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

                                           TheSfandardBearer
              Semi-Monthly, except  Monthly  in,  July  ard  August                                                                                                                                                    EDITORIALS
                                                                              Published  by                                                                                                                                     `1     .t
                              The Reformed Free Publishing  Aseeciation
                                                           1101  Harcn Street, S.  L                                                                                                                           The C.L.A.. and The Strike
                                                  EDITOR  - Rev. .H. Heekscma
                                                           I.
       Contributing editors-Revs.  3.  Blmkeepoor, A.  Cammenrr,                                                                                                                                            From the Secretary of the C.L.A. 1 received fhc
        P.' De Boer, J. D.  de  Jong,  H. De Wolf, L.  Doeramr,                                                                                                                                         following contribution :
        M. Gritters, C. Hanko,  B. Kok, G. Lubbers, G. M. Ophoff,
        A. Petter, M.  Schipper,  J.  Vanden   Breggen,  H. Veldman,
 R. Veldman, L. Vermeer, P. Vis, G. Vos, Mr.  S. De Vries.                                                                                                                                                 THE C.L.A.`S CONCEPTION OF THE STRIKE

        Cjmmunications  relative to contents should be addressed                                                                                                                                        Dear Mr. Editor,
        to REV. H. HOEKSEMA, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand
        Rapids, Michigan.                                                                                                                                                                                   I have read with a great deal of interest your
        Communications relative to  aubscrlption  should be ad-                                                                                                                                         articles in the July 1  and August 1 issues of the
        dressed to MR. R.  SCHAAFSMA,   1101  Hasen  St., S. E.,                                                                                                                                        Standard Bearer concerning the C.L.A. and the Strike
       Grand Rapids, Mich.                                                    All  Announcementa  and Obituaries                                                                                        Question.      I `trust that my article, published in the
       must be sent  to the  above address and will not be placed                                                                                                                                       August 1 issue, has  i,n part at least answered some of
        u&err  the regular fee of 31.00 accompanies the notice.                                                                                                                                         your objections.
                                                        Subscription $2.50 per' year.                                                                                                                      However, upon reading and re-reading both writ-
               Enf.aed   I#  reond   elua  nail  at  Grand  RakSds.   Yiehfm
  _ .^                                                                                                                                                                                                  ings I can well understand that there may be'some who
                                                                                                                                                                                                        are still not fully satisfied.. And, if I may be so frank,
                                                                                                                                                                                                        Mr. Editor, that is not due to my presentation of the
                                                                                                                                                                                                        C.L.A.`s  position but to your insistence upon fighting
,.?                                                                           CONTENTS                                                                                                                  `the position. of the unchristian unions and  presentina
                                                                                                                                                                                                        it as if that is the  C.L.A.`s position, which is not,
MEDITATIE-                                                                                                                                                                                              correct.  '                                               *
       GIJ, DIE WEDERGEBOREN ZIJT! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485                                                                                      You have given a definition of the strike in the
                Rev. H.  Hoeksemr                                                                                                                                                                       July issue which we do not accept. It may pass as a I
                                                                                                                                                                                                        fairIy  good description of the strike as used by the
EDITORIALS  -                                                                                                                                                                                           unchristian organizations but it fails entirely in giv-
       T-HE C.L.A. AND THE STRIKE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488 ing a fair indication of the  C.L.A.`s  position. Allow
                                                                                                                                                                                                        me to give a definition ii1 accordance with my writings
       CHRISTIAN LIBERTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491                                                on the subject, as ,follows:  The strike, as upheld by
                Rev.  H: Hoekaema  "                                                                                                                                                                    the C.L.A. is a united, cessation of work-resorted to
                                                                                                                                                                                                        after every other means to gain justice has been fully
       `THE JUBILEE OF CHRISTIAN LIBERTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49.4                                                                                                           exhausted-on the part of a group of workers on a
              Rev. G. Vos                                                                                                                                                                               job or ,in a position to which they in the meantime
                                                                                                                                                                                                        retain ,a moral claim, for the purpose of attaining an
       ABIMELECH, HIS USURPED RULE & DOWNFALL..i...4!@                                                                                                                                                  end justified by the Word of Cod.
                                                                                                                                                                                                           I think you ,will admit that. that is a definition in
                  Rev. G. M. Ophoff                                                                                                                                                                     harmony with our position, and vastly different from
                                                                                                                                                                                                        that of the worldly  .organizations.  And it should be
       THE JESUITS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .            502           clear .that when you attack the strike as you defined
            `Rev. L. Vermeer                                                                                                                                                                            it you are not hitting the C.L.A. at al.
                                                                                                                                                                                                           Furthermore, you insist upon avoiding any com-
       SPEECH IN BEHALF OF OUR OWN SCHOOL MOVE-                                                                                                                                                         ment on the moral claim which the worker has when
       MENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .606    he strikes'again an injustice, and  yua persist in empha-
              Rev. H. Veldman                                                                                                                                                                           sizing that the striker claims that he' is 1egaIly still an
                                                                                                                                                                                                        employee and -therefore by his refusal to work for his
       NATURAL THEOLOGY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506                                                     employer is in rebellion against authority.
                                                                                                                                                                                                           In regard to that moral claim I would like to ask
             Rev. A. Petter                                                                                                                                                                             you very openly, whether or not you believe that ;-t
                                                                                                                                                                                                        worker who leaves a job because of an injustice by the


                                     T H E   STANDA'R,D   EEARER                                                   489

employer which he has refused to remove has such, effectiveness of your lengthy quotations  Ifrom  James.
a moral claim to that job or not? We believe that it is        For, you admit that today the rel$ionship is a busi-
entirely in harmony with  ,Christian  principles that he ness relationship in which the employee sells and the
has. It is high time that a little more emphasis be            employer buys labor under definite conditions. There-
placed upon the obligations of the employer toward the fore the only authority which the employer exercises
employee.                                                      is this: that he may demand that the employee live  ul)
   And what about this legal claim? In my previous to the conditions of the contract. That is all. And
article  I made clear that the C.L.A. takes  ,the position, that is something entirely differevt  than the authority
in harmony with the labor laws and the position of th? exercised by the slave masters of the time of James,
cour:s, ,that when a strike is called for a reason not         who exercised the authority-of ownership.
covered by a State or Federal law the employees tech-             Nevertheless I do agree -that there is not in our day
nically quit their jobs. They then have no legal claim the recognition of authority ,which there should be.
to their jobs. If they did have they would claim their The C.L.A. knows that full ,well, and for that reason
wages ,whife  on strike. That is the case in our land          stresses, proper recognition of authority such as the
when employees strike because of a violation of an employer has the right to exercise. And we too stress
established law. In that case they retain a legal claim that such authority must be submitted to for God's '
and the cou?tts will uphold their right Ito ,wages lost.       sake, who has instituted it aild demands obedience.
I made clear also that the C.L.A. does not justify such But that is based upon the principles of authority as
strikes but insists that  obeldience  to the law be sought ,taught throughout the Scriptures and. not upon the
through the proper authorities.                                admonitions of James to slaves and servants.
   As far as I know no Christian labor leader has evei-           One more point I would like to stress in conclusion.
taken the position that workers who strike against That is, that you, Mr. Editor, have fallen into ,a grav?
an injustice have a legal claim to the jobs they hav?          error id your conclusions concerning submission, to
vacated.     In the Netherlands, where the  Chri&ia;l          injustice are col!rect, which I do not accept because
organizations were highly developed, the leaders a!- of the changed. relationships which you yourself have
ways insisted upon an "opzeg-termijn" before a `%erk-          very ably stated.
staking" went into effect, The  "termijn" was the                 This is the error: You have repeatedly stated that
period of time given to the employer before ,the "opzeg" a worker can quit his job, that this is his right, etc.
of the employer-employee relationship.         There. too.     And that is undoubtedly true. But, in the  August
as here, emphasis was placed upon "het zedelijk recht"         issue you ask the question what an oppressed workeg-
of the workers to be re-employed in the jobs which man may do-what redress he has-if he has exhausted
they had left in protest against the injustice of the all legal means to obtain justice, but has failed? Your
employer. That moral right is the one strong claim answer is that in such a case the believer in this *world
they have. When the workers leave their jobs the is to suffer wrong, patiently. Which means, of course,
employer-employee relationship is  te:hnically  broken. that he may not even quit his job! To say that he may
They have no right to re-enter without the employer's would be inconsistent. Yet you have repeatedly said
permission. It is therefore only by insistence upon
recognition of their moral claim that they can hope to         that the worker has the right to quit,  ,without  any
                                                               quaiifications.
exert sufficient influence upon  t.he employer to compel
him to remove the injustice and offer them  re-employ-            I do not know how you can square that, I cannot.
ment.                                                          But I do know where the trouble lies. That' is in the
    With that your entire argument about rebellion faulty iIdea that Christians must submit patiently to
against authority falls by the board, and I could here economic or social injustices which are imposed upon
end this reply. But there are a few inconsistencies  iu them in common with unbelievers.                I believe that
that presentation to which I also woulld  like to call         Christians must submit patiently to oppression which
attention. In the July 1 issue you quoted very freely comes upon them because of their Christian  confes-
from the Epistle of James, concerning the slave ,or            sion, until the time  twhen  God will strike down in His,
servant and master relationship. And then you state:           fferce wrath the oppressors of His people. Such op-, ,
"I know quite well that in modern society the relation .pression is suffered even now by those who  suffe;-
of master and slave does no longer subsist. And I the loss of good posifions because of their refusal to
am not pleading for  its return. We have the relation join the C.I.O. or A.F.L. In that we believe. But,.
of employer and employee,  accol?ding   to which the  &t- we also firmly believe that it is the Christian's duty to
ter freely sells his time and  labor for certain wages,        oppose with all legitimate means at his command the
and                                                            sinfulness in the world about him, which ineludes  th.2
        with definite. palifications a.9 to hours and labor
conditions.`"    (I underscore. J.G.) When you wrote social-economic realm.
those words you threw overboard at least 95% of the                                        J. Grikter, Sec'y C. L. A.


    REPLY.                                                         moral claim to it whatever. By  cessatioil  from work
                                                                   he gave up his claim. b. In case of a strike the in-
    There is in the above article, as far ,as I can see, justice is such solely according to. the judgment of the
nothing which Mr. Gritter did not write before, though striker. Mr. Gritter should write: "because of what'
in different words., There is no progress in our dis- the worker conceives to be an injustice."
cussion. I will, therefore, be bri,ef ?nd to the point in
my reply.                                                             4. My argument that a strike is rebellion does not
                                                                   "fall by the board," nor did I cont.radict  myself, as Mr.
    1. Mr. Gritter thinks that he is  frank,  .when  be, Gritter claims. Even though the employee is not th&'
accuses me of  fighting,the  position of the  worldlv,: siave'of*his  employer, it is evident that he owes obedi-
unions, and falsely presenting, i&as. the position of the          ence to his employer during the time that he is em-
C.L.A. He thinks it  must`be  `due'to  this, if some of            ployed. `As long as he claims to have a moral right
our readers are not satisfied'%&t  the $os'itibn  *sf the
C.L.A.                                              I "..~ff%&     to the jdl?: he is under moral obligation to work for his
          I am of precisely  t%,e opposite  opinion;:'             employer? To claim that morally (that is, by the way,
Critter  *did not satisfy our readers,  it'?s~onIy  because
he desperately attempts to show that there is a                    according to the will of God) someone  is'our employer;
                                                          prin-    and to refuse to work for him, is plain rebellion. Mr.
,cipal difference between the worldly  unioi;.s  ,and  th'z
C.L.A. in regard to the strike, while there'is  no su%,; Gritter seems to think that it is possible to speak nE
                                                                   a moral .right  to a job without the moral obligatiou
d i f f e r e n c e   a t   a l l .                                to work. I deny this.
    2. The brother writes that the C.L.A. does, not                   5. Mr. Gritter believes that he. knows "where the
accept the  definition,,of  the strike I offered. I still trouble lies. That is in the faulty idea that Christians
think that there is no principal difference bekween that must submit patiently to  economi:  or social injustices
and the definition Mr.`,Gritter  now offers himself. I do          which  -are imposed upon them in common with un-
not at all admit that his definition is "vastly different believers." But Mr. Gritter does not state the issue
from that of the worldly  organizatio.:s."  The same correctly. The difference between him and myself
is true of the worldly unions. I?or the C.LlA. a strike            is this: he insists that a Christian, when he cannot
is such a cessation of work "resorted to after every               obtain what he believes to be his right in the legal way,
other means to gain justice has been fully exhausted." he may take the law in his own hands, be the judge
The same claim is officially'.made  by the ,worldly  unions.       in his own ease, and attain his end by force ; my
as I have abundantly proved,.. The position of the                 position is that the Christian may use all divinely
C.L.A. is that in the meantime the strikers retain `::             instituted means at his disposal to obtain justice, but
moral claim to their job. The worldly unions make the that he may never take the law in his own hands, be
same claim. The C.L.A., wants to call a strike only to' the judge in his own case, and try to employ force to
attain a justified end. The worldly unions `would say gain his end. If he cannot gain his end except by
nothing else. That Mr.  Gritters"gives  it a religious employing force and taking the law in his own hand,
coloring by adding "justified by the Word of God," he must suffer if necessary.
does not make any principal difference in the' case,                  Mr. Gritter cannot quote the Word `of God in
because it is always the union that is the'sole  judge favor of his position. I challenge him, to do so. He
whether an end is justified, and that acts;' upon its never did. My position is emphasized throughout in
own authority. I may add here that the C.L.A. means Scripture.
to employ picketing to enforce their moral claim to                   Mr. Gritter's position is simply that of the hopeless
their job. The worldly union does the same thing.                  class struggle.
I think that Mr. Gritter  maycsafely  submit his defini-              It is anti-Christian.                       H. H.
tion to some worldly  unionland-find  that, principally,                              -.
it will meet with  no' objection. Let Mr. Gritter offer                                       -        -
proof to the contrary by quoting from the official state-
ments concerning the  styike  in the `constitutions of                     , ; ` !
the worldly unions, as I have  .done; `that `we may. see                                    ANNOUNCEMENT
the vast difference of which he.spe&ks. As ,it is now,                The Acts of the Syno,d of 1943 have been sent to
he simply confirms what I havewritten  on this matter. I the various consistories. There are a number of. copies
   3. Mr.' Gritters asks' me "`openly;.  whether or nois left that can be sold for 25 cents per copy. We also
you (1) believe that a worker who leaves a job  be-, have some copies left of  ,the preceding years. So if
cause of an injustice by the employer which.- he has. r-i?-' you send $1.25 you. can get all the  A&s of Synod
fused to remove has such a  moral..claim  to that'job              from. 1940 to 1944.
or not." My answer is: a. When an employee leaves                                                  D .   Jonker;stated   clerk.
his job, he quits; his employer has the perfect right              My "new  .address is: 1239  Bemis St.  S.E.;  Grand
to employ others; the one that quit his job has no                 R a p i d s ,   ;Mich.   :                         `.<


