                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         369
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             De Nederlandsche Synode                                     The Kalamazoo Question
   Het volgende -,berichtje  iknipten we uit "De Gere-         Originally it was not my purpose to write about
formeerde Kerkbode  voor Drente en Overijsel"  :            the overture from the consistory of Hudsonville re-
                                                            questing that our churches approach, the Protesting
                      DE SYNODE.                            First Christian Reformed Church of Ka'amazoo with
       De Synode komt  nu Maandag 15 dezer D.V.             a view to a possible reunion of that church with our
     weer bijeen. Met name voor de zaak-Drach-              churches.
     ten en voor de zaak-Goossens. En ter afdoe-               In the first place, to rehearse the history that
     ning van eenige zaken die  waren  blijven  lig-        caused the separate existence of the Kalamazoo church
     gen.                                                   is very distasteful to me. That part of our history
       De meenings-verschillen blijven nog uit-.            that concerns our relation to this church recalls inci-
    gesteld tot Augustus-September,                         dents that are far more corrupt and grievous than that
       Eerder dan nu vergaderen kon niet. En                swb.ich ibrought  about our ejection from the Christian
    om den winter en de koude. En omdat er ter              Reformed Churches.       I believe that I would rather
     voorbereiding  - tot `t gereedmaken der rap-           pass through an experience similar to t5at of 1924 a
     porten  - zoo ontzaglijk veel was te  doen.            hundred times than that I would once more  have to live
       Dag en  naciht is gewerkt.                           through the history of 1925-26. Hence, if it could
       Terwijl men `t niet tot later wilde uitstel-         have been avoided I would not have broached  this
     len, om het  belang  dezer twee zaken dat              subject at all. I  $was even  thankfu1  that I did not
     dringt. En te Drachten en op Soemba moet               have to attend the last classical meeting, so that I
     er, zoo mogelijk, hoog noodig  rust  ;komen.           did not have to be present when all the dirt of that
       Mogen de  Synodale  beslissingen, die onder          period was raked to the surface  ontie more.
   biddend opzien tot  ,God genomen  zullen   wor-             And, secondly, after tie previous classical gather-
     den, onder Zijn zegen daartoe medewerken.              ing adopted the overture from the Fuller Ave. con-
       En rijze van al onze  kansels en uit  a1 onze        sistory  with regard to this matter, I trusted that the
     christelijke gezinnen en uit al onze harten het        question would be considered in the proper light and
     vurig gebed omhoog dat `t God believen moge            decided accordingly.
     met Zijn Geest en Waarheid tegenwoordig te
     zijn en te leiden in het rechte spoor!                    But now there are several reasons why I may not
                                                            keep silent.
   Velen onzer lezers hebben herhaaldelijk gevraagd,            There is, first of all, the fact that the classis  did
of de synode der Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland
nog niet weer same&warn.                                    not carry out its own decision, and really sidetracked
                                                            the matter as it was presented by the overture from
   Daarom geven we dit beric!ht .door.                      Fuller Ave. This overture requested the  classis  to
    Het is jammer, dat de Nederlandsohe bladen  zoo appoint a committee whose task it wouId  be to bring
lang onder weg zijn. Het is waarschijnlijk, dat de          before the attention of the classis  all the historical data
-;ynode  ook reeds weer hare zittingen gesloten heeft,` relative .to the matter, in order that the question of
wanneer ons !blad verschijnt.                               approaching the Kalamazoo church might be discussed
    Ook zal voor velen onzer Iezers het Jericht,  dat ook and determined in the light of that history. And I
thans de "meenings-verschillen"  nog niet zullen  worden    am informed by the Rev. Ophoff that this was not
behandeld,  we1 een teleurstelling  zij,n. Daar hebben we carried out. The committee did not bring  a!1 the  his-
het meeste belang  bij.                                     tori&data before the  classis. And the classis decided
   We zullen maar wachten op "Augustus-September." the matter without having the proper light on the
                                               H .   H . question.
                                                                Secondly, and in close connection with the  preced-
                                                            ing, the classis did reach a decision that can satisfy
                                                            no one. If I am correctly informed its decision was
                                                            that Kalamazoo must take the first step. This decision
    DON'T WASTE TIME WORRYING-"Let  us not is not only tantamount to dodging the issue, but is also
give heed to gloomy and discouraging remarks  ; in sinful. More about this presently.
the name of our great Commander, let us march on                In the third <place,  the Rev. J. De Jong of Hudson-
to battle and victory. "Be of good courage and let us ville has been discussing this matter publicly in "Our
behave ourselves valiantly, for our  ,people  and for the Church News" and has been trying to present his con-
cities of our God ; and let the Lord do that which is ception of the matter to our people. And this is, of
good in His sight.' "                                       course, his right. We certainly should not limit or


 370                                    TtHE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

 deny the right to anyone to discuss ecclesiastical mat- this. But with this I cannot agree. The church is
 ters in public if he so desires. But when one assumes to blame. I am well aware of the fact that there are
 the responsibility of leadership in so important a mat- good men in Kalamazoo, that never did agree with
 ter as the one under discussion, especially as editor          the work of their pastor and consistory.' I am not
 of a paper, he ought to be doubly careful that he pre- writing of individuals. But the church of Kalamazoo
 sents the matter correctly and in l&e right light. In          always maintained its pastor, and is just as guilty as
 this case it is paramount that the whole matter be` he is. And, therefore, you cannot separate the  two.
 viewed in the light of its history. And this is exactly           Secondly, it is important that this history is re-
 what the tpastor'of  Hudsonville failed to do. He ignored      hearsed before our people and churches, before they
 it entirely. I can understand that the %.&tory  of this ever take a dicision in this matter, because the older
 case does not concern him as deeply as it should, for our churches  become the more there will be both among
 the simple reason that he does not know it by ex- the leaders and the people that are not acquainted by
 perience.      But this should have been all the more experience with this history. They must be instructed.
 incentive for him to make a  thorou,gh study of the
 matter. If we may judge from his articles he failed               But, you ask, can we not let "bygones be bygones"
 l-o do this. And because of this his articles are leading and simply try to  ,unite ? Let us simply arrange a
 us in the wrong direction.                                     colloquy with Kalamazoo, to see what can be done to
        And, therefore, loath though I may be to discuss get together.
 this matter, I may not be silent.                                 I  Ireceive  tihe impression that the overture from
        The matter is very important for our churches.          Hudsonville has some such action in view. And "Our
 And those who are acquainted with the history of this          Chu*rch  News" tries to persuade our people to follow in
 case will understand me when I here declare that it this direction.
 would be morally impossible for me to follow our                  To this `we are strenuously opposed, for the simple
 churches if a decision should be taken in the wrong reason that it is contrary to the Word of God, and
 direction.                                                     for this reason harmful to our churches. The Scrip-
        Now, w!hy should it be considered so important that tures do not teach us that we shouId  let "bygones be
 all the historical da@ must ,be cbrought  before the at- .bygones",  but that we should  rebuke  him that sins
 tention of our  chur,ches, (whenever the question of ap- against us. And what is true for individuals certainly
 proaching the Protesting First Christian Reformed holds for churches.
Church of Kalamazoo is  broacihed?  First of all, be-              And this is also the reason why I consider the
 cause that history will clearly reveal that the Kala- classical decision wrong.
 mazoo church has grievously sinned. And the sin of
 that church I do not hesitate to describe as consisting           Classis  decided that Kalamazoo should take the
 in %his, that with wicked intent and for personal rea-         first step. But  &is is contrary to Scripture. If your
 sons it deliberately attempted to destroy the cause of brother sins against you, you are the one that should
 God as represented by our churches.                            take the  first step and rebuke him.
    You say: that is strong language?                              Besides, it is not at all the question just now, who
        I answes: it is none too stron*g..  It expresses ex- should take the first step. Why should we not take t&e
 actly what happened. I will not rehearse the history. first step in  approa&ing Kalamazoo? There is no
 Just .recall what took place in Hull. Just refresh your reasonable answer, and surely no Biblical answer to
 memory on the history of our S&001. Just bring back this question.                 But the paramount question at the
 to your memory what Kalamazoo tried. to do with our            present time ought to be put thus: Are we justified
 Standard Bearer, how they deliberately forsook us, for before God to  expose our churches once more to the
 no other reasons than personal ones, evidently  h0pin.g same pernicious influence, the dangers  of  the spirit
 that the Rev. Ophoff and the undersigned would not of personal ambition, envy, suspicion and disruption,
 be able to continue our publication. Just think of the to which they were exposed by Kalamuzoo  in 1925-26 ?
 meeting in  Woodman  Hall, Grand Rapids, followed                 Our churches certainly have the right to `know  that
 by that in the Y. M. C. A. in Kalamazoo. But I will this shall never again be the case, before we can  ever'
 mention no more. Anyone may consult the records                talk of reunion.
 and be convinced that the language used above is none             Any leadership that would ignore this question I
 too strong.                                                    do not consider safe for our churches to follow.
    I say advisedly that t!his  `is the sin of the Kalamazoo       Our coming Synod will certainly have to consider
 char&.                                                         this question.
    You may, probably, be inclined to object that this             May we, then, not approach Kalamazoo and take
 was all the work of the pastor of that church and his the  first step?
 pephews,  and that you cannot blame his church for                I can see no possible objection to this, provided:


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                      371

   1. That our synod thoroughly review the history and Nevada to California, and baok from California,
of the case.                                                through Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota,
   2. That she bring the historical data to the atten-      Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, to Michigan, in
tion of the church of Kalamazoo.                            April, he meets with all kinds of weather conditions,
   3. That she rebuke that church for its sin of having     cold and heat, sunshine, rain and snow; and passes
deliberately attempted to destroy the  <work of God as through rich farm country and bare deserts, makes his
represented by our churches.                                way over high mountains and through deep canyons,
   4. That she admonish that church to repent.              and travels along straight roads that are visible some-
                                                            times for twenty five miles ahead so that ~a speed of
   If in this way we gain that church we can talk sixty five or seventy miles per hour may be considered
about reunion, but not before.                              quite safe, or slowly meanders around steep mountain
   There is no other way according to the Word of sides, where it is advisable to restrain your ever-will-
God. And no other way is safe for our churches.             ing machine to a speed of twenty mi,les  per hour. In
   The Rev. De Jong quotes from the overture of south-eastern Iowa there were signs of spring and the
Fuller Ave. relative to the address the synod is to send    weather was warm ; in Sioux County it was rather
to the synod of the Christian Reformed Churches, in gray and bleak and we had considerable rain and even
order to defend his view of the Kalamazoo case.             snow ; Nebraska was sunny and rather warm ; in the
   But he onIy  selects from that overture &what suits mountains of Wyoming we passed through a little snow
him best. Had he quoted the entire overture it would storm; as soon as we were on the other side of the
have become *plain that its intention is to follow the      Rockies the temperature was that of `mid-summer; in
same line of approach to the Christian Reformed the desert it was already rather hot; in California one
Churches as I advocated above with regard to the            could easily long for a swim in the Pacific, with
churc!h  of Kalamazoo.                                      temperatures around ninety five ; on the sides of the
   We will first remind that church of the history of road over the high mountains to West Yellowstone
1924, and rebuke her and admonish her to repent.            there were snow banks four or five feet high., though
Only then will we consider the matter of a Colloquy the road itself was !plowed open and perfectly clean;
and talk about the possibility of reunion.                  through the very beautiful Galatin Canyon, through
   And we may never do anything else with respect which we meandered for some eighty or ninety miles
to Kalamazoo.                                               from West Yellowstone to Manhattan, we passed
                                              H. H.         through a ,blizzard  ; in Montana, where the skies are
                                                            supposed to be not cloudy all `day, we had plenty of
                                                            rain; through the mountains near  Eozeman,   Montana,
                                                            Jwe even had snow on the road, so that one had to drive
                            l                               with caution; in the Black ,Hills  we passed through a
                                                            rather thick mist, that made one hesitate to go ahead ;
                                                            all through South Dakota it poured ; and as we passed
                 Our Lecture Tour                  *        through Iowa on our way back the skies gradually
                                                            cleared off; and now, back in good old Michigan we
    A real joy it was to us that we might have the          had since our arrival a few days of blue skies and
opportunity to make a tour through our churches in pleasant sunshine.
Iowa, Minnesota, Montana and California, and to                I know that my western brethren, who always boast
speak for them in lectures and in the ministry of the       of the clear skies and bri,ght sunshine in the West,
Word. Almost all of our churches there are fields in will laugh about this, but they are my witnesses that
which `we used to labor for a shorter or longer period in while I ~was with them I hardly saw the sun, and they
the past, and are organized by us personally, so that may believe me when I solemnly testify that when I
the reader will readily understand that next to my own arrived in Michigan the sky was not cloudy all day !
Fuller Ave. congregation I feel attached to them. And          This, of course, does not include sunny California,
it was a very pleasurable experience to visit them ,where, however, we had a thunderstorm !
and meet old friends. Besides, I had not visited the           On the first of April we departed from Grand
West for several years, and felt that I had so many Rapids for Oskaloosa, where we arrived shortly after
things to say to them, that I looked forward to the op- three o'clock (Iowa time) in  the afternoon. The dis-
portunity to lecture and preach the Word to them.           tance from Grand Rapids to Oskaloosa and Pella is
   The  .journey was a strenuous one.                       considerably shortened by straightening out of the,
    In twenty six days we spoke twenty two times and        roads, and is now only four, hundred and seventy miles
travelled six thousand miles by auto, ourselves driving by my speedometer. That same  evenin,g I spoke in
the car all the way.      And when one travels from Pella, in the afternoon of the following day I delivered
Grand Rapids over Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah a lecture in Oskaloosa, and in the evening I addressed


372                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
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a splendid gathering of young people of the two               ministers are faithful, and the blessing of the Lord is
churches combined at a banquet. From there on the manifestly upon them and their flocks.
following day the way led to Sioux County and  Edger-            Very heartily we were received everywhere, by the
ton, where we delivered several lectures and preached brethren in the ministry and by all the people, for the
the Word three times on Sunday, April the seventh.            which I hereby express my sincere gratitude.
On Monday morning, before sunrise, we quietly left               The audiences were very good.
the hospitable parsonage of Sioux Center in order to             Some of our smallest churches are surprisingly
make the long journey to California. The added at-            active. Bellflower is thinking of building a parsonage,
traction of meeting our children in  Bellflower  made         and if possible a church ; and I would say to them:
me step on the  accellerator  rather hard, and we covered     "`go ahead, brethren!" and to our churches: "let us
the distance of eighteen hundred and thirty miles in          encourage and  !help them  !" They are worthy of it,
three days, arriving at the home of our children in           and they need it, for they already pay a heavy budget.
Bellflower Wednesday evening shortly after seven Manhattan built a pretty church and paid for it in
o'clock. With them  *we stayed a week. We lectured and cash, without even asking for heIp. Edgerton, which
preached in  Redlands  and Bellflower every day except is hardly to be classified anymore with the smaIlest
Saturday; with the aid  ,of the Rev. G. Vos we installed -churches (it counts twenty six  famihes,  I believe),
our son-in-law in the ministry of the Word in  Be-l-          built a most beautiful parsonage, is thinking of soon
flower, and we met old and new friends personally, so building a church, and would like to establish a Chris-
that for more than one reason to leave California  *was       tian School of its own, something which is by far tl%e
rather a strain on the heart-strings.                         most preferable wherever this is possible.
       But I was scheduled to preach in Manhattan on             When you visit the Rev. Kok in his field of labor
Sunday, April the twenty first, and on Thursday, the          you are impressed with two facts. In the first place,
eighteenth, we left for Montana. In Manhattan, where I believe that the Lord gave us a man in him that is
we arrived the following Saturday afternoon, we met           eminently fit for the work he is called to do. And
a brand new Protestant Reformed Church, though                in the second place it is quite evident that the work
many of its members were no strangers to us. A flour- requires considerable self-denial and sacrifice on the
ishing congregation is that of Manhattan, rather large part of both, our missionary and his Iwife, especially
in membership in comparison to the number of its              when they  f?.rst enter upon a new field of labor. I
families, the evil of birth-control evidently having          think that our people may well remember this, and
made no inroads there.        They built a very pretty make mention of them in their prayers.
church, a <basement church, that in its steeple strives          Finally: one who visits our churches and loves the
upward out of the ground, and in the beautiful audi-          truth they stand for, and beholds their activity and
torium of which you forget altogether that you are in prosperity, the work of our ministers and officebearers,
a basement. We preached the Word there  twi.ce  on and remembers that it is only fifteen years ago that
Sunday, and on the following Monday and Tuesday some of us were expelled from the fellowship of the
evening we  dehvered  two lectures. On Sunday morn-           Christian Reformed Churches, can only marvel and be
ing the Rev .Kok announced that he had to decline the         filled with gratitude because of the truly great work
call extended to him by the church there, which was the Lord has done for us !
evidently to the great sorrow of the congregation, by            His blessing ,be upon our churches !
whom  our missionary is greatly beloved. However,                                                             H. H.
we were thankful for his decision to continue his labors
as missionary of our churches, and the Manhattan con-
gregation realized that thus it was for the best. Let
me say in passing, that  <whoever  receives the next  ca:l                           NOTICE
from that church ought to consider it very seriously.         The Consistory of the First Prot:Ref. Clhurch  hereby
Manhattan is in need of a good man, especially be-            notifies the churches that Synod will meet D. V., in the
cause it is a thousand miles from the nearest Pro-            parlors of the Fuller Ave. Church at Grand Rapids,
testant Reformed Church; and one who accepts that             Michigan on May 22,194O.
call will not be disappointed.                                                                  G. Stonehouse, Clerk.
       On our way back from Manhattan we delivered one
more lecture in Edgerton, and on Friday we made the                                                 ,
last stretch of eight hundred miles in one day, arrivin*g
at home at eleven o'clock at night.                                                  NOTICE
                                                                    *
       -4 strenuous trip  3t was, but a joyful one, and  I be- On Tuesday evening, May 21, at  7:45 o'clock, Rev.
 lieve that the Lord made it a blessing, a blessing for IHerman  Hoeksema will preach a sermon in connec-
me, and a blessing for the churches.                          tion with of the Synod in Roosevelt Park Protestant
       On the whole our churches are flourishing, our         Reformed Church.


