        VOLUME  XXX111                           FEBRUARY  1.  ~~G---.GRAND  RAPIDS, MICHIGAN                             NUMBER 9

                                                                            There is only one Theme, one glorious Theme in the
Ij              MI E D I .-~I whoie'U?i`iverse,  and that Theme is the Love of God!
                                                                            You say: Yes, but there is a lot of hatred, ugliness and
                                                                        discord also !
           THE RESTORATION OF THE SOUL                                      True, but that is there so it may fit as the black  back-
                                                                        ,ground for this most beautiful theme of the Love of God.
                   "A psalm of David. The Lord is my Shepherd;  1           So also here.
                shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green
                pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He         On the background of the wolves who are after the
                restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of        lambs and sheep of Christ, we see the Shepherd, slowly going
                righteousness for His name's sake."  @sahn  23:1-3      His way to the green pastures : he is going to feed His flock.
                                                                            Look on it ! Look on it strongly : you see the things of
       The psalm from which  my test is chosen might very well          the Kingdom h@fiemipLg  before your eyes.
be called the psalm of quiet trust.                                         God is the Shepherd of His people. Therefore, they
        Amid the  storl+s  of life there are moments when our           shall not want.
soul is taken' by the loving hands of the Almighty and caused               They shall not'want because the Shepherd feeds them.
to rest in His bosom.                                                       The  prophecies-.told  us of this Shepherd. Isaiah tells u's
        Oh yes, the enemies are before us still:  this spiritual        that this Shepherd shall lead His flock, and shall feed them.
lullaby is sung "in the presence of my enemies," but it is                  The Shepherd is Jehovah, the Lord. That is, the Triune
nevertheless a strain to sooth the crying child to sleep, to            God, Father, Son  and Holy Ghost, is the Shepherd of the
rest, to wondrous relaxation.                                           sheep, and they are the elect out of all peoples, tongues and
        Some psalms are  l&e the thunder of war, the turmoil            nations.
of strife, or the voice of many waters, but here all is quiet,              That He is their Shepherd means that He will take care
harmonious, peaceful. When I read this psalm I cannot help              of them, protect them, feed them, and lead them gently along
but think of the Holland rendition of a psalm set to music,             the very quiet waters.      _
and particularly the following lines :                                      And this idyl is fulfilled in Jesus when He came from
                 H&I:  wosdt de  ,mst geschonken!                       heaven on earth. There are a lit&more than three years in
                Hier `t  vetie  vun  Uw  H&s  geszaakt;                 the long history of the world when Psalm 23 was seen. Jesus
                 Een  voile  heck  vm  wehst  ma.akt                    leading His own and feeding them with the heavenly manna.
                 Hter elk in hefde dropzken!                                And how He cared for them, protected them, suffered
                               * *  *  *                                for them, and died for them!
                                                                            Surely, the world has seen the Shepherd feeding His
        What a subuirb beg.inning  ! "The Lord is my Shepherd:          flock !
I shall not want."                                                                                :,: *  *  *.
        There have been millions of shepherds on this earth, in
many lands and among many peoples. Imagine: all these
      . .  _        _     _                                                 The heart of this feeding and caring for the flock is de-
shepherds are here because  God is the Great Shepherd. That             scribed in poetical, figurative language: He maketh me to
is the way  YOU  must  1:alk.  All things are here in order  ~0,        lie down in green pastures: He leadeth  lie beside the still
portray the great God and His Christ and His salvation.                 waters !
        Jesus said: All  &ese things happen unto  them  in                  What does the Holy Spirit mean when' He tells us that
parables. And He was, talking about the things of the king-             the Lord Jehovah, that Jesus causes us to lie down in green
dam of God.                                                   `         pastures ?

                                                                                                                                              ,>/
                                                                                                                                            /"J 1

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

    Allow me to tell you in a childlike way. It means `that           He restoreth my soul.
he causes us to go to church from Sabbath to Sabbath. Again           Everyone knows the meaning of restoration.
I think of that Holland psalm: Hier wordt de rust geschon-            Once you were sick and  with feverish brow and pain-
ken !                                                              ful body you saw the doctor at your bedside. Your loved ones
    I heard that psalm sung in our church in Holland many,         tread softly and hushed their voices. They were very serious
many times. Our old dominee loved that psalm. And as a             around your bedside.
little boy I distinctly remember thinking: What do they               But the sickness left and the sunlight dawned on a
mean ? "Hier wordt de rust geschonken ?' (I better give you        brighter day. You were restored to health.
the English translation : "Here the rest of God is granted !`,)       A picture was found in one of the back rooms of a
Here in this ugly building? Old,  discrepit, f`bouwvallig,"        monastery. No one knew its author or worth. But experts
ugly and musty building?                                           came and labored over it. And the result? It was discovered
   And I mused on and on, and understood nothing of it.            that when all the dirt and dust was removed it was really
  But now I know. In  thit ugly old church (later they             a masterpiece. The picture was  restored.
built one of the most modern and beautiful buildings in               Well, God restores the souls of His people.
Holland), God caused His people to eat and to drink of                However, the foregoing illustrations cannot cover the
the dainties of His everlasting lovingkindness. In church we       truth of our restoration in Christ. It rises far above them.
hear of all that and more. The whole counsel of God is.               It is true : once we were beautiful in Adam  ; and it is
unfolded. In great variety the sheep of Christ heard what          equally true that now we are filthy &d dirty in sin. But the
wondrous work the Lord had wrought for them. In that               restoration is such that now we are much more beautiful
musty old church they heard that all their warfare was ac-         than when we first came from the hands of our Creator.
complished in the dying Christ. The children of God saw            Even as the heavens are much more beautiful than the earth,
nothing of the rain-splotched and dirty walls, but they saw        50 are the redeemed much more beautiful than Adam ever
with the eye of faith how God had pardoned all their iniquity.     was.
    The children of God had been caused to lie dam! Let;              I must improve on that comparison, and I must give you
ii not escape you how this attitude was God-wrought. God           the true, the Biblical comparison. Even as Christ is more
caused them to lie down, and God had prepared this grassy          beautiful than Adam, so are the redeemed more beautiful
pasture for them.                                                  than they were in Paradise.
    Oh yes, there was activity ! God be blessed, there was            The restoration is such that we are now spiritual, glorious,
wondrous activity : they were led along the very quiet waters      .heavenly  and eternal. Oh yes, God restores our souls.
of peace !
    Once in a while I hear a song over WFUR about  the                                      * *  *  +
quiet  wateks  of  @ace. I could listen to that song for days
on end. It transports me to the heavenly scene.                       And the beauty of the child of God as he will  be in
    Peace ! Yes, the Bible speaks often of that peace, and         Christ's day is explained: He leadeth me in the paths of
sometimes with the same figure as we meet here. I think it         righteousness.
is Isaiah who tells us that the Lord shall extend peace to            Righteousness is a virtue of God.
Jerusalem like a river!                                               And the meaning of righteousness is that God in all He
    Yes, beloved reader, the quiet waters of my iext are that      is, does and says is conform to the highest Good, and that is
peace.                                                             His own Being.
    You ask me what this peace is ?                                   And so for man righteousness means  that-he is a good
    It is the state and condition when your warfare is ac-         man, that he speaks that which is good, and that he `works
complished, when your iniquity is pardoned, and that you           that which is good.
know it.                                                              When a righteous man comes before God in the judg-
    It means that there is nothing between you and God but         ment day, He shall look upon him and through him, and He
love and  lovingkindness.  He loves you, and you know it;          will see that he is completely good and lovely. And there-
and you love Him and He knows it. It means that all your           fore He will say to him: Welcome, My child: enter into the
hurt, trouble, misery, sadness, tears, in short, that all the      joy of your  Lord. And he shall begin to be merry.
form~~r  things are gone, be it but for a moment. And you             And if you ask me: but how did this miraculous thing
are transported into heavenly peace.                               happen? I am so crooked and perverse that I shudder of my
    Hush! David was very still when  -he composed this             thoughts, words and being!
nightingale of the psalms.                                            Then the answer is: God leads us along the paths of
                           * 8  *  *                               righteousness.
                                                                      Oh, those paths of righteousness.
    Oh God ! How did this miracle happen to me? !                     First, they are the determination of God from all eternity
    The text will tell you.                                        to clothe His people with those robes, clean and white. It isi


