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

schelijke natuur in Christus  al ens spreken en denken
te  boven.  Altle  vergelijking   begeeft   ens, want zij is                           Patient Until He Comes
zonder eenige  wederga. Maar zij is dan, ook het Mys-
terion  Eusebeias   (V~erborgenheid.   d e r   godzaligheid,                                     Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the
G.L.) , dat de engelen  begeerig zijn in te zien, en dat                                    coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman
de  gemeonte  aanbiddend bewondert.'                                                        wait&h  for the precious  fruit  of the earth,
           Ook de logica van Christus' menscbelijke  natuur                                 and hath long patience for it, until he receive
was "ongelukkig' maar zij is volgens  Bavinck, "in vol-                                     the early and the latter rain. Be ye also pa-
strekten zin, het heerlijk, willig orgaan  van Zijn God-                                    tient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of
heid. En Bavinck vraagt : Wat zou bier nu tegen zijn?                                       the Lord draweth nigh.
Is hierin i&s, dat onze  tegenspraak verdient ?                    (Zie                                                   James 5:7, 8.
boven) .                                                                       James, the writer of these words sends a word of
       Zoo is dan de Logos  bet Licht  der wereld,  Zich warning to the rich. Even as it is today, so it was at
vereenigd hebbende  met onze natuur.                                       the time when this Epistle was written. The rich, the
       Nag rest ons de vraag, hoe. de Kerk  in den Vleesch-                haughty, godless men persecuted the  defenceless  flock
geworden Logos ook h&t Licht der we-&Id  is.                               of Jesus Christ. The hire of their wages was kept
                                                          G. L.            back and perhaps many were the wicked devices to
                                                                           persecute the Church. And no wonder!  ,4s long as
                                                                           the wicked dealt with the righteous who was going
                               -                                           to help them and defend their cause. The righteous
                                                                           themselves did not resist  t.hem, for they had been
                                                                           taught to suffer for the cause of Christ.
                         1N MEMORIAM                                           Oh, the shameless conduct of ,the enemies of the
                                                                           Church of the living God ! It seems they can do as
       On January,  17, 1989, the Lord took from our midst our             they please and get away with it. The rich lived lux-
beloved husband, father and grandfather,                                   uriously, treasures  and pleasures were theirs for the
                  JOHN HERMAN REINDERS                                     taking and who -dared  to raise his voice against them?
                                                                           For the rich of the world are at the same time its
at the age of 77 years and 11 months.                                      rulers. And the godless rich are often protected by
       We are comforted by the fact that his death was for him             the strong arm of the law. Yes, laws are made to order
the release from all earthly sufferings, and an entrance                   for them and they will break them.
into the realm of the church triumphant where the saints                       On the other hand, what a spectacle is made of the
rejoice in the presence of the Lord.                                       little  flock of Jesus Christ. They are made the slaves
                                                                           of their masters and who cares for them?
                               Mrs. J. H. Reinders                             No one!!!
                               Rev. and  Mrs.  G. J. Vande Riet                Is not the danger presenting itself for open rebel-
                               and six grandchildren.                      lion  ou the part of the believer? After all, a man can
       Grand Rapids,  Mich.                                                only stand so much `till the cup is tilled +d overflowing
                                                                           and then. . . . ??
                                                                               Yes, then it behooves us to watch and pray and to
                          -                                                cling to the Word of God and to be patiem.
                                                                               James in condemning the rich to the  uttermcst,
                                                                           turns to the brethren with the serious admonition as
                               LEZING                                      we find it in the words of the text: `Be ye patient,
                                                                           therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord".
       Door Dr.  I<.  Schilder  over  bet  onderwerp,   "Alge-
meene Genade".                                                                James knows of that danger being fully aware elf
                       Plaats : Bethany  Reforme&  Church the cruel affliction. Brethren, remember the Lord is
te Roseland, Chicago, Ill., den l-lden Februari, te be- coming and when He comes, His reward is with Him
ginnen   om  `i:45 P. M.                                                   and the wicked ,&all receive his just reward, eternal
                                                                           damnation. And for you brethren, the great reward
                                                                           of His unspeakable  grace,  wrought by the intensive suf-
                                                                           fering and affliction and resulting in the fruit of per-
                               LECTURE                                     fection.
       Dr.  I<. Schilder will lecture in the  Bethany  Re-                    What a seemingly contradictory situation when the
formed  C;ihurch  of Roseland, Chicagq  Ill., February 14, present is compared wilth the eternal.
at 7:15  P. M. He will speak on the subject: "Common                          The worki  cannot understand the beauty of these
Grace".                                                                    words. Hence,  ,she acts  m though the hope of the


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                     207
     -     -                   z.--
     Christian is merely the product of a diseased mind           It is the tumultuous welling of the  whofe  spirit to
     and of backward people. No wonder, because the               bear and to stand in  allI difficult  circumstances.   A
     wcrld does not understand the word patience.                 mighty emotion seizes and moves the  wlmle inner man.
          And the Apostle points in a peculiar way to the         EIence, the restraint implied is more correctly ex-
     necessity of being patient. Therefore be patient. The pressed in longsuffering. It is the patient ,holding  out
     first question  wchich presents itself is, why does he       under strain  c!r trial-a restraint of the soul from
     refer to the context? We read in the preceding verses, yie!ding to passion and especially from the passion of
     that their cries entered into the ears of the Lord Sa- anger.         Therefore, it is plain that the persecutions
     baoth.  The Lord heard their cries. He knew what             were of an almost unbearable nature. Oh, it takes
     happened to them by the hands of the wicked rich.            grace not to rebel against the enemies of God and His
     That in itself i's worthwhile to be considered and to        Church. For is it not much easier for the flesh to get
     be remembered. For often the child of God thinks and even and tosquare  off with the enemies? That will
     acts as if th.e Lord does not notice I& affliction. Thus satisfy the old man of sin. But that was not the case
     we find it in Scripture. We read of Asaf erring in this with the brethren to whom James wrote. We read in
     respect. Was not his chastisement present every morn- the, context "The righteous doth ncrt resist" and this
     ing? He was ,a,fflicted  more then &hose who did not.        admonition  "Be ye therefore patient, brethren" refers
     Eve according to the Lord% precepts. Yet, it seemed          Do the fact that the possibility is always present to
     to him that the Lord did not pay attention to his afflic-    become angry and  f&d with malice over against the
     ions, reason why Asaf did not have peace of heart and        wicked rich. A vexed spirit  is not a strange thing
     mind in his troubIes. He was not patient or longsuf-         in such circumstances. And it is not difficult to under-
     fering.                                                      stand their situation. No, it was not first of all the
          And ds it not often the case with us, that we act       fact tha*t their wages were kept from them, but the
     like Asaf? To suffer at the hands of the wicked is           ease wherewith all kinds of wickedness was commiltted
     hard enough in itseIf, for the wicked delights in the        and they were mad+e to suffer. Not first of all, when
     nains and troubles of the  righlteorus.     They seem to the things of this world are taken away from us hurts.
     have a  dev3lish delight in their tears and pains. And but when it is done in a manner that it humiliates and
     this is always true when suffering is present. do not        because we beIong to the company of <the saints. That
     expect comfort from that source. Suffering is. never is, when it is done for the best that is in us.
     to be desired and especially not when wicked  `men  are         Besides? it were not the things of this earth that
     the instruments. Restdes,  we are not created to stiffer were withheld, that happens time and again.             The
     hut to have salvation and peace and joy.  Howl&t.            past seven years were hitherto unknown to us. The
     if we must suffer and cannot see the connection b:e-         years of depression taught us, if any. the Lord rules
     tween the  sufFering  and the hand that sends the suffer- for while the land often brought forth in abundance,
     ing to us,  cthe suffering  beco*mes  unbearable.            yet there is want. And no one is able to explain this
          Now the Apostle throws light upon the wav so            situaticn  and tell us h.ow it came about. In the case
     often dark  and' difficult. He  po,ints  out that the Lord of the brethren  to, whom James wrote it is a different
     is well aware of what is happening. Do not think that        story. The emphasis must be placed on the fact that
     He  will forget. Are not the eyes of our God both over the  ~%3& rich  mad-e   spart of the righteous. Not
     the righteous and over the wicked? He Who created simply because they were poor according to the  Stan?
     the ear shaI1 He not shear? Who can understand Him. dard of this  worl'd and thus were  pcwerless  over
     but those who know Him! No, our  )heavenIs  Father against the rich, but because they were righteous. And
     does not forget the cries of t-hose who love Him.            the wicked knew  then  and  h~ows  today, that God's
          Be patient brethren. He takes notice and shall          peonle will net resist them or make use of the arm of
     most assuredlybring it to pass. Strengthen vour hearts fles,h, for their battle is not one against men who take
     and let nothing detain you from going to Him. for if         from them the bounties of this world, but against
     vou must have light, He is your  ltght, if you are in        sin. Therefore, their weapons are spiritual in har-
     need of wisdom, His is all wisdom. if vou are in need        mony with the battle itself.
     of grace to fight the battle, He is the God of all grace.       And the admoniticn  is not meant to keep the breth-
     willing to give according to your neculiar  ways. Your       ren from using the sword or from the use of any other
     Father has seen the wickedness,  <heard your cries and       natural means, but to guard! their sauIs so that they
     He shall take care of you and will come in judgment          may have peace and not  ibe seized with anger in their
     to those who now trouble and persecute you.                  sdrits, for that will take their peace  fr.om  them.
          Therefore, be ye patient, brethren.                     Brethren, be lcngsuffering,  persevere with patience.
          What does it mean to be patient? The word itself Be not confounded when the en!emy roars and when he
     consists of two  words,`lmtg  and soul. According the persecutes you because you are righteous.
     idea it is more powerful than anger in that it can              When the wicked treats you wrongfully, let it not
     stand up in the midst of the most severe afflictions. be said of  you that you took vengeance. But be fully
F


208                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
b  .-                               -.  -
assured that He, Who alone can judge rightly, will and          cutions are ended and the Church shall b,e with her
shall take care of the enemy at His own time.                   glorious head delivered from pain and troubles and
         Only that knowledge will enable us to be kept from the enermies  shall perish.
smning against the Lord. For when the brethren fight                 Glorious future, indeed ! !
their own cause it is only the cause of men. And by                  In the seconldi place, if aal is well, the Church should
doing so they would thereby deny that the cause is at constamly live in the  expectation   of the coming of
all  $mes  %he Lord's cause.  An'd whereas it is  His           her Lord in the final day. Thus, it was especially in the
cause at all times, it is also His battle. And when it          early days of the Apostolic Church. It received all em-
is His battle, lis it then n,ot true that also His alone ia     phasis  ko look forward to that day. That glorious
the victory? Not only at the end of time, but also in           future was the final gcal of it ,all. Withcut that expec-
time, ,also now our God is God over all and in all things tation she falls back in a state of spiritual lethargy.
and the  ,enemy never wins any victory, but is always on        Falls asleep and  becomes  dormant. She will not be
the losing side. And  w,hen the cries of  His people ab1.o to fight the good  fight of faith, but will become
reaohes His ear, shall not His wrath be kindled and             slothful, downhearted and weak. The way seems tco
be poured out over all the wicke:dness  the sinner has          difficult for her and when such is her oondition alhe
committed  .agamst  Him and against His people? After           becomes an easy prey for the enemy. For, when her
all, our enemies are at the same time the enemies of spiritual resistance is broken, something else will take
our God and at Ihe appropriate time and the exact the place not for  th*e better `but for the worse. Gone
moment He will mete oat their just reward. That is is then the desire to ,fight,  gone is the watching over
the reason why we should be able to endure until the the purity of the preachiing  of the Word and all tin&s
day of His coming. And let God's  people not hesitate of heresies till enter. And  altso gone is her peace.
to take hold of this precious truth.                            And the Church knows by bi,t)ter  experience how ter-
         Strengthen your hearts and be *of gcod courage.        rible such a condition is. In order  .tol stand we must
         Be not deceived. God is a great avenger of  aTI        live in hope and faith that the Lord is ccming as the
that  w$, ever Idone to His people, because it was done glorious Lord, who will take care of me and of mine
to Him.                                                         and of His enemies.
         We have  seen how the admonition was occasioned            Yet, we  beEeve  it is not sufficient to say this final
by the enemy. The question was not whether the coming  is only comforting with a  vEew to the last day.
hrcthren  could get away from the suffering. It is im- The brethren to whom James wrote have died long
possible, because the wicked will always onpose the ago and never saw that particular  day of His r&urn
righteous. Knowing however, that it is difficult to upon the clouds of heaven. They have died in the
bea$r the burden of persecution, we must at all times           faith and hope of the day of judgment, but never were
fee1 assured, tihat our heavenly Father hears our cries comforted with its realization. Looking at the final
and is well acquainted with it and that He will take coming of the Lord we may safely say, that since the
care of the enemies. But that is  not the only reason.          resurrection of our Lord He is the conzing  Lord. Such
Nor is it one that stands  bv itself. James  exmains            i,tl the picture given to us in Scripture. And from.
+hat reason in connection wikh  the coming of the Lord.         this point of view He is coming every day in many
He says they must be patient unto the coming of the             WS$GS".    We can se:e the signs of that coming and see
Lord and the comi:ng  of the Lord draweth  nigh.                them clearly. For He rules also now and although we
    The first  question we must answer is: What is              may  often  fo,rget  %t, nevertheless is it not true that
meant by (the: conring of the Lord and why this orther          the coming in final judgment is preceded by many
add,ition and the comin,g  of the Lord draweth  nigh?           signs? Not  preseat?y, but  ~MIW  He takes care of His
    Many well known expositors explain these words              Church and He also is taking care of His enemies.
to mean, that the final comin(g of the Lord in judgment This is plain from what we read in verse 9  of this
is close at hand. He shah soon appear upon the clouds chapter: `Behold the judge standeth  before the door'.
of heaven. Thus the thought  wcaU  run as follows:              The coming here is presented in such a way that only
Be ye patient, brethren, with a vBew to the day whaen           the door must be opened and He shall appear. Standing
you shall be finally delivered from all the misery and at the do.or and therefore reedy to come, whenever He
pains of this present tim*e.  The day of recompence  is t&ems it necessary, He hears and sees it all. Sorrow,
coming and in that day the Lord shall put all things pains, afflictions and persecutions are taken note of
in a new order. The confusion of things which is  new           by the judge, hence we may commit our cause into His
seen in the world will'not be perpetual, but shall termi- hands. Nothing escapes His attention. Be ye patient,
nate when the end of the w<orld shall be there.                 brethren. Let nothing make you feel uneasy. All is
    And  first let us  stat,e,   thlat we do not deny the tak.sa  care of in such a way that not even the slightest
preciousness of this truth. Scripture always  polints to provocation of the enemy es-capes His eyes.
this fact as one of the greatest causes o'f comfort for             And in the development of the history of this world
God's people. When the Lord shall appear, the  perse-           Christ rules over all. It is His coming that is pictured
                                                                                                                                 m