I                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           373
     7-
                   The Inhabitant Of Zion                               Moreover, they  "Nork  righteousness.
                                                                        That means that you act, according to the will of
                                                                     God, that which is really good, salutary, lovely. Be-
        At sundry times and in divers manners I  ha.=                cause that is the meaning of righteousness. It is the
     heard a question asked which I here find in ti:le 15th          urge towards things that are comely. Thus it is with
     Psalm. Some put it this way: Where wi:l you spend               God: He  wills Himself as the Highest Good.
     eternity?                                                          To wur,k righteousness is that in all your active li,fe
        I know, I know: the question put into that form you steer towards God. You want to please Him in
     usually comes from the corner of those that dilute the all your actions. You do not work unto men <as men-
     Gospel of God ; they present the race to eternity as a          pleasers, but you always ask: Lord, what would Thou
     game of  ,chance ; they emphasize the responsibility of have me do?
     man at the expense of God's Sovereign counsel. I know              And he speaketh truth in his heart.
     all that.     But the question itself is not necessarily           Have you ever listened to the talk of your heart?
     `wrong.      It may be a theme that is pregnant with I assure you that it is a very wonderful pastime. You
     meaning.                                                        are going to learn a great deal about yourself when
        I find no fault asking this question of myself:              you do that. We all talk in our heart. Without words.
     where, o my soul, wilt thou spend eternity. And God They are the unheard whisperings, meditations, fancies,
     be praised, I know the wonderful answer.                        motives. They lurk there incessantly.
        The  q,uestion  is a little different  ia the 15th Psalm.       You see, we are confronted with a great deal. God,
     There ,we read in substance: Who is going to spend              His Word, the world, our neighbor, ourselves, in short,
     eternity in heaven? What kind of `person must you be everything. And the heart reacts. In any given cir-
     in order to fit into the heavenly scheme of things?             cumstance there is the speech of the heart. There may
        Oh what important question !                                 be little time between the inaudible whisper in the
        Notice also that the question here is asked of God.          heart  and the spoken word: I assure you that there is
        That is very salutary ; also very wisely done. It no such ,thilng as "involuntary speech", that is, speech
     is really the only place where you may expect the right         without its fountain. We sometimes counsel people
     answer. No one knows who fits there but the Lord.               to  "thmk  before you speak". What we mean is: think
     After all is said and done, heaven is the place where           ,well   befoxe you speak. In all other cases we have
     God dwells  and therefore He alone knows what kind              thought but not always as wisely as we ought to have
     of persons fit there.                                           done.
        It seems that the poet gets his answer from a medi-             Well, those that will dwell in the holy hill Zion must
     tation of  &d's virtues. He asks of the Lord: Lord,             think and speak truth in their heart. They must re-
     who fits there where Thou livest? And forthwith he act to the object in the right way.
     finds the answer. In his heart and mind that is illum-             Ah ! that's not so easy ?
     ined by the light from above.                                      For there is the devil and our inborn evil.
        Let us attend unto the qualifications needed for                And the devil is the father of the lie and by nature
     heavenly sojourn and dwelling.                                  we are liars.
         If I use the literal language of the Holy Spirit I             However, God whose name is Truth will only have
     hear first of all that ,we must have our walk i,n upright-      those persons about Him who have Him in their heart.
     ness.                                                           Even while they are in sorrow: ?k Denk aan U, o God,
        That means that in my heart and mind, with my
     mouth and feet, in my who!e  life I walk in the virtue          in `t klagen !
     of truth and light. For that's the meaning. To be                  Or: My meditation of Him shall be sweet!
     upright means that I am what I say, that I appear ac-              The people that will fit in heaven do not take slan-
     cording to what lives in my inmost heart. That I be der on their tongue. That hurts. Slander is the lie
     honest throughout. Dat ik niet tegenval.                        united to the person of our neighbour. A&nd we peddle
         The upright are people that really like you when            this unity under the name of truth. We wrap up the
     you may bask in  thei*r smile. Do they tell you that a good name of our neighbour in the detestable garment
     certain matter is such and such, you may depend                 of falsehood and say: there you have his picture.
     upon this matter to be so. There are no  shad,ows  and              If you do that you cannot go to heaven. Because
     dark corners in their walk. The opposite of upright- God never acts that way. We read in Scripture that
     ness is that you have a curse in your heart and a smile         everyone of us shall bear his own burden i$n the day
     on your face. When you say by the half-opened door:             of judgment. Permit me to use another  meta;hor:
     "Be sure and call again !" but when the door is shut :          when God shall summon us before Him, each of us
     "Wel, dat hebben we weer gehad! The fools !"                    shall be clothed  hn a suit that shall belong to him. God
         No, but the upright may dwell in heaven with God always speaks the truth regarding His creatures.
     and His angels.                                                    And if you take a reproach against your neighbour

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

which you may have picked up somewhere, you cannot man and you will see that Jesus is the only man. We
dwell with God.                                                   have  all acted the very contrary of Psalm 15.
       God only knows how many reproaches there are                   And I hear an eoho of the fearful question of the
against us. I say it'with a deep sigh. Wa'k ever so               disciples of Jesus : But  wsho then can be saved?
carefully and yet you hurt one another, you make                      The answer is also the Gospel everlasting: Jesus
enemies, you get haters of your person. There are did all this for you and when you are regenerated and
innumerable reproaches against us all. Neither are converted, He also does all the contents of the fifteenth
there persons lacking that will peddle them. Leave                Psalm through you.
them alone! Always belittling? Yes, do  ,not multiply                That is the Gospel.
the mudslingers ! Their number is legion as it is. And                Jesus who lives in us makes us like unto the glori-
God does not like you if you always are heaping                   ous image of the Son.
abuse and contempt against the son of your mother.                    You just study the 15th Psalm as the day is long.
Ie will not have you in the palaces of the King.                      And we all, with an open face beholding as in a
    As to verse  4a, I like the translation of the learned        glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same
Delitzsch better than our version. According to him               image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the
the next characteristic of the sojourner with God is              Lord !
displeased indeed, but with himself. He would have us                 And when that sanctifying `process is completed,
read : "He ~who is displeasing in his own eyes, to be             you will not recognize yourselves anymore.                    Your
despised !"       Yes, God loves the humble. He that              weeping  wi!l have an end. While your peace shall be
humb!~eth himself shall be exalted, even to the heavens.          as a river.
       And if he *notices  that you fear God he will love you.        No, you  twill `not recognize the erstwhile sinner
He is a  ,companion  of those that, fear God.                     in the glorious beauty of the sons and daughters of the
       It happens that he has made a vow. It was to his Almighty.
own hurt. This he found out after the vow ,was made.                  But God will recognize you !
Y$ou know, reader, from your own life's history that                 \He will say : Come, ye blessed ! Inherit the King-
this happens sometimes. Well, the man approved of dom.
God, but listen:
          "From his vow he will not waver                             Now  you may abide in My tabernacle; and now you
            Though it bring him sad reward !"                     `mall cLwell  in `my ho@ hill!                         G. V.
       For God's sake.
       This same man may have a good deal of money ;
perhaps he was a small-time fmancier.  This happens                                            -
sometimes, although nut often. At any rate, the man
sojourning in God's tabernacle will not take excessive
interest for his money. Usury is excessive interest.                              WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
It is even possible that he will help a poor lb'rother  in                                   1995  - 1940
distress *without  charging interest. He will treat every             On May 17, the Lord willing, our dear parents
case an its own merits. And when he discloses his                                      MR. I. KORHORN
money coffers he will cast his eye to Him who owns                                              #and
all the gold and silver in the world.                                            MRS. H. KORHORN - Zylema
       It will happen that the innocent is caught i,n a trap hope to commemorate their 35th wedding anniversary. We,
of the wicked. These wicked have need at such times               their children extend to them our heartiest congratulations,
of confederates. They are ready even to lay out money,            .and thank our heavenly Father  t&t he has spared them for
bribes, in order to have an open and shut case against            each other and for us.
the i~nnoeent.                                                        In thankful remembrance do we acknowledge these bless-
    But, my brother, do not worry over much: our so-              ings. It is our earnest prayer that the Lord will spare them
journer with God will refuse the bribe  again& the for each other and us for many more years.
innocent. He will: "And the innocent befriending".
    The beautiful creature that do&h all these things                                   Their Grateful Children,
shah not be moved uato all eternity. No, for he will                                                Mr. and Mrs. M. Veenstra
dwell in the Secret Place of the Most High, abiding                                                 Mr. and Mrs. G. Korhorn
under the shadow of the Almighty.                                                                   Mr. and Mrs. B. Korhorn
    My space is almost covered: 11 must hnrry.  Well,                                               Mr. and Mrs. J. Kuiper
a few concluding remanks are enough.                                                                Henrietta Korhorn .
    There is just one man who fits this description. He                                             Elizabeth Florence Korhorn
is J,esus Christ the Lord. If you have plenty of time                                               (and Afteen  Grandchildren.
you ought to re-read what I have written about this                   Grand Rapids, Mich.


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            375
                                                                                           I-
                      Holy Desire                              must learn the hard way in that these things must be-
                                                               come more and more of no account. That they are
                                                               obstacles in his relation with God and His service,
                                               Ps. 27 :4.      if we seek after them  and desire them. They may
     One thing.                                                never .be the purpose of life.
     Remarkable, because man desires many things.                  One thing have I desired and One thing I will seek
  He may seem satisfied with a few, but when he is asked       after. And that one thing is God.
  about it will answer not one, but I will desire all             Is this perhaps a sickly mysticism? Speaking of
  thin@.                                                       his desire, the poet uses figurative language. I desire
     That is peculiar, when that  littIe heart of ours         of  t,he Lord one thing. My desire is to  dweIl in the
  can never be  filled, even if we possess all things. !b.ouse   of the Lord all the days of my life.                  And I
  Things that often are harmful, man I?rants. One thing desire to behold the Lord's beauty and to enquire in
  `to desire is to do away with all other things. When         His temple. Did David mean to say, I desire to live in
  all is dsired it means that man does not desire God.         the tabernacle? Our answer is, no! This would be
  He depends upon the things as such. In daily life he misplaced, because no one lived in the Temple of the
  craves for and seeks after the goods of this world. Lord, nor in His tabernacle. The only one who lived
  A great name or the abundance of riches will be his there was the Lord  IHimself. Hence,  we' must not
  security in this  life. He seeks his refuge in minute degrade this holy desire and make something earthy
  alculations,  depending upon them. He seeks the help         of it. The expression `to  dweIl in the house of the
  of others who must help him, in order that he may Lord', is not a desire for an unbroken residence in
  maintain himself. And he seeks all tiaese  without God,      the natural sense of the word. Neither is David seek-
  `)eeause  God is not in a11 his thoughts.                    ing a certain well-known seclusion. He does not de-
                                                               sire to live an idle life, giving  himseIf to some  so-
     0 yes, he seeks also one thing and in all things one :    called mystical contemplation. Nor .may that be our
  MAN. Hence, he must be disappointed. For the                 desire. Some peopIe  have tie foolish notion that do
  things pass away and he passes away with them.               dwell with the Lord means, to forget all about the
  How dreadfu1  in the days of trouble, when all things        earthly duties as they must be performed in harmony
  are seemingly against us. Things as such cannot help `with the Word of God. You will find them in town
  and they are not peace-affording. You are not safe           while they must be busy on their farm. You find
  <with them, especially not if you depend on and lean         tihem  speaking about the spiritual (?) things, while
  on them.                                                     they neglect their work, or, while they should be at
     David speaks of  R7!is troubles in this `Psalm. He        ,work  they prefer to sit at home to meditate ( ?) .
  speaks of the wicked who were encamped round about              But David does not know of such false pretences
  him. He speaks of the evil day, of armies and wars,          of worship. David was a very busy man and knew
  of false witnesses, of men who rose up against him.          that he must perform the duties assigned unto him.
  It was the time of trouble, the time he looked for           That sort of religion is a waste.
  refuge, a place where he may hide himself against              No, David did not wish to separate himself from
( the storm.                                                   the rest of the world. He was  t.he  King of Israel
     One thing have I desired. The One and Only God            and called to execute his kingly duties. He had to
  is my rock and my hiding place. And that One is              fight the batt'es  of Jehovah. But David found in the
  Jehovah, `Unchangeable and ever faithful Covenant            typical expression of the Temple, the spiritual desire
  One. In Him David will trust, for He is Almighty,            of his soul. God  dweIt  with His people, in that Jehovah
  able and willing to protect, never failing, because          dwel,t in the tabernacle. In the Holy place, through the
  there is no power besides Him. Who shall oppose              Priesthood, Jehovah received their sacrifices. And
  God Almighty, the Father of His people, Who cares            even the furniture of the Temple and tabernacle were
  for them, because He loved them from before the              a reminder of the fact that the Lord was their God.
  foundation of the world?                                     He dwelt with them, He provided for them, He was
     Terouble  and affliction are the means to drive us        their light and salvation. And once  each year the
  out to Him. It is often the hard way we must learn High Priest entered behind the veil to bring the sin-
  this truth. In the life of the Christian we often find       offering, to reconcile the people with God and in re-
  the same earthly aspirations in that he seeks the things turning from the innermost sanctuary, he pronounced
  here belolw.  He often depends upon them at the ex-          the blessing of the Lord in Jehovah's Name.
  pense of seeking the One and only thing, God. He                Hence, that Temple was a type to David of the
  often concentrates on the thin'gs  of the earth, until       blessed covenant communion. Preaching to him, God
  they are taken away from him and he finds himself            is the friend of His people, He loves them and blesses
  alone, helpless, forsaken, enveloped in darkness. He         them and His people are His friends, they know and

