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

                                                                       "Wherefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me
                   Editorials                                          of eternal life", etc.; and more correctly than our text
                                                                       it renders "von Herzen willig" hy "heartily willing".
                                                                       More important, perhaps, is the difference in the ren-
                                                                       dering of the second question. Our text has: "that
               The Triple Knowledge .                                  thou, enjoying this comfort, mayest live and die hap-
                                                                       pily?" The version Schaff presents translates: "that
EXPOSITION OF THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM thou in this comfort mayest live and die happily?"
                                                                       The latter is certainly the correct rendering of the
                                II.                                    German : "das du in  diesem  Troste seliglich leben und
                         LORD'S DAY I                                  sterben  mijgest ?" But it is also more objective as to
                                                                       meaning and certainly stronger than "enjoying this
               Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and        comfort". "In this comfort" presents the comfort not
             death ?                                                   merely as a matter of feeling and joy, but as the basis
               Answer. That I, with body and soul, both in life        of our living and dying happily, as the sphere and cause
             and death, am not my own, but belong unto my              of it. Our whole life, our thinking and willing and de-
             faithful .Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with His precious    siring, our speech and our action, is characterized and
             blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins, and de-      spirituahy  determined by this all comprehensive com-
             livered me from all the power of the devil; and so        fort. And this is expressed much more correctly and
             preserves me, that without the will of my heavenly        forcefully by "in this comfort" than by "enjoying this
             Father not a hair can fall from -my head; yea, that       comfort". Finally, Schaff's text renders the first part
             all  things  must be subservient to my salvation;         of the second answer: "First, the greatness of my sin
             and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me     and misery", where our text, however,. is a more cor-
             of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and       rect translation of the German: "Erstlich, wie gross
             ready henceforth to live unto him                         meine Sunde und Elend seien".
               Question 2. How many things are necessary for              So much about the text.
             thee to know, that thou, enjoying this comfort, may-         As to the contents of this first Lord's Day, it will
             est live and die happily?                                 be evident at once that it is designed to serve an intro-
                                                                       ductory purpose. The teacher or preacher who would
               Answer. Three; the first, how great my sins and         enter into a detailed interpretation of the various
             miseries are; the second, how I may be delivered          elements of the truth that appear in this first chapter
             from all my sins and miseries; the third, how I shall     of the Heidelberger, would make a serious mistake.
             express my gratitude to God for such deliverance.
       s                                                               He would find that there would `be very little left for
                                                                       him to explain in connection with the rest of our
                                                                       instructor. And so does the preacher err, who, in
            The Viewpoint Of The Heidelberger.                         expounding this first Lord's Day, offers a gen,erai ex-
                                                                       planation of all the different parts of the truth that
       The text of the first Lord's Day that is quoted above are here mentioned. He would merely scan the surface
is the one that occurs in our Psalter and that is most                 of many points of doctrine, would lack the `time to ex-
commonly used. The English version that is offered plain anyone of them sutllciently,  surely would fail to
by Schaff, and which, according to him, is much better present the truth as living reality, and would bring his
than the one we quote, was prepared by a committee congregation from the very start in a state of mind
of the Synod of the German Reformed Church of the                      in which it will be difficult for him to make them be-
United States. Its text of the first Lord's Day differs lieve that preaching on the Heidelberg Catechism is
in some minor details from ours. Instead of "delivered either important or interesting. In this Lord's Day
me from all the power of the devil" it has "redeemed the Catechism speaks of an only comfort, of life and
me" etc. The German text has: "und  mich  aus  aller                   of death, -of body and soul, of not being our own but
Gewalt des Teufels erliiset  hat". It is true that "re-                belonging to our faithful Saviour Jesus Christ, of satis-
deemed" is a more literal translation of erliiset" than faction through the precious blood of Christ, of deliver-
"delivered" ; yet the latter most probably expresses the ance from all the power of the devil, of our preserva-
thought more correctly than the former. Instead of tion by our heavenly Father, so that not a hair can
"all things must be subservient to my salvation", it                   fall from our head contrary to His will, and so that
offers  "all things must work together for my salvation".              all things must serve the purpose of our salvation, of
But the former adheres more closely to the German                      the personal assurance of being heirs of eternal life
text : "mir alles zu meiner Seligkeit dienen muss". and of sanctification, so that we are heartily -iYilling
Like the German text it begins a new sentence with                     and prepared to live unto God, of the Holy Spirit, of


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   I                                   485

  the knowledge of sin and misery, of salvation, and of           When .we insist that our catechi,ti proceeds from.
  the gratitude we owe to God for such deliverance. HOW the standpoint of the subjective experience of the
  could a preacher mould all these different elements into individual believer in this world, we do not imply at
  the contents of his sermon without sacrificing the unity all that it is anthropocentric. This has often been
  of his discourse, and without becoming guilty of offer- alleged. It is pointed out that this is the character-
  ing to his audience mere generalities, unless he would istic difference between the Catechism of Heidelberg
  commit the foolishness which was, in fact, committed and some other symbols, such as the Netherland Con-
  by some, of preaching more than two score times on fession, and the Westminster Catechisms. The Heidel-
  the first question of our instructor alone? Neither berg Catechism is anthropocentric, i. e., it makes man
  a detailed interpretation of this Lord's Day, nor a the center and end of all things, his redemption and
  general survey of the various  ,doctrines  mentioned         deliverance, his happiness and eternal life are the
  therein, therefore, is required or expedient, when one things that count.           But symbols such as the West-
  expounds this chapter of the Heidelberg Catechism minster Catechisms are theocentric, i.e., they place
  to his congregation. Rather must he understand that God in the center of things and present Him as the
  this Lord's Day is introductory, and that as such it end and purpose of all existence. But this judgment is
  presents the viewpoint from  ,which the entire system not quite correct. .And it surely is not our intention
  of doctrine is considered, the standpoint from which to characterize the Heidelberg Catechism in this way,
  the instructor would have his audience look at the           when we claim that its viewpoint is subjectively ex-
  truth of the Word of God.                                    periental.    It is, we judge, surely not. impossible to
     This viewpoint is immediately and concisely ex- present a theocentric truth from the viewpoint of its
  pressed in the very first question: "What is thy only being  approp.riated  by the faith, and experienced in
  comfort in life and death?" There can be no doubt the consciousness of the Christian. And this is what,
  about the fact, that the Heidelberg Catechism con- in our opinion, the Heidelberg Catechism attempts to
  siders and explains the truth from the viewpoint of the do. It is not anthropocentric to appeal to the law of
  consciousness and  subjeective experience of the  believ-    God as the criterion and source of the knowledge of
 ing Christian in this world. In this respect it differs man's misery, or to  begin&a  discussion of the contents
  radically from the Westminster Catechisms, both the of the Christian's faith  ,with  an exposition of the first
  larger and the shorter. The Westminster Larger Cate- article of the "Apostles' Creed, or to teach that man
  chism begins as follows  : "What is the chief and highest was created rightly to God his Creator, to heartily
  end of man? Man's chief and highest end is, to glorify love `Him and to Iive with Him in eternal happiness
  God and fully'to enjoy him forever. How doth it ap- to glorify and praise Him. It is not anthrcpocentric
  pear that there-is a God? The very light of nature, the to describe the quickening of the new man as a "sin-
  works of God declare plainly that there is a God: but cere joy of heart in God, through Christ, and with love
  his Word and Spirit do sufficiently and effectually re- and delight to live according to the will of God in all
  veal him unto men for their salvation. What is the good works", nor to limit good works to those "which
  Word of  Cdd? The Holy Scriptures of the Old and proceed from a true faith, are performed according
  New Testament are the Word of God, the only Rule to the law of God and to His glory", Lord's Day 33,
  of Faith and obedience". And then it continues to And it certainly is not anthropocentric but positively
  treat the  doctrine  of God, His virtues, the trinity, the theocentric to present true prayer as the highest ex-
  decrees, creation, man, the fall, etc. Now, look at the pression of thankfulness, or to close the discussion of
  first Lord's Day of the Heidelberg Catechism. You the subject of prayer with the words: "all this we
  at once discern the difference. The Westminster starts pray for, that  thereby.not  we, but thy holy name may
' out from the question of the objective end and calling be glorified forever". Qu. 128. But we do claim that
  of man : to glorify God and to enj-oy Him forever; the the Heidelberg Catechism  .co.nsiders the truth which,
  Heidelberger speaks of the subjective appropriation of course, is always theocentric, from the viewpoint of
  and experience of this truth by the individual Chris- its being appropriated and experienced by the believing
  tian: my comfort is that I belong to my faithful Sav- Christian in this world, and, more particularly, from
  iour desus Christ. The viewpoint of the Westminster the point of view that it is his comfort, his sole com-
  Catechism is doctrinally objective  ; that of the Heidel- fort in life <and death.
  berg Catechism is  experientally  subjective.        The        This already removes, in part, the danger of another
  standpoint of the former is general and impersonal: it possible misunderstanding. By saying that the Heidel-
  addresses no one, it speaks of mm; that of the Cate- berg Catechism is subjective and experiental in view-
  chism is specific and personal: it speaks to the man point, we do not imply that it makes man the criterion
  of God.                                                      and source of the truth. The latter is done in two
     Let  US  not misunderstand this viewpoint of our ways. Man's intellect, his reason, may be presented
  Reidelberger.                                                as the final court of appeal to determine what is truth.

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

  To do so is Ratio&isnz. It is not rationalism to pre- the truth of which he discusses,"has  been applied to his
  sent the truth as reasonable, as adapted to the under- heart. He has ears to hear, eyes to see. And as he
  standing of man. The truth is not illogical or un- stands in the midst of the present world, fulLof misery
  reasonable, or contrary to the mind of the Christian. and darkness, and as he himself; outside of Christ, lies
  But it is rationalism to elevate reason to the position in the midst of death, the clear understanding' of that
  of supreme judge, in order to let man's mind decide            Word, or rather, that Word itself as it reveals to Him
  what shall be considered truth. The Christian lives God in Christ, redemption and deliverance from the
  by revelation, not by the conclusions of reason. But power of sin and death, and as he by faith lays hold
  man may also be presented.as  the measure and source upon that Word, is his comfort, his sole and alFsuf-
  of the truth in the way of Mystic&n. In that case the ficient comfort in life and death. In that thoroughly
  objective revelation and Word of God is replaced by sound sense of the word the Heidelberger is experiental
  "feeling", by certain states of consciousness, by the and subjective in its approach of the truth.
  "inner light", by the direct whisperings of the Spirit            In close connection with this viewpoint of the
  of God to our spirit. There is really no essential  or Heidelberg Catechism stands the fact that the Cate-
  principal difference between Rationalism and Mysti- chism is very personal, and that it addresses through-
  cism. Both deny the objective Word or revelation of out the child of the Church as "the man of God", that
  God as the sole rule for faith and life. Both make must be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. It
  man the measure and source of the truth, This, how- speaks in the singular throughout: "What is thy only
  ever, is not the method of the Heidelberg Catechism. comfort?" How many things are necessary for thee to
  It does not pretend to derive the knowledge of the             know, that thou in this comfort mayest live and die
  truth from the mind or feeling of the individual be- happily.y" "Whence knowest thou thy misery?" "What
  liever, nor from the consciousness of the Church, but .believest  thou", etc, etc. And the one addressed is
  it always appeals to the Word of God. The objective `the baptised child of the Church, considered as  a
  law of God is the source of the knowiedge of our               living member. In this respect the Heidelberg Cate-
  misery. The question : "Whence knowest thou this?" chism proceeds from the same standpoint as the Bap-
  (i.e. that Jesus Christ is the Mediator) is answered by tism Form. The child of the covenant is sanctified in
  pointing to "the holy gospel, which God Himself first Christ, and is baptized as member of His Church. God
  revealed in Paradise ; and afterwards published by the has forgiven us and our children all our sins, and
  patriarchs and prophets, and represented By the, sacri-        received' us through His Holy Spirit as members of
  fices and other ceremonies of `the law ; and  .lastIy, has His only begotten Son, and adopted us to be His child-
  fulfilled it by His only begotten Son". Qu. 19. The            ren, and sealed and confirmed the same unto us by
  Deealogue  is recommended as a guide for the Chris- holy baptism. That is the standpoint `of the Baptism
  tian's life, and the prayer which the Lord  Himelf Form. It is no different with the Heidelberg Cate-
  taught us is taken as the perfect model for all our            chism.. The children of the covenant that must be
  prayers. Throughout, therefore, it is the Word of God instructed are living children of God. This does not
  that is recognized as .the sole source and criterion of mean, that the Catechism teaches presupposed regener-
  the truth. The Heidelberger instructor is neither a ation. lt does not speak on the basis of a supposition:
  Rationalistic nor a Mystic.                                    it speaks with certainty. Neither does it mean that the
         Yet, we repeat, the viewpoint is that of the sub- instructor lives in the illusion that all the members
  jective experience or, if you prefer, that of the spiritual    of the church on earth are spiritual members of
  knowledge of the objective truth of the Word of God            Christ's body. When it speaks of the keys of the
  as possessed by the believing Christian in this world.         kingdom of' heaven it reveals quite clearly that it
  There is an evident difference between the  questicns:         knows that there is a carnal seed of the covenant;
  "What is the chief end of man?" and "What is thy only          But it does mean that this carnal seed is not addressed,
  comfort? There is an obvious difference between the it is left out of view. It is the spiritual seed that must
  threefold division of the Heidelberger : sin and misery, be instructed in the Word of God. This spiritual seed,
  redemption, gratitude, on the one hand, and the  well- "the man of God", must be made perfect, thoroughly
  known six loci of dogmatics., The Catechism treats furnished unto every good work. It is the only seed
  the truth, not merely as a science, but as the spiritua1       that can be instructed and that can be made perfect in
0 knowledge that is eternal life. John 17 :3. It discusses the truth. `And, therefore, it is to this spiritual seed
  the system of doctrine from the viewpoint. of his faith that the Catechism addresses itself throughout. It has
  to whose heart the objective Word of God has been nothing for "the others".
  applied by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, Who             In this respect the Catechism stands far above the
  dweIIs  in the Church, and Who leads into all the truth.       level of the Church of our own day, even above the
  Et is not a theology, it is knowledge of God. The one level of those that call themselves Reformed. They
  that speaks here is regenerated and called. The Word, administer the sacrament of baptism to the children


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                   487

  of the covenant; and they ask of the parents the con-         child of God, and an inheritor of  1 the kingdom of
  fession that their children, though conceived and born heaven.
  in sin, are sanctified in Christ and members of the               "Question. What did your Godfathers and God-
  Church; they lead their people in the thanksgiving,
  that God has forgiven us and our children all our sins, mothers then for you?"
                                                                    "Answer. `They did promise .and vow three things
  and adopted us to be His children; but when it comes          in my name. First, that I should renounce the devil
  to actual application of this sound and strong doctrine,
  they rather deny it all, and, instead of instructing and and all his works, the pomps and vanity of the wicked
                                                                world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh. Secondly,
  confirming the true seed of the covenant in the truth
  of the Word of God, they come with "offers of grace",         that I should believe all the articles of the Christian
                                                                Faith. And thirdly, that I should keep God's holy will
  and altar calls and what not! If many spoke their
  mind, they would have to confess that they do consider and commandments, and walk in the same all the days
 it a rather dangerous practice to confront the children of my life.
  of the Church with the pertinent question: "What is               "Question.      Dost thou not think that thou art
  thine only comfort in life and death?" And they would bound to believe and to do as they have promised for
  rather substitute another : "Hast  thou the only comfort thee ?"
  in life and death?" And still more dangerous they                 "Aaswer.       Yes, verily; and by God's help so  1
  would consider the business of placing upon the lips          will. And I heartily thank our heavenly Father that
  of the congregation, believers and their children, the he hath &led me to this state of salvation through
  answer: "That I, with body and soul, am not my own,           Jesus Christ our Saviour. And I  pray unto God to
  but belong to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ". Yet, give me grace, that 1 may continue in the same unto
  in the age of the Reformation this was a common prac-         the end of my life."
  tice. The -Heidelberg  Catechism in this respect is no            We do not quote all this to express agreement with
  exception. It agrees with other Catechisms. `Luther's everything that is here taught, or with the practice  of'
  Small Catechism has a different approach from that the Anglican Church in the seventeenth century . But
  of our Heidelberger: it commences with a discussion            it shows how in the period of the Reformation and
  of the Ten Commandments. But when it discusses the shortly after the Church instructed its spiritual seed in
 articles of our `faith, it becomes very personal and the truth of the Word of God.
  direct. Following the article concerning Jesus Christ             This, then, is the viewpoint of the Heidelberg Cate-
  our Lord in the Apostles' Creed comes the question in         chism. There can be no question about this fact. They
  this Catechism : "What does this mean?" And the that are called to preach from this book of instruction
 `following answer is placed upon the lips of the pupil:         wili do, well to bear this in mind. Approaching the
  "1 believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the truth from the standpoint of the conscious experience
  Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the          of the believing Christian in this world, and addressing
  virgin Mary, is my Lord; who has redeemed me, a lost the  living member of the Church, it  &ns to bring the
  and condemned man, secured and delivered me from "man of God" to a  conscous  knowledge of the living
  all sins, from death and from the power of the devil,          truth, of the only comfortin  life and death!              '
  not with gold or silver, but with his holy, precious           :  `:,c                                             H.          II.
  blood; and with his innocent sufferings and' death ; in
  order that I might be his own, live under him in his
  kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness,
  innocence and blessedness, even as he is risen from the
dead. This is most certainly true".                                                     IN  MEMORIAM
     This Small Catechism of Luther was written in
  1529.                                                              De Kerkeraad der Protestants&e  Gereformeerde GemeexTte
     The Anglican Catechism, written in  1662,  has a te  Orange City, Iowa, wenscht hiermede zijne  hsrteiijke  sym-
  peculiar approach, but it proceeds from the same prin-         pathie  te betoonen  aan broeder  ouderling  C. Pals Sr. in het
  ciple: the one instructed is the living child of the cove- schielijk verlies van zijnen jongsten zoon,
  nant. Let us quote a little of it:                                              GERALD WBf. PAL&  age 19
     "Question. What is your name?"                                De Heere trooste den bedroefde, en  geve  hem genade dit
     "Answer. N. or M."                                          zwaar   kruis  te  dragen,   ged&chtig  zijnde dat de Heere  Zich
     "Question. Who gave you this name?"                         ontfermt over degenen die Hem vreezen; want Hij weet wat
     "Answer. My Godfathers and Godmothers in my                 maaksel wij zijn, gedachtig zijnde dat wij  stof zijn.
  `Baptism; wherein I was made a member of Christ, the                                             De Keikeraad  voornoemd.


   488                                      ,THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                      A Soldier's Morale                                   "The boys here hate the Army. They have no
                                                                       fighting spirit except among themselves when they
          By the morale of an army is meant the mental                get stinking drunk. . . . The regiment had its first
   attitude of the soldiers toward their position  and ser- mass firing on the field the other day. Everybody was
   vice and all that is connected with it: their courage,             scared to death. I was too. These soldiers don't yet
   their willingness to serve, their zeal and enthusiasm know what war is. Soldiers handling the trench-mortar
   for the cause in which they serve.                                 she%  trembled. I thought one would drop a shell on
          According to reports the morale of the American the ground and get killed, he looked so nervous."
   Army so far as it was drafted in recent months, that                   "Those . . . . . . . . . . . . rules of war! We've heard the one
   is being trained in the various camps all over the coun- on influencing Congress so many times we are sick  !"
   try, is very bad.                                                       "What I am is an imperialist. I've never expressed
          So the papers reported.                                     a political opinion in the Army till now. But to . . . . . . . . . . . .
          And the report may be considered  corroberated   `by with fighting Germany. Let's fight a war in which
   the fact that it was considered necessary for the Secre-            we can win something. All we do if we fight with
   tary of War Stimson to address the soldiers by radio, England is lose a . . . . . . . . . . . . of a lot of money, and then
    and to make an attempt to exp!ain  to them the ex- England will say we profited from them."
    pediency of extending the time of their service to two                "So Roosevelt will get our jobs back? The . . . . . . . . . . . .
   years and a half.                                                  he will! I've already been told that I can't have my
          In the well-known magazine "Life" we read:                  job back."
          "There has never been a democratic Army in which                "We'll go over the hill. (This means "desert", H.H.)
   the soldiers did not gripe and grouse. Armies are not We'll wait until the suckers get caught and then when
   run for the pleasure or comfort of their men. But in things quiet down we'll make a dash for the Mexican
   the                                                                border. This is nothing but a concentration camp."
           TJ. S. citizen Army there is a rising tide of soldier
   discontent which goes beyond healthy griping. The                       "To . . . . . . . . . . . . with RooseveIt  and Marshal and the
   Army itself and the press have been reluctant to stress Army and especialIy this . . . . . . . . . . . . hole and the Germans
   this failure of morale, hoping it wouId  disappear. It and the Russians and the British. I want to get the
   has not disappeared. It comes out in letters which the . . . . . . . . . . . . out of this hole."
   men write home and to newspapers. It appears in
   their conversation when on leave, ignoring it seems
  1 only to increase it, for the soldiers feel their complaints           I want to say, first of ah, that this lack of morale
   are met by a conspiracy of silence."                               in the army at the present time is perfectly under-
          This magazine sent one of its staff members to in- s t a n d a b l e .
   vestigate whether these reports are based on facts.                    Circumstances and conditions, proper or improper
   The staff member was sent to one of the National living conditions and equipment, efficient officers and,
   Guard divisions, and spent a week there, watched their             above all the presence or absence of a real cause for
   training and, talked with the men. His findings are which the army is being trained to fight,-these are
   pu,blished in "Life" of August 18, 1941.                           factors that must inevitably affect the morale of an
       According to this report there is a general dissatis- army.
   faction among the soldiers. They are dissatisfied  w.ith               Even if you attribute a certain percentage of the
   their officers, with their lack of equipment, with their dissatisfaction evidently existing to the fact, that a
   training, and with the apparent lack of purpose and large number of American young men never learned
   reason for their service. They are not enthusiastic the meaning of authority and obedience, that many
   about our government's attitude toward the war, and of them entertain the notion that democracy really
   do not believe that the emergency of which the Presi- means that everybody governs himself and does as he
   dent usually speaks actually exists. Fifty percent of pleases, so that it must be extremely difficult  for them
   the men interviewed by the staff member of "Life"                  to become at all accustomed to military discipline, the
   assured him they would desert at the end of their one fact remains that many factors contribute to depress
year's service. Another forty percent "rue the day the spirit of the soldier in the camps.
   they got in the Army". *+4nd the remaining ten percent                 There certainly has been and still is lack of equip-
   are far from happy over their position. Some of the ment, guns, ammunition, tanks, proper clothing and
   sentiments expressed  `by the soldiers are reported verb- housing for the soldiers in training. It appears to be
   ally. Leaving out the profanity that is proverbial in a fact that in some camps the soldiers were drilled
   the camps, and which, by the way, makes it almost                  shouldering a broomstick instead of a rifle ! It is also
   impossible for a Christian young man to endure army a fact that in some camps they had to stay out all night
   life, we reprint here some of the statements made:                 in a drenching rain, because of the want of barracks.