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              209
  in many events of ,history. In persecution as well as when he works his field and before the harvest the
  in wars and rumors of wars. All things must develop rain was needed. At the beginning for the sprouting
  according to and in harmony with the divine program.         and the  sheddmg  of the  rootrs of the sown  seed. In
  Today it is more noticeable than at the time of the          the meantime, ,he must wait for the latter rain that the
  Apcstle  James. But also in Ithein day He was the com- sprouts may swell and the roots grc:w and the gram
  ing Christ taking care of them and watching over the         itself come to full maturity. And especially waz+ this
  enemies.                                                     true in the Eastern countries. The early rain  fell
       In connection with the enemies, the  *brethren  must in October, November and December, and extended
  not be mistaken about His coming. Even as it is the in to January and February, and the rains did not
  case &togday,  so also it was in their time, that He, the    oome suddenly, but by degrees, so that he couid sow
  righteous judge prepares all things for His coming           his  se& wheat and barley. Then the latter rams,
  upon the clouds of heaven.                                   whioh  were much lighter, fell in March and April and
                                                         .     thus the harvest could be waited fcr when the field
      Oh, if they  lomy  knew it must be thus with a view      yiaded its fruit.          .
  to .th~~ glorious end, they can be patient and take and
  taste the comfort, ,that not only the end, but also the              So  al,so is the precious fruit gathered by the heaven-
  means employed with a view to that end, are  in-             ly Husbandman. Carefully He has sown the seed, sus-
  seperably connected. Through His power  He is able           taining it with His divine wisdom.  Me planted the
  to make all things subservient and through His wi+ seed of the new life for Christ's sake in tbe hearts of
  dam H'e is able without any mistake, to tak.e c.are of       His  people  And for the Church, bought by the pre-
  everything that befalls them and to turn it to their cious blood of His Son, He makes all things subservient,
  eternal happiness. For the enemy must be prepared even the enemy, persecution and all ~U-nngs,  in order
  for the day of reckoning and slso the Church wili be that all the seed once sown may ripen and the who-e
  made ready for the e&nail  salvation. Therefare.,  the harvest be gathered in the day of His coming. qes,
  Lord has patience with the enemy for their sakes.            He watches His field, His Church carefully. He waits
  If it WEB not for the sake of His ,own, He would de- while He causes the fruit to ripen.                   Therefore, He
  scend upon the enemies and destroy them. But with has time to wait until ail is ready for that final day.
  a view to His Church, `He exercises Hts lon.gsuffering       If the whole Church were born in the space of a few
  to the utmost for their sakes.                               years, the process of ripening would *have culminated
                                                               centuries ago. Now it must wait until the last one
      Now then, be ye patient  also,  brethren.                of His people has grown to full maturity and this
      However, there is still another reason why the will take place to the end as long ,as the world stands.
  Church Ishouid  `be patient wilth a view to the coming Moreover, in that first seed of the  fi$eld is the fruit
  of the Lord and the result it will bring to the  be-         implied only by ,the way of the above mentioned pro-
  Ilevers.      _                                              cess.
      James illustrates t&is purpose or result in a beauti-        Therefore, is He patient. He cannot come until
ful way. The example is taken from their immediate the whole ,harvest  is ripe and ready to be taken and
  surroundings. The husbandman, de landman, tca/iteth          brought in the new heaven and the new earth.
  for the precious fruit of the earth. To  expect and              Therefore, be ye also patient, brethren. If He, fc:r
  make sure of the d,esired fruit he must have patience.       the sake of His own Son, will waitl with a view to that
  He must be willing to wait with an eye to what he glorious end, ye must be also patient.
  expects. No, James does not deny that the husband-
  man must  dso work, for that is implied, but he must            Murmur not.
  wait. After the seed is sown, and day after day that            Therefore, stablish your hearts.. Be strong. Live
  seed remains covered  u,nder  the surface, he must pa- in the faith that the re&iz.a.tion  of His ccming is close
  tiently wait. And the farmer does not fear while the at hand. T4he door soon shall be opened. He watches
  seed is committed to the soil, because the fruit does and takes noti,ce  of ail that is happening to you. Only
  not  immedilately  ripen, for he knows my land needs a lithe while and He Who is faithful shall come. And
  rain, both at the beginning and while the process  of the God of all patience shall be with you until that
  germinating takes place.                                     day.                                               w. v.
      It is 0111ly by this process of timely ripening that
  he will secure  t,he fruit. A man working his field and                                           -
  becommg  impatient shows thereby that he lost sight
  of the main fact, namely, that only in future time he                                        NOTICE
  can expect fruit. Thus it is expressed in the early             Send your Subscription Dues to  - R. Schaafsma,
  and latter rain. We are told that at the beginning ,521 Henry Ave., S. E., Grand Rapids, Michigan.


210                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           .-...
                                                                   Job is a man of true faith. He loves God. He does
   Wilt Thou Disannul My Judgment?                              not, he cannot, therefore renounce  God. True it is
                                                                that at times his language is startingly  viollent.  But,
    As has already been made plain, Job's critics main- as  has just been remarked, even his most violent lan-
tain that without exception every wicked and thus guage springs from a grief that, however polluted by
reprobated  piersonage  receives in tnis life his full mea- sin, is as to `its essence love of G.od. And loving Gcd,
sure  .of  punishmen&--a  punishment that consists in he  *also trusts God. And his trust ia indestructible.
gust the kind of calamity and pain that has overtaken That this may also appear-appear to Satan who has
Job.  Such is their view. Thus their solution of Job's          insisted that Job is devoid of true piety-Job is cast
surfermg  is that Job has been walking in the atrocious in the  cruci.ble of terrible  afIli&icn. While in this
sins of the godless  .and that he therefore now perishes crucib!e a great gloom fills his (soul and he sinks to
by  ithe blast of the Almighty as do all the wicked.            the lowest level of dispair. Yet his faith in God abides
    The question was put what Satan's purpose is in not only but blossoms marvelously even when, accord-
wnung toi Job with this false solutron  of nis suuermg.         ing `to the reascning of Satan, he should' be cursing
Satan's contention is, so it was pointed out, that Job God. Attend to this language of the sufferer which he
lacks genuine piety, that thus #he is a man who has             utters in the ,darke& moments while he sits among the
been walking in the way of God's precepts not because ashes as smitten with sore boils from the sole of his
he loved God but solely with a view to rendering c;Cld foot unto  ,h.is crown. "He also shall be my salvation:
favorably disposed toward him, in order that God as for an hypocrite shall not come before  h!irn (Chap.
so disposed might  continue  to prosper him materially.         13 :15). For I know that my redeemer liveth, and
It is this prosperity and not God, that Job according that He slhall stand at the latter  day upon the earth:
to Satan, craves. It was pointed out further tnat Satan And though after my skin worms destroy this bcdy,
pins all his l%opes of succeeding in showing up Job as, a yet in my flesh I shall see God: whom I shall see for
man who lacks genuine piety on the ability of Job's             myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another;
friends to convince Job that they give him the true though my reins be consumed within me" (19  :25-27).
solution of his sufferings. For as convinced of this,              Coming from a man on whom the hand of God so
Job will  <be driven to conclude, `so Satan reasons, that heavily rests, these are remarkable utterances. Job's
despite his righteousness, despite  ,his having kept Gods       conviction is ,and continues to be that his Redeemer
way, God  Iholds him as a wicked  man,   so that as a lives. The word found in the original for redeemer is
result he now perishes by the blast of God. Satan fees Goel,  w,hich  means literally  reclaimer,  redeemer.  Wee
assured that once this $thought  has taken rcot in Job's are to think here of the restitution of the honor of ante
soul, Job will conclude that it is utterly futile for -in this case Job-whose honor, righteousness, in-
a man to serve God, "to hold his foot to God's steps", tegrity, has been oppressed and denied (by Satan and
to trust in Him, to enjoy God's fellowship through a the three friends). Accordingly, God is to be taken
walk in the way of God's commands, and that Job, so in the sense of defender, an avenger o,f honor. Job is
concluding, will in his nameless dispair and great assured  that :his Gael lives and that He shall stand
anger, turn upon God and curse Him to His face.                 at the latter day upon the earth, or, as we tind it ex-
    The question was put and also answered to what              pressed in the original, "And as the Last will he arise
extent Satan gszlcceeds  with Job, to what extent Job upon the dcust." On the dust, to which Job (according
i,i influenced by the reasoning of his three friends.           to his previous staterments)  expects soon to roturn,  or
,;o this .extent is he influenced that he can see it no in w'hich he shall be made to lie down, will .his Gael
other way `but that, despite ,his integrity, God holds arise or stand. Here Job plainly gives expression to
him as an enemy and also behaves as an enemy toward             his expectation of a Redeemer, who, even when Job
him (Chap. 10 : 16-18 ; 13 :24). The emotions <that this has descended into the grave; lives and will rise on
thought  #arouses  in Job's soul, have been noticed. His the dust to vindicate his right, <to declare him just, to
replies  betoken resentfulness, vexation, grief, dispair, maintain his sc:aship in the Ihearing of all his accusers,
and a soul encircled by a gloom thick and deep. Bu`t, and thus also to deliver  <him from all his present
as !has been said, even the most violent language of troubles.
Job is, rightly considered, the utterance  of `a  man griev-       It is this expression of confident hope on the part
ing because he deems himself forsaken by the God of Jdb that enables us ;to unerringly lay hold on the
after whom his soul yearns. The  discources  of Job,            fundamental issue to be decided. This issue, stated
taken a's a whole, are the lamentations of the pious in question form, is, "What is Job, a believer, or an
soul of a man, who is sad beyond words because the              infidel, a child of God or a child *of the devil, one in
thought  (has  Yaken  hold of him that the God whose whose heart God has poured His love and thus one w.ho
fellowship he craves now counts him  as one of his              by that love has been transported out of the sphere
enemies. Let us continue from this point on.                    of sin into the realm of truth and light or one whose


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         211

feet, as the feet of those lions of iniquity, are swift to his departure from this life (but  thlis is a phase of our
shed blood, whose mouth is full of cursing and whose subject that will be attended to in a subsequent article).
throat is an open sepulchre. -Satan's contention is that The day will come for every beiiever. At the appear-
Job has been serving God  not for nought. This is a            ing of Christ, God will justify His peo,ple  in the hear-
terrible accusation. Its  implScatic:n  is  *that Job is an ing of all their fves. He will declare them to be with-
ungodly personage, that thus he is one not just in out blame and spotless in Christ and clinlch  His ap-
Christ, not cleansed from this sins in Christ's blood. praisal of them by giving them all things in Christ.
Satan, through the voicing of this appraisal, slanders
Job not only, but heaps discredit upon God.                       Job lmongs to be vindicated, to hear himself declared
                                                 His affir-
mation is, rightly considered, equivalent .to the declare-     just by his Redeemer. What may be the reason  f.rom
tion that God is incapable of saving His people from which this longing springs? His vindication will spell
their sins, or, otherwise  ,said, that He  is  devoid for him great joy-the joy of a blessed beholding of
of the ability to radically and fundamentally change God. This is the thing that Job in triumphant antici-
the nature of His (chosen) fallen rational crea- pation hopes for. His soul thirsts after God.  Hi$m
tures, devoid  of the ability to bring them  into be- it is that he longs to see. But this joy is the portion
ing as a people who partake of His nature and thus             of the just only. An hypocrite shall not come before
as children of light with affections sanctified by His Him (Chap. 13  20). Job's knowing this, accounts for
grace and therefore set wholly and exclusively upon it `that he h&ls fast his righteousness and exult,s in.
Him, the  God of their salvation. Job, such is  Sac his vi'ndication  by  his Gcel. And his Goel is his God.
tan's contention, o'nly  pretends to love+ God but does        From this language it is plain that both form the ob-
not actually. Job has been feigning love on account ject of lhis hope. Him, God, shall JOB see- "my eyes
of  tie material good with which God filled his life. shall behold him. I shall behold Him as my God and
Job is therefore a wicked personage, devoid of true            not as a stranger." The vindication is not to be in his
love.                                                          own absence, but he will be there and this of necessity,
                                                     . -.
                               r                               as, so he undemt~ds, his vindication will go ,hand in
    Now in this appraisal of the man Job, the three hand with the redemption of his body and <his exalta-
friends concur. As has been shown, the conclusion tion.
contained in their reasoning is that Job is a godless
person devoid of grace. What they actually say  to                How wonderfully Job's faith in and love of God
him over and over is that his past walk of life has            flo,wer  at this juncture ! How far he is fram  denounc-
been that of the ungcdly,  and that the conclusive evi- ing God ! How ought Satan now to slink away in the
dence Iof this is his present plight, the calamity that        realization of the fallacy of his contention!
has overtaken  ihim. But God maintains that Job is                The shades of death are gathering fast about Job.
a  child of the light. Whereas Satan has denied t.his,         It seems to be all over with him. "He hath fenced up
God must vindicate His appraisal of Job. For, as has my way, that I cannot pass; He #h&h set darkness in
just been shown, it is solely His honor that is at stake my path;`He hath broken me down on every side, and
here. The slanderer must therefore be silenced. It             I am gone ; He uprolots  like a tree my hope ; my bone
must be made to appear, for God's sake, that his ap- cleaves ts my skin, and to my flesh; 1 am laid bare, the
praisal of Job is *a ,s&anic  lie. That this may appear, skin from my teeth." And a little before: "My breath
God brings Job to a great grief. The friends say that comes hard, my days .are going out, the graves are my
Job has been leading a wicked life. This is ,4heir solu- porti,an."  7 : 12. "My purposes are broken off, even
tion of c&is suffering. But God continues to testify in the treasured thoughts  ,of my  hean%. They are put-.
Job's heart that he is one of Gcd's sons and thus right- ting night for day." The light is departing. All hope
eous and essentially clean. Job is fully aware  tha$           of life is gone. Job is in extremes; but such is the very
with this testimony his walk of life of ,the past is in time when the power of faith asserts itself. At the
full agreement. He therefore holds fast his righteous- lowest depth Job breaks forth with those sublime words
ness. And as assured of his sonsship, Job `even  in that "I know that my Redeemer liveth. . . ." The thought
darkest hour  ob his terrible night lifts up his heart to of God as "all his salvation and desire", fills him with
God and in opposition to the vile :insinuations  of Satan a raptuous joy that gives rise to the same language
and the three friends confidently declares that his found in Psalm 63 (and elsewhere) : "0 God thou art
Goel,  1s Redeemer, Defender and Deliverer liveth my God ; early will I seek thee : my soul  thirsteth  for
and after his  (decease  will surely arise to silence by +tihee,  my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty
His verdict--a verdict not to be gainsaid-all  his ac- land, where no water is. . . , ."
cusers.                                                           Yet though Job, being a true believer, cannot re-
   Job, then, looks forward in full wurance  of faith nounce God, he does not go through his trial without
to the day of his public vindication by his Goel. And sinnin.g. He is patient in lhis affliction, yet not per-
this day will come for Job. It will come even before fectly so. Often the darkness comes over him again,


