . . .
    `He spoke this Word once to His people Israel, when           What, then, shall man do unto me?
they were about to take possession of the  la.nd of              .Mere  man, who also is  in the power of my Helper?
promise. For this land they had to fight. And the                This we may bohlly  say!
battle appeared impossible. Strong giants were there,             Say, not in the way of covetousness; You cannot
in ocmparison  with whom they, the Israelites, appeared serve God ,and Mammoa. You  cannoit trust in things!
as grasshoppers!       How, then, could they hope ever and in Jehovah. Here you must choose. In the way
to take possession of the land? But  He  spoke ! Jeho- of oontentment, however, you may  boIdIy  say: The
vah, their God, Who gave them the promise;. faithful Lord is my helper!
and true,  ,the Unchangeable, the Almighty, Who                   Boldly, though your speech be contrary  toi  ,a11 that
created all things and upholds all things, said: I will is seen!
never leave  n,or forsake thee!                                   Boldly, because you lay hold upon His Word: I will
    And He always speaks the same Word !                      not fail thee !
    The Word He snake  centuries ago He still speaks              Blessed assurance!
to you and  t,o me, to His Church in the world!                                                             EL  R.


 88                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D  BEAR.ER
 -..-"" -.-.- -                   -      -       --"."^ _._.. -._.l-l-_l-  _I--_                  .  .._                    --...--..-..2

                           Ingezonden                                                      Riders-Along
                                                                           In the September issue of De Here&,  H. V., writin'g
                                                Doon, Iowa            on  `Het Ambt  All,er  Gel,oovigen"  uses a figure which
                                       November 2, 1938               only  tclo conspicuously describes the  Church-life  in
                                                                      man'y  of our churches today. H. V. is agitating against
                                                                      the corrupt conception many people entertain in re-
 Eben-Haezer,                                                         spect to the Church and its fun&ion in this world.
       Ja, want tot hiertce  heeft de Heel-e ens geholpen.                 Here  is  Lhe figure, an illustration applicable enough
 Veel  waren  de  m&ten die we  a,ls gemeente  onder-                 to be of value to1 us and our churches.
 vonden in de  jaren  die  achter  ons  liggen.   -Moedeloos              `Says H. V. many church members consider the
 zaten we menigmaal terneer niet wetende of we verder                 church a train,, traveling toward heaven. In that train
 zouden kunnen  be&an.  Maar Gode zij dank tot op                     one may see a variety of passengers. One passenger
 den huidigen dag staan we, dankbaar  voor bet gcede                  is taking a nap, lthe second) is looking outthrough the
 hetwelk de Heere bij ons heeft gedaan.                               window, while a third is off in a corner reading a book.
        In  he% voorjaar van 193'7, ging Ds. Lubbers van              In the tra,in $her,e  are a few that are active, such as
 ens heen om te arbeiden in PeRa, Iowa.                               the machinest  and the conductor, but all the rest are
        Daar stonden we als Meine groep, herder-loos. Maar lounging, idly riding dong  to heaven.
. de upper&e  Herder zorgde. Zorgde  altijd, oak al was                    And thus: `*riders-along."
 ens oog door de moeilijkheden, die we ondervonden                         I often wonder if by and large we are  not addicted
 daarvoor menigmaal  ,gesloten.  Het was  dan,  oolk Ds.              to that  v,iew. The pastor, the elders and the deacons,
 J. Van der Breggen die ons verblijdde door tot ons te                a few assi&ants  together w,ith a few that happen to
 komen.                                                               have to serve on committees. . .  ..they  have something
                                                                      to do in the Church. But the rest of us idly ride along,
        Op den Eaatsten Augustus arriveerde Z. E.- W. met with nothing more to do than look out through the
 zijne gade, in uns midden.                                           window together with making an  occasiond  remark
        Op September 2, mochten we dan bevestigd  zien:               about .the attractiveness or unattractiveness of the
 uwe oogen zullen  uwe 4eeraars  zien.                                scenery. The "riders along" can safely leave  .it to the
        Ds. Gritters  van Sioux Cen.ter  ging ens vour in geL         few active  ones' to do what is to be done. And in the
 bed in het lezen van Gods Woord.                                     practise  of many a church it works out exactly that
                                                                      way.     In- `a train this works out  alright.   Butt the
        Daarna sprak onze  Consulent  Ds.  Permeer  011s. toe         Church is not a train.
 naar  aanleid,ing  van I Tim. 4  :16,  watarna  Da.  Cam-                 Scripture certainly does not call the Church a train
 menga onzen leeraar  bevestigde in de b&ening van de                 which is here only to serve the purpose of t.aking us to
 ,gemeente  te Doon.                                                  Iheaven.  If that were true  ik would have served its
        Op Sept. 11, deed Z. E. W. zija .intree  predikatie:          purpose and could cease functioning when  finally this
 Textwoorden   voor de mcrgendienet  waren  Jes. 58  :l.              world has come to its end. And just the opposite is
 N.ammidag Rom. 1:16.                                                 true, for Scripture everywhere shows us the Church
                                                                      triumphant as busy functioning.
        Duidelijk deed de leeraar uitkomen, hoe steeds de                  The Church in Scripture  ,is not for man  butt for
 bazuin moet  ,gehoord  worden,  om Jakob hunne zonden God. It is not here first of all for you and me but for
 t e   v e r k o n d i g e n .                                        God. It is not meant to serve me first, but God. It is
        In den namiddagd,ienst  ook werd zeer schoton ver-            the  B&y of  C%rist  Jesusk  The Church is Gods' ser-
 klaard, hoe bet Evan,gelie  een kracht Gods tot zaligheid vant.  Even  as  the human body  .is: the  tool  through
 is een iegelijk, die gelooft.                                        which the soul operates, so the Church is the instru-
                                                                      ment through which the Spirit of Christ Jesus ape+
       Zoo  hopen we  &.n verder te. gaan in de kracht des            rates. And thus she is the servant of God. She serves
 Beeren dankb.aar  voor de gun.& die d,e Heere ook hierin             to &ell Crold's praises. She  ds the servant through whom
 ons  weer heeft bewezen.                                             God glorifies Himself, through whom God crushes the
        Geve  de Hwre  dat zijn zegen moge rusten oo8 op              head of the serpent, puts to shame the proud and wise
 bet werk  d'oor Ds. J. Van der  Breggen   verricht hier of this worldI, casts down the thrones and principal,i-
 te Doon, tot in lengte van d&agen.                                   ties, through whom God gathers His elect from every-
                                                       .              where. Not a train therefore, but an active and will-
                                  Namens de Kerkeraad                 ing servant of the  tliving God through the  Sp,irit of
                                                                      Christ that is in her.