                                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   i  IT--  `-                                    489
                                                                                                     -
            But the chief cause of the present lack of morale           ever part our government may take in the war. They,
        must, in my opinion, be found in the fact, that there too, are accountable before God.
        is a wide gulf between the sentiment of a large part,              But he may look upon his place in the army as
        if not of a majority, of the American public regarding assigned to him by his God. And in that position he
        the war and our part in it, and the attitude and leader-        is called to serve his God by being in subjection to the
        ship of the government, particularly of the  Presi,dent.        higher powers..
           The people on the whole have not yet been con-                  He walks in faith, even in the army.
        vinced. that we are fighting for the cause of democracy            And the morale of faith is always good.
        by aiding. England, in spite of all the English propa-                                                                H. H.
        ganda that was spread among our people, since the
        beginning of the war. They are not inclined to get
        the chestnuts out of the fire for Great Britain once
        more, and pay for it in the end, as we did in the first
        World-War. The President did not succeed to convince                       CORRECTION AND APOLOGY.
        a large num'ber, perhaps the majority, of the American             My sincere apology to the Rev. H. De Wolf for my
        public that a case of emergency exists, and that the            failure to assign to him a share of the work in the pro-
        Nazi war machine is ready to overrun our country,               posed outlines for the Standard Bearer of 1941-1942.
        as. soon as it has accomplished the domination of                  I do not know how to explain the omission, except
I  i    Europe. And they are not enthusiastic over an alliance          that, as I always emphasized in school:  "nihil  hu-
i  '    with communistic Russia, nor are they easily convinced          manum alienum est mihil" and "errare  est humanum".
        that one  can fight on the side-of the Reds for the pre-           Rev. De Wolf will, of course, gladly believe of me
        servation of freedom of religion.                               that the omission was not intentional. It was just a
            And so, there is no enthusiasm for the present (bad blunder on my part.
        frantic attempt to prepare ourselves for war.
           The same spirit or lack of spirit with respect to the           But it can easily be corrected.
        war as far as our present part in it is concerned, pre-            Looking over the outlines, I noticed that the Rev.
        vails in the army.                                              L. Doezema  .was assigned the task of writing "Current
           And with a view to all these factors, it is perfectly        Events" six times. Suppose that Rev. De Wolf takes
        understandable that the morale among the soldiers his place in the July 1 and September 1 issues, and,
        is bad.                                                         besides, takes the place of Rev. R. Veldman in the
                                               .                        issue of May 15 on the subject "Erasmus and'the  Re-
            However, I do not write this to justify the attitude formation".
        of the men in the camps as expressed in the report of              I hope that this may be satisfactory.               H. H.
        "Life" `s-staff member.
            Certainly it may not be the attitude of the Chris-
        tian.He may be depressed and discouraged, especially                                  . IN MEMORIAM
        with a view to the prospect of spending two and a
        half years of his young life in the army. He; too,                  De Vrouwen Vereeniging  der Prot. Geref. Kerk te Hull,
        may lack enthusiasm for our part in the present war.            Iowa, betuigt met dezen  haar deelneming met een harer leden,
        He'may  long for the day that he will be discharged and         Mrs. I'. Hoekstra, in het overlijden van haar schoonvader,
        may return home.        He may hate the idea of an                                 MARTIN J. HOEKSTRA
        alliance with Russia. We can understand this. We                    Moge de God aller  vertroosting haar en de overige familie
        feel for him and pray for him.                                  rijkelijk vertroosten door Zijn Woord  en  Gee&  die  on8  ver-
            But he does not rebel, nor talk .in a spirit of re-         zek&en:  "Zalig zijn de dooden die in den Heere sterven".
        bellion, nor suggest that he will "go over the hill".
            His morale may be affected by circumstances, it                                      Namens de Vereeniging,
        cannot be destroyed by them.      I                                                               Ds. A. Cammenga, Pres.
            It is rooted in principle. Therefore, it is  funda-                                           Mrs. G.  fnankespoor,   Seer.
        .mentally  stedfast.
            And that principle is that he must be and is willing                                          -
        to  `be in subjection to authority, to the  powers that
        are placed over him, for they are of God. And for
        God's sake he respects authority and obeys.                                               NOTLCE
            The responsibility he leaves to the government.                Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches
        He cannot be held accountable .before God for what-             meets in Pella, Iowa on September 10, 1941, at 9:OO.


                                          T-H,.E  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           496

wordt hierdoor gekenmerkt, dat zij geduriglijk  zeggen   :
De Heere zij grootgemaakt! Let nu op Uw Ieven en                              Blessed Are' The Merciful
ziet of die klank gehoord wordt in Uw diepste hart.
En dat doet gij, omdat gij een liefhebber zijt van het                                     ( P s a l m   4 1 )   I
heil Gods.     Ge hebt de lieflijkheid Gods gezien en                  We have in this &alm the cry of the merciful. It
daarom is er die zucht om God groot te maken.                       is the cry of the merciful man in trouble. And he
    Eindelijk een bede voor Messias Zelf.                           knows that he will be delivered.
    Zoo  moogt ook gij bidden.                                         The first verse is the main theme: Blessed is he
    Zegt dan: Ik ben  we1 ellendig en nooddruftig. De               that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in
eindelijke heeriijkheid is nog zoo ontzettend ver af.               the time of trouble.
Honden huilen en een muitgespan omringt mij. Dwh                       The writer is David. David in trouble, but trusting
de Heere denkt aan mij ! 0, wat een onbeschrijfelijke in God.
troost  ligt in die woorden! De Heere denkt aan mij.                   First, we find a description of the blessedness of a
XIij denkt  aan mijne hulp en  aan mijne bevrijding.                merciful man; second, we hear of the trouble of the
Hij  wacht sleahts  tot het tijdstip van Zijn raad, dat             merciful ; and third, we listen to his pitiful plea, which
van mijn eindelijke  redding  en verlossing gewaagt.                is at the same time a testimony of firm trust and con-
Hij denkt  aan mij!                                                 fidence in his God.
    Het was de smeeking van den moordenaar ,aan het                    Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord
kruis: Heere gedenk  mijner?                                        wil1 deliver him in time of trouble. yes, indeed. We
    Het is zoo danker,  Heere! mijn zonden zijn zoo vele,           have heard the same truth from the lips of Jesus:
dat ik ze niet tellen  kan. En smart over de zonde is Blessed are  tl?`e merciful for they shall obtain mercy.
mijn  grootste  verdriet.  Terwiji  we  allen  verlangen               In the light of the following it is plain that David
met heilig heimwee naar `t land waar nimmer tranen                  is describing himself. David is that merciful man
vloeien, omdat we daar Uw Iieflijk aangezicht zullen ' even though the application of this fundamental truth
zien.                                                               is as general as the church~ universal. The truth is to
    Daarom, o mijn God! vertoef  niet !                             be applied to all God's own.
                                                                       The man who bows down to his brother who is in
                                                    G. v.           misery is blessed because God beholds in such action
                                                                    His own life. God is merciful to His'miserable  church ;
                                                                    and when He behoIds  us reflecting that same Divine
                                                                    virtue He will  <beam  upon us and cause the whole
                                                                    universe to serve us. to our eternal benefit.
                                                                       The Lord always  niaintains Himself, hence. He.
                       IFi  MEMOBIAM                                wilI preserve the merciful man. In preserving the
                                                                    merciful He maintains His own virtue which dweI!s
                                                                    in the ,merciful  man, No one is merciful of himself.
    Zondag, den  E.Sden  , Augustus ontsliep in haar  He'er  en     You will never find Christian mercy in natural man.
Heiland,                                                            The mercy of the wicked is cruel.
                   IMRS.   IX  VANDEXW,AL                              The merciful man is blessed upon the earth. Oh no,
                                                                    that does not mean that you will always have a great
in den hoogen ouderdom van 95 jaar. Vele jaren  mocht ze een        deal of earthIy goods and riches, `but it means that you
getrouw lid zijn van de vereeniging.  Schoon  we haar  missen,      ttill  ,be blessed. And a blessed man is a man unto
mogen we ons verblijden  in haar heengaan. Raar gedurig uit-        whom all things work together to his good. It means
zicht was  om ontbonden  te  wezen  en met  Christus  te zijn om    that all things tend to draw you ever closer to the
haar Gogl en Verlosser in eeuwige volmaaktheid  te dienen hier      fountain of your mercy, that is, God.
boven.                                                                 The merciful man is never delivered unto the will
    De Heere  trooste  de bedroefde  familie   en  geve dat bet     of his enemies. Does that mean that the merciful man
roar on8 een spoorslag mag zijn om ons huis te bereiden.            will not suffer at all? Oh no, for many are the afflic-
                                                                    tions of the righteous and Paul told the newly orga'n-
                 Namens  De Hollandsche Vrouwen  Vereeniging,       ized churches in Asia Minor that through many tribu-
                               Wee&  een  zegen,                    lations they would enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
                                                                    What then does it mean?
                       Van de Eerste Prot.  Geref.  Kerk.              To be delivered unto the will of your "enemies would
                                Miss W. Woudenberg,  Pres.          mean that you perish. You find it expressed a million
                                Mrs.  J. Cammenga,  Seer..          times in our day when they say: Go to he11 ! They


496          _                          T H E   S T A N D A R D  .BEARER

will sometimes even ask that God may damn you. And says of this man that he trusted him. He .ate with
whereas wicked men often do not even reaiize that such him from the same table. He ate David's bread.
is their will over you, the devil certainly  al,ways  en-            But now? He also came to. David's bedside. And
deavours to seek your damnation. He is the murderer he would speak vanity. In this connection that would
of man from the beginning.                                        mean that he would speak his conventional piece. He
      But when God's image is found in you, when you              would  assure.#David  of. his sympathy but with a lying
are of the merciful, you will never be given over unto heart. Because when he went abroad he would tell his
the will of your enemies.                                         vanity. That means that as soon ,as the door of the
      If you would like to see a definition of the will of sickroom would close behind him he would laugh and
your enemies in this very psalm we would direct your joke about poor David's plight. Worse yet, he would
attention to the 5th verse: "Mine enemies speak evil              raise up his heel against David. He would try and
of me, when shall he die and his name perish?" There              destroy David's good name and make him an offscour-
you have the will of your enemies.                                ing among the peopie.
      But this blessed man does not perish. He will live            ,All this is fulfilled in wicked Judas who would
and praise the name of God forever.                               so treat the very Son of God.
*     David was sick or had been sick when he composed               But it is very dangerous, it is suicidal to so act
this psalm.                                                       against the sons of God. Where is Judas? Where are
      And in the midst of this sickness he experienced the        these false friends of David? They are  res'erved  in
mercy of the Lord.                                                darkness forever;
     Therefore we would say, finally, that the mercifyi              Dangerous because the chikl of `God tells it all to
is blessed because the Lord will strengthen him upon              his Father. And that is the third part of the psalm.
the bed of languishing, He will  &ke all his bed in his           And He will surely requite. Listen to David: I know,
sickness.                                                         Father, that Thou favourest me, because I can plainly
      It means that David experienced the nearness of see that my enemies do not triumph over me.
his .God when he, was sick. God would hallow all his                 Dangerous, for God will requite them. It shall be
suffering unto his heart and soul and mind so that                terrible to fall into the hands of the living God.
his sickness was a blessing in disguise.                             But David is blessed because he is a son of the
      That is the first part of the psalm.                        Almighty.
" The second part speaks of a great infamy.                          Listen to this testimony: Thou upholdeth `me in
     There are depths of infamy which are really stag-            mine integrity and  settest me  ibefore  Thy face for-
g e r i n g .                                                     ever.                                                     *
      An exampIe of such base transgression you wil1 find            Of course, they are blessed. E-could not be other-
in this part of the psalm. It is so base that the Holy wise.                In  al1 their  afliiction they were suffering for
Spirit has taken it and laid it in the mouth of Jesus             God's sake.      They suffered because they were the
when He spoke of Judas' treachery.              Read John bearers of God's own virtue. And the enemies hated
13 : 13.                                                          them because they hated God. So God wiI1 maintain
      David received visitors in his sickness. Well, that         His own cause in them.
is rather usual.                                                     And the end?
      But some of these visitors were his enemies, they              The end is heaven itself. Hearken to it: Blessed be
were evil men. And it is plain that they  were godless the Lord God of Israel from everlasting and to ever-
men too. For they would whisper against the anointed lasting: Amen  ?nd Amen?
of the Lord. And they would devise his hurt,  whiIe                  Blessed cre the merciful for they shall obtain
he  would be unable to defend himself.                            mercy.                                           G. V.
      In the English translation we find this statement
with regard to these evil people! They say : An  evi1
disease cleaveth  fast unto David !
      But the Hebrew original carries a deeper and a
more  horri,ble  accusation  I  _  .LiteralIy  they said :  `2                         Contribution
thing of the devil cleaves unto David". They meant
that David had done some grievous and wicked thing Dear Editor: ---
in his immediate past and that God for that reason had               Just befor the warm weather arrived, we organ-
made him sick.                                                    ized in our midst a Protestant Reformed Christian
      And among all those evil men there was one who              School Society. I had the privilege to attend all the
was worse than they ail. He was supposed to be the                three meetings that were held. The membership of
familiar friend of David. The original says of him the society is well over one hundred and twenty five,
that he was the man of David's peace! David himself representing the First Protestant Reformed Church,


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                       497

 Roosevelt Park Church,  Creston  Church and Hope              Be not deceived; God is not mocked, for whatsoever
 Church. A board of seven men was elected : the Messrs.     a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that
 Zwak (Creston) ; Piper (Roosevelt Park) ; J. Kuiper soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption,
 (Hope) ; D. Monsma, A. Haan, J. Piersma,  S. Bylsma        but he that soweth to the Spirit, ,shall of the Spirit
 (all of the First Prot. Ref. Church). To this board        reap life everlasting. And let us not, be weary in well
 tu-o more men are to be added in the future.               doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint
    Xt our second meeting a constitution was adopted,       not.                                    S. Bylsma.
 in which the society- expresses its purpose to provide
 Protestant Reformed education for our children. And
 we all agreed that this means the establishment of a
 Christian School of our own:
    Yes, brethren and sisters, we all agreed that it is                        CONTRIBUTION
 high time for us to get busy and realize this thing.
 The purpose is to  Ibegin  with a school comprising the                                      South Holland,  111.
 lower eight grades, but to bear in mind that we also                                         July 15, 1941.
 need our own High School.                                  The Rev. f-I. J. Kuiper,
    We, who are of the same spirit and of the same          Editor, The Banner.
 mind, who Iove the same principles, find in .this work Dear Sir:-
 a point of ,unity ; and this is most desirable. We must L
 stand close  together.    The difficulties that must be       When Luther and Calvin saw that their Roman
 faced can only be overcome by united action. For me, Catholic Church had Iost the TRUTH of the Scriptures,
 and I believe for al1 of us, it was a pIeasure  to meet    they began to instruct their brethren, within said
 one another with the same purpose in mind. We all church regarding the unscriptural ecclesiastical errors,
 agree that- we cannot alrow the doctrine of common with the result that the Roman Catholic Church cast
grace. or the principles expressed in the "three points" them out and persecuted them.
to be taught to our children. We believe that the doc-         The above is a historica fact which neither you nor
 trine taught in our preaching, catechisms, societies, anyone who has studied history dare deny.
 Sunday  school,  and in our homes, is in accord with          Now, it so happens that in our time, the Christian
 i&e Word of God and the Forms of Unity. It is the Reformed Church in America, of which. you are a
aim of our society to have these same principles main-      pastor, and I a member; lost also the TRUTH of the
tained in the education our children receive in the         Scriptures and instituted in its seminary the  doctri,ne
 schooL -4nd `I repeat : `we must all agree to this. It of COMMON GRACE, expressed in THREE POINTS
 is the will of God. Brethren and sisters, in all the       based upon the erroneous philosophy of NATURAL-
eighteen years of our existence as churches there was ISM, a sister~of  HUMANLSMand  MODERNlM.
no united action to attain to this. We never started           A few ministers of this church objected to this
 anything difficult. But yovr society decided in its last doctrine as being a corruption of the simple and pure
meeting to provide this education. We desire to have .Biblical doctrine of SPIRITUAL GRACE.
the important matter of educating our children in  our         These pastors, well known and well beloved by the '
own hands.                                                  churches, but hated by a younger generation of clergy-
    `In order that the board may.'  come with  definite     men, were in an unauthorized meeting of their own
 proposafs  regarding the size of the school, the number brother pastors deposed and cast out of the Christian
of grades, the number of teachers required, and the         Reformed Church, while and after its SYNOD had
cost of it all, it  is. necessary to know how many of our declared them sound and doctrinally reformed.
people will cooperate and send their children. The             These pastor-s, being honored and beloved by the
society therefore, decided to hold a census to ascertain    congregations they served, remained their pastors, and
al1 this. Each family will be asked for their coopera- what is more natural, sought as a Luther and a Calvin
tion. The members of the society have expressed their before them, to enlighten their brethren' within the
willingness to do this work, which, the Lord willing,       Christian Reformed Churches.
is to be done in the near future. Let us encourage our         Like as the Roman  Cathoiic Church strenuously
men when they visit our homes by telling them that objected against Luther and Calvin to set the LIGHT
you stand behind this cause and will help us. We            OF TRUTH again upon the chandelier, so today does
need this. -4nd as I stated above, we may be assured the Christian Reformed Church object to having their
of the Lord's approval. For, it is only by the mercy of own cast-out brethren replace the LIGHT OF TRUTH
the Lord that we are not consumed ; for His  com-           within the sanctuaries of God.
passions fail not, they are new every morning; great           Such is but natural. It is human, although ungodly
is His faithfulness.                             -          and wrong.


4    9     8                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARR.ER

     That the leading element within the Christian Re-            An urchin upon the streets of; Sodom could not use
formed Church is more interested in the theological any worse language to show his disrespect-for the Holy
phraseology and philosophies of its wise and learned          things of God, than Rev. H.  J. Kuiper sees fit to publish
men, than in the unsophistical, plain truth of the Word in a publication of which it  wasoracled  that it speaks
of God is exhibited upon the pulpits of the churches,         the language of Canaan.
with exceptions, but-especially in its church organs.             Not only became this poor Calvin College student
     How these publications are used to misiead the angry at Jesus for sending such men as Rev. Kok into
unaware can be seen in The Banner of the 11th of His vineyard; but he  aIso became angry at OUR
July, 1941, for in that number appears a letter- of a         PEOPLE to fall for his TACTICS.
certain Calvin College student, named A. C. Kett.                 That this student has not the least conception of
     This particular letter is not an insult to the pastor    THE  KINGDSOM  OF GOD, is evident in his  street-
whom he tries to blame, but it is an insult to the love language. He has succeeded too express his ignorance,
of TRUTH, to Biblical Spiritual grace, and to the             his hatred ,and his lack of the Spirit of God in such a
mtellects as well as Banner editors and Banner readers.       measure, that I would like to counsel Rev. Kok to re-
     This letter is addressed to OUR  PE,OPLE, and            member this student in his prayers, and we ourselves
therefore to the writer as well as any other member of are glad that we may comprehend that Jesus upon the
the Christian Reformed  Chuches.                              cross prayed, F"ATHER, forgive them for they know
     T do object to the sentiment of hatred expressed         not what they do.
and the more so because the letter ends with the                  Surely, if Calvin College is able to produce such
words, "YOURS FOR THE KINGDOM". No doubt, students who possess such an erroneous conception of
but the student refers to the SPIRITUAL KINGDOM               the KINGDOM OF  COD, then it is plain that the
OF -GOD, and that Kingdom is 1void  of malice and             faculty of Calvin has sunken  to the most  dQgcnerated
hatred.                                                       spiritual level.                                          *
     Acdording  to the spirit of that letter this KING-           M,uch more could be said about this  scandaIous
DOM is a Kingdom in which no one. but a Christian             letter, which shows the abnormality of the Christian
Reformed student, pastor and layman have a place,             Reformed Church and its Seminary, but I have said
which is abnormal and unbiblical.                             enough to show the ignorance, ihe foolhardiness and
     Zn a very uncultural  way this student informs OUR       the ontowardness of the class of men now reared up
PEOP,LE that  `!Rev. Kok, of Hoeksema's, church" was as preachers in the Christian Reformed Church of
in the audience when he as student was preaching. America.
Said the student: "No, he,  Kok, did not preach. HE               God may have grace and mercy upon my poor,
CAN'T,DC.  BUSINESS HERE !" Think on that. The beguiled MOTHER; its clergy has none, but a worldly
Synod of `24 declared Hoeksema sound in doctrine, but grace as expressed in the  Three'Points,  which in total
this student says: "HE CANNOT DO, BUSINESS                    deny the FIVE POINTS OF CALVINISM.
HERE."          In other words,-Sound doctrine is pro-                                          Your crying brother,
hibited here, but the doctrine of error, of which I am                                                Jacob H. Hoekstra.
a student, shail be peached here. HorribIe!
     That the HOLY SPIRIT has no hold upon this
student is evident and plain to any one who reads that
letter. For, says the student,  I BECAME ANGRY.                                          IN MEMORIAM
What a confession. Being angry because a certain                  Onze   HolIandsche  Vrouwen Vereeniging spreekt hiermede
preacher is in his audience.                                  hare hartelijke deeineming uit met Mrs. A .De Vos in het verlies
     Is it possible that an angry man can preach the          van haar  echtgeno.ot,
Gospel of LOVE and of TRUTH?                                                             MR. A. DE VOS
     I became angry, said he. "No, not at him, because die tevens ook vice president was van  onze  vereeniging. De
after  alI, he is paid by his church, must deliver the        Heere nam hem tot Zich in de hoogen ouderdom van 80 jaar.
goods, and to them, the Jesuit saying: "Finis  just&at            Waar zijn leven getuigde van een God-vruchtigen wandel,
modum" is still in force".                                    mogen we gelooven dat hij is ingegaan in de rust die er over
     MUST DELIVER THE  GCODS.  Is such a state-               blijft voor het volk Gods, waar de Heere Zijn volk ontvangt in
ment not an insult to the HOLY SPIRIT, to Jesus the           Zijn eeuwige tabernacle.
Christ and to God?                                                De Heere trooste de bedroefde familie.
     Shame upon Rev. H. J. Kuiper, who dare to lower                                Namens De  Hollandsche  Vrouwen Vereeniging,
his church organ as a means to insult the Triune God,                                            Weest een zegen,
in order to wreak vengeance upon a minister of the                                        Van de Eerste Prot. Geref. Kerk.
Gospel who, as well as himself, is  by GOD ORDAINED                                               Miss W. Woudenberg, Pres.
to preach the Gospel.                                                         _+                  Mrs.  2. Cammenga,  Seer.
                                                                           _..--