 212                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                ._____                                                      I_~--
 Then the language that he utters is that of dispair and done iniquity, I will do no more" (34  :3l., 32). "But
 of gloom, that of a vexed and confused spirit. Then the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not
 the sufferer hurls curses at the day of his bir,th, ac-         when he bindeth them. They die in youth, and their
 cuses God of destroying the perfect with the wicked,            life is among the unclean. He delivereth the poor in
 of laughing at the trial cf the innocent, of giving the .his  afllictio~n,  and openeth their ears in oppression.
. earth in the hands of the wicked, and of multiplying Even so  wo,uld  he have removed thee out of the
 his (Job's) wounds without a cause. Job is a man elf strait into a broad place, where there is no  strait-
 singular piety. Yet what abominations still dwell in ness;  and that which should be set on thy table
 him, that is, in  ,his flesh. How during his trial sin          should be full of fatness.       But  thou  hast fulfill-
 in him revives. How unwillingly he suffkres at times.           ed the judgment of the wicked: judgment and
 Bow evident that even a saint like Job has but a small justice take hold on thee. Because  -there is wrath,
 begin&g  of true obedience. Bow far beneath Christ beware  lest he take thee away with his stroke:' then a
 J,ob star&. Examine those lamentations of the Saviour great ransom cannot deliver thee" (36 :13-18). Is not
 which He uttered then when all God's billows were Elihu by this language telling Job what the three
 passing over- him. What a matchless purity of heart friends have been telling him  over  and over, namely,
 these lamentaftions  mirror !                                   that he has been standing in the way of sinners and
        As has already been said, it is well that Jcb  3~as a    that on account of this he is now being smitten by
 man with the same  infirmati@s common to all believers. the blast of the Almighty? The proof that  sech is
 For if  it were otherwise, we would not be seeing God           ect Elihu's contention is that if it were, he, too, should
 in the book that bears the sufferer's name  as we now have to be addicted to the view that without exception
 see Him.                                                        the wicked receive in this life their full measure of
                                                                 punishment and that this punishment consists in ex-
        In his Igreat  and continuous anguish of body and actly the kind of pain that Job suffers. That this is, not
 soul, Job could not refrain fr.om crying out. His lang- Elihu's view is plain from this al,one that his wrath
 uage becomes violent and sinfully so. But God bears is kindled against the three friends, because they have
 wi,th him. And in His love, He finally comes to Job, found no answer, and yet have condemned Job (32 :3).
 remclnstrates  with  ,him,  cosreccDs   ,him, binds up his The condemnation of these friends had consisted in
 wounds, stills his troubled heart, restores his soul, their saying that Job before  his illness had been walk-
 heels his diseases, vindicates him and exalts him.              ing in atrocious sins. If it now be borne in mind
        But before we turn to the instruction and rebuke that this condemnation was nothing  else than a theory
 of God  and from this instruction learn Job's  fund*            of God's manner of dealing with the wicked in this
 mental failure, the discourse of Elihu, the fourth life narrowed down to a conclusion then it will be seen
 speaker, must be examined.                                      that Elihu's  contentio,n to the effect that they had
                                                                 found no answer is equivalent to the statement that
        In both ancient and modern times, very unfavor- they had  anot succeeded in furnishing their theory
 able judgments have been passed on the person and with a basis in fact and that therefore i't was not being
 standpoint of Elihu. He has been represented as a accepted by him. In agreement herewith, Elihu's dis-
 Satan in disguise, as "an empty, puffed-up boaster,             course is free from such expressions as: "The wicked
 ,whom God rightly ignores and whose hatred against man travaileth  with pain all his days. . . ." The view
 Job is to be explained from his near re!ationship  to           that the three friends had over and over voiced  thr.ough
 him, his Nahorite  descent." Elihu's  speeoh  has been the medium of this language was not Elihu's. The re-
 called `the weak, rambling of a boy.'       His appearance sult is that he takes a radically different approach to
 has been described as "the uncalled-for stumbling in Job. They had been driven by their theory to classify
 of a conceited young philosopher into the conflict that Job with the ungodly. But Elihu, not. holding to
 is already ended." But there have also been those-              their theory, can take Job to be a righteous man,
 a large number-whose judgment was favorable. Cal- a child of God, which he also does. TO Elihu, Job is
 vin saw in Elihu a direct fore-runner of Jehovah. This a son whom God loveth and therefore now chastens.
 estimate is true, Elihu must be represented as "an To the three friends, Job must be, whether they would
 eloquem  witness of true wisdom". All that adverse have it so or not, a thoroughly wicked personage whose
 judgnrent  sprang from a lack of true understanding of pain is penal retribution.
 his discourse and of the book of Job as a whole. See-              That Elihu directs his rebuke and instruction  to
 tions do occur in his discourse that, when regarded one whom he holds to. be a saint, a righteous man, and
 by themselves, seem to set forth a solution of Job's that he regards the pain of this man as chastisement,
 auf&rings:  identical to to the one proposed :by the three is plain from the  followmg  language from his lips,
 friends. "Surely", says Elihu to Job, "it is meet to "He preserveth  not the Iife of the wick.ed:  but giveth
 be said unto God, I %Lave borne, I will not offend any- ,right to the poor. He withdraweth not his eyes from
 more: that which I see not teach thou me: if I have the righteous :  `but with kings are they upon the throne;


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           * 213
ll__-"-                              -
yea, he doth establish them forever, and they are ex-           said this. Compare this reproduction of his speech
alt& And if they be bound in. fetters, and be  hodden           with 9 :17; 10 :7 ; 13 :34. Elihu's rebuke reads, "For
in cordd of affliction (as is now Job) ; then he  sheweth       Eloah is greater  th*ae mortal man."  Job  is wrong.
them their work, and th,eir  transgressions that they God is just because He is great. Ee will not therefore
have exceeded. He openeth also their  :ear to discipline, after the manner of man persocuate as vane moved by
and  ~,mmandeth  that they return from iniquity. If maliciousness His feeble creatures. "Why  hast thou
they obey and serve him( which, the speaker means               contended against  him (saying) that he gives no ac-
to say, they wiIl Ido if they are truly righteous), they        count of his doings; . . . ." God, Elihu means to say,
shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years           does give  ncco,unt of his doings ; lit., "He does
in pleasures" (36 :6-11).                                       answer all His matters {words)  ." `For God speaketh
   The entire discourse of Elihu turns on the subject once, twice, many <times,  often. He speaks by dreams.
                                                                When so speaking,  H,ez  .at once opens the ear, the under-
of the chastisement and correction of the just, while standing of men. And He also impresses upon them
the subject of the  disco,urses  of the three friends  isi the instruction by the various experiences of life, by
&the pain and sudden destruction of the wicked and the pain and calamity. And his aim is to;withdraw  man
prosperity of the just.                                         ( His people) from destruction. And to hide pride
   To Elihu, then, Job is a son, who is being chas- from man,  so that. he may remain preserved from  it.
tened by the Lord butt who as afflicted  sins. To this Fe (the righteous) is chastised also with pains en his
Elihu calls Job's attention in language of remarkable bed. . . . And if there be a messenger, an an,gel, a
force, "What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorn- mediator (and there is such an angel), ,one of a thou-
ing like water? Which  gueth  in company with the sand, to declare to man ,his duty, the right way, (,and
workers of iniquity, and walketh with wicked men"               the mediator does declare), and if man, the righteous
(34:6, 7). Job hath spoken without knowledge, and one repent, (and he does repent), then God is grac-
his words were  wi,thout  wisdom. My desire is that ious unto `him, and saith, Deliver him from going down
Job may be tried unto the end because of his answers into the pit : I have found a ransom. . . .' (33 : 18-26).
for wicked men. For he added rebellion unto his sin,            This is the substance of Elihu's reply  tal the first charge
Ihe clapped his hands among us, and multiplieth his that  Jo,b lodged against God. Bu,t was Job not speak-
words against God"  ($4  :3'-37). These utterances of ing the truth when he said that he was without trans-
Elihu must not be made to apply to atrocious! sins              gression? He was speaking the .truth  if this conten-
which Job  co~mmitted  before his illness.       Job com- tion be made to apply to the atrocious sins with which
mitted no such sins; and it is not the purpose of the ,three friends had reproached him. The fact of the
Elihu to maintain that he  did-  ShouId  this be his            matter is, however, that Job had been carrying on as
contention, he would be occupying the same ground               if he were altogether free of even those moral infirmi-
which the three friends had occupied in their debate ties common to all  rbelievers.  That was his failing.
with the sufferer. Now it has already been shown that To this phase of our subject we shall again return
their solution of  Jo,b's  sufferings is not his. These         in the sequence.
strong expressions of Elihu concern the sins that Job              There is still other wrong language, uttered by Job
committed during  his trial.       The question may be in his extremes, to which Elihu calls his  attent,ion.
asked wheth;er  in rebuking Job, Elihu does not become          "For Job hath said, I am righteous and God bath taken
guilty of employing language much too severe. The away my judgment. My wound is incurable without
question must be answered in the negative. The lan-             transgression" (34 :5, 6). "God hath taken away from
guage is not more severe than that employed by God,             me my right" is found verbally in 27 :2. Job continues,
"Then the Lord answered Job out of a whirlwind, and             "In spite of my right, I shall lie," that is, `Notwith-
said, Who is he that darkeneth counsel by words! with- standing that the right is on my si,de, I shall still be
out knowledge (28  :I). Shall he that  contend&h  with accoumed  a liar by God, if I maintain that I am in&-
the Almighty instruct him? He that  reproveth  God cent." Tho,ugh  Job had not so expressed himself liter-
let :him answer it" (40 :2).                                    a,lly, he had  ntivertheless  given utterance to the senti-
    What  <according  to Elihu are Job's sins? We do            ment embodied, in this ~sentence in 9:20 and in 16:8.
well to have  careful regard to what he says, as he The substance of Elihu's answer is to the following
speaks here in the place of God. Says Elihu to Job,             e&et: Far be God from wickedness that He should
"Surely thou hast spoken in my hearing, and I have condemn the righteous and pronounce the godless just
heard the voice of thy words, saying, I am clean with-          (this is what Job had  accused~  God of through his say-
out  transgres&m,  I am  inno,cent;  neither is there           ing that God took away his right). Folr the work of
iniquity in me. Behold, he  findteth  occasions  a,gainst       man shall he render unto him, and cause every man
me, he  counteth  me for his enemy, he  patteth  my to find according to his ways, that is, man's work He
feet in the stocks, he marketh  all my paths. Behold, in recompense&h  to him, and according to a man's conduct.
this thou  art not  ju;sk:" (33  :8-12).  Job has  acjtually    Yea, verily God doth not act wickedly. Who hath


214  -                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
-""-~ -                  -
delivered over to Him the earth? No one. And who without exception must endure chastening in <this life.
hath  established  the whole globe? The Almighty.           "For whom the Lord loveth He chastene~th,  and sco,ur-
Should He withdraw His Spirit and His breath, HiB geth every son  who,m  He  reotiveth.  . . . What son
creatures would instantaneously return to the dust.         is he whom the father  chasteneth not? But if ye be
Thus God is sovereign. He is responsible to no superior.    without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then
If so, He can have no motive for doing otherwise than       are ye bastards and not sons." Heb. 12.  However,
is right. Will any one hostile to the right be able         though all must endure chastisement, all are not afflict-
<to govern? How then saymt thou, Job, that God is an        ed as was Job. We can broaden out on this i,dea.  All
enemy of the right? How wilt thou condemn Him               God's  pmple are not scourged as that brother who must
(God,) that is most just? Is it fit to say  *to a king,     go through life with limbs twisted and distorted by
Thou art wicked? and to princes, ye are ungodly ?           rhumatism. God does not measure out to each of his
`How much less to Him that accept&h  not the person children a ,like measure o,f suffering. Why this differ-
of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor ence?  W'hy was Job smitten as he was? This was
(34 :7-22).                                                 not revealed to him, neither by Elihu nor by the Lord  I
   Elihu has not done with Job. He has serious ob-          Himself. To this question Job received no answer. It
jection to still another reasoning of his. "Elihu spake     was not  God?s  purpose that he should know. We will
moreover, and said, Thinkest thou this to be right, that    have more to say on this, when examining the dis-
thou sayest, My righteousness is more than God's?           courses of God.
For thou  saidst, What  advanta!ge  will it be to thee?        The real merit of this discourse is that, as was said,
and what profit shall I have by ilt more than by my         from it Job may learn that his violent speech was ab-
sin" (35 :l-3) ? Accordiing  to Elihu, Job had claimed,     solutely unjustifiable, deeply sinful. Chastisement im-
not that his character was more righteous than that         plies, to be sure, that in this life the believers do not
of God but that his cause was more righteous than           attain to the ideal of a perfect life in Christ. In them,
tha;t of his Almighty Contender. Elihu's proof of his that is, in their flesh  d,welleth  no good thing. Daily
charge is that Job has denied that there is any profit do they increase their guilt and thus make themselves
in serving God. In other words, he  ,has accused God  04 guilty of  &ernal  damnation. "If the Lord shouldest
assuming an attitude of indifference `to righteousness mark iniquities, who shall  stanad?"  By himself Job,
in his treatment of His people. Now Elihu's reply,          too, was ill-deserving and condemnable. How then
"I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee. could he with justice accuse God of multiplying his
Look unto the *heavens, and see; and behold the clouds      wounds without a cause and of ;taking away his right?
that are higher than thou. If thou sinnest, what doe&       By himself he deserved not only the  pa,in that he
thou against Him? or if thy transgressions be muIti-        suffered, but destruction. Had Job no knowledge of
plied, wha,t  doest thou against HimY If thou be right- this? He had indeed. That his language had become
eous, what give& thou Him? Or what reoeivest He of bitter and violent finds its explanation in the circum-
,thy hand? Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou stance that his friends had driven (him to distraction
art ; and thy righteousness may profit a son of man." by their classifying him wit.h the wicked, by their in-
The thrust of Elihu's reasoning is that God is absolute- sistence that he had been leading a godless life and that
ly self-sufficient in His heavenly exaltation and that therefore he now reaped the doom of the wicked. These
therefore He could have no motive for His refusal to do friends have greater sin. T.hey had led astray, away
right by His moral creatures.                               from  paths  of right thinking.  I;t was always in re-
   So, in this vein does Elihu rebuke Job. With these action to their atrocious charges that Job would say,
sections of his discourse before UB, it ought to be? plain "I am without sin" When Elihu has done speaking,
that he speaks words of true wisdom. What may be Job is silent and through his silence declares. that the
the real merit of  this discourse? Its merit is not that rebukes which Elihu administers to  Ihim are deserved.
from it Job may derive a solution  oi his suffering,        The friends, ,t~o, had repeatedly to4d Job that the Lord
otherwise said, that it gives an answer to the question was exacting of him less than his iniquities deserved.
why the hand of God rests so heavily upon Job. The But Job had turned a deaf ear  ti this speech on account
merit of this discourse is that from it Job may and         of their cruel charges. They, too, over and over had
does learn negatively &hat his violent speech was ab- exhoti him to repent, but to repent not from the
solutely  unS,ustifiable,  yea, deeply sinful and positively moral infimities common to all believers but from the
that Job had great reason to praise God in his tribu-       atrocious sins that characterize the lives of wicked
lations. Let us shed some li,ght on this statement.         men. It seemed not to occur Dar these friends that they
   The discourse does not provide Job with a  sohition      were as deserving of the woe that had entered Job's
of His suffering. Elihu gives Job to understand that, life  aswas Job. Not they, but Job was the culprit.
being a son, he is being chastened by the Lord. True          Finally. From Elihu's discourse Job could and did
Job is. But it  is!  tv be considered that every believer perceive that he had reason to praise in his .afflictions.
                                                                                                                .


