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

                                                              old fashioned audience greeted us. The auditorium
                                                              and annex were packed to the doors. This is encour-
                  E d i t o r i a l s                         aging, for to us it means that the Lord still prepares
                                                              a field for us in which we may labor and testify of the
                                                              truth.
                  Our Lecture Tour                               On Thursday morning, April 10 we left for Sioux
                                                              County. While we stayed in Oskaloosa and Pella the
       A  fine morning it was, that of April 7, when we       sky had  ,gradually  become overcast, and on the morning
left Grand Rapids to begin our lecture tour through           of our departure it was gray and misty and the day
alI our churches in the West, not only in Iowa and threatened to become a rather gloomy one as far as the
Minnesota, but also in Montana and California. The            weather was concerned, However, during the day it
air was crisp and invigorating, the sky was clear and         cleared up and we enjoyed some of Iowa's sunshine.
holding the promise of a beautiful day. And before            About ffve o-tllock we arrived in Orange City at the
we had been on the way long, the sun appeared above home of brother J. Blankespoor, who ministers to the
the horizon to flood the earth with its golden glory.         flock there. And that same evening we 1e:tured  in his
       Our hearts were filled with the joyous hope of a church on the subject "Zelfondemoek", in the Holland
pleasant trip.                                                language therefore. As, however, we were scheduled
   When I say `"we" I am not using the more or less           to preach in Edgerton  the next evening (Good Friday)
obsolete editorial plural, but referring to a party of        we left for that place immediately after the  lecture in
three. As last year so also this time my wife made the        Orange City. The distance between  ,the two places
trip with me, and, besides, the youn,ger  of my two sons      being &bout  seventy five miles, and the last stretch
also accompanied us to take turns at the wheel. To            of the road being somewhat muddy, particularly the
drive about seven thousand miles in a few weeks and           very last few blocks in Edger-ton, where they had been
speak almost every day, as was done last year, is rather      digging up the streets and enjoyed a good deal of rain,
strenuous; and so the last mentioned of our party did so that it seemed questionable whether or not we would
must of the driving this time.                                be able to reach our destination by car or would have
       Our first stop was Oskaloosa, Iowa, where I was        to walk the last part of it,-all these things being so,
engaged to speak that same evening. From Grand it was almost midnight when we arrived at the parson-
Rapids to Oskaloosa is not a very long trip and with          age of the shepherd of Edger-ton (that is of our church
~a good car it can easily be made in one day. If one there), who was still awake and expecting us. We
takes route ninety two from Mendota, Ill. and follows were welcomed by him, the Rev. Wm. Verhil, and his
it all the way across the Mississippi to Oskaloosa, the       fami~ly,  not only by a friendly handshake but also by a
distance is just about four hundred and seventy miles.        midnight lunch . Let me say right here, that one who
We  arrived  in  OskaBoosa  in the late afternoon. The        makes his home with the Verhils in Edgerton  for a
season there was not very much ahead of that in               few days, does not have to go hungry or thirsty. The
Michigan. While in Grand Rapids the trees showed              good brethren of the church in Edgerton  keep their
as yet little signs of life when we left, in south-           pastor's bread-basket and larder abundantly supplied.
eastern Iowa they were just  ,beginning  to sprout. .            But, besides caring well for their pastor, the Edger-
       In that part `of Iowa we stayed three days  .and       ton brethren are very active- and progressive in the
spoke as many times, first in Oskdoosa, on Tuesday            work of God's kingdom. First they built a beautiful
evening in Pella, and on Wednesday evening I spoke            parsonage, now they are busy erecting a church. edifice
for the young people of both congregations, who had           that certainly will not be a disgrace to Edgerton. And
arranged a banquet which was followed by a fine               in the meantime we heard them talk about building a
Christian program in the church auditorium in  Oska-          school of their own. Plenty of that virtue which the
loosa. Our young people there proved that it is very Dutch call "voortvarendheid".
well possible to have a banquet and enjoy an evening             In Edgerton, then, we preached as was said, on
.of festivities without introducing all the  sil,ly nonsense Good Friday evening, and also on Sunday morning,
that often characterizes such gatherings. In the mean- before very good audiences that filled the hall where
time, during the day, we enjoyed the fellowship and           our church still holds her services. But after the
friendship of the brethren Petter and Lubbers and             Sunday morning service we had to take our departure,
their families, at whose homes we lodged alternately. `after having eaten dinner, rather hurriedly, for in the
Our conversation usually centered around our cause afternoon we had to preach in Sioux Center;`sixty  five
and related subjects. The two brethren are heart and miles away, and the services there started at I :30.
soul in the work, a statement that is, in fact, applicable    We left Edgerton  under a threatening sky, and travell-
to all our ministers.                                         ed  throu,gh a downpour  so heavy that sometimes it
   The audiences were very satisfactory, In Pella an was difficult to distinguish the road ahead of US: But
                                                                                    c

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

we reached our destination plenty in time, and had
time yet to meet brother Gritters and his family before          Some  Synodical Correspondence
going to church. The *brother  is enjoying his work and
doing well. The congregation there is gradually intro-         Our Synod is again past history.
ducing more English into their services. We preached          At some future time we will perhaps make a few
in the Holland language that afternoon and enjoyed remarks regarding same, but at this time we thought
seeing many old faces. In the evening of the same          it well to transcribe two missives  whi,ch  were sent by
Sunday we spoke in the church of Rock Valley, of our Synod. Their contents- are sufficiently interesting
which brother P. Vis is pastor. There was a more to our readers to warrant immediate publication.
than capacity audience, which was very attentive as           The letters in question follow :
we delivered a resurrection-message. It was Easter                                     Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Sunday.                                                                                May 23, 1941.
    In Sioux County, besides speaking in Orange City
and preacching in Sioux Center and Rock Valley, we         The Consistory  ,of the Kalamazoo Protesting First
lectured on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings Christian Reformed Church, Kalamazoo, Michigan.
in Hull, Rock Valley and Sioux Center respectively, Esteemed brethren in our Lord Jesus Christ :-
every time before very good audiences. During  our'            We received the two letters you sent us under date
labors there we lodged one night at the home of brother of July 30,1940,  and January 28,194l.
J. Blankespoor, two nights with the Visses, and the            The Synod decided to answer you as follows:
last night with the Gritters ; and we took tea and sup-       We are sorry that you retract your first letter on
per with the Cammengas and the Vander Breggens.            the basis that same was published and discussed in
We had the pleasure, therefore, to meet all the breth- the Standard Bearer. Moreover, it is our conviction
ren, and a pleasure it was, indeed !                       that such action is entirely `wrong. The Synod cannot
    But on Thursday morning, April 17, the time had        be held responsible for the fact that your first letter
come to leave. We departed from the home of Rev. was published and discussed by the Rev. ,H. Hoeksema
Gritters to make our way to Manhattan.                     in the Standard Bearer. Whatever the Rev. Hoeksema
    But here is a good place to break off my narrative writes in the Standard Bearer is his own concern and
for this time. About the trip to and work in Man-          you will see that you cannot and may not hold our
hattan I will write a few things next time, the Lord       Synod responsible for it. If you disapprove of his
willing.                                                   action you must address your expression of such dis-
                                               H. H.       approval to him. The Standard Bearer is a free paper
                                                           and not answerable for its contents to the Synod of
                          -                                the Protestant Reformed Churches. You may not at-
                                               ,-,.        tempt to punish or rebuke the Synod for acts com-
                                                           mitted by the Editor of a free paper.           I
                      NOTICE                                  Secondly, your first letter was not "intercepted"
    The Synod of` the Protestant Reformed Churches         but placed into the hands of the proper person, namely,
has declared that Candidate John Heys will be eligible the president of the committee appointed by the Synod
for a call on June 11, three weeks from the date           for this matter, the Rev. H. Hoeksema.
Synod  convened.                                              Thirdly, we cannot agree that the publishing of
                         D. JONKER, Stated Clerk.          your answer was contrary to "Reformed Church Law
                                                           and good order", because the contents were relative to
                                                           matters that were inherently public. At any rate,
                                                           we would have expected you to specify what article
                                                           or articles of the Reformed Church Order were trans-
                                                           gressed. The blanket expression you used is altogether
                    ATTENTION                              too general and sweeping and consequently proves
                                                           nothing.
This is a notice to all our people, that whereas the          Fourthly, whereas the contents of our address as
Field-Day Committee has procured a beautiful place well as your answer to same pertain to the welfare of
                                                           your congregation at large ; and whereas our half of
at Gun Lake, that ALL, old and young are urged to          these matters was known to your membership because
come and enjoy the 4th of July in a day of Christian of the publication of the Acts of our Synod ; and they
fellowship.                                                certainly have great need to know your half, namely,
                                                           the answer to the above-mentioned matters, it appears
                             The Field-Day Corn.           to us that the censured publication of them was highly

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

beneficial to the constituency of your church, especially casioned  much grief to us and  mu,ch misery of sin and
when we consider that due to your strange ecclesi-          guilt to you. It was the very point of our address to
astical isolation, your consistory also comprises the work toward the removal of such grief and misery in
functions otherwise filled by  Classis and Synod, which our serious endeavour to move you to recant the errors
from their very nature should be public.                    and to repent of your evil way.
       Finally, we once more would emphasize the matters       Thirdly, we cannot help but gain the impression
referred to in the address of our Synod 1940 and that you consider your Synodical  decisions and declara-
earnestly and urgently plead with you to either deny tions infallible. Allow us to explain. We beg you to
the charges we made and disprove them or to repent          reconsider the decisions and your answer is : No ! we
and  confws them.                                           cannot do so  ,because our Synods have definitely spoken
  `Your brethren in the Lord,                               regarding them. The Synod of 1940 could not recon-
        The Synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches; sider the Synod's work of 1924 and 1926 because the
                 (W.S.) H. Hoeksema, President ;            latter Synods spoke. If such is what you meant, breth-
                 (W.S.) Gerrit Vos, Secretary;              ren, then you have added to the list of errors corn-
                 (W.S.) Geo.  C. Lubbers, Asst. Secretary. mitted in the past. It is horrible to contemplate that
Stated Clerk of Synod:                                      such a doctrine of infallible Synods precludes the at-
Rev. D. Jonker,  924  Worden  St., S. E.,                   tractive possibility of ever relieving you of the in-
Grand Rapids, Michigan.                                     famous Three Points.
                                                               Fourthly,  we have noted that your strange silence
                                                            with respect to points one to three really is crueI to us
                              Grand Rapids, Michigan.       and very sinful  ,&fore  God. Let us take your view
                             May 23, 1941.                  of the matter. Suppose that you think us wholly in
The Synod of the Christian Reformed Churches, as- the wrong, a view often expressed but very difficult to
sembled at Grand Rapids, Michigan, June, 1941.              prove, on the one hand ; and, on the other hand, a view,
                                                            as we sincerely believe, which has no corresponding
Esteemed Brethren in our Lord Jesus Christ :-               reality in your hearts and consciences. But, for the
       We are sorry to note that you apparently misunder- sake of proving your harsh treatment to usward,  let
stood our address sent to you by the Synod of our           us suppose that you harbor such conviction: would it
Ghurches of 1940. You will kindly remember that it then not have been your Christian duty to admonish  us,
was composed of four parts. In points one and two           especially when we gave you a golden opportunity in
we brought to your attention various decisions, declar- the sending of our address ? But no. We said: Breth-
ations  and.acts of your Synods of 1924 and 1926; and ren in the Lord ! you have sinned grievously and such
being sincerely convinced that all of these decisions,      you must repent for the sake of the love of God. And
declarations and acts are either contrary to the Word       what was your answer? You did not say no ; neither
of God;and  the Reformed Confessions or a great and         did you say yes : you said exactly nothing. Such action
grievous injustice, we begged and pleaded with you is expressive of-contempt and therefore cruel to us and
in the name of the King of the Church to recant t.he        really also cruel to yourself.
errors and to repent of the sin, motivating this plea          Finally, we would bring the same address and re-
in the third point of our address. And in the fourth quest before your attention again and pray that our
part we requested you for a colloquy on all these           Covenant God give you grace to see your error, to con-
matters w,here  we might attempt to restore harmon-         fess the sin, to seek forgiveness, so that both your
between your churches and ours under the blessing of churches and ours may happily join hands and be for-
our Covenant God.                                           ever united in  .confession  and walk that tendeth to God-
       But yous answer was very disappointing to us.        liness.
You do not answer points one to three at all. The only          Your brethren in the Lord,
matter you touch on is the  matter  of the proposed col-         The Synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches;
loquy, mentioned under point four. (Hence,  we have                        (W.S.) H. Hoeksema, President ;
come to the conclusion that you apparently misunder-                       (W.S.) Gerrit Vos, Secretary ;
stood the entire thrust of our missive. It seems to us                     (W.S.) Geo. C. Lubbers, Asst. Secretary.
that you labor under the misconception that an answer
to point four treats the entire address.                    Stated Clerk of Synod:
       Secondly, we would say that  wz are well aware Rev. D. Jonker, 924 Worden  St., S. E.,
that the matters our Synod brought to your attention        Grand Rapids, Michigan.
were settled by your  Synods  of 1924 and 1926. Of
course, and it was exactly because of the decisions of          In due time, D.V., we hope to acquaint you with the
these Synods that the breach was struck which  a:-          answers to the above missives.                   H. H.


                          .     -
394                                  .,.-THE   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

om voorkoming van den oorlog en wereldvrede en bur-           great tribulation. And therefore, we must still ans-
gerlijke gerechtigheid?                                       wer the question: what are the religious implications
       `t  zou  we1 een heel vreemd  geluid  wezen  in de and principles as Nazism,
 Schrift,  als dit werkelijk waar was.                           In the text of  "Mein Kampf' `one does not find
       D0c.h dit is niet het geval. Ds. Zwier doet  aan       an answer to this question, or, at least, not the proper
 inlegkunde.                                                  answer. It must be remembered that it was written
       Om dit aan te toonen willen we echter een afzonder-    before Hitler came into power,  and that  it  was  ex-
 lijk artikel. schrijven in een volgend nommer.               pedient for him to be careful with respect to his
                                               H.  H.         attitude to the Church, both Roman Catholic and
                                                              P&estant. It is true, from the views he expresses on'
                                                              the State and its totalitarian power one might easily
                                                              conclude that in such a State there will be no room for
                                                              the Church of Christ, if she is faithful in and to her
          The Antichristian Implications                      confession. But directly Hitler in that work of his
                                                              makes no attack upon the Church, On the contrary,
                       Of Nazism*                             he tries to leave the impression that it is his purpose
                                                              to keep his hands off religion and religious bodies,
       II. From a political point of view, then, Nazism provided?  of course, they have nothing to say against
 would seem to be  tne implication of all the principles the realization of his political ideals. But since that
 necessary for a perfect setup for the representative time the situation has changed as we all know. Nazism
 of the Dragon to wield his antichristian power, pro-         is not only a political philosophy, it also claims to be a
 vided these principles can be realized to their full ex- "Weltanschauung",  a philosophy, a religion. This has
 tent. I say: "for a perfect setup" for after all the         become manifest especially since Rosenberg published
 political power, the totalitarian and universal State his "Myth of  ,the Twentieth Century" in which he
 would supply only the means for the  anticnrist  to          reveals himself a8 the False Prophet of Nazism par
 realize himself in the world. It is, in the abstract,        excellence, And both from what has been written on
 conceivable that this mighty world-power would put the subject of religion by the Nazis and from their
 itself in the service of Christianity, that it would be actual dealing with the Church and  its preaching and
 the State which, according to Art. 36 of our Nether-         ministry, it is very evident that National Socialism is,
 land Confession, would further the cause of the gospel in principle, thoroughly antichristian. It is pdrtly  a
 and destroy the power and dominion of Antichrist.            deification of German blood and race, which takes
 Before, then, we can speak of the antichristian impli- the place of the blood of Christ, partly an Hegelian
 cations of Nazism we must answer the question,               apotheosis of the State and the worship of it, partly
 whether from a religious point of view the principles a return to the ancient heathen gods before the intro-
 of Nazism are anti-christian. You will recall that in duction of Christianity.
 Rev. 13 a second beast, the beast that rises out of the         Rosenberg has been called the Antichrist of Nazism.
 earth, follows the first. It represents the final form       He does profess to believe in a Christ, but it is' not
 of the Antichrist from philosophical, religious, spirit-     the Christ of the Scriptures. de alleges that the
 ual aspect. It has two horns like a lamb, and it speaks image of the true Christ has been distorted by Jewish
 like a Dragon. It speaks. That is its power. And             fanatics like Matthew and Paul, by African jurists
 ,by his speech as well as by its miracles this second        like Tertullian and by "mongrel half breeds" like
 beast, elsewhere called the false prophet, deceives them Augustine. .The true Christ is the Nazi-Christ, born
 that dwell on the earth. It causes them that dwell on of Amorite-Nordic parents, who insisted that he did
 the earth to worship the first beast, the almighty State, not come to bring peace to the world but a sword. In
 to make an image for the  first beast, to cause all men his "Myth of the Twentieth Century" Rosenberg in-
 to receive the sign of the beast on their forehead or on sists that the religion of Wotan -and Siegfried must
 their right hand, so that they may be distinguished as       replace that of Rome, Wittenberg and Geneva. The
 pro and con with respect to the antichristian power, swastika, as the symbol of the sungod, must become
 and only the former may be able to buy or sell and the symbol of the new church, and replace the dreary
have a place in society. Besides, we read of the first        and weak symbol of the cross. The living religion of
 beast that it speaks great things and  blasphemies           Race and Blood  <must take the place of the demoralizing
 against God, His name, His tabernacle and them that          and denationalising religion of the ,Holy  Spirit and the
 dwell in heaven, and that it was given unto him to           communion of saints. He exalts the religion of the
' make war with the saints. The antichristian empire superman to that of meekness and humility, the re-
will be characterized by great prosperity, except for ligion of the weakling, of the "underman". Not the
the saints. For the people of God it will be a time of enervating Christian vijues of pity, charity, repent-