                                      TH.E  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          499

                   Two Builders                               Jesus Christ, whereby you reveal to be!ong  to that
                                                              small band of travellers,  who, for the sake of the King-
                                                              dom, deny themselves of all that is to be had on the
                                      Matt. 7 24-27.          other way. The treasures and pleasures of this present
    In a striking way our Lord closes the so-called           time, the friendship of the world and who, by a con-
Sermon on the Mount.                                          secrated life reveal all the characteristics of the citi-
   These words are part of the application of this            zens of the heavenly Kingdom as found and expressed
Sermon.                                                       in the beatitudes.
   Strange as it may seem, some people, who care
little concerning religion, and who scoff at the infalli-        Again he speaks of the Two Trees, good and bad.
bility of.the Word of God, e!aim to be in harmony with        A good, healthy tree ,brings  forth good fruit. A man's
the Sermon on the Mount-especially the Beatitudes.            behaviour, his works will reveal whether or not he is
   Strange, because they seem to understand the mean- sound, spiritually healthy (Calvin refers to the doc-
ing of the contents of the Words spoken by our Lord.          trines of man, but it is plain that not his teachings,
They find them fitting in connection with present day         but his daily life will manifest his inward spiritual
conditions.    Besides, the Lord Himself spoke these condition).           On the other hand, a bad tree is a tree,
Words. And so, while the Epistles of Paul and the             whose organism decays with age. Its life's sap is and
other Apostles are ridiculed, these same people are           will become more and more manifest in the rotten fruit
always `Iabouring for the Kingdom.                            it produces. . Natural man will reveal himself .in all
   Strange`indeed, if you look at the Words spoken by         his actions to be like the bad tree. His life is the life
our Lord, because we cannot find nice things in them,         of decay and as he progresses his works will manifest
as far as natural man is concerned. Besides,  .these          this process, so that every one can see it. "De'godde-
words are not superficial, they do not speak of an easy       looze  wordt steeds goddeloozer, terwijl  de rechtvaar-
entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. These so-called dige steeds meer vruchten der gerechtigheid voort-
beautiful words, speak of persecution at the hand of brengt."            Common grace may learn its `lesson from
those who hate the Kingdom and its King. They also this simile.             How many unbelievers can find these
speak of self-denial. One must be willing to forsake          passages beautiful is inconceivable. The antithesis
all for the sake of God and His Christ . He must come         is clearly brought out in both cases.
to the confession of his sins, %e of a.contrite  heart and       And finally, the Lord speaks of two builders. Notice
of a broken spirit. He must live the life of daily how every man, hearing the Word of God, becomes
conversion+hat continual battle against self, the             active. Active so that the fulfilling of his heart's
world and the devil.                                          desire is manifested. The hearers- of the Word build.
   Strange also, because the Sermon on the Mount did          And in the process of building the one reveals true
not leave such a wonderful impression with the multi- wisdom, the other foolishness.
tude, who heard Jesus speak. And the multitude did               What is the difference between a wise and a foolish
not say, how easy these words, but to the contrary, they      man ?
were astonished,- afraid, realizing those words cut to           Not, of course, .that the one builds and the other
the quick and revealed their inmost being. They mani- does not. In fact, the foolish builder is a very busy
fested their spiritual condition and brought out their man. He' reveals his ambitions in no uncertain terms.
contempt for the Son of Man, especially when it be-           The fact is that this man, according to the standard
came plain that the,Kingdom  was not meat and drink,          of this world, is trying to make this a  better  worl&
was not earthly, but heavenly.                                He calls for reformation with a view to all kinds of
   When our Lord closes the Sermon on the Mount, social evils. According to the immediate context, he
this  closing consists of a threefold application and         does these things in the name of the Lord. He expects
through it  ,he separates his audience into two groups his Lord to reward him at the end of time. However,
of people.                                                    his work cannot stand the test of the storm to come.
   He speaks in the context of the Two Ways. The              In other words, a foolish man is a man who does not in
broad and the narrow way. Anyone, shall he enter the          any way consider the reality. He is not concerned
Kingdom of Heaven, must do so by that way. It is the about the fact, that the work he does shall be tested in
path of many hardships, many difficulties, yes, it may the day of judgment. Why not? The simple reason
even mean, persecutions. A.nd that entering is not, is, that God is not The Reality in his life. All he does
as some have it, an entering into heaven. Every free- reveals the one fact, God is not and never was in all
will preacher will tell you, that this entering refers        his thoughts. Hence, why should he bother himself
to the end of man's life. You must be saved and it may with a day of judgment to come? He isself-sufficient
be your last chance, now. No, but the entering is an          and the captain `of his own destiny.
entering into that feIlowship  of God Triune, through            Looked at right, we find such people always inside

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

of some church. It is not the worid in its crude man&           God? Are my works the works'of faith, done accord-
festation of hating God. That world does not hear               ing to the Word and to the glory of God? Of course,
the Word of God, it Iives without the Word. But the his house would not have made the impression of a
foolish builder represents to us the worId as it is found       great, impressive building, as far as the world is con-
in the visible manifestation of the church of Jesus             cerned. In fact, the world would not have taken notice
Christ. A gIaring  example of that class of people we of it. For the simple reason, that he would have con-
find amongst the so-called great revivalists of our own fessed, his work, his house, had only value and was a
day. Preachers and their followers who use a text               place of safety, because of the Rock.
from the Bible and are forevermore preaching the                   NevertheIess,  the storm will come. The text speaks
social ( ?) gospei. It is the gospel of reform, that pre-       of Rains, Torrents and Winds. And they are all types
pores the way for the coming of the Kingdom and the             of the great day of the Lord. And remember, the
coming of the king. Saving souls is the means to pre- foolish builder heard of these things in this life, be-
pare a great multitude for the above named purposes.            cause it was preached to him. The reality was well
The whole structure of that sort of religion hinges             known. But he built without God and without his
upon man. And man himself, builds in that way a                 Christ. Thus he appears before God in judgment,
plade  of shelter for this life and when this life is spent,    depending  upon what he hath done in this life, pre-
he expects his reward to be the entrance in that beauti-        senting his works as the basis for entering into the
ful  is!e of somewhere.                                         eternal-heavenly kingdom.
   That after  all, is the building of his house here              The' Lord does not know him.       ,
be!ow.  This building of man's house is a sign of all              And great was the fall of his house." This worldling
his activities. The idea of a house is, that a house            built a great house, a great name, works self-made
(as represented here} is a revelation of the works of           and for man. But- the storm broke over it and it did
his hands. All he does in this Iife is his building from not stand.
a spiritual point of view. And we do well not to make              The other category of mankind is represented by
any exceptions. His  life in this world, his daily walk; the Wise Builder.
his socalled religious life, is the one life's-action  and         What is a wise man? The answer is simple, a wise
at the same time the material he builds with-in                 man is one who is inwardly illuminated through the
thoughts, words and deeds.                                      operation of the Holy  ,Spirit, so that the revelation
   Also, both foolish and wise want  a  home. From of God in His Word is i'ntelligible and to him the rule
this point of view a house is a place wherein he dwells.        of life, for his will, desire and mind, in his word,
Man seeks shelter, look for safety, if possible, to feel        thoughts and actions. The  center  of that revelation is
sure eternally. Furthermore, it is a place of enjoy-            Christ as the  foundat;on  for time and for eternity.
ment. Not only in the midst of the storm, but at all            And all the actions of the wise builder are character-
times, both in winter and summer, a house must serve            ized by this one fact, that in all things God is the great
that purpose.         Hence, every one builds  for  himself reality for him. Daily he makes his  pfans accordingly
such a dwelling, that he may find joy and happiness,            and he considers the Lord in all of his-ways. And we
for this life and for the life to come.                         may isay; that he looks at God in the light of His Word.
   Particularly significant is the fact, that the foolish       And that' Word tells him, you are out of the dust and
buiIder is quite ready to build immediately. `He has            to the dust you must return. And knowing that this
no trouble whatsoever in finding a foundation, in fact, life is a continual death, he seeks his life in Christ and
that does not seem to be a problem at all. He is not            upon his perfect work-he rests. Until he finds Christ
concerned about the soil, nor does he ask himself the he, cannot feel secure and safe for the storm to come.
question, whether or not he  shouid build on  a solid           And watching this builder, we find, that he knows self,
foundation. Therefore, the sand is sufficient to build his works and their valu+-no worth in them. But he
on, to him the question of a storm is far from his              ,also knows Christ in His perfect work as the one
thoughts.         His building reveals his inward condition Rock and hope for this life and for the life to come.
at the same time . First of  aI1, he would not be super-           IAnd when we ask the question, what is character-
ficial if the Word of God was his guide, if the love of         istic of his house? the answer is, that this builder has
God was in his heart, if the Word he heard was for              but a little house and on the house is written, the true
and to him the Word of God-the guide for time and               knowledge of sin and misery, the true knowledge of
eternity. In one Word, if the foo?ish were not foolish          deliverance and-the life (in prinicple) of gratitude.
he would have asked himself the question concerning                Yes, the storm also came over his house,
the Rock. Consequently, he  wouId  have asked himself              But, in harmony with his wisdom-the new Iife
the question over and over again as life continued, is          of the Spirit, he lived with a view to the  reaIity of the
my house well-founded, am  I working, thinking, will-           storm to come.
ing, in harmony with the Word 1 heard-the Word of                  And his house stood.


                                                                                                             `

                                  ,'
                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        501

    zie builded  on the Rock .
    The Word was his guide and Christ his foundation                                  At Mount Zion
and thus he was safe.                                                 The people of Israel were encamped at  Kadesh.
    Through a31 eternity.                                          The  period of the forty years had drawn to  a close,
                                                  w. v.            so that the time for the host of the Lord to take POS-
                                                                   session of the promised land was at hand. Two routes
                                                                   Iay open to them: the one direct through the land of
                                                                   the Edomites, the other long and circuitous, stretching
                                                                   around  and eastward of Edom. Accordingly  LMoses
                                                                   sent the king of Edom a message, petitioning him to
                       IN MEMORIAM                                 allow the people of Israel to pass through his land.
                                                                   The message was friendly and warm. The first part
    `The Lord in  His loving kindness and tender mercy withdrew    of it declared  by implication that  Xsrael and Edom
from this vale of tears, on August I,. our beloved husband,        were descendent from Isaac and that their original
father and grandfather,                                            ancestors were twin brothers, touched on the bondage
                                                                   of Israel in Egypt and the doing of God that had
                FREDERICK VAN DYKEN                                consisted in His delivering them in answer to their
    Our comfort is in the assurance' that his departure is but     cry and finally informed the king of Edom of their
a translation from this life to a glorious one which' is the       whereabouts in the wilderness, "Thus  saith thy brother
inheritance of God's elect.                                        Israel, thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen
                                                                   us: how our fathers went down into Egypt, and we
                               Mrs. Catharena D. Van Dyken         have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians
                               Mr. and Mrs. F. 0. Van Dyken        vexed us, and our fathers ; and when we cried unto
                               Mr. and Mrs. 0. Van Dyken           the Lord, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and
                               $Ir. and Mrs. R. Van Dyken          hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and behold we
                               Mr. and Mrs. R. De Mann             are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border."
                               Jack Van Dyken                      The second part of the message was formed of the
                               Ralph Donnie and Betty Lou.         petition proper and advanced the reasons why the king
    South Gate, California.                                        should not  ,be afraid to grant the request. They would
                                                                   not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards,
                                                                   neither wouId  they drink of the water of the wells:
                                                                   they would go by the king's way, and would not turn
                                                                   to the right or to the left until they had passed
                                                                   Edom's borders.
                                                                      The message taken on a whole reposed upon the
             33~  `~ESTJS As  THOU                                 assumption that Edom was familiar with Israel's
                                          WILT                     origin, career and destiny, with the relation he sus-
                                                                   tained to God and with the promises made unto the
           My Jesus as Thou wilt,                                  fathers. There were three arguments by which Moses
             Oh may my will be Thine,                              tried to induce the king of Edom to grant the people
           Into Thy hand of  Jove,                                 of Israel passage through his dominion. -The first was
              I would-my all resign.                               that the two nations were of the same blood. Et might
           Through sorrow and through joy,                         be expected that this connection would render Edom
              Conduct me as Thy own,                               hospitable . The second argument was that their af-
           And help me still to say,                               flictions in Egypt. had been so cruel that the report
           Xy Lord,  - Thy will be done.                           of them had spread far and wide. "Thou knowest,
                                                                   hast heard of all the travail that hath befallen us."
           My Jesus as Thou wilt,                                  The king must be pitying them and would, as moved
              Oh may my will be Thine,                             by pity allow himself to be prevailed upon. The third
           Let not my star of hope,                                argument was the weightiest of the three. It was the
              Grew dim or disappear.                               part of wisdom to befriend the children of Israel, for
           Since Thou on earth hath wept,                          God was with them. The evidence of  this was that
             Snd sorrowed oft alone,                               God by His angel delivered them out of all their
           If I must weep with Thee,                               troubles in answer to their cry, and brought them to
              My Lord, - Thy will  she done,                       the edge of the promised land.  H.ence,  he who was

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

  against this people, refused to do well by them, ex-           tent. Water, too, was very precious in some parts of
  posed himself to the curse of Jehovah, the God of all          Edom. Enough was stored in rainy seasons to supply
  the earth.                                                     the wants of the inhabitants ; beyond that there was
         But the king of Edom was unmoved. Having none to spare, and for this necessity of life money w&
  heard out the messengers, his curt and harsh reply             no equivalent. A multitude traveling with cattle would
  was, "Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out               have made scarcity or famine,-might have left the
  against thee with the sword" . The messengers for a            region almost desolate.
  while continued to remonstrate with the king, "We will            There is truth in some of these staments. But we
  go by the high way: and if I and my catt!e drink of thy        learn from the Old Testament Scriptures that the real
  water, then I will pay for it. I will oniy, without doing reason of Edom's refusing to give Israel a passage
  anything else, go through on my feet." It was of no through his country was that, being reprobated, he
  use.     The king was adamant,  `"rhou  shalt not go           was filled with an abiding and deep-seated animosity
  through".     He even sent a warlike armament against          toward Israel . "As stated in a former article, the
  Israel that trod upon the heals of the returning mes-          Old Testament asserts over and over that the Edomi,tes
  sengers . "And Edom came ouct against him with much were bitter enemies of Israel; and it is evident from
people, and with a strong hand." Thus Edom refused               illusions in exile and post exilic writings that during
  to give Israel passage through his border. And "Israel the closing days of Judah's national existence the old
  turned away from him." There was reason. The Lord              hostile spirit revived. `In Psalm 13'7 the prophet  re-
  had forbidden them to engage in any acts of violence           calIs with indignation the malice,  .of the Edomites,
  against Edom, "Ye are to pass through the coast of             "Remember o Jehovah against the children of Edom
  your brethren the children of Esau, which  dwel1 in the day of Jerusalem: .who said, rase it, rase it, even
  Seir  ; and they shall be afraid of you : take ye good heed    to the foundation thereof." From the prophecy of
  unto yourselves therefore: meddle not with them; for           Obidiah,  we learn that in the day that strangers car-
  I will not give you of their land, no, not as much as          ried away captive Jacob's forces, and foreigners en-
  a foot breadth; . . . . Ye shall  qbuy meat of them for tered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even
  money, that ye may eat; and ye shall buy water of              Edom looked with joy on the day of his brother in the
  them for money that ye may drink" (Deut. 2  :3-G).             day that he became a stranger; that he rejoiced over
  Israel may not dispossess Edom, is forbidden to molest the children of Judah in the day of their destruction;
  him in any way. Edom is not to be reckoned among the that he spoke proudly in the day of his distress ; that he
  tribes of Canaan to be extirpated. Does the Lord's             entered into t,he gates of God's people in the day of
  sparing Edom betoken that He assumes an attitude               their calamity. and laid hands on their substance in
  bf favor toward them? This cannot be, as Esau and              that day ; that he stood in the crossway to cut ,off those
  his kin are reprobated. The Lord explains His own              of Jacob that did escape; that he delivered up those
  action. Israel and Edom are brothers, Ye are to pass           of Jacob that did remain in the dayeof distress; and
  through the coasts of  your brethren. . .  ."  To these that he sent an ambassador among the nations with
  brethren the Lord had given Mount Seir fo? a pos-              the message, "Arise ye, let us rise up against her
  session. Therefore Israel shall not meddle with them,          (Judah) in battle".
  "Take ye good heed unto yourselves ; meddle not with              )Of all Israei's adversaries, not one was so persist-
  them: . . . . because I have given Mount Seir unto ently and fiercely hostile as Edom. To account for
  &au for a possession" (Deut.  2:5)-given.  Mount that hostility, it is necessary to go back on the history
  Seir to Esau not in love but in His wrath. For both            of Jacob and  %au.         Edom regarded himself as a
  against Esau and Esau in his generations the Lord had          people cheated cut of his blessing, out of the fatness
  indignation forever. (Mal. 1:4).                               of the earth,  1  :y Jacob. But  Ithrough His placing
     We can, say some interpreters, easily understand            Canaan in  the  nctual  possession of the twelve sons
  the objection of the king of Edom. Many of the defiles of Jacob, the Lord showed Edom that Isaac had made
  through which the main road wound were not adapted             no mistake in  biessing  Jacob, so that the deep reason
  for the march of a great multitude. The Israelites             of Edom's hatred of Jacob was that Jacob was the
  could scarcely have gone through Edom without injur- chosen of ,the T,ord.
  ing the fields and vineyards; and though the under-               So did Isrce? take the long route, stretching east
  taking was given in good faith by Moses, he could not of Edom. But .-lso in going by this longer way, Israel
  answer for the whole of that undisciplined host he             rassed  not  d::.xeMy  through Edom's dominion but
  was leading toward Canaan. The safety of Edom lay through his coasts, so that there is no discrepancy be-
  in denying to other peoples access to its strongholds.         tween the command of the Lord to Israel, "Ye are to
  The  difficulty of approaching them was their main             pass through the coast of your brethren the children of
  security. Israel  mighft  go' quickly through the land         Esau" and the notice that Israel turned away from
  now; but its armies might soon return with hostile  in-        Esau to follow the longer way.


                                     T H E   STAND'ARD  B E A R E R                                               503

     After the transpiring of the above-cited events, the house of the Lord, directly revealed to him was that
 children of Israel journeyed from Kadesh and came           earthy Canaan, that worldly sanctuary. He knew of
 to Mount Hor. It was during the time of this encamp-        none other. To Aaron therefore the thought of his
 ment that the Lord told Moses and Aaron that                being banished from Canaan through deat,h  was, must
 Aaron shoould now die.       The Lord also let it be        have  abeen, extremely painful. It was to his mind,
 known that the reason Aaron should die was that             punishment indeed. What is more, it  wasa kind of
 he  c.ould not enter into the land which the Lord           punishment that was inflicted only when a gross sin
 a'so let it be known that the reason Aaron should die       had been committed, a sin that could not tbe atoned by
 was that he might not enter in the land which He            the typical sacrifices by blood. Thus, Aaron's finding
 had given to the children of Israel, on account of his      himself under the necessity of suffering this penalty,
 rebellion against the Lord's word at the water of           brings out the greatness of the sin that he had com-
 Meribah. The Lord thus publicly attributed Aaron's          mitted. But Aaron was one. of God's saints, so that,
 death to his sin, and thus established in the minds         though banished from the earthy Canaan, he died in
 of the people a connection between the two in order         the confident hope that the Lord would not leave his
 that the people, in their willing ignorance, might not      soul in death but that he would awaken and see God in
 say that in dying, aaron had simply gone the way of holy temple.
 all flesh.                                                     The office of the highpriest could not be left vacant
     Aaron was led by Moses in company with Eleazar, for a moment. Before Aaron died therefore the holy
 Aaron"s son, unto Mount Hor, the place where he was garments, the  sacerdotal  ornaments, , were put upon
 to die and be buried. *He thus went to his grave in         Bleazer  his son. This had the further advantage of
 full knowledge of where he was going. He had not            designating Aaron's successor while he was still.living,
 only to be buried but alsoo to die outside the camp.        and of securing also the perpetuity of the priesthood
 His death, or rather his (being hindered through death      in the genealogi!%l  line of Aaron. Finally it prevented
 from entering the promised land,, was a punishment this office from falling into dis-esteem.
 intllicted  on account of a particular sin. But if the         Everything here indicates that Aaron in his capac-
 rest of Canaan was but a shadow of the true rest that ity of highpriest and the office which he served were
." Christ entered with His people, how could Aaron's         but shadows-everything : his being stripped of his
 being prevented from entering into Canaan, be punish- sacred garments, his being unable .to continue in his
 ment? How could the thought that the earthy Canaan          office by reason of death, and his being disqualified
 was lost to him have saddened his soul ,if he knew          from entering into Canaan by his great sin. These
 that in death he was to <be with the Lord? How could happenings, however sad, were thus prophetic  of the
 he count this loss truly a loss ? These questions can be appearing of our only high priest, Christ Jesus. His
 satisfactorily answered. It is to be considered that,       atonement was real.      His obedience, being perfect,
 as  1  wrote in a former article, the Old Testament Dis-    fuIly satisfied all the rigid and relentless demands of
 pensation was the dispensation of shadows. The Israel-      the law. IHence as priest he abideth everlastingly.
 itish people together with all their institutions was       Never will He in the performance of His service as the
 a shadow of the heavenly. All was shadow. There             Priest Glorified be interrupted by death. Of the
 was even a shadow satisfaction and atonement, a garments of salvation  .with which the Father clothed
 shadow forgiveness of sin, a shadow righteousness and       Him when He raised Him up and set Him together
 sanctification and also a penalty, a punishment, that with all His people in heaven He will never be divested.
 typified death eternal. And this penalty was physica        Such is the high priest now over the house of God.
 death, the being cut off through death from the land        Should we then not draw near in full assurance of
 of Canaan, God's country and thus from God's very           faith?
 presence. It was this that rendered death a state so           Perceiving that Moses was returning from the
 terrible to contemplate to Old Testament believers.         mountain without Aaron, and beholding Eleazer  cIad
 The offender, through death, was cut off from God's         with the priestly ornaments, the people understood
 people, from God's country and from His sanctuary.          that Aaron was dead. None had seen him die, had
 "He (the offender) shall be cut off from his people"        witnessed the ceremony that had been performed in
 and, "He shall be put to death" are two expressions         the mountain, knew the location of his grave-none
 occurring in the Law that belong together. The thought      save Moses and Eleazar. It had thus been a small
 of death therefore filled even the believers with grave funeral indeed, strangely devoid of all show, and also
 apprehensions.    By death they were separated from strangely'secret.  The people, the true people of God,
the visible, earthy sanctuary in Canaan. And in that grieved. They would miss him. And the congregation
 sanctuary dwelt God. It was the only place where            "even the whole house of Israel, mourned for him
 the Old Testament believer could meet God. The only thirty days, that is, gave for this length of time public
 heaven, the only heavenly country, temple of God,           expression to their sorrow.