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

love Him, they serve and walk with Him in His thing. David, the man of knowledge of himself, knew
light.                                                       how often he had sought after many things. Read his
       To dwell in the house of the Lord means, to know Psalms and one swill find confession upon confession
God as the Only Rock of Salvation, who through sover- of his seeking of t!he many things, instead of the one.
eign grace forgives the sins of His people. Who sanzti- And his desires were not holy. Think of the number-
ties, glorifies them and leads and #protects them over       ing of the people, of his sin with Bathsheba, the killing
against all their enemies, no matter how mi.ghty they        of  Uriah. We do not need to enumerate them all, for
may seem. David means to say, that God is my Rock            tih.ey  are well known. But this confession is followed
and place vf shelter.                                        by the earnest desire to get rid of the many things and
                                                             seek only one, the Lord. Opposites can never be recon-
       This presupposes in the second place, that David      ciled. This was true of David. Notice, David does
knew Him to be  j&is God. That he loved the Lord,            not say, I shall try, or I will do my best to enquire
believed in Him. And that, in connection  with his after God. Nay,  I will, I will, not I wish. In this
troubles the Lord would take care of David and his           word we find, the combination of prayer and worlk.
enemies. Note how David makes this a personal de-            David was such a man, that after he prayed he took
sire. That  I may dwell in the  .house  of the Lord.         action. A heartfelt confession will be the beginning
That I may experience His nearness. Here, of course, of a tremendous struggle. A stru,ggle that will be o&y
David means that he may know that  the Lord is near          possible in. the way of prayer. On the other hand,
him. This implies, not that the Lord is not always           after such prayers persistent actions will become mani-
near  this people. He is always near them. But His           fest in one's life. The heart of David went out after
people are not always near Him. Not aware of His             one thing, the Lord. The life of David revealed it, that
presence, when they' walk in sin and unbelief. Not           it was not merely vain talk.
near Him when they seek the things of the -world> Not
near Him when they place their trust in all kinds of            David will seek after it. Seek to find, of course.
things, but not in the Lord. Not near Him, when              But also that it is a confession of  this other fact "God
seemingly, the possession of earthly riches, their name,     must give it". In the full realization of one's own
tih.eir  money, their  beIongings,  take their time and      unworthiness a man will be bold to say, I twill enquire,
when they are quite well satisfied with them, living as      that is, I will seardh  after the one thing. Then he will,
if  they:are  never going to die. No, but al! the days       through prayer become bold in his confession and at
of my life. That is, in all I do and wherever I find         the same time seek after with all his might. Moreover,
myself, I desire to dwell with the Lord and do His bid- this is not simply a statement of fact, nor a well-round-
ding. To dwell in His presence, consciously.                 ed out theory, but the expression of the feeling of the
       One thing. For what purpose? David answers:           heart. The desire is here  a  need of life (levensnood) ,
"To behold  t!he beauty of the Lord". The Lord is            without which the seeking becomes a mere matter of
beautiful. No, not for man as he is by nature. God           spee&. Or to say it a little different, David want to be
is terrible for the sinner to behold. There is no kind- sure of and to rejoice in God's presence and that at
ness revealed to him and there cannot be a dwelling          the expense of all other things. He wants God, be-
swith the Lord in Covenant friendship relation. His          cause apart from God the other things have no value.
divine holiness is a devouring fire, to those' who seek      And even while David was King, mighty and rich, yet
all  tihings except the Lord. But to His people the          the glory and wealth of his kingdom, the g'ory and
Lord. is beautiful. Beautiful in that He is good and         honor given him, the victory over the enemies in their
holy and righteous. As such He reveals Himself in subjection to his rule,  bwere nothing compared with
and through Jesus Christ. That He cannot and will            G o d .
not have communion with sin and sinner, except when             So it is always, for every one fearing the Lord.
those sins are paid for and forgiven in the blood of         Xntinually they must be on .their guard not to lose
His Son. Then and then alone, God looks good to man.         tlhemselves in the things of the world. It is the com-
Never  before will anyone say, God is good. When the mon admonition throughout Scripture, not to seek the
covenant relation is restored, man will admire God as        world and the things thereof. And it is also one of the
the Highest good and will confess that .God's virtues        most common sins of the Church to forget the warning
are perfect. They admire His love, grace,  .wisdom,          that the world and  tie things thereof perish and shall
His power and Majesty. He is beautiful in that He            pass away. Hence, this confession of the holy desire
forgives their sins.     And only in His Temple His          of David is at the same time the admonition to the
people will see that.                                        Church "one thing must she desire of the Lord, His
       One thing. But all the days of my life.               presence, to seek after His communion, to  beho!d His
       No, it does not mean, that this is so easy. Don't     beauty, all the days of her life and to enquire after it
forget, by implication, we also  (have here a confession.    in His temple.
The confession is, I have not always sought after one                       I                               w. v.


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           3197

    Against The Day Of My Burying                                 isolated and personal as in their public and world-wide
                                                                  bearings and issues that He was contemplating them ;
                                                                  nor had the contemplation any such effect as to make
                 Then took Mary a pound of ointment of            Him less attentive to the side of thought and feeling
               spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet      prevailing among His disciples, or less ready to be
               of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair:        interested in those who, ltie Dartimeus  and Zacheus,
               and the house was filled with the odour of         threw themselves in His way.
               the ointment. Then saith ,one of his disciples,       In coming down into the valley of the Jordan, Jesus
               Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should be-      had joined the large and growing stream of people
               tray him, Why was not this ointment sold for       from the north and east, passing up to the approacrh-
               three hundred pence,  -and given to the poor?      ing Passover. There would be many Galileans among
               This he said, not that he cared for the  poor;     the group who had not seen Him now for many
               but because he was a thief, and had the bag,       months, and who, if they had not heard of it before,
               and bare what was put therein. Then said           must have  !heard now at Jericho of all that had
               Jesus, Let her alone:  agdnst the day of my        happened at the two preceding feasts of Tabernacles
               burying hath she kept this. For the poor al-       and Dedication, of His last great miracle at Bethany,
               ways ye have with you; but me ye have not          of the great excitement that had been created, and
               always.                                            of the resolution of the Sanhedrin to put Him to death.
                                             John 12:3-8.         And now He goes up to face these rulers, to thlrow
   In the whole bearing and conduct of Jesus in and               Himself, as they fancy, upon the support of the people,
about Jericho there was much .to indicate that some               to unfold the banner of a new kingdom, and call on all
great crisis in His history was at .hand. It does not rHis followers to rally around it. His Galilean friends
surprise us to be told of the disciples *believing "that heartily  #go in `with what they take to be His design ;
the kingdom of God should immediately appear." It they find the people generally concurring in and dis-
swas because He knew that  they were so misconceiving posed to further them. One can imagine what was
the future that lay before Him and them, that, either thought and felt, and hoped and feared, by  tihose
in the house of Zacheus, or afterwards on the way to              who accompanied Jesus as He left Jericho. A  !few
Jerusalem. Jesus addressed to them the parable of the             hours walks would now carry Him and them to the
Pounds.' He *would  have them know, and could they                metropolis.    It was Friday, the eighth day of their
but have penetrated the meaning of that parable they Jewish  month Nisan. The next day was Saturday,
would have seen, that so far from any such kingdom as their Jewish sabbath. On the Thursday following the
they were  drmming  of being about to  be-set  up for lamb was to be slain, and the Passover festival com-
them in Jerusalem, He was going through the dark mence. The great Ibody of the travelers press on, to
avenue in Jerusalem. He was going through the dark get into the town before the sun set, when the sabbath
avenue of death to another, to a far country, to receive          commences.      Jesus and, IHis disciples turn aside at
the kingdom there, and after a long interval return ;             Bethany,  where the house of, Martha and Mary and
and that, so far from them being about to share the               Lazarus stands open to receive them. Here in this
honors and rewards of a newly erected empire, they                peaceful retreat the next day is spent, a quiet sabbath
were to be left without a head, .eadh man to occupy               for our Lord before entering on the turmoil of the
aand to labor till He came again. Another  parable, that next few days.               The companions of His last day's
of the laborers in the Vineyard, spoken but a day or              journey have in the meantime passed into Jerusalem.
two before, had an kindred object+was  intended to                It is already thronged with those who had come up
check the too eager and ambitious thirst (for the dis-            from the country to purify themselves for the feast.
tinctions and recompeaces that the  apostles imagined             With one and all  the engrossing topic is Jesus of
were on the eve of being dispensed. The addressing Nazareth.                     <Gathering in the courts of the temple,
of two such parables as these to His disciples, with the they  a& about Him, they hear what had occurred;
specific object of rectifying what He knew to be their they find that `%otlh the chief priests and the Pharisees
false ideas and expectations, the (readiness with which had given a commandment, that if any man knew where
He listened to the cry of the blind beggars by the way-           He was, he should show it, that they might take Him."
side, and tie interest that He took in the chief of the           What in the face of  such an order, will. Jesus do?
publicans, conspire to show how far from a mere nar-              "What think ye," they say to one another, "that He
row or selfish one was the interest with which Jesus will not come to the feast?" But now they hear from
looked forward to what was awaiting  tHim at Jeru- the newly arrived from Jericho that He is coming,
salem. During the two days' journey through Peraea means to <be at the feast, is already at Bethany. They
through Jericho to the holy city, His thoughts were hear that Lazarus, the man whom He so recently had
often and absorbingly fixed upon --His  approaching               raised from the dead, is also there. He may not ihave
sufferings and death, but it was not so much in `their been there till now. He may have, accompanied Jesus

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

to Ephraim, or chosen some other place  of temporary her deed. Cold and searching and jealous eyes are
retreat, for a bitter em&y  had sprung up against him upon her, chiefly those of one who never had any
as well as against Jesus. "The chief priest had con- cordial love to Jesus, who never had truly sympathized
sulted that  they might put Lazarus also to death,          with the ,homage `rendered Him, wlhu held the bag, had
because that by reason of him many of the Jews              got himself appointed keeper of the small purse they
believed on Jesus".      Whether he had retired for a had in common, who already had been tampering with
ti,me or not, Lazarus is. now  dat  Bethany.  Many, un-     the trust, and greedily filching from the narrow stores
able to restrain their curiosity, go out to the village,    committed to <hihis care. Love, so ardent, consecration,
"not for Jesus' sake only, but that they  Iy1Jgih.t  see so entire, sacrifice, so costly, as that of Mary, he could
Lazarus also". It was but a short distance, not  muoh       not appreciate. He disliked it, condemned it; it threw
more thlan the Sabbath-day's journeys. During this such a reproach by contrast upon  his own feeling and
day, while Jesus and Lazarus are there together, many conduct to Christ. And now to his envious, avaricious
visitors go forth to feast their eyes upon  tihe sight,     spirit it appears that he had good ground for censure.
and on returning to quicken the excitement among He had been watting the movements of Mary,  had
the multitude.                                              seen her bring forth the phial, had measured its size,
       It was on the evening of the Saturday, when the      had gauged the quantity, estimated the quality, and
Sabbath was over, and the next, the first day of the        calculated the value of its contents. And now he
week, had begun, tlhat they made Jesus a supper in the turns to his fellow'disciples,  and Whispers in their ears
house of Simon, who once had been a leper, some near        the indivious question, "my was not this ointment
rek&ive  in all likelihood vf the  ,family  of Lazarus, and sold for three hundred pence, and `given to the poor?"
Jesus sits at this feast between the one  Iwhom  He had     Three hundred pence, equal to the hire of a laborer for
cured of his leprosy and the other whom He had raised       a whole year, - a sum capable of relieving many a
from the dead. Martha serves. She had not so read           child of poverty, or ibringing relief to many a house of
the rebuke before administered to  lher as to believe that want. Had Judas got the money into his own hands,
serving- the thing that she most hked, to which her instead of being all lavished on this act of outward
disposition and her capabilities at once prompted her attention, had it  ibeen thrown into the common stock,
-was in itself unlawful or improper, that her only          it would have been upon the  poor that. it should
duty was to sit and listen. But she had so profited *by have been spent. He would have managed that no
the rebuke that, concerned that she is that all due         small part of the money should have had. a very differ-
care be taken that this feast be well got through, she      ent direction. given to it. But it serves his mean
turns now no jealous look upon her sister, leaves Mary malicious object to suggest that such might have been
without murmuring or reproach to do as she desires.         its destination. And by his craft, which has a show
And Mary seizes the opportunity now given. She has          in it of a wise and thoughtful benevolence, he draws
not now Jesus to herself. She cannot as in the privxy       more than one of his fellow-apostles along with him,
of her own dwelling, sit down at His feet to listen to      so that not loud but deep, the murmuring runs around
the gracious words coming from His lips. But she            the table, and they say to one another, "To what
has an alabaster  phial of fragrant ointment--her cost-     purpose is this waste?     This ointment might have
liest possession-one treasured up for some unknolwn been sold for so much, and given to the poor."
lbut great occasion. That occasion has arrived. She            Mary hears the murmuring, sees the eyes of one
gets it, brings it, approaches Jesus as He sits reclining and another turned <askance and condemningly upon
at the table, pours part of its contents upon His head,     her, shrinks under the  destractin,g  criticism of the
and resolves that its whole contents shall be expended Lord's own apostles, begins to wonder whether she
upon this office. She compresses the yielding material may not have done something wrong, been guilty of a
of  w,hich   .the  phial was composed, breaks it, and pours piece of extravagance which even Jesus may perhaps
the last drop of it u.pon His feet, flinging away `the      condemn. It had been hard for her before to bear the
relics of the broken vessel, and wiping His feet with reproach of the twelve. But neither then nor now did
her hair. Kingly guests at royal banquets could not she make an answer, offer any defense  of. herself.
have had a costlier homage of the kind rendered to          She did not need to. She had one to do that office for
him.      That Mary had in her possession so  r&h  a her far better that she could have done it for herself.
treasure may be accepted as one of the many signs           Jesus' is there to throw the mantle of His protection
that her family was one of the wealthiest in the vil-       over her, to explain and to vindicate her deed. "Let
lage. That she now took and spent the whde of it            her alone," He said,  `<why trouble ye the woman? she
upon Jesus, was but a final expression of the fulness       hath wrought a good work upon me." He might have
and the intensity of her devotion and love.                 singled out the first adverse criticiser  of Mary's act,
       Held hidden behind the Saviour's reclining form, the suggester and propagator of the censorious juclg-
she might have remained  unnoticed, but the fragrant ment that was making its round of the table. Then
adour  rose and aled the house, and drew attention to and' there he might expose the ;hollowness,  the hype-