                                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         215
-
For, as this speaker brings out, God's purpose in chas-
tising the just is dways a benevolent one. This pur-                            What Divine Duty Has The Civil
pose is to bring back his soul from the pit, to be en-                             Magistrate Toward The First
lightened with the light  of the living. He chastens
His people "that they may become partakers of His                                         Table Of The Law?
holiness."
                                                         G. M. 0.       '      We took the position that the magistrate is in duty
                                                                        bound to maintain the laws written on the first table
                              -                                         as well as the laws written on the second table.
                                                                               But would not the magistrate's doing so bring
                            IN MEMORIAM                                 into being a state church,and result in religmus  perse-
     De Kerkeraad der Protestantsche Gereformeerde Gemeente             cution? Not necessarily. T,he requirement should not
te Hull, wenscht hierdoor zijn innige deelneeming uit te spreken        be that the magistracy elevate to the position of the
met Ds. en Mrs. A. Cammenga, in het verlies hunner molder,              established religion in the realm,  ,a certain type of
                                                                        Christianity-Lutheran, Reformed, or Baptist or any
                           M R S .   S .   VISSER
in den ouderdom van bijna  61 jaren.                                    of the others-and refuse to tolerate all the other
     Moge onze Hemelsche Vader hun ondersteunen en troosten             types. Maintaining the first table of the Iaw should
in dezen moeilijkea weg.                                                consist in the magistracy forbidding the Atheist
                                                                        from making propaganda for his views<, in forbidding
                                         Namens de Kerkeraad
                                         E. Dykstra, Vice-Pres.         and punishing public blasp$hemy,  as this was done in
     lhll,  Iowa                                                        Israel, and public desecration of the Sabbath. The
                                         Ed. Vander Werff, Seer.        question what the term Atheism should be made to
                                                                        cover, what heresies, departures from the truth, is a
                                                                        difficult question which I shall  .not  venture to and-
                            IN MEMORIAM                                 wer.
     Het behaagde-den Heere, den 30sten December, nogmaals                     But would not the magistrate's maintaining
een onzer Ledeu  door den dood tot Zich te nemen,                       also the first table of the law result in religious perse-
                             MRS. W. VOS                                cution?      It would if the magistracy were Atheistic
in den ouderdom van 78 jaar .                                           and were then at once unwilling to tolerate in the realm
     Zij mocht betuigen dat Jezus Christus, en Dien gekruisigd,         the Christian religion. In' view of this, is it well to
haar  Gael  en Verlosser was. Wij mogen gelooven dat zij is             take the stand that the magistracy has a duty abo
ingegaan in de rust die er over  blijft voor het volk Gods. De          toward the first table of the law? The danger of re-
Heere trooste de bedroefde familie. Dat ook wij ons  bereid             ligious persecution should not deter one from taking
mogen weten,  want wij weten  niet wat morgen geschieden zal.           the above stand. The sole, question is, What is the
Jac.  4 vers 14.                                                        will of God in this matter.
                      Namens de Hollandsche Vrouwen Vereeniging              Let me say a word about  religious.liberty. Religious
                                    "Weest een  Zegen"                  liberty means that the people of God agree to allow the
                               Van de Eerste Prot. Geref. Gem.          Atheist to blaspheme, if the Atheist on his part agree
                                         Ds. D. Jonker, President       to allow the Christians to worship God according to
     Grand Rapids, Michigan              Mrs. J. Cammenga,  Seer.       the dictates of their conscience. Is not religious liberty-
                                                                        that rests  upen such an agreement wrong and for-
                                                                        bidden? Should Christian people not choose to be
                                                                        persecuted rather than enjoy religmus liberty on the
                            IN MEMORIAM                                 ground of such an agreement? May Christian people
     Na een  Echtvereeniging  van Bijna  fiftig  jaren,  nam de         say  to Atheists, blaspheme and make propaganda for
Heere heden  tot Zich den 5den Januari, 1939, onze geliefde Man         your views?
on Vader,                                                                      It is said that religious liberty is a fruit that grows
                            A. HOEKSTRA                                 on the .tree of Calvinism. This is not true.
in het  volIe  geloofs vertrouwen in zijn  .Heer  en  Heiland  in              In England the largest group of Puritans was op-
den ouderdom van 82 jaren  en 5 dagen.                                  posed to the idea of religious freedom. They remained
                    Namens zijn bedroefde Echtgenoote en Kinderen       in the established or state church and aimed at purging
                                   Mrs. W. Hoekstra-Marra .             the church from papist forms. The Puritans who
                                   Mrs. A. Hoekstra                     came to America established their own churches and
                                   Mr. and Mrs. De Fouw-Hoekstra        tolerated no other protestants, whether Baptists.
                                   Mr and Mrs. Tony C. Hoekstra         Quakers, or any other sect. That everybody should"
Grand Rapids, Michigan                 en Kleinkinderen.                have the right to worship as he pleases was not the


 216                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
  ;                           _~._.__                                                                              -.-
 stand ta.ken  by Reformed protestantism of the 16th conception of religious  freedlo$m was entirely absent
 century, as is (evident from t,he sentiment that come              from Calvin's  ,own mind and from the mind of the
  to the surface in Article 36  of our  Confessio,n,  an Calvinists of the 16th century.
  article that reads in part thus: "For this purpose he                It was not until at the close of the 16th century
 ,h.as invested the magistracy' with the.sword,  for the            that religious toleration began to. be practiced. In
  punishment of evil doers, and for the protection of               France, Henry IV granted religious toleration to Huge-
  them that  #do well. And their office is not only to have n&s. In Holland religious toleration was permitted
  regard unto, and watch  for  t.he welfare of the civil            for most protestant sects but not even for  all, In Bo-
  state, but also that they protect the sacred ministry;            hemia  rehgious  toleration was given to some faiths
  and thus may remove and prevent all  id,olatry and false only. In England there was toleration in practice
  worship ; that the kingdom of Anti-Christ may be thus though not by law.                      Religious toleration however is
  destroyed and the kingdom of Christ promoted.  *They              something diflerent  than religious liberty in the mo-
  must therefore countenance the preaching of the word dern sense. The latter is a fruit that grows on the
  of the Gospel everywhere, that Gad may be honored tree: of Model-nism.
  and wonshipped  `by everyone as he commands in His                                                                      G. M. 0.
w o r d .
        What we here present is conclusive proof that the
  Calvinists were about as far as they could be from
  being advocates of religious liberty. In the 16th cen-
  tury Cath.olics  and Protestants (Calvinists, Puritan)
  were intolerant of each other's beliefs `not only but                                      IN MEMORIAM
  every protestant wing was exceedingly  intolerarit of
  each other. The Puritans were divided  into, three                    Hierdoor betuigen wij als Vrouwen Vereeniging der  Protes-
  main groups. The largest  oif these were the Puritans tansche  Gereformswxle  Gemeente te Hull, Iowa onze sympathie
  proper. As was said, they remained in the established met onze Vice-Presi.dent,  Mrs. A Cammenga in het verlies van
  or Anglican (State) church and aimed at purging that haar MOEDER, en met een der  leden,  M.rs: J. Oostra, in het
  church of Romaniam. The second of these groups was                verlies van haar ZOON, (Andrew).          Dat de Vader der  ver-
  comprised of Presbyterians, men opposed to ths rule of troosting hen vertrooste is onze bede.
  the bishop and desirous of a form of `government by
  elders and presbyters: for  t.hey had learned that                                           Namens de voornoemde  Veree&ing
  "government by elders", is a requirement of Scripture.                                            Mrs. Peter Vander Schaaf, Se'y.
  There was also a third  gro'up called Independents,                   Hull, Iowa
  whose ideal was a church ruled&  by the congregation,
  -an ideal thoroughly unscriptural. Many Puritans
  left the Anglican church to establish congregations                                          -
   whose government should conform to the pattern  found
   in Scripture. These were called Seperatists.
        Think now of the archbishop Whitgift, who relent-                                     IN MEMORIAM
   lessly oppressed the Seperatists for their refusal to
   use the Prayer Book and to refrain from all private                  Het behaagde den Heere den 25sten December, na  een
   religious meetings.     Now  Whitgift  was a thorough kortstondig lijden, een  onzer  Leden door den dood tot  Zich
   Calvini,st in his theology. And this man,  -certainly,           t e   n e m e n ,
   stood at the head of a group e,f Calvinists minded as                                     MRS. S. VISSER
   was  he. Think further of the Calvinistic Parliament             in den ouderdom van 60  jaar.  Haar heengaan was vrede. Ze
   of 1592, that  passed~ a statute  proc?aiming  banishment wist in  Wien  se geloofde. De Heere nam  haar tot  Zich in
   against all who refused to attend the Anglican church het Vaderhuis met de vele woningen; het Huis niet met handen
   and were present' at some "conventicle"  where other gemaakt, maar eeuwig in de hemelen  2 Cor. 5 vers 1.
   than a lawful worship was empl.oyed. Under the terms
    of this statute the London  Con,gregationalists  were               De Heere trooste de bedroefde familie. Dat wij uit haar
   compelled to seek refuge in Amsterdam. In the Neth- sterven, sterven mogen leeren.
   erlands the Calvinists after the Synod of Dordt ban-                                  Nam&s de Hollandsche Vrouwen Vereeniging
   ished the Remc.nstrants from the land. They later re-                                              "Weest een Zegen"
   turned but ,did not receive official reco.gnition  till 1795.                                Van de Eerste Prot. Geref. Gem.
   Think finally of Calvin himself who approved of the                                                    Ds. D. Jonker, President
   death of Servetus.                                                                                     Mrs. J. Cammenga, Seer.
        History easily bears out the statement  that the                 Grand, Rapids, Michigan


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Vol. xv, No. 10 Entered  u  accond class  mafl
                    m a t t e r   a t   G r a n d   Rapfds.   Yich        FEBRUARY 15, 1939                           Subscription Price, $2.00

1st                                                                                        Conformation is well illustrated in the first period
It MEDITATION                                                                       II of an immigrant's ,abode in the foreign country of his
                                                                                       choice. He is different from his surroundings. He is
!fFl                                                                                   not like his environment. He speaks a different lan-
 Transformation Versus Conformation                                                    guage ; he has a different bearing; his habits cf .life
                                                                                       are different; his very appearance marks him as a
                     And be not crvrvformed to fihhis  world :                         stranger. But he soon becomes conformed, especially
                 but be ye transformed by the renewing if he is not yet advanced in years. The external  life-
                 of your mind that ye may  prove what is pattern of the country of his choice is readily adopted.
                 that good, and acceptable  ~wJ  perfect                               He lives right in the midst o,f it. He hears the new
                 will of God.                                                          language, he perceives  the new habits, daily he is in
                                                                      Rom. 12.9.       contact with the new mode of living. The new pattern
    Transformation-Conformation !                                                      molds his life. Soon he has adapted himself to it. The
    Either-Or. Not B&h-And.                                                            conformation is completed without much difficulty.
    Gods  against Mammon. Or Mammon against God !                                          Be not conformed ! . . . .
    Rowing up against the current. Or drifting down                                       To what? To this world ! Literally the text reads:
the stream.                                                                            be not conformed to this age, considering `the worId
    In the  world,  against the world. Or in the world, and: all that is in the world from the viewpoint of time
of the world, for the world, with the world.                                           and development, the  worId in which you live, the
    The Word  cb  Golds the pattern of your life. Or world of year  own day, the present world in distinction
the world shaping your walk and conversation.                                          from the world to come. And that world lives' and
    The renewing of your mind your motive-power. Or strives and develops in time from its own principle,
the flesh actuating your  whol!e  life.                                                the principle of sin and darkness, the principle of
    The Antithesis-Tlhe Synthesis !                                                    enmity against God and hatred' of one-another. And
    The *way of battle or the way of least resistance.                                 from that inner principle that world develops its own
   Transformation-Conformation!                                                        pattern of life. That law of sin expresses itself-in all
   Which?. . . .                                                                       the manifestations of the world, in speech and `song,
                                                                                       in conversation and literature, in habits and dress, in
                                                                                       .a11 the different spheres and relationships of life, in
                                                                                       the reIation of man and wife, of parent and child, of
    Be not conformed !                                                                 employer and employee, in business and industry, in
    It is, indeed, the easiest way through the present science and art. And this expressic.n  of the world from
world  that you  a.llow  yourself to be conformed to it.                               the principle of sin is its form, i$ts fashion,  iis pattern.
    For, to be conformed implies that there is a ready                                     And in that world you live.
made, external pattern, which I simply have to copy,                                       Its existence is your existence.
to which I accommodate myself, so that in the outward                                      From a purely natural viewpoint you are one with
manifestation of my life, in all my  walk and conversa- that world.
tion I become like unto that pattern. It requires no                                       You cannot and you may not. go out of the world.
originality. It causes no friction. It means no battle, To withdraw yourself from it and recede, into some
no efFort,  no suffering.                                                              remote corner in order Ito spend your days in separatis-


