 412                                                                       I
                                  .%                                                     "THE  STANtDARD   B E A R E R

                             The StandaidBearer
            Semi-Monthly, except Monthly  in July and August                                                                                                                E D I T O R I A L S   -
                                             P u b l i s h e d   B y
                     The Rkformed Free Publishing Association
                           Box 124, Sta. C., Grand Rapids, Mieh,                                                                                              An Answer To  kev. A. Petter
                                 EDITOR: - Rev. H. Hoeksema.
Contributing Editors:  - Rev. G. M.  Ophoff, Rev. G. Vos, Rev.
R.  Veldman,  Rev. H. Veldman, Rev. H. De Wolf, Rev. B.  Kok,                                                                                                   In the Concordia number of May 11 the Rev. A.
Rev. J. D. De  Jong,  Rev. A. Petter, Rev. C. Hanko, Rev. L.                                                                                                 Petter gives his answer to the open letter which I
Vermeer, Rev. G. Lubbers, Rev. M. Gritters, Rev. J. A. Heys,                                                                                                 wrote him in the Standard Bearer of March 15.
Rev. W.  Hofman.                                                                                                                                             Frankly, I have very little desire to continue this
  Communications relative to contents should be addressed to                                                                                                 discussion.     Hence, I consider this article the last
REV. H. HOEKSEMA, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids,                                                                                                    which I will write in connection with this matter.
Michigan.                                                                                                                                                    The reason for this article is that I cannot permit Rev.
  Communications relative to subscription should be addressed
to Mr. J. BOUWMAN, 832 Reynard  St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,                                                                                                  Petter's answer to remain unanswered. And I write
Mich.  Announokments  and Obituaries must be mailed to the                                                                                                  this, not primarily for the sake of Rev. Petter, but for
above address and will be published at a fee of $1.00 for each                                                                                              the sake of our readers whose patience, I am afraid, is
notice.                                                                                                                                                    4 certainly being taxed.
Renewals..-Unless.  a definite  request for discontinuance is re-                                                                                                                                                .
ceived, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes his subscription                                                                                                      My Quotation from Prof. Berkhof.
to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
Entered as Second  CIass Mail at Grand Rapids, Michigan.                                                                                                        The Rev. Petter quotes from an article which .I
                            (Subscription Price $2.50 per year)                                                                                             wrote in the Standard Bearer of March 1, 1948, pages
                                                                                                                                                            247-248. Permit me, first of all to quote what I wrote
                                                                                                                                                            in that article.                             *
                                                                                                                                                                My quotation from ,the book of Prof. Berkhof, in
                                                                                                                                                            which article the professor maintains that the cove-
                                                                                                                                                            nant is also conditional, is as follows: "On the other
                                                                                                                                                            hand the covenant may be called conditional. There is
                                              C O N T E N T S                                                                                               a sense in which the covenant is conditional. If we
                                                                                                                                                            consider the basis of the covenant, it is clearly con-
MEDITATION-                                        '                 -                                                                                      ditional on the suretyship of Jesus Christ. In order
           De Begenadigden Des Heeren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
               Rev. G. Vos                                                                               %              .,                                  to introduce the covenant of grace, (Christ had to, and
                                                                                                                                                            actually did, meet the conditions originally laid down
E D I T O R I A L S -
  L       kn Answer To Rev. A. Petter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . - . . . . . . . . . . . . .I. ,..... _...412                                          in the covenant of works, by His active and passive
                Rev. H. Velclman.                                                                                                                           obedience. Again, it may be said that the covenant
                                                                                                                                                            is conditional as far as the first entrance into the
' THE TRIFLE KNOWLEDGE-
          An Exposition Of The Heidelberg Catechism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415                                                                 covenant as a real communion of life is concerned.
               Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                             This entrance is contingent on faith, a faith, however,
                                                                                                                                                            which is a gift of God.
O U R   D O C T R I N E -   '                                                                                                                                                          When we speak of faith as a
        The Idea Of Creation. (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .417                condition here we naturally refer to faith as a spiritual
               Rev. H.  Velclmari                                                                                                                           activity of the,mind. It is only through faith that we
                                                                                                                                 1, i.B                     can obtain a conscious enjoyment of the blessings of
THE DAY OF  SHADOWS-
         David's Victories,  Rls faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420,                   the covenant.       Our experimental knowledge of the
         The Arm Of The `Lord Revealed . . . . . . . _ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424                                    covenant life is entirely dependent on the exercise of
               Rev. G. M. Opho%                                                                                                                             faith. He who does not live a life of faith is, as far as
SION'S  ZANGEN-   '                                                                                                                                         his consciousness is concerned, practically outside of
         Verlost Uit Het Diensthuis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426                       the covenant. If in our purview *we include not only
               Rev. G. Vos .+                                                                                                                               the beginning, but also the gradual unfolding and com-
FROM HOLY WRIT-                                                                                                                                             pletion of the covenant life, we may regard sanctifica-
         Exposition Of Ephesians  2:4-10                                                                                                                    tion as a condition in addition to faith.
                                                                                 * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .."............... 429                                                       Both are con-
               Rev. Geo. C. Lubbers                                                                                                                         ditions, however, within the covenant."-thus far the
                                                                                                                                                            quotation from Prof. Berkhof.
TN HIS  FEAR-
         Called To His Praise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..-.......  431                   My comments on this quotation were as follows,
                Rev. J. A.  Heyu                                                                                                                            and again we quote in full: "This none can dispute.
                                                                                                                                                            It is surely true that the surety of Jesus Christ is basis

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

 for God's fellowship with us, that the justice of the
 `Lord must be satisfied before we can again be received           Rev. Petter's Reference  *To My Scriptural
 into Divine favour (Lord's Day 5). And it is actually                               Passages.
 ,true that to enjoy experimentally, experientially, con-
 sciously the blessings of the covenant, we must con-           The reader will recall that in my lengthy article of
 sciously enter into the covenant of faith. `But does        March 15 I quoted several passages of the Word of
 this give us the right to speak of the covenant in a        God to show thot salvation is wholly unconditional. I
 conditional sense? Faith itself is a gift of God. And       deliberately set out to show that the Scriptures present
 we surely agree with the last sentence of. the above        the entire way of salvation as wholly the work of God
 quotation : "Both are conditions, however, within the       and therefore wholly unconditional. These passages
 covenant." How can something, which belongs to the speak for themselves and permit no other interpreta-
 covenant and constitutes essentially a part of `that cove- tion. And what is Rev. Petter's reaction to this proof
 nant, be a condition of that covenant? It must be           from the Scriptures? He simply brushes them aside.
 plain, also from this paragraph, that God's covenant        He writes that, we cannot settle the question simply
 with man is not conditional. Man cannot merit any- by all those passages, that it is a question what I do
 thing. Man cannot do anything. Faith itself is a with the other texts which I do not consider here, and
 gift of God. Where, then, is the condition of the cove-     that we must have the whole Bible. And then he refers
 nant?"thus far my comments.                                 to passages such as Ezek.  1823,  33:11,  the Fifth'
     From these remarks  the'Rev. Petter concludes that      Petition, and the Canons of Dordt, II, 5, and also III
 I, too, in the past have advocated "conditions". All        and IV, 8.
 we ask in this article is that our readers judge whether       In connection with these remarks of Rev. Petter I
 the brother's conclusion is justified. Brother Petter       would make a few remarks. First does it not sound
 might also conclude from this quotation which I quoted      somewhat strange to read: It is a question what he
 that I believe in the covenant of works. Does my quo- does with the other texts which he does not consider
 tation of this article imply that I endorse everything      here, and : We must have the whole Bible. To be sure,
 which the professor writes here?, Do I endorse his          we must have the whole Bible. However, the Bible
 use of the word "conditional"?    Are not the conditions does not contradict itself. It is not a question of plac-
 of the professor in this quotation the  rquirements         ing `one group ,of texts over against another group.
 which are absolutely necessary shall the Christian re-      Besides, if the passages which I quoted maintain the
 ceive and enjoy the salvation of -God, such as, e.g., the truth that salvation is wholly unconditional, then the
 suretyship of desus Christ, the perfect satisfaction of     Bible cannot teach in other` passages that it is con-
 the Mediator, the act of believing, which act of believ- ditional. I simply quoted these passages to show that
 ing is an gift of God? This explains why I underscore the Word of God, in no uncertain terms, presents the                %
 the words: "within the covenant," in the expression:        entire way of salvation, from the beginning to the end,
 Both are conditions, however, within the covenant.          as exclusively the work of the Lord. Moreover, the
Moreover, the very heading of the article which I Rev. Petter himself has referred to the Old Testament,
 wrote in that number of the Standard Bearer is: God's       as the dispensation of the law, in support of his con-
 Covenant, `Unilateral and Unconditional." Besides, we ditional theory. And, in my article of March 15, I
 begin our paragraph on page 246 with the remark:            purposely referred to a text as Gal.  3:24  to show that
 N,evertheless,  we would rather maintain that God's         the Old Testament dispensation of the law cannot be
 covenant is unilateral throughout and therefore wholly      interpreted in a conditional sense in any sense of the
 unconditional. And, in my comments on the paragraph         word. And does Rev. Petter forget my reference to
 which I quoted of Prof. Berkhof, I write the following:     Is. 3 :lO-11 whereby I tried to show that one of "Rev.
 "But do& this give us the right to speak of the cove-       Petter's texts" cannot be interpreted in a conditional
 nant in a conditional sense? . . . . How can some- sense? And yet the brother boldly writes: No, but it
 thing, which belongs to the covenant, be a condition        is a question what he does with the other texts which
 of that covenant?  It must be plain, also from the          he does not consider here. And he underscores in' this  "
 paragraph, that ZGod's covenant with, man is not con-       statement the words:  other and  not.       .
 ditional. Man cannot merit anything. Man cannot do             Finally, I do not know whether Rev. Petter's refer-
 anything. Faith itself is a gift of God. Where, then,       ence to Col. 3 : 1 is a reflection on the passages which I
 is the condition of the covenant." From the statement, !quoted from Holy' Writ. In connection with that text .
 "`Man cannot do anything," Rev. Petter might also           the brother writes that the Yf" in that text cannot
 conclude that I have reduced man to a stock and block.      simply be read as "since". I would like to know, if
 However, this is enough. I ask our readers to judge         that word does not have the meaning of "since" in
 whether Rev. Petter has shown that I have advocated         that text, what meaning, then, does it have? What
 the concept of conditions.                                  does Paul mean to say if not that we must seek

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

the things above because we have been risen with               ness into the light, out of death into life. Through
Christ?                                                        that work a change occurs which takes hold of us into
                                                               the root of our life and of our person. A change in
                    Those "If" Clauses.                        our judicial and spiritual-ethical relation to God !
                                                               Thereby that spiritual salvation comes to us as rational
       Rev. Petter refers briefly to these "if" clauses in, ethical creatures. Therefore it comes to us through
the middle column on page 3. I would like to remind            the Word of God. And through that Word God speaks
the brother of the following. He began by referring to us. He carries through the Word that salvation into
the readers of Concordia to the many "if" clauses in           our consciousness. He speaks to us., He addresses
Holy Writ. Thereupon Rev. Ophoff made a painstak-              our mind through the Word. And He places Himself
ing effort to explain these "if" clauses. Thereupon the        with that Word before our  wil. He instructs, enlight-
brother simply ignored this explanation of Rev. ,Ophoff        ens, teaches, reveals, warns, demands, admonishes,
and again in a subsequent article, referred the readers        calls unto obedience of the Gospel, invites, even be-
of Concordia to these "if" clauses. This is the way            seeches, encourages and comforts, calls unto the strug-
Rev. Petter treated the efforts of Rev. Ophoff. This I         gle of faith unto the end. Never are we stocks and
do not consider ethical, and surely not brotherly and          blocks. Also the proclamation of the Gospel always
charitable.                                                    places us before the inevitable: Yes or No ! And
                                                               whereas that  procamation  of the Gospel comes, through
                    What Do We Lack?                           men, unto far more persons than the elect, the ungodly
       In the rest of the article, beginning in the middle     reprobates must also say Yes and No, sin is revealed
of page 3, where we read : "In closing let me say. . . ."      to be sin, and God is justified when He judges." Is
I fail to see what bearing these remarks have on the           this, Rev. Petter, not the doctrine of our churches and
issue now being discussed. The Rev. Petter warns               has it not been such already since their beginning?
against the danger of the wreckage of Anabaptism,              You know, of course, that these quotations can easily
fatalism, anominianism, of the glorious sovereignty            be multiplied. Fact is, nowhere do the truths of God's
being an offense to the flesh, not only to the Arminian        sovereignty and man's responsibility receive the proper
flesh, but equally so to the fatalistic, passivistic flesh.    emphasis as in our churches.
I have no objection to this warning. as such, but fail
to see the point. Does the Rev. Petter detect this                            A "Full-Orbed" Gospel.
danger in our Churches,? Where? Besides, in a para-
graph in the third column the brother writes: "Unto               Rev. Petter, you still owe me an answer to my
that purpose the Lord uses an almost unclassifiable            question to you whether I preach a full-orbed gospel.
variety of address, approach, instruction. And those           You make a distinction betwen the  2erm  "conditions",
forms are so various just because the salvation of man         and the concept "conditions". I do not want the term
is such a manysided moral ethical process. His will            and I do not want the  conc,ept. Is my gospel then
is changed in the things and ways it wills, his intellect      "full-orbed"? If it is not, what do I lack? And, if I
is changed as mind, his emotions are changed as emo-           do preach a "full-orbed" gospel, then will you please
tions, his affections, his desires, etc. And they are          explain why the concept, "conditions", is vital and
changed in respect to God and His goodness and His             necessary? I did not begin with this discussion in con-
virtues." And later the brother writes that the Lord           nection with a "full-gospel". `You did, brother. And I
uses various forms of address. This, of course, we do          am still awaiting your explanation.
not dispute. But, have we, as Protestant Reformed                 Finally, with this 1 take my leave of you as far as
Churches not maintained this truth for years already?          ,this discussion is concerned. It is my personal con-
Permit me in this connection to quote from Rev. Hoek-          viction that this discussion need not continue. This
sema's book: The Gospel, where I read on pages 152,            correspondence has been quite disappointing to me.
and we translate: "We understand very well that the            I have tried to be brotherly in this discussion. It may
contents of salvation, that the salvation of God's cove-       be that, as you write, I failed, in connection with the
nant and kingdom bears a spiritual-ethical character           quotation of Prof. Berkhof, to express myself clearly.
and that we have been taken up into the entire work            I am confident, however, that our people in general,
of Divine salvation as rational-ethical being. If the have no doubt as to my stand, and that I have stated
work of salvation  w,ere  merely a deliverance from hell       my position very clearly. I honestly wish that I could
and a being taken up into heaven, then it could finally        say the same thing of you. I know that many people
occur round about .US, in the sense that our inner soul-       are constantly asking themselves the question: What
life, our ethical consciousness wouId have nothing to does the Rev. Petter mean, what does he want?
do with the salvation. But now it is different. Through                                               H. Veldman.
the work of salvation we `are translated out of dark-

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

                                                                      center of our interest as it did in the time of the Refor-
   THIE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE                                              mation. But this is undoubtedly a mistake. The yues-
                                                                      tion concerning the mode of operation in the sacra-
                                                                      ments, and especially in the sacrament of the Lord's
An Exposition Of The Heidelberg Supper, is just as important as it ever was. Funda-
                      Catechism ,                                     mentally it is a question that concerns the grace of
                                                                      God. The question is, namely: how are the sacra-
                       PART TWO                                       ments, and how is the Lord's Supper especially, a
           O f   M a n ' s   Red.emption                              means of grace ? How does this second sacrament
                  LORD'S DAY XXIX.                                    work? In what way am I nourished with the body
                                                                      and blood of Christ through the Lord's Supper? And
            Qu. 78. Do then the bread and wine become the             this question the Catechism introduces by asking:
          very body and blood of Christ?                              "Do then the bread and wine become the very body
            A. Not at all: but as the water in baptism is not         and blood of Christ?" And it instructs us that our
          changed into the blood of  ,Christ, neither is the wash-    being nourished by the body and blood of Christ is not
          ing away of sin itself, Eeing  only the sign and con-
          firmation thereof appointed of God; so the bread            effected by a magical operation on the signs as such,
          in the Lord's supper is not changed into the very           but by an operation of the Holy Spirit in our hearts
          body of Christ; though agreeably to the nature and          through the signs of the broken body and the shed
          properties of sacraments, it is called the body of          blood of Christ. By these signs Christ through His
          Christ Jesus.                                               Spirit instructs us and assures us that He really nour-
            Qu. 79. Why then doth Christ call the bread  his
          body, and the cup his blood, or the new covenant in         ishes us with the bread of life.
          his blood; and Paul the "communion of the body and              xt is evident that in this Lord's Day the Catechism
          blood of Christ?"                                           opposes especially the Romish error of  transubstantia-
            A. Christ speaks thus, not without great reason,          tion, although at the same time it denies the Lutheran
          namely, not only thereby to teach us, that as bread
          and wine support this temporal life, so his crucified       doctrine of consubstantiation. According to the  Ro-
          body and shed blood  are  the  true meat and  drink,        manists Christ is present `in the Lord's Supper not
          whereby our souls are fed to eternal life; but more         simply in the spiritual sense, as taught by the Re-
          especially by these visible signs and pledges to            formed, nor simply by the real presence of l&s body
          assure us, that we are as  reaIly partakers of this  *      and blood in and with and under the bread and wine,
          true body and blood (by the operation of the Holy
          Ghost) as we receive by the mouths of our bodies            as is taught by the Lutherans, but by the bread and
          these holy signs in remembrance of him; and that            wine being changed into His body and blood. The
          all his sufferings and  obedienc'e  are as certainly        question may indeed be asked whether the Romish
          ours, as if we had in our own persons suffered aind         Church really teaches this fearful error of transub-
          made satisfaction for our sins to God.                      stantiation. And the answer is, without doubt, that
                           Chapter I.                                 it not only teaches this  salse  doctrine, but that it pro-
        The Fearful Error Of The Romanists.                           nounces its' curse upon all that deny it. This is very
                                                                      evident from The Canons and Decrees of the Cou.ncd
   In the preceding Lord's Day the Catechism treated                  of Trent. In its thirteenth session, held October 11,
of the institution of the Lord's Supper and of its signi-             1551, that Council set forth its doctrine concerning the
ficance in general. There it taught us, among other                   most holy sacrament of the Eucharist.
things, that by means of eating and drinking the bread                    In Chapter I the Council declared: "In the first
and wine of the Lord's !Supper  we become more and                    place, the holy synod teaches, and openly and simply
more united to the sacred body of Christ, so that we                  professes, that, in the august sacrament of the holy
become flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. In                    eucharist,  after the consecration of the bread and wine,
this present Lord's Day the Catechism treats of the                   our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and man, is truly,
sacramental operation.         This is indeed a very im-              really, and substantially contained under the species
portant question, and it should not lightly be passed                 of those sensible things,  (Dominus nostrum Jesum
by. Preachers sometimes complain of the fact that                     Christurn,  verum Deum atque hominem,  uere, realiter,
the Heidelberg Catechism devotes no less than three                   ax substantialiter sub specie illurum rerum sensibdium
long chapters to the question of the Lord's Supper;                   contineri)  ."
and many are of the opinion that if the Catechism were                    Again, in Chapter III the same Council declared:
written in our day, these long chapters could be con-                 "And this faith has ever  been in the church of God,
siderably shortened and probably comprised into one                   that, immediately after the consecration, the veritable
Lord's Day. There are other matters that  demarid                     body of our Lord, and His veritable blood, together
our attention in our modern age,  and'our  controversy,               with His soul and divinity, are under the species of
especially with Rome, certainly does not occupy the                   bread and wine; but the body indeed under the species

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

     of bread, and the blood under the species of wine, by        every year, on a certain day and that a festival ; and
     the force of the words ; but the body itself under the       that it be borne reverently and with honor in  groties-
     species of wine, and the blood under the species of          sions through the streets and pnblic  places."
     bread, and the soul under both, by the force of that            And the Romish Church declared in Chapter IV
     natural connection and  concomitancy  whereby the            of the same  Canons and Decrees  of the Council of
     parts of Christ our Lord, who hath now risen from  the       Trent,  the doctrine of transubstantiation as follows :
     dead,  to  die  YW more, are  united   together;  and the       "And because that Christ, our Redeemer, declared
     divinity, furthermore, on account of the admirable           that which H.e offered under the species of bread to
     hypostatical union thereof with His body and soul.           be truly His own body, therefore has it ever been a
     Wherefore it is most true, that as much is contained         firm belief in the church of ,God,  and this holy synod
     under either species as under both ; for Christ whole        doth now declare it anew, that, by the consecration
     an entire is under the species of bread and under any        of the bread and the wine, a conversion is made of
     part whatsoever of that species ; likewise the whole         the whole substance of the bread into the substance
     Christ is under the species of wine, and under the           of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole sub-
     parts thereof."                                              stance of the wine into the substance of His blood ;
        The Romish Church therefore teaches that the              which conversion is, by the holy catholic church, suit-
     whole Christ is in the bread and the whole Christ is         ably and properly called transubstantiation."
     in the wine. And what is more, the whole Christ is              And the same Thirteenth Session of the Council of
     in each and every particle of both species. Moreover,        Trent anathemize everyone that denies this doctrine
     it teaches that the effect accomplished by transsub-         of transubstantiation.
     stantiation is permanent. And from this fact, namely,           In Canon I we read: "If anyone denieth, that, in
     that the change of the substance of the elements into        the sacrament of the most holy eucharist, are con-
     the substance of the body and blood of Christ remains        tained truly, really, and substantially, the body and
     permanently, the Romish Church concludes that the            blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord
     host, or wafer, may be preserved, that therefore it          Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ; but
     may be brought to the sick, that it may be carried           saith that He is only therein as a sign, or in a figure,
     about in possessions, and that it is but proper that it      or virtue: let him be anathema."
     should be worshipped. The Romanists make a distinc-
     tion between  douleia  and  lutreia. The former may be          And in the second Canon: "If anyone saith, that,
     rendered to the saints and to angels, but the  Iatter  is    in the sacred and holy sacrament of the eucharist, the
     due to ,God alone. Now Christ is God manifested in           substance of the bread and wine remains conjointly
     the flesh. And therefore worship may be paid to Him.         with the body an-d blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
     And as after the consecration of the bread and wine          denieth that wonderful and singular conversion of the
     Christ is present in the wafer, or the host, both as to      tirhole substance of the bread into the body, and of the
     His divine and as to His human nature, the Romanists         whole substance of the wine into the blood-the species
     pay homage and worship to that wafer. The propriety          only of the bread and wine remaining-which con-
     of worshipping the wafer as it represents the, Christ is     version indeed the catholic church most  aply calls
     also taught in the Canom and Decrees of the Council          transubslantiation : let him be anathema."
     of  T,rent,  Chapter V, where we read: "Wherefore,              And  in  ,Canon HI we read: "If anyone denieth
     there is no room left for doubt, that all the faithful       that, in the venerabe sacrament of the eucharist, the
     of Christ may, according to the custom ever received         whole Christ is contained under each species, and
     in the Catholic Church, render in veneration the wor-        under every part of each species, when separated: let
     ship of Iatreia, which is due to the true God, to this       him be anathema."
     most holy sacrament. For not therefore is it the less           And as to the substance of the bread and wine
     to be adored on this account, that it was instituted         being changed permanently into the substance of the
     by Christ, the Lord, in order to be received ; for we        body and blood of Christ Canon IV teaches as follows :
     believe that same God to be present therein, of whom         "If anyone saith, that, after the consecration is corn-
     the' eternal Father, when introducing Him into the           pleted, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ
     world, says: And let all the angels of God adore him;        are not in the admirable sacrament of the eucharist,
I    whom the magi, falling down; adored; who, in fine,           but are there only during the use, whilst it is being
     as the Scripture testifies was adored by the apostles        taken, and not either reserved or after; and that, in
     in Galilee.                                                  the hosts, or consecrated particles, which are reserved
            "The holy synod declares, moreover, that very         or which remain after communion, the true body of
     piously and religiously was this custom introduced into      the Lord remaineth not: let him be anathema."
     the church, that this sublime and venerable sacrament                          (to be continued)
     be, with special veneration and solemnity, celebrated,                                                         H. H.