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                      379
                                                                                                                   .-
 crisy  of the  pretence  about his  carin.g  for the poor,    donations on behalf of some strictly religious enter-
 upon which the condemnation of Mary was based.                prise were spoken of, to condemn them off-hand on
 And doing so, He might have made the others blush the one ground, that it would have been much better
 that they had given such ready ear to a speech that           had the money been bestowed upon the poor.
 such a mean and malignant spirit had first broached.             It is, however, as has already been said, upon some-
 He did not do this, at least He said nothing that had         what narrower ground that Christ vindicates the act
 any peculiar and exclusive reference to Judas. But of Mary. It was one of such personal attention to Him
 there must have been something in our Lord's manner, as could be shown to Him only while He was present
 -a look perhaps, such as He bent afterwards upon in the flesh. "The poor," said He, "ye have with you
  Peter in the judgment hall,-that let  Ju,das know always, and whensoever ye will, ye may do them good,
 that before Jesus he stood a detected thief and hypo- lbut me ye have not always." Further still, it was one
 crite. And it was not to weep bitterly that he went           that but chance only in all His earthly life couId  be
 forth from that supper, but with a spirit so galled           shown to Jesus, for "in that she hath poured this oint-
 and fretted that he took the earliest opportunity that ment on Me, she is come beforehand to anoint My body
 occurred to him to commune with the  chlief priests for the burial." Had Mary any definite idea that she
 and the temple guard as to how :he might betray his           was doing beforehand what Joseph and Nicodemus
  Master, and deliver Him into their hands.                    would have no time and opportunity for doing, what
     Loosing sight of him, let us return to Christ's           the two other Mary's would go out to do to lind on-y
 defence  of Mary. "She hath done a good work," he             that the need for its being done was over and gone?
 said, " a noble work, one not only far from censure,          It may be assuming too much for her to believe that
 but worthy of all praise. She had done it unto Me,            with a clearer insight and a simpler faith in what
 done it out of pure love-a love that will bring the           Jesus had said than had been yet reached by any of
 best, the costliest thing she has, and think it no waste,     the twelve, she anticipated the death and burial of her
 but rather its fittest, worthiest application, to bestow master ,was  near at hand. But neither can we think
 it upon me." Upon that  `ground alone, upon His indi- that she acted without some vague presentiment' that
 vidual claims as compared with all others, Jesus might she was seizing upon a last opportunity, that the days
 well have rested His vindication of Mary's act. Nay,          of such intercourse with Jesus were drawing to an
 might He not have taken the censure of her as a dis- end. She knew the perils to which He would be ex-
 paragement of Himself? All these His general clai~ms, posed whenever He entered Jerusalem. She had heard
 -which go to warrant the highest, costliest, most  self-      Him speak of His approaching sufferings and death.
 sacrificing services that an enthusiastic piet can eren-      To others the words might appear to be without mean-
 der,-He in this instance is content to waive, fixing ing, or only to be allegorically interpreted, but the
 upon the peculiarity of His existing ,position  and the quick instinct of her deeper love had refused to regard
 specialty of the peculiar service that she had rendered, them so, and they had filled her bosom with an infinite
 as supplying of themselves an ample justification of dread.               The nearer the time for loosing, the more
 the deed that had  ibeen condemned. The claims of intense Ibecame  the clinging to Him. Had she believed
  the poor had been set up, as if they stood opposed to as the others around her did, had she looked forward
  any  surh expenditure of property as that made by to a speedy triumph of Jesus over all His enemies,
  Mary in the anointing of the Saviour. It was open .and to the visible erection of ,His kingdom, would she
~ to Christ to say that it was an altogether' needless, have chosen the time she did for the anointing? Would
  false, injurious conflict thus sought to be stirred  up,- she not have reserved to a more appropriate to the
  as if to give to Him, to do anything, for Him, were crowning of a new monarch than the preparing of
  to take so much from the poor; as if no portion of the a living body for the tomb? In speaking as He did,
  great fund of the church's wealth was available for any Jesus may have been only attributing to Mary a fuller
  purely devout -and religious purpose till all the wants      understanding of and a simpler faith in His own
  of the poor were met and satisfied-the wants, be it prophetic utterances than that possessed at the time
  remembered, of such a ikind that though we supplied          by any of His disciples. Such a conception of her
  them all today, would emerge in some new form to-            state of mind would elevate Mary to a still higher
  morrow-wants which it is bilmpossible  so to deal with       pinnacle than that ordinarily assigned to her, and
  as wholly permanently to relieve. He is no enlightened we can see no good reason for dou,bting  that it was
  pleader for the poor who would represent them and            even so.
  their necessities as standing in the way of the indul-          But it does not require that we should ass&n to her
  gence of those warm impulses of love to Christ, out of any such pre-eminence of faith. It was the intensity of
  which princely benefactions, as well as many a deed          the personal attachment to Jesus that her act ex-
  of heroic selfsacrifice, cerping,  disparaging,-has often pressed which drew down upon it the enconium of the
  even crept into the Christian society, and men bear-         Lord. Thus He had to say of it what He could say
 qing the name of Jesus have often been ready, when of so few single services of any of His followers-that


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in it she did what she could, did all she could-in
that direction there was not a step further that she                                I So Run
could have taken. Of all like ways and forms of ex-
pressing attachment there was not a higher one that                         Know ye not that they which run in a race
she could have chosen. Her whole heart of love went                       run all, but one receiveth the prize. So run
out in the act, and therefore Jesus said of it, "Verily                   that ye may obtain.      And every man that
I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be                          striveth for the mastery is temporate in all
preached throughout the whole world, this also that she                   things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible
hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her,"-                     crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore
the one and only case in which Jesus ever spoke of the                    so run, not as uncertainly;  83 fight I, not as
after  .earthly  fame of any service rendered to Him,                     one that beateth the air; But I keep under my
predicting for it such a wide-spread  ireputation  and                    body land bring it into subjection: lest that `by
such an undying remembrance. Thus said Chrysostom,                        any means when I have preached to others,  I
when discoursing upon this instance, "While the vic-                      myself should be a castaway.
tories of many kings and generals are lost in silence,                                                 1 Cor.  9:24-27.
and many who have founded  states and reduced nations
to subjection, are not known by reputation or by name,        I so run, declared the apostle. He refers to the
the <pouring  of ointment Iby this woman is celebrated     race set before him and his brethren by the Lord.
throughout the whole world. Time hath passed away, To bring this race i&o sharp relief, he avails himself
but the memory of the deed she did hath not waned          of a figure taken from the Greek game of  running-
away. But Persians and Indians  and.Scythians  and match. There are in a purely formal sense certain
Thracians, and the race of the.Mauritanians, and they points of convergence between the Christian race and
who inhabit the British Isles, publish abroad an act the aforesaid Greek game. The Greek athlete ran
which was done in  Judea privately in a house by a with a view to obtaining a crown ; so, too, the believer.
woman".       Fourteen hundred years have passed and       During some months that preceded the race, the Greek
.gone,  since in the great church of St. Sophia at Con- athlete would be temporate in all things. The believer
stantinople, Chrysostom uttered these words, refer- keeps under his body and brings it into subjection.
ring to the British Isles, as one of the remotest places Only one of all the athletes who participated, obtained
of the then known world. The centuries that have the prize. Only some of those who run the Chr,istian
rolled by since then have witnessed many a revolution.     race obtain the crown.
Sti.1 wider and wider is the tale of-Mary's an0intin.g        This agreement however is purely formal. There
of her master being told, the fragrance of the ointment is an essential difference between the Christian race
spreading, yet loosing nothing of icts sweetness, such and the race of the Greek athletes. He, of the latter,
fresh vitality, such self-preserving power, lodging in     who gained the mastery, received a corruptible prize.
a simple act of pure and fervid love.                      The crown, which the believers obtain, is incorruptible.
       One single parting glance let us cast upon our      There is essential difference between this <preliminary
Savioer  as He spresents  Himself to our eye upon this     engagement of the Greek athlete-an engagement that
occasion. He sits at a festive board. tHe is surrounded consisted in keeping under his body-and the same
,by men looking joyously forward to days and years of action as done by the believer. Tit all means that the
success and triumph. But He knows what they do not Christ,ian  race is the reality.
-that on that day of the week His body will be lying          "I so run. . .  ."     Consider that the apostle was
in the new-made sepulchre.       And He accepts the a minister of the gospel, the shepherd of sheep. With
anointing at Mary's hand as preparing His body for         great boldness he can admonish his brethren, the
the burial. He sits the invited guest of a man who         sheep, to so run that they might obtain, as he so runs.
had been a leper, surrounded in that village home by So then, what we have to do with here is an admonition
a few humble followers. With serene eye :he looks          of a pastor who can say that he does the thing he bids
down into the future, and abroad over the earth, and his sheep to do, that he will to be bound by the word
speaks of it as a thing of certainty that this Gospel-     with which he comes to them. IHe is a shepherd, there-
the Gospel of glad tidings of salvation in His name-       fore, who can direct the minds of the sheep to his per-
was to be preached throughout the whole world. Zf it son and say, Do as I do. So run that ye."may obtain.
be true that Jesus thought and felt and spoke and          Let us now direct our attention to the manner of Pam's
acted as the Evangelists represent Him as having running.
done that night, I do not seed to say how vain the            As has already been suggested, the apostle has be-
attempt to explain away His knowledge of the future,       fore his eye the race, set before us by the Lord. What
to reduce it to the dimensions of the highest human        is this Christian race? Wherein does the running
wisdom sagaciously anticipating what was afterwards consist? Can this race be known, singled out and  de-
to occur.                                G. M. 0.          .fined?  It surely can or how could it be run? This


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        381
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race can <be known as it is set before our eye by the way and is thus the first to encounter the thief who
Lord in His Word.  It was the sacred writer of the          cometh to steal and to kill and to destroy. And if he
Hebrews, who in the twelfth chapter of his epistle, be a good shepherd, he fleeth not when he sees the
admonished his readers to `run this race. A careful wolf coming, but holds `his grounds and lays down, if
study of the surroundings of this exhortation brings need be, his life for the sheep.
to light that this race is the aggregate of all that the       It was with a view to this race or course and the
child of grace experiences in this hostile  wor!d on running in it that the apostle werote to his brethren
account of his confessing the name of His Saviour at Corinth, Know ye not that they which run in a race
and of his witnessing for the truth. This race, is a run all, but one receiveth the prize? Of all those who
way or course of crossbearing, of suffering with run, there was one who first reached the goal. He
Christ and for the sake of His name, a way of trial only received the prize. The reason for the failure  '
of cruel mockings  and scourging-s, of bonds and im- of the others was that they had not sticiently  exerted
prisonment for some ; for others of being stoned, sawn themselves. The race had proven too exacting. Some
asunder, tempted, slain with the sword, of wandering had dropped exhausted by the  `way. Others, losing
about in sheepskins and goatskins, of being destitute, heart, had voluntarily given up the strife. In a word,
afflicted, tormented. For all it is a way.of  suffering. these others, for whatever reason, had not run proper-
`For it is a way of witnessing for the truth, of being ly, had not so run as to obtain.
strangers and pilgrims in the earth, of keeping H,is
commandments. But for this reason it is also a way             With these failures before his eye, the apostle, pass-
of walking with God, of -walking in the light of His ing in his mind from the figure to the reality, exhorted
countenance, of fellowship with Him, of  ,being kept  (by his brethren to so run that they might obtain. This
His power and thus a way of. spiritual triumph. For exhortation must imply that not all who run in this
consider that by faith the walls of Jerusalem fell down.    true race,  obtain. Someone may ask, is this possible?
By faith some in this course subdued kingdoms,              In view of the fact that all who run are children
wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the of God, must not all receive a crown?              Would not
mouths of lions,  guenched  the violence of  fie, escaped failure on the part of anyone of these mean that an
the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made elect one pe.rishes  ? But the saints persevere; Hence
strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned. to flight the all obtain.
armies of the aliens. Women received their dead               Now it is certain that all the elect receive a crown,
raised to life again;  Ibut-others were tortured. . . . which means that all these persevere to the end.
   This then is the course set before us. Did Christ There is a prize not merely for the lone runner, but
not say, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny for the many. And they all must obtain. Consider
himself, and take up his cross and. follow-  ame? This that the incorruptible prize forms the content of
cross is the symbol of suffering. We take it up and         Christian hope, of the promise ; that this hope, as an
follow Him. Whither? To the Father's house through anchor of the soul, lies buried, so to say, in the un-
fire and water.                                             :changeable  counsel of the Almighty. The crown was
   The running of this .race consists in living in that merited by C:hrist  for all true Christian athletes. All
particular place of this earth where the Lord stations      without a single exception must therefore obtain.
us, from the principle of faith and in agreement with The crown is  thei,rs.        To it they have a right that
His Word.. Every one occupies a place in this earthy,       cannot be disputed; for with Christ they w,ere cruci-
in the state, in society, in the church. The place of fied, buried, risen and set in heaven  w.here  they were
the minister of the Gospel in the congregation of Christ blessed with all spiritual blessings. This crown is
is that of the servant of the Word. And the will of theirs so that they run not to merit but to dbtain.
God for him is that as constrained by love of Christ Their grant upon it is a gift of grace. And they run
he declare the full counsel of God, properly divide the in the power of their Saviour.
Word, take home to his own heart the truth he pro-             But is there not danger of any of their  nu$mber
claims to others and thus crown his confession with a being destroyed by the wolves among whom they are
godly conversation. Doing so, he confesses Christ's sent  ,before  the race is run and the goal reached?
name in the circle of his flock and thus runs the race      Have no fear. Even the  <race is a gift of grace. It
that is set before him, The minister of the  GospB          is one of the treasures merited; for unto them it is
must know that for him, too, the only way that leads        given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on
home is this-course of cross-bearing. He, too, must Him but also to suffer for His sake, having the same
suffer for the sake of the truth for which he witnesses. conflict. Hence no wolf may kill before the  race  is
330~ could it be otherwise. Consider that he is pastor, run: no wolf can kill before the goal is reached. For
keener of the sheep entrusted into his care, that the power of the adversary is Christ's. Without His
thus he is in duty bound to station himself at the head will, it cannot  .destroy.  When the destroyer kills,
of his flock and run the race. He therefore leads the the race has been run, the prize ogtained and the


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spiritual athlete is translated into a Messed eternity.     does this self-discipline consist? And the answer of
It is utterly impossible for these not to so run that       the apostle, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly ;
they obtain. However not all who run are true child- so fight I, not as one that  ,beateth the air: but I
ren of God. There are the sham athletes whose run-          keep under my body, and bring it into subjection. . . .
ning is not true. Rightly considered they run not at           I so run, not as uncertainly. . . . He who so runs
all ; neither are they truly in the race on the course      is mice&in whether he would run at all. A firm re-
that leadeth  to the celestial city but on a way of cor-    solve is lacking to him. His frame of heart is that
ruption that ends in eternal night.                         of doubt. We /know from ordinary life the behaviour
       But seemingly they run. And as far as men can of a man who walks or runs in this state of mind.
judge, they run well, like the Pharisees of Christ's The man is on his way, let us say, to the-home of some
day, who made long prayers, compassed sea and land friend and the journey is perilous. So he is undecided
to make one proselyte, cast their gifts in the treasury whether or not to pursue his way to the end: Hence
of the temple,  payed tithe of mint, made clean the         his waIking  is sporadic. There is no spring to his
outside of the cup and the platter, built the tombs of      step. His feet lag as if of lead. He slackens his pace.
the prophets.      How. well  ,apparently  some of these From his mouth proceed strange mutterings. His
men at first do. They hear the word and anon with visage betokens a soul filled with reasonings. The
joy receive it. They say, Lord, Lord ; prophesy in His man debates with himself. And the issue debated
name, in IHis name cast out devils, and do many won-        is whether or no the journey shall be continued. The
derful works.       They are enlightened, taste of the      man cannot make up his mind, so he finally comes
heavenly gift, are made partakers of the  Hdy Ghost,        to a complete standstill and lies down beside the way,
taste the good word of God and the powers of the world a bundle of conflicting sentiments. The outcome is
to come. And yet they obtain no crown ; for they do that he Anally rises to his feet and makes for home.
not so run.                                                 It is reasonaMe  to assume th*at the behaviour of this
       It was with these runers  /before  :his eye, that the man finds its  expIanation  in the circumstance that'
apost!e  directed to his brethren the exhortation, Ye the home of his friend did not sufficiently attract,
know that they which run in a race run all, but one         that there were other `interests that pulled at the
receiveth the prize. Likewise they  w,ho run in the strings of his heart, that this pull was so strong as
spiritual race run all, but only some receive the crown to have  compIeteIy   broken down  his  ,morale  ; that
incorrupti,ble.  So run that ye may obtain. The apostle mental state and  mora1  condition which renders a
here addresses himself to the true children  of God,        man capable of endurance and of exhibiting courage in
the real spiritua1  athletes. These, as was said, must      the presence of danger.     This man walked as un-
obtain.     The certainty of this, however, does not certainly and the sub-soil of his imanner of conduct
render the exhortation with which we here have to do        was his double mind.
superfluous.     These true athletes have need of this         So there are spiritua1  athletes who run as uncer-
word. For though they must obtain, they can derive no tainly. They are the people of whom James wrote, the
comfort from this blessed necessity un'ess  they ,know      double minded men, unstable in all their ways, the
that they are truly Christ's. Will they know, they men with two faces and two hearts, who  thi,nk it pos-
must so run ; for it is only in combination with their sible to serve two masters, not considering that only
hallowed efforts that  t'e Spirit of God testifieth with    one of the masters can and is being actually loved.
their spirit that they are His children. Hence, they And the master loved is always mammon, the world.
must so run would they have this assurance.                 And the things upon  whic!h the affections are being
      But even the true  spirituai  athlete does not always set, are without exception the things on earth, not the
so run except in principle. For he has but a small be- things above. Rightly considered therefore they are
Tinning  of the true obedience. Sin still worketh in men with only one hart, a heart whose treasure-house
his members. When the ego joins the principle of sin, is this world. Is it to be wondered at that these men,
the body of this death prevails and the race is not though seemingIy  in the <race, do not so run, that the.
being properly run. This occurs. And though it is           deceitfulness of riches choke the word, so that they
God who causes them to depart from His ways, for become unfruitful ; that when tribulation or persecu-
God doeth all things, yet are they held accountable for tion ariseth because of the word, they are offended
their deflections. The admonition is thus needful and and take to cover and at the first opportunity rush
proper. The true athlete bears. As invigorated by back into the world and return like a sow that was
grace he runs with new seal.                                washed to their wallowing in the mire?
      So run therefore. The running must be properly           The apostle was not one of these. He walked as
done.      It must be accompanied  !by a certain  self- certainly. In this race, he exerted himself, bended every
discipline and frame of mind and heart if it be pro- effort, strained every muscle. Forgetting those things
perly done. What is this frame of mind? Wherein which are behind, he reached forth unto those things