 218                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
 -       -                                                                                               - - - - - - . . . . - -
 ti'c solitude is as  impcssibl,e  as the attempt  i8 contrary        Constantly there is the battle.          `
 to the will of Him that called you out of darkness into              And always I must hear and give heed to the Word
 His marvellous  life.                                            of G-ad : Be not conformed, but be transformed !
        Yet, be not conformed !                                       There is a fundamental difference !
        Let  $he pattern of the world, its scheme and fashion         ConfoSmation  is to copy, transformation is to, he
I not be the model after which you shape your own wa,& origina]. Conformation is adaptation,  trans5ormation
 alid conversation.                                               to be different. Conformation is the synthesis, trans-
        Whether it be in your individual life or in your formation is  th.e antithesis.  Conforma,tion  is the  way
 relation to &hers,  in the home or in sloci.ety,  in school of  n&`resishce,   trandormation  is  opposition.   Confor-
 or in the shop, let your life not be molded by the pat- mation is peace with the  w~orld, transformation means
 tern you behold round about you.                                 battle.
        DO  not let yourself drift down with the current!             Be ye' transformed !
      Be not conformed !                                              Even as tihe world creates for itself its own pattern
                                                                  of life from the principle of sin, so do ye also live from
                                                                  your own distinctive principle of righteousness and the
                                                                  love of God !
      No conformation, but transformation !                           You  mu& undergo a change.
      Fur, a change is, indeed, necessary?                            But let that change of your walk and conversation
      The apostle does n& write: "be not conformed to not be determined by the fashion of the  world.
 this world., but rather stay as you are".                            Neither  l,et consist in a mere, superficial, external
      This would be quite impossible. In fact, it would reformation.
 imply a contradiction in terms. To remain as you are                 Be transformed  !
 would be the same ,a.s a conformation of your whole
 life to the fashion of this world.
      For, by nature, apart from the inner principle of
 the new life in Chtist  that is in our hearts, we are of
 the world and like the world. The operations of sin that             1s it possible?
 are in the world are also in our members. And accord-                Es not the flesh too powerful to be overcome?
 ing to the operation of sin in our flesh we are inclined             And is not the`pattern  of the worlfd  all about us,
 to walk even as the world, in the lust of the flesh and          imposing  itseIf upon us, so that it would be folly even
 lfihe lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And these to imagine that  resisizmce  had any hope of success.
 operations of sin .are stiI1 powerful. W,e have a small              One who drifts with the mighty current above the
 beerming of the new obedience in our hearts and a11              Niagara down towads the falls, may ,hear the warning
 the rests is `flesh. We are reborn in principle, born of shout from some well-meaning friend on the shore
 God, so that we cannot sin acco.rding  to this new prin-         urging him not to allow himself to flc& downstream,
 ciple of life ; but there is much flesh and its operations but to oppose  and overcome the tremendou,s  suction
 are powerful.       Besides, it is the  fles,h and not the that must inevitably draw him to destruction  ; but is
 Spirit, that finds every conceivable contact and aid in not the warning fcdish because it would requilre the
 tihe w,orld about us.                                            impossible?
      Hence, the conflict?                                            And ,is not the same impossible task required in this
      If anyone is in Christ Jesus He is a new creature.          exhortation not to be conforme,d  after the fashion of
 Yet, the new creature dwells in a carnal existence and the world, but to be transformed? Are we not in the
 nature, in which the former movements of sin a.re so world?  And must we not live with  bh.he world?  Musk
pwerful that the realization and manifestation of the we not eat and drink and be clothed? And how shall
new Iife is disputed, opposed, often effectudIy  *ham- wd live, how shall we be abl,e to maintain our existence
pered  every moment!                                              in a world in which  everything follows the one pattern,
      Old things have passed away and all things have is fashioned according to the principle of sin, unless
 become n,ew.  Yet, the oold things t.hat have passed away we are willing to adapt ourselves tot the universal exem-
 assert themselves in the flesh frequently to such an ex-         plar and shane our lives according to the fashion  oS
tent, that the new things  fail to come to expression?            the world? How can we be of any account, how is iit
      I delight, in the la,w of God according to the inward possible  to maintain our  position,   to keep our  PlaCf:
man. But there is another law in my members,  war- in s&&y,  to do business, to hold our job, to be of in*
ring, always warring against the law of my mind, and fluence in any sphere of life, if we stubbornly refuse to
bringing me into captivity to the  kw of sin ! `I would, be conformed after this  ,world  and consistently strive
indeed,  practise,  constantly to do the good, but often after transformation?                   j
I do itt not. I hate to do evil, yet often I do it! . , . .           Is not the required task superhuman, impossible,
      0 wretched man that I am!                                   irbSurd ?


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              229

    Wlould it not require of us to leave the world, to snares of sin, that it does not and will not and cannot
 seclude ourselves, to  let the  boat of our life drift to acknowlIedge  that it is good to love the Lord our God.
 some quiet quay, where we are outside of the main cur- It is carnal. Its minding is death! It is not subject
 rent of t#he river?                                            to the law of God, neither can be ! It always says No
    Where is  the source that  oan supply us with power to God and Ye.s to the devil. It d.e&ves  the will and
 to struggle upstream?                                          all our desires, so that the natural man seeks sin as a
    By the renewah of your mind!                                good, follows after unrighteousness, strives aft,er his
    The apostle had written in the first verse of this own eternal destruction. Desperately wicked, hope-
 same chapter that he exhorted, beseeched the church lessly confused,, unspeakably foolish is th2 carnal mind !
 cf Christ to  present  their bodies a living sacrifice unto       But by the mercies .of Gad o,ur mind is renewed!
 God, and that he addressed this exhortation to them               Through the power of the grace of Christ we re-
 by  the  mercies  of  Go&E!  Of. those mercies of God in ceived a new life. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ
 Christ he had written:  in the first part of this epirstle.    from the dead we were  begotten  again. And the opera-
 Mercies innumerable! Mercies revealed in the Lord tion of that new life enlightens the mind with a new,
 Jesus Christ, Who had come itinto the Aesh, the Iickeness spiritual light, by which we discern and love  the! truth
 of sinful fresh, Who had died for the ungodly in due of God, abhor  lthat which is evil and cleave to that
 time, satisfying the righteousness of God for sin ; Who which is good. . . .
 had been raised for our justification even as He had              That renewed  mind must have dominion !
 been delivered for our transgressions; Who had been               Dominion over your "bodies", over your entire life
 exalted at the right hand of God and  t&ere maketh in- in the midst of the world.
 tercession for us with the Father. Mercies of redemp-             In %af renewal of the mind pu have the polwer in
 tion and forgiveness of sin; mercies  o:f a  righteousn&s      Christ to overcome the motions of sin!
 which is not of works! but of faith and of a grace t&t            The worId and its pattern !
 sets us free from the dominion of sin ; mercies of adop-          Be transformed from within!
 tion  unto1 children of God and of the hope of the glori-
 ous inheritance that shall be revealed in the day of
 Ghrist  Jesus our Lord! . . . .
    By these!  m.ercies, with a  vt.ew  to them, with them
 as his firm basis, he had beseeched Ohem to present               That ydu may prove the will of God !
 their bodies a living sacrifice unto God.                         The will of God as it is revealed unto us in the
    Their bodies !                                              Scriptures.
    Thati in which they live their life in this world !            You may not be conformed after this world ; you
    Their whole life, in all its manifestations, in every cannot find the pattern of your life in the fashion  of
 department !                                                   this world.
    But  this implied a  struggIe?  The  strugg!e it re-           Yet, you cannot be without a pattern. The renewal
 quired which he mentions in this- second verse, that of your mind all by itself cannot d&ermine w&t the
 they be not conformed after this world, but be tran.sL         fashica  of your  waIk and conversation in the world
formed.                                                         shall be. It n~~eds  light from without. And that light
    And superhunmn  though the task may appear, and is csupplied  by the revelation of the will at God in the
 actually be, it is possibIe of accomplishment by these Scriptures. Within it is the motive-power of the re-
 mercies of God in Christ. For  tihrough  these mercies newa,  oC your mind  tha$ urges, that actuates, that
 they have received a power that is capable of overoom-         drives, that impels you ; without it is the revelation of
 ing the world: the renewal  of their mind !                    l&a will ocf God that guides you. . . .
    The mind is the highest in  man% nature. Tt is                 That  wil1 is good! Good  absolutely,  because it is
 that  mame!lIous   power in him, that  Eght-faculty,  by the will of God ; and salntary  for you who keep it.
 which he knows that with all his life and being and               That will is acceptable! It is well-pleasing to  God
 actitities  in  &is world he stands before the face  ocf       and to keep it has  th!e great  rewarcl  of causing  YOU
 God, Who0 jud.ges him and places him always before the to taste that God's favor is upon you!
 irrevocable demland  : Iove Me with al1 thy heart ! It            That will is perfect! It lacks in nothing. It never
 is the light of the higher understanding by which he fails. It always  satis&s the soul of him  that  keeps
 is abl,e and aIso impelled to know and d&ermine his i f                                                           -.-.T-p&!y
 rela;tion and attitude to the living ..%%I,  to say Ycls or       And from the inner  phncipIe  of the  renewal  of
 MO to His Saw, to love or to hate Him, to serve or to your mind you prove that will, approve  it spontaneous-
 refuse  Do serve Him, to Mve in righteousness or unright- ly,  gIadIy,  with great delight!
 eousness.                                                         And you will taste that the Lord is  good  !
    And that mind is darkened by nature!                           Blessed transformation !
     It is foolish ! It is so hopeIessIy  entangIed  in the                                                        R.  H,


232                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                                .^.                         -"
de  hem&Ii&amen  geldt het, dat  er door een ander               his sins in the blood of Christ and by the power of
voorwerp  @en schaduw  wordt   geworpen  en er aldus             GWs  ,love, ,and that,, as so cleansed, Ihe has none in
van variatie sprake kan zijn. De Heere is- Zijn eigen heaven but God and nc!ne upon earth that he desires
voorwerp en niets en niemand  kan Zijn lieht- zijn ver-          beside God. It it be true therefore that Job has been
dooven,   noch  cok het  benevelen.  Hierbij  dient nog serving God not for niozLg&  it must fellow  that God
poor de aa.ndacht  gehouden te worden,  dat de hemel-            is incapable of saving His people from their sins:,
lichamen we1 terdege afgedacht van andere voclrwer-              devoid  ,of  the  ability to bring them  into being as a
pen, cd van  ide wentelingen  die zij  z&en maben, aan           people with affeotions  sanctified by His grace and thus
verandsring   londerworpen  zijn. Zij zijn, gelijk wij, set wholly  .a,nd exclusively upon Him, the God of their
-achepselen,  en al ,wat schepsel  is, bestaat slechts met salvation. Rightly  considsered:,  this is precisely Satan's
het oog op bet einde, ,d,ient mede totdat het elnde  be-         contention.           It must therefore be m*ade  T&o1  appear for
reikt  is en b&aat met uit zichzelf. He& is tegelijker-          God's  sake that Satan's appraisal of Job is a lie. That
tijd eindig en  beperkt,  heeft  sle&ts  een tijdelijk  be-      this. may appear, God takes frcm Job hits! children and
staan en neemt, ,omdat .het  met uit zichzelf noch om            all  ,his possessions,, thus the very things that, according
zichzelf bestaat,  e.en einde.                                   to Satan,  ccn&tute  J*ojb's  gods in which he trusts and
    Zti is hetr nooit met de Heere.                              upon which he sets -his affections. In tempting Job,
    Hij is  esuwig  licht,  onveranderlijk,  het  absolute       Satan goes still further: He reduces Job to a state of
inbegrip van licht en daarom  is de duisternis m&t uit abject poverty and in addition smit.es  him with a ter-
Hem:  Daarom   is er bij Hem  oak  no& sprake van                rible deselase. Sata.n through t`he agency of the three
verandering of schaduw van omkeering.                            friends now attempts to convince Job that he  periihes
       Wat van Hem w,ordt gezonden is en kan nooit an-           by  t,h.e biast of God on account of his past wicked life,
ders zijn dan het do!on  nederdalen  van ,goede  gave en         in the expectation that Job in his dispair  and a.nger
volmaakte  gift. Dit blijkt  oo,k duidelijk uit het  vo,l-       will renounce God. Ln so far  doe13 Satan succeed with
gende  vers, waar gesproken  wor& van  hetgeen  Hij              Job, that. Job  oancludes that, despite the fact that he
door het  `Woord  baart, dat is  te voorschijn  brengt is innocent  of the atr,ocious  Isins with which the friends
en dat de gemeente  maakt tot een eersteling  der schep-         reproach him, God nevertheless for  scme unaccountable
selen.                                                           reason holds and treats him as: His  Enemy. But so far
   En in verband met de zonde-verzoeking : Hij is goed,          is Job from ,denouncing  God and, we m.ay say, so th,or-
want Hij is  licht. Maar dan is het  eo*k eeuwig  on-            oughly untrue, it is that ,h,e has been serving God "not
mogelijk, dat Hij de zonde-begeerte  en verzoeking in for nought" that with his children  &in, w,ith all his
bet.  hart we&t.                                                 possessions taken from ,him, with his body full of un-
    Dwaalt niet, mijne  ge1iefd.e  broeders,. zoo  wsar-         endurabIe  pain, with a mind confused and with a  .soul
schuwt Jacobm?.        Wie  sin de  zonde  vdt zegge en be-      in which the thought lhas taken root that God accounts
lijde: Dat is mijn zonde en mijn zondige daad en ni:t            him ,as one of H% enemies, he in the heart of his dis-
van mijn God.                                                    pcsition  still  &aves unto and adores God. Th:e proof
    Dan  verlate  de  goddel~ooze   zijnen weg  E.n  hij  be-    of this is those sublime words to which he at the low.cst
keere  zich tot den Heere, en Hij  zal  Zich  zijarr  cnt-       ebb (of ,dispair  ~gives utterance - words indioative  of a
fermen.                                                          heart with desires1  concentrated ,solely  upon God, these
            Want Hij is de Vader der Licten                      words, "He also  Ehall be my salvation. . . . For I know
          Van Hem zijn alle goede  gave en v2lmaakt.c  gift.     that my redeemer liveth. . . . And though after my
          Want Hij is de Vader der Liehten                       skin worms destroy this  b&y, yet I shall  see God."
                                                 Iv. v.          How ought Satan now to slink away in the realization
                                                                 of the falacy of 4his~ eoatsntion  !
                                                                    Yet, as was said, though Job's faith  is indestruct-
                                                                 ible, he does  n.ot pass through his. trial without sinning.
    Wilt Thou Disannul My Judgment?                              In his great and continuous anguish of body and soul,
                                                                 Job oould  not .refrain frcm crying out. His language
    What *is J,ob, a believer or .an infidel. This, as was becomes violent and sinfultly so. Often darkness comes
explainedI  is the issue to be decideI&  between God and         over him again. Then he :hurls curses at the day of
Satan. Satan's contention is, so it was pointed out, his birth, accuses God of destroying the perfect with
that Job  ha3 been  serving God not fw nought. The the wicked, of laughing at  Dhse trial of the  immcent,
implication .cd this charge is. that Job's affecti,ons  are      of giving the earth in the lh,ands of the wicked, and of
set not upon God but upon  God.`s temporal and material          multiplying his wounds without a cause. But Gcdt in
gifts. The charge is a serious one. If it be true, Job           His love finally comes to  Jlo.b, remonstrates with him,
is an god?!ess persona.ge. In lodging his charge, Satan lcorrects  him, binds up his wounds,  ,restores   ,his  soul
13anders not only Job but God as well. Gad has said and vindicates and exalts him. God rebukes Job first
that Job  is righteous, that thus he is cleansed from all through Elihu the fourth speaker. Elihu, it was shown,