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         417

                                                             by the earthly, I this does not necessarily mean that
           OUR DOCTRINE                                      such is also the case in the eternal wisdom of the Lord.
                                                             This is impossible, and we should also understand this
                                                             at all times. The infralapsarian conception of things
         The Idea Of Creation. (I)                           cannot give full and complete satisfaction to the soul
                                                             of the child of God. It does not explain things. One
                                                             can hardly deny that the phenomenon of sin and death
           Why We  TGreat This Subject  flow.                in this world is tremendous. That this world is a
 The subject of "Creation" constitutes a part of what        shadow of the valley of death is an awful reality. To
,is commonly known as Anthropology  (the doctrine of         declare that the Lord merely "permitted" this awful
 or concerning Man).                                         phenomenon cannot satisfy the spiritually inquiring
     Until now we have been discussing Theology, the         child of God. I say: the spiritually inquiring child of
 doctrine concerning God, and specifically the doctrine <God. One can hardly be condemned, can he, when,
 concerning  #God as the Lord is in Himself. We under- in the light of the Scriptural truth that the Lord is
 stand, I am sure, that, strictly speaking, everything is    God and He alone, he seeks an answer in connection
 Theology. This lies in the nature of the case. Jehovah      with the reality of sin and death which will be in
 is the living God. He is All in all. Of Him and             harmony with the truth of the sovereignty and trans-
 through Him and unto Him are all things. The                cendent majesty of the living God? The desire to
 history of the world, which includes and centers in         maintain the sovereignty of the Lord is not carnal and
 and revolves about the gathering of the Church of the       should  certain@  fill the heart and mind of every child
 Lord out of all nations and tribes and lands and            of God. Fundamentally, according to the eternal coun-
 tongues, is nothing but the unfolding of the counsel of     sel and wisdom of the Lord, Christ did not come be-
 the Lord and His revelation of Himself as the alone         cause of sin but sin came  be,cause of Christ.       The
 living God. Everything is and should be knowledge           heavenly does not follow, fundamentally, upon the col-
 of God ; all things lead and should lead us unto Je-        lapse of the earthly, but the collapse of the first Para-
 hovah. "The heavens declare the glory of God ; and          dise occurs, according to Divine sovereignty, with a
 the firmament sheweth His handiwork. Day unto day view to the heavenly. The darkness serves the light,
 uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth know-          sin serves grace, our guilt occurs because of our eternal
 ledge"-Ps. 19 : l-2.                                        justification.    The Lord, Who forms the light and
    However, that which is commonly known as The-            creates the darkness, Who makes peace and creates
 ology, in distinction, e.g., from Anthropology, Christ-     evil, Whose works are known unto Him (sovereignly
 ology, etc., refers to the knowledge of the Lord as He      known) from before the foundation of the world, is
 is in Himself. And under this heading, namely that          therefore surely the sovereign and creative Cause of
 of Theology, we have called attention to such matters       all things also in His eternal counsel and wisdom. Any
 as: God's Being, the Trinity, His Names, Attributes,        other view which must present sin and the fall of man
 the Counsel of the Lord. We have just concluded a           as a Divinely foreseen but unavoidable accident, is an
 somewhat detailed discussion of the counsel of God.         injustice to and a travesty upon the `Lord, and funda-
    In Anthropology, the doctrine of or concerning           mentally a denial of the truth that Jehovah performs
 Man, we expect to discuss, the Lord willing: Creation,      always all His good pleasure and that He is God alone.
 Providence, Sin.                                            And it is indeed of fundamental significance for the
                                                             comfort of the Church of the living God, that all
 One can readily understand why the subject of Anthro-       things be regarded as constantly under Divine control,
 pology should be discussed at  this time.                   that nothing happens by chance, and that the Cause of
    This must not be interpreted in the sense that,          the living God is always victorious also then when the
 fundamentally, in the counsel and eternal thoughts of       night of `sin and guilt and darkness is introduced by
 Jehovah, the subject of the creation of the world and       the sin and fall of Adam.
 of man, of sin and the Providence of God, precedes             Historically, however, Anthropology follows the
 ,the truth as it involves Christ and His Church and the     locus  of Theology. What is not necessarily first in
 eternal renewal of all things.     That Anthropology        the counsel of God is first in time, in the historical
 precedes the doctrine of Christ and His Church does         realization of that counsel. We concluded our series
 not imply that the creation of the world and of man         of articles on Theology with a somewhat detailed dis-
 is also first in the eternal counsel of God. We have        cussion of the Counsel of  ;God. When we now busy
 already called attention to these things when we busied     ourselves with the realization of this counsel oft the
 ourselves with the subjects of Supralapsarianism and        Lord in time, the first subject which demands our at-
 Jnfralapsarianism. Although it is true that, historic-      tention is the creation of the world and the entrance
 ally, the natural is first and the heavenly is preceded     of sin into the works of God's hands. This readily

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

explains why the subject of Creation is treated at this       ter 4 of that Confession: "It pleased God the Father,
time. We also purpose to devote a little space to the         Son, and Holy Spirit, for the manifestation of the glory
creation and existence of the world of angels.                of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness in the
             As  According  To The Confessions.               beginning to create or make of nothing'the world, and
                                                              all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the
       The truth that God is the Creator of the world         space of six days, and all very good. After God had
appears, as we might expect, in all our Confessions.          made all other creatures, He created man, male and
       The first article of our Twelve Articles of Faith      female, with reasonable and immortal souls, endowed
reads  : "I believe in  ,God the Father, Almighty, Maker      with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness, after
of heaven and earth."                                         His own image, having the law of God written in their
       The H,eidelberg  Catechism speaks of this truth in     hearts and power to fulfill it; and yet under a possi-
Lord's Days 9 and 34. In Lord's Day 9, in answer to           bility of transgression, being left to the liberty of their
the question, "What do you believe when you say: I own will, which was subject unto change. Besides
believe in. God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven         this law written in their hearts, they received a com-
and earth?", we read : "That the eternal Father of our        mand not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good
Lord Jesus Christ, Who of nothing made heaven and             and evil; which while they kept they were happy in
earth with all that is in them, Who likewise upholds          their communion with aGod, and had dominion over the
and governs the same by His eternal counsel and provi-        creatures." In connection with this article of the
dence, is for the sake of Christ His Son my God and           Westminister Confession we would briefly call atten-
my Father; in Whom I so trust as to have no doubt             tion to the following points of interest. First, God is
that He will provide me with all things necessary for         presented in this article as the Creator of the world
body and soul ; and further, that whatever evil He            and all things therein. Also, the Lord is the Creator
sends upon me in this vale of tears, He will turn to          of the universe as the Triune God. Thirdly, the Lord
my good ; for He is able to do it, being almighty God,        created all things in the space of six days-hence, this
and willing also, being a faithful Father." And in            article does not advocate the theory that the days of
Lord's Day 34 the authors of the Catechism quote the          creation were periods. Fourthly, the Lord created  all
fourth commandment.                                           things very good. This, we understand, contradicts
       Art. 12 of our Confession of Faith speaks of the       the heresy of Materialism, in either the Monistic  or
creation of the world as follows: "We believe that the        Dualistic sense, to which we will subsequently call at-
Father by the Word, `that is, by His Son, has created         tention. And finally we would  note  that God created
of nothing the heaven, the earth, and all creatures,          man after His own image, in knowledge, righteousness,
when it seemed good unto Him, giving unto every               and true holiness, yet as  und,er a possibility of trans-
creature its being, shape, form, and several offices          gression.
to serve its Creator; that He also still upholds and                        As According To The Scriptures.
governs them by His eternal providence and infinite
power for the service of mankind, to the end that man         Generally speaking  i
may serve his God. He also created the angels good,               The Scriptural presentation  -of the  prigin of all
to be His messengers and to serve His elect; some of          things is surely of a very highly exalted and majestic
whom are fallen from that excellency in which God             character.      It is surely true what the late Dr. H.
created them into everlasting perdition,. and the others      Bavinck observes that the true religion distinguishes
have by the grace of God remained stedfast and con-           itself from all other religions at the very outset by
tinued in their first state. The devils and evil spirits      presenting the relation in which God stands to the
are so depraved that they are enemies of God and              worId  and to man as that of the Creator to His
every good thing; to the utmost of their power as             creature.
murderers watching to ruin the Church `and every                 Majestic is already the opening verse of the Holy
member thereof, and by their wicked stratagems to             Syiptures.       And throughout the Word of God the
destroy all ; and are, therefore, by their own wicked-        presentation of the origin of all things is not philo-
ness *adjusted to eternal damnation, daily expecting          sophic in character, not mysteriously deep and pro-
their horrible torments.       Therefore we reject and        found. which cannot be grasped by the mind of man,
abhor the error of the  Sadducees,  who deny the exist- but simple. God does not prove Himself to be the
ence of spirits and angels; and also that of the Mani-        Creator of the world, but simply postulates it as a fact.
chees,  who assert that the devils have their origin of       And although it is true that the act of creation as
themselves, and that they  are wicked by their own            such defies all human understanding, the fact remains
nature, without having been corrupted."                       that the revelation of it is held before us in such a
       The Westminister Confession also speaks, of course,    cIear and simple manner that a child can grasp it, and
of the Divine creation of the world. We read in chap-         that all the efforts of the world to ascribe. the world's


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        419

existence to any other source are clearly to be dis-         Word was with God, and the Word was God. The
cerned as the efforts of the wilful hatred and rejection     same was in the beginning with God. All things were
of the living God.                                           made by Him ; and without Him was not any thing
   Besides, no other Name describes God's absolute           made that was made."-John 1: l-3 ; "For by Him were
existence or being as does the Name, Creator. To say         all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in
that a fountain is the source of water implies that the      earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones,
water is out of that fountain, and that the two are          or dominions or principalities, or powers: all things
essentially one; to declare that I am the father of my       were created by Him, and for  Him:"-Cal.   1  :I.6  ;
son clearly suggests that there is an essential affinity     "Hath in these days spoken unto us by His Son, Whom
between us. To declare, however, that God is the             He hath appointed heir of all things, by Whom also
Creator of heaven and earth implies, and this we must        He made the worlds  ;"-Hebrews 1:2.
understand, that there is an essential distinction be-          Nothing stands over against Him; there was no
tween *God and the world, the Creator and His crea-          matter which bound Him and no power which limited
ture. To be sure, the Lord is the Father of all men          Him. He speaks and it is. Gen. 1:3-see  above; "For
and of the world in the sense that mankind and the           He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it
world owe their existence to Him, that all things are        stood fast."-Ps. 33 :9; "(As it is written, I have made
of Him. But we must ever bear in mind that He is:            thee a father of many nations,) before Him who he
in this sense, their Father because He is their Maker,       believed, even God, Who quickeneth the dead, and
their Qeator, that all things do not flow essentially        calleth those things which be not as though they were."
out of His being, but that they have been called into        -Remans 4 : 17.
e-xistence  by an act of the Lord's omnipotent and irre-        God is the unlimited Possessor of heaven and earth.
sistible will. This essential distinction is clearly and     "And blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abraham of
beautifully emphasized and set forth by the word or          the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth : . . .
name, Creator. A creator is surely to be distinguished,      And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up
essentially, from that which he creates.                     mine hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the
                                                             possessor of heaven and earth."-Gen. 14 :19, 22 ; "For
Specifically  speaking  :                                    He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it
    God alone is the absolute and creative source of all     upon the floods. The earth is the Lord's, and the  ful-
that exists. He has created all things by His Word           ness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. . .
and Spirit. "In the beginning God created the heaven         The north and the south Thou hast created them;
and the earth. And the earth was without form, and           Tabor  and Hermon shall rejoice in Thy Name . . . In
void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.            His hand are the deep places of the earth : the strength
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the             of the hills is His also. The sea is His, and He made
waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there          it: and His hands formed th.e dry land."-Ps. 24 :2, 1,
was light"-Gen. 1: l-3 ; "By the word of the Lord 89 :12, 95 ~45.
were the heavens made ; and all the host of them by             There is no boundary to His power; He does all His
the breath of His mouth . . . Thou hidest Thy face,          good pleasure. "The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying,
they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath,            Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and
they die, and return to their dust . . . Let them praise as I have purposed, so shall it stand . . . For the Lord
the name of the Lord: for He commanded, and they of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it?
were created."-Ps. 33 :6, 104 :29, 148 :5 ; "The Spirit, and His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it
of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty          back?"-&.  14 :24, 27 ; "Declaring the end from the
hath given me life."-Job 33 :4; "Who hath measured           beginning, and from ancient times the things that are
the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out          not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I
heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of           will do all My pleasure: . . . For as the rain cometh
the earth, in a measure, and weighed the mountains in        down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not
scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed thither;but  watereth the earth, and maketh it bring
the Spirit of the Lord, or being His  counsellor  hath forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and
taught Him? . . . Mind hand also hath laid the founda- bread to the eater :"-1s.  46 :lO, 55 :lO ; "But our God
tion of the earth, and My right hand hath spanned the        is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath
heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up to-            pleased . . . Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did
gether."- Is. 40 :12-13,48  :13 ; "The burden of the word    He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep
of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, Which stretch-       places."-Ps. 115 :3, 135 :6.
eth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of             All things are out of Him and through `Him and j
the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him"--       unto Him. "For of  .Him,  and through Him, and to
Zech  . 12:l; "In the beginning was the Word, and the        Him, are all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen.

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

     But to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom
     are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord  Jesus
      Christ, By Whom are all things, and we by Him . . .            TJ3E DAY  OFSHADOWS
     Through faith we understand that the worlds were
     framed by the word of God, so the things which are
     seen were not made of things which do appear."-Ram.            David's Victories, His Faith
      11:36, 1 Cor. 8:6, Hebrews 11:3.
            The world is the product of His will. "By the         We have seen how villianous David's messengers,
     word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the       sent to comfort  Hanun for his father, had been treat-
     host of them by the breath of His mouth . . . Thou        ed. Realizing full well that David would avenge the
     art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive glory and honor and        insult, the Ammonites hired the Syrians for the im-
     power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy      pending conflict. But, as we saw, at the approach
     pleasure they are and were created"-Ps. 33:6, Rev.        of Israel's armies under the leadership of Joab the
     4  :11; it is the revelation of His virtues-"Bless the    Syrians fled the field, and the Ammonites at the sight
     Lord,  0 my soul. 0 Lord my God, Thou art very            of the fleeing Syrians hastily retreated into their
     great; Thou art clothed with honour and majesty,"- stronghold. Thereupon Joab returned to Jerusalem,
     Ps.  104:l; see also Prov. 8:23 f.f., Ps. 136:5 f.f, More- 10 :l-14 (of 2 Sam.) But the battle had been but half
     over, the world has its purpose in His glory. "Even won. The Ammo&e cities had still to be taken. When
     every one that is called by My Name: for I have the year was expired, Joab returned and completed his
     created him for My glory, I have formed him, yea, I task. All the cities of the Ammonites including Rabbah
     have made  him"---&. 43  :7 ; "The Lord hath made all were captured and depopulated,  1l:l; 12 :26-31.
     things for Himself: yea, even the wicked for the .day        The time that intervened between the first of these
     of evil."-l?rov. 16 :4 ; "0 the depth of the riches both two military campaigns of Joab and the completion of
     of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! how unsearch- the second must have been of about a year duration at
     able are His judgments, and His ways past finding         the least. It included the time consumed by the first
     out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or          campaign; second, the time intervening between the
     who that been His counsellor? Or who hath first given f?rst and the second; and lastly, the time consumed
     to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? by the second. It was a year filled with momentous
     For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all          happenhgs.  .Some  of them were sad and shameful
     things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen."-Rom. and of far-reaching effect for David.
     11:33-36; "But the Lord is the true God, He is the           First in order of time was Joab's first conflict with
     living  ,God,  and an everlasting king: at His wrath the the combined armies of the Ammonites and the Syrians
     earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to 10  :I-14  (of 2 Sam.). This was followed by David's
     abide His indignation. Thus shall ye say unto them,       battle with the powerful Hadadezer and his Syrian
     The gods that have not made the heavens and the vassal kings in the Euphrates valley, 8:3-8; 10 :15-19.
     earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from During the process of this war, while David was far
     under these heavens. He hath made the earth by His from home, the Edomites gained possession of southern
     power, He hath established the world by His wisdom,       Canaan. On his return David inflicted on them ter-
     and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion." rible punishment,  8  :13, 14.
     -Jer.  10  :X0-12.    And beautifully the glory of the       David had now overthrown all the nations that had
     Divine Creator is expressed in Nehemiah 9  :6 : "Thou, been menacing Israel from the river Nile on the west
     even Thou, art Lord alone ; Thou hast made heaven,        to the Euphrates on the east. The narrative in the
     the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth,    sequel makes mention of but one people, and this
     and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that people the Philistines, that continued openly defiant,
     is therein, and Thou preservest them all; and the host 21:15-22. The Lord had given David rest round about
     of heaven worshippeth Thee."                              from all his enemies, 7 : 1. For the first time he was
         Indeed, all  .of creation speaks of the omnipotence, reigning  hover all Israel ; judgment and justice was
     the wisdom, the greatness and majesty of the living being executed unto all the people, 8  :15.        No longer
     God, and it inspires us unto praise and thanksgiving,     occupied with war, David decided to build the Lord
l
     renders us small and causes us to feel our smallness      a house, 7  :l-3. But he was prevented by a special
     and nothingness.      We may well conclude with the revelation from  ,God  communicated by Nathan and
     words of Revelation 4  :11 and quote them once more:      from which he learned that the Lord's house would be
     "Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive glory and honour built by his seed that the Lord would set up after him,
     and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for      1:4-17.  David's response was a prayer of thanksgiv-
     Thy pleasure they are and were created."                  ing,  `7 :19-29. All Xmse events must be included in the
                                            H. Veldman.        happenings of that year. They must have taken place


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                          421

shortly after David's return to Jerusalem from the                            15) Chap. 12:26-31,  He rejoined his army at Rabbah, and took
battle with the  coalation  of the Syrian kings in the                            charge of the Ammonite  war for the rest of its duration.
Euphrates valley. For that victory marked the be-                                 His return to Jerusalem.
ginning of the rest from all the enemies.                                     16) Chap. 12:15-25,  The Lord struck the child. David besought
    -Next in order of time, it must be, was David's con-                          the Lord for it; its death seven days thereafter.
ference with Mephibosheth recorded in chapter 9. He                              The reason of this abandoning of the strictly chrono-
sent for Mephibosheth. He entertained him at his table                        logical sequel is that the events were factually related.
permanently, restored him all that was Saul's, and So David's transportation of the ark of the covenant
made Ziba his farmer. It must have been about this                            and his determination to build the Lord a house. So,
time or shortly thereafter that Joab as commanded                             too, Hanun's `insult offered David's messengers, the
by David returned to the Ammonites to seize their re-                         Ammonite wars, David's adultery, and Uriah's death.
bellious cities,' 11 :l. While Joab layed seige to Amman's                       The time consumed by David's wars, particularly
capital city, Rabbah, David, who had tarried at deru-                         by the subjugation of Rabbah and the rest of the
salem,  fell into grievous sin. He committed adultery                         Ammonite cities, must remain a matter of conjecture.
with Bethsheba and had Uriah slam in battle. As                               Certain it is that these wars were not of years dura-
rebuked  *by Nathan, he was contrite. Though forgiven,                        tion. Doubtless the time required for the seisure of
he must reap what he sowed-murder in his own house,                           Rabbah could be measured by months and perhaps by                    I
11 il-27 ; 12 :l-14. Next, at the request of Joab, he                         weeks. This is not an ,idle conjecture. These conflicts
rejoined his army at Rabbah and took charge of the                            do not belong in the category of common wars between
Ammonite war for the rest of its duration, 12:26-31.                          the nations. They were wars of ,God  that. the saints in
Either during his absence from Jerusalem or shortly                           Israel were privileged to wage by His mercy. The vic-
after his return, Uriah's wife bore him a son. But                            tories were God's gifts of grace to His believing people,
God smote the child, and it died, as the Lord had said,                       the manifestations and the pledge of His love of them,
12:15-25.  Such were the events of that year in their                         and therefore properly wonders, marvellous works of
chronological order.                                                          the Lord, also on adcount  of the speed with which they
    That the narrative in our' book (2 Samuel) is not                         were performed always in the way of the prayers of
strictly chronological is undeniably clear in the chap-                       the saints. Among the psalm are found such prayers-
ters S-10. The insult offered David's messengers by psalms of David-heart-cries of the saints, of David
Hanun,  narrated in 10 :l-6, preceded and indirectly                          himself, uttered in the stress of his Wars with the
occasioned David's conflict -pbith the Syrian kings in                        heathen :
the Euphrates valley, an event narrated in chapter 8.                              Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me
Hanun's insult must have preceded also David's eleva-                              into Edom? Wilt not thou, 0 God, which hast cast us off?
tion of Mephibosheth, an event narrated in chapter 9.                              and thou, 0 Gord, which didst not go out with our armies ?
    Were the order chronological, the sequel in the                                Give us help from trouble; for vain is the help of man.
                                                                                   Through God we will do valiantly: for he it is that shall
narrative of the section beginning with chapter 6                                  tread down our enemies. Ps. 60:9-12.
would be as follows:                                                               Hear my cry, 0 God; attend unto my pray&.
 1) Chap. 6, David fetches the ark from Kirjath-jearim.                            From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my
 2) Chap. 8:1-2, David% wars with the Philistines and Moabites.                    heart is overwhelmed: lead me.to the rock that is higher
 3) Chap.  lO:l-5,  Hanun's  villianous treatment of David's                       than I.
    messengers.                                                                    For thou hast been a shelter for me, and `a strong tower
 4) Chap. 10:6,  The Ammonites hired the Syrians for the pend-                     from the enemy.
    ing conflict.                                                                  I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the
 5) Chap.  10~7-14,  Joab's first campaign against the combined                    covert of thy wings. Ps.  61:1-4.
    forces of the Ammo&es and the Syrians.                                       When on the way to the theatre of war, the pray-
 6) Chap. 8:3-8;  10:15-19,  David's conflict with  Hadadezer  and            ers of God's people, who remained at home, went
    his confederate vassal kings in the valley of the Euphrates.              with David. Then they would speak in their hearts
 7) Chap.  8:14,  His subjugation of the Edomites on his return
    to Jerusalem.                                                             and jointly on their meetings for public. worship :
3) Chap.  7:1,  Having now rest round about from all his enemies,                  The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the
    he dwelt in his house, (8:15)  and reigned over all Israel.                    God of Jacob  set thee on a high place;
 9) Chap.  8 :ll-12, His dedication of the spoils of war to the Lord.              Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee
10) Chap.  7:1-29,  His decision to build the Lord a house;                        out of Zion;
    Nathan's prophecy,  and David's prayer of thanksgiving.                        Remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacridce;
3.1) Chap. 9:1-13, His kindness toward Mephibosheth.                               Grant thee according to  thine  own heart, and fulfill all
12) Chap. ll:l, Joab'e second campaign against the Ammonites;                     thy counsel.
    he beseiged Rabbah.                                                            Who will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our
1.3) Chap. 11:2-27,  David's adultery; death of  U&h.                              God we will set up our banners: the Lord fulfill  all thy
14) Chap.  12:1-14,  David censured by Nathan; his repentance            I         p e t i t i o n s .
    and forgiveness.                                                     I:  ..' Now I know that the Lord saveth his anointed; he will

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

        hear him from his holy heaven by the strength of the sal-    the Lord performed these wonders. For the Lord is
        vation of his right hand.                                    his lamp, who lightens his darkness. For by his God
        Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will
        remember the name of the Lord our God.                       he scattered a troop. By his God he leaped over a wall,
        They are brought down and fallen; but we are risen, and      -God, whose way is perfect, whose word is tried,
        stand upright. Save, Lord: let the king hear us when         and who is a buckler to all them that trust in Him.                     *
        we call.                                                     For none is God, save the Lord ; and none is a rock
   We should study in this connection especially Ps. 18.             save his God, vers. 29-32.
It appears also at the close of our book (2 Sam.),                      Enlarging upon this thought in the sequel, David
forming the 22nd chapter thereof. It is prefaced by                  continues :
the statement, "And David spake unto the Lord the                             God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way
words of this song in the day that the Lord had de-                           perfect.
livered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out                        Ee maketh my feet like hinds' feet: and setteth me upon
of the hand of Saul" (verse I.). accordingly, the song                        my high places.
                                                                              He  teacheth  my hands to war; so that a bow of steel is
is one of th.anksgiving  for God's mighty deliverances.                       broken by mine arms. Thou hast also given me the shield
   The opening words of Ps. 18- "I will love thee,                            of salvation; and thy gentleness hath made me great.
0 Lord, my strength"-are lacking here; but they may                           Thou hast enlarged my steps under me; so that my feet
be supplied. Loving the Lord, David had put his trust                         did not slip, (vers. 33-37).
in the Lord, and was not put to shame. Recalling                        These statements, too, apply particularly to the
God's marvellous mercies, he was overwhelmed. In                     mercy of *God whereby He qualified David for his wars
profoundest gratitude he rapturously exclaimed :                     with the heathen physically, mentally, and spiritually.
        The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer;             In the sequel of his song he dwells upon his amaz-
        The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield,    ing successes in these wars and gives all the glory to
        and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my          God :
        refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence.                     I have pursued my enemies, and destroyed them; and
        I will call upon the.Lord, who is worthy to be praised:               turned not. again until I had consumed them.
        so shall I be saved from my enemies. (vers. 2-k).                     And I have consumed them, and wounded them, that they
   The reference here is to David's deliverances from                         couId  not arise; yea, they are fallen under my feet.
the hand of his internal enemies-Saul and his sympa-                          For thou hast girded me with strength to battle; them
thizers. He was reminiscent of the anguish of soul                            that rose up against me hast thou subdued under me.
                                                                              Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, that
that he suffered in the dark days of the Sauline perse-                       I might destroy them that hate me.
cutions :                                                                     They looked, but there was none to save; even unto the
        When the pangs of death compassed me, the floods of,                  Lord, but he answered them not.
        ungodly men made me afraid; the sorrows of hell com-                  Then I beat them as small as the dust of the earth, I did
        passed me about; the snares of death prevented me                     stamp them as the mire of the street, and did spread them
        (vers.  b-7).                                                         abroad (vers. 38-42).
   In his distress he called upon the Lord and was                      The next line must have reference to the Lord's
heard. The Lord came in judgment, delivered him from                 goodness to David whereby He delivered him from his
his enemies-Saul and his following-and brought                       internal enemies as headed  *by Absalom :
him forth also in a large place. Implied in this state-                       Thou hast also delivered me from the strivings of my
ment is the mercy of God whereby He set His servant                           people (vers.  44a).
at His own right hand as king over Israel. (vss. 7-20).                 In the sequel down through verse 49 David is occu-
   So did the Lord reward him according to his right-                pied with the exalted position which he occupies as the
eousness, He being a God who shews Himself merciful                  Lord's anointed and with his security in that position.
with the merciful, upright with the upright, and pure                Again he gives all credit to God:
with the pure, but unsavory with the froward, (vers.                          Thou hast kept me to be the head of the heathen: a people
21-27).                                                                       which I knew not shall serve me.
   By the hand of His servant, thus delivered and                      : Strangers shall submit themselves unto me; as soon as
exalted, the Lord saved His afflicted people by which                         they hear, they shall be obedient unto me.
is to be understood the Israel according to the election,                     Strangers shall fade away, and they shall be afraid out
                                                                              of their closed places.
the people of God who put their trust in Him. `For the                        The Lord liveth; and blessed be my rock; and exalted be
song continues, "But thine eyes are upon the haughty,                         the God of my salvation.
that thou mayest bring them down" (vers. 28). It                              It is God that avengeth me, and that bringeth down the
was a deliverance from the tyranny, oppression, and                           people under me.
threats of conquest of the heathen nations that dwelt                         And that bringeth me forth from my enemies; thou also
on Israel's borders in that vast region beyond.                               hast lifted me  up  on high above them that rose up against
                                                                              me; thou hast delivered me from the violent man (vers.
       By the hand of his exalted servant-king David-                         44b-49).