                                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                                                        is5
                                                                    .-

a righteousness which God prepares for us. Daniel speaks
      of a righteousness which was everlasting.                                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
         Second, it is the death and resurrection of Jesus which                     Smti7monthly,  except monthly  dwing   June, July and August
      lay the ground and foundation of that righteousness: We                           Published by the  REFORMED   FREE  PUBLISHING  ASSWIATION
      call that the legal righteousness which is ours through faith.                 P. 0. Box 881, Madison Square  %&on,  Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
 t       Third, ti principle of that righteousness is granted in our                                     Editor-F&v.   HERMAN  H~EKSEMA
      regeneration, conversion and sanctification.                                   Communications relative to contents should be addressed to Rev.
         And, fourth, that righteousness shall clothe us publicly                    H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S. E., Grand Rapids 7,  Mich.
      in the day of Christ. At that time we shall be as lovely and                   All matters relative to subscriptions  shomuld  be addressed to Mr.
                                                                                     G. Pipe, 1463 Ardmore St., S. E, Grand Rapids 7, Michigan.
      beautiful as Christ is.                                                        Announcements and Obituaries  must be mailed to the above
         And if you ask me : but why ? Why does God do all this                      address and will be published at a fee of $1.00 for each notice.
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         Then the answer is: for His name's sake.                                    ceived, it iS assumed that the subscriber wishes the subscription
                                                                                     to continue without the formal&  of a renewal order.
         And that answer is most wonderful. We can see that
      now already.                                                                                         Subscription price: $4.00 per year
         For we know God for what He is.                                             Entered  as Second  Class  matter  at Grand Rapids, Michigan
         I can very well see that there must be and there is only
      one central aim in the whole universe, in all of time and
      in all of eternity: and that only aim and purpose is that God
      sit on His throne, and that everyone  and. everything say:
      Hallelujah !                                                        G.V.                                       C O N T E N T S
                                                                                  MEDITATION  -                                                                                     i.  I
                                                                                         Tlhe Restoration  o.f the Soul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
                      Notice for Classis West                                                  Rev. G. Vos
          Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churches will                   EDITORIALS -                                                                                                   /
      meet, the Lord willing, Wednesday, March 20, 1957, in                              The Free Offer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
      Doon, Iowa.                                                                              Rev. H. Hoeksema .
         The consistories are reminded that all matters for the                   OUR  DOCTRINE-
      classical agenda must be in the hands of the stated clerk not'                     The Book of Revelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
      later than thirty days before the date of Classis.                                     Rev.  H. Hoeksema

                                  The Stated Clerk,                               ON THE THEORY OF C~MMC~N  GRACE.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..202
                                                       Rev. H. Veldman,                        Rev. H. Hoeksema
                                                       Edgerton, Minnesota        FROM HOLY WRIT-
                                                                                         Exposition of Matthew 1125-30 (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .205
                                                                                               Rev. G. Lubbers
                                 IN MEMORIAM
         The  Consistory  of the Fourth Protestant Reformed Church                IN HIS  FEAR-
      wishes to express its sincere sympathy to our fellow office-                       Respect and Obedience (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207
      bearers, Elder Ryven Ezinga and Deacon Kenneth Ezinga in the                             Rev. J. A. Heys
      recent loss of their mother,
                             M R S .   P E T E R   E Z I N G A                    CON&NDING  FOR THE FAITH -
         May the God of all grace give  the- comforting knowledge that                   The Church and the Sacraments. . . . . . . . . . . . .`. . . . . . . . . . . ..209
      all His doings are for the good of His own.                                              Rev. H. Veldman
                              In the name  o,f the Consistory,
                . .                       Rev. R. Veldman, President              THE  VOICE  &F  OUR  FATHERS-
                                          Mr. W. Klaassen, Clerk                         The Exposition of the Canons of Dordrecht.. . . . . I.. . . . . . .211
      Grand Rapids, Michigan.                                                                  Rev. H. C. Hoeksema

                                 IN MEMORIAM                                      FEATURE ARTICLE  -
         The Ladies' Aid of the Protestant  Refo'rmed Church of  Ed-                      Old Age  Pension........................................~l3
      gerton, Minesota, expresses its deepest sympathy to one of our                           Rev. C.  I-&L&O
      members, Mrs. H. Veldman, in the loss of her mother,
                                 MRS. P. EZINGA                                   ALL AROUND  Us-
      on January 1, 1957.                                                              The Perseverance o,f the Saints.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215
                                                                                               Rev. M.  !+hipper
         May the  Go`d of all grace comfort and sustain her in her sor-
      row and may she abundantly experience the consolation of His
      Word and Spirit.  '                 Rev. H. Veldman. President
                                          Mrs. Dick  Bleyeiberg,  Secretary