                                        van  Doon, Iowa.                   Neither   &es,  the Scripture allow riders-along.
                                                                                          I___              - ..- . .,.-


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         89

   Are you a Christian?                                               The Mystery Made Known
   Indeed, you say.
   Well, then the Heidelberg Catechism asserts  fchat           The astounding truth so little cherished by the
you are an office-bearer in  *he  Church. The Church Church,  `so often obscured by the philosophies of mans
member is an office-bearer, never a rider-along. He          yet so ricily attested by the W,ord  of God is, that all
is to be engaged bn active service. Just because he things are now ,already even as they `C?V~JY shall be. That
is not an elder or a deacon, that does not mean that he is, that the Church possesses now in principle all things
s nothing and therefore has no  ofhce and no duty.           which she ever shall possess in the fullest reaiization
We confess in ,respect  %to the Church "that I am and        iii `heaven. This fact, that God  has blessed,  us with ull
forever shall remain a living member thereof". It says spiritual blessings  i,n heavenly places in Christ causes
a LIVING member. To be a living member certainly the apostle Paul in Eph. 1:3 to excla'im:  Blessed be
includes that we, each and everyone of us, is to be acti-    God.! And again in the verses 9 and 10 he speaks of
vated to service by the Spirit of the ,ri.sen  Lord now      the mystery of God's will made known to us, "that in
operating in the Church. And our service, the service the dispensation of the fulness of times He might
of all .of us is the office of all believers. All having gather together in one all things -in Christ, both which
the unotion  and; all sharing in that life of the Spirit, are  in heaven and which are on earth."
there cannot be in the Church those "riders-along".             AU spiritual bl,essings  are now the possession of $he
There are  .perhaps  that ride along but they cannot Church, for God has blessed her with alilr those bless-
rightly call themselves Christians.                          inm when  H,e took the resurrected Christ'into heavenly
   The Church not only is a body, but also lives and glory. God blesses our glorified  Lord with the Spirit
functions `as a body. The work I do <is not done by of Promise and continues rto fill Him, with ble&ngs
anyone of my members in exclusion of all the rest,           which He as a  .neservoir  of blessedness showers down
but I do that work only through collaboration of all         upon the Church.      Even as  Chr&,  tlhe Head of the
the members of my body. Suppose you are a factory Church, is blessed', so all blessings are the possession
worker and you use chiefly your hands. . .  .wouM you of the Church, which is His body.
say that the feet have no service in your life? All the          Soune of those bleesin;gs  the apostle  set on display
members of your body must so labor together that you in the verses tihat follow verse 3. One of them is, t,hat
can  pierform your  task. If your eyes fail, no  ,matter     the saints are holy and blameless before God. He m
how  w,illing  your hands, they too will fail ; if your ,no sin in Jacob and no transgression in Israel, but re-
stomach  fai,ls, your hands wilt be idle soon enough.        gards them as they actually are in Christ, a chosen
N,ot only does each member play its part but all mem- generation, a royal  priesthoods,  a holy  na@on  and a
bers must collaborate to make it possible for your hands peculiar people. Another Messing which the Church
to do the work expected of you. So it is also in re- possesses. is,  tihat she has the adoption of children by
spect to God's Church. It has the high oalling of God Jesus Christ unto God. God has taken her unto> Him-
to obey, it must function, not a member here or there,       self as His family to reflect the image of His counte-
but the Body must function, and each member in ,his          nance, dwell in His house, be heirs of salvation andI
or her own appointed place.                                  <have right to eternal life. A*nd still a third, that they
    It remains therefore for each of us to  hnow  or have been  graoed,  made  acceptab1.e  in the Beloved!
to find .the pl&ce  which God has assigned to us in the      God has  endolwed them  wlith His grace, made them
Body of Christ, and there function as faithfully and beautiful even as He is beautiful, placed them attractive
as willingly as do the angels in heaven.                     and well pleas*ing  before Himself, so that He finds `His
    No riders-along, but Christians. . . .that is what delight in them as His children. And finally, the Church
the Church needs.                                            can boldly testify that she has redemption through
                                               M. G.         Christ's blood, knowing that her sins are blotted out
                                                             and forgiven `according $o the riches of God's grace.
                                                                 Emphasis must continually fall on the fact that
                                                             she has those blessings In Christ. For in Christ God
                                                             ohose the Church, and each individual in the Church,
                       NOT POOR                              from eternity  accordmg  to sovereign  gcad pleasure.
                                                             Each individual received a Go&given plaza in the body,
                                                             so that the fulness  of @he organism may #be realized ac-
             Cal,1 me not poor; I nothing lack,              cording to God's sovereign design.         In divine fore-
               For lo, a voice divine                        knowledge God predestined His Church unto the body
             Has made me feel that I am His                  of Christ and the family of God.  Andi the deepest
                                                              source even  of this eternal purpose 116es in Grace, as
               And told, me His is mine.                     tan attribute of God Himself, whereby He is beautiful


90                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
,-            ____-  --..__1_                --"              -.                                     -....^l_____l_~
and glorious in Himself and wherein He from  etertity sorder  of things. The zeal of Gcd's house consumed
to eternity overflows  tolward  us in all wisdom and           Him, for He had come to do  the Father's will. By
prudence.                                                      the blood of the cross God made peace and  rec,onciled
      God ;has realized His eternal purpose  with Christ all things in heaven and on earth unto. Himself. Coil.
by blessing Him  new with all the blessings of the 120. And as a reward on the accomplished work of
Church in heaven. Centrally we are blessed with all the cross God "raised Christ from the dead  and set
spiritual  bl,essings in heavenly places in Christ, for Him at His own right hand in $he heavenly places,
God has Igathered  together all @ings both in heaven           far above all principality and power snd might and
and on earth under one head in Christ. The mystery dominion :and every name that is named, not only in
of His will is made known tot us. Blessed Church of            this world, but also in that which is to come." Eph.
the new day !                                                  1:20,  21.
                                                                       The triumph of the cross overwhelmed Satan and
      All things are united under one head in Christ.          his hosts, sending them in defeat under Itihe eternal
      Sin created disharmony by tearing asunder all 5curse of  Gc& into hell fire. The  ,angels which kept
things in heaven as well  ,as  on  earth. According to         their estate in the eternal habitations were eternally
the evident Itleachings  of Scripture the angels in heaven and publicly justified. They share in the victory of
were created as an organized unity under one head.             the cross in this sense, (that Christ is set at their head
Each angel held his own particular pla,ce  in relation and they are  Ionce more organized into a perfect unity
to  a11 the others, the  ,cne was subject and subservient and in harmonious relation to God to worship with
to~the other. Possibly Satan himself stood at the head the Church about the throne. Each one s,erves  in his
of this organized unity. When sin entered into the             prolper  relation to Christ, Who is the Head over ah
realm of tthe angels. the unity was broken, so that not Ithings.
only a chasm was formsed  in the angelic hosts, but they               But also on earth all things are reconciled to God
were all thrown into disharmony with one another by the cross. No more than Adam could fall without
and out of their proper relation to1 Gtd. In the restitu- drawing the whole earthly creati,on with him under the
tion of all things it was necessary @at, even though curse, no more can Christ reconcile His oiwn without
the faithful angels remained righteous and holy, and           reconciling the whole creation  with them to God. Such
in that sense  nee:ded.  no reconciliation,  nevertheiess      was also the&vine purpose, for God so loved the world
their harmony should be r&ored  and they sholuld be that  H,e gave His only begotten Son. Christ is set
reunited under o,ne h.ead  in perfect relation to God.         in the highest heavens as Head of  H*is Church and
      Likewise, sin brought disharmony on  eant!h.  Be-        all things are put under His feet. Therefore the apcstle
`fore the fall Adam stood as the  head; of all things.         can assure the Church: all &ings are yours, and ye
He' was representative of the who81e human race which are  Christ'q  and Christ is God's.
should' be born from him. But also organically all                     Finally it shall be perfectly manifeist  that all things
the earthly creation was united in him. Every tree in heaven and on earth are united in Christ. In the
which gave him foold and *every animal he named, stood new heavens and the new earth'  the whole glorified
in the service of God's image. bearer, who was lord  oaf       creation with the angels will serve the Church, which
all. They  spcke  to ,him of the glory of the Creator,         will be perfectly united with and  subjlect  to Christ
they  f&ed  his heart with love to his covenant God,           unto the glory of. God forever. But that whic%h will
and they served him that he might return with praise be perfectly realized in the day of Christ Jesus is
and worship to God. They were not mechanically jotin-          now, nevertheless, realized in principle.
ed together, but so completiely  related to each other                 Now is the dispensation of the fulness of times.
that all creation must share the common fate of Adam.          All the times which preceded it Aowed  as a growing
When Adam fell the  wh,ole earthly creation  loat its          stream to empty themselves into the fulness  od times.
head and fell with him, subject to vanity. Therefore                The  *hours that preceded, marked off the time ac-
@`he wrath and  ,curse which followed  rest on the whole cording to the sovereign will Iof God until @hat last
earthly creation, which groans  and travails in pain hour should come when all things would be united in
together until now, awaiting the deliverance from the               Christ.    Promises abounded, prophecies  muItiplie!d,
bondage of corruption.                                         types aid' shadows increased in number and signifi-
      The ages rolled by and all things in heaven and1 on cance in anticipatiun  of the coming of that day. And
earth continued to exist purely on the strength  ojf God's          now, having been  fulfillsed, they are  clisplaced  by a
promise, awaiting fulfillment. For some 4000 years             new order of things in God's house, where Christ is
heaven and earth stood in eager expectancy and almost the Head of all things.
impatient longing for that day.
      Until the Son of God came in the likeness of sin-                The mystery of God% will is made known.
ful flesh. Christ, the anointed, Servant, came to accom-               It is a mystery, first elf all, in this sense, that it
plish the work in God's house and to resrtbre a new could only beoome known to us by way of revelation.


                                        T H E S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 91

Eye  *h&h not see, nor ear heard, neither have entered           a longing for that day. Until finally God aboandled
into the heart off man, the bhings which G,od hath pre- with the fulness of the riches of His grace toward us
pared for them that love  l&m. The natural mind can- in Christ Jesus. All the  ages must testify of the
not understand the things  orf the Spirit, for they that glory and beauty of God as the God of all grace, with
are  a@,er the flesh do mind the  thin'gs of the flesh, but      which He freely abounds toward His Church. The
only they who are enlightened by the Spirit do mind              light Iof grace is thrown  throughout all the ages on the
the things of the Spirit. Unto some it is giva to know           dark background of sin and death. It is made known
the mysteries o,f the kingdom of heaven, but others to us that God utites  all things in heaven and on earth
must seeing nort see and hearing not %hear. For God under one head in Christ.