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARER                                                         423
                                                                       ,
   Let us take notice of the line, "Thou hast  kept  me            at God's own right hand, vested with all power in
to be the head of the heathen." It applies to the                  heaven and on earth with the nations as his inherit-
heathen nations that dwelt within Israel's ideal boun-             ance, and set over all things in the church, so that He
daries, that vast region beyond the proper borders of              reigns in the midst of His enemies all of whom have
Canaan. The Lord subdued them. one and all under                   been made His footstool, breaks in pieces like a potter's
David, brought them under. his jurisdiction through                vessel kings and judges of the earth who will not serve
his wonderful military accomplishments in that region              Him and simultaneously gathers His church by His
as God's warrior. As the Song states, they submitted               Spirit and His Word, by His thanksgiving unto God
themselves to David, rendered him obedience, and paid              among the nations, and His praises which He sings
him tribute as his vassals with him as their head.                 unto God's name by the mouth of His servants.
To this height of glory and pow&r did the Lord raise                   It is these facts and truths that our Song sets be-
David as king of Israel. And in this exalted position              fore us in the final instance. For in his sufferings
the Lord maintained him all the rest of the days of                and trials in the days of the Sauline persecutions, in
his life on earth. And what was the Lord's purpose                 the deliverance from his troubles, in his exaltation, in
in exalting His servant thus mightily? David tells us : his power and glory and military achievements, in his
     Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, 0 Lord, among         singing praises unto God's name among the heathen,
     the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name (vers.     David was a type of Christ.                G. M. Ophoff.
     50).
   This, is the character of all true Gospel preaching
also to be sure, among the heathen:-giving thanks
to the Lord ; singing praises unto His name.                                           PLAN TO ATTEND
   The closing verse of this Song is significant:
     He is the `tower of  ,saIvation  for his king: and sheweth      The 25th Anniversary Field Day
     mercy to his anointed, unto David, and  his seed forever
     more (vers. 51).                                                                           at the
   The thought here expressed proves with undeniable                                 JAMESTOWN GROVE
clarity that David ended with this song not in himself
but in Christ. In the final instance David is Christ
and his seed the people included in Christ-the church                           Wednesday - June 21
of the elect. For the mercies of God are to David and                             AFTERNOON  & EVENING
this se&d forever.
   That the Song is messianic is proved by the use                          GOOD SPEAKERS                  GOOD PROGRAM
that Paul makes of it. In Remans` 15 $3,. 9 he argues                Meet Old Friends - Make New Acquaintances
the point that "Jesus Christ was made `a minister of
the circumcision for the truth to God, to confirm the                         Jamestoi  Grove is hated two miles South
promises made unto the fathers: and that the Gentiles                            and  lr/,  miles East of  Rudsonville.
might glorify ,God for His mercy." And to prove his
point he quotes from Ps. 18 anq thus' from our Song
these words uttered by David, "For this cause I will
confess to thee among the  GentiIes,  and sing unto thy                             WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
name." So now vows the incarnate and glorified Christ                On June 25, our dear parents
-vows that He will sing unto God's name among all                                   Mr. and Mrs. John B.ouwman
the nations of the earth, calling thereby  ,His church
and so confirming the promises made unto Abraham                   will celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. We are than.kfuI
                                                                   to our covenant God Who through them has showered upon us
that in Him all the nations of the earth would be                  Christian Iove and devotion, and given us a home where we may
blessed. For it is evident that the apostle applies the know  the fear of God.
lines that he quotes to Christ.                                      Our prayer is that the Lord may richly bless them with His
   Here then, the Song is messianic, and not only at               grace in the way that lies ahead, and that in all their ex-
this place but  .in every one of its sections. The in-             periences they may enjoy that blessed peace which is found in
carnate Christ is the speaking subject of its entire               the blood of Christ. Their grateful children:
content. And this can be expected seeing that He                                                 Mr.  and Mrs. Kieth Kuipers
as the anointed of God was compassed about by the                                                Eetty
sorrows of hell on account of the guilt of our sins the                                          Norma
burden of which He had shouldered ; seeing, further,                                             carol
that He was delivered out of all His troubles by His               Open House, Tuesday, June 27
                                                                   afternoon 3:00 to 5:OO; evening 7:00 to 10:OO.
God in response to His cry, set in the highest heavens             832 Reynard S. E., Grand Rapids, Michigan.


     4 2 4                                T H E S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

      The Arm Of The Lord Revealed born our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was
                                                                 wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for
                                                                 our iniquities. The Lord laid on Him the iniquities of
        To preach the Christ in His sufferings is to preach us all." Verse  3 of this chapter is a clear reference to
     the Gospel, the promise of the Gospel. Now, the Gospel, the terrible miscarriage of justice in Christ's trial be-
     certainly, is not shut up between the two covers of the fore Israel's magistrates and before Pilate. Verse 9
     New Testament Bible. All the Scriptures from Gene- discloses with whom Christ will make His grave. He
     sis to Revelation is Gospel. There is just as good a will make His grave with the wicked and with the rich,
     reason to speak of the Gospel of Genesis or of Exodus says the text. According to verse ten, Christ, though
     or of Amos as there is reason to speak of the Gospel of     He dies an untimely death at the hands of wicked men,
     Matthew, of Mark, Luke and John. The Gospel, Christ and leaves this life without any natural offspring, will
     crucified and resurrected, began to be preached im- nevertheless sow seed, and prolong His days ; and the
     mediately after the fall and disobedience of our first      pleasure of the `Lord shall prosper in His hand. Also
     parents. What the Lord said to the serpent, "I will         by His knowledge shall He justify many; and God will
     put enmity between thee and the woman, and between          divide him a portion with the great ; and he shall divide
     thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and       the spoil with the strong. This is a plain statement of
     thou shalt bruise its heel"-this proclamation to our        the resurrection of Christ unto the justification of His
     first parents is verily Gospel. It is the seed, the germ,, people and of their being set in heaven with Him to
     of all the Gospel contained in all the Scriptures. And      share in all the fruits of His cross. Verse 13 of the
     it is God who by His own voice revealed it in paradise,     preceding chapter proclaims in unmistakable language
     -revealed the Gospel of the Christ; and afterwards          the exaltation of Christ at the right hand of God to the
     He published it by the patriarchs and the ,prophets  ;      supreme position of King of kings and Lord of lords
     represented? pictured, typified it by the sacrifices and    and of head over all things in the church. The text
     other ceremonies of the law, and lastly has fulfilled it    reads, "Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he
     by His own begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.             shall be exalted and extolled and be very high."
        The fact of the matter is then. that every book of          This, then, is the gospel as it was proclaimed by
     the Bible is Gospel. The prophetic discourse of Isaiah      Isaiah to the church of his day. It is the full gospel of
     is thus gospel. The 53rd chapter of Isaiah is gospel        Christ that the prophet was proclaiming. That ap-
     in the strictest sense. Here the prophet is occupied ex-    proximately 600 years beforehand he could give to the
     clusively and directly with the suffering and the glori-    church this remarkable survey of the cross, presents
     fied Christ.                                                no difficulty to us, who believe and know by the mercy
        I direct your attention to the first verse of the        of God that all. prophecy originated with the eternal
     aforesaid chapter-the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. It            God and with Christ our chief prophet, and that it was
     reads, does this verse, ?Vho hath believed our report? by His infallible inspiration and guidance that the pro-
     and to  &horn  is the arm of the Lord revealed."            phets of the Old Dispensation spake and wrote.
       The word "report" demands our attention first of             Assuredly, of this ,Gospel  of Christ Isaiah was a
     all. The word that appears in the original text signi- faithful preacher. There is indication in the next text
     fies that which the prophet heard or received by infal-     that he preached his gospel before he gave it perman-
     lible revelation from God, to wit, the Gospel of Christ.    ency by puttting it to writing for future generations.
        Just what elements of truth did Isaiah's Gospel in-         Now there is this question: What fruit did the pro-
     clude? What redemption facts does it set forth? We          phet see upon his labors ? It is a question in which the
     learn this from thevery chapter from which my text          true church and every true preacher of the gospel
     is taken. In this chapter alone the following sacred        naturally is interested. And it is not a forbidden inter-
     facts and truths receive statement. The virgin birth        est. The Lord wants us to know. For He inspired
     of Christ and thus by implication" the incarnation of       Isaiah to reveal just what fruit He made the prophet's
     the Son of God in the first part of verse two, a scrip-     preaching of God's gospel to bear; to reveal what atti-
     ture that reads, "For he shall grow up before him as a      tude men took to the Christ that the prophet preached
     tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground." Fur-       and with what arguments they countered his gospel
     ther, the lowly estate of Christ in the second haIf of      preaching. Says the prophet, "Who hath believed our
     the same verse and in language that reads, "He hath         report," our gospel, that which we heard, received by
     no form nor comeliness ; and when we shall see him,         infallible inspiration from God ! Our English trans-
     there is no beauty that we should desire him." Next         lators of the Bible placed a question mark behind this
     the substitutionary atonement of Christ, His suffering utterance. But they should have marked off the sen-
     and dying on the cross for the sins of His people is        tence by an exclamation point instead. For it isn't
     plainly set forth in the verses 3 to 6 of this chapter.     realy  a  question that the prophet here puts, but rather
     Here statements such as these occur. "Surely, he hath
a                                                                an exclamation expressive of amazement and grief at


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           425

the reactions of unbelief to the prophets preaching of       of the way, they are together become unprofitable;
the gospel. The contemporaries of Isaiah did not be-         there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their
lieve his "report". They rejected and despised the           throat is an open sepulchre ; with their tongue they
Christ that it set forth. Quotations from Jewish writ-       have used deceit ; the poison of asps is under their lips ;
ings that go back to a long time before the birth of         their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." Mark
Christ show that the ancient rabbis turned and dis-          you well, I am still quoting Paul, "Their feet are swift
torted Isaiah's discourse on the suffering servant until     to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their
it ceased to be recognizable. The substitutionary suf- ways. The way of peace they have not known. And
ferings of Christ were transformed by these Jewish           there is no fear of God before their eye." End of
authorities, into intercession and the Christ Himself        quote. In a word, there is not an atom of grace in the
into a victorious, triumphant Messiah, who sacrificed        natural man; no kind of grace, either special or com-
the strong in the nation like sheep, without anyone          mon. I know, we have to do here with an appraisal
daring to open his mouth before Him. So did men              of fallen man's moral nature that could not be more
react to Isaiah's "report", gospel of the Christ. They' horribly severe. But it is true to life is it not. What
did not believe it.                                          can be expected of such men in the way of believing
   Was Isaiah at fault? Did he not know how to               the Gospel of Christ! Indeed., no amount of eloquence
preach? Was he lacking in speaking talent? His dis-          and power of persuasion on the part of a human
courses reveal that he was a man of true oratory. For        preacher brought, to bear on such men could get even
the love of God burned like a fire in his soul. But sup- one of them to utter the faintest cry for forgiveness
posing he had been what men call a dull and uninterest- and salvation. By nature all men without a single
ing preacher, that could not have accounted for the          exception `are dead in sin. How then can there be in s
reception that men gave his gospel. For Christ spake         such men- the will, the smallest desire, to believe the
as no man spake. Yet, he, too, cried, as Isaiah had          ,Gospel  ? Man's will must be as spiritually dead as
cried, "who hath believed our report!" though not in         man is dead, must it not? Hence, the only will, the
just these words, it may be. There is that familiar          only desire that stirs in this man's bosom, as far as
lamentation from His lips,  "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem,         the Christ of God's gospel is concerned, is the will,
that killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are         the desire to despise the Gospel and, to crucify the
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy          Christ that sets it forth. And that precisely is what
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens      men did with the Christ approximately nineteen hun-
under wings, and ye would not." John speaks of this          dred years ago now. They compassed Him about like
unbelief of the Jews of Christ's day in the 12th chap-       ravening, roaring lions ; they gaped upon Him with
ter of his gospel. Verse 37 of this chapter reads, "But their mouths, thirsting after His blood. They mocked
though He, the Christ, had done so many miracles be-         Him; they spit in His face; they beat Him with their
fore them, yet they believed not in Him."                    fists ; and they ended with affixing His body to the
   7'ho hath believed our report!" It is a cry that          accursed tree. What earthly  sense  does it have to
has been uttered by every true preacher of the Gospel        offer such men the Gospel, as though they have in
through  all the ages of the past almost since the very themselves the power to take it  `?
days that the Gospel began to be preached on the earth.         Yet the exclamation, "Who hath believed our re-
Enoch  uttered that cry ; and Noah, and all the prophets     port !" is not one of despair. For it is not meant to
in Israel ; and Christ, and Paul, and the apostles. There    convey the thought that the gospel was and is being
never lived a preacher of God's Gospel of the Christ         disbelieved by all.    Obviously, this is not the case.
who did not utter that cry. Mark you well; I speak           There was the prophet himself and the spiritual Israel
now of the preachers of God's Gospel  ; not of the           -the true church of the living God-that he repre-
preachers of man's gospel.  '                                sented and for whom he spake. They believed. But               .
   For men do not believe God's Gospel. You do not.          according to the word that God put into the prophet's
I do not. Nobody does ; that is, believe the Gospel          mouth, the faith of the spiritual Israel is  ;God's gift in
apart from God's grace. And there is reason. To              them. For to the exclamation, "who hath believed our
believe God's Gospel is to want Christ's God and His         report!" the prophet adds, "To whom is the arm of the
heavenly kingdom and its righteousness. Men do not           ,Lord revealed !" The two exclamations taken together
want God's heavenly kingdom and its righteousness.           set forth the truth and fact that men believe or dis-
For by nature men are dead in sin. All men are with-         believe the Gospel of Christ according as God reveals
out a single exception. What this means you may read         or refrains from revealing to them His arm, the Christ,
in th.e third chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans.       in `His power and majesty. What does this mean, what
"There is none righteous, says the Spirit through Paul,      can it possi.bly mean but that man does not have faith,
no, not one. There is none that understand,eth; there        is devoid even of the faintest desire to believe, so that,
is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out        if he is going to believe, God  mu.% put faith in him by
                                                                         .

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

revealing to him .His arm, by magnifying in him the
life and grace of Christ. How can it be otherwise if,
as the Scriptures over and over affirm, man, being dead               S I O N ' S   Z A N G E N
in sin, is an enemy of the cross? Does it not again all
come down to this that it is not of him that willeth nor
of him that runneth but of aGod that sheweth mercy.                 Verlost Uit Het Diensthuis
   The faith of the spiritual Israel is of God. All that                    (Psalm 114 ; Eerste Deel)
is of them is unbelief  and spiritual darkness. And
such is also the confession of the prophet and the               Es is iets historisch in dezen psalm en oak iets
spiritual Israel for whom he speaks. We have their            typisch. Deze psalm wil niet slechts de verlossing van
confession right here before us in the sequence of the        Israel uit Egypte verhalen en bezingen, maar een ieder
prophet's discourse. These are his words, "When we            Bijbelstudent weet, dat Israel zelf en al zijn historie
shall see Him, the Christ, the suffering servant, there type is van de kerk aller eeuwen.
is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised           Dat dit zoo is valt in het oog bij het bestudeeren
and rejected of men ; a man of sorrows ; and we, as it van de eerste verzen: "Toen  Israel uit Egypte toog,
were, hid our faces from Him ; He was despised and we het huis Jacobs van een volk dat eene vreemde taal
esteemed Him not-we, too, God's people did that in            had, zoo werd .Juda tot Zijn heiligdom, Israel Zijne
our spiritual blindness. He bore our griefs, yet we did       volkomene heerschappij."
esteem Him smitten of God for His own sins.                      Iminers, dat is niet alleen waar van Israel. Dat is
   Such was the treatment afforded Christ even by ook waar van de kerk van het Nieuwe Testament.
His own friends. Didn't Peter deny Him thrice? And            We  willen zelfs een stap verder gaan: Israel is niet de
were not all His disciples offended of Him in that night eerste die werd tot Gods heiligdom, noch ook is het
of the trial when they saw Him apparently helpless in huis Jakobs de eerste die tot Zijn volkomene heer-
the hands of His adversaries? Did they not all forsake schappij werd.
Him to a man?                                                    Dat is allereerst, en, fundamenteel, waar van Jezus
   So then, who hath, who do, who will, believe our           Christus, die was v66r Abraham, en  vtir zijn zaad
report? Who? They to whom Jehovah, the triune                 gezien werd. Dat blijkt we1 uit Colossensen 1:14-19.
Jehovah, reveals His arm. Jehovah's arm is His power          Het was niet des Vaders welbehagen, dat de volheid in
to save-His power to save as revealed, as magnified           Israel  wonen  zou, noch ook in Adam voor hem. Die
in and through the Lord Jesus Christ unto the sal-            eer is bestemd voor Jezus Christus. Er staat zelfs, in
vation of His people, wherefore He, the Lord Jesus, is        dat schoone  gedeelte van Gods Woord, dat tot aem alle
the arm of Jehovah, God's power unto salvation. He            dingen geschapen zijn. Israel is daar in de historie
saves, does Christ-saves His people from all their om Jezus' wil, en ten slotte om Gods wil. Daarom is
sins. Saves, does He, His people, those given Him by          Jezus niet alleen  .de Eerstgeborene  alIer  creaturen,
the Father before the foundation of the world. He             doch ook de Eerstgeborene uit de dooden. Bij het be-
paid for all their sins by His suffering and death on         studeeren van  ,Gods Woord wordt het ons al  duide-
the cross. Unto their justification He was raised. And lijker, dat  alles zich groepeert rondom den Zone Gods,
they with Him were set in heaven and blessed with all         het afschijnsel van Gods heerlijkheid en het  uitge-
spiritual blessings approximately nineteen hundred            drukte beeld van Zijn zelfstandigheid.
years ago now. Unto these, His people, Jehovah re-               Neen, Israel was slechts type, en een zwak type.
veals the Christ, the arm of the Lord. His revealing Let er op, dat vers twee ons zegt hoe Israel en het huis
unto  ,them  His arm, the Christ, is a work on His part Jakobs Gode werd tot Zijn heiligdom en Zijn  vol-
according to which He, Jehovah, through Christ in His         komene heerschappij. Hoe zullen we dat vast kunnen
Spirit, raises them from their spiritual death, and thus houden bij het zien van de groote zonde en afhoereering
brings them into being as new creatures  wit.h  the van Israel door alle eeuwen heen.
power of spiritual perception, discernment, and under-           Toen Israel uit Egypte toog. . . .
standing, and with new and holy desires, hungers,                Leest daarbij  Hosea  11  :l. Daar staat :  "Toen
thirsts and loves, attitudes and dispositions, so that as Israel een kind was, toen heb Jk heb liefgehad, en Ik
a people endowed, and thus graced, they see Him, the heb. Mijnen Zoon uit Egypte geroepen."
Christ, with a spiritual eye, as a Christ altogether love-       Nu weten we, dat dit allereerst plaatsgreep toen
ly, hear Him with a spiritual ear, love Him in the love       Israel uit Egypte toog, maar de  Heilige  Geest zegt in
that He their redeemer God sheds abroad in their              Matt.   2:15, dat deze profetie  vervuld  werd  toen het
heart, eat and drink His flesh and blood, abide in Him,       kindeke  Jezus door Jozef teruggebracht werd naar
believe in Him and through Him in God, and thus taste         Palestina, na .den dood van Herodes.
that the Lord is good. So does He reveal His arm unto            Indien de Heilige Geest ons niet onderwezen had
His people.            0               G. M. Ophoff. i        aangaande deze  dingen,  zoo zouden we nooit geweten
                                              .