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R '                .                      395

 ante and humility, which are a sinister menace to the introduction of this new religion. From the "Mani-
 soul of Nordic Europe, but the true virtues of honor festo" which was read in the opposition pulpits in
 and freedom, power and force of will must have the           June 1935, we quote the following:
  emphasis.    To Rosenberg the creed of the historic                 "We see for our people a deadly danger. The
 churches is a creed of decay and slavery. The intro- danger consists in the new religion. The  hrst com-
 duction of Christianity in Europe meant the debilita- mandment states :`Thou thalt have no other gods be-
  tion of the strong and healthy German race, the             for me'.       The new religion is disobedient to this
 standard bearer  05 all culture and civilization ; it was    first commandment.        First, through this religion a
 the beginning of decay "disastrous for Germanity and         racial and nationalistic view of life has become a
 Humanity" both. Cf. "Religion of the Blood" by creed. Through its blood and race, faith in an eternal
 Chas. Sarolia in Contemporary Review, JI. 1935.              Germany which the new religion requires, has been
     Rosenberg demands the elimination of the Old             put in place of faith in an external Kingdom of our
I Testament as a source of religion, of all the historic Lord Jesus Christ. Third, this fool's faith induces
 foundations of Christianity, Roman Catholic or Pro-          man to make God in his own image. According to its
 testant, of the spurious values of the Sermon on the         creed man himself honors, saves and redeems himself.
 Mount. He insists upon the repudiation of the doc-           Such superstition has nothing to do with positive
 trine of original sin, of salvation through grace, and Christianity. This is the creed of an antichrist. The
 of the symbol of the cross. And for them he would            State's sovereignty and power are solely a gift from
 substitute Nordic myths and fairy tales to take the          God, who alone founded and preserves  I human author-
 place of the Bible and confessions; and the worship          ity. Whoever placed blood, race and nationality in
 of Odin, Wotan, Siegfried,  Bismarck  and Hitler as the place of God destroys the State's foundations . . . .
 Heroes of the new German Church. Only in the elimin- Therefore, the Church dares not now blindly bow to
 ation of foreign elements from the German blood and the-totalitarian demands of the state, which the new
 race, especially the Jewish ; by further purification religion has created. Bound to God's Word it is her
 of the German blood by eugenic measures and by a duty to witness the omnipotence of Jesus Christ, who
 radical religious revolution, can salvation of the           alone is empowered to bind and relieve the human
 Fatherland be expected. (idem  as above). He writes          conscience. To Him alone is given all power in heaven
 in his "Myth" : "A German church must pledge all and on earth".
 its ministers with the oath to guard the honor of the                And from the "Bethel Confession" we quote:
 nation, and it will- be our task to create a German                  "We denounce the idea that the coming of Christ
 national church in the service of the mythos of the          represents the flaring up of the Nordic race in a
 German race. The God whom we worship would not               worId  of decay. We denounce the assertion that the
 exist if our souls and blood were not" (II` Smith Leiper government of the state is entitled to rule over the
 in Ann. Am.  Acad. JI. `35). And Jacob Wilhelm               church and especially that it should have the right to
 Hauer, under whose leadership the various German             appoint and dismiss holders of ecclesiastical offices
 pagan movements became united in May 1934, pre-              and to issue laws which affect the teachings of the
 siding at a National Diet at Eisenbach, adopted a            church directly or indirectly". In "Religion Confronts
 "Pagan Book of Faith" containing twenty five points          Caesarism" by H. Smith Leiper, in Ann. Am. Acad.  JI.
 such as the following: "The word heathen is for us no        `35.
 insult, but a title of honor: We believe no more in                  What was the result? We all know it. Oppression
 the Holy Spirit; we believe in the  .Holy  Blood. . . .      and persecution of the faithful by the almighty sword
 The German people need no Bible. We believe in God of the totalitarian State. For Nazism can tolerate no
 revealed to us through blood and conscience". Cf.            opposition. On pp. 676,677 of "Mein Kamph" Hitler
 C. L.  Heymann,  in Cur.  H,ist.,  April `35. Wilhelm        postulates that Nazism is a view of life, that views
 Teudt offered a revision of the Psalms. In Ps. 87 he of life are never inclined to compromise, that they
 would read the second verse as follows: "The Lord            proclaim their infallibility; that it never shares with
 loveth the height of Germany more than all the dwell-        another view of life. And since this is the case, "it
 ings abroad"  ; and the fourth verse: "I will make men- cannot be ready either to co-operate in an existing
 tion of the Euphrates and the Ganges where our               condition that it condemns, but it feels the obligation
 forefathers lived". In the light of all this we wonder of fighting, by all available means, this condition, and
 no more that, as was reported in some Dutch papers           the entire hostile world of ideas ; that means of prepar-
 some time ago, the German children at home are ing their collapse". Well, when the church procIaimed
 taught to pray to and to thank Hitler for their daily        a view of. life different from and in opposition to the
 bread! And Hitler has been hailed as the Messiah religion of Nazism, fight Hitler did, not by all means,
 from whom the world may expect its salvation !               not by spiritual combat, but by the power of the
    `The German churches have protested against the mighty totalitarian sword. From a footnote in  "Mein


  396                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
. Kampf"  by the American editor on p. 144, I quote the either on humanistic or biblical grounds ; or be:ause
  following : "Moreover (this was the` Lutheran conten- I believe in the power of the democracies to stem the
  tion) the sacred ministry is open to all who have been antichristian tide. Principally there is no difference
  baptized and are called. Therewith Lutheranism de- between "modernism' `in our own land, and Nazism in
  nies the priority of race. When Hitler came to power, Germany from the viewpoint we are discussing of the
  he immediately tried to place the governance of the        latter. It is not only the fifth columnist that is incul-
  Lutheran Church in hands of men who were willing cating the deepest principles of Nazism into the Ameri-
  to alter the traditional teaching. A large group of can people.
  "German Christians who subscribed to Hitler's views           But X do believe that Nazism as it now manifests
 I were recruited, and their representative-Pastor Lud- itself cannot be the  fmal manifestation of the  anti-
  wig EMtiller-was  named Archbishop at the command Christian power, because, though in many respects it
 of the government. The majority of German theo-             resembles the biblical picture of the antichrist, there
  logians refused, however, to accept so  drastilc  a tamper- are also serious points of difference.
 ing with their creed. Gradually they formed the Con-           The chief point of difference is that Nazism is
 fessional Synod, and this has until now-despite all emphatically national, while antichrist is international,
 pressure and suffering--clung resolutely to the ortho- universal. Nazism is German, the antichristian em-
  dox point of view. The best known spokesman for            pire will be cosmopolitan. This is very evident from
 this point of view is Pastor Martin Niemoller  ,who was the picture in Rev. 13. The `symbol of the beast with
 imprisoned by command of {Hitler and is still heId in its seven heads informs us that this beast is the impli-
 virtually solitary confinement; but there are hundreds      cation as well as the  c,onsummation  of all similar
 of clergymen who have learned to know the meaning beasts that have gone before. The fatal.wound  in one
 of opposition.      More than twelve hundred of their of its heads is healed, by which  1 understand the
 number have gone to prison; some are dead.           The    deadly wound all world-power received in the confusion
 crisis through which Lutheranism. is passing is un- of tongues and the subsequent separation'of the race
 questionably the gravest in its history". And we            into nations, so that its healing means the uniting of
 know what happened to Dr. Schilder and to other             the nations of the world, a voluntary federation of
 ministers in the Netherlands already.                       nations. The same idea is suggested by the ten horns,
     I conclude, therefore, that whether you consider which represent ten kingdoms that voluntarily give
 Nazism  from its political aspect or from the viewpoint their power to the beast. And do not forget that all
 of its religious principles, as a power or as a Weltan-     the world wonders after the beast, that is, voluntarily
 ,schauung,  it bears a strong resemblance to the Anti       admires him and hails him as the Messiah of the
 Christ as pictured in Holy Writ, particularly to the        world. But Nazism in' nationalistic, not only in the
 Beast of Rev. 13. We may, therefore, indeed, speak of sense that its scope of influence and power at present
 the antichristian implications of Nazism.                   is limited to the German people, but in its view of life.
     III. Can we go further? May we, instead of              It is a system that is admittedly based on race, on the
 speaking of the antichristian implications of Nazism superiority of the Nordic race, of the German people.
 speak of the Nazi State as the Antichrist? I for one        By purifying and developing the German blood the
 woud refuse to thus commit myself. In fact, I would         nation will  besome dominant. Now `this is, of. course,
 go one step further and maintain that the National a myth. But that is not the point. The point is that
 Socialistic `State in its present form and with its pre- as long as it adheres to this narrow nationalistic prin-
 sent ambitions and its present Fiihrer,  cannot be or ciple,  *it will not succeed in acquiring universal power
 become the Antichrist in the ultimate sense of the          and dominion.
 word.                                                          In close connection with its nationalistic principle
         I do not say this because I  beIong to those who    and view of life based upon the philosophy of blood,
 always present the realization of the things that must stands the fact, that Nazism is too narrow and ex-
  come to pass before the coming of Christ as if they clusive in its philosophy, in its economic and political
 lie in the distant future. I am exactly of the contrary conceptions. Antichrist will stand opposed to God, to
  opinion. I believe that the things foretold us in the      Christ, to the saints. it will hate them, persecute
  Bible are coming to pass, and are being realized with them, fight them to the death. But for the rest he
  astounding rapidity.      4nd I believe that Nazism, must be very broad, for the false prophet persuades
  though in its present form it cannot be the ultimate       all others to adopt the mark of the Beast. The Beast
 antichrist, may very well be a forerunner of the Beast.     presents a united front over against the cause and
  All things seem to witness Ioudly and clearly of a com-    people of Christ only. But Nazism is intolcr3nt  with
  ing change in the entire economic and political setup      relation to many other views, that are themselves
  of the world. Still less do I make this statement,         antichristian. It has too many enemies in the anti-
 ,beeause  I believe in a glorious future for this world,    Christian world itself. It hates Bolshevism, it fights


                                         THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              397

 Marxian  Socialism, it despises democracy, it  fights           lose it for His name's sake, shall keep it unto eternal
 and persecutes the Jew to the death, it cannot tolerate life ! Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a
 the bourgeois.     I know that it has been forced by            crown of life!
 circumstances to show somewhat of a conciliatory                -                 -
 attitude to some of its enemies. The pact with Russia *Lecture delivered in several of our churches.
 is an example of this. It is, therefore, not impossible                                                        H. H.
 that in the future Nazism  will reveal more of this
 adaptability to circumstances and will prepare the                                          *
 way for a broader conception. But as it is at present,
 Nazism is by no means worshipped and admired by all,
 either within Germany or outside of its own borders.
     You say, perhaps, that Nazism may gain world-                             Fruits  Of Deliverance
 dominion by sheer force. It may win this war and                                                         .-
                                                                                        (Psalm 34)
 then turn to new conquests. But in the first place, I
 consider this, for the present at least, not very prob-              `The superscription of this psalm tells us at what
 abIe. X am not in a position to predict the outcome of occasion it was composed. It was when David changed
 this war. But in my opinion .Hitler has not yet shown his behaviour before the face of Abimelech, the king
 that he is capable of conquering the world. It is true, of Gath. The record of this history you will find in
that his mighty war-machine has had brilliant success,           I Sam. 31.
 has trampled under foot many nations. But it is                      The events recorded there date from the period
 also true, that there is as yet no indication that he is        when David had to flee continually before the face
 able to subjugate the British empire aided by the               of Saul. At one such  o&&on David hurried to the
 supplies of the United States. And do not forget that country of the Philistines, more particularly, to the
 the little nations he forced into subjection do not people of the city of `Gath. Its king was named Achish.
 wonder after and worslxip  the beast, but that they hate        Now. you will note that in Psalm 34 the name of this
 him with a deep-seated and bitter hatred, that may king is given as Abimelech. That does not seem to
 flare up as soon as the opportunity is favorable. And agree. The solution is easy. Achish was the proper
 in the second place, I believe that the Scriptural pic- name of this king and Abimelech was his title. All
 ture of antichrist as well as all h&tory teaeh us, that the kings of the Philistines were called Abimelech,
 the antichristian empire cannot realize itself by sheer which means literally, My father is King, just as ,al,l
 force and power of the sword, but will become uni-              the kings in Egypt were called Pharaoh's and of the
 versal by way of a voluntary union and federation.. Amelekites  Agag. Later in Roman history you will
 My conch&on. therefore, is that Nazism is, indeed,              remember that all the kings were called Caesar and
 a.inighty  attempt to realize the antichristian world-          even in our modern times we speak of the Shah of
 power, but that in its present form it is too limited to        Persia, and not so long ago of the Czars of Russia.
 be or become the ultimate manifestation of the Beast.           Therefore Achish in I Sam. 21 and Abimelech in Psalm
     In the meantime, we are making history fast.                34 are the same person.
 Antichristian forces are busy round about us. And                    Well, when David found refuge in Gath, he could
 sometime they will surely unite. Perhaps, this  will1           not remain there for any length of time before they
 be realized before very long. It does not seem as if recognized him as the dangerous warrior and enemy
 the ultimate realization of the antichristian power of the Philistines. The people said: Is not this the
 can be far off, in the still distant future. .And let us        man of whom the maidens sang: Saul hath slain his
 remember, that the war against the Bea& cannot be thousands but David his ten thousands? And David
 fought or won with the sword of any government.                 became sore afraid. He lost sight of God and saw
 Here is the faith and the patience of the saints : he that      only Achish, the wicked king of Gath.
 killeth with the sword, must be killed with the sword !              Psalm 34 reflects this misgiving on the part of
 But we must even now put on and keep on the whole David. He speaks of troubles and fears. We can
 armour of God, that we may be able to stand in the              well imagine that David was sore afraid.
 evil day. We must hold fast that which we have.                      But he found a way out. IHe acted  as if he were
 We must be strong in the truth. We must keep our                insane. He .began to scratch at the walls of the city
 garments clean. We must not seek the things that and let his spittle drip into his beard. And he achieved
 are on the earth, but the things that are above. We             the desired results. Achish asked grumblingly of his
 nz~?st   not in any wise ally ourselves with Babylon and        servants : Do we lack mad `men in this city? Let him
 adopt the mark of the Beast, even now. And we must be gone at once. And David fled to the cave of Adul-
 remember the word of the Lord Jesus, that he that               lam.    There his kinsfolk and a veritable host of
 shall seek to save his life shall lose it, but he that shall    stragglers came to him and he became their captain.

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

       Such is the history. David was in trouble and          his bu,rden  was taken away. He was lightened and his
cried unto the Lord who heard him and delivered him face was not ashamed.
out of all his troubles.                                         Ah, David knows the solution. The Angel of the
       The first part of the psalm, up to verse  10 is a Lord is round about those that fear the Lord. There
song of praise and the remainder of the psalm is              was no real danger. It was not necessary for David
as it were a sermon. The experience at Gath he will to act as though he was insane. God was for him
use as a means to teach his companions the way of and therefore there could not be anything or anybody
God's deliverance.                                            really against him.     What wondrous safety. The
       He begins his hymn by stating that the praises of literal meaning of the word that is translated by
Jehovah shall be forever in his mouth. Wherever he            deliver really means to snatch away as from the brink
is, he will speak. a good word about and to his God.          of a precipice.. That is what haappened at, Gath.
Such is the literal meaning of to bless. To bless means          And the experience of such wonderful deliverance
that you speak good words, comfortable words about            awakens the desire to share it with all God's people.
a person or to a person.        It means that you utter       Hcrce  we find David full of  e-xhortations.   IHe says:
beautiful words. Our English word Euiogy is derived           0 taste and see that the Lord is good; 0 fear Him!
from the Greek word for  to bless.                            And by implication we may read in the following
       Such endeavour is exactly what we need in order verse: 0 seek Him!
to answer to the purpose for which we were created.              0 what fools men are !         Millions will ' seek the
That's all we will do unto all eternity in heaven. That earth and sin, but they will never ask, seek for the
will make us happy too. That is the only occupation           living God.
which makes for happiness. Bless God, praise His                 And there is nothing that pays such wonderful
name and let your soul boast in the Lord and I assure dividends as the service of God. Taste God and you
you that you will be a happy person.                          will see that He is God! Trust Him and you will be
                                                              blessed ! Fear Him and you will have no want ! Seek
       And that is not all.                                   Him and you will not want any good thing. God in
       You do that before the face of men and your song       His blessed revelation (and that is Jesus) is the only
of praise will breed emulation. The humble will hear thing you really need, without which you will have
your song and be glad. I am reminded of a phrase              nothing but hell.
in the New Testament which is used several times:                But David knows. He has experienced all this and
And the people seeing this or hearing this gave praise more. And love  is' not narrow.  iHe will share it
to God. Indeed, when you do the right thing, and that         with the children of God. From verse 10 on he will
is to praise Jehovah, you  wil1 cause gladness for            preach to them ; he will teach them the fear of the
others.                                                       Lord.
       Henceforth we see David in the cave of Aduilam.           In the first lesson he tells us the way to real and
It is a motley throng that surrounds him. Some are            abiding happiness. If you desire life, if you love to
in debt and are hunted as a partridge upon the moun- live that life eternally ,if you want to see God, you
tains; some "are discontented, in bitterness of soul,         must pursue a definite course.
some were in distress.         But David stands in their         Negatively you must hate evil and positively you
midst and calls them to the only endeavour that is            must love goodness.
worth while. Listen: 0 magnify the Lord with me                  You must hate evil to such an extent that you keep
and let us exalt His name together.                           your lips and tongue from the works of the devil,
   From the beginning of  time.  the people of `God           which is thz making of the lie.
have liked to praise God in unison. In the time of               Oh no, it does not mean that you always and ever
Enos men began to call upon the name of the Lord.             speak the pure truth of God. It does not mean that
-4nd in our time we still like to go to church so that        you live a sinless existence. No, but it means that
we may praise His name together. The  oIder  I become you are turned against the original root-sin of  all sin:
the more I like to go to church. Slowly on I begin to the lie of the devi1. You know that lie: ye shall be as
understand that our church-life is a little bit of heaven.    gods! It means that you hate the lie and fight against
       Listen, David is going to tell the dwellers in the     it every day. And that you cling to the truth of God
cave of his narrow escape in  Gath.  I was in terrible and that is Jesus.
fear, I was sore troubled: death itself stared me in the          If you desire  Iife and if you desire it for  all
face. But this poor man cried unto God and he was             eternity, you must do good. You must seek peace and
heard. David further describes that ascent unto the           pursue it. The very phraseology suggests that this
throne of God. He likens it to the rushing stream of course is not easy. It is the fight of faith which every
water. (See the Dutch translation of verse 6). And            Christian is privileged to fight in the power of God.
God heard: He delivered, He heard his pitiful cry and         Peace is not our natural sphere. Very rebellion  is


                                                        '