has hidden these things from the wise and prudent an!&              Let us not confuse the matter by Iendling  ourselves
revealed them unto `babes.                                       to the foolish fancies and philosophies of man. The
   But, secondly,. it is  a mystery because it was hidden &wisdom  and might of the world never stand side by
from the ages and generations which have gone before,            side  wtith   the grace in Christ Jesus.       Generalizing'
even kept secret since the world began;  only to h made `Christianity can only lead to confusion and to a final
manifeqt  to the saints in this last time. T,hough  the amalgamation with the world. Children  of light can-
promise was given, it was not immediately realized ;             not seek the things which are below, but must have
thou,gh  pro:phets  spoke laf it, they too saw it only afar ttheir  treasures in heaven. Light and darkness `have
toff ; though types and shadows pointed the sway, an im- no common basis. They are antithetically opposed to
penetrable veil cut off the light of rthe new day from each other. Nor is grace ever promiscuously offered
the dispensation  uf shadows. The closer they came to to  zlll men in general. Christ gathers His Church,
that day the plainer they discerned the distant objects,         unites her with Himself, and  umtes all creation to-
and yet Ithey did not enter in. From their vantage gether with her, Cchat heaven and earth may be united
point in heaven angels bent forward in eager expec- in one. He is the Hea,d of the Church, which iss, His
tancy, watching the unfolding of the counsel of God              body, the fulness of Him that f?illeth  all in all.
an& the coming of that ,day, for they were desirous to              Small wonder that the angelic hosts burst forth
look into! it. Patriarchs longed to see that day, psalm- with its "Gloria in Excels&" above the Babe od Beth-
ists sang of it, prophets stood in awe and wonder,               flehem. Of necessity they are present at the resurrec-
dazed and collaps,ing  under the amazement of what               tion and again when He ascends to  <heaven  to lead
they discerned afar off. Diligently they enquired and            Him to the Ancient of Days. And just as eagerly they
searched  "as to what or what manner of time the Spirit watch the gathering of His Church, so that there is
of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testi- joy in  #heaven  when the lost  .is found  *and  t.he dead
fied before hand the sufferings of Christ and the  .glory        are made alive again.
that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that                 And through  rthe Spirit of Christ in the Church
not $0 themselves but unto us they did minister the we are blessed with all spiritual blessings, even as
things, which are  no.w reported unto you by them God blesses Christ in heaven. We have  redemptioa
which have preached  the gosp.el  unto you with the Holy         through His blood, the fongiveness  of sins. We have
Ghost sent down from heaven." I Pet. 1 :Il, 12. All the adoption to children; are made holy and  blameless
these died in faith,  nolt having received the promises,         before God. We are graced with God's grace anid made
but having seen bhem  <afar off.                                 acoepted  in the Beloved. It becomes the actual, liv-
   And `even  now it still remains a mystery, for the            ing experience in the heart of rthe believers that all
mystery  is not yet  fulfilled~.  We still  `see in a  lglass    things in heaven ~ancl  on earth are united in Christ.
darkly and know in part, but finally bn our gl.orified           And according to the measure that we experience and
bodies in the new heavens and the new earth we shall taste this blessedness we respond with  .an ever  recut"-
see face toi face anld' know as we are known.                    ring praise to the gliolry of Hi,s grace.
    Neventheless,  the mystery of God's will is made                Blessed be  God!
known to us. Sovereign will never determined to unite                                                              C. H.
all things in the first Adam, a is evident even from
the fact that he was made an earthly creature and
set %1s head only of the earthly creation. Accenting  to
His sovereign good plleasure  God delayed the realiza-
tion of His purpose. Even waited with fulfilling His                             A STEADFAST HEART
promisers until the diispensation  of the fulness of times.
The Serpent had to first lift up his head, ensued by a
llon,g and bitter struggle `between the saed of the wo-                    Keep my heart steadfast, dearest Lord
man and the seed of the serpent. Gradually the way                              Fore earth's allurements shine,
had to be prepared by promises, prophecies, types and                        And bid me turn mine eyes away
shadows, even amidst a groaning under the law and                               From looking, into Thin@.


92                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
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      Wilt Thou Disannul My Judgment?                         a pious fried who wished ~t!o suothe the sufferer, and
                                                              yet mildly rebuke his violently complaining spirit. It
                        JOB 40:7a.                            is  Faid that, together  with astonishment and compas-
                                                              sion, it manifests a tender diffidence. The statement,
      The debate between Job and his three friends be-        "Thou ha+& comfo@ed  many. . . . but now it comes to1
gins with chapter four and ends with chapter thirty-          thee, and thou faintest. . . ." is said to be the mildest
one. It is formed of three distinct groups of dis-            of rebukes, if a rebuke at all. The as.serti,on,  "Is not
courses. The first `discourse in each group *is of Eli-       thy r&g-ion (fear) thy confidence ; thy hope, is, it not
phaz,  the mcsnd of Bildad and the third of Zophar ; ;tihe righteousness of  ;tihy ways," is taken  as an admis-
but in the last group  no  Id,iscourse   .of Zophar appears,. sion  cn the part of Eliphaz of Job's character of in-
Job replies ~to each in turn. The speakers  thus appear tegrity, with the intimation that he should now derive
in the book of Job in the fouowing  order: a. Eliphaz         comfort from the thought. What  ;t?his. friend! means
(4 and 5)) Job (6 and 7)) Bildad (8)) Job (9 and lo),         to intimate to Job is, "God does not mean to d.estroy
Zophar  (11))  Josh (12-14) ; a. Eliphaz  (15)) Job (16       you, for you `are an *innocent  man; It cannot be there-
and  17)) Bildad  (18)) Job  (19), Zophar  (20)) Job          fore that you shall ut!terly sink under this trouble ;
(21) ; Eliphaz  (22)) Job (23,  24)) Bildad  (25)) Job all will come right tut the last. Good men may suffer
(26-31).                                                      aflI.iction,  but where have you known the innocent to
      Let us again have regard to the first response of perish? `Therefore hope in God ; for thou shalt yet
Eliphaz to Job's violent language by which he cursed praise Him, Who is  tihe  salvation  of thy  face (thine
the day of his birth. The following excerpts from this open  salvatiion)  and thy God?." `It is said that there
response set forth the  line of reasoning that runs .is nothing forced in this view. I$ is conceded that
through ilt :                                                 there may have been, on the part of E$phaz, a want
       "Behold,, thou hast instructed many, and thou  hast    cf appreciation of Job's extreme suffering, but it seems
       strengthened the weak hands. (Chap. 4 :3).             the best thing he could do, and the best adWe he could
       But now it is come upon thee, and ,tiu faintest;       offer him under *the circumstances. It is confirnred,  so
       it $toucheth  thee, and thou art troubl&.              it i.s said further, by the repetition of the question in
       Is not thy fear thy confidence, and the unright-       language still more  emphactic,  and intended to be still
       ness of thy ways thy hope?                             more assuring : "When were the righteous cut off-
       Bemember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being finally cut  OR? Cheer up, therefore, Igive not way to
       innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? dispair,  God will not forsake tihee,"  `for thou art inno-
        (verses 4-8)                                          cent'.
       Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall              The sponsors of this view of Eliphaz's language,
       a man be more pure than his maker? (verse 17)          go on *u say that it is not, cn the part of Elriphaz  and
       Call now, if ,&ere be any that will answer thee;       the other ;tWQ friends of Job (Bildad and! Zophar), a
       and to which of Qhe saints wilt thou turn?             ques.tioning  of Job's righteousness, ,but an assuming
       For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slay-      of it, in fact, on the ground of which he should yet
       &h the silly one.                                      exercise  hupe in the divine restoring goodness. The
       I have seen the foolish taking root: but sudd,enly     `doom of the wicked is not thy doom, o Job. The
       I cumed  his habitation. (chap. 5 :l, 2)               wicked has no religion (fear), no hope as thou hast.
       Then meet with darkness in the daytime and grope Severe as may be thy pains, thy case is very different
       in the noonday as i,n the night. (verse 14)            from the men "who plough  iniquity and reap mis&i,ef".
       Behold, happy is th.e man whom God correct&h:          Thou shalt not perish as these "roaring lions" of evil.
       therefore despise not thou the chastening 0.f the      He who breaks their teeth shall bind up his wounds.
       Almighty :                                             Therefore  *hope on. Yet, so it is said, though Eliphaz
       Fur  Ihe maketh sore and bindeth up : he woundeth,     gives Job credit for his uprightness, he at once inti-
       and his hands make whole.                              mates that even Job, with all his uprightness, and
       He shall deliver thee in six tiroubles:  yea, in seven though fully corresponding to that charming account
       there shall no evil touch thee. (verses 17-19)         given of his moral character in the prologue, cannot
       Thou shalt come to thy grave in, a full age, like yet  so stand upon  this righteousness as to cry out against
       as a shock of corn in his season.                      suffering-even extreme suffering-as though it were
       Lo this, we  have searched it, so it is; hear it, and c  &range  injustice. Yet Job's case is far  diRerent,
       know it for thy good". (verses  26,27)                 indeed!, from that of those "lions" of iniquity to whom
      What now is the construction to be placed on &his       Eliphax alludes,-those  utterly godless transfgressors
language of Eliphaz? Is it the #language  of gentle re- to whom their utter  perdition is but a "reaping of what
proof or  of suspicion or even of  ,harsh crimination? tiey have sown;" but &ill Job is not righteous, he is
Those who hoU to the forme,r view maintain that the not pure before God.
opening language  04 Elipihaz is that of a true  friend-         As uttered in a similar spirit are we asked to ret-


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   1                                           83
                                                                                                                  ..-" .._ __-
gard much of Eliphaz's language of the fifth chapter; forward as a wise man. But the violence,  nlolisy bluster
&hough, probably from some signs of impatience i,n              and roaring of his discourses set him forth as a fcol.
Job, it seems to increase in severity: "Call now; is
there any one who will answer  *tihee" whilst indulging             "Yea, thou casteith  o,ff fear, and restrlaineth  prayer
in such  extravagent  appeal? Who  of the holy  once                 (meditation) before God.
oan listen to thy imprecatory language?" It is the                  For thy transgression  teachest thy mouth, and
foolish (evil) man whom wrath slayeth;  it is the simple            thou choosest  the tongue  of the crafty.
man whom envy (jealousy) killeth." This  stat&nent,                 Thine own mouth  con&mneth   [thee, and not I:
it is said, furnishes  t& key to1 the train of thought, or          yea, thine clwn lips testify against thee." (verses
the view Eliphaz too-k of J&P's state of mind, as com-              46)
plaining of C&d, because men manifestly wicked had                 Job  .is here accused of destroying by his speech true
lived< and died more free from pain than him&f.
   Su,ch, it is held, is a fair intirpretation  of Eliphaz's piety. He permlits  his mouth to be taught not by the
                                                                Spirit of Gcd bwt; by his, transgressions, that is, by his
first  replay to Job. But is it? It can be shown from           corrupt heart. He chooses the tongue of  the crafty
the two remaining replies of Eliphaz, that these first and, as crafty offenders do, hypocritically sets himself
words of his are words of suspicion and even of in-             forth as innocent,  though he be guilty. Thus not the
crimination indeed, and that the lamguage  to which he speaker (Eliphas) but Job's very mouth, words, con-
first gives u&erance  is thus to be construed as fellows,       demn him, and his very l.ips ltestify ag&&  Ihim, that
"Job,  thou hast sinned grievously ; therefore art thou is, confirm the charge that he has committed iniquity;
smitten and about to perish. But there is. still hope
for thee, if thou acknowledge&  thy sin. Repent /`,here-            "Are the consolations of God small with thee? is
fore and live. Be not provoked with God on account                  there any secret thing with thee?
of His scourging thee. Desist from crying out against               Why dost thy heart carry thee away? and what
thy suffering as though thou hast been laid low with-               do thy eyes wink,
out a cause. Can there be unri$ghteousness  with God ?              Th& thou turnest thy spirit against God, and let-
Thou lhast sinned. Abhor thyself. Thy carnal. wrath                 test such words go1 out of thy mouth".          (verses
will kill thee. "Behold, happy is the man w$hom God                 12-13)
correc$!eth:  therefore despise not thou the chastening
of the Almighty."                                                  The utterance "Are the consolations of God small
   It can be conceded that in  the estimation of Eliphaz,       with thee" reveal that the speaker regards the con-
Job in the heart of his disposition is a true saint. Yet scllations  of God such as he and his friends have been
his strong suspicion, yea, his conviction, is that Job,         administering. Why does Job then not hearken? Why
though a saint, has fallen and has been walking in the does he allow his sinful heart p oarry him beyond him-
customary  (cro.ss) sins of the wicked. And to this self? Why does he manifest ,such angry impatience by
suspicion, or rather, conviction, she gives expression,         the  wlinking,  snapping or rolling of his eyes? Let Job
first in a kind of veiled, (chapters 4 and 5) and later         consider that it is not against him (E!iphaz) that he
,in plain enough alanguage-a  language that leaves n 1          turns his spirit (snorting) but against God.
doubt  as to what his solution is of Job's pain.. The
reason of this pain is  Job's, sins. But even though                 "What is man, that he should be clean? and he that
Job were (as upright as he says., he would still be de-              is born of a woman, that he shuu,d  be righteous?
servinjg  of the punishment that has overtaken him, as,              Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints.; yea the
since he dwells in a house of clay, he, in common with               heavens are not &a21 in his. sjght.
the best of men, is full of folly. But Job's  follly  is not         How much  `less the  abominable and corrupt man,
of a kind common to9 all believers. There rests. upon                whFch   drink*eth  iniquity like water." (verses  14-
him the iguilt uf specSal, gross sins. Hence, it assuredly           16)
beho80ves  Job to hold his peace and: to humble himself
under  the mighty hand! of God.                                    This was spoken in reference  b Job. H.e, according
                                                                to the speaker, is that man who drinketh iniquity like
   Let us shew from the two remaining discourses  o:f
Eliphaz that such is indeed his reasoning.                      water. Job is impure, ill-deserving. He has need of
                                                                repentance, yet  he will not repent.
     "Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said.,               In his final discourse,  Eli'phaz  is even more severe
     Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill in the sense that he openly charges Job with definite,
     his belly with the east wind?                              atrocious crimes.
     Shculd  he reason with unprof%able  talk? or with
     speeches.  wherewith he can do no good?" (verses                "Then Eliphaz the Temanti  answered and said,
     l-3).                                                           Is not thy wickedness great? And  thine  idqui-
                                                                    ties infinite?
   Job, phe spe&e_r  means to say, has brqught  himself              FW  thvu  ha& taken a pledge from they brother


94                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
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         for  ncught, and stripped the naked of their cloth- uprilght  man, one that feareth God and escheweth  evil.
         ing.                                                        TIOI understand Eliphaz' attack upon Job and the attack
         Thou hast  not given water to the weary to drink, of Bi!da,d and Zophar upon Job, one must have know-
         and thou  hast withholden bread from the  hunt-g.           ledge of the view to which he was addicted1  and upon
         But the mighty man, he had the earth ; and the              which he, as upon a found&ion, proceeded iXn Lois argu-
          honorable man dwelt in it.                                 mentation. To know this view, one must set o'ut with
          Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms attending  to  #his descriptions of  thle  aife  o'f the
         ,of the f&he.rless  have :been broken.                      wicked.
         Therefore snares  Bre round about thee,  end sudden              "The wicked man travaieth with pain all his days
         fear troubleth  thee ;                                           (litenally "he is writhing and twisting with pain) ,
         0r darkness,, that thou can& not see; end abun-                  and the number of years is  hidd>en to the  oppros-
         (dance  of waters cover thee." (chap. 22  :l, 5-11)             sor ("and so many years are reserved for the tip-
        H.ere Eliphaz  reprolaches  Job particularly and in              pressor".     &oording  to verse 32 not so many
     detail w,ith sins of a ,grievous character,-wikh  sins of            years).
arrogance, of cruelty, and of injustice toward his neigh-                 A dreadful sound is in his ears:  *in prosperity the
     bor. He thereupon affirms that the cause of Job's cala-              destroyer shall come upon him.
     mities and sufferings lie only in these ,sinsl. He then              He believe&h  not that he slhall. return out uf dark-
     earnestly warns Job against pursuing any further his                 ness (HR. ,despairs of returning s,ut of darkness),
     unholy thoughts and speeches, as otherwise his final                 land he is waited; for of the swurdt.
     ,doom,  like that of a!.ll the wicked from the eariest times         He  wander&h  abroad for bread, saying, Where is
     must be a terrible one. He says  to' Job:                            lit? He know&h  that the day aif d%rkness is ready
          "Hast   thvu marked the old way which wicked                    at his hand.
          men have trodden?                                               Trouble and awish  sM1 make him afraid  ; they
          Which were cut  down out of time, whose  founda-                shall prevail  a.!gqinst  him, as a king ready to the
          &ions were overthrown with a flood:                             battle,
                                                                          Ear he stretched  out his. hand against God, and
,         Which saith unto God, Depart from us : and what
          can the Almigihty do for them." (verses 15-17)                  strentheneth himself against the Almighty."
                                                                          (cba,p. 15 :20-25)
i        He concludes with exlhosting Job to repent and to
     return to Goid, and to enter `into lthe possession of the          An  tientical   `language comes from the mouth of
     `blessings promised by God to the penitent.                     Bildad and  Zophar.