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               233
                       -
     utters words of true wisd0.m.  He speaks in the place have' become guilty of this wickedness *has bcen par-
     of  God. The merit of  &ihu's discourse, so  it was tially explained.
     pointed out, is not that from it Job derives the &ok-
     tion ob his sufiering;  the real merit of this ctiscourse is                Job knows  himself to be  one of God's  righteous.
     that from it Job may and does learn that his violent But why then does  God smite him? Job has before
     speech was absolutely                                                    his mind but two possible  sclutions.  He  has been
                               U~J   ustiliabl,e,  deeply smful.    `1'h.d
     mstructien  and rebuke of Elihu Job takes home to leading a wicked life. This is the solution of the three
     lus heart. When Elihu has done speaking,                                 friends. The other  solutmn is that Job is innocent
                                                        Job  1s  silent
     and through his silence dee>ares  that he ,has sinned.                   and that thus God smites him w.ithout a cause. Which
     The three friends, too, had repeatiedly  tcld Job that tne               of  ,these  two solutions will Job adopt. If he adopt the
     Lord was exacting of him less than his iniquities  oe-                   former, he condemns self and justifies God. If he
     serves. But Jeb  had turned a deaf ear to their speech adopt the latter, he condemns God and justifies self.
     on account of their insisting that he had been leading What is Job to do? He  #may  not condemn God. Yet
     a wicked life and that  therefor@  he now  reaped the he  can& condemn self, that is, deny his sonship. So,
     doom  of the godless. To Elihu, on the other hand, Job in his extremes, he does now the one then the other.
     is a son whom the Lord chastens but who as ch.astened                       Now he condemns self and justifies God. Then, as
     ,has sinned.                                                             harassed by the three friends, he criez+  out in .hi,s de-
        Let us now pass on to the discourses of Jehovah. spair that God multiplies his wounds without a  cause.
     The prevalent view seems to be  6hat the aim  of these When so crying, he annuls God's justice, condemns
     discourses is to set forth the other half of the positive                God that he, Job, may be righteousness. What  ought
     solution  of the  pro.blem  (of suffering)  - a  sociution               Job to do? Needless to say, he ought  not to condemn
     that consists in the exhibition of the suffering of the                  God. What sin can be greater! Ought Job then  t3
     righteous as ordained to prove them and to bring falsely Ccuse ~himse1fE Ought he, a child of the light,
     out their innocence. The fact of the matter is, how- with whose spirit God's spirit  testifiles  that he b Gcd's
     ever, that no such solution finds expressic,n  in these son, deny this testimony and classify  ,himself  with the
     discourses. The aim of these discourses may be un- wicked? Assuredly not. Job's duty b to maintain his
     erringly ascertained by attending to the words of re- slonship  *and to maintain at once that, though he can-
     buke which  God di,rects  to Job out of the whirlwind. not explain, God is just in slmiting  fhim. And this Job
     "Then the Lord answered Job and said, Who is this also does during the entire period of his trial. But
     who  darken&h  counsel with words without knowledge." he does so consciously at intervals only, when his faith
     This one is Job. By his perverse and vain speeches he ,flowers  marvelously and he utters sublime words, such
     has rendered  pro.fitable and intelligent contemplation words  `as, "I know that my redeemer liveth.". But can
     of the divine purpose of his sufferings most difficult.                  God in justice  sm.ite His children. The view of the
     Let  ,him now "gird up thy  toins like a man; for  I three friends is that He cannot. If the view is correct,
     (God) will demand of thee, and  answer thou me."                         either  Job is no son, or, if he is, Gcd is unjust as
     God is now to enter into a contest with Job, which is ,the author of his pain. But the view o,f the friends is
     to consist in a series of questions to be addressed by wrong. Job is a son, but ai son with a small beginning
     God to Job and t&be answered by the latter. For this of true obedience. Henoe, God cannot be accused of
     very thing  Job in  champ.  13222 had  .asked for, "Only injustice on account of His having laid Job  lc,w.
     do two things unto  mie: then will I not  (hide  myself                     In annulling God's judgment, Job has set himself
     from thee. Withdraw thy hand far from  rnie:* and up  Ias judge over God and, as a self-appointed judge of
     let not thy dread make me afraid. Then call thou, and God, has submitted to his judgment and appraisal  *d's
     I will answer: or let me `speak and answer thou me." rule, moral government, the manner in which Gcd exer-
'    The Lord continued, "WSt thou also disannul my judg- cises HiIs rule, dispenses justice. And the verdict at
     ment? The sense and  me&ning  of the Hebrew word which he arrives is that God as the supreme  judge of
     translated by  ju&ment  is a) judgment; b) right, recti- all the earth, is not doing right, is perverting justice.
     tude, justioe.. The construction to be placed on this Does He not mulltiply Job's wounds without a cause?
     charge (lodged against Job by the Lord) is that Job, To understand Jehovah!s  discourses it must `also be
     through his having declared that God multiplied his taken in consideration that he who criticises another,
     wouml's without a cause, had denied the justice and makes himself the equal of that other. Job criticises
     thei rectitude of God's manner of dealing with him and                   God. In doing so, he makes himself God's equal in
     bad thus disannulled God's justice. The sinfulness of power and in wisdom, yea, in every respect  and thug
     Job's doing appears from the next question which the d,eclare,s  that, being God's equal, he is thus capable of
     Lo,rd puts to him, "Wilt thou condemn me, that thou sitting in God's throne to do God's w.ork  and to do it
     may& be righteous ?" In annulling God's justice, Job even better  4han God. Were he  *in God's stead, he
     had condemned God in order that he, Job, might be urould most assuredly refrain from multiplying a man:5
     righteous. H.ow  Job, the man of singular piety could wounds without a cause. He is thoroughly displeased


     . 284                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   BtiARER
      --...-"
      with God's doings. Through the voicing of his dis- His  poweir.  Job,  thro.ugh  his finding fault with God
      pleasure, he gives expression to the wish that he were has actually maintained this. The Lord continues,
      holding for a season the reigns of government of God's "Then  put on thy majesty and grandeur; and arra.y
      universe.                                                   `thyself with giory and beauty" (chap.  40). Th.e mean-
         These reasonings of Jo.b call for a definite kind cd ing of this divine challenge is to the following effect,
      rebuke and instructi,on,  for a kind of instruction that, "Clothe, deck thyself with  those attribute of divine
      as blessed to Job's heart, will open his  eye to the greatness, power and wisdom which thou,  Jc,b,  say&
      vanity of his reasoning and cause him to repent in dust that belong to thee." The challenge is, to be sure, in-
      and ashes. This instruction` comes to  Job  m the form tended ironically ; it demands of Job the impossible.
      of a  series  of  questi,ons that form one harmonious       Having decked himself with  ,hils imaginary divine
      whole, consisting of #two principle divisions of equal greatness, let (verse  ll), "the outbreakings of thy
      length. The first (chap. 38  :4-38)  refers to creation and wrath pour themselves forth,"  .that is, `display, mani-
      to inanimate nature, the second (chap. 38 39-39 530)        fest thy holy wrath against sinners'. "Look on every
      to the animal kingdom. Examining this discourse, the one (every sinner) that is proud, and bring "nim low;
      dilscovery  is made that the question "Canst thou" and and tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them
      S`Knowest  thou" occur over  ,and over.  "Cunst   Thor      in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret.
      send lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee, Then will I (God) also confess unto thee that thine
      Here we are?" "Kwuwt  thoz.6 the time when the w&d          own right hand can save thee" (verses 12-14, &hap. 40) -
      goats of the rock bring forth?" In every quaestion  the        It is especially this divine  challlenge  that forms
      emphasis is to be placed  ca the pronoun  tJU).u to bring the conclusive proof that the charge lo'dged against
      out that this pronoun signifies Job as a man who,           Job by the Lord aimself is that hVe, Job, through his
      through his criticising  God, had in his great vexation criticilsling God, has sai& "I am God and no m,an," and,
      of tipirit declared that not God but that he, Job, knows "God is a not-God. But is  this actually the sentiment
      and is able--knows and is able as God-and that there- to which Job gave expression? Not, to be sure, direet-
      fore Ihe could take and ought to be allowed to take,        ly and in these words, not deliberately and voluntarily
      God's place as ruler and judge and dispenser of justice but  involuntarily   cand in his great extremes and
      of all the earth. "Ganst  thou, Job, as can God, send       through his crying out that Go,d multiplied his wounds
      lightnings. . .  ." `Ha&  thou  the power'. "Where is without a cause,  &us through his murmurings and out-
     , the way where light dwelleth?" `God knows.' "Know-         bursts of anger, through his  expression  of his dis-
      est  throu  it" `too'? "Where wast thou when I laid the satisfaction with God's way with him. Consider once
      foundation of the earth? Declare if thou hast under- more that the Lord accuses Job of having conderm)ed
      standing. Who hath laid the  mealsures thereof, if thou Go,d in order that he, Job, might, be just. What does
      knowest?  or who hath stretched the line upon it?' it now mean that one condemns God in order that one
      `IIast Chou I' `Couldst  thou.  have? "Hast  than  coVm-    may be ri:ghteous  other than to ZafIirm, "I am God and
      manded the morning since the days ; and caused the God is a not-God."             But to say this is to utter blas-
      dayspring  to know his place; that it might take hold phemy, is, rightly considered,  toI curse God" Has Job
      of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be          then, in his extremes, after all actually become guilty
      shaken out of it?" `Art thou mighty as' God to cause of  this?         And the answer, "It is the wicked devoid
      by thy command the morning?' Who  hath divided a of the love of God, who &nmit this sin, who litterally,
      watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way knowingly and willingly, that is, presumptuously, say
-     for the  lightning of thunder; to cause it to rain on the that  -God is not. Jt is said  oif the goldless  alone that
      earth, where no man is; on the wilderness:, where there all their thoughts are that there is no God. Litterally
      is no man? "H~ast   thou  Job? Couldst  thou, wouldst and presumptuously cursing God is a sin  in,cons&ent
      thou be able? "Canst thou bind the stvleet influence with grace. The Lord certainly is not  ,accusing  Job of
      Plei-a-des, or loose the bands  crf  Orion? Canst  thou     having committed this sin when He says to him, "Thou
      bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or  can&  ti/l~u       had condemned me." What the Lord, through His
      guide A.rturus with his sons? Knowest  thou the ordin- addressing this utterance to Job, does, is to analyze
      ances cb heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof for the benefit of Job and  od us all Job's murmurings
      in the earth? Canst  thoa  lift up  they voice to the       and d,issatisfactions,  to teach Job what his murmurings
      clouds, that  abund.ance  of waters  may  cover thee? at bottom a,re, namely, blasphemy, and what Job, by
      Can.& th,ou send lightnings, that they may go, and' say implication  and without being aware of it, did when
      unto thee, Here we are?"                                    in his great anguish of soul he cried out that God
              These are but a few of the questions, chosen at     multiplied his  wound%  without a cause, namely, annul
      random, w&h t!he Lord puts to Job. There are also God's judgment, condemn God, declare that God as
      questions that refer to  God&  moral creature man.          ruler and dispenser of justice was thoroughly unfiit
      "Then answered'the  Lord Job out of the storm. -Hast in that He lacked power and wisdom and hnowledge and
      thou an arm like God?" The `arm' of God is symbol of those divine attributew  that in Scripture are called holi-