                                     T.HE  S T A N D A R D '   B E A R E R                                      883
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which are before and pressed toward the mark for the all the members of this man sin operates, in the mind,
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. For will and affections. Through the physical organs of
he was a man .with one heart and the affections of that the soul sin attains to self-expression. Therefore it is
heart were set on the crown.  IHis treasure house was      written that the throat of man is an open sepulchre,
the sanctuary above. What things were gain to him that with his tongue he uses deceit, that the poison of
-his having been  circumcized  the eighth day,  .his       asps is under the lips, that his mouth is full of cursing
being of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,    and bitterness, that :his feet are swift to shed blood,
an Hebrew of the Hebrews, his being a Pharisee as          that destruction and misery is in his way, that the way
touching the law, his being blameless as touching the of peace he knows not, that there is -no fear of God
righteousness wjhich  is in the law, yea, all things-he' `>efore  his eye.
counted loss for the excellency of the knowledge of           But the apostle keeps under his body and brings it
Christ Jesus his Lord for whom he suffered the loss of     into service. It means that he smites `these members,
all things and did count them but dung, that he might      his eye, his ear, his hand and his feet and his will,
win  Ghrist.  . . . if by any means he might know Him mind and afl?ections whose organs these physical mem-
in the power of His resurrection of the dead. . . .        bers are and thus through the smiting of these mem-
   He ran as certainly ; for he was decided. The one bers mortifies his flesh, the old man of sin in him,
thing that had captivated his hallowed imagination ,with the result that sins grip weakens so that these
was the crown. The only interests that pulled at his       members, as released, the whole man as to body
heart were the interests of God. The only treasure Ihe and  SOL& are now set by the renewed, person of
possessed was in heaven. The only master he loved the spiritual athlete as instruments of Vrighteousness
and  se,rved  was Christ. There was a spring to his to God.
step. His feet had wings; for the reasonings of his           Wherein does. this buffeting consist. Not certainly
heart were, I must so run that may obtain. So he ran. in literally smiting the ear, the foot and the ear, but it
with patience the race that was set ,before  him, looking consists in saying to the eye when it would behold sin,
unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of his faith and to the ear when it would :hearken  unto the voice of sin,
considering that He for the joy that was set before to the mouth when it would curse, to the tongue when
Him endured the cross, despised the shame and was          it would sting, to the throat when it would emit the
set down at the right hand of the throne of God.           filth of that hidden sepulchre, to the feet when they
                                                           would swiftly run to shed blood, it  shall not be.  It
   The apostle so ran. Yet it must not be supposed consists, this buffeting of the body, in the new man
that he was not a man of like passions as we, that there setting himseIf against and crushing the evil thought,
was not to him a  body of this death  wi,th  which to desire, inclination and affection. But to this somethmg
contend, that thus he was a saint of such near perfec-     must be added.     Consider that, irrespective of how
tion that he fell completely outside our class. Sin also earnestly the spiritual athlete buffets his body, his
worked in his memibers. There was also to him a body complaint continues to be, For I know that in me (that
that had to be kept under and brought into subjection.     is in my flesh) clwelleth no good thing: for to will is
But the excellency of Paul the Christian'consisted  in present with me; but :how to perform. that which is
this that with all the hallowed vigor that was his, he     good, I know not. For the good that I would, I do
set himself against the man of sin in  `him. The reason not: kut the evil which I would not, that I do. Such
he so ran and ran so well is that in the power of God      was the complaint of Paul. If there are holiest men,
and by the grace of his Christ he disciplined with ever this is the kind of a saint that he was. This complaint
increasing earnestness that  !body of his.                 of his is the evidence that he knew self: and this  se'f-
   "But I keep my body under and bring it into             knowledge was the fruit of earnest heart-searchings.
service." The !XX& is not the same as the old man He knew his thoughts, :his desires, the imnulses  of self,
~of sin, for the latter is not brought into service but the motives from which actions spring. He (was aware
must be put off; nor are we to think here of- the flesh    that his most hallowed thoughts, his loftiest desires,
as it, too, must lbe mortified. However, the connection his  nobIest  impulses and best motives were so con-
between the body that is to be brou,ght  into service      taminated with the contagion of sin, so mixed with the
and the old man of sin is so close that when the former    issues of the flesh. Knowing self as he did, it was a
is buffeted the latter is  [being put off. The body of way ,with him to  rep&t constantly in dust and ashes,
which the apostle here speaks is the soul with its to hide himself in his Saviour, to petition the Throne
faculties together with the body and all its members       for power to carry on as spiritual athlete, to buffet
through which the soul functions. The soul sees ever more tellingly his body and to bring it into `sub-
through the eye, hears through the ear and casts its       jection. And we can imagine him resolving, "I will
thoughts in the framework of a human language hear the work-that Thou hast wrought, my eve will be
through the physical organs of speech. Now the entire continually upon Thee. My tongue shah declare thy
man, according to soul and body, is a slave to sin. In righteousness and thy .praise.  all the day. With my


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  feet  I  wil1  walk in wisdom's ways. I will lift up my which the Almighty casts  them"down  into eternal de-
  iand to Thy sanctuary. Thy righteousness will be the struction; the runners themse%s, for all their thoughts
  girdle of my loins: With thy gospel-. will I shod my are that there is no God.
  feet. Hope will be my helmet, and righteousness my                But as to Paul, as to the true Christian athlete, it
  breastpIate.  So did the Spirit of Christ resolve through is the man of sin upon whom he rains his blows. His
  him.       `.'                                                 desire is to be delivered of this man, for he loves God
     We?1  did Paul understand that Christ strove through and knows that only the pure of heart can see God.
  him, that if his. deliverance had to come forth from           Hence, he sanctifies- himself. He therefore beats not
  self, he was doomed, that his hope therefore was               the air. For Christ who combats through `him will
  Christ. The same man therefore who complained, 0               deliver him from the body of death, w,hen  the course
  wretched man that I am ; who shall deliver ,me from is run.
  the body of this death? also joyed,  I thank God through          So run that ye may obtain-a crown incorruptilble.
  Jesus Christ our Lord.                                         Bring into subjection the body. It is reasonable that
         This spiritual exercise, certainly,. forms an-import- you do so. For you run in a race. Even the children
  ant element in this abuffeting of the body.                    of the world `are temporate in all things to obtain a
                                                                 corruptible crown. Will we not buffet our  -bodies  to
         In the battle he waged*with  his body; Paul did not obtain the incorruptible prize. Such is the apostle's
  fight as one that lbeateth.  the -air. So the children of reasoning.
  the world fight. For, consider that, as.- has already             I so run. . . . lest that by any means, `when I have
  been suggested,. they, too, run in a  9 race on .a course      preached to others, -.I myself should be a castaway.
  that ends in eternal death. It is the course or- way           The irony of this, should it occur. But it could not
  of sin, of worldly ambition, of a serving' of the Aesh occur for Paul was Christ's. This he himself knew,
 . and the devil, a way of worldly pleasure. The crown because he so ran-and thus made sure his calling and
  that they who run this course set before their eye is election.
  a crown corruptible ; wealtth,  honor, earthly renown                                                       G. M. 0.
  and the like. And -how some of these children (buffet
  their bodies, discipline self, that as runners they may
  be fit. As Paul says, they are  temporate:in  all things,                                    -
  temporate in their eating, in their drinking,-in all their
  enjoyments. How they steel themselves to curb their
  appetites. Knowing that they cannot achieve ,without,                                 WE FOLLOW THEE
  the aid and goodwill of their gellow men, they bridle.                With enemies on ev'ry side,
  their tongues and their, tempers and throw off any-                   We-lean  on thee, the Crucified ;
  habit that stands between-them and success. They are                  Forsaiking all on earth beside
  gentle, kind and engaging,' liberal -and big-hearted.                             We follow thee.
  They flatter, praise and conjole  all- ins- the attempt to                  `.
  work their way into the  *good graces. of men. They                   0 Master, point thou out the way,
  adorn their visage with a permanent smile. How  we11                  Nor suffer thou our steps to stray ;
~ they succeed, while achieving, in keeping -under the                  Then in that path that leads today
  .body.                                                                            We follow thee.
         But they are ever beating the air. They love the
  very man they bind. Even in binding this man, they                    Thou hast passed on before- our face;
  set their members as instruments of unrighteousness                   Thy footsteps on the way we trace ;
  to self. Self they seek. In self they end. Se'f they                  0, keep us, aid *us Iby thy grace:
  exalt. Before self they prostrate themselves. For                                 We follow thee.
  self is their god. They therefore do not, rightly con-                 ~
  sidered, buffet the real self, the sinful self, the body of          Whom `have we in the heaven above,
  this death, the man of sin. This man they love. They                  Whom on this earth, save thee, to love?
  thirst after righteousness and God. They do not                       Still in thy light we onward, move ;
  therefore combat the ,real foe but for selfish reasons                            We follow thee.
  mere'y  curb for a time a few of its accesses. They
  therefore beat the air.                                                                         -
         Their combat is therefore vanity. All is vanity
  here: the course run, for the way of the ungodly will                 Keep time with God, await  (His call;
  perish ; the crown obtained, for the world and all that                      And step by step march boldly on ;
  is out of the world will pass away ; the running, for t,he            And thus thou shalt not faint nor fall,
  course run is a way of death, a slippery place `upon                         And thus shalt wear the victor's crown.


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                          A   R e f o r m e d   S e m i - M o n t h l y   M a g a z i n e
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                                               Ed&m-Rev.   H.  Hoekyma,   Rev.  G.  M.  Ophoff,
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                                                       Rev:            ;T:ez:R;::FVos.                           Li
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Vol. XVI, No. 1.6. Entered  an Second  Class mail                  JUNE 1, 1940                                  Subscription Price $2.00
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                                                                                the power to be patient in tribulation and to endure
1         M E D I T A T I O N   1 ?ven unto the end.
                                                                                     Inseparable are they : hope and sanctification.
                                                                                     Mutually they effect each other. They live together
        Waiting For The Son Of God                                              and die together. They flourish together and languish
                                                                                together.
                                                                                     Thus it is in the chapter at the end of which occurs
                    And to wait for His Son from Heaven, the text of this meditation.
                  whom he raised from the dead,  even                                It contains a beautiful testimony concerning the
                  Jesus, which delivered  us from the                           Christian life and walk of the saints in Thessalonica.
                  wrath to come.                                                They had received the Word of the gospel in the midst
                                                  I Thess. 1 :I 0.              of much affliction, with joy in the Holy Ghost; and they
     A living hope and a sanctified walk !                                      had become followers of Paul and of the Lord. They
     Always these two accompany each other.  lnsepar-                           had become ensamples to all believers round  atbout,  in
ably they are knit together, intertwined ; essentially                          Macedonia and Achaia. The Word of +he Lord sounded
they are one.                                                                   out from them, and their faith to God-ward-  .was
     Without the one the other cannot be.                                       spread abroad. For, by the power of grace they had
                                                           Reciprocally
they motivate each other. Each is the other's sti'mu- been called, and they turned-away from idols. . . .
                                                                                     To serve the living and true God. . . .
lant. Where the one fades the other pines. Where
the one flourishes the other is strong.                                              And to wait for his Son from heaven !
                                                                                     Always these two: serving the living and true God
     Be the friend of God in Christ, keep your garments
clean, fight the good fight of faith in the midst of the and waiting for his Son from heaven !
                                                                                     It is : both or none !
workI, deny yourselves and consider it grace in the
cause of Christ, not only to [believe in !Him,  but also to
suffer with him,-and your attitude will be that of
the living hope,  Iby which you look for the Son of God                              We wait for Him!
from heaven, assured, longing, waiting. And, on the                                  For the Son of God from  Iheaven.
other hand, look for the Saviour from,  heaven, with                                 For Jesus, whom God raised from the dead.
steadfast longing and patient waiting, and the longing                               For Him, who delivered us from the wrath to come.
and urge to be l&e Him at His coming will be a strong                                There, in a few words, you have the entire gospel
incentive to keep yourselves pure and strtve to keep His of our salvation !
commandments.                                                                        For, what is the gospel, if it is not God's message
     Be t!he friend of the world in much of your actual                         concerning His Son?
life, se& the things that are below, the lust of the                                 Or<what is this message of God concerning `His Son
flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life,                           if it is not, first of all and chiefly,  that He is, indeed,
refuse to suffer with Christ and carefully avoid the                            the Son of God? He is the Son, not by virtue of any
cross,-and hope will pine away, there is no Christian title or honor or grace or glory or power that was be-
joy in your heart and no song of glad expectation on stowed upon Him, but in Himself, eternally, in co-
your lips. Or, again, let hope be weak and wavering, equality with the Father and,the Holy Spirit, essential-
the flame of hope's yearning be quenched, the strong `ly God, infinite in all His .virtues, almighty, all-wise,
bassurance  of hope  lbe lacking in your soul,-and gone is sovereign, the Lord of all, God adorable above all !


 886                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
  "..                                                                                                     .-.------
 This, indeed, is the heart, the quintessence of the gos- but also in its nature. For, while here we have only a
 pel. Deny it, and there is no gospel of salvation pos-        reflection of God's face and see in a glass darkly, there
 sible.                                                        is the very face of God. Heaven is as close to God's
         Yet, this Son of God is "even Jesus", the historical heart as creature can be ! T<hither He went, the Son of
 Jesus of Nazareth, who tabernacled among us. And              God, in human nature. From thence He reached down
 what else does this mean than that  tfhe Son of God           and took  hoId of our humiliated nature, descended with
 also became man, came in the likeness of sinful flesh,        it into the lowest parts of the earth ; and thither He
 so that, while He is and remained the  infinite and           returned talking our human nature with Him into
 eternal Son of God, He also  `became  like unto us in all     highest glory, close to the heart of God. . . .
 things sin excepted. The incarnation of the Son ! God                And there  .He was glorified with the glory He had
 ,also ,became  man ; the Creator also became creature ; with the Father, before the world was!
 the Infinite became finite ; the eterna1 became temporal ;           He, the Son of God, even Jesus !
 the Lord became servant ; He, wh.ose  alone is immorta!-             Whom God raised from the dead!
 ity, also became mortal. And yet, withal the Immut-                  He was taken up into the highest heavens!
 able did not change ! He is and abides forever God,                  Leaving us the ,promise  that He will come again,
 Creator, Infinite, Eternal, Lord of all, the Immortal!        with His reward !
         And again, this Son of God, even Jesus, is said to           To give unto every man according as his work shall
 have been raised from the idead by God ! But what else        be!
 does this imply than that He first died and descended                For Him we wait!
 into the nethermost parts of the earth? Yes, indeed,
 the Son of God died! True, He died in human nature,
 for how could the eternal and immortal God die except                We wait!
 in mortal nature? But, nevertheless, it was the person               Assured we are that He will come again !
 of the Son of God that, in human nature, was nailed                  True; He did not leave us orphans. He did come
 to the accursed tree, that laid down His life, that tasted    again. Even as He promised before He ascended up
 death for every man, that voluntarily went down into to the Father, so He sent unto us the Comforter, that
 the depth of hell. And it was our death  Ho tasted.           .He may abide with us forever. And in that Spirit, He
 For it was our sin He bore. And, therefore, it was for        Himself returned to us !
 our justification that He was raised from the dead.                  And, indeed, we know that at the end of our earth-
 For, God raised Him up! And that divine act of God ly course and battle He will come to us, even through
 whereby He raised His Son, even Jesus, who had died His servant death, and take us to H,imseIf,  in  t,he House
 .for our sins, from the dead, is the divine response to       of many mansions, where He prepared a place for us,
 Jesus' outcry on the cross : "It is finished  !" It is the that we may also be where He is.
  divine testimony that He, as the Head of His church,                Yet, with all the saints we still wait for another
" had fully satisfied and obtained righteousness and eter-     coming.
  nal life for all that are in Him!                                   For, He will come again from heaven ! He will
         For Him we wait from heaven !                         appear, not again, as the suffering Servant, but in
         For, to heaven the Son of God ascended !              glory, with ,a11 the power and might the Father has
         He was with us, in our flesh, on our earth, in our Ibestowed on Him, as the Lord of Lord's and King of
  life, but a little while. He lived our life.  .He spoke kings, the heir of all things ! And we.expect  that in that
  through our mouth, face to face with us. We saw Him day He will subject  a.111 things unto Himself and make
  and heard H&m and confessed that He is the Son of our humihatd  body like unto His most glorious body.
  God, the only Begotten of the Father, and that with He will make all things new, and will give into our
  Him are the words of eternal life. But He left us. possession tehe incorruptible and undefilable  inheritance
  Even His resurrection was no return to us, though that never fadeth away. He will appear as the Victor
  occasionally He appeared that we might know that He over  deatfh  and hell, as the One Who stood for the cause
  lives. But  final'ly He definitely left us. For, He was      of God's covenant in the world, and His cause shall be
  taken up as we saw it, and a cloud of glory took Him         pubIicIy justified before every  crature!  And in that
  out of our sight. On other occasions, after that He had day every tongue, in heaven and on earth and in hell,
  risen from the dead, He also came and was gone  ; but        shall forevermore confess that He is Lord, to the glory
  we expected Him to return. But  th.is time, on Mount of God the Father!
  Olivet it was different. We  ,know  that He has gone                For that day we wait!
  into the heavens, and that here we will see Him no                  We wait for Him, for His coming!
  more. . . .                                                         No, this waiting attitude does not imply that while
         To heaven He went!                                    we look for Him we neglect our earthly calling. On
         And heaven is another part of God's wide creation.    the contrary, because we wait for Him it is our earnest
  It differs from our mundane existence not only  locally,     desire and strife to be found faithful at His coming.