                                     T H E   STANbARD   B E A R E R                                                 429

                                                               power and spiritual constancy to faith. Without this
                                                               love no living faith, and without faith no doing, there-
                                                               fore, of good works.
                                                                  3. Only he who thus loves and trusts God lives to
    Exposition of Ephesians  24-10                             His glory in Christ Jesus.
                                                                  Employing this as the infallible rule of life and  =
                           VIII.                               faith, we are in a position to ask more particularly
                                                               into the meaning of the term "good works" in our text
    It has by this time become abundantly evident, that        as to their scope. We are thus in a position to give an
 we are not at all saved by works of law that we per-          answer. to the question  which  good work we must walk
 form, but that we are saved by grace through faith in         in, whether or not we must divide lives and morals into
 Christ Jesus, our Lord. We are saved in Him alone.            compartments. This dividing life into sections is the
 Tt is  ,God Who saves us because of His great love where-     error of all Phariseeism, Roman Catholicism, all mys-
 with He loved us, in order that in the ages to come He        ticism, in a word, of all those who do not apply the rule
 might exhibit the exceeding greatness of His grace in         and standard of faith.
 loving kindness to us. No man may ever boast in self,            There is no dividing of life into the dualistic di-
 nor in the awful agonies of hell, nor in the joys of          vision of the natural and the supernatural. All life is
 heaven. From the former God takes His own glory               placed under the law of faith in Christ and the law of
 and the latter He receives the praise and honor and           God and the new obedience. Whether we eat or wheth-
 glory due to His name as the thankful fruit of the lips.      er we drink we' are the Lord's. All things are then
    Such is the grand theme of the Apostle here in this by faith ours, we are of Christ and Christ is God's.
 rich Scripture passage. I know that in saying this we         Thus the orb of good works is as broad as life itself.
 are repeating just a bit; pray, does this great theme         rlll falls under the ten commandments, all is controlled
 not bear repeating, and should not hearts, our hearts         by grace through faith and according to the rule of
 burn and our anthems ring? `And should not we as              the law of God. And so, indeed,  all that is not out of
 the people of God be very willing to walk in all good         faith is sin. Born.  14:23.  But according to the rule
 works in this day of God's power to us who believe?           of faith we' are, indeed, some firstfruits of God's
    Yes, we who believe, who are constantly walking            creation. Something new amidst the old. We are the
 in humble trust, we who walk by faith and not by sight,       new man as the Church, a beginning now by faith of
 believing that God is and that He is a rewarder of            the reuniting of all things in (Christ Jesus, a pledge
 those who diligently seek Him. Since such we are let          of the perfected manhood in Christ in the ages to come.
 us give attention to the teaching of Paul here in the            Good works thus as broad ,as God's Fatherly and
 latter part of Ephesians 2  : 10, where we read : "in good    providential care over all things and over us. For these
 works, which God hath before prepared that we might good works are brought to us, set before us every day
 walk in them".                                                in God's providential care over us. There is no  re-
    What does the apostle here mean by speaking of             lationship in life where we do not meet with these good
 "good works, which  (God hath  ,before  prepared"? And        works. We need not sift them first. We need not
 what does it mean to "walk in them"?                          hesitate. We have but to walk in our calling where
    We will first of all try to `give an answer to the         `God by His providence sets us, and there walk in faith
 former of these two questions. We will seek to estab-         and love.    Never may we ask any questions. The
 lish what these good works are. We note the following:        whole field is ours.
    1. That they are such works, which have their                 In the home and in the church, in the school and in
 `motive and power in the love of God shed forth in our        the civil affairs. And everywhere we are called to
 hearts through the Holy Spirit. These works indeed            walk in faith, according to God's law and to His glory.
 do not have their starting point, their origin, in our        Thus we ,are the salt of the earth, the city on a hill-tip
 will, but they have their origin in faith as it is the gift which cannot be hid. In our business, in the shop, on
 of God. And this faith as the gift of God is the work-        the farm and in the kitchen. Everywhere it is the
 manship in us of God by virtue of His having thus             calling of God to walk in gqod works.
 created us once for &ll anew. Yes, then we do believe,           Now these good works are not just simply the crea-
but we believe by the grace of God, whereby He works           tion of man. Nor do they just happen to be there so
 in us both to will and to do according to His good            that we stumble upon them by chance. They are set
 pleasure.                                                     before us in such a way every d$y, that we can never
    2. They are also works, that have the law of God           expIain the things out of things, but rather that we
 as their standard. This law is that we love God above         receive them from the hand of God in providence. It
 all and our neighbor as our self. He that loveth keep-        is all the Father's daily provision to us from His store-
 eth the commandments. And this love energized, gives          house, yes, the storehouse of His eternal counsel. Every

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

morning the day is filled not merely with possibilities,     quite well known. To illustrate this point he uses the
but with definitely recognizable duties, handed down         case of a father who rewards his son. This son owes
to us from Crod's eternal Counsel, the book of the seven     obedience to his father, and the father does him no
seals, which was in the right hand of Him that sitteth       wrong if he gives him nothing for performing an er-
upon the throne. And always the rules are walk in            rand for him. But now the father gives the son, who
*faith, according to the law of God's love and to His        promptly obeyed, a token of appreciation. He rewards
glory. Thus the apostle speaks of these good works.          him with a gift. This gift is extra. It is a reward
They were before prepared, before prepared by (God.          not of merit, but of grace. This illustration hardly
    There are those who would change this just a bit         holds. We have nothing to bring to God. Yet,  we'
and who would rather speak of foreordained by God.           walk in good works by grace. And these good works
Now this too is certainly true in itself. These works        are really ours. We perform them. That we perform
were foreordained. But if the apostle has meant mere-        them is God's gift of grace to us. That is not true in
ly to express this thought he surely would have stated       the illustration. There the son does not receive from
it thus. He knew the word for foreordained very well.        his father what we receive from God. He really had a
But he does not use that word, but writes literally:         little to offer. But we have nothing to offer but thank-
prepared before. (Proeetoimasen) . And he employs            fulness. We give nothing that we had not first  re-
a tense, which emphasizes that this act was finished         qeived.  .And we do not will to act and speak as though
once for all.' The works are therefore ready.. They          we had not received it. Nor do we in any way will to
are ready according to the plan and purpose of God in        contract a theological view that would. in any way give
the highest exaltation of self and the glory of His          man the credit `which belongs alone to God.
grace. Salvation by grace  ,calls for such works which             And so we rather conceive of the reward of God
God prepared before hand. They are prepared under            for good works as the reward which  ,God in His strict
the foreordination and design of the Chief Builder and       justice has appended to obedience. These two are so'
Architect.     In the whole of God's design they so fit      joined by God, that no man can ever separate them.
that human hand cannot add to nor detract from the           It is the law of the kingdom, that he who has shall re-
glory of God, the Maker of us His workmanship.               ceive more, and he who has not from him shall be taken
  And so according to this plan these good works are         even what he thinketh to have. So that the reward in
pIaced before us throughout the whole of our life's          heaven's glory is still the exhibition of the exceeding
calling, for each in that respective place where God         greatness of the riches of God's grace to us, and of the
places him. And the purpose is : that we we&  in them !      tender and loving kindness. It is the reward to present-
    This does not mean that we merely go through the         ly be set over much, since we here have been found
motions. But it means that with delight and love these       faithful servants over a very little. And so the reward
good works we claim as our own, walk in them. It             is ever before our eyes while we here walk faithfully
means that we do them, that we make them our works,          in the good works, knowing that God has joined works
duties and privileges which we consciously take from         and reward, works of grace and reward of grace. Here
the hand of God. Just as we formerly walked in sin,          is the tension of grace in our lives as we walk in faith
and felt that the day was not full unless we had re-         looking for the city that has foundations, whose Build-
vealed in some form of sin, so now the day is not lived      er and Maker is God.
in unless we claim the whole of the day's duties from              Thus walking in faith in Christ and love to all the
the hand of God in faith. That is walking in them.           saints we will know what is the hope of our calling, and
That is liberty of conscience. And in this there is          that is the glory of God's inheritance in the saints,
nothing grievous ; it is the light burden of Christ and      and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to
the easy yoke to bear.                                       usward  who believe, according to the working of the
    Besides, this has a great  recompence  of reward.        power of His might in raising Jesus, our Lord, from
    Yes, it has reward ! Not the reward of works. Not        the death, and exalting Him at His own right hand,
in  t.he sense, that the grace of God sets us to work, so    far above all principalities and powers and might, and
that now we receive in the way of merit from the             every name that is named not only in this world but
hands of God. The grace would not be grace in the            also in the age to come!
matter of reward. Surely then the salvation would be               Walking in the good works which He has before
out of grace, and the reward out of works of law.            prepared. That is our calling. Onward we go through
       Nay, such it is not. That is the lie of Romanism.     life's way. Marching and pressing forward, not ac-
       But, that, too, is`the erroneous interpretation of    counting that we are already perfect, but forgetting
some Reformed theologians. It is then put in the form        that which lies behind, we press forward toward the
that the reward of grace is something which we re-           mark, the prize of the high and upward calling in
ceive apart and above from our regular fruits of good        Christ Jesus.
deeds. The illustration of the late Dr. A. Kuyper Sr. is                                           Gee.  C. Lubbers.
                                                             I.


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  431

                                                                  power lines can compare with them? Think of the
            I N   H I S   F E A R                                 marvelous digestive system in the body. Think of
                                                                  whatever member you will, what praise does not the
                                                                  Almighty deserve for all  ,these  works of His hands?
            Called To His Praise                                     But the above we simply penned down as an intro-
                                                                  duction `to a new phase in our consideration of our
Living  Sacrijices.                                               being called to His praise. That body is indeed a
                                                                  wonderful workmanship of God. In it He gives us
   The human body is a wonderful piece of workman-                invaluable tools wherewith `to serve Him. He enables
ship whose  exisience  must be ascribed only to the  All-         us to see, to hear, to touch, to taste and to smell the
wise and Almighty God. And the more a believer                    world about us and to use all that we see and can
considers the members of that body in their amazing               handle in His service. But our bodies are even more
construction and astoundingly harmonious working to-              than that. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:lO that we
gether of the several parts the more he sees that                 have done certain things `"through" (that is the or-
wherefor  he owes praise to his God. Man constructs               iginal, not "in" as the English translation has it) the
some marvellous machines and mechanisms and re-                   body. We do these things through the instrumentality
ceives praise and honor for it.      And yet when we              of our bodies. But our bodies are more than mere
examine the things he has so ingeniously made we find             instruments of the soul, more than merely the house
that he has only found the principle according to                 and tabernacle in which our person dwells. They are
which God has made things. Very frequently we find                also temples of the Holy Spirit. Of that Paul reminds
that the thing which he has made has already existed              us in 1 Corinthians 6 : 19. And you are the priest in
for six thousand years in his own body and that to a              that temple ! You are prophets of God, and you are
far more perfect degree, or if not in his body then               aiso His priests. The apostle Peter testifies in 1 Peter
in that of other creatures of God's hand.                         2:9 that we are a "royal priesthood" of God. We are
   The camera is a wonderful device which through                 kingly priests and priestly kings. What is more, Paul
the ages has been perfected to a remarkable degree.               tells us in Romans 12  :l that our bodies must be pre-
Shutter speeds up to l/1000 of a second are possible,             sented to God as living sacrifices.     Here again the
and lenses capable of receiving sufficient light during           idea is emphasized as well as presented that we are
that amazingly small period of time in order to have              priests of  ,God. Our bodies are temples. We live in
the equally marvellously fast film receive a reaction             these bodies, and are therefore the priests who func-
to that light are now constructed by man. Of com-                 tion for God in those temples. Our bodies are also to
paratively recent invention, too, is the color film which         be living sacrifices and hence we are the priests who
is able to preserve the exact color of the object which  offer them up to God daily. And so we now turn our
                                                             l
you photograph, if your exposure is correct and your              thoughts to our calling to praise God in the capacity
picture is neither under-exposed nor over-exposed. But            of priest.
Adam was created with an eye that has a shutter speed                When we think of the priest in the Old Testament
even more rapid. The rapidly moving film and shutter              Tabernacle and Temple we think of a man who killed
of the "movie camera" was necessary in order to record            the animals brought there and sacrificed them for
and photograph actions of men. But Adam fro,m the                 God's people. Anything that he does besides this is
moment he was brought to conscious life had an eye                considered to be incidental to his chief work of sacri-
able to watch the swiftest movements about him with- ficing. This is not quite the right picture. For, in
out blurring.    And Adam's eye caught all the full               the first place, if you follow the line of reasoning in
beauty of the colors about him and never worried                  such a presentation you must come to the conclusion
about over-exposure or under-exposure.        Men have            that there were priests only because sin entered the
made microscopes to see minute things hidden. from                world. Then Adam as he came forth from the hand
man's eye. Indeed, but many of the smaller creatures              of *God was not a priest. But this is not a true pre-
such as the ant and even certain birds can see' things            sentation of the matter.     Adam was both prophet,
hidden from our eyes. Here again men have simply                  priest and king on that sixth day of Creation Week.
followed in very crude ways what God made in His                  As we pointed out before, he was created with a mind,
creatures. What radio, telephone or telegraph can                 with a heart or will and with strength. With the
compare with the ear  *God made? And what good                    mind he was God's prophet and had a perfect know-
would these be and what good are they when God                    ledge of God. S perfect knowledge does not mean
takes away the hearing of that ear? Think of the                  here a complete knowledge in that he knew all there
amazing system of nerves and blood vessels which are              is to be known of God. That knowledge man will
properly placed and serve such important functions                never have. Man is a creature and has a finite mind.
in the body. What maze of pipes and telephone and                 He can only know that which God reveals to him, and


                                                             ~-                 .____  ~~  ..~~-
 432                                  T H E   S!l?`%?W-DARD   B E A R E R

God Who is Infmite cannot  reveal to a finite creature not to bring something'to God. God did not give Moses
all'that. which He knows of Himself and of all things.       the pattern  ofthe Tabernacle so that Israel might have
God made man to be a finite creature with a finite,          a place to come to bring Him things. God in His grace
limited knowledge of his God and creation. But that gave Israel that tabernacle that Israel might receive
he had  a  perfect knowledge means that he had a true something. Israel had to come in a divinely prescribed
knowledge of all that which God had decreed that in          way.            Only by the merit of Christ's obedience and
the state of righteousness he would know. But even           death could they receive any grace from God. Only
then, he did not know anything of the angel world.           for those for whom Christ died was there anything the
He knew nothing of the Fall of the Devil. And he             priest could give from out the temple. And therefore
could not know what the counsel of God contained for as an evidence of ,;heir being chosen in Him from be-
his future. ,He did not know that he would be brought        fore the foundation of the world there had to be the
to glory in the way of sin and grace, the way of the         demand of outward evidence of inner contrition and
Fall and ,the Cross. But he had a mind and therewith         sorrow for sin. Therefore Israel had to come in the
he became by the work of God His prophet; But he             prescribed way of confession of sin and contrition and
also `had a will and by virtue of the fact that  ,God        with that which was a type bf Christ and His cross.
created him with a moral, ethical will-not a  ,mere          But the fact remains that he came to the temple to
fountain of desires, for all living creatures have a will    receive  something, namely, the testimony of God
in that respect-God made him to be His priest. And           through the instrumentality of His priest that his sins
that priest in Paradise before the Fall never sacrificed     are forgiven and that he was justified before God.
to God. He was placed by God `in a temple but his            But then *our contention stands that Adam was be-
work was not that of sacrificing in the accepted sense       fore he fell a priest of God and had a very necessary
of the word. There was no sin for which to bring his         function to perform even apart from any sin.
sacrifice. When Adam came into the Holy of  Holies of                   Were that not the case then today after Christ has
`the first world he came not with an offering in, his        redeemed us by His blood there would of necessity
hand. But he was priest there.. It is worthy of con-         again cease to be a priesthood among God's people.
sideration to note that also the first world before  the     And then we could not understand that verse of Paul
Fall was divided by God into an outer court, a ho!:y         in, Romans 12 :1. which demands of us that we present
place and a holy of  holies. Scripture speaks of the         our bodies a living sacrifice. Understand well, then,
broad expanse of the Land of Eden, the whole con- not that we bring a sacri&e.with  the idea of enriching
tinent which God created in the beginning. Then be-          God thereby, but surely in order that we may praise
sides this outer court-into which the fallen priest was      Him even as He has formed us for Himself, also as
sent after he became a priest of the devil in God's .holy . priests, that we might show forth His praises.
place-there was the beautiful Garden called Paradise                    This we plan to treat next time, but we desire in
in the New Testament. This corresponds to the Holy           these closing remarks to remind you of what we wrote
Place in Solomon's Temple and Moses' Tabernacle.             in the past, that unless we know God as His prophets
And Scripture makes the third distinction of the             we cannot function before His face as His priests.
"midst of  the Garden", which then corresponds to the        And we hope in a later instalment also to point out to
most inner part of the Temple, the Holy of  Holies.          you that he who knows God as His prophet and  func-
For, not only were both of these the inmost  pa$s, the       tions  before.His  face as priest will surely rule himself
one of the first creation before the flood and the other     and al1 things as His king.                        J. A. Heys.
the inmost part of the Tabernacle and Temple, but the                                      * *  *  *
Holy of Holies was that place where God revealed Him-
self. He dwelt symbolically in this Holy of  Holies  be-                           WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                          I
tween the Cherubim which sat upon the Mercy Seat,              The Lord  willing, on June  16, 1950  our beloved  parents
and the "midst of the garden" was where the tree of
life was placed by God and where He met Adam in the                '                Mr. and Mrs.  George  Spruyt
                                                             will celebrate their thirtieth wedding anniversary.
cool of the day. That now then was the temple in               As each  .year unfolds we, their children, realize more fully
which Adam in the state of righteousness functioned the blessing that is ours in having devoted Christian parents.
as priest of the Most High LGod. And it is evident that        It is our earnest prayer that the Lord will spare them  to-
he did not as priest go about slaying animals and bring      gether  for many years so that we may follow in our Lives the
them to God at the tree of life. Nor did he go to the        examp1e  they  set  in  theirs-
tree of life to bring something unto God. Rather did                                  Their loving children:
he go there to receive something from Him. Let us                                               Mr. and Mrs. Morris Campbell
understand that correctly also then of the Temple in                                            Mr. and Mrs. John A. Jansma
                                                                                                Miss Jacqualyn  Spruyt
the Old Dispensation. The chief thing even there was                                              and five grandchikiren;

                                               *                        .


VOLUME XXVI                              July 1, 1950 - Grand Rapids, Michigan                             NUMBER 19

                                                                    One generation after another enters into a world
    3MEDiTATION                                                 where death has long held its sway. Each one moves
                                                                within the narrow compass of death, never to shake
                                                                off its bondage. As` soon as a babe is born the mother
                                                                wonders whether it is too warm or too cold, whether
     The Just Shall Live By Faith                               it eats too little  or  too much. As the child grows she
                                                                consistently warns it against thousands of dangers
                      "Rut the just shall live by faith."       that actually lurk everywhere. She is worried about
                                                -Hab.  2:4b.    devastating germs, anxious about ravaging diseases,
    The just shall live !                                       troubled about every kind of accident that could pos-
    That just man shall live now and for evermore.              sibly happen.
    He shall live by faith!                                         And this never changes. A slight pain raises fore-
    That is the ever-reassuring answer of all the Holy          bodings of a sickbed, fears of a dread operation, the
Scriptures to a constantly recurring question.                  grim picture of a newly dug grave. For we spend
    We may eagerly ask: Who shall ascend the hill of            our days as a tale that is told. Scripture quite cor-
the (Lord? Or who will stand in His holy place?                 rectly speaks of the fear of death  ,that holds us in
    The answer is given: The just.                              bondage all our lives.
    We may desperately cry out, What must I do to                   Yet this is after all, but a small aspect of the
be saved? The only possible answer can be, Believe,             power of death that holds us in bondage. For we
for the just has life through faith.                            are conceived and born in sin, even as children of
    Or we may anxiously inquire, Who may abide the wrath.                  The curse of God is upon us wherever we
day of His coming? and who shall stand when He  ap-             turn.     This is not a mere threat that might some
peareth? And again  *the reassuring word is: The just day be carried out in the hereafter, in an eternal hell.
shall live, even by faith.                                      Then we might cherish the thought that we could
                                                                still evade it.
                                                                    But this curse is upon us even now. For the soul
    The just shall  live?                                       that sins must die. God gives the sinner over to his
    It is the promise of the living God that resounds           sin, so that one sin only leads to another, ever en-
throughout the realm of the dead.                               meshing us deeper in a net from which there is no
    Our present existence in the flesh is actually noth-        escape. He who sins is a slave to sin, according to the.
ing more  .than a continual death. Conscious of the             righteous judgment of the living ,God. No sin has ever
fact that he dwelt in a body of death the apostle Paul          passed unnoticed before the all-seeing eyes of the
cried out, "I die every day."                                   Judge of heaven and earth.
    This death is not so strange to us, for actually we            Thus we all  alv, swept into wickedness and sin,
know no other condition. We cannot even form a                  greed and warfal'e, hatred and destruction, until the
clear mental picture of a world where sin and death             measure of sin  1s full upon the earth.
do  not, reign.                                                    In the meantime floods and famines, earthquakes
    Ever since our first parents transgressed the com-          and every sort of disaster, unrest and confusion reign
mandment of God by eating of the forbidden tree in              upon the earth, as God visits the world in His
paradise the sentence of death was executed upon a              anger.
falIen human race.                                                 The wrath of God is revealed from heaven ! And

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

what is true of mankind in general is  equally true            This is more than a passing fancy or an appealing
of each one individually. The author of Psalm ninety        hallucination, for the glories we await far exceed our
expresses our  se$im+ts  perfectly when he cries,           fondest expectations. Now we are sons of God, and
            "In Thy wrath our spirits languish,             *we cannot possibly know what we shall be except
             Sinful `neath Thy searching eye ;              that God assures us that when i",  ap'pears,  we shall be
             All our days are passed in anguish,'           like  ,Him,  as sons in His house.
             In Thy wrath we pine and die."                    We shall see Him face to face, and tell that story,
                                                            Saved by grace.
    Into that hopelessly da& night of sin and death            For the just shall live, now and unto endless etern-
there shines but a single ray of hope and deliverance.      ity, saith my God !
That single shaft of light, gloriously shining down
from heaven  and penetrating into our bitter dark-
ness is  the glad tidings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,       The just man shall live.
proclaiming: The just shall live.                              The question is a pertinent one: Who can ascend
   Even as at the very dawn of creation the heavens         the mount of the Lord? And who can stand in His
were made by the word ~ of the Lord, and all their          presence without terror or condgmnation?
hosts by the breath of His mouth, so also the voice            Who? The promise is not a mere offer or invita-
of the Lord is mighty to recreate, bringing forth life      tion promiscuously ex,tended  to all, and thus dependent
in the midst of death.                                      on our acceptance. The assurance cannot be claimed
   Out of a fallen human race God  ga'hers  to Himself      by just anyone.
a people ordained from before the fotindations  of the         Even the prophet Isaiah makes distinction between
world unto life eternal. Just as God once sent His          the just and the unjust, declaring, "Say ye to the right-
word over this present creation, saying, "Let there be      eous that it shall be well with him, for he shall eat of
Irght," and there was light, so He also calls the dead      the fruit of his doing. Woe to the wicked! It shall
sinner out of the dominion of death unto His light          be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be
of life.                                                    given him."
    Just as the Saviour once stood at the grave of             And the book of Revelation speaks of the judgment
Lazarus, saying, "Lazarus, come  fort,h,"  so also He       upon the unjust who shall be unjust still, and the filthy
causes the dead to hear the voice of the Son of man,        wh@ shall be filthy still, saying, "If any man worship
and they that hear shall live.                              the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his
    They are new creatures, born of the Spirit. They        forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the
have the new, heavenly life, even the life of the resur-    wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out with-
:rected  Christ within them. That life never perishes.      out mixture into .the cup of His indignation ; and he
At death they lay off this mortal body, and their spirit    shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the
goes to be with Chrst. For we know t.hat at. the very       presence of the holy angels, and in, the presence of
moment that this earthly house of our tabernacle            the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth
collapses, we have a house with God, eternal in the         up forever and ever; and they shall have no rest day
heavens.                                                    or night."
    And at the end of time, when Christ appears  wi'th         The promise is very personal. The Just. That
the clouds, our bodies will be raised from the dust' of     man shall live.
the grave in a likeness of His resurrection body. We           The just man is the one who is perfectly  right-
shall be with Him in ettial perfection.                     edus according to the verdict of the holy and right-
    The just shall live, now and unto all eternity.         eous Judge of heaven and earth. The Lord Himself
                                                            is the eternal Judge.
    Our human language fails us when we try to                                       He sits upon His judgment seat
                                                            and judges every man according to ,the deeds done in
describe Che fulness of the blessedness of that life.       the body, whether good or evil.
We know  that it consists of peace with God in our                                                Every act committed,
                                                            every  word spoken, every thought that flashes through
Lord Jesus Christ.                                          the mind; and every impulse that arises within us are
   Even more, we have joy unspeakable and full of           known perfectly to Him, and are judged accordingly.
glory. For blessed is that people whose God is Je-          His verdict falls in strictest justice upon every man
hovah. Who is like unto that God, and who can com-          that spends his days upon the earth.
pare with that people?                                         In that great day when the Son of man appears
   Yea, we have fellowship  .with God in Christ. God        with the clouds of heaven, every rational creature
ttssures us, Y am thy God," so that we respond from         wil1 appear in judgment to carry away an eternal
the heart, "0 my God, I am Thine for ever and               verdict, according to the deeds done in the body,
ever."                                                      whether good or evil.