-504                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D  B-EARl&                               '

        What  shali we say of the Man Aaron? That he           defeated Canaanites re-occupied the sites of their
 was  -one of God's saints, we know from Scripture.            ruined cities, for Joshua finds them in possession there.
 But- he was not the strong man spiritually that his           This  e:cFedition  was  the  iilst  .victory  for  *the new
brother Moses was; He had it not in  him, to  aIone            generation. It betokened their great  sxcessfill  con-
%earlessly and stedfastly champion the cause of God            flict in Canaan.
among his people. He was a timid man, one rather                                                                                G. &I. 0.
-easily frightened by the insolence of the carnal seed in
the camp. They could scare him into yielding to their
'  sinful demands.      At Sinai they had  cried  to him,
"Make us gods", and he `had obliged them; That he
had joined Miriam in her opposition to Moses, qhows                                        CLASSIS  EkST
that he was easily misied. He was a man who cocld              wiil meet in regular session Wednesday, October  I, at
not be trusted to carry on aIone. As unfortified by  ,the      9 :OO a. m. at Fuller Ave.
presence of Moses, he would have been a failure.                                                                       D. danker,  S. C.
        Another event `that took place during the encamp-
ment at I-Ioreb was the,attack  of Arad the Canaanite.
The narrative reads, "And when King Arad the                                                                 *
Canaanite,. which dwelt in the south, heard teI1 that
 Israel came ,by the way of the spies, then he fought
against. Israel and took some of them prisoners. . . .                                       IN MEMORIAM '
And Israel vowed a  vbw unto the Lord and said, If                 Den  !Xste?,  Juli-   b+aagde het den Heere om tot  Zich te
thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then semen onze geliefde  vader,  grootvader  en over-grootvader,
 I will utterly destroy their cities. And the Lord                                         .."
hearkened to the voice of  Israei, and delivered up the                             MARTIN  ,I. HOEKSTRA
                                                                                                  :.
 Canaanites ; and they utterly destroyed them and              in den  ouderdoq van  8k jaw.                      '
 their cities, and he  called the name of the  plxe                Alhoewel  dit  ~verIies   on? zeer  smsrtelijk  valt zij wij den
Ilormati."                                                     Heere  dankbaar voor het  goed  dat  Hij ans  in  Vader   gaf ge- .
                                                                                    `9.
        This battle took place in the south of Canaan in durende deze vele jaren;  en de verzek&ing  dat hij is ingegaan
the same region where thirty-eight years previous              in de vreugde zijns  Heeren doet onze bedroefde hi&en  zingen.
 Israel had suffered su2h.a shameful defeat at the hands                                           De  Familie;
of these same Canaanites ,-a defeat recorded in chap.                                                        Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Steensma
 14. Whe"ti  the people at that time hear the evil  reFort                                                   "    kochester,   N.  Y.
 of the` ten spies, they broke- out into loud weeping                                                        Mr. and Mrs. A. Plantinga
and accused the Lord of having led them to the border                                                             Holland, Michigan.
of Canaan that  they all might perish by the sword                                                           Mr. and Mrs. A. Qogel
of the adversary.  That was the old generation.  On                                                          Mr. and Mrs. S. Sietstra
account of their unbelief their carcasses were to fall in                                                    Mr. and Mrs. P. Hoekstra
the desert. But the people in their,carnaE  grief and in                                                     Mr.  and  Mrs. D.  Hoekstra
opposition to the Word of God, went up to take pos-                                                          Mr. and Mrs. J. Boer
session of the promised land., But the Lord was not                                                          Mr. and Mrs.  J. Hoekstra
 with them, so that many of their number fell by the                                                         KIeinkinderen  en
sword of the -4melekites  and the Canaanites of that                                                         achterkleinkinderen.
part of Canaan. All this had taken place some thirty-              Sheldon, IWX.
eight years ago. The,pew  generation after these years
 finds itself in the very region where the old generation
had been defeated. The king of Arad,  recaIJing  this
defeat and thinking that a fatal  blow might again be
inflicted upon. the peopie of Israel, now fell suddenly
upon them as they were breaking up from Kadesh,  and                                id THAT I NEED
when, in the confusion ,of the march, they were un-
prepared. Though he took some of them. prisoners,                      0 Lord, i know that Thou wilt give to me
there was no serious defeat of the Israelites. They
avenged the unprovoked attack on them, and destroyed                        All that I really need;
the cities of the adversary, and named the place                       And yet  with heart insatiate and  athirst
Normah,  meaning  destrytidn.~   men  they  left,  the                      .For more of Thee I  pant.


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:           /



      i,


                                                                          `Truiy hearty congratuiations  are in order? to com-
The  ZTost  t:ommiitee  of the Young  PeopEe's   Society of  ihe      piiment the Host Committee and the Society of Oak
             (  #ak  Lawn Protestant Reformed Church                  Lawn, whom they represent,. for the splendid work
                                                                      ivhich  they did to make the Third  Xnnuai Convention
                                                                      :: great succtess.        Under the carefui  guidance of their
                                                                      `Pastor they dispiayed a spirit and zeai which we ali.
                                                                      may emuiate  \vith  pride. Hthough  smail in numbers,
                                                                      the enthusiasm which they aroused  amona our Church-
                                                                      es in general, is a tribute to the spiendid character  of
                                                                      their Society. They  Ieft no stone unturned to make the
                                                                      Third Annuai Convention one that shall long be re-
                                                                      membered as a .thriIling experience. This is true not
                                                                      oniy because we were entertained, but more so because
                                                                      we were spiritually edified through the development of
                                                                      the t.heme which they chose.
                                                                          A word of thanks is aiso in order to the Society
                                                                      of South Holland for their cooperation, which was a
Standing:                                                             contributing factor to the success of our meeting. We
SP&  Ipema.   Xev.  I'. Hanko, Jacob Regnerus, Louise  Wiqenga.       beiieve that a timely Iesson may be learned, not oniy
Seated :                                                              by all of our Societies, but also by our Churches as
Wilheimina   ,Eutgers, Margaret Regnerus Henrietta  Kort.             congregations and as individuals, from the spirit of
                                                                      feilowship  they dispiayed in arranging for the Con-
George Regnerus and Sue Regnerus who  also served  on the             vention. Our working, witn the unity of purpose to-
committee are  not shown.                                             wards a  common   goaI,  and  .with a spirit of love far
                                                                      the cause of Christ. will consummate in a successful
                                                                      venture  dv'ith the Lord's blessing.




    Even  as  Iast  year: so  aiso this time the Board of convention  1 beiieve. They certainly made  a thorough
the Federation of Protestant Reformed  Young People's job of it. :\nd how much depends upon proper  pre-
Societies requested us' -lo devote one of the issues of               parations for such a gathering!
The Standard Bearer to  the  memory  of the Convention                    The meetings of the convention proper were heid in
(iii` this Federation that was recently heId in Oak Lawn.             the Oak Zaxn Church. The inspirational meeting was
    We  gladly gave  our  consent.                                    heid in the  beautifui  auditorium of the Lutheran
    i think that the Federation is a  wosthv"I cause, Church  at  Brandt   End  ninety-seventh streets.  Lund
which weI deserves our support. Besides, the contents the banquet was  heId in  one of the  2nneyes
                                                                                                                                  G     .      of  `.'me
of t-his number of our  iaper may  weil be read. The                  ;xme  Lutheran Church.
oniy  difficuity is that :"he  ianguage  must needs be  all                i rejoiced at the interest and activity shown by our
Engiish. Those  of  our  `Holland  lseopie   .that cannot
read English will giadly bear with us for this one issue,             :+-ounp   EoEks, at the Protestant.  2eformed  note that
                                                                      was heard in "speeches  and discussions, and last but
I am sure.                                                            not least, at the perfect  hehaviour  of the  young  people.
    The Convention, which  I had. the pieasure to attend,             both at the meetings and at the banquet. It was  a
was an inspiration to me. rinyone  that witnessed the Christian convention throughout I
interest of our young peopie  there. and that loves our
churches 2nd the cause for xzhich  they stand. would                       Glad  J  YXS~ too, to see many members  of the
find pienty ~>f reason to rejoice  sind take coure.ze  +th            societies in our Western Churches  present . Even from
respect to the future.                                                as far as Xanhattan they had come f Eope  ?x, see ail
    Cwqratuiations  to the "host society", in this !ase               0i.w  :<0Cieties   r e p r e s e n t e d   n e x t .   e v e n   fr~in  f a r   xbvq
the  `Young  Peopie's  Societ.y   or" Oak                             Cziifornia.   LVlny   not`!  I         t      
                                                                                                                    cxn  be  iione:
                                              Lawn.  i)il  iJ:hich
rested the duty of n1akin.g  all the preparations for . .
                                                             ;n1s


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:                                                                      1                                EDITORIAL STAFF
          t  :nnum~niwtionr   ,viative   t-  err!-                     I     Editorz+-Rev.   R.  Boeksema,   R e v .   6.  M.  Uphoff.                         Ciimmnnirations   relative  to  auh-
t         tent*        ,r:lbilid     ilip    xid~e?iM?~i        t`,                                                                                            rcription   should  b         e     
                                                                                                                                                                                                  addrewed   to
k                  ii::\`,      kf. E-fOEKSE?4A                        1                      Kiev.  Wm.  Verhil,   &ev. G. Vos.                     4
                                                                             Associate Editors--Rev. A.  Cammenga.  Rev. P. De i                                     KR.      R.        I
                                                                                                                                                                                     SlT%4AFSMA
                   il.49  F r a n k l i n   S t . .   Y.  6.                 Hoer, Rev. M. Gritters, Rev. 33. Rok,  Rev. C. Hanko,                   (               IlO1   Hazen  stred.  8. PT.
                     c:mnd   Rstrrds Rich
                                             . .                       i
1                                                                            Rev.  6. Lubbers, Rev. R.  Veldman,  Rev.  IS.  Veld-                                     Grand  Rapids.  Rich.
                                                                       i
b b                                                                          man, Xev. A. Petter, Rev. 3. Vander  Rreggen.                           1.
     Entered  IS  Serond  C%r*  mail   n~t.tcr  nt  c:rxnd  Zapids.  Mich.

I'd.  SVII.  Ko.  22.                                                                               SEPTEIvIBER  15, 1941                                         S-~FSCRIPTI~~  PRICE  $2.50




                                                                                                                                                                                                         --

                                                                                                                                                          .
                                                                                                   * INSPIRATIONAL  SPEECH---lry   the!  Rert.  S.  Hoeksemn
                                                                                    a giad occasion,                           Such were the sentiments  I expressed last year, at
                                                                                                                            the occasion of your second convention. Tonight our
                                                                and  I deem it  ii. privilege joy, if not greater and more ardent. is, perhaps, deeper,
                                                                that I may be present  a- more  estabiished, better founded, more deeply rooted
                                                                                                                            than at that occasion. There is reason for this. After
                                                                              e keynote speech  of all, enthusiasm sometimes is  superficiai,  more super-
                                                                               vention. Last year, ficial often according as it is more ardent. in that case
                                                                                                                            it is like a blazing fire that flares up for a short time,
                                                                                                                            but soon dies down for lac'k of fuel to feed it or of oxy-
                                                                                                                            gen to keep it ablaze.  3r  it may be compared to what is
                                                                            st in our truth and often `called temporary faith, that seems more real
                                                                                       evinced by our and aiive and active than true saving faith for a whiie*
                                                                                                                            but is not  root& in the heart and vanishes quickly in
                                                                                                                            the heat of the battle of faith, like the morning mist
                                    ..,, i.,..~.,~~~~~,.,~~.,~~~~~~~.~~~~~~~~~~~~.. .hs...:c. youthfui  hope and courage
                                    _ m                         that made it possibie to                                    that is soon swallowed up ,by the rising sun. Such
                                                                                                                            .might have  `been the case with our youthful enthusiasm.
organize a federation of this kind. It is an encourag- It might have been a matter of the emotions. These
ing sign, a thing  that, gladdens my heart, especially                                                                      was a possibility that it was not  of faith. And in
if I glance  &ack   :ind  Yecail the  llistory  \ve "made as                                                                that case it could not have lasted. it wouid  soon have
churches.                      HOW  yecent  it seems  that we were cruelly                                                  disappeared. But another year passed. We still exist.
expelled from the  fe!lowship  of those that shouid have                                                                    What is more, our interest is still  very much alive.
fought the goc.A  fight with us. the  fight for specific,                                                                   We have prospered. We have grown. We  h.ave  been
Reformed truth  I                              HOW well .I  xmember that they active. We might  pubiish  a paper of our own for
really meant to. crush us out of existence, and, the the benefit espe,cially of our young people's societies.
wish being father to the thought, often predicted that And tonight we are gathered here as a convention for
we would have no future, ;;hat a year or two, at the                                                                        the third consecutive year, and as we came from far
WV most  five years was the very longest we  ctouid                                                                         and near we brought with us no less enthusiasm than
expect to lead  a lingering  c:.:iistence, a pining and                                                                     a year ago. I  ric,  not  say this in a  isoastfui frame  air
languishing. life  i And  xrhat  a cause of  -joy, then, it mind. On the contrary, knowing as zve do that we
k  to  see,  110t  oniy that  we still  exist  as churches, and                                                             cannot do anything except `through the grace of God,
that we have  !>een  itstablished.   $ut  ::lso that there                                                                  that ail our work and eii;orts xe vain unless it pleases
iS an interest in our Reformed life  ;ind doctrine  among                                                                   our covenant Lord to Gess Lhem.  we realize that it is
Our young people  ~uficiently  general and deep to give                                                                     becoming to us to humbie ourselves and ,to give all
hirth to a? convention  of  his kind 1                                                                                      the giory to Him that ::ailed  us c.9ut of darkness into


608                                     TI3E  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

His  marveilous  light. But I do mention these things          equipment is to be thorough it must be proper, that is,
to give account. of the gladness that fills my heart,          it must be adapted to the work that is to be performed
and to motivate the statement that our joy tonight may         by means of it. Agricultural implements wouid be
be considered profounder and more established than             quite out of place in the operating room. The husband-
it  rvas a year ago. Thanks  :be to our God! lie it  is        man would be quite helpless if you were to furnish
that ,blesses  us! hence we rejoice!                           him with surgical instruments to work his farm. It
                                                               iooks  rather absurd to train our soldiers with broom-
                                                               sticks on their shoulders instead of rifles. Moreover,
       As the convention-theme the committee selected it is paramount that our equipment be in good con-
"Thoroughly Equipped". A very beautiful and proper dition . It must not Ibe obsolete or defective. The more
theme I consider this to be. Surely, always the whole perfect the various parts of our equipment are the
Church and every individual believer  must be thor- more efficiently the  -work that is done by means of it,
oughly equipped if he is to stand in the evil day ; but        can be accomplished. And, of course, to a thorough
this is true with  greater.emphasis  in our time. For,         equipment belongs that it be complete, that no part
as  the day of the Lord approaches, it becomes  increzs-       of it is missing. So much with respect to the meaning
ingly hard to maintain the faith and walk in all good          of the terms of our theme. But before we can fruit-
works in the midst of the world. Besides, this is true fulIy discuss the kind of equipment we now have in
especially and in a peculiar sense for the days of our mind, we must find out for what task or calling it is
youth, the springtime of life, which has its own               to Ibe used.
pecuiiar  dangers and tem,ptations  and offers problems           When I first heard about the convention-theme for
of its own. Especially in the days of our youth we             this pear, I thought it was derived from II Tim. 3 :16,
ought to be thoroughly equipped and, besides, skillful         17, where we  find the well-known passage: "All Scrip-
in the handling of our equipment. Moreover, youth is ture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
the time for training and discipline, as the nations of for doctrine, for `reproof, for  correktion,  for instruc-
the world, also our nation, realize today that with &          tion in righteousness: that the man of God may be
view to being prepared to meet the enemy in the wars           perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works".
of this worid. And, finally ,I consider this theme             In fact, I find that it is this text that is quoted as
particularly appropriate for a convention of this kind the source of our theme in the convention booklet.
because I like to look upon our' young people's societies      However,  from other sources I learn that the com-
as a sort of voluntary training camps in which we help mittee also had in mind the text from Eph. 6:X0-17:
one another in becoming efficient in the employment of "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in
our equipment. Hence, I gladly introduce this theme            the power of his might. Put on the whole armour  of
to you, and, bearing in mind that I must confine myself        God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles
to a general exposition of the theme and that others           of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and
will speak to you  on  particular aspects of it,  1 will blood, but against principalities, against powers,
attempt to answer three questions, viz. 1. Unto what           against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
must we be equipped? 2. What is the proper equip- against spiritual wickedness in high places. Where-
ment? and 3. Who must be equipped?                             fore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye
       Before we can begin to speak of and describe the        may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having
equipment of which the theme speaks, it is necessary           done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins
that we answer the question: unto  .what particular girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate
calling or task must we be equipped ? `For  it is evident of righteousness; and your feet shod with the prepara-
that the kind of equipment we need depends upon the tion of the gospel of peace; above all. taking the shield
task unto the accomplishment of which it must serve.           of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the
By equipment I understand, in general, any apparatus fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of
which is necessary to perform a certain task, to execute salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the
a certain  pian, to  Pinish a particular kind of work.         word of God". Sut whether our theme be derived
Without such equipment we would be helpless, the               from the former or from the latter scriptural passage,
work could not be done. Thus a surgeon needs his               the thought remains  virtually the same: we must be
instruments in order to  ,perform  an operation; the thoroughly equipped for battle,  we must be prepared
farmer could not till the soil without his implements;         for spiritual warfare. It is true that the idea of battle
a mechanic needs his tools  ; a soldier is helpless without    is not expressed in the text from second Timothy.
his armament. Such an equipment must be proper, it             But if we are to walk in all good works in the midst
nmst be complete, and it must be in good condition.            of the world, we must expect that the  worid will hate
This is what I understand by the adverb "thoroughly"           us, and we cannot avoid battle. And, therefore, I may
that modifies the main `term of our theme.           If an     certainly answer the first question suggested by .my


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R ' -  -                                 609

theme by saying that we must be thoroughly equipped and within the walls of the Church. But it should not
or furnished unto spiritual battle.                              be introduced into the various departments of our
   But this answer is not sufficient. It is too general. earthly life. It should be  exciuded  from the life of
Ef you say no more, all that call themselves  Chris-             society and of the State. This spiritual battle bears
t.ians, the moderns  inciuded, will agree with you.              no relation to such things as business and commerce,
All are willing to join in with the song: "Onward,               labor and industry, the relation of employer and em-
Christian Soldiers, marching as to war", as long as ployee, unions and associations,  lower  and higher edu-
you do not detine just. what you mean by this war. It cation, marriage and divorce, magistrates and sub-
is evident, then, that we must fbe more specific. Just as jects and the like. The battle must be kept purely
in the case of secular wars, so also in regard to this spiritual. But this is not the meaning we attach to the
spiritual battle that is to be fought by the Christian           word, when we emphasize that we are called to fight a
we must ask and try to answer Lbriefly various ques- spiritual battle. True, our warfare is spiritual. It is
tions. What is the cause of this war? Why should not a `battle of this world, by this world,  for  this world.
the Christian, why shouid the Church of Christ be                It does not aim at worldly power or possessions or
called upon to tight in this world? What is its peculiar honor and  gIory,  or dominion over this world. It is not
character? How is it fought? What are its aims? and cannot be fought by worldly power  or  worldiy
And what will be the outcome of this spiritual battle? means. It aims at spiritual realities : truth, righteous-
   With regard to the first question, the one concern- ness, .the glory of God and His Christ. It fights by
ing the deepest cause of this. spiritual warfare, the spiritual means : the Word of God. ft Gquires spiritual
Reformed Christian, whose spirit  cannot find  rest  until strength to fight  this  <battle: the strength of grace.
with all things it finds rest in `God, replies : we find this    But although all this is true, it is nevertheless fought
in God's predestinating purposes. It is easy, of course, on the stage of this world, and that in every depart-
to leave God out of view when we attempt to answer               ment of the life of this world.       True, our battle
the question concerning the cause of the Christian's is not against flesh  and  blood, but  in  this world
battle. We' might say simply that the devil is the               it is,. nevertheless, fought on the stage of fiesh
cause of it; he hates God and righteousness and truth,           and blood.    It -is the battle for  or  against Christ
and he it is that opposes the beEever when he would that must be fought wherever we are and what-
walk inGall good works. Or again, you might answer ever we do. For always and everywhere we must
that the "world" is full of sin and corruption and               walk in all good works in the midst of a world that
crime, and that for this reason the Christian has the Iieth in darkness. And because this is the nature of
calling to fight against this world. But no Reformed the `battle we must fight, we must not look for a victory
Christian can be satisfied with this. Somehow he must according to the standards of this world.                  On the
find the cause in God. He has willed this battle. It contrary, we must learn to deny ourseives, to renounce
must serve His purpose: the glory of His name. He the things of this world, to take the cross upon us and
conFroIs  this war and its outcome. The result cannot to suffer with Christ. In  the measure that we aim at
be doubtful for one morn&f:  And the cause must be               worldly power or worldly gain, we do not fight this
found in His sovereign predestinating purpose, accord- spiritual battle.            Paradoxically expressed : we ,must
ing to which He ordained His Church unto the glory be willing to suffer defeat in order that we may have
of His  heavemy  kingdom through the deep way of sin the victory !
and death, while He with equal sovereignty rejected                 By this we already touched upon the answer to our
others.    This is the cause of the fact that in this next question: what is the aim we must set before us
present time the Church becomes manifest in the midst in this spiritual warfare? Also this question is ans-
of a world that iieth in darkness, that hates God and            wered in various ways. It has been said that our
iis Christ and His people, and that the beiiever must aim must ibe to bring this "world" to Christ. But this
needs fight a battle and expect opposition if he would cannot be true. For, in the first place, we are quite
walk in all good works. It is the battle of Jehovah incapable of bringing the  worId  to Christ. We may
which he is called upon to fight!                                preach and. be witnesses for Christ, but to bring any
   As to the peculiar character of this war, we say man, not to speak of the "worid", to Him is not our
that it is spiritual. But here again we must be careful work, but His own. But, in the second place, we must
Jest we misunderstand this word "spiritual" and make not forget, that, although Christ is on the right hand
a wrong impression of it. It does not mean that this of God and has all power in heaven and on earth, power
war is fought in the reaim of spirits, so that it has also  over  the "world", it is not of this world that
nothing to do with our everyday life in this world.              He is the heir. His is the world to come, in whichall
There are -many that would like to have it so. Religion things in heaven and on earth will be united in Him
is a sort of private affair. 3t is a matter between God and under Him as the head of all things. But this
and your soul. It should be confined to your inner life world is not Eis, will be completely destroyed in the


