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

                                          The Standard  Bearer
            Semi-MonthIF,  except Monthly in July and August                                                                                                                                                           EDITORIALS
                                                                            Published by
                           The  .Reformed  Free Publishing  Associatien
                                                         1101  Hazen  Street,  9.  I?.
                                                EDITOR - Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                    As To Our Mod Obligation
      Contributing editors--Revs. J. Blankespoor,  A. Cammenga,
      P. De Boer, J. D. de Jong, H. De Wolf, L.  Doezema,                                                                                                                                                 Of all the arguments and would-be arguments the
      M. Gritters, C. Hanko,  B. Kok, G. Lubbers, G. M. Ophoff,                                                                                                                                        opponents of the movement for schools of our own
      A. Petter, M.  Schipper,  J. Vsnden  Breggen,  H. Veldman,                                                                                                                                       wherever possible adduce for their position, that con-
      R. Veldman, L.. Vermeer, P. Vis, G. Vos, Mr. S. De Vries.                                                                                                                                        cerning the moral obligation to the existing schools, is
      Communications  relative to contents should be addressed                                                                                                                                         the weakest of all.
      to REV. H. HOEKSEMA, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand                                                                                                                                                As far as I can see, it is in this argument that
      Rapids, Michigan.                                                                                                                                                                                they reveal that they are not interested  i,n school edu-
      Communications relative to  subscription  should be  ad-                                                                                                                                         cation of our children along strictly Protestant Re-
      dressed to MR. R. SCHAAFSMA, 1101  Hanen  St., S. E.,                                                                                                                                            formed lines.    They do not admit the necessity of
      Grand Rapids,  Mioh.  All Announcements and Obituaries                                                                                                                                           Protestant Reformed instruction aho in the schools.
      must be sent to the above address and will not be placed                                                                                                                                         They cannot see that the school has anything to do
      unless  the regular fee of $1.00 accompanies the notice.                                                                                                                                         with Protestant Reformed principles. That the prin-
                                                 Subscription $2.50 per year                                                                                                                           ciples adopted by the Christian Reformed Churches,
                                                                                                                                                                                                       because of which  adoptian  and consequent action
                                                                                                                                                                                                       against us we have become separated, are so serious
                                                                                                                                                                                                       that they affect the basis of education, they do not see.
                                                                                                                                                                                                       Whatever may separate us as churches, in the sphere
                                                                                    -                                                                                                                  of education we can unite again, which means that we
                                                                                                                                                                                                       can safely submit our children to the influence of a
                                                                             CONTIIENTS                                                                                                                Christian Reformed education in the schools.
                                                                                                                                                                                                          That the opposing brethren are not Protestant Re-
MEDITATION                                                                                                                                                                          Page               formed I do not state here at all.
      ZOODANIG EEN HOOGEPRIESTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3`23                                                                                            That they are  <not interested in strictly Protestant
              Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                         Reformed instruction for our children and youth alsc
                 s                                                                                                                                                                                     in and throu.gh the medium of the school, and that,
EDITbRIALS  -                                                                                                                                                                                          therefore, they do not see the seriousness of the dif-
                                                                                                                                                                                                       ference and separation caused by the "Three Points"
      AS TO OUR MORAL OBLIGATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .-....343 with respect to education,-this, as I see it, is the clear
      THE C. L. A. AND THE STRIKE WEAPON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349                                                                                                                   implication of their argument of our moral obligation
                                                                                                                                                                                                       to the existing schools.
     Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                                     Consider the argument for a moment.
THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE                                                                                                                                                                                      It ru,ns as follows: We hove rt..o  moral right to or-
                                                                                                                                                                                                       gan&e our own school movement and to establish our
      EXPO.SITION  OF THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM . . . ...350                                                                                                                                            own schools w Protestant Reformed people, ~unxtil we
              Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                         have done our utmost, and exhawted every means at
                                                                                                                                                                                                       our command, to improve the existing  schools.
      THE SIGNIFICANCE  O F DEBORAH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354                                                                                                   According to this argument, let it be noted, we not.
                Rev. G. M. Ophoff                                                                                                                                                                      only have a moral obligation to the existing Christian
      GIDEON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 6    schools, but this obligation makes it impossible for us
                                                                                                                                                                                                       in the meantime to establish our own schools, or even
                Rev. G. M. Ophoff                                                                                                                                                                      to make preparations for the establishment of our
      ETEN EN  DRINKEN  IN  EEUWI'GHEID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  36G own schools. Until the situation has proved to be ab-
I               Rev. J. A. Heys                                                                                                                                                                        solutely hopeless, we must continue to cooperate, and
                                                                                                                                                                                                       refrain from organizing our own school societies. And
      PENTECOST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ^ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Xuntil the hopelessness of the attempt has;. become quite
                Rev. A. Cammenga                                                                                                                                                                       plain, our children must continue to attend the exist-
                                                                                                                                                                                                       ing schools.
                                                                                                                                                                                                          Now, I deny this entire argument,


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          349

   I deny that, apart from the question whether the          neutrality be assumed in the instruction in many
existing schools can be improved or not, a Protestant        other subjects that pertain to our view of the world,
Reformed group of people does not have the moral             history, civil government, the unions, and other mat-
right to establish schools of their own, or that there ters.                                                       .
can possibly rest upon them any moral obligation to             It should be quite plain from all this, that the op-
the existing schools that must  rest.rain them from  or'-    ponents of the movement to establish schools of our
ganizing their own movement.                                 own, by their argument as to our moral obligation to
  Why may not the Proiestant  Reformed people, pray, coopera$e  with the existing schools, do not care for,
have their own system of education from top to bot- are not interested in, do not see the need of specific
tom, something for which undersigned has argued al-          Protestant Reformed  education for our children,
most from the very beginning of our separate exist-             This is the very least that can be said.
ence as churches?                                               At the very best they consider the schools institu-
   What moral obligation to any existing schools could tions that may be satisfied with some general Chris-
restrain them from striving for this ideal, at least?        tian instruction.
   But to this I hope to come back later.                       ,& soon as we are not satisfied with this, but look
   The point I want to make now is $hat, apart from          upon t.he school as a matter of specific principle, the
all other considerations, the above argument of the op- sole conclusion anyone can possibly draw is that we
ponents of the moveme&  to establish schools of our          must establish our own schools.
own wherever possible  taci'tly  denies that our Protest-       And as to our moral right to do so, I hope to make,?.
ant  Reformed  principles have any real  significance        a few remarks next time, D. V.        -
,for  s.chool  education, and proceeds on the assumption                                                    H. H.
that a Protestant Reformed school education is not
necessary.
   Cooperation as long as possible, is their slogan.                              ---
   Bat what does this cooperation mean, as far as
we, Protestant Reformed people, are concerned?
   It means that we may, perhaps, protest against            The C.LA. and The Strike Weapon.
certain evils found in the existing schools, such as the
singing of Arminian hymns, the introduction of plays
and drama's, the teaching of evolutionistic conceptions         From The Christian Labor Herald we learn that
or of grossly Arminian tenets, encouragement of m,ovie       the annual meeting of the C.L.A. will have to consider
attendance,  -etc. Perhaps, if we are strong enough          and decide upon a proposal from one of its locals to
we may even demand that the doctrine of common               eliminate the strike clause from its constitution.
grace shall not be taught or mentioned in the par-              In the May issue of The Christian Herald there
ticular school with which we cooperate and to which          occurs an article by a certain Frank Rottier  in favor
our children are sent. We may request that the "Three of the proposal and arguing for its adoption by the
Points" shall be  .carefully avoided.                        annual meeting, while in replying to that contribution
   But granted that all this might be done, and might the editor, Mr. J. Gritter, voices his opposition to it.
be done `successfully, which in by far the majority of          It is not my purpose to review t.he arguments  pro
cases would be impossible, this would surely be the          and con, and to weigh their value. Briefly stated,
limit of the influence we might exert on the existing they are that Mr. Rottier considers the use of force
schools.                                                     in a labor dispute  nn-Christian  and contrary to Scrip-
   It is plain that we could not possibly ask that the       ture: the battle for righteousness and the kingdom of
instruction in the existing schools shall follow Protest-    God cannot be fought by physical force or coercion;
ant Reformed lines.                                          while Mr. Gritter defends the posit.ion that a Christian
   And this is impossible,  <not merely because we are not only may, but it is called to create better and more
usually but few in number, and must suffer defeat if just social conditions by the use of force, and all tha
`the matter were brought to a vote, but because we have power at our command.
no  ri'ght to make such a demand. It would be con-              There is, however, especially one point to which. J .~
trary to the idea of cooperation.                            wish to call attention at this time. I have had in mind
   This is quite important.                                  to bring up  th& particular point before, especially
   It means not only that in Biblical insltruction  all      when a discussion was carried on about  it in our
questions concerning part-icular and common grace,           paper, in which Mr. Gritter defended the same posi-
concerning total depravity and the ability or inability      tion he now takes in his answer to Mr.  Rottier.   I
of man to do any good before God, must be carefully am refering  :to Mr. Critter's explanation of the strike
avoided ; but it also implies that the same attitude of as favored and conceived of by the CJLA. He writes:

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

            "It is evident from the article of Mr. Rottier       grant their demands, so that they may then return to
         that he still does seem to grasp that the  C.L.A.`s     their job.
         position i'n regard to the use of the strike weapon        And my second question is this: Is the conception
         is  no,t the position taken by the neutral organiza-    which Mr. Gritter offers of the strike the official view
         tions. When we use the term `strike' we do not          of the COLA.? Can it be found anywhere black and
         have in mind vindictive, revengeful action. Ab- white as their official expression? If so, where? It
         solutely not. The C.L.A. does not propagate revo-       is not  i,n the constitution. Would it not be very desir-
         lution. Its actions are always reformative. And         able, if this is really the strike-conception of the C.L.A.
         reformative action, which is militant action, not officially, that a clear cut clause to this effect were in-
         passive non-activity, may demand, when a great serted in the by laws?
         injustice is being done, as a last resort, after           I would like `to have light on these questions.
         every other means `to secure justice has failed,                                                        `II. H.
         that there be a collective cessation of work."
        There are several expressions in the above para-                              ---
graph with which I might express disagreement. Above
all would I disagree with Mr. Gritter on what he calls                                                              - --
"passive non-activity." I am ready to take the stand
that what he considers *`passive non-activity" is purest            The Triple Knowledge
activity  Bn the highest sense of the word, and, for that
reason the only effective reformative action.
        But I must let this pass in order to concentrate on
the one point in which I am now interested: the C.L.              An Exposition Of The Heidelberg
A.`s specific and distinctive conception of the strike.                                 Catechism
        I have read Mr. Gritter on this point before, and  I
have heard him talk on the subject. And I must co.n-                                     PART TWO
fess that I, too, am in the same class as Mr. Rottier:                              OF MAN'S REDEMPTION
I have never yet grasped the difference between the
C.L.A. and the worldly unions in regard to the                                          Lord's Day XII
strike.                                                                                       3.
        The difference cannot be `that the strike according
to the conception of the worldly unions is revolution-                         Christ Our Chief Prophet (cont.).
ary, while according to the C.L.A. it is reformative.               As God's prophet, Christ is far more excellent than
The worldly union would never admit this. It cannot              the first man Adam in paradise. For He is the Per-
be that the worldly union means to strike as the only            son of the Son of God, Who is eternally in the bosom
means to improve conditions, while the C.L.A. means of `the Father, the eternal Word,, the express image of
to use this weapon only as a last resort. The worldly His substance, the effulgence of the Father's glory,
union also officially claims to use the strike weapon God of God, Who knows the Father with an infinitely
only when all other means are exhausted.                         perfect  knowledge.      It is this Person of the Son of
        The difference must be this, that while the worldly God Who from eternity `TV eternity is essentially and
unions consider t-he strike a temporary cessation of truly God, assumed the flesh and blood of the children,
work of such a nature that the strikers retain their took upon Himself our nature, and united that human
claim to the job, the C.L.A. regards the strike simply nature with the divine in His own Per.son. 1.n Him,
as a cessation of work: the strikers quit their job and therefore, `there is the closest possible union of God
lay no further claim to it. As I understand Mr. Grit-            and man, the most intimate communion between the
ter, this is the point he has been trying to make clear.         divine and the human natures. In Him the Person
        Now, with regard to this I have two questions.           of the Son, very God, lived with us, walked with us,
        The first is this: is this actually the conception of    talked with us, thought in our mind, willed with our
the strike favored by the C.L.A.? When its members will, had human desires and passions, human love
organize a strike, do they simply quit  (their job? If and human sympathies, spoke to us by human mouth
so, why picketing? Why do they not seek another and in human language. Is not He the most perfect
job? Why do they try to "dissuade" other men from Prophet conceivable? Who could be more excellently
taking their relinquished job ? Frankly, I do no% bc-            equipped to be our "chief Prophet and Teacher," and
lieve the C.L.A. practices what Mr. Gritter preaches. who could be more able than He to reveal unto us
I believe also that the  C.LA. considers the strike as  3        "the secret counsel and will of God  co.ncerning  our
temporary cessation of work to compel the employer to redemption?"                   He knows the Father as none other


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                   351

could know Him. His  hu_man  consciousness is en- Christ was not limited to the order of Aaron. He waj
lightened and filled with the knowledge of God front       more than Israel's high priest. And this greater ex-
within. Because of the union of the divine and human cellency of Christ's priesthood is expressed in the
natures the k.nowledge  of God in Christ is direct, and     Scriptural statement that He was a priest "after the
in the highest sense of  thee word perfect. In the dark- order of  Melchize,dek."      Even though the Catechism
ness of the world He is the light. Over against the does not directly refer `to this aspect of the priest-
lie of the false prophet He is the truth, the faithful     hood of Christ, we will do well to ask ourselves the
witnes.3. ?He glorifies the Father over against a blas- question : what is the meaning of this statement?
pheming world of sin. And to His own He imparts                That this is an important question should be evi-
the knowledge of the God of their salvation.                dent from the repeated emphasis of Scripture on this
   Thus He functioned in the old dispensation through excellency of the priesthood of Christ. That the Mes-
the prophets and shadows.                                   siah would be a priest after the order of Melchisedec
   As our Prophet He spoke to us face to face in the `was already revealed in the olid dispensation. For
days of His, flesh, and in His public ministry He re- David spoke concerning Him: "The Lord said unto
vealed the Father through His person, His word, and my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand,  .until I make
His work.                                                  thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the
   But His prophetic office does not terminate with rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst
,His death  am3 resurrection, is not limited to His min- of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in the
istry among us in ,the flesh. On the contrary, He is        day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the
our eternal Prophet.      For He died and was raised womb of the morning: thou  ha& the dew of thy
from the dead  ; and He was exalted at the right hand       youth.    The Lord hath sworn and will not repent,
of God, and received the promise of the Holy Spirit.        Thou art a priest for ever after the order of  Mel-
and in that Spirit  H'e returned to us on the day of        chizedek." Ps.  110:13.  We may  not.ice  at once that
Pentecost to dwell in the Church, and abide with her .the priesthood of Christ is here presented as an ever-
for ever. And He is with us as our chief Prophet, lasting priesthood, and that it is closely connected
our Teacher, Who instructs us by His Spirit and Word. with His royal exaltation to power and glory.
For a time after His exaltation at the right hand of           This higher and more glorious aspect of the priest-
God, He ,gave to His Church apostles, that through hood of our Lord is emphasized, too, in the Word of
Ithem  He might more fully reveal unto us the secret ,God through the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews.
counsel and will of God concerning our redemption.          For he writes: "For every high priest taken from
Then, when #His revelation is complete, He functions        among men is ordained for men in things pertaining
as our chief Prophet in and through the Church, by !to God, ,that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for
His Spirit and in and through the Word preached a&          sins. Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and
cording to the Holy Scriptures. There is no instruc-        on them that are out of the way; for that he himself
tion, there is no preaching of the Word, there is no        also is compassed with infirmity. And by reason there-
eaxhortation  or consolation, except of Him, our only of he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to
and chief Prophet. And even unto all ages of ages offer sins. And no man taketh this honor unto him-
it will be of Him and through Him as our Prophet self, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. SO
that we shall receive and rejoice in the perfect know- also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high
ledge of cthe God of our salvation.                         priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son,
                            4.                              to day I have begotten thee. As he saith also in an-
                                                            other place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order
                        Melchisedec.                        of Melchisedec."     Heb. 5 : l-6,    In these words the
  The Catechism continues to expound for us the             divine ordination of Christ as priest is evidently em-
meaning of the name Christ by calling our attention phasized. The same is true of vs. 10 of the same chap-
to  Ithe priesthood of our Lord, He is not only our ter: `%alled  of God an high priest after the order of
chief Prophet and Teacher, but also "our only High Melchiseclec." He is our forerunner, Who has entered
Priest, who by the one sacrifice of, his body, has re- into the inner sanctuary in heaven, "made an high
deemed us, and makes continual intercession with the priest for ever after the order of Mel,chisedec.`,         Heb.
Father for us." Here again, we notice that the Heidel-      620. For perfection did not come through the  Le-
berger views the priesthood of Christ exclusively vitical priesthood. If it had, there would have been
from the viewpoint of His work of  red~emption.  As no need "that another priest should arise aft,er the
such Christ was priest  acording  to the order of Aaron, order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order
for also the high priest of the old dispensation sacri- of Aaron." 7:ll. It is, moreover, evident that Christ,
ficed and made intercession for the people. And this of whom these things are spoken, is not from the tribe
view is perfectly correct.        Only, the priesthood of of Levi, as was a requisite for the Aaronitic priest-

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

hood, but from another tribe, of which no man served about the fact that Scripture in Gen. 14 pictures  MeI-
at the altar. "For it is evident that our Lard sprang chisedec as a real man of flesh and blood, who lived in
out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing con- the days of Abraham, was king of Salem, and a priest
cerning pri,esthood.    And it is far more evident: for of (the most high God.
that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth          But how to explain this priest-king and his priest-
another priest, who is made, not after the law of a         hood, in view of the fact that he appears outside of the
carnal co.mmandment,  but after the power of an end- line of Abraham in the land of Canaan, among what
less life. `For he  testifieth,  Thou art a priest for ever we probably would be inclined to consider wicked
after the order of Melchisedec." Here again, the idea nations and tribes?
receives emphasis  that the priesthood after .the order         Dr. Kuyper Sr. (Dictatsn  Dogmatiek, III Locus de
of Melchisedec is everlasting. Besides, in distinction      Christo  92; and De Gemeene @r&k, I, 332ff.)  explains
from other priests, Christ was made high priest with the priesthood of the  hist-orical  Melchisedec as a rem-
an oath, by which it is manifest that He was made           nant of the original priesthood of Adam in the state
.surety  of a better covenant. "And inasmuch  as noi;       of rectitude.    Adam, too, was priest of God.  .His
without an oath he was made priest: (For those              priesthood was, of course, not that of  redempt:on,
priests were made without an oath; but this with ax! and had nothing to do with atoning sacrifices for sin.
oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and          It simply consisted in Adam's calling and  ability  to
will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the       love God, and to consecrate himself and the  who!e
order of Melchisedec:) By so much Jesus was made a creation to the living God. Now, this priesthood, ac-
surety of a better testament."  7:20-22.                    cording to Kuyper, was  ,not  at once completely lost
   The fact, therefore, that Christ was a priest, not through sin. A remnant of it remained, and contin-
after the Aaronitic order, but after the similitude of uc$ to reveal and express itself even unto the days of
Melchisedec, is strongly emphasized in Scripture.           Melchisedec, in whom there is an especially glorious
   Before we try to answer the yuestian just what is manifestation of this priestly office and function. And
implied in  (this for the priesthood of  Christ, it may the fact that such a wonderful manifestation of the
help us to ask: who was this  `Melchtiedec,  and  hots      original priesthood of man could be preserved till so
must his excellent and peculiar priesthood be  ex- late a date, Kuyper explains from  {the restraining and
plained?                                                    preserving power and influence of common grace.
   In the H.&brews we are told man; things may  be This marvellous power commence& to assert itself im-
said of this Melchisedec, things that are hard to be        mediately after the fall of Adam to check the cor-
uttered.      For he was king of Salem, priest of the       rupting influence of sin in human nature, so that man
most high God, and he blessed Abraham as the latter did not become so totally corrupt as without this in-
returned from the slaughter of the kings.  An3 Ab- fluence of grace he wouId  have been. And so, even of
raham acknowledged his superior priesthood by giv- his original priesthood, according to which he conse-
ing him tithes of all. Moreover, it is explained rthat      crated himself in love  to the Most High, man retained
his name  denokes  him as a king of righteouseaes, a remnant. Much of it was lost, indeed, but a glitter-
while the fact that he was king of Salem designates ing of the original glory remained. And a  beaultiful
that he was king of peace. Stranger still, we are told manifestation and expression of this priesthood of
that he was "without father, without mother, without creation we find in Melchisedec.
descent, having neither beginning  o,f days, nor end or        With this explanation of the historical appearance
life ; but made like unto the Son of God ; abideth a of Melchisedec and his priesthood we cannot possibly
priest continually." Heb. 5 :ll ; 7 :l-3. In view of all agree.
this, we need  ,not be surprised that the person of Mel-       First of all, (the proposistion that such a priesthood
chisedec as he appears in Gen. 14 has been variously of creation existed, or can possibly have existed at the
explained.     One theory has it that this Melchisedec tim,e of Melchisedec, or even immediately after the
is the son of Cainan (Gen. 5  :ll) , who guarded the        fall, must, in the light of all  thalt Scripture teaches us
hill Golgotha, where Adam was buried who died in concerning the state of fallen man, be regarded as  ut-
the days of  Cainan. According to others he is  Dhe terIy false, a niere myth.
same as Shem, the son of Noah, who certainly was liv-          True, as we have stated before, in his original state
ing in the days of Abraham. Still others dare not of  reotitude  man was certainly a priest of the most
make of Melchisedec, of whom such  won,derful  things high God. He was God's officebearer, his frienddaer-
are ~written,  a mere man. They make him  an angel, vant,  and lived in covenant fellowship with  God. And
or some sort of incarnation of the Holy Ghost, or of as such it was his calling, not only to know and to
the Word,  or some higher God. All these allegorical.       glorify the name of his God in the midst of all the
interpretations and  conje&ures,  however, have no          earthly creation as God's prophet; but also as -pries?
sound basis in Holy Writ. There can be no question to offer himself and all things a living sacrifice to the


    ,--  -    *.  _  -  - -                                                                      -_-  _.
                                    T H E   .STANDARD   B E A R E R                                                  353