                                     T H E S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               435
                                                                               -._ .._-. -
    But let no man deceive you, for God also judges         with His whole being, even while He was cast into
the sons of men even now, every moment, of our lives        amazing torments of hell.
on the earth. .He declares guilty or not guilty, just           He is our only righteousness ! For He laid down
or unjust.. He makes the guilty inexpressibly miser-        His life for His sheep.
able by giving them over to ,th.e vanity of their sins.        He atoned for our sins and merited for us eternal
He declares the just free from sin and guilt, spotlessly    life. Thus God raised Him up, even exalting Him
righteous in His sight, and assures them of their           to the highest heavens. From heaven ,He calls His
right to eternal life before Hs face.                       own unto Himself. He draws  .them unto Him. For
   To the just He gives life.                               He causes them to labor under the burden of their
   But that only accemuates  the question : Who is that     oppressive guilt.
just man? Who is he that keeps God's law perfectly?            And He calls them, saying, "Come unto Me, all ye
Who can wash his hands in innocence? Who is free            that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
from sin and guilt, worthy of the eternal blessedness       rest."
of God's inheritance in the heavens?                           Thus we experience the power of the Gospel that
   Is it the man who presents a handful of his own          proclaims to us : The just shall live !
"good works" or boasts of his merit?
   True enough,  .God's law declares  #that man blessed
who keeps the commandments. The law says, "The                 Bu.t he shall live only by faith.
man that doeth these things shall live by them."               That is the answer to the age old question: What
   But we also know that God's law is more than a           must I do to be saved? There is only `one answer:
mere code of precepts governing our outward walk            Believe ! Believe in the Lord `Jesus Christ, for there
of life. It is not satisfied with a mere external show      is no other name under heaven whereby we can be
of obedience, particularly to the iecond  table of the      saved.
law.                                                           Believe, for it is the only possible way of salvation,.
   The rich young ruler confessed that he had kept             By grace are ye saved through faith.
these things scrupulously since his youth, but he still        Yes, it is as simple as that. Simply believe !
was burdened with the question: "What must I do
to inherit eternal life?"                                      All our works avail us nothing. But neither is
                                                            that necessary, for in Christ is ail our Righteous-
   For God's law demands love. It requires: Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God.  It insists: Thou shalt        ness. Nothing in my hand  1 bring, simply to Thy
do so in thy actions, words, thoughts, and very im-         cross I cling.
pulses of thy heart perfectly.                                 Yet that way of faith is the most difficult way.
   That man shall live that does these things.              Nay, it is the humanly impossible way. For no man
   But who is fit? Well may we ask: Who, then, can          can believe. No man will believe.
be saved? For we find in ourselves the very opposite.          Faith is not'of us. It is the gift of God, wrought
We do not discover that we love God a little, at cer-       by the Gospel.
tain given times, even though we fail to love Him              It is the wonder of grace whereby the blinded eye
in the measure that.He  requires.                           is made to see, the deaf ear is made to hear,  ahd
   No, we hate. We hate God, and we manifest that           the stubborn will is broken to humble submission. In
hatred over against the neighbour. Even our pre-            awed amazement we discover that this is the one
tense of loving God and our neighbour is still only         thing that we can do. We cry out: Lord, I believe,
pure selfishness and therefore nothing short of hatred.     help Thou my unbelief.
The inclinations of our hearts are only evil continu-          For by grace are ye saved through faith. And
ously. As .the Scriptures testify against us,"`There  is    that faith is not of you, it is God's gift. It. fills us
none that doeth good, no, not one."                         with love to God, submisson to His law. It arouses
   And God's law is inexorable, rigorous, severe. It        in us the consciousness of guilt and condemnation.
insists: Do this! And just as emphatically it adds,         It leads us to the cross, where we realize,
"Accursed is every one that does not abide insall that
is written in the book of the law to do it." The soul                 "There is a fountain fiiled with blood,
that sins must die. Surely, before that holy law no                    Drawn from Immanuel's veins ;
man is justified !                                                     And sinners washed beneath that flood,
   Who, then, is the just man that shall live?                         Lose all their guilty stains."
   In the final analysis there is none, save one, our          How wondrous are the ways of God, unfathomed
Lord Jesus Christ. He came into our flesh and en- and unknown.
tered under our law. To every demand of the law                For the just shall live, even by faith !
He gave a satisfactory answer. He loved the Lord                                                         C.  Hanko.


4 3 6                                                                                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                 The Standard Bearer
             Semi-Monthly, except Monthly in July and August                                                                                                                            E D I T O R I A L S
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                              Box 124, Sta. C., Grand Rapids, Mid.                                                                                                                     An Important Decision
                                      EDITOR: - Rev.  EL Hoeksema.
Contributing Editors:  - Rev. G. M. Ophoff, Rev. G. Vos, Rev.
R. Veldman, Rev. H.  Veldman,  Rev.  H. De Wolf, Rev. B.  Kok,                                                                                                                   The following was adopted by our last Synod :
Rev.  3. D. De  Jong,  Rev. A.  Petter?  Rev. C.  Hanka,  Rev. L.
Vermeer, Rev. G. Lubbers, Rev. M. Gritters, Rev. J. A. Heys,                                                                                                                     A BRIEF DECLARATION OF  PRINCIPlLES
Rev. W.  Hofman.                                                                                                                                                                                    OF THE
  Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
REV. H. HOEKSEMA, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids,                                                                                                                          PROTESTANT REFORMED CHURCHES
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  Communications relative to subscription should be addressed                                                                                                              The Protestant Reformed Churches stand on the
to Mr. J. BOUWMAN, 832 Reynard St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,                                                                                                               basis of Scripture as the infallible Word of God and
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above address and will be published at a fee of $1.00 for each                                                                                                           the Liturgical Forms used in the public worship of our
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ceived, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes his subscription                                                                                                        fessions of a minor order.
to continue without the formality of a renewal order.                                                                                                                            On the basis of this Word of God and these con-
Entered as Second Class Mail at Grand Rapids, Michigan.                                                                                                                  fessions :
                                 (Subscription Price $2.50 per year)                                                                                                             I. They repudiate the errors of the Three Points
                                                                                                                                                                         adopted by the Synod of the Christian Reformed
                                                                                                                                                                         Church of Kalamazoo, 1924, which maintain:
                                                                                                                                                                                 A. That there is a grace of God to all men, includ-
                                                      C O N T E N T S                                                                                                    ing the reprobate, manifest in the common gifts to
MEDITATION-                                                                                                                                                              all men.
           The Just Shall Live By Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433                                                B. That the promise of the gospel is a gracious
                  Rev. C. Ha&o                                                                                                                                           offer of salvation on the part of God to all that ex-
EDITORIALS-                                                                                                                                                              ternally hear the gospel.        '
           An Important Decision . ..** . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  * . . . . .
                                                                                                                                                             436                 C. Thak the natural man through the influence of
                  Rev. H. Hoeksema.                                                                                                                                      common grace can do good in this world.
THE TRIPLE  KNOWLEDGE-                                                                                                                                                           D. Over against this they maintain:
           An Exposition Of The Heidelberg Catechism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441                                                                                       1. That the grace of God is always particular, i.e.,
                  Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                 only for the elect, never for the reprobate.
           The Power Of A New Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .443                                        2. That the promise of the gospel is not a gracious
                  Rev. H. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                 offer of salvation on the part of God to all men,
OUR  DOCTRINE-                                                                                                                                                                     nor a conditional offer to all that are born in the
           The Idea Of Creation (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446                                      historical dispensation of the covenant, that is,
                  Rev. H.  Velclman                                                                                                                                                to all that are baptized, but an oath of God that
           The Risen Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449              He will infallibly lead all the elect unto salvation
                  Rev. G. M. Ophoff                                                                                                                                                and eternal glory through faith.
CONTRIBUTION-                                                                                                                                                                    3. That the unregenerate man is totally incapable
           Among Our Treasures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .452                                     of doing any good, wholly depraved, and there-
                  Kryn Veenstra (Redlands, Calif.)                                                                                                                          :      fore can only sin.
FROM HOLY WRIT-                                                                                                                                                            IT. They teach on the basis of the same confessions :
           Exposition Of I Cor.  15:58 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . ..*................ 453
                  Rev. Geo. C. Lubbers                                                                                                                                     A. That election, which is the unconditional and
                                                                                                                                                                         unchangeable decree of God to redeem in Christ a cer-
`IN HIS  FEAR-                                                                                                                                                           tain number of persons, is the sole cause and fountain
           Called To His Praise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
                   Rev. J. A.  Heys                                                                                                                                      of all our salvation, whence flow all the gifts of grace,
                                                                                                                                                                         including faith. This is the plain teaching of our con-
                                                                                                                                                                         fession in the Canons of Dordrecht, I, A, 6, 7.
As  is customary  The  Sta&ard   Beamr   will not appear                                                                                                                         "Article 6. That some receive the gift of faith
on the 15th of July.                                                                                                                                                     from God, and others do not receive it, proceeds from


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          437     ~

God's eternal decree, `For known unto God are all his       Form for the Administration of Baptism, where we
works from the beginning of the world,' Acts 15:18.         read :
`Who worketh all things after the counsel of his will,'       "For when we are baptized in the name of  the.
Eph. 1 :ll. According to which decree, he graciously        Father,  Godthe  Father witnesseth and sealeth unto us,
softens the hearts of the elect, however obstinate, and that he doth: make an eternal covenant of grace with
in$ines  them to believe, while he leaves the non-elect     us, and adopts us for his children and heirs, and there-
.in his just judgment to their own wickedness and ob-       fore will provide us with every good thing, and avert
duracy. And herein is especially displayed the pro-         all evil or turn it to our profit. And when we are
found, the merciful, and at the same time the right-        baptized in the name of the Son, the Son sealeth unto
.eous discrimination between men, equally involved in       us, that he doth wash us in his blood from all our sins,
ruin ; or that decree of election and reprobation, re-      incorporating us into the fellowship of. his death and
vealed in the Word of God, which though men of per-         resurrection, so that we are freed. from all our sins,
verse, impure and unstable minds wrest to their own and accounted righteous before God. In like manner,
destruction, yet tb holy and pious souls affords un-        when we are baptized in the name of the Holy Ghost,
speakable consolation."                                     the Holy Ghost assures us, by this holy sacrament,
    "Article 7. Election is the unchangeable purpose that he will dwell in us, and sanctify us to be members
of God, whereby, before the foundation of the world,        of Christ, applying unto us that which we have in
he hath out of mere grace, according to the sovereign       Christ, namely, the washing away of our. sins, and the
good pleasure of his own will, chosen, from the whole       daily renewing of our lives, till we shall finally be pre-
human race, which had fallen through their own fault,       sented without spot or wrinkle among the assembly
from .their primitive state of rectitude, into sin and      of the elect in life eternal."
destruction, a certain number of persons to redemption          B. That Christ died only for the elect and that the
in Christ, whom he from eternity appointed the Medi-        saving efficacy of the death of Christ extends to them
ator and Head of the elect, and the foundation of sal- only. This is evident from the Canons of Dordreeht,
vation'."                                                   II,A,8:
    "This elect number, though by nature neither better         "For this was the sovereign counsel, and most
nor more deserving that others, but with them in-           gracious will and purpose of  <God  the Father, that the
volved in the common misery, God hath decreed to give <quickening and saving efficacy of the most precious
to Christ, to be saved by him, and effectually to call      death of  his Son should extend to all the elect, for
and draw them to his communion by his Word and              bestowing upon them alone the gift of justifying faith,
Spirit, to bestow upon them true faith, justification thereby to bring them infallibly to salvation: that is,
and sanctification ; and having powerfully preserved        it was the will of  ,God, that Christ by the blood of the
them in the fellowship of his Son,  fmally, to glorify      cross, whereby he confirmed the new covenant, should
them for the demonstration of his mercy, and for the        effec$ually  redeem out of every people, tribe, nation,
praise of his glorious grace ; as it is written: `Accord- and language, all those, .and those only who were from
ing as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation      eternity chosen to salvation, and given -to him by the
of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame     Father ; that he should confer upon them faith, which
before him in love ; having predestinated us unto the       together with all the other saving gifts of the Holy
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, ac-        Spirit, he purchased for them by. his death ; should
cording to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise     purge them from all sin, both original and actual,
of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us          whet.her committed before or after believing ; and hav-
accepted in the beloved.' Eph.  1:4, 5, 6. And else-        ing faithfully preserved them even to the end, should
where : `Whom he did predestinate, them he also called,     at last bring them free from every spot and blemish
and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom to the enjoyment of glory in his own presence forever."
he justified them he also glorified.' Born: 8 :30."
    And in the  Heidelberg  Catechism, Lord's Day XXI,          This article very clearly teaches :
Qu. and Ans. 54, we read:                                       1. That all the covenant blessings are for the  eleot
    "What believest thou concerning the holy catholic                 alone.
church of Christ?                                               2. That God's promise is unconditionally for them
    "That the Son of God from the beginning to the                    only: for God cannot promise what was not ob-
end of the world, gathers, defends, and preserves to                  jectively merited by Christ.
himself by his Spirit and Word, out of the whole                3. Tha.t the promise of God bestows the objective
human race, a church chosen to everlasting life, agree-               right of salvation not upon all the children that
ing in true faith ; and that I am and for ever shall re-              are born under the historical dispensation of the
main, a living member thereof."                                       covenant, that is, not upon all that are baptized,
   This is also evident from the doctrinal part of. the               but only upon the spiritual seed.

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

       This is also evident from oth& parts of our con-          God toward us, and also to nourish and strengthen our
fession, as, for instance:                                       faith; which he hath joined to the Word of the gospel,
       Heidelberg Catechism, Qu. 65: `"Since then we are the better to present to our senses, both that which he
made partakers of Christ and all his benefits by faith           signifies to us by his Word, and that which he inwardly
only, whence  d&h this faith proceed? From the Holy works in our hearts, thereby assuring and confirming
Ghost, who works faith in our hearts by the preaching            in us the salvation which he imparts to us. For they
of the gospel, and confirms it by the use of the sacra-          are visible signs and seals of an inward and invisible
ments."                                                          thing, by means whereof God worketh in us by the
       And in Qu. 66: "What are the sacraments? The              power of the Holy Ghost. Therefore the signs are, not
sacraments are holy visible signs and seals, appointed           in vain or insignificant, so as to deceive us. For Jesus
of God for this end, that by t.he use thereof, he may            Christ is the true object presented by them, without
the more fully declare and seal to us the promise of             whom they would be of no moment."
the gospel, viz., that he grants us freely the remission            And from Article 34, which speaks of Holy Bap-
of sin, and life eternal, for the sake of that one sacri-        tism, we quote: "We believe and `confess that Jesus
fice of Christ, accomplished on the cross."                      Christ, who is the end of the law, hath made an end,
       If we compare  wi.th  these  S'kitemehtS  from the        by the shedding of his blood, of all other sheddings
Heidelberger what was taught concerning the saving               of blood which men could or would make as a propitia-
efficacy of the death of Christ in Canons, II, A, 8, it is       tion or satisfaction"for  sin': and that he, having abol-
evident that the promise of the gospel which is sealed           ished circumcision, which was done with blood, hath
by the sacraments concerns only the believers, that is,          instituted the sacrament of baptism instead thereof;
the elect.                                                       by which we are received into the Church of God, and
       This is also evident from Heidelberg Catechism,           separated from all other people and strange religions,
Qu. 74: "Are infants also to be baptized? Yes: for               that we may wholly belong to him, whose ensign and
since they, as well as the adult, are included in the            banner we bear; and which serves as a testimony to
covenant and church of God; and since redemption                 us that he will forever be our gracious God and Father.
from sin by .the blood of Christ, and the Holy Ghost,            Therefore he has commanded all those, who are his,
the author of faith, is promised to them no less than            to be baptized with pure water, in the name of the
to the adult; they must therefore by baptism, as a sign          Father, and of the Bon, and of the Holy Ghost; thereby
of the covenant, be also admitted into the Christian             signifying to us, that as water washeth away the filth
church; and be distinguished from the children of un-            of the body, when poured upon it, and is seen on the
believers as was done in the old covenant or testament           body of the baptized, when sprinkled upon him ; so doth
by circumcision, instead of which baptism is instituted          the blood of Christ, by the power of the Holy Ghost,
in the new covenant."                                            internally sprinkle the soul, cleanse it from its sins,
       That in this question and answer of the  Heidel-          and regenerate us from children of wrath, unto child-
berger not all the children that are baptized,  but only         ren of God. Not that this is effected by the external
the spiritual children, that is, the elect, are meant is         water, but by the sprinkling of the preqious  blood of
evident. For:                                                    the Son of God ; who is our Red Sea, through which
   1. Little infants surely cannot fulfill any conditions.       we must pass, to escape the tyranny of Pharaoh, that
         And if the promise of God is for them, the prom-        is, the devil, and to enter into the spiritual land of
         ise is infallible and unconditional, and therefore      Canaan. Therefore the ministers, on their part, ad-
         only for the elect.                                     minister the sacrament, and that which is visible, but
                                                                 out Lord giveth that which is signified by the sacra-
       2. According to Canons II, A, 8, which we quoted          ment, namely, the gifts and invisible grace ; washing.
         above, the saving efficacy of the death of Christ       cleansing and purging our souls of all filth and un-
         is for the elect alone.                                 righteousness  ; renewing our hearts, and filling them
       3. According to this answer of the Heidelberg             with all comfort; giving unto us a true assurance of
          Catechism, the Holy  <Ghost, the author of faith,      his fatherly goodness ; putting on us the new man,
         is promised to  *the little children no less than to    and putting off the old man with all his deeds."
         the adult. And God surely fulfills His promise.            That all this, washing and cleansing and purging
          Hence, that promise is surely only for the elect.      our souls of all filth and unrighteousness, the renewal
       The same is taught in the Netherland Confession,          of our hearts, is only the fruit of the saving efficacy of
Articles 33-35. In Article 33 we read :                          the death of Christ and therefore is only for the elect
       "We believe, that our gracious God, on account of         is very evident. The same is true of what we read in
our weakness and infirmities hath ordained the sacra- the same article concerning the baptism of infants:
ments for us, thereby to seal unto us his promises,              "And indeed Christ shed his blood no less for the wash-
and also to be pledges of the good will and grace of             ing of the children of the faithful, than for the adult


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           439

persons ; and therefore they ought to receive the sign        Jacob have I loved, but Esau have &hated.  Rom. 9 :11,
and sacrament of that, which Christ hath done for             12, 13. `And as many as were ordained to eternal life
them ; `as the Lord commanded in the law, that they           believed.' Acts 13 :48.
should be made partakers of the sacrament of Christ's            In Canons I, B, 2, the errors are repudiated of those
suffering and death, shortly after they were born,            who teach: "That there are various kinds of election
by offering for them a lamb, which was a sacrament            of God unto eternal life  : the one general and indefinite,
of Jesus  IChrist. Moreover, what circumcision was to         the other particular and definite; and that the latter
the Jews, that baptism is to our children. And for            in turn is either incomplete, revocable, non-decisive
this reason Paul calls baptism the circumcision of            and conditional, or complete, irrevocable,, decisive and
Christ." If, according to Article 8 of the Second Head        absolute."
of Doctrine, A, in the Canons, the saving efficacy of            And in the same chapter of .the Canons, B, 3, the
the death of Christ extends only to the elect, it follows     errors are repudiated of those who teach: "That the
that when in this article of the Netherland Confession good pleasure and purpose of God, of which Scripture
it is stated that "Christ shed his blood no less for the      makes mention in the doctrine of election, does not .
washing of the children of the faithful than for the          consist in this, that God chose certain persons rather
adult persons," also here the reference is only to the        than others, but in this that he chose out of all possible
elect children.                                               conditions (among which are also the works of the
   Moreover, that the promise of the gospel which             law), or out of the whole order of things, the act of
<God  signifies and seals in the sacraments is not for all    faith which from its very nature is undeserving, as
is also abundantly evident from Article 35 `of the same       well as its incomplete obedience, as a condition of sal-
Netherland Confession, which speaks of the Holy Sup-          vation, and that he would graciously consider this in
per of our Lord Jesus Christ. For there we read:              itself as a complete obedience and count it worthy of
"We believe and confess, that our Saviour Jesus Christ        the reward" of eternal life."
did ordain and institute the sacrament of the holy               Again, in the same chapter of the Canons, B, 5, the
supper, to nourish and support those whom he hath             errors are rejected of those who teach that "faith, the
already regenerated, and incorporated into his family,        obedience of faith, holiness, godliness and perseverance
which is his IChurch."                                        are not fruits of the unchangeable election unto glory,
   In the same article we read: "Further, though the          but are conditions, which, being required beforehand,
sacraments are connected with the thing signified,            were foreseen as being met by those who will be fully
nevertheless both are not received by all men: the            elected, and are causes without which the unchange-
ungodly indeed receives the sacrament to his condem-          able election to glory does not occur."
nation, but he doth not receive the truth of the sacra-          Finally, we refer to the statement of the Baptism
ment. As Judas, and Simon the sorcerer, both indeed           Form : "And although our young children do not
received the sacrament, but not Christ, who was signi-        understand these things, we may not therefore exclude
fied by it, of whom believers only are made partakers.        them from baptism, for as they are without their
   It follows from this that both the sacraments, as          knowledge, partakers of the condemnation in Adam,
well as the preaching of the gospel, are a savour. of         so are they again received unto grace in Christ." That
death unto death for the reprobate, as well as a savour       here none other than the elect children of the covenant
of life unto life for the elect. Hence, the promise of        are meant and that they are unconditionally, without
God, preached by the gospel, signified and sealed in          their knowledge, received unto grace in Christ, in the
both the sacraments, is not for all, but for the elect        same way as they are under the condemnation of
only.                                                         Adam, is very evident.
    And that the election of God, and consequently the
efficacy of  .the death of Christ and the promise of the          C. That faith is not a prerequisite or condition
gospel, is not conditional is evident abundantly from         unto salvation, but a gift of God, and a God-given
the following articles of the Canons.                         instrument whereby we appropriate .the salvation in
    Canons I, A, 10: "The good pleasure of God is the         Christ. This is plainly taught in the following parts
sole cause of this gracious election ; which doth not         of our .confessions.
consist herein, that out of all possible qualities and            Heidelberg Catechism, Qu. 20 : "Are all men then,
actions of men God has chosen some as a  condittion  of       as they perished in Adam, saved by Christ? No ; only
salvation ; but that he was pleased out of the common         those who are ingrafted into him, and receive all his
mass of sinners to adopt some certain persons as a benefits, by a true faith."
peculiar people to himself, as it is written, `For the            Netherland Confession, Art. 22: "We believe that,
children being not yet born neither having done any           to attain the true knowledge of this great mystery, the
good or evil', etc., it was said (namely to Rebecca) ;        Holy Ghost kindleth  in our hearts an upright faith,
`the elder shall serve the younger; as it is written,         which embraces Jesus Christ, with all his merits,  ap-

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

propriates him, and seeks nothing more besides him,               a. That the promise of the covenant is conditional
.For it must needs follow, either that all  things,~  which          and for all that are baptized.
are requisite to our salvation, are not in Jesus Christ,          b. That we may presuppose that all the children
or if all things are in him, that then those who `possess            that are baptized are regenerated, for we know
Jesus Christ through faith, have complete salvation in              on the basis of Scripture, as well as in the light
him. Therefore, for any to assert, that Christ is not                of all history and experience, that the contrary
sufficient,  but that something more is required besides             is true.
him, would be too gross a blasphemy: for hence it                 2. The teaching that the promise of the covenant is
would follow,' that Christ was but half a Saviour.                   an objective bequest on the part of God giving
Therefore we justly say with Paul, that we are `justi-              I to every baptized child the right to Christ and
fied by faith alone, or by faith without works. How-                 all the blessings of salvation.
ever, to speak more clearly, we do not mean, that faith           B. And we maintain:
itself justifies us, for it is only an instrument with
which we embrace Christ our Righteousness.              But       1. That God surely and infallibly fuIfills His prom-
Jesus Christ, imputing to us all his merits, and so                  ise to the elect.
many holy works which he has done for us and in our               2. That when He so fulfills His promise and estab-
stead, is our. Righteousness. And faith is an instru-                lishes His covenant, the elect are not mere stocks
ment that keeps us in communion with him in all his                  and blocks, but obliged and willing to fulfill
benefits, which, when become ours, are more than suf-                their part of the covenant, to love the Lord their
ficient to acquit us of our sins."                                   God with all their heart and mind and soul and
   Confer also Nether-land Confession, Articles 33-35,               strength, to forsake the worid,  to crucify their
quoted above.                                                        old nature, and to walk in a new and holy life.
   Again, confer Canons of Dordrecht II, A, 8, quoted             3. That the ground of infant baptism is the com-
above.                     .                                         mand of God and the fact that according to
   In Canons III and IV, A, 10, we read: "But that                   Scripture He establishes His covenant in the
others who are called by the gospel, -obey the call,                 line of continued generations.
and are converted, is not to be ascribed to the proper           IV. Besides, the Protestant Reformed Churches:
exercise of free will, whereby one distinguishes him-             A. Cannot condone the action of the Reformed
self above others, equally furnished with grace suf-           Churches of the Netherlands whereby :
ficient for faith and conversions, as the proud heresy            1. They imposed certain doctrinal decisions upon
of Pelagius maintains; but it must be wholly ascribed                the churches synodically, making these decisions
to  *God,  who as he has chosen his own from eternity in             binding upon the churches before they had the
Christ, so he confers upon them faith and repentance,                right to protest.
rescues them from the power of darkness, and trans-               2. And `whereby they deposed many local office-'
lates them into the kingdom of his own Son, that they                bearers.
may show forth the praises of him, who hath called
them  ou,t of darkness into his marvelous light; and              B. And  .they believe and maintain the autonomy of
may glory not in themselves, but in the Lord according         the local church.
to the testimony of the apostles in various places."                                      * 8  *
   Again, in the same chapter of the Canons, Article              If Synod adopts the above proposition, we advise:
14, we read : "Faith is therefore to be considered as the         1. That Synod subject this entire document to the
gift of God, not on account of its being offered by God              approval of the churches.
to man, to be accepted or rejected at his pleasure; but           2. If no objection is offered, to adopt this at our
because it is in reality conferred, breathed, and in-                next Synod.
fused into him ; or even because God bestows the power         3. To adopt this in the meantime as a working
or ability to believe, and then expects that man should              hypothesis for our mission committee `and for
by the exercise of his own free `will, consent to the                our missionaries in the organization of churches.
terms of salvation, and actually believe in Christ; but                             Respectfully submitted,
because he who works in man both to will and to do,                                         Your Committee :
and indeed all things in all, produces both the will to
believe, and the act `of believing also."                                                           Rev. R. Veldman
                                                                                                    Rev. G. ,Vos.
  III. Seeing then that this is the clear teaching of our                                 Elders : J. Doctor, and
confession,                                                                                         Wm. Huisken.
   A. We repudiate:                                                                 Advisors : Prof.  H. Hoeksema
   1. The teaching:                                                                                 Prof. G. M. Ophoff.