-510                                    TZIE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

final  eat&strophe   of His advent. He does not want of the life of this world. Every` day and everywhere
this  "xorld". The siogan "bring the world to Christ",         we must become manifest as those that are of the
is an empty phrase. Others claim that the  ;xrpose             party of the living God. Unto this every <believer must
of the Christian battle is to make this world better.          be equipped. But I must not fo'rget  that tonight I am
We must *fight the evils in this world. We must put addressing a convention of young people. They occupy
forth ail our efforts  to banish crime and prostitution a peculiar position. For they are also called to tight
and divorce and war and strife from t.he earth, and this battle.' They cannot wait. But at the same time
thus -make  this world a better place to live in. So called they are in the period of training. While being trained
Christian speakers and lecturers that strike this note they must wage this warfare. And the enemy exerts
are usually very popular, for the world after all is not himseif to prevent their  ,being properly trained.  I
offended by a gospel that aims at improving it. `But, know not whether you ever noticed how everything
although it must *be plainly understood that we cer- in the world is adapted to this purpose, to seduce the
tainly oppose crime and divorce and drunkenness- and youthful Christian warrior, lest he should become
the like, we still insist that it cannot be the aim of thoroughly  equipped  and trained for the battle. He is
Christian warfare to make this "world"  bett.er,  for  t.he tempted to waste his time  by amusements, by movies
simpie reason that this would :be an impossible task. and theatres, by bad literature and "thrilling"' novels
The "world" that stands in enmity against the living and the like. And, therefore, it is with special,emphasis
God and Iies in spiritual darkness and death, cannot           that our young men and young women must be re-
be Reformed. Men must be regenerated, and that is              minded of the seriousness of the tmpiications of our
the work of God, which He accomplishes, not in the convention-theme : they must be  thoroughly~  equipped
"world", but in His  eiect, in the Church aione. But           unto the spiritual warfare in Christ!
the aim of Christian warfare is to represent the cause            What, then, is the equipment that is needed, and
of the Son of God in the midst of this world. to stand how can we acquire it and be skilled in using it?
for the cause of the covenant of the supreme Potentate            According to II Tim. 3:1.6 ,17 it is the Holy Scrip-
of potentates, and thus to live to the glory of God in         tures, the Word of God, which we must appropriate
word and in deed. We must live from the principle of and to which we must submit in order to be thoroughly
regeneration, according to the Word of God, and walk furnished or equipped. For "all scripture is given by
in all good worksf                                             inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
        And the outcome of this battle is not in our hands,    reproof, for correction, for instruction in  ribhteous-
nor is it ever uncertain. We have the victory ! f say          ness". The idea, therefore, is that by instruction in
emphaticaIIy,  that we have it.        We do not have to       the doctrine of the Scriptures, and by submitting  our-
overcome the worid. The world is overcome. We do seives to its disciplinary influence, we become trained
not battle on to victory, we fight as those that even unto righteousness. And thus "the man of God" be-
now have the victory. For Christ has overcome the              comes "thoroughly furnished" or equipped "unto all
world. The victory is His, and therefore, it is ours good works". He becomes "perfect", that is fit for the
by faith. Faith is the victory. And if only we are             battle. And according to Eph. 6 our equipment con-
careful that we truly fight this spiritual battle, and         sists in the "whol-?  armour of God", which we must put
that  `we do not become confused so as. to fight the           on, and which to employ properly we must  berome
battle of the flesh thinking that we are fighting in the       skilled. The various parts of this  armour   are  even
cause of Christ, we shall also have the consciousness          mentioned  in detail. `They  are the girdle of truth,
of being victdrs even while we are fighting,  and though the breastplate of righteousness, the sandals of the  pre-
according to the standards of the world and  t,o all           paredriess  of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith,
outward appearances we suffer defeat. into the vic- t,he helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
tory of Christ we enter by faith, and in His day it shall      which is the Word of God.
become  cleariy manifest to all that `Ilis cause is the           But there is also in this respect really no essential
cause of God, and the victory was aiways.His,  and ours difr"erence  ,between the two passages from `Holy Writ.
through Him I                                                  There is a difference in viewpoint between the text
        Unto this spiritual warfare, then, we must be          from Timothy and that' .from Ephesians, but funda-
thoroughly equipped. That is the meaning of our con- mentally they refer to the same equipment. In Timothy
vention-theme. We must be equipped for the purpose the emphasis is on the positive calling to walk in all
of being able to stand for the cause of the Son of God         good works, in `Ephesians it falls on the idea of battle
in word and in deed, in the midst of a world that              against the spiritual wickedness  in high piaces.  How-
opposes and' hates Him and ail that represent Him.             ever, in both passages the underlying notion is that the
,4nd we must do this, not merely in the recesses of our        Christian in this world must become thoroughfy  equip-
personal spiritual life, not merely in the Church, but ped by being instructed in and appropriating the truth
in all the warId and in very department and sphere of the HoIy  Scriptures. That this is true will become


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                      -  511

evident the moment we take a closer look at the various      armour  the part of the wisdom of this world, you oniy
parts of the, whole  armour of God as presented in the       become weak. By putting on the part of worldly
passage from Ephesians.      It is not difficult to see      power or physicai  force, you only prepare your own
that they are  all concentrated in the Word of God.          defeat. The Word of Godand  it aldne is the equipment
Three of the  parts are  directly related to the Scrip-      of the Christian soldier. Put  it on, therefore, that
tures. These are, first of ail the girdle of truth, with- you may be abIe to stand and have the victory !
out which the entire amour becomes useless, fo the              Yes, equipment must be put on. And it must be
belt of the warrior was designed to keep the whole           used. And one must be skilled in using it. But this
armour in place. Appropriation of the truth, the             presupposes that it is the Christian soldier of which
truth of the Word of God, is of primary importance           we speak. You could not very well send a farmer into
and of fundamental significance for the equipment of the operating room, `even though you equipped him
the believer in this world. Then, in the second piace,       with the finest and most complete outfit of surgical
there are the shoes of the preparedness of the gospel instruments. And even in secular wars many are not
of peace. Without entering into a detailed interpre- fit. They cannot be trained. They are rejected. iVIuch
tation it will be evident that also this gospel of peace     more true, in fact, absolutely true this is with respect
is the Word of God as contained in the Holy Serifi- to the spiritual battle and the spiritual equipment of
tures.    This gospel of peace is "preparedness" to          which we do n,ow speak. 3n order to put on this, whole
go into  the battle and  [meet  the enemy,, and to           armour   of God, this thorough equipment, ane  must
stand without giving ground in the onslaught. For first be really a Christian soldier.  r And Christian
this was the purpose of the spiked shoes of the              soldiers are not manufactured by training: they' zre.
ancient warrior. The Word of God, therefore, gives           bomz;   that. is, born of God, reborn,  dlorn from abve.
us firmness and strength in the battle, enables us           The carnal man can accomplish nothing with this
to meet the enemy and to face him. without waver- thorough equipment of the Christian warrior. It does
ing, to persevere in the Christian warfare even unto         not fit him. He cannot  atid will not put it on. Nor
the end. And;  Iastly,  there is the sword of the Spirit,    can, he be trained to use it. And it should not escape
which is the Word of God. By this we take the of- our attention that the apostle Paul in the `passage we
fensive and overcome the enemy.        All these parts, quoted from II Tim. 3:16, 1'7 speaks of the "man of
therefore, are directly related to the Holy Scriptures God." The man of God must be perfect, thoroughly
of which Paul also speaks in II Tim. 3:16.  But also         furnished unto every good work.. The man of God
the rest of the equipment mentioned in Ephesians 6           must be submitted to the salutary influences of the
is related, though I&s directly to the same Word of          Holy Scriptures;*their  doctrine, their instruction, theif
God.  Hoti`c'ould  we ever put on the breastplate of         training, their reproof and rebuke. The man of God
righteousness, of the righteousness that is in Christ,       must put on the whole armour  of God, that he may be
except by appropriating the truth of the Scriptures?         able to stand in the evil day and having done all to
Or what else is the shield of faith than the Word of         stand. And "the man of God" is emphatically the ~2
God appropriated by  faitln  as used for protection and of  God. He is of God in every `sense of the word.. Re
defense? And what is the heIrnet  except the promise         is chosen of God in eternal and sovereign love. He is ,
of saivation in the Word of God, appropriated in hope?       redeemed by God through the precious ,bIood of the
/    Surely, also in Ephesians 6 we are  taught  that the Lamb. Re is delivered from all the power of the devil,
Word..of  God is our arsenal. From it we `must take of sin and death by the grace of God. He is regener-
our whole equipment for offensive and defensive  war-        ated and called `by God. He is sanctified and preserved
,fare,  as well as .for our necessary protection in this     by God. And he is the property, the peculiar posses-
spiritual 'battle. And, therefore, that is my answer to sion of God, together with the entire Church of God.
the question: of what does this thorough equipment           And, therefore, he exists unto God, that he may be to
consist? It consists of the Word of God as revealed in       the praise of the glory of His grace in the Beloved. He
the  HoIy Scriptures. That Word of God and it alone          is God-tiade:  we cannot make men of God. And the
must be employed by the Christian soldier in his attack purpose of his existence, even in this world, is solely to
upon the enemy: the devil. the world, even his own           God's glory. Therefore, he must fight the battle of
flesh: That Word of God is his protection against all        Jehovah, and  `be willing to  sufFer for His name's sake.
the wiles of the devil and all the fiery darts of the        And he it is that  mu& put on the whole  armour  of
wicked. That Word of God is his defense, when the            God. And  I speak to you as covenant young men and
devil attacks, the world tempts or persecutes, his own young wom,en,  as young men and young women of God,
sinful nature would seduce him; Other equipment he when I say that you must be thoroughly equipped and
does not need.     In fact, other equipment there is ,put on the whole armour  of God !
none. Still stronger : other equipment would be super-          And, to be sure, you must put it on! You must
fluous and therefore  harmfui. By adding to your appropriate the `Word of God. You must be instructed


 512  -                               T H E .   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

 in the doctrine of the  Holy Scriptures. You must put Christian warriors. We are still young. We are in
 on every part of it.     For you must be thoroughly the springtime of life. It is the time of training, the
 equipped ! A  little `knowledge is not sufiicient.    You time to learn, the time to become thoroughly equipped.
 must be thoroughly indoctrinated.       A gospel on a        Do not let it pass in vain. Do not waste the days of
 thumbnail is of no  avail. All the Scriptures are given your youth by yielding to the temptations of this
 by inspiration of God, all the Scriptures must become        world. Become thoroughly equipped !                       2"
 your own. And you must be trained to use your                   Unto this purpose our young people's societies may
 equipment. You must submit yourselves to the disci-          piay an important part. I referred to them in the be-
piine, to the  rebuke  and reproof, to the training in        ginning of my address as voluntary training camps.
 righteousness of these Scriptures. And always you            There is also the official training offered by the Churih
 must put on your equipment. This is a task that never        in the preaching of the Word and the instruction that
 ends as long as you are in this world. Certainly you is given in catechetical classes. This training is very
 must put on the whole armour of God, aiways  you must        essential. It is obligatory. Never neglect it. But our
 have your equipment with you, ready  for  use at a young.  people%  societies represent voluntary effort on
 moment's notice. For always  you are in the midst of the part of our young soldiers to aid in this training.
 the camp of the enemy, and constantly you must be on         As such they serve an important purpose. Always
 the alert and vigilant. You must  .be able to recognize keep that purpose in mind ! Do not let your, societies
 the enemy wherever and in whatever form he appears,          degenerate `into mere social clubs for the purpose of
 in books and literature. in  faIse  friends and evil as-     entertainment. Rather let them be real training camps,
 `sociations,  in your  own  evil flesh and in the world.     in which you put forth ail your efforts to  become more
 And always you must watch and pray, that you may thoroughly acquainted with the contents of the Holy
 be able to withstand in the evil day, whenever that          Scriptures, in order that thus you' may aid one another
 evil day approaches !                                        in becoming thoroughly equipped, men of God that
     This is the message I would leave with you as young      are furnished unto every good work!





                               President, Delegates to        cupy  the various places which God has assigned to us
                                                              in the whole of His covenant, as well as `in the world.
                             our Gonvention, Friends :        For al1 the world hates this truth, today more than
                             I am gratefu!  for the oppor- .ever before, and the church-world has become the
                             tunity of addressing you         apostate church pictured to us in the book of ReveIa-
                             this  afternoon, for `thus  I    tion as the birthplace of those who crucify the Lord
                             am speaking to the future        of Glory anew, and prepare the ground for the final
                             generation of our Protes-        manifestation of the Anti-Christ of Scripture. There-
                                                              f'ore the truth MUST be maintained.
                             tant Reformed Churches.             .And finally, `in order to maintain that truth we
                             I am also deeply thankful to     must be thoroughly equipped. We are still young.
                             the committee of Oak Lawn        There is much we still need to'be able to fight the good
                             for giving me the opportun-      Hght of faith. ,Consequently  we must have the neces-
                             ity of speaking on this- sub-    sary equipment. Not merely partially, but we must
                             ject you have chosen;name-       be THOROUGHLY equipped. And therefore I deem
                             ly: "Thoroughly Equipped         the subject assigned to me and to my co-speakers a
 to Maintain the Truth".      1 find the subject to be        very fitting one for this occasion. I will try to carry
 .very appropriate and fitting for such an occasion as        out my assignment, speaking to you on the subject:
 this. You are still young and have received the truth
 from earliest infancy, both at home, in the church arrd         THOROUGHLY EQUIPPED TO MAINTAIN
 in the school. The truth you have received and beer!                             THE TRUTH.
 instructed in, is not merely A truth, but THE truth.
 THE TRUTH as it opens the whole of Scripture' to                    I.  T&e Truth.  "
 you and indeed is essentiai if the "man of God is to be             IT. Maintaining the  Tmth.
 perfed,   thoroughly equipped unto ail good works".               III.  Thoroughly  Ecp&~ped  to Maintain the Truth.
    But we must therefore  also be thoroughly equipped           I. The Truth.. It is essential that we maintain not'
 to MAINTAIN this truth, as we grow oider and  oc-            merely  what is commonly called truth, but that we
                                                                                            "                       I_  _


                                      T H E STANDAkD   B E A R E R                                                   513

maintain THE TRUTH. To explain what I mean by desire to stand on the truth, the whole truth and noth-
this, let me remind you that you are not Christians in ing but the truth. To quote a famihar  passage written
the modern, popular sense of that word. We are not           by the Rev. II. Hoeksema in his booklet: Why Protest-
merely members of a Church of whatever denomina-             nnt Reformed?  "Any one  .who is truly Protestant Re-
tion it may be. We are Protestant Reformed Chris-            formed is ruled' by the will to live everywhere and
tians, which impiies two things. First of ail that we        in every domain of life from the principle of regenera-
are confessional Christians. Many so called Christians tion, as guided by the Word of Cod, for His glory and
today boast of their motto: "No Creed but Christ". as of His party, in the midst of, and in opposition to,
They are not confessional Christians.. Over against          the world that is inxmical to God'".
them we  ure  confessional Christians, having a con-            II. That truth of the Absolute Sovereign Cod must
fession of centuries standing, that has withstood the        now be MAiINTAINED. The very fact that we speak
test of many battles throughout the history of the           of maintaining that truth, implies that it  .is being
Church, and that has never yet lost a battle. Upon           threatened from  every  side.  I And indeed it is. Not
this confession we as Christians stand. Secondly, we         only from the wicked world without. Surely the world
are CHRISTIANS, that is, we confess to be partakers          in genera1 hates that truth, for it is of darkness and
of Christ's anointing, and as such we believe, that our      hates the light. That world therefore seeks to seduce
confessions are based upon and taken from the whole          and tempt  us. away from that truth  where&r  and
revelation of Cod in Christ Jesus. The Bible is the. however it can, for the  simple reason that nothing
fountain from which springs the truth  ,of our con-          mihtates against the human nature of man as much
fessions.                                                    as  the truth we as Protestant Reformed youth confess.         \
    Thus we speak of not merely A TRUTH but of               Surely the world. would destroy that truth if God
THE TRUTH. Our peculiar world and Iife view is               permitted it.                                    I
not  mereiy a truth in distinction from many other              But that truth is also threatened from the side of
truths, but is THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH,                   the church-world. Various dangers confront us today.
AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH. The truth we                      The first danger we would point out to you is not neces-
are called .to maintain is ah-embracing, yet very dis- sarily in a  faise doctrine or teaching, but in' the very
tinct.       To give you an example. It may never be         tendency of the ,churches today to be apathetic toward
said that we as Protestant Reformed Christians empha- al1  sound doctrine. Specific truth and principle is
size the  -truth of particular grace for  &d's people        today .ignored  more than at any time in the history
alone,  and that the Christian Reformed young people of the church.  ,Over  against  .the truth the  church-
emphasize another truth, namely that of common world. has assumed the attitude of being neither cold
grace  for  ail'*men.  We must say that the truth of nor hot. It stands, without deeply rooted principles,
God's  particular  grace over His people is the truth        upon the standpoint of ancient Laodicea. .Tt is in
as it excludes any idea of common `grace over all men.       general self-satisfied, striving to be great and rich
`That is what we mean when we say that the truth in the eyes of all the world. And  .the youth. of that
we must maintain is distinct and yet all comprehensive.      church-world is developing ever more in that sinfu1
For that truth embraces all of ,Scripture,  the whole        direction.
revelation of Cod, beside which there is no truth'.              ,Secondly,  and in close connection with the first,
X11 else is the lie, and the darkness of human philo-        the church-world today is dominated by t.he one desire
sophy.                                                       to do things. The church-world is not  INactive,  but
    Your Federation of Protestant Reformed Young very active. It desires to do something, to be some-
People's Societies is therefore  also very distinctive.      thing. Zealous it is of many outward good works,
This distinction you have  ciearly  expressed in your such as the winning of sbuls; the civilization of man-
constitution adopted at your last convention.        For kind, or the false patriotism which forgets that Cod's
instance, in article two of that. constitution you state:    people.are  found in every nation, tribe and tongue,
"The underlying principle of the purpose of the Federa-          Finally, the church-world has fallen into many
tion as well as its attainment is the  infalIibIe Word of heresies, such as occasioned the expulsion of our Pro-
God  according to the Reformed conception of the same        testant Reformed people from the fellowship of the                  .
as  expressed in the Three  Forms  of Unity". Also  i,n      Christian Reformed Churches. Heresies that deny
article three parts  c and d you state: "To strive to        the divinity of Christ, or that  .the blood of atonement
maintain our specific Protestant Reformed character was vicarious, or the heresy "that makes of Christ a
with a  united  front", and *`to promote the `welfare beggar, begging you and I to come to Him and be
of the Protestant Reformed Churches in which we              saved.
have a name and a place"`. By that constitutional                Over against these tendencies and heresies we must
statement you immediately  placed  yourselves distinct maintain the truth with ail the power anti gifts Cod
from  alI other groups or organizations that do not
                               . .                           has given unto us,, Fiqt of aI1 we  `mu@ guard ap;ainst


514                                    T'HE  S T A N D A R D   R E A R E R

apathy or lukewarmness. We must desire sound doc- tween light and darkness and thus to walk worthy of
trine and seek  all the instruction possible. Instead of our calling.  Finaily,  it is profitable for reproof and
ignoring  principles'me  must love principles more than       correction, for that Word of God corrects us when we
anything and be zealous in. loving the truth. Only if stray into paths of darkness a&i sin, and as a shining
we keep ourselves in that first love to the truth, can        light it directs us in the way of God's covenant. Surely
we maintain the truth. Secondly, we must remember             that Word of God is the arsenal from which we receive
that over against the activity of the church-world            our equipment.
today, we too must be active, but in the cause of God.
We must be of His party. We must oppose all dark-                ln closing I may yet remark that that Word of Got1
ness, whether it comes from without the camp or from comes to furnish us, through various means which God
the fifth column within the camp. We must not be              has laid at our command. `Resides the means of the
active for the cause of humanity but for the cause            ministry of that Word in the church, we have our
of God's people and of the church of Jesus Christ in          societies.  .These societies should be militant organiza-
the midst of the world. Finally, we must be prepared tions for the ,maintainance  of the truth. They should
to be self-sacrificing. Maintaining the truth u-e will        be kept on a high spiritual plane and have as thei
not become big according to the standard of the world,        chief purpose always to  thoroughIy  furnish the youth
,but be insignificant in the eyes of men. We must be with `the truth. And in turn our societies have now
prepared to he tailed  by the world bigoted and narrow.       another means of thoroughly furnishing us, namely,
We must Abe prepared to fight, and not to play along the Beacon Lights. The Beacon Lights should be in
with the world as the church is doing all too much in every Protestant Reformed home, whether they have
our day and age. "Young men", writes the apostle,             young people or not. Our young people's societies,
"ye are strong and have overcome the evil one". This plus our `Beacon Lights must and can be a power for
is absolutely necessary with a view to the great  apos-       good in our churches, for is not that everlasting Word
tacy of our day and which is ,predicted  in Scripture,        of truth, the power of God unto'salvation for a11 those
as well as to the coming of the kingdom of our Lord           that believe?     Is that Word not the power before
Jesus Christ. We must maintain the truth as we have which the very devil, who fears nothing else, quakes?
received it, and love it, and confess it.       ;             That word brings him face to face with the omnipotent
                                                              God. Surely it may be said in this connection  what  the
       III. To be ableto accompiish  this purpose of main-    apostle James writes us : "We believe there is one God  ;
taining the truth, we must be thoroughly equipped; In the Devil'  b&eves also and trembles". It is with the
the war going on today in Europe and Asia, it is very         equipment of that Word that we can "resist the Devil
plain  thatthe army possessing the best of armaments and he will flee from you". He, nameiy, the Devil,
and weapons and equipment is the victor. No different cannot resist the truth. Our Saviour thrice resisted
it is in  ,the spiritual battle. We must be thoroughly        him in His temptation in the wilderness by the all-
equipped to maintain the truth.         And the arsenal       powerfu1  statement: "IT IS WRITTEN". For that
from which you draw. your equipment is aiways and             written Word was the power whereby all things that
alone THE WORD" OF GOD. That Word is God's                    are, were created. God spoke  ani3  it  came to "pass.
Word first of all because God is the sole author of           And even as God spoke in the week of creation, caus-
the Word. Everything in that word originates with ing all things to be, so God continuaily  speaks, also
Him. ;It?s His handiwork not-only ,but it is the revela-      today, causing a recreation, that shall by and by
tion- of Himself. God speaks in that Word of Himself.         fill the new heavens and the new earth, unto His glory
Secondly that Word of God as written by various men, and everlasting praise.
is inspired by I&m. He did not co-operate with holy
men to write nor did He in any way help them to write            Answering, to that marvelous calling, nameiy, of
rather correctly, but He solely authorized the Word, making the unchangeable Word of God, the four&-
inspiring holy men to write the will of God perfectly         tion of our Societies and our magazine, we wi!l per-
and correctly. So that the Word of God is our equip- haps not achieve' worldIy  success, but we will be greatly
ment, our chief weapon in the battle and our only blessed by our God from Whom all blessings flow. Our
strength and comfort.                                         societies and members- of our societies will continue to
                                                              grow in the grace and knowledge of our Saviour, and
   Therefore that Word of God is profitable for three
things. First of ail for doctrine. It is God's means to       instead of our churches iosing  their first Iove for the
furnish us thoroughly with the knowledge of the truth cause of our Covenant God, we will be evermore  faith-
overagainst the lie. Secondly, it is profitable for right- .ful unto the end, that ,no one taires our crown. Xay
eousneis,   because that Word applies to our-whole life,      God give us j!Iis grace'unto,  that end, so that we may
in our relations to God and also to one another, as well      be thoroughly equipped to main'tain  the truth at all
as to the world about us. It trains us to discern be-         times.                    -             1