         Sa,ys he to Job:                                                 Bildad : "Can the rush grow up without mire (or,
                                                                          `Does the rush  grew up  ,except in  `Ihe mire or
          "Acquaint now thysef with him (God), and be at                  marsh?`) Can the f%ag grow up without water?
          peace : thereby good shall come to thee.                        (or  `Does the reed-grass thrive without water?`)
          Receive, I pray thee, [the law from his mouth, and              Whilst  !it is yet in his greenness, and not cut
          lay up his words in thy heart.                                  down, it wither&h  before any other herb.' '
          If thou return tot the Altighty,  thou shalt be built         Delitzsch commentary on these verses'reads,  "Bil-
          up, thou  elhalt put away iniquity far from thy dad likens the deceitful, ground on which the pro,sperity
          tabernxles.                                                uf the `godless stands to the dry ground on which, only
          Then thlou shalt lay up gold as dust, and the gold         for a time, the papyrus or reed finds water, and grows
          of Ophir as the storms of the broo'ks.                     up rapidly; shooting up quickly, it withers as quickly
          Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou ,as the papyrus plant, if  irt has no perpetual water,
          shalt have plenty of silv.er.                              though the fine& aif grasses, withers off when most
          For then thou shalt have thy delight in the Al- lusuriently  green, befo're it attains maturity." Hence
          mighty, and shalt  1% up thy face  unto1  Glad."           Bildad continues  :
          (verses. 21-26)                                                 "So are the paths of all that: forget  Gold': and the
        This last discourse of Eliphaz is so brutally frank               hypocrites hope shall perish:
     as to remove every vestige of  ,do:ubt as  to whether the            Whose hope shall be cut off, and. whose trust shall
     wo,rds  to which he gave utjtlerance  are to be takjen as            be  a spider's web.
     words of mild rebuke or of suspicion and crimination.                He shall lean upon his house,  ,but it shall not
        How d,oes Eliphaz dare to ascribe to Job these atro-              stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shah not en-
     cious sins  ? Has  (he detected Mm in  eany such acts?               dure.
     Be has not. Can he then bring w%itnesses  in proof of                He is [green before the sun, and his sprouts run
     of his charges? He cannot. Did not God say of him                    lover &he gandfen.
     &at *like  him there is Rune in the earth, a perfect and             If he destroy  *him from  his  piace?  t&en it shall


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R '                                       95
-     -              -      -                                                              -----_             _.--.
      deny him saying, I have not seen thee." (verses the  .coll~ectian  iof psalms a language substantially idea-
      X3-16, 17)                                                 tical to the #language  to which !the.se friends gatve utter-
     The conception here .is that of the native ground,          ance in their description of the state and experiences
or the place of growth of an uprooted tree. That tree of the just and 09 the wicked. Let us ,show this.
is the &ansgresso:r  cast do!wn from the height of his               "The  ungodly  are not so". They  are not like a
prosperity ; $and the very place where he stood is a-            tree planted by @he rivers of water, that bring&h forth
`shamed of him, denies him  land refuses  (to know any- his fruit in his season. Their  l'eaves wither. What-
thing more about him.                                            soever they do does not prosper but fails. They are
     And now Zophar:                                             like the ch& that the wlind driveth .away. Ps. 1.
      "Knowest  thou not this  aof  lo,ld, since man was              "Draw out also the spear, and stolp the way a-
      placed upon the earth,                                          gainst @em, (the wicked) that persecute me: . . .
      That the triumphing of the wicked is short, end                 Let tha be confoanded and put to shame that
      Ithe joy of the hypocrite but for a mom'ent?                    seek after my soul: let them be turn,ed  back and
      Though his excellency mount up to the heavens,                  brought to confusion that &vise my hurt.
      and l-& head reach into the clouds ;                            Let them be as chaff before  phe wind: and let
      Yet shall  Ihe perish forever like his own dung;                the an'gel  of the Lord chase them.
      they which have seen him  ,&all  say, Where is                  Let their way lee dark and slippery: and let the
      he?                                                             angel of the Lord persecute them.
      B,ecause   lhe  `has oppressed and forsaken the poor;           Let destruction come upon them at unawares  ; and
      because he has violently taken away a house which               let his nqt that he hath hid catch himself: into
      .ha builded  not ;                                              that very destruction let him  fiall." (Ps. 35 :3-8)
      Surely he shall. not feel quiet in his belly, he shaU          Though this language is a prayer of one of God's
      not save of that which !he desired:                        pro:phets  for the doom of the wicked, pet, whereas this
      Tahere  shall none of  Otis  meat be left;  Cherefore      prayer was and is being heard through the ages, it,
      shall no man look for his goo.ds.                          this  l.anguag%  is at once a description 04  what:  is.
      The increase of his house shall depart, and his            The wicked are confounded and put to shame, turned
      (good  shall flow away in the day of his wrath.            back  a.nd brought to confusion, chased and persecuted
      This is the portion of the wicked man from Gcd,            by the angel of the Lord. Their way  is  tiog them dark
      and the *heritage appointed unto him by God."              and slippery. Destruction &es come upon them un-
           (Chap.  20 :4-7; 19-21; 26-29)                        awares. There are many more such prayers contained
      All darkn,ess:  shall be hid in his secret places (or,     ,in the Psalm&
      "All darkness is hoarded up for this treasures,"                "For ithe arm of the wicked shall be broken : . . . .
      that is, every kind of calamity awaits @he trea-                They shall be ashamed in the evil time: . . . . But
      sures which Ihe has, gathered and laid up).                     the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the
     Such then, according  toI these three friends of  Jcb,           Lord shall be as the fat of  I,ambs:  they shall con-
is the latter end of the wicked. Though they may                      sume; i&o smoke they shiall cons,ume  away. . . .
triumph for a season, they soon  fmd themselves in the                I h.ave seen the wicked in great power, and spread-
mi&& of sorrow and are speedily cut off.                              ing himself like a  `green  bay tree. Yet he passed
     Wh.at now acsording  to these friends of Job is the              away, and lo, he w,as not; yea, I sought him, bu&
condition of life (and the latter end of the righteoas?               he could not be found. . . .  `b,ut the transgressors
We learn this from their descriptions of the blessed                  shall be destroyed together: the end of the wickled
state that, `so @hey maintain, wiB be Job's if he re-                  &all be cut off." (Ps. 57)
pent of hi,s grievous sins and return to God. In famine                `*Break tlheir teeth, 0 God, in their mouth: break
the righteous. are redeemed from death ; and in war                   oyti the great teeth of the young lions, 0 Lord.
from the <hand of the sword. They are hid from the                    "Let them melt away as water which runs ccn-
scourge of the tongue of the slandierer. As destruction                tinually : when he bendeth his; bow to shoot his
and famine dces n.cp reach them, they, the righteous,                  arrows, lIet them be cut in pieces.
laugh at these when they come. Even the beasts of                      "As a snail which melteth, let every one of them
the field  ,aae at peace  with them. Their tabernacle is               pass away: like the untimely bi$h of a woman,
in peace. Their seed is Igireat,  and their offspring as               that they may not see the sun." (Ps. 58)
the grass of the earth. They come to the&-  grave in                   "Gcnsume  them in thy wrath, consume them, that
ful,l age, like as a shock of corn comes in his season.                they may not be: and let them know tihat Go:d
Job 5 : 19-26.                                                         ruleth in Jacob.
     What  ia wrong with all this language? Nothing                    And at ,evening  let them return ; and let them
necessarily. It can be made to set forth a view that is                make a noise Ilike a dog, and go around about the
thoroughly scriptural and thus sound. We found in                      city.


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     96                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
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            Let them  w'ander  up  land  Idown for  meap,  and of days (Ps. 91), come to the grave in a full age, but
            grud!ge if they be not satisfied." (Ps. 59)                that the godless, on the other hand, are in this life
                                                                       ~overt.aken  :by many &roubles,  come to a sorrowful end
           Psalm  69:22-25  as converted  ,into positive  state        and are suddenly cut off. And what may surprise
     ments reads :                                                     is that in his final discourse Jlob himself sets forth an
            "Their table will  beoome a snare before them:             identical doctrine. He speaks thus to the three friends :
            and that which should have ,been for their wel-                 "I will teach you by the hand of God : . . . .
            fare:,  iib will become a trap.                                 This is the portion ,of a wicked man with God,
            Their eyes will be darkened, ,that they see not;                and  phe heritage  of oppressors, which they shall
            and thou wilt make their  loins%  to shake  con-                receive of the Almighty.
            ti,nu,ally.                                                     If his children be multiplied, it is for the swlord:
            Thou wilt pour thy indignation upon them, and                   and his offspring  shall not be satisf%xl  with bread.
            thy anger will take hso?d of them.                              Those that remain of him shall be  buried! in
            Their hab@.tions  will be deaclate; and none will               dea*th: and <his widows sh,all not weep.
            dwell in th&r tents."                                           Though they heap up s'ilver as the dust, and pre-
           But how different it goes with the righteous.                    pare raiment  zts the clay:
            "And he shall be like a tree  pBanted by the rivers             He may prepare it,, but. the just shall put it on,
            of water. . . . and whatever he  dioeth shall pros-             and!  the innocent shall divide the silver.
            per (Ps. 1). . . . .The Lord knoweth  fihe days of              He buildeth his ho&e  as a moth, and as a booth
            the upright: and their inheritance shall be for                 that the keeper maketh.
            ever.                                                           The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be
            They shah not be ashamed in the evil time: and                  gathered:  ahe open&h  his eyes and  (he is4 not.
            in the days of famine they shall be satisfied! They             Terrors take hold on him as water, a  dempest
            shall inherit the land and dwell therein forever.               stealeth him aw;y in the night.
            Their end is peace (Ps. 37). They shall live and                The east wind carrieth him  `away, and he depart-
            to them shall be given the geld of Sheba (Ps. 72 :              beth: and as a storm hurleth him out of his place.
            15). The Lord  &all deliver them from  fihe snare               For God shall cast upon  ,tirn and not spare. He
            of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.                 would fain flee out of his hand.
            They shall not be afraid for the terror by night;               Men shall clap their ha&s at him, and shall hiss
            nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the               shim ou$ of his place (Chap. 27:11-23).
            pestilenoe that walk&h  in darkness; nor for the               It is apparent that the view here set forth by Job
            destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand            is also  as to the  fov*m of  tfLa words identical to the
            shall fall at their side, and ten thousand at  $heir       representatiun  of the friends (and thus also to the
            right hand ; but it shaall not come unto them (him). language quoted from the Psalms).
            Only with their eyes shall they  be,hcld  and  acts            But if the above-quoted  <language  of these three
            the reward lof the wicked. Their shall no evil be- friend@ is  `by itself thoroughly scriptural, wherein then
            fall them, neqther  shall. any plague come nigh thy Idid these friends err? What was &he wrong view to
            dwelling. W4ith long life shall God satisfy them,          which they  w.ere  addicted ? This will have to be made
            and show them His salvation (Ps. 91).                      plain in a following article. It was through the
            Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord. . . .          me&urn   oif the  above  scriptural  la,nguage  that these
            Be  shal:l. eat the  labour of  his hands. He shall        friends in  co&ending  with  Jo'b set forth this view.
            be ,happy land it shall be well with him. His wife Thus in their mouth and as uttered by thorn, this other-
            shall, be as a fruitful vine by the side of his house;     wise scriptural language is as wrong  !as the view that
            his children  lik'e olive plants round about his table.    it was made to set  fo$h.
            He shall see the good o%f Jerusalem all the days of
            his, life. Yea, he shall see his children's children,                         (To be  oontinued)
            and peace upon Israel". (Ps. 128)                                                                       G. M. 0.
           Now what essential  ,difference  may there be be-
     tween this language taken from the Psalms of David
     and that uttered by Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar and
     quoted above. And the answer: none whatever. What                                        SO BE IT
     is  character-is+  of  all1 this language,  oI that taken
     rfrom the Psalms as well as  elf that uttered by the three                    So b it; `tis Thy plan not mine,
     friends, is that it literally affirms that the righteous                        And being Thine is good ;
     in this life prosper, thalt it is well with them, that they                   My God, my will shall yield to Thine
     eat the labour of their hands, are satisfied with length                         I3re it is unders@&
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