                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D BEARERi                                                     399

our atmosphere by nature. Rebels against God and             of praise and thanksgiving. Then it is heaven in my
rebels against all  aut,hority.    But through the re- soul.
generating influence of God's Spirit we are able to              This God is very careful over His saints: He
fight against the  indwelIing  rebellion, killing it, morti- keepeth all the bones of the righteous, not one of
fying it and thus growing in gracious obedience which        them is broken. That is true of all the righteous,
is the atmosphere of real peace, of real tranquility         but it was fulfilled in Jesus. John tells us in his
and harmony with the heart of our God.                       Gospel that this Scripture was fulfilled after Jesus'
   Such  people  are really happy and blessed.               death when the soldiers came with hammers to crush
   Listen to David: he will describe such happiness.         the last spark of life out  oft our Lord; but finding
   God's eyes are upon the righteous and His ears are        Him already dead, they did not break His bones.
open to their cry. Remember here what the occasion           Indeed, the fight was finished ; Christ had paid all the
was for this psalm and it speaks the more strongly.          debt of God's righteousness; therefore His bones might
Righteous David was in real  danger  of his life.  IHis      not be broken.
cry arose, interpreting all his fears. But he  found             So the Lord has a special care for His own. No
out that even in the city of Gath God is the only            pain or suffering will He allow to come nigh unto then+
Sovereign. He heard the cry of David and hastened            unless it must be for their eternal and spiritual wel-
to his help.                                                 fare. And in such case their suffering and tears are
    How different is the experience of the wicked.           blessings in disguise.
God's face is against them. That is awful. Even if a             How different with the wicked. Evil shall slay
man's face is against you, you fee lembarrassed, ill at      them. Do you not note that the punishment is already
ease,,  miserabIe. Let a man frown at you, raise his         in the  transgression?  If you hate the righteous and
voice, glare his contempt or anger at you and your           their righteous Father in heaven ; if you do evil all
cheeks are blanched, your breath is shortened, your          the day long, you will never be a happy man. The
heart is pounding within you.                                more you sin, the more miserable you become. Evil
   But this is God!                                          slays the wicked already here below.              But in the
   His Face is against the wicked. And while we can          revelation of the just judgment of God he will be                   1
do nothing more than aflXct the bodies of men. God           declared guilty.
can cut off our remembrance from the earth.                      But  when God's people arrive before the great
   And history bears witness.. Where is Cain and             white throne in the revelation of that same judgment,
Esau and Judas, the unholy triumvirate? Where is             God will show within them the glory of His own work.
their remembrance? Even their names shall be anni-           Take courage, ye righteous ! In that day the Lord
hilated.                                                     will turn your hearts inside out and the whole universe
    How  klorious  is the comfort for the sorrowing will see that Jesus dwelled in you, that  you trusted in
saint on earth. They have the light of God's Spirit.         your God, that you sought Him and found Him and
By the light of that Spirit they see their sins and          that your deepest hunger and thirst was to see the
guilt. And slowly their hearts are breaking. They glorious Face of God !
love God and they have sinned against Him. True                                                                  G. V.
remorse and sorrow is born of the love of God. They .
become contrite in spirit. And t,he night hears their
oft-repeated cry: Oh my God, be merciful to me, the                                      -
sinner !
    Even though it seems as though the Lord could
have no communion with such sinners as we are,. the                                  IN MEMORIAM
very fact t,hat you are contrite in spirit and broken-            De Kerkeraad der Prot. Geref. Gemeente te Hull, Iowa,
hearted is proof that He is very near you. The Lord          wenscht hierbij zijn  harteIijke  deelneming te betuigen met
is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and            onze  leeraar en gade,,  Ds. en Mrs. A. Cammenga, in het verlies
saveth such that be of a contrite spirit. Such nearness
was experienced by many when Jesus walked upon van bun Vader,
the earth. He would say: Be of good courage, my son,                                 MR. S. VISSER
thy sins are forgiven thee !  Methinks there is no                Moge onze Verbonds God hen ri$elijk troosten in dit hun
sweeter music !
    Oh then we are able to bear the cross. Our affliz-       verlies.
tions may be many; they  m-e  many. But if I may                                    Namens de Kerkeraad voornoemd,
know that my God is near me, that my sins are for-                                              A.  Brummel,  Vice Pres.
given an4 my guilt removed  ; then I can'sing my song                                           Ed, Vander Werff,  Seer,

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

                                                               there is torment in fear. Fear is never the result of
                   Walking In Fear                             love, but at the bottom of it lies the fact that man
                                                               does not live the life of fellowship with the Lord.
                                     I Peter  1:17-19.            There is, however, also a fear of love. This fear
   To hope is the first admonition Peter writes in             reveals itself in that its object is honored. In this
his letter to the church. Hope perfectly, let your hope sense the fear of the Lord is the fear for the Lord
be more and more complete. IHave your eye fixed upon and thus a revelation of reverence. This implies that
the complete salvation, which is to be brought to you one is conscious of God's presence. And  .because  a
at the revelation of Jesus Christ.                             man knows himself to be in the presence of God, his
   He adds another admonition when he writes, be               life reveals his love for God in that he is obedient to
ye holy, because the Lord your God is holy. Holiness           God's Word. Such a man will not easily turn to the
and hope are closely related to each other. Unless             former life of sin, but to the contrary, he will walk
one walks in holiness, he cannot hope and w,hen walk-          carefully in the midst of the world. His thoughts
ing in holiness, hope will always be active. Therefore,        are with the Lord and his life outwardly is a manifest-
holiness is the requisite for the hope of the church.          ation of the love for God and for His cause. Hence,
   Now he continues, let your walk be in fear.                 the life of the Christian  di&rs from the life of the
   Walk.                                                       natural man, just as light differs from darkness.
   To walk means that we move in a certain direction.             The question is, does Peter simply and exclusively
A man's walk is his conduct of life from beginning             mean that the Church must walk in that fear of love?
to end. We move in a certain direction, with a pur-            Of course, he cannot very  .well admonish that they
pose in mind. We aim at something and try to reach             should not fear, because they are afraid of God. We
the goal we have set before us. The whole of life              may never be afraid of him. And we do well to empha.
reveals our aim or purpose and is determined by our            size this fact. Many a so-called evangelical preacher
innermost  ,being from a spiritual point of view. We           will use the fear of natural man as the theme for his
cannot seperate our inner life from the external revela-       religious talk. The torments of hell are presented in
tion.  IOur life is characterized, either by darkness          such a vivid picture, that man must be afraid of the
and sin, or  ,by light,  ri,ghteousness  and holiness. In consequences of sin. With the ultimate outcome, that
the absolute sense of the word, as is our heart so also        it is best after all not to sin and be lost, but to be
is our walk. There is simply no third possibility.             saved-heaven is so much nicer than hell. Throwing
       We say this is so in the absolute sense of the word.    scares  into people will make them turn from their
As a man is, he reveals himself before God. He is a            evil, sinful ways one would expect? Why no, people
man of the world or he is a child of God. Yes, it does         are not that easily seared. ,They know and will get
not always look that way from our point of view. We            accustomed to that kind of preaching and continue in
consider and judge a man according to his outward              their sinful ways. Besides, Peter does not admonish
manifestation; therefore, we call a hypocrite also a at random, but sends this admonition to the Church
child of light, because we are not able in this case, nor      of Christ Jesus. Pass the time of your sojourning in
in any case, to judge the heart. But we may safely             fear. This means that the pilgrim must be well aware
say, hypocrites are the exception to the rule that             of his own weaknesses. He must know also the many
what a man is, he will reveal in his walk. IHence,  it         temptations and the possibilities of falling into sin.
is not difficult to know the difference ,between  a child      Work out your salvation with fear and trembling is
of God and a child of the devil.          Both have their repeated here, be it in a somewhat different way and
peculiar aspirations, their ideals, their aims and  pur-       presented in different words.
pOSC?S.     And will reveal their true spiritual char-             Yes, salvation is by sovereign grace only and not
acter.                                                         :by our works. But that does not change the fact,
       Peter adds, that the walk must be a  waleking  in that it will be ours through the way of sanctification.
fear.                                                          Work out your salvation with fear and trembling,
       Fear often means that one is afraid. A man is           for it is God who worketh in you, both to will and
afraid when he hurts someone. The criminal is afraid to do according to his good pleasure. Hence, walk
when the law `pursues him. He is afraid because he             in fear does not refer to the fear which has torment
knows the judge will pronounce sentence in harmony in it, but it refers to that fear-knowing,self-knowing
with the  offence.  Thus it is with man over against           God's holiness, whereby we become afraid of self
man. T.he weak fear the strong, the wicked  fear the           and of the world and the devil. This is not the fear
righteous. The devil fears God when he thinks of               of cowardice,  but of being careful not to rely on him-
the judgment to come. He trembles, knowing there self and not to underestimate sin. With Peter these
is no way of escape and also knowing that the judg-            admonitions were a question of experience. To boast,
ment of God shall be right. In this sense of the word as if one is not susceptible to the many pitfalls, means,


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R "                                      403

that such parties will fall by the wayside.                  death on the cross. Therefore, it became possible by
    Secondly, as to the positive side of it, fear as a means of fulfilling the -perfect demand of God with a
matter of reverence, shows the sincerity of the chris-       perfect sacrifice to set you free and to instih in your
tian in the midst of the actual battle. Behind- that         hearts the life of freedom, `the life of perfection.
Godly fear we find the desire to be like our God. We            To heed this admonition is a case of necessity.
often say to be of +lis party in the midst of the world.        First of all, because you  calI upon God as your
Rightly so. If ye call on Him as Father, and Peter           Father. You confess the most intimate relation where-
means to say `you do', you acknowledge and confess           in you stand to Him. It is the relation of love. And
thereby the most intimate relation between yourself this confession is not only a question of words. For,
and your God. For when we confess, that He is our if you call upon God as Father, this Father judges with-
Father, we are duty bound to reveal ourselves as His out respect of persons. Generally speaking, God simply
c h i l d r e n .                                            does not consider a person as such. IHe never finds
    The result of it will be, that in our walk, in our       anything in you to be of consideration to make you
talk, yea, in the manifestation of our life we reveal worthy of His fellowship. He does not depend upon
that relation.                                               you. He is the Self-sufficient One.
    Notice, how this fact of the relation between God           (Hence, you cannot bring Him anything that is not
and ZIis people dnds its basis and its realization in His own work.
another fact, always emphasized in Scripture, that we.          Secondly, according to the meaning of `"without
are bought.          The general idea of being bought is,    respect of persons" carries in it the idea, that someone
that the buyer claims ownership of his property. We          tries to present himself in such a way to make it
must see this clearly. If anything or anyone is bought, appear as though he walks seemingly  in harmony with
it or he are at the disposal and under the command           the command of God.        However, his virtues are a
of the owner.          The owner has a right to demand.      mask. He does not reveal his inner self. He hides
In this case the owner is God, who bought us with the behind the mask of his real self. He looks other than
precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish self. In other words, he is false in his appearance.
and without spot.          Christ's sacrifice was a perfect He takes his own position, his place in society, his
sacrifice, hence,  a  perfect price.                         riches or name, that is, he takes all that impresses the
    And this transaction of buying was not merely world as the sufficient ground for a so-called Christian
something outside of us, but  aIso something in us. walk. But he cannot maintain himself before God,
The ransom paid for the sins of God's people made who is not fooled by any appearance, how nice it may
them the rightful property of the Lord. But this             seem, of any man. .God judges the heart and as is the
buying was not onIy a judi.cial  action, but also a set- heart so also is the walk of life and nothing is hidden
ting free from the power of the devil, sin and corrup- before the face of God, not even when a mask is
tion. Free from the power of. the life of self, they put on.
were l&rated from what they had learned by tradi-               Finally, you call on the Father, but remember this
tion of their fathers. In one word, they were freed Father is the Righteous One.
from the things of the flesh an,d of sin and thus set           IHe deals righteously, according to every man's
free, because the power of it was broken.                    work. Now then, let your walk be characterized by
    Host emphaticahy  the Apostle impresses this fact that knowledge of his perfect righteousness and holi-
upon their minds, by calling this fact in a peculiar way ness.
to their attention: Ye know that you are bought by              Fear and in reverence serve Him.
the precious blood of the perfect Lamb. This know-              You know how absolutely holy your Father is
ledge is not a knowledge of a fact as such, but at the through righteousness revealing that He cannot and
same time a matter of subjective experience. You wiIl not be satisfied through a walk in holiness.
personally know of that new power of the life of                And let your holiness and righteousness be that of
Christ implanted in you. Through it you have be- your Saviour, the lamb without blemish and without
come a new creature. There is a new relation between spot.
you and your God. You call Him Father and He calls              And you may call Him Father.
you His children. And even as the sacrifice was per-                                                        w .   v .
fect, so that nothing was wanting, so is the new life,
which by means of the ransom you received a perfect
life, -liberating you from the power of sin and corrup-
tion. Christ Himself thus became your  exampIe.  God's                                NOTICE
righteousness demanded a perfect payment and the All the delegates of the Feld-Day Committee are urged
Only Begotten gave it. He walked in perfect love to be present at the next meeting, June 2 at `7:45 P.M.,
and in perfect obedience to the ,bitter end, even the        at Fuller Ave., Prot. Ref. Church.

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

               Moses' Intercession                           delivered them by His outstretched arm and had taken
                                                             them to  `His bosom at Mount Sinai. All along He had
   "And the Lord said unto Moses, "HOW  long will the        provided in all their necessities. But they now saw
people provoke me? And how long will it be ere they the real motive behind His doing.
believe me for all the signs which I have shewed among          Verily, the people were committing a great sin.
them?  I will smite them with pestilence, and dis-           The sense and meaning of the Hebrew word translated
inherit them. and will make of thee a greater nation         by provoke is : to deride, despise, contemn,  reject. The
and mightier than they."                                     people were despising the Lord, faithful and true, long-
   So the Lord spake. It shows that ,a great sin had suffering and of great mercy, the righteous and the
again been committed by the people of Israel. The            holy God. They did so not in their ignorance but
Lord had  shewed signs among them. In the words of deliberately, knowingly.              For these virtues of God
the psalmist, Moses and Aaron had  "shewed His signs were manifest in them and were clearly seen by them,
among them, and wonders in the land of  :Ham.  He            being understood by His signs. But though they knew
sent darkness and made it dark. . . . (He turned their       God, they gIorified Him not as God, because they were
waters into blood and  sley their fish.      Their land      wiisked.  In their spite they insisted that He was an
brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of         evil deity, unfaithful, untrue, deceitful and thus worthy
their kings. He spake, and there came divers sorts           to be despised and rejected. And despise  6Him they
of flies, and lice in all their coasts. He gave them hail    did.
for rain, and flaming fire in their land. He smote              It was as if their perversity astonished even the
their vines also and their fig trees ; and brake the         Lord Himself.      "How  lang will they despise me?"
trees of their coasts. He spake and their locusts came, "How long will it be ere they believe me. . . ." The
and caterpillars, and that without number. And did           Lord answered His own questions, when He said,
eat up, all the herbs in their land, end devoured the        "I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit
fruit of their ground. He smote also all the firstborn them. . .  ." The implication of these utterances is
in their land, the chief of all their strength.       He that they  wil1 not cease despising and disbelieving
brought  t.hem forth also with silver and gold: and          Him: There is indeed every indication that the vast
their was not one feeble person among their tribes.          majority of them were persons thoroughly profligate,
Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear men corrupt in the very heart of their disposition.
of them fell upon them. He spread a cloud for a cover-       Consider the following. Hearing their speech, Moses
ing; and  f?.re to give light in the night. The people and Aaron, in their great amazement and consterna-
asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with        tion, fell on their faces before all the assembly.
the bread of heaven. He opened the rock, and the Joshua and Caleb rent their clothes. And they spake
waters gushed out; they ran in the dry. places like a to  all the company saying, "The land which we passed
river."                                                      through to search is an  exceeding.good  land. If the
   These had been the Lord's signs. Their total signi- Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land,
fied that He remembered His holy promise, and  Abra-         and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and
ham:His  servant  and that, as so remembering, he would honey. Only rebel ye not against the Lord, neither
give them the lands of the heathen and cause them to fear ye the peopIe  of the land; for they are bread for
inherit the labor of the people of these lands. But,         us ; their defence is departed from them ,and the Lord
having finally arrived at the borders of these lands-        is with us; fear them not."
the promised lands of their abode-they refused to               "Their defence  is departed from them." So spake
believe the Lord's signs. It was a hard speech that          the  beheving Joshua.     What he meant is that the
they uttered against Him at their hearing the report         terror of God was fallen upon the inhabitants of
of the ten spies . They wanted to know why He had            Canaan and that their hearts were melted, so that there
brought them to the border of Canaan that they, their remained no more courage in them How is it to be
wives and their children should be a prey. Through explained that Joshua was so confident of this? To
His continuing to drop His goodnesses before their feet      Pharaoh the Lord had said, "And in very deed for this
on the way, He had lured them on and on until He             cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my
finally had them on the edge of Canaan where the power; and that my name may be declared throughout
slaughter was to take place. The Lord had said to            all the earth."    This prediction of God went into
them by the mouth of Moses, "I have surely seen the          immediate fulfillment. The report of His doings in
affliction of my people which are in Egypt. . . . and I      Egypt was carried far  ,and wide. "We have heard",
am come down to deliver them. . . . and to bring them said Rahab the harlot, to the spies whom she was con-
up out of that land unto  a  good land. . .  ." So the       cealing in her house, "We have heard how the Lord
Lord had spoken.      But according to those wailing dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye
Israelites, God had not meant a word of it. He had came out of Egypt; and what he did unto the kings of


                                      2  T H E   S T A ' N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               405

the Amorites, that were on the other side of the Jordan,       them, and that He goes before them, by day time in
Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed." "And as              a pillar of cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night, that
soon as we heard," Rahab went on to say, "our hearts thus (such is here the implication) this people was the
did melt. . , . because of you: for the Lord your God          object of the Lord's endearment and that He originally
he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath." This meant to do them well by bringing them unta a good
had by implication also been the testimony of Pharaoh.         land. It follows therefore that if the Lord will now
But there was a difference. In bringing this confes-           kill this people as one man, the nations that have
sion over his lips, Pharaoh was moved by carnal fear;          heard the fame of the Lord will conclude in their
Rahab by a true faith. But the point is that what              malice that He was not able to bring them into the
Rahab's testimony shows is that the Lord had laid              land which He sware  to them and that therefore all
His plagues the wonders He had wrought, not only on            there remained for Him to do is to slay them in the
the heart of Pharaoh but on the hearts of the inhabi-          wilderness. Let the power of the Lord therefore be
tants of all the neighboring lands as well, so that al-        great, according as He has spoken, saying, The Lord
ready then His name was being declared througho  it is longsuffering and of great merccy,  forgiving iniquity
the earth. And as to the Canaanites, having heard,             and transgression and by no means clearing the
their hearts did melt. This, that their hearts did melt,       guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers  upon  the
Joshua and all the other spies in all likelihood had also children unto the third and fourth generation. `So
perceived from what they had heard the Canaanites              Moses beseeches the Lord to pardon the iniquity of this
say, while exploring their land. They had thus made            people according to the greatness of His mercy, and as
the discovery that the morale of the Canaanites had            (He has forgiven this rjeople ; from Egypt even until
been broken down. The dispair of these people was              now.
to believing Joshua the sign that the Lord was with               &id the Lord said, I have pardoned according to
Israel and that Israel therefore should not fear the           thy word."
adversary.       And he also tells the rebels this sign,          This is truly a remarkable prayer. It tells us that
"Neither fear ye the people pf the land for they are           what prompted Moses to intercede for the people was
bread for us. . . . their  defence  is departed from his concern not first of all about the well-being of
them. . .  ."     Hearing themselves thus admonished,          the people but about the reputation of God among
they became furious and in their fury  ."bade  stone           the nations. The Lord's destroying His  peopIe  will
them with stones". They could not endure being told            surely result in the nations slandering Him. They
that the Lord would bring them into the promised               will say without fail that the Lord was not able. The
land, if He delight in them and that, if He would              thought is too painful for him ; for he loves God. He
not bring them up, it would bedolely on account of therefore pIeads with God to pardon the iniquity of
their rebellion.                                               this people.       And he pleads on the grounds of the
   The Lord'8 saying to Moses that He would smite              Lord's glories, of His power, longsuffering and great
them with pestilence and disinherit them and would             mercy. Such a prayer the Lord must hear. The
make of Moses a greater nation and mightier than               nation is thus spared and enters Canaan.
they, cannot be taken as expressive of the Lord's in-                                                          G. hf. 0.
tention. For what the Lord said is that He would
destroy not the nation in so far as it was reprobated
but the entire people with the exception of one  man-
the man Moses-that thus he would make a sudden end
of reprobate and elect alike. So Moses understood this
language. For he said to the Lord, "Now if thou shalt                                  IN  MEMORIAM
kil1 this people as one man. . . ." This is equivalent
to saying, "If thou shalt ,kill them all indiscriminately."        De Vrouwen Veraeniging der Prot. Geref. Kerk te Hull,
It is plain that the Lord spake as He did with a vieiv         Iowa, spreekt met dezen hare hartelijke sympathie uit  aan onze
to arousing Moses to pray for the nation, to plead with        juffrouw,  Mrs.  -4. Cammenga, en hare familie, in het  verlies
God in behalf of His people. And so he does. If the            van hun Vader,
Lord smite them-smite them all-then the Egyptians
shall hear it, and, such is the  .implication,  shall be                            SIDNEY VISSER, Sr.
glad ; for the Lord brought up this people (of Israel)             lMoge de Heere hun troosten en ondersteunen door Zijnen
in His might from among the Egyptians.            In their     Geest; en moge de zekerheid van  een  zalig  wederzien'%n
great glee, the Egyptians will tell it to the inhabitants      smart leenigen.
of the land of Canaan. For the latter have heard that                                    Namens de Vereeniging,
the Lord is among the people of Israel, that He is seen
by them face to face, and that His cloud  stand&h  over                                       Mrs.  G. Blankespoor,  Scc'y,