                                                                                                                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             515  '


                                                                                                                                                *  c  *      ---by the Rev. J.  D. de  Jong

                                                                                                                             iMuch could be said about         And coming  to this  Gonvention  did we not  travel  tne
                      ,~ ..::..y ;`Z, >;z,;;:;;;d;>z~y  :
                           ./ ,...;.  .....
                                      ,,::;," . . i . . . . . . ,,...
                                                 . . . .../                                                                                                    same highways which are also travelled by the people
                                               ..,.,. ._,.. i ..,. j i  i,,...... ,..                                      the  sub.ject  assigned to me,
                                   `~~~~~"..  I. . ..+c>$ .&;.>p  `..'
                       :. .>& >f;:. /,,                            *                                                                                           of the world in general? Is it actually true that we are
                y,y .w.,:,., :                                                                                             because it is very  import-
           ;;,:::                 .'  "  `.                                      `p,*~<yf$.~>>                                                                 an isolated group of people? It would not seem SO.
         &                                                                                  v<.:<<;<pi:$<r
         >a.                                                                                EF&-                           ant, besides it is a very
     ;$                                                                                      .$g;y                                                             We are not living on a11 island surrounded by water.
    ,?.                                                                        ..,>+,yf~;$,,,,.gg$?,;
                                                                    L                       .Y#c$&y                        broad subject. when applied
    I                                                                         .,  .;L>>;;i+;c;c;;.>;,,                                                         On the contrary, at present we hold our Convention in.
    ..~ "  .,/
     ii . >>A. ..ii. :                              ,,. ,, ,i;;, ,.; :::, .$s?!:m~~~~
                       ,:q$$fz,. .,.  ../  ;_...;,,_... .i.,.+$;:~
                                               ..+~.$$~y..;;.. * ..~., +;;;*:~ +,+                                         to our Christian life. How-         the shadow of a great metropolis, where the world-
  :f$, ..$,`:_. ..:;L;t:~`g.:  ,... .:::,::::~..;r,.  .,., .,:.::. `-?w!+' .".
  .iF y ,,,, iw.r.AcA  "$g -F.&:z:.:  $vxw$~~: ":Tc;,
   &J$  `y$!!y ..,  .:.. .u,,:; .,I ,, i, ; ,p<:,:*::. ;                                                                                                       puise is throbbing.
           ,,.  ,.,..,  " .:.I, `;::                                                     `, ,;,;:~,:~~~~:~~`~  ., : I      ever, I fully realize that I
                                                                                                                         F am not the only speaker of            Let us approach our subject from a different angle,
                                                                                                                           the day ; my time is limited        and ask ourselves the question, what kind of a world
                                                                                                                           and so is  ?our patience.           are we living in from a spiritual-ethical point of view?
                                                                                                                           Furthermore, I aiso realize         The answer is, we live in a sinful world; In a world
                                                                                                                           ihat  1  &  speaking  to  Pro-      "&at lives out of the principle of sin and is dominated
                                                                                                                           testant   Reformed   youlfg         by the Prince of darkness. The world has always been
                                                                                                                           peopIe*   This  mkes   my           wicked, nor is it necessary for me to giveaa  long list of
                                                                                                                            I would like to emphasize           present evils to prove that the  worId of our day is
                                                                                                                          ust consider it a great prjvi-       extremely wicked. Sin has developed throughout the
lege that you are Protestant Reformed young people.                                                                                                            ages, is increasing by leaps and bounds, is rapidly ap-
You  are instructed and trained in the most thorough                                                                                                           proaching its climax of iniquity which is  tobe reached
Reformed conception of the truth of the Word of God.                                                                                                           in the days of Antichrist. To illustrate with a few
The Lord in His providence has brought you into homes                                                                                                          examples that we live in a very ungodly, wicked world,
and churches where  IIis Word is taught and preached                                                                                                           let me tail your attention to some of the outstanding
and believed along the strictest Reformed lines. But                                                                                                           evils of the day. Look about you in the realm of inter-
this great privilege also carries with it tremendous                                                                                                           national relations and you will see how that nation is
responsibilities, as you undoubtedly know and as I.                                                                                                            rising up against nation, `how that a bloody war is
holje to point out in the sequence. "Noblesse  oblige",                                                                                                        raging in many parts of the world. Thousands upon
nobility obliges.                                                                                                                          _                   thousands of young men, just as'lively  and healthy and
                              . - . . . ._
                I  wnsn to emphasize  the foilowing three main                                                                                                 enthusiastic as you are, full of ideals'and  hopes, are
thoughts under my general theme:                                                                                                                               *butchered on the battlefields, wallowing in their blood,
                                                                                                                                                               or. maimed and crippled for life. Wars are fought
                                     i. 0u.r Isolation as Such. _                                                                                              on an unprecedented scale. Why? The  answer is:
                                  i1. The implications  fog our  Life.                                                                                         Sin ! Greed ! Godlessness ? Think of the many evils
                           III.  The  Pregkiztion  for our Task.                                                                                               in the political life in the high places of our govern-
                                                                                                                                                               ment. *God's  law is transgressed, IIis `Word ignored,
I. Our Isolation as Such.                                                                                                                                      His majesty defied as  never before.
                It might be  weil to ask ourselves the question; what                                                                                              Our social and economic life is corrupted to the
does the word "isolation" mean? If you look up this                                                                                                            core. Divorces are on the increase, the home is de-
ward  in the dictionary, you will find that the word                                                                                                           stroyed, bestiality is extolled as free love. Life is so
isolate comes from the Italian word "isolate"  or "isola",                                                                                                     full of. greed and' corruption that one wonders that
and means island. Hence we can easily understand there still can be found superficial idealists whose aim
how that the word isolate, when  metaphorically.used,                                                                                                          it is to make this  world,  an ideal place to live or even .
in course of time got the meaning of being placed in a                                                                                                         gain it for Christ. Blind leaders of the blind ! They
detached situation. An island is detached from the                                                                                                             do not realize that Christ does not want thb world.
mainland: it is a tract of land surrounded by water.                                                                                                           In the field of education the situation is no better. Our
To be isolated, therefore, means to be detached from                                                                                                           public schools, generally speaking, according to the
the rest, be different from the rest, occupy a particular,                                                                                                     testimony of men who know, are inculcating into the
unique piace.  _                                                                                                                                               children of our nation the principles of Atheism.
                Speaking of our Christian isoiation, and now I have                                                                                            People who are in a position to know, tell us that our
you, young people, in mind, it means that you occupy a colleges and universities are breeding places of iniquity.
very particular, unique place in the  worid,  you are                                                                                                          In various foreign countries, I am particularly think-
detached. isolated from the rest of the world. What                                                                                                            ing of National Socialism and Communism, the situa-
do we mean by this? Do  w& not wear the same clothes, tion is no better. The youth of the nations are taught
eat the same bread? breathe the same air as the world?                                                                                                         to deify their leaders and to glorify the State. And


 8516                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R              s

 the church? Alas! many church denominations have going imply? To say it briefly, but to the point, it
 embraced the new. doctrine_ of the social gospel. A             implies that you must live your own God-willed, nar-
 gospel without the blood of atonement, without Christ row, strictly Galvinistic, Scriptural, Protestant Re-
 and God.        And the subsequent result is that many          formed life. That this is your God-given calling can
 churches are but mere tools in the hand of the anti-            be abundantly proven from Scripture. I lack the time
 Christian powers to realize the kingdom of antichrist to do this, but permit me to quote a few verses from
 himself. There is, generally speaking, among those              II Corinthians 6, which is very clear on this matter.
 who call themselves Christians, lack of spiritual know-         Here we read, verses  14 through 18: "Be ye not
 ledge, faith, love. Particularly the youth in an ever-          unequally. yoked together with unbelievers ; for what
 increasing number turn their back to the church.                fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
 Is this the great apostasy of which Scripture speaks? and what communion hath light with darkness? And
 We could mention more present day evils. We could               what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part
 point to the evil of the worldly unions, of Sabbath             hath he that,  believeth with an infidel? And what
 desecration, of the pleasure madness of the general             agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye
 public, the great evil of movies and theatres, but let          are the temple of the living God ; as God hath said,
 the. former suffice.      1 think  T have given clear and       I will dwell in them, and walk in them ; and I will be
 convincing proof of the statement that our present day          their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore
 world is more evil, more corrupt than ever before.              come out from among them, and be, ye separate, saith
         In this world you-young people live. And in this the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; I will re-
 world you must live, live as a detached group. You              ceive you, and I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall
must be an isolated group in this world. Do not mis- be `my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
 understand me, your isolation does not consist in this,         Don't you think with me that Scripture here is clear
 that you must withdraw from the world and literally and sheds a flood of light upon the subject we are dis-
 move out of the world, and perhaps congregate on a cussing?                Now what does all this imply respecting
 small island in the Pacific. That is called Anabaptistic,       our every day, practical life? Jt means that in all your
 and we  are. no Anabaptists. Xo, presently we all go            life's activity you must walk as spiritually distinct
 again to our respective homes, wherever our homes               from the world, and as isolated youth. You may
 may be, and there we are' isolationists.                        not compromise with the world, you  may not  seek
         Again, your isolation does not consist in this, that    the world, your actions- may never be determined
 you may never come in contact with the persons and              by the guiding principles of the world. You must
 things of--the  world. You must drive the same make always disagree with the world, stand opposed to
 of cars, use the  same  highway, walk on the same streets the world, condemn the world. Or to say it in still
 as the children of the world do. Again, you must wear more positive terms, you must be Protestant Reformed
 the same clothes, eat the same food, and do the same            in all your life, your conceptions, your attitude, your
 work the world does. There  are  not Protestant Re- speech, your work, your play, your walk. ' Your life
 formed cars, -highways, sidewalks, dresses, or over- must be a constant testimony to the fact that you are
 coats, etc. Still more, often you work at the same of the party of the living God. And whenever you do
 bench, in the same office,' on the same farm with the err, and we all do, and join hands with the world, the
 people of the world. And all this is as it should be.           trumpet sound of God's Word calls us to repentance.
 ;It is perfectly legitimate.                                    For God speaks, "Wherefore come out from among
         No, your isolation is a spiritual  isolation. That them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and-touch not
 is to say, while the world lives out of the principle of        the unclean thing and I will receive you." The one
 sin and uses all things to promote its own selfish, sin-        dominating principle in your life must be, how can
. ful interests,,you  must live out of the principle of'grace    I please God, what does the Lord demand of me, what
 and live according to the unchangeable criterion of             is  33s. will? Apply that principle in every sphere,
 the Word of God. You must live out of the antithesis!           domain and situation of life; then act as God de-
 Why? Because you are by the grace of God and in                 mands.
 His providence and according to His very Word, a                   `Perhaps I had *better tell you, too, that it is ex-
 spiritually isolated people. When you were born and             tremely diflicult to live this Jife of spiritual isolation.
 baptized you were separated to `the service of God, to          Difficult for various reasons. First of al& it is always
 be of the  party  of the living God, to be a peculiar easiest to walk the way  ,of least resistance, and most
 people. All this you know, and all this can be abun-            peopie  follow this course. Furthermore, the more you
 dantly proven from Scripture.                                   live out of the principles  of the Word of God, the more
                                                                 the world will oppose you, and hate you, and persecute
 II. The  Implications for Our life.                             you. You will not gain the world, but you  ,will reap
         That brings up the question, what does all the fore-    the wrath of the world. It is also extremely difhcult


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           617

because of our sinful inclinations, the old man of sin were drafted already by God when you were born and
dwelling within us. `It is still more diflicult because baptized. He demands you for His service, and YOU
we are Protestant Reformed.         Protestant Reformed must consciously take that obligation upon you.
people draw the lines of demarcation very sharply,                  Gradually we are ptished to the front. As the oldel
because the Lord has granted them a vivid, a clear               ones pass on we take their places and must hold high
insight into the Word of His truth. We are not broad-            the Protestant Reformed banner, the banner of the
minded, we are narrow-minded. Too narrow-minded? truth, -fight the spiritual battle, live the antithesis,
too consistent? too particular? No, Scripture is our             be a spiritually isolated people. What is necessary for
guide, the Word of God our criterion.                            our training? How must we prepare? To be able to
   And finally in this connection it also might be well          fight the enemy you must know him, his tactics, his
to speak a word of encouragement to you. Remeniber approximate strength, How do we learn to know the
always-We have a God who is Almighty, the in- enemy? From the Word of God  snd life itself. We
exhaustible fountain of all strength.          It is in  Ifis    must live along with the times, understand the signs
power that we do and can fight this spiritual .battle,           of the times, our present day world. We also must
and  live our life of Christian  iso!ation.      Remember know ourselves, our weaknesses, our limitations, and
also that in our Christian isolation lies our strength.          our  st?ength.  How do we know? From  the,Word   qf
And even though our position seems to be hopeIess,  the          God. By, diligent self-examination and knowIkdge  0.f
struggle impossible, ours is the victory in Christ, now self. How do we know what our  ipolation  imp'ies?
in principle, ultimately in the day of Christ. And He            How can we apply the principles of isolation to the
who overcometh will receive the crown of glory.                  various spheres and circumstances of life? The answer
                             `.                                  is, by knowing the Word of God. In brief, to be
III. The Preparation for Our Task.                               thorouihly  equipped, to live the life of Christian isola-
   Lastly, bow about the preparation for this task               tion we must know the Protestant  Reformed  truth. . .
of living our own spiritually isolated life? For even I  cou&el you:                Study the Word of God faithfully;
though it is our calling'now  already to live and walk           diligently, individually and collectively. And here is
as a spiritually isolated people, it will become our where your society can be of tremendous importance
task in an ever-increasing measure as we grow old&               to you. Use all the God-given means at your command
and take our places in the front ranks of the army of to become thoroughly equipped, your calling is and
the living God. -We should be equipped for this task,            will be increasingly difficult. I know from experience
don't you think so? If you choose a particular vocation that active membership in your society is a great help
in life you prepare for it. You are traine'd  with a view to you' to become prepared for your task. May God
to it. At present hour boys are trained in the army for          bless your societies, your organization! -Whether  we
combat duty. Now you may not like the idea of being are to keep a Protestant Reformed church wilI depend,
a soldier, of having your friend, brother or loved one           under the blessing of God, upon what you do today,
drafted for army service, but you know as well as I do,          tomorrow and in the days of your youth.
if war should come,  our young men will do the fighting.
It stands to reason, the better they  Bre trained and the              "How shall the young direct their way?
more thoroughly they,  ,are . equipped, the better  they                 What light shall  be-their  perfect guide?
wills be able to fight and to stand their own ground                     Thy Word, 0 Lord, will safely lead,
overagainst the enemy. Would it not be very cruel to                     If in its wisdom they confide.
send a group of raw recruits without any adequate                        Upon Thy precepts and Thy ways
equipment against a modern, up-to-date and fully                         My heart will meditate with awe;
equipped enemy force? This is but a picture of the                       Thy Word wiil be my chief delight,
spiritual reality i` am talking about. Remember, there                   And I will not forget Thy law."
is no `if' about this spiritual battle.        You are  .a11
draftees. You all must fight. And he who does not
tight is a deserter and has run over to the camp- of
the enemy. It is either, or, for or against. Well, ho'w          The Board, representing the Federation of Young
are we to be prepared for our task, thoroughly equip-            People's Societies, wishes to thank the Publishers of
ped ? For this is necessary a thorough training at               The Standard Bearer for their kind generosity in mak-
home, in school, in church, yes, but because of our              ing this issue of their paper available to commemorate
age we must be willingly, activeIy and consciously .en-          the Third Annual Young Peoples' Convention. We
gaged in self-trainin-g, seif-discipline,  self-instiuction.     appreciate this gesture of true cooperation, believing
Under guidance and supervision, certainly, but never- it is an indication of real interest in our Federation.
theless so, that we are an army of volunteers and that           We  also wish to thank the  iMinisters and various con-
we  ail enroll. Don't wait until  yau  are  drafted. You tributors for permission to publish their material.

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



                                       The subject which was         There may be different answers to this question. In
                                                                     the main there will be at least two different answers.
                                     given me is; "Thoroughly                                    \
                                                                     The man of the world will have his own answer. OLII
                                     Equipred  in Our Peculiar       answer  will necessarily be different than the answer of
                                     Times". The subject "Thor-      the world.      It is  necessariiy  so because we view
                                     oughly Equipped" is  t?lc       all things and evaluate them from the vantage point
                                     main t!leme of this conven-     of the Word of God. We must  always  take God's
                                     tion and the keynote speak-     Word as a guide to evaluate the present deveiopments.
                                     er likely has given a rather       Probably the first thing that we  a!1 think of when
                                     complete analysis of that       we would give an answer to our question, is was, the
                                     subject. ft is therefore not    peculiar war which is raging in different places  in the
                                     necessary for me as fourth      world and in which our country is taking an increasing
                                     speaker, of your convention     share. When we mention war we mean of course all
                                     to elaborate upon that part that is connected with it.. Connected with the present
                                                                     war must be the change in power, the change in politi-
                              ..I    of my subject, namely, to       cal ideas, the attendant destruction  o'f life, of property,
  esplain what constitutes our being thoroughly equip-               of liberty and happiness. The gloomy aftermath of
  ped.      `Rather do I understand  my  task as fourth              war must also .be included when we speak of war.
  speaker to characterize the times in which we live,                After the red horse comes the black and the pale horses.
  to show what is peculiar about them, to show thereby               No doubt future historians will characterize the period
  another emphasis upon the main theme of the eon-                   in which we are now living as a period of war.
  vention.                                                              But, that is not a sufficient answer. There has
        I shall therefore first of all speak to you about            always been war. We must be more specific and men-
  our peculiar times in order then to conclude with some             tion what is peculiar about this war.
  remarks about our being thoroughly equipped.                          We do not point to the peculiarity of this war when
        When we speak about our times,  I think it  was  the         we point to the peculiar causes. No doubt a cause
  intention of the committee, who gave this subject, to              lies in the Versailles treaty. Much  also lies at  the
  be the times in which you and I-are   rulzu living. We             feet of the present ruler of Europe, the dictator of
do not  ~%a% a general reference to  our modern time                 Germany. Be is  ,fuR of lust for power and fanatic
  in distinction from the medieval or ancient time. Ear              idealism to establish a world order in which.the  Aryan
  do. we mean the time of our fathers and grandparents.              race has the upper hand. Yet, whatever the cause or
  We mean our time, the time of you and me as young                  the causes are, it does not explain what is peculiar
  people. who must face a different world than the world             about the present war. History  is' full of wars of
  of ten years ago. It is the time in which we now live,             aggression, and speaks of many such despots who
  into  ,which  we are  .just  emerging.        Not many of us       lusted for power and almost did attain world power.
  remember the iast world war ;. not many of us were so              It does not explain the peculiarity because at  "the bot-
  deeply concerned with the last depression. Now that                tom of it al1 is the root siti and the sin that deveiopkd
  is so different, Now we must take our places in the                in mankind. War is hatred and the result .of sin. So,
  army of laborers, which has its own peculiar  diffi-               no matter how we would seek out the causes and the
  cui ties : we must take our  piaces in the army of                 explanations of the present war we would not have
  leaders; and we must take our  places in the armed                 really progressed much in an explanation of the
  forces of the country to defend it. We are being in-               peculiarity of the present  war.
  ducted into peculiar times.                                            Nor  would it be correct to say that our time and
          Our subject calls for  a discussion of our Times.          our war is pecuiiar  because `we livePin  a time of un-
  It is not worded in the singular, our time. Why so?                declared warfare.
  We speak of our times because of the many changes                      Probably a more correct,  answer lies in the speed
  that are taking place. The scene changes every day.                and the scope `of the present conflict.        Our war is
  Every month something new has happened and is                      different than al1 other wars because of the speed of
  happening. Because `of the swiftly changing scene of the confli'ct, because of mechanized forces, tanks and,
  tour time we speak of our times.                                   guns, because,of  aerial warfare, the bombing of civilian
          The important question before us now is. what is           popuiations.     Besides the speed of the war itself,
  peculiar about our times? What is that which is char-              of the different campaigns, this world war appeared
  acfezistic of  our time in distinction from the past.               so soon after the  last war. We are living in a  time