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                    235
                                    -
=  ness, justice, righteousness. To find fau& with God, manlded  of me to make my answer toi Thee ; my answer
 to murmur against Him when His hand rests heavily can be none other than the one that now foll,cws (vss.
 upon us, to criticise  Him as the author of our  pam,      5, 6)) I have heard d thee by the hearing of Me ear :
 to be dissatisfied with His: way with us, 0 tha horror but now mine eye se&h thee, Wherefore  1 abhor my-
 of  it! And yet, when the Lord scours& his sons be- self and repent in the dust and ashes." What has Job
 aause He loves  tha, how fuli of murmuring and dis- heard of God ? All that he now sees. We ,have eo do
 satisfactions they then appear still to be! fis lto Job, here with a report of an experience common to all  be-
*had he actually and literally condemned, cursed God, hievers. Both these expressions "I have heard thee. . .
 presumptuously renounced and denounced Him,  it Now mine eye seeth thee" must be made to apply to
 would have to be said of Satan that he has actually the truth about God as it dwelt in Job? ,heart,  - the
 succeeded in showing up Job as  a man who has been truth that God is a being of infinite p&e&ion.,  a be-
 serving  God  not  for  nmqht.  But;  .as was just said, ing righteous and just and holy by Himself and in all
 Job did not presumptuously and literally condemn God. His daing, also in that doing of His consisting in His
 But Job  criticised  God, murmured against Him,  tic- inflicting most aeverely the just man,  8  hieing further,
 cused God of injustice, and thus has, in the sense just whose might is without limitations and who therefore
 explained, annulled Gcd's judgment and thus given ex- is to be worshipped as the Most High God. Jc,b knew
 pression to the wish that he were the  dislpenser of this in his well days and &so when in his great anquish
 justice .of all the earth;                                 of soul he cries  Gut that God as the author of ,his pain
    In view of  Jo,b's  vile murmurings what instruction tva,k  unjust,  as  well as  hte knew it  after  he has
 is better suited to bring Job in the dust before God,      hearkened to  tahe instruction  ,011 Elihu and even of Je-
 than the instruction, the questions with which the Lord hovah. The discourses  `of  Eliihu and of the Lord do
 comes to him,      "Can&  thou?  Knowest  thou?  DQ not increase Job's  intell+ectual  knowledge of Gtd. This
divine attributes belo'ng  to thee? Art thou God? And is not the purpose of these discourses. What takes  pZa.ce          ~
 Job replies as only a <believer, by the mercy  cf God, can is that Job's knowledge of God become more savin:g.
 reply," B.ehold,  I am vile ; what shall I answer thee? This  can be explained. Job is brought to extremes.
 I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have  I spoken God lays ,him low without giving account of His doing.
 but I will not answer: yea, twioe;  but I will proceed Job is perplexed, and amazed. In his great pain he
 no further. Job here makes a retraction of  all the sins  grieviousiy. He accuses God of Injustice. He
charges land challenges contained in this complaint that deserves  too be destroyed. But instead God in his mercy
 God  mulitiplied  his wounds without a cause. The brings Job under the conviction of his sins. The result
 Lord nalw continues His! discourse. When He has done is that Job's knowledge  of his misery and native cor-
 speaking, Jo*b speaks. Hi,s reply reads, "I know that ruption grows, and this also on  aocount  of the fact
 thou c>anst  do everything, and that no thought (that is, that new abominations, o.f whose presence he formerly
 no, purpose which thou dost carry out) its farbid'den      was not even aware, have bestirred themselves in his
 thee." God, so  Job.here  confesses, ha.3 &the power and bosom during the period of lhis trial. He stands amazed
 the right to  do as He pleases, to execute all His now at his capacity for  foladishness.           How ignorant
 thoughts, His purposes, without ciondition  or any limit- he by nature is ! As a beast he sees self before Gtd.
 ation whatever and without involving himself in in- He now ,abhores  self, and repents in dust and ashes.
 justice. So, when he aeverely  inflicts his pea+, who But, if sin hats abounded, grace much mere abounds.
 are without blame and spotless in Christ, He is still      God forgives. And Job now tastes, as he has. never
 righteous God. Job continues, "Who is this that ob-        tasted, that the Lord is good. It means that Job ad-
 scureth counsel withcut knowledge?" Here Job cites vances spiritually, that he has grown in  graace and in
 verbally the words; ob God at the beginning cd the first knowledge, that his faith is stronger by far and his
 discourse (chapter 38  :2)  .    `So', Jcb means, `hast hope more  `living; it means that  hia  fellowship  with
 thou, 0 Lord, rightly spoken to me, as this is my sin.     God is ehara&erized  *by greater intimacy, that thus he
 I have obscured counsel without  knuwledge.'   ."Thus has come closer to God, much closer, ,and as a restit
 (ver. 3 of oh. 42) have I judged, without understand- sees God better, so that, as never before, the  all wise,
 ing, what was tco w,onderful  for me, without knowing," *holy, just and good God stands cut in his mind as a
that is, my judgment. to the effect that thou are multi- blessed reality. There is then a difference between
 plying my wounds without just cause, that thus these then and now. And  this difference Job can bring into
 sufferings are unmerited and that Thou therefore art words only by saying that formerly he $.as ,heard o.f
 cruel, - this judgment was uttered by me without God by the hearing of the ear but that now his eye
 knowldge or understanding.' No,w Job (ver. 4) again sees Him. What he speaks of is the intuitive seeing, a
 cites from the first discourse of Jehovah  (ch.  33:3)     spiritual discerning, the  cmtain   knowl&ge,  the as-
 and from the introduction to the  second (ch.  41~7).      surance and conviction, of a blcssoming  saving fai,th.
 Thus verse 4 is of Jehovah's previous  co~mmand to Thus wehat Job has longed for, namely that he might
 him. Thus the meaning is, "Thou, 0 Lord, hast  de- see God, has come to pass. We are to notioe the order

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

 of the two classes (a) "but now mine eye se&h thee;                 What now  may  be the merit of Jehovah's dis-
 (b) "wherefore I abhor. . . .  .myself  and  r,epent.  .  ."    courses?    Their merit is not that they provide Job
 Abhoring  ones&f  on account of one's sins is an action with a  s&tion of his suffering. They do this even
 that  t&es place when  one is close to God, when there much less than the discourse of Elihu. The merit of
 is present in the soul tshe conviction and assurance of Jehovah's discourses is that, as blessed  to Job's heart,
 a flowering faith. Job now sees God, not face to face they bring him under the conviction of his own noth-
but th'rough  the glass of an earthy  reve1atio.n.    Seeing ingness and .of Jehovah's infinite greatness and per-
 God ,face to face is the prerogative only of the glorified fection. GRa.t i,sl the Lord and greatly to be praised.
 church in heaven.                                               God is He and none else. Terrible is He in His works.
    The experience which Job describes by the clause             Righteo~usness is the foundation of His  thro.ne.  Let
 "Now mine eye seeth thee" is identical to that which His people therefore trust him implicitly also then
 Asaph brought into words when he said, "Until I went when they cannot apprehend the justice and the good-
 into the sanctuary of God ; then I understood their ness of His doing. Let them still trust in Him ; for
 end. . . .  ." The sanctuary of  Co,d is His  dwehing           He is God. He can make  no. errors.  He is  the al-
 place. Thus to go into the sanctuary is to1 draw near mighty and ati wise God of His people in C;h\rist.
 unto God; it is to appear before and to abide in His
 presence ; it is to have fellowship with Him. They who             This is the very message that Job in his extreme;
 enter the sanctuary are the just and the pure in has need of h-ring. From Elihu Job hears that the
 Christ. They  see, therefore, spiritually discern God Lord in His love chastens His sons, the just ones, for
 and the end of the waicked.                                     their good. Job  Ihears and believes. But he receives
        One may ask whether there is real and close con- from Elihu no full solution of his great suffering. Job's
 nection between  t,he questions put by the Lord to God          chastisement was uncommonly severe. What is the
 and the reply of Job. This connection could be no reason for this? God  knc,ws. Satan has slandered
 closer. Job's reply is the only suit&& one. God asks, God and must be silenced. This is the solution of
 "Can&   t+hhou.   . .  .Know&  thou.  . .  .Has  thou  under- Job's great pain. But it was not revealed unto Job.
 standing? Do divine attributes belong to thee? To It was not God's will that he should know. Would
 this Job replies, " I abhor myself. . . . . I repent in         Job have been given the explanation for his suff,erings,
 dust and ashes. . . . . I confess that I have spoken as the book that bears his name would not contain for
 a fool, without knowledge and understanding." What believers the lesson that it now contains, the lesson
 Job here by implication declares is, "Lord, I do not namely, that believers must not become vexed because
 know. I am without might `and understanding. I am God refrains from revealing to them the special or
 creature.     I am nothing.    Thou only knowest. All particular reasons for the the pain and sorrow that he
 power is chine. Thou are  wiseGod  art  thou and none causes to enter their lives. God does not explain in
 else. Divine attributes belong to thee alone. And yet,          detail His doings. There is no need  c:f this on the
 Lord,  I a man, criticised Thee, the infinitely perfect part vf a man if there  be faith that God is good and
 One, a being Who art the inclusion of all that is good          wise and just, that He makes no mistakes and that
 and lovely. I denounced Thee and Thy perfect work whatever the hidden reason may be, it is one as ex-
 consisting in Thy chastising me. In my ccnciet, I an- cellent as is God.
 nulled Thy justice, and thus pronounced Thee, the                  God in His word tells us  why Be wills  th& His
 all wise, almighty and ,holy  God unfit as judge of all         people suffer in  this life. Suffering is a trial of their
 the earth. This is my sin."                                     faith that worketh patience. Suffering is chastisement
    How did Job come to this? He had been unable                 which all His people must undergo in order that they
 to harmonize the doing of God consisting in His smit- may become partakers of His holiness. When suffer-
 ing him with his essential righteousness. Job had ing, the b&ever is ,being disciplined in order that he
 this question, "How can God smite me who am His                 may be withdrawn from destruction (Job 33). Then
 son." WMh this question he had gone not to Gdd but there is also a suffering for well-doing and for right-
 to his own mind. And the answer he received was eousness' sake .and for the sake of Christ's name. But
 that God was  unjusrtIy smiting him. This answer. with all  t.hese reasons tabulated,  the believer can still
 he had accepted and given expression to. He had ac- ask questions concerning his suffering,-questions  to
 cepted the verdict of his mind, reason, and annulled which Scripture tgives no answer. W*hly had that father
 God's judgment. But did not Job realize that if this            of a family  cbf dependents to be taken away by death.
 verdict be that God is unjust, it of neccesity  had to          Why he and not that aged! couple with no dependents.
 be rejected. `as with God there can bo no unjustice.?           Is this a wise  ,and a just doing of  tjhe  alwise God?
 Job was bent on holding fast, his own righteousness The man who leans upon his own understanding  wild
 even if by doing so he was driven to deny God's recti- denounce the doing as unjust, unwise and cruel. But
 tude. This was his great sin for which he now abhors faith, annulling the judgm&t  of the flesh, says, "Praise
 Mmself, repents in dust and ashes.                              the Lord." And this is right, as the Lord is God. He


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        237
                                                                                                      -
 alone is great. The finest compliment that one friend Wherefore I abhor myself. . .  ." This right saying,
 can pay another wtho seemsingly  offended is to tell him then, is, according to this view, Job's confession of sin
 that he need not explain. As to God, He is above re- and expression of contriteness o.f heart. The three
 proach. He can do  no, wrong. Why then, when our friends, on the other hand, had not fallen upon their
 finite minds are unable to apprehend the rectitude of faces, and laid their  hands upon their mouths; they
 his doing, should we want to ask Him to explain and         had not confessed and repented in dust and ashes.
 to disc?ose  the hidden reason? Isn% it enough to know This Job had done. He had humbled himself, and
 Dh+at  it is He Wlho has done it? Job's great pain had therefore,  acoording to the view now under considera-
 a hidden reason. And Job asked, over and over, "Why tion, did God highly exalt him to be priest and mediator
 Lord, dost thou smite me". He wanted to know the for the others.
 hidden reason. But God was silent. Job's crying be-            What now to think of this view? It is too highly
 came  increasingIy  violent as the divine silence was improbable to be accepted. According to this view,
 prolonged.    Finally his complaint became  Qhat God the fundamental position that Job had taken- in the
 smote him without a cause. Then God ca.me to him great debate is  as wrong as that which  the three
 not with the purpose to. disclose to him the hidden friends had taken; and the discourses to which Job
 reason but to revive him with this truth, "Job, know        gave utterance are essmtiaL&, at bottom, as censur-
 that  1 am God not thou. Praise  Me!: And by the able and God-dishonoring  Ias those uttered by the three
 mercies of God Job praised, He refrained, then, from frien,ds.        Thus,  cssentiully   Job sinned as grievously
 crying for the  hildden  reason. Jvb praised! And the       as did they. The only dtifference is that Job was the
 perace of God filled %his soul. He came to rest in God.     first to see and to confess ,his sin. Now, were this true,
 Then his eyes saw God ; for he was in God's sanc-           could it be expected that God, soIely on this acoount,
 tuary.                                                      wou%l have said  <to the tree friends, "My wrath is
                                            G. M. 0.         kindled against thee. . . ." and to Job, "Thou in dis-
                                                             tinction frolm them hast spoken of me the thing that
                                                             is right," and thereupon would have exalted  Jo'b to be
                                                             priest vver the others? This is inconceivable.  Yet,
                                                             on the other hand, Job's confession of ~$6~ sin, his re-
 Historical Conclusion of the Book of Job penting in dust and ashes is not to be excluded. from
                                                             "the right saying" for which he is recommended. OnIy
     Let us now attend to the historical conclusion. this forms not the whole content of "the right saying."
 "And it was hso that after the Lord had spoken these        The sentiment that comes to the surface in Job's con-
 words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, fession of sin, permeates, rightly considered, all  Jolbs'
 My wrath is kindled against thee, and a.gainst  thy two d&our=.
 friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is        Thus, the right utterances for which Job is com-
 right, as my servant Job has. Therefore take unto you mended are to be sought for in his discourses. Let us
 now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my ser-        once more consider the following. With his children
 vant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; s'a.in and with al1 his possesions  taken from him, Job
 and my servant Job shall pray for you.; for him will said, Naked came I out of mv mother's womb. and
 I accept: lest I deal with yon after your folly, in that    naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the
 ye have not spoken of me the Ithing that is right, like T,ord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the
 my servant Job. So Eliphaz the Temanite and; Bildad Lord." Mark you, Job did not say. "Not the good
 the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went. and did and kind God. but  t.he Sabeans fell upon my servants
 according as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also and took my cattle away, sot God but a strrmg  wind
 accepted Job".  (42:1-8).                                   caused the house to  collapse over mv children. so  that
     Statements occur in this section that may awaken thev died, blessed be the name oli%e Lord." but Job
 some surprise. The Lord's wrath is kindled against said, "The Lord did it  all, Praise Him."  This is the
 Eliphas and the two  friendis. In this group  Elinhax       truly religious sentiment. The man that can sav this
 is the leader in thought. As he has spoken, so have         from the he&, actuallv glorifies God. Did this praise
 they  also spoken. His theory is theirs ; likewise his die unon Job's lips afterwards when he sa.t upon  the
 sc'ution  of Job's  Isufferings.  They have not  snoken     ash-hean  smitten with boils?  It did at times  but it
 right of God as Jvb *has. They have spoken  foclishlv       was not gone. It abided all along th.ore in the heart of
 of God. Wherein, then, did the foolishness of their -Job's  disnosition-         (Job's faith was  inde+nctib'e\  .
 speech consist?  And what is that right  speech  cf At no time did this praise altogether cease to snrinp
 Job concerning God& or spoken to God? According to          11~ and mix itself with his  groaningsl.  As  was, said.
,, one,view  this right saying is chap. 40:4, and 42:1-6.    ,Tob's discourses as a whole are the lamentations of
 "Behold  T am vile; what shall I answer thee?  . . . `.     $ man, of a lover of God, who is sad bevond words.
 Therefore have X uttered that I understood not. . . , because the thought has taken root in his soul that


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the God aster whom he thirsts, for some unaccountable them that they annul their own judgment. Despite
reason, has become his enemy.  These lamentations their pious-sounding speeches, &hey rose net to tholx!
are therefore .at bottom praise. Job during all the sublime heights of faith  where the lover of God says
period 1o.f his trial head fast lhils! righteousness, his st`a- with Job, "Though He slay me, I will  sti11 trust in
ship and God. It means that the silent and at times              Him," and  witih Paul and thus with Job,  "0 the
a1so audible speech of his heart continues to be, "Why depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge
God smites me, His son, I know not. *But this I know of God. How unsearchable are  his judgments and his
that  GodI is  Gcod.    T,hough   .He slay me, I  wilt1 still    ways past finding out." They refused to recognize
praise Him." This is what he said in substance when that God's thoughts and yays are infinitely high,er than
he declared, "I know that my Redeemer liveth. . . ."             those of man, that Cold is the mystery not to be corn-
Job gives utterance to the truly religious sentiment,            prehended but +,o be adored  and pra%ed. In a word,
,which  is, "Though I do not perceive rationally the the tihree friends hatd not spoken of or to God: right
justice of His way with me, .yet I know by faith ,tiat           like His servant Job. There w,as more genuine piety
as the aubhor of my pain He is just, fns He is God.              in the most violent language of Job than in any of
I will adore Him." Job is the truly religious man, thei'r reasonings.
during  alI1 the period of His trial, despite his violent           And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he
Ifanguage.  He truly glorifies God. He  pays  Him the            prayed for h&-friends:  . . . . Ilt is to be noticed that
highest  conceivable  tribute. He gives God  cthe trust          Job did not pray for hi`s friends, and  th:r,ough   tihis
that is blind. It is enough for him to know that God             prayer rebuke them for their sins, until  afber  he.him-
does it. He *speaks  of God the thing that is right.             self  haiy first repented in dust  and ashes. Let us ask
       But  nctw   the three friends. They do not stand          in general how a man, himself an ill-deserving sinner
where Job stands fundamedtally.  What is their great can be allowed by *he Lord God to admonish and pray
sin? Job tells them,  Lvhen he says, "Will ye speak for the  ,e*rring. Is not such a prayer, such rebuke, ad-
wickedly for  Go,d;?  and talk deceitfully for Him? Will ministered by one who himself is unworthy, the ex-
ye accept his person? will ye contend for God? It is             pression of stinking pride and sickening hypocricy? It
good that He should search you out? or as  a man is indeed, unles the one who prays, first `goes  down in
mock&h  another, d:o ye so mock Him? He will surely the dust before God. For ias it not true that exen the
reprove  you, if ye do secretly accept persons?' (13 :7-         h501iest of men daily increase their guilt before God
10).                                                             and through their  ca:ntinual sinning make themselves
       Job here anticipates what really happened after- worthy of destruction every moment of their earthly
wards.  What is the sin of these three friends? In               existence? Such is the truth. Job, too, was sinful,
order to make it possible for themselves to k?lep God despite his being, according to  God% own  testimzfny,   a
before their mind as a being of whom t;hey can ratisa-           man of singular piety. What abominations were st?ll
ally perceive  that He is just, they deny what thev dwelling in him, that is, in his flesh ! How through his
know  to be true, namely that Job is a true child of vil,e murmuring, .he had taunted God ! And this man
Cod and thus innocent of the gross sins with which               must now in tie behalf of his erring br&hren  send up
they  are  resproaching  him. What  they should have a prayer in which tha thrice holy God can delight, this
done is to freely acknowledge what they knew to be               man who by  himse1f  5s tc$o vile to dire& his gaze to
true, namely that Job was a child of the light. But              Gods' sanctuary? How can Gcd hearken unto the
acknowledging this, they would then be at a loss to              voice  lof his pleading? He can and does hearken, but
exDlain  how God in justice  could be afflictinK Job. So         only  bemuse  it is the voice of a penitent one, of one
to make it possible  fc;r themselves to  rationallv  iustifv who abhors self also on account of his sins, of one
God, thev against b&ter  kn*owledEe  classify Jo,b with          who himself is prosrtratcd before the throne of God's
the godless. 7%~ is their sin. Thev deliberately lie.            grace and who therefore is spotless and tithout blame
in order that God may stand out in their minds as just           in Christ, thus of one who can pray for the erring
in I&~  d,ea!ings  with Job. Now to lie is to sin aga,inst.      under the impulse cd true love and who beca.use  he
God. is thus it6 deny Him. It is questionable'therefore ,l.oves can have compassion on those errin.g  ones. ThuT
whether  in their  ,&tempt  to justify God.'  thev were ,Tob's prayer for his friends was at once an act through
motivated bv true love of God. Job intimates that  thev          which he,, also, to:gether  with them, humb1ed himself
were actuated by a carnal motive, bs unholv  fear of             under God's hand. Therefore does the Lord, tdrn Job's
God. Savs Job to them, "Will it be  well for you, when captivity, then when he has given evidence a,f being
he sparches  you <out (goes to tbn bottom of you) or can         capable  by the mercie: of God to bless and pram for
you d!eceive  him as a man is deceived." Whatcthev  too: those who h,ad, in their mistaken zeal, reviled and per-
should have done is to maintain Job a"s a just man and           secuted him.
then  decl.are that God is righteous  also in His present           Abo the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had
dealing with the just Job. This they failed, to do. failed before. Then came Were unto Jo,b a11 his brethren,
to cleave  tp  God when cleaving  to. Him  requiwd  of and all his sisters, and dl they that had been acquaint-


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                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                       239
.-              I-        ~_-_l_                                                                             -.-                  ._-
ed before, and did eat bread wimth him in his house:             But Job had he!,d fast to God. What a marvelous
and bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the thing faith is, the faith that Godl genders in the hearts
evil that the Lord had brought upon him: {every  man of His people! How able God is  *to preserve to Him-
also gave him a piece of money, and every one an ear- self His people in the midst o-f trouble !
ring  of  goohd. So the Lord blessed the latter end of           Once more, Job had truljZied in God. And this trust
Job more than his beginning. . . .                            ts rewarded.    God causes even those acquaintances
   This aU has great significance. Job is a man who to return to Job and to retract their vile accusations
passed through suffering and death to glory. Mark and to confess that Job is one of God's just ones, the
him. During the period of his reverses and pain, he beloved of Jehovah. And this they confess: through
had put his  atrust in God. The conviction had con-           their eating bread with him in his house,  through their
tinued to be his that Jehovah  was his  Gcel, his  Dzt        comfcu-ting <him and !giving him gifts. How the Lord
fender and Redeemer, who.in His own good time would nuw asserts Himself in Jab's life as his Redeemer in-
arise to justify him in the hearing of all this accusers deed !
and to deliver him for His own name's sake out of all            And after this lived Job a hundred and forty years,
his troubles. And his Goel does not put him to shame. and saw h& sons, and his sons' sons, even four genera
The Lord did  just that. He turned Job's captivity. tions. So Job died, oId and full of days.
He heaaled  all his diseases and gave him twice as much          There is a mighty sermon th& comes  to us through
as he had before, bIessed his btter end more than his         this record of the experiences of the man Job. This
beginning : "For  ,he had fourteen thousand sheep, and experience is to be ta.ken as a `prophetic type of the
six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen,             redemption of Christ, of God's method of salvation,
and a thousand she-asses. He had also seven scns and of the way on which He lead His people in His saving
three daughters. . . . And in  all the  land were no them to the uttermost, namely, on a way that Ieads
women  Eonnd so fair as the  d,aughters  of Job: and          through suffering to gIory; it is to be taken, this ex-
tiheir  father gave them inheritance among  the& breth- perience, as the certain pledge that God, without fail,
ren.                                                          will redeem His people, will cause His church to ap-
   But there is more to-takce  notice of. "Then came pear with Christ in glory  ato inherit  tvith Christ alI
unto him all ihi,s brothers and sisters, and a11 they that things.
had been  ob his  acqu,aintance  before." During the             It is to be noticed that Job repents before God turns
period of Job's fiery trial  all these brethren and           away his captivity, thus while he is stiI1 in his pain.
sisters and acquaintances had kept their distance. They His repentance therefore is in the supreme sense an
had deemed him smitten of God o,n account of sins of act of faith. Before his redemption becomes an actual-
which he was innocent. Thus a?l had forsaken him. ity, Job must confess that by his sins <he has ma4e him-
He bitterly complains of this, while in his great pain. self unworthy of what God is ready to bestow.
"0 that I w'ere as in months past,  as in the days when                                                        G. M.-O.
God preserved me. . . . When  I went out of the gate
through the city. . . . The young men saw me and
hid themselves: and the aged rose and stood UT). . . .
but now they that are younger than I have me in de-
rision. . . . I am their song, yea I ,am their byword.
They abhor me, they Aee far from me, and spare not             Christ Able To Save To The Uttermost
to spit in my face. Because he (Gold) hatli  loosed mv
chord and .afflicted  me, they  h,ave also  let loose the                        Wherefore he is able also to  saw them to
bridle before me" (29, 30).                                                   the uttermost that come unto Gr.d by him, see-
   How truly sorry the plight of this man Job has                             ing that he ever  1iyet.h  to make  intercessio*l
been! There he had sat on the ash-heap, with dosses-                          for them.
sions taken from him by thieving hands. with children                                                               Heb.  726.
who had just met a  vio',ent  deat,h, with  his  person
rovered  with  hiIs, with a  bcdv fiIIed with  escrnciat-        Christ is able to save. What may be the  exup'ana-
ing pain, with his God hidin.g his face from him and tion  of this His ability? According to the currant
turning a deaf ear to this, cries, with a s&l full of con-    view, the circumstanc.e  th.at those whom He saves COW?
fusion on ,account  of the treatment the Almightv af- ,2c,nto God. Were Ohis true, HisI ability  ta save would
forded him, with friends and acquaintances who  heId          have  to be regarded  as contingent upon the resolution
themselves at a distance because thev saw something of man to be saved. But  Khereas   ns, one can come
terrib1.e  in the state of the man, but with three of these unto Christ except the Father draw him, whereas  these
friends tormenting this sou1 with their reasoning that xctually  saved, bein: dead in sin, are without strength,
he  nerished  by the blast of God because of his  past this view of the text  shaI1 have to be rejected.
wicked life,                                                     According to others, Christ is! able to save because,


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     240                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEA'RER
     _"^.---..l"~.
     as to His person, He is God,  which  alone was capable source, in order that as so filled He may be able to fill
     of a trust of such power and able to execute it unto           His people, His body, the church. This action of Christ
     all the ends thereo,f. `He ,alone, who was God and man necessarily implies that He prays the F,ather to draw
     in  oee person, was capable of being such a king,              His people out of the  spher.e  of sin and death into the
     priest, and prophet Which could save the church unto realm of light and truth, that He prays the Father to
     the uttermost. So it is said. Now  this reasoning, to          preserve His own in the midst of this world, to em-
     be sure, is, by itself,  altcgetlher  correct. But it is not power them toI fight the good fight of faith and to seek
     the reasoning we come upon in the surroundings of the things above. And this prayer the Father ever
     the text here under consideration. The verse pre- hears through His filling Christ with life and grace,
     ceding declares that Christ is  ablee because, continuing that Christ *as so filled may pour this same life into
     ever, He hath an unchangeable priesthoo!d  and thus            HIS people. Christ prays, secondly, because prayer
     ever liveth (verse 25) to make  interecession  for His spills the necessary receptivity that the creature must
     people. Let us examine these reasons.                          have in order t.o be filled. Christ prays, finally, because
            Christ, in distinction from Aaron and his successors    God will be everlastingly acknowk:dged  as a being Who
     of the Old covenant, bath an unchangeable priesthood, can only give but cannot  r.eceive,  He being the  se'f-
     that is, a priestly office with which His person is  ever-     sufficient One, the sclurce  of His own divine life and
     lastingl,y  vested, and thus an office, that He without the foundation of His own existence.
     interruption  eternally.administers.  The typical priest-          Thus Christ saves through His prayer. He is able '
     hood had been changeable, that is, it over and over to save, to the uttermost, because He ever liveth to
     was disjoined from the person of the preceding priest pray, to administer His oRice perpletually.
     and joined, affixed, to the person of the priest that              He is able to save to th.e uttermost, that is, perfect-
     followed, and  this by reason of the circumstance. that ly, completely and, such is the sense and meaning cf
     the priests of the old economy were not suffered to the word found in the original, everlastingly. But
     continue on account of death.  Christ, on the other must  Hits  peon% then be everlastingly saved. Not, to
     hand, con%nueth ever. He therefore continueth in his           be sure, in the sense that He will everlastingly be en-
     office eternally. Thus He liveth ever to perform the gaged in completing and perfecting the salvation of
     duty that belongs to His office-the duty that consists His church. His people, once having appeared with
     in  HGis continuahy,  without interruption, making inter- Christ in Glory, shalI have been brought to the ideal
     cession for His own. This, then, is the reason here of a perfect life in Him. But in the sense that He, as
     given for Christ's being able to save to the uttermcst         the true vine, will everlastingly be pouring His received
     those that come to the Father by Him.                          life into His branches, the church, He is everlastingly
                                                                    the Saviour of His body.
            The truth here set forth is that Christ is able to          Those that He saves are such who come to God
     save because he ever liveth to, pray for His people.           through Him, that is,  the:y  come on the grounds of
     This  p%inIy  implies that he saves through His prayer. His merit and thus through His flesh (and blood), the
     If  thils is to be understood, it must be kncxwn  firstlv :human nature in which He expiated their sins. They
     what forms the content of this prayer and secondlv             come through Him, that is, as confessing that by ,&em-
     why this prayer is, must be, continua,lly  and everlast-       selves, apart from Him, they are devoid of that right-
     in&y made. In answering these questions, we set out eousness and purity of heart and mind, that moral per-
     with  the observation that the holy writer directly fection, which mast be theirs, if they will be admitted
     treats, in this connection, not of the work of Christ into Gcd's presence in His holy sanctuary. Thus they
     that  consisted in His meriting salvation for His own          come as embracing Him, Who is their sanctification,
     through His suffering and dying on the cross, but of righteousness, wisdom and redemption and to Whom
     that work of the Saviour that consists in His  anplyinp        they are everlastingly joined by a Iiving and inde-.
     the benefit of His cross unto those who with Him were &ructab?e  faith. They come not to but through Him
     crucified  and resurrected. The writer thus treats of to God, Who is the eternal fountain of their heavenly
     the work of the glorified Saviour, which He performs           life.    They  corn-e to Him, not at  interval4 but per-
     as the <exalted  Servant of God in the heavenly sanc-          petually, everlastingly, to  beseech Him their God, and
     tuary. It is then the exalted  :and glorified Christ. the the God and Father of their Christ, for the life that
     "Lamb, as it had been sl,ain" that is here spoken of.          is theirs in Christ. They come to Him to eternally
            Being priest, His task is to make interecession  for cry oat His praises,-the praises of the  Gcd who saved
     His peogle. to pray for them. What is the content of them through Christ. And with Him do they have
     this prayer? Briefly stated, that thee Father, the triune fellowship through Christ. And in Christ, the  ,true
     Jehovah, Who  is the creative fountain of the heavenly vine do  they a!so everlastingly abide, as without Him
     existence and  life of Christ and His people, may con- they can do nothing. And abiding in Him they bear
     tinually and  everIasti.ngly  fill Him with  -that  fulness    much fruit.
     of which  _ His su&ring and death is the meritorial                                                         G. M. 0.