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            387
l.                 .."           -        -
We know that .He call'ed  us out of darkness into His              Wrath is coming ! Wrath, the terrible wrath of
marvellous light, in order that we might represent the God, is already, is always upon the wor!d  outside of
cause of that Son in this world. And we fight the good          Christ. And that wrath is manifest in all the con-
fight, conscious of the victory in Him. Nor does it             fusion and suffering and death, in all the corruption
imply that we expect ,Him at any moment. For. we                and shame, in all  tihe blindness and rage and fury,
know that all things must be ready. And even though             whereby men seek their own destruction and the de-
we feel assured that the end of all things is near, and         struction of the world. But that wrath is still com-
though we see that end drawing nearer every day with            ing! The day of the revelation of the righteous judg-
astounding rapidity in t,he events of today, we know            ment of God is at hand! Fully His wrath,  as  His
that the end is not yet. Yet, we wait for the coming            wrc&h, will be manifested. It will be poured out! And
of the Son of God from heaven. We expect nothing                it wi11 result in the world's destruction and the eternal
of this world apart from His coming. All our expecta-           desolation of all the ungodly. . . .
tion is concentrated on Htis coming. Would, you like to            From that wrath He delivered us!
make this world better, to see the perfect world? Wait             Legally He delivered us from it, for He bore it
for Him! Would you like to be delivered from the body to the full in our stead. All the vials of that wrath
of this death? Wait for Him ! Do you suffer and are             were poured out over His head ! They were emptied !
you killed all the day long, and do you see the cause of        There is no wrath of God left for His Church! We
the Son of God suffer defeat? Wait for Him! You are             were justified, an eternal righteousness is imputed to
in sin, in death? The enemy persecutes? The mighty              us. We are the objects of His eternal favor! We
men of this world rage and rave and appear to have the          are heirs of eternal life! But we are `delivered from
victory?      Wait for Him! He will set all things              that wrath also in spiritual reality. For He regener-
straight !                                                      ated us and called us out of this present world. We
      We wait!                                                  know and taste the love of God poured forth into our
      And this implies, too, that we long for His coming.       hearts by the Spirit He has given us !
To be sure, we wait patiently, fully assured that He               Yet, all this is true only in principle !
will come. But this only means that the hope of His                We are delivered, yet not delivered !
coming makes us strong to endure even unto the end,                For, we are still in the body of this death ! And we
not that we do not earnestly. and fervently long for            are still in this world upon w$hich the wrath of God
the day of His coming.                                          tibideth and shall #presently  be poured out! We suffer,
      We wait in earnest expectation!                   .       we groan, we die! . . . .
      For, in this we groan !                                      And thus,  ~knowin~g  that we are delivered from the
      And the Spirit and the Bride say : Come !                 wrath to come, yet in the midst of this worl'd of wrath,
      Yea, come quickly !                                       having the -firstfruits  of the Spirit, yet only the first-
                                                                fruits, we long for the ful1 harvest of glory! . . . .
                                                                   For the final and perfect deliverance !
      Earnestly we wait!                                           He must come! For His coming we long!
      For, we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan        We wait for the Son of ,God  from heaven !
within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the             The Spirit and the Bride say : Come !
 redemption of our body!                                           Come, Lord Jesus !
      rHow   ,could it be different?
      Already He delivered us from the wrath to come !             Wewait.  .   .   .
And this deliverance is the power of our waiting, the              But are we? . . . .
impetus of vur longing!                                            Ah, does it not seem in the Church of today, as if
      More than one reason, -indeed,  might jbe given in ex-    the Bride had abandoned her waiting attitude?
planation of that attitude of expectation of the people            Let us recall the relation and mutual influence of
of God in the world. They wait, because they have               hope and a sanctified walk! The more our life in
 His Word, that He will come again, and that Word               general is of this world, even as it is in the world, the
they  beIieve  and is the sure ground of their hope. They       less we will assume the attitude of waiting for the
lonsg, because, though they see Him not, they love Him Son of God. Is this not the reason why so little of
and they look forward to the glorious day when they true waiting and hoping is witnessed in what is known
shall see Him, for Whom their soul yearneth, Who                as the Church of today?
loved them even unto death.                                        Let us watch and  .be sober!
      But here it is said, that He delivered us from the           And, girding up the loins of our mind, let us hope
wrath to come!                                                  perfectly, for the salvation that is to Ibe revealed !
      And this deliverence  is not complete!                       Waiting for the Son of God!
      He must come again, fuIly to grant us the joy of             With the Spirit and the Bride !
that deliverance !                                                                                              H. H.

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

                                                               But it requires no strong imagination to realize that
                                                               the need is great.
             E D I T O R I A L S                               ~ And we feel for Holland.
                                                                  Many of our people of Dutch descent still have
                                                               close relatives in the old country. Not a few of them
           Relief For War-torn Holland                         had dear ones in the Dutch army. We ask ourselves:
                                                               are they killed, wounded, in need and want, homeless?
       What, for a long time we feared, what, according        And especially as a Reformed people we are thinking
to the reports in the last papers we received from the of God's people over there, of the future of the Re-
old country, the Dutch more and more feared, especial-         formed  Churches.  And our hearts are bleeding for
ly since the "protective" possession by the Germans            them.
of Denmark and Norway,  .has now become history:                  No doubt, we also have asked ourselves, whether we
old Holland was invaded and overcome by the German             can do anything at all to alleviate their suffering and
war-machine !                                                  to  heIp them  in their need. Individual help is im-
       And we, no  donbt, were all shocked and filled with possible. Who can <be sure that what we would send to
indignation because of this brutal and wholly unjusti- them will ever reach them.
fied attack upon the lowlands.                                    There must be concerted and centralized action.
       Without provocation on the part of the Dutch,           Relief must ,be brought to war-torn Holland through
though the German government concocted several                 some agency that knows through what channels our
reasons and excuses for this wanton disregard of inter-        gifts can be sent `to the Dutch,  SO that we ,may be
national relations and Holland's neutrality, the Ger-          reasonably sure it will not fall into wrong hands.
mans drove their smashing hordes into the Nether-                 `For this purpose a relief committee was organized
lands.                                                         in Grand Rapids under the leadership of Mr. J.  Steke-
   Without warning, without an ultimatum, without a tee, consul for the Netherlands, to collect funds for the
declaration of war, they attacked the old country.             destitute and needy over there. And they will put
   And although the Dutch made an heroic attempt to            forth every effort in their power to see to it, that the
defend  themseIves  and to throw back the invaders, the        relief-money or materials will reach the Dutch people.
outcome, considered from  a human viewpoint, could                The Standard Bearer appeals to all our people to
not very long <be doubtful, was, in fact, inevitable. The help i.n this cause !
royal family was threatened and sought refuge in                  Not only on our people in Michigan, but every-
England. And only a few days after the invasion was where.
started, genera1 Winkelman announced to the world                 It is the least we can do.
that he had no alternative but destruction or surrender,          Perhaps, also in other states' similar committees
and that he had chosen the latter. As usual the British have *been organized and are now functioning. If so,
failed to stand  `by. And alone the Dutch could not hope you will most likely send your aid through those com-
to stand against the mechanized forces of the German mittees.
army.                                                             But if this is not the case, we may all help through
       In the meantime, there was fierce fighting. Hol- the committee here in Grand Rapids,
land was the scene of a terrible combat, so that ac-            - You may send your contributions to Mr. S. G.
cording to ufl%cial estimates one out of every four of         Schaafsma, 933 Watkins St., S. E., Grand Rapids,
Dutch soldiers was killed in action. One hundred Michigan.
thousand young men were slaughtered in a conflict that            He has (been appointed member of the above named
`lasted no longer than five days. And who can say              committee, is well  kncnwn  in our churches, and has
how many are the wounded, and those that are maimed the confidence of all our people.
for the rest of their life?                                       Send your gifts early!
   And now the Germans have occupied Holland.                                                                H. H.
       1 shall not attempt to draw a picture of the suffer-
ing and agony, the sorrow and grief, that is endured
at present lby the Dutch as a result of this brief and
impossibIe conflict.                                                                  NOTICE
       We can all readily understand that there is dire
need.      The hospitals must be more than crowded.            Please look at your subscription date. If you are in
Many are homeless. %nmediately  after the war in arrears send your money to R. Schaafsma, Treas. If
IHolland it was reported that Rotterdam was already
in want of meat and milk. Everything is in confusion. we do not hear from you shortly we will ,be forced to
Dutch industry must be practically at a standstill.            drop your name from the mailing list.
What becomes of schools and churches we know not.                                                  THE BOARD.


                                       TCHE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             389
               .-
          Hatred And More Hatred                               nations ; and an impossible war-debt was imposed upon
                                                               her.It was "vae victis", indeed !
   It is difficuilt  to obtain a proper conception of the         The allies forgot in their hatred and greed, that
w*ar that is now raging in Europe.                             a nation `l&e Germany may for a time su,bmit to the
    Certain it appears, that in the two decades since inevitable, but (while she submits swill at the same time
the last "world war" modern culture has made tre- make up her mind to take vengeance as soon as possible.
mendous strides in the progress of the "art" to destroy           This is just what happened.
one-another !                                                     The Germans recuperated. They grew strong
   Hc~~v. the "common grace" theorists would explain again. And the hatred of the allies and the determina-
the present conflagration of hatred and destruction one tion to avenge themselves was a strong incentive to
coulld  be curious to know.                                    them to realize the will to become strong again to the
   Difllcult it is, too, at the present time to discover highest possible degree.
and pass a correct jadgment  on what may be the im-               They began to shake off their chains.
mediate historic cause of the present war, and to which           And when they met with opposition on the part of
of the two conflicting parties the blame (belongs. Pub-        France and Great Britain they let the world know
lic opinion as moulded by newspaper and radio com- that they would stop for nothing. Rallied around that
ments, is motivated largely by sentiment. Some there man of the hour, strange, ungodly, fanatic, who seems
are whose sentiment is pro-German, others are moti- to be a genius just the same, Adolph Hitler, they are
vated in their judgment by an old anti-British senti- determined to wreak terrible vengeance upon their
ment, strengthened no doubt, in recent days by the             enemies, especially Great Britain.
glaring  fact,  that Great Britain left all her  l~ittle          This is one factor that must enter into every his-
friends in the lurch. There are the different senti-           toric explanation. of the present conflict.
ments of the various nationalities represented in our             The Treaty of Versailles was no peace, but war !
country. In the bosom of the American nation
there is ample occasion for sentiment. There is, be-              And now the Germans are  sowing the seeds of
sides, the rather general sentiment of feeling for the         new hatred and more war.
"under-dog". There is the Jewish sentiment, the Fin-              Their desire for vengeance and lust for power is
nish sentiment, the Norwegian sentiment, the Czecho- blinding their vision.
slovakian sentiment, the Polish sentiment, and the                Ruthlessly they trampled under foot the right of
recently aroused Holland sentiment. Who did not pity small nations : Poland, Finland, Denmark, Norway,
the Jews, when they were cruelly oppressed by the              Holland, Belgium.
pr.%ver  of Naziism? Whose indignation was not aroused            Everywhere the German armies are victorious.
when the clumsy Russian Bear struck out its brutal                But do they not realize that more and more they
claws to destroy little Finland? And whose blood did make themselves the object of a fierce hatred every-
not boil when the overwhelming German forces at-               where?
tacked neutral Holland?                                           It is impossible at the time of this writing to pre-
   Yet, by sentiment we can never determine the his- diet the possible outcome of this war. Will Hitler's
toric causes of conflicts like the one now raging in the       Blitzkrieg succeed? To many it seems that it must
o3d world.                                                     succeed, if the Germans are to win the war at all. But
   And sentiment usually does not lay the blame where the armies in northern France and southern Belgium
it belongs.                                                    are offering a fierce resistance. The British Isles are
   Many causes could, perhaps, be mentioned as con- stilL intact, and as long as Great Britain is not sub-
curring in the bringing about of this war.                     dued, Hitler has not won the war. The British navy
   But to me one thing seems certain: the present              is surely stiI1 a power to be reckoned with. The small
war is a direct continuation of the "World-war". You           nations that have been overrun are submitting to the
may trace the cause of it to the Treaty of Versailles.         inevitable, but are by no means conquered in spirit.
By that treaty the seeds of hatred were sown that are             But, surely, seeds of hatred are abundantly sown by
naw bearing such terrible fruit.  *That treaty was the Germans everyrwhere.
inspired  Iby hatred and greed on the part of the victor-         Behind the German victorious forces there are al-
ious  alslies, who after all were not so victorious as they    ready sprouting the seeds of new war.
seemed; and their evident purpose was to stri,p the               Hatred and more hatred.
vanquished Germans, who were not as vanquished as                 War and more war.
they appeared, as naked as they could possibly strip              Snd in it all God is ruling sovereignly.
them. The German army was disbanded; the German                   And a&so Hitler is His servant.
navy was scuttled ; her colonies were taken from Ger-             A,bout this we will write more in our next issue,
many; the German homeland was cut into by other D. V.                                                         H. H.