Most High. There is no dispute about this. There But also in the midst of nominal Christendom the line
was an original  priegthood  of creation. But  ithrough      of the false priests continues. The Christ of the Scrip-
sin this whole relation to God was turned into reverse.      tures is rejected openly, or transformed into the mod-
He not merely lost the image of God, but his knowledcge      ern Jesus; the blood of atonement is despised and
of God changed intb darkness, his righteousness into trampled under foot. And although the man of modern
perversion, his holiness into poIlution  and love of sin culture does not make his gods of wood and stone, or
and corruption. And even as through sin he became literally bow himself before calves and oxen, he is,
the false prophet, loving the lie, so he became the faIse    nevertheless an idolater, whose carnal mind is  enmity
priest. Instead of consecrating himself and all things against the true and living God, and prefers to corrupt
unit0 God in love, he became an enemy of God, and            himself in the worship and service of the gods of his
devotes himself to the service of sin and the devil.         own imagination and philosophy. And we are told
   Such is the clear teaching of Scripture concerning in the book of Revelation that this modern idolater,
natural man.                                                 this false priest, will ultimately even make an image
   There is no remnant of his original priesthood Ieft for men to worship, and persecute to the death all
in him.                                                      that refuse  ito bow down before it. The false prophet
   Nor is it  historicalIy  correct to maintain that after of the antichristian dominion is also, and that, too,
the fall there was a manifestation of this priesthood        necessarily so, a false priest.
of creation in the line of fallen man, that this beauti-        In this entire historical line of Idevelopment,  from
ful after-glow of man's original glory disappeared only rthe fall in paradise to the final manifestation of the
slowly and gradually, and that in the priesthood of man of sin in the antichristian dominion, there is no
Melchisedec we find a final and marvellous reflection room for the priesthood of Melchisedec.
of this priesthood. ,On the contrary, history as re-            But how could one even expect to find Melchisedec
vealed in Scripture plainly traces another line of (de- .in this line and among the representatives of  @the
velopment after the fall, with res,pect  to this original ,,faIse  priesthood. Does not the epistle to the Hebrews
priesthood of crea&ion,  the line of a false and wholly ,plainly teach us, and  (does not already Ps. 110  presup-
corrupt priesthood, that has its commencement with ;pose, that this, man Melchisedec,  as he appears  izl
Cain, continues in his generations, reaches a climax .history according to Gen. 14, must be regarded a
in the vainly  boastin*g  Lamech, and perishes in the ,type of Christ, and that, too, one of the most glorious
flood. And after lthe deluge there is the same line of ;types  that ever appeared?  ,How, then, could he be
development. In the world of heathendom, outside of ,found, or expected to be found, in the line of the
the  covenadt  line that runs through the generations of ,generations  of Cain, of Ham, of Babylon, of the
Abraham, men turn away from the living God, corrupt Antichrist? Type and antitype, shadow and reality,
the glory of the invisibIe One, make themselves gods ,belong together, are inseparably connected, and occur
after their own hearts, and consecrate themselves,           on the same line in history. ,Cain is no type of Christ.
through their idola'trous  priests and shrines, to gods      Sodom and Gomorrha are not shadows. of Jerusalem.
of wood and stone,  wos;ship  sun, moon,  `and stars,        Babylon is the antithesis of the city of God that comes
man,  beasks,   anId creeping things, corrupting them- [down out of heaven. The one cannot be a picture of
selves in the lust of their flesh, in immorality and $fhe other.           Type and  antitype  are one. The latter
bestiality of every-imaginable sort. It would seem bears the former, receives its  raison  d'etre, and thz
quite impossible to find room for a figure like that of very possibility of its being from the former. If  Mel-
Melchisedec in this line of development.                     chisedec does not stand on the line of grace, but on
 I But aho among Israel there is found, alongside of         that of  s.in, and the development of fallen man,  hr
the central line of the covenant and of the true  pries&     .cannot possibly point  forwar  to  the Christ as the
hood, a continuous line of this carnal and wicked ,High Priest that is to come. Then he points very real-
priesthood, represented by a veritable multitude of jy in the opposite direction. It surely cannot be said
official priests  :that defile the sanctuary, make of God's that, in that case, Christ is priest after the order of
house a den of robbers, lead the people in their wor-        Melchisedec, for that would be tantamount to saying
ship of golden calves,  and introduce into the holy land      that the Christ of God is priest after the order of
literally all the  .gods of the nations round about Israel. (antichrist! And to say this is blasphemy !
And ,when,  in the fulness  of time the true High Priest                                                    H. H.
comes to His temple, it is this Iine of false and corrupt
priests that hates Him, rejects Him, and ultimately
nails Him to the accursed  tnee.                                        0 fet me have no part
   And as it was in the old dispensation, so it still is i              With those that hate the right;
in  lthe new. Always the great majority of mankind                      For as their works, so their reward
Still  makes  it.8 own gods. Paganism is  golyth&sm.                    Jehovah will requite,


354                                   T H E   ST`ANDARD   B E A R E R

       The Significance of Debwah                              and the alooflress that estranges the pastor from his
                                                               flock. And as the whole nation could  cont.ribute  to
                                                               their support, it was not necessary for them to  he-
       To bring out i&is significance, attention must be come burdensome to a few tribes by too `great a con-
directed to the relaxation of the  nationa  bond  and in- centration.
ternal, disorder t.ha;t characterized Me <period of the           The purpose of the appointment of the cities of
judges.  By the death of  Joshua the people of Israel          refuge was to prevent the shedding of innocent blood,
were deprived of their second national leader. After that is, the blood of one who had killed his brother
his death there subsisted in the nation a certain go- unintentionally. The need of such cities rose from the
vernmen!t,  which is  indica'ted  by the name "elders." foilowing circumstance: If a man  wer.e slain, the duty
They were not chosen by the peopie but were the of avenging him lay upon the nearest relative, thus
born princes and representatives of the people. Their upon one who, as blinded by passion, might  Ido a man
task was to preside and watch over the general in- to death in revenge for what was the purest accident.
terests of the  naition  aad so to continue the rule of To prevent  buch a thing and to ensure a riiht admin-
Moses and Joshua. For the settlement of matters of istration of justice, these cities were instituted. From
general concern, they congregated in the central point time  immemori$l  and  thus not  by- any'  fati  &iven  by
of  the land, which, in the time of the judges, was Moses the duty of avenging a man who.had been slain
Shechem. They formed, did th.e elders, a High Coun- rested upon the nearest kin- from time immemorial,
ciI in Israel which, in great crises, could confer its thus before the appearance of the public magistrtate.
authority on a  singl,e  individual. To cite one example. Instead of abolishing the custom the Lord, by stepping
during the invasion of the Ammonites, the elders, of in with  .His law, humanized it and made  it serve the
Gilead went to fetch Jephthah out of the land of Tob ends of justice.
and proposed to him that he be their head in the con-             ,Certainly,  though there was no king in Israel, the
templated war of liberation. This council of elders nation was not wfthout  its institdtions  for righteous
was not a law-making body. Israel's sole king and administration, maintenance of order and preservation
legislator  yas Jehovah. His laws he had already com- of national unity. But, as we have seen, order was
munictited  to the nation through the agency of Moses, ndt maintained but gave way to chaos and  ldiscord
and the  elders were bound to act by the existing of carnal self-will licentiousness and passion. This
legislation as supplemented, in all matters of public is brought out by the two narratives that form the
importance, by the will of God as revealed through conclusion of our book. The first is that Micah's pri-
the instrumen?ality  of the "breastplate of Judgme;lt,"        vate templle and image-worship that the migration of
or Urim and Thummim. As this devioe  could be di- the tribe of Dan. The second is that of the rape of
rectly consulted solely by the highpriest, the finally the Levite's concubine and its terrible consequences
decisive word of God could be had  only from this for the tribe of Benjamin. There was, in this period,
dignitary, who thus, in a sense, came to take the place a general relaxdtion  of the national bond as is so evi-
of Moses in Phe popular assemblies of the nation.              dent from the song of Deborah and from other data
       Besides the  counoil of elder as headed by the  high- contained in our book. The nation assumed the form
priest, the nation had also its judges which, accord- of several independent and even  ri.val little kingdoms.
ing to the commandment of Moses (Deut. 16:18)  the                It is in the light of these  obs8ervations that the
people chose for themselves in  all their gate throughout significance of Deborah is seen. Her significance lies
the tribes. If the task of the council of elders was to        in the fact that, being endowed, in distinction from
watch over the general interests of the nation, that her predecessors, with the prophetic spirit, she pro-
of the judges was to determine, in the light of Moses' claimed, in the audience of the nation, God's word,
laws, questions of dispute in contests of law between          His great works,  of the future but also of the past-
individuals,. This being their task, they were caution- those wonders of His grace by which Israel had been
ed by Jehovah against wresting judgment, respecting brought into being as the Lord's heritage. Because of
persons, and taking gifits, Deut. 16:19.                       the negligence of the teachers of lthe law, the nation,
       In this connection attention must also be called to with the passing of t,he years, retained but a dim mem-
the Levites and to the cities of refuge. Although this ory of its glorious history. It had little understanding
is nowhere expressly stated, i;t is certain that the corn--    of  the idea of its history, of Gods' worship, and of
mon Levites, as assistants to the priests, were given His  promis'es.          It was this ignorance-an ignorance
the task of  t%eaching the nation the law and were that `was wiBfu1 on the part of the carnal seed-that
itherefore distributed among all the tribes. Segregated        formed the root of the nation's woes. How could Is-
in cities of their own, they lived alone among their rael be one by a common faith in God, if it was ig-
,PeopIe and could thus maintain the proper balance norqt of the Lord and of all His works, ignorant of
between the kind of familiarity that breeds contempt           the great  principles  of truth that  lay embedded  in


                                  T - H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                       355

his history (Judges 2 :lO) ? If the truth, as spiritually came to him. And it came  urninvited,  if he  atill had
discerned and sanctified to their mind and heart, made his misgivings. But he yielded, for he was weary
`them  free, how could their lost liberties be regained and  exhausited. Then the woman drove a tent-nail
if they knew not the truth, knew not God? Israel             into his brains and fastened it into the ground. "So
must again be made acquainted with his history, with he died."
.the fact of his origin-which was God's election-and            It was a terrible deed. Harsh things. have been
wirth the fact of his being the product of the wonder        said about  Jael  on account of it. "All  gossible  ex-
of God's grace. This was Deborah's  tas,k.  For she          planations made," says one writer, "it remains a
was a prophetess. Her voice was the voice of  pro-           murder, a wild savage `thing for a woman to do, and
bphecy  which for many years now had been silent. we may ask whether among the tents of Zaanannim
Her labors, of course, could bear fruit worthy of re- Jael was not looked on from that day as a woman
pentance only in the spiritual Israel, and so  t hey did.    stained an'd shadowed,-one  who had been treacherous
The uprising to which she aroused this Israel from the to a guest." But Deborah says of her, "Blessed above
farthest north even to Benjamin was something ex- `women  shall  Jael the wife of `Heber the Kenite be,
traordinary both in itself and in its consequences, to       blessed shall she be above women in the tent." Debor-
judge from her song and from the narrative in Judges ah delights in the deed. She draws a pisture of Sis-
IV. But the carnal  IIsrael  was ill-effected by her  ex-    era's death tiith  startling vividness. "He asked water,
ultant discourse. Forty years after the victory over and she gave him milk ; Fhe brought forth butter in
Jabin, "the children of Israel did evil in the sight of a lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail, and her
the Lord. .  ." They even petitioned Gideon, the next right hand to the workman's hammer; and with the
-deliverer, to be their king and thus anYicipated  the sin- hammer she  smolte  Sisera, she smote off his head,
ful request t hat their spiritual kin were to make to when she had pierced and stricken through his
Samuel. But the believers in Israel could take heart temples. At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down:
from  ,the concluding  strophe  of Deborah's song, "So at her feet he bowed, he fell : where he bowed, there he
let all thy enemies perish, 0 Lord; but let them that fell down dead."
love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his               It will not do to say that. especially in these lines
might." The power of Jabin, the Canaanite king, was the song does not breathe the ideal of true religion.
wholly destroyed, so  ithat this king was the last of Deborah was a prophetess. She spake God's word.
that race by whom the northern tribes were troubled. The song was breathed into her heart by His Spirit.
    Now. a word about Jael, the wife of Heber the Ken-       Therefore Jael must be criticized with caution. True
ite and the slayer of Sisera, the captain of  Jabin's        the woman lied to the fugitive. She dealt deceitfully
host.    Sisera, lighting down from his chariot, fled with him. Though his enemy in her heart, bent on
away on foot in order to escape by roads other than his destruction, she posed as his friend and the sa-
that. along which the chariots could flee. He purposely viour of his life.. The confidence which she won
pursued a course that led to the tents of `the house of through obliging services, she betrayed. These were
Heber, where he thought to find a safe hiding place. !her sins and  they  were cursed.  IIn war a certain
For there was peace between the house of Heber the           type of craft is consistant with the et,hics of true re-
Kenite and  Jabin.     The  Keniite  therefore was  no+      ligion and thus allowable, such as the craft employed,
sharing the oppression that Israel suffered. It must even at the command of God, in the capture of Ai by
have been three days after the battle that Sisera,           Joshua.    That was  no% properly deception. For it
anxious only not .to be overtaken by Barak, reached          was not the breaking of a promise previously given
the chosen destination. Doubtless he had not thought to the adversary, but simply the execution of a plan
to find protection in the tent of a woman; ye? it was        of  a&ion that had been adopted for the taking of a
here hat he obtained shelter. For the woman  went            particular heathen stronghold. To call it sin is to be
forth to mee,t.  him wilth friendly mien and invited him obliged to maintain that, in war, a general finds him-
urgently, and allayed his distrust.. "Turn in my lord,       self under the moral necessity of revealing to the
turn in to me; fear not." She confirmed him. in his enemy all his contemplated strategic movements. But,
security by obliging services. "Give me a little water as  1 w&e in a former article in expatiating on the
to drink, for I am thirsty," he said to her. "And she subj,ect,  the parties to a war do not expect this of
opened a bottle of milk and gave him drink and cover-        each other. Each knovs that it is a part of his busi-
ed him." But the man still seemed apprehensive. For ness to watch the other and to imagine his real pur-
he felt that he ought to instruct her how to answer `pose. If the one or the other is too careless to watch,
any inquirer Ithat might come. "Stand at the door he must suffer the consequences. . But when condi-
of the tent," he said to her, "and it shall be, when tions have been reached on both sides, when promises
any man doth come and inquire of thee, and say, Is           have been mede, and treaties signed, the case is all
there any  mm here ? Thou  ahalt  gay, No."  Sleep together different, Then  the enemy hae a right to

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

expect  that he will not be misled. A word of honor
has been given. A pledge has been made. And to                                             Gideon
disregard this pledge is sin.
   Jael  hata promised-virtually promised-to shelter
Sizera from his pursuers. Her promise she broke,                       If Deborah had definite  and. special significance for
and used it to bring the man to his doom. This was Israel and the kingdom of God in general, so, too,
her sin and it was cured. But she was blessed be- Gideon (and for that matter all the heroes and pro-
cause by  -faith she was for  Christ and against the phets of God). Deborah was prophetess, `who told the
oppressor of His people. It was her faith and not her glories of Isdael's  God as revealed in all his marvel-
sins that  Deb0ra.h extolled-her living faith as it at- ous redemptive works, and who thus anew united
tained expression in her slaying him who had kill.ed                God's believing people, instrumentally, on the founda-
IGod's  people and who, if allowed  to escape, would tion of the great principles of truth that, as was said,
have collected fresh troops and attacked Israel anew. lay embedded in Israel's history. Gideon and his band
She would not have it said of her that she had spared of three hundred-the hero cannot be dissociated from
this foe. The elements of sin in the woman's deed this band-was raised up and prepared by the Lord to
`were not of faith but were solely the issues of the                demonstrate of what great things the army of God,
flesh and are to be condemned. Not. here then can however small and contemptible in itself, is capable,
#be found the moral that the end justifies the means when, under atehe impulse of a living faith, it is wholly
or that we may do evil with good intent which never consecrated to God's cause and goes forth to war His
was a Bible doctrine nor never can be. A man cannot warfare solely in His name. Such an army overcomes
sin  with a good intent, be moved in his lying by  a                the world and thus achieves the victory prepared for
worthy motive.                                                      it by the God of its salvation. In the history of Gideon,
   But was the slaying of Sisera the task of Jael? <the emphasis lies on the insignificant number of this
It was. For there was war between Israel and Sisera, hero's .fighting  force, and on the daring and wonderful
a war of liberation ordered by Jehovah. In taking achievement of its faith notwithstanding. The great
up arms against Sisera, the `woman was simply help- lesson for Israel was that its help  cometh solely from
ing Israel to fighlt this war. That certainly was her the sanctuary and that thus, if it would only turn from
duty, Had she shirked it she would have  bee:1  for his idols and serve and trust in Jehovah, he-Israel-
Siaera, for darkness and against God in  "that holy would ride and continue to ride on the highplaces of
warfare. Her friendship of the world would have the earth. There are still other lessons, which will
been enmity of God. In slaying Sisera, therefore she be uncovered as we progress in the treatment of this
did not commit murder, for murder is unlawful kill- section of the history of God's people of old. Let us
ing. What the woman did in slaying Sisera, was to turn to this history' and see how it bears out  athe
join herself, .in a war  bet'ween  Israel and the heathen, truth of the above statements.
to Israel, a people with whom her raze  In its history                 The sacred narrator makes no mention of  ,the
had been from time memorial interwoven. Blessed, death of Deborah  and Barak. The benefit of the
therefore, yea, bl'essed  shall she be above women in salvation-peace in the land-which the Lord wrought
the tent. Her sin was that, in doing battle  with God's through them lasted forty years. Then fresh bond-
adversaries, she had resorted to a kind of tactic that age and misery came,  .for the children of Israel again
took her far beyond the limits of lawful military did evil in `ihe sight of the Lord. The  Ideeds by which
strategy, lawful in the sight of God. And of this sin the liberty of the nation had been regained, were will-
she had to repent. And by the grace of God she did                  ingly forgotten and with them Jehovah whose Spirit
so, we must believe. A final remark. IIt is plain that, had begotten them.  Tfhe Hebrews again openly fell
as some do, we need not argue, ato justi.fy  Jael's  act,           into their sinful habits of forbidden intercourse with
that she had received a a.pecial  revelation from God the Canaanites and their  idols. "And the Lord  dc-
ato perform the act. Her act is to be justified solely on livered them into the hand of  Midian seven years."
the ground that it was her calling #to war God's war- The Midianites were nomad tent-dwellers in the des-
fare and that. God had directed Sisera's steps. to her ert beyond Ammon and Moab. These  two nations
 tent.                                     G. M. 0.                 having been greatly weakened  in their wars wit.h Is-
                                                                    rael, the Midianites might, for this reason become
                                                                    stronger and more formidable to  Islrael. At any rate,
                                                                    in the hand of God they became for seven years the
          My end, Lord, make me know,                               scourge of apostate Israel. The Midianites cam,e  not
          My days., how soon they fail;                             alone, for by themselves they are only a small nation
          And to my thoughtful spirit show              .,          occupyin,g  only a small territory in north-western
          Hew weak I  am and frail.                           .-
                                                       _^           Arabia. But they possessed the faculty of effecting a


                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         357

a great coalition of Arabian tribes under their own         present invasion.    Here altars of  Baa1 were seen
leadership and of employing them in war to advance everywhere, authorized and unrestrained. Precisely
their own interests. For we read, "the  ,,Midianites        those places which formed: the richest portion of this
came up, and the Amalekites, and  ,the children of the half tribe, namely the cities of the plain of Jezreel,
east, even they came up again& them" (chap. 6 :3).          had never been vacated by the Canaanites. They had
They thus came in great hordes "as grasshoppers for continued to dwell in  Beth-shean,  Taanach, Megido,
multitude: for both they and their camels were with- Jiblearn  and Dor (ch.l:27). This tribe, it would seem,
out. number." "And they came up with their  caktle          had done least in  expelhng  the original inhabitants.
and with their tents" (chap.  6:5).  Their reason for          Israel was greatly impoverished and cried unto  th?
invading the land of Canaan  and initiating a war Lord. And the Lord sent a prophet to them, whose
with Israel is not given. It was of no importance to        name is not mentioned. In rebuking and admonish-
the sacred author. What had sole weight with him is ing Israel, the unknown preacher touches upon the
that the  ,&urd  sent them and delivered His people into    same great facts and truths that every prophet of
their hands.  Perham  they had been stirred up by God touched upon in rebuking the apostate nation.
the Canaanites, whom Deborah had conquered and who             The prophet prefaced his admonitory discourse
may have had commercial ties with these heathen.            with the solemn declaration, "Thus saith the Lord God
They may further have been encouraged by their of Israel," and so cautioned his hearers to be alive to '
imagined weakness of Israel. They penetrated Ca- the fact that, as, his utterances would unmistakably
naan, as is expressly stated (verse 4) as far as Gaza       indicate, they were about to hear the very word of
in the extreme south-west. It is also state1 ,that their God. What now saith the Lord? that "I brought you.
rule was terrible, far more so than that of Moab and        up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the
such-like  non-noma,dic  peoples. They eLIcamped against house of bondage ; and delivered you out of the hand
God's people" and left no substance for them, neither of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that op-
sheep, nor ox, nor ass.`" "They destroyed the increase pressed you,  aild drave them out from before you,
of the earth" (chap.  6:4). As was the habit of all         and gave you their land ; and I said unto you, .I am
roving races., who had gained the upperhand,  the,y         the Lord your God ; fear not the gods of the Amorites,
plundered and devastated every part of the land they in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my
entered, killing or dragging with them every living voice." Again the sinful nation was made to hear that
thing. They retired with their booty in the autumn,         it had despised and rejected its very Father and Crea-
only to reappear again in the spring to swarm over the      tor, the God of its salvation, to revere, do homage to,
land and to trample down the young crops with their and place its confidence in gods. that be no gods. And
camels and herds, after the  hebrews  had ventured on the altar of these  `gods it was placing Jehovah's
forth from the `dens in the mountain and the caves and      gifts ! There is no reply of the people recorded, as
strongholds to sow *their grain. The memory which there could be none in  ,the face of these facts that the
Israel retained af these hordes was that of its worst       apostates must now face anew.        They stood mute,
enemy. The invaders' purpose was not to gather the severly condemned by the voice of conscience that
harvest but only to destroy.                                bore loud witness to the truth of the prophet's words.
   So had the people of Israel again fallen into the           The scene changes. The sacred author now takes
old sinful habit of forbidden friendly intercourse with us to Ophrah, the seat of the family of Abiezer, ths
the Canaanites, joining them in their pagan festivals son of Manasseh, whose allottment  was on the west.
in honor of their gods and wilfully forgetting the side of the Jordan and included, as was said, the fer-
Lord God of Israel. Reading aright the narrative con- tile districts of the plain of Jezreel in northern Ca-
tained in  Ju,dges  IX we make a  s,tartling  discovery.    naan.    There in Ophrah, on the farm of  Joash,  n
In the center of the land, we find, was a league of scion of Abiezer,  Gicleon, one of  Joash's sons, perform-
Canaanite and Hebrew cities, with Shechem at their ed his task of the day. He threshed some wheat in  :.I
head, which worshipped  Baa1 as the Lord of their secluded place where a winepress had been made so
coalatioa. In the northern tribes generally, Jehovah <that the grain might be concealed from the Midianites
had little recognition. Ophrah Manasseh, the seat of always roving in quest of plunder. Glancing up, he
Gideon's family, was a filthy sink of idolatry. Here saw under an oak a stranger sitting. It was the angel
the true people of God had fallen into such  self-          of the Lord Himself and not a mere human messenger.
obilvion, that the hostile residents of this city-apos- Presently the angel stood beside him and he received
tate Hebrews and Canaanites alike-dared to demand the significant  greeting, "The Lord is with thee, thou
of the father of Gideon the latter's death because he mighty hero.," But Gideon, it would seem, was far
had done that which it was the ,duty of every Israel- from being a hero. He was  desponclent.,  timid and
ite to do. Nowhere perhaps did idolatry prevail as fearful, standing on the brink of despair. In response
in Manasseh, the tribe that suffered most from the          to the angel's greeting he complained, `<Oh my Lord,