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          441

                                                                   trine. The scholastics, whose purpose always was to
        THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE                                       maintain the tradition of the church, defended it. The
                                                                   Fourth  Lateran  Council in 1215 adopted it; and as we
                                                                   have already shown, the Council of Trent in the 16th
      An Exposition Of The Heidelberg century finally set its seal upon it and called them
                                                                   accursed that denied it.
                          Catechism                                - Of course, the Romanists, although they do not
                                                                   value proof from Scripture as highly as did the re-
                            PART TWO                               formers, nevertheless try to find support for this
                 O f   M a n ' s   R e d e m p t i o n             theory of transubstantiation in Holy Writ. They point
                                                                   especially to John 6:48-65, where the Lord speaks of
                       LORD'S DAY XXIX.                            Himself as the bread of life, the living bread, whereof
                             Chapter I.                            if any man eat, he shall live forever. And of that
              The Fearful Error Cf The Romanists.                  living bread the Lord says in verse 51: "And the bread
                                                                   that I give is my flesh, which I will give for the life
         Again, in Canon VI we read: "If anyone saith,             of the world." And in verse 53: "Then said Jesus
      that, in the holy sacrament of the eucharist, Christ,        unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye
      the only begotten Son of God, is not to be adored with       eat of the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood,
      the worship, even external of latreia ; and is, conse-       ye have no life in you." And again, in verse 54-56:
      quently, neither to be venerated with a special festive      "Whoso  eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath
      solemnity, nor to be solemnly borne about in procession,     eternal life ; and I will raise him up at the last day.
      according to the laudable and universal rite and custom      For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink
      of holy church ; or, is not to be proposed publicly to       indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my
      the  peop1.e to be adored, and that the adorers thereof blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." But in regard
      are idolaters: let him be anathema."                         to this passage we may remark first of all that cer-
         `It is a well-known fact that the laity do not partake    tainly there is no direct reference to the institution of
      of the communion wine, but only of the wafer. It             the Lord's Supper. And even if there be a very in-
      admits, of course, that this usage is contrary to Holy       direct reference to that institution, there certainly is
      Writ, as well as to the custom of the early church.          no proof for the doctrine of transubstantiation here.
      But it claims that it is not necessary to partake of the     Surely, the Lord in these passages does not speak of
      wine on the ground, in the first place, that the blood       a literal eating of His flesh and a literal drinking of
      is in the body ; and secondly, seeing that the whole         His blood.    This was exactly the error which the
      Christ, as to His body, soul, and divinity, is in every      Capernaumites made. For we read in verse 52: "The
      particle of both species, he who eats the consecrated        Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How
      bread eats the whole Christ. But this absurd and             can this man give us his flesh to eat ?" And at the
      wanton violation of the ordinance of Christ is really        end of His discourse at Capernaum the Lord specific-
      the result of the doctrine of transubstantiation itself.     ally states : "It is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh
      According to this theory the cup after consecration          profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you,
      does not contain wine, but the real blood of Christ. And     they are spirit, and they are life." The Lord is there-
      it was feared that in passing. the communion cup a drop      fore speaking of this sacrifice which presently He is
      of wine, that is, therefore, a drop of the blood of          to offer on the cross, and which cannot be partaken            .
      Christ, would be spilled. In order to avoid this pro-        of except by faith. Moreover, as Hodge remarks, this
      fanation,`it was decided that the priests alone should       argument proves too much for the Romanists. Says
      drink the wine, while the laity received only the wafer.     Hodge: "Our Lord expressly declares that the eating
I     Thus the simple and beautiful institution of the supper      of which He speaks is essential to salvation. If, there-
      of the Lord was corrupted and profaned.                      fore, His words are to be understood of the Lord's
         Naturally this corruption did not enter into the          Supper; then a participation in that sacrament is es-
      church all at once, but gradually developed. Even            sential to salvation. But this the church of Rome
      some of the earlier church fathers already began to          explicitly denies, and must in consistency with its
      speak of the signs in the Lord's Supper as being con-        whole system, insist on denying.        Romanists teach
      nected with the body and blood of Christ. Augustine          that spiritual life is as necessary to an experience of
      did not teach anything like the doctrine of transub-         the benefits of this sacrament, as natural life is to
      stantiation.    He held that the unbelievers received the body's being nourished by food. They further
      nothing through this sacrament. But in the Middle            teach that baptism, which precedes the eucharist, con-
      Ages the awful lie of transubstantiation was gradually veys all the saving benefits of Christ's redemption ;
     adopted, although even then some opposed this  doc-           they therefore cannot make the eucharist essential,

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

and consequently they cannot, without contradicting this doctrine, an objection which is closely connected
Christ or themselves, interpret John 6 :48-65 as referr- with the former objection, is that according to it God
ing to the Lord's Supper."                                    creates a lie. For we must remember, as was stated
   Secondly, the Romish Church also appeals to the            above, that according to the Romish Church the acci-
words of the institution of the Lord's Supper, "This is       dents or properties of the bread and wine remain even
my body." But, as has been frequently pointed out             after the consecration. The bread and the wine still
over against this argument of the Romanists, the              appeal to our senses as.bread  and wine, and nothing
copulative verb  & certainly does not necessarily denote      else. They look like bread and wine ; they feel like
the identity of the subject and the predicate which it        those substances; and they taste like them. Yet, ac-
connects.    In the first place, when the Lord pro-           cording to the Romanists, after the formula of conse-
nounced these words, "This is my body,`? He was still         cration is expressed by the priest, the substance of
present in the flesh ; and therefore He cannot mean           bread and wine are transubstantiated into the sub-
that the bread which at that moment at the institution        stance of the body and blood of Christ. Hence, it is
of the Lord's Supper He hands to His disciples is             evident that through sthe priests God is presented as
identified with, or transubstantiated into, His own           making a lie. Also on this point Dr. Hodge says in
body; Certain it is that in the night in which He             the same connection as above: "It is moreover impos-
was betrayed, the disciples did not eat the body of the       sible that the well-attested testimony of our senses
Lord, but mere bread. Besides, the word is in Scrip-          should be deceptive. If it once be assumed that we
ture frequently means signifies. Of  ithat there are          cannot trust to the laws of belief impressed on `our
many examples in Holy Writ. In Matthew 13  :38 we             nature, of which faith in our sense perceptions is one
we read:     "The field is the world ;"-meaning, of           of the most important, then the foundation of all know-
course, that in the parable the field signifies the world.    ledge, faith, and religion is overturned. What has
Again, in John 10 :7 we read: "Then said Jesus unto           Catholicism to say for itself, if the people cannot trust
them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the          their, ears when they hear the teachings of the church,
door of the sheep." And again, in verse  9 of the same        or their eyes when they read its decrees? It has noth-
chapter : "I am Ihe door; by me if any man enter in,          ing to stand upon. It is engulfed with all things else
he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find          in the abyss of nihilism. To believe in transubstantia-
pasture;"    In the same sense when .the Lord at the          tion we must disbelieve in Him who is the author of
institution of the Lord's Supper pronounces the words,        our nature and of the laws that are impressed upon it.
"This is my body," the verb is simply means signifies,        There is no more and destructive infidelity than the
or  symbolizes. And therefore, there is no reason what- want of faith in the veracity of consciousness, whether
soever in Holy Writ to interpret these words as indi-         it be the consciousness of our sense perceptions, or of
cating a change of substance. The signs certainly are         the truths' involved in our rational, moral, or religious
not changed into the body of Christ.                          nature."
   It  certainIy  is a valid objection against this doc-         But after all, the most serious objection to this
trine of transubstantiation that it involves an impossi-      doctrine of transubstantiation is perhaps that it pre-
bilcty. On this Hodge remarks, (Systematic Theology,          sents the grace of God as being in things. According
Part III, Chapter 20, page 684) : "The impossible can-        to this doctrinethe gracious operation of God through
not be true, and, therefore, cannot, rationally, be an        the signs and seals of the Lord's Supper is not upon
object of faith. It is impossible that the accidents or       the heart of believers, but is upon the signs themselves.
sensible properties of the bread and wine should re-          The signs are changed: the bread is changed into the
main if the substance be changed. Such a proposition          body of Christ, and the wine into His blood. Christ,
has no more meaning in it than  .the assertion that an        therefore, operates magically upon the signs; and they
act can be without an agent. Accidents or properties          are placed within my physical reach. Grace is in '
are the phenomena of substance ; and it is self-evident       things. And by a physical act of taking and eating
that there can be no manifestations where there is not        and drinking I receive the grace `of Christ. I can lay
something to be manifested. In other words, nothing,          hold upon grace as it is presented in the bread and
a `non-ens' cannot manifest itself. Romanists cannot          wine with my physical hauds, I can taste it with my
turn to the theory that matter is not a substance ; for       mouth, I can chew  it with my teeth, I can digest grace
that is not their doctrine. On the contrary, they assert      in my stomach. As one of the defenders of this doc-
that the substance of the bread is transmuted into the        trine expressed it in the eleventh century: "The very
substance of Christ's body. Nor can they ,help them-          body of Christ was truly held in the priest's hand,
selves by resorting to the prophetic doctrine that all        broken and chewed by the teeth of the faithful."
accidents are phenomena of God, for that would upset          Hence, according to *the Romish Church it is not neces-
their whole system."                                          sary in order to partake of the Lord's Supper to pos-
   Another, and perhaps more serious, objection to            sess an active faith, but merely to go to. the  eucharist


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            443

with an empty stomach. This probably is the principal              eousness is first. It is the ground upon which we are
error of the doctrine of transubstantiation.                       worthy of' life, just as our sin is the ground of the
   And because of this principal error our controversy             sentence of death that is against us. If there were no
with the Romish Church is still very significant.                  righteousness in  Christ, so that we are justified in
   We must not foster the notion that our controversy              Him, there would be no life: For we must be judged
with Rome on this score is antiquated and of no signifi-           righteous before we have the right to be delivered
cance. For after all, the chief and fundamental error              from death. The righteousness we have in the risen
of the fallacy of transubstantiation is this, that grace,          Lord, therefore, is the basis of the life we have in Him.
that Christ's righteousness and salvation, are bound               But this does not mean that one can never have the
up in physical ,things; and that, too, by an act of the            one without the other. One would never be able to
institute of the church. The blessings of salvation are            say that he is justified by faith in the risen Lord, while
therefore divorced from the operation of the Holy                  he continued in sin and death. When we are ingrafted
Spirit and. from the activity of faith. They are made. into Christ, we do not receive His blessings of grace
accessible to all that can physically eat and drink, hear          piecemeal, first one and then the other, but we become
and see, and.understand  with their natural minds.                 partakers of the living Lord, and of all the glorious
   Closely related to this Romish fallacy is the new               benefits of salvation there are in Him. Hence, through
theory of common grace. It also postulates that grace              the power of His resurrection we are also raised from
is in things. The reprobate too receive many blessings             the dead with Him. The resurrection of the Lord is
from God, food and drink, life and health, wives and               the power unto a new life.
children, homes and riches, talents and powers. Ac-                   The Word of God frequently speaks of this won-
cording to the defenders of this theory of common                  derful change that is wrought in us through the power
grace, all things are grace to the wicked reprobate.               of the living Lord. It is called resurrection from the
And according to them even the preaching of the                    dead. The Lord Himself declares in John 5  :21,24,  25 :
Word is grace to all that hear. Over against this false            "For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quicken-
theory that grace is in things, we must insist that                eth them ; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. .  :
although men have all things in common, yet-there                  Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word,
is no grace except through an operation of the Holy                and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting
Spirit; and that operation is only upon the elect.                 life, and: shall not come into condemnation ; but is '
                                                   H. H.           passed from death into life. Verily, verily, I say unto
                                                                   you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead
                                                                   shall hear the voice of the Son of God : and they ~that
                                                                   hear shall live." It is evident that our Lord is not
      The Power Of A New Life                                      speaking here of the resurrection of the last moment,
                                                                   but of the spiritual resurrection that is wrought in us
            Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming,    now through the gospel, and by the Spirit of Christ.
          and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of        The mighty call of the gospel is, therefore: "Awake
          the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.           thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ
                                                  John 5:25.       shall give thee light." Eph. 5  :14. The apostle Paul
   Christ was delivered for our offences, and was                  writes in Rom. 6 :3-5: "Know ye not, that so many of
raised again for our justification. Rom. 4 25. There-              us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized
fore, the resurrection of Christ from the dead is God's            into his death? Therefore we  .are buried with him
own verdict that all His own are justified in Him.                 by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised
And when we -experience, by faith, the power of His                up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
resurrection, we are righteous before God with an                  we also should walk in newness of life. For if we
everlasting and perfect righteousness.           And "being        have been planted together in the likeness of his death,
justified by faith, we have peace with God through                 we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection."
our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. 5 : 1.                                Again, he writes in Eph. 2 :4-6 : "But  `God, who is rich
   However, this imputed righteousness is not the                  in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
only gift of grace-bestowed upon us through the resur-             Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us
rection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We are also                 together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved) ; And
raised with Him `unto a new life through that same                 hath raised us up together, and made us sit together
power. This new life which we have in the risen Lord,              in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." And the believers
and receive through the power of His resurrection,                 are admonished : "If ye then be risen with Christ,
can never be separated from the righteousness we have              seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth       '
in Him by faith. The two are always together. It                   at the right hand of God. Set your affection on things
is true, we can distinguish the' two. Imputed right-               above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead,

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

  and your life is hid with Christ in God. Col. 3 :l-3.        sires we turn away from Him who is the sole Good.
     With Christ we are crucified, with Christ we are          Such is our death, in which we lie by nature. Through
  raised.     His resurrection is the power unto a new the power of Christ's resurrection, however, we are
  life.                                          /             called out of this death, and raised unto a new life.
     This new life we possess only in fellowship with          This new life is life indeed. Its essence is the fellow-
  lthe living Lord. Not for one  nxment do we have this ship of friendship with the living God. It is life
  life in ourselves. We must not conceive of this new          eternal.    "And this is life eternal, that they might
  life as something that is bestowed upon us only, in the      know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
  moment of regeneration, and that, henceforth, we             thou hast sent." The image of God is restored in us.
  possess in ourselves, apart from Christ. On the con-         This new life is, therefore, characterized by love of
  trary, it is never we that live, but Christ that lives in the light, and opposition to darkness; by love of the
  us. Just as the branch has no life in itself, but only       will of God, and hatred of iniquity ; by consecration to
  in organic connection with the vine; so the believer         the living God in true holiness, and an inner aversion
  has no life in himself, but only in communion with the       to all that is not of Him and to His glory. In  this
  living Lord. We live only because He lives. It is He         life, it reveals itself in true sorrow after God, a hearty
  that lives in us. If we were, even for one moment,           repentance, and a true delight in God and desire to be
  say that this were possible, which it is not, separated      pleasing to Him, and to keep all Hi's commandments.
  from him, that moment we would sink back into our            The outcry of the publican: `<God, be merciful to me,
  state of death. In fellowship with Him, we are raised a sinner", is the cry of one that is raised from the
  from the dead: By His Spirit and through the Word,           dead, that has heard the voice of the Son of God:
  it is He that calls: "Awake, thou sleeper, and arise         "Awake, thou sleeper, and arise from the dead, and
  from the dead." He says to us "Live", and we do live.        Christ shall give thee light!"
  But it is also the same risen Lord that, by His Spirit          To be called out of our natural darkness, per-
  and through His Word, continues to live in us, and we        version, corruption, and enmity against God, into that
  in Him. And thus He constantly makes us partakers            life of light and knowledge, of righteousness and holi-
  of His resurrection life. Hence, the apostle confesses : ness, of most intimate fellowship with the God of our
  "I am crucified with Christ : nevertheless I live ; yet      salvation, in which we dwell in His house, and taste
 * not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I        that He is good,-that is resurrection ,from  the dead
  now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of      through the power of the living Lord !
  God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Gal.               It is, secondly, life that is wholly free from the
  2:20. And this is the confession of all that are raised dominion of death. Christ is raised from the dead.
. by the power of the risen Lord.                              Death has no more dominion over Him. The power of
     The question may be raised: what kind of life is it       death can never reach Him. His life is the life of the
  that we thus receive, and that we possess in fellowship      Son of God in the glorified human nature. He is,
  with the risen Lord? In general, we may answer that therefore, forever victorious over all death. He is
  it is like unto His own life: it is resurrection life.       beyond  .the reach of death's clutches. So they that are
  And this implies three characteristics: first, that it is    in Him, and are partakers of the power of His resur-
  life from spiritual death, and, therefore, without sin;      rection, are beyond the reach of all death. In Him
  secondly, that it is life .beyond  death: death has no       they are victorious. In this respect, the life we have
  dominion over it, it cannot die, it is everlasting; third- in Christ is far more excellent than the life Adam pos-
  ly, that it is life from above: it is not earthy, but        sessed in the state of rectitude. Adam was created
  heavenly. Let us look at each of these characteristics a living soul.  ,To be sure, he lived. As long as he
  of our new life in  IChrist  a little more closely.          stood in righteousness before  `God,  he did not taste of
         It is life from spiritual death. By nature we are death. But he was not created beyond the reach of
. dead in sin. The image of God in us is changed into death. His life `was ammisible. He could fall, and
  reverse. Instead of living in true knowledge of God, become a victim of death. And so he did. But the
  we are in darkness ; we love the darkness of the lie         lifkunto  which we are raised by the power of the liv-
  rather than the light of the truth of God. Instead of ing Lord is  everltisting.  It is immortal. Death can
  being righteous, so that we know and love the will  :-;f     never reach it. "He &hat believeth on the Son hath
  God, we have become wholly unrighteous, perverse of everlasting life." John 3:36. ' "I am the resurrection,
  heart and mind and will, so that we seek and do the and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were
  will of the flesh, and love the lust of the flesh, and       dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and be:
  the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Instead of lieveth in me shall never die." John  II  :25, 26. To be
  being consecrated, with all our heart and mind and translated out of the darkness of this present death,
  soul and strength, to the living God, we are corrupt,        and mortal life, in which we are beset by death on
  defiled with pollution, and with all our heart and de-       every side, and pursued by the fear of death in all our


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D ,   B E A R E R                                            445

living, into the freedom from the fear of death, that         side. The new life is from above: it is heavenly. But
glorious state of immortality, in which the shadow            the old life is still in our members, is of the earth
of death can never spread its horrible wings over our         earthy. The new life strives upward: it seeks its own
existence  anymore,--+`hat is resurrection from the           level, the level of heavenly things in the resurrection
dead. And unto this new and victorious life we are            of the Eon  of God. But the old life pulls us downward :
raised, even now, by the power of the living Lord.            it seeks earthy things. And the striving of the new,
   Finally, the life we have in fellowship with the           resurrection-life of the believer in Christ to seek and
risen Lord is from  above.  It is heavenly life. Also         attain to its own level,-that is the Christian hope.
in this respect the new life is far more excellent than          If you anaiize it, you will find, that it is an earnest
the life Adam had before the fail,, in the first paradise. expectation of the future glory. "For we are saved by
He was of the earth earthy. He indeed had true life.          hope  : but hope that is seen is not hope : for what a man
For he was created after the image of God, in true            seeth why doth'he yet hope for?" Rom. 8 24. We hope
knowledge of God, righteousness, and holiness. He for the final adoption, to wit the redemption of our
knew God, and lived in covenant fellowshi@  with Him.         body. Rom. 8 223. The new life of the Christian is
But he lived on the earthly plane. He did not have the        strictly "other-worldly" in the sound sense of the word.
life of the son of God. He knew God, not face to face,        If only in this life  WC hope in Christ, we are of ail
but through the revelation of earthly things. But the men the most miserable. But we look for the city that
life we have in Christ is not of this earth. It is from has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. The
above, heavenly. For Christ is the Lord from heaven.  f future resurrection is the goal of the Christian's hope.
And as we have  borne the image of the earthy, so we             The power of Christ's resurrection c&uses the be-
shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Completely,        liever to look away from the present, and to fix his
this will be realized in the final resurrection, when         expectant gaze upon the future, to turn away from
also our bodies shall put off al corruption and  mortai-      things below, and to seek the things that are above.
ity, and shall put on incorruption and immortality.              Secondly, that hope of the believer for the final
But spiritually, we have the beginning'of that heavenly resurrection in glory is certainty. It is not a certain
life  everi now in fellowship with the risen Lord. It         doubtful and wistful yearning. Hope is certainty, for
is that knowledge of God which is obtained, not by            it is caused by, and based on the resurrection of our
looking into a glass darkly, and beholding a mere re-         Lord. His resurrection is a pledge of our glorious
flection of God's face, but by seeing Him face to face,       resurrection. Christ is raised as the firstbegotten of
and knowing as we are known. To be called into that           the dead : He- prepared the way through death into  ::fc
spiritual likeness of our heavenly Lord, in virtue of. for all His brethren. He is raised as the Head of the
which we put off the image of the earthy, and partake         body, the Church: as the Head is raised to glory, so
of the image of the heavenly,-that is resurrection            will the body follow into the same glory. He is raised
from the dead. And, in principle, we now partake of           as the firstfruits. The firstfruits were the beginning
that resurrection, through *the power of the risen Lord.      of  tht! harvest: they were a sure pledge that the com-
   And thus, the power of the resurrection of Jesus           plete harvest would be gathered into the barns. So
Christ our Lord reveals itself as a living hope, that is      the resurrection of Christ is the beginning of the final
not satisfied until the final resurrection of the last day    resurrection-harvest.    In His resurrection the final
is attained. "Blessed be the God and Father of our            resurrection is already begun. It will surely be finish-
Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant            ed. On this resurrection of Christ the hope of the
mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by"the        Chpistian is based. It is, therefore, a certain hope.
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." I Pet. 13.          The power of Christ's resurrection gives assurance
   What is the Christian hope?                                to the Christian hope of final glory !
   It is the spiritual t&ion of the new life we have             @inally,  that hope is longing, earnest longing for
in Christ, striving upward, and looking `and longing Qhe final glory. It is not a cold ,expectation,  as, for
for its perfect realization, while we are still in this       instance,,one  might expect that it will rain today. It
world, and in the body of this death.. For we have the        is a mighty longing to be delivered from .the body of
beginning of a new life in us. Yet, we are still in the       this death, and to be clothed upon with that heavenly
old nature, and in that nature, we are carnal and             glory that shall not be fully realized until the last
earthy. The new life is holy, and in virtue of it we          "moment", when death shall be completely swallowed
are new creatures : old things have passed away ; be-         up of life. Then this corruptible shall put on  incor-
hold, all things have become new! II  Car. 5 : 17. The        ruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality, and
old life is carnal, and by its power the motions of sin       in our spiritual, heavenly resurrection bodies we shall
are in our members. The new life is victorious: it is         inherit the heavenly kingdom of God !
free from *the fear of death ; the old life is under the         That is the glorious power of the resurrection of
dominion of death, and death still besets us on every         Jesus Christ from the. dead !                  II. H.