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

           Christ Among The Doctors                            which the four Evangelists have left. They enable us
                                                               to contrast the simplicity, the naturalness and the
       Up. among the hills of Galilee, in a basin sur- consistency of all that the Evangelists have recorded
rounded by swelling eminence, which shut it in on of Christ, with such empty and unmeaning tales. They
every side, lies the little village of Nazareth. Its name do more. These gospels were written by Christians,
does' not occur in Old Testament history.  Josephus            by men who wished to honor Christ in all they said
never mentions it, though he speaks of places lying all        about Him; by men who had that portraiture of His
around it. Its inhabitants were not worse than their character before them which the four gospe'ls supply;
neighbors, nor exposed on account of their character           and yet we find them narrating, as being in what
to any particular contempt, yet Nathaniel, himse':f a          seemed to them entire harmony with that character,
Galilean, could say, Can there any good thing come             that when boys interrupted Jesus in His play, or ran
out of Nazareth? so small and insignificant was the            against Him in the street of the village, he looked upon
place. It was here, as in a fit retreat, that the child-       them and denounced them, and they fell down and
hood, youth and early manhood of our Lord passed               died. It was said by some. that the conception and
quietly and unnoticed away. These thirty years of the          delineation of such a character as that of the man
life of the Son of God upon this earth, how deeply hid-        Christ Jesus, by such men as the fishermen of Galilee,
den from us do they lie. How profound the silence re-          would have been a greater miracle than the actual
garding them which the sacred writers  preserve-               existence of such a man. In these apocryphal gospels
;a silence all the more remarkable when we consider            we have a singular confirmation of that saying ; we
how natural and strong is our desire to know some- have the proof that men better taught, many of them,
thing, to be told something of the earlier days of any than the apostles even when they had the full delinea-
one who, at some after period of his life, has risen to tion of the manhood of Jesus in their hands. could not
distinction. But all that here is told us of the first         attempt a fancy sketch of His childhood without not
twelve years of our Saviour's  life is that the child grew,    only violating our sense of propriety, by attri,buting  to
waxed strong in spirit, was filled with wisdom, and            Him the most puerile and unmeaning displays of divine
that the grace of God was upon Him. Had any of power, but shocking our moral sense, and falsifying
these wonders which attended  H'is birth been re- the very picture they had before their eyes, by attri-
newed, had anything supernatural occurred in the buting to Him acts of vengeance.
course of those years, we may presume it would have               Joseph and Mary "went to Jerusalem every year
been <related. or alluded to. Nothing of that kind, we of the Passover." The Mosaic law required that all
may infer did happen. Outwardly and inwardly the               the male inhabitants of Judea  should go up three times
growth of Jesus under Mary's care at Nazareth, obeyed yearly to the capital, to keep the three great festivals
the common laws under which nothing could ruffle, that of the Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. A latter
simple truthfulness which nothing could turn aside; Rabbinical authority had laid an injunction upon wo-
beyond that love which was always ready to give back           men to attend the feast of the Passover. Living as
smile for smile to Mary and the rest around, and to go         they did in so remote a part of the country, it is prob-
forth rejoicingly its little errands of kindness within        able that the parents of our Lord satisfied themselves
the home of the carpenter; beyond that wisdom, which,          with going up together once yearly to Jerusalem;
wonderful as it was, was  chi!dlike wisdom still, grow-        Joseph thus *doing less, Mary more than the law re-
ing as His years grew, and deriving its increase from          quired. When Jesus was twelve years old, Joseph
all the common sources which lay open to it; beyond            and Mary took Him up with them to Jerusalem. He
the charm of all the graces of childhood in their full         had then reached that age, when, according to Jewish
beauty and in their unsullied perfection-there was             reckoning, He crossed the line which divides childhood
nothing externally to distinguish the first twelve years.      from youth, got the new name of a son of the Lord,
So we conclude from the absence of all notices of them and, had He been destined to any public oflice,  would
in Scripture.     Of the void thus left, however, the          have passed into the hands of the Rabbis for the higher
Christian Church became very impatient. Many at-               instruction which their schools supplied. Jesus, how-
tempts were  ma.de to  nil it up. In the course of the         ever, had received no other instruction than the village
first four centuries numerous pseudo-gospels were in school, attached to the synagogue at Nazareth, had
circulation, a long list of which has been made up out         supplied, and was destined to no higher employment
of the references to them which occur in the preserved         than that of the trade His father followed. The pur-
writings of that period. Some of these gospels are             pose of Joseph and Mary in taking Him up with them
still extent, two of them entitled the gospel of the           to Jerusalem was not that He might be placed at the
Infancy; and it is very curious to notice how these            feet of Gamaliel, or any other of the great distin-
succeeded who tried to lift the veil which covers the          guished teachers of the metropolis, but simply that
earlier years of Christ. One almost feels grateful that        He might see the holy city, and take part with them
such early attempts were made to fill up the blank             in the sacred services of the Passover.


                                      T.HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            403

   There a new world opened to the boy's wondering likely they should be recognized ; none of their friends
eyes. With what interest must He have looked around, at Nazareth knew about the mysteries of the  concep-
when first He trod the courts of the temple, and gazed         Con and the birth. They had thought there was no
upon the ministering priests, the altar with its bleed- risk in taking Jesus with them, but now their hearts
ing sacrifice and rising incense, the holy place and the are full of dark forebodings ; some one may have
sacred shine that lay behind the veil. The places, too, known, may have told ; some sacred design may stili
of which we shall speak immediately, where youths of have been cherished.                Where was their child, and
His own age were to be found, would not be left un-            what had happened to Him?
visited. What thoughts were stirred within His breast             You may imagine what a night of sleepless anxiety
by all these sights, it becomes us not even to attempt         foIlowed  their discovery at the first nightly resting
to imagine. The key is not in our hands with which             place of the caravan. Mid-day saw them back in the
we might unlock the mysteries of His humanity at this          city. It is said to have been after three days' search
stage of its development.       He has Himself so far          they found Him, if we count the day of their return as
unveiled His thoughts and feelings as to teach us              one of these three, there would still .be one entire days'
how natural it was that He should linger in the holy fruitless search. There may have been two such days
city, and under the power of a new attraction feel  ,for       -days of eager inquiry everywhere throughout the
a day or two as if the ties that bound Him to Nazareth city, in the house where they had lived, among all
and to His home there were broken.                             those with whom they had had converse or connection.
   The seven days of the feast went by. It had ,been           At last they  find the lost one, not in, the courts of
a crowded procession from Galilee, which Joseph and the temple, not in any of those parts of the edifice con-
Mary had joined. Galilee was then, as  Josephus  in- secrated to public worship, but in one of those apart-
forms us, very thickly populated, studded with no less ments in the outer Ibuildings  used as a school of the
than two hundred and forty towns, containing each Rabbis. Among the Jews at this period, each syna-
fifteen thousand inhabitants or more, sending forth in gogue had a schoolroom attached to it, in which the
the war with the Romans an army of no less than one rudiments of an ordinary education were taught. Be-
*hundred thousand men. The separate companies which sides, however, these schools for primary instruction,
this crowded population sent up at the Passover time           wherever there were ten men in a position to devote
to Jerusalem would each be large, and as the youths            their whole time- to this purpose, a room was built
of the company consorted and sIept near one another for them in which they carried on their pupils in
in  t,he course of the journey, it is less surprising that,    all the higher walks of the sacred learning of the
on leaving Jerusalem to return to Nazareth, Joseph Jews.               These constituted the schools of the Rabbis,
and Mary should during the day have missed their son, and formed an important instrument in the support
who had stayed behind, nor have become aware of His and extension of that system of Rabbinism  which be-
absence till they rested for the night. The discovery came after the ruin of the temple, and the extinction
was a peculiarly distressing one. What if some over- `of the public worship, a new bond of nationai  union,
sight had beencommitted by them? If they had zfailed           and the great distinctive feature in the character of
to tell their son of ,the time of the departure, if they modern Judaism. There were three apartments em-
had failed to notice whether He was among the other            ployed in this way attached to the temple. It was in
youths before they left the city? They had such con- one of these that Joseph and Mary found their son. He
fidence in `chat child, who never before in a  singe in-       was sitting in the ordinary attitude, and engaged in
stance had done anything to create anxiety or distrust ; the ordinary exercises of a pupil in the middle of the
they were so sure that He would be where, as they              doctors, hearing them and asking them questions-
thought, He ought to be, that they had scarcely felt           the Jewish method of education being chiefly  cate-
perhaps an ordinary degree of parential solicitude.            chetical-the pupil himself sometimes answering the
And where could He now be? What could have hap-                question put, and astonishing His hearers with His
pened to Him? Their eager inquiries #would probably wisdom.               When this strange, rude-looking,  bright-
soon satisfy them that He had not fallen aside by the looking, solemn-looking, Galilean boy first came in
way, that He had never joined the returning travelers,         among them, was it the wisdom He showed which drew
that He must have remained  #behind  at Jerusalem. But the hearts of some of these Rabbis to Him, and let
with whom? For what? He knew no friends there                  them, as if anxious to gain a scholar who might turn
with whom to stay. Had some accident befallen Him?             out to be the chief ornament of their school, to take
Was He detained against His will? Did any one  act             Him in and treat Him tenderly? Was it with them, in
Jerusalem know the secrets of His birth? Were'there the room they occupied in the outer temple buildings,
any who still sought the young child's life?  Herod            that the two nights in which Jesus was separated from
was dead ; Archelaus was banished ; the parents them-          His parents were spent? The tie, whatever it was,
selves had not been in Jerusalem since the time they between Him and them, is now destined to be broken,
had presented the infant in the temple. It was not never to be renewed,


404                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
-                              - -
       Joseph and Mary find Him in the midst of them.          Joseph father, nor had it outwardly been communi-
Joseph is too much astonished to say anything, nor is          cated to Him that he was  onIy  His reputed father,
it  li.kely  that Mary spoke till He had gone with her that He had no earthly parent, that His true and only
apart; but now her burdened mother's heart finds               Father was God. If that were the actual state of con-
utterance.      "Son", she says to Him, "why hast thou nection between Mary and Jesus up to the time of this
thus dealt with us?" words of reproach that were new incident in the temple ; if she had never breathed to
to Mary's lips. Never before had she to chide that             Him the great secret that He was none other than the
child. Never before had He done anything to require            Son of the Highest; if there had been nothing as she
such chiding. But now, when it appears that no acci- knew there had not been, in the quiet tenor of the life
dent had happened, no restraint had been exercised,            which for twelve years Jesus lived, to afford any out-
that it had been of His own free will that Jesus had           ward indication or evidence, either to Himself or
parted from His parents, and was sitting so absorbed others of the nature of ]His Sonship to God-then how
by other persons and with other things, she cannot             surprised Mary must have been when in the temple
account for such conduct on His part. It looks like            and by that answer to her question, Jesus informed
.neglect, and worse ; `like indifference to the pain which her that He knew all, knew whence He was, knew for
He must have known this separation would cost them.            what He came, knew that God was His Father in such
"Son," she says, "why hast thou thus. dealt with us? a sense that the discharge of His business carried with
Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrow-              it an oblilgation  which, if the time and the season re-
ing."                                                          quired, overbore all obligation to, real or reputed
       Innnocently,  artlessly, childishly, in words which,    earthly parents.
though not meant to meet the reproach with a rebuke,              But whether it came upon Mary by surprise or not,
yet carried with them much of the meaning and effect was there no object in letting us and all believers in
of the words spoken afterwards at the marriage-feast the Saviour know as the record of this incident does,
at Cana,  Jesus answers, "How is it that ye sought me?"        that Jesus was thus early and fully alive to the singu-
`could you Mary believe that I would act under other           larity of His relationship to God?  IConceive  that it
than heavenly guidance ; could you allow the idea of had been otherwise ; that these thirty years  .had been
my being liable to any risk or danger simpIy because           veiled in  ,an impenetrable obscurity ; that not one
I was not under your eye or care ; do you not know,            single glance had been given of how they passed away ;
were you not told whose Son I truly am ; and should that our first sight of the `man Jesus Christ had been
not that knowledge have kept you from seeking and              when He stood before John to be baptized in the
sorrowing as you have done: wist ye not, that wher-            waters of the Jordan, and to receive the Holy Ghost
ever I was I must have been still beneath the Father's descending upon Him. How natural in that case
eye and care-whatever I was about, I must have been had been the impression that it was then for the
about that Father's business? Mary, you have called            first time, when the voice from heaven declared it,
me Son, and I acknowledge the relationship ; you have          that He knew  I-Iimself to be the Son of God  ; that
called Joseph my father; that relationship I disown;           it was then, when the Spirit  first descended, that the
my own, my only Father is He in whose house you Divine associated itseIf in close and ineffable union
have now found me, whose  wil,l I came on earth to do; with the human.
about whose matters I must constantly, and shall now              T,hen had those thirty years appeared in a quite
henceforth and forever be engaged."                            different light to us ; then had we conceived of Him as
     It is this consciousness of His peculiar relationship Iiving  throughout their course the  simpIe  common life
to God, now for the fist time, perhaps, fully reaized,         of a Galilean villager and craftsman. But now we
that we catch the true meaning, and can discern some-          know, and we have to thank this narrative of St. Luke
thing of the purpose of this early, only recorded inci-        for the information, that if not earlier, yet certainly at
dent in the history of our Lord's youth. Mary we are his twelfth year, the knowledge that He and the Father
told, understood not the answer of her son. With the were one, that the Father was in Him, and that He
(knowledge that she possessed, we can scarcely imagine         was in the Father, had visited and filled His Spirit,
that she had .any diflicdty  in at once perceiving that        had annuated and regulated His life. With what a
Jesus spake of His Father in heaven, and'comprehend-           new sacredness and dignity do the eighteen years that
ing in so far at least the meaning of His words. But           intervene between this incident, and that of His public
there may have been a special reason for Mary's sur- manifestation to Israel become invested, and what new
prise here-the difficulty she felt of comprehension lessons of instruction do they bring us! At the bid-
and belief.     It cannot readily be imagined that she         ding of a new impulse, excited  withm His youthful
herself had told her child during the first tweIve years       breast by this first visit to the temple, He broke for
of His life, or that any one else had told Him, of the         a day or two all earthly bonds, and seems lost amid
mystery of His birth. From the first dawning of con- the shadows of the sanctuary, observed with the higher
scious intellegence,  He must have been taught to. call things of Him who was worshipped there. But at the


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          405

call of duty his hour for public service, for speaking,       personality, God and His being can be distinguished
acting, suffering, dying, before all and for all, had not     between but not separated. God; then, dwells, rests,
yet come. `He yields at once to the desire of Joseph rejoices and glories in self; loves, contemplates, ex-
and Mary, and returns with them to Nazareth ; becom- plores and comprehends a being of which the Divine
ing  sulbject  to them, burying, as it were, this great       ego constitutes the Divine personality. Further, God
secret in His breast; emscruting to wail, submitting          rests in self  as God. The  light He dwells in is the
to all the restraints of an ordinary household, putting sum total of His glories as reflected by His  Divine
Himself once more under the yoke of parential author-         consciousness.    It is therefore, a light of a kind no
ity, taking upon Him all the common obligations of            man can approach, the God no man hath ever seen
sin, a brother and a neighbor, a friend, a Galilean           (II Tim.  6:16). (God, then, being one with God, has
villager.                                                     immediate access to His own being which He contem-
                                            G. M. 0.          plates, wills and loves as God, that is, with a mind,
                                                              will and heart equal to the infinite greatness, majesty,
                                                              power and resources of His being. Resting in self
                                                              CGS God He is infinitely, independently, sovereignly,
                                                              gIoriousTy  free. He is free as God.
                                                                 The God in whom man rests is one other than man,
                     God's Freedom                            to wit, man's Maker and Redeemer. In Him man
                                                              moves, lives, and abides ; Him man knows, contem-
   If true freedom consists in abiding in one's ele- plates, will,s, and adores as creature. The light, there-
ment, then, would He be free, must likewise abide             fore, which man can approach and in which he dwells
in an element fitted for His mode of being. What,             is the glory of God not as seen and comprehended by
then, may this element be? And the answer is                  the Divine mind but as reflected by what Scripture
ready: His own glorious self. In self He must live,           calIs a glass-the Word and creation-and in the
move and rest would He be free. For He is eternal glorious future $by God's own face-the heavenly mode
God, a being of infinite perfection, inclusive of all that    of revelation.    Man, then, in that he rests in God
is superbly true, lovely and good, uncaused yet the           as creature is but finitely free. His freedom is of a
cause of all things and constituting in relation to these ?kind compatibIe  with h;is mode of being, not with that
things the one single point of divergence and conver- of Him in whom he rests. The air, to illustrate, is to
gence.                                                        the eagle and the sparrow the eIement  in which both
    God, then, is free and dwells upon the high peak live, move and enjoy freedom. In this one element the
of eternal and infinite joy and *bliss because He for- last-named bird is not free as is the former. It is free
ever wills to select His very own being  *as the in-          in a manner congruous with its mode of existence.
finite sphere in which to  live, move and abide ; as          Not the sparrow but the eagle swoops from giddy
the one eternal fountain with which to nourish for-           heights down upon its prey, or remains for many a
ever His divine mind and to satisfy the infinite  long- consecutive hour upon the wing. So, too, man, though
ings of His  \being. God is free, finally, because He         he rests in God, his freedom has its bounds for man
dwells forever in the light emitted by H\is very own          is creature. His judgments are not unsearchable and
self and takes that self of His as His only law and           his ways past finding as the judgments and ways of,
the standard of  all, His conduct. He is, therefore,          God.
righteously free.                                                Let us now contemplate the various phases and the
    Because God wills and does rest in self, He is            nature of the freedom of God. He is free, as was be-
free in every conceivable respect and in all these            fore said, in every conceivable respect. God is socially
respects and in relation to His creatures, infinitely,        free. His immenent social freedom accrues from His
eternally, independently and sovereignly free. These          being one in essence yet nevertheless distinguished in
are matters we wish ,to elucidate in this essay.              three persons. The term person is the signification of
    We set out by answering a question which some             a rational-ethical substantiality. It is that in a rational
one may raise, to wit: If God is free as God in that          being addressing itself as I and constituting the sub-
He rests in self, how then can the conviction be escaped ject of  all action done in, by and through this being.
that (regenerated `and sanctified) man, who likewise God is the one single essense in which are three such
comes to rest in God, is likewise and for this reason substantialities-Father, Son and Holy Spirit-con-
free  as God? In replying we set out with the assertion stituting the one God. Yet the Father is not the Son,
that (regenerated and sanctified) man resting in God,         nor the Son the Father, and likewise the Holy Ghost is
rests in one other than self. #God, on the other hand, neither the Father nor the Son. They differ, not, how-
resting in God, rests in self. The Divine being and           ever, as to the properties possessed  Iby each-"They
the God reposing in this being are numerically one and are all three co-eternal and co-essential  ; one in truth,
the same. Taking the name God as the signification of in power, in goodness and in mercy" (Confession, Art.