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        519

          of war. Also because  of the scope, the fact that wars There is a falling away from the truth and the man
          are total in scope, we can say they are peculiar. .Every     of sin is being revealed. Many antichrists are appear-
          war seems to effect the whole world of nations. Each ing.
          natioli considers that its interests are involved. There-       Nations are avowedly atheistic and  are attempting
          fore, because of the total scope we can see that there to wipe out the knowledge and the worship of God.
          me more seeds of  war  sown. There are more wars in Even in our  Iand where there is the freedom of worship
          the  oiYing.  Man cannot achieve  Fence  through war.        there is the definite sign of apostasy everywhere.
          That is the attempt. Every. nation seeks to establish Anyone who believes in God and His Word has free-
          a world order for itself, and foolishly visualizes that      dom yet, but it is increasingly plain that the true
          it can be achieved through war. The only result of worship of God is subject to all kinds of ridicule. I f
          snch sinful. unrighteous warfare is more war.        We one believes in the Word  of God he is  calIed old
          are  living in suck pecuiiar times as were predicted by fashioned, confessionaiist, Biblicist,  Anabaptist.  Be-
          Jesus. "There shall b.e war and rumor of war". That          sides there are the trends of unionism and collectivism
          is plainly indicated in this present peculiar war. There and the disregard of the Sabbath, not to speak of the
          may be an apparent lull in the conflict when ihe world       iack of righteousness and the immorality in our Iand
          power achieves its high point  .of power in the man of which places it also in the class of those who care not
          sin. Nevertheless, we can plainIy see from present about God's Word., Leaders and teachers and preachers
          history that there shall be nb end to war which, is the      of our l&nd are preaching nothing else than a social
          result of sin until the coming of our  L&d Jesus             gospel of man and are looking  fortiard  to a world
          Christ.                         *.                           order. of p&ace and prosperity which'shall be establish-
             There is something else that is peculiar of our times ed out of the efforts of man himself. This is humanism
          which really has made our war peculiar. That is the          taught in most of the modern churches. They speak
          fact that we are living in the time which has reaped         of Christ, but it is as Jesus said, they shall say here is
          the results of the inve&ive  genius of the past and is       Christ and there is Christ, follow not after them.
        s  still developing. Our whole life is mechanized, We             It is true there  always  has been  a,postasy. Yet
          are living in a machine age or, as someone now ex- never has there been the degree that there is today.
          plains, in the power age: We are highly developed            Everything has had its influence upon our time. The
          scientifically and industrially. Ever since the Industrial mixture of all the influences has produced the pecuiiar
          .RevoEution  our age has been different than the previous    result,  our  peculiar times. There has alwavs been war.
          ages; `Et almost seems that we have reached the. &it afid there has always been, the development in science
        . of development. There will be some advancement  and ever since the son; of Lamech,  and so too 2-here  has
         change to-b& sure. Yet it almost seems as if that  will       always been a falling away from the truth. Neverthe-
          not be essential. Man can travel at a-tremendous rate less, when all these are put together in the peculiar
         of speed,,across  country, through the air, and can trans- amount that they are  +&day, the  resrlit   rs entirely
          mit his  voice  throughout the  worid.   We  await  onlv `different. Just as you can put a certain amount of
         the perfection of.aU the inventions of man. The present       chemicals together and the result is perfectly harmless.
          war is speeding that up  aho. Tt is  detiitely discern- But put the same  par&z together in different amounts
         able that man will do wonders. Man has at his com-            and the result is entirely different too, a  v&y danger-
          mand now the. mighty force of nature which he has ous explosive product.
         stildied  for so long a time, and has discovered many of         The false doctrine, the unbelief, and the lie is potent
          its secrets  that he will be able to perform many won- in our times. The devil goeth about as a roaring lion
          ders. X-Ie wiil be able to deceive many.                     seeking whom he may devour.          The devil and. the
             Though we can point to the  peculiatity  of the pre- <world, strange as it may seem are thoroughly equipped.
          sent war and aXso the `underlying peculiarity of our It is more thoroughly equipped than eyer before. And,
         scientific age, which shows that we are living in th'e        the very real danger is that these force;; of evi1 are
          last days, in the eIeventh  hour, that js not the pecuiiar- brought to our very door, into our very homes. Not
          +.v that  should receive emphasis at this  convention.       dnIy has the world developed in sin but it has .becotrn
         That is not the danger for the cliurch. Because there         so dangerous  for the church by its  ciose  proximity. It
         `shall be wars and rumors of  w&i-s,  and because of the is close to us in its paners and magazines, in the radio,
          wonders of the present age, we are not admonished to and in the close association of modern life. The world
          watch and pray, to put 01: the whc'r! armor of God.          has beco'me more one unit. And,  we are  chi!dren  of
         There is something else which is -rrcu`liar of our times,     our time.
          which the Bib& teIls us also shail be peculiar of our           The  result is  seen too. No longer  is there a clear
         times,                                                        line of difference between t$.e church and t,he world.
             That which is peculiar of our times and which iS          Even our own  people have shown the effects  of this
         a grave danger for us as people of God is the apostasy.       close contact. You and I are not immune .to the in-
                                                                          `
-1.1


 520                                      ThiE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R  '

 fluences. because of our sinful nature. Many of our                shall be saved". Jesus said, "T&  is t.he victory that
 people do not see the,differenee.     We do not only dress overcometh the -world,  even our faith."
 like the world, we talk and act like it too. The church               All these objections do not hold against the apostle
 is fallitig away. Many individuals are falling away.               Paul. The knowledge he refers to includes faith and
 Many of our friends, those who were brought up with                is spiritual saving knowledge. He speaks to the man
 us in the church, in the very Reformed truth that we               of Gob that he may increase yet- more and more ino
 confess have fallen out and are falling away. Because              knowledge of the?%riptures.    Faith and knowledge arc
 of that peculiar apostasy that we see among us the                 cioseiy related, in fact faith is a certain knowledge and
 necessity of the admonition is, greater, watch and pray            a hearty confidence. Our knowledge must be rooted in
 that ye enter not into temptation. Because of our own faith. That is the idea of the apostle when he speaks
 nature there is the same  puil in us towards the world             of knowfedge.     The world attacks our faith. In
 away from God. When we see so many being pulled every form and place the attack is made. To be thor-
 into the world we know' that the danger is increasing              oL;ghly  equipped we must have `that faith in the Word
 and that our times are ,I:eculiar  because of that apos-           of God.    When the world presents its theories of
 tasy. Now, more than ever before, we must be thor-                 evolution and denies the miracles we must be equipped
oughly  equipped to fight the good fight of faith.                  with faith that we may not be tossed about, that we
        We are not called upon to fight with  weanons of            may believe .in the Creator and in the wonders of His
 earthly might, not with swords, nor outward power grace. We must believe that  God gave  His Son Jesus
 of  force. Our  w?apon  must be spirituai.                         Christ for the remission of our sins.
                                                                       Besides, that knowledge is hope. Though there is
        What is that  spiritua1  weapon? It is  kno\yIedge.         danger, though the times are peculiar, if we have the
 That is what the apostle Paul emphasized. 1.n his letter           hope of, salvation we shall be thoroughly equipped,
 to Timothy after he described our times, that men shall            f'illed with watchful confidenck.  Be not afraid, though
 be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, prou$           heaven and earth  pass away,. God's Word of promise
 blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, un- sh?ll not pass away. That promise of perfect salvation
 holy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false shall be realized. Our knowledge tiust be a-hope in the
 accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that             fulfillment of the promise of God in Christ Jesus.
 are good, traitors, heady, highminaed,  lovers of pfea-            Exactly that is the attempt of the world. Not  .only
 sures more than  layers of God, having the form of does it attack our faith in the work of God in'creation
 godliness, but denying the power thereof, and warns ,and salvation in Jesus Christ, but it also attacks our
 to turn away from such, he explains that all  S:riptare            hope in His Second Con&g, which is for us the finai
 is given-by-inspiration of  Cdd, and is profitable for             manifestation of our salvation. The world mocks with
 doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction the taunt, where is the sign of His coming. Just as'
 in righteousness, that the `man of God may be nerfect,             in the days of Noah, they scoff that the world con-
 throughly  furnished unto  a11 good works. Often he                tinues as it always did from the beginning. So they
 tells the churches that-it is his prayer that they in-             eat, drink and are merry. They even proudIy  speak
 crease in wisddm and spiritual knowledge.                          of a new order to be established here. The Word of
        In his letter to the Philippians.Paul  says, "And this      God indicates an apparent realization of this vain hope
 I pray, that your love may abound yet more  and.more               of the world. That "is peculiar about our times. But,
 ill   knowledge  and in all judgment." Therefore it is             God has also written over everything, MENE, MENE,
 plain that we must. have knowledge to be  thoroughIy               TEKEL, UPHARSIN. Ours is the victory if we are
 equipped Christians.                                               equipped with faith and hope rooted in love. That is
        If you do not understand what Paul means by                 the knowledge given us by God to stand in this. evil
 knowledge you may be confused. You may question                    day.- It is the. perfect knowledge of faith, hope, and
 whether that is correct, that knowledge can be our only love  wh.ich shall endure into all eternity.
 weapon.       You  may  object  thtit many of our fellow
 church:members  had knowledge too. En fact they were                                       NOTICE ,
 sometimes the brightest in our catechism class. They                  The knnual R.F.P.A. (Standard Bearer) meeting
 were educated in the doctrines of the Word. Yet they wiil be held on Thursday, September 25, at  8:OO  p.m.
 left and fell away and denied the truth of the Word                Everybody is welcome. Rev. M. Schipper  will deliver
 o f   God. You may also object that this is  esact-                a speech, and matters of importance will be discussed.
 ly the worldly "philosophy  _ of Socrates who said Three neqv board members must be elected' from the
 knowiedge is virtue. k-41.1  may go still further and              foIlowing  nomination : A. Dykstra. 0. Faber, G. Koster,
 explain that even in the Scriptures there are the                  R. Newhouse, R. Schaafsma, and  B. Woudenberg.
 statements that faith is the essential thing.           .It; is       Agents will- be  present  to receive membership and
 stated, "Beiieve on the `Lord Jesus Christ- and' you subscription  fees at 7:X -                            The Board.


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D R E A R E R                                                                521


                     .     #     0    -4~ Walter  Hofmn,  Gmnd  Rapids.

         Speaking not only for myself but for all the newly          of the Federation for the past two years. Congratu-
     elected officers and the entire board of the Federation,        lations and thanks to you both.
     we wish to thank you for the honor  ,you have con-                  I close with a personal wish for you all that God
     ferred upon us in choosing us to be your leaders.               may bless you individually and collectively as societies.
     We'consider  it an honor for we feel that it is an indica-      I hope that we may all meet again, the Lord willing, at
     tion that you have confidence in our ability. We shall          the Fourth Annual Convention to be held at Roosevelt
     strive to live up to the reputation you have given us by        Park. Begin to plan now to come !
     conducting ourselves as worthy servants.                                                            -      -
         In order that this .may be accomplished we need
     your wholehearted support. Not  only  of the delegates
     here present, nor yet of the members of the societies
     which you represent but ,the cooperation of our Pro-
     testant Reformed people everywhere ; both- young and                                                       At  dswn,  on Sabbath morning,
     old. We as board, are confident that this. support shall                                                 September 7, it  plessed  ~the Lord
     be realized if you as delegates, upon returning to your                                                  to take unto Himself from a-
     respective homes, will spread through your societies                                                     mong us, out mutual friend John
                                                                                       I-`:,.
     and congregations that spirit of genuine enthusiasm                                                      Vander Tuuk, at the youthful
     and inspiration which has permeated  all of our meet-                                                    age of 23 years.  We may  all
     ings here at Oak Lawn. That. is your duty                                                                be comforted in our sincere be-
                                                          for you
     have been chosen for the privilege of attending this                                                     lief that John was thoroughly
     convention in order that you may return and bring a                                                      equipped to meet his Master,
     "good report" which shall stir the hearts of those who                                                   Whom he had faithfully served
                                                                                                              and  honored through 8 steadfast
could not meet with us. Let's all do our duty!                                                                walk  in Life. He was ever con-
         We are all in the army. We belong to that mighty                                                     scious of his obligation to fight
     force that is  ied by the King Eternal ! And just as it                                                  the good fight  and  r;ut on the
     is true  Cat the military organization which is marked                                                   whole  armour  of God. Blessed
                                                                                                              are they which die in the Lord.
     by unity of purpose and cooperation of individuals is                                                      The memory' of John will re-
     most likely ta reach its objective so we too only in that                                                main impressed upon us for the
     way shall accomplish our purpose. This -is true of              part he took in Federation activities. In 1939 he was  8 delegate
     our individual society endeavors but especially ,so of          to the organizing convention at South Holland. In addition,
     our joint projects.  H have in mind particularly our            last year he was 8 member of the host committee of Fuller  Ave.
                                                                     This, year again  Fuljer  Ave. Young Men's Society expressed
     Federation publication+eacon  Lights. Even though               its confidence i,n John by appointing him delegate to the Third
     you have delegated power to the board to conduct the            Convention.        Also he had won the approval and admiration
     affairs of Beacon Lights that does not mean that it             of his fellow society members for his loyalty to the Reformed
     is their project  aione.  Definitely not! We must  al1          Truth.
     realize that it belongs to each one of us individually.             May the God of all grace comfort the parents and family
     %hat means, of course, that we must all feel personally         with the assurance that to him that overcometh is given the
                                                                     crown of  Bfe.
     responsible for its success.                                                   Perhaps we cannot always see
         Working individually yet with one aim and pur-                             The Master's way  whate'er  may be
     pose, we too shall reach our objective both as societies                       Perhaps we cannot always pray
     and as a Federation. Always we must be led on by                               Thy will be done from day to day
                                                                                    But this we know and must confess
     that King Eternal whom we praised so often when                                .The  Lord performs His righteousness
     we sang our theme song in these last two days. He                                              THE FEDERATION BOARD.
     shall surely guide our steps aright and being led by                                           -                 -
     Him we  ,may rest assured that in the coming year we                The Young Men's Society of the First Protestant Reformed
shall become more `thoroughly equipped'.                             Church expresses its heartfelt sympathy to the parents and
         I wish, also, to take this opportunity to thank our family of
     retiring board members. I am sure we all sincerely                                          JOHN VANDER TUUK
     appreciate the splendid leadership. they offered. We                May the Lord comfort the hearts of the bereaved.                         !
     1 feel that we shall have  to go a  Iong way if we  are to                                          The Young  -3ien's  Society.
     approach the efllciency with which our retiring presi-                                                          A.  Haan, Pres.
_ dent and secretary conducted so successfully the affairs                                                           J. Van  `Weeiden,  Sec'y.
_


,522                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                                                                  _
                                                      ressions

                                                                       .  . l  --hy Gertrude  V&dcr   Guyten,  Kalamazoo.
        Our host, the Young People"s  Society of the Pro-     "more thoroughly equipped" to perform the duties
testant Reformed Church of Oak Lawn, may be assure4           which lay before us in this world of sin and destruc-
that,  as they wished, all of us enjoyed our stay among       tion.
them and that we left the Convention being spiritually            I felt that the business and genera1  ,procedures  of
edified and the more "thoroughly equipped" unto our           the Convention were well organized and planned. Our
task and  tailing in iife. We may  truly say that the         officers managed the affairs very efficiently and  skiil-
Convention was a grand success.                               fuily, for it certainly was no small task to accomplish
        I was strongly impressed by the genuine spirit of     as much as was done in the time allotted.             A few
unity. -Whomever I met, and wherever  I went,  I              things might have been improved somewhat, but these
realized that we were all members of one large PYO-           were scarcely remedial, consequently such matters will
testant Reformed family gathered together from far            remain a problem for future Conventions which will
and near to become more  YhoroughIy  furnished unto           probably be expanding into many other fields of activi-
alI;*good  works" and to bring back the messages and          ty. I did feel, however, that Rev. De Jong's address,
instruction, the enthusiasm and good spirit to those          "Our Christian Isolation" was somewhat slighted be-
members of our societies who were unable to attend            cause of lack of time. I realized that these thought-
the Convention. What an encouragement it was for              provoking speeches provide such fertile soil for general
our cause to see some of our young people gladly  travel      discussion that consequently sufficient time is hardly
,from  as far away as  iManhattan  to attend our Con-         available for all of them. Also, because of limited time,
vention ! Yet, I was somewhat disappointed that more          much business which was  ,comparatively  new and
of `our young people from out West could not attend           strange to many of us, seemed to be conducted rather
the Convention. I hope that plans can be formulated           rapidly without much time for proper consideration.
whereby they will also become members of our Federa-          Our president often wondered why more delegates
tion, thus uniting all Protestant Reformed Young              did not speak up, but most were very busy trying to
People; for in unity there is strength.                       digest all what was being said so promptly by others,
        The-peopie  who received us into their homes not      who were better acquainted with the matters in ques-
only provided for us a place to eat and sleep, but also       tion. Again I say, this is a very difficult situation to
received us into their family circles. They were inter- be remedied.
ested  in  our  probIems and activities. To be sure, they         Kow fittingly the banquet closed the activities
did their utmost to make our stay in their midst a most       of the Convention ! The peppy song-service, the ani-
pieasant one. I cannot express my gratitude  enough?,         mated debate (on an undebatable issue), the entertain-
but I do hope that I may welcome them in iike manner          ing musical selections, the supper itself, and the most
in years to come.                                             interesting address of Rev. Doezema rounded out the
. . : Furthermore, I was thoroughly pleased to see so activities to a spirited climax.
many ministers interested in our activities. Whereas              After all was over, I was indeed happy to have
only two `were our advisors, nevertheless, many others        attended the Convention, but I was sorry that it was
enthusiastically attended our meetings and expressed          finished this year. I would have liked to have the
their opinions  freeIy  at afl times.                         Convention last a week, although I felt that WC had
        How  smaothly and completely the Convention theme     crammed  a  week's activities into those two days, and
"Thoroughly Equipped" was carried out ! How appro-            it would have been too much work for a host society
priate was the theme song "Lead On, 0 King Eternal"!          to have us all for a whole week. I am patiently, yet
The introductory address of Rev. Hoeksema, "Thor-             hopefully waiting, the Lord willing, to attend next
oughly Equipped", opened the field of discussion in           year's Convention at Roosevelt Park.
general.. The following speeches, "Defending the                                           -
Truth', "Our Christian Isolation" and "Watchful Con-
fidence in Our Peculiar Times", carefully treated the                                CLASSIS EAST
theme from more specific points of view. How fittingly
such a theme adapted itself to the militaristic spirit of     will meet in regular session Wednesday, October  1, at
"our peculiar times". By applying these  taIks to our- 9:OO a. m. at Fuller Ave.
selves, we  were  able to say that we  Ieft the Convention                                             D. Jonker, S. 6.


                                      THE STANDARD BEARER                                     '         :                523


                                                              .  .      -by  Peternella   Pmrtinga,   Squ.th Holland.
   The 1941 Convention of our Protestant Reformed             Hoeksema, the first evening of the convention, on the
Youth convened a few weeks ago at Oak Lawn, Illinois.         convention theme, "Thoroughly Equipped" was both
This greatest  inspirationai  gathering of our young          edifying and instructive.             We noted especially the
people leaves with us many lasting impressions. After presence of many of our parents, showing that they
meeting together for two days we have come to the             too, are interested in our activities. On the following
co-nclusion  that these conventions are most ideal hap-       day three more speeches developed the theme from the
penings in the lives of our young people. It is indeed aspect of "Our Defense of the Truth", "Qur Christian
a thrilling experience that we as "Protestant Reformed        Isolation", and "Watchful Confidence in our own
young people may unitedly discuss the various prob-           Peculiar Times". Xost of us are looking forward to
lems and questions that confront us.                          reading these  .,speeches again when they appear in
   The purpose of our organization *as `stated in our         print.
constitution is, "to unite all Protestant Reformed                    The Convention viewed from a social aspect was a
Young People's Societies, so that they may work in            grand success. East met West and became congenial
close unity and secure a sense of solidarity". Although       f r i e n d s .
                                                                           4 natural understanding and intercourse was
we still fall short of realizing this goal, it was a plea-    prevalent throughout.
sure to greet delegates and visitors from Oskalaosa,
Iowa,  and Manhattan, Montana. We were also glad                      Everyone is still impressed by the way the host
to  see visitors from Hull and Sioux Center, Iowa..           committee of Oak Lawn planned and made arrange-
   During the business session it  was  very gratifying ments for their guests.
to see the interest that was shown by everyone in our                 After the delicious banquet meal that was served
Federation magazine, "Beacon Lights". From all indi- and the program that followed we reluctantly took our
cations this magazine. will again be well received by         leave with this thought in mind, that the Lord will
our societies and individual subscribers. The main continue to bless us in our efforts and make us thor-
reason for this is perhaps that among its features will       oughly equipped for the work that lies before us.            .
again be timely editorials and articles for' home read-               Now that the Convention is over we certainly ap-
ing as well as Bible Outlines suitable for Bible dis-          preciate the Souvenir Booklet  -which aids all of us
cussion in the various societies.                             in remembering the splendid time we had at our Third
   The inspirational address delivered by the Rev. H.
             -..  - -                                          Convention.


                                       .    l .    -4y Harriet  Schipper,  Grand Rapids.

   Alighting from our car after an enjoyable trip from shine who were aiready  busily engaged in exchanging
Grand Rapids, we found  ,Oak Lawn Church decorated             autographs.
with a banner announcing "The Third' Annual Con-                      Eleven o'clock. found us back in the Church, as-
vention of the Protestant Reformed Young `People's            sembled for the morning session, followed by noon
Societies". We were not the first to arrive, for on the lunch and the afternoon business session. T was im-
steps and on the walks we saw groups of conventioners          pressed by the precision and businesslike manner of
who had arrived earlier. Inside the. Church we found this session and the excellent, impartial support given
our hosts busy typing inserts for badges. Being a             by the advisors. Roll cal1 showed a  fine representation
visitor,  I received a  gold ribbon badge with  gilt letter- of all but a few of our Churches.
ing, delegates received green ones. These badges                      Now it was Thursday evening and time for us to
proved to be very usefu1  as well as. ornamental ; upon        find our various lodgings. Certainly Oak Lawn's
desiring to introduce someone, if I..found  the name had       people cannot be accused of being cold. We found
compIeteIy  escaped me, a glance at the badge readily         their hospitality unlimited and were even chauffered
supplied it. A souvenir booklet came next, .with  pi?- `back to the Lutheran Church, a beautiful, new gray
tures of our host society; Federation President and           stone structure  no,t far from Oak Lawn Church where
speakers.                                    1                 we attended the inspirational meeting. As we were
                                                               ushered in the strains of our Convention theme song
   Glancing through the  booklet,  Z,found  three pages        "Lead "On, 0 King Eternal", was sounding from the
entitled "Autographs". Here was an opportunity to organ. The speaker of the evening impressed upon us
become  acquainted,`so  after purchasing's  ticket for the the necessity of being "thoroughly equipped" with the
banquet and tour, I joined the group out in, the sun-         truth. We were certainly inspired as the speaker  out-


     523                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEA.RER

     lined for us with bold strokes, the plan of action in our    of the two days' activities. `About 175 attended it, and
     Christian warfare.                                           the program that followed in the Lutheran Church
            Next morning at 9  o"elock we were ready to board     parlors. We were addressed on the subject "Watchful
     the three busses waiting to take us on a tour of the         Confidence in our Peculiar Times". The debate topic
     City. At our first stop, the Museum of Science and           "Resolved that Principle is the Only Possible Reason
     `industry, we especially enjoyed the Auditory exhibit        for Affiliating with any Denomination" served the  purl
     and whispering gallery. Along the outer drive we             pose of presenting both sides of a question with which
     viewed Chicago's skyline. The Municipal Airport was          we as young people are often confronted.
     our last stop before returning to the church for lunch,         Outside; after the banquet, we said farewell to the
     and the afternoon session.                                   new friends we had made. The Convention was over,
            Here we enjoyed two speeches, entitled "Defending     but the impressions left will be lasting. We became
     ,the Truth" and "Our Christian Isolation". The yues-         better acquainted with those of our ministers who were
     tions and discussion that followed these speeches            present. Our enthusiasm for the Protestant Reformed
     proved the ability of our young people to think for          Truth had been aroused while we ,were  made happy
     themselves on matters of the Protestant Reformed             by the thought that we had. been drawn closer to-
     truth.                                                       gether with one aim in view,  ta become. "Thoroughly
            That evening the banquet was the crowning event       Equipped". ,


                                                      1ii&. . l -by  Edzu. J. Knott, Grand Rapids.
        .When one looks forward in eager anticipation to          meetings there were a considerable number of young
.    an event he is gratified ,when that event meets his          people present and the number was greatly augmented
     anticipation. Thus it was with the convention. Last at the banquet.
     year, being on the committee, I was not able to attend          One thing which" impressed me very strongly was
     any of the meetings and so, this year I was anxious          the spirit at the convention. We were but a small
     to see the  "other  side" of the convention. And the         group, even in comparison with the F.R.Y.M.S., but we
     "other side" fulfilled  all my expectations.                 were all knit into a common love for the cause. We
        *We arrived Friday morning just in time for the . could meet one another and talk to  one another know-
     sight-seeing tour, and as we drove up I noticed a small      ing that- we all stood together on the same basis. We
     group of young people. I was disappointed. I thought,        were meeting, as one of the speakers brought out, as
     "Is this all the young people there are?" But when           representatives of the Protestant Reformed Church of
     we gathered in church for devotionals the group had          tomorrow and I think we could feel it.
     grown, and continued to grow until we had to be                 The banquet speaker described the times in which
     crowded into three busses.                                   we live and mentioned the trend away from the Church.
                                                                  But glancing around at the interested young people
            In Fuller Ave. we have a large number of young        warmed one's very soul.      We, were still interested!
     people, but I thought in Oak Lawn they c"ertainiy won't May God grant us grace to be faithful to the calling
     have a very large crowd. But the young people came wherewith he has called us as Protestant Reformed
     even from Iowa and Montana.          During the Friday Young People.


                                                                           . . --by ,Homer C. Hoeksema; Grand Rapids.
            ;% few days ago I was asked to put in writing my very much in evidence. Even during the convention,
      impressions of our recent Young People's Convention, `committee members were seen rushing hither and
     and I am now c5omplying  with that request, in spite of thither, putting the finishing touches on their work
     the fact that I -arrived  in time to be present only for and trying their utmost to make the plans run smooth-.
     the Thursday evening and Friday sessions, Hence I Iy. Certainly, everyone present last August must realize
     can give impressions of only a part of the convention. the tremendous amount of work which the committee
      Furthermore, 1 took no notes on the proceedings of the and the whole O$k Lawn Society had to do; and every-
     convention, and therefore only my most outstanding one must agree that they left the field as victors.
     impressions will be found in print,-onIy  the impres-           What impressed me most of al1 at the 1941 con-
     sions that still live on.                                    vention was the well-balanced program. Evidently
            The excellent work of Oak Lawn"s  committee was great pains  were  taken to obtain the proper proportion


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D  B.EARER                                           525

of pieasure and business-or  tier-haps  I. should say      for us young people. It gives us confidence. In this
pleasure and more  pieasure,  for every minute was         department a blue ribbon should go to Rev. C. Hanko,
pleasant. What  I mean is this: Friday morning we          whose hard work and leadership at Oak Lawn were
started the day with a tour of Chicago. In the after- very much responsible for the, success of our 1941 con-
noon attention was given to business and lectures; and     vention.
the whole convention was topped off by that delicious         fn conclusion, let me appeal to our yo.ung people
banquet and the not-too-heavy evening program. For         not to hold  ,back.  Every society needs one hundred
a balanced program, the 1941 convention can't be
beat.                                                      per cent support in its church, and the Federation
   Another favorable impression was given me by the must .have the active support of every society, which
wholehearted cooperation of our ministers. Intense includes also t!he West. We are interdependent ! The
interest on the part of our leaders, as shown actively     1941 conventiti is history, but by God's grace we'll go
by the lecturers and advisors, certainly is an incentive full speed ahead to the next port, Roosevelt Park!



                                                                                Bus. Mgr. "Beacon Light8
   The ushers were showing  `us down the aisle of the recess, `and we were ready  ta settle down for the pro-
beautiful little Church in Oak Lawn. The  dimIy            gram : lecture, musical numbers, debate.
lighted auditorium, the beautiful platform furnishings        The debaters were seated on the platform. The
created a solemn air-impressive! Our unaccustomed          audience was eager with anticipation. "`Resolved : that
eyes lingered here and there-on the flags, the costly      principle is the only possible reason for affiliating wth
candlesticks, the gold cross, the pictured windows, the any denomination", was an interesting subject to all
pulpit  on+one end of the platform. Yet, we felt per-      of us. The team upholding the afirmative  was Mar-
fectly at home here in this Lutheran Church because garet Regnerus,  Alice Veldman, Wilhelmina Rutgers,
all the young people with whom we had become ac-, from the Oak Lawn Society, and the team of the nega-
quainted  during~that  day, and many others were there.    tion consisted of Grace Xiedema, Conrad Poortinga
The organ was playing our beautiful theme song, "Lead      and  Peternella  Poortinga from South Holland. The
On, 0 King Eternal". Our Federation- president was first speaker of the affirmation pointed out that Scrip-
standing  in_t_he pulpit and our own Rev. Hoeksema was     ture does not permit any reason other than principle
calmly facing us from his chair on the platform, pre-      for affiliation with a certain denomination, while the
pared to give us what we were waiting for.                 second speaker of this same team made clear that in
   Silence,- except for the voice of the speaker, the      order to be consistent with the Truth as we profess
silence of attentiveness,  .filled the room. It was good it, it is necessary to assume a positive stand, instead of
to be there. 1% was, indeed, an inspirational meeting. bringing up other, superficial reasons, and the third
Cur hearts were filled with the joy of knowing. that       speaker emphasized that practical reasons, no matter
we were gathered together with God's people and  u:e       how important they may seem, always fall short of the
were thrilled and inspired as we listened to the mes-      standard set for us in Scripture, and therefore may not
sage, "Thoroughly Equipped". God's Word-brought            be considered as valid reasons for affiliating with
to our attention with new force, new emphasis, filling     another denomination. The negative tried to show
us with renewed strength, renewed zeal.                    that Scripture allows other reasons than principle for
   Again the church was filled with music, "Lead On,       affiliating with a certain denomination and they set
0 King Eternal, We follow not with fears, For. glad-       out to prove that there are other good and valid rea-
ness breaks like morhing, Where e'er Thy Face ap-          sons for doing so. By citing several cases and practical
pears". Xnd so we left the church on the first evening problems, they tried to defend the stand that necessity
of our Convention. Impressed ? Oh, yes ! By walls          often demands that other reasons be considered. The
and-windows and decorations? Ah, no, much more.            negation, however, overthrew its own case and waived
\Ye carried with us the lasting impression of the words    its rights to refute the arguments of its' opponents.
we had just heard and understood, written by God's         And as was said in the closing remarks, they knew
Grace in our hearts.                                       they were wrong and  they*  knew we all knew they
                                                           were wrong. We were really glad about that. We are
   The following evening, the second and last night        glad that  `we all knew, as well as the negation knew,
of our -Convention, found us gathered  agsin in the        that the affirmative was right. ,And so the banquet
auditorium of the Lutheran Church. A whole-hearted- program came  %o a close and with it our third annual
song service, the calf to dinner in the dining room,       convention,


                                                                                                        s

526                                  `Y-  T H E   S T A N D A R D   BE-ARER               *

       Does that mean that Federation activities are ail     and  ArticIes  of. interest will  appeir  alternately. The
over for another year? I should say not. Our Federa-         Editorial  Staff'is composed of ministers, teachers and
tion has other means of carrying out its purpose of          others, all  capable men and women. Some articles will
uniting and edifying our Protestant Reformed Young           be written by our' young  people:  The first issue of
People and to promote the welfare of our Protestant          Beacon Lights will appear October  1. The subscription
Reformed Churches. Besides an annual Convention,             price for eight issues running from October 1941, to
the Federation sponsors lectures for the benefit of all      May 2942, is $1.25.
our people,  old and young. And another thing, that             As you  will notice' Beacon Lights is not only of
with which we are now directly concerned, is our             interest to our Young People, but to everyone con-
monthly publication, "Beacon Lights". We would like          cerned with maintaining our Protestant Reformed
everyone to become acquainted with Beacon Lights, so         Truth. If you-have not already done so, send in your
I will  teil you a little about it. Rev. C. Hanko has        subscription naw to-Miss A: Reitsma, 706 Franklin St.,
again been appointed Editor-in-Chief. Besides writing        S. E., Grand Rapids, Michigan.
interesting and pertinent editorials, as he always does,        The 1941 Convention, a big event  in-the life of our
he  wiI1 have charge of a new department "Open               Federation, is over. The two nights about which I
Forum". It; is here that you may voice your opinion.         have written `were enjoyable and instructive and bene-
Do it ! We also have Rev. De Boer ,with  us on the staff-    ficial. And now, Beacon Lights emits its rays ; for your
again. He has again consented to write the Bible Out-        enjoyment, for your instruction and for your benefit.
lines for study in our Societies. This year these out-       Many of you could not be present at the Convention,
lines will cover "The Parables Of Our Lord". Other           but all of you can avail yourselves of the opportunity
departments of interest are Current Events, Nature           to become more  !`Thoroughly  Equipped*' through Bea-
Study, Digest of Articles, andFeatures.  Book Reviews        con Lights!  :



                                                              --hg  H&n  Ezinga,  Grand  Ragida,             .,
                                                                                                Secretary
   `Upon  arrival at the Oak Lawn Church on Thursday and we adjourned until 1:45. Noon lunch was served
morning, August 21, we were welcomed by the Host             by the Host Committee, and we had a fine. opportunity
Committee and asked to register and secure badges. A         to become better acquainted with the delegates and
very enthusiastic group assembled for the opening            visitors. The weather was ideal, and we enjoyed visit-
session a% if o'clock that morning. After a 15 minute        ing out of doors, taking pictures, etc.
song service, the Rev. L. Vermeer led in prayer and             The afternoon session was called to order by the
our president, Homer Kuiper, spoke a few words of            president, and after we sang Psalter No. 175 Mr. H.
welcome.                                                     Kuiper read John 6 :22- 51, and the Rev. Gritters opened
       Roll call was then taken. Delegates representing      with prayer.
twelve societies, were present, including `Manhattan            We received telegraphic greetings from Pvt. Ralph
and Oskaloosa, who were accepted as new members of           Baas' of the Kalamazoo Society, who is stationed at
the Federation. The Western League was represented           Fort Custer, Xiehigan,  and the Secretary was instruct-
by the Rev. M. Gritters and nine visitors from Sioux         ed to respond by  letter to the telegram.
Center and seven from Hull, Iowa. Two of our Ad-                The Rev. Gritters extended greetings from the
visors were present, namely, the Revs. G. Lubbers and        Western League Committee. He presented opinions
L. Vermeer. The  Revs.^ Gritters and Lubbers were            of the Western League as to. closer unity between our
given extraordinary delegate power, and advisory vote        Federation and the Western League, and proposed the
was given to all ministers present.                          f o l l o w i n g :
       The committee elected at the 1940 Convention in          1. Form two leagues.
connection with affiliation of the present two Leagues,         2. Form these leagues into one Federation.
made a report which was  accep%ed  for information;             3. All affairs of the `Federation to be handled by
and the secretary read a letter from the Rev. Gritters,           both leagues.
president of the Western League, thanking us for the
communication he had received. Rev. Gritters replied            Vice-President Walter Hofman then made a report
that he desired to report to the Executive Board before      ,for  t.he Executive Board `regarding the proposal as
discussing the matter at the general  meeting, and a stated above. It was suggested that a committee be
motion was therefore made and carried to table discus-       appointed to form the Young People's Societies into
sion until the afternoon session.                            two leagues (Eastern and Western), each to have
       President Kuiper closed the meeting with prayer       their own executive boards, this to make up the Federa-


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                    627

tion. After some discussion, a motion was made to         by the Rev.  II. Hoeksema in the Oak Lawn Lutheran
table the matter as the South Holland Society sub-        Church.    The meeting was  weil attended, and the
mitted a proposai, as follows:                            lecture entitled "Thoroughly Equipped" truly was in-
   "The South Holland Society proposes to the             spirational. Inasmuch as the address is printed herein,
   Federation that rules and regulations be made          no further comments are necessary.
   to admit leagues to join our Federation without           The following morning, chapel services were held
   altering our present setup."                           at our Oak Lawn Church, and the Rev. De  Jong offored
                                                          prayer. The Convention Theme Song was su.ng, and
   After further discussion, it was decided that one      the President read Psalm 96, after which all enjoyed
committee should be appointed to consider both pro-       a "Sight-Seeing Tour" by bus, of various places. of
posals, and that the committee report at the next con- interest in and near the City of Chicago, including the
vention. The following  we?e appointed: James Van         Museum of Science in Jackson Park, the beautiful
Weelden, Chairman, Rev. M. Gritters, Rev.  G. Lubbers,    Lake Shore Drive, Soldier's Field, the Planetarium,
Jeanette  Wiersma.                                        Field's Museum, the Navy Pier, Lincoln Park, and the
   The Executive Board submitted a proposal in  con-      Municipal Airport, which is located five miles outside
n&ion with  the Federation  paper? "Beacon Lights",       of Oak Lawn.  I_:pon  returning to the church, noon
suggesting that :                                         lunch was served.
   A. We continue to publish a monthly paper for             The President introduced the first speaker  !of the
       eight months.                                      afternoon, the Rev. L. Vermeer, who addressed us on
   B. %he size be changed from 9"xZ"  to 6"xg";           the topic "Defending the Truth", which was followed
       that a club subscription price of $1.00 and        by a general discussion. The Theme Song was sung,
       the regular price of $1.20 be charged for          and a short recess was enjoyed, at which time fruit
       eight issues, and because these amounts            was served by the host committee.
       would not be sufficient to cover the charge           Business was then resumed. An offer was received
       of printing, etc., the difference be met by        from the delegation of Roosevelt Park  Church to meet
       obtaining a limited amount of advertise-           in Grand Rapids in 1942. This invitation was un-
       ments  or by special society projects.             animously accepted.
   C. Every issue contain a contribution by the              The Rev. Lubbers, Chairman of .the committee in
       Editor, and also Bible Study Outlines; the         connection with the Federation paper name,  rep0rte.d
       remainder of the paper to be taken up by           they had selected two names from those entered in
       suggested departments, such as Current
            . .-                                          the contest, namely :
       Events Book Reviews, Open Forum, con-                 1. The Witness for the Protestant Reformed Youth
       tributed articles, etc.                               2. Our Youth's Guide.
   D. The affairs of the paper be administered
       by the Executive Board, including appoint-         A motion was made and carried  t%at "Beacon Lights."
       ments of, editors and managers of various          be added to the list. After voting, it was determined
       departments.                                       the latter name had received the majority of votes.
                                                          However, it was suggested that Peternella Poortinga
   This proposal was adopted as suggested except that     of South Holland be given Honorable Mention for her
it was agreed that the paper should be self-liquidating suggestion of "The Witness for the Protestant Reform-
and the subscription price raised accordingly.            ed Youth" and Betty Zylema of Hudsonville, for her
   The Executive Board proposed that a contest be         suggestion of "Our Youth's Guide".
held in connection with a name for the Federation            The following officers were elected to fill the vacan-
paper? to be judged by the Executive Board and a prize    cies of those whose terms expired:
be awarded. Following a discussion it was decided to
adopt the proposal of the Board but that the Revs.           President-Walter Hofman
Lubbers, Hanko and De  dong be appointed as judges           Secretary-Helen Ezinga
to select three names from the entries, to be voted on       Advisor-Rev. C. Hanko.
by the delegate board the following day.                  Walter Hofman resigned as Vice-president, and James
   The reports of the Constitution Committee and the      Houwerzyl was elected for one year to  replace.Mr.
Treasurer were accepted. The  Prrsident appointed         Hofman.
the following Auditing Committee:  LucilIe Steigenga,        We enjoyed an address by the Rev. J. De Jong on
Eileen  Slopsema, James Houwerzyl.                        the subject "Our Christian Isolation". As this address
   The afternoon session was closed with prayer by        also is printed in this issue no remarks are necessary:
the Rev. Lubbers after we sang Psalter No. 402.              Rev. Vermeer closed the meeting with prayer. and
   That evening the inspirational lecture was given we adjourned at 5 o'clock,                        *


                                                                  .."     I~-
                                          ` T H E   S T A N ' D A R D   B E A R E R

    In the evening the Banquet was held in the parlors                                                              IN  MEMORIAii
of the Lutheran Church. About 200 attended, and we                                      On  t.he evening of  XuguSt  17,  1941, our heavenly Father
all had a fine time. `After a delicious dinner, an  inter-                       called home our dear mother, grandmother and  great-grand-
esting program was rendered, including-an address by                             mother;
the Rev.  L. Doezema, on the topic "Watchful Confidence                                              IMR~.   HEINE   VANDER   W A L
in our Peculiar Times", and a debate by representatives                          at the age of !)5 years.
of the Oak Lawn and South Holland Churches, on. the                                     She was .longing  for the time. to be absent in `the body and
topic "Resolved, that Principle is the only  ppssible                            present with the Lord. We miss her presence here but rejoice
reason for affiliating with any denomination." This                              in the glorious hope of the resurrection and eternal life of which
was followed by remarks and closing prayer by the ,Fhe according to her own testimony was fully assured.
Rev. H. Hoeksema. We all left the Convention with                                                                            1Mr.  and Mrs. J. Velthouse
a feeling that it had been  very  worth-while  ,and we                                                                       Mr. and Mrs. J. `H. Vander Wal
appreciate the work and efforts of Rev. Hanko and                                                                                4 grandchildren
the Host Committee which assisted so greatly in mak-                                                                             6 great-grandchildren.
ing the 1941 Convention at Oak Lawn,a  successful one.
But, of course, above all, we thank our God who has                                                                                              .
made it possible that we may have conventions of the                                                                             --a
young people of our Protestant Reformed Churches!

                                                                                                                    IN  MEniORIAM  *
                             NOTICE                                                     On August Il, 1941, following `an illness of three months,
   The Classical Committee of  Classis  East has made                            it pleased the Lord to take'away  our,dear  husband, father, and
the following arrangements for the examination of  pandfather
Can&date  .I. Heys, to be held at the October meeting                                           '       (I  MR.  ADRIAN DE VOS
o f   Classis.                                                                   at the age of 80 years and ten months.
10 :30-11 :QO-Sermon on I Cor. 1123, 24                                                 Our  comfort is that he now rejoices with the Lord  Whom
      Critics--Revs. G. M. Ophoff and R.  VeIdman                                he  served.             .
 1:45-  2 :15-Theology  and Anthropology                                               Mrs.,,A.  De Vos                         Mrs.  L. S. De Vos
                   Examiner-Rev. H. Veldman                                            Mr. and Mrs. F. II. De Vos               AMr.  and Mrs. J. H. De Vos
 %:l5- 2  :45-Christology and, Soteriology                                             Mr. and Mrs: C. A. De Vos                Mr. and Mrs. S. C. De Voa
                    Examiner-Rev. C. Hanko                                             Mr. and.Mrs. P. M.`Scheele               Mr. and Mrs. C. Lamse
 2 :45- 3 : 
         -  I&-Ecciesiology
           "...                   and Eschatology                                Jf          ( C a l i f o r n i a )                    I8 grandchildren. .
                   Examiner-Rev.  J. De  Jong                                                                                    Grand Rapids, Michigan.
 3 :30- 3 :50-Sacred  History
                   Examiner-Rev.  IM.  Schipper
 3  :50-  1  :lO-Knowledge of Our Confessions                                                                         -            -
                    Examiner-Rev. P. De Boer
 4 : lo- 4 %--Controversy                                                                                                                             `"
                Examiner-Rev.  L. Vermeer                                                                           -IN          MEaiORIAM
 4 :30- 4 :45-Practi`ca                                                                 Den  29sten   Juli   dehaagde  het den' Heere, om tot  Zich te
                   Examiner-Rev.  II. Hoeksema                                   nemen  onze geliefde  man, vader;gro"otvader,  en over-grootvader,
P.S. Will the examiners kindly take note and consider                                                    THOM,4S            SJCERDSMA
this official notification.                                                      in den ouderdom van 78 jaren.
                        Class. Comm., P. De Boer,  :Sec'y. f                            Aihoewei   dit verlies onz  zeer   smarteiijk   &It;  zijn  wij den
                               -                                                 Heere dankbaar voor de verzekering die Hij ens schenktdat hij'
                          IN MEMORIAM                                            ons is voorgegaan in de ruste, die overblijft  voor hef, volk Gods.
                                                                                                              `,
    `I'he  Ladies Aid Society of the Prptegant Reformed Church                         D e   Fan&e:-:
of Holland, Michigan wishes to extknd  its sincere sympathy to                   Xrs. T. Sjoerdsma  .'                       Mr.  and.`Mrs. Peter Leestma
one' of its members, Mrs.  3%:  Winder&her,  in the  ioss  of her                Mr. and Mrs. R. Hettinga                   Mr. and  &s. Edw.  Slenk
m o t h e r ,                                                                            , Birnamwood, Wis.                             Holland, IMich.
                        MRS.  iv. WIERSMA                                        ;tnr. and Mrs. A. Sjoerdsma                 Mr. and  Mrs, Sam Sjoerdsma
    It is our iincere  hope and prayer that our Father in heaven.                         Randolph, Wis. . Xr. and Mrs. II. Sjoerdsma
may `comfort her and the other members of the family, and that                   Mr. and Mrs. B. Eisma                      Nfr.   and Mrs.  Bertus  Kuemen
He may fill the empty place in their hearts and home.                                     Zeeland,   Mich..,  '  .                      3amestown,   Mich.
          .*  i                     Mrs. R.  Bouwman,   Pres.                    Mr. and Mrs. A. Sjoerdsma                   Mr. G. Estie (,schoonzoon)
                                    Mrs. G.  `Ramaker,  Sec'y.                   Mr. and Mrs. Joe Sjoerdsma .                           Holland,  Xi&

                                                                                                                                                            .'