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

                                                              His mercy endureth for ever : The Sun to rule by day :
             O U R   D O C T R I N E   e                      for His mercy endureth for ever, etc." This truth also
                                                              renders us humble and causes us to feel our smallness
                                                              and nothingness over against the living God. This
          The Idea Of Creation. (2)                           appears from Job 38:4  .f.f, Is. 29 :16, 45:9, Jer. 18:6,
                                                              Romans  9:20, Is.  40:15. Permit me to quote a few
                                                              verses from Job 38 : `Where wast thou when I laid the
             As  Accordir,g To The  Scriptures.               foundations of the earth? declare; if thou hast under-
       We were discussing in our previous article the idea    standing. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou
                                                              knowest ? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
of God's work of creation as it is taught everywhere
in the Holy Scriptures. We noted that, although the           Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or
                                                              who laid the corner stone thereof; when the morning
Divine act of creation as such defies all human under-        stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted
standing, it nevertheless is held before us in such a         for joy? Cr who shut up the sea with doors, when it
clear and simple manner that B child can grasp the            brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
tru'th that God alone is cthe Creator of the universe.        When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick
And we concluded our article with the statement that          darkness a swaddlingband for it, and brake up for it
all of creation speaks of the omnipotence, the wisdom,        my decreed place, and set bars and doors, And said,
the greatness and majesty of the living God, inspires         Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here
us unto praise and thanksgiving, renders us small,            shall thy proud waves be stayed? Hast thou com-
and causes us to feel our smallness and nothingness.          manded the morning since thy days ; and causing the
We wish to call attention to a few more Scriptural            dayspring to know his place ; That it might take hold
passages before we begin our discussion proper of             of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be
the idea of this mighty work of the Lord.                     shaken out of it?,  f.f."
       It is an undeniable fact that the entire Scriptural       Besides the truth that the Divine beginning of
present.ation  of creation purposes to fix our attention      things inspires us unto praise and humility, also
upon the living God. That it serves to reveal the the omnipotence of the Lord is emphasized by the
greatness, goodness, wisdom and love of the Lord is           Divine creation of the world. This is beautifully
clear from Psalm 19, Job 37, Isaiah 40, etc. Reading          set forth in Isaiah 40 : 26-28 and Amos 4 :13 which
Job 37 we can well understand the words of verse 23 :         we quote : "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who
"Touching the Almighty, we cannot find Him out: bath created these things, that bringeth out their host
He is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in             by number: He  calleth  them all by names by the
plenty of justice: He will not afflict." This truth also greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power ;
strengthens our faith, establishes our confidence in          not one faileth. Hast thou not known? hast thou not
God, and comforts us in the midst of suffering, as            heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator
we may read in Psalm 33  :16  f.f., 65  :5 f.f.,  89:12,      of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?
121:2,  134:5, Isaiah  37:16,   40:28  f.f.,  42:5. Beauti- there is no searching of His understanding . . . For,
fully this is held before us in Isaiah 46:28  f.f.: "Hast     lo, He that formeth the mountains, and createth the
thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlast- wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought,
ing *God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,     that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon
fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching         the' high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of
of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint;           hosts, is His name."
and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.            Finally, God alone is the creator of the heavens
Even the youths  ,shall faint and be weary, and the           and the earth, and all the works of His hands speak
young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon         of the  wisddm and infinite majesty and transcendency
the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall mount        of the Most High. "Thus saith God the Lord, He that
 up with wings as eagles ; they shall run, and not be         created the heavens, and stretched them out; He that
 weary ; and they shall walk, and not faint."                 spread forth the earth, and that which  cometh  out
       Besides, the truth of the Divine beginning of things of it; He that giveth breath unto the people upon it,
 inspires us unto praise and thanksgiving. This ap- and spirit to them that walk therein :"-1s. 42  :5  ; "For
 pears from Psalm 148 :5, Rev. 14:7, and Ps. 136 :3 f.f. :    thus saith the Lord that created the heavens ; and
 "0 give thanks to  Qhe Lord of lords: for His mercy          Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath
 endureth for ever. To Him Who alone doeth great              established it. He created it not in vain, He formed
 wonders: for His mercy endureth for ever. To Him it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none
 that by wisdom made the heavens: for His mercy en-            else."-1s. 45 :18 ; "And the angel which I saw stand
 dureth for ever. To Him that made great lights: for           upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to


                                   T H E S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          447

heaven, And sware by Him that liveth for ever and            industry, etc. Everywhere in the world round .about
ever, Who created heaven, and the things that therein        us the law of cause and effect prevails. There is no
are, and the earth, and the things that therein are,         creature that owes its existence to itself. Hence, that
and the sea, and the things which are therein, that          the world should exist of itself, whereas everything
there should be time no longer :"-Rev.  10 :5-6 ; "Of old    in that world is governed by the law of cause and
hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the          effect, is impossible and must be rejected by the
heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, human mind.
but Thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old           Also the second "possibility" must be rejected by
like a garment: as a vesture shalt Thou change them,         human logic because it is a "contradiction in terms."
and they shall be changed: But Thou art the same,            On the one hand, is it reasonable to declare that a
and Thy years shall have no end."-Ps. 102 :25-27 ;           thing is able to make itself? Remember, we are in-
"He hath made the earth by His power, He hath                quiring after the origin of the world, this world where-
established the world by His wisdom,~and  hath stretch-      in we have a name and place. But how can anything
ed out the heavens by His discretion. When He utter-         that has been made make itself? Can the creature at
eth His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the         the same time be a creator? ` ,To declare that the world
heavens, and He causeth the vapours to ascend from is a creature surely implies that it is not the creator.
the ends of the earth ; He maketh lightnings with rain,      It is contrary to all human logic to declare that. the
and bringeth forth the wind out of His treasures.            creator and the creature are synonymous. We must
Everyman is brutish in his knowledge: every founder be one or the other, we cannot be both. To say, there-
is confounded by the graven image: for his molten            fore, that the world has developed out of itself is
image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.          plainly a contradiction in terms.
They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time
of their visitation they shall perish. The portion of           And, on the other hand, to say that the, world de-
dacob is not like them: for He is the former of all          velops out of itself implies that we simply evade the
things ; and Israel is the rod of His inheritance: The       ,-question  concerning the origin of the world. Thereby
Lord of hosts is His name."-Jer.  10:12-16.                  we merely put off or delay the inevitable. Regardless
                                                             of how far we may attempt to trace the origin of the
      Logically But Three Possibilities For The              universe the question will always assert itself: But
                 Origin  Of  The World.                      what, then, was the origin of that beginning? And,
                                                             to move this question into the infinite past is im-
As such.                                                     possible for the simple reason that, according to my
   One can conceive of but three possibilities for the       human mind and logic, there is no such thing as in-
origin of the universe. First, the world exists of it-       finity. I. cannot, therefore, ascribe an infinite and
self. This signifies an eternal self-existence. A second     endless past to the creature for the simple reason that
possibility is that this world has developed of itself.      the creature is finite and therefore not characterized
-And the third possibility is that the universe owes its     by an "infinite beginning or origin." Fact is, the term
existence to a source outside of itself.                     "infinite beginning or origin" is in itself a contradic-
                                                             tion in terms. Whatever has a beginning is not  in-'
Viewed  purely, logically, all three possibilities im-       finite.
possible.                                                        Finally, also the third "possibility" is impossible.
   The wisdom of this world has shown conclusively           It is a fact that whatever applies to the world must
thaC, viewed logically, merely from the viewpoint of         also apply to the cause of the world. Everything has
human reasoning and logic, all the three above named         a cause. My human mind, governed by the law of
possibilities are impossible. The first "possibility"        cause and effect, must also postulate that the origin
is impossible, according to man's faculty of reason,         have a cause, hence that God have a cause. And so
because it violates the law of Cause and Effect. It          the wisdom of the world has shown conclusively, pure-
cannot be denied surely that the law of cause and            ly` from `the viewpoint and upon the standpoint of
effect is the law of the human mind. Also our think- human reason and logic, that the Origin of the world
ing inquires after the source and constantly postulates      cannot be known by us. And thus we have come to
that the cause of something lies outside that some-          the utterly fantastic conclusion that, although there
thing and is not to be identified with it. Everything        may be a Creator of the heavens and the earth, He is
`in this world has a source, a cause. I myself have a and must remain unknown to us. I call this an utterly
cause or source, have a beginning, owe my existence          fantastic conclusion, because it is surely fantastic
to something outside of myself, do not owe my exist- that the living God should create the universe and
ence to myself. This is also true of the animal world,       remain forever unknown as that Creator of the heavens
and of the entire world of vegetation and plant, of          and the earth and all the things therein contained.

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

           How Corrupted By The World.                         been made and cannot reach out unto the Divine Cause
The unspeakable folly                                          of all things.
                          of  the world.       I                  Hence, having forsaken the living God as He has
   The attempts of the world to explain the origin of          revealed Himself, the world has attempted, in its own
the things without the revelation of Holy Writ merely          way, to explain the origin of all things. And, as one
serve to emphasize the depths of the ridiculous into           might expect when the Divine record is abandoned
which man can descend after he has once rejected               as the only possible source of all our knowledge, :the
God's own revelation of Himself. This lies in the              world, in doing so, is characterized by the depths of
nature of t.he case. We can never conclude from the the foolish and the absurd. This will presently become
things themselves  their  Divine  origin, and we can clear when we call attention to these several attempts.
never ascend to the knowledge of the living God merely
in the way of human logic and reasoning.. This is              The theory of materialism,
simply impossible. This does not mean that my human               We can distinguish between two kinds of material-
mind is not adapted to the knowledge of the living             ism. We can speak of Monastic Materialism and
God. It is a fact that we have been created in the             Duali;stic Materialism. Monastic Materialism (Single
image of God, have been adapted unto the knowledge             Materialism) simply proceeds from the theory that
of the Lord, and are therefore able to know the Divine         there is nothing but matter. All spiritual processes
Creator of the universe. However, we attain unto the are conceived merely as functions of matter.                  The
knowledge of the living God, not in the way of our             soul of mhn, his thinking and willing and inclinations,
own human reasoning and logic and deductions, but              is not a spiritual substance distinc'; from matter, but
only when we submit ourselves unto God's own in-               it is the result or effect of the organization of matter
fallible revelation. And, although it is true that we          in the body. Hence, only matter exists. To seek the
are adapted unto the knowledge of the living God,, this        origin of the world in Monastic Materialism implies
does not imply that this knowledge is such that we can         that we ascribe an eternal existence to matter, and
understand, comprehend, fathom the Divine Creator              that, therefore, the world owes its "beginning" to it-
of the universe, but that we learn to know Him exactly         self and developed out of itself.
as the living God Who far transcends our human                    However, ,this theory of Monastic Materialism s&e-
understanding. This is eternal life, not that we com-          ly does not satisfy the human soul. First, is it true
prehend, understand, the living God, but that we know          that anything in this world either exists of itself or
Him, the only true God, through Jesus Christ, Whom             can maintain its own existence? Is there any creature
He has sent. And the knowledge of the living God is that owes its existence to itself or is able to perpetuate
,friendship  and communion with the alone blessed Lord,        its own existence? Must  not all things die, and what
rooted in His gracious operation  in. my heart, and            creature is there that controls its own life? It must,
based upon His own revelation of Himself.                      therefore, be a self-evident fact that the creatyre is
   I must be instructed by the Lord ; He must tell me          controlled by a power over which it has not contiol.
who and whai He is; and it is impossible for me to             And, in the second place, it is simply absurd to postu-
attain unto knowledge of the Absolute from the things late an existence which is purely materialistic. This,
themselves and by the process of human thinking.               too, is and should be self-evident. One may attempt
The things themselves, being created, proclaim to me           to reason the soul out of existence, declare that there
the law of the creature, which is the law of cause' and        are no spiritual substances or realities. One may in-
effect. The law of cause and effect is necessarily the sist that the only reality is matter, the purely physical
law  ,of the creature. Whatever exists has a cause             world. But, the fact remains that the soul will not
inasmuch as it has been created. To apply this law             permit itself to be reasoned out of existence, Such
to the Divine  ,Origin of the world, the law which I           phenomena as love and hate, joy and sorrow, hope
see everywhere round about me, would simply lead               and despair do not permit themselves, in the  final
me to the conclusion that  ,God,  too, has and must have analysis, to be explained from matter, a piece of beef-
a cause. Besides, my mind itself was created, belongs steak, if you will.
to the things that have been made ; consequently, I               Besides the theory of Monastic Materialism, a view
must, in my thinking, constantly move about in the             known as Dualistic Materialism has been advanced to
sphere of the creature ; my thinking is bound to the           explain the origin of the world. This conception of
law of the creature, and I can never lift myself above         Dualistic Materialism regards spirit and matter  as
the things that have been made. Even as a drop of              dualistically opposed to each other. Some seek in
water  is irresistibly carried forward upon or in a matter itself the power of evil, whereas others present
stream to the ocean and cannot reach back or return            God as standing over against an eternal principle of
unto its source, so I,  finite  creature that I am, am         evil. The view which presents God as standing over
limited on every side by the laws of that which has            against an eternal principle of evil is commonly known


                                      T H E   iSTANDARD  B E A R E R                                                449

 as Dualism, whereas Dualistic Materialism  se,eks   this
 power of evil in the matter itself. Then there are in                      The Risen Christ
 this world two mutually hostile forces, the one the
 creator of all things good, and the other source of all         We turn to the eleventh and the twelfth verses of
  evil, whereas, as we have stated, some seek in matter       Isaiah 53; and, as quoting the text in the original, read
  itself the power of sin and evil. To fight sin, then,       God's Word as follows: `iOn account of the travail of
 implies that we crucify the flesh, mortify the body in his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge
 the literal sense of the word.                               my servant, the righteoils  one, shall procure righteous-
     Also this conception, we understand, is contrary to ness for the many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
 all the teachings of the Word of God. On the one hand,       Therefore will I give him the many as his portion ; and
_ Scripture surely does not know of any dualism between he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he
 .the living .God and a "god of evil". First, if this were hath poured out his ?ouZ unto death ; and he *was num-
 true, or rather if this view be adopted, what guarantee      bered with the transgressors ; and He bare the sins of
 ,do we have that the good will ultimately triumph over many; and made intercession for the transgressors."
 the evil? Does the history of the world teach us, for          $ The text  here:sets  befpre us the Lord's suffer-
  example, that the forces of good are slowly but surely      ing servant raised from .the dead and in glory at the
 triumphing over the forces of sin and evil? Is not           right hand of the Father in the exalted position of
  exactly the opposite true? The world is surely not          Lord of lords and King of kings and Head over all
  improving in the spiritual sense of the word. Besides,      things in the church. For the text states that on ac-
 is not God the sovereign Lord according to ithe Word         count of the travail of His soul He sees and is satisfied.
 of God, Who controls all things, both good and bad?             Verily, Christ arose. We, God's believing people
  Do we not read in Isaiah 45.:`7: "I form the light, and     know. For the testimony of  .the Scriptures as sancti-
  create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the       fied unto our hearts by the Spirit of our risen Lord is
 Lord do all these things."? ,Or in Amos 3 :6 : "Shall a to the effect that He arose from the dead, bodil$. This
 trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be          testimony includes, first, the silent witness of His
  afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath    tomb-it is empty ; second, the message of the angels
 not done it?" That the Lord is sovereign God who             to the disciples of Christ at the tomb; third, the ap-
 controls all things and performs all His good pleasure,      pearance of the risen Lord to His followers. This evi-
  also with respect to the forces of sin and darkness         dence certainly is conclusive to every one that believes ;
 we have shown conclusively in ,the series of articles fourth, the eventual conviction of His disciples that
 which we have concluded,on  the Counsel `of God. And,        He arose, despite their initial unbelief. The incredulity
  on the other hand, Scripture does not present matter of Thomas has special weight here. How slow of heart
 as inherently sinful and corrupt, or that matter has         was he to believe ; yet there was born aIso in him the
 in itself an eternal and infinite existence. Were this conviction that Christ arose; and with that conviction
 true, then `God would not be the Creator but merely burning in his soul he exclaimed, "My Lord and my
  the framer and  artificer  of the world, Who simply         God."
 molded and framed the things that already were. The             We cannot, of course, examine this mass of testi-
 Word of the Lord informs us, however, `that God called       mony to the fact of Christ's bodily resurrection. But
 the things into existence that cLc,e'Te  not, and that He    we may take notice of Christ's tomb on the morning
 did so by His almighty word. Besides, we are also            of the resurrection. Verily, it is empty ! For Peter
 told in the Word of God that the Lord created all            and John come to His sepulchre. John stoops down
 things, and that He created all'things good. This im-        atid  looks in. He sees the linen cloths lie, and the nap-
 plies that there is no existence apart from the living       kin that was about His head wrapped together in a
 God, and also that there was no evil in the world as         place by itself. But they see not the body of Jesus.
 it was called into existence by the alone living God.        The tomb is empty! Attend with me to the message of
 We must therefore reject any conception of the origin the angel to the two Marys of all the friends of Jesus
 of the universe which would seek that beginning in a first at the tomb. "Fear not ye," are his words to
 principle of Materialism, be it in the Monastic or           these women, "for I know that ye seek Jesus, which
 Dualistic sense of the word.                                 was crucified. He is not here ; for he is risen, as he
                                          IX Veldman.         said. Come see the place where he lay. And go quick-
                        *  * *  *                             ly, and tell the disciples that he is risen from the dead;
                                                              and behold, he goeth before you into Galilee ; there ye
                     CLASSIS  EAST                            shall see him  ; Lo, I have told you."
 will meet in regular session,  ,D. V., Wednesday morn-          The Lord is risen indeed ! Let unbelief scoff at the
 ing, July 12, at 9 o"clock,  at Fuller Ave.                  idea of the physical resurrection of the man of sor-
                             D. Jonker,  Stated Clerk.        rows. We who' believe are not perturbed. `For we

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

know that He is risen ; for the virtues of His cross are      Him ; for the temple is a building of God ; it is thus the
realized in us by His Spirit, so that we know Him in          glory of the Father and of His Christ that it reflects;
the power of is resurrection.                                 and therefore also the praises that rise from its rooms
       But what real comfort could God's believing people     are praises sung to their names.
take from the knowledge ,of the fact of His resurrec-            But now there is this question : how in the point of
tion, had they na spiritual u~derstmding  of its mean-        view of God's own righteousness could it be right for
ing? No comfort whatever, certainly. The Scriptures           Him to set this people before the eyes of the risen
therefore tell us not alone that Christ arose ; they also     Christ a revelation of His glory? What raises this ques-
reveal to us the necessity, meaning, and significance of tion is the fact that by nature this people are under the
this redemption fact both for Christ and His people.          sentence of death and on this account lost and undone
My text does so. I Let us now' concentrate on  .my text.      in their spiritual death. My text contains the answer.
It sets out with this statement, "Recause  of the travail     It is on account of the travail of His soul that the risen
of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied." Reference        Christ sees and is satisfied. There is then connection
here is to the nameless sorrows, pains, and agonies of between His soul's travail and His seeing and being
the Lord's suffering servant. Because of that travail         satisfied. Just what this connection .may be is cle$ar
He as risen  ,now  sees a wonderful thing to behold,          from the statement that follows. It reads  (\yuoting
namely, His people, by nature under the semence  of           the text in the original), "By His knowledge shall my
condemnation and on this account dead in their sins,          servant, the righteous, procure righteousness for the
raised up with Him and set with Him in heaven, bless- many; for he shall bear their iniquities." The state-
ed with all spiritual blessings. He sees His  .people,  a     ment is rich in meaning and is to be paraphrased thus :
great family of redeemed, conformed according to  His         He, the Lord's righteous servant, performed for His
very image and on this account reflecting all the vir .       people, in their stead and in their behalf, a righ*teous
tues of His Father. And He sees them in the full, deep,. work. He suffered and died for their sins on the cross
and abiding love of His great heart; and imbibing the         as their Mediator. With this righteous work of the
spiritual beauty of their heavenly perfection, He is          Saviour-His righteousness-imputed unto them by
satisfied, refreshed, says my text.      Mark you well,       the Father in the way of Christ's intercessory prayer
satisfied, not satiated. Were He satiated, He would           for them, they, we, His people, are righteous before
look away from His people, as saying, "It is enough."         God with all the rights of a righteous people-right-
But not for an instant in all the ages to come will He        eous in Christ-securely ours, to wit, the right to be
divert His gaze from His people. For He hungers and           called the sons of ,God ; the right to be forgiven of the
thirsts after the beauty of their heavenly perfection.        Father; the right to be cleansed of all our sins in His
And seeing, He is satisfied but satiated never. It can- blood ; the right to be conformed according to the like-
not be. For it is the Holy Christ seeing and satisfied        ness of God's Son, our risen Lord ; the right to fellow-
by the beauty of the holiness of His redeemed people.         ship with God through Christ and to be satisfied by His
       However, it must not be supposed that Christ now       likeness ; the right.to inherit the earth-that new earth
commenced seeing His people, now that the Father had          where the tabernacle of God is with men. All these
raised Him up. He was seeing them eternally in His            rights and benefits Christ procured for us. He did so
Father's counsel, a people chosen in Him before the           by His knowledge; that is, by sustaining the wrath of
foundation of the world and by virtue thereof called          God against our sins in His soul and body in full know-
and justified and glorified in Him their eternal Medi-        ledge of God's will and in perfect obedience to it.
ator; thus seeing them as vessels of mercy before  prc-           It is well that we take notce  also of the fact that in
pared unto glory by His Father. And this people Christ        this part of the prophet's discourse the suffering serv-
loved; He loved the beauty, the glory of their heavenly       ant of the Lord is called the Lord's righteous servant.
perfection that they had with God before the world            We should understand that He bears this name not as
was. He so loved that people, their spiritual  g!ory,         one of many righteous servants but only because He is
that by the travail of His soul He brought them up out the righteous servant of the Lord in contr~adistinction
of their sin and death and hell that it, this glory, might    to'the many-His people-who by' nature are unright-
be revealed on them, who were by nature ugly in their         eous before God in their guilt and spiritual death. It
spiritual death. For what was that glory but the crea-        was on this account that the Lord's righteous servant
tural reflection of the riches of the glory of His Father.    was sent by the Father to procure for us, His people,
The man of sorrows has His desire. For He is now our righteousness. For by nature the only right we have
risen Lord. And He sees His people, by nature dead in         is to be driven by the curse of God into everlasting
sin, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, built up in        desolation, we being men by nature under the sentence
Christ, the head of the corner; offering up spiritual         of death, it is true; yet men verily holy and blameless
sacrifices, acceptible  to God by Jesus Christ. And see- before God in Christ Who is our righteousness.
ing and hearing He is satisfied and His Father with               For Christ bore away our iniquities. And, there--