406                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
- -   ------_1^1_11                    "--ll_ll-.-.--l.-                                                  -___
`I)-but as to the relation each sustains to the other. the fellowship of His children. However, this crave
The Father is eternal Father. He by a necessary and cannot be accounted for by an appeal to some limita-
eternal act within the Divine being is the eternal               tion in His ,being. For He is the unlimited God and
ground of the existence of a second person called Son,           altogether sufficient to His unlimited self. Aside from
like unto His and possessing in virtue of the aforesaid this, man could not  possiibly serve as the supply
act, known as generation, the Divine essence, majesty, house of the Almighty. For He is creature, the pro-
glory, power, knowledge and wisdom. And the Father duct of an almighty, sovereign will, the crystalliza-
together with the Son by a necessary and eternal act tion of an eternal divine idea, who loves, serves, re-
within the Divine being constitute the eternal ground joices, seeks and selects God, because God first loved,
of the existence of a third person like unto themselves served, rejoiced in, selected and sought him. aence,
called Spirit, possessing in virtue of the aforesaid act,        for God to delight in the companionship of His re-
known as spiration, the Divine essence. Therefore, the deemed is to delight in Himself.
Son is the word, wisdom, the express image of the                   God is  re'ligiously free. His religion consists in
Father, the brightness of His glory, equal unto Him in serving self. And so He does with all the  infinite
,a11 things. And the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, energy at His disposal. Self He seeks, loves, wills and
the deep things of God. For as no man knoweth the adores with all His heart, with all His mind, with all
things of man save the spirit of man that is in him,             His soul and with all His strength. The sum total  o.f
so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit              all His works, those tending to (ad intra) as well as
of God (II Cor. 11 :X0, 11). The Father, then, lives the those tending from self (ad extra) are done solely in
Divine life, thinks, wills and loves with the one Divine the interest of self. He is, must' be, in the highest
mind, will and heart as Father  ; the Son as Son  ;              possible degree, a self-centered being. For should He
and the Spirit as Spirit. And the Father has fel- serve one other than self, He would serve one inferior
lowship with the Son and the Son with the Father to the highest good. A11 things He does, must do, for
in the Spirit; and the Spirit knows the Father and               the sake of His name. All things, the sinner and the
the Son in Himself, so that generation and spiration saint, sin and grace; angel, man and beast, creation
constitute the basis of an immanent, Divine, social and redemption, election and reprobation, Christ and
life of the highest possible type.  -4nd because the             the devil, heaven and hell,-must be made to promote
three persons ever delight in acting in agreement                His interests and to  redown  to His glory. So He wills
with the laws governing the relation the one person they shall and so they therefore do. Hence, God
sustains to the other, God is socially free,                     created man good, "and after His own image, in true
       God, further, is independently (immanently) social- righteousness and holiness, that he might rightly know
ly free. For generation and spiration are acts done              God his creator, heartily love Him and live with Him
in agreement with  untreated  and hence eternal im- in eternal. happiness to glorify and praise Him" (Cate-
pulses of the eternal nature of God. The saints, too, chism, answer to the sixth question). He constitutes
constitute a blessed company socially free.          For its the redeemed a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
members are taught by the Spirit to live in obedience a holy nation, a peculiar  peopIe;   "that they should
to Divine law governing the relation redeemed man                show  forth the praises  of Em who called them out  of
sustains to his Redeemer and to his neighbour, to wit,           clarkness  into His  ma?ivellous   light"  (I Peter 3  :9).
the law of love. However, the social liberty of this             The believers are in heaviness through. manifold temp-
blessed company is a creation of the Almighty, and tations, that the trial of their faith  might be found unto
abides because He so wills. It accrues from the ob-              praise and honor and glory at'the appearing of Jesus
servance of law of which God is the author. It (this Christ,  I Peter  l:?`. He raises up Pharaoh that  He
freedom) is an  eaxhibition  of  im*pulses  of a nature          might show His power in him, and that His name
cleansed in the blood of the Lamb, and the issue of might be declared throughout all the earth, Rom. 9:ll.
hearts upon whose tabeles was written the very law of He endureth the vessels o,f wrath to show wrath and to
liberty. It consists, finally, in man's being introduced make His power known. He prepares the vessels of
into the blessed society of the triune God to have the mercy to wbake known on them the riches of His glory,
hallowed social instincts of his redeemed nature satis-          Rom. 9:22,  23. He will that His name be magnified
fied by the light radiated by God's face and reflected           forever, I Sam. 12~22.  He chose Jerusalem that His
*by those rendered by God's grace children of the                name might be there,  II Chron.  6:6. He wills that
light.                                                           from the rising of the sun even unto the going down
       God, further, is  self-sufhciently,  socially  (imman-    of the same His name shall be great among the gen-
ently) free. It cannot be otherwise, for He is a being tiles ; that in every place incense shall be offered unto
of infinite perfection, alone and fully capable of satis-        His name, and a pure offering: for His name shall be
fying the infinite social instincts of His nature, and,          great among the heathen, Mal. 1  :ll. He sends a
therefore, able to do without the companionship of curse upon them who refuse to give glory unto His
man. True, He does crave, with the heart of a father,            name.    Therefore He empowers His chosen ones to


 ,..,  .-  -                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          407
                -  1
say: I will praise thee, 0 Lord, with my whole heart.         in time. The world and all its fulness together with
I will shew forth all thy marvellous works. I will            the behaviour of every living creature was eternally
be  glad and rejoice in thee ; I will sing praises to ~present  before the mind of the Almighty. It is this
thy name, 0 thou Most High, Psalm 9 :l, 2.                    immanent, mental and volitional activity of His that
     God, then, serves self. And  #because He serves,         is responsible for the counsel, w*hic'h may be defined
wills, seeks self, and recognizes self as the only legiti- as a great all-embracive thought-structure to be re-
mate god, purpose and end of all His engagements,             alized in time so that la11 phenomenon, sin included, all
He is free. True, He loves and seeks the creature.            events, all behaviour,-that,of  the sinner and of Satan
And the most marvellous exhibition of the seeking as  well as that of the saints--must be associated with
love of God is the Christ and His cross. For the cross the mind and determinate will of the great God. Sucih
.presupposes  a death-deserving sinner, a hater and are the plain teachings of Scripture. . . . Who work-
mocker of God. And Christ is God who seeks this               eth all things according to the purpose of His will,
sinner through the cross and takes him to His bosom.          Eph. 1 :ll. The sea was made to take its decreed place
However, He seeks and saves as one already possessing when God brake up the earth for it, Job 38 :lO. Christ
the thing He appropriates. For of Him, and through was affixed to the cross by the determinate counsel and
Him, and to Him are all things, so that He must               foreknowledge af God, Acts  2:23.  Judas betrayed
recognize self as the only possible goal of all His           Christ as it was determined, Luke 22 :22, 23. The time
strivings.                                                    of the making of one blood all nations of men, and
                                                              the  .bounds of their habitations are matters determined,
     If the freedom of God consists in self-service, it       Acts  17:23. Likewise the destruction of Judah,  Josh.
follows that man to be free must serve God. However,          17:12.  That the heathen dishonor their own bodies
the only kind of service in which God can take delight among themselves must be linked up with the Divine
is one patterned after the service He gives self. It          will, for God gave them up, Rom. 1:24. Likewise the
is one rendered by him who thinks of God as God hardening of the ungodly, Rom. 9:X3, the rejection of
thinks of Himself, who seeks and loves and serves Him Esau, Rom. 9 :13, the raising up of Pharaoh, Rom. 9 :17.
for the same reason that He seeks, loves, serves and IChrist, further, is set for the fall and rising again of
rests in Himself, for the reason, namely, that He is many in Isreal, Luke 2 :24. It seemed good in the sight
the highest good, and therefore must be served and            of God to hide the things of the kingdom from the wise
adored for His name's sake.        It must be a service and the prudent and to reveal them unto babes, Matth.
arising out of a heart contemplating God as the ful-          11:26,  27. The saints were predestinated unto the
ness of life, light and power, as the fountain of all         adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, ac-
that is good, as a being who can only give and not            cording to the good pleasure of His will. God made
receive in that of Him and through Him all things are,        known unto them the mystery of His will, according
as a being  t.herefore  who prepares in the hearts of         to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in
men the praises in which He delights, as a being finally      Himself, Ep!h. 1:5-9. It is God that worketh in them
sufficient unto self, who could therefore dispense with       both to will and to do of His good pleasure, Phil.
the service of men and still be supremely happy. These        2 : 13. Paul prays that God would count them worthy
are the thoughts which when believed and lived con-           of calling and fulfill faith in power, II Thess. 1 :ll, 12.
stitute the nucleus of true religion. And true religion Them to whom all things work together for good are
is true freedom.                                              the called according to His purpose, foreknown and
     God is independently, religiously free. His  self-       predestinated to be conformed to the image of His
service is eternal.     Its support, its impulse, its dic-    Son, Rom.  8:23,  29. Sarah was told that the elder
tator, its content and object is the Divine self and none     (Esau) should serve the younger (Jacob) in order
other. Redeemed man, on the other hand, is depend- that the purpose of God according to election might
ently religiously free. He himself is a creation of the       stand, not of works but of Him that calleth, Rom.
Almighty. The mode of expression of His religious 9:10, 11.
impulses is likewise determined by God. He tells His             In that God had from eternity all things before
-people that and how they shall serve Him and works           His mind and since His mind and will constitute
in them the service they render.                              the cause of all phenomena appearing in time, the
     Attention must now be directed to God's sovereign        conviction cannot be escaped that He, aside from His
freedom. Thus far we have been using the term free- creations, is in Himself absolutely blissful. But the
dom as the synonym af well-being and happiness.               matter. we now wish to emphasize is that the coun-
True freedom was defined as the blissful state of a           sel of God is the eternal product of a sovereign and
being abiding in his element. Sovereign freedom, how- absolutely free will.            This Divine will implies : {a)
ever, has to do with the determinate will of God and          that God, engaged in fixing the contents of His coun-
must be linked up with His eternal counsel. God eter- sel, was in a position to ,exercise a choice ; (b) that
nally thought and willed all that is, was, and shall be       God, so engaged, takes a$ccount of absolutely no one

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

or thing but `Himself, that His will, therefore, is           The  elder shall serve the younger as it is written,
the sole determining factor and moving cause of Jacob have  I loved, but Esau have I hated" (Rom.
every decision and of the entire contemplated course 9 :lO-13). The apostle, then, denies that the goodness
of action  ; (c) that, finally, He is the cause of all        of Jacob and the wickedness of Esau had moved, in-
things distinct from His own  (being. This Scripture          cited God to love the former and to hate the latter.
expresses by saying : "He has mercy upon whom He              For He hated Esau before his birth, before "he had
will have mercy and whom He will He  hardeneth"               done any evil." Likewise Jacob, God's love for him
(Ram.   9:18).               a                                preceded his birth and hence his doing of any good.
       Let us elucidate these matters. That the counsel Therefore the sole necessity, the only moving or effic-
is free implies that God was not acting in obedience          ient cause, the sole determining factor of the above-
to some eternal urge of His being in deciding to create.      cited love and hatred is the determinate will of God.
                                                              L`
He could  also  decide not to create. If not, the counsel           . . . . that .tihe purpose of God according to election
would not be free but necessary as are those immanent         might stand, not of works but of Him that calleth."
divine acts called generation and aspiration. Once Esau's wickedness, it is plain, was not the compelling,
having decided, He was, of course, compelled to exe-          the commanding factor of God's hatred for him. The
cute the decision made. However, the  ,element  of com- sole necessity was the Divine will or decision. He
pulsion was  suplied solely  *by the decision and may hates whom He wills and loves whom He wills. It is
never be interpreted as an urge of His nature neces-          a will operated upon or influenced by absolutely noth-
sitating the decision.                                        ing. Pf so, it certainly follows that no thing or phe-
                                                              nomenon can be cited as in any respect responsible for
       This counsel is also free respecting every phe- the decision to hate Esau and to love Jacob. That is
nomenon of time. That is, the sole factor responsible to say, God hates because `He wills, and He wills to
,for its entire content is the determinate will of God        hate for reasons reposing in Himself only. And what
and no creature or phenomenon (sin included) dis- holds true of the will to hate or to `love must, to be
tinct from His own being. Finally, the counsel of             sure, be made to apply to the entire counsel.                      It is
God is absolutely sovereign. It is the cause of every         absolutely free.
phenomenon (sin included) ; of the world, its  ful-
ness and its history. its realization constitutes the                                                                G. M. 0.
extension in time eternal of an thought-structure.
       That the deliberating God is absolutely free and
sovereign is plainly taught by Paul in Romans, chapter
10. The apostate Jews of Paul's day said, that where-
as they were the seed of Abraham, they were children
and thus insisted that the Divine will was affixed
to and controlled by their lineage. The factor deter-                              WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
mining the direction of the course of Divine favor
was their descend.  :God in selecting His children                                            1915  - 1940
was compelled to confine Himself to the one race and                  On June 9, 1940, the Lord willing, our dear parents
to save every member of it. The apostle, on the other
hand, insists that all are not children because they are                             ALBERT VAN TUINEN
the seed of Abraham.        Then there were those w:ho                                            and
taught that the efficient cause  `of God's love for those                       MAY VAN TUINEN nee Boomers
whom He calls His sons is the virtue of these sons, and hope to commemorate their. 25th wedding anniversary.
that t,he efficient cause or the determining factor of
His hatred for the wicked is their wickedness. God's                  We, their children extend to them our loving congratu-
will, then, so it was argued, is in this case, attached       lations and acknowledge God's blessings. It is our hope and
to, ruled and governed by the attitude which man may          prayer that they may be spared for each other and for us for
be assuming toward God. He, then, is compelled to many years.
will to love such as choose to love him. Those hating                                         Their children
Him, He must likewise will to hate. His will, then, is                                            Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Van Tuinen
not free but subordinate to that of His rational crea-                                            Arthur
tures. The apostle's refutation reads: "And not only                                              Bernice
this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one,                                                 Raymond
even by our father Jsaac; for the chi'ldren  being not yet                                        One Grandchild.
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose  af God according to election might stand, not                839 Gibson Ave., S. E.
of works but of Him that calleth ; it was said unto her,              Grand Rapids,  Mich.