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

if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen from the reaction of the angel. "The Lord looked
us? And where be all his wonders which our fathers upon him and said, "Go in this thy might and thou
told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from      shalt save Israel. . .  ."    "In this thy might," `thy
Egypt? but. now the Lord hath forsaken us, and de- might that I gendered in thee-thy living trust in
livered us into the hands of the  Midianitez."  Then Me- and that I now bring to fruition through my
the Lord looked upon him, an,d said, "Go in this thy Spirit and my word-the word that I now speak to
might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of thee.' "In this thy faith go." `And to it, I will  re-
the Midianites; have  no:t I sent thee? But he recoiled spond and grant thee victory. So will thy faith over-
from the execution of the commission, offering as his      come the world as represented by the hordes of the
reason the poverty of his family and his own imigni- Midianites, thou mighty hero.'
ficance.  He was the least in his father's house. So          A `mighty hero was Gideon, even before he receiv-
he put the question, "Wherewith shall I save Is- ed his commission. IIn his home and in his city he
rael. . .  ?"     But the Lord was insistent, "Surely I    was surrounded by  idolat,ry.     Baa1 seemed to have
will be with thee, and thou  shaht, smite the Midianites triumphed. Amid such surroundings the position of
as one man." Vain  wands if coming from a mere Gideon was extremely difficult. His whole clan was
human. If he Gould  only be certain that the messen- sacrificing to Baal. But he had turned with loathing
ger was He. "If now I have found gate in thy sight, from that base worship.
then show me a sign that thou talkest with me." So            Gideon had a great task to perform. "Thou shalt
the Lord touched with the end of His staff the sacri-      save Israel from the hand of the Midianites," `thou
fice that Gideon prepared and there rose fire out of but only through thy faith.' Thus the thought is that
the rock and consumed it. And the Lord departed out Jehovah will save in answer to a living faith in Him
of his s,ight.    Perceiving that it was the angel of the and His word, thus a faith that will translate itself
Lord, he feared t.hat he would now have to die. The into action to consist in throwing down  Baal's altar
Lord reassured him. "Peace be unto thee, thou shalt in Ophrah and in building an altar unto the Lord ;
not die." He threw down Baal's altar and built an second, in calling the tribes concerned to arms, and
altar to the Lord but it was all done in the night. He finally in doing  babtle with the Midianite hordes
feared his father's household, and the men of the city.    with a band of men ridiculously small.        God gave
Still other signs were asked for and given him that Gideon  t.his faith and brought it t.o full fruition in
he might know that the Lord would save Israel by him, as was said through His wand as  sanctifi,ed  to
his hand. But not until he heard the telling of the his heart and by signs. By His word: "The Lord is
dream and the interpretation thereof-the dream of with thee. . .  ."            "Thou shalt deliver Israel. . .  ."
a cake of barley bread-did he jubilantly exclaim to        `Surely I will be with thee and thou shalt. smite the
his band of *three hundred, "Arise, for the Lord hath      Midianites as one man." "Peace be  unto thee; fear
delivered into your hand the host of Midian." Midian       not. Thou shalt not die."
was subdued "by the sword of God and of Gideon."              There were also signs. Gideon brought forth his
Gideon the mighty hero! Now the title became him.          meat offering, flesh and bread, which ascended in
But certainly also when the Lord first spake to him fire when touched by the angel. Fire is the element
<there on his father's farm by that winepress. The in which divine grace reveals itself. Fire came down
might of Gideon was his living faith in Jehovah, Is- on the offering of Solomon, when he had made an end
rael's God and Saviour, faith in `His righteous and un-    of praying and consumed them  ($1 Chron. VII  :l)  .
changeable mercy, in .His willingness to forgive and       Fire fell from heaven in answer  5.0 Elijah's prayer
His power to save His ill-deserving people that He         that the Load woul,d  make it manifest that he was
might be feared. This faith is plainly indicated in God in Israel, and consumed the sacrifice before the
his doleful reply to the angel. He confessed the won- eyes of the apostate people (I Kings XVIII  28). And
derful origin of his people as reported by the fathers the angel touched the flesh and cakes. What is sym-
and ended with the present plight of the nation not bolized is the baptism of the elect with the grace of
in the  Mi,dianites  but in God, when he  cotiplained:     Christ. For the meat offering, aflame by the fire of
"Now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us in         God from heaven and ascending in smoke to the
the hands of the  Midianltses."  His question, "Why throne, is the type of Christ and His spiritual body the
*then has all this befallen us," sprang not certainly church. It was thus also the symbol of the true be-
from a willing ignorance of the nation's guilt, but was lievers of the Old dispensation, thus a token of Gideon
occasioned by the greeting of the Lord,  "I am with himself, of the new creature in him, consecrated to
*thee."    To his mind, the statement is con.tradicted  by the service of God' and Inow being prepared for his
the present impotence of his people. That the response great, work. The truth and facts symbolized by this
proceeded from a living faith and was made under sign is that set forth by the word of the angel, "Ths
the impulse of love of God and His people, is evident Lord is with thee. . . ." "Peace be unto thee." "The


                                  ` T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            350

Lord is with thee," is the promise of salvation. To and not beneath; if thou hearken unto the command-
be aflame with the fire of God from heaven, is to be        ments of the Lord. . .  ." (ch. 28  :13). But on the
saved unto God. Here the fire leaped from the rock  ; other hand, "if thou wilt, not hearken unto the voice of
and the rock was Christ. As salvation  is solely of the Lord thy God. . . .t.he Lord shall smite thee. . . .
God, the sign declared that the speaker was Jehovah Thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass. . . .
who in His mercy would again save His people.               the stranger that is  wit.hin  thee shall  get up above
   There is evidence in the text that,  Gi'deon  had thee very high ; and thou shalt come down very low.
adequate understanding of this. These old Testament He  Ehall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him:
hereos of faith must be given credit for more know- he shall be the head and thou shalt be the tail"  (verse
ledge and insight than is commonly given them. This 44). These are the scriptures that go with our sign.
sign was worked in the first instance, for Gideon's That fleece of wool is Israel indeed. When obedient,
benefit.    There is ground in the text for the view he was filled with the dew of heaven, the material
that he wanted and had asked for this very sign. Said gifts of the covenant promise; and, in relation to the
the Lord to him, "Surely, I will be with thee, and heathen nations, was above only and not beneath.
thou shalt smite the Midianites. . .  ." Gideon re- When he forsook God, the Lord closed unto him the
plies, "If now I have found grace in thy sight, then treasures of heaven. Then Me fleece of God's flock
show me a sign that thou  takest with me.        Depart was dry, and the ground  a11 around was wet i.e., God
not hence, I pray thee, until 1 come unto thee  anal        opened His good treasures to the heathen; and they
bring thee my present (meat offering), and set. if          would prosper materially and get them high above
before thee." This is plain that his desire is that Israel. This is reading the very words of Scripture
the sign involve his offering. That he anticipated the      into our sign. There is more. These material gifts- -
very sign that. was given is not improbable. What as received and  heLd  by God's believing people-  be-
he wowld know is "that thou (art he) who are speak- tokened the grace of God unto His elect, the spiritual
ing with me.", Also in the consciousness of Gideon, ,gifts of His kingdom  a31 of which dwell in Christ
the pronoun  Thou  has reference, not to a common an- and which `He bestows upon His people, the true mem-
gel but to Jehovah.                                         bers of His body. In the ,Old Dispensation, this people
   Then there is the doub1.e sign of the fleece, which was the one nation Israel, the remnant according to
has received several meanings. One is that the abIe         the election in it.    Then, in this spiritual point of
commander must be warm and overflowing with zeal view, Israel was the dew-filled fleece among the na-
and care, even when all besides are indifferent and         tions. "And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the
dry ; and on the other hand he must at times maintain gentiles in the midst of many people as a dew from
fhe greatest  cooIness  and dryness when all other the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth
hearts are overflowing with unseasonable impatience not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men" (Micah
and excitement. According to another interpretation, 5:7). This, we must mark, is prediction, that went;
"IsraeP  was like that fleece of wool, spread upon the      into  fulfi&nent  in the new Dispensation. In the final
wi,de extent of the nations. But whereas all the ground instance the dew-filled fleece, the remnant of Israel
around was dry, Israel was filled with the .dew, as a in the midst. of the nations, is the church of the New
symbol of divine blessing. And the second sign meant, Dispensation. The house of the carnal Israel of the
that it was equally of God, when during Israel's  apos-     Old Dispensation, was left desolate. It is thus the
tacy,  the ground all around was wet, and the fleece fleece `left dry.
of Jehovah's flock left dry." In the ancient church            The double sign of the fleece, it is clear, was well
this sign became the type of the birth of Jesus from        calculated to stimulate faith in the power and  resolve
the virgin Mary.                                            of Jehovah to bring salvation. For it declared, did
   The  signs of the Scriptures must be  interpret.ed       this sign, that oppression of the adversaries  were
in the light of the Scriptures. When  Lsrael  served divine visitations indeed: and that, this being true,
God, he received from His hand "the dew of heaven,          Israel's help stood solely in the name of  it;s, God.
and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and           The filnal evidence, given Gideon, that the victory
wine," acordinlg  to the covenant promise, Gen. 2'728.      would be his is the *dream  of the Midianite. The Lord
When he forsook the Lord, the  ,dew and the corn were       instructs Gideon to go down into the camp of the
withheld, and his enemies triumphed over him, also adversary.             From the enemy's dream he will learn
according to the word of  thhe Lord.     Quoting from the frame of mind in which they are and his confi-
Deut. "The Lorfi shall open thee his good treasures,        dence will be perfected. Fearing to go down alone,
the heaven to give rain unto thy land in  his. season he was  allowe8d  to take with him Phurah his page.
. . . .and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and The countless numbers. and the vast resources of the
thou shalt not borrow. And the Lord shall make thee enlemy  are once again pointed out. On the one side
the head and not the tail ; and thou shalt be above only    there are three hundred men on foot, on the other,

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

 a multitude numerous as an army of locusts.              The ook tusschen eeuwig leven en leven in eeuwigheid.
 dream was this: A cake of barley rolled itself in the         Eene zekere rijke overste vraagde Jezus, "Goede Mees-
 camp of the Midianites and it rolled against the tent ter ! wat doende zal ik het eeuwig leven  beerven?" Let
 and overturned ti and it. fell a,?d turned it from above      er op, deze overste leefde,  toen  hij Jezus dit vraagde,
 -so that its roof was downwards. and it was fallen. maar tech wil hij een ander Ieven ook hebben, en dat
 "It rolled against the tent. . .  ."  The  tent, stands       Seven  was aiet een verlengen van het leven ,dat hij op
 collect,ively  for all the tents of the encampment. One dat oogenblik ,genoot. Wij kunnen en moeten  tusschen
 tent after another was struck and fell.                       leven en leven en boven al tusschen eeuwig leven en
    The dream was of God and also its interpretation leven in eeuwigheid onderscheiden.
 which was given to the companion of the dreamer.                 Wij moeten het niet vergeten  dat Ieven  veel meer
 "`This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the is dan bestaan. Leven in den volhen zin des woords,
 ::on of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath dat is, het eeuwig leven, `is gemeenschap met God de
 God delivered  Midian and `all his host."                     bron van alle goed. "Dit is het eeuwig leven, dat zij
                                              G. M. 0.         U kennen, den E.enigen  Waarachtigen God, en Jezus
                                                               Christus, Dien Gij  gezoeclen  hebt", zegt Jezus in
                                                               Johannes  17:3. Deze kennis is eene kennis van  er-
                                                               varing, zoodat h.et eeuwig leven die staat is waarin
                                                               wij eeuwiglijk God's gemeenschap, genade en Iiefde
                                                               ervaren en genieten. Alzoo zingen  wij ook uit Psalm
                                                               73:14,  "Maar  `t is mij  goed, mijn zaligst lot, nabij
                                                               te wezen bij mijn God." Dit zal ons eeuwig leven in
    "Van den boom der kennis  das. goeds en des kwaads,        de nieuwe  Jeruzalem  zijn. Die gemeenschap Gods
 daarvan zult gij niet eten; want ten dage, als gij daar-      genoot Adam in Paraqdijs  voor dat hij ongehoorzaam
 van eet, zult gij den jdood sterven". Alzoo  sprak God        werd. Eene rijkere en meer intieme gemeenschap met
 tot Adam in Paradijs voor dat hij viel. Nu, na zijnen God ligt er in de toekomst voor al Gods verbonds  kin-
. val, zegt God, Zie de mensch is geworden als onzer deren wanneer zij met opgewekte, geestelijke lichamen
 een, kennende het `goed en het kwaad. Nu dan, dat voor zijnen  ,t.roon staan in heerlijkheid.                 Met die
 hij zijn hand niet uitsteke, en neme ook van den boom lichamen zullen wij Gods gemeenschap, genade en
 des  levens en  &en en leven in eeuwigheid. Zoo  ver-         liefde ervaren en  genieten  tot eene mate ver boven
 zond hem den Heere God uit a&n hof van Edom om den die mate die voor Adam in zijnen staat van gerechtig-
 aardbodem  te bouwen,  waar hij uit genomen was." heid mogelijk was. Die gemeenschap  zal eene  ge-
 Gen. 3 :22, 23.                                               meenschap in  Christus de Zoon Zijner liefde zijn.
    Deze twee Schriftuur plaatsen blijken in strijd met Die gemeenschap is het eeuwig leven, en daarom zegt
 elkander  te zijn. Allereerst zegt God dat Adam (den          Jezus dat  bet, eeuwig leven hierin bestaat dat wij  niet
 dood sterven zou in den dag dat hij van den boom  `der        slechts Go$ kennen maar ook dat wij Christus Jezus,
 kennis des goeds  en des kwaads ete, en nu stelt Hij          Dien Hij gezonden heeft, kennen. Zulk eene innige,
 <de zaak voor alsof  Adam, na zijn eten, nog niet slechts intieme en rijke kennis en gemeenschap met God  ge-
 leven maar eeuwig leven genieten  kan.                        noot Adam niet. Zijne gemeenschap met God was
        Er zijn menschen die dit vers in Gen. 3 beschouwen we1 zeer rij,k en het leven dat hij in zijne.n staat van
 als goddelijke ironie en spot over den gevallen mensch. tgerechtigheid  genoot was we1 wonderlijk. Maar God
 De duivel zeide tot Eva, "Gij zult niet sterven. Gij          had een hooger leven, eene meer intieme en rijke  ge-
 zult als God  wezen,  kennende het  goed en  het kwaed." meenschap en leven voor Zijn volk in Zijnen raad be-
 Nu, zeggen zij, spreekt  ,God deze woorden van den sloten.             Daarom moest er eene val zijn, en daarom
 duivel tot dien gevallen mensch in ironie en spot. Wij moest het kruis van Christus komen. Nu, door Chris-
 kunnen ons met dit niet toestemmen. Het is we1 ,duide-        tus en Zijnen  Geest  worden wij tot eene rijkere  ge-
 Iijk uit het vers zelf dat de Drieeenige God dit tot meenschap en leven voor Zijn volk in Zijnen raad be-
 Zichzelf spreekt. Hij zegt niet tot den mensch, "Ziet sloten.          Daarom  moest er eene val zijn, en daarom
 gij zij  ab onzer een geworden." Hij zegt, "Ziet de moest het kruis van Christ.us komen. Nu, door  Chris-
 mmwh  is gelijk ons" maakt  haet duidelijk dat deze tus en Zijnen Geest worden  wij tot eene rijkere ge-
 woorden niet tot Adam  waren  gesproken. Er kan dan meenschap met God dan wij ooit door Adam  be-
 gene ironie en spot in deze woorden opgesloten zijn. reiken konnen.
 Wij zullen  in eene andere richting moeten  gaan willen          Het is dan we1 reeds duidelijk dat als wij in Gen.
 wij eene verklaring vindn van het eten en leven in 3:22 van een leven in eeuwigheid lezen dat wij dit
 eeuwigheid waarvan dit vers spreekt.                          niet  moeten  verstaan als het eeuwig leven dat bestaat
        Allereerst  moeten  wij niet uit het oog verliezen in gemeenschap met God in en door Christus. Dit is
 het feit #dat er verschil is tusschen leven en leven, en duidelijk uit het feit dat het gene gemeenschap was

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

                           Pentecost                             and almost unbelieveable change that  was wrought by
                                                                 the Pentecostal Spirit cannot deny the importance of
                                                                 the day. Before Pentecost Christ's own disciples had
        Although Scriptures record of the great event of not  uilderstood Him. To Peter and John, as well as
     Pentecost is simple and brief, Pente:o&  is, neverthe-      to all their fellows, the cross had been a mystery.
     less, the most significant event in the history of the Even greater ha~5 been the mystery of the open .grave,
     Church of Jesus Christ.       Of all Christian holidays for after numerous appearances of the risen Christ
     it is the most glorious. Its benediction is of eternal      many still doubted. Was it any different when from
     value.     Its significance is far-reaching.    Without     Mount Olivet the Christ ascended to receive all power
     Pentecost the  (day of Christmas is meaningless; with- and glory in heaven and on e,arth? `Had not their eyes
,    out it the joys. of Easter are vain and the hope of been dimmed with tears because they did not under-
     the resurrection is deceptive. Undoubtedly, Christ- stand? But on the day of Pentecost, having received
     mas, Easter and the Ascension are indispensable to the gift  of the Spirit, all is changed. Then, for the
     our salvation, yet,  wimthout  Pentecost and its gift of first time, Peter and his fellow disciples understand
     the Holy Spirit we are yet in our sin, we are hope-         Chris,t  and His cross, the resurrection and the ascen-
     lessly lost. Without Pentecost all the work of Christ sion. They had received the Spirit of truth who was
     is as a budding flower `which never blooms.                 able to lead in al,l truth.
        Yet, important as Pentecost is, in our day it is            Never before had the Church. nor any individual
     forgotten, if not ignored.. Weeks beforehand we pre- saint received this Spirit. Not that Penltecost marks
     pare- for Christmas ; and Easter cannot be passed un- the birth or beginning of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit
     noticed, but Pentecost seems of no account.                 is eternal, very God, the third Person of the blessed
        When one considers these facts he speaks very Trinity. Even before the day of Pentecost it was the
     mildly by condemning the disregardance of Pentecost Spirit who worked regeneration and faith in the hearts
     as very foolish. Would one plow his fields and sow of the Old Testament saints.. Prom the very beginning
     therein the precious seed, and yet, in time of harvest of time it was the Holy Spirit Who  combforted  the
     fail to reap the gains? Would you rise up early every       Church, Who bound the broken of heart. But, how-
     morning, trudge your way to work and labor in the           ever true this is, there was a marked difference in
     sweat of your brow all day only to despise your due the operation of this Spirit  ,before  and after the day of
     reward? Yet, this is the condition of the church and        Pentecost. Before Pentecost the Spirit merely came
     every individual Christian if there is no Pentecost. with  promrises  of salvation. In consoling the Church
     It is plowing and sowing without harvest, it is labor- of the Old Dispensation the Spirit merely pointed to
     ing without due reward, it is the cross without the         good things to come, things that lay in the faraway
     crown, it is bitter strife without victory.                 future.    In temple, priest and sacrifice the Spirit
            Pentecost is the crowning day of the Church of brought them nothing essentially  yea+& but only  sh&td-
     Jesus Christ and of every individual believer. As ows, p&9ures  of the real and +ue salvation that was
     mighty kings and monarchs have their day of corona- to come. All that the Spirit ever brought in the Old
     tion in which they are crowned and arrayed with royal       Testament was promises and pledges sworn to by
     power, so, too, the Church of Christ has her crowning God while the actual fulfillment thereof lay in the
     day, and that day is Pentecost. Not in the sense that future.
     the Church and each individual receives the crown              Why did the Spirit in the Old Testament merely
     and due reward for work they performed but they make promises? Why did He not bring the reality
     receive the crown of the work of Christ, the glorious       instead? The  ans,wer is : the reality was nob yet.
     fruits of all His labors of love.  IOn Christmas day All that was real was sin, curse,, depravity and damna-
     our mighty Prince of Peace entered upon the field of tion. Thousands upon thousands of animals had been
     battle, on  -Golgotha the strife  `was at its peak ; on slain  *for sin, yet. .  not one single  (drop of atoning
     Easter we see the Captain of our salvation as Con- blood had they brought.  *Never had one sin been paid
     queror of death and hell; with His ascension we see         for. Hence, in that sense there was no real salvation,
     Him exalted in power and glory, but. . . .b!e.ssed day there was no real, actual, true atonement. . . . `.for
     of Pentecost, for  ,then  every soldier in the ranks of Christ had not come. He, who alone can pay for sin,
     Christ Jesus, every subject of His kingdom receives ,whose  blood can &anse and make us whole, had not
     the fruits of Christ's labors, the blessings of His ccm-    been born, had not suffered, (died and rose again.
     quest.                                                         On Pentecost, however, everything is changed.
            That blessing is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Christ had come. He had died, was buried and had
     crown the glory, the life of the Church.         I          risen from the dead ; yea, as the mighty Conqueror
            HOW,  then, can we minimize the  `day of Pentecost? of sin, death and hell He had ascended to heaven and
     Any student of Scripture having seen the marvelous ,was given all power in heaven and on earth. Then


                                        T H E S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            363

 salvation was an  uccomplis~t&  fact. Sin had been are other circles who seem to keep the day who have
 paid for, atonement was made, therefore, the Spirt,               little more to offer the fold on this score than those
 coming to the Church on the day of Pentecost did  not             who do not keep the day  at, all. They proclaim the
 come with the promise of salvation, but He came with Spirit to be nothing more than a divine means, method
 t,he real, full and free salvation in Christ. Beginning or power, and of such caliber that the reception of
 with Pentecost He no  longe,r promises peace with God             the Spirit is entirely dependent upon the will of man.
 but He brings peace. IHe no longer pledges life, but With this doctrine, too, the glory and real comfort
 He gives to every saint the resurrected life of the               of Pentecost has been obliterated. It  robs  ,the very
 risen Lord. He no longer promises Christ, but He ,work  of Christ of its crown and glory an dleaves  man
* brings Christ  *into our very heart and life  and He             as far from the possibility of being saved as the de-
 makes us live Christ.                                             nial of the redemption in the blood of Christ.
        For  ,this reason Pentecost is far more glorious  tha;l       The glory of Pentecost is the fact that the Spirit
 Christmas. On Christmas Christ came to us, but OX                 who was poured out into the Church is no less than
 Pentecost the glorious, resurrected Christ comes in God Himself, the third Person of the Trinity, Omni-
 us and our very life is changed .from an earthly to *b            potent, Omnipresent, the everwise  and good God. He
 heavenly. No longer is the believer an orphan with                is the mighty life-giving, ever-impelling Spirit of nU
' the promise of a good home for on Pentecost the Father creation and of every creature. The Spirit who en-
 is brought to us in all His love and grace.                       gendered into the lifeless chaos of Genesis One the life
        The priceless. treasure of the gift of the Holy Spirit that burst  .forth on mountain and plain, in valley and
 Ibecomes  evident when one considers  ii1 the light of forest, on land and in the sea! Therefore, we are sure
 Scripture the benefits which the Spirit imparts. Christ that He who of nothing made heaven and earth can
 calls Him: the Comforter, who shall abide with us                 also turn sinful man to the fear of God and instill
 forever; the Spirit of Truth, the Power from on high.             in his dead soul a life that shall never end, the very
 "Of Him Scripture further testifies: "If any man life of the blessed Covenant God. And since this
 have not the Spirit of Christ He is none of His," and             Spirit raised Christ from the dead we know that he,
 again : "No man can say Jesus is the Lord, but by                 too, shall be able to raise us with Him in a life that
 the Holy Ghost." In Galations 45, 7 we read: "And loves and seeks God.
 because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of               No great wonder then that this Spirit came with
 His Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father. Where- the sign of the sound of a mighty rushing wind. For
 fore thou art no more a servant but a son; and if a as the raging tempest is not restrained by the will and
 son, then an heir of God through Christ." Without                 ways of man, so, too, this Spirit, mightier than the
 this Spirit the hope of life eternal is vain; Scripture mightiest tempest, is not limited by human conditions
 emphatically says : "But if the Spirit of Him that                or laws but dispenses His gifts in superb disregard
 raised Jesus  .from the dead dwell in yoc, He that raised         of all that we are and of any condition of the heart.
 Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal And  sin,ful though we may be IIe assures us by the
 bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."                       signs of the living flaming, cloven tongues of fire that
        Yet in the faoe of all this the Church of today con- He is able to burn away all filth of sin and turn our
 tinues to forget, slight or ignore the day of Pentecost.          darkness into light and cause us to waIk in the glo-
 The reason, no  ,doubt,  for this attitude can only be            rious liber.ty of the sons of God.
 explained from the heritical  doctrine sweeping through              And it is upon the Church only that this Spirit was
 the Church, and especially the doctrine of the free-              poured out, even as Christ had said: "Whom the world
 will of man.        No more than that the doctrine of cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither
 Phariseeis,m,  clinging tenaciously to the doctrine of knoweth Him, but ye know Him; for He  dwel!eth
 righteousness by the works of the law, celebrates                 with you, and shall be in you." To this the apostle
 `Christmas with its Christ of redemption ; no more adds : "ZZecause  ye are so.%s. God hath sent forth the
 does the church which lauds man's  freeAwil1  need and Spirit of His Son into your hearts." And that little
 care for the day of Pentecost with its outpouring of word "because" does not reflect upon our work, but
 the Spirit of Christ. In fact, a rigid preaching of upon God% work in His people. Therefore the apostle
 Pentecost's miraculous power would necessarily sound reminded us in the preceding verse: "But when the
 the death knell of Arminianism. While, on the other               fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son,
 hand, rigid adherence to the doctrine of man's free born of a woman, born under the law, that He might
 will must necessarily shut out the celebration of the             redeem them which were und.er the law." And why,
 day of Pentecost as it has already done in many circles. what is the purpose? "That we might  receive  the ad-
        Rut not only in such circles where Pentecost is not option of sons." Hence, it is of God to His Church,
 celebrated at all is the church left without the true and where the grace of Christ and His atoning blood
 significance of the day and its glorious comfort, There
   L                                                               is not found there men look  in vain  fsr this Spirit.

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

But wheresoever the grace  ,of Christ and His atoning                                 IN MEMORIAM
blood has worked its marvelous #deeds  of redemption
there He bath  sent His Spirit with joy and peace un-          On Friday evening, April 21, 1944, the Lord in His in-
told and with life that never ends, for where the          finite wisdom  tcok unto Himself my  beIoved  wife
Spirit dwells there God Himself dwells, and we with                             DIRKJE HOOGLAND
Him.
   Thus th.e &y of Pentecos:t  is the crowning day, the at the age of 77 years and eleven months. She was prepared
day of our vicbory  in Christ and even though here 0::     to enter the house with  many mansions  and to be with Christ.
earth the life which we have in Christ through the         Therein I rejoice and find my comfort.
Spirit is hid we know that when He shall appear we                                                        Ralph Hoogland           3
,Klall appear with Him in glory. One day our tongues           Grand Rapids, Mich.
shall he perfectly loosed from the curse of Babel's
confusion and we shall speak the praises of God in
heavenly perfection. "For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God." Theirs is
the inheritance eternal an'& their peace shall be like                                IN MEMORIAM
a river for theirs is the victory in Christ through the
Spirit of Pentecost.                                           In His infinite wisdom and love it pleased our Covenant
                                              A. C.        Father to take unto Himself on the 5th of April, 1944, our
                                                           beloved wife and sister

                                                                                     SUSIE  NEWH.O;USE

                                                           at the age of 56 years.
                                                               We feel our loss but are comforted by the words of Jesus,
                                                           "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me,
                     - NOTICE  -                           though he were dead, yet shall he live."
                                                                                                       Mr. Richard Newhouse
                                                                                                       Miss Ida Ruiters
   Young men desiring to prepare for the ministry                                                      Mrs.  Z. Evans
of the Word in our Churches, and therefore seeking                                                     Mrs. B. Squires
admittance into our Theological School are requested           Grand Rapids, Mich.
to appear at the next meeting of the Theological School                        X.
Committee on the evening of May 22, at 8 o'clock on
the First Protestant Reformed Churches of Grand
Rapids, Michigan.       Applicants must present a cer-
tificate of membership and recommendation from their
own consistory and a certificate of health from a re-                           ECHTVEREENIGING
puted physician.
                The Theological School Committee.              Den 19den  Mei, 1944, herdenken onze geliefde ouders,
                                                                              MR. DOEDE DE BEER
                                                                                                 en
                                                                                            *
                                                                       MRS. DIRKJE DE BEER, nee Anema

                                                           hunne 45 jarige echtvereeniging.
                                                               Wij verheugen ons met hen en danken  God voor dit groote
                     -- NOTICE  -                          voorrecht. Onze bede is dat. God hun  verd,er  moge zegenen
                                                           en ondersteunen bij het klimmen hunner jaren.
                                                                                      Hunne  dankbare  kinderen  :
   The Consistory of the First Protestant Reformed                                          Mr. en Mrs. Ed. Fennema, Chicago
Church of Grand Rapids hereby wishes to notify the                                          Mr. en Mrs. Abe Vree, Chicago
Churches that Synod will meet D.V. on  Wednmday                                             Mr. en Mrs. Nick De `Beer,
June 7, 1944. The Pre-Synodical sermon will be preach-                                                             Grand Rapids
on the previous evening at 7:45 by the President of                                              12 grand-children.
the Synod of 1943, Rev. G. Vos.                                845 Logan St., S. E.
                                 G. Stonehouse, Clerk,         Grand Rapids, Michigan,


  VOLUME  XX                                                 JUNE 1, 1944                                   NUMBER 17

                                                                  in heaven,, Lord of life and of death ! And thither He
      M E D I T A T I O N                                         must draw us. From thence He.must reach out for us.
                                                                  For we cannot reach out for Him. And He did come,
                                                                  in the Spirit, to abide with us for ever, and to impart
                                                                  unto us Himself in all the riches of His grace !
              Spirit Of Sonship:.                                    And so, through that Spirit He lives in us.
                                                                     And through the same Spirit we live by His grace.
                                                                     And living by .His grace, we do mortify the deeds
             For  ye have  ,mt received the spirit of of the body, realizing that we are debtors, not to the
          bcmdnge again  to fear; but ye have receizred           flesh to live after the flesh, but to the Spirit to live
          the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, after Him.
          Father. The Spirit itself  beareth  witness                And mortifying the deeds of the body, we know
          with our spirit, that ,lde are the children of that we are the sons of God, children that are led by
          God.             _                                      the Spirit of God in the way of His good command-
                                      Ro`m.   8:15,  16'.         ments.
                                                                     For the Spirit the Church received on the  gIad day
   Blesecd Spirit !                                               of Pentecost, is the Spirit of the living Lord. And He
   It is through Him, the Parukleet,  the Comforter,              is not a spirit of bondage again to fear, but He i.s the
!$orn the Lord had promised to sen,d. from the Father, Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry : Abba, Father !
and Whom He poured forth into His Church on the                      And thus, Spirit controlled, and Spirit led:, we re-
day of the firstfruits that we become heirs and par-              ceive the testimony through  t;hat same Spirit that we
takers of all the blessings of salvation !                        are the sons of God !
   He it is that imparts unto us  the, fulness  of-Christ,           BIessed Spirit of the Lord!
and all His benefits!
   Apart from Him we are children of wrath, and lie
in the midst  .of death, incapable of laying hold on the             Abba, Father !
Chris.t  of God, the blessings of forgiveness,, eternal              I,n this outcry of faith, of love, of hope and longing,
righteousness, the adoption  cnto children, freedom the Church that is led by the Spirit expresses spontan-
from all condemnation, the everlasting love of God, eously her assurance of sonship.
eternal life and glory.         For how could we possibly            In it they give testimony of their being conscious
reach out for the Christ and His fulness? He must that they are the children of God.
come to us. And in the Spirit He  retur*ned  ! He was                Abba, Pater!
with us for a  liDtl+e while, in our death, and in our               IIn the' original there is a repetition of the same
misery. And while He was. with us still, He took all word, first in the Chaldean, then in the Greek, both
our sicknesses and pains upon Himself, assumed the wor,ds  simply meaning  Father.  The double phrase
full burden of all our. sins and iniquities and carried was probably a standing expression, that had grad-
them all to the accursed tree, there to become obedient ually been adopted in that form by the early Church.
unto death, and to descend into lowest hell, that He In the Mew Testament we find that it is used by our
might bring us to God. llnd He is no more with us. Lord in the hour of His great ago.ny in Gethsemane ; in
For He was raised from the dead. And He is exalted the sixth verse of Gal. 4, where it is said that God sent,
into the highest glory, at the right hand of the Majesty          forth  the Spirit of His Son into our  hearts, and it is

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

He that cries Abba, Father; and here in the fifteenth              And it is  al& the consciousness of this real, spirit-
verse of Rom. 8, where believers are said to make this          ual  sonship, of this love to God and to one another, of
outcry under the impulse of the Spirit of adoption.             this longing for His favor and fellowship, that is ex-
Perhaps, it was the fact that the Lord expressed Him- ,pressed in the cry: Abba, Father!
self in this phrase in the hour of His suffering, coupled          We cry!
with the circumstance that the early Church consisted              It is a matter of fact!
of convert; from Jews and Gentiles, that led to its                The apostle' does not speak here of a possibility.
adoption as a standing expression, perhaps even as a He does not state a general doctrine: believers cry
liturgical formula used by the Church.                          Abba, Father! He does not put it in the form of an
       Abba, Father !                                           admonition or exhortation. The matter is definite and
       It is the strong and clear expression of our  sonship    personal : we, the apostles, all believers, the whole
in relation to God, both in virtue of His gracious adop- Church of Christ in the world, cry Abba, Father!
tion, and by reason of our being born of Him.                      Is it true? . . . .
       For we are, first of all, children by adoption. By          Dare we follow the apostle and adopt his bold state-
nature we are not children of God, but children of ment in application to ourselves? . . . .
wrath. Because of our sin we are born as exiles from               0, let us not forget, as we try to answer this ques-
God's home wandering about in darkness and under tion, that it is a cry that leaves our lips, that is pressed
condemnation. We have no right to be  called   God's from our hearts, when we say Abba, Father!
sons, no right to dwell in His house, to the enjoyment             And to be sure, this means, that the testimony
of His blessed favor and of the pleasures that are              concerning our  sonship is expressed with fervency.
at  His right hand for evermore. But in pure grace It is strong, powerful, clear. But it also implies that
He adopted us, bestowed on us the legal right to be             it is made from the depths, as those that, while they
called His sons, to be the objects of His love and              are conscious of their nearness to God, are yet far off
favor, to dwell in His fellowship, and to become heirs at the same time; as those that while they are assured
of the eternal inheritance in His heavenly tabernacle. of their sonship, yet look upon that sonship as some-
He forgives all our transgressions, and clothes us              thing t,hat must still be realized, and the realization of
with an eternal righteousness through Jesus Christ which seems to lie in the distant future: or as those
our Lord, all of pure grace, without any merit on our           who, while they are sons, yet are !not sons;, who, while
part.                                                           they are righteous, yet are 1~11 of sin ; who, while they
       And the consciousness of this adoption as children live, yet lie in the midst of death; who, while they are
of God, of our full redemption, of the forgiveness of heirs of all things, are in possession of nothing. From
sins, of our perfect, righteousness before God, of His the depths, out of the n$dst of death, believers raise
free and sovereign everlasting love to us we express in their cry: Abba, Father !
this outcry : Abba, Father !                                       It is an outcry of the assurance of our adoption,
       But there is more.                                       and of the consciousness of our being children of God,
       For it is not only ,by adoption that we become child- but then, it is still a  CQ!
ren of ,God. In fact, it would be impossible to lay hold           A groan of hope ?
on this blessed adoption, or even to long for it, and to           A cry of Ionging for the perfect day!
rejoice in its possession and assurance, if God did not            For as yet we have but a small beginning of the
also bestow upon us and work within us the wonder new obedience !
of grace whereby we are born of Him, His image  is                 Yet, the *beginning is a principle.
restored within us, and we become sons. of God in                  And by virtue of that principle we do sing with
spiritual reality. But He realizes the adoption in our the psalmist: As the hart panteth after waterbrooks,
hearts by making us partakers of His  .nature.  By so longs  `our soul for Thee! . . . .
nature we are not only devoid of the right to be called            For Thee, the living God !
children of God, and to dwell in His house, but we are             Abba, Father !
also enemies of God, minding the things of the flesh,
loving the darkness. rather than the light. We care
not to dwell in God's house. Far from Him we wander                Blessed Spirit of adoption!
and seek the good foolishly. But He reaches out into               For through Him alone may we carry this assur-
our hearts, removes the darkness, roots out the enmity, ance of our sonship  in our hearts.
enlightens the mind, changes the refractory will, in-              It is not we that of ourselves cry Abbe,  Father!
stills into our hearts a new life, the life of the risen           16~ could we? Or what comfort and blessedness
Lord, assures us of His love, and causes us to love Him,        would there be in this outcry of assurance and long-
to love His precepts, to love the brethren, to long for i.ng, were it of ourselves? Are we, perhaps, not de-
His fellowship and to seek to, be pleasing to Him,              ceiving  ourselves  in so crying to God? Will  He  heal


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             867
-
us and receive us, and  wiIl He respond to our outcry? in it, and to live in the consciousness and confidence
Do we, perhaps, too audaciously appropriate to vur-           and joy that we are the sons of God. We can speak
selves what does not belong to us? Are we claiming            of our adoption from before the foundation of the
a right which God does not seal?. . . .                       world. For God adopted us to be His sons in His
     Only when the outcry is divinely wrought,  on!y          everlasting good pleasure, when He chose us in Christ.
when it is but the expression of what God Himself We can speak of the objective realization of our  adop-
impells us to cry, can there be the true assurance of         tion through the death and resurrection of our Lord
sonship in our hearts when we cry Abba, Father!               Jesus Christ from the dead, for He was delivered for
     A.nd so it is.                                           our  transgrewivns,  and raised for our justification.
     For we have received the Spirit!                         The eternal adoption of all the elect was objectively
     And. the Spirit we have received is the real Author realized when Christ died for our sins, and when God
of this outcry, not we ourselves. He it is that always raised Him from the dead. And we may speak of our
cries Abba Father! He does so as the Spirit of the Son adoption through faith before our own consciousness,
in the adorable and blessed Trinity. For in that Spi&t T*" when we prostrate ourselves in dust and ashes before
the Father eternally faces the Son saying: My  below&         the face of God with the prayer of the  publican in
Son; and the Son is eternally facing the Father, say-         our hearts and upon our lips, and receive the testi-
ing:  Abba,  FaXhe)-. He does so as the Spirit of Christ mvny that our sins are forgiven, and that we are
in Christ Himself. `For it is in that Spirit that He `. clothed with everlasting righteousness ; that God loved
cried to the Father in the days of His flesh and "us and gave His Son for us, and `that He rai:sed  Him
humiliation; and it is in that  samfe Spirit that the         from the dead unto our personal justification.
Holy Child Jesus, now in the state of His exceeding                 It is in the last sense that the Spirit of Christ
glory constantly turns to His God crying Abba,  Father! poured out into the Church is the Spirit of adoption,
And it is in that same Spirit, the Spirit of God as the whereby  w,e  q-y, Abba, Father!
Spirit of Christ, poured forth into the Church, that                He it is that brings us to a true knowledge and
believers in this world lift up their hearts to the God       consciousness of our sin and guilt before the face of
of their salvation in Christ Jesus their Lord, crying:        God.
Abba, Father !                                                      He is is that ingrafts us into Christ, and makes
     For He is the Spirit of adoption !                       us partakers of His death and resurrection.
     He is not a spirit of bondage again to fear.                   He it is that pours out the love of God into our
     Such a spirit controls those that are outside of the h e a r t s .
sphere and influence of this Spirit. It is the spirit of            He bestows. upon us all the benefits of Christ.
the sinner that, instead of being filled with the true              He makes us children of God !
reverence of love that acknowledges that God is GOD.                Blessed gift of the Spirit!
and that causes us to prostrate ourselves before Him
in true humility, proudly brings to Him the sacrifices
of the wicked, claiming the right to be accepted of God
on the basis of his own goodness, his religiousness.                Sons of God!
his own works, and thus becoming abominable in the                  Blessed assurance?
sight of the Most High, and receiving the testimony                 Blessed, because the assurance is not of us,, but
of his condemnation and rejection in his conscience.          is the response to the testimony of the same Spirit of
     That is the spirit of bondage, that would work for       adoption, witnessing with our spirit that we are the
God as a wage earner, being a stranger to the free-           children of God !
dom of sons.                                                        For the Spirit abides with us. And  dwelling  with-
     And that is the spirit that always fills  wit.h  a       in us, he testifies constantly with our spirit concern-
slavish fear those that are possessed by it, for they         ing our sonship in relation to God. Not, indeed, as if
never receive the msurance  of forgiveness and right- `there were two independent testimonies, ours and His,
eousness, essential to all confidence and joy.                coinciding with each other, but so that the Spirit of
     But such is not the Spirit we have received.             adoption, through the Word of Christ in the Scrip-
     He is the Spirit of adoption, and, therefore, the tures, works within us  `the personal assurance of our
Spirit of true and perfect liberty,  t.he Spirit of  fvr- adoption and  sonship, and thus becomes the ground of
giveness and righteousness, the Spirit of the love of the witness of our own spirit!
God, in which there is neither  bon'dage  nor fear.                 Thus we are assured of our sonship by God's own
     He is the Spirit of adoption in the sense that He testimony !
serves the cause of our advption, so that He realizes               And have confidence to cry:
our adoption unto children of God unto us, and causes               Abba, Father !
us to possess it, and to be assured of  it? and to rejoice                                                   H. I-L
                                                              I"         4c `             _--


3%                                                                                                                          !i'HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                       The Standard Bearer
        Semi-Monthly, except Monthly in July and August                                                                                                                                                                      E D I T O R I A L S
                          7                                              Published by
                        The Reformed Free Publishing Aasociatien
                                                     1101  Hazen  Street,  5.  E                                                                                                                                     As To Our Moral Obligation
                                             EDITOR - Rev. .H. Hoekscma

  Contributing editors-Revs. J. Blsnkespoor,  A. Cammenga,                                                                                                                                                        The contention of those that oppose the movement
  P.  De  Boer, J. D. de Jong,  H.  De Wolf, L. Doeaema,
  M. Gritters,  C. Hanko, B. Kok, G. Lubbers, G. M. Oihoff,                                                                                                                                                   to establish our own  schools~ is that such a movement
  A. Petter, M.  Schipper, J.  Vanden  Breggen,  H.  Veldman,                                                                                                                                                 is morally wrong, as long as we have not done all that
  R. Veldman, L. Vermeer, P. Vis, G. Vos, Mr. S. De Vries.                                                                                                                                                    is in our power to keep and support and improve the
                                                                                                                                                                                                              existing schools. In other words, they claim that we
  Communications relative $0 contents should be addressed
  to REV. H. HOEKSEMA,  1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand                                                                                                                                                       are morally obliged: 1. To join an existing school so-
  Rapids, Michigan.                                                                                                                                                                                           ciety, and to support an existing Christian school,
                                                                                                                                                                                                              wherever there is one; 2. To remain member of that
  Communications relative  to  subscription  shxld  be ad-
  dressed to MR. R.  SCJ%%AFSMA,   1101  Haren St., S. E.,                                                                                                                                                    society, and continue to support that existing school,
  Grand Rapids,  Mich.  All Announcements and Obituaries                                                                                                                                                      even in cases where it is possible and preferable to
  must be sent to the above address and will not be placed                                                                                                                                                    organize a separate society ; 3. To continue to send
  unless the regular fee of $1.00 accompanies the notice. ._                                                                                                                                                  our children to that school, even though we know that
                                                   Subscription $2.50 per year                                                                                                                                they do not receive the education they should receive,
                                                                                                                                                                                                              and though.it is. possible to provide for them the educa-
                                                                                                                                                                                                              tion that is in harmony with our own convictions.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Now, J have never read or heard any sound argu-
                                                                                                                                                                                                              ment in support of this contention. As far as I know
                                                                                                                                                                                                              it is a mere contention. We are simply told that this
                                                                         <=ONTLNTS                                                                                                                            is our moral obligation, but on what basis this obliga-
                                                                                                                                                                                                              tion rests, by what  ,principles  it is motivated, or by
MEDITATION                                                                                                                                                                                  Page              what moral standards or rules it is governed, has
  SPIRIT OF  SONSHIP . . . ..*................*......*.....................*........=. 365                                                                                                                    never  b,een demonstrated. And I am afraid that, if
          Rev. H. Hoeksemn                                                                                                                                                                                    the brethren that make this contention, would attempt
                                                                                                                                                                                                              to prove it, they would discover that this would be
EDITORIALS  -                                                                                                                                                                                                 quite impossible.
  AS TO OUR MORAL OBLIGATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  368                                                                                                         That a man has a moral  obligakion  in respect to
          Rev. H. Hoekaema                                                                                                                                                                                    a society of which he is a member, and as long as he
THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE                                                                                                                                                                                          is a member of it, we all grant. His obligation rests
  EXPOSITION OF THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM . . . .  ..XO                                                                                                                                                        in his membership. But that he must remain a mem-
          Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                                    ber of such a society, even if he can serve mor,e ef-
  ZERUBBAAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..i............................................................. 374                                                                                                  fectively the cause represented by that society by
            Rev. G. M. Ophoff                                                                                                                                                                                 establishing a separate society,-that would seem in-
  EEN BANGE WORSTELING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  <.
                                                                                                                                                                                                 377          capable of being proved. And we deny it most em-
            Rev. G. Vos.                                                                                                                                                                                      phatically.
  CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3%)                                                                             That Christian parents are morally obligated to
            Rev. P. De Boer.                                                                                                                                                                                  provide a Christian  s-hool education for their chil-
  TESTAMENiT . . . . . . *; . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                                                                                                                                                                                                 381          dren, and, therefore, to work to the utmost of their
  THE VALUE OF 0. T. REVELATION FOR THE NEW                                                                                                                                                                   power for the cause of Christian instruction, may be
            Rev. G. Lubbers.                                                                                                                                                                                  taken for granted among us. But that parents are
  THE BEAUTY 0 FTHE YOUNG WOMAN . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334 morally obliged to support and further this cause
            Rev. M. Gritters.                                                                                                                                                                                 only through concrete, existing societies and schooIs,
  GRIEVING THE SPIRIT                                                                                                                                                                                         even when they can more effectively advance this cause
                                                                                        . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3%    by organizing their own schools,-that has never been
            Rev.  N.  De Wolf.                                                                                                                                         I
  CHRIsTIANITY  AND PAGANISM AFTER  CbtiSTAN-                                                                                                                                                                 demonstrated and is incapable of proof.
 ITINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388            Suppose that in a certain place the only existing
            .Rev.  G. M. Ophoff.                                                                                                                                                                              school was Lutheran. And suppose that in the samn
                                                                                                                                                                                                              place there were a small number of Reformed fam-
                                                                                                                                                                                                              ilies, too small to establish their own  Christian   scho91,


                                         T H E S T A N D A R ' D   R E A R E R                                   369
Suppose further for the time being these  Refor.med          Christian Reformed and the Protestant Reformed
parents sent t,heir children, to this Lutheran school,       Churches since 1924, and this fundamental difference,
in order  to provide for them a Christian education as officially expressed in the "Three Points,"  profound-
"to the utmost of their power." And, finally,  suppose       lyaffects  the education in the schools. And this is the
that this number of Reformed families gradually in- reason why we should have our own schools wherever
creased, and became strong enough to organize their          possible, in order that our children may be "brought
own society. Would they now be morally  .obliged to          up in the aforesaid doctrine," and that we may cause
continue to send their children to ,the Lutheran school,     or help ,them to be brought up in that doctrine to the
and make the best of it?                                     utmost of our power.
   YOU  say, perhaps,. that this is different, because          But let us try to analize this question of our moral
we have no parochial or denominational, but  freb>           obligation a little more in detail.
Christian schools.                 ,.                         It may not be superfluous  fir& of all to ask the
   Nominally this is true; actually however, the exist- general question: what is meant by moral obligation.
ing schools are Christian Reformed, even though they and what is our moral obligation in regard to the
are supported by societies.      They are entirely con- education of our children in the schools?
trolled by the Christian Reformed  ,Church,  and based          Surely, it must be agreed that moral obligation
on Christian Reformed principles. Where do (the Pro- ccmsists in obedience to the will of God both in respect
testant Reformed people have any influence, excepk           to our relation  .to Him, and to our relation to our
in as far as they can let their voice be heard in a          fellowmen. If one talks  .to me about my moral obliga-
few local societies? The Union of Christian Schools tion in a certain case, he must be able to point out to
is wholly controlled by Christian Reformed leaders; me that what he  considers  my moral obligation is the
the Christian Home and School Magazine is, a Chris-          will of God. If he cannot do this, he should refrain
Itian Reformed publication; and, Iast but not least, the from insisting on it.
normal training of prospective teachers is furnished            Now, with respect to education, what is the pri-
by a department of Calvin, and is, therefore, officially mary relation in which the will of God must be known
under the control of the Christian Reformed Church. and obeyed, and concerning which we may, therefore,
And what is a school really but a staff of teachers?         speak  of, moral obligation?
   Do not misunderstand me. I do not  ,blame the                The answer is plain: it is the relation of pcwents
(Christian Reformed people for making their school to their, childTen.
education conform to their own convictions. I merely            Education is the duty of the parents.
state a fact, and a very patent one. And I claim that           On this we are all agreed.
their principles are not ours, and that, although I             And the moral obligation of the parents is rather
believe that our parents should. send their children to clearly expressed in Deut. 6 :4-7 : "Hear, 0 Israel : the
the existing Christian schools where there is no other Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the
possibility, rather than send  lthem to the public schools, Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy
that they cannot possibly have the moral obligation to soul, and with all thy might. And these words which
do so wherever they are strong enough, to establish I command thee this day, shall be in thine `heart: And
{their  own schools, and to educate their children in        thou shalt teach them diligently  u&o thy children,
harmony with their  ow.n convictions.  son. the con- and shalt talk of them  when' thou  sittest  in thine
trary, I maintain that it is their sacred obligation house, and when hou walkest by the way, and when
to take the latter course, wherever possible.                thou best. down, and when thou rise& up."
   And I am sure that no Christian Reformed man                 One dare not say <that this injunction was given
or group can blame `us for taking this course.               to Israel of the old dispensation, and that it concerned
   We do not even have to point to certain eviIs exist- &he Old Testament law.
ing in lt.he Christian schools as we know them, as if           For the very form of this injunction is such that
they must be the reason why we should organize our it applies to the people'of God of all times. Still the
own movement. This has been done too much, I think, Lord our God is one Lord, and still it is our "part"
with the result that the main issue has been lost sight      of the.covenant  of God to love the Lord our God with
of. If the situation were such that we could work            all our heart, and with all our mind, and with all our
on a common basis, and were fundamentally agreed as soul, and with all our power. And, therefore, it is
to what our children should be taught, but that, in still our moral obligation .as parents to teach these
spite of this fundamental agreement there were cer- words to our children, when we sit in our house, or
tam evils  Qo be fought and removed, I  ,would  agree walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise
that we must attempt our utmost to remove these evils. UP.
   But this is not athe case.                                   Besides this is the same injunction as comes to
  There is `a fundamental difference between.. &he parents in the New Testament: "bring them up in the

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

nurture and admonition of  ,the Lord." Eph.  6:4.
    This is the moral obligation of which we are re-
minded in the Form for the Administration of Bap-              The Triple Knowledge
tism. There,  too, we are reminded that our  "part"
in the covenant is " that we cleave to this one God,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost; that we trust in him, and
`love him with all our hear'ts, with all our souls, with     An Exposition Of The Heidelberg
all our mind, and with all our strength; that we for-                          Catechism
sake the world, crucify our old nature, and walk in a
new and holy life."                                                               PART TWO
    And we are made to assume this moral obligation                         OF MAN'S REDEMPTION
with respect to the education of our children, when we
are required to answer affirmatively two questions.                             Lord's Day XII
The first is this: "Whether you acknowledge the doc-
trine which is contained in the Old and New Testa-                                     4.
ment, and in the articles of the Christian faith, and                        Melchisedec (cont.).
which is taught here in this Christian Church, to be
the true and perfect doctrine of salvation?" And the           Besides, if in  ,the priesthood of  Melchiszdec  we
second follows : "Whether you promise and intend to         must see a  small1 remnant, a faint glittering of Adam's,
see these children, when come to the years of discre- original priesthood, and if Christ: is priest after the
tion, instructed and brought up in the aforesaid doc-       order of Melchisedec, it follows that also the priest-
trine, or help or cause them to be instructed therein, hood of the Saviour,  in distinction from that of Aaron,
*to  <the utmost of your power?"                            is only a restoration of the original priesthood of man
    Don't overlook that little but significant phrase:      in the state of righteousness. And against this pre-
"here in this Christian Church," in the first of these sentation of the matter we have grave objections. It
two questians.  Our f&hers  inserted that phrase quite      is rooted in the false conception that salvation is no-
intentionally. In fact, in the past there has been a thing but the reparation and restoration of creation,.
rather heated controversy about these words, and re- What Adam failed to do, Christ accomplishes. If
peated  atitempts  were made, either to eliminate them,     Adam had not fallen, he would have attained to eternal
or to ascribe to them a meaning different from their        life, and the human race  wou,ld  have attained to heav-
intended significance. But in spite of it all they were enly glory in and through him. But since he fell into
retained.                                                   sin and death, Christ must  tak,e his place, and obtain
    And they mean just what they state.                     for us the eternal righteousness and life. Salvation is
    When in a Protestant Reformed Church a child is repair work. Sin and the devil really marred the work
baptized, the whole congregation confesses, and ths of God and prevented Him from realizing His original
parents of the children that are presented for  bap-        creation-purpose: But this entire view is contrary to
,tism expressly state, that they believe the doctrine of Scripture, and unworthy of God, Who is the Lord
the Protestant Reformed Churches to be the true  ar;d       and hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. There
perfect doctrine of salvation.                              never was any other purpose in the eternal mind of
    And it is in that connection  ,that the second  oL'     God than that which is now attain'ed  in Christ, the
these two questions must be read: the parents, in  an-      anointed Servant of Jehovah. That purpose was to
,swering  this  qu.estion  affirmatively, promise  tha: they lead the Church and all things to their heavenly des-
will bring up their children in  the "aforesaid," that is, tination and perfection in Christ. Not the first, but
in the Protestant Reformed, doctrine, aild that they the second Paradise of God is the end that must be
will1 help or cause them to be instructed in that dot-      attained. Not the covenant as it was established in
trine to the utmost of their power!                         the first Adam, bu,t the tabernacle of God as it rests
    This, then, is our primary and most sacred moral in the last Adam,  the incarnated Word, the Lord from
obligation with respect to the education of our chil- heaven, is the purpose God had in mind from before
dren.                                                       the foundation of the world. Not the priesthood of
    On this we are all agreed.                              the first Adam, but the far more exalted priesthood of
    And as we speak of our moral obligation to ths the Son of God in the flesh, is the divine ideal. Unto
existing schools,  ,this primary and basic obligation the attainment of  <that priesthood, which is as far
must c.onstantly  be borne in mind.                         more glorious than the original priesthood of creation
    HOW  this basic obligation affects the particular       as the Son of God in the flesh, raised and exalted at
qpestion  we are discussing, we hope to consider in the right hand of God, is more glorious than the first
4hoth& +%icle,  D.V.                          X1. H.        man Adam, all things are subservient, a.nd must servo


                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          871

the counsel of Lhe Most High, even the fall, sin, the       Jehovah, that served and worshipped the Most High,
devil, and death.     And Adam's original priesthood and that through Melchisedec as their high priest,
was only a faint image of that glorious priesthood 0.f brought their sacrifices to the God of Sncm. Indeed,
the Son of God. But if this is born in mind, it should the Canaanite, too, was in the land, and the Canaanite
be evident that ,t.he priesthood of the historical Mel- was accursed, and had long trampled the covenant of
chisedec, which was typical of the glorious priest- Jehovah, established with Noah and his seed, under
hood of Christ, cannot have been a weak afterglow of foot. But in the midst of a wicked generation there
Adam's priesthood.                                          was also a remnant of God's people, according to the
    The place of Melchiscdec  and his priesthood will       e1ectio.n  of ,grace, a people that knew and served the
have to be found in the line of grace,                      Lord, and that were headed and represented by the
    His historical origin must be traced, not to para- priest-king Melchisedec. But if this is true, it is but
dise and the  &ate of original righteousness, but to natural to look for a historical explanation of this
the ark, and to the grace Noah and his seed had found       marvellous priest-king and his people.        Only, this
in the eyes of the Lord.                                    explanation must not be sought in the line of  th?
    Not in the  line of reprobation, in which by the        wicked reprobates, but in the line of the generations
`power of a certain common grace a remnant of t.he of the people of God, in which, even outside of Abra-
original integri,ty  is preserved, but in the line of elec- ham, God still preserved His covenant in those days.
tion, in the generations of the people of God, saved  by       Nor can `this  present any special difficulties,  if we
sovereign grace, the priest-king Melchisedec, as Ab- bear in mind the organic development of CGA'S  cove-
raham met him after his victory over the allied kings,      nant and its continuation in the line of generations.
must be placed. Historically, he was a real man of Then it is at once evident that Melchiszde;  as a priest
flesh  .and blood, and all the strange things that are of the most high God, together wibh thd people over
written of him in ,the epistle of the Hebrews dare not which he rule4 has his origin in the ark. In the ark
be applied to his person, but have reference *to his        and through the flood the Church  ol Gud had been
peculiar priesthood as typical of the priesthood of saved out of and from the wicked world. And with
 Christ. As priest he stands without  f&her or  mother,     Noah and his seed God had established His covenant,
without genealogy, but as a person he has his descent .not a certain covenant of common grace with all men,
in the generations of the sons of God.                      but His covenant in Christ in the line of election. But
    In the  ,abstract  it were quite conceivable that Mel- as always, so also from the loins of Noah there develop-
 chisedec even as a person was called forth by a won-       ed the twofold seed, the seed of the promise and the
der of God's grace, simply for the purpose of creating carnal seed. The main line of the covenant according
an altogether unique type of Christ, so that even as        to election ran through  Shem,  and was afterwards
a historical person he appeared suddenly and inexplic- more specifically limited to the generations of Abra-
ably, without any historical connection with his con- ham. But this may not be unders'tood  as if with the call-
temporaries, as a `priest of the Most High. There are ing of Abraham God's covenant was strictly limited to
 those that prefer this explanation of his exalted fig- him and his family, so that the father of believers was
 ure. In that case he simply appears as a wonder of a lonely remnant of those that knew Jehovah, and call-
 God's grace. He cannot be explained in  connect.ion        ed upon the name of the Lord. He who would thus ex-
 with the history of his time. There is no relation be- pIain the situation at the tim,e  of Abraham's calling,
tween him and the world of his day and environment.. would fail to reckon with the organical developmenf
 As a unique individual, as a marvellous exception,  h? of the covenant-line in history. Not at once and all
 appears in the midst of a wicked and perverse Ration.      of a sudden was the fear of the Lord limited to the
 And in the  .midst  of a world full of  iniqui,ty, he ap- generations of Abraham.        For, first of all, during
 pears as a priest of the most high God, a wonderful        Abraham's life many of the old patriarchs from the
 manifestation of the wonder of God's grace.                generations of Shem that culminated in Terah, the
    But ther.e is no need of such an interpribation,  and father of Abraham, were still alive, and even Shem
+ the sober narrative of Genesis 14 leaves a different      was still living w,hen the father of believers was called.
 impression. He was a real historical person. He cer- Even though the immediate ancestors of Abraham
 tainly was king of Salem, and he must have r&d over        apost*atized  and turned to idols, there must have been
 a real people. And as king he was also priest of Cod thousands of others in the earlier generations that kept
 in the midst of his people, and in a sense, the people the covenant of Jehovah. Besides, although the gener-
 over which he ruled as king-priest must. have been a ations of Shem had been mentioned as those that were
 priestly people, consecrated to God. The narrative of destined to receive the covenant blessing in a special
 Genesis 14 leads to the conclusion that at the time sense, for a long time the fear of the Lord must have
 when Abraham sojourned in the land of Canaan, there been preserved also in the generations of Japheth, and
 still' was a group of people, a small nation, that knew it is not  eveil  improbable that also in the line of Ham


     372                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        -.  _

     .there  were found those that called upon the name of               The  @m&ion,  therefore, is: what is the distinc-
     Jehovah. In view of all these data, it is by no means          tion between  t.h.e two orders of priesthood? In what
     strange that even in the land of Canaan, at the time           respects was the priesthood of Melchisedec of a higher
I    of Abraham's sojourn in the land, a group of people.  ,is      order than that of Aaron? Scripture emphasizes es-
     found that have the knowledge of the true God, and             pecially two points of difference. The first is that,
     that are ruled aad represented by a priest-king like while among Israel the priestly and the royal offices
     Melchisedec. Some four centuries later we meet with were separated, so that one and the same person could
     a similar `figure in the person of Jethro, the father not function in both offices, they were combined in
     in law of Moses. He, too, was a priest of the Most Melchisedec: he was a  roya!  priest. And the second
     High among his people, although the line of the cove- point of difference is that, while the priesthood of
     nant in the `narrower  sense of the word did not run           Aaron in its specific meaning was temporal, and must
     over the children of Keturah, but over Isaac, for "in          come to an end as soon as the perfect sacrifice was
     Isaac shall thy seed be called." Hence, if only we bear made, that of Melchisedec was everlasting. `In both
     in mind the organic development of the covenant in the these respects Christ was a priest according to th.e
     line of generations, we have no need of explaining similitude of Melchisedec.
     Melchisedec as a product of common grace. Nor is it                 This is emphasized, first of all, in Psalm 110. This
     necessary to interpret his appearance as priest of the Psalm is peculiar in that it is directly Messianic. By
     Most High through an exceptional wonder of  God's              this we mean that, while in other Messianic Psalms
     grace. Although he stands outside of the generations           David speaks first of himself, and only in last in-
     of Abraham, and, perhaps, even of Shem, Melchisedec stance of the Christ that was to come, this cannot
     as a historical person must be explained as belonging be .said of the one hundred and tenth Psalm. Usually
     to the generations of those that feared the Lord, and          there was a historic occasion for the M,essiinlic pro-
     with whom God still continued His covenant.                    phecies in the psalms in the person and circumstances
            He was a priest of the Most High by grace.              and  experien.ces  of the human author of these  ,psalms,
            And as such he was a type of Christ.                    especiglly  of the psalms of David. David was a type
                                                                    of Christ as the theocratic king of Israel, and his ex-
                                                                    periences, his battles, his victories, and his sufferings
                                                                    foreshadowed the suffering, victory and exaltation of
                                  5.                                the Messiah that was to come. And when in those
                   After The Order Of Melchisedec                   circumstances David, inspired and guided by the Spirit
                                                                    of  Ghrist, expressed his experiences in the psalms,
            Interesting as may be the historical appearance of whether in. lamentation and wailing because of his
     Melchisedec as a        king-priest, Scripture is chiefly suffering  .and reproach,  ,in `deprecation against the
     concereed with his typical significance. Emphatically enemies of God and His Anointed, or in triumph over
     the Bible teaches that Christ is a priest after the order his foes, he spoke, indeed, of himself, but thus  speak-
     of Melchisedec. This is the teaching of  that,beautiful,       i.ng, he prophesied at the same time of Christ. The
     prophetico-Messianic Psalm 110 as further interpreted Spirit of Christ in the psalmist made use ,of his per-
     in the epistle to the Hebrews. Distinction is made  be-        sonal experiences and circumstances to draw a .pro-
     ,tureen  the priesthood of Aaron and that of Melchisedec,      phetic  picture of the Messiah.  But this is not the
     and with~this,distinction  in view Christ is sai.d to be :3    case' with Psalm $10.        It is directly Messianic.  Its
     priest according to the similitude of the latter. This .contents  cannot refer to the Psalmist.
     does not mean. that there. is,an anithesis between the         "    That this is true is evident, first of all, from the
     two orders of priesthood, and -that t,he two exclude very first verse of the Psalm: "The Lord said unto
     each other. It is evident that in certain respects they my  ,Lord, Sit. thou at my right hand, until I make
     were alike. Also the priesthood of Aaron foreshadow- thine enemies thy footstool." In His controversy with
     ed that of the great High  Priest.$hat  was to come:           the Pharisees the Lord refers to these words as proof
     Aaron, too, was a type of Christ. The situation  ia that Christ is the Son of God: "While the Pharisees
     rather thus that, .while the priesthood according to the were gather&  together, Jesus asked them, saying,
     order of Melchisedec included that of Aaron, the form- What think ye  of*.Christ,  whose son is he? They
     er is of a far more exalted character than the latter,         say unto him, The son of David.., He  saith unto them,
     was much richer in significance, of a wider scope, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying,
     of far greater power and authority. And while the              The Lord said unto my  .Lord,  Sit thou at my right
     priesthood of Aaron found its final fulfillment in hand,  ti.11  I make thine enemies  ,thy footstool?  `If
     Christ, and in some respects also its termination,             Davidfthen  call him Lord, how is he his son?" and we
     that of Melchisedec was so realized in the Lord that           read that:the .Pharisees.  were not able to answer him
     in Him it is perfect and remains for ever.                     a word.     Matt. ...22.:41-46.    ,Cf. Mk. 12 35-37 ;. T,.uke


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           373

20:41-44.  From this first verse of the Psalm, and art a priest for  ever."               The priesthood of Aaron
from the application made of it by Christ, it is evi-         would come to an end; that of Melchisedec as realized
dent, therefore, that David is not at all speaking of in Christ is everlasting.
himself, but refers consciously and objectively to the           This interpretation of the priesthood according to
Messiah.    Him he calls his Lord. And to Him  Je-            the similitude of Melchisedec with its special element
hovah said : "Sit thou at my right hand until 1 make in the combination of the royal and priestly offices,
thine enemies thy footstool."                                 is quite in harmony with the prophecy of Zechariah
   But this is true also of vs. 4: "The Lord hath             in chapter  6:W. The prophet is enjoined to take
sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever silver and gold of them that of the captivity have
after the order of Melchisedec." It  is true that, accdrd-    come from Babylon to Jerusalem, and to make crowns
ing to some interpreters, these words must be inter-          of the precious metal thus acquired. These crowns
preted as being spoken by the people, and addressed           he is to set upon the head of Joshua, the high priest,
to David. But, first of all, this explanation is  eon- thus indicating prophetically that the priest shall be
trary to the tenor of the whole psalm, which, as has          crowned king. However, this is to be fulfilled, not
been shown, speaks  ot the Messiah directly. It is            in Joshua, but in the BRANCH, for the prophet must
quite in harmony with the context to say that also            explain his prophetic act by saying to Joshua: "Thus
these words are addressed to Christ. And, secondly,           speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold, the man
they could not have been spoken of David. For the             whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up
offices of priest and king were not combined  in him. out of this place, and he shall build the temple of the
He was king of Israel, but the priesthood was found           Lord: Even he shall build the temple of the Lord, and
in the generations of Aaron, not in those of Judah and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his
David. Hence, these words cannot heave reference throne : and the counsel of peace shall be between
to him. Nor can the interpretation be accepted that them both." It is evident that in this prophecy we
one of the priest-kings of the time of the Maccabees have a further prediction' of what was already pro-
is the author of this psalm, and that the reference is mised in Psalm 110, and that the last words have no
to him. It is true that in some of the Maccabees the reference whatever to any alleged covenant of redemp-
two offices of priest and king were combined in the           tion in the eternal decree of God, but to the harmon-
same person. But the one great objection to this in-          ious union between the king and the priest, united in
terpretation is that the psalm is Davidic, as is suf-         the one person of the BRANCH, that is, of the Mes-
ficiently proved by the Lord's own reference to it            siah.
in the words quoted above. Hence, there is only one               And this is  ra,ther  elaborately developed in the
possibility, and that is, that the words concerning the epistle to the Hebrews. Of Melchisedez  as a type of
priesthood after the order of Melchisedec are im-             Christ the author of this epistle is speaking. And call-
mediately and directly Messianic. And this is corrob-         ing attention to his name, and to the place of his
orated by the reference to them in the epistle to the         reign, he explains  thatr as a typical figure Melchisedec
Hebrews.                                                      was both king of righteousness and king of peace.
   Now,.even from these words in their context it is The name  Melchi-sedec signifies  i&g of rig,hteomness,
evident that the priesthood after the order of  Mel-          and as Salem means peace, king of Salem signifies
chisedec was distinct from that of Aaron in two re- king  of  peace. And concerning his priesthood the  an-
spects. First of all, it is a royal priesthood. For in the thor of the epistle to the Hebrews  reminds us, first
kingship is combined with the priesthood. For in the of all, that Melchisedec was a priest of the most high
context we have a description of Christ in His royal          God, and, further, he describes him as appearing
glory, of the King going to battle at the head of His         "without father, without mother, wi.thout descent, hav-
people, and victorious over His enemies.         It is to     ing neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but
,Christ  in His royal power and exaltation that it  is        made like unto the Son of God; abiding a priest con-
said : "Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thinc         tinually." Heb. 7:1-3.  You understand that all this
enemies thy footstool." And to this victorious and            is applicable to Melchisedec, lnot as a historical person,
exalted King it is promised by oath : "Thou art a priest ,but as a type of Christ, and with reference only to
for ever after the order of Melchisedec." Even as             his priesthood. He appears in Genesis 14  as  priest
Melchisedec was a royal priest, or a priestly king, so        without any reference to his descent or genealogy.
also Christ will combine in Himself the kingly and            Nor is anything said about his end, or about the con-
priestly office, and that, too, in final and highest tinuation of his priesthood in his generations. He
perfection, at the right hand of God. And, secondly, had no need, as did the Aaronitic priest, to prove
in close connection with this combination of the  roya!       that he descended from the priestly family. And in
and priestly offices, the priesthood after the order of all this he is typically, not personally, made like  untq
Mtlchisedec  is distinct in that it is for ever:  "thou       the Son of God, the Christ, in Whom all these  typical

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

traits are realized in highest perfection. And here            It is good to observe the growing power of Gideon's
again,  ,&he same two elements of the priesthood  of faith. What especially confirmed him in his assurance
Melchisedec that were  mention,ed  in Psalm 110 appear that God had chosen him to save Israel, was the glad
on the foreground: he was a priest-king, and his            tiding, "Peace be unto thee ; fear !not : thou shalt not
priesthood is everlasting.                                  die," words that he had great need of hearing in that.
                                              H. H.         perceiving that the messenger was the angel of the
                                                            Lord, he thought he must die. "Alas 0 Lord God!
                                                            for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to
                                                            face." What these words, spoken under the impulse
                                                            of a great dread, indicate is that Gideon was aware
                     Zerubbaal                              that the messengers, who had just departed out of
                                                            his sight-vanished, so it had seemed, into the thin
                                                            air-was no less than Jehovah Himself. Thus he had
   "The Lord ,is with thee thou mighty hero." Such, seen God; but it was not His face, His immediate
so we saw, was the Angel's greeting to Gideon. At- glory, that Gideon had beheld. Being a sinful man
,tention was directed to the might of this hero. His under the dominion of earthy and carnal sense, h:?
might, it was pointed out, was his living faith in Je-      codd not have endured that glory, which  "to see"
hovah, Israel's God and Saviour, faith in His right- means to receive the light of the sun into the eyes
eous and unchangeable mercy, in His willingness to of flesh. So, what Gideon had  #beheId  is the obscured
forgive and His power to save His ill-deserving people glory of the Incomprehensible, His "back parts," Rx.
that He might be feared. The faith of Gideon was            33  :34. But even this vision- a vision that  a11 the
living. As brought to fruition in him by the word of wicked will behold in the day of Christ's appearing-
God, sanctified to his heart by the Spirit, it translated must needs result in his death, should grace not inter-
itself into action-faith without works is dead-that vene. For he was a sinful man. And Jehovah is  n
consisted in his throwing down Baal's altar in Ophrah consuming fire. Yet Gideon must not fear. For He
and in *building an altar unto the Lord ; in calling the    is Christ's and participates in His redemption. Unto
tribes concerned to arms, and finally in doing battle him-peace.           He shall not die. He now knew in
with the Midianite hordes with a band of men ridicu- his -heart that God had accepted his person and had
lously small. And the Lord God gave him the victory chosen him to save His people. If at first he was
not only in response to but even through his faith. So doubtful and complaining, he was now fully assured.
did his faith overcome the world as represented by the And under the impuIse  of the heavenly gladness that
Midianite hordes. To this fact and truth we must re- filled his soul, he built an'altar there unto the Lord,
turn in the sequence.                                       and called it "Jehovah-peace," ,Ch.  624. The sacred
       God gave Gideon that faith and realized in him       author added, "Unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of
its strength. It has been said that of all the instru- the Abiezrites." There it stood, in afteryears, long
ments that God did use in so great a work, none was after the passing of Gideon, a memorial of the great
so weak as Gideon. In the light of the consideratio?t       event in his life-the event of his having seen  Gorl
that faith both in its beginnings and in its full power and lived.       There it stood, a memorial also of  the
is a gift of God, this remark is rather pointless. True great salvation that God wrought through him, His
it is, however, that God's dealings with Gideon (and        servant. And it also stood there, did this altar, a  prey
with all His people for that matter) incites wonder. indication of, the doom of the reprobated and thus car-
It calls for explanation. Replying to the Jews' request nal apostate Israel.
for a sign, Christ said to them, "An evil and adulter-         Thus assured of his own personal salvation, and
ous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall knowing himself called to the great work of regain-
be no sign given to it, but the sign of the prophet         ing, instrumentally, the lost liberties of his ill-deserv-
Jonah"  (Matt.  12  :40).     But to Gideon God gladly ing people and thus convinced that the Lord was cer-
gave signs, the last of which-the dream of the Mid-         tainly resolved to save His people through another
ianite-was even unsolicited.       But by the mercy of wonder of His grace, Gideon was ready to follow where
God Gideon, in distinction from the Jews, want&' to         the Lord should lead. So "it came to pass the `same
believe. Thus his petitions for signs were so many          night, that the Lord said unto him, take thy father's
prayers to the effect, "Lord, help thou my unbelief," young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years
and thus rose from a conscious need of the word of old, and throw down the altar of  Baa1 that thy father
`God to revive  anld stimulate his faith. So, in grant-     bath, and cut down the grove that is by it: and build
ing with such eagerness Gideon's petitions, the Lord an altar unto ,the Lord thy God upon the top of the
was  Simply   responding to His own work in  His ser-       rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock,
vant.                                                       and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the grove


                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        375

which khou shalt cut down" (ch. 635, 26).                   have been counted on to forcibly interfere with the
   A.great sin had been committed. Jehovah, Israel's good work. It was therefore not fear for his  own
Maker and Redeemer had been forsaken and the favor- safety but prudence that caused Gideon to perform
ite diety was now Baal. Thus the present bondage his *task under the cover of the night. The apostates
was divine visitation, punishment for sin. The Mid-         must remain in total ignorance of what was going on
ianites were the scourge of the Almighty indeed. Is- until the work was finished. The place where Gideon
rael would again be free only in the wary of r,epudia-      had to work, though it lay within the jurisdiction of
tion of Baa1 and a return to God. Only when they serv- Joash,  must have been at some distance from the
ed the Eternal  was liberty possible and necessary. Je- city, as otherwise the inhabitants would have been
hovah would bring Himself down to the level of the awakened by the proceedings. Perhaps some of them
tribal gods of the heathen, should He send salvation were, but, being too fond of sleep, could not  rouse
with Israel crowding  Baal's  ,temples.    It was in ac- themselves to investigate. But they were up and do-
knowledgement of these great truths that Gideon had ing at the first streak of dawn, so it is related. For
first to strike against idol-worship and, in  Ahe nature they had heard unusual sounds in the night-the crash
of matters, against the idol-worship of his own family. of felled trees; and it may have occurred  $0 them that
There in his own village stood  the altar of Baal, the      all might, not be well with their idol. They therefore
symbol of Israel's infidelity; and there, beside it the     may not have been overly surprised at what they saw:
abominable Asherah, the sign of Israel's degradation. the altar of Baa1 cast down, $the grove cut down that
Courage to call the tribes to arms would be lacking was beside it, and the newly erected. altar with the
Al-o him, and the will to' respond to this call would be    bullock offered upon it. "And they said one to an-
lacking to khe tribes, should he not first remove that other, Who hath done  this thing?"  .Mark you, they
filthy eink of idolatry polluting his own clan. In order put the question  .to themselves  ; they themselves there-
to have influence with the brethren, he must first          fore also supply the answer. They say, "Gideon the
make war against the idols.: in his own house. Re- son of Joash hath done this." It is most illuminating
formation must begin at home, first in the heart of that instantaneously their thoughts turned to Gideon
the reformer and by his  own  fire-side. And these and to him alone. It indicates  ,that he was known
centers must be kept pure or the power  ito achieve in among them as a hater of Baa1 but also that in his op-
the surrounding fields of conflict will be wholly lack- &position  ,to Bal he stood quite alone and thus had the
ing.                                                        active  suppor,t not even of his own father. Though
   So God gave Gideon the command and the will to           obviously in sympathy with  his son, yet under the
war His warfare  fir& in Ophrah his own place of pressure brought to bear upon him by his family, he,
residence and that of his father's house. This was in his weakness, had allowed the apostates to erect
his first task. Its performance required courage. The Baal's altar upon his own estate, though it may be
men of Ophrah-Cnnaaaites and the apostate members imagined that he himself took no part in the idolatrous
of his own clan-were zealous for Baal. They atood worship. n this respedt he was, like Aaron who, yield-
ready to do a man to death, should he venture to des-       ing to popular clamor, made an idol for the people.
troy the altars and shrines of their beloved deity.
But Gideon was a might-y hero. For he had seen God             Convinced in themselves that the perpetrator could
face to face and his life had been spared. He had           be none other than Gideon, the apostates went to his
great courage therefore, the courage born of  ,the faith    father and demanded of him that he surrender  -to
that God was for and with him and that the unction <them his son that he might be put to death.  Joash
by which he was being driven was of ,the Spirit. H          was the head of the family ; as such he was required
                                                       P
did as the Lord had commanded. With ,the aid of ten to deliver up Gideon. But now it came out that the
of his servants he threw down the altar of Baa1 that disposition of  Joash was similar  to that of Gideon.
had been erected on his father's estate and cut down He did a heroic thing. Holding out aginst the  mob-
the grove that was by it. The Asherah was torn out          one against many, and the many, idolaters, intolerant
and cut to pieces. `In their place was erected an altar and fierce men-he said to them, "Will ye strive for
to God from pure earth and stones. Wood was piled Baal? Will ye save him who will strive for him? Let
up on it-the wood of the grove. And the bullock him be put to death while it is yet morning. If he
was taken and offered as a burnt-offering. The altar        (Baal) be a god, he will strive for himself with re-
was built on the top of the fortification, on the for-      spect to him who broke down his altar."
ward edge i.e., on some `place of defence,.  where the         The answer is energetic and masterly ironical.
altar of  Baa1 (stood. It was stated at the outset that Joash  was now a man transformed. The daring of
Israel made themselves fortifications against the en- his son had powerfully stimulated his faith so that
emy. Seing what was being done to their beloved idol, he dared take a stand. And so he did. The thrust of
the apostates, who were vastly in the majority,  could his, argument is such as to set the doing of those


3'76                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   R E A R E R

apostates-their clamoring for the death of  Gideon-          on that day inor on all the days to come. Thus Gideon
in a ridiculous light.                                       became the living proof that Baa1 is no god, and that
        Is  Baa1 contending for himself through you as the belief that he could and would avenge himself was
his prophetic agents? Has he, your idol, called you? a vile superstition. On that same day therefore Gideon
Are you under his orders? Is it by his command,              received from his father, from  Joash,  the surname
power, and inspiration that ye contend? If not, if Jerubbaal. The significant explanation of this name
you are under orders of none other but yourselves, follows, "Let Baa1 strive for himself with respect to
ye contend for  Baa1 i.e., in his room and  declarg,         him (Gideon) who brake down his altar." Thus what
through your doing, that he is powerless to contend Baal, were he a god, could and should do in behalf
for himself and by consequence deny that he has ears of himself, namely, strike down Gideon, `was set forth
wherewith to hear and eyes wherewith to see and a in a name; and the name was imposed upon Gideon';
voice wherewith to speak, in a word, deny that he            person in order that his living presence among his
is.      Understand, therefore, that in contending for people and his dying a natural death might, through
Baa1 you, in the point of view of his devotees, blas-.       the ages, witness to the truth and fact that Baa1 is
pheme your deity and therefore deserve to die. Tell vanity, a god of man's own devising.
me, will ye strive for Baa1 ? Will you spare him who            Thus the name Jembbaul does not mean "contender
will strive for Baal? Nay, but let that man be put           with Baal," as several commentators have maintained.
to death, while it is yet  moriling.  And if  Baa1 be  r,    The name, so construed, implies that Baa1 has exist-
god, he will strive for himself with respect to Gideon, ence.
the offender. If he be a god, he will not let untouched         Having, in his own city, destroyed Baal's altar and
this sacriligious  destroyer of his altar but will either    on its ruins restored the true worship of Jehovah,
strike him down from heaven with his  thunderbol+s           Gideon coulId now address himself ,to the second part
or give command to you,  his devotees,  concerning           of his task in the confidence that the Lord would be
him. So wait with executing sentence upon the of-            with him. With the new name Jerubbaal, he was
fender, until Baa1 has spoken, acts, strives, for him- acknowledged as leader in Israel by all those who fear-
self. If he is a god, he will, certainly.                    ed God. The name itself was full of .the trimph of faith
       As the apostates knew full well that Baa1 would       over the world as represented by the Midianite hordes.
take no action because he could ,not, and as they also       Another day of hope had dawned with Ophrah noiv
knew that such certainly was the conviction of  Joash;       the religious center. For there stood God's altar.
thus, as they were keenly aware that he no more than            "The Medianites and the Amalekites and the child-
they believed in that for which they were spending ren of the east were gathered  together, and went over,
their zeal, they perceived that what he was actually and  pfiched in the valley of Jerael"             (chap. 6 :X3).
telling them is that Baa1 is no god, that their kneel-       From the desert regions beyond Jordan they again
ing before his shrine was therefore abject foolishness pressed forward and had  set&led  down like a heavy
and high treason against Jehovah, and fhat henceforth cloud on the plain.           The Spirit of God came  upon
he,  Joash, and his immediate family, no more than           Gideon, literally, "put him on." He sounded the
Gideon, would have anything to do with their idol, trumpet  in the mountains. Though the youngest in
would even forbid the restitution of this pagan wor-         the family and that the least in Manasseh, the men of
ship on his estate. The apostates must have seethed his own clan gathered about him and he stood at the
.with  anger at the hearing of these words. Had they head of a not inconsiderate army. But the Midianites
acted upon their wicked impulses, they might have "had come as grasshoppers for multitude". So he sent
torn him and his son in pieces. For they felt the            messengers throughout Manasseh and unto  Asher,
sting of his words. And they loved their idol because Zebulon, and Naphtali. And they gathered after him.
they loved their sinful flesh. Yet they did nothing The  musizer of men was considerable and perhaps
at all. For Joash had openly denied the existence of astonished him* The number given is  33,006.  But
Baa1 yet not strictly so as to the form of his words. "lf    the Midianites were in enormous numbers. Gideon
Baa1 be a god, will he not contend for himself?" Such        was in  .the need of assurance of victory.     This he
had been his speech and thus not, "Baa1 is no god; he        sought in God alone and received the double sign of
can take no action."       As Elijah was to do,  Joash       the fleece. And he believed and advanced another step.
advocated that the matter be put to a test and  ,that in     Rising up early, he led his forces northward beside the
the meantime the accusers assume a waiting attitude. well of Herod so that the host of the Midianites was
Certainly, ,they  would have no objection. It was fair on the north.
enough  .to all concerned. So the apostates in small            God again spake. "The people that are with thee
groups slunk away, each one going to his own place.          are too many. . . . Gideon was instructed to make the
       In vain did Baal's servants wait for vengeance to proclama,tion  that those who were fearful and afraid
overtake Gideon. Nothing disastrous befell him, neither should return to their homes and only ten thousand


                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             377

Israelites remained.     Again the Lord spake. "The
people are yet too many. . .  ." Let him bring the                     Eefi Bange  Worsteling
people down to the water "and I will try them there". (                              (Psalm 73)
The Lord would have yet another winnowing. "Every
one fhat lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a  1           Ja, een bange worsteling, doch een strijd waarin
dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise i Asaf als overwinnaar ,te voorschijn treedt. Door Goder
every one that boweth  [down  upon his knees to I'kracht. Vers 17. Het keerpunt in  ,den psalm ligt, in
drink."                                                      . dat vers verscholen. Toen  Asaf oordeelde buiten de
   "Every one that lappeth of the water with his             heiligdommen  Goda oordeelde hij in  `t  ,donker.   Toen
tongue, as a dog lappeth. . .  ." (vs. 5). Just how hij vanuit de heiligdommen Gods nog  ,eens zag  Ed
these words are to be understood' is evident from verse      woog en  me&De,  toen was het  goed.         Het einde van
6, "And the number of them that lapped, putting  the+        den psalm is rust, hemelsche rust.
hmd to their mouth, were .three  hundred men. . . ."             Asaf is  ,de dichter.  '  Staat  cr.  Tech zijn er  velen
Hence, the words quoted from vs. 5 must be under- geweest die  denken,  dat David ook  ,dezen  psalm ge-
stood, as if they read : "Every one who Iappeth  with his     dicht heeft. De  stijl zou het verraden.  Ik ben niet
hand from the water as lappeth a dog with his  .tongue        genoegzaam op de hoogte met de  studie van  ttekst-
from the water."        These, in distinction from the critiek om hierbver te oordeelen, .  Degensn die die
others, did not kneel or lie down by the edge of the         gedachte zijn toegedaan, zeggen, dat David de  dichter
brook by putting their lips to the water, but they drank      was, dat Asaf hem bijstond. Zoodat dan Psalm 73
in an upright posture, using the hollow of the hand           een gedicht is van twee componisten. `k BIijf er af.
to take up water and carry it to the mouth and thus              Asaf was in grodte- benauwdheid geweest. Hij
making the hand answer to  ,the concave tongue of the zag de groote voorspoed der goddeloozen en de smart
dog. By these--the three hundred men who lapped--"            van Gods volk.      Toen had `hij gevraagd: Zou God
will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine eigenlijk we1 alle dingen besturen? Dat was benauwd
hand. And let all the other people go every man unto          geweest voor hem. Want hij had God lief. Evenwel,
his place."                                                   hij had niet alzoo  gesproken. Hij was bang voor hot
    The three hundred now  ,took from the people what gevolg van zulke onderwijzing. Hij was bang  da?
`they needed to venture to the battle, victuals and           Gods volk  ,dan  geergerd  zou  worden.  En dat  mocht
trumpets, and the others were dismissed. There was met.
now with Gideon a select band of ,three  hundred pre-            Dus hij worstelde den strij,d g&heel alleen. Tot het
pared for a night attack upon the adversary. To dis- zalige  eincle. Toen hij niet verder kon Cs, hij naar de
pel lingering anxiety, the Lord sent Gideon with his          heiligdomnien  Gods gegaan. En daar zag hij  ,de  op-
servant to the camp of the  Midianites;  and there they lossing van al zijn probleemen. Doen wij desgelijks.
`listened intently to the. dream and its interpretation          Door de worsteling  heen tot de  voile oplossing was
And "their hands were strengthened." For they learn- Asaf tot  peen zekere  conclusie gekomen. En die  con-
ed that the name of the Lord had kindled terror in .the       clusie spreekt hij uit aan het begin van dit gedicht.
ranks of the enemy as an indication that He was pre- M,et'  andere woorden: Asaf heeft wat geleerd. En het
paring victory for His people. They knew that God geleerde  schrijft hij eerst neer. Vooraleer hij  over-
had done *this and they worshipped.                           gaat om de  geheeIe  worsteling ons  ,te vertellen.
    Encouraged, Gideon divided his  band   into three                Hij is zoo zeker van bet geleerde, dat hij een
companies and put trumpets in the hand of all of them         klein woordje neerschrijft geheel  aan het begin van
with empty pitchers and a torch within the pitchers.          het eerste vers.' Dat woordje is  ver'taald  door  1mmers.
His plan was to surround the hostile encampment.              Het beteekent dit: gehee1  en al, uitsluitend. En de be-
He bade the two companies who were to take their teekenis van dit  ,eerste  vers is daarom: God is  uit-
positions on the other sides to attend to his signals         slui,tend  goed aan Israel. De idee is, in nauw verbancl
and do as he should do. The middle watch was just             met de worsteling die Azaf  ervaren ha:d: Wat er ook
begun when Gideon came  .to the border line of the            gebeure hier op aarde, en hoe het ook'anderzins  schij-
camp. Enormous was the panic that seized on Midian,           nen moge: God is alleenlijk goed aan Sian! Daar ging
when the trumpets sounded, the pitchers crashed, the het om in Asaf's worsteling. Het scheen  eerst zoo,  dat
battle-cry broke out and the torches blazed. The ter- God goed was aan de goddeloozen  en kwaad tegen Zijn
ror which seized Midian  was the terror of God. The           eigen volk. Doch Asaf had uitgevonden, dat het  juist,
narrative brings this out. "And the Lord set every niet zoo was. Daarom begint hij met nadruk te zeg-
man's sword against his fellow even throughout. the           gen: God is  nlleenli$   goed  aan Israel. Alleen maar
host: and ,the host fled."                                    ~66 te verstaan,  aan  ,d$t Israel, wat rein van harte is.
                                           G. M. 0.           Het is niet al Israel, wat Israel heet. Hij heeft voor

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

           Christianity Hm Japan                            No Japanese were allowed to leave Japan, no foreigner
                                                            was allowed to enter Japan's harbors. The foreigners
                                                            there were ordered home or put to death without
   The original subject assigned to me for an artic!e       mercy. The sole exception to this  excIusion policy,
was really of a much more limited inature than the and to Japanese isolation, was the permission granted
heading of this, article indicates. I `was to write on:     the Dutch to maintain  .the privilege of entering the
Christianity in Japan Today. I dropped the word harbor of  NagasakIi  a few times of the year. The
"Today". This gives me a somewhat broader field Dutch were the only ones who during these centuries
which seems preferable. By and large our readers of exclusion could gain any access to  *Japan at all.
very likely know little about Christianity in Japan at The foreign-religion, Christianity, also came under the
all, and it is therefore not out of place to tell about the ban. Various reasons may be adduced for this. First
coming and history of Christianity.        Besides under of all, the Tokugawa Shogunate wished to maintain
present war conditions there is no information avail- and firmly secure unto itself its power. They saw
able regarding Christianity in Japan to&y. It is not that the foreigners were gaining political influence in
improbable, yes it is in the light of history even likely, other Oriental countries, and wished to  forecome  this.
that Christianity (such as it  is) is undergoing  :I        Christianity, coming from the foreigner, seemed to be
severe period of trial and persecution in the Japanese a reltigion,  therefore, that also ought to be banished,
homeland at this very time.  H,ow.ever,  we have no lest through it the foreigner gain influence. Secondly,
definite information regarding the present situation. the Jesuit missionaries interferred  in Japanese local
With this in view I chose to write more in general          matters and so brought the wrath of  .the government
about Christianity in Japan.                                upon  &ems&es.  Thirdly, the Buddhist priests hart
   In writing upon this subject it is well to bear in become antagonistic to Christianity, and used their
mind that we are using the term "Christianity" in a influence against it. Fourthly, the communities where
very general and loose sense of the term. From the          the Christian religion had a foothold were also those
distance, and from statistics, it is quite difficult to dis- that had opposed the Tokugawa Shogunate's power
cover just what percent of that called Christianity ia      of centralization of government.
really in any sense worthy of the name.                        At any rate a furious persecution broke out such
                                                            as the world has rarely seen. It was so systematic,
                      Its First Coming.                     so complete, that i.t is unique in history. Ruthlessly
   ,Christianity first come to Japan (in the form of Christians were compelled to recant or be killed. The
Roman Catholicism), in the sixteenth and seventeenth Christian religion was not only forbidden ; it was ex-
centuries. From the years 1492 to 1638 Japan's doors terminated! Jesuit priests that failed to leave wera
were open to the foreigner.        Especially the Dutch killed or went into hiding till they died. Every mont?l
and fhe Portuguese visi.ted  Japan and were the chief each town had to report whether there were any Chris-
traders. The Dutch, however, were interested merely tians `there. Once a year every family head had  !o
in trade; they made no attempt to send missionaries,        testify under oath before the local authorities that
Protestan,t  missionaries, to Japan. Portugal was then, there were no Christians in his family or under his
as now, a Catholic nation, and the Catholic church roof.           Every few years there was a public  CFOS+
sent priests and nuns to Japan. First a few, later trampling in every town; a large cross (representative
more, although at no time was it a great  aumber that of Christ's cross) was marked on the ground and
were sent as Catholic missionaries. These mission- every citizen,  o1.d and young, compelled to trample  07
aries labored chiefly on the island of Kyushu (one of it or be killed. Many paid the supreme penalty. This
the four main islands of Japan and densely populated). persecution continued for over two hundred  years !
They labored chiefly among the higher! classes, and Yet, after Japan's Fe-opening  in  1354,  the  Ctitholic
sought the influence of the feudal lords and chiefs. church still found  dscendan$ts  of those early Catholic?
They were in a measure successful and succeeded in that had not entirely forgotten Catholicism. Natur-
the course of the cen,tury to establish churches. There ally they knew little of Catholicism, but they had been
were at the most perhaps several hundred thousand           taugh: to look for the coming of the foreign men in
Catholic converts.      The Jesuit missionaries did not priest's apparel. It has been a marvel that even so
hesitate to make use of their doc.trine of ac:omodation,    much knowledge of Catholicism was maintamed,  for
and this no doubt helps to explain their success.           during the two hundred years after 1638 Japan perse-
                                                            cuted every form and semblance of Catholicism with a
                        Persecution.                        ruthlessness the world has rarely seen.
   In 1638 the Tokugawa Shogunate, firmly  intrench-                         Protestant Missions.
ed in power, issued an edict that completely closed
Japan to the outside world for the next few centuries,         We are  not Catholics, Roman  Catholickm is  a


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         881

great deviation from historic Christianity. In how this Japanese Christian leader as other than a modern-
far there were converts to Catholicism during those ist. Kagawa speaks of the brotherhood of men, the
early years that were truly Christians, we do not Fatherhood of God, the Kingdom of God etc., in exact-
know. The day of Christ will reveal it. But up to the ly the same way as a modernist would. If you  PC.
latter part of the 19th century Roman Catholicism was member that couming all in all there are only 300,000
the only form of Christianity with which Japan had nominal Christians out of the approximate eighty
any real contact. (It is not impossible that Japan had millions of people; if you further remember that the
some contact with Nestorian Christianity through 306,000 include Catholics and modernists,-then cer-
China.    ICertain  factors in  Amida Buddhism, etc., tainly there are not many out of Japan's hordes that
seem to show  t.hat there may have been some contact can truly be called Christians.
w,ith  Nestorian  Christianit.y.)                              What to think of the status of Christianity during
    Protestant mission work did not begin in Japan the war? The foreign missionaries ar.e either gone 01
until only about seventy-five years ago. Prior to the imprisoned. The mi'litaristic party in control of Japan
outbreak of the present war it was still limited to the is definitely antagonistic to Christianity in any form.
large populated centers, e.g. Tokyo, which has some         (There can be no question of this. Korea's experience,
two hundred Christian churches.                             China's experience etc., all point to this.) Very likely
    After the r-e-opening of Japan by Commodore Perry what Christianity there is, is undergoing a  `severe
in 1.354, t.he Tokugawa Shogunate fell and the new trial as being the religion of the foreign-enemy.
clan-heads in power opened up Japan .to the outside                                                    P. D. B.
world.    First Japan was opened to trade-she was
willing to open her ports to all except opium and
Christianity. Later Christian missionaries were  nl-
lowed.    There was a  rath.er  remarkable influx -of
Christian missionaries. By 1920, according to Japan-
ese government statistics, there were 2,360 Christian The Value Of 0. `T. Revelation For
evangelists in Japan. Of these some  800 were foreign
missionaries, the remaiader Japanese trained evan-                    The New Dispensation
gelists. Yet considering that Japan had some 80,000,
000 population, th<e number of nominal Christians is           In our former essay on this subject (See April 1
very, very small. It is only a fraction of the popula- issue) we attempted to define the terms in our sub-
tion. We quote from Toyohiko Kagawa's  Christ  and ject. `In so doing we noticed the following:
J~CWZ,   "Taking only the larger denominations into            In the first place, that "Old Testament" is not to
account, there are 160,000 Japanese Protestants. Even be identified or confused with  0-T. Scriptures. For
ineluding the Roman Catholics, the total number of "Testament" in our subject means covenant and re-
Christians scarcely reaches 300,000". The Reformed fers to the relationship established between God and
Church of America, the Reformed Church in the U. S., His people, while the "Scriptures" are the infallible
the Presbyterian Church U. S. A., the Baptists, are record of this covenant.
among those that maintain missions in Japan. There             Secondly, we observed, that "Testament" and "Dis-
are mission schools, hospitals, etc. The converts form- pensation" are also not identical. "Dispensation" in
erly were members of denominations `modeled after Holy Writ is the all-wise government and control of
the home denominations of the missionaries. Just God the Father over all things in heaven and earth
prior to the war these churches CL& themselv.es loose unto the realization of the plan of redemption and of
from the foreign influence, and even merged into one His Covenant (testament) with man.
Japanese denomination.                                         Thirdly, it was pointed out, that "old" is an epithet
                     What To Think.                         applicable to  the all-wise and merciful dispensation of
                                                            God  before  the coming of God's Son in the flesh.
    What must we.think of the strength of Christianity From the viewpoint of the present dispensation of God
in Japan today? That is a hard question to. answer. the former is "old," it has aost its force.
It is an indisputable fact that many of the missionaries       The above recapitulation will be sufficient to recall
that went to Japan were imbued with the-modernism the trend of our former article.
that prevails in their denominations at home. Much             We now stand before the question of ,the "value"
of the Christianity is undoubtedly nothing but modern- of the  Old Covenant ordinances for the believers after
ism and not worthy of the name Christianity. Even Pentecos,t. To this we would call your attention in this
Kagawa himself, though Rev. Van Baalen has sought concluding article on this subject. We will strive for
.to maintain that he is a Christian, surely expresses brevity and clarity. In doing so the following mat-
himself in language' that. makes it hard to think of ters will need to be considered. 1. The Value that


 382                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEA'RZR

the "Old Testament Revelation" had in the Old DLs- Ur of the Chaldees. Gen. 12  :l-3. The perspective
pensation.    2. Thus see by way of contrast the points opens here even to the dim future. It foresees that
in which this old' Covenant still has value for us today.    God shall justify the heathen-world through faith.
           Value Of The Old Testament For The                Gal.  3% The numberless throng John may see in
                                                             the vision  as. recorded in Rev.  7:9-17.  Hence the
                    Old Dispemation                          promise extends all the way from Alpha to Omega.
    After careful and lengthy consideration of this It finds  its terminus ad quem in the ,Consummation
question of the "present value" of the Old Covenant,         of all things! Rev. 22.
we are convinced that the correct understanding of               Secondly there is the element of the certain realiza-
t.his matter hinges on the understanding of the re- tion of the Promise. This also is given in both  Gen.
lationship of "the Law" to "the Promise". These are 3 :15 and Gen. 12 :l-3. It is emphasized that God will
two different yet mutually related  enti:ties  in the do it. And again: That He will do what is impossible
Bible. Paul often discourses on this subject, the mat- with  .mn! Hence the Promise always implies the
ter being an actual, burning question in his day. To Miraculous ! Foresoothe, not the miraculous in the
understand this question, again we are called upon to sense of the merely philosophically conceived super-
define:  `1. What Scripture understand's by  ,the "Pro- natural, but as the wonder, the miracle of redemption.
mise." 2. What the Word of God understands by the            Hence fhe Promise always presupposes two factors:
"Law." 3. And then see how these two matters un-             Sin  and grace! God would lead many sons to glory.
der the all-wise control and guidance and plan of  God       But. in doing so He cannot deny Himself. He would
are mutually related and wherein they differ.                bless all nations in Abraham. But' who is Abraham?
    Just a word about the correctness of this approach       He is as far as the Seed `is concerned dead. But God
may be in order here. However, those remarks could by the Wonder of Grace raises the dead to life and
be reserved till after the discussion of the  *three propo- calls the things that are not as though they were.
sitions of the former paragraph too. Bu$ for peda- Ram 4  :13-25.              For  ,this Seed  (Gen.  12  :7; 13  :15;
gogical reasons permit me to make them here.                 17:7;  22:18;  24:7; Gal.  3:16) is the Christ of God.
    As shall, we trust, become evident presently in our In this Christ the Promise is fulfilled, being  fdelivered
discussion on the "Promise", the Promise is that which for our offences  and raised again for our justification.
is  ahe controlling factor in both the Old and New Rom. 4:23-25. For all God's promises are in Him yea.
Dispensations. On  Pentecos:t  Peter preaches: For to and, therefore  aho in Him Amen unto  ;the glory of
you is the promise and to your children and to as            God. Such is the certainty of the Promises which
many as the Lord our God shall call. Acts  2:39. Now s p a n s   ,the  a g e s   !
if the promise is :the same in the New Dispensation             This is not an exhaustive treatment, for that would
as it is in the Old Dispensation, fhen by seeing the         mean an exposition of the whole bible! For Scripture
value that the "law," "the old testament revelation"         shows us the unfolding of  ,Ga&`s council and the
had for the "Promise" at once indicates its value for realization of the Promise in Christ. We merely wish
us today who are the "heirs of  *the promise." This ,to draw the line !
reasoning and presupposition underlies the method of            Now, what is the "Law?" Also here we must
our treatment. Let the reader judge as  ,to the cor-         be clear in our conception. There are three laws of
rectness of this approach.                                   which the bible speaks. 1. The moral law, the ten
    We believe  ,that this is the method of reasoning commandments.            2. The civil law regulating ahe civil
followed by Paul in Galatians 3, and the one, which, affairs in  IsraeI.  3. The Ceremonial laws regulating
upon due reflection all  wil,l concede, is necessitated the temple-worship.
by the fact that Christ is the end of the Law in be-            We here have in. mind .the laws of the ceremonial
ing the fulfillment of the Promise.                          ordinances. These were the laws that regulated the
    Let us attend to this matter somewhat more in            life of Israel to the  minutest details. It designated
detail.                                                      the place of worship, (Jno. 4  :20) the  ,time when to
    As stated before we must first of all call attention worship (the entire lunar calendar regulating the
to the Scriptural idea and implication of the "Pro-          feast) the distinction of clean and unclean, of foreign-
mise." We will here consider two matters.                    er and sons, circumcision and uncirdumcision.  Lt pre-
    First of all we ask: What is the scope and perspec- scribed what might be eaten and what avoided. And
tive of the Promise. We believe that it is plain teach- in this all it said: Do this and thou shalt live.
ing of Scripture that the Promise extends from  the             As such the law pointed in two directions. It
Pratevangel  in Gen. 3:15 to the final descent of the        pointed on -the one hand to the moral law in connec-
holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem from God, adorned tion with the dead and guilty sinner. It came specifi-
as a bride to meet her husband. Rev.  21:2,  3. The          cally to man as the guilty one. On the other hand it
Promise extends all the way. "It is given  .to Abram in pointed toward redemption.  It pointed toward the


                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         3.83

Christ of the Promise! It was not something to sup.er-      dispensations we have called attention above: We
.cede the promise. `It indeed came later by the space of need therefore not tarry and call attention to this
four hundred and thirty years. Gal. 3 :17; Ex. 12 :40.      once more.
   Ye:t this law was weak. The miracle of redeem-              However, we must now face the question: What
ing love and' grace it did not brinlg. It did the very is the value of the "Law" this O.T. Revelation today?
opposite.    It brought about a great burden which In attempting to answer this question we wish to
none of the fathers were able .to carry. Matt.  11:28;      point out two matters. The first is possibly the easier
Acts  X:6-11. It proclaimed the sinfulness of  ma:]         of the two. This first matter is to state in. how far
without lifting the burden and carrying away the the "law" has no value for us today. After having
sin of the people. Jno.  1:29. If it had done so, it        eliminated the elements which have no value, we will
would have  nullifi'ed the Promise. Gal. 3  :21.  Rut be in a better position to state the value that the  `jOId
the Promise would bring salvation in the Seed, and          Testament revelation"  tiei9  have.
aot #the law.                                                  In compliance with the requisi.tes that we. have set
   We are now in a position to see the relationship         ourselves we would answer to the former  .of these
of the law to the Promise, as we stated earlier in this     matters as follows: 1. We have stated in this essay
essay we would do. ILet us notice two poiirts in par- that the law pointed foward the irrevocable demands
ticular-points that have bearing on and are relevan?        of God's holiness in connection with the guilty sinner,
to our subject.                                             and  Idamning  him to deepest hell. This element  is
   The first point of importance is to see what the         still in the law. But i.t now can no longer touch the
"Promise" and the "law" had in common. The                  heirs of the promise because their guilt has  be.en
following matters of agreement may be observed,             removed. There is no condemnation for those who are
   1. They both presuppose the sin and guilt of man.        in Christ Jesus. Rom.  8:l. Its value as the actuql
They both proclaim, altho each in his own way, that         taskmaster to Christ is ended.  ,Gal. 4  :l-7. Jerusalem,
man is Idead, impotent and rebellious. Neither one Sarah and her children are free. Gal. .4 :21-31.  2. The
of them is conceivable without a world of sin. T!,          value of pointing to the Christ as the one to come i$
remove a possible objection to speak of "conceivabil- also gone. Go,d has rent it. Melchisedec's priesthood
ity," I wish to state that I fake the position that         is of a higher order than that of Aaron. When Christ
revelation is not irrational, even though it is not the said "It is finished," forevermore the "old Testament
product of human reason.                                    Rlevelation" of the Christ must make room for the
   2. Bath also point to  ihe need of salvation. The        reality. The fulfillment of the Promise is the abroga-
specific form of the temple, its architecture, symbol- tion of the Laws contained in ordinances. Eph. 2:13-
ism, sacrifices, altar, candle-stick, holy of holies em-    17. In Him t.he handwriting that was against us is
phasize and reveal the way unto God. As such it may nailed to the cross.  `Cal. 2  :13, 14. The law can no
be said to complement the promise. It was something longer point out  .the "one that is to come."
added to it also in revelational clarity. Moses in the         But what is now left?. A dead relic? Merely some
,desert  saw the outline of the Promise to Abraham.         information of historic (?) interest? This is the
Both "Law" and "Promise" therefore deal with the impression that one sometimes receives in hearing
same subject.                                               men speak about the "value" of O.T. Revelation. But
   Yet there is a vast difference between these two.        this is far from the truth.
We call attention to the following:                            As I  ?.derstand the matter there are two poitis
   1. The "law" pointed to sin, pointed it out em-          of "value" in the O.T. Revelation for us `today.
phatically, and even appended the malediction to it,           The first of these is that it still has "revelational
without being able to take sin away. The Promise Value"! It has this because it contributed something
also sees the full reality of sin and death and fakes       to the unfolding idea of the Promise. The very terms,
it away.                                                    symbols, phraseology employed in the  O.T. law are
   2. The Promise by taking away sin and bringing           employed in the N.T. Revelation and without them we
satisfaction removes the guilt and the ground of con-       cannot possibly form N.T. conceptions of the work
demnation, and, that on .the accursed tree in Jesus.        of redemption. Witness to this is the entire book of
And so it removes the curse of the law. And the func- Hebrews. Read it and  asure yourself. Or think of
tion of the law as taskmaster to Christ is ended. There- the book of Revelation. The O.T. reve1atio.n  contains
fore the `temple-veil is rent from top to bottom in the vocabulary of the Spirit of Truth, plus His sym-
the giving of the Ghost by Christ.  Matt.  2'7:51.          bols in numbers, colors, figures etc. The scenes cast
      Value Of The Old Testament Revelation  For            upon the screen before John on Patmos are all taken
                   The New Dispensation                     from  .the "Mileau" of the O.T. revelation under the
                                                            law as related to the Promise. They all form the
    To the underlying connection between the two elements of our N.T. thinking.                    Apart from them

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

men's imagination must fail.                                     if YOU make, your next trip to the beanty  parlors.
   It also has spirituul-pedagogical  value. This should             First of all I believe Scripture warns us against
be evident to us when we read the practical admoni-              making  beauty our god. Remember that that is just
tions directed to the believers in the book of Hebrews.          what the worldly young women are  alway doing.
This is also true of other books, but emphatically this          They dream of but one aspiration, and that is to be
is the case there. Read  such passages as Heb. 2 : l-5 ; beautiful in that outward and glamorous sense  o-f
4  :l, 2; X0 :26-31; 12 :29.      And  lest men  shouId  use     the  word'. And that is making of beauty  Itheir god.
their new testament liberty as an ocassion for the               You realize that it is alright to own money, but sin-
flesh (Gal. 5:13) Paul cites the examples of Israel's            ful when it turns into a Mammon; it is alright to eat
unbelief and what happened to them under the law and drink but sinful when, to use Paul's words, their
in the desert.    I Cor. 10 :l-13.      These  .things   were    belly becomes their god. In like vein, comeliness and
written as examples for us upon whom the ends of the             beauty are in place and to be received with thanks-
ages have come, aed that for our admonition lest we              giving, provided they keep their  God-o&`ained  place
be led away by our desires. The most powerful mo-                and you assume  (the God ordained attitude toward
tives for holy conduct even now are elicited by the              them. That is difficult. If, consequently, our young
apostles from the Old Testament  reveIation   !                  women have but one i&al and that is to adorn them-
   We do well to heed this truth. To the law and                 selves with external beauty, I feel sure that your
prophets lest there be no dawn for us.                           beauty has become your sin and your repeated trips
   One remark in conclusion. The writer. would wel-              to the beauty parlor are proof of the fact that your
come a  discmsion  on some theological club meeting god is enthralling you more and more. The more
on this subject. Possibly there is much in this essay you revel in that beauty the more you glory in your
that is not clear. For this the writer makes no apology.         shame.  Even the people of the world feel a little of
The subject. is indeed as involved as it is important            this misplaced emphasis when they speak of "dumb
to Christian thinking and life!                                  but beautiful  ;`r and some time ago men staged a cur-
                                                  G. L.          rent-opinion-poll when the question was, "do you know
                                                                 any glamour girls that are intelligent?" You see,
                                                                 even the  worlld feels that girls frequently give up
                                                                 everything else, their reading and studying etc. and
                                                                 dream only of attaining to glamour and culltivate the
                                                                 "it."    That is an example of mis-placed emphasis.
 The Beauty Of The Young Woman
                   .                                             If this is  80 true that even the world feels it, how
                                                                 much wiser should not the children of light be? Make
                                                                 the most of the beauty Gold' gave you for beauty itself
   The rush to the beauty parlor!                                is not sinful, but to dote on beauty, as if that is the
   I realize that I expose myself to a vigorous attack paramount `thing, that is sinful and just at that point
from the young women when we begin to make com- world conformity begins. The Scripture would say,
ment on their beauty.           I have heard of people who       "Be moderate, be sober and adorn yourself with mod-
have been put to flight by the daggered  looks of cer- esty."
tain young women, when they made comments on                         I used the word  worEd-conformity  because the way
their beauty. Somehow, however, if you put it in                 of lthe glamour-girls is that they live only to be beauti-
print the immediate danger is  `not so great, neither  do        ful  an,d, in turn, they  want to be beautiful in order
you need to witness the reaction.                                to attract, and th,ey  want to attract because they are
   I could hardly say, without more, that it b wrong SENSUAL. I make no accusations! But `the women
to visit the beauty  parlors, for I should not want to           of the world race to the beauty parlors because they
be understood as favoring slouchiness anal unkempt are sensual, foflnicators,  adulterers, coquettish, flap-
appearanee  in our young women. Paul does speak of perish and, knowing what power such beauty has on
the fact t,hat "if a woman have long hair it is glory the opposite sex, they employ their taatics  to attract
to her" but he does not say how long it should be,               as many to themseIves  as they can. Their rush to the
other than that "her hair is given her for a covering."          beauy parlor therefore comes up out of a heart which
Neither does the Scripture forbid our young women is sensual. I do not say lthat you go there impelled by
to keep themselves beautiful, that is neat and tidy of that sensual heart, I  said, that way the world goes
appearance, and there are several of the women in                there, and, if we will be children of God we shall
Scripture concerning whom it says that they were                 carefully have to ask ourselves: why do I want to
beautiful.                                                       beautify myself?
   But there are in this connection a few things                     Be not conformed but be transformed. Also in
which might be well to consider when you make, or                this matter.


                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          385

   God is not mocked. God looks past your make-up          renewa  of the heart is the beginning of all beauty.
and scrutinizes the heart. Why those horrid, painted       By nature we are all ugly. At best we are but a hand-
`nails, those red lips? That isnst even beauty! It  is ful of dust. But God is beautiful, He is Graceful,  Rc
proof that your sense of beauty is dulled by the urge      is Attractive and it pleased God to make His people
of a sensual heart. Be tidy, be neat, he comely, but beautifu1  with His Grace. God makes us conform to
surely we should know moderation and limits. When lthe image of His dear and Beautiful Son.
Scripture exhorts ~to moderation and sobriety (Titus          The young woman's beauty begins in regeneration.
2  :4) it applies here as everywhere else and I feel          Just therefore Scripture exhorts the woman to
sure that it condemns the outrages we see in many          adorn herself with this beauty, that is,  Iet  lthe beauty
young women today and sometimes also young women of that "regenerate heart show itself in your walk,
of the church. It sends a  chili down the minister's conduct and manner of life.
spine when he look over his audience and sees painted         And then it exhorts three things:
lips, dyed cheeks, claw-hammered finger-nails, equally        First of all in I Tim.  2:9  PauI emphasizes that
garnished. They who do these things have fallen into one of these beauty requisites is "to adorn themselves
excess and have forgotten moderation. They manifest with shamefacedness."              The word shamefacedness
that they are sensual and that is world-conformity means, deep reverence and modesty, an  attitude  of
against which Scripture repeatedly warns us all. Be heart which prevents them from  committmg  any
sober, be moderate.                                        shameful act. The opposite of this true beauty is
   You find beauty-worship from the beginning of mentioned in Jer. 3  :5 when  ilt says: "Thou hast  s
history. It is rather interesting to find that in all      whore's forehead, thou  refuse&  to be ashamed." It
the  earIy  genealogies  of Gen. 4  ,and 5 you find but    is often said of women that they have no shame left.
three women mentioned. All three of these appear in        and generally their very faces tell you that. The
the line of the worldly ones. They are: Adah,   Zillah     chri&ian  young woman ought to let her very face
and Naamah  (`Gen.  4:19 and 22). Their names are telI others that she is born again, that she despises
mentioned. Names had  meanin,g at that time  and  I the sensual and entertains deep reverence for the
doubt not but that "     ' very names expressed their things  t.hat are pure, chaste and holy. When she
being.    Adah  me  . beautiful or adorned ; ZilIa!l       shows lthis reverence by her conduct she has become
means: to  twittei   &nd Naamah means: graceful or beautiful, "in the sight of God". . . .and who shall
pleasant (mother of gods, in  Phoenic).  All three of judge of beauty than God?
these names express that this generation laid em-             A second beauty requisite is, "A meek and' quite
phasis  oa the earnal ancl.sensuaI, coming to the sur- spirit." No doubt Scripture wants the young woman
face plainly in Lamech's polygamy. You may find to remember rthat sin came into the world through
other passages of Scripture that speak of this excess      Eve, the woman. That woman was in transgression,
of women, such as Isa. 3 : 16 and Ezek. 23 :40. Jezebel    says Paul, that woman deceived the man in Paradise
>also "attired herself" and looked out of the window and therefore she must be "In silence." The woman
to allure Jehu by her vain beauty  ;  an,d Esther too      can be saved, indeed, but, "In childbearing, if they
relied on her beauty to infatuate Ahasuerus.       But continue in faith, charity, holiness with sobriety" (I
Scripture condemns this all when it tells mo'thers  to     Tim.  2:11-15). ShaIl the woman therefore vaunt her-
teach their daughters to be sober aecl moderate and        self, shall she conduct herself as if she were a gor-
dress with "modest apparel" (I Tim. 2:9).                  geous creature and walk about in glamour and pride?
    The second thing we should consider is that true       No, let her remember that the woman deceived the
womanly beauty is not something which can be pur..         man in Paradise  and in consequence let her be humble,
chased at drug stores or obtained at the beauty par- meek and quiet. That is her beauty. . . .let her obey
lors. The true beauty, says Peter, lies in the heart her husband and in general assume the position `to-
a meek and quiet spirit  which is in the sight of God wards the man which God has appointed. That is
of great  price. You see, that is God's evaluation of      her beauty.
beauty and who does not want to be beamifu1 before             Finally, says the Scripture, let lthe woman "cos-
.God? It is already a sign of carnality when we want metic" (adorn, I Tim.  2:9) themselves with good
to be beautiful only before men. It is world-conform- works.         Distindtly Paul emphasizes that their cos-
ity when our beauty is intended only (to attract the       metics must not be  sensua1 material such as broidered
eyes of the people. Peter speaks of the true sense of hair, goI,d and pearls (I Pet. 3 :3) but let your beauty
beauty when he remarks of beauty  "in the sight of be the good works of Jesus Christ (I Tim. 2  :lO)  .
God," the beauty which God likes to see.                   Paul says that "that becometh women professing god-
    That beauty cannot be smeared or dabbed or paint- liness" i.e.  ilt belongs to the wardrobe of the Christian
ed on, it cannot be obtained by means of curlers or young woman. Adorn yourself with it, for that is
 make-ups, but it is a gift of God in Christ Jesus. The true beauty,                                        M. G.


                                                                                                          .
386                                    THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              i,,..

              Grieving  The Spirit                            j,ect. It would not be difficult to show that any solu-
                                                              tion which might be offered still leaves room for
                                                              many questions, questions that are difficult  Ito answer.
       In Ephesians 4:39 the apostle writes to the church,        One's first inclination, -when faced by this ques-
"And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye            tion, is perhaps to explain it by simply saying that
are sealed unto the  `day of redemption." Although            God is grieved just as we are. However, one im-
Scripture does not elsewhere speak of "grieving the           mediately realizes that this will not do. For God ia
Spirit" in so many words, the idea is expressed more          God ! He is not a man that He should be subject to
often in somewhat similar terms. In Isaiah 63  :I0 we affliction, sorrow, grief or disappointment. Man may
read, "But they  .rebelled,  and vexed his holy Spirit:       suffer loss but God cannot suffer loss. Man may suf-
therefore he was turned to be their enemy,  aud he            fer a wound either in his body or in his heart but;
fought against them."         In the above passage the        God cannot be wounded'. God is certainly, as far as
word "vexed" may also be translated "grieved." Other these things are concerned, the Untouchable One. He
passages, do not  sia.gle out the holy Spirit but refer to is t hat because He is absolutely Sovereign and Inde-
the triune God as being grieved. In Psalm  78:40              peil,dent.    He is in no sense of the word dependent
the. psalmist declares, "How oft did they provoke him         upon His creatures. We cannot enrich Him, we can-
in the. wilderness and grieve him in the desert!" In not impoverish Him. We cannot add to His glory,
Psalm 95 :lO the Lord Himself declares through the            we cannot detract from it. We cannot increase His
mouth of the psalmist, "Forty years long was I griev- blessed,ness  nor can we decrease it. He is in Himself
ed with this generation, and said, It is a people that,       the ever blessed God. He is highly exalted above all
do err in their heart, and *they  have not known my that He has made and dwells in everlasting perfec-
ways."      And again in the same connection, with  a tion. We are affected by time, condition and circum-
view to the same historical incident, this verse is quot- stance and our, joy or sorrow depends largely upon
ed literally in Heb.  3:10, while in verse 17 of this them. This is not so however  with the Lord. He
same chapter the writer to the Hebrews adds, "But is Himself, as the Sovereign, Independent and Infinite
with whom  wa;s he grieved forty years? was  it; not          God, the source of all His perfect life and blessedness.
,with  them that had sinned, whose  carcases  fell in Hence it must be ciear that, from this point of view,
the wilderness?" And finally it is said of the Lord           we cannot speak of grief in respeot to God.          It. is
Himself in Gen. 6:6, "And it repented the Lord that;          impossible that God, Who is truly God, should ever
he  -had made man on the earth and it grieved him suffer grief as we are caused to bear it.
at his heart."                                                    Someone might suggest. that this "grieving" does
       This latter pasage may be excluded as far as the       not have the same meaning when applied to the holy
 practical  sigaJficance  of our subject is concerned.        Spirit or to God as it -does when applied to man. In
However,  it  adds emphasis to  +he question which            the first place, the question arises, what meaning
naturally arises in the consideration of our subject:         would it have then when applied to God? However
How  mwt  ifi  be  csp:!ainod  that God cun be  yrieved?      it is evident, in the  secon'd place, that this same word
Essentially it makes no difference whether one speaks         is used in the original in both instances. In the texts
of grieving the holy Spirit or of grieving God. The           which we have quoted above the original uses more
holy Spirit is the thirl person of the trinity and there-     than one word for "grieved." Yet, in every instance,
fore truly God. And what affects the holy Spirit must we find that the same word is used with a view to
necessarily affeot  ,the triune God. The difference per- man's grief also. And, when in Ephesians  4~30 we
tains Inot to the grieving as such but to the mode of         are admonished to "gti&e  not the holy Spirit," the
this grieving. However, as far as the above men-              original renders the word "grieve" as, "`$0 make sor-
tioned question is concerned, it makes no difference          rowful, to affect with  sadlness, cause grief, to throw
whether we speak of grieving  ,the holy Spirit or of into sorrow." Hence we find no solution here.
grieving God, as is evident from the fact that Scrip-             Most commentaries explain the expression as an  an-
ture speaks of both.                                          thropomorphism. Rather than  $0 explain the term,
       The question how God can be grieved and wherein we quote Barnes' Notes where the idea is clearly ex-
that divine grief consists is by no means a simple            pressed. He says, "We are not  to suppose that the
one  an.d is not  ito be answered in an off-hand way.         Holy Spirit literally endures  grief or  paXn, at the con-
The question is certainly worthy of serious thought.          duct of men. The language is such as is fitted to
Moreover, the more one attempts to find a solution,           describe what men endure, and is applied to him to
the more problems seem to arise. Hence, we would              denote that kind' of conduct which is f4ttd to cause
not even for one moment contend, nor would we have grief; and the meaning here is, `do not pursue such
the reader think  thak any solution which we may a course as is  fitted  in its own nature, to pain the
offer is to be considered the final word on the  sub-         benevolent heart of a holy being. Do not act towarda


                                    THE.  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           387

the Holy Spirit in a manner which would  producq              not possess a Personal human nature in which He can
pain in the bosom of a friend who loves you' ". Our suffer. And therefore, unless the above reasoning j,
objectiion  to this view is that it does not do justice to    incorrect, the question as to wherein this grief con-
(the expression. Although it has significance for  th?        sists, .&ill remains, and especially so in the light of
believer, it nevertheless ,does not answer to any reality Genesis 6 :6 where we read of God that "it grieved Him
in God. When Scripture speaks  anthropomorphisti-             at His heart".
tally of God's hand or eye, there is an actual reality           There are also other qnestioas  that persist,. And
suggested. Here however, that is not true.                    although we feel that  it would be beneficial to reasbn
    The editor of the Standard Bearer, in one of his "out loud" and "on paper" space will not  peimit  ill
meditations, gives  anot.her  interpretation, (See  VnI.      this instance. Moreover, we are not prepared to give
7 No. 19). He presents the view #that, although the a solution that is  satisfaadtory  in  every  respect. We
holy Spirit as the third person of the holy trinity can- are convinced however that the solution must not be
 not suffer and end'ure  grief, this is not the case with sought by anthropomorphistically explaining the  diffi-
 the holy Spirit. as the Spirit of Christ in the Church.      cuI;ty away. We believe that this grieving does in
 He says, (we translate from the Holland, H.D.W.), F.ome  w~ay answer to an actual reality in God.  We
 "AS the Son of God could suffer, not in the divine na- .a!so suggest that, in the light of the last mentioned
 ture but in the human nature, so can. the holy Spirit view, there is a third possibility, namely, :to explain
 as the Spirit of and in the church of Christ, be griev- this grieving in a relative sense. Although in the
 ed."    Whether this view can be maintained in the absolute sense of the word' God cannot suffer and en-
 face of all the questions that arise, is yet to be seen. dure grief because He is the most blessed God forever
 Personally we are convinced that it can stand a great and `ever, isn't it possible  !that in a relative sense God
 -deal of  eluci,dation  and is worthy of being further can actually suffer grief with a view to a certain
 developed.    We are attracted to this interpretation relationship  which He has sovereignly assumed with
 because it holds that this grieving is a reality not a view to His creature and, more particularly, His
 only with a view to him who grieves but also the holy        people?    And isn't it possible that God can suffer
 Spirit Who is grieved. W'hereas  the anthropomorphis-        with a view to a specific relationship without it actual-
 Yical view must necessarily deny any reality at all          ly affecting Him in His &divine  Being so as to cause
 with a view to this grief on the part of the holy Spirit,    Him to suffer loss, just because He i8 the Sovereign,
 the above mentioned view retains the basic implica-          Indepen,dent  One? And doesn't this seem the more
 tion that  %he holy Spirit can actually suffer, although     possible in the light of the fact that, in every instance
 not as the third person of the trinity but as the Spirit     in which this grieving of God or `the Holy Spirit is
 of Christ in the Church. In this light "the griev-           mentioned in Scripture, a very definite relationship
 ing" answers to a  reali*ty  in God. Hence, when we          with His creature is implied; and also in the light of
 become guilty of grieving the Spirit, we are not sim- the fact that all things, even sin, is  mad:e  `to serve  ,the
 pIy doing something that ordinarily wouId  cause some- purpose of God's eternal glory? How else can we
 one to suffer but actually does not affect the  Spirit;      explain God's wrath and displeasure? If we hold to
 but we are actually <causing the holy Spirit to suffer;      the fact that God is God we shall have to con5ess  that.
 He is actually afflicted by our mis-conduct. Neverthe- God is pleased in His displeasure, paradoxical though
 less, it is a question whether the analogy which the         this may seem.
 editor makes between the Son of God in the human                We, had intended to say something about the prac-
 nature- and the holy Spirit in the Church will actually :tical significance of :this grieving of the Spirit. How-
 hold. With a view to the former, there is an actual          ever, also here, space will  not permit. We shall be
 union of the divine and human natures. The Son of            cor&ent therefore if our writing has served in some
 Go8 actually assumed the human nature and He be- small way  to cause the reader to think about this, deep
came true man. And although ilt was truly the Son spiritual reality. And so much more so if it might
 of God that suffered, `He nevertheless bore His suffer- res,ult in a clearer understanding of this thing which
 ing and endured His grief in His own personal human          God has  revealEd  concerning Himself.        H. D. W.
+ nature which He had assumed. With a view to the
 Holy Spirit in the church, the case is different. Al-                            - NOTICE -
 though He has been. poured out in the Church and                 The Consistory of the First Protestant Reformed
 actually dwells in the heart of the individual be-           Church of Grand Rapids hereby wishes to notify the
 liever, although He bears witness with our spirit and Churches that Synod will meet D.V. on Wednesday
 even prays for us with groanings that cannot be utter-       June 7,1944.  The Pre-Synodical sermon will be preach-
 ed, `He nevertheless remains exclusively divine in His on the previous evening at, 7:45 by the President of
 nature. He does net, as did the Son of God, cuter into the Synod of 1943, Rev. G. Vos.
 a Personal union with t;he human nature, He does                                              G, Stcmehouse,  Clerk,

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

      Christianity And Pagami~m                                 as attaini;:g  expression in the Nicene creed and pun-
                                                                ished them with confi:scation and banishment.
               After Constantine                                   This is  not  the place for `the discussion `of the
                                                                question whether such violent suppression of idolatry
  ' As we saw, in the first three centuries of our              by the civil magistrate is, in the light of Scripture,
                                                                a duty. Athanasias apparently didn't think so. For
Christi,an  era, the IChristians  were  i.ntermi:entIy  per-    he says, `Satan, because there is no truth in him,
secuted.     "All  ,the pains, which iron and steel,. fire
and sword, rack and cross, wild  bexts and beastly              breaks with axe and sword. But the Saviour is gentle,
                                                                and forces no one, to whom he comes, but knocks and
men  could inflict," were employed to tmerrorize  Cod's
people into denying the  :name of Christ. But, so we            speaks to the soul: Open PO me my sister? If we open
saw, in 323 Constantine, the first Christian occupant to him He enters; but if we will not, he Ideparts. For
of the throne of the Ceasors, became the  soIe ruler the truth is not preached by sword and dungeon, by
of the Roma,n world, and the church was. everywhere the might of an army, but by persuasion and exhorta-
free from  its enemies. Constantine ordered the gover- tion;"
nors in all the provinces to restore all confiscated               As a result of this policy of suppression, the  heath-
property to the body of Christians at the expense of ,en, in great crowds,  ccme over to Christianity, though
the imperial  ,treasury,   aed placed Christianity on  3.       not of course as moved by true principle. Thi,s opin-
full legal equality with any religion of the Roman ion must be taken for what it is-an opinion. Besides,
world. Heathen sacrifice was  forbi,d'den.  The clergy the policy of `Constantius could not be carried out and
were freed from the obligation of paying taxes to the           the pagan religion continued to florish  and retain an
state ; and (the church was granted  ,the right to receive      important influence through literature and the  schooIs
legacies.                                                       of pagan philosophy and, under the new  emperor-
   ILet us now notice the condition of Christianity and         Julian, surnamed the apostate, a nephew of Constan-
that of paganism from 313 on to 500. Constantine con-           tine the great and cousin of Constantinius-it once
tinued to favor the church. In a general exhortation more strove to rehabiliate itself in the Roman empire.
he urged all his subjects to embrace the Christian reli-           Julian hated Christianity to begin with. But the
gion. Under his patronage and favor the ,church grew tragic  experi,ences  of his youth and early manhood
by leaps and  boun'ds in numbers and soon found itself must certainly have had a great deal to do with his
fabulously rich in earthly goods. As was pointed out            energetic opposition `to the religion of Christ during
in a previous article, he granted the church the right to       the years of his occupancy of the throne. He was
receive  gifts of money by a Iast will. He gave to the only six years old when his uncle died. In the war of
                                                 `.
church the depleted heathen temples and their estates           Constantine's sons, his kindred was slaughtered an.d
and the confiscated property of heretics.  Weal,t.hy  sub-      he looked upon Constantius as the murderer of his
jects of his reaIm,  following his example, bequeathed father. He himself was spared on account of his youth
their property  o,n `the church. The result was that the and he ascribed his escape to the favor of the old
                                                                gcds.    He received a Christian training under the
church, that is, the higher clergy, thus not the lower          supervision of an Arian bishop and was baptized.
clergy  an#d the laymen--became enormously rich.                Thus his training was, after all, basically pagan.
   A great many of the pagan nobles of the empire               Though in his heart he hated everything his tutors
adopted the religion of their sovereign, Constantine,           presented, and was filled with love for the culture
and of the court. But many others of  ,the heathen of Hellenism, he prayed, fasted and read: the scrip-
cultured classes held themselves aloof and  clave to tures in the church like a good  Chri&ian.  Actually
their gods.                                                     therefore he was not an "apostate" in the sense of a
   When Constantine  die,d his vast empire was ap-              turncoat.                                  G. M. 0.
portioned among his three sons, Co:nstantin,e  II, (Con-                           (To be continued)
stans, and Constantia. Three years later, the brothers
engaged in a bloody war for supremacy and the result
was  that  Constantius  became the sole emperor and                          ATTENTIQN  -  Ministers!
reigned until his ,death (353-361).                                The task has been assigned to the Stated Clerk of
   Constantine was intolerant of pagan religion. He             Classis  East to see to it that all of our ministers, who.
spoiled and destroyed many temples  an,d gave treasures have taken a classical examination, shall receive a
to the church or 40 his favorites. He forbade, under Classical Diploma, filled out  .and  signed  by the proper
pain of death, all sacrifices and image worship in officials. Those who are entitled to one, please notify
Rome, Alexandria, and Athens. But this emperor, the undersigned.                          D. Jonker
who was a fanatical Arian  an,d thus a heretic,  w.as                                     924 Worden  St., S. E.
equally intolerant  of  the adherents to  ,true orthodoxy                                 Grand Rapids, Michigan.,