                                  THE~STANDARD   B E A R E R                                                   491

             Christian Liberty "                          like dividing automobiles into blue, green, gray auto-
                                                          moblies and. . .  .Fords.    It is evident that Christian
                                                          liberty cannot be classed with other kinds of free-
   It is needless to say that I consider it a great privi- dom, that it rather refers to the essential character
iege which I value highly that at this fourth Young of all true freedom, in whatever form it may appear.
People's Convention I have been invited  oilce  again What, then, is meant by the qualifying term "Chris-
to deliver the inspirational address. I gladly accepted tian?" Does my theme intend to distinguish between
the invitation, and only hope  tihat the joy may not Christian and non-Christian or anti-Christian liberty?
prove to be  all mine. Those who conceived of the         This is hardly conceivable, for non-Christian liberty
possibility of convoking this convention at this time     is no liberty at all. Essentially, there is here in this
and under the present circumstances deserve, I think, present world only one kind of liberty, and that is
a word of commendation for their courage, and a vote Christian freedom.          I take it, then, that the term
of `thanks for the effoft they have put forth to make     rather intends to refer to the specific nature of a
this convention  possibIe. And, before I enter upon the Christian's freedom in this world, in distinction, for
discussion of my theme for tonight, I wish to mention instance, from the freedom of Adam in Paradise be-
that  one  can hardly attend this gathering  <without be- fore the fall, and from that new form of liberty which
ing deeply impressed by the absence of those young will be revealed in perfection, in the new heavens and
men that have been called to the service of our country the new earth, in which righteousness shall dwell.
in connection with the present world upheaval, that          It may be expedient, as we make a, few remarks
otherwise would have been with us tonight, and the about this important subject, first of all, to give our-
thought of whom is constantly with us.                    selves account of the idea and the meaning of liberty.
   I have been asked to speak on the convention What is freedom? In the world about us, especially,
theme: Christian Liberty. It is  ,not, of course, my too, in our own country, the philosophical, humanistic
`task to make any special and particular application conception of liberty is rampant, a conception that
of this theme, but to  dra'w a few general lines, leaving largely  hails from the French Revolution of 1789.
the discussion of particular phases to other;: The        It conceives of liberty merely as a relation of man
theme is a timely one. Perhaps, it would always be        to man. By it is meant that state and position  OF
timely to an extent, for always men jealously watch       every individual man, in which he can live and act
over, and are willing to fight to the death for what and move and develop according to his inner nature
they conceive to be their freedom. But this would and ambitions, without restraint, without improper
seem especially true today. It is said to be in the in- interference from  withoust,  and  ;by his fellowmen. It
terest of liberty that we have entered the present glob- is said that all men are created equal, and the em-
al conflict. Of liberty we hear a good deal. And who      phasis in this statement is not on their being created.
has not heard of the "four freedoms" and does  not but on their fundamental equality. It is emphasized,
know what is meant by them? What, then, could be moreover, that all are endowed with certaiil inalien-
more timely, especially since also the Scripture has  et able rights, and again, all the emphasis is intended
good deal to say about this precious and highly valued    to fall on these rights, rather than on the being en-
boon, than that we give ourselves account of the mean- dowed by the Creator. Every man has the right to
ing of liberty in the true sense of that word?            live, to work, to enjoy himself in this world and par-
   The theme assigned to me, however, is not simply take of the fruits of the earth to the greatest pos-
"Liberty" in general, but more particularly "Christian sible extent: he is entitled to the pursuit of happiness'.
Liberty." The adjective appears to point to a dis- And freedom is that state in which he is able to main-
tinction.  It denotes that `we have in mind a certain tain and enjoy those rights without interference from
definite kind of freedom in distinction from other without, each man, of course, according to his ability
kinds. And it may be in the interest of a clearer un-     and in his own position in society.       Freedom from
derstanding of our  subj,ect from the outset that we want is the state in which man can enjoy the abun-
place ourselves before the question: just what dis- dant earthly life. Freedom from fear means that he
tinction is denoted by this qualifying term? Does it can live his own life without having to be afraid of
mean to distin'guish  this particular kind of liberty to the tyranny of the oppressor. Freedom of worship
be conceived as coordinate with, though distinct from, *denotes  that he is entitled to worship or not to wor-
such freedoms as political, civil, economic, religious    ship, to serve God or idols, to confess God or  den:?
liberty?  Evidentry  not. To speak, for instance, of Him. Freedom of speech signifies that he may with-
political. liberty, economic liberty, civil liberty, relig- out restraint express his own free thoughts without
ious liberty. . . -Christian  liberty, would be like clas- fear of the law.
sifying the books i,n my library as red covered, green        With respect to this humanistic conception of li-
covered, black covered, and. , . -;theological  books; or berty, we make t.he following remarks. First of all,


492                                    TI-IE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

we may notice that a proper  con,ception  of God is            attempt to throw off every yoke of oppression and re-
eliminated from this notion of liberty. It does,,indeed,       straint by the government, a striving after the ideal
speak of the Creator, but only to maintain that. all           democracy, a government by and for and of the people  ;
men have certain inalienable rights, which they re-            but on the other hand, as each individual and social
ceived from Him. That liberty is, first of all; and            group insist. on their own rights, and strive after the
fundamentally, a proper relation to God and His will highest possible enjoyment of worldly goods and hap-
concerning us and all things, is overlooked or denied.         piness, there is felt the need of more and more govern-
This is, of course, a fundamental error.  It is,  quiie mental restraint to keep these striving factions. with-
impossible to arrive- at a true conception of, freedom         in limits and under contro1, and in.spite  of ourselves
without its being determined by the knowledge of God we are constantly drifting in the direction of the all-
as He has revealed Himself to us. Secondly, aild in mighty State. And never has the world been in such
close connection with the above mentioned. error, we a state of (disruption as in our own  -day. Even as
may notice that all the emphasis in the humanistic there is no peace for the wicked, so there is no liberty
conception of freedom is on the rights of man in apart from God !
relation to his fellowman, and that, too, as conceived            For a correct conception of true freedom, we must
and determined by  malz himself. That true freedom proceed from the  fundamental  principle that God  i?
is not only, and not chiefly, a question of rights, but        the Lord, and there is no Lord beside Him. He is
rather a question of obligation, that, in fact,, it is bas-    God. He alone is sovereignly free, and He determines
ed on the obligation of love; and  that.,+  can exist only all freedom for the creature, God is self-determined.
there where this obligation of love is fully met,-that         He is not limited or determined by any law above
is completely forgotten. Thirdly, it is also evident that Him, by any power outside of Him ; but only by Hia
this humanistic  notion of liberty the reality of  sin; awn, infinitely perfect Being. Hence, God's freedom,
is denied. This was inevitable, seeing it speaks only and His only, consists in this that He doeth whatso-
of the Creator, and of the. inalienable rights with ever He  please'h. ,4nd whatsoever He pleases is good
which He endowed all men. Had it conceived of the              because it is He that wills it.
proper relation of God to man, it would also have                 In  th.is sense, the creature is never free. In a
spoken of an inaiienable and unchangeable obligation certain sense, it can, indeed, be said also of the cren-
under which man is placed by the Creator, ra:her than ture that his freedom is the state in which he may live
of man's rights ; and it might have come to the BS-            and act as he pleases, provided, however, that it al-
knowledgement that before God man,.the sinner, who ways be added that he must please to do the will of
has utterly failed to meet his obligation, has no  rights- God, and to live and act within the boundary of His
at all in the presence of God  .,.. Now, however, the law. For the sovereign God determined for all crea-.
philosophic and humanistic conception of liberty boasts        tion,  and for every creature in its own position in
of man's rights as if sin were not a terrible reality.         the whole of that creation, its own boundary.  That
And, finally, we may also notice that this notion of           boundary is the low for that creature. Within the
liberty is wholly of this world, and wholly ignores the limits of that law it must live and move, and those
awful fact of death. That man lives in the midst of            limits it dare not transgress. Moreover, this  God-
death, and that in the prison of sin and death there, determined boundary for the existence of every crea-
is not even the possibility of liberty has  ,ilo place ture is not arbitrarily imposed, but is in complete har-
in this conception. The free man is he who, in his mony with the inner nature, the "name" of the crea-
prison of sin and death, insists on and i:s able to main-      ture. Thus there is a law for the fish that it shall
tain his rights over against all encroachment upon move in the water, for the bird that it shall spread its
them by his fellows, and thus can attain to the high- wings in the wide expanse of the heavens, for the tree
est possible enjoyment of this world and its life!             that it shall be rooted in the ground. There is a law
   The result of this philosophy  as it works out in           for your lungs to breathe, for your heart to beat, for
actual life are inevitable, and they become more and the' blood that courses through your .veins, a law for
more evident in the world as it develops. What can             the mind of man to think, and for his will to choose
you expect? Man is the standard and measure of and to determine. Every  ,creature  has its own law,
his own liberty. The liberty he seeks is not deter- and that law, that boundary of its existence, is in
mined by the will of God, but by his self-conceived harmony  *with its very nature. And, therefore, <free-
rights. It is not rooted in the laqw of love, but in the :dom for the creature always means that, according to
desire and ambition to maintain oneself. It ignores            the  teildency or desire of that inner nature, it can
and denies the fact of sin.      The result is constant exist and move and develop without restraint from
strife, the class-struggle, revolution,  t,he  denial   .of ,without,  within the limits of the law of God.
authority, divorce, war, the destruction of the home              The law for man as a moral being, is that he
and of society. On the yne hand, there is a constant           shall, love.  God-,,with  all his heart. and mind and soul
                                                                                                    ~