                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D .   B E A R E R                                              451

 fore, in the language of my text, the Lord gave Him,        meat and drink are ours ; health and sickness, riches
 His righteous servant, a portion in the many, that is,      and poverty are ours ; war. destruction and pestilence,
 consisting in the many. The meaning is that the Lord in a word all things are ours, who believe ; included,
 gave Him as His portion the `very people for whom He as they are, in the spoils of Christ's warfare. We being
 had procured righteousness by the travail of His soul.      Christ's, they are ours, are all these things ; subservient
 Assuredly, the Lord already had given this people           are :hese things to our salvation. They work together
 unto His righteous servant even before the foundation for our good, for the good to them that love God, for
 of the world in His counsel, doing so by His choosing the good to them that are the called according to His
 them in Christ unto life everlasting, and thereby con- purpose.
 stituting Him their head and them His body. And                 So does He, the victorious and resurrected Christ,
 assuming the  flesh' and blood of His brethren, the         divide .the spoil with the strong; mark you, with the
 many, He, the incarnate Son of ,God procured right-         strong. S&h is one of the names that He gives His
 edusness for the many by the travail of His soul. And       people. He calls them strong. By nature they are weak
 with this task completed, the Lord God again gave           being, as they are, dead in sin in themselves. But
 Him the many now by raising Him up from the dead            whereas they were predestinated unto strength,  they
 unto the justification of the many and by raising up        pdssess  Him, their risen Redeemer and Lord, as their
 the many with Him, by setting them with Him in              life ; and therefore they are the strong, strong in Him.
 heaven and blessing them with all spiritual blessings       And how amazingly strong they are. The gates of hell
 approximately 1900 years ago now.                           cannot prevail against them; and nothing can separate
    And for what purpose? In the language of the             them from the love of God, nothing, neither life `nor
 text, "that He, the risen Christ, might divide the spoil    death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor
 with the strong, that is, the many, His people, set with `things present, nor things to come nor height, nor
 Him in heaven." It is the spoil of war of which the pro-    depth, nor any other,creature,  shall be able to separate
 phet here speaks. What explains his use of this lan-        us from ,the love of God, which is in `Christ  Jesus, so
 guage is that he views the work of Christ's atoning for that in Christ we are more than conquerors.
 the sins of His people on the cross from the aspect of a       And as joined to Christ by a faith that is indestruct-
 warfare. Christ's work of atonement was just  that-         ible, in that Christ prayeth for us, we, God's people,
 a spiritual warfare; it was the good fight of faith that    face a wonderful prospect. Our lives are hidden with
 the Saviour was fighting. This is evident. True virtue      Christ in God, so that it shall come to pass that when
 was His only armour-virtue: implicit faith in God,          He, our risen Lord, shall appear at the end of time, we
 obedience, meekness, humbleness and patience. He was        all shall appear with Him in glory on that new earth
 obedien,t  unto death, was He not, even the death of the    where the tabernacle of God is with men. And all be-
 cross. The Lord laid all our transgressions upon Him ;      cause He hath poured out His soul unto death ; was
 He was bruised for our iniquities,  and He opened not       numbered with the transgressors ; bare the sins of
 His mouth. He was brought  as  a iamb to the slaughter,     many and m&de intercessions for the transgressors.
 and as a sheep before his. shearers is dumb, so He open- Do you believe in God through this crucified, risen,
 ed not His mouth. He did no violence, neither was de-       and glorified Christ? -Then this prospect is also yours.
 ceit found in His  tiouth.  When He was reviled, He                                                    G. M. Ophoff.
 reviled not. again. When He suffered He threatened                                   '
 not, but committed Himself to  Him* that  judges right-                              * * * *
 eously. Such being His arms, Hc gained a mighty vic-
 tory, He conquered all our foes-sin, the devil, the                         W E D D I N G   A N N I V E R S A R Y
 world, death, grave, and hell. Jointly they form the          On June 9, 1950, our beloved parents,
 spoil of His spiritual warfare, as laden with which He
' arose from the grave and was seated by the Father at                     Mr.  and  Mrs.  Nicholas  Vander Wal
 His own right hand in the highest heavens to divide         csmmemorsted their 30th Wedding Anniversary.
 that spoil with His redeemed people set with Him in           We, their grateful children, thank our covenant God that it
 heaven ; and not alone that spoil but with it all the       has been His will to spare them for each other and us these
 benefits of His atonement. For having procured for          many years. Our prayer is that in their reclining years God's
 His people righteousness, that spoil together with all      grace may richly dwell in them, and that they may have the
 the benefits of the travail of His soul, is rightfully      -peace of God which passeth all understanding.
 theirs in Him. All things are ours, who believe in His                                      Mr. and Mrs. John Koster
 name. Name whatever thing you will ; it is ours. Death                                      Harvey Vander Wal
 and the grave is ours ; Satan and the world of which                                        Marvin Vander Wal
 he is prince is ours, His people's ; herbs and grass and                                      and two grandchildren.
 rain and drought are ours; fruitful and.barren years; ,Grand  Rapids, Michigan,

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

                    Contributions                            to death into all eternity. It is the antithesis of life,
                                                             and as beautiful as eternal life is, so ugly is death.
                                                             So glorious heaven is, so terrible is hell. And unless
               AMONG OUR TREASURES                           we are unconditionally saved, there is no salvation at
                                                             all. For faith takes hold of',the  promises of God, clings
       It is with a feeling of sadness that I write this     to His word, hears His voice when He speaks, for it is
article. `For how is the gold become dim'. How is            the irresistible and all-powerful voice of God through
the fine gold changed by the writer in the Concordia.        &the Son and in the Spirit who preaches .unto us an
For among our treasures is especially this one : namely,     unconditional salvation. For, says He in Isaiah, "And
that we are unconditionally saved by grace alone, and        I looked and there was none to help, and I wondered
that through faith which is the power of God unto            that there was non to uphold. Therefore mine own
cur salvation and which overcometh the  *world. The          arm brought salvation unto me." He alone preaches
world in its widest meaning. The world as that world         in the great congregation. Says He, "I will mention
lies `round about us, but also that world as it is within    the loving kindnesses of the Lordand the praises of
us. For there is a world of sin and iniquity which the Lord, according to all+that the Lord hath bestowed
reaches as the mountains round about us, and  reacbe;:       on us, and the great goodness toward the House of
to the very throne of ,God. Already of old the prophet       Israel."                                                         I,
had proclaimed, `Can the Ethiopian change his skin,             For He has loved us `with an everlasting love, and
or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good,          with cords of love has He.drawn us. Seeing therefore
that are accustomed to do evil.' And the Psalmist            the unconditionality of salvation let us glory in the
calls it out, `There is none righteous, no not one, there    cross of Christ alone.
is none gthat understandeth, there is none that seeketh         Seeing our responsibility, let us trust in Him who
after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are        became responsible for us land who will never leave us
together become unprofitable, there~  is none that doeth     nor forsake us, but who will save us to the uttermost.
good, no not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre.         Not on condition of faith .and repentance, but in the
With their tongues they have used deceit ; the poison        way of faith and repentance. Wherein we are truly
of asps is under their lips, and the way of peace have       sorry for our sins, and wherein we have a desire to
they not known.' We are dead in trespasses and sins,         walk in the way of all of God's commandments.
incapable of doing any good and prone to all evil. By            0 Brother Petter. May the God of all grace show
nature we are nothing but a lump of sin, and like the        you the terrible error of a conditional theology. For
nature of an orange tree is to bring forth oranges and       do you not realize that you have lost the right to write
he nature of an apple tree is to bring forth apples,         under the heading of "Among Our Treasures"? For
so the nature of man after the fall is to bring forth        among our treasures, we have learned to sing, "Wel-
nothing but sin. Sinner is his name, and in the doc- zalig hij die al zijn .kracht, en hulp alleen van u ver-
trine of the total depravity of man, our fathers have        wacht.  . .  ."                                                        `.
said this, `You must look strongly on Jesus, who  bath                                                K r y n   F e e n s t r a
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a                                     /             Redlands, California.
curse for us, who though he knew no sin was made sin
for us.
       For we cannot even confess our sins, neither can                          WEDDING  ANNIVERSARY
we repent of them unless we are united to him with a           On July 22nd, 1950, the Lord willing, our beloved parents
true and living faith, which he works in us by His                                  Mr. and Mrs. L.  Lanting
spirit; the spirit of  ,the resurrected Lord who prays       will commemorate their 30th wedding anniversary.
in us: 0 *God be merciful to me the sinner; and who            We thank our heavenly Father for having kept them through
causes us to plead upon the righteousness which is           the years for each other and us, and may the Lord continue
found in Christ alone. For death is not annihilation,        to bless them in the years to come.
but death is a working. We are never stocks and                          "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose
blocks even in death. But we are very active in death,                   mind is `stayed on thee; because he trusteth
for death is to live apart from God. Death is dis-                       in thee"  --Is  26.3
                                                                                 . . . .
harmony. We already see that in our children when                                 Their grateful children :
they fight with each other; when there is trouble be-                                            Mr. and Mrs. Peter Iioole
tween brethren in the church; between man and wife,                                              Mr. and Mrs. George Lanting
etc. By nature we love unrighteousness and we love                                               Mr. and Mrs. Peter Knott
the lie. Death holds us in its clutches, surrounds us,                                           Gertrude
is in us. We are in the midst of death.  It.is a tre-                                            Jeanette
mendous  power; a working wherein we go from death                                               and four grandchildren.


                                    THEE   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                          453

                                                             move, does not deviate from it either to the right or to
           FROM HOLY WRIT                                    the left. This idea of stedfastness must not be con-
                                                             fused with stubbornness. Stubbornness is contrari-
                                                             ness. A man who is stubborn is in the wrong, he is
           Exposition Of I Cor. 1558                         walking contrary to the faith in Christ and to God's
                                                             commandments in Him, but he will not confess his
                                                             faults. Stubbornness is sin. It is the very opposite
    In this remarkable chapter of I Corinthians 15 the. of stedfastness. For the latter is not sin, but it is
apostle Paul defends the truth of the resurrection of        righteousness. It is a  holy resolution to walk in all
Jesus Christ, our Lord, overagainst all unbelief and         good works. It is in the Lord. That such is the Scrip-
sceptical  reasoning. He defends the premise that if         tural idea of stedfastness is clear from a passage as
there is no resurrection of the dead then is  ,Christ not    Colossians  123, where we read: "If ye remain by
risen. And,  ,to be sure, if Christ is not risen then        faith' ever founded and stedfast, unmoved from the
we are still in our sins, our faith is vain and all preach- hope of the Gospel."
ers of the resurrecton facts are found to be false wit-         Hence,+ stedfastness reminds us not of the horse
nesses.                                                      and the mule that must be led by bit and bridle, but
    But Christ is risen !                                    of the mountains about Zion which cannot be moved.
    He arose the third day according to the Scriptures       It is the rock that stands planted in the midst of the
and thus became the Firstfruits of those who have            raging sea. This rock is stedfast.
fallen asleep.                                                  Closely allied with the idea of stedfastness is that      .
    And since Christ is thus risen and His resurrection      of unmoveableness. This word in the Greek is derived
is the promise and pledge of our final resurrection we from the verb meaning: to move, to stir up, to agitate.
can go on hopefully and victoriously through life ;          And when this is applied to the believer it means, that
thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through          nothing can stir him up, nothing can agitate him in
our Lord Jesus Christ.                                       his mind. He cannot be moved by temptation to doubt
    Tha,t  final and complete victory shall be ours in       and despair. Such a man is like a great oak which lifts
that day when this mortal body shall have put on im-         its great crown for the birds .to nest in its branches.
mortality, and when this corruptible body shall have         Deep the roots of this tree are bedded in the earth.
put on incorruption. Then shall be brought to pass           Many winds and storms have passed over it. But it
the saying of Isaiah 25  23 : "Death is swallowed up to      stands. It stands unmoved. Such is the man that is
victory  !" That will be the destruction of our last         mimoveable'  in the Lord.
enemy. Then there shall be great feasting on Zion's             When we thus compare the sense of these two terms,
mount and the children of God shall rejoice forever-         namely, stedfastness and  unmoveableness,  we notice
more, saying, This is our God, for Whom we have              that the two terms complement each other in meaning.
waited.                                                      The two belong with each other. The former is posi-
    In the light of this context the passage in I Cor.       tive, the latter accents a certain quality of the former.
15:53 comes to stand before our mind's eye of faith          The unmoveableness suggests the tried and approved
in bold relief. We read there the following:  "So then,      character of the stedfastness. The stedfastness shows
my h,eloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, al-       its genuineness in its unmoveableness. The wind may
,ways  abounding in the  wo& of the Lord, ,forasmuch         cause the great oak to sway, to bend, to lean and groan,
as ye hmow,  that your labor.+  not vain in th'e Lord."      but it does not move the tree. So too the winds and
    It can do no harm to remind ourselves that in this       storms of our temptations in life may cause us to be
remarkable passage, Paul is not speaking of "stead- swayed, may affect our life, causing us pain and temp-
fastness" and "unmoveableness" in the abstract, but          tation, it may cause us much labor, but the anchor
that he is speaking of this stedfastness & the LOT&.         holds, it holds sure and stedfast within the holy place
    The apostle is here speaking of spiritual stedfast- behind the veil!
ness as such is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our             Such- the apostle says we ought to be!
lives.                                                          In fact, the more exact rendering of the Greek
    Keeping this observation in mind, we should notice ought to be as'follows  : Keep on becoming stedfast and
first of all the  idea  of stedfastness and of unmoveable- unmoveable. We must never think that we have al-
ness.                                                        ready attained. Ever anew and in ever greater degree
    The term stedfastness in the Greek comes from the we should be more stedfast and unmoveable over
verb, which means: to sit, to be sitting. And then against all the howling and raging of unbelieving scep-
it comes to mean: stedfastness in mind and purpose. ,tics. We must become this ever more also overagainst
It reminds us of a man who had taken a certain po- all of our sins and unbelief with which we have daily
sition overagainst God and Christ and who does not to struggle.

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

       Such we must keep on becoming!                         the word shall come to pass: Death is swallowed up
       We must, according to the word of Paul here, be-       of life ! Then shall all tears be wiped away from our
come this evermore in regard to the work in Christ,           eyes and we be led besides streams of living water.
the resurrection from the dead, the hope of final glory.         That this is the work referred to by the apostle is
We must see, ever anew and with greater intensity of          evident from the following facts. In the first place
joy, that Christ has arisen and become <or us .2he First-     this is clear from the fact that the whole context speaks
fruits of the full harvest. That must be for us ever          of this work. It speaks of the work of Jesus Christ
more the all-controlling motive of our life. And in as He suffered and died according to the Scriptures
the same measure that this is true and ever more be-          and as He arose again from the dead on the third day
comes true through the preaching of the Gospel and            according ,to the same -Scriptures. That the entire
the Sacraments, our life will be one of stedfastness          chapter speaks of this great work as given in verse 1
and purpose true.                                             is  co.nelusive  to indicate that Paul is speaking here of
       When an unbelieving sceptic  asks: but how shall       the work performed by Christ for us, and not first of
the dead arise, and with what kind of body shall they         all for the work that Christ demands of us in the new
rise, then the answer must be forthcoming with full           obedience.
certainty. We must say: All the effects of sin and the           In the light of this observation, we would also notice
curse will be no more seen. Indeed our body is sown that in the Greek this work is prefaced with the article.
in corruption, and it .is raised in incorruption, it is       It is  the  work. And then the singular "work" is
sown in dishonour it is raised in glory, it is sown in        spoken of. From this we learn that it is the one work
weakness it is raised in power. That we must say spoken of in the context and it is thought of as consti-
and confess first of all. Then, too, we must say that tuting a unity. It is the one all-controlling work of
all that looked like the first man of the earth earthy        Christ the Lord. The text also emphasizes that Jesus
will be no more. It will be wholly conformed unto the         is the Lord. He is the Lord of glory Who in the way
glorious body of the Lord from heaven. It is, indeed,         of His suffering was made both Lord and Christ. And
sown a natural body, but it is raised a spiritual body,       He must reign till He hath made His enemies His foot-
it will be perfectly the bearing of the image of the          stool. He is the *Lord. Atid in the work of this Lord
heavenly.                                                     we are to be busy reaching out till  He comes.
       That `we must say. We must  congess that God              Yes, in this one, central and all-controlling work
raised Jesus from the dead. We must believe this              we  are to  always abound. We are to be busy in it in
from the heart and confess it with our mouth'and thus         such a way that in this work of Christ we become liv-
we are saved completely. In this' we must evermore            ing fountains of spiritual activity, became some  first-
become stedfast, loving the appearance of Jesus our           fruits of His creation in Him the First-fruits, the
Lord upon the clouds of Heaven.                               First-born out of the dead!
       For Him we must look !                                    The only way to be stedfast is to be ever abounding
       Him we must expect. That does not mean that we         in love, faith and all the works of faith in our whole
must not be busy in life's calling, that in the literal       life. We are to live in the hope of His return and thus
sense we must stand and gaze into heaven. We have             cleanse and sanctify ourselves as He is pure. Thus
work, much work to perform. And this is also clearly ever abounding in the work of the Lord we evermore
underscored in the text. Says Paul: Always abound- will be becoming  stedfast  and unmoveable in the
ing in the work of the Lord.                                  Lord !
       About this "work in the Lord" we must say just            Ti`his will entail labor. The word lAbor suggests
a few words too.                                              .toiI, wearisome toil and opposition. It reminds us of
       ,The work of the Lord is not in the first place the    Jesus' word who said: In the world ye shall have
work that the Lord  requires  of us. It is .true, that as     tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the
believers in the Lord, we are placed under the new            world.
obligations of faith, under the new obedience of love.          ' This toil and labor is not vain. It is in the Lord.
But that is not what the apostle has in mind here first       It is the toil of the work in the Lord. The victory is
of all. When he here speaks of "the work of the Lord",        sure, the crown is certain. Life in this work, even in
he evidently has in mind the work performed for us            the toil, is not vain. We rejoice even because of the
by the Lord in His death and resurrection and glorious tribulation. For suffering with Christ we shall also
ascension. It is the work that He is now working in be glorified together.
heaven for us, the work in which we may be co-                    Presently all the brethren will then have the rest
workers with Him by His grace and Spirit. It is the           of Jubilee. It will be, to be forever `wth the Lord,
work that He will bring to  its final, ultimate and           to reign with Him over all the work of His hands.
glorious consummation in the day of  His return when                                                  Gee. Lubbers,


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        455

                                                              glorify Himself He does so through the death of those
            IN HIS `FEAR                                 ' who rebel against Him. This must be established and
                                                              maintained with vigor that would He inflict any-
                                                              thing less than the extreme penalty, would He even
            Called To His Praise                              delight in lessening the penaIty  for those for Whom
                                                              Christ has not born God's wrath, He would be unright-
Livl;n~  Scccrifices.  (continued)                            eous, would be denying Himself the glory which can-
                                                              not be ascribed to anyone else, and would then be a          .
   "The wages of sin is death", and less than death it        changeable God, which He is not at .all. In Him there
cannot be. The extreme penalty must be inflicted by           is no darkness nor shadow of turning. `He is the
the righteous and sovereign Creator of all things and         "I Am" who never says that He was or will be.
Lord of lords. For thereby He glorifies Himself. The             What then does delight Him is that we be living
sinner always refuses to serve God, and all sin is a          sacrifices. It is not our death that fulfills that which
failure to glorify Him Who alone is worthy to receive         He demands of us, it is a life of constant praise and
praise and adoration and Who made all things for His          service that fulfills this demand. Listen once to the
own glory. All sin is rebellion against this "jealous"        inspired Psalmist, "Sacrifice and offering thou didst
God. And he who dares to oppose God, he who dares             not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offer-
to rush at  hiin in his rebellious acts will inevitably be    ing and sin offering hast thou not required. Then
opposed by God and be crushed by death in all that it         I said, Lo, I come: in  ,the volume of the book it is
implies and is. Imagine the foolish man who runs              written of me, I delight to do thy will, 0 my God: yea
down the railroad track toward the onrushing express          thy law is within my heart." Undoubtedly you also
train in order to strike it with his fist. His cause is       recall the words of Samuel to wicked  kink Saul, "Hath
hopeless! He will be crushed by the power he. seeks           the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as
to assault. Even worse is the plight of the sinner who        in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold to obey is
opposes the everlasting God. Indeed, the wages of             better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of
sin is and must be death. If man will not glorify God         rams." That is what we mean by the heading, "living
then God will yet glorify Himself through the punish-         sacrifices." The willing and conscious service of praise
ing of that man with everlasting death in the torments        to the living God is using our bodies as living sacri-
of hell.                                                      fices. Paul speaks of this and calls it our "reasonable
    But eternally this everlasting glorious God decreed       service" when he says in Romans 12  :l, "I beseech you
to save some men from their rebellion and guilt. Ever-        therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that `ye
lastingly He decreed to renew a people in Christ as a         present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
royal priesthood so that they would willingly and  con:       t;o God, which is your reasonable service."
sciously glorify Him.       And that people enjoys His           Is that  &ally  a sacrifice to serve God with our
glory, for to it He gives eternal life.                       bodies? Indeed it is! But we must not draw into the
    Because  the wages of sin is death there were thou-       picture the idea of atoning by means of this sacrifice.
sands upon thousands of lives of animals sacrificed           We must not think of a sacrifice in the sense of doing
in the Old Dispensation.        Thereby God taught His        something for God whereby we turn away the fierce-
people that the wages of sin is death. `The blood of          ness of His wrath and induce Him to bestow things
animals was shed, the life of lambs and bullocks was          upon us. It is instead a sacrifice in tha,t we give tip
taken away. This was all to  irstruct  the elect, but         those things which our carnal nature craves, we give
the blood of bulls and  gqats did not take away sin           up the seeking of our own glory in order that we may
and did not undo the rebellion which calls for the            glorify God and He may be praised through our works.
death of man.                                                 It is a sacrifice in that we dedicate and consecrate, not
    What pleases ,God  is not the taking away of life.        merely in word, but in very deed all we have and are
Even in that general sense we may say that the word           un,to the <glory  and praise of God. After all the word
of God through Ezekiel 33 :I1 is true. God has no sacrffice  means literaly, "To make holy" coming from
pleasure in the, death of the reprobate wicked in the         the two latin words, "sacrum"  holy, and "facere", to
sense that He does not bring them into death because          make. A sacrifice is anything that is set aside for
He delights to see men suffer and die. What does              the service and glory of God.
delight Him is that men turn from their evil ways.               The work  t.hen  of the royal priesthood of God's
Understand well, we do not have here a sincere,  well-        people is to dedicate and consecrate all they have and
meant offer of salvation to all men.        These words       all wherewith they come in contact to the glory of
were addressed only to those who pine away and seek           God. They hallow the Sabbath, and it becomes a day
after salvation. But God always delights in glorify-          above all the days of the week, but during the remain-
ing Himself, and because it always delights Him to            ing six days they use all things in His service. Their


 456                                `"T+?E   S T A N D A R D   B E ' A R E R

priestly office is not for one day in the week. It is -(and not as a playthingj that together you might  exe-
an abiding priesthood that concerns  itself  wi.t.h,  all    cute the priest's office, And now you both are priests
things.                                                      over covenant children. Then do not sacrifice them
    Your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, as we        upon the altar of your lusts and  :ry to make them
pointed out before, and you live in that temple to           conform to your sinful ambitions. But sacrifice them
serve the Almighty God. But listen, is every single          upon the altar of service to the living. ,God.        Indeed
member of your body dedicated in service to God?             offer up your children to the living God, but do so
Let us begin with that most unmanageable member              as living acccrifices. Teach them early to live for Him,
of them all, your tongue. Is it fully dedicated to  Gocl,    and the material things God has given you use as a
do you sacrifice it to God as a living sacrifice so tha: wise and good priest that they may all through their
it is made holy for His praise? Or is their foulness,        days of care under your roof receive  `rhe  best  training
filth, cursing, swearing, backbiting, malice and even        in the fear of God's name that can be obtained. If
blasphemy uttered in that temple where you are sta-          you know of a stricter, more God-centered instruction
tioned to serve the Living, Holy God?                        than they now receive, leave no stone unturned to
    If you can manage that little member and as God's get them there ! Then your goods and your children
priest it is dedicated to His praise, we can go on and       both will be living sacrifices well pleasing in the sight
we need not mention any more members.             If you     of .God.
cannot manage it, it is plain that there is much more                                                     J. A. Heys.
corruption practiced in that temple where you are the
priest of God. For it evidences the fact that the                                     * *  *  *
fountain, the heart which determines what that tongue
will say is not pure. Your heart must be right with
God if you are to be His priest. What is in the mind               ANNOUNCEMENT . . . .
of `man determines what kind of prophet he is, but 1                             TO THE CHURCHES
what fills the heart of man determines what kind of
priest he is. Still more, it too determines what kind              The Synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches
of prophet he is. For though a man's mind be filled          decided to announce to the churches "that brother H.
with the knowledge of the truth he will not yet be a         H.  Kuiper be permitted to exhort in our churches and
prophet of God unless he love that truth. Godless            after a period of six months he shall be eligible .to
prophet Baalam  received the knowledge of the truth, .`receive  a call."
but because he was not a priest of the most high, he                                        D. Jonker, Stated Clerk.
remained a sinful prophet of the devil, though God
`used him to prophecy the truth.
    And your possessions? You hold on to them and
employ them, how and why? Are they dedicated to                                      SALVATION
the Living God      Or are they sought after and em-
ployed for your carnal advantage      Never forget that                  Salvation is the work of God
they may be yours relatively over against your fellow                      Through His beloved Son ;
men, but over against .God they always were and al-                      Who came on earth and shed His blood ;
ways remain absolutely His. Can you sacrifice them                         By Him the work was done.
for His cause, for His kingdom      Can you contribute
regularly, consistantly,  liberally and let us not forget                Salvation is by blood alone,-
cheerfully.  for the support of the ministry of His                        None can approach to God ;
Word, for Mission  activi,ty,  for Christian instruction                 Except in Jesus Christ, and own
for your children and for that of other covenant              :            `Tis through the poured-out blood.
youth. What kind of priest are you?
    And your children, are they consecrated to the                       Salvation is the work of grace,
Living God by you ? You prayed for them before                             Which <God done begins ;
they were born and vowed to dedicate them to Him?                        Through Him Who took the sinner's place,
Or let us even begin before this. You take unto your-                      When lost and dead in sins.
self a wife or a husband. You intend to broaden
out the sphere wherein you will be God's priest. But                     Salvation is for those who see
that wife you took was .taken to be dedicated to God?                      And know their lost estate ;
You saw to it then that she was a sincere believer in                    That Jesus Christ is all their plea,
Christ. You married her (him) then as an  helpmeet                         Themselves they loathe and. hate:


