     VOLUME  xxx11                            JANUARY 15,  1956  --~GRAKD  RAPIDS, MICHIGAN                               NUMBER 8

                                                                          sumptuously every day. That which ordinary mortals  es-
             M E D I T  AT.1 0 N                                          perience once in a while, and which is referred to in Scrip-
                                                                          ture as the day of slaughter, was an every day occurrence
                                                                          with him. Music and banqueting, eating and drinkng, wal-
                             A Contrast                                   lowing in excess and riotous delight was the warp  and.woof
             "There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in          of his life. He fared sumptuously every day.
             purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every              Spiritually the rich man was dead. For when he died
             day: and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus,           he went straight to hell.
             which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring         What was his sin ?
             -to be fed with the crumbs which fell  from the rich            I think there are two sins of the rich man in this story
             man's table : moreover the dogs came and licked              that stand out. The first is that he fared sumptuously every
             his sores," etc.                                             day. No man may do that. He never grasped the calling of his
                                                      Lukel  16 :19-31    life. That calling is to live soberly and work. The Dutch
                                                                          have a very expressive word for such sinning:  overdaad.
     Every commentator of Holy Scripture refers to the above              And at a very early age I was taught that all  overdaad  is
 Scripture as the parable  of the Rich Man and Lazarus. And               sin. Literally it means. "overdeed," and it means that our
 everyone whom I have ever heard speak of this same Scrip-                every thought, word and deed should conform to that which
 ture likewise refers to the  pwable   of the Rich Man and                is sober, good, seemly and praise worthy.  .Your stomach
 Lazarus.                                                                 has room for a good meal. You may not overcrowd it: that
     However, I doubt very much whether we have a parable                 is overdnad. Apply that to all departments of your rich life,
 here. If it is, then it is the only parable where a name is              and you grasp the significance of this man's sinful life.
used: Lazarus and Abraham. Moreover, then it is the only                  Sumptuous living has in it the germ of hell.
 parable where a heavenly saint speaks.                                      His second sin was Lazarus.
     I think that we have here a piece of history.                           His calling was to share his riches with Lazarus, and
     But I will not insist on it; against such overwhelming               all such.  He. should have lifted him from his lowly place
 testimony I do .not dare to1 step into the lists of controversy          at the gate of his palace. He should have washed his sores
 on this point.                                                           and should have mollified them with oil. He should  have
     The story, whether history or parable, is striking, and              shared his fine linen with him and made bandages for his
 informative.                                                             numerous wounds. The dogs were more merciful than he:
     There was a certain rich man. And?, there was a beggar               they licked his sores. And far from giving him the crumbs
 named Lazarus. It is difficult to find a more striking con-              that fell from his table, he should have shared his food with
 trast than this, especially when we listen to, the various               him. And instead of the hovel to which he was carried every
 details describing there respective positions in life.                   night, he should have shared his mansion with him. Lazarus
     The rich man has no name,  -although  the poor man is                was his constant sin.
 mentioned by name.                                                          And the two sins enumerated above emphasized another
     The rich man's name is of no consequence. The name                   sin: he did not live a godly life. God was not in all his
 he bears on earth will be wiped out. They are the nameless               thoughts. He cared for just one thing: the carressing  of his
  ones unto all eternity.                                                 senses. He is a picture of the ungodly of Psalm 73 : His
     His earthly station was such that he is mentioned among              eyes stood out in fatness; and he had more than heart could
 the rich. That means that he has more than he needs. His                 wish.
 clothing is the apparel of kings : purple and fine linen. His
 manner of life is wrapped up in mirth and plenty. He fared                                            ****..


170                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   BEARE.R

 Lazarus was poor, and a beggar.                                          Now let us look at these two in their death.
    But he has a name, and what a name: He whom God                       In their life the rich man was first. But in their death
helps !                                                               Lazarus is first. And it came to pass that the beggar died.
    Yes, it seems a contradiction. It seems that he is the                We  do not read that he had a burial, although it was
only one whom God forgot.                                             mentioned of the rich man. A hole is soon dug, and the fetid
    But he has a- name. The godly have names, and their               corps thrown down, hastily.
name shall be exalted  ins the day of Christ, for then they               But wait! Listen to the rustle of angels' wings. The
wlil receive a name which no one can read but th$ one that            angels were sent to carry his soul to heaven., And soon he
receives it. Moreover, their names are written in the book            hears the music of heaven, and, especially, Abraham's music
of life. And such name refers to the essence of their                 harping on his harp. For Lazarus is placed next to Abraham,
exalted place in heaven.                                              a place of honor.
    His earthly station was such that he is among .the poor.              Lazarus arrives in glory. He had to suffer a short period
And poor means that you lack that which you need accord-              on earth, but even then, his suffering wrought him glory, a
ing to the ordinances of creation. Poor means that you                far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. He had
suffer hunger, lack proper clothing and shelter against cold          .given just a passing glance at his sores, the rags, the dogs,
and heat.                                                             the crumbs, and the pain oni earth, but he had on the other
    He was clothed in, rags, and his rags were few, for the           hand looked steadfastly at the things that were not seen, and
dogs seem to have no trouble to reach the sores that cover            now, after he died, he enjoyed those things of God's eternal
him.  *                                                               covenant.
    He has few friends, and what friends! They cast him                   Now look at the poor-rich man, and shudder.
down every morning at the gate of the rich man's palace.                  He also died, but he was buried.
There was no pleasant aroma round about his tortured frame.               We know those -burials : they are an abomination to God
    But God helped him.                                               and righteous men. What pomp and circumstance! What
    That is clear when we note the desires of his heart: he           speeches and eulogies ! What emptiness and fraud !
desired the crumbs which servants  tiould cast to the dogs                But he is dead ! That was. the end of his sumptuous
after- every banquet.                                                 living. He left his castle for good.
    The unions of the world iight  for the full life.                     Angels came to carry Lazarus to his eternal home: did
       But Lazarus desires just crumbs,  the crumbs of the rich.      the devils come to get him when he died ? Who were his
He is satisfied with that,                                            companions to his eternal home ? I know not.
       There come the servants again with their burden of half                                          * * :t  *
eaten chops and steaks, bread and cakes. Lazarus hurries on               Now let us look at this duo in eternity.
hands and knees among the dogs to gather his portion for                  What shall we call the rich man here ?
this morning. And in his heart he murmurs: Heere, zegen                   I have it: a lost soul!
deze spijze  om  Jezus' wil ! Amen. God helped him again                  On earth he was on the way to gain the whole world.
this morning and he smacks his lips. His name is Lazarus.             He certainly did his best to crowd as much into his covetous
       Spiritually he was alive to God, the God of his salvation.     life  as  he  possibly   could
He knew Him and communed with Him, all the dreary,                        Yes, he had gained quite a bit. He had been a rich &an.
painful days and nights. And he was satisfied with crumbs,              ' But in the process he lost his own soul.
saturated with the saliva of the rich man and his honored(  7)            He arrived in hell. And in hell he lift up his eyes, being
guests.                                                               in torments . . . .
       Oh, beloved reader, Lazarus was truly a humble  soul.  I           How awful  ! What shall I write about that? I know  SO
believe I called this story informative. Here is your informa-        little about it. But the little that I know of hell makes me
tion: Lazarus is the example in Scripture for sweet humility.         tremble. The text speaks of torments. And a little later it
And I would affirm that if you  really know yourself and God,         speaks of be&g tormented in this flame! And Jesus speaks
you  hlsow that crumbs are really too much for  yoil. Then            of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Also, I hear of the smoke
you know that there is but one thing that fits you and that           of their torments, which arise forever. And of the  lake of
one thing is hellfire for all eternity.                               fire, which is the second death. And the gnawing worm shall
       What was Gods purpose with Lazarus?                            not die, and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh.
       The deeper the way, the higher the. joys of heaven.                And do you know what is the most awful thing about the
Whom He loveth He  chastizes.  The way  sf the cross leads,           whole picture of hellish torment? It is that there is no end
Home.                                                                 to it. Go away for, let us say, a billion times one billion years,
       Lazarus is the true picture of the pilgrim and the stranger    and then return to this poor man in hell: he is still crying,
who travels the weary road to heaven. Lazarus is the  ex-             weeping, gnashing' his tongue in the pain of this -flame.  Oh,
ample of those that are loose from the earth and that long            beloved reader, hell is so long! I hear them speak of despair.
for the Jerusalem which is above.                                         And why?


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                          171

   That which a man soweth that he also will reap. We have
to do with a good and righteous God. Hell fits.            .~- -,                        THE  STANDARD'  BEARER
   But listen to him: he speaks. Father Abraham, have                   Se&monthly, except monthly  ~dwisg   Jwne, July  md  ANgust
mercy on me ! Wonder why he did not address the Almighty.                 Published by the  REFoRMm  FREE  PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
Did he instinctively know that the time for mercy was gone  ?           P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square Station, Grand Rapids  7,  Mich.
   Father Abraham, on earth I did not care to address                                       Editor  -  REV. HERMAN  HOEKSETSA
Lazarus. I had no need nor use for his festering appearance.            Communications relative to contents should be addressed to  Rev.
                                                                        H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
I loved the garish way. But now I have need of him. Father              All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to Mr.
Abraham, make him my servant. Tell him to dip just one                  G. Pipe, 1463  Ardmore St.,  S: E., Grand Rapids 7, Michigan:
finger in heavenly cool water. One solitary drop of that water          Announcements and Obituaries must be m&d to the above
I crave. Bid him go to me, and spill that one drop on my                address and will be published at a fee of $1.00 for each notice.
heated tongue : I suffer so much in this flame ! Father Abra-           RENEWALS   : Unless a definite request for discontinuance  ?s re-
                                                                        ceived, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription
ham, have mercy on me!                                                  to continue without the formality of a renewal order.
   And the answer is : NO !                                                                  Subscription price : $4.00 per year
   Abraham will motivate his decision. You and he have                   Entered  a.s  Secorzd   Claw matter  at  Grand Rapids,  Michfgan
your deserved portion : he deservks heaven for Jesus' sake ;
and you deserve hell for your wicked works' salte.  Moreover,
there is that gulf fixed ! Oh that gulf !                                                               C O N T E N T S
                                                                     MEDITATION  -
   But the answer is NO !                                                   A Contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...169
   And then we listen to something passing `strange: a mis-                       Rev. G. Vos
sionary plea from hell!                                              EDITORIALS -
                                                                            The Apostates of 1953 and the Three Points.. . . . . . . . . . . .172
    Send Lazarus as a missionary to my father's house: I                          Rev. H. Hoeksema
have five brethren.                                                  As  TO  BOOKS-
   Abraham answers : they have the Bible ; there is no need                 Lukas, ~01s. I, II, by Dr. C. Greijdanus.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173
to disturb the heavenly joy of Lazarus.                                     Hebreen, Jakobus, by Dr. F. W. Grosheide.. . . , . . . . . . . . . . .174
                                                                            Geschiedenis der Openbaring,  #by Dr. J. H. Bavinck.. . . . . .  .174
   And the rich' man replied : No, father Abraham ! Notice               D By Grace Alone, .by Herman Kuiper.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .174
that awful negative. He knows better than heaven. No, a                            Rev. H. Hoeksema
missionary from the dead is more effective.                          OUR   DOCITRINE-
                                                                            The Triple  Kno-cvledge  (Part III  - Of Thankfulness) . . .  .175
   And the final answer? I think I spoke twice about the                           Rev. H. Hoeksema
informativeness of  &is history, or parable. Here is more            THE  DAY  OF  SHADOWS-                                      0
information if the wicked are' deaf to the calling voice of God             The  Promphecy  of Zechariah.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
in the Bible, they will not be persuaded from their evil way,                     Rev. G. M. Ophoff
evei though one rose from the dead.                                  FROM  HOLY   WRIT-
    The tale is over.                                                       Exposition .of I Corinthians l-4 (7) . . . .: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .180
                                                                                  Rev. G. Lubbers
    I continue to hear the sighing, the weepitig  of the damned.
Believe me, dear reader, it is very true and very real.              IN H I S  F E A R -
                                                                            The Sabbath  .in His Fear (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
   And we all are charmed by the hallelujah's of Lazarus                          Rev. J. A. Heys
and of the multitude that no one can number. It charms my            CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH  -
soul in eager expectation.                                                  Tthe Church and the Sacraments.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .184
                                                            G.V.                   Rev. H.  Veldman
                                                                     THE VOICE  OIF OUR  FATHERS-
                                                                            The Exposition of the Canons of Dordrecht.. . . . . . . . . . . .  .186
                                                                                   Rev. H. C. Hoeksema

                Notice for  Classis West                             DECENCY  AND   ORDER-
                                                                            Family  Visitati'on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
    Classis  West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will                        Rev. G.  Vanden  Berg
meet, the Lord willing, Wednesday, March 7, 1956, at                 ALL AROUND  Us-
Edgerton, Minnesota.                                                        "The Song b,f the Angels". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .190
                                                                                  Rev. M.  Schipper
    The consistories are reminded that all matters for the
classical agenda must be in the hands of the stated clerk            CONTRIBUTIONS  -
                                                                            Playing Church". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
not later than thirty days before the date of Classis.                             Rev. G. Lubbers
                                                                            "Playing  Church".......................................192
                                 The Stated Clerk,                                 J. King
                                               Rev. H. Veldman

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

                                                                         troversy in the church about this  7 To be sure, this is the
                   E D I T O R I A L S                                   infra view of election and men like Gomarus are supralap-
                                                                         sarians, but does not infralapsarianism have a rightful place
                                                                         in the church ? Do not the Arminians, after all, speak of an
       The Apostates of 1953 and the Three Points                        eternal and unchangeable decree of God unto salvation and
             The, question now is whether they that departed from        unto damnation ? It is true, thus some argued, that this first
     us still deny the doctrine of  .the Three Points of 1924 or         article makes the objects of this decree of God, not the elect
     agree with it.                                                      and reprobate, but the believers and unbelievers, but does it
         On this hinges the question whether! they are or are not        not plainly and emphatically state that men can believe and
     still Protestant Reformed.                                          persevere to the end  only through the grace of God and
        We are well aware that most of them claim that they still        through the Holy Spirit?
     are and that they have never departed from the Protestant              `Thus the Reformed people in the Netherlands judged
     Reformed truth. But this does not mean anything whatso-             when first this Remonstrance appeared.
     ever. History shows that heretics always make the same                  Nor can you blame them.
     claim. They always like to remain in the church as long as             Remember that we read this first article in the light of
     possible in order to exert their corrupting influence from          later history and in the light of the Canons of Dordrecht,
     within. And in order to maintain their position in the church,      but the people at that time did  pot have this further light
     they do not introduce their false doctrines openly and boldly       as yet.
     and all at once so that every one may know what they really            And, &en today, how many in the Reformed churches,
     teach.' On the contrary, they rather try to camouflage their        do you think, would find nothing wrong with this first article,
\    heretical tendencies as longs as possible, hide them under a        and even would prefer it to the definite doctrine: of election
     semblance of truth, and gradually introduce them into `the          and reprobation ?
     church.                                                                Yet, in this first article there is announced nothing else
        This certainly is evident from the history of the Arminian       than the false doctrine of election and reprobation on the
     controversy during the latter part of the sixteenth and the         basis of foreseen faith and unbelief  : God from eternity chose
     first part of the seventeenth century. Arminius himself, first      those that would believe and rejected those that would re-
     `as minister in the Reformed church in Amsterdam, and later         fuse to believe in this Son, Jesus Christ.
     as professor  ;n Leyden, aroused  suspi%n*occasiotially;  but
     up to his death in 1609 nevertheless remained a minister in            In other words, the  Remonsirants  plainly teach in this
     good standing in the Reformed Churches. He was never                article the error of conditional election and reprobation.
     deposed. When he was professor he did not openly introduce             Fundamentally, this is the same as  tl-+e doctrine of the
     his false doctrine in the class room, but preferred to do  sd       First Point of 1924 which teaches that God, in the preaching
     under cover in private talks with his students  and lectures at     of the gospel is gracious to all that hear the gospel and which
     his home. Even when in 1610 the well-known "Remon-                  teaches that the gospel is a well-meant offer of salvation, on
     strance" was composed in Gouda and first published in the           the part of God, to all men. For also such an offer is condi-
     Netherlands it was clothed in such language that most of the        tional, the condition being faith. And since the offer of the
     people and many ministers could not see anything wrong              gospel is of God and is tie11  meaning on his part, which im-
     with it.                                                            plies that He is willing to save  all, the condition must be
        The first article of that document reads as follows:             fulfilled by man.
       "That God, by an eternal, unchangeable purpose in Jesus              Again, fundamentally, `this is the same as the doctrine of
     Christ, His Son, before  _the foundation of the world, hath         ,the apostates that departed from us, and who teach that the
     determined, out of the fallen, sinful race of men, to save          promise of God, in the preaching of the gospel, is for all that
     in Christ, for Christ's sake,, and through Christ, those who,       hear, if they believe.
     through the grace of the Holy Ghost, shall believe on his Son          To this we must refer presently.
     Jesus, and shall persevere in this faith and obedience of faith,       The second point of the Rembnstrance  of 1610 ought to
     through this grace, even to the end; and, on the other hand,        have warned the Reformed people in the Netherlands that
     to leave the incorrigible ancl unbelieving and under wrath,         the doctrine of the  Arminians  was by no means pure Re-
     and to condemn them as alienate from Christ, according to           formed and Scriptural gold. It reads as follows :
     the word of the gospel in John 3 :36 : `He that believe%  on           "That, agreeably thereto, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the
     the SOQ hath everlasting life ; and he that believeth not the       world, died for all men and for every man, so that he has
     Son shail not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on -him,      obtained for them all, by his death on the cross, redemp-
     and according to other passages of Scripture also."                 tion, and the forgiveness of sins; yet that no one actually
        Now, what is wrong with this ? the Reformed people of            enjoys this forgiveness of sins, except the believer, accord-
     the Netherlands asked at the time when the Remonstrance             ing to the word of the Gospel of John 3 :16 : `For God so loved
     was first published. Must we have so much trouble and con-          the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever


                                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                173

       believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting: life,'         That.this is the notion of the Arminians  is plain from the
       and in the First Epistle- of John 2 :2 : `And he is the propi-       next article of the Remonstrance:
       tiation for our sins, and not for ours only,  bat also for the           "That this grace of  G.od is  the. beginning, continuance,
       sins of the whole world."'                                           and accomplishment of all good, even to this extent that the
          Yes, indeed, this article teaches the doctrine of universal       regenerate man himself, without prevenient, assisting,  awak-
       atonement: Christ died for all men and for every man.                ening, following, and cooperative grace, can neither think,
          It is rather difficult to understand how the Reformed             will, nor do good, nor withstand any temptations to evil ; so
       people in the Netherlands could possibly accept this statemen?       that all good deeds or movements that can be conceived must
       even at the time. Perhaps, some of them looked at it and             be ascribed to the grace of  God in Christ. But, as respects
       shrugged their shoulders for a moment.                               the mode of the operation of this grace, it is not irresistible,
          But, after all, do you not know that there are many               in&much as it is written  coricerning  many that they have
       preachers in the Reformed Churches today that would and              resisted the Holy Ghost, - Acts 7 and elsewhere in many
       do preach on texts like John 3  :16 and I John 2  :2 in the          places."
       same way as the. downright Arminians preach on them ?                   There you have it again.                .
         Besides, what is the difference between this and the                  It is all of gpdce.
       ,teaching that the gospel is a well-meant offer of salvation, on        But . . . . . . . .
       the part of God, to all men? Or, again, what is the  funda-             Election is on the .basis  of foreseen faith.
  -mental  difference between this article of the Remonstrants                 Atonement is universal: Christ died for every man.
       and the teaching that God promises salvation to all if they             Faith is not the  work- or the act of the natural man. It
       only believe ?       '                                               is, on the contrary, only through the grace of the holy Spirit
          Can God offer what does not e+en  exist ? Can God prom-           .that man can possibly believe.
       ise salvatiori to all, unless that salvation is objectively  ac-        But . . . . .
       complished ?                                                            But this grace of God whereby man is regenerated and
          Your answer is, of course : emphatically not !                    believes in Christ man may resist so that, after all, it is,
          Very well  ; but if this is true, then it is either or : God      ultimately left in the power of his own will whether or not
       never offers or promises salvation td all, or Christ must have       he shall be regenerated and believe in Christ. .
       died for all men and for every one of them.                             Fundamentally, this,, too, is implied  in the teaching of the
          Then, too, `the people in the Netherlands, at the time,           First Point of 1924.
       continued reading and, as they did so, their dotibts and.fears          And it is also implied in the doctrine of the apostates
       that may have arisen in their. hearts were put to rest and           of 1953 that the promise of God is general and conditional.
 .sleep  again. For in the third article of the Remonstrance,                  About this next time, D.' V.
       the Arminians seem to stress the absolutely sovereign grace                                                                   H. H.
       of God in the following words:
  .       "That man has not saving grace of himself, nor of the  it                                                                        II
       energy of his freewill, inasmuch as he, in the state of apos-                            AS TO BOOKS
       tacy and sin, can of and by himself neither think, Will, nor
       do anything that is truly good, (such as saving faith eminently
       is)  ; but that it is, needful that he be born again pf God in          Lzccns,  ~01s.  I, II. (Luke, two  ~01s.) by Dr. S.  Greij-
       Christ, through his Holy Spirit, and renewed in understand-          danus. Published by J. H. Kok, Kampen, the Netherlands.
       ing, inclination, or will, and his powers, in order that he may      Price Vol. I f 7.95; vol. II f 7.50.
       rightly understand, think, will, and  effect what is truly good,        This is the second edition of this commentary of the
       according to the word of Christ, John 15 15 : `Without me ye         former Dr. Greijdanus on the  G&be1  according to Luke. It
' can do nothing.' " .                                                      belongs*to the well-known series "Korte  Verklaring"  (Brief
          Surely, no Reformed man can have any objection against            Commentary). This particular commentary on the gospel  _
this article.                                                               according to Luke appears in two volumes. The first volume
          Moreover, it would seem that by an article of this nature,        contains, first of all, an introduction on the author, the pur-
       the whole of the Reformed faith is really safeguarded. For,          pose and the time and place when and where this gospel nar-
       if anyone subscribes to' the truth that faith is not -the work rative was written, which is followed by the exegesis of the
       or act of man at all, but it is the fruit of the sovereign grace,    first twelve chapters. The second volume contains the com-
       of God alone, he can never, it would seem, go far astray             mentary on chapters thirteen to twenty-four.
 from  <he Reformed truth.                                                     I need offer very little comment on this commentary. We
          Yet, this may still be Arminianism. The question is, after        know that Dr. Greijdanus' is always characterized by thor-
       all: how absolutely sovereign do you conceive this a grace of        ,oughness,  and this applies to this commentary also. This
       God to be? Is it,, perhaps, after all, something which God           ,does  not mean that we agree. in every detail with his explan-
       offers and which man can refuse to rece/ive ?                        ation. We would differ with him, for instance, in his ex-

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

planation of the linen clothes in the open grave of Jesus after        of the `apostles,' as far as it is known to us, and about the
 His resurrection. And so there are other details. Neverthe-           life in the church at the time of the gpostles.
less, I consider this a very `good commentary, written in                 A worth while book, which I gladly recommend to the
popular form so  &at it is easily accessible to all that can           reader.
 read Dutch.                                                                                                                     H.  II.
    Heartily recommended.
                                                             H. H.        13~ Grace Alone, by Herman  Kuiper,  Th. D. Published
                                                                       by Wm. B. Eerdmans Co. ,Grand  Rapids, Mich. Price $2.50.
    Hebreen,  Jalzobux   (Hebrews, James) by Dr. F. W.  Gros-
 heide. Published by J. H. Kok, Kampen, the Netherlands.                  This book is a treatise on Soteriology or on the way in
                                                                       which God applies the blessings of salvation unto the hearts
    This is a volume belonging to the set  "Commentaar  op             of His people in Christ. I am glad, indeed, that I can rec-
 het Nieuwe Testament?' (Commentary on the New Testa-                  ommend this book to our readers. The reason is that what
 ment) . It differs  fromi  the  "Korte  Verklaring"  in that it is    the  author  writes in an introductory note is maintained
 not written in popular style but appears in scientific form and       throughout the book:: "There need be no doubt as to what
 is based on the  Greek text. This does not mean, `however,            answer the inspired writer of the Bible  gives to the very vital
 that only ministers and students can make use ,of this com-           question how lost sinners are saved and restored to blessed
 mentary. Others may -very well consult it with benefit.               communion with the Most High. They declare with great
    The first part of this volume is a commentary on the epis-         emphasis that the Almighty. Creator of heaven and earth,
 tle to the Hebrews, the second part is on the epistle of              who governs the whole universe with such a sure hand that
 James. Both contain rather extensive introductions on the             nothing ever. comes to pass except that which He has fore-
 authorship, readers, time and place of composition, etc. This         ordained, also work? out from start tom finish with sovereign
 is followed by an exposition of the text. Also of this com-           and irresistible grace the salvation of His chosen ones." I
 mentary we may say that it is sound and thorough. Dr.                 find that this is,. indeed, the keynote of the whole book. In
`Grosheide  is a good exegete and writes a very clear style.           other words, the title of the book is true: "By Grace Alone."
    We will not make any particular comment. Naturally,                Hence, apart from minor criticisms, I am very glad to rec-
 one differs  here  and there with the explanation of the author.      ommend'this book to our readers.
 But in a brief review this is hardly proper. Hence, let it be            The chapter on "Vocation, Regeneration and  Mystical-
 sufficient for me to state that I wholeheartedly recommend            Union" I find somewhat confusing. But,, p,erhaps,  this is no
 this commentary to our Dutch readers, particularly to min-            wonder.
 isters a&d students who are acquainted with the ol;iginal  text.         On page 32 the author quotes the fourth article of the
                                                             H. H.     Remonstra'nce  of 1610. He calls it an "excellent affirma-
                                                                       tion." This is true as far as he quotes it. But the close of
    Geschiedenis  der  OpenbaGng  (History of Revelation)              the same article certainly mars its excellency beyond  re-
 by Dr. J. H. Bavinck. Published by J. H. Kok, Kampen, the             pan .
                                                                         *  -. "But, as respects the mode of the operation of this
 Netherlands. Price f. 12.25.           '                              grace, it is not irresistible, inasmuch as it is written concern-
        The title of this book is, to my mind, somewhat mislead-' ing many that they have resisted the Holy Ghost."
 ing, at least, for us in America. Judging by the title we                But, read the book for yourselves.
 would expect a history of Revelation or of the Holy Scrip-                                                                      H. H.
 tures, `their coming into existence, etc. But the present vol-
 ume offers a New Testamen;  History. The sub-title is more
 correct : "Handboek voor the  Kennis  van de Bijbelse  Ges-
 chiedenis" (Textbook for the Knowledge of Bible History).
    The present volume reminds one more or less of the well-               `The conceit of merit and justification by our good works
_known work of Edersheim  : "The, Life and Time of Jesus"              is calculated to shake true Christian consolation, to disturb
 tilthough, on the one hand, Edersheim  is more elaborate, and         the conscience -and lead men to doubt and despair iti refer-
 on the other hand, it does not extend beyond the time of              ence to salvation."
                                                                                                         -Ursinus,  Page 487,  Idem.
 the Saviour. The book of Dr. Bavinck, after a few introduc-
 tory chapters, describes the sojourn of the Lord  On earth
 together with His `death,, resurrection and ascension. into               "When (Christians  j  hear the denunciation  of the law,
 heaven as it is revealed unto us in the four gospel narratives. cursed is he tht confhLeth  not all the words of this law to
 And in the second part, it relates the history ai found in the        do  them;  and consider their own imperfection,' their con-
 book of Acts,, the outpouring of the Spirit, the establishment        science tells them that they can never perform all these
 of the first church in Jerusalem and the extension of the             things, so that they are continually led to cherish doubts,
 church among the gentiles, especially through the labors of           and to live in .dread of the curse of the law."
 the apostle Paul. It closes with a few chapters about the end                                           - Ursinus, Page 487, Idem.


                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D - B E A R E R                                           175

                                                                      pride of life. That, then, is sin. Whatever forms sin may
           O U R   D O C T R I N E                               II assume, in its deepest sense it always means not to live from
                                                                      the love pf God, and therefore deliberately to aim at another'
                                                                      mark, to strive for another purpose than that of the glory of
                THE TRIPLE KNOWLEDGE                                  God. This is closely connected with the meaning of the
      AN  E                                                           word for debt:, which we find in the Lord's Prayer accord-
               XPOSITION  OF  THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM                ing to the gospel of Matthew. Sin is debt. It is guilt. By not
                 PART  III  - OF  THANRFI'JLNESS                      reaching the mark in all our life we corn? into arrearti  w;th,
                         LORD'S DAY 51                                God. We did not meet our obligations with the living God.
                                                                      The more we sin the higher we pile up our debt. And seeing
                            C h a p t e r   1                         we can never pay tha8 debt, we become guilty and iiable  to.
                   The Prayer for Forgiveness                         punishment
                                                                         Now in this fifth petition we pray that God may forgive
    In the gospel narratives there are two versions of the            us  our debts. What does that mean ? We ask God to do
 Lord's Prayer, the one occurring in Matthew 6, the other in          something with our sins. What is that something? We ask
 .Luke  11. The former is part of the Sermon  o`n the Mount;          Him to forgive us our debts. The word used in the original
 the latter was given in answer!  to a request by the disciples       for  fo+ve really means to send away, to dismiss. This is
 that the Lord would teach them to pray. Now in these two             very significant, for it denotes that forgiveness is something
 versions two different words for sin are used in the petition        very wonderful, that the prayer for forgiveness is a very bold
 for forgiveness. In Matthew we find the word that is prop-           and amazing request. It  means that we implore God to
  erly translated by our commonly used English word debts,            dismiss our debts, to cancel them, in other words. And this
  while in Luke we find the word that in the Bible is most            implies, in the first place, that He dismiss them from His
 generally used for sin and that denotes an aiming at the             own heart and mind, so that He will never recall them again,
  wrong mark, a striving after a wrong purpose, a missing             never make mention of them any more, that He completely
  of the proper mark. We may well combine these twb mean-             obliterates them from His book of remembrance, so blots
  ings into a single conception,, for they belong together. To        them out that they can never be found any more. As the
  begin with the last mentioned term, it implies that God has         Heidelberg'catechism has it, we  iniplore  God never to im-
  so created us that in all our actions we are engaged as ray-        pute our sin% to us any more. It means, therefore, that Go8
  tional, moral creature?, and that therefore we must have an         will neyer hold it against us that we have always missed  the
  aim, a purpose for which we strive, a reason why we do things,      mark, always- trampled His glory under foot, always vio-
  an inner motive `that urges us to act. It also presupposes that     lated His good commandments. But this implies more. In
  God has appointed for man the purpose for which he must             the judgment of God we can never appear as neutral persons.
  strive 5n all that he does, and the motive by which he must be      And `therefore the prayer for the forg&eness  of sins implies
  actuated in his whole life. In other words, God sets before         something positive. It means not only that God will not im-
  man the mark at which he must always aim. That mark is,             pute- our  sibs unto us, that He cancels our debts, but also
  of course, the highest end of all things, for which, however,       .that He will- judge us righteous and so consider us as if we
  man must consciously and willingly strive: the glory of God.        ,had always been nothing but obedient children, that never
  In all his life, inner and outward, in his thinking and willing,    once transgressed His holy law. And so this prayer to dis-
his desires and aspirations, in his speech and actions, in his .miss our debts implies, secondly, that God will not at all
  personal life and in his relationships to others and to the         be angry with us for  halving missed the high mark of our
  whole creation, man has the calling to strive for the glory of      ,calling,  the glory of His name. We know that our sins are
  God. This is the only end, which man must always reach.             a fact. We are aware that God is terribly displeased with
  It is the only mark, at which he must always aim. This              ~11 sin. But we ask Him to dismiss our sins from His mind
  implies, of course, that man must always be actuated by the         that He will never be angry with us. And again, this too has
  pure motive of the love of. God. He must love the Lord his          a positive meaning. For God's attitude toward us cannot be
  God with all his heart and mind and soul and strength. For          neutral. In this petition tie  therefore..ask  for God's favor,
  only when he is motivated by that love of God can he reach          for His lovingkindness, His grace, His blessed friendship.
 -the end and aim at the mark, God's glory. -The word for sin         So dismiss our debts that they never provoke Thy holy
  which we are. now discussing means, therefore, that the sin-        wrath against us, and thus consider us righteous, that we
  ner is missing that mark; not by accident or in ignorance,          may be worthy objects of Thy favor. Such is the meaning
  not- in spite of the fact that he exerts all his effort to aim      of this petition. And finally, it follows that forgiveness means
  at it, but willfully and deliberately. For by nature he is an       that drod does not deal with us as sinners in His wrath, but
  enemy of God, and he will not seek God's glory. He de-              that He treats us as rightebus in His eternal favor. For in
liberately aims at something else, his own glory, the satisfac-       His wrath He must needs curse us, but in His favor He will
  tion of the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the      bless us with all the goodness of His house, eternal life.

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

                            Chapter 2                                 fe& man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold,
               Asking For Complete Remission.                         tie put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may, obey us ;
                                                                      and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships,
  j  i;Ve must not overlook the fact  that~ this is a  sprayer,  a    which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds,
 prayer for the forgiveness of sins. In this petition, as well        yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whither-
 as in all the other petitions of the Lord's Prayer, we. ask for      soever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little
 something. We desire a blessing of God's grace. We do not            member, and boasteth  gretit things. Behold, how great a
 merely request that God do something, that He cancel my              matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world
 sins and blot them out, that He dismiss them from His own            of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it
 mind ; but we desire an answer from the Most High, so that           defileth  the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of
 we feel in our hearts that He heard our prayer.           i          nature ; and it is set' on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts,
     That for which we ask is, as we have already explained,          and of `birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is
 the blessing. of the forgiveness of sips, which, according io        tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind : But the tongue can
 the Heidelberg Catechism, implies not only that God does             no man tame  ; it is an unruly evil, full of` deadly poison.
 not impute our transgressions to us, but also that He forgive        Therewith bless we Gbd, even the Father; and therewith
 unto us the depravity of our' nature.                                curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
    I;n this connection we may n&e that in both passages, in          Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and. cursing.
 Matthew and Luke, in which the Lord%  Prayer occurs, the             My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a foun-
 word for sin stands in the plural. In Matthew 6:12 we read:          tain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
-"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.' The           Can the fig tree, ,my brethreri,  bear. olive berries ? either a
 word for debt denotes that which we owe to God, which is             irine, figs ? so can no fountain both yield salt water and
 that we love God `with our whole being, all our mind and             fresh." Of these sins of the tongue we are all guilty: sins of
 soul and strength. In Luke P 1:4, however, we read : "And            profanity, of failure to confess the flame of our God where
 forgive us  .our sins; for we also forgive every one that is         we ought, sins of boasting, lying, slander, backbiting, and
 indebted to us." Here the word for sin, as we have already           blacking the name of the brother. And then, finally,  there
 explained, means that we miss the mark of the love of God.           are the sins of the' `deed, by which we violate the whole law,
 But what we wish to indicate in this connection is that in           and every one of its precepts.  To, these many sins, which
 both cases the term denoting sin stands in the plural. In            are more than the hairs of our head the fifth petition\ refers
 Matthew we find "And forgve  us  our  debts  . . .  ;" and in        `when it puts the word for sin or debt in the plural.
 Luke, "And forgive us our sins . . ."                                  But there is more.
    This is significant.        '                                        The plural also denotes that in our prayer for forgiveness
    The plural denotes that we have `many sins, and bepides,          we do not deal with an abstract notion of sin, but with very
 all kinds of sins, sins of our whole being, of our entire na-        concrete sins, which- are known unto us and which we con-
 ture and life. There- are, in the first place, secret sins, sins     fess id this prayer before God with sorrow of heart. 0, it is
 of the mind and of the, will. They never come to  manifes-           so easy to approach the throne, of grace and ask that God
tation and expression in our life and walk. Some of them              will forgive all our iniquity and all our sin.in  general. Then
 are even hid in our sub-conscious mind. They are not known           we deal with the general concept sin, without any specific
 even to ourselves, even though we understand very  weli that         content. Then there is nothing personal in our prayer. We
 they are thefe. To these the psalmist in Psalm 19 :12 refers         do not bring our own personal, individual corruptions be-
undoubtedly, when he wAtes:  "Who can understand his er-              fore the throne of grace and ask concretely for forgiveness.
rors  ? Cleanse thou  nie from secret faults." But  &her of           But such is not the meaning of the fifth petit&. It presup-
those secret sins a;re known to ourselves only. We hide them          poses that we have clearly before our mind our concrete;,
before others because we are ashamed of them. Not-infre:              individual transgressions, which we have committed and
quently we try to cover them up by an expression and man-             still do commit when we utter this fifth petition before the
ifestation in our outward walk,, our facial expression, our           face of God.                       ra
words and gestures, which are the very opposite of the                                                                            H.H.
thoughts and feelings we have in our mind and heart. They
are evil thoughts and desires, thoughts about God and man,
vain and rebellious thoughts, dissatisfaction with God's ways,           "The error of antinomism did not consist in this, that
murderous thoughts and desires, the  lust of the flesh, the           it postulated certainty in faith but that it made certainty the
lust of the eyes, the pride of life. But often these secret sins      whole of faith and did not make allowance for other activities
come to expression in the outward manifestation of our life.          of faith,  and, therefore, could not have ought else but an
There are the sins of the tongue, which are so vividly de-            intellectual acceptance of the judgment (sententia) : your
scribed to us in James 3 :2-12: "For in many things we of-            sins are forgiven."
fend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a per-                                  - Herman Bavinck, Geref. Dogmatiek.


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              177
II                                                                     `vious and primary meaning differ somewhat in designating
           THE DAY OF SHADOWS                                          the four horns or kingdoms. Some name Pul, Salmaneser,
                                                                       Sennacherib (three kings of Assyria) and Nebuchadnezzar
                                                                       (king of Babylon). Others name Persia, Macedonia, the
                 The Prophecy of  `Zechariah                           Seleucid kingdom, and Egypt. Still others, Assyria,  Baby-
      The second vision - the four horns and the four smiths,          lonia, Egypt, and Persia. According to  Keil and others the
 i, 18-21 (In the Hebrews, ii, I-4).                                   four horns represent the four mighty empires, world powers,
      1s. Then I lifted z$ mine eyes, and saw, and behold fo,ur        of Daniel's vision, - the Chaldean or New Babylonian, the
 horns.                                                                Persian, the Macedonian, and the Roman empire. In favor
      18. And I said unto the angel tha.t talked with me,' What(       of this view may be mentioned the following : I) Jointly these
 are these? And  he said  Itinto   &e, These are the horns  that       four empires included all the kingdoms of the nations or
 have scattered Judah, Israel, Jerusalem                               nearly so of what was then the civilized world. Among the
      20. And Jehovalz  slaewed  T'Ize four smiths.                    kingdoms .included  was also that of the Seleucidae, though
      21.  Tlzen   I said, What  come!  these to do? And he said,      for a comparatively short time it did exist as an independent
 say&g, These are the horns which have scattered Jztdah, SO            kingdom. Much of the time Egypt was under the dominion
 tlmt no ?qaan Lifted ufi his kead, butt- these are come to terrify    of the world powers of Daniel's vision. 2) Each  following-
 them, to cast out tlze horns of the nations, that are lifting Up      power of Daniel's vision absorbed and superceded the pre-
 the horn aga.inst Juda.h to smtter her.                               ceding so that' in mind` and spirit the four were one, the one
      18.  And I  lifted  U#  whine  eyes  - It means that a new       world power. And the -beginning of this power was not
 vision engaged the prophet's attention. Since `the visions            Chaldea or the New Babylonia but the Old Babylonia of
 came in one night, they must have followed one another in             which the mighty  Nimrod was the  ,founder.  Nor did this
-close succession.  And  saw . . .  foztr horns  - Whether the         power become extinct with the passing away of the Roman
prophet saw the horns as belonging to animals and, if so,              empire but it survived and took on new flesh and blood in
 whether to one or to more animals are questions that the              the kingdoms represented by the brittle feet and toes of the
text leaves unanswered and thereby it limits the symbolism             image of Daniel's vision  - kingdoms from the consolida-
 to the horns. The four horns scattered God's covenant peo-            tion of which will eventually rise the Babylonian or  anti-
 ple. This makes it clear that they represented political pow-         Christian world power'of the book of Revelation. In prin-
 ers that .vere hostile to the church. The text states that there      ciple Nimrod's  kingdom, symbolized by the tower of Babel,
 were four such kingdoms. According to several expositors              Assyria its successor, the new Babylon by which Assyria was
 the number "four" refers to four points on the compass,               absorbed, the rest of the empires of Daniel's vision, the king-
that is, to the four directions of the earth and in general to         doms represented by the brittle feet and toes of his vision,
 every direction and all directions. The meaning of the ex-            and the Babylon of John's Revelation are one. Always it is
pression "four horns or kingdoms," is then taken to be that            the same diabolical .world power the prince of which is satan.
the church of our prophet's day was beset by enemies on all            That the .Persians  and Alexander the Great befriended the
 sides, that from every direction adversaries crowded upon             covenant people is not an objection to this view. Devoid of
 the Jews during the post-exilic period, the Assyrian,  Chal-          Saving grace, they were moved by carnal ambition and policy
 dean, and Samaritan on the north, the Egyptian on the south,          in doing the Jews well.
the Philistine on the West, and Moabites' and Ammonites on                According to this view then the four horns represent
the east.  ,,                                                          the four empires of Daniel's vision, that is to say, represent
      But. according to others the expression "four horns" does        the one world-power as constituted of all the kingdoms of
not as such mean "horns on every side," "and should not,               the nations of what was then the civilized world and, in the
therefore, except for a compelling reason, be regarded as              final instance, `of all the kingdoms of the nations of this
having this meaning. And as this reason is wanting, so it              present .dispensation of the world .but necessarily excluding
is said, the obvious meaning of the expression should  be,             the kingdoms of the nations which are in the four quarters of
maintained, especially so since it does not exclude, so it is          the earth, the Gog and the Magog of Revelations xx. 8.
 said, but includes the idea-that the church of Zecharius' day,
as is the case with the church of every day and `age, was sur-            Yet it may be doubted whether this is the idea of the
rounded on all sides by enemies. And therefore they take               four horns of this vision. Verse 21 suggests too plainly that
the meaning of the expression to be "four horns" (so  Keil             the four horns symbolize all the kingdoms of all the nations
and others), and not "horns" on every side." That is to say,           of the whole earth at any one time in history without  any.
to the mind of these expositors, it should not be denied that          limitations and not alone the four empires of Daniel's vision.
the primary `meaning of the expression is "four horns," that           Included therefore are also the nations which are in the four
directly the reference is to just so many horns or  hostle             quarters of the earth, the Gog and the Magog and that ona
 political powers.                                                     day, as deceived by Satan, will go up on the breadth of the
      The expositors that maintain the expression in its  ob-          earth, and encompass the camp of the saints about and the

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

  beloved city (Revelation xx. 8, 9). That these kingdoms,                 the prophet saw the horns as having been made of wood or
  all of which are hostile, are said to be four in number, is              of iron, we have no way of knowing whether it is more suit-
  doubtless meant to convey the thought that at all.times  they            able to think of the artificers as smiths or as carpenters. It is
  beset the church on every side, that from every quarter they             not impossible that the artificers were armed with hammers
  crowd upon the covenant people.                                          or with saws, poised to demolish the horns or to saw them 9
         19.  Tlcese  aye  the  four  hams  - In the first instance all    in pieces.
  the kingdoms of the nations by which the post-exilic church                 21. Then I said, Wlmt covlze these to- do? - Question of
  in  Judea  ~8s beset on every hand and in the final instance all         the prophet concerning the artificers. Unable of himself to
  the kingdoms of all the nations of the whole earth, past,                understand the  symbolis&  he turns to the interpreting angel,
  present and future, and by which the church has, is and al-              for an explanation. These are  the  horns  - The pronoun
  ways will be surrounded on every hand. until, at the retm-n              "these" looks back to the four horns of the previous verse.
' of Christ, the world shall be made to pass away forever in               which have sca.ttered Judah -`"Israel and Jerusalem" is the
  order that the church may appear with Christ in glory, that              thought to be supplied. So that no ma,n l~ifted .trp his head -
  have.  s&red J,udalz, Israel, and Jwwalem i By Israel is                 Language descriptive of-the state of mind and heart of God's
  meant not Judah but the Israel of the ten`tribes. For in sub-            scattered people. They were  overwhelmed. They were dis-
  -sequent chapters' the prophet addresses his Gospel also to              consolate. There was no spirit left in them. The state of
the' ten tribes, to Ephraim (ix. 13) and to Joseph (x.6).                  tii.nd  af'-the  Church  ifi  Babylonian  captivity is touchingly
  That special mention is made of Jerusalem is owing to the                reflected in Ps. cXxxvii.  By the rivers of Babylon, there they
  fact that formerly the city was the religious center of the              sat, and wept, when they remembered  Ziori. They hanged
  tribes. For in her had dwelt Jehovah in  His. holy temple.               their harps upon `the willows, and when their captives re-
  In the person of Nebuchadnezzar the four horns had over-                 quired of them `a s&Q, they would reply," How shall we sing
  thrown Jerusalem, burned her gates, broken down her wails                the Lord's song in a strange land." Then there is that de-
  and plucked up the covenant people-the tribe of Judah -                  scription of the scattered flock of God contained in the He-
  from their native soil and removed them)  to Babylon, in the             brews (Chapter 11, 36, 37)) according to which the faithful
  person of the king of Assyria the four horns had carried.                had trial of  mockings  and scouragings, moreover of bonds
  away the Israel of the ten tribes to- Assyria. To the four               and imprisonment  ; were stoned, sawn asunder, tempted,
  horns as represented by the Persians the post-exilic church              slain with the sword, wandered about in sheepskins and goat
  in  Judea  was in bondage. In the person of the  Sele&d                  skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented.  But these are
  Antiochus iv the four horns inaugurated against the cove-                come to terrify them - "these," namely the four artificers.
  nant people the-severest persecutions recorded  in the history           "them," that is the four horns. The mission of the four
  of the church. In the Book of Revelation (chapter xvii)                  artificers is to terrify the four horns, that is to overthrow,
  the four horns are presented to view under the image of a                demolish them. To cast down the horns of the nations -
  beast bearing upon its head a woman  - the apostate church               That "horns" and "nations" are written with the. definite
  - upon whose forehead is written, Mystery, Babylon the article but that the horns and the nations indicated are not
  Great, Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth,                  further  identified shoti thit the reference is to all the king-
  apd a woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with                doms of all the nations of the earth, past, present and future,
  the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.                                       without any limitation. And by setting forth the task of the
         Always has and does and shall the church exist in the             artificers as consisting in overthrowing not alone the four
  midst of conflict. Always is she beset by the four horns,                horns by the many a's well, the text here identifies thee four
  that attempt to scatter her. For the church is  3 new  crea-             with the many. This  shdws that the  acceptible  view is the
  ture in Christ Jesus. And `her light shines  - the heavenly              one according to which the four hoins symbolize not just so
  light that Christ kindles and sustains within her. And, there-           many empires but the total of hostile political powers by
  fore, the kingdoms of the nation, by which is to be under-               which the church is beset round about at all times. Certainly,
  stood the reprobated world, know her not, because they                   in the first instance the four horns  .symbolize  the hostile pow-
  know not Him. It is plain, therefore, that if the church is              ers by which the post-exilic church in Judea  was on all sides
  not to be destroyed from the face of the earth at anyone                 surrounded. The promise to Zerubbabel is that every one of
  time but, on tLe contrary is to be gathered through the ages             these hostile powers will be cast down in order that God's
  the four horns must be overthrown over and over as they                  little flock may not be overwhelmed by them and as a result
  continue to reappear in history. This, is the promise of the             the work of building Gods house  be, interrupted or com-
  succeeding verses,  - a promise that underlies the good &d-              pletely and permanently stopped. These kingdoms shall be
  ings of the previous vision. But now it is proclaimed openly             cast down in order that Jehovah's house may be completed.
  and fully and without reserve.                                               But through what agency were these hostile powers to be
         20. And  Jclzova~h  .&ewea   IJze four  sv&hs  L Literally        overthrown ? Through an agency symbolized in the vision
  workmen, artificers. The word is used of workers. in wood                by the four artificers. It is not stated what this agency is,
  as `well as in iron and stone. Since it is not stated whether            seeing that  th?s has already been made plain. In the previous


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                     179

vision appeared horses, some of ,which were red, some: red-                                       Chapter ii
dish-brown and the rest white. As we saw, the  coloi- red,              T&e Third  vision - .the man with the measuring line,
according, to the Scriptures (Rev. vi. 4j ,symbolizes  war and       l-13..
bloodshed, and Reddish-brown the working of God's wrath                 The Gospel of this vision is that, with the kingdoms of
in destruction by fire. Through Haggai as His organ the              the nations overthrown and thereby rendered harmless, Jeru-
 Lord  had. said. "Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah,           salem shall be exalted, Jehovah shall come and dwell in her
 saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth ; and I will         midst, and many nations shall be joined to Jehovah in that
 overthrow the throne of thk kingdoms, and I will destroy            day, and shall he His people.
 the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen ; and I will over-
 thrdw the chariots, and those that ride in them  ; and the             1. And I lifted uj mine eyes, and looked, and behold a
 horses and their riders shall .come down, each by.the  sword        man and in his hand a, meamring  line.
 of his brother (Haggai ii, 22) ." Allow me to quote from my            2. Then said I,  whithv  goest thou? And he said unto
 exegesis on this verse, "Indicated are the thrones of the king-     yyte, To measure Jerumlem, to see what is the breadth there-
 doms of the nations of our prophet's day and in the final           of, and what is the length thereof.
 instance the kingdoms of all the ages still to. come . . . The         3. And behold, the aigel tht talked with me went forth,
 Lord, will overthrow them all and extinguish their glory.           and another angel went  forth  to meet  hiutz.
 EacF, hy the sword of his hfotlaer  - Every man's sword will
 be against his fellow as was the case with the Midianite               4. And said unto him, Run, speak to this young  ma.n,
 hordes with which Gideon did battle- in the times of the            saying, As towns without walls shall Jerusalem be inhabited
 Judges. But the statement has a more general application.           for the multitude of taen a.nd cattle therein.
 It points to civil war and must  be  t&en to mean that in              5.  For I,  .saitlt  Jehovah,  will be  ,tmto  her a wall of  file
`their wars with one another the kingdoms of the nations de-         rolmd about, a.nd ~0.11 be to the glory in the midst of her:
 stroy themselves as well as each other."                               I.  And I  Lifted  %@  *tine eye  - Again indicating `that a
    So then, according to these prophetic, sayings the agency.       new vision absorbs the prophet's attention.  A  man with a
 through which Jehovah would cast down the hostile powers            ~~~easu-ving  line  - In what  sensq this is a reiteration of the
 surrounding on. every side the post-exilic  dhurch of  Zech-        promise in i, 16 will`become plain presently. This man is not '
 arius' day were the tikry kings of these powers in their wars       to be identified with the interpreting angel, for it  is plain that
 with  done another in which they would destroy not alone one        the latter is distinguished from him in verse 3. It  is also
 another but also themselves, their kingdoms. Even at the            doubtful whether there is any ground for regarding him as
 time that these prophecies were uttered,' so I  w.r@e, there        the angel of Jehovah. It seems that the sole purpose of his
 were wars and rumors of wars as there are now at the                appearance in the vision is to give occasion for the proclama-
 present  time. `There was war between Persia and Bab)lon,           tion of the gladtiding that Jerusalem shall be exalted.
 Persia and Scythia, Persia and Greece, Syria and Egypt. It                                                                       G. M. 0.
 was all Jehovah's work. Said He not, "I will overturn the
 throne of the kingdoms of the nations . . ." So it went with
the kingdoms of the nations of our prophet's day. A'nd  so it           The unbelievers evaluation of time:
 continued to go with them  throuih all the ages to the                          "I backward cast my e'e
 present monyent.  So it' does with them at. the present time.                    On prospects drear !
 The kingdoms of the nations are again talking peace but                         An `forword, tho' I  canna  see,
.preparing  for war. And so it will go with them through the                      I guess and fear."
 ages to come until the arrival of that hour in which in their                                            - Rob? Burns
 totality they shall be made to pass away forever. And, I re-
 peat, it is all Jehovah's work. -It is His way of seeing to it         The righteous gratefully testify :
 that His church is not destrpyed from the face of the earth                   "In Thee, 0 Lord, do I put my trust; let me never
 but abides in order that Christ may continue to gather her                    be put to confusion . . . . incline.Thine ear unto me,
 until the whole house is full, His temple built.                              and save me . . . . for Thou art my hope, 0 Lord
    Still to be noticed is the fact that the number of artificers              God." Psalm 71.
 is equal to the number of horns, so that, for each hostile
 power there'is an agency that is ready to crush it. Or shall            "Without the grace and continual direction of the Holy
 we say that for each kingdom there is a kingdom or com-             Spirit, even the most holy persons on earth can do nothing
 binations of kingdoms that is ready to cast it' down,' and all      but sin, as is' evident from the examples of David, Peter and
 hostile to the church. For the artificers in the vision are not,    othkrs. Yea, without regeneration, no part of any work that
 as some have it, `symbolic of worldly pdlitical powers truly        is good in the sight of God, can even be begun, in as much
 friendly to the church. But the result is, nevertheless, that       as we are by-.nat,uye evil and dead in sin."           .:
 the church is not overwhelmed and destroyed.                                                                          - Ursinus, idem


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 II                                                                   the walls built which protect him and the church, the walls
             F R O M   HOLk  W R I T                               II of Zion, and either he will hide himself in God's Secret Place
                                                                      behind these walls, content to dwell in Israel, or he will be
                                                                      irked-by these walls and will them to be broken down as an
              Expobitioti  of I Corinthians 1-4                       evil in the City of our God!
                                 7.                                       Now let each beware how he builds ! (I Corinthians
                                                                      2:lO)
       We are still studying Paul's superb and masterful refu-            Let that also be the prayerful carefulness of the writer
 tation of the party-strife and schism in `the congregation of        of these lines ! !
 Corinth ; the heinous sin of making a rend in the church of              Fan who are we but ministers through whose preaching
 the living God!                                                      of the Word the Holy Spirit' works faith in the hearts of the
       They who perpetrate such evils never have a proper and         believers ; and every preacher in his own  place ; each laboring
 sober consideration of the entire work and design of God in          according to the gifts which God has given him !
 Christ Jesus; they act and speak as if the church-were not               Such is sobriety in our evaluation of preachers, and such -
 God's peculiar possession, his dwelling-place  i,n the Holy          is also sobriety and power in the heart of every preacher who
 Spirit. They must be reminded of many things concerning              teaches in the church of the living God.
 the church, the first principles, the simple rudiments of the            Let us, therefore, attempt to trace the A-B-C lines of
 Kingdom of God. And if they are not those "who are perish-           Paul in this, first Chapter of I Corinthians. And when we
 ing," but are spiritual men, to whom the wisdom of God is            are able to trace these lines of Paul's teaching and admoni-
 revealed in Mystery, then the reminder of such simple rudi-          tions, and to see this great Apostle's' pedagogical approach,
 ments will be the means of grace to bring thein to spiritual         then it will also be evident that we are not spiritual  .idiots
.sobpiety,  (a nice word in Scripture) for God works grace in         and imbeciles and morons, but that we have a good, healthy
 the hearts of the faithful, of all who believe, whether they be      and a matured understanding of the Word; workmen who
 Jew or Gentile  - through admonitions, warnings and  threat-         rightly divide the Word and, therefore, need not to be
 enings !                                                             ashamed of it now, nor in that Day!
       Thus our Fathers of Dordt so soberly write in Fifth.Head           We will needs have to put spiritual things with spiritual,
 of Doctrine, Article 14 "And as it hath pleased God, by the          even as the little child in kindergarten puts natural things
 preaching of the Gospel, to begin this work of grace in us,          with natural by associating the mother bear and the cub, the
 so he preserves, continues and perfects it by the hearing and        doll and the doll-house, the mother and the baby, the farmer
 reading of his Word, by meditation thereon, and by the ex-           and his tractor. Such will have to be the spiritual intelligence,
 hortations, threatenings and promises thereof, as well as by         in STUDYING our text which intelligence can see the
the use of the sacraments."                                           proper meaning of the wisdom of God in the design of our
       This sobriety of the Fathers is a solid building upon the      salvation, or in the proper relationship of our calling and
foundation, which Paul laid as a wise master-builder,  .besides       our faith, and God's election and our calling. This is simply
which none other can be laid. And this work of the Fathers            the A-B-C of the Scripture.
 of Dordt has stood and shall stand the test of the touch-stone           This is' masterfully shown by Paul in our text: I Corin-
of the Word, serving for the advancement of the glory of              thians 1 :26-31!      _
 God and the comfort of His church. And it is a ministry of               We read in these verses the following: "For take note of
 sobriety and power which stands four-square upon this foun-          yoztr calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
dation of Paul.and  the careful building of the Fathers ! See         the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble ure called: but
I Corinthians 3 :lO-15.                                               God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to con-
       In the very warp and woof of this sobriety just referred       found `the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things .of the
to  we also meet with the only practical wisdom. Here we do           world to confound the  things  whiclt are  mighty; and base
not give a certain normative value and validity to `life (we          thilzgs of the world, a.nd thi,ngs which are despised, hath God
moeten  ook met het  "lever?' rekenen) but all life is meas-          chosen,  (ytia)  and things  which  are  ,not, to  bving to nought
ured by the very sober realization, that only the Word of             things that are: that no flesh should glory in his ptiesence,
God. is the Regula Fidei, (rule of faith) and that the exhortu-       but of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
tions are a part of this preaching of the Word, the Regula            us  wisdo,m,  a,nd righteousness, and  sartctification  and re-
Fidei. And all that, which does not measure up to this canon,         demption: that according us it ,is written, He that glorieth,
this rule of faith, is not faith, but will be manifested in that      let him glory ,in the Lord."
day to be so much hay, stubble and chaff, which shall be               ' We -would call your sanctified attention to the following
burned with fire. Here the preacher cannot determine where            in this Scripture passage:                       .
the lines shall be drawn, how high the wall shall be built, but           In the first place, we should notice that Paul in speaking
here he finds the. lines drawn for him in the A-B-C Book of           of our "calling" places his finger at the very cardinal point
Scripture and all he does is trace lines !' Here also he finds        in our Christian experience where the wise design of God in


                                                   THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              181
                      --.------
  bur salvation is indisputably demonstrated. It is exactly in       at  Cbrinth,  who are admonished as the "brethren" in our
  otir "calling" that we are given to observe that God's "folly"     text,  are "called saints," that is, they are saints by virtue
  is wiser that the wisdom of men, and that his "weakness". is       of their -being "called" efficaciously of God. See verse 2,
  stronger than men ! It is well to notice that' Paul brings up      where we also read that the church is those "being sancti-
  this question, this reality of our "calling," exactly  in this     fied in Christ Jesus,!' by virtue of the efficacious calling in
  connection, and that, `too, in his polemic against the party-      Christ.
  strife which is rooted in a desire to glorify man!                    b. Secondly we should not overlook in determining the
      Since Paul brings up the consideration, the Proper  con-       nature. of the "calling," which must be considered  according
  sideration of our calling in his "exhortation" to cut off all      to Paul's admonition, lest we boast in man, that this calling
  boasting of men in the flesh and not in the Lord, we do well       rests solely upon -the faithfulness and the almight  of God in
  to observe what this "calling" implies according to Scripture      Christ. Thus we r&ad in verse 9,. "Faithful is God, through
  and the confessions !                                              whom ye have been "called" into the fellowsliip  of His Son,
     We notice the following :                                       Jesus Christ, our Lord. This thus being called  into  (eis)
     1. That we should heartily agree with H. G. W. Meyer            the fellowship of his Son benefits. And this faith the Holy
  in his Commentary when he rejects the presentation of "cal-        Spirit  works in our hearts through the preaching of the
ling"  as being simply the equivalent of "Betuf,"  the outward       Word of the Cross !
  circumstances in which they lived in Corinth, the  odcupa;-            (Nota bene : When the Canons speak of this' "calling into
  tion in their Ife! Such is contrary to the text and to all that    the fellowship with His Son" we hear our Fathers speak
  the Bible teaches us else-where in unmistakable language           the beautiful language of III, IV, Article 11 where we read :
  concerning our calling into the fellowship of God's Son-!          "But when God accomplishes his good pleasure in the elect,
    2. That we should also clearly understand that calling           or works in  them true  cortvemion,  he not only causes the
  must here not be understood merely in the sense of the ex-         gospel  to be externally preached to them, and powerfully il-        .
  ternal  calling, .as seems to be the sense in the well-known       lumines  their minds by the Holy Spirit, that they may rightly
  passage of Scripture, where Jesus says: "Many are called,          `understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God ; but
  but few are chosen." Apart now from the fact that there            by the efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit, pervades the
never is a calling merely to the ear of man, whether it be           inmo$t recesses of the man ; he opens the closed and softens
  in the elect, who are "being saved,"-or in the reprobate who       the hardened heart, and circumcises that which  was- un-
  "are being destroyed," it can be safely asserted that our          circumcised, infuses new qualities into the will, which to
  text does not speak of the mere external calling. It speaks        heretofore dead he quickens; from being evil, disobedient,
  not of the calling of all, if they will believe, but  qur text     and refractory, he renders it good, obedient, and pliable ;
  speaka of the calling which the "brethren" have experienced        actuates and strengthens it, that like a good tree, it may bring
  and do experience in their heart and life, as the Word of the      forth the fruits of good actions.")
  Cross is a wisdom and power of God in their hearts! And               c. Thirdly, when we see the "calling': as the efficacious
  that no IN.eTe "external" calling can effect.                      calling, then alone can we see how Paul can connect this
      (Nota bene : it is well to observe that the Canons do not      with the election" as he does in this passage, and only thus
  speak of the en-tern,al  "calling" but do speak of the Gospel      is this text- ammunition against the vainglorying of schism
  being "externally preached." These two are by no means             and party-strfe. For if the calling is efficacious, then only it
  identical  in Scripture and in the Confessions, even though        is truly a divine work," evidently a supernatural work, most
  they must be seen in their proper relationship to one an-          powerful, and at the `same time most delightful, astonishing,
  other. Calling is effected through the Preaching by the Holy       niysterious and ineffable ; not inferior in efficacy to creation,
  Spirit, yet this calling and preaching are never identical.        or the resurrection from the dead, as the Scriptures, inspired
  See  Heid. Catechism, Question 65, where the answer is,            by the Author of this work, declares . .  ." Canons  .II, IV,
  "From the Holy Ghost, who works faith in  our hearts  by           Art. 12.
  the preaching . . . .")                                               Such is the sobriety with which our Fathers fook notice
     3. That it should be clearly understood and-also be our         of the  calling  wherewith we have been called.
  believing observation concerning our calling, according to            They maintained the "golden chain" of election, calling,
  Paul's earnest exhortation in this text, that "calling" here       justification, and eternal glory !
  refers t? the efficaciou.s calling of the Holy Spirit unto true       More of this in the next instalment, D.V.
  faith and conversion, that is, unto justification by faith, and                                                           G .   L .
  a walk of sanctification which flows from such a living faith.;
  kindled in our hearts through the Holy Spirit in the preach-
' ing of the Word of the Cross!
     a. In the first place this is the very clear and explicit           "Let him be accursed, who says that it is possible to
  teaching of Paul in the first few verses of this Chapter. There    render obedience to the law, without. the grace of the Holy
  he very advisedly and emphatically teaches that the church         Spirit."                                              - Jerome,


1    8    2                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

                                                                   our daily toils, might gather  with His people to listen to
               lti  H I S   F E A R                                what He has to say to His Church and to sing praises to
                                                                   His name for all His great and glorious works. He demands
                                                                   that we take  n&e of His works ! And He gives us a day
               The Sabbath  hi  His Fear                           that we may do this to a special degree, to a degree greater
                                                                   than the other six days of the week provide.
                              42)                                     This He has done, first of all, because of His sovereign
     We may have no God besides Jehovah.                           jealousy according to which He insists that man honor and
     On that we are all agreed.                                    praise Him. In His works, both creation and of salvation,
     "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." So reads the       He reveals Himself as the true and only God. besides Whom
First Commandment.                                                 there can be no other God ; Who cannot be represented by
     To have graven images to represent God and to worship         any creature since they all owe their existence to Him and
as gods is a great sin.                                            are dependent upon Him ; and Whose name is above every
     Not one of us will deny that.                                 name and must be revered by all the creatures He has made.
     "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or              According to the Psalmist ?n Psalm 19 He reveals Him-
any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that         self to us as our Creator and Redeemer. The  Psaln$st be-
is in the earth beneath, or that is in  the  water+  under the     gins his psalm! by stating that the heavens declare the glory
earth." Thaf we are taught in the Second Commandment.              of God and the firmament showeth forth His  handiwork.
     God's name is holy and must never be used in vain.            And having spoken of His work of creation the Psalmist
     We are agreed that He will visit the iniquity of those        then speaks also of the work of salvation accomplished by
that hate Him and reveal their hatred by taking His name           Him, pointing out the perfection of God's .law and that God
.in vain. .                                                        must and does cleanse us from our faults and makes us up-
     At Sinai God declared "Thou shalt not take the name of        right and innocent of much transgression. Then he utters
the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him -his prayer : "Let the words of my mouth and the `meditation
guiltless thal! taketh His name in vain."                          (murmuring) of my heart, be acceptable in  Thy sight, 0
     But that we must love and honor Him in and for His            Lord, my strength (Creator), and my Redeemer."
works is maintained only seldom and then  with little en-             There is an intimate relationship between these two works
thusiasm.                                                          of God: the work of creation and the work of salvation.
     Yet God gave the Sabbath  exactly with a view to `this.       Because Ha is the creator of all things, all thirigs owe their
     Indeed, our Sabbath is not the Sabbath of the Old Testa-      existence to Him, are His possession and exist for His glory.
ment Church. Our calling is not to drop all our toils and          The rational, moral creature, therefore, must continuously
labor in order to spend a day in idleness. The value of the        serve Him consciously and willingly. Even in the days of
Sabbath is not in doing nothing. Instead God gave us the           his youth man must remember his creator. Ecclessiastes 1.2  :l.
Sabbath that we Inight be very active.                             But man does not. Man fell away and in Adam turned away
     Man was not made  for the Sabbath  ; the Sabbath was          from Him and behaved as though he had  the perfedt right to
made for man, Jesus declared to the faultfinding Jews who          use God's creation for his own carnal lusts; as though it
complained when He was active in the good work of healing          were his own possession and as though he might use it to
the sick &d when He told the healed-one to do the necessary        oppose the living God.
work of taking up his mattress and going home.                        And exactly because the Creator is God, this all was ac-
     Though the Sabbath was made for man, it was not made          cording to His eternal counsel. For before the foundation
 either for him as a day in which to be idle and to be able        of the world He decreed the work of salvation, Ephesians
to catch up on some much needed sleep; or that he may              1 :4. The work of creation was necessary as the very founda-
have a day for his flesh in which he may have time to do           tion upon which the work of salvation  .would be wrought.
the things for which he would not take time during the week        The work of salvation is not to be conceived of as repair
because it-was too inconvenient or would cost him a little         work upon the work of creation. The work of salvation was
of this filthy lucre. If we will not let go of our-works during    a further step in the eternal plan of God to glorify Himself
the week to accomplish a certain thing, we may not ignore          in a people made like unto His Son, Ephesians 1 :5 and 6.
the works of God on the Sabbath to steal time for our flesh.       We were predestinated before the foundation of the world to
That is not why He made it for man.                                be "to the praise of the glory of His grace.' `It is an un-
     God gave us one day in seven that we might serve Him          alterable principle according to Scripture that  "Howbeiti
in a special way and even to a special degree. And that            that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural ;
special way in which we in the New Testament day are to            and afterward that which is spiritual," I Corinth&s 15  :46.  '
serve God is that we give ourselves to contemplation and con-      And in the work of salvation we are regenerated  ; we are
sideration of His great and glorious work of salvation. It is      born again. There must first be the natural birth. There
 a day which He set aside in order that we, unhindered by          must be a man that is born into this world before there can


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   '                                          183

 be a regeneration. We must first be born from below before        cause man has need of such an arrangement in order to
 there is anything to be born from above. And so in the wis-       honor and worship God properly in this work of salvation.
 dom of God the work of creation is first as the groundwork        Man is after all a creature. And he is bound on every side
 and foundation for the Fall and the Cross, for the entrance       by time  and. space. His mind can be on only one thing at
 of sin and the coming of grace. These two: the work of            a time. He cannot be driving his truck through heavy traffic
 creation and the work or recreation or salvation are not op-      and have it upon the mysteries of salvation at the same time.
 posed to each other. They do not militate against each other.     He cannot stand in his thoughts before the cross of Christ
 They are two phases of the one work `of God whereby He            and at the same time be teaching a class of pupils the in-
 glorifies Himself in a people made like unto His Son. And         tricacies of a mathematical problem. He cannot plow a
 that work He commands us to consider and for that work He         straight furrow and at the same time thumb through his
 insists that we praise and worship Him.                           Bible to compare text with text and search the' Scriptures:
    The Sabbath was made for man that he might have the            Nor can the mother in the home tend to that which is cook-
opportunity to do this and might thereby enter intq the joy        ing on the &ove, set the table, hasten to see why the baby is
 of that work and so experience the rest that remaineth for        crying, or feed the washed clothes through the wringer and
 the people of God.                                                at the same time give heed to the instruction in God's Word.
    Adam kept  the Sabbath and morshipped God and praised          She must have her mind on her work or the food is burned,
 Him fqr all the wonder work of creation round about him.          her fingers get caught in the wiinger,  the baby p&s a pan
 He did not before his fall know God as his redeemer; but he       `of boiling water upon itself. No, we are creatures of time. .
 could and did hallow the Sabbath by remembering his crea-         And by God's ordinance we have work to do. "Six days
 tor and by honoring Him for all these wonderful works which       shalt thou labor," He declares in His Word.' But we also
 He had wrought.  kt Sinai God gave His perfect law to             need one day in seven when we may be sepBrated  from all
 Moses and through him He revealed to Israel (the Church)          these works of ours to be busy with His glorious  w&k of
 which He had saved out of Egypt, the house of bondage, His        salvation.
 will that  the. Sabbath be hallowed. And although Israel             The Sabbath was ,made. for man that he need not tend
 could not keep that Sabbath as the New Testament Church           to his punchpress, that he may leave his cumbersome truck
 can and does keep it today  ; and although Israel was not         in the garage, may close his book of mathematical equa-
 ready to observe the First Day of the week ; that very Fourth     tions and let his plow stand in thq yard. Then he may put
 Commandment also served as a-schoolmaster unto  Ch.rist  for      his mind on the things spiritual to a degree that was im-
 Israel, Galatians 3  54. Also in this Fourth Commandment          possible  for him during the six days of his daily toil and
 Israel learned that the promises of God are  uliconditional       labor.
 and that there is hope -of attainment. of these, promises only        No, the New Testament Church does not want to make-
 in Christ, Who will fulfill this  Fourth  Commandment for         that day as the other six days. It wants to use that day
 His people, and that otherwise salvation is hopeless and im-      fzclly for the purpose  for  which  it was  givea. Does not the       .
 possible.                                                         Heidelberg Catechism express the sentiment of the New
     In this Fourth Commandment Israel also learned that           Testament Church in regard to the.hallowing  of that Sabbath
 the proper observance of the Sabbath has to do with God's         when it declares in the answer to the 103rd question which
 work. . We are not to imagine that the regenerated child of       deals with the requirement of God in this Fourth  Com-
 God-in the Old Testament times simply idled his time away         amndment : ". . . that I especially on the Sabbath, that is, the
 on the Sabbath. There was no church service to attend. The        day of rest, diligently frequent the church of God, to hear His
 only building for worship was the Temple. There were no           Word, to use the sacraments, publicly to call upon the
 Bibles in the homes of the various saints, and the greater        Lord . .  ."? For that, the Sabbath is given us.
 share of them could not read them had they' had them. But             In His fear that is the way we will use the Sabbath.
 ceasing from their labors their minds undoubtedly were busy           In fact, observing the Sabbath in  His fear we will find
 with recounting the works of God and instructing their chil-      that the day is one that is filled with spiritual activity and
dren. And gradually, under the guidance of the Spirit, after       that we find it not long enough for all the things we should
 the Israelities returned from Babylon and more Gividly  again     and desire to do.
 were taught by type and symbol the great redemptive work
 of God, through the salvation out of Babylon and return to            After all; it is a foretaste of the eternal Sabbath, and that
 the typical heaven,. they began to congregate in synagogues       eternal Sabbath shall be filled with activity  ; and unto eternity
 to speak and hear from God's Word that work of salvation          we will not `be/ finished with it. The worship and praise to
 which He promised to accomplish in Christ. They began on          God for His glorious work of salvation requires an eternal
 the Sabbath, when they could and*should  let their daily toils    day for its execution.
 behind, to be busy with God's work and the rest that is the           The Lord willing we will have more to say of this in the
 result of His finished work of salvation.                         next issue of the  Stap&rd  Beam,.
     In the second place, God set one day in seven aside be-                                                                 J.A.H.

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

 Ii                                                                    its mission and outlived itself. The Greek church  never had
            Cotitending For The Faith                                  a  papacy; the evangelical historically' implies one. The
                                                                  II papacy stands between the age of the patriarchal hierarchy
                                                                       and the age of the Reformation, like the Mosaic theocracy'
          The.Church  and the Sacraments                               between the patriarchal period and the advent of Christianity.
                                                                       Protestantism rejects at once the papal monarchy and  the
       VIEWS DURING THE SECOND PERIOD  (300-750 A.D.)                  partiarchal oligarchy, and thus can justify the former as well
                  THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH                           as the  platter for a certain time and a certain stage in the
                                                                       progress of the Christian world.
                  THE PAPACY  (by Philip  Schaff) .                                       ' LEO THE GREAT
                             (Continued)                                   In most of the earlier bishops of Rome the person is
        Finally, in regard to the four great ecumenic'al  councils,    eclipsed by the office. The spirit of the age and public
 the first of -NICE, the first of CONSTANTINOPLE, that                 opinion rule the bishops, not the bishops them. In the pre-
 of EPHESUS, and that of CHALCEDON : we have already                   ceding period, Victor in the controversy on Easter, Callistus
 presented their' position on this question in connection with         in that on the restoration of the lapsed, and Stephen in that
 their legislation on the patriarchal system. We have seen             on heretical baptism, were the first to come out with hierarch-
 that they accord to the bishop of Rome a precedence of honor          ical arrogance ; but they were somewhat premature, and found
 among the five ofYicially coequal patriarchs, and thus acknowl-       vigorbus  resistance in  Irena&, Hippolytus, and Cyprian,
 edge him  p&nazLs  inter  payes,  but, by that very concession,       though on all three questions the Roman view at last carried
 disallow his claims to. supremacy of jurisdiction, and to .the day.  0
 monarchical authority over the entire church. The whole                   In the period before us, Damascus, who subjected Illyria
patriarchal system, in fact, ivas not monarchy, but oligarchy          to the Roman jurisdiction, and established the authority of
  (oligarchy refers to a government by a, few - H.V.). Hence           the Vulgate, and  Sirici&,  who issued the  first genuine  de-
 the protest of the Roman delegates- and of Pope Leo against           cretal letter, trod in the steps of those predecessors. Innocent
 the decrees of the council. of Chalcedon  in 461, which coin-         I (402-417) took a step beyond, and in the Pelagian con-
 cided with that of Constantinople in 381. This protest  was           troversy ventured the bold assertion, that in the whole Chris-
 insufficient to annul the decree, and in the East it made no          tian world nothing should be decided without the cognizance
 lasting impression  ; for the subsequent incidental concessions       of the Roman see, and that, especially in matters of faith, all
 or Greek patriarchs and emperors, like that of the usurper            bishops must turn to St. Peter.
 Phocas in 606, and even of the sixth ecumenical council of                But  the. first pope; in the proper sense of the word, is
 Constantinople in 680. to the see of Rome, have no general            Leo I, who justly bears th" title of "the Great" in the history
 significance, but are distinctly traceable to special circum-         of the Latin  hierarchy. In him the idea af the papacy, as It
 stances and prejudices.                                               were, became flesh and blood. He conceived it in great
        It is, therefore, an undeniable historical fact, that the      energy -and clearness,  ,and carried it out with the Roman
 greatest dogmatic and legislative authorities of the ancient          spirit of dominion, so far as the circumstances of +lie time at
 church bear as decidedly against the specific papal claims of         all allowed. He marks the same relative epoch in the develop-
 the Roman bishopric, as in favor of its patriarchal rights            ment of the papacy, as Cyprian in the history of the epis-
 and an honorary primacy in the patriarchal oligarchy. The             copate. He had even a higher idea of the prerogatives of the
 subsequent separation of the Greek church from the Latin              see of Rome than Gregory the Great, who, though  he reigned
 proves to this day, `that she was never willing to sacrifice a~ hundred and fifty years .later, represents rather the patri-
 her independence to Rome, or' to depart from the decrees of           archal idea than the papal. Leo was at the same time the
 her own greatest councils.                                            first important- theologian in the chair of Rome, surpassing
        Here lies the difference, however, between the Greek           in acuteness and depth of thought all his predecessors, and
 and the Protestant opposition to the universal monarchy of            all his successors down to Gregory I. Benedict XIV placed
 the papacy. The Greek church protested againsf it from the            him  (A.D.. 1744) in the  sltiall  class of  do&ores   ecclesiae,  or
 basis of the oligarchical patriarchal hierarchy of the fifth cen-     authoritative teachers of the catholic faith. He battled with
 tury in an age, therefore, and upon a principle of church             the Manichaean, the Priscillianist, the Pelagian, and other
 organization, which preceded the grand agency  oi the papacy          heresies, and won an immortal name as the finisher of the
 in the history of the world. The evangelical church protests          orthodox doctrine of the person of Christ.
 against it on the basis of a freer conception of Christianity,           The time and place of the birth and earlier life of Leo
 seeing in the papacy an institution, which indeed formed the          are unknown. His letters, which &-e the chief source of in-
 legitimate development of the patriarchal system, and was             formation, commence not before the year 442. Probably a
 necessary for the training of the  Romanic  and Germanic              Roman -if not one by birth, he was certainly a Roman in
 nations of the middle ages, but which has virtually fulfilled         the proud dignity of his spirit and- bearing, the high order


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                        185

  of his legislative and administratve talent, and the strength         "Feed  tiy sheep." It was by special direction of divine
  and energy of his will- he distinguished himself first under          providence, that Peter labored and died in Rome, and sleeps
  Coelestine (42-432) and Sixtus (432-440) as archdeacon and            with thousands of blessed martyrs in holy ground. The
  legate of the Roman church. After the death' of the latter, and       centre of worldly empire alone can be the centre of the king-
  while himself absent in Gaul,' he was elected pope by the             dom of God. By Peter was Rome, which had been the centre
  united voice of clergy, senate, and people, and continued in          of all error and superstition, transformed into the metropolis
  that office one-and-twenty yedrs (440-461). His  feeling<  at         of the Christian world, and invested with a spiritual dominion
  the assumption of this high office, he himself thus describes         far wider than her former earthly empire. Hence the bishop-
  in one of his sermons : "Lord, I have heard your voice calling        ric of Constantinople, not being a seeds ap,ostolica,  but rest-
  me, and I was afraid: I considered the work which was en-             ing its dignity on a .political  basis alone, can never rival the.
  joined on me, and I trembled; `For what proportion is there           Roman,*  whose primacy is rboted both in divine and human
  between the burden assigned `to me and my weakness, this              right.  Antioch also, where Peter only transiently resided, and
  elevation and my nothingness ? What is more to be feared              Alexandria, where he planted the  church.through  his disciple
  thari .exaltation without merit, the exercise of the most holy        Mark. stand only in a secondary relation to Rome, where his
  functions being intrusted to bne who is buried in sin? Oh,            bones repose, and where that was completed, which in the
  you have laid upon me this heavy burden, bear it with me?             East was only laid out. The Roman bishop is, therefore, the
  I beseech you  ; be you my guide and my support."                     firiw~~  o~t~iztl~  episcoporwm, and on him devolves the
     During the time of his pontificate he was almost the on13          plewitudo   potestatis,   the  solicitztds   omni`zt?  pastomw,  and
 great man in the- Roman empire, developed extraordinary                co7~vmwnis   c'mra  uvLiversa1i.s  ecc1esa.e. (these views Leo re-
  activity, and took a leading part in all the affairs of the church    peatedly expresses in his sermons on the festival of St.
  His private life is entirely unknown, and we have no reason           Peter and on the anniversary of his own elevation, as, well as
 to question the purity  of his motives or of his morals.. His          in his official letters to the African, Illyrian, and South Gallic
  official zeal, and all his time and strength, were devoted to         bishops, to Dioscurus of Alexandria, to the patriarch Anato-
 the interests of Christianity. But with him the interests of           lius of Constantinople, to the emperor Marcian  and the em-
  Chrstianity were identical with the universal dominion of the         press Pulcheria. Particular proof passages are unnecessary.)               -
 Roman church.                                                              Leo thus made out of a primacy of grace and of personal
     He  was animated with the unwavering conviction that the           fitness a primacy of right and of succession. Of his person,
 Lord himself committed to him, as the successor of Peter, the          indeed, he speaks in his sermons with great humility,  ,but
 care of the whole church. He anticipated all the dogmatical            only thereby the more to exalt his official character. He tells
arguments by which the` power of the papacy was subse-                  the Romans, that the true  celebraton of the  ancversary  of
 quently established. He refers the  petra,  on which the church        his accession is, to recognize, honor, and obey, in his lowly
 is built, td Peter and his confession. Though Christ himself. person, Pete; himself, who still cares for shepherd and flock,
 -to sum up his views on the subject  - is in the highest               .and whose dignity is not lacking even to his unworthy heir.
 sense `the rocic and foundation, besides which no other can be         Here, therefore, we already have that characteristic combina-
 laid, yet, by transfer of his authority, the Lord made Peter           tion of humility and arrogance, which has stereotyped itself in
 the rock in virtue of his great confession, and built on him           the  expiessions  : "Servant of the servants of  Gdd, "vicar of
 the indestructible temple of his church. In Peter the fun-             Christ," and even "God upon earth." In this double consci-
 damental relation of Christ to his church comes, as it were,           ousness of his personal unworthiness and his official exalta-
 to concrete form and reality in history. To him specially and          tion, Leo annually celebrated the day of  -his elevation to
 individually the Lord intrusted the keys of the kingdom of             the chair of Peter.
 heaven  ; to the other apostles only  in their general and                                                                           H.V.
 cprporate  capacity. For the faith of Peter the Lord specially
 prayed in the hour of his passion, as if the standing of the
 other apostles would be the firmer, if the mind of their leader
 remained unconquered. On Peter rests the steadfastness of the
 whole apostolic college in'the faith. To him the Lord, after                                    I N   M E M O R I A M
 his resurrection, committed the care of his sheep and lambs.              We hereby wish to express our sincere sympathy  to three  of
 Peter is therefore the pastor and prince of the whole church,          o#ur  members: Mrs. Harry Leep in the  loss  af her brother and
                                                                        Mrs. Alex  Kimm  and Mrs. Andrew Leep in the loss of  their
 through whom Christ exercises his universal dominion on                uncle,
 earth. This primacy, however, is~not  limited to the apostolic                            MR. PETER  W. ALBERDA
 age, but, like the faith of Peter, and like the church herself,           May the God of all grace sustain them in their sorrow and
 it perpetuates itself; and it perpetuates itself through the           comfort them with the assurance that all His work is  perfect
 bishops of Rome, who are related to Peter as Peter was re-             ,and  .is  atways done in  losve  td those that fear Him.
 lated to Christ. As Christ in Peter, sci Peter in his successors                                                The Mary-Martha Society
 lives  and speaks and perpetually executes the commission                                                          Manhattan,  Montana.

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

II                                                                              in that very situation that the Arminians sought' to revise
                 The Voice of Our Fathers                                 II the confessions also. But the fathers simply applied the al-
                                                                                ready accepted confessions to the Arminian heresies, and in
                                                                                the process made plain what the Reformed position was in
                       The  Canok  of Dordrecht                                 distinction from the Arminian' departure. Here, therefore, as
                                   PART TWO                                     in all the Canons, there is nothing essentially new, but simply
                                                                                the reaffirmation of the confessionally Reformed position.
                         EXPOSITION  OF  THE  CANONS                               And in the third place, in close connection with the fore-
                                                                                going, we must not forget that there actually was a doctrinal
                         SECOND  HEAD  OF  DOCTRINE                             issue at stake as to the truth concerning the death of Christ.
        OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST,  AND THE REDEMPTION                             In the so-called "governmental theory" of the atonement
                               OF MEN THEREBY                                   credited to Grotius, the Arminians made themselves guilty
                    Article 4. This death derives its infinite value and        of denying the infinite worth and value of the death of Christ,
                    dignity from these considerations, because the person       and they taught that God merely reckoned the death of Christ
                    who submitted to it was  nomt  only really man, and         to be sufficient punishment for the sins of mankind. They
                    perfectly holy, but also the only begotten Son of           denied the element of the satisfaction of divine justice against
                    God,  o,f the same eternal and infinite essence with the
                    Father and the Holy Spirit, which qualifications were       sin ; and placing divine mercy over against divine justice, they
                    necessary to constitute him a Savior for us; and            taught that though there was no actual payment of the guilt
                    because it was attended with a sense of the wrath           of sin ,in the death of Christ, God was nevertheless satisfied
                    and curse of God due to us for sin.                         to "let the matter go at that," provided that men came to
             The contents of this fourth article of the Second Head             repentance when they viewed the demonstration of the justice
      of Doctrine is surely not strange to anyone who is in the                 and wrath of God in the cross of Christ. And therefore in
      least acquainted with our Reformed confessions. There is                  this fourth article the fathers maintain over against the
      really in this article, when considered by itself, no elaboration         Arminians that the value and worth of the death of Christ
      upon, nor any advance over the expression of the Reformed                 is not merely a matter of divine reckoning without regard
      doctrine concerning the death of Christ as it is found in the             to fact, as though God can ever overlook sin and forget justice,
      Con,fessio  Belgica,  or in our  Heidelberg  Cntechis+n.   Especi-        but that Christ's death derives its infinite value and dignity
      .ally the latter dwells on this subject at great length. Cf.              from several real considerations, considerations which actu-
      Lord's Days V, VI, XIV, XV, XVI. This does not mean,                      ally gave it infinite worth and value before God Himself,
      however, that the article is useless and could just as well               Whose divine. wrath against sin is infinite.
      have been omitted from the  Ca.nons.  But it does raise the                  These  consderations are as follows:
      question as, to why it was inserted.                                          1)  Chist zvas  really Htan,   and  perfectly  holy. According
             In answer to the foregoing question we may call attention          to His human nature, He was born of us, in the likeness of
      to more than one reason.                                                  sinful flesh, and possessed a human body and a human soul,
             First of all, as we intimated in connection with Article 3,        a completely human nature, with all the human faculties and
      the fathers in this fourth paragraph hit upon the real reason             powers. At the same time, though He was born in the like-
      for the infinite value and worth of the death of Christ. That             ness of sinful flesh, He was perfectly holy, sinless. He had
      value cannot be `stated in terms of a mathematical equation  ;            no original guilt, because He was a divine, not a human,
      for as long as the worth of the death of Christ is equated to             person. And He was without original*pollution  because He
      the number of sinners for whom His death was sufficient,                  was .without  guilt : the pollution of sin could not come upon
      then the value of His death is measureable and finite, not                Him because of His guiltlessness. And His actual appearance
      infinite. And no matter, then, whether you say that His death             as the Sinless One was wrought not by the supposed fact
      was abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of seveval  worlds,         that He was born from a sinless mother, but through the
      you still measure in the realm of the finite. In this article,            wonder of His conception by the Holy Ghost.
      however, the fathers emphasize the truth that Christ's death                 It is to be noted that according to the language of this
      was, the death of the Son of God, and therefore of so great               article this is denoted one of the considerations in the in-
      value and worth.                                                          finite value and worth of the death of Christ. This is plain
             In the second place, we must surely view this article in           from the use of the coordinate conjunctions "not only . . . .
      the light of the history of the Arminian controversy as it                but also,"  (,non  tantzm  . . . . sed  eia.wt).  The `question is :
      came to a climax at the Synod of Dordrecht. One of the                    how can this fact be an element in the infinite value of the
      most important issues at the Synod was that of the Reformed               Savior's death  ? And the answer is that this is not the
      confessions as they were already existent at the time of the              primary consideration, but a secondary one. After all, this
      Synod, namely, the  CafechisvM. and the  Nethel4and  Confei-              truth all by itself has nothing to do with the truth that
      siort. The Arminians were on trial not merely on the basis                Christ's death is of injhite value. If Christ were only man,
      of Scripture, but on `the basis of those confessions. It was              even though without sin, His death would not be of infinite


                                               T.HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                    187

  value at all. But the fact is that if He was to die, and that         Grace, which teaches that- the  ,gospel is a general offer of
  too, for ow sins, He must be such a real and perfectly holy           salvation, and that this general offer is grace on the part of
  man. And it is in this connection that His `real humanity             God. And in a more limited sense this fame of  Cartons II,
  and perfect holiness is a consideration in the infinite value         5 arises, in  our Protestant` Reformed circles at least, from
  and worth of Christ's death.                                          the fact that it was frequently used by the opponents of the
     2)  Cibist  is  tlte  only  begotten Son  df God. All the          Declaration of Principles. From this  .viewpoint, the article
  emphasis in this article falls upon this truth. The Mediator          is of special interest to the Protestant Reformed reader.
  was according to His divine nature "of the same eternal and              That this is one of the better known articles of the Canons
  infinite essence with the, Father and the Holy Ghost." And            does not by any means imply, however, that it is as well un-
  He was a divine, not a human, Person, the Person of the Son           derstood as it is known. In fact, on the very surface already
  of God in divine and in human nature. It was this Person              the contrary would seem to be true. It would indeed be
  of the Son of God who suffered and died for us, not in the            strange if those who are so well-known,- almost I would
  divine nature, but in the human. And because it was the               say `notorious," - for their  maintenan,ce  of the truth of
  in'finite and eternal Person of the Son, therefore His death.         sovereign election and  reprobatiop  and of irresistible grace
  is of infinite value and dignity.                                     would find opposition in the  Canom  of  Do,vdrecht,  And it
     3) His deatlz  was attended z&h a sense of the wrath and           would be amazing if so thoroughiy,  Reformed a document as
  c'z&rse  of God due to 21s for sin. This third consideration again    the Declaration of Principles would in this one respect be a
  stands in connection with the preceding. It is -only because          departure from the confessionally Reformed line of the
  of His perfect holiness, and only because of the  perfkct  union      Canons.  And it would be stranger still to find the doctrine
  of the two natures in the one divine Person, that He could            of general grace maintained in any form, shape, or manner
 -and did sense the. wrath and curse of God, due, not to His            in that confession of  the Reformed churches that is pre-
 own personal guilt and sin, - for He had none, - but due               eminently particularistic, .and that concerned itself with the
 to us for sin. In a measure, of course, it is true of any man          refutation of Arminianism. But strange things happen. And
 that. in death he senses the wrath and curs&  of God. But how          so let us make a thorough examination of this article `with
  deeply a perfectly holy man, in whom there is no reason for           these matters in mind ; -and let us try at the same time to un-
  death, and who, on the contrary, stands in perfect harmony            derstand just what is the positive teaching of Canons II, 5.
 with the living God, can sense, consciously taste, that wrath          Arid let us not to. be unmindful of the historical background
  and curse of God in death, -and more specifically, the  ac-           of the article when we make this investigation. Is there
 cursed death of the cross,  - we can never imagine. But                something general about the gospel ? And if so, what?
  Christ tasted it! And because of the perfect union between                                                                     H.C.H.
 the divine and the human  natures in Christ, He was able
 perfectly to apprehend all the terror, all the fury, all the
, infinite depth, of the fierce wrath of God against the sins of
 all His own. What we could never do in an eternity in 11~11,                          woRs~1~pEw5  ATTITU DE
 that He did, when as the Son of God in human nature He
 tasted absolutely all that is expressed in the words "to be                      `"Once,more  we come before our God,
 forsaken of God" in a  qoment of time. And therefore He                               Once more His blessing ask;
  could and did say in truth:  "It` is finished  !" Such is the                        0, may not duty seem a load,
 wonder of atonement through satisfaction. From these con-                         `Nor worship seem a task.
  siderations the death of Christ derives its infinite value and
  worth:                                                                         Father, Thy quickening Spirit  s&d
                            ***JF                                                      From heaven, in Jesus' name,
                                                                                       To make our waiting minds attend,
             Article 5. Moreover, the promise of the gospel is,                        And put our souls in frame.
              that whosoever believeth in Christ crucified, shall
              not perish, but have everlasting life.  `Ehis promise,                   May wk receive the Word to hear,
              together with the command to repent and believe,
              ought to be declared and published to all nations, and                   Each in an  honest heart;
              to all persons promiscuously and without distinction,                    Hoard up the precious treasure there,
              to whom God out of his good pleasure sends the                           And never with it part." ~
              gospel.                                                                                                 From an  old Hymn  ,.
    This is undoubtedly one of the better known articles of
 the Canons in Reformed circles in this country. This fame                 `Justification and regeneration are benefits which are
  of Cartons II, 5 in  the.,past  arose from the fact that it was       connected and knit together in such a way as never to be
cited by the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church, 1924,              separated-from each other. Christ obtained both for us at the
  as confessional support for the First Point of Common                 same time.'                                     - Ursinus, idem
              .     ~


  1ss                                          THE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R   .

I                                                                      First of all, it must be remembered that ministers are also
                DECENCY and ORDER                                      elders. Secondly, their duties as shepherd  of. the flock  ac-
                                                                   11 cprding to the Form of Ordination requires active participa-
                                                                       tion in this work. Thirdly, Article 55 of the Church Order
                        Family Visitation                              states that "the ministers and elders shall use the means of
                                                                       teaching, of refutation,, of warning, and of admonition, as well
                            A. The History                             in the ministry of the Word as in Christian teaching and
         The  twentylthird  article of our church order states that    family-visiting to ward off false doctrines apd errors, etc."
 one of the duties of the office of elder is "to visit the families    And, -finally, the church visitors annually ask the question of
 of the congregation, in order particularly to comfort and             the consistory, "Does the minister take part, in house-visita-
 instruct' the members, and also to exhort others in respect           tion ?" Nevertheless, the work itself belongs primarily to
to the Christian religion." The original rendering of this was         the office of overseers, the elders of the church, and the latter
 much more explicit. It read as follows: "They (the elders)            should, therefore, not assume the' role of a silent companion
 shall faithfully investigate whether they (the members of the         to the minister but should -also take an active part. It is part
 church) manifest themselves uprightly in walk and con-                of their office.
 duct, in the duties of godliness, in the faithful instruction of         The institution of family visitation is one of the `fruits
 their households in the matter of family prayers (morning             of the Reformation of the 16th century. It is strictly a usage
 and evening prayers) and such like matters; they shall ad-            of Reformed Churches and was originated by John Calvin,
 monish them to these duties with consideration; but also in           who  al& was greatly instrumental in restoring the office
 all seriousness and according to conditions and circumstances ;       of the elder to the churches. It is the loss of this office in
 the> shall admonish them to steadfastness, or strengthen              both the Romish and Lutheran churches that explains the
 them to patience, OF spur them on to a serious minded fear            absence of anything  resemblilig the institution of family visit-
 of God  ; such as need comfort and admonition they shall              ing. Lutheranism held to the traditions of Rome as much as
comfort and admonish, and if need be they shall report a               possible, retained the Confessional and other usages though
 matter to their fellow Elders, who together with them that            different in form from those of -Rome. This has proved over
 are appointed to exercise discipline ; and besides these matters      and again to have been to her detriment. The break from
 they shall correct that which can be corrected according to           the deformations which characterized the church during the
the gravity of the sin committed ; nor shall they neglect, each        centuries preceeding  the R.eformation  was more clear-cut in
 one in his own district, to  encouragk  them to `send their           the Reformed Churches. They abolished the traditions of
 children to catechism."                                               men and reestablished the churches in the faith and practices
         It was felt that this redaction was much too lengthy for      of the apostolic church.. The offices were properly restored.
 the purposes of the church order and so it was abbreviated            The people of God were given a  real measure of spiritual
 to its present form but the original emphasizes the serious           liberty and the Word of God was elevated as the sole canon
 importance of this particular work, as well as contains many          of faith and life. In harmony with this the practice of
 helpful suggestions which may be profitably heeded even in            family visitaGon  was instituted in its present form.
 our present djy. If the general thrust of the above article is           We write, "in its present form" because there are many
 remembe;ed, the danger of family visitation reverting into a          intimations in the writings- of the early church fathers that
 mere custom will be greatly lessened. When the church is              the  early church had some practice  tihich  may to a  certain
 corr&ly instructed in regard to the nature bf this work, her          extent be considered the  an-tecendent  of our Reformed
 members will know what they may expect and when the                   practice of' family visiting. In its present form family visita-
 elders call there will be no attempt to change this official          tion originat'es with Calvin but the idea of pastoral care of in-
 work into a social visit. When the latter is done the whole           dividual sheep as well as the collective flock is of a much
 purpose of family visitation is, of course, defeated. Where           earlier date. That idea is found in Scripture and adorns the
 .this occurs, it is not strange that attempts are sdon put            office which we are  now discussing. The writings of Clement
 forth to abolish this entire practice or substitute it wjth other:    of Alexandria,, Cyprian,  Chrysostorn,  Gregory, Augustine?
 measures. This is today's trend in many Reformed -circles             and others indicate clearly that already the!! there was some
 but the fault does not lie in the  pi-actice but rather in the        form of systematic visitation of the members of the church
 usage to which it is put.                                             by the office-bearers. And this is certainly necessary for the
     Our church order does not exclude tha ministers of the            effective preaching of the Word as well as the spiritual well-
 Word from the labor of family visitation although on the              being of the church as we will make clear a bit later.
 surface this might seem to  be the implication. -Article 16.             In this light it is clear that our system of family Visitation
 which speaks of the duties of the ministers, does not mention         is not designed or intended as a substitution for the Romish
 this work while' Article 20, defining the tasks of the elders,        Confessional. Many have and undoubtedly some still enter-
 mentions  it explicitly. It would seem that only the latter           tained this thought. Even Monsma and Van  Dellen in their
 are, therefore, to perform this work .bui this is not correct.        "Church Order Commentary" offer this suggestion although


                                                T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               189

 they also add that it cannot be verified. We quote from page         for the former. Rather, in their heroic attempt to purify the
 109, "But in `the second place it must be remembered that            church of Christ of unscriptural practices they returned to
 home-visitation as established by the Reformed Churches              the Bible $nd found there a solid foundation for this type of
 took the place of the Roman  Cbnfession  before the  -priest.        spiritual- work. Too long had the church through its leaders
 None are permitted to go to mass unless they have been to            ignored an important aspect of her calling. And only by
 confession just previous to the celebration of the mass. It          restoring and maintaining thk proper spiritual contact be-
 may be that our fathers stipulated visits before and after the       tween ,the church's officers and her members were they able
 celebration of the Lord's Supper because of this Roman               to rejoice in an evident revival of spiritual life in the con-
`Catholic usage. We merely suggest the connection, inasmuch           gregation."
 as we are not able to verify it at this time. This much is              Very significant then is this work of the elders of the
 sure, inasmuch  as a good many Church members had re-                church. Because of this we purpose, the Lord willing, to con-
 cently left the Roman Church, and were not well founded in           sider briefly different aspects of this work, such as, its Scrip-
 the truth, repeated instruction and constant conferences would       tur2.l basis, it spiritual nature, objections that are raised to
 be very necessary. It should also be noted that the very first       it, methods employed in performing it, and the like. With the
 `major assembly' of the Reformed Churches of the Nether-             above quoted author we too would say, "And those who give
 lands, the Wezelian Convention of 1568, ruled that  home-            it (family: visitation) more than passing consideration must
 visitation should be conducted by the Elders  eve?`y  week.          agree that it has done much to keep the church strong and
 Today, as we know, loyal Roman Catholics still go to con-            pure. This, however does not exclude the possibility of
 fession every week."                                                 danger. Always when a practice has long continued in the
    The idea of the Romish Confessional is clearly described          churches, signs of degeneration put in their subtle appear-
 in a little booklet entitled, "Chats With Prospective Con-           ante." May this never happen. May we in the Protestant
 verts," written by a Rev. M. D. Forrest. He writes:                  Reformed Churches faithfully hold fast to this Reformed
    "To obtain pardon of our sins we must go to confession -          tradition, arduously cherish this wonderful practice and long
 that is, we must tell the priest all mortal sins we have com-        enjoy its spiritual blessedness. And for those who desire to
)  mitted  since our last good confession, or if one is making        read more on this subject, we redomment for the Holland
 his first confession, all mortal sins he has committed since         readers, P. Biesterveld's  "Huisbezoek"  and for the English
 Baptism. We need not to tell venial sins in confession, though       readers, P. Y. De Jong's `Taking Heed To The Flock."
 it is praiseworthy to do so. You will learn in due time all                                (To be continued  j
 about sin and its distinctions.`Mortal  sin is  grevous  sin-one                                                             G.V.d.B.
which destroys our friendship with God and deserves everlast-
ing punishment. Venial sin is a lesser offence  against God -
 one of those faults into which even just souls may fall. A
little Catholic girl was once asked by a non-catholic com-               "In the same way we may also say, that good works
panion why Catholics went to confession to a priest. The              are necessary to righteousness and justification in them that
 Catholic girl is reported to have given this simple beautifil        are justified, viz: as a  con+equence  of justification, with
 answer: `When Jesus was on the earth, He forgave people              which regeneration is inseparably connected. But we would
 their sins. But He knew everyone's sins, because He is God.          prefer not  to  z&se these forms of speech. 1. Because they
 When He was leaving this earth, He gave His priests power            are ambiguous. 2. Because thy breed. contentions; and give
 to forgive sin. But the priest does not know the people's            our' enemies room for caviling. (to raise frivolous objections)
 sins, and so they must tell them to him."                            3. Because these expressions are not used in the Scriptures
    Certainly the Reformed practice of family-visitation is           with which our forms of speech should conform as nearly
nothing like this. It is quite the reverse. It does not give          as possible. We may more safely and correctly say,  "l'h&
the members of the church a periodic opportunity to expose            good wog*ks  aye necessnry.in  them that are justified, and thct
themselves as to their gross  Bnd less serious offences. Neither      are to be saved."
is this necesary  for the daily conduct of the members of the                                            - Ursinus, page 455, Idem.
church is in itself an open book. The elders in conducting
family visitation do not purpose to pry into the hearts of the           ,"Moreover,  though we do good works, we do not found
 individual but rather they purpose to instruct, exhort and           our salvation upon them ; for we do not work but what is
 stimulate believers to a life of sanctification in all its parts.    polluted by our flesh, and also punishable. And although we
    With the following quotation, taken from Dr. P. Y. De             could perform such works (rewardable by grace) still the
Jong's book, `Taking Heed to the Flock," we can agree:                remembrance of one sin is sufficient to make God reject them.
    `It is therefore a mistaken notion to argue that our              Thus we would always be in doubt, tossed to and fro with-
 Reformed fathers, having  r;d the churches of the confessional,      out any certainty, and our poor consciences continually vexed,
felt the need of some substitute and hence introduced family          if we relied not on the suffering and death of our Savior."
 visitation. In no sense of the word is the latter a substitute                                - Belgic Confession, Article XXIV.

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

II                                                                     but by the host of redeemed men, under the Prince of their
           ,,ALL  ~AROUND  U                                 S             iI
                                                                       salvation, who is not ashamed to call them brethren.' I will
                                                                       declare' thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the
                                                                       church will I sing craise unto thee.' (Heb.  2:12).
 "The Song of the Angels."                                                "The shepherds, not the angels,. must sing the new song
       Such is the title which the Rev. Edmund P. Clowney, Jr.,        of Moses and the Lamb. That vast host of light has come
 in the Presbyterian, Guardian of December 15, 1955, placed            becaus:  the Lord of Glory has come . .  ."
 over his article reflecting on the passage found in Luke 2 :14           In the second part of his article the aufhqr  of this article
 which reads as follows : "Glory to God in the highest, and            calls attention to "The Promised Peace." Here are some of
 on' earth peace, among men df his good pleasure."                     the things he says about this:
       We were pleased with his interpretation of this text.              "There is a second strain to the angles' hymn in which the
 The article is too long to quote in its entirety, so we give          saving purpose of God is declared even as it is adored.
you a snatch here and there but especially call attentidn to           Having sung God's glory in heaven the angels also proclaim
 the last part which we consider most important and interest-          God's grace on earth:  `on earth peace among men of his
 ing. The reader is no doubt aware of the fact that there are          good pleasure.' How great the mystery of salvation must
 several different translations given to this text. To this I          appear to angels! In awe at God's coming to earth they
 called attention in the October 15, 1955 issue of the Stand-          ascribe to Him praise in heaven. But on earth His blessing
ard Bearer.                                                            is made known. This strange disordered world is to know
       In the first part of his article the writer calls attention,    His peace. Yet the angels' song does not seem to bring
 to a  "Hjmn of Praise." Writes he: "What is the cause of              peace but fear. The shepherds shrink from the touch  of
this angelic joy ? Why is `the chorale of glory raised on the          heaven . . . . Is it to this world that peace is proclaimed ? _ . .
fields of Bethlehem ? As we listen to the hymn of the angels           Peace! The world professes to long for it, yet it will not seek
 we. htar first a pure great shout of praise. Glofry   to God in       it. False men exploit the word for propaganda, and the
 the Highest! The glory of heaven shines from their song as            vulture of world Communism is painted by Picasso in the
from their faces. On earth the host .of heaven ascribes to             form of a dove . . . yet that which they seek is not the peace of
 God the glory that is His in the heights  from which they             which the angels sang. There is no mistaking the meaning
have come. Whereever the angel hosts may pass at the bid-              of peace on the lips of angels. They enter a world alienated
ding of God, their faces turn to the lodestar of the great             from God and at enmity with Him but they come as
throne. Even from dark  Judea, even in the language of                 evangelists, not as avengers, and their word of peace is the
shepherds, their burning cry must blend with the praise                peace of blessedness, it is peace with God. The secret of
of seraphim in the heights . . .  .Surely  it is with hymns of         the peace they pl'oclaim,  as the se&et of the joy with which
awful praise that the hosts of heaven march forth to sanctify          they praise God, is at Bethlehem. There can be no peace
 God's name upon the rebellious. Before that shout of glory            without a Saviour, and only the Lord of angels can save
to God the walls of the powers of darkness crumblk.                    lost men . . . . The God they worship is holy and cannot
       "But this not the cause of `the hymn of the angels. They        look upon sin. The very seraphim who ceaselessly cry, `Holy,
have not come upon the bestial tyrants of earth's kingdom              Holy, Holy,' shield their faces before Him who alone is holy.
or the polluted priests of earth's idols. They have come                 "How can this Holy God  give to his messengers the
upon a little group of the poor and lowly. To despised shep-           evangel of peace ? . . . . He who is the mighty God, the ever-
herds they have come with a message from heaven. Their                 lasting Father,, the Prince of Peace, is born for His people
shout of glory to God is the response of heaven to the an-             that He might die for them. The road from Bethlehem leads
nouncement of their herald - a child is born ! . . . . The sign        to Calvary . . . . Highest heaven has awaited the climax of
that the heavenly archon  gives is that this child may be found        God's redeeming work. This is the peace the angels declare.
wrapped in a cloth and lying in a manger.                              The, Son of the woman must crush the head of the Serpent.
       "How utterlyi incredible! How can angelic praise which          Though the dragon seeks to devour the child with the sword
reflects with such fierce purity the glory of the throne be            of Herod, he must fail. And though he makes war with the
concerned with the child of a sinful daughter of Eve ? How             seed of the woman through the ages, he continues to fail,
can the heaven-centered hosts look with bursting joy to a              even as the beast and the false prophet shall fail, for God
feed-bin in Bethlehem?                                                 gives to His own perfect peace."
       "Yet here is the secret of their rapturous praise. Now             As I said earlier in this article, it is the last part of Rev.
that has come to pass which no angelic intelligence could have         Clowney's article that is to us the most important and in-
conceived.  The spontaneity of heaven's praise flows from              teresting. In this last part he speaks "Of God's Good Pleas-
ever fresh revelations of the glory of God . . . . Before the          ure." Under this caption he writes as follows:
worshiping angels God has wrought the triumph of His                      "Perhaps no hymn is more familiar or more misunder-
grace . . . The angelic host could destroy men but it could            stood: `Peace on earth, goodwill to men.' For a long genera-
not save them. Not by angels will earth's new song be sung,            tion that isolated legend has appeared on Christmas cards.


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               191

We have come to think of it as a Christmas greeting from            God has `predestinated us unto the adoption of children by
heaven in which God sends His good wishes of the season. If         Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of
any misunderstanding could be more blasphemous than  thaf;          his  will.: (Eph. 1, 5). The men of God's good pleasure are
it is the one which would read this verse, `peace on earth          those  who are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
among men of good will.' God's blessing is thus reserved for        world. The Lord .of angels is a sovereign Saviour. His
the democracies as over against communism, or for cooper-           peace is never a wish, but a grant- `my peace I give unto
ative  suburbaliites  in preference to troublesome foreigners       you.' "
across the tracks. Superficially this translation is a plausible          This is not merely Reformed, but Protestant Reformed
rendering of the original. The phrase is `men `of  gqod             language, and  it is that because it is Scripture. We rejoice
pleasure.' But both the use of the term in Scripture and the        when we read of others outside of our immediate ecclesiastical
thrust of the angels' praise-leave no doubt that, this is not       cricle who speak our language.
man's good will but God's  soveieign  decree. Those who                   I am told, and was again recently,. that not all the min-
receive this promise 04 peace are those who are the objects         isters in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church speak as does
of God's good pleasure. In love God has `predestinated  us          Rev. Clowney in the above article. How wonderful it is to
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself,           be a member of a denomination of churches where we have
according to the good pleasure of his will.' (Eph. 1, 5). The       reasonable assurance that the entire ministry speak the same
men of God's good pleasure are those who are chosen in              Scriptural language and unitedly teach the same doctrines.
Christ before the foundation of the world. The Lord of the                                                                     M.S.
angels is a sovereign Saviour. His peace is never a wish but
a grant - `my peace I give unto you.'
    "God has not chosen-many wise men after the flesh, not                            CQNTRBBUBIONS
many mighty, not many noble. The massed hosts of glory              I'                                                             `I     -
sing their nativity anthem before a handful of despised                   An observation by the Rev. M. Schipper in the December
herders of sheep . . . . Blessed are the spiritual paupers, for     issue of the Standard Bearer causes me to take the pen and
theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are these shep-            write of his conclusions : Non seqwhr! (It does not follow-).
herds, these men of God's good pleasure who\ say when the                  I refer to the following from the pen of my colleague:
angel troop has passed into the vast reaches of the night and       "It seems to me that when a church has only seven or eight
they are cold and alone, `Let us go now even unto Bethle-           families. and it could have twenty seven or eight, if so many
hem . . .  .' Blessed they are in their believing haste, and        did not by-pass them, it is only playing church when the
thrice blessed in that faith in which they see the Baby lying       smaller churches continues. And this expression `playing
in the manger. Shepherds of the field or Magi of the East,          church' I apply both to the smaller church that continues
-before that Child they are merely men of God's good                and to those who by-pass it. It becomes a bit ridiculous when
pleasure- broken hearted sinners who have been brought              a church of only seven or eight families has to struggle . . . "
to their Lord and have entered into peace. Those angels who               Now I could &ake an observation about the qualification
sang in the fields of Bethlehem sing again in heaven over           "ridiculous" when applied to a small, struggling church in
each poor sinner  whom the Great Shepherd lifts to His              Christ's Name. But I forbear!
shoulders and bears home.                                                 I only wish to voice my own convictions on this matter
    "To us through the ages comes the hymn of the angels.           which is "characterized" by the Rev. M. Schipper, rather
We must take it and make it our own. For we and not the             than soberly evaluated from Scriptural "motives."
angels are the evangelists of this dark world. We must with               And of this "characterization" above referred to is say:
lip and life give glory to God in the highest, we must sound        non sequitur !
forth the gospel . . . . `Unto you is born this day, in the               Now if Rev. M, Schipper were writing about an abstract
city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.' Only           question, it would not matter so much what he writes. Even
so shall the men of God's good pleasure find their eternal          then I would not agree with him, but I would let the matter
peace in Him. Then the songs of men and angels shall hail           rest. However, I believe he is writing about the small,
the Lord in that grand hallelujah of glory." So far the             but courageous congregation of  Creston. At least I am certain
article.                                                            that if the "condition" of being small prevails, Rev. Schipper
   ,I am pleased to observe that Rev. Clowney will have             will have given reason for the faint-hearted to be more faint,
nothing of the translation of Luke 2 :14 which says : "Peace        and for the courageous to feel that their courage is, after all,
on earth among  %?%en  of good zc6ll.' Nor is he satisfied-with     fool hardiness ! Such Eeed a word of encouragement, rather
the translation "Peace on earth, good z&l to TNeTz."  But the        than to be told that they should simply disband- since it is
translation must be: "Men of His good pleasure."                    a matter of ridicule  td go on, should others not join their
    Especially delighted I was with the following interpreta-        number !
tion of him: "Those who receive this promise of peace are                 Whether a group, large or small, is "playing church"
those who are the objects of  Gbd's good pleasure. In love           certainly  cannot  simply be a conclusion from the fact that


                                 -                         y---?--w.
192                      r-                    T H E   S.TANDARD   B E A R E R                                                       .

they are  small  ; nor does -it follow  frolti   the  -fact,  that a        Let me quote j&t a small portion of his article to which
group is relatively large, that they are not pla$ng church';            I wish to make a few remarks, though I ask those who read
nor again does it show that one is playing church when he               this article to reread his article in the  above mentioned
by-passes another church of his denomination.                           Standard Bearer, in order to  get the full import of my re-,
       One plays church when the reality and sobriety is out of         marks. Quote: "It seems to me that wl?en a church has only
                                                                                                                        _
it; when, the sacredness of the offices of Christ is not seen           seven or eight families, and it could have twenty seven or
and exercised, be such  a:' church  lafrge  or  sma.11.  knd one        eight if so  many  did not  pass. by  them, it is only playing
does not play church -when the offices are' &ally honored,              church when the smaller church continues." This small quota-
the Ministry of the  Word is maintained,  chbrch discipline             tion will serve to bring to yo& minds the article in question.
exercized, the youth instructed in Catechism, the  cdvenant                                   .
youth  admitted  to the Lord's Supper upon confession of                    Rev. Schipper does not go so far as to accuse us of the
faith. Such a Church has  the San&ion  from the  .Most High             sin of playing church. But to his mind, that is what we are
God, and from Him who standeth between the seven candle-                guilty of. This is a terrible sin, the church, the body of
sticks. And of such a church Jesus says : "I know thy works :           Christ, to play with so holy a thing as that, that is terrible.
behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can             Oh, if this is true, Oh God give us grace to repent. But do
shut it: for thou hast little stsength, and hast kept my word           you know what this means, in the first place it surely means
and hast  npt denied my name."                                          this -that if the Rev. Schipper has the courage of conviction,
                                                                        he will not preach for us the next time he has a Classical
       And this is not changed one iota by the very a.ccidental         appointment in  Creston, for if he does he too is guilty of
fact, thaq a few people cannot see the glory of the ministry            playing Church. It also means that all  .we have ever done
of the Word and Sacraments, which are being exercised by                in the past as a Congregation is null and void, the baptisms
Christ Himself in such a faithful, be it then small church in           that have been administered are void. Our admittance to the
number! A mere  "placeme&  committee" surely would, by                  Lord's table is also void, our excommunications are void.
their ef?orts, not make such a church less on$ of "playing";            Oh, if this is all true I shudder, for God is not mocked.
for such a church does not play chwch in the jirst instance!
       Once more I, therefore, say: non  sequitzw!                          But is it true that we are playing Church7  What are the
       Fact is, that the little church at  Creston became small         ear marks of the true Church ? And if we have the marks of
exactly because she maintained the faith, kept the Lord's               the true Church, then we are not playing Church. The ear
Supper pure by excommunicating  the unfaithful, who are                 marks of the true  Church  are the pure preaching of the
walking in disobedience to Christ ; and she did this in Christ's        Word,-the proper administration of the Sacraments, and the
Name, reading the Form of Excommunication. This small                   exercise of Christian discipline. I'm sure the preaching of
church walked in this courageous way, lest the church would             the Word is pure even as in all our other Churches, the ad-
loose its dignity and simply "play church." And in th& high             ministration of the sacraments  are properly administered.,
and lofty task of "cleansing from evil-doers the city of our            and as for Christian discipline, I'm.  sure that none of our
God" Rev. M. Schipper participated when  Classis  East so               Churches bestowed the  labour  on the  schismatics as the
advised in Christ's Name. That was, I believe, not "playing             Church of Creston,. the Church of seven or eight families.
church" -yet they were but `eight families  who  per!ormed              I do not say this boastfully, but rather in sincere gratitude
this act in the Name of God!                                            to  God- for His faithfulness for it was and is only by  iis
       I would not suggest this  stigmatizatiion  of "playing           grace that we were able to do as He has instructed us.
church" upon small congregations,. but would rather admonish               The Scriptures say that tihere two or three are gathered
with the sound words of Christ who .said : "No man, having              .together in my name there am I in the midst of them.
put his hand to the  .plow,  and looking back, is fit for the
kingdom of God." Luke 9 :62.                                               As for those w-ho pass us by, I am inclined to agree with
   And this word is applicable, whether a small group grows             Rev. Schipper, though that is i;ot necessarily so. They may
numerically or not !                                                    have very good grounds for remaining in the Church in which
                                                               G.L.     they ard now members though I must confess I have found
                                                                        very few that are able to do so. But that is their question:
                                                                        "Would we like to have more members  ?" Of course  ,we
Dear Editor,                                                            would, it would sure make for a more rounded out Church
   Will you please accept this short article for contributions.         life. But if God with-holds others from joining us, "Shall
                                                                        we complain ?1' Shall we become discouraged ? Shall we dis-
   It is with deep sorrow of heart that I set myself to writ-           continue ? God forbid, let us strengthen ourselves in the
ing this  ar&le,  but it is my firm  convictioni   that the article     Lord, and go forward in faith. That I am sure is our Calling
of the Rev. M. Schipper in the  Dee: 15, 1955  isstie of the            as a small congregation.
Standard Bearer may not  gb unchallenged.                                                                                        J. King.