and strength. That is the inalienable obligatidn  6f `m&h oirt the defilement and corruption of sin. Hence, He
before God, the boundary of his existence,  WiShin         cbuld:  r&eet perfectly  the:  6bligation  to love His God,
which he must move and act and find his liberty, and `and  Ithat, too; under ,the wrath of God against sin, and
to transgress. which means death. And ,this- demand in the depth of death and hell. What is more He was
of the law of God is iii harmony with his very naturh.     able and in a pogition to perform this perfect act of
For God created man an intellectual, volitional being, love,. to bring this sacrifice of perfect obedience, not
so that his very nature is adapted to reflect the image for tii,mself, but for all those <whom the Father gave
of God. And, therefore, true liberty for man is that W i.w For  .He has been ordained the Head of His
state in  Iwhich  man from the innermost recesses  o.F     Chp&+   ii1 God's eternal good pleasure, so that Hc
his nature, that is from the heart, is able to  fulfi!l    could represent them in the hour of wrath and judg-
Gi:s inalienable  obIigation  of the love of God in  al1 msnt, and being the eternal Son of God, He was able
his life and all its relationships.                        I-to  ;udd, infinite value to His sacrifice. And this He
    Now, if this is the very essence of:liberty, i& in-    did on the accursed tree. There He brought the per-
dispensable condition, the natural man is' not free, fect sacrifice by  ,which He obtained the right to dc-
`but,:iri bondage. Man  was, indeed,  creat4d   with,`trtte ,liver His people .from  the bondage of sin and death.
`liberty. For he was planed under the sacred obligation *and set them .free  for ever. But there is more. Christ
to love the Lord his God `with his whole being; and he is the liberator, not only because He merited the right
was endowed with the right and the  power:.td   fu!-       to deliver them, but also became He was raised from
fill that obligation. For he was created in the i,mage the dead, exalted to the right hand of the Father,  atld
~of God, in true knowledge of God, perfect righteous- given$&e  promise of the Spirit. That Spirit He  pour-
ness, and spotless holiness. He could love the Lord ed.Qflt into ,His Church, and through that Spirit and
.with his mind, with his will, with his heart, and with by His Word He liberates His own. Hence,  whey;?
all his strength.    He  was,  placed in the position of the Spirit of the Lord is, and nowhere else, there is
God's friend-servant. He enjoyed the liberty df dwell- liberty indeed !
ing in God's house, entering 4nto `His blessed sfellow-        But let us notice now the distinctive character
ship, and tasting the goodness of the Lord. It is true of Christian liberty. First of all, thi,s freedom of the
that his liberty was not the same as Christian liberty.    Christian is  di&inct,  even from Adam's  .original  li-
Not. with the highest form of freedom was he endowed. berty, in this respect that while the latter's freedom
For he could fall. His freedom for that reason is of- ,was grounded in man's ,will, Christian liberty is root-
ten described negatively as the freedom not to sin, ed in Christ. Not in hi&elf is the ground and source
which implies that by a determination of his will, he of the liberty .of the Christian, but in Christ his Lord,
could ,also despise his freedom, transgress the law of and the Christian stands in this liberty by faith only.
love, aad deliver himself over into the prison of sin      Secondly,  .and in close connection with the first point
and death. And this is what happened to him, and of distinction, the Christian's freedom cannot be lost.
in him to all mankind. He transgressed the law. of The liberty of the believer is resurrection-freedom,
love, became guilty, the object of the ,wrath of God,      deepiy'and  firmly  rooted  in the lordship of the Son
and a slave of sin. Such is the bondage of the natural of God. `It is transcendent, victorious. Death hath co
man.    1n a formal sense he is still free, that is, he more dominion over Christ, nor over His own. The
always acts as an intellectul volitional being, the con- liberty of the Christian is expressed in  #the "non
scious and willing subject of all his actions. But he posse peecare," the not being able to sin or to  fail
cannot, and will not, and cannot will the good. Not i'nt0 its bondage ever again. And the third point of
only this, but he has lost the very right to liberty.      distinction is that the inalienable obligation of the
Legally he is a slave of sin, in the bondage of cor- love of Goi %as been accentuated, and that in Christ
ruption and death. The inalienable obligation to love the  Christ&d is enabled to meet that accentuated ob-
the Lord with his whole being still remains upon  hi& ligation.  `9%  b&$ure,  the obligation is still the same :
But he cannot meet it, not ,because  he is prevented       it is to love the Lord our God with all our heart and
by some outside force, but because his inner nature is mind and soul and stren,g+th. But in Christ it is now
become corrupt. For knowledge there came darkness, so accentuated that we must be willing to  su&er  with
for  righeousness  perversion,  for, holiness  enmitjr Christ in the world,  and..  to lay down our lives for one
against God and consecration to the devil.                 another. For so Christ revealed the love of God to us.
    But in Christ there is liberty. He is the liberator. And belonging to,  tiiin, we too, must be willing to
For, first of all, He is  perfect,ly  free. He is the Son suffer, even unto death, in the love of God and for the
of God. in human nature. He is not with the entire Zord's sake. And in this respect, too, the humanistic
human race under the sentence of death. The guilt `coiitie@t&  of liberty prevailing in the world stands in e
of Adam could not be imputed to Him. And, although `direct and sharp antithesis to Christian liberty. The
He came in the likeness, of sinful flesh, He was with-      fql'mer  speaks  of, and insists on human rights, wants


 491                                    T H E   STANDARD,BEARER

 to maintain those rights, fight for them, destroy the          by the ignorance of foolish men. That wi,ll be liberty
 neighbor for them; the latter speaks of the sacred indeed !
 obligation of the love of God in Christ, and is willing                                                     H. H.
 to. sacrifice itself Andy to suffer in the service of that *Speech davered  at the recently held convention of our Young
 love !                                                         People's Societies in Grand Rapids, Mich.
        In that liberty the Christian i,s called to ,walk in
t.he midst of the present world, until he shall enter into
 the perfect liberty of God's eternal tabernacle. In that
 world he mu& reveal his liberty, bring it into practice,
walk as a freeman. And in that world he moves and
lives in the midst of various relationships to the neigh-         The Jubilee of Christian Liberty "
 bor, his position, his ,person, his most intimate life of
human love, his goods, his name. And in that world                  For quite a while I have known `the main theme 0%
he finds all kinds of ordinances, and powers instituted         this convention, namely, Christian Liberty; but  I
by God. There is the relation of pare& and children, confess that I have had no little difficulty in finding
of master and servant, of employer and employee, of a sub-head under this general theme. One of  yo.ur
magistrate and subject. In all these various relation- committee members,' in charge of this convention,
ships he must walk in liberty, i.e. not insist on his own suggested I speak in Christian Liberty and Amuse-
rights and follow his own will, or even the dictates of meats.  For a while  I thought seriously on this sub-
his own conscience, but do the will of God, and meet            ject, but for more than one reason, I did not go
his alienable obligation to love the Lord his God in            through with it, chiefly, because the subject did no!
 Christ Jesus his Lord. He must not love God ab- appeal to me at all. ,Centainly it is hardly necessary
stractly, but very concreetly in this world. He must to speak to you on worldly amusements and Christian
not love God n& a&o his neighbor, but he must re- Liberty. That subject is no matter of debate among
veal: the love of God in the love of his neighbor. The us; and it seems to me that every one of you could
general result of this walk in t%rue  liberty, as a ser- entirely anticipate anything I could say on that sub-
vant of the living God in Christ, will be that he will ject. It is simply a matter of record that real Chris-
always seek the true well being of his neighbor; and tian youth is not interested' in the laughter and thrill
that he will be subject to all the ordinances of men of those that travel to eternal perdition. We certainly
as unto the Lord. He is not a revolutionary. He does do not beg.%dge  them their silly amusements of the
not cause disruption.        He is truly  ,the peace-maker show, the cards, the slrink  and the dance.
in the world. He does not employ force to insist on                And yet, it is exactly because of thig possible sub-
his right. Even when he goes to war, he does not head of worldly amusements that I arrived at the
fight in hatred of his neighbor, but in subjection  t.o treatment of the subject I have finally chosen. Think-
the powers that be, for the Lord's sake. Walking in             ing on the idea of amusement it was but one step to
,the liberty wherewith Christ has made him free, he the i,dea  of jubilation, which is the heart of my talk
strives to bring into practice the principle of the love to you tonight. Hearing in fancy the loud laughter
of God in every domain of life.                                 and singing of the godless, the thought came to me  iu
     Such is the practice of Chrlstia.n freedom.                question form: What have we to laugh about? What
                                                                is our thrill? Where is our great joy and rejoicing?
    It means that he fights with a good and free con-           It was then that I thought on the great Jubilee of
science against sin and all the powers of darkness.             God's people. A jubilee that is inaugurated in this
For this he may have, he will have to suffer. In the dispensation and which shall last unto all eternity.
world he  shakl have :tribulation.      The world will  re-        You have at once seen the connection of my sub-
preach  him, persecute him, and lying speak all man- ject with the general theme of the convention. They
ner of evil against him, if only he walks in liberty. are related as cause and effect. We are jubilant because
He may be deprived of  his name, his position,. his we are set at liberty.
very place in the world. But even so, the believer                 The first Scripture which I rea:d  and studied gave
.dare  not change his course. Still he continues to me my starting point. and largely supplied that which
walk in liberty. And he is willing to suffer for Christ's I hope to tell you this evening. I would mold my
.sake,  following in His steps. And he `leaves his muse,        theme and division in the following proposition: I
which is the cause of the Son of God, to Him that would speak on THE JUBILEE OF CHRISTIAN
judgeth righteously, and that shall surely give him the LIBERTY; and see first of all that this Jubilee is
victory in the day  of-Christ. Then he shall receive sounded from out of the Lament of Death; then  I:
the eternal reward. In God's tabernacle he shall for            would point out to you how we are `jubilant after
ever walk in perfect freedom, without being troubled the Chief  Musiciaa;  and finally say a few  wor&  on,


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   BE'ARER                                           495

our Jubilee and characterize it as a great rejoicing out the coasts of Israel.           Liberty  was proclaimed
unto the Symphony of Heaven.                                out the land.
    It is really necessary that we pause awhile and see        Now this slavery of Israel and all the attending
the horrible background of our Christian Jubilee. This      evils are typical. They reveal the natural state of the
dark background is painted in awful colors in Scrip- sons and daughters of Adam. And for that reason
ture and I also found it in  :that portion of Scripture there is the awful Lament of death on every side.
to which I  almded a while ago: Leviticus  25:1-1'7.   I       Oh, I know that this statement sounds rather
will read just one verse of that portion, a verse which trite, and' yet I am convinced that no one realizes it
contains the very heart and core of the Christian's enough;, There are several reasons for this. We have
Jubilee.      It is verse 10 and I quote: "And ye shall     heard it said so often that we are a miserable race,
hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty through- that this earth is a vael of tears, that it hardly makes
out all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof:  it any impression on us any more. Then too, we are a
shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every race of shallow men and women.              We do not  live
man unto his possession, and ye shall return every          deeply at all, as we are by nature.  Mo& of our
man unto his family."                                       misery is not even felt. And much of what is felt we
    A careful study of this verse in  its setting has gloss over and act as though it does not exist. We are
shown me that you may find everything in it neces- by nature very conceited and try to tell ourselves and
sary to the expounding of the Jubilee of Christian          others that  iit is not so very bad after all. But I
Liberty.      It goes without saying that we will follow assure you that. if we saw for one moment the awful
the time-tested method of explaining Scripture with         misery attendant to the human race, we would cry
Scripture.                                                  out our eyes in sadness and sorrow.
    You will remember that I would set out by speak-           But let us listen to God's evaluation of the slave.
ing of our Jubilee as we will enjoy it on the back-,           Even when things run their normal course, man is
ground of an awful Lament, the Lament of death.             in a sorry state. For: "Man that is born of woman ia
This I will prove.                                          of few days, and full of trouble. He  cometh forth like
    The Holy Word emphasizes that this fiftieth year a flower and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow
shall be a jubilee unto Israel. The word Jubilee is and continueth not." Job 14  :l, 2. Also this  1 read
really of Hebrew origin, in fact, it is almost literally in God's Word: "AS for man, his :days are as grass:
Hebrew even, in  .its present form and is derived from as a flower of the field so he flourishes. For the wind
,the word for to well, to flow copiously as of rain.        passeth over it, and it is gone ; and the place therebf
For that reason there are forms of the same root shall know it. no more." Ps. 103:15, 16.
which mean river, flood and deluge. The name deluge            How much louder and poignant is the cry of the
in the history of Noah and the destruction of the first mortal when God's hand begins to press down harder
 world is  ,derived  from the same word as Jubilee. It *upon him in the course of history! For such is  athe
 means the sound as of surging waters that are poured case. It proceeds from the breaking of seals to  .ths
out. You might say that Jubilee means the sound as trumpets of judgment and from these to the outpour-
of many waters. I would kindly ask you to remem-            ing of the vials of God's wrath which is fulfilled in
ber that definition. We will refer to it again.             them ! (Revelation of John).
    But why should this fiftieth year be likened unto          For instance, will you try and give expression to
a shout and a sou,nd  as of many waters? The answer the great lament attending this global war that is
is easy. It is because of the great joy that came to        tearing and cutting and destroying the race of men
these people after a very sore and great lament.  I and women? It is the increase of pressure upon the
 Called it Ithe Lament of Ideath.                           man of sin. And the result is more sorrow.
    Now it seems to me that the fact of the lament is          IListen  to this: "And there fell upon men a great
 very evident. The people to which this jubilee re- hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight 0.f
ferred to first of all were the Hebrews that had be-        a talent: and men blaphemed God because of the
come slaves. They lost their person,  %their  possessions plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was ex-
and their land. They had ,become bondmen  and bitter ceeding great." Or this: "Therefore shall her (Baby-
was their lot. Some of them had been in bondage for lon, ahe world.) plagues come in one day, death and
49 years. And now, all of a sudden, all is restored to mourning, and famine ; and she shall be utterly burn-
them again. They received their person, ,their pos- ed with fire. . . .and the kings of the earth.  i . .
sessions and their land. We can easily imagine the shall bewail her. . . standing afar off for the fear of
great shouting of joy which was heard throughout her torment, saying, Alas, Alas  !" Rev. 16  :21; and
the land when this great year of the Jubilee rolled portions of Rev.  17:%lla.
around.  It would be as it were a deluge of sound, a           But you will say: That is all well and good, but
great outpouring of gladness and rejoicing  through-        how about her song and her laugh$ter, her rejoicings


496                                     T H E   ;S.T,AN&j AR?  3.B,I$ARER

and the wonderful thrill of sinners  ?                  :;* , inmost heart and mind of the, sinner he is bound,
       I would say: Do not be deceived! Here is  God'&        bound to corruption and sin. And this slavery is so
evaluation of that: "Even in laughter the heart is dreadful (that although he cries out in terrible agony
sorrowful, an:d the end of that mirth is heaviness.`:, from age to age, he does not know or realize  tha.t,
Prov. 14  :13.                                                ,he is in bondage of corruption, that he is a  willin;f
       The proper expression of man's life `is the lamem      slave of the devil and of sin, doing Satan's  ,will  all
of death that is gnawing incessantly at his vitals and        his days.
he lives in a very vale of tears. That is. the, truth.           That is the reason for his awful dirge, his contin-
Everything contrary to that evaluation of man's life uous lament. Henceforth this sorry world is a vale
on earth is the life of the devil and would tend to de- of tears whichever way you look at it.
ceive you.                                                       And no one knows this better than the Christian.
       What might be the cause of thh awful  .dirge]   of When heavenly light shines in his heart he recognizes
maInkind?                                                     the truth and his real state and condition. Then wt'
       The cause, my friends, is not in God-,& creation.. hear his. lament in tones of sorrow and groaning..
Man was created  free,,at liberty and therefore happy Then he says : 0 wretched man that I am ! Who sha!l
and rejoicing as the day was long.            ::,             deliver me from the body of this death ! ?
       You will have heard it explained in the, ;.k,eynote     Now  t&is is the Gospel,  :that,  `namely, the  Lor~l
speech yesterday and:therefore  I will not :(jnlarge  0:: Jesus Christ, the Chief Musician appeared upon the
this. Suffice it  !to say that man was  hgppxp  in his stage of history alnd that he entered our prison and
freedom because he was  .created  in the sweet bond of entered. into our dirge of sorrow and misery.
God's covenant. To walk after the law of liberty in              First of all, you know that he entered our prison,
Paradise was his delight and Eden  reflected   such           not into the prison of all. Some, most of mankind,
unto1.d happiness.      Life for man was a. wonderfu!         are delivered as also the devil and his hosts, into
song of gladness.                                             chains of darkness. to be reserved unto judgment.
       No, the cause is certainly  ,not in God. YQU must At that time in history their lament will be augme:lted
seek for it in Man. He caused his own dirge and la- into the wailing of eternal damnation in a place where
ment of death. It is because he broke the, bond of th? is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
covenant in Paradise and became wholly miserable.                But Jesus came into the prison of death and into
That action is endorsed by us, by..man,  by every man,. the wailing .of his sheep for to deliver, them, for to set
The Holy Spirit in Psalm 2 will tell us: "Why do the them at liberty and for to cause them to sing His
heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thin-g? song of eternal happiness, the song of the Lamb.
The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers             That He did this is an act of strictest justice.
take counsel together  against the Lord and, against             That is plain when we consider that Jesus. is the
His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands. asun-         Chief Musician. He is such from all eternity.  Go;'
der, and cast away their cords from us  !"                    ordained Jesus from all eternity to be the Head, the
       Yes, but because of the fact that man was created King, the Chief of all the children of God whom He
a covenant creature, he at once elItered  into another        foreknew  in Divine love and lovingkindness. All God's
covenant, an agreement with the devil. We hear of people I were given to Jesus and henceforth He is 
                                                                     .                                               re-
this through Isaiah : "Because ye have said, We have          sponsible for them.. If they are in the prison of sin
made a covenant with death, and with hell. we are and death it is His ,calling  to bring them out, to de-
at agreement ; when the overflowing sc,ourge shah pass        liver them and. pm a song into their heart and mouth
through, it shall not come unto us, for we .have .made        That was the commandment which Jesus received of
lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid our- the Father. (John 17).
selves." I        s    a     .      25:15.                       And so He entered into our captivity, last Chris-
       The results?                                           mas. 1943 years ago. But, elitering  hell willingly, w
       The awful result is that we are in captivity by an act of: love, He. walked ever in perfe:t liberty.
nature. And our cords that bind us are the cords of              And straightway He began to cry and ho weep an?,
our own sin ; the prison that encompasses us is. the tagroan  with groanings that never were fully uttered.
prison of our own death, our spiritual.  .death,  OLW            Because God laid on Him the iniquities of us all.
hatred against God! Listen to the ,$estimony  of. the         He cried and cried ,a11 the days of His flesh because
Holy Spirit : "His own iniquity shall take the wicked that prison and captivity, those bands and cords are
himself, and he shall be holden wtth the cords of. hjs        expressed into the awful phrase: The Burden of .th?
sin." We are in the prison of, death ,by nature, .where,      Wrath  of. God! And the result is the awful Dirge of
fore Paul tell us that Christ had to quicken us "irho Jesus,  the Chief, Musician. Even before His birth
were dead in trespasses and sins." Eph. 2 :I.                 we. read of it in .prophetic  langua,ge:    The sorrows of
       That slavery is spiritual and from within. In th? hell compassed Me and the  snares of death prevented


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   :BEARER                                                          497.

Me! Or this: All Thy waves and all Thy billows have              Henceforth, wherever you see the .Christ of God
gone over Me! Raily,  young people, if you would have you will hear Him singing His song. of deliverance.,
a commentary of this Dirge of Jesus, read Psalms 22,          Primarily, therefore, the Jubilee is the Jubilee  of,
25,  42,  43, 69, 77, and 88. Or attend to this one Christ. He is the Chief Musician. Therefore also u-e
verse in Hebrews 5: "Who in  (the days of His flesh, read that all our singing will be the singing of the
when He had offered up prayers and supplications              Song of Mo.ses and of the Lamb.
with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able              Now you will recollect that I spoke of the root
to save Him from death, and was  hear,d in that  He           meaning of Jubilee.            That it is the shout  .and  .the
feared. . .  ." They all tell you of the lament of Jesu.;.    sound of many waters.. Come with me to Patmos, .t<t
All the cryin:gs  of the saints of old which we find re- John the Apostle  of the Lamb. He saw. heavenly, vi-
corded in the Old Testament, are so many songs of sions. And suddenly he heard a `voice as the  souncl
sorrow of Jesus, lived before in a small measure by of many waters. He heard the jubilee of Christ!  knd
His saints. But He fulfilled them when He came and well might Jesus sing His song of praise of God. Fo?,
suffered and died. Doing such He led captivity cap-           He had set Him free. He was a slave and the L&cl
tive, a captive in His train.                                 Igave Him a name that `is, above every name ,in thii
   And make `no mistake, never will you be able to world and in the world to come. Hk sank lower than
fathom the awful suffering Jesus suffered in order to the most despised man on earth, but at  .the time John
free you from prison. The prison of eternal damna- saw and heard Him He was the King of kings and'the
tion straightened Him so horribly that we hear that Loi-d  of loads; On the cross He was naked  xnd `all
terrible cry from a great distance on Calvary's hill:         His possessions were taken away. But now He  ini'
My God, My God, why hast Thou ,forsaken  Me ? ? !             herits the Kingdom and possesses all things with all
    And miracle of miracles! Jesus was delivered from His sheep. There was no land anymore' for'  JestiS;
that prison of death. He could not be  holden of death not even the one foot ,square  He needed ,:o stand. They
(Note the figure of the prison and the bonds). Peter nailed Him to the cross and there He hung betweerr
testified of it before the Jews: Whom God hath rais- heaven and `earth. But now He is the heir of  the:
ed up, having loosed the  pairxs  (must  be,: cords) of world,  a new world in which righteousness shall dwell..
death: because it was not possible that He should be Yes, we can see it that Jesus has His jubilee. We
holden  of it.                                                can hear it in His voice when He  t&:ifies  of it to
    But why? If the wicked that shall bear the bur- John :' I was dead and behold, I' live fo'r ever!                          The
den of the wrath of God must stay in !that prison for-        voice of many waters, the song that sounds  as.  the
ever, and if Jesus suffered also the burden of the deluge of praise, the Song of the  Lamb', the  Great
"eternal wrath of God, how could He arise from that           and Chief Musicians.                        X.G.                 t
terrible distance?                                               He has the' eternal, pre-eminence, He' is the First `in.
    The answer is, first, because He suffered and died salvation, in redemption, in the Kingdom, iti.?& bobom
and. cried as an act of loving obedience ! As such He of God!                                                       ,`
satisfied the  #demands of God for us. The answers               And in  that+osom of God He sings His  sofig  ,of
which we failed to give He has given ; the  punishmellt       adoration and `make&music on the ha?p of Q&l. 1'
for the wrong answer of Psalm 2 He suffered for us               And this is our  G&pel,   t.hat  Jesus  is  thV%Aief
substitutiously.  And, second, His Godhead sustained Musician so that He ti%jr &truct us iti the &n&ng  `of.
Him in all that suffering and dying and groaning so His song.
that He could finish the work that is eternal. Hal-              For He has set us free. There will be echo& to
lelujah !                                                     the song of the Lamb that will make heaven musical*
    Yes, Hallalujah! That is the beginning  a;?d  thz forever.                          s
end of a wonderful song. Jesus arose! He arose and               For the prophet testifies:  "An,d* I will cause  yoti
appeared leading our captivity and singing as He to pass under- the rod and I will bring you into the
went. The human nature of  (the  children which He bond of the covenant." Ezekiel  2OC37.                                 p
took along to hell and damnation He still carries, but           Of that covenant we  &so read in the Scripture
glorified, enhanced in beauty and wonders.                    which I took as my starting  poi&  -"The Jubilee is
    4nd the lament is changed into a hymn of praise,          in the fiftieth ,year.         It is the year that follows, that
the hymn of liberty. It is the Jubilee of Christ. A           is the result of. the setien sabbaths of years, that id;.
while ago I referred you to the words of Peter where sevea  times seven years are fulfilled. Now we itnow
he  .testified  to the raising  of, the Lord Jesus. Well that seven is the number of God's eternal covenant.
in the same connection we read, and remember that             It is the sum of three.and  four, God and.man united,
Jesus is speaking of the result of His own resurrec- knit together in the bond of love and friend&p. And
tion: Therefore did My heart rejoice and My  tongue           that we find here a sabbath of sabbaths, a multiplica-
was glad !                                                    tion of the holy number seven means unldol+btedly  , the

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

excellence of the restoration in Christ. Adam was
happy in the seven of God's covenant, but we are far                 Abimelech, His Usurped `Rule
happier in the seven times seven in Christ. Our hap-
piness is augmented, enhanced, multiplied and  exal;:ed                              and `Downfall
to the highest heavens'. Adam loved God and was loved
z'n return for he dwelled in the garden of delight; but               In treating this subject, we must set out with once
Jesus is loved and it-is proven for He is in the bosom more directing attention to Gideo'n's doing of makinr
of the Father. And we know that we shall be where an ephod from the donations of the people. The ephod,
He is, so that our bliss extends to the heavens above. as has already been  explainezl,  had a highpriestly sig-
    And so we are jubilant. And well we might.                     nificance. It was a special sacred garment worn by
   We have our Jubilee and we sing the song of the the highpriest. With it was connected the Urim and
Lamb for `He hast set us free. No longer are we the Thummim through which the people could contact
slaves of sin doing the will of the devil. 0 no, but we God and to which the judges and rulers in Israel
will to do `the will of God. When we see that will we could thus apply, through the highpriest, for Jivine
sing: Oh how I love Thy law ! It is my meditation all              direction in any national crisis and in the manage-
the day!                                                           ment of the affairs of the state. This explains the
   We have our  JubiIee  for our possessions are re- consecratiion  of such a garinent by Gideon. "Jehovah
stored but multiplied by grace and wondrous love. We shall rule over you," was hils retort to the people on
are hung about and permeated with spiritual graces, the occasion of their offering him the hereditary  kin.g-
with all spiritual blessings in' Christ Jesus the Lord.            ship. His resolve was that Jehovah ,be the only and
We have beauty for ashes!                                          supreme monarch and that in every crisis and at all
                                                                   times the nation be ruled solely by His swill. `From
    Sing, sing forever your song of Jubilee for He                 the spoils of the war with  Midian,  Gildeon  therefokc
will give the land to thee, o inhabitant of Zion. You made an ephod; and to this instrument he would con-
are restored to your family, that means that you may ,tinually apply for divine direction as judge. He would
go to the Home of God!  Is  &here  a.lything sweeter7              thus, as judge, not usurp Gad's place. Certainly, 
Does not the sound of the heavenly Home awaken the                                                                       it
                                                                   must be conceded that Gideon meant well. His doing
most adoring though,ts ?                                           was a declaration that the Lord, and .not any human
   Yes,. the results are the song, the symphony of ruler, was to be honored. Ye't there are good scrip-
Heaven.                                                            tural grounds for taking t,he view that the doing was
    I know it, I know it, your voice breaks and that
very often. And yet, the first editions of that song wrong.                 Firstly, Gideon preserved his ephod  ii1  his
                                                                   own city, in Ophrah. (He preserved it there. He did
are given to all the elect. And we sing that song out not, as we read in the English version, set 
of the depths of our hearts.                                                                                      it up in
                                                                   that city.    This translation is faulty. It proceeds
    It is a song that is `new. The world has never
.heard it before. It is not the old song of paradise. on the foundation of the view that Gideon made  an
                                                                   image or a statue and erected it in Ophrah. As Keil
That song is old and gone forever. I cannot sing the
old songs anymore. But we will sing a new song to remarks, the word found in the original is nowhere
Jehovah for the wonders He has wrought.                            wed of the erection of an image). Now the seat of
    It is a song that is victorious, heavenly, glorious.           common worship at that time was Shiloh, in Ephraim.
    And so I have spoken to you of the glorious Jubilee and thus not Ophrah. There in Shiloh stood the tab-
of Christian liberty. Yes, for we  liste;l  to the voice ernacle, and there was preserved the already exist-
of Jesus and exhibit in principle the love and obedience ant ephod especially designed by Moses for the  high-
that is His. Therefore, we often read that the church priest. Gideon's ephod was thus spurious. It was,
received the faith of Jesus. It all flows to us from               so to say, an opposition ephod. There was no need
.the Chief Musician.                                               of it at all. That desired (divine direction could be
    We heard the voice of Jesus say: Take My                       had by applying to the ephod in Shiloh. That the
                                                          yoltc
upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly                 priestly family of that day may have been in a state
in heart: and ye shall find rest (the Sabbath) unto                of decline was no excuse for avoiding it. That the
your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is                   sanctuary was located in the territory of proud Eph-
light."                                                            raim was likewise no excuse. It is true that doubt-
    It is the burden of God's eternal Cove:lant,  which less Gildeon was not purposing to raise Op'hrah to the
is true liberty, .\vhose Jubilee shall make heaven musi- position' of a seat of common worship next to Shiloh;
cal forever.                                           G. V.       and to set aside the established priesthood. Yet hi-,
                                                                   whole doing tended to produce precisely that result.
*Speech delivered at the recently held convention of our You,ng    For he hirmself  must have continued t6 serve the al-
People's Societies in Grand Rapids, Mich.                          tar that he had built, an:d by directly consulting his


                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        499

ephod he established himself as a kind of second  high-     "She bore to him, also  s/be, a son. . .  ." The sacred
priest in the land. The result was that the mind of narrator, it would seem, expresses surprise that Gid-
the people was diverted from the priesthood in Shilob eon should take to himself a concubine from Shechem
and concentrated on Ophrah particularly upon Gideon and that such an unprincipled woman should be the
and upon his house where the ephod was, preserved.          mother of one of his sons.    Doubtless, she was not
What Gideon had neither calculated on nor wanted            evea an Israelite but a descendant of the pagan Hamor.
now took place. "All  Ie,rael went thither. . . ." From the father of Shechem, the defiler of Dinah, the only
far and near they went in crowds to Ophrah. And             daughter of Jacob. The city of Shechem had been
the notice that they went thither a whoring after built by  Hamor  and named  aftcl- this son. Thus it
Gideon's ephod tells us that they forsook Shiloh and        would seem that Gideon fell into the identical sin into
the God of Israel who dwelt there and the ministers which king Solomon was to fall. Gideon, though on
of God who there served His altars. What they did           a vastly smaller  a:ale than Solomon, loved strange
is to exchange Jehovah as their object of worship for women. He loved and married that heathenish. wo-
the idol with which Gideon, in his sinful thoughtless-      man in  She&em. And the fruit of that union was
ness, had provided them. The ephod became to them Abimelech, the godless usurper. As to the name
an. object of idolatrous worship. If they already had Abimelech, if, "My father is king," is the right in-
been paying divine honors to Gideon, they now make terpretation, the giving of this name would seem to
room in their hearts for his ephod.       In this dumb indicate that G&on now stood out in his mind as 3
thing, associated as it was with the house and the per-     kind of imperator in Israel a3d that the thought that
son of their hero, they put their trust. This  cdeflec-     t.he people had wanted to crown him  kin,g was now
tion of the people indicates that the Lord disapproved rather sweet to him. If, "father of a king," is the
of Gideon's doing. God was here punishing Gideon's right interpretation, Abimelech's bearing this name
sin with sin. The sinful adulation of the people had might indicate that he ,was a person of a lordly bear-
a bad effect on Gideon.    It diminished the spiritual ing and majestic demeanor so that Gideon, beholding
stature of the man. Seeing the deflection of the people,    him, had concluded that, of all his sons, he `was emi-
he, without delay, should have put away his ephod, ,nently  qualified to carry on, as a kind of imperator.
rebuked the idolatry of the people, and returned  wit!1 after Gideon's decease.        However interpret&, this
them to Shiloh.  ThiE he failed to do, as far as can name, as given to and born by this son, would seem to
be known from the sacred narrative. He assumed form a blot on Gideon's career. It seems that Gideon
to their idolatl-y  a more or less passive attitude, ac-    was no longer small in his own eyes as he had been
cep+d their sinful and exaggerated interest in his at, the time when the Lord called him. Yet, for all
person and continued in their midst his career of a this, he was a true believer. In his better days his
spurious highpriest. More  must be said. Returning faith had achieved great things, wherefore he was also
to his own house,  Gi,deon ordered his life on the plane included by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews in
of an oriental lord. For he multiplied wives to him- that great cloud of witnesses by which we are com-
self.    This is evident from the notice that he had passed about. What his deflections indicate is that,
seventy sons of his body begotten., Besides, he also        despite his towering faith, he was but a sinful man,
had his concubines one of whom was taken from among thus only a type or shadow of the true  ,deIiverer  of
the apostate women of Shechemthat filthy sink of God's people--Christ Jesus still to come. The last
Baal-lworship-and who bore him the usurper Abime- thing that the  sacred  narrator tells us of this remark.
lech.    The Lord  ha35 strictly forbidden the leaders able man is that he died in a good old age, an.d was
in Israel to multiply unto themselves wives, that their buried in the sepulchre of Joash his father, in Ophrah
hearts turn not away, Deut. 1'7:17.  It is also reveal-     of the Abiezites.
inlg that he should have a son bearing the name Abime-         To Gideon, these deflections of his-his making him
lech.    The name means, "my father is king."       But an ephod, his preserving it in his own house, a.:3  the
the name may also be interpreted to mean, "Father of resultant idolatry of the supers:itious  people that his
a king." That the name was given to this son not by doing  inspired- became a snare, a  veritabl,e  death-
the friends and sympathizers of this concubine but trap. But it was not until after Gideon's death that
by Gideon himlself at this sons `birth or later on as I.    this trap sprang and claimed its victims. Then took
surname, is certain. The language of the text allows        place the murder of all G&on's sons save two, namely
no other view. Tlhe Hebrew text reads, "And his con- Jotham,  the youngest of them, who escaped, and Abime-
cubine that was in Shechem she bore to him, also she, lech the perpetrator of the terrible deed. But let US
a son and he-mark you, &+-named his name.Abime-             quote Scripture here. "And  Gideo:r made an  ephod
lech." (Judges  8 231) . The pronoun he, certainly, can thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah: anl
be made to apply only to Gideon. Also the prohoun all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which
ghe* in the text just quoted is repeated for emphasis. thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house"


                                                                                                         I _ -.- _ - _
                                       T H E   :ST:ANDARD `B"EARER

 (judges 8 27). This is what happened. The contin- ruler to deliver them from the results of their sinful
ual flocking `of the people to Ophrah to see  !their  hero, individualism-every man did what was right in his
and the public demonstrations of the  supersti5ou.s           own eyes-to free them from &he bitter fruits of .their
esteem in which they held him and his family, aroused apostacy, but a ruler at once willing to allow them to
the jealousy and: envy of the men of Ephraim. They foIlow  their individual wicked impulses, and ready to
suspected `him and among one another, accused him             walk in the ways of sin as their companions, and
and his sons of wanting to establish themselves as serve with them in Baal's temple. Thus the kingship
permanent rulers in Israel. And apparently they had that  they  had  ~to offer was a vile thing. Woe unto
reason.        `His. making him an ephod and his putiing      the man who should accept.. That man certainly would
the thing in,,his own house had the appearance of ;X          lose his fatness and sweetness. He would be killed by
scheme to lure, the  peonle  to Ophrah and to focus the the  wr,ath of the Almighty and driven by His curse
,minds of his countrymen upon his person and family.          into everlasting desolation. Of these facts and truths
And what had he done at .any ti,me to quell their vile the good men in Israel had understanding. They per-
.and wild. enthusiasm? If. his motives were pure; if ceived that the way of life was the way of obedience
his heart was right with God, why .did he  ,not worship to God, of loving submission to His will and rule.
with them in Shiloh? Why was he silent while they They perceived that, to be delivered from all their
mtide a caricature of faith through whoring after his troubles, lthe people, instead of clamoring for a king,
,ephod? And what need had he of that ephod with a must repent of their  sizs and return to their God.
highpi5est   " in Shiloh? So they doubtless reasoned             Indeed it is true that the kingship that those apos-
among themselves and ostensibly with considerable tates in Israel had to offer was a vile thing. The king-
justifitiation,  it must be admitted. Fact is that through    ship  Ithat the world offers a man is always a vile
the course he was following, Gideon  1ai:d himself wide       thing, as vile as the kingship that the devi1 offered
open to the attack of his enemies. His doing looked           Christ.
that questionable that they easily could use it as a             With the exception of Abimelech, the sons of Gid-
pretext for the extermination of his. house after he          eon, to return to them, were not bent on lordship.
had died. ' "What is  ,good,  whether all the  SODS   of The statement was just made that they were meek
Jerubbaal, three score and ten persons, reign over and inoffensive men. When Abimelech's seventy rogues
you, or that one reign over you ?`. This.was  the ques- lay violent hands on them, they offered no resistance
tion with which Abimelech approached. the Shechem-            (so far as can be known from the sacred narrative) :
Ptes, in Ephraim. The implication of this question is and subsequently the seventy of them were led to one
that the sons of Gideon were planning on partitioning place, as sheep led to the slaughter, and there slain
at least, northern Canaan and establishing themselves on one stone.  Jotham, the one son who escaped, hearing
as kings in their respective districts. Yet it is cer- of the doings. at Shechem-after the killing in Ophrah
tain that any real  evi,dence on which  ~to ground this the Shechemites gathered together and made  Abime-
suspicion was wholly lacking. The only one of Gid- lech king-got himself on mount Gerizim and pro- ,
eon% sons. who was lusting after. power was this nounced the rabble, assembled in the valley, cursed of
Abimelech. And he imagined that the lust that burnt God. And God also rendered  all the evil of the men of
in his own bosom rioted in the bosom of them all.             Shechem upon their heads, Judges  957. And the
So, once in power, he was resolved to slay  ithem in          sacred writer makes special mention of  iI: that it was
order to clear the stage of all opposition. But for the curse of Jotham  that was come upon them. Thus
this slaying their was no need.' These brethren wer2          the conclusi,on  is warranted that Jotham had cursed
unambitious, inoffensive and godfearing men.          The not in carna,l wrath but in the name of God under the
good trees in  Jotham's  parable were Gideon  ati,d these     impulse of a true loathing of their terrible deeds.
brethren. They refused to be elected. They  wou?d             Thus the view according to which these sons, after
,not  exchange.what  they already possessed for  lthe vain the death of Gideon, connived at the worship of Baa1
glory of a forbidden royalty. The olive tree will not around, were thus a sadly degenerated, ennervated,
forsake his fatness wherewith by him men honor God luxurious, utterly feeble race-this view would seem
and their fellowmen; the fig tree his sweetness an3 to run contrary to whrvt little we know of them from
good fruit; and the vine his wine, which cheereth the sacred narrative. No statement occurs upon which
God and man, to wave (Hebrew, go up and down)                 to,ground  such a view. The renewed apostacy of the
over the trees. So  spake  Jotham.  And he spake for peopIe  could no more be laid to their charge than the
himself not only but for his brethren and for Gideon blame of the previous Baal-worship in the northern
his deceased. father and for every god-fearing judge tribes' could be laid on Gideon when he was still an
in. Israel.      These brothers, too, were men of right unkown hero in his father's house. As we shall see, one
principle. Jehovah was Israel's king. But the demand of the reasons that  AbimeleEh  was  sucessful  in in-
of the people Was for a king other than the Lord, a citing the Shechemites to slay in cold blood these


                                  TEE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        501

sons, is that they were hated on account of their be- man as his father and is against his God, that thus his
ing the offspring  of a man who had uprooted the Baal- heart is with his brethren in Shechem an,d that their.
worship in Ophrah  and ithrough  whose influence the devil-god is the deity of his choice. His words proved
devotees of  Baa1 had gone into hiding and had re- effective. They take the man to their bosom without.
mained more or less in hiding all the years of his once holding it against him that he comes from  <the
judgship.  These sons must have been hated because house of Gi,deon,,  It mattereth- little, seeing that he
they were known as having stood with  .their  father
                                       .:                 has broken with Giedon's God.  ,,. "And their hearts
in his opposition to idolatry. After Gideon's death, inclined to follow after Abimelech; for t.hey  said, He
they.. did nothing to alter men's opinion of  <them.      is our brother."
Rightly considered, Abimel,ech's war on the house of       . Let us understand these men well.       Abimelech ,
Gideon `was, at .battom, a war of the.apostate  Israel would have them know that the seventy, all sons of,
against the faithful in,,the land-the faithful as head- Jerubbaal, were determined to establish and maintain
ed and represented by lthese sev.enty  soas. They die.1 themselves as lords or .imperators in the land.     (As
for the sake of Christ's name.                            has already `been observed, that was a terrible  11~.
   In the attempt to realize his vile ambition,  Abime-' It was only true of Abimelech). Do they wish to be
lech did the wise thing. But his wisdom descended shackled  tto seventy such tyrants? Certainly, that
not from above, but' was earthly, natural, devilish. would be insufferable. Let them then consider that
Abimelech went to Shechem, for there he could hope he, Abimelech, has parted company with the seventy.
~to gain an audience for his diabolical scheme. Shechem He is not of their party but of the party of  Baal..
lay in Ephraim ; and the jealousy of proud Ephraim He chose to stand alone and thus made it possible  for.
and its claim to the right to take the leading part in them, the Shechemites, to choose between the one and
public affairs, if not to determine the course of the the seventy. In fact, they must choose, as they can-
other tribes, was long-standing. In Shechem resided not serve two masters, ,t.he seventy an:d him the one.
Abimelech's mother and her family. In this place They must realize also that in choosing the one, they
was still found the lineal representatives of the pagan find themselves under the necessity of slaying the
Hamor,  the original founder of the city in the days of seventy and that, standing with the seventy, they like-
Jacob.    Doubtless Abimelech's mother was of their wise shall have to dispose of the one. For there are
extraction. They formed the heathen element of the Swo masters here. And their interests clash. Both
place and were thus worshippers of Baal.        Ulnder    have  their  hear&  set on one and the same throne.
their influence Shechem had become the centre of .Hence,  the master rejected must be destroyed, if the
Baa1 worship. There was  foun,d the covenant  Baa1 master selected is to reign in peace. For the losing
(Judges  9:lr).  Doubtless the word covenant in this party in this contest, unwilling to acquiesce in his
name indicates a union of the original inhabitants defeat, would inaugurate an insurrection, in the at-
with the apostate Israeli,tes. All this was conducive tempt to unseat the party triumphant, so that, with
to the achievement' of Abimelech's purpose.               the defeated candidate at large,  Ithe position of the
   Arriving  ia Shechem, he did the expected thing. winning party in Shechem would not be secure for a
He conferred with his mother's brethren and  with the moment. So, for the good of the land, the defeated
family of her father. They could serve him excellently party must be put to death without any compunction
for they had much influence with the mass of citizens. of conscience.
And he was a stranger in  She&em.  So he desires             The falacy in Abimdech's reasoning was his con-
of them that they speak in the ears of all the men (tention  that the people were obliged to choose betweeu
of Shechem, "which  `is better for you,  thst seventy him ,and the seventy. Fact is that, as the judgship
men, all sons of Jerubbaal, rule over you, or that one was not here&tory, they should choose neither the
rule over you. . .  ." (This is the order of the words one nor the seventy. But of this the Shechemites were
in the  Heibrew   .text--th,e  order from which the Eng- willingly ignorant. They insisted that they were in
lish version departs). To be noticsd. in this speech is dire need of a king. But in the present situation, to
the antithesis which is between "seventy? and "one" choose them a king was to decree the death either of
and secondarily between "sons of Jerubbaal" and a lone scoulndrel  or of seventy innocent and' upright
"your bone and flesh." The seventy men are all sons men. But Abimelech was careful to instruct his  .&a-
of Jerubbaal but he, on the other hand, is of their tions to tell the people that they should bear in mind,
own kin. Th'us anticipating the objection of .the She- when castinfg their vote, that he was their bone and
chemites  that he, too, belongs Ito the hated house of flesh.     They did remember. They followed  Abime-
Gideon, the destroyer of Baal, Abimelech excludes lech; for they said; He is our brother. It would'nt
himself from that race' and wholly identifies himself do for them to put to death their very flesh, though.
with his mother's family. He thus let it be known he were the biggest scoundrel in the world and though
that, `though the offspring of Gideon,.. he disowns the tb seventy were ever so noble, upright, and unambi-


 ix2                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   BX`ARER

tious. So, Abimelech being their flesh and bone, Ithere
was  noth.ing  left for them to do but to  .decree  the                         The Jesuits
death of the seventy. It was indeed a terrible task
to which they assigned themselves, but a itask so un-             The Jesuits, an order or society of Roman Catho.
avoidable as ghastly and terrible. It was for the good lies, can perhaps best be appraised and judged if we go
of the land, of the kingdom of God, that is of Baal's back to its origin and see how this almost fanatical
kingdom. So they must have reasoned among them- organization began its history. Even more s:han ioc
selves. Doabtless,  they succeeded pretty well  iii. jut&i-    instance Reformed peopIe  bear the mark of the Re-
fying themselves in their own eyes. They were not              formation under John Calvin, thereby causing them
unrighteous men, but just firm and resolute citizens. to be called by the name Calvinists, so the `Society of
It may be that they even went about the `task of dis- the Jesuits has throughout its history, borne the mark
patching the seventy with a heavy heart and with and stamp of its founder and leading spirit, Ignatius
tear dimmed eyes. For the capacity of the natural ,Loyola.              It is therefore important that we take a
man for self-deception is colossal.                            glimpse into the life of the founder of  ;the order of
    The choice having been made, the Shechemites Jesuits.
deem it imperative to ,proceed  at once to Ophrah to              Ignatius Loyola was born in the year 1491, the la&
make away with the seventy.         These sons, hearing' of 13 children, three of whom fell in the foreign wars
what was going on in Shechem, might start a civil of Spain. We mention this because <the `whole family
war. This, they say, must be avoided. For they are consisted of fighters, who preferred fighting to  de-
patriotic men.     The interests of their country and bating.  And this fighting nature was also character-
people lie close to their heart-very close! So they            istic in Ignatius Loyola, who often discarded his
hasten to the house of their idol to supply Abimelech clerical robes for the  breastplate  and sword and buck-
with the silver wherewith to pay off the thugs who are ler. In fact the first great desire of Loyola was to
to assist him in the performance of his noble deed!            become famous as a soldier. At the age of  28 how-
As accompanied by these persons-their number  iu               ever he was wounded and lamed for life, and gradually
seventy-Abimelech goes to his father's house in his ambition changed so that his chief desire became
Ophrah, and slays his brethren, the sons of  Jerub-            to be a great saint of the church. Two things now
baal, the sons of Baal's opponent and the champion characterized his life. First he became possessed  by
of the cause of God.      One son escapes,  Jotham  the a desire to get near to God and be at peace with
youngest of the seventy.                                       Him. For ,this purpose he entered a monastery and
    So did the snare that Gideon, through his ill-direct- by fasting and  scourgings, prayers and confessions
 ed zeal, had set for himself, soon claim its victims,         he sought vainly to give his conscience rest. Then he
However terrible the crime and guilty the perpetra- cast himself upon the mercies of God and trusting
tors, Gideon and his house were here being punished in God, he claimed  ;to have found forgiveness and
for their folly-the folly of preserving in their house peace for his soul. He was therefore received to be of
that ephod. Even so, the guilt of the murderers was            willing service to God.    This sounds much like the
 none ithe less great. God cursed them by mouth of history of Luther. However, another thing charac-
the one son that had escaped.                                  terized his life at this time, which caused him to
        Abimelech is now made king; and there is much differ radically from Luther, namely, he believed
 rejoicing in  She&em.  But on the summit of mount without question that  <the Church was ordained of
 Gerizim, at whose base the rabble assembled, there  has God to represent God among men. He firmly believed
 appeared the  filgure of a man.       He is speaking to that, even as in military, the soldier must be strongly
them. "Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that disciplined and show absolute obedience so also the
 God may hearken unto you. . .  ." A hush falls `on soldier of Jesus in  .tkis   work& must show absolute
 the jubilating multitude. Who is the man? It  i4 obedience to  *the God ordained authority, namely unto
 the voice of  Jotham!    As he speaks his parable, it the Church. To serve God, meant for Loyola to serve
 must seem to them that he has risen from the dead the church and her interest, and true religion meant
 and  re!turned to them from the tomb. Was he not blind submission to the church. So Loyola assumed a
 slain with the rest of his brethren?                          militant attitude in the church and the conviction
                                             G. M. 0.          grew in him, &that he was called to fight against all
                                                               enemies of the church and to use all his tremendous
                                                               energies to build the church and. cause her to expand
                     CLASSIS  EAST                             and grow. He studied at the University of Paris,
 will meet in regular session D.V.  We,dnesday,  October and with his keen insight into human nature which he
 4, at 9 A.M. at Fuller Ave.                                   possessed, he choose out nine companions, fellow
                                D; Jonker, stated clerk.       students, all of whom came to be men of extraordin-


                                   T  I3 E  ST A N D A R  D, :B E A R  E.R                                           503

ary power and ability. Loyola was the leading spirit, J:esuits  believed that the Protestant movement was
but the other nine were young men who saw his made possible largely by the igilorance  of the .people,
vision, were  fillEd with his convictions, and  vowe9       and whereas the R. C. church was not doing much to
to fulfill his purposes. Thus the society of Jesus wad correct this awful condition of ignorance, the Jauits
formally organized in 1540 with these ten men as made  i,t their chief aim.                 *Later   the instruction in
members.    This society grew rapidly, even though faith and duty was also given to large groups of old-
at first only picked men  .w@re .admitted  to its mem-      er church members. Schools were opened for both
bership roles. But the power of influence. exerted by children  and adults, and the society also infiltrated
Loyola, and his ardent zeal, as well as his great de- into the higher schools of .education,  even the Uiliver-
signs for the regeneration of the church attracted sities and thus brought new life into the R. C. church
many followers, including both  ,laymen  and priests.       world.  Feedless  to say  ?hat through this method  o?
  It `is perhaps best to know the  .condition  of the       education, the Jesuits became very dominant in the'
church at this  time;:'   It was the time of the  igreat    R. C. Church, and this church also became instilled
Protestant Reformation, which was indeed undermin- with the same spirit of Counter-Reformation.                     And
ing the very foundations of the ol,d Church of Rome.        all this `education was `given for the purpose as they
Many thousands of people had been led  `by reform           s'tated  : .`!To advance souls .in .Christian  life and :doc-
leaders, out of the Roman Catholic Church, .to organ- trine, and of propagating the faith as well as works
ize ,their own protestant churches. Whole kingdoms of charity."
were being torn from the `bpsom of the Roman Catholic          A second article in the constitution of the Jesuits
Church, and its subjects were being instructed.in  the stated that all members, "must give an uncondi:ional
teachings of the `Reformation. The nominal heal  .of. vow of obedience to .the Pope, by which the members
the Roman Catholic church, *was, the Pope and thou- are to be. so. bound that they must immediately, with-
sands were :denying  hb authority and rejecting him. out any  schufFling  or excuse, undertake whatsoever
And the spirit of the reformation  was  .everywhere         His Holiness commands appertaining  `to the progress'
breaking away the very authority of the-church and of souls:and the propagation of the faith, whether he
its leaders, so that the very existence of the  R.C.        sends us  .to the Turks, or to the New World, or to
church was threatened in many parts  ,of the. then the Lutherans, or to whomsoever He sends, be they
known world. If you add to this the fact that within Linfidels  `or Catholics." This of course made of the
the bosom of the R.C. church itself .not much was Jesuits  `a strong missionary  socieky, devoted to bring-
being done to correct the evils within. the church!         ing .the, message of the R. C. to as many as possible,
thus laying herself open  .to further attack by the also outside her own circles. In fact all the mission-
protestant reformers.' 0 yes, the  Refqrmers were ary honors of this period belong to the Roman Catho-
persecuted and the enemies of the- R.C. church w,ere        lic Church; The Protesant churches did almost no-
thus fought, but within the church itself nothing was thing worth  Ymentioning  to give  ,the  gospel to  non-
being done to correct wrongs which .admittedly were Christian  peopIes. Of course the main reason for this
evils.                                  .,                  was that all the energy  and strength of the Protes-
    Into the above described conditions of the Roman tants was spent in the struggle for Its own existence.
Catholic church, the society of the Jesuits, threw But the R. C. Church extended her boundaries greatly
themselves with the zeal and energy and militant during this period, chiefly through the Jesuits.  ,In
Fervor  of `their leader, in a fighting attempt to erase fact one of the first companions of Loyola in the so-
the evils, rejuvinate  *the church and thus bring to ciety he founded, was the well known Francis Xavier,
naught the work of the Reformation. However, we who went the very first year the society was formed
must remember that the purpose of the society was           to far away India, where he worked about 4 years.
to further the interests and fight the enemies of .the      Such progress was made by him and a few helpers
Roman Catholic Church in every possible way. Conse- that soon large numbers of missionaries had to be
quently and yet ironically," the, Jesuits aimed `at re- sent to complete the work he had begun. And from
formation within the sphere, of the Roman Catholic India, Xavier went to Japan and within two years he
church  an:d yet were `the greatest enemies of the Pro- laid the foundation of a Japanese Church which grew
testant Reformation. The protestants were the great- very rapidly. ,Xavier  died as he was undertaking the
est enemies of the  church'according  to Loyola and his gigantic  .work of bringing the R. C. message  !to China.
society of Jesus.                             .::    .:     But even in China the. work was carried out by other
    The aims of this counter-reformatory movement, Jesuits with the same zeal, so that many hundreds
were fivefold, `which were taken up  ,&to&he  constitu- of Jesuit missionaries -were summoned to that far
tion of the Jesuits. First of all and primarily, the Eastern country. This missionary campaign of the
society aimed at the instruction of all the chilsdren of Jesuits ,took  them to our own .North  American conti-
the church; in all  `the elements of faith and duty. The nent also..? Especially :in' the French possessions in

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

North America and in Paraguay, the Jesuits cam- mainly through the work of the Jesuits that the
paign was pushed with ,great vigdr and devotion. These latter two countries were made solidly Roman Catho-
Jesuits worked and sacrificed with a courage and fi- lic, even unto this day.
delity unsurpassed. It was therefore too, that in al-           But counter-reformation movements are bound  to
most all the coun%&s  where the Jesuits worked they die in the end for the simple reason -that when God
built  u.p the  church  very rapidly, even `though,  1s causes a Reformation-through-separation to take place,
Roman Catholic historians admit, this growth  w5w            then a counter-reformation within the falling church
not always so substantial, proving that their methods is out of place. Lk cannot meet God's approval. God
were often mistaken.                                         then commands : "Be ye separate and have no fellow-
   The :third  article of their constitution deals with      ship with the works of darkness."          It  is our firm
the prompt and constant obedience of a subject to conviction that when the church of Jesus Christ falls
his superiors, even as Jesus acknowledged to His away and begins to depart, either in word or in deed.
superior, namely, to His Father in heaven. Unques-           from the truth as it is in Jesus,  that everyone  is
tioned loyalty to the Pope became a pass word into duty bound to repent of this and mw:t strive to bring
the society of Jesus, so :that it may be Itruly said that    reformation about inside the church. But when that
organization of the Jesuits  *was a system of absolute, ihuych has become so corrupt ihat it no longer toler-
instant obedience, enforced by constant discipline.          ates the reforming element, and excludes them from
   The fourth article deals with the poverty  :o be her communion, as did :the Roman Catholic Church
practiced by the members of fhe Jesuit society. Li-          in the 15th and 16th century, then there is do longer
terally we read: "To avoid all contagion of avarice,         room within her bosom for reformation.             And the
none may acquire title to property, real or income           very fact that Loyola  and his followers s:ayed  within
property." This of course, fits in perfectly with the the R. C. Church organization, were tolerated there
aim of the society to reform the church from within nat only but also were allowed to gain the ascendancy
by exercising self-control and self discipline,  some-       proves that they were not Reformation children. They
ithing which indeed was hardly practiced anymore in opposed  the reformation. They were enemies of God's
the R. ,C. Church prior to the founding of the Jesuit people as these people of God were expelled from the
order.                                                       church for the testimony of Jesus Christ. And before
   Filnally the society also had an article wri3en  :de-     the door of the Jesuits must lay the charge that ithey
claring against all musi,c in their worship or in their are directly responsible for the persecution and death
meetings.    This ,was later rejected by the Pope and        of many children of God. They  possesed much zeal,
thus there is worship  wi,th music, in most of the but it was a zeal not  aster God but after the heretical
Jesuit churches, also those of today. But again in           church. They loved the Roman Catholic Church above
!this article is betrayed the desire to deny oneself GOd. *`Come out from among them and be separate"
many things for the purpose of devotion exclusively to remains the calling at all times, also today, for all
the ideal of counter-reformation within  ithe church.        those who desire sincerely the reformation of  th?
   When  we appraise this movement of the Jesuits            church, and that church no longer tolerates true re-
we  ,do well to regard it as not merely a movement           formation.
of repression, but it  incladed  a  ,genuine  awakening                                                        L. v.
of religious life in the Roman Catholic Church. Among
both clergy and laity there was in many places a re-
vival of Christian faith and zeal. But historically and
in its further advance it represented a movement
against the Protestant Reformation. Roman Catho-
licism stood at its lowest level perhaps about in 1560.                           IN MEMORTAM
Protestantism  had indeed conquered many countries
and seemed on the verge of conquering more territory           The Protestant  Reformed Men's Chorus, at their first meet-
in parts of the German  Em,pire  where hitherto the ing of this  season,  decided to express their sympathy to Mrs.
papacy had retained its power. However in 1566 the ~Tohn  Swati  in the loss, through death on a foreign battle
R. C. Church began taking the offensive under Pope field, of her husband
Pius V, a fight,ing  Pope, and thus ~iith the powerful                             JOHN SWART
aid  and  unlder `the guiding power of the Jesuits,  it         He, with us, was wont to sing unto the praise of our God.
was enabled to strike back with tremendous force. We still do it imperfectly, while we believe that his voice now
For the Jesuits were also an order which worked mingles. with the heavenly chorus where never a note of did-
upon the influential  of the land, such as rulers and cord is  Beard.'
kings, this being especially the case with the German                                                 D. Jonker, Pres.
Emperor and the kings of France and Spain.. Iit was                                                   D. Ondersma, Sec'y.


                                   TIZE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        ,506

                                                           the world, in distinction from the church which prc-
        Speech in Behalf of Our                            pares the same children for their future place in the
               SchooI Movement"                            sphere of the church. Our children have been recciv-
                                                           ing their instruction from those who advocate  th:,
                                                           very principles we reject. On this particular point
   Not so very long ago I spoke at one of your meet- there is no doubt among us, also among those who do
ings which was held in the parlors of our Fuller Ave.      not warmly advocate a school of our own. The Chris-
church. I feel  that I owe you some sort of apology.       tian  schooIs are surely controlled by those churches
At that time, <during reaess  time, some of you asked who  expelle#d  us some twenty years ago. Must  we,
me whether I thought that your society was guilty of then, not also be Protestant Reformed in the i&rue-
a Jack of enthusiasm, when I asked and tried to answer tion of our children?-the very heart and fibre of our
the question: Why the delay? However, tha: thought cause will stand or fall on the basis of your answer to
did not live in my soul, but I also wish to remove any this question. The antithetical instruction of our chil-
doubt which might possibly exist. And, in the second dren is of paramount importance, of such importance
place, before I speak to you for a few moments, I          that there is no ti,me to lose.
am glad that I need not discuss at this time the matter       In the second place our calling is clear and undc-
of our moral obligation. The editor of our Standard batable. We may debate this question, pro. and ,con.,
Bearer has very aptly treated that subject about two but the matter of the instruction of our chil,dren and
months ago.                                                the nature of that instruction is undebatable. We do
   As a Protestant Reformed people we are charac- not and may not decide what the content of that in-
terized by a two-fold distinctiveness. Actually but one struction shall be. Just as we may not decide whether
outstanding principle characterizes us.     We believe we shall have Christian schools at all, so  aho we may
that Zion is the people or the party of the living God, not decide what the content of `that instruction shall be.
who owe their existence exclusively to the sovereign This has been deci'ded  for us. The Lord has not only
grace of  Jehovah  in order  .that  all glory and praise commanded Israel that they must instruct their own
may be the Lord's, as it is beautifully expressed in       children, He has also laid down the rule for  us as
that well-known passage of Rom.  1136 where we far as the content of  #that instruction is concerned.  ~
read that all things are out of, through, and ,unto the    This is clearly stated in the sixth chapter of Deuter-
Lord, unto Whom be all the praise and glory. We ornomy, where the people of the Lord are instructed to
may view #this one outstandin~g truth from a two-fold hear that the Lord .their  God is one Lord, Whom w-2
point of view. In our so-caIIed  ecclesiastical life, as must love with all our heart and soul and mind and
in the preaching of the Word, we emphasize, accord- strength. Hence, our calling is clear. On this point
ing to the Holy Scriptures, election, man's utter de- the Lord has not left any doubt. We must not only
pravity, particular atonement, the efficacy of grace, instruct our children. But we must ever hold before
and the certainty of our ultimate salvation, otherwise them that the Lord our God is one Lord, one in Him-
known as the perseverance of the saints. In short self and  ,therefore   oile in all His dealings with the
we may state all this briefly by declaring that salva- children of men, that we must love `Him and Him
tion is from the beginning to the end from and through     alone with all our heart and soul and mind and
our God alone.                                             strength. Our children must receive Protestant Re-
   The practical aspect of this same truth is that we formed instruction. This is also our baptismal pledge
must walk, with our children, as a separate people of when we vowed before the Lord and His Church that
that living God in the  mi#dst of the world. To pre- we will instruct and help instruct our children ia the
serve this practical aspect of the truth we fought doctrine of this Christian Church. And, inasmuch
some twenty to  !twenty  five years ago.      The  `now as we, as parents, cannot ourselves provide our chil-
famous Three Points may indeed be regarded as hav- dren this instruction,  ;it is therefore our calling  to
ing been brought into the world  ,by those who love        organize into a society in order that they may receive
synthesis rather than the antithesis, amalgamation this instruction according to the Word of God.
with rather than separation from the world. World-            In the third place I would emphasize  :that this can
ly and carnal-mindedness is  aIways the mother of her- only be done by organizing into a Protestant Reforme:!
esy-1924 was no exception. And it is only from the school society wherever possible. We must certainly
practical aspect of our antithetical calling that the understand that cooperation with others, as far as  $he
place and importance of the school can be rightly un- instruction is concerned, is wholly impossible. The
derstood. We with our children whom the Lord has argument of the editor of the Standard Bearer  is
given us must walk antithetically in the midst of the surely pertinent in  thfs respect. To cooperate with
world. It is surely the calling and task of the school others in order that the schools of our day may be
to prepare our children for their place in $ht: midst of as pure as possible will result in the loss of our posi-


SOB                                  -  T,HE  - S T A N D A R D   "B-EARER                      I  ._        I.

tive Protestant Reformed principles. At best, the
result will be negative. We may gain the concession                  "      Natural Theology
that they will not instruct our children arminianism
but does this necessarily imply that the content of             Since the above term is historically a shifting
that instruction will be distinctly Protestant Reform- conceptioa  an attempted definition must serve pro-
ed? The best that we may expect  is a colorless in- visionally  ,to bring our discussion under  way.
struction devoid of all distinctiveness, of all lines of          We may, then, provisionally define it as the know-
demarcation. That is all that we could hope to  `oh- ledge or system of knowledge of God .derived from a
tain.    But this, my friends, is looking at this pos- r.efle&ion  `upon nature (embracing man himself,  crea-
sibility with the greatest optimism. Cooperation with . tion, and history) 01; an attempt. to form such a sys-
others is impossible. We do not, we will not cooperate tem. And our interest in the discussion shall not bc
with the lie, with the principles of synth&s and world- from a neutral Histtiry-of-religion  viewpoint, but an
ly .amalgamation  which we rejected some twenty years approach and  evaIuation from the viewpoint of Re-
ago. They must see things our way, or els'e. . .  .!          formed Theology. .
    Only then can we fulfill our baptismal pledge,              The main material for such a discussion may be
`carry out' the Lord's command,  aed safeguard our found in the weil-known standard Theologies of Cal-
Protestant Reformed cause if we continue to ,,develop         vin, Brakel, Ch. Hodge, Kuyper  (Diet.  Dogm.,  Encycl.
and expand the cause for which you stand.               It is Uit het Woord, III and Bavinck). `However the  ,old
twenty years ago this year that we were rejected by sources of Reformed an'd Catholic theology  are very
those churches among whom we formerly held  a'name            desirable.. Besides these there is very valuable ma-
and place. Not long ago we commemorated this event terial in the newer writings  su,ch as  Schilder   "Hei,d.
at our annual Field Day held in Ideal Park. Twenty            Catech."  Van Til's Thesis on "Common Grace,"  1~.
long years we have testified against their heresy of 66-8'7 ; Dooyeweerd, Wijsbegeerte `der Wetsides, es-
"Common-grace" as taught in the churches  whereiu pecially Vol. II, 214-259, 474-534 though this entire
we formerly had a name and place and as set forth titanic work has rather direct bearing on the subject.
in the Christian schools of today. Twenty  years hava Since the validity and value of this Natural theology
paszed  by and in the meantime at least 2 of our gen-         is even. today an unsettled question, it appears that
erations have been instructed in that dangerous world not only the various spokesmen differ in their evalua-
and life view which we heartily oppose. All we need tion, but that they evaluate differently also the. his-
do to be convinced that the schools of taday  are con- torical course of the conception. Bavinck (Dogm.)
trolled by  ,the Christian Reformed Churches and that in his characteristic "dogmengeschichtliche" method
their `conception of the Scriptures is taught there is shows its general acceptance from Justin Martyr (d.
read their annual report of the yearly gathering  nf          166) to Thomas Aquinas  (,d. 1274) and the highest
the  IJnion  of Christian Schools. Twenty years al- point of theological development in the middle ages.
ready we have denied our children that which the Lord            ,The Reformation brought a new  ,development  in
demands we bestow upon them, namely, to instruct this question as it did in so many other questions,
them in the doctrine of their own Christian church. and perhaps shows best  &he various phases of the
You have made a beginning to fulfill that  covenant           problem.    The Roman Catholic Theology, boldly ad-
obligation. May our God grant  tha,t others in our mits and confesses a twofol,d  theology (Dogmatic De-
churches may  understan%  the ,calling  wherewith the crees of the Vatican Council, Apr. 18'70 chap. IV and
Lord calls  <them and the blessed privilege  which is Canon II, see  Schaff,  Creeds, Vol. II, p. 234ff.) but
ours to bestow upon the seed which God has given  us          in  i,ts Papal Syllabus of Errors 1864 plainly shows
an instruction which is bared upon the Holy Scrip- that the two are  duaIistically Ieft unrelated (same
tures, the privilege which is ours while it is day be- ~213). Luther, we may recall from some of his libtle-
fore the  tnigh#t   cometh  when no man can work.  An,d known Ninety-nine Theses that appeared in our S.B.
may God continue to bless you and give you grace and some time ago, strongly opposed the natural ability
strength to. carry on, that we may speedily have n and integrity which Rome still assumed in the  naturs.1
school of our own in order that the cause which we man.              But Luther and his followers also Iose the
represent, which we believe to be God's cause, may problem by a dualism, for on the ane head  ,they admit
be safe-guarded also for our children, and that God's that natural man may have some little obscure glim-
covenant may therefore be continued with us and wi%th         mer that God is, and he may keep a little of the law,
our children.                                                 yet in things spiritual and Divine he can have or
                                               H. v.          think nothing good.    See  J. Mueller, Chr.  Do&. of
             `,                                               Sin II, p. 227ff). This we may observe introduces the
*Speech given at a picnic of  the auxiliary of  our  .&mol    distinction between saving  2nd non-saving knowledge;
movement,                                                     the two spheres can even be  beid as contradicting