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

            The Prophecy Of Jeremiah                           only He of whom the theocratic king was a type could
                                                               and would do.
                                                                  Hence Josiah had not really removed but merely
       The Jewish typical theocracy suffered many an           repressed the corruptions. When he died the pressure
assault, throughout its history. At regular intervals          was removed and the released corruptions broke out
the heathen nations appear as scourges in the hand             anew. The kings had cleansed the land but not the
of the Lord for the chastisement of His people. Of             hearts of the people.
al1 these assaults, however, only two were disastrous             This historical position in which Jeremiah was
and final: the destruction by Nebuchadnezzar and that          placed and the geographical position of Israel at his
by Titus. Each  cuIminated in the demolition of the            time. Israel at this time Iay between two great powers,
temple and the holy city, and the carrying away of the         that of Egypt on the south and that of Assyria on the
people. Each had its prophet: the former Jeremiah,             north. The power of Assyria however was on the
and the latter, Christ. There is, of course, an im-            wane.    It could therefore not ward off the heavy
portant difference to be noticed between the two catas-        bIaws aimed at it by the  BabyIonians  and Medes.
trophes.                                                       Pharaoh  Necho,  fearing the rising power of Babylonia
       The second was absolutely finaI, permanent, for the     (Syria) resolved to  dea1 this kingdom a blow that
reason that the Lord then had done with the thing wouId permanently cripple it. Josiah knew that if he
He destroyed and therefore caused it to disappear from succeeded, he` would overpower him next. ' `So when
the face of the earth forever.                                 the king of Egypt set out on his ,military  expedition
       The  first destruction on the other hand was but an     for the purpose of invading Syria, Josiah went forth
echpse that Iasted but seventy years. Hence the first          with an army  ,to impede his progress and beat him
brake-down was followed by a restoration of the thing back. In this however he was unsuccessful. His army
destroyed in a greatly modified form.                          was defeated at Megiddo and the king himself was
       The first thing that deserves our attention is that     slain. The king of Egypt now pressed on and con-
Jeremiah began his ministry after the abomination              quered Syria as far as the Euphrates. (2 Kings 24 :7).
of  apostacy  reached its height. This was during the             The reason the  ki.ng  of  Egypt could overrun the
reign of Manasseh, son of Hezekiah (2 Kings 21 :l-17).         Syrian territory as far as the aforesaid river was that
       This ruler surpassed his predecessors in wi,cked-       the Syrian -king, Nabopolassar, was laying seige to
ness. He did what none before him had done, namely :           Nineveh. The seige was successful. Nineveh fell,
place idol-altars in the  tempie. His son Amon equaled         B-C. 606. The Syrian army was now set free, and
his father in wickedness.                                      was now sent under Nebuchadnezzar, the youthful son
       With Josiah, the son of Amon, there came a change       of King Nabopolassar, against the Egyptians over
for the good. He was a king of outstanding piety.              whom he gained a decisive victory at Carchernish,
The book of Kings declares (23-24) that neither be-            B.C. 605. In the same year his father died and the
fore him or after him there was a king like him, who           youthful conqueror was now king of Babylon.
turned to the Lord with his whole heart, according to             The king of Egypt, aIthou,gh  defeated by Nebuchad-
all the law of Moses. This king drove from the land            nezzar, was still master of  Judea.     The Jews had
a11 the abominations of idolatry, and restored the wor-        chosen as king the second son of Josiah, namely,
ship of Jehovah with a completeness which had not              Jehoahaz, who did evi1 in the sight of the Lord, accord-
before existed (2 Kings  23:22-24). Apparently then            ing to all that his fathers had done. (2 Kings 23 :32).
the sick nation was healed. It was during the reign            His punishment soon came.
of this king, when it seemed that the nation lived                He went to Riblah, to treat with the Egyptian king,
closer to Jehovah than ever -before, that Jeremiah,            by whom he was taken prisoner and carried away
the prophet of doom and divine vengeance appeared.             captive to Egypt. (2 Kings 23 :32-34; Jer. 22:10-12).
                                                               The reason for this capture was Jehoahaz' poiicy. His
       IHow strange and incongruous! The people had            policy was national, that is national independence,
turned to the Lord, and He responded with a dolefu1            versus submission to Egypt.
prediction of judgment and doom. JerusaIem  will be                The Egyptian king now made Jehoiakim, the eldest
destroyed, is the undertone of the entire prophetic dis-       son of Josiah, king in the room of Jehoahaz. The new
course of Jeremiah.                                            king was thus a creature of the king of Egypt and
       However, the appearance of .this prophet at this        obliged to serve him. He was a  cruel king. He op
time is not at all strange if it be considered that, as a11    pressed the peopIe in the attempt to extract from them
the pious theocratic kings, Josiah had inaugurated his money for his extensive building projects; he also shed
reformation at the point of the sword, and thus fright-        much blood But his hour was soon to strike. As
ened the nations into obedience. Write God's laws was said, the Egyptian power had been overthrown by
on the tables of the nation's heart he could not. This         Nebuchadnezzar in a battle of Carchemesh. The reason


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                      407

that the Egyptian king still held sway for some time       fled with a part of his army, but was overtaken in the
after in Judah, is that the death of Nebuchadnezzar's      plains of Jericho, brought before Nebuchadnezzar at
father, called him back to  Babylonia,  so that he could Ribiah in the land of Hamath and after the children
not follow up his victory by a conquest of Egypt and and his captive princes of Judah were slain in his pre-
Judea. However Nebuchadnezzar's supremacy over sence, his eyes were put out. He was then laden with
Egypt and Judea  was soon secured. Four years later, chains and carried to Babylon,  yhere he remained in
in the 8th year of Jehoiakim he returned and took          prison till his death, (Jer. 52 :ll ; 2 Kings 25 :7) ,. yet
Judea and Jerusalem (2 Kings 24 : 1). This capture is it appears that the end of his imprisonment was less
recorded in the book of Kings but not in Jeremiah.         rigorous and that he was honorably buried (Jer. 34 : 1).
   `Three years afterwards Jehoiakim again revolted.          After the capture of the city ,in the 4th month
Again the rebellious king is reduced by a Chaldean         of the 9th year, came  Nebuzaradan,  the captain of
army with auxiiiaries  from Syria Moab and Ammon.          Nebuchadnezzar's guard, to Jerusalem, and caused the
At this juncture Jehoiakim lost his life.                  city and the temple to be destroyed, and the people
    According to the book of Kings the Chaldeans do        carried away. A few of the common people only
not appear to have taken the city immediately after        remained in the country, over which Gedaliah, was
the death of Jehoiakim, for his son Jehoiachin, ac-        appointed governor. He was the son of Ahikam.
ceded by right- of inheritance, and by the  wil1 of        In his care Jeremiah was committed. ,Gedaliah how-
the Babylonian monarch. He, too, is made war upon.         ever, was soon afterward murdered by a certain
The Babylonian monarch now laid seige to Jerusalem.        Ishmael, a descendant of the royal family, at the in-
Three months after his accession to the throne, Je-        stigation of Baalis, king of Ammon. For this murder
hoiachm had to surrender the city to the beseiging         the remaining Jews feared the vengeance of the  Chal-
forces of Nebuchadnezzar. He and his  famiiy, the          deans, and although Jeremiah promised them safety
princes, the soldiers and al1 who could bear arms or       and  -Femption  from punishment if they stayed in the
make them, were carried away captive to Babylon.           country they removed with their wives and children
 This was the first deportation, and did not attain and whole possessions to Egypt, whither the prophet
its object of rendering the people incapable of re-        Jeremiah was compelled to follow them. In Egypt
sistance.    Nebuchadnezzar seems not to have been they appear to have settled in different places (44 : I)
aware of the amazing tenacity of the Jewish. char- and to have worshipped the queen of heaven (the
acter. For he  allowed  at  first the kingdom of Judah     Moabitish goddess, Astarte) .
to remain and appointed a king of his own choice,             At the festival of this deity for which all the Jews
Mattaniah,  the youngest son of Josiah, who changed        in Egypt assembled in Pathros (upper Egypt) dere-
his  [name to Zedekiah. He was a weak, cruel and           miah raised his voice for the last time in warning and
wicked king. From dread of his powerful nobles, he         rebuke. From the prophecy of the approaching death
permitted every kind of transgression against the of Pharaoh Hophra, which he gave to his countrymen,
laws of Jehovah and injustice toward his people.           as a prophetic sign, and which we can only regard as
   In Zedekiah's fourth year ambassadors came from shortly preceding the death of that monarch, we may
Tyre, Sidon, Ammon, Moab and Edom (Jer.  27)) to           infer that he continued his prophetic labors till towards
consult together concerning a united revolt against the year B.C. 570.
the Babylonian rule. Jeremiah stayed the revolt. The          Such was the historical positiohin which Jeremiah
same year Zedekiah made a journey to Babylon to            was placed.    Let us now survey his prophetic dis-
do homage (Jer.  51:59), on which occasion by a course.
strange turn Jeremiah gave to the king's marshal1 his         The prophet's ministry may be divided into three
great prophecy against Babylon, that he might read it periods : (1) From the reign of Manasseh to the first
to his master on the banks of the Euphrates and then       deportation; (2) From the first deportation to the de-
sink it  into a stream.                                    struction of Jerusalem ; (3) From the destruction of
   Then Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt,  prep&d  to Jerusalem to the end of the prophet's ministry  570 B.C.
make a war on Babylon. The Jews taking advantage              1. The  fn-st period.
of the situation ventured another revolt. Before the          As was said, Jeremiah began his ministry after the
Egyptians couid come up, Nebuchadnezzar appeared abomination of  apostacy  had reached its height. This
with a large army before Jerusalem ,in the ninth was during the reign of Manasseh, who surpassed his
year of Zedekiah.          The approach of the Egyptian    predecessors in wickedness.
army compelled him to raise the seige, but he soon            Josiah, his successor, was a king of outstanding
succeeded in repulsing the Egyptians and Jerusalem piety, who brought the nation back to the Lord. How-
was at once infested and sorely pressed after being ever Josiah did not remove but merely repressed the
devastated by famine and pestilence. The city was corruption. `The nation remained wicked.
then taken in the 11th year of Zedekiah. The king             The following king Jehoahaz, who reigned but

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

three months was also wicked. Likewise Jehoiakim                peopl,e are told that their abominations are the cause
and his son and successor, Jehoiachin. It was during of their destruction (4th discourse, chap. 13:22-27).
the reign of Jehoiachin that Nebuchadnezzar marched                The prophet bewails his lot. He is a man of con-
against Jerusalem, and, so it seems, entered the city           tention to the whole earth. (5th discourse, chap. 15 :  lo-
with very little opposition on the part of the king of          14). This wailing of the prophet shows that when
Judah. The king of Judah was bound in fetters with              the seige was in progress he had admonished the king
the intention of being carried to Babylon, `This, how- `and the nobles to surrender,  -and  thus according to
ever, was not done for some reason. Jehoiakim was               their way of thinking, broke down the morale of the
allowed to remain for three years as a tributary to city. The prophet prays that he may not be deported.
Babylon.      At the end of three years he rebel'ed.            (Fifth discourse, .chap.  10  :15-21).  This prayer may
Nebuchadnezzar, probably detained by domestic af-               presuppose the presence of the enemy in the land
fairs, left his punishment to his Chaldean garrisons,           assembling the captives for deportation.           1
enemies surrounding Judah (2 Kings 24 :2). The land                II. The second period of the prophet's ministry.
was now overrun by the enemies, In the midst of these From the first deportation to the destruction of Jeru-
troubles Jehoiakim died-perhaps slain. He was SJC-              salem.
ceeded by Jehoiachin, who reigned only three months             ' Discourses 8, 9,  lob. together with the discourse
and ten days.       He was occupying the throne when, comprising the book of consolation were uttered during
Nebuchadnezzar himself appeared a second time. Jern-            this period.
salem refused to open its gates to Nebuchadnezzar.                  Events of this period of the ministry of the prophet.
Then followed a seige and the  pity fell. Now followed          The elevation of Zedekiah, the youngest son of king
the first deportation of ll,~O Jews.                            Josiah, to the throne by the Babylonian monarch. The
       It was during this period (from Manasseh to the          second seige during the 10th years of the' reign of .this
deportation) that the tist seven discourses were ut-            rebellious king of Judah. The following year Jeru-
tered, that is, in all likelihood these discourses were         salem surrenders and then follows the second deporta-
uttered during this period. Strange to say, no mention          tion, and in the next year the destruction of Jeru-
is made in these discourses of the aforesaid events.            salem and the temple.
In fact, the prophet makes no mention of these events           * In agreement with the character of this period,
at all.                                                         discourses 8, 9  lob. are comprised chiefly of warnings
       In agreement with the character of this first period,    to King Zedekiah and the people to surrender them-
the seven discourses of the prophet were  com:,rised  of        selves to the Chaldeans and live.
the following themes : (1) The  apostacy  of  the nation ;          In this period the prophet "is much opposed by the
Its wickedness, spiritual degeneration and debauchery.          false prophets, who, before the second seige insisted
 (2) The impending judgments of God upon the nation             that no doom was in progress. These prophets cried
`for its perverseness-judgments to take definite shape          peace,  and declared the warnings of Jeremiah false
in the captivity of Judah and the destruction of Jeru-          and a lie. The prophet Jeremiah rebukes these false
salem, and that would end in the captivity. (3) The prophets to their faces and warns the king and the
vanity of trusting in idols who cannot save. (4) Re-            people not to listen to them.. Jeremiah's words are not
pentance.      The prophet scorns false confidence and          heeded by the King and his people.
declares that the Lord dwells with those who do right-              During this period and in particular after the fzll
eously. (5) The nation without excuse. The prophet              of Jerusalem the discourse comprising the book of com-
challenged the people to declare what iniquity they             fort was uttered.
found in Him that they went from Him the Lord. The
treatment Jehovah afforded Israel from his youth was                The  prophet  is called to announce for the benefit of
nothing but gracious.         Hence, the cause of their the remnant that He, the Lord, will bring the captivity
calamity is their disobedience. (6) The success of the          of His people, that Jacob shall be saved from afar off,
Babylonian monarch. -He .+vill subdue all the neighbor-         that  Jacaob  shall be restored to his former glory, that
ing kings. The Lord will destroy the nations that will the Lord's love for His  peopIe  is eternal. The Lord
not serve this  pagan,monarch.                                   further will have mercy on Ephraim ; He will watch
                                                                over Israel to build and to plant. He will make a new
       Though, as was said, the  firstseven  discourses make     covenant with Israel to consist in the putting of his
no mention of the first seige and the subsequent de-            laws in their hearts. Israel can no more cease to be a
portation, the last three  of:`the  seven contain passages       nation then the ordinance of heaven can depart from
that clearly indicate that these, discourses were uttered        him. In those days the Lord shall cause the branch of
 in a period when the aforesaid events transpired.               righteousness to grow up unto David. He shall execute
       The prophet lamented the destruction of the herit-        judgment in the land,
 age of God (4th discourse, chap. 12  :7-13). The sinfu1                                                      C. M. 0.


                                       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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                                                                                           here, not merely in order that you should admire them
                                                                                           as you would a beautiful estate of some millionaire
                        M e d i t a t i o n                                                in which you have no part and which you pass by on
  I
                                 -"--..---._-_^---"                                        the road, but that you should rejoice in them as being
                         A Heritage In  Him                                          .-    your own!
                                                                                              It is the language of personal possession, of appro-
                      Iti whom also' we have obtained an inherit-                          priating faith, which Scripture here places on the lips
                  ance, being predestinated according to the                               of the whole church.
                  purpose of him who  wwketh all things  after                                Yes, indeed, of the wh..ole church!
                  the counsel of his oust will. That we sh0u.U                                There are those who would apply the words of our
                  be to the praise of his glory, ;loho first trusted present passage to the Jews only ;  "ye also" means : the
                 in Christ.                                  Eph.  l:ll,  12.              Jewish Christians in distinction from the converts out
      WeI                                                                                  of the Gentiles.
      Notice the me of the &%t person throughout.                                             And it may be granted, especially in the light of
      Blessed be the  cod  md Father of  mr Lord Jesus                                     the last part of verse twelve, that this distinction is
  Christ, who bath bfeesed M with all spiritual blessings before the mind of the apostle. The words: "we who
  fn heavenly- places in Christ; according  as he hath                                     first trusted in Christ", or again' better in the Revised
  chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,                                     Version : "we who had before hoped in Christ", no
. that ,we should be holy and without blame before him                                     doubt, refer to the Church of the old dispensation.
  in  iove. vss. 3, 4.                                                                        But ,even  so the words do nut apply to the Jews as
      Having predestinated us unto the adoption of child- such, but to the  Omld Testament Church, whose old hope
  ren by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good                                    was now realized, and that in a far more glorious way
  pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his                                  than they had ever been able to conceive. For in the
  grace, wherein he bath made us accepted in the be;                                       old dispensation Israel- was  the  Church, the peculiar
  loved.       In whom  we have redemption through his                                     possession of Jehovah, the only heritage of God and
  blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches                                  all of it. But now they had become part of a more
  of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in                                      glorious and far' richer whole: "we who first hoped in
  all wisdom and prudence. . . . In whom also we have                                      Christ have now become a part of God's heritage,
  obtained an inheritance, or  better, according to the being predestinated according to the purpose of him
  Revised Version and the Dutch translation: In whom                                       who worketh all things according to the counsel of his
  also we were made a heritage. . . .                                                      own will."     All things He worketh!
       We  and  us and our throughout!                                                        And this implies, according to the tenth verse, that
      And beware that you do not change these pro-                                         .He will gather all things again in Christ as their ever-
  nouns into they and them and their!                                                      lasting Head, and thus make unto Himself a glorious
      For although by making this alteration you would                                     heritage.
  not essentially change the objective sense of the pas-                                      And in that glorious heritage we also have become
  sage, you would fail to .consider  the riches of which                                   a part!
  it is speaking in the right light and from the intended                                     To the praise of His glory !
  viewpoint. Of the glorious riches of grace in Christ                                        We also!
  Jesus  the apostle is writing here. But he displays
  and enumerates and evaluates these glorious riches                                          Made into a heritage  ?


410                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                  ..Q
   Thus, no doubt, the text should be read.                  earthly land of Canaan was the peculiar possession of
   Not, indeed, as if it made any essential difference       God, so Christ and His glorious and perfected Church
whether we read:  have obtained an  irzheritance  or:        in the new heavens and earth is the ultimate realiza-
have been, de a heritage.                                    tion of Jehovah's heritage.
   The two do not exclude each other in this case, but          Beautiful heritage!
are rather suppIementary  to each other. For the truth          Peculiar that heritage will be, no longer in the sense
is, that when we are made into a heritage of God we          that it will be a small portion of God's handiwork that
also obtain the inheritance. The wonder is that the will be the object of His delight, in distinction from the
inheritance we obtain is exactly that we become the          rest of the world that lieth in darkness and serves dead
heritage of God. The fact is that the only inheritance idols instead of the living God, as was Israel in the
one can ever obtain is the joy and glory and riches          midst of the nations round about them ; but only in the
of being an inheritance of the ever blessed God !            positive sense that it is the object of God's everlasting
       Consciously to be God's eternal heritage, His pe-     love and favor, and that it will be solely to the praise
culiar possession in which He has His delight, upon of the glory of- His grace in the beloved. For God's
which He looks with loving favor,-that is the in-            peculiar heritage shall then embrace all things in
heritance we obtain!                                         heaven and on earth.
   But the fact is, that in the text the viewpoint is not       And that heritage shall be one; a glorious. har-
that of our obtaining an inheritance, but of our being       monious whole, in which each part shall serve in its
the heritage of God, more specifically: of our being         own peculiar place and position to, enhance the beauty
a part in God's peculiar possession, an erfdeel, as the ,of the whole.
Holland translation has it. For not the active form             In the whole of "all things" as God's heritage, the
"we. have obtained", but the passive "we have been           Church of Christ shall occupy the chief place.
made" a, heritage is used in the original.                      And that Church again shall not consist of a mul-
   A figure is used here.                                    titude of individual saints, but a well ordered whole, in
   What was done with the land of Canaan, when the           which each part, each group, each individual shall
children of Israel took possession of it, is the basis       occupy the peculiar place assigned to him by the great
of the figure. The word means: "to divide by lot".           Builder and  artificer.
And the land of Canaan was apportioned by lot to each           And for that place each church m every period in
of the tribes of Israel, outside of the tribes of Reuben,    time, and each individual believer is foreordained and
Gad and half Manasseh, so that each tribe obtained           prepared in time.
its own portion in the land of Canaan. Thus they all            And thus it could be said to those whom the apostle
obtained their own part of the heritage that was prom-       had in mind in our passage, and to the church of every
ised them, and that particuIar  part of the land that        age: we also have been made a heritage, an "erfdeel",
was assigned to each tribe by lot was its peculiar pos-      a peculiar portion in the great heritage of God !
session. *411 of Israel inherited the whole land, and the       Marvellous work of God!
whole of Israel in the whoIe  Iand was the peculiar pos-        Blessed heritage !
session, the 1 heritage of Jehovah, but each tribe oc-
cupied its own peculiar place in that possession.               We also became a portion?
       Such is the figure that is implied in our passage.       Wonderful wisdom of God, and marvellous provi-.
   A &ure it is, not in the sense in which anything dence of Him Who worketh all things after the counsel
might be selected as an illustration of a subject that is    of His own will !
being discussed, but because the figure in this case            For the passage here, no doubt, refers to the Church
was designed to be the prototype of the reality that         of the old dispensation, which for years constituted
wits  to come. For Israel in the land of Canaan was,         the entire heritage of God, but now became a part
indeed, very really the heritage of God; His peculiar of the larger and all comprehensive possession of
possession, Jehovah's portion, but it was at the same Jehovah. For this is evident from the text itself which
time the shadow of things to come, the picture of a          qualifies this portion of God's heritage as those "who
better hope, the type of the ultimate and eternal reali- before hoped in Christ". And this is shown, too, by
zation of the "purpose of Him who worketh all things         the words  "ye also" of the next verse, referring to the
according to the counsel of His own will". For He has        Church gathered out of the Gentiles.
purposed in Himself to gather together in one all               We also. . . . and ye also !
things in Christ, the things in heaven and the things           We who before hoped in Christ, and ye who are
on earth, and to make the Church in Christ heir of that      now sealed, became a portion of the great, harmonious
glorious inheritance. -4nd of this Israel in Canaan is       heritage of God!
the beginning, but as such also the figure and type.            All became one in Christ, yet each in his own place  !
   For, even as Israel in the old dispensation in the        2 Amazing revelation  ~9  God's wisdom! They had


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B ' E A R E R                                        411

before hoped in Christ. Yes, indeed, they were the           in the highest possible way we and all things should
peo.ple of God, even then. Theirs were the covenants         be to the praise of His glory. And this highest pos-
and the promises. And in the land of Canaan they             sible revelation of His glory and praise is to be at-
possessed a partial realization of the promise. But in tained by gathering together in one all things in Christ,
Christ, in the One that was to come, they had their          ' hings in heaven and things on earth!
hope, Reality was not yet. They lived under the law.             Such is the purpose of Him who worketh all things
And under the law they could but take hold of shadows.       after the counsel of His own will !
Hence, they looked forward in hope. In the promised              And according to that purpose, in harmony with it,
Seed they trusted. On Him they  fixed their hope. For        they too, who had before hoped in Christ, were pre-
Him they looked. And when He should come they destinated.                    Hence, they could not possibly remain
would become the glorious and everlasting heritage of the whole of God's heritage !
Jehovah indeed, in eternal `reality!                             Because of that divine predestination according to
    They first hoped in Christ ; no one else !               that purpose, they could not remain isolated, they must
    They were the heritage of God, not the other na- merge into the greater and more glorious whole!
tions. And when they looked  for the realization of the          A portion they became.
promise and fixed their longing eyes on the future, they         And richer than the former whole is now the por-
still envisaged that glorious future only as an eleva-       tion !
tion and perfection and extention of their own national          Amazing purpose of God!
existence. And though their prophets sometimes spoke                                                    .
of larger things, who understood the glorious purpose            Soli Deo gIoria  !
of God, who of those that before hoped in Christ could           Yes, emphatically, and quite exclusively: to God
possibly apprehend the larger purpose of God's good .. alone the praise !
pleasure?                                                        That we should be to the praise of His glory ! We,
    Yet, now that wider purpose of the God of their          indeed, who before hoped in Christ and have now
salvation had been revealed!                                 become a portion of God's glorious heritage ; but we,
    It had been made known, that it was the good             too, who after we heard the word of truth, the gospel
pleasure of God's will that in the dispensation of the       of our salvation; were sealed into that glorious herit-
fulness of time God would gather together in one aU age of God by the Holy Spirit of promise !
things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth,          Let us say without qualification: to God alone be
and that they, who had before hoped in Christ as a the praise ! Blessed be the God and Father of our
single and isolated nation, would merge into the larger      Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath so blessed us with all
whole of God's heritage and become a portion of a            spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ!
universal Church and a universal inheritance. The                Do not attribute any praise that belongs to Him
smaller heritage had widened into a universal  nosses-       alone to man !
sion, and what was formerly the whole now had be-                For He not only purposes all things, but He also
come a part of a far more .glorious  whole ; and in be-      works all things after the counsel of His own will!
roming a part had entered into the possession of a           His counsel is not a dead design, the blueprint of an
more glorious inheritance !                                  architect to be worked out by others under `His direc-
    The whole had changed into a portion, and the por- tion: it is the living, almighty, eternal decree of the
tion it had become was more glorious than the whole          living God. The counsel of God is the counselling  God.
it had once been !                                           He alone works out His own counsel. He perfects His
    Marvellous mind of God !                                 own work. He attains His own aim. He realizes His
    For only the adorable wisdom and purpose it was` own purpose. For He wdrks all things according to
that had become manifest in it all !                         that purpose. All things have their own place in that
    Had they not been predestined unto this, according marvellous counsel of God. All creatures have been
to the divine purpose?                                       predestinated to their own place and to serve their
    But how else could this marvellous history be ex-        own purpose in His eternal good pleasure. Rational
plained? No blind fate could possibly work out such          and irrational creatures, men and angels, good and
a glorious purpose. There is manifest wisdom in it evil, things in heaven and things in earth and things
all. And this wisdom has its source in "the counsel of under the earth,-all things  literally'are  comprehended
His own will". God's counsel, the counsel of His will, in that living counsel of the Most High !
`R motivated by infinite intelligence and perfect, though        And according to that purpose !He Himself works
incomprehensible wisdom. It has a purpose, an ulti-          all things !    Therefore, they cannot fail !
mate aim, an "omega" that is to be attained, with a              And because of this, too, the praise `will forever
view to which all designs in that same counsel serve         be His alone!
but as means to an end, And  that purpose is that                The praise of His glory!                     H. H.


112                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   .BEARER

                                                              that he would be vested with these dictatorial powers,
                                                              -ould see several objections to such a plan. For, when
                  E d i t o r i a l s                         responsibility and powers are increased, the burden of
                                                              work becomes heavier accordingly.
                                                                 However, the proposai  was offered in the form of
                  A Decided Change                            a motion and it was supported. In the course of a
       At the time when our synod was held and when,          long discussion the idea appeared to receive more and
therefore, as many of the editors of the  Skmhrd              more support and to grow in favor with the brethren
Bearer were in Grand Rapids as could ever be expected,        present.
the president of the staff, the Rev. G. M. Ophoff, called        The undersigned  finally suggested an amendment
a meeting of the editorial staff for the purpose of           to the effect that an annual meeting of the staff
discussing the desirability of changing the setup of our- should be held, and that at this annual meeting the
paper and introducing possible improvements.                  editor should come with a definite proposal outlining
                                                              the entire contents of the Standard Bearer for the
       The meeting was held on May 26, in the consistory ensuing year, so that at that meeting the definite task
room of the First Protestant Reformed Church of               for that year might be assigned to all the co-workers.
Grand Rapids.                                                    The result was that the following resolution was
       Present were the editors, the Revs. G. M. Ophoff,      adopted : "It is decided to give the paper in the hand
G. Vos and the undersigned ; the associate editors the        of one editor, and to appoint assistant editors for a
Revs. P. De Boer, G. Lubbers, B. Kok, C. Hanko, A.            specified time. The editor is to have control over the
Petter, J.  Vanden  Breggen, R. Veldman ; and also the        entire contents of the paper, provided that at each
brethren Revs. J. De J,ong  and M. Schipper,  who had         annua1 meeting he come with a definite proposal out-
been invited to attend the meeting.                           lining the contents of the paper for one year".
       SeveraI  of the editors were absent, of course. Nor       Further it was decided so to change the language
had they been notified of the meeting. In so far the of our paper, that henceforth, i.e. until further changes
meeting was rather irregular, `although this was entire-      ?re made, two thirds of the space shall be given to
ly due to circumstances. Because of the distances that material in the English. language, one third to the
separate us, it is quite impossible ever to convoke a full    Holland.
meeting. The time of Synod was considered the best               And undersigned was appointed editor.
opportunity to get together as many as possible. And                                                      H. `H.
the meeting was called at a short notice. Besides, some
of the absent brethren had already voiced their opinion
as to  desirabIe changes in the organization of the                                         m
Standard Bearer. However? if some of the brethren
that could not be present at the meeting of May 26,                          Our Lecture Tour
should have very serious objections to the decisions
taken, they shoufd still reveal them, in order that they         Before I continue my narrative, I want to tell
may be discussed at our next meeting.                         you something.
       The decisions that were taken are rather radical.         On the eve of my departure from Manhattan, after
But they were taken unanimously. *                            my Iast Iecture,  a group of young folks, with smiling
       The proposal was made by the Rev. C. Hanko to          faces, and bubbling over with young life, took me to
change the editorial staff in such a way, that there be       task for what I had written last year in our paper
henceforth only one editor, who is to be held respon-         about  the weather in Manhattan and the Montana
sible for the entire contents of our paper. This editor,      climate, and they dared me to write anything deroga-
therefore, is to have dictatorial powers, for you cannot tory on that delicate subject this time. It is my ex-
have  all the responsibility unless you have all the          perience that in many States people talk about their
power. He is to outhne  the entire contents of each weather and climate as if they made it themselves.
issue and assign to each associate his particular task:       Well, the above mentioned young folks threatened that
how much space he has to fill, in what language he            they would watch the  Standard   Bearer  very closely
must write, the subject he is to discuss, the time his        on this point, and they left the impression on me that
copy  must be delivered.                                      their wrath  wouId surely find me out, if I did not
       This was a rather radical change and a bold pro-       write favorably this time about the weather in their
posal.                                                        State. And I very dutifully and humbly pledged my-
       One had to get used to the idea, to get over the       self to champion their cause.
first shock.                                                     Hence, before I should forget, I hereby solemnly
       Especially the undersigned, who had reason to fear testify of my own free will and choice, that during my
                                                                                "_  ,__*.  ..-


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                       413

five-day sojourn in Montana we enjoyed some very              day,  plenty of it!    We took our way through the
beautiful weather and, though I cannot with a good            beautiful Black Hills and thence through. bleak and
conscience assert that the "sky was not cloudy all day", wild Wyoming. When we stopped for gasoline we  '
we saw .a good deal of the clear and bright Montana           heard people talk of snow ahead, the morning train
sunshine.                                                     had been an hour late through that region. In Sheri-
   However, even more than the sunshine in nature we dan we stopped for lunch. A strong, chilling wind
enjoyed the warm and pleasant sunshine that radiated blew from the north. We were toId that heavy snow
from our Manhattan people, and the wa,y  they made us had fallen, between two and three feet between Sheri-
feel at home among them.                                      dan and Billings and westward all the way to Living-
   This last statement, I feel sure, will be strongly         ston. And presently we ran into it. Still it was snow-
and heartily supported by my son, whose presence the          ing in the mountains, and occasionally. we passed
above mentioned young folks made the occasion to ar- through a blizzard. sowever, the snowplow had been
range for two parties, one of which was a welcome, the through ahead of us and the roads were open, so that
other a farewell party ; and this plus the fact that in       we had no trouble in driving. That night we put up
Manhattan he could roam through the country on a              for the night in Livingston just on the east side of
saddlehorse and that they provided many other ways what is known as "Bozeman-Hill".
and means of enjoyment for him, so turned the young              The next morning, Saturday, we crossed this "hill"
man's head that for many days after we had left he            into Bozeman, where we took our breakfast. There,
could think and talk of nothing but Montana.                  at'about  nine o-clock in the morning, we saw hanging
   Well, how's that?                                          in the blazing sun a large thermometer registering
   I surely may expect now that I will receive several        nineteen above zero. And when we arrived in Man-
indulgences in the- form of letters from my young hattan or Church Hill a little  later we discovered that
Montana friends, in which it is plainly stated that I the temperature had gone down to zero that morning !
am fully and completely forgiven for my former of- IHowever,  it was a  *beautifuIly  bright morning, the
fense, and that I am wholly restored in their favor.          sun was sparkling on the pure white snow on the fields
                                                              and on the distant mountains many miles away, though
                                                              they appeared so near that they seemed to invite
   But let me now pick up the thread of my story              one to take a Ieisurely stroll and to pay them a visit.
where I dropped it Iast time.                                 And during the day the temperature rose considerably
   We departed from Sioux Center on the morning of so that one could comfortably walk around in his
Thursday, April 1'7. The usual way would have taken shirtsleeves.
us over Sioux Falls through all of South Dakota to the           In Manhattan we made our home, as last year, with
Black Hills and thence through the State of Wyoming Mrs. J. `R. Kim. This lady, who is already advanced
into Montana, and it did too,-ultimately, not right           in years but still young in nature, has the knack of
away. For we decided  to take another road, which             making you feel that the pleasure of staying at her
would take us far into the north on route seventy five        home, while it is yours, of course, is all hers. And
and then west on route ten into Manhattan. This road that is what I would call real hospitality. There are
was marked as a good paved road on our road-map,              also people, though happily we did not meet them on
and good it would have been had it not been. that the our trip, who open their homes to you and provide
road to the north was broken up by many frost-boils,          every possible comfort for you, but make you realize
which became so bad about fifty miles north of Fire-          how much they put themselves out for you and how
stone, Minn. that the road became almost impassable.          thankful you ought to be. Not so Mrs. Kim. It is
We then turned around and took the orthodox way she who enjoys your stay, and the pleasure is all hers,
after all, but in the meantime most of the forenoon had to the very last. And many a pleasant evening we had,
been lost, and it was not until noon that we arrived in when after lectures, she would invite as many as would
Sioux Falls, where we stopped to eat lunch. This              come of the congregation for a social chat.
meant that we were still about four hundred miles                Let me say here, that it was not because Manhattan
from Rapid City at the foot of the Black Hills, whiIe         had no minister,, or because the minister did not have
the change ,to mountain time that afternoon caused us         -L decent parsonage to receive us, that we stayed at the
to gain an hour also. We reached Rapid City, however, home of Mrs. Kim. Nor was it because we would not
at about eight thirty that evening, and there we stayed       have been welcome at the home of Rev. De Wolf. On
for the night.                                                the contrary, he would have been gIad to entertain us
   It had turned cold, there was snow in the Black for a few days, and  SO would his wife. But just a day
Hills; it felt as if there might be snow in the air. . . .    or two before we came, someone else had arrived at
   Our host in the cabin-camp predicted that we might         the home of the dominie of Manhattan, someone that
see snow in Montana. And snow we did see the next             insisted that he had come to stay, and whose arrival,


41-i                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

moreover, had been the cause that the juffrouw had to      its eruption, ,its activity increases. It begins to sigh
stay in bed for a few days.                                and rumble like a steam engine that is' about to start;
   The Reverend appeared  .to be thoroughly domesti- it lets out a few "woofs"; it begins to labor under the
cated in Manhattan. He and his family enjoyed it tremendous pressure from within ; water is thrown up
there and showed no signs of homesickness for the          from its mouth ; it toils and sighs and groans and
east whatever. Then, too, the brother enjoys his work.     roars, angrily trying to shake its fetters ; higher and
There is something exhilarating and refreshing in the      higher the steaming hot water is thrown up into the
lively interest in our truth as evinced by a newly air, five, ten, twenty feet; until finally with a roar of
organized congregation, which is not always so evident     victory the main spout leaps high into the air, sustains
in an older congregation. The congregation is glad         itself there for a few minutes to be sure that all the
to have Rev. De Wolf in Manhattan, and they ap-            world is witness of its victorious power; then gradually
preciate his work very much. And a nice home they subsides, receding back into its crater, to prepare for
built for him.                                             a new attack an hour later.
   We spoke five times in all in our church there be-         Yes, a'wonderful work of God is Old Faithful.
fore good audiences. About one of these speeches I            And all around are other wonders, smaller geysers
will have something to say in a later connection.          laboring and steaming, pools, some quiet and placid,
   Yes, Montana has its beauty and grandeur. This          others busily boiling, beautifully colored : emerald,
one  reahzes  when he takes a trip to Yellowstone Park,    pink, red, deep blue ; all clear as crystal, so that you
as we did one day with a group of picnickers from          can gaze far into the mysterious depths of these
the congregation.    Never, I believe, would I grow        Jpparently  bottomless craters.
weary of gazing at the majestic beauty of  Galatin            On the way and in the park we saw dear and moose,
Canyon, through which one passes as he takes his way       grazing on the hillsides or coming to the river to drink.
from Manhattan to the Park. The road follows a             Bears we did not see.      They had not yet aroused
mountain stream, the  Galatin River, and, alongside of themselves from their long winter-slumber.
it, all the while meanders through high and rocky             Yes, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit in Montana
mountains, steeply rising on both sides, partly covered ,from every aspect.
with mountain forests, and instilling in one a feeling        But the time came for us to leave. And on the
of awe.  <Always  the scene changes as one takes his       morning of April 24 we began our trip to sunny
way up the stream, and never can one surmise what          California.
new surprises of beauty await him at the next curve                                                       H. H.
in the road. And the play of the sunlight upon the
richly-colored rock, pink and red and yellow and light
green, creates an ever varying combination of shades
and hues that is delightful to the eye.
   Of course, in  "Karst's  Place" we stopped for
coffee.                                                                        As To Books
   The Park itself was still largely closed because it
was too early in the season. However, we received a                         Philosophy, Edwatian,  and Gertainty.
taste of its beauty and wonder, as we went into it as                       by Robert L. Cooke, Ed. D.
far as Old Faithful.                                                        Zondervan Publishing House,
   OId Faithful is the famous geyser from which every                       Grand Rapids, Michigan.
hour a tremendous waterspout issues forth, a hundred
feet straight into the air, accompanied by clouds of          This-book  has already been much discussed also in
steam.     It is caused by surface water trickling and     Reformed circles, and has met with unstinted praise
flowing into a basin deep under the surface of the         and recommendation. The reason for this is to be
earth and with a hot lava bottom. From this basin found in the subject, the aim the author kept before
a shaft leads to the surface, and as the water in the      his mind in treating the subject, and the way he treats
basin is heated the pressure increases, until the geyser it. The author proposes -to expose the failure of philo-
"goes off" with a roar. As we arrived this had just sophy to supply us with a firm basis for the education
occurred, so that we had to wait an hour for the next      of our children and youth, and defends the proposition
spout.                                                     that only the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ
    And the time of waiting we utilized by eating our      can give us the certainty philosophy has  utterIy  failed
picnic lunch.                                              to establish.
    And it was warth while waiting for.                        In a "Preface" the author writes: "This book is
   All the time, even between eruptions, steam issues      intended to serve a double purpose: first as a college
from the geyser's mouth. As the time approaches for        text in the philosophy of education and for  courses  in


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D  BSARER                                               415

 the history of education, the seventeen chapters of ap-      because of its past disappointments and long mis-
proximately equal length lending themselves well to a guidance, urgently to demand a clear statement of
 semester course in either field; second, for informing       what this Christian philosophy of education may be,
 the youthful reader, whether or not he is actively           this which claims to be the answer to all the world's
 engaged in the practice of education, as to the signifi-     eager seeking. Let us, then, in the words of no ec-
 cance of some present-day developments in the educa-         clesi%sticaI creed or dogma, but in the light of nothing
 tional field. It should be of special value in liberal       other than the unequivocal statements of the infallible
 arts colleges and in other schools where a survey of the     Scriptures themselves, seek to examine it.
 subject that is not committed solely to the glorification       "The facts stand out clearly: True Christianity
of human achievement is appreciated".                         when it was given to the world came not as a program
    The bulk of the book is devoted to  "a comprehensive      of ethics or  a.. system of worldly institutions, not as a
 and sympathetic survey of the whole field of educa-          religion of rigid rules or of mere definitions, certainly
 tional philosophy", from the time of the Greek philo-        not as a collection of `cunningly devised fables', and not
 sophers before Christ, through the early  church-            even simply as a `way of life' for us to live; but it came
 fathers, Augustine, the Schoolmen, the Renaissance,          as a  life  and that the supremely unique life of the ever-
 the Reformation, the philosophers of the "Enlighten-         lasting Son of God. This Good News, this Gospel, was
 ment", down to present-day currents in educational           not another worldly philosophy nor another gospel by
 philosophy. It covers, therefore, a wide field and is        man-for man has no gospel ; it was the gospel of God
 very comprehensive.                                          Himself. Here, now, is not man feeling after God, but
    He shows that philosophy's quest for certainty has God stooping down to man. Here is not man seeking to
 failed.                                                      make a better man but an offer to him of a'divine  in-
     In a final chapter he offers the conclusion that the     duement of power, without which he is heIpIess ; most
 only way out for education is the application of the         certainly here is not a man undertaking to make for
 principles of Christianty to educational philosophy.         himself a god of his own fashioning, for not such is-the
 I quote:                                                     God of the Bible. Here is not even-the cooperation of
     "Twice in the recounted history of educational           God with man or of man with God, to the uplifting of
 philosophy, it will be remembered that something ap- an individual or race-the creature must be nothing;
 peared that made a bold and arresting contrast to the        God must be all. The gospel, then, is solely and unique-
 tentative proposals and confusing doctrines of human-        ly `the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
 ly conceived programs. That something was Christian- believeth' and only by sincere repentance and humble
 ity, with all that it promised both for education and for acceptance of the finished work of Christ, each indi-
 philosophy.  -Here we meet with `thus saith the Creator',    vidual for himself, is the miracle of the new life
 not `thus reasons the creature'; we are hearing now,         wrought in the experience of anyone on earth". pp.
 not the man-made dogmas of an ecclesiastical body nor        372, 373.
 of the tenuous etherialism of an equally man-made  re-          We are, of course, very much in agreement with
 ligious idealism--not of the pious but utterly futile        the positive stand the author takes in favor of Chris-
 faith in the spread of good-will among men-but of tian education.                  Because of this positive Christian
 that true and Iiving philosophy offering assurance standpoint and because of the author's uncompromis-
 here and security hereafter, which is nowhere to be          ing exposure of the vanity of philosophy and its failure
 found but in the inspired pages of the Old and New to establish a basis of certainty, we recommend the
 Testament Scriptures. !Here,  in spite of man's long book to those of our readers that are interested in the
 negiect  and wilful scorning, are the perfect answers        subject of education, and are able to read a book of
 given by Supreme Intelligence. Here we are pointed           this kind. It is hardly a book for the general reading
",to the One who alone is `the Way, the Truth, and the        public, of course.
 Life  !" p. 372.                                                It is refreshing to read a book of this calibre  by
    What, according to the author's conception, is that and American author.
 Christianity whose principles should be applied to edu-         However, this does not imply that we agree with
 cational problems? I quote:                                  everything the author offers. On the contrary, we
     "Let us see, then, what this Christianity may be         have a few points of rather serious criticism. First of
 that we would consider for the clarification of educa-       all, we must differ with the author with `respect to his
 tional confusion. If it be not the Christianity of  Scol-    evaluation of the historical development of dogma.
 asticism, or the Christian humanism of the somewhat          In his historical survey he does not only treat the
 later years; if it be not the modern version of that         various philosophies that have been offered as a solu-
 Christian humanism which present-day religious ideal- tion of the most fundamental problems, but also offers
 ism seeks to promote, the school has the right, if only      a partial history of dogma, an evaluation of the doc-

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

trines of faith which in the course of time the Church        Augustine gradually became acquainted with Christian
established on the basis of Holy Writ. The two, the           doctrine, and in his mind the fusion of Platonic philo-
survey  ,of  educationa  philosophy and of doctrinal          sophy with revealed dogmas was taking place,' so that
development are intertwined. The Greek philosophers `the threads of Christian and neo-Platonic thought,
are placed on a par with the early church-fathers; the        the ideas of Origin and Plotinus, unite in his philo-
Reformation and the Renaissance are treated ?n one sophy'.
breath ; Luther and Calvin are discussed in one line             "As to the importance to the world of Augustinian-
with the philosophers of the  "Aufklarung". This I con-       ism, the evidence is overwhelming. `The whole life of
sider a serious weakness in the work of Dr. Cooke.            the medieval Church was framed on lines which he has
He forgets that, even though there may have been and suggested. . . . it was in its various parts a carrying
admittedly was with the  eariy church-fathers, Augus-         out of ideas which he cherished and diffused. Nor
tine, the Schoolmen and the Reformers a tendency to           does his inff uence  end with the decline of medievalism ;
syncretism, the fact remains that there is a positive         we shah see presently how closely his language was
line of dogmatic development, that  shouid be and             akin to that of Descartes, who gave the first impulse to'
easily can be distinguished from the false philoso-           and defined the special character of modern philo-
phy of the human mind. I do not know in how far               sophy'.    `He so moulded the Latin world that it is
Dr. Cooke is competent to pass a well-founded judg-           really he that has shaped the education of modern
ment on the dogmatic development of the past, but             minds'.    Quoting Harnack, `Even today We live by
certain it is, that he should have considered this part       Augustine, by his thought and spirit; it is said that
of his survey not as a philosopher but as a theologian.       we are sons of the Renaissance and the Reformation,
   In the second place, and in close connection with          but both one and the other depend upon him".
the preceding, I must differ emphatically with Dr.               The author reaches the following, rather amazing
Cooke in many instances of sweeping condemnation              conclusion with respect to Augustine's philosophy :
of the dogmatic results of the labor of the Church in         "Therefore, `the great inheritance which Augustine
the past. I will quote some passages that may illus-          left the world was along the philosophical line of
trate the instances I have in mind.                           +ntellego ut credam' (of knowledge as the basis of faith
   In connection with some of the early church-fathers        instead of faith as the basis of knowledge). This
and their work (the Apologists) Dr. Cooke passes              dictum had an overwhelming influence on Scolasticism,
the following unconditional verdict of condemnation:          as will be seen". pp. 35-8'7.
"And so in the process of refuting Gnosticism and                The Reformers are pictured as "humanists", and
other doctrines antagonistic to Christianity, there was although "in theological matters the syncretizing ten-
gradually formulated a body of dogmas that has it-            dencies of the Protestant leadership was rendered
self been called a betrayal of Christianity but which         largely innocuous, it was sadly not so in matters other
the early church accepted as the authoritative guidance than religious". p.  ~110. And, according to the author,
for faith and practice". p. 81.                               there can be no doubt "that  officia1  Protestantism from
   On p. 8.7, we find the following statement : "Indeed,      its inception completely failed, in spite of the spiritual
                                                              heights achieved, to do for the world of mind what it
we may safely characterize the attitude of all these          did for the world of spirit. Thus by that failure was
early church fathers, in spite of their enthusiasm for
the Scriptures, as strongly rationalistic. For `their         (should be: `were,  HZ.) there poured into the head-
great Platonic maxim that nothing is to be believed           waters of the stream of modern educational thought,
                                                              the worldly intellectual poisons of paganism". p. 114.
which is unworthy of God, makes reason the judge of
revelation'."                                                    Summarizing the results of his survey in a later
                                                              chapter, Dr. Cooke characterizes the attitude of the
       Mostly quoting from secondary sources the author "ecclesiastical man" to the Gospel in the following
gives us the following picture of Augustine : " `In philo-    words : "Then almost immediately mankind was offer-
sophy he had the merit of being the first to synthesize ed a second and supremely perfect alternative in the
the best elements of pagan inquiries into a coherent          light that shone from a lone Cross on a lonely hill.
system of Christian thought'. He was called `greater          It has been recorded how  ecclesistical  man in general
than Origin, in whom again  t.he Christian and the            responded to that opportunity, neither by open refusal
ancient world meet in new and richer combination'.            nor yet by free acceptance, but in a subtler way that
The Catholc Encyclopedia says that as a student before        had vastly more potentialities for future confusion
his conversion to Christianity `neo-Platonic philosophy       than even a complete turning away would bring. In
inspired him with genuine enthusiasm', and that after         effect he said, `I will gladly receive all that is accept-
that event in 336 he was ready `to devote himself to          able to my intellect; that which does not satisfy, need
the pursuit of true philosophy which, for him, was            not be rejected, but rather let it be modified to meet
now inseparable from Christianity'.       From then on        the criteria of my reason!`? p. 351.


                                                                                                       .-__.
                                          THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                       417

   And in the same summary the Reformation is
evttiuated   a8  fallowrj : "In the midst of the glittering                   Voor Alle Menschen
intellectual tinsel bordered by dark shadows of social
wrong and philosophic blindness  came the protestant              De vraag rest ons nog te beantwoorden of Ds.
Reformation. And we have geen how this latter move- Zwier's beschouwing van het bidden voor de overheid
ment, which once more, as at the start of Christendom,         metterdaad berust op eene zuivere verklaring van den
gave promise of putting before the minds of men the tekst, waarop hij zich beroept. I Tim, 2:1, 2.
truth  aB revealed from a higher Source than this world,          We lezen  daar de bekende woorden:  "Ik vermaan
hltd its  npportunity   deetroyed  just as effectively as      dan voor alle  dingen, dat gedaan  worden smeekingen,
had been true of the early Catholics and for the same          gebeden, voorbiddingen, dankzeggingen, voor alle  men-
reaB0n.    For here again, though in the schools alone s&en. Voor koningen en  allen, die in hoogheid zijn;
thipl time, w&13 man's wisdom allowed to vitiate the           opdat wij een gerust en stil, leven leiden mogen in alle
Higher, by tieanti of that humanism which had been             godzaligheid en eerbaarheid".
the chief charncteritJtic  of `the Renaissance and which          We  weten,  hoe Ds. Zwier op grond van deze  woor-
was ultimately to prove just as disappointing in this          den  Zijne lezers en  hoorders  onderwijst te bidden.
new  syticretigm as it" had previously been ineffectual        Hij wil, dat ze ongeveer als volgt zullen bidden: "Geef
when guided by intellect alone".                               aan de overheid eene ruime mate van uwe algemeene
                                                               genade, opdat de macht van het militarisme verbroken
    In hi8 Preface the author informs us that the use of worde, de oorlog mag wosden voorkomen, en er vrede
secondary  gources  instead of the  workrj  themselves         en burgerlijke gerechtigheid in ons land en onder de
of the men digcuseed  is done. "in pursuance of a well-        natign  der wereld  wonen moge".
coneiderod   purporJcJ",    Nevertheless, 1 believe that if       Letten  we nu allereerst op. de woorden van den
the author had  intnttde  a careful  &udy of the early tekst.
fatherg,  Augustine, aad the Reformer& he would have              En dan trekt het onze aandacht aanstonds, dat de
been gpared  the error of the one-sided verdict he ex-         apostel Timotheus en de gemeente vermaant om  ge-
presses  upon  thtjlin  ilow. Besides, in my opinion, the      beden  en dankzeggingen op te zenden  tot den troon
secondary sources he employed  stre hardly reliable to         der genade voor alle mt?nschen.
serve as a sole basis for a historical survey.                    Dit is zeer breed.
    Finally, and again in  cloga  comnection  with the            We hebben hier dus geen vermaning om bepaald
preceding, the conciusion  to which the author finally te bidden voor de overheid  als zoodanig, in de  capaci-
arrives can hardly be sufficient to serve as a new basis       teit van overheid. We1 worden  koningen en allen,  die
for educational philosophy. If I understand the author in hoogheid in het tweede vers nog uitdrukkelijk  ge-
correctly, he wants to get away from ecclesiastical doc-       noemd,  doch  het is duidelijk, dat dit alleen geschiedt
trine, an3 simply return to the pure gospel as revealed        uit het oogpunt van het feit, dat ook zij tot alle men-
in the Scriptures. But, in the first place, it is quite        ,when  behooren, voor wie de apostel wil, dat gebeden
impossible for anyone, and also wrong, to ignore the           eal  worden door de gemeente.       Aan een bijzonder
positive guidance of the Holy Spirit in the past. And          gebed voor de overheid als zoodanig wordt hier niet
eyen  in application to educational philosophy the prin-       ;:edacht.  Ge kunt op grond van dezen tekst niet bid-
ciples of the truth as found in the Word of God will           den: geef  onzen  president en  zij'nen ministeren, en
have to be definitely stated. And, secondly, the at-           onzen  gouverneur en onzen  burgermeester, en allen,
tempt to ignore the doctrine of the Church in the past         die over ons regeeren, algemeene  genade om burger-
will ultimately mean only t,hat the author will apply          lijke gerechtigheid te handhaven en oorlog te voor-
his own `view of the Gospel to education. And just             komen. Gebeden voor  alle  menschen.   moeten   worden
how this is to be done the author fails to point out. It       opgezonden.
seems to me that the historical and negative part of               Als hier dan ook in vs. 2 aan toegevoegd wordt:
the book is rather in disproportion to the positive and        "voor koningen en  allen, die in hoogheid zijn", dan
constructive part.                                             beteekent dit niet, dat deze de eenigsten  zijmn,  die de
    Then, too, I believe that the attempt to Christianize      apostel op het oog heeft. Ge kunt niet lezen: Ik ver-
public instruction is hopeless.                                maan,  dat gedaan worden  gebeden voor alle menschen,
                                                               dat  is voor koningen en  allen, die in hoogheid zijn.
    After all, the only proper solution is the free Chris-     Dit zou natuurlijk geen zin hebben. Doch de bedoeling
tian School.                                                   is: voor alle menschen,  koningen en allen, die in hoog-
    Nevertheless, the book is valuable, refreshing be- heid zijn  nieiet uitgezdtierd.  Het gebed, dat voor alle
cause of its Christian standpoint, worthy to be studied        menschen door de gemeente moet  worden  opgezonden,
by all that are interested in Christian education.             geldt dus ook koningen en  allen,  die in hoogheid zijn.
                                                  H. H.  i
                                    -.    1-                       En let ook hier weer op het breede van dit gebed.


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                       423
                                                                                   /
tegenover Jehova bedreven waren,   doch een voortgaan
op het pad der ongerechtigheid.                                            Contrasting Strains
      Het stellen van den eisch droeg in zich het oordeel
over Israel. Het is tech niet noodig, dat in de Kerk                                    (Psalm 36)
de vraag nog beantwoord zal  moeten  worden,  wie is            There is a vivid contrast in this psalm.        '
God? God is Jehova en niemand meer .                            On the one hand, we read a description of the
      En nog al leer het wonder plaats grijpt durft nog      wicked in their wanton wickedness; and, on the other
wil men die belijdenis uitspreken. Het ontzettende in hand, a description of God's wonders, both in the works
den tekst is dit, als  Elia den eisch stelt van kiezen en of nature and of grace.
niet langer tusschen twee gedachten te hinken, dan              The first verse has given rise to many `different
staat er "maar het volk antwoorde hem niet met Ben           explanations and even translations. One; the able lin-
woord". Dat kon niet anders, het is waar. Maar het guist, Delitzsch, translates the first verse as follows:
kon enkel en alleen niet, omdat een antwoord, wat het "An oracle of transgression hath the ungodly within
ook geweest ware, een oordeel was geweest voor Israel.       his heart: There is no fear of God before his eyes;"
Men kon niet antwoorden, want in den tijd van drie en But the fact remains that in the original' Hebrew the
een half jaar, toen  de Heere luide had gesproken van expression is: my heart and not his heart.
Zij heilig misnoegen, was men tech doorgegaan met
den dienst van Baa1 en het verachten van Jehova.                The difficulty for Delitzsch seems to have been:
      En in het stellen van dien eisch aan het volk ligt How can the wickedness of the wicked speak in the
dan ook niet allermeest, gelijk sommigen het  voor-          heart of David?
stellen, een oproep tot bekeering,  doch een oproep, om         The various translations of our Bible substantially
zich in zijn ware verhouding tegenover God den Heere         agree. They all translate: The transgression of the
`zich te openbaren, hetzij dan in vijandschap of in een wicked saith within my heart, etc. I find such agree-
betrekkmg  van liefde tegenover Hem.                         ment in the Holland "Staten-vertaling", the St. James'
      Zoo is het altijd.                                     version, Calvin's French translation and Luther's Ger-
      Voor of tegen.                                         man. It is also substantially found in the Latin trans-
      Belijdt ge Zijn Naam, dien Hem dan.                    lation of 1624.
      Erken Hem in al ,uwe wegen.                               Delitzsch' translation does not agree with the second
      Tegen, ga dan uit het midden van Israel weg en clause of the verse. According to him we must look
loop uwen afgod na, maar weet dan, dat de weg waarop         for this speech of transgression in the following verse,
ge u bevindt, die des verderfs is en uitloopt op het         while the second clause of verse 1 is the judgment of
eeuwig  verderf.                                             the inspired poet.
      Zoo staat het met de Kerk ook nu. Wie den {Hei-           I am convinced that we must explain this first
land belijdt zal Hem dienen en de zonde  haten, de           speech as follows: first of all, the wickedness of the
wereld verlaten en op het pad van Gods geboden wan-          wicked has a speech; it speaks even loudly. Second,
delen.                                                       this speech of wickedness which comes to David in
                                                w.  5'.      the various forms of behaviour, in speech and acts, in
                                                             walk and deportment, is brought before the bar of
                                                             judgment residing in David's regenerated heart. In
L,                             -                             that heart resides the wisdom of God, the gift from
                                                             heaven whereby we know how speech, acts and be-
                                                             haviour  ought to be to. the praises of God. Third,
                            ATTENTION                        when this wicked behaviour is evaluated, appraised,
                                                             tasted by the enlightened heart of David, he utters
We hope to see ALL of our people, who possibly can           such appraisal in the second clause of the verse.
come, at our Field-Day at Gun Lake, which is 25 miles        David comes to the conclusion: There is no fear of
south of Grand `Rapids: take Division Road, then turn        God before the eyes. of all those that walk in such
east at Bradley, following arrows to Gun Lake. Come wickedness.
early because the program starts at  lO:OO, and we              The next 6 verses of the psalm give us the explana-
would like to have the games in the forenoon. In the tion of David's judgment of this wicked speech. In
                                                             the verses 2-4 he gives us this explanation by a de-
afternoon we have community-singing and two good             scription of their life.       And in the verses  5-7a he
speakers.     Ball games and swimming for the young deepens this explanation by a description of the over-
popleT                                                       whelming revelation of God's great goodness in the
                              The Field-Day Committee.       midst of which all this wickedness is perpetrated,

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

    The description of the wicked is striking and hor-        thdt they devise mischief upon their bed.  ,4nd this
rible.                                                        mischief is described in two ways: they set themselves
    Imagine: The wicked brings himself before the             upon a way that is not goad ; and they do not abhor
bar of his own judgment: he comes before his own evil. No, but their way is evil from the heart out and
eyes ; he sees himself. Standing there in all his wicked- they cling to evil, they love it and seek it. ,Presently
ness he begins to flatter himself. He explains a!1 his        they have decided how to act, what course to pursue
acts to have been goodness; he judges sweetly of all          for the following morning; and smiling in prospect,
his dirt and filth. When the form of his life as he           they sleep and slumber. Woe unto the victim  ur
lives it disappears from view he leaves himseIf  with         victims!  LMischief is set afoot.
this appraisal  :' Thou art pure, without transgression !        Now all this plowing of the wicked is done in the
    I would ask here: Did you ever try to pin down an         midst of the revelation of God's wonders. They judge
unrighteous man to his unrighteous deeds? He will             evilIy  of themselves, they flatter their corrupt selves,
always excuse himself; he will defend his very wicked- their mouths vomit iniquity and deceit, they set their
ness and call it sweet, pure, very goodness.                  lives on such a wise that they may hate God and men,
    Moreover, he has a purpose in mind. And here I devising ways and means even when the night calls
would take the literal translation as my basis of inter-      for sleep and slumber, they do all this while God
preting. His purpose in self-flattery is: that he may speaks from the heavens and the clouds, the great deep
continue his unrighteousness, namely, that he may of the oceans and the heights of the mountain tops.
continue to hate God and man. He purposes to find             There is' a speech of power and wisdom, of loving-
his iniquitous life, namely, to hate. This last sentence kindness and mercy-but they are seemingly deaf
is as close to a literal translation as we can approach to all this beauty and excellence.
without obscuring the sense.                                     David will tell us of all this preciousness.
    Furthermore, his mouth brings forth iniquity and             The heavens and the cIouds tel1 of God's mercy and
deceit. Elsewhere in Scripture the mouth  ef  - the           faithfulness.
wicked is likened unto a sepulchre, an open grave, full          Yes, the cIouds  draw our wandering eyes upward
of abomination and filth. The wickedness of his words and for thousands of years the Lord has spoken of
are such that he- never lets you glimpse the real under- FIis great Covenant faithfulness. You read of this
lying motive of his speaking. You can never trust             faithfulness and mercy in a twofoId  way. First, there
him. There is no goodness or wisdom in his words.             is the blue firmament. And this ocean of immeasur-
That is, he has not your welfare or well-being at heart. able blue tells us that God will never forget you. The
To the contrary, his words are in the service of his          blue firmament whispers of remembrance, remem-
determinate counsel and purpose: he wants to hate brance of the objects of His love forever. He cannot
you, to destroy you. in this he is an apt pupil of the        forget  you for you  are  His own. From all eternity
devil, for he is a murder of man from the beginning.          He has seen you in the palms of His hands. Second,
    Here I would ask a question again: Do you find any        there is the rainbow in the clouds. On the background
common grace in-this description of the objects of of the clouds there is a many-colored speech of grace
 study of the Kalamazoo Synod? They watched the               and kindness, of mercy and pity toward His suffering
wicked also ; they listened to his words and they             Zion.    It is the breaking of the beauteous light of
scrutinized his life. And here is the resuIt  : they found    His countenance. They are the hues of love in His
that his words%were  goodness and wisdom. So sweet dear Son, The rainbow is the Covenant of God inter-
were the words of the wicked that they want the               preted through the agony of Golgotha. The cross is the
church to believe that even C&d approves of them.             prism, the light is God's love, the many-v-colored beauties
    But it is an evil dream. _ The Holy Ghost tasted are the many and varied graces in the Lor$ Jesus
`of the words of the wicked and the  te.xt says of them :     Christ, the everlasting arms to draw you onward and
they are iniquity and deceit !                                upward to the glorified heavens and earth.
    Whom will you follow? The Synod of  KaIamazoo                But the wicked pursue the unrighteous Mammon;
or the living God?                                            they think much more of a dollar than Divine pity ;
    But still worse is to follow: The wicked grew tired,      they will work wickedness in the midst of a revelation
even as you and I. They went to bed. But instead              of God's Iove in Christ.
of meditating  upon God and all His wonderful works,              Cast your eyes on the mountain tops and you will
they fell to planning and plotting for the morrow to          see the righteousness of ,God. That righteousness can
come. Now, let me see: tomorrow I must close that             never be moved, is stable and unmoveabIe.          The moun-
deal ; I must invest that money ; I must needs meet so        tains tell us that there is a will to goodness in God
and so ;  I am called in conference on this or that           which cannot be abridged. God will never know of
matter ; I have work to do for him or her ; the business      the compromise, the slippery by-pass or crooked ravine.
of the morrow passes the review. And the text says            It towers like the mountain, this righteousness, so that


                            .*     I,     :     ;;    T H E   S T A N D A R D   - B E A R E R                                              425

all may see. "God wills goodnesq:  forever :even  thougk                   compass His alters ; they will repose their trust under
 it. may burn His dear Son in. utmost agony of .hellish                    the shadow of His wings.
 torment. Even then, with His eyes  .oti the mountains                        There rest me the fatness of God's .house and the
 He will say with trembling,, lips  :. It.. behooves us. to                rivers of His pleasures. God has a House and He has
 fulfill all righteousness ! When you think of God's                       pleasures in that house. They are the contents of  iHis
 righteousness, look to the mountains: from them  com-                     Covenant life of love and friendship. God is blessed
 eth your help. They, .these  mountains, will tell you forevermore. And of His own blessedness He would
 that God has redeemed Zion with righteousness: IHe `give you and me. You shall eat, you. do eat even now
 clothed the meek!                                                         and you experience the satisfaction of. such repast  '
     But the wicked will, in the very shadow of these                      which makes the angels sing.
 mountains, perform their  xrooked  deeds.. Their ways                         Would you hear of the source? With God is the
 are the tortuous ways of death..                             Ti..         fountain, with Him is the light.. This fountain gushes.
     Go with me to the oceans ; look well to this great                    forth the waters of life; this light is lifted up.
 abyss of waters. They will tell you of the great depth                        Drink then, ye righteous, drink of the rivers of
of His judgments. They are a great deep. No man                            God. Stand in that light, ye blessed ones, and you  "
 can fathom: but you may well wonder and marvel and will marvel at the revelation of what that light brings
 adore. No, you cannot see  the. bottom: His judgments you.                         `.     r                          .'
 are unsearchable and His ways past fmding  out; but                           I could say it all in a few words: You  wiu see
 you may worship ! His judgments are His outgoing God!
justice and equity,' they are His innate, inherent up-                         Could you imagine a blessedness greater than this?
 rightness and honesty in dealing  .with  men,  d&4s,                          You will see God, when, the night is over past and
 angels.                                                                   the storm is  ,stilled.  A  littIe   w.hile  and I' saw the
     Yes, look well to the great abyss ! It is beauty and wicked, no more ; and their place could, not be found.
 loveliness ; it is altogether comely. Would you hear But,we see Jesus, crowned with glory and honor.
 its general theme? He preserveth man and beast.                               Then, then I shall be satisfied. . . .
 He preserveth them for His own peculiar treasure ;                                                                               G. V.
 He has envisioned their eternal perfection : they' all                                                                     .s
 shall be to the praises of His wonderful virtues. .,
     An abyss, for the. way is strange. .It. is a way of
 the sigh' and the groaning and the bitter tear. I hear
 of all  i&-Iis. billows and all His waves. But when, all
 the  w&ry night is past we will see that His preserva-                                    Wacht Op Den He&e
 tion was  aI% exaltation. Yes, He preserveth man and
 beast so that they shall glitter as the~costly and pre;                                        (Psalm 37, eerste deel)
 cious  diadem in a land that is fairer than day"!                    .       `Deze psalm  .is een wijze raad van den, Heere voor
     And the wicked? They have seen the great depths 2ij.n volk,' dat te midden van de goddeloozen -wandelt,
 of the ocean, but their dealings, the outgoings of their                  door hen vertrapt wordt  en'veel  moetlijden. De Heere
 sense of justice is to tear .them. apart, to destroy, to ..raadt  hen aan, om zich niet te wreken, doch het alles
 kill, to murder. Their judgments are the  .muddy aan den Heere over te  geven,  die hun twistzaak zeker-
 *waters  of Isaiah; they cast up filth and.mire.                          ~lijk.zal twisten  `en .hun gerechtigheid en recht te voor-
     David will combine the wonderful speech of the schijn zal doen treden gelijk het light op den middag.
 revelation of God. He does so in the next verse: How                          Het is  goed,  dat die. raad ons geschonken wordt.
 precious (literal translation) is Thy Iovingkindness !                        Goed,  want steeds komt de  neiging boven  bij Gods
 0 God ! Oh, that is the life that counts ! Why then                       volk om  alvast maar oordeelsdag te houden. We kun-
 would you say, 0 Jacob, and why would you. speak, nen het best verstaan, `dat Jezus discipelen vuur'van
 0 Israel ; My way is hid from the Lord, and my judg- den  hemel  willen  roepen. Het valt niet mee om te
 ment is passed over from my. God ? Nay, .turn .you to                     wachten op God.                                  .
 the clouds and.  .the. firmament, the  .great mountains                    _ En  tech is het  goed om te wachteq tot God  Zijn
 and the depths of the ocean : they will, tell. thee of love oordeelsdag  inluiden   zal. Dat is  goed voor Uzelf en
 and mercy, of justice. and righteousness, of judgment ook  goed.  voor Gods zaak. Bovendien is, het ens nu
 and kindness. Turn you to the cross of Golgotha.and 2 zeker niet toevertrouwd. Het valt ook niet mee om een
 you will begin to sing, warble, shout. . For great is                     rechtvaardig oordeel te vellen. Dat `is een Goddelijk
 the Holy One of Israel  .in the midst of thee.                "           werk.                              .
     Yes, when the Christians see all this they will make                      Doch  het is ook goedvoor U om  ,te wachten.
 merry before His face until the. storms  a;re passed over. t. Het is  `goed voor  U om vertrapt te  worden  zonder
 Through Divine Wisdom they will approach and en-                          oorztik;.  om te lijden als een rechtvaardige. Het is

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

                                                             Lord show him His glory; The Lord answered that
               The Apo&ai& Doomed                            He would do so, that He would proclaim the name of
                                                             the  .Lord before him. On the folIowing day the Lord
        As was said, It was a hard speech that the people    d&ended in the cloud and stood with iMoses there in
 uttered against the Lord, at their hearing of the report the mountain and proclaimed the name of the Lord,
 cf the spies. They wanted to know why He had saying, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and grac-
 brought them to the border of Canaan that they, their       ious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth,
 wives and their children, shouId  be a prey. The people keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and
 were committing a great sin.        In the Lord's own transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear
 words, they were despising and rejecting Him in His         the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
 faithfulness and veracity, His `longsuffering ancl mercy, the children, and upon the chiidren's children, unto
 holiness and righteousness. They did so, not in their the third and fourth generatiqn."
 ignorance but. deliberately, knowingly. For these  vir-        This proclamation has already been explained in
tues of .God  were manifest in them and were clearly         former articles.       But whereas it again forms the
 seen by them, being understood by the Lord's signs, ground upon which Moses bases his plea for the life
 by the-wonders He had wrought in their siaht. "How of the nation, let us observe the following.
 long," asked the Lord, wilI they despise me? How long          The Lord forgives iniquity, but He will assuredly
 will it be ere they,  believe me, for all the signs that 1 not clear. This statement must be made to apply to
 have shewed  among  them?" As was pointed out, the          His chosen  peopIe.      These He forgives, yet without
 Lord answered His own questions when :He said, "I clearing, that is, pronouncing them innocent with their
 will smite them with pestilence, and disinherit them, m&al  debt unpaid: Being the righteous One, His for-
 and will make of thee a greater nation and ,mightier        giveness is justification; it is an act that consists in
than they.'  ' The implication of this. utterance is that His clothing His people with the satisfaction and
 *hey will not cease despising and disbelieving Him.         righteousness of Christ.
 And, as- was said, there was indeed every indication           The second section of the proclamation turns solely
 that the vast majority of them were persons repro-          upon the reprobated Israel. As the Lord forgives His
 bated, thus thoroughly.profligate. W&at  the Lord said chosen ones their iniquity (though he does not clear)
 to Moses cannot be taken as expressive of His inten- and keeps mercy with them in their generations
 tion ; for He had said that He would destroy not the        to the end of time and forever, so will He visit the
 nation in so far as it was reprobated but the entire        sins of those that hate Him (the reprobated) upon
 people with the exception of one man-the man Moses          them in their generations to destroy them..
-that thus He, would make a sudden end of reprobate             This, then, is the word that Moses again took hold
 and eIect alike. So it is plain that the Lord had spoken of. And it was according to this word that the Lord
 as He did with a view to arousing Moses to pray for         pardoned the. iniquity of the nation. But though the
 the nation, to beseech the Lord to pardon its iniquity. Lord pardoned, He by the mouth of Moses made to
 And the Lord replies, "I have pardoned according to         the nation the following doleful announcement., As
 tay word." It was a"tiord that we have come upon truly as He lives,  al1 the earth shall be  filled with His
 before. It was spoken originally by the Lord Himself glory, that is, He will exhibit His virtues, in particular,
 in response to. Moses' request, directed to the Lord, His righteousness, holiness and justice, through an act
`!Shew  me thy  gIory," and in connection with the great of His to consist in  .His punishing the rebels, those
 sin of the people-a sin that had consisted in their men who have seen His glory-His mercy, grace and
 serving the golden calf at Horeb. Then, too, the Lord compassion, His goodness and truth-by the miracles
 had said, "Now, therefore, let me BIone,  that my wrath     which He didfn Egypt and in the wilderness., but who,
 may' wax shot against them, and that I may consume          instead of hearkening to `His voice, have tempted Him
 them: and I will make of thee a great nation." Then,        these ten times. Those men, He  wil1  punish. They
too, Moses besought the Lord in behalf of the nation. shall not see the land which He sware to their fathers,
And the Lord repented of the evil which He thought           neither shall any of them that despised `,Him see it.
 to do,unto His people. Then Moses turned and went The two exceptions are Caleb and Joshua. As to Caleb,
 down from the Mount, breaking the tables. in his de- he had another spirit with him. He followed the Lord
 scent.  A After the idolaters were slain Moses returned     fully.  (Him therefore will the Lord bring into the
 unto the Lord and again prayed for the people, even         promised land. And his seed shall posses it. As to all
 going so far as to petition the Lord to blot him out        the others, they are ordered to turn them and to get
 of :His book, if He would not forgive their sin. But them "into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea".
 the Lord .repiied  that whosoever bath sinned against          There now follows an intensification of the judg-
 Him, that one He would blot out of His book. It was         ment, occasioned in all likelihood by the prolonged
 at  this  time that Moses voiced the prayer  that the murmurings of the apostates. So the Lord once more
                                                                                                                 ,l


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          429

spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, "How Iong shall I          This notice must be taken to mean that during the
bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against       forty years the Lord would continuously be against
me? I have heard the murmurings of the children              them, would pursue them by His curse until the car-
of Israel, which they murmur against me". The Lord casses of them all be wasted in the wilderness. It
continues in the following vein. "As the Lord liveth,        is not unlikely that during this period the cloud de-
as they have spoken in His ears, so will he truly do to      parted from the tabernacle in token of their being
them. Their carcasses shall fall in the wilderness,-         abandoned by the Lord and that the services ceased,
the carcasses of all that were nuumbered of them, from       so that the wilderness became to this doomed genera-
twenty years old and upward. But their  litt!e  oncr         tion the nearest approach to the place of outer dark-
which they said would be a prey, shall know the land         ness.
which they despised. But as for them, their carcasses           The apostates that fall in the desert formed a seed
shall fall in the wilderness. And their children shall       of evil-doers that perpetuates itself. And through the
wander in the wilderness forty years and bear their centuries of the nations existence this seed will con-
whoredoms, after the number of days in which the             tinue to fill its measure of iniquity through its spiritual
land was searched, namely forty, each day for a year whoredoms. The Lord will continue to send to them
shall their children bear their iniquities. The Lord has     prophets. These they will kill and crucify and perse-
said it, and will sureiy do it. And the spies, who re-       cute from city to city that upon them may come all
turned and made all the congregation to murmur by            the righteous blood shed upon the earth and  that&nally             :  .'
their evil report, died by the plague before the Lord.       their house may be left unto them desolate. It was in          e
But Joshua and Caleb lived. So spake the Lord.               this seed that the saying of the -Lord' through the  `.a.  "'
Moses told  these  sayings to the people. At the hearing ages was and is being fulfilled-the.saying, "visiting
of them, they mourned greatly.                               the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon
   There is ground in the narrative for the view that        the children's children, unto the third and fourth
the vast majority of this crowd of murmurers were            generation of them that hate me".
persons repobated and thus not forgiven. There is               In the crowd of murmurerss  must also have been %*
first of all to be considered the notice that they now       found persons who, despite the fact that they truly
have tempted the Lord ten times. The number ten loved God, had to a greater or smaller degree involved                           c  *
signifies completion, so that the statement is to be         themselves in the sin of those apostates. That they
received as conveying the thought that these murmur-         did so, will not surprise us if it be considered that in             1
ers had now  .filled their measure of iniquity and were      God's people, that is, in their flesh, dwelleth no good
thus ripe for destruction. Secondly, they mourned            thing, so that, when they stand not in their faith, sin
greatly,  when Moses told them the Lord's sayings.           in them, taking occasion by trying situations or by the
But they wept not because of their sins but on account       command of God, works in them also murmurings and
of their now finding themselves under the necessity          rebellions. These murmuring believers, who formed
.of living out their lives in the wilderness. They do        the true Israel, the Lord forgave, according to His
say, "We have sinned".       But instead of humbling         proclamation.    "The Lord, the Lord God merciful and
themselves under God's hand by their getting them-           gracious, forgiving iniquity. . . . and that by no
selves into the wilderness in obedience to His command,      means will clear." The proof that there was found
they get themselves up into the mountain, saying,            among the apostates such murmuring believers is this
Lo, here we be. We will go up into the place which           very proclamation. Why should the Lord have in-
the Lord has promised." Moses warns them that the spired Moses to beseech Him to forgive transgression
the Lord would not be with them and that consequently ,in  His people, to be sure (not in the reprobated), if
they would be smitten before their enemy. But regard-        also they, the majority of them, had in that crisis not
less of this warning, they went up. If the Lord refused      also transgressed? The Lord forgave them. Yet they,
to go with them, they would go alone. And so                 too, had to live out their lives in the wilderness and
they did. For the ark of the covenant of the Lord            thus bear their iniquity in that it is the way of God
departed not out of the camp. But this did not deter         to chastise those whom He loves.
them. The venture would succeed without the Lord.                There were some-their number must have been
So did they in their unholy chagrin endeavor to render exceedingly small-who. had not rebelled. The repre-
the saying of God to the effect that the carcasses of all    sentatives of this group were Caleb, Joshua, Moses,
of them should fall in the desert impossible of ful-         and Aaron. As to Caleb, it was to his special credit,
fillment. Here again they brought themselves to the          that he had reported with such favor concerning the
fore as persons of a reprobated mind. Thirdly, there         most terrible portion of the land, the region of Anek
is the statement, occurring in the narrative, "And ye        and Hebron. It was this very region  ,therefore  that
shall know my hostility" (erroneously translated, "And became his inheritance. The fulfillment of the promise
ye shall know my breach of promise"). Chant.  1.4  :3&.      to him is recorded in Joshua  14. In this chapter he


  330                                  T H E   STANDA'RD-BEARER

  appears as `addressing Joshua in the following vein.
  Forty years old was he when Moses sent him to SPY out                     Why, Not Tithe?
  the land. And he brought him word again as it was in
  his heart. But his brethren that went with him made          In my last article under the above caption I showed
the heart of the people melt; but he wholly followed that, in the language of Rev. Steigenga, "for many the
  the Lord his God. So on that day Moses sware to          tithe is an easy, cheap and arbitrary way of serving
  him that the land whereon his feet had trodden should    God with their abundance, and for many others it is
  be his inheritance and his children's forever. And       it is unfair and difficult in the extreme." It is very
  now the Lord had kept him alive as He had said for       difficult, I wrote, for the father of a large family,
  these forty and five years. And lo he was that day       with an income much too small, to give the tenths.
  fourscore and five years old; and yet he was as Such a man should not tithe, as through his doing so
  strong as the day that Moses sent him. As his strength he would be taking the bread out of his children's
  was then, even so was it now, for war, both to go        mouths. For this man to tithe would  pe wrong. It is
  out and to come in. Let Joshua therefore give him        likewise wrong for the rich man to tithe, so I wrote,
  the mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day.        unless he suppliments  his tithing by the free-will offer-
  The Anakins, Joshua knew, were there and the cities      ing. Doing so, he is not actually tithing but giving
  were great and fenced ; but if the Lord would be with as  he, prospered.
  him, and of this he had no doubt, he would be able          Now if tithing is a wrong way of serving God with
  to drive them out. So Joshua blessed him and gave        our material substance, the 6th and final argument
him and his posterity Hebron for a permanent in-           of Rev.. H. J.  ..Kuiper  in favor of tithing also falls.
  heritance.      So did Hebron, through its permanent The argument `reads :
  association with the name of Calib, become to the           Tithing stands the test of Christian experience
  Israelitish nation a memorial  ,of his obedience and by since it gives great satisfaction to those who practice
  contrast of the disobedience  and.apostacy  of the seed it. Hosts of believers have testified to the rich bless-
  of evildoers and of the doom by which this seed was      ings which it has brought them. Tithing does not only
  overtaken.      How the memory of this doom was per- lead invariably to an increase of contributions to the
  petuated through the centuries of the nation's ex- kingdom but it also enables one to give cheerfully.
  istence is evident from the reference to it in the       Here is a double privilege: first to give more than
  epistle to the Hebrews, "But with whom was he we formerly gave-which means that our usefulness
  grieved forty years? Was it not with them that           in the kingdom has increased- ; second, to give with
  had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? far more joy and readiness. Contributors who tithe
  And to whom sware he that they should not enter have no intention of using for themselves the money
  his rest, but to them that believed not?" "Let us        that is set aside, from the moment it is earned, for
  labor, therefore," so the writer admonishes, "to enter the Lord's `work. This promotes joy and happiness in
  into that rest, lest any man fall after that same ex-    giving.
  ampIe  of unbelief."                                        "It has often been said that if all Christians would
     There are five chapters in the book of Numbers-       tithe, much more money would be available for the
  the chapters 15 to  19 inclusive-that refer to this      Lord's work than is being contributed now. We do
  interval of forty years, but in what part of this        not doubt this. We are sure especially of this, that
  period the events recorded in these chapters took much more would be given by those who have the best
  place we cannot say. Besides sundry religious laws, incomes. But even if the church and its various insti-
  these  chapterss record the following events: The death tutions would not receive one more dollar than at pre-
  by stoning of a man who was found gathering sticks       sent. if. all the members began to tithe, there would
  on the Sabbath day. His sin was the doing of servile still be a rich blessing in the general introduction of
  work in deliberate defiance of the command of God. the custom, since it would be a  sonrce of spiritual
  The rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram was an growth and joy."
  attempt to bring the priesthood down to the level of        This last line "it (tithing) would be a source of
  the common Israelites, by a perversion of the truth spiritual growth and joy" is expressive of the thrust
  that all the people were "an holy nation and a rayal of the above excerpt. With this thrust I do not agree.
  priesthood."                                             It isn't true. What would be a source of spiritual
                                            G. M. 0.       growth and joy is "giving as the Lord has blessed,
                                                           prospered" providing such giving be an act of true
                                                           faith." Giving as the Lord has blessed them, those
                                                           members of which the reverend makes mention-the
  We can have no power from Christ unless we live in a members "who have the best incomes"-would be giv-
  persuasion  that `we have none of our own.-John Owen. ing what they should  give, which they do not if they


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                      481

give merely the tenth of their "best incomes". I repeat in the words from the Sermon on the Mount: "Seek
what I wrote in my previous article on this subject,       ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness;
"The error of Rev. Kuiper is that he places in the         and all these other things shall be added unto you."
room of the free-will offering, inculcated on the New      So far the reverend.
Testament Church by Christ through the apostle Paul,          Can it be that what Christ here  teIls His disciples
the giving of the tenths." What he strives to do is to     is that if they will seek first the kingdom of heaven,
lead God's believing people back to' the "beggarly ele- God will heap upon them material abundunce,.will  pour
ments" of the ceremonial law.                              them out a material blessing, that there shall not be
   My previous article I ended with this question:         room enough to receive it? If so, we have to do here
"If it can be wrong for New Testament believers to         with a promise that was and is not being fulfilled.
tithe, how can it be explained that the Lord by Moses      The twelve apostles certainly first sought the kingdom
placed the Old Testament Church under the necessity of heaven. Paul did and so did the others. Did the
of tithing?"                                               Lord shower upon them material goods? Did Paul
   My reply. First, from the fact that the Lord com- grow rich in the material sense in the service of God?
manded Old Testament believers to tithe, it does not Are God's people on a whole rich?' Is it true that the
follow that it cannot be wrong for New Testament           material substance of a believer increases in pro-
believers to tithe. To illustrate: the Lord commanded      portion as he is spiritual? Of course not. On a whole,
Old Testament believers to bring the sacrifice by blood.' God's people are poor. So they appear in Scripture
Et would certainly be wrong for New Testament be-          (I now speak of New Testament believers). Wrote
lievers to bring this sacrifice. Second, as was said,      the apostle, "For ye see your calling brethren, how that
the tenths were supplimented by the free-will offering.    not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not
The reverend places tithing in the room of this ofer-      many -nobles are called. . . ." The `apostles did not
ing. Third, the Lord commanded the Old Testament grow rich in the service of God. But they did have
Church to tithe ; and in addition, He also promised the their daily bread. The Lord did- continue to provide'
Israelitish people-the Old Testament Church-that,          in their necessities as long as He had use for them on
if they would walk in the way of His covenant, He. this earth ; and this according to the saying of Christ,
would make it possible, easy for them to tithe through' "Seek ye first the kingdom of God. . . . and all these
His supplying them with material abundance. Said things shall be added unto you." What Christ assures
He to His people of old, "Honor Jehovah with thy the seekers of His kingdom is that they shall have in
substance  ,and with the first-fruits of all thy increase. this life not material abundance but their daily bread,
So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy vats the portion needful for them. And for this portion he
shall overflow- with new wine." And again (Malachi also taught them to pray, "Give us this day our daily
3:lO) : "Bring the whole tithes into the storehouse,       bread."    The fact is that the more intensely God's
that their may be food in my house, and prove me           believing people seek God's kingdom, the poorer they
now herewith, saith Jehovah of hosts, If I will not open become.      And the reason is that they seek not the
you the windows `of heaven, and pour you out a blessing things on this earth but the kingdom of God and. its
that there shall not be room enough to receive it."        righteousness.    According to the reasoning of the
   The question is, does this promise  stiIl hold? Is      reverend, a believer, who is poor in material goods,
the Lord still saying to His people, "Tithe and I will     must ascribe his poverty to his failure to tithe, thus to
pour you out a  bIessing (material blessing), that there his unwillingness to seek God's kingdom as he should.
shall not be room enough to receive it." Our answer           What the Lord now promises His believing people,
must be a negative one. The promise no longer holds.       who keep His covenant, is not long life in some earthy
It is a promise that, together with the symbolical- land and a large material substance in that land; what
typical things of the Old Dispensation, waxed old and      He promises them now is the new earth and a heavenly,
vanished away. Yet the reverend maintains that the spiritual   abundance on that earth. But in `this life
promise does still hold.    His fifth argument reads, they have many tribulations. For they are of the
"Scripture contains  speciai  and sweeping promises        party of God and war His warfare. Therefore the
to those who give the Lord the first-fruits of their       world knows them not. And the man whom the world
income. We read in Proverbs, "Honor Jehovah with does not know, cannot amass riches. Nor should he
thy substance, and with the firstfruits. . . . so shall    want to. Et is the things above, that heavenly country,
thy barns be filled with plenty. . . ." The same prom-     the spiritual riches, on which he should have his af-
ise is  f.ound in Malachi  3:lO. Quoting this passage      fections set. Such is Christ's will. And of this spirtual
the reverend continued, "We can  scarecly imagine any abundance and of this heavenly country, that material
Christian taking the position that what is taught here abundance that God gave to His people of old when
is no longer true. The fact is that Jesus corroborates     as a nation they walked in the way of His precepts,
the principle which these words embody-for example,        and that  earthy Canaan, was the shadow. But these

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

shadows are no more. Hence it is thoroughly vain their preaching, but nations, earthy commonwealths ;
to tell God's believing people that He will load them second, they present the promises as  be!onging  not to
down with material riches, if they tithe.                     God's people but to the nation, the earthy common-
       The reverend may say, "True it is that the apostle wealth; third, they maintain that what belongs to the
Paul did not. grow rich in the service of the Lord. nation is these promises even in their typical dress.
But the apostle was no farmer, but a minister' Thisaccounts for their saying in their broadcasts and
of the gospel. Hence, the promise, "Honor Jehovah             in their writings that God will send the  nation  material
with thy substance. . . . so shall thy barns be filled        prosperity, if it only repents. But, some one may
with plenty," could apply to Paul only in an indirect say, wouldn't the nation prosper materially also, if
WBY." Let us reply to this. In our modern set-up. of          it forsook  sin' and turned to God? It has no sense
life, there are thousands upon thousands of believers even to ask this question. For fact is that the nation
who are not farmers either, but ministers of the gospel       as nation is not going to repent. For we know from
and tradesmen and craftsmen and ccnnmon laborers.             Scripture that the abiding resolve of God is to seek
We live today in a highly industrialized world. Is it not nations but His elect in the nations.
now so that God's people may feel assured that even              As to that article of the Rev.  H, J. Kuiper-the
in times of economic depression, when wages are small article bearing the title "Why Not Tithe"-it literally
and when work is scarce and when consequently there teems with misconceptions. Before he again writes on
are millions of men out of work, they, the believers,. the subject of tithes, it would be well for him to do
rcho tithe, will nevertheless have fine jobs paying high just a little thinking. We saw that the Lord by Moses
wages? Or let us suppose that all the believers were          commanded His people-the peaple  of Israel-to tithe.
farmers. Would it then be so that, even in times of The Rev. insists that tithing was not  repea!ed,  and at
drought,  the. Lord would single out His people and the same time he tells his readers that the New Testa-
give them fine crops, if only they would tithe? Such sment. believers do not find themselves under the neces-
was not even. the Lord's doing in the Old Testament .siQ of tithing. But how can this be,  if  the law of
Dispensation ! Not when a few Israelites here and             tithing was. not repealed?                                G. M. 0.
there tithed or, speaking in general terms, kept God's
covenant, but only when the nation as a whole feared                                               -
the Lord, did the Lord send  national  prosperity. The
prosperity was always and only national, not indi-                                  IN MEMORIAM
vidual. That is to say, in times of national apostacy,            On May 3, 1941, following an illness of six months, it
the Lord did not continue to enrich the few Isrelites,        pleased our Heavenly Father to take unto Himself our dear
who remained faithful to Him, and impoverish all the          father and grandfather,        :.
others.      Fact is, that the nation was impoverished,                         Mr. SIDNEY VISSER, Sr.
when it departed from the Lord and then the faithful,. .a! the age of  Sg,.,years.
too, would have to suffer.                                        Our `comfort is that he now rejoices above with his Lord
       The reverend. may say, "`Just so, and for this rea- and,Saviour  whom he served and in whose way he walked with
son we have .our  `Back-toaGod-hour'  on the radio-an delight.
hour in which we seek our nation, our American na-                                                 Mr. and Mrs. C. S. Visser
tion, admonishing it to repent of its sins and to re-                                              Mr. and Mrs. Ryn Visser
turn to God, in order that material prosperity may be                                              Rev. and Mrs. A. Cammenga
its portion."                                                                                      Mr: and Mrs. J. E. Visser
       The  ,proper  reply to this reasoning is, that the                                          Mr. and Mrs. Ray Visser
Israelitish people of old formed a typical theocracy,                                              Mr. and Mrs. M. Beurkens
and that the entity corresponding to it is not this or                                                  Sidney
that earthly state, commonwealth, or nation, but the                                                    Richard
church of the living God, Christ's heavenly kingdom,              Grand Rapids; Michigan.               N i n e   g r a n d c h i l d r e n .
and further that to the  church  only does the promise,
a~  q?iritunlized   now pertain, namely, the promise,
"Honor Jehovah with thy substance. . . . so shall thy                            ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
barns be tilled with plenty." It means, as has already            As it is beyond us to express to every one personally our
been explained, that the true church, God's believing gratitude for the many congratulations wherewith our friends
people, walking as they do in the way of God's cove- overwhelmed us, we take these means to thank them for their
nant receive as t.heir reward that heavenly-spiritual kind sentiment expressed at our GOLDEN WEDDING ANNI-
abundance that Christ merited for it.                         VERSARY.
       The brethren err in three respects: First, they                                   Mcand  Mrs. Jacob H. Hoekstra,
seek not the church, the elect, the people of God in                                     South Holland, Illinois, Box- 252.