                                    T-HE,  STA'NDARD,BEARER                                                     -207

each other and so, of course, the entire problem is ture, 4, knowledge through regeneration.
really destroyed and we lose contact with it.  Thme              We do not need at all to consider  #the question,
are very familiar appearances to us as Prot. Ref. whether, if it pleased the Exalted one to hide Himself,
people also today.                                            we could still establish a contact with Him. But the
    In  CaIvin  Bavinck finds  aIso a trace of dualism Knowability of God, in fact, has been denied foIIow-
between natural and supernatural revelation, which ing Kant especiahy  by the English philosopher, Ham-
I cannot find in the places he refers to in the 1ns:itutes    ilton, (d. 1856) and the Biologist, Herbert Spencer,
but he finds Calvin to be saved from extremes by his          (d. 1903).    Spencer in his book  F%st  Primciplas,
doctrine of Common grace, which may also be ques-             speaks throughout in the basic first part of.:the  UN-
tioned because Calvin is operating with the very valid KNOWAB,LE  and speaks of an inexorable logic  j by
distinotion  between natural gifts and spiritual vir- which he has proved that God is such, (p.  30-31))  and
tues.                                                         Christian Theologians have sometimes sought their
    Continuing from Calvin the value of Natural Theol. defence  against this manner of argument by simply
becomes more and more accepted,  *first as a help, conceding it and speaking of "the Agnostics inexor-
then as a fore-portal, then as an independent Theo!.          able logical proof." Now Et may be questioned whe-
and finally in German Rationalism and English Deism,          ther such concession is .necessary  wise or valid. For
as a  ,substitute  for Scriptural Theology.     (See also in the first place it must not escape us that to know
Kromming Chr. Ref. Tradition, p. 46ff).                       "unknowableness" about God were already to know
    Now  (to this we must immediately add that accord- something about Him. But  furkher Spencer finds it
ing to Schilder,  (Heid.  Cat.  p.`74-`7'7)  even Bavinck's quite convenient to say several important things about
evaluation of the attitude which the Reformers took God. He is the Power which the Universe manifests
toward Nat. Theol. is hardly a true picture, is just d. to us (p.  38)) He is the Cause of our religious feelings
little flattering and lenient and  ,that Bavinck (and         (104 Ultimate cause through which all things con-
Kuyper) were just a little too modest in the estima- sist 92-96). But now after  Spen<cer  has said these
tion of their  own  advance over the Reformed Fathers. several things thet all imply relation to the creature,
And to this we may add that Bavinck's own construc- he uses as his main term in his "inexorable logic" the
tion in which his theory of common grace plays a term "Absolute," implying the absence of any relation
great part can hardly be harmonized with the Ref.             to any possible other being. One wonders if such
Confessions and with the Scriptures.                          "logic" is really meant seriously, and is not mere
    But now, behold, after  S.childer has intimated childs play. It surely seems of little profit to enter
the over-modest  e&in&ion of these men regarding into such a sport of words.
their appreciable advance over the fathers, Prof. Van            But it is undoubtedly of importance for our know-
Til devotes' a solid discussion to show how these sons ledge of God, to consider whether logic could ever
have themselves not been able to stay clear of  the prove any such a thing. We may answer to this im-
old false, rationalistic, Rom. Cath., type of natural mediately by reminding that if true logic could prove
theology (Proceedings; Calv. Phil. Club, 1941, p. 66- an untruth all knowledge would for us become impos-
87).                                                          sible. But we must add that our knowledge is not so
    However, we must not overlook, I believe, that            "inexorable" as we boast it to be. Recall the logic
while the fathers struggled with the  theory'of  Inborn of Paul's opponents who suggested that the logical
Knowledge theories of the rationalistic philosopher, conclusion of gratuitous justification was the freedom
Descartes (flourished, 1635-50) drove them to  correct        to sin, but Paul proves that the only logical conclu-
their views on  ;this phaze, the sons  labour with the sion is to live in holiness. Rom.  6:l.           15 Volumes
question under the  aspeot  of the spiritual, and vir- have been written on the fallacies of logic, in method,
tuous, the depravity or relative integrity of the nat- definition, equivocation, generalization etc., etc. An.d
ural man (Bav. Dogm. I  :290-291;  Kuyper, Gem. Grat. so we must not blame "unfortunate human logic" but
1:236ff,  II  :16, 296ff)  .'                                 our unfortunate use of it. For it is exactly, here that
    From this historical sketch it may, appear that it logic causes its trouble.          We neglect to  ,avail our-
is precisely the elements or the theory of Common selves of all the facts and draw unwarranted conclu-
Grace that repeatedly becloud the issue and lead to sions. If Spencer's Absolute means the absence of  al1
conclusions that are contrary to Scripture.                   and any relatedness then we cannot use the term at
    After this introduction it will be plain that no all. Has not God according to His eternal council pur-
opinion may  ciaim to  be  :the Accepted view of  the posed a creation that should stand in relation to Him-
Reformed and we may attempt to discuss a few of the self: Has he not stamped his name on all  lthe works
principles, and perhaps we can profitably discuss the of His hands. For although God could have  withhell
material under four stages. 1,the Knowability of God, His knowledge as He indeed did  toward,+the  brute
2, knowledge from nature, 3, knowledge  from Scrip- Creation  (which is not of course  R lack of relations!


  508                                  `-T'H`E. S T  AXli*A"R   D B E A R E R

  He has been pleased to make His name i:l creation t.h& we  ti`ndoubtedly  have reference to a natural
  legible to us, His image bearers.                             revelation  ahd' knowledge.  `See Ps.  1.3  :l-5 of  the
     But th.e unbeliever will not consider all the fa:ts, `Revelation. And the better' method of interpretabiou
  yea, he will deliberately ignore the greatest of all tht? *requires  that  ,the use of a part of this passage in
  facts at hand, the great record of God's work in thz Roti.  lO:@ is ,not $o.;bo.rrow  poetic words but to en-
  world which was recounted by many faithful witnes- fsrce   gn  ar&M&t,  that `Israel did indeed know, even
  ses, and .established  by many infallible proofs, a record    from   ,ilature.`.
 which tells of tremendous mysteries and wonders, in-                                                                                                        A.  P.
  conceivable to any man, and then gives an csplana-                                               (To be continued)
  tion and solution of these things  s&isfyinx to any                                                                /'                                          *
  reasonable man.  How, can man unwilling to consider                                                              ..,  *
  such facts, still speak of the conclusions of logic. But                                                    -.----..._  ..--
. the Christian cannot  dispei?se with logic. Even the
  `axioms and the intuitions, require logic  to operate                               "
  w%ih them although in a meas&e  often unconsciously.                                     NQiiCti,  CO~~ISTO'F&  .
  Theology is a logical deduction from the materials in.              Classis meet&he last Wednesday in Sept. in the
  Scripture. The arguments of the  Holy  writers and of  Edgerton   CK&+h.  Usual time,  Those  d&iring,  lodg-
  Christ Himself is full of logic. And Scripture even                                                                                                                  ,.
                                                                ing please  c&%&  Rev. G. Vos.
  argues that he who reveals Himself must be the true                 5:            1.            ).                         M. Gritters,  sta$ed  clerk.
  God (Ex.  9:14; I Kings  18:24,  36:20; 28).                   :                   .`                                                          ,.'
     Dr.  Kuyper has characterized `the Testimony  of  :`..                                                                                                           FL
  the Holy Spirit whereby the believer receives the  ;  :  :                                                                               ;:
  truth of Scripture as the power whereby our deepest .-`::                                                                                . i..$       -
 "idea  regarding ourselves is changed from conflict with             ?.                                 I            N          ~`MEbIORI~M   "-
  the central  testimcmy  of Scripture to a spiritual  ac-                                                            i"  /
  quiescence thereto (Encycl. II 505). This becomes              *`.  :On the 14th of August  the Lord in His infinite `wisdom
  ithe corrective for man's "inexorable logic."                 took out of our midst our beloved father and grandfather'
     We may not advance. a step from the  ,Rnowabilit.v                                                 -, .,`.                                                  *
  of God 80 the Knowledge from nature. Her@ is per-                                                     ADRiAN,,  HIRDES
  haps the proper stage for the discussion. in the nar- at  the age of  `i2 years.
  row and strict sense. It `is `generally conceded that               His pilgrimage is  ended; and  we may beIieve th-,t he has
  *here  is..an inborn knowledge of God. But what is entered into the rest that remaineth unto the people  of  GOI;.
  meant by knowledge? Is it merely the ability to know `.-                                  -:                                  M'r. and Mrs. William Hirdrs
  or aiso a content of knowing? Especially did :&he great                                                                       Mr. and Mrs. John Hhdc;
  theologian Voetius struggle with this problem when                                                                            Mr. and Mrs. John Boersm:?
  he was driven in his controversy with  Descarte  to                                                                           Mr, and Mrs.  &;llbi  HXes
  define the conception.      The latter taught that  *the                                                                      Mr. and Mrs. Joe  Hirdes
  beginntng  of all knowledge lies in.knowing  the exist-                                                                       Mr. and Mrs. Adl<nn Hirdes
  ence  of self to be a reality. "I think, therefore I am,"      Zeeland,   Mich.   2R.R.  No.  1                               and 20 grandchildren.
  and from this self-knowledge man could also know the
  existence of God (Calkins : The Persistent Problems
  of Phil.  l7ff). The great Voetius with the Reformed                 s
  violently rejected this idea and  maj&ained  that In-
  born knowledge could only mean a  fatuity, a power,                                                    IN MEMORIAM
  an aptitude of the mind to know when. it comes into
  contact with revelation.                                            The consistory of the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed
     This raises the next que&ion,  how much can man Church hereby wishes  to express its sympathy  with one of its
  know about God from nature. This question may lead  ! members, the  ,Mr. Stephen Holstege  in the loss of his brother,
  us to study the heathen world, their religions  aad                                             BERNARD HOLSTEGE
  philosophies, but in such an examination it must re-
  main rather uncertain just what the ,grea;t  heathen who was killed in action iu Normandy, France, on the 9th ;~f
  philosophers meant with God, eternal good, person-            June, 1943, at the age of 27 years.
  ality, and also the possibility remains that they had               May the Lord, who doeth all things  weI&  comfort the  h?-
  some glimmerings of  sp'ecial revelation through  `Is- reaved  ,relatives  with His grace and Spirit.'
  rael's dispersions.  2'.                                                                                                        B e r n a r d   Kok,  P r e s .
     We do better therefore  <to turn to Scripture and                                                                                `T. Miedema, Clerk.
                                                                             -c*.  ~  *.  .._  -<`:`~:  _  \-