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

                                                                           least, implicit contradiction. For ,to say that God desires the
              EDIiORIALS                                                    salvation of the reprobate and  also1  that God wills the damna-
                                                                  `i       tion of the reprobate and apply th.e former to the same thing
                                                                           as the latter, namely, the decretive will, would be contradic-
                         The Free Offer                                    tion ; it would amount to averring of the same thing, viewed
        "The Frek offer of the Gospel" is the title of a pamphlet          from the same aspect, God wills and God does not will."
that was recently sent to me by an interested brother.
        The pamphlet was composed by the Revs. John Murray                     Here you have the  well-known  distinction between `the
and Ned B. Stonehouse, professors at the seminary of the                   will of God's decree and the will of God's command, or the
Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and was                       secret and revealed will. And here you have it in its worst
originally prepared for the Fifteenth General Assembly of                  form so that, according to the authors we say, indeed, that
that church held in 1948. In a short foreword the authors                  God desires the salvation of the reprobate.
tell us that it was reprinten "in the interests of the gospel                  Now, in the first place, I wish to emphasize that this
and Reformed theology."                                                    distinction, especially when it is called the distinction between
    Whether this is true, i.e., whether this little booklet really         the secret and  ievealed will, is most detrimental and has
presents the true gospel and reveals that it is interested in              wrought untold harm in the Reffnrmed Church all over the
Reformed theology, we hope to find out in a few articles in                world.
0u.r magazine.                                                                 According to this philosophy, the will of God's decree is
    The patiphlet  consists of three parts : an ititroduction, the         secret and, therefore, we have nothing to do with it. 0, it
Scriptural basis for the "free offer of the gospel," and the               is true, we believe that there is such a will of God's decree ;
conclusions. The bulk of the matter is in the second part                  we also profess to believe that, according to that will, God
in which the authors quote several texts and aitempt briefly               has chosen some to eternal life and reprobated others to  j
to exegete them to prove that the gos;pel is a free and con-               eternal damnation. We even express the doctrine of election
ditional offer of salvation to all men. Nevertheless, the                  and reprobation in our confessions. Perhaps, if we happen
introductory paragraphs are very impcsrtant because in them                to be ministers of the Word, we will preach on that doctrine
the authors set forth their "Reformed," theology in regard                 once in a great while. But, for  ,the rest, it is better not  toi
to the.gospel. This we will, therefore, discuss first of all.              speak of this doctrine.  We must apply" the text of Deut.
    I will quote the first paragraph:                                      29  29 to this part of the truth: "The secret things belong
    "It would appear that the real paint in dispute in con-                unto the Lord our God : but those things which are revealed
nection with the free offer of the  go:jpel is whether it can              belong unto  us  and to our children for ever, that we may
properly be said God  desi7*es  the salvation of all men. The              do all the'words of this law."
Committee elected by the .Twelfth General Assembly in its                      The result is evident.
report to the Thirteenth General Assembly said, `God not                       According to this philosophy ,that separates the revealed
only delights in the penitent but is also moved by the riches              from the secret will of God, one can, indeed, say that ,God
of his goodness and mercy to  desire: the repentance and                   desires the salvation of the reprobate if they will only come
salvation of the impenitent and reprobate.' It should have                 to repentance. It is evident  tha!t, in this expression, the
been apparent that the aforesaid  comlnittee,  in predicating              term "reprobate" is used in the Arminian sense of the word.
such `desire' of God, was not dealing with the  decrete  will              Also the Arminian professes to believe in election and re-
of God ; it was dealing with the free offer of the gospel to               probation. According to him election is that eternal act of
all without distinction and that surely respects, not the                  God according to which He, from before the foundation of
decretive or secret will of God, but the revealed will. There              the world, has determined that those, and those only, who
is no ground for the supposition that the expression was                   accept Christ and would persevere to the end in that faith,
intended to refer to God's decretive will."                                and whom He has foreknown and foreseen as such, would
   From the above we may gather that a committee had                       inherit eternal life and glory.  .And, according to the  Ar-
been appointed on the matter of the "free offer of the gospel"             minian,  reprobation is that eternal act of God,  ace&-ding   ta
before 1948, that this committee had already reported to the               which, He, from before the foundation of the world, deter-
thirteenth General Assembly, that their report had not been                mined that those, and those only, who refuse to believe in
very satisfactory, and that, therefore, a new committee had                Christ and who persevere in their unbelief even to the etid,
been appointed.                                                            and whom He has foreknown and foreseen as such, would
   For a correct  understariding  of the above paragraph                   be cast into eternal damnation. Of course, even so it is a
which we just quoted from the pamphlet is, perhaps, ad-                    question how it could possibly be' said that God desires the
visable that we also at  .once quote the next paragraph. It                salvation of the reprobate. Is it possible that God desires the.
reads as follows:                                                          thing which -He knows will not and cannot come to pass ?
   "It must be admitted that if the expression,tias intended               Can He possibly in His divine heart, desire -the salvation of
to apply to the decretive will of God then there would be, at              the devil and his reprobate angels ? In this respect, the ex-


                                            T H E   ZTANDARD   B E A R E R                                                        197

pression in the pamphlet that God desires the salvation of the      order that God's desire might be revealed and proclaimed
reprobate, is worse than Arminianism. The Arminian  would           that  all men, even the reprobate might be saved. In other
never speak thus. It is a denial of reprobation. Or,  if  YOU       words, God is so filled with lovingkindness on the part of
wish to apply the distinction between the so-called secret          all, even on the part of the reprobate, that He desires and
and revealed will to this statement, it implies that, according     hopes for their compliance with the overtures of the gospel.'
to His "secret will" God has chosen some and  reprobated                This is a downright denial, not only of reprobation, but
others, while, according to His revealed will, there is no re-      also   of the truth that it  is God alone Who is able, by His.
probation: He desires that all men, even the  "reprobate"           sovereign grace in the hearts of men, to cause them to comply
may be saved !                                                      with the overtures of the gospel.
   This is not only a separation of God's will of decree and            Does God desire that all men be saved ?
His will of command but it teaches a fla!t and impossible con-          Does He earnestly long for the salvation of the reprobate,
tradiction between the two.                                         as this pamphlet teaches?
   And all this is supposed to be Reformed theology.                    But how is it possible that a man be saved ?
  That is the worst of it.                                              Is it not true that all men by nature are totally depraved,
   The effect of this unscriptural philosophy (for  unscripl        dead in sin and misery ? As the Heidelberg Catechism has it,
tural it surely is, as we shall show) on the preaching is           through the fall and disobedience of our first parents "our
evident.                                                            nature is become so corrupt, that we are all conceived and
   The preaching becomes nothing but a mere free and gen-           born in sin," and that, except we  a+ regenerated by the
eral offer of salvation to everybody on condition of faith          Holy Spirit "we are so corrupt that we are wholly incapable
and repentance. It consists of a begging to come to Jesus.          of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness." Qu. 7, 8.
It emphasizes the impotence of God to save whomsoever He            Or, according to the Canons of Dordrecht, III, IV, 1, 3,
wills to save, and the free will of the sinner. It is throughout    man, through the fall, "entailed on himself blindness of mind,
a denial of the sovereign grace of God. This is not a mere          horrible darkness, vanity and perverseness of judgment, be-
opinion on my part but is reality as everyone well knows and        came wicked, rebellious and obdurate in heart and will, and
as has been my personal experience in other churches fre-           impure in all his affections." And again : "Therefore all men
quently.                                                            are conceived in sin, and by nature children of wrath, in-
   In fact, this is the plain implication of the pamphlet. It       capable of saving good, prone to evil, dead in sin, and in
has no room at all for the truth of sovereign grace, but only       bondage thereto, and without the regenerating grace of the .
                                                                    Holy Spirit, they are neither able nor willing to return to
for the salvation of all men on condition of their acceptance       God, to reform the depravity of their nature, nor to dispose
of the  gospel and faith and repentance by their own free           themselves to reformation."
will. God desires the salvation'of all, but whether they shall          God seriously desires the salvation of the reprobate ?
actually be saved depends on their own choice of will.                  That reprobate man, or any man, for that matter, can
   Let us, in this connection, quote one more paragraph:            never do or will to do anything to his own salvation. He
   "The question is: what is implicit, or lies back of, the         will not, cannot, and cannot will to repent or to come  to,
full and free offer of the gospel to all without distinction ?      Christ in order that he may be saved. Only God  cam save
The word  `desirel  has come to be used in the debate, not          him. Only if God, through His Spirit implants within his
because it is necessarily the most accurate or felicitous word      heart the principle of regenerating grace, calls him to life
but because it sets forth quite `sharply a certain implication      and light through His own powerful Word through the
of the full and free offer of the gospel to all. This implica-      gospel, brings him through that same Word to conscious and
tion is that in the free offer there is expressed not simply        living faith, justifies and sanctifies Him, and causes him to
the bare pretieptive  will of God but the disposition of loving-    persevere even unto the end, can he possibly be saved.
kindness  dn the part of God pointing to the salvation to               He seriously desires all men to be saved, even the re-
be gained through compliance with the overtures of gospel           probate ?,
grace. In other words, the gospel is not simply an offer or            He knows that they cannot be saved except through
invitation but also implies that God delights that those  to,       efficacious and irresistible grace of His Holy Spirit?
whom the bffer comes would  erijoy  what is offered in all             He longs to save them, He is able to save them, yet He
its fulness. And the word desire has been used in order to          does not do it?
express the thought epitomized in Ezekiel 33  :ll, which  is           What would you say of a man in the water, unconscious
to the effect that God has pleasure that the wicked turn            .and on the point of drowning, and the first man throws a rope
from his evil way and live. It might as well have been said,        #to him and calls to him to take hold of it, though he knows
`It pleases God that the wicked repent and be saved.' "             the drowning man is "totally incapable" of grabbing the
   Now, let US remember that all this supposed to be an ex-         rope; what if that second man has a boat, in  .fact, is in the
planation and defense of the statement that God desires the         boat, so that he can easily lift the drowning man out of the
salvation of the reprobate. The gospel is preached to all in                            (Cowtimed  mt page 201)

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

                                                                         rich and the great of the world. And therefore, it is evident
                O U R   D O C T R I N E   e                              that in a general sense that which the Savior here writes.
                                                                         about the church in Philadelphia may be said of all the
                                                                         churches  that had been addressed thus far. Ephesus and
                 THE BOOK OF REVELATION                                  Smyrna, Pergamos and Thyatira and Sardis, -all were
                               CHAPTER  IX                               small and poor and of little strength according to the measure
     THE CHURCH WITH THE PROMISE OF AN OPEN DOOR                         of the world. Nevertheless, of the church in Philadelphia
                                                                         this was especially and emphatically true. It was not the
                            Revelation 3 :7-13                           chief characteristic of the other churches, but it was one of
          It is certainly remarkable that there are but two churches     the main features of the church in Philadelphia. And there-
   of all the seven churches that are addressed in these letters         fore, we may take it that in this little sentence the Lord gives
   to the churches in Asia Minor that receive no rebuke, but             a brief description of the peculiar situation in the church of
   only praise and consolation. These two churches are, as we            Philadelphia from an external point of view.
   know, the congregation of Smyrna and that of Philadelphia.
   The latter is the subject of our discussion in the present               .However, when the Lord-addresses the church in Phila-
   essay. Nor can it escape our notice that these two churches           delphia thus, and remarks that she has but little strength, this
   reveal a marked similarity in regard to their general descrip-        refers only to her outward position in the world. It does not
   tion and characterization by the Lord Jesus. Especially may           describe  8 her spiritual condition. Spiritually the little church
   we notice that of both churches it is true that they are small        in Philadelphia was not weak, but strong indeed. That this
   and of little strength. Evidently they have but little stand-         is truk is evident from the rest of the letter addressed to her.
 ing room in the world in which they live. Of the church in              The Lord commends her for having kept His Word, which
   Smyrna it is said that she is poor and despised, and that she         implies that the church'remained faithful to the truth of the
   exists in the midst of a world that hates and persecutes her.         gospel. And thus to keep the Word of Jesus'certainly re-
   The same is true of the church in Philadelphia. The Lord              quires  spiritual strength. The church that is spiritually weak
   in this letter describes her as a church that has but little          certainly will not keep the Word of Jesus. Always the ene-
   strength. Moreover, the same enemies that lived near the              mies encompass the church of Jesus Christ in the world ; and
   church of Smyrna and were a source of trouble to her, those           always those enemies attack her espedially from the viewpoint
   that say they are Jews, and are not, but are a synagog of             of the truth. It requires strength, spiritual strength, the
   Satan, are also mentioned in the epistle to Philadelphia.             exercise of the power of faith, to be faithful to,-the truth and
   Hence;  there is not only spiritual similarity between the            to keep the Word of the Lord. This is. emphasize< in what
   two congregations, but also in an outward aspect they are             follows immediately. It is evident that the church had not
   nearly alike. Only there seems to be this difference, that            only kept the Word of Jesus, but also confessed His name.
   the church of Smyrna evidently must spend all its spiritual           For the Lord writes to her : "thou hast not denied my name."
   strength in the bearing of the c&s for Christ's sake, while           The negative form-of this expression implies that the enemies,
   the.church  in Philadelphia  still has the opportunity to spread      perhaps especially the Jews in Philadelphia, had exerted all
   the gospel of Jesus Christ, to gain converts especially from          their influence to make the church deny the name of Christ.
   among the Jews in the city, and thus to increase and extend           They persecuted her, and left her but little standing room
   t$e church and the kingdom of God. Moreover, although                 in the midst of the world. But this negative expression also
   until that time her labors appear to have been without fruit          implies by way of contrast that the church in Philadelphia
   the Lord promises her such fruit in the future when He                had openly confessed the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
   writes to her that He will give her an open door, which               could not and did `not keep still about that name of their
   evidently means an effective entrance for the preaching of            glorious Lord and Redeemer, in Whom they believed and
   the gospel into the hearts of others.                                 Who mthey loved, Who had delivered them  fro& sin and
          One of the chief characteristics of the church in Philadel-    death and merited for them everlasting life and glory. Of
   phia is undoubtedly  expresseid in the words of the Savior:           course, all this points to real spiritual strength. To  confkss
   "thou hast little strength." This describes her outward con-          the name of the Lord is from a natural point of view by no,
   dition in the world. The meaning is that  the church was.             means an easy matter, especially over against the enemy and
   small. This was one of her most emphatic traits. We under-            especially when the confession of that name instigates perse-
   stand, of course, that this does not imply that the  othei            cution and hatred on the part of the world. This certainly
   churches were outwardly great and strong, for this was                had been the case in Philadelphia. This is evident from;
_ not the case. In fact, we may undoubtedly say that the                 what the Lord continues to write to her: "thou hast kept
   church in general, the true church  ,of  Jesus  Christ, is always,    the word of my patience." Patience, in the Scriptural sense
   of little power if compared with the strength of the world. it        of the word, always presupposes suffering for Christ's sake,
   is always comparatively small in numbers. It usually is               the bearing of His cross. The confession of the name of Jesus,
   financially poor. It does not count  `&nong  its numbers the          the preaching of His Word, had caused the saints in


                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                               1 9 9

Philadelphia suffering and persecution. But they had been           desire of the little congregation in Philadelphia, as well as to
faithful in the midst of the suffering of this present time,        her activity in regard to witnessing for Jesus and in respect
and had not denied His name. They had kept and pro-                 to the proclamation of the gospel, that the little church may
claimed the Word of Jesus Christ, and for it they had               increase in numbers and that converts may be gained.  In_ that
suffered affliction and persecution, and thus they had kept         respect she was a true missionary church. 0, the congrega-
the Word of Christ's patience, the Word that always ex-             tion' was of little strength: yet they had been very active.
horted them to be patient and to suffer and bear the cross          And though they had remained small, -and their labors had
for Christ's sake. And therefore it must not be said that           been crowned with but little success, yet the Lord reminds
the little church in Philadelphia  h-ad little strength spirit-     them that He is the One from Whom alone the growth of
ually. No, in grace she was strong, very strong indeed. But         the church must be expected. They must be faithful, and they
outwardly, according to the measure of the world, the little        must preach, and they must witness. But the Lord holds the
church was weak in every respect of the word. She was               key of David. He alone opens and shuts the door of His
small in numbers, no doubt. The church was perhaps hardly           Father's kingdom.
known in the city. She counted but few members. Neither did            In the second place, the Lord tells the congregation that
this small band belong to the great of the world. The financial     He gave them an open door, which no one could shut. Dif-
resources of the congregation were practically none. She had        ferent interpretations have been given of this figurative ex-
no wealth. She possessed little property. The little band did       pression. Y,et, in the light of Scripture in general, the mean-
not belong to the  wealthy*  and influential in the city. Ac-       ing can hardly be dubious. When Paul and Barnabas return
cording to the standard of the world, the church in Phila-          from their missionary journey and report to the church of
delphia had indeed but little strength. From an outward             their labors and the fruit upon these labors, we read that the
aspect one would judge that the church could exert no in-           church rejoiced because the  Lo,rd had given an  open' door
fluence at all. If Philadelphia existed in our day, she would       ,unto the Gentiles. Acts  14:27. In II Corinthians 16  :9 the
no doubt receive  the advice  to unite with some other church       apostle writes : "For a great door and effectual is opened unto
as soon as possible. In her small and isolated condition, -         me, and there are many adversaries." And again, in II
so we would judge, - she can be of no influence and power           Corinthians 2 :12 he writes : "Furthermore, when I came to          '
in the world. The sooner she. becomes member of a larger            Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened
body, the better.                                                   unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I
   `But Philadelphia did  ,not think so. At least, from the         found not Titus, my brother: but taking leave of them, 1
letter we receive the impression that the church had been           went from thence into  Mace'donia."  And once more, in
busy in preaching the gospel and witnessing for Christ. No          Colossians 4 :3 the apostle writes : "Withal praying also for
doubt they had witnessed for the name of the Lord also with         us,  that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to
a view to gaining  conve&,  and that especially among the           speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds."
powerful and influential Jews in  the city. That this is true       The meaning of the open door is therefore evidently that the
is evident from the entire letter. In the first place, the Lord     door would create an opportunity and a receptivity for the
in this letter. announces Himself as the One that has the           preaching and the hearing of the gospel of Christ. And if
key of David, that opens, and no man shall shut; and shut-          we may conclude, as certainly we may, that this promise is
teth, and no man shall open. The expression "key of David"          in harmony with the desire and longing of the congregation,
is derived from Isaiah 22 :22. The prophet there pronounces         we see that also this expression points to the fact that the
judgment upon Shebna, the king's treasurer and most im-             church in Philadelphia was characterized by zeal for  the
portant officer over his house. This office shall be taken          Lord's cause and was bent. upon the extension of the king-
away from him and shall be given to  Eliakim,  the son of           dom of God. They were small, but faithful, and purposed to
Hilkiah, who was found to be more worthy than Shebna.               add to their little band by means of preaching of the gospel.
And it is in this connection that Isaiah uses the expression           This picture is of great significance for the church of
"key of David." Says he: "And the key of the house of               `today. For it. tells us that the Lord fulfills His strength in
David  will I lay upon his shoulder, so he shall open and           weakness. The church of today seems to be quite forgetful
none shall shut, and, he shall shut an none shall open." This       of the fact that she in herself of little strength. The talk
power of the key, therefore, symbolized general supervision         of the day is of money and funds and men and organizations.
over. the king's business, and included specifically the author-    The church is united into a powerful army. Long, so it  is-
ity to determine who were allowed .to enter into the king's         said, the church has been forgetful`of her great task to bring
presence and into his service. Now then, Christ possesses           the world to `Christ. But  now she will accomplish that
the key of David. That is, He has the authority to open and         tremendous task. But what we need is organization. What
shut the door of the Father's kingdom. He, and He alone,            we need is men and means. What we need is sound business
determines who shall enter into that kingdom and who shall          methods. And surely, we do not oppose all these. We surely
remain without. It is He, therefore, that adds to the church.       may employ the very best methods, even in the extension of
And this announcement, no doubt, points to the hope and the         the kingdom of God.. We surely need men that will preach

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

the gospel. We surely need funds, even for the extension of           behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy
the kingdom. But we fear that the expectation is more and             feet, and to  know  that I have loved thee." There was in
more from these than from Him that holds the keys of                  Philadelphia a synagog of the Jews. They were filled with
David. After all, let us never forget that we do not open            bitter hatred against Christ and His people. They had no
and shut, but the Lord only. He will use His church as an            doubt slandered the congregation. From them the church
instrument; but that church must always be mindful of the            had suffered much. But over against them the little church
saying  of Jesus, "Thou art of little strength." In the second       had witnessed faithfully. Only, hitherto it had all seemed to
place, the picture  ,of the little church in Philadelphia reminds    be in vain. The door was closed. They could not be ap-
us that the church must not force the fruits when they do not        proached. They did not appear open to conviction. They
immediately become evident. Today this is often the case.            met their gospel with bitterness and scorn. But now, behold,
In her anxiety to force men into the kingdom, the church             fhe Lord would finally crown their labors with blessing un-
not so infrequently compromises on the gospel of Jesus               expected. Some of those very Jews that hated them and
Christ and the truth of the Word of God. It does no longer           persecuted them would be converted. These very enemies
emphasize the essential truths. It feels that perhaps men are        would come and worship before the feet of the church, that is,
repelled by the preaching of sin and total depravity, of wrath       in all humility, expressin,m in their attitude that the church
and condemnation, not to speak of the fundamental truths of          is the beloved, the bride of the Messiah, these Jews would
election and reprobation. These truths, therefore, are  no,          come and take their place among the followers of, Jesus of
longer preached. Instead,- a certain shallow  gospel  of love        Nazareth. Long, therefore, they may have labored in vain ;
takes its place, in order to attract men and to force them into      but glorious is the victory. And the same is true today.
the church. Gradually the gospel loses its strength and its          Long all our labors may appear to be fruitless and `without
true content. And the result is that rather than bringing the        result. Let  us. never forget that the Lord will surely bring
world to Christ, we bring the church into the'world. Phila-          His own, and that also through our labors.
delphia had not adopted this method. She had labored faith-              Neither is this the only promise the Lord gives to the
fully, and seen  no fruit. For still she was small. But shk          church of Philadelphia for the present time. Troublesome
kept the Word of Christ's patience, and had in no wise               times were approaching for the church, -also for the faith-
denied His name. And therefore, finally, in Philadelphia             ful in Philadelphia. They must have been filled with ap-
we have the true picture of the faithful mission church,             prehension of this fact even at this very time. The clouds
Mindful of her smallness and of her dependence on Christ,            of persecution appeared at the historical horizon. Presently
mindful that He must open the door, she remains a faithful           they would cover the firmament and burst forth their black
witness and does not deny the truth.                                 darkness over the church. The Lord speaks of those times
    Glorious promises are given unto this church for the             that are about to come when He writes.: "I also will keep
present as well as for the, future. First of all, the Lord           thee from the hour of temptation which  shall come upon all
promises that she shall  see fruit upon her labors. This             the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." The hour
promise is already suggested in the manner in which Christ           of trial, or of temptation, here mentioned refers, of course,
appears to the church of Philadelphia. He is the holy and            in the first place, to a wave of persecution that swept over the
true One, upon Whose Word the congregation may rely. He              chul;ch of Christ at that time. Likely it was the same hour
holds the key of David, and has the  authokity  to  open and         of persecution that would come over the church of Smyrna.
to shut. In these words there is already a faint suggestion          It would sweep over' the entire then-known world, and try
that presently the Lord will open the gate of the kingdom            men with a view to their loyalty to Christ Jesus. But al-
and cause some of them among whom they had witnessed                 though this hour of temptation refers, in the first place, in
and labored to enter in. This inference becomes practically          the literal sense of the word to a time of persecution that
a  certaiaty  when' the Lord tells them: "Behold, I have set         would arrive for the church of Philadelphia, yet it remains
before thee an open door, which no man can shut." Hitherto           true that this same hour of temptation was repeated several
it had seemed as if with all their activity they had only            times in the history of the world. It was repeated when the
aroused enmity and bitter hatred against the Lord and His            Mohammedan half-moon rode high over the Christian world.
church. The enemy appeared not even to be approachable.              It was repeated when the harlot church, as represented by
The hearts were closed. `But now the Lord would open                 Roman Catholicism, sent the sons of the Reformation to scaf-
the'door. They would find entrance. They would henceforth            fold and stake. And after all, it will find its complete fulfill-
experience that the attitude of the enemy had changed. Their         ment no sooner than at the time of Antichrist when days
witnessing would meet with a certain eagerness to listen to, are still to arrive for the church so terrible that even the elect
the truth of the gospel. The Lord would prepare the field            would not endure if they were not shortened. All these hours
for them. And finally, this fact is raised beyond all doubt,         of temptation, repeated several times in history, wherever the
and is at the same time stated more definitely, when the             church was persecuted, are after all but faint types and fore-
Lord adds : "Behold I give thee of the synagogue of Satan,           bodings of what will come when the man of sin shall reach
of them that say they are Jews, but are not, but do lie  ;           his full development and full power. The .hour  of tribulation


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                201

will come, will surely come, perhaps will come soon. And              at the thought of what must still come to pass ? Who of God's
what now is the promise to the church of  Philadelphia  and           children, when he thinks of the terrible suffering that is con-
zilso to the church of  the present time  ?  This  : that she will    nected with the persecution of the church in the last days,
be kept from the hour of temptation that shall come upon the          never asks himself. the anxious and all-important question
whole world. Does that mean that the  church will not be              whether he shall be faithful even unto death ? And therefore,
subject to that hour of trial  ? Does it mean with regard             the church has need of that comfort, that the grace of the
to the church of Philadelphia that she will be kept by the            Lord will be sufficient even in the hour of trial. And finally
Loid and in `some wonderful manner remain unmolested                  this interpretation is in harmony with the admonition that
when that hour of temptation sweeps the world  ? And does it          immediately follows this announcement: "Behold, I come
mean with a view to the final  per&d of suffering that the            quickly: hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take
Lord will first receive His faithful church up to heaven,             thy crown." It is exactly in times of tribulation and persecu-
before that final suffering  corn&  ? Thus is the view of' many.      tion that the church has need of the comforting assurance
If the church is faithful and keeps the Word of Christ's              that the Lord is coming quickly. For the coming of the Lord
patience, she shall meet the Lord in the air before the               will mean her victory and final deliverance. And again,  it
persecution by the man of sin breaks loose in all its fury. But       is not when the church escapes persecution, but when she is
I do not believe that this is the meaning of these words.             in the midst of it that she needs the admonition, coming
In the first place, the question arises : why should the church       directly from the Lord : "Hold fast that which thou hast, that
of `Smyrna be cast into the midst of that tribulation, and the        no man take thy crown." And therefore, this, we take it, is
church of Philadelphia be excused ? In the second place, we           the meaning of this assurance. The church of Philadelphia,
may notice that the entire conception, as if the faithful church      and the church of all ages, and the church of the latter days
shall be delivered before the persecution of Antichrist comes,        especially, may expect the hour of temptation that shall come
is false and dangerous. It is false, for it is not in harmony         over all the world. She will be cast  rig,ht into the midst of
with `Scripture. Christ warns His people more than once               it. But in the midst of suffering and trial the vision of the
that this hour shall come, and that they must remain faithful         Lord may always be before her, holding the keys of David,
unto the end. Why all these warnings of tribulation, with             calling Himself the faithful and true, and giving the church
which Scripture abounds, if they that are faithful shall not          the assurance that she need not be afraid, for His grace will
be in the hour of temptation? And dangerous this conception           be sufficient to keep His faithful ones out of the hour  of
is, because it puts the church to sleep. The church that ex-          temptation, so that no one shall take their crown.
pects to be received in the air before the great tribulation                                                                     H.H.
comes does riot prepare itself for the battle and for the hour
of temptation. And that hour shall catch her unexpectedly.
And therefore, we must not labor under this illusion, but                                     EDITORIALS
must expect to be in tribulation, and prepare for the  evil                             (Costimed   from page 197)
day, putting on the whole armor of ,God. In the third place,
the tribulation that is mentioned here is pictured as coming          water into the boat and save him, but he does not do it.
over the whole earth. And it is  nbt likely that the faithful         Would you say that this man in the boat had a serious desire
little church of Philadelphia would escape the attention of the       to save that drowning man, that he offered to save him but
enemy. It is exactly the faithful church that must endure             that he would not grab the rope ?
persecution. Fourthly, the original may  very well  be inter-             Would you not rather say that the man in the boat was
preted to signify that the little church of Philadelphia would        .a hypocrite ?
indeed be cast into the midst of temptation, and be tried with            Well, I claim that this is exactly what the Revs. Murray
all the world, but that in that tribulation the Lord would            and Stonehouse make of God.
keep her, so that she would come out of it unharmed. And                  That is, you understand, as long as, with all their  Ar-
this is indeed the meaning: not &at the church shall be. l<ept        minian  philosophy, they still claim to be Reformed.
from tribulation is her glory and comfort; not that she shall             But, of course, they are not.
not meet with tribulation must be her assurance, for it would             Their claim that God seriously desires to save all men,
be false. `B,ut that in the midst of suffering and persecution,       even the reprobate, stands in flagrant contradiction to the
when the enemy rages and the temptation to deny the Lord              entire system of Reformed truth. They do not believe in,
is strong and fierce, the Lord by His grace will be sufficient        the total depravity of the natural man ; they do not believe
to keep the church SO that she endures to the very end. Thaa          $n sovereign grace ; instead they believe in the free will of
is the meaning of the text. That is the assurance the church          `man and in a conditional promise on which every man can
may have. That is the comfort which the church needs. Also            lay hold by complying with the overtures of the gospel.
iwith a view to the great tribulation that is still to come,' the         More about this next time, D. V.
church is in need of that consolation. Who does never tremble                                                                    H.H.


   202                                           T H E   S-TANDARD   B E A R E R

     ON THE THEORY OF COMMON GRACE                                        Dr. Kuyper quotes of it: "Nay, further, this light such as
            Our beloved brother,,  the Rev. G. M.  Ophof, is ill          it is, man renders in various ways wholly polluted and holds
          in the hospital. In the early part of the week of Jan.          it in unrighteousness by doing which he becomes inexcusable
          20-26 he will  submit to surgery. We daily pray for             before God." These are important additions and, on the part
          hi,m  that the Lord may giye him grace to trztst  in Hi&        of Dr. Kuyper remarkable omissions, which as I hope  to
          and to commit his way ,m,to Him. It is, of COUKW, ow            make clear in this paper, swing the meaning of the Confession
          earnest  detire.. the desire of  nil  our people, that the
          Lord  may spare  hi%% and enable  kivvt to  re.sul@Le   Jzis    decidedly our way. Moreover, though the esteemed theologian
          la.bors among us. Let  us  all  yewember  him in  ow            would have us believe that the doctrine of common grace is
          payers.                                                         actually embodied in the standards of our churches, all that
            In the meantime, we shall try to fill the brother's           have read his work on the subject know too that he himself
          @ace in the Standa:rd BemeT to the best of ow ,abilitv.         often complains that the theory was never developed by
          %ay I ask all O'UY editors to he@ `me in this respect?-
            The following is ,a.n essay I delivered to a ministers' Reformed theologians, and that it did not receive a place in
          conference in 1920.                                             the Confessions. We prefer, therefore, to speak of the theory
                                                                          of common grace.
      It is not without definite intention, that we state the sub-         - I think it is even a tenable position to maintain that the
  ject to the discussion of which I am asked to offer an intro-           theory, is not historically reformed. At least, if by historically
   duction this afternoon as we do. We defend by  ithus                   reformed we mean that anything has for any length of time
  formulating our topic our conviction that the view expressed            been taught and developed in Reformed circles. True, Calvin
  in the phrase "Common Grace" is not a Reformed Doctrine,                sometimes speaks of a certain general grace, but in the first
  but simply a theory. It is not confessionally reformed. It              place, it may safely be said that he does not at all develop
  never found expression in  any~ of the standards of the                 the idea. In the second place he speaks of it merely to an-
  Reformed Church. It is true that Kuyper quotes- from the                swer an objection that might be brought against his develop-
  confession and from the Canons of Dordt on page 11 of the               ment of the truth of total depravity. And in the third place,
 second volume of his  Gemeene  Gratie.  The passage quoted               Calvin very peculiarly sometimes calls this general grace
  from the Confession by the great Dutch theologian is from               "special graces." That is, he holds, not to the theory of com-
  the fourteenth article and reads as follows: "And being thus            mon grace, a grace which the people of the world have in
  become wicked  perverse and corrupt in all his ways he hath             common with the people of God, but to the existence of some
  lost all his excellent gifts which he had received from God             kind of grace operating outside of the sphere of special revela-
  and only retained a few remains thereof." Thus far Dr. Kuy-             tion. But even if it were true, that Calvin taught common
  per quotes the article. And in the Canons of Dordt III, IV,             grace in the sense we understand it today, the fact remains
  No. 4, we read : "There remain however in man since the fall,           that after Calvin for three centuries and more the theory is
  the glimmers of natural light, whereby he retains some knowl-           not developed and taught, neither received into the stand-
  edge of God, of natural things, and of the difference between           ards of the Reformed churches. Now, surely, the fact. that
  good and evil, and discovers some regard for virtue good                Dr. Kuyper developed the theory can hardly make it his-
  order in society, and for maintaining an orderly external de-           torically reformed.
  portment. But so far is this light of nature from being                    Now, it seems to me, this stands to reason. Common
  sufficient to bring him to a saving knowledge of .God and to            grace is no church-doctrine and never will be. The matter
  true conversion, that he is incapable of using it aright even           with which it deals is in the very nature of it extra-confes-
~ in things natural and civil." Again we say, that thus far               sional. It is a theory, a hypothesis advanced for the purpose
  runs the quotation from Dr. Kuyser. On these few remains                of explaining certain phenomena in the world. I would almost
  and glimmers of natural light is raised the entire structure of         be inclined to say, that it is a certain apology for the re-
  common grace. Let me call your attention, however, to a                 formed doctrine of total depravity and God's curse upon the
  strange phenomenon in  these  quotations, a phenomenon we               world. Reformed. theology holds upon the basis of Scripture,
  can hardly believe is merely accidental. It is the fact, that           that man thru sin became totally depraved, that he is incap-
  although Dr. Kuyper quotes from the Confession and from                 able of doing any good, that he is wholly corrupted, and
  the Canons at length, he does not quote fully, and breaks off           corrupts even the natural light and the remants  that still are
  the quotation at a rather significant point in both instances.          with him. Reformed theology moreover holds to the ab-
  For upon the last sentence quoted by Dr. Kuyper from the                solute righteousness of God, who demands absolute satisfac-
  Confession there follows the important explanation : "which             tion before He can show grace and favor. But now there are
  however are sufficient to leave man withhout excuse, for all            certain phenomena, both with regard to the church and to
  the light which is in  US is changed into darkness as the               the world. The regenerated are by no means perfect. And
  Scripture teach US, saying, `The light shineth in the darkness          the world is by no means as bad as our confession would
  and the darkness comprehended it not,' where St. John call&             make it. It does not appear totally depraved, neither does it
  men darkness !" And the article of the Canons adds to what              seem entirely deprived. of the blessings of God's grace. As


                                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                           203

Dr. Kuyper repeatedly states the matter : "De kerk valt tegen,         heeft   vati den middelaar niet zijn essentie, maar  we1 de
de wereld valt mee." There  are a good many good things the            modaliteit van zijn existentie ontvangen. Het is het Eeuwige
world receives, there are a good many phenomena that attract           Woord, door `t  welk alle  dingen  geschapen zijn en tot op
one to the people of the  borld. There is a good deal of               dezen oogenblik in stand gehouden worden."  Thus, then, is
nobility, righteousness, love, sympathy, beauty of character           the view. Common grace does not flow from Jesus, but from
and disposition in the world, which can hardly be interpreted          the Logos. Even as before the fall all things in creation were
in the light of the doctrine of total depravity.  NOW,  the            made and were sustained through the Logos, so all that is
question, is : how must these phenon?ena be interpreted? Must          of common grace comes to men and to the world through the
we deny them? But this is impossible: The sun-shines, the              same Eternal Word. What is of importance here is to note
rain falls on the righteous and  unrightedus  alike. TO set            that the obedience of Christ, his atoning suffering has noth-
your hearts and minds at rest and remove any possible SUS-             ing to do with the bestowal of thi's grace. It is a grace outside
picion  as if I should deny this flagrantly apparent truth, I          of atonement and satisfaction.
will add that the wicked as a rule receive more rain and more:             In the second place, we may notice that all the good
sunshine than the good in this world. It generally constituted         things of this present life find their origin in this common
a reason for complaint on the part of the people of God until          grace. Why is it, that the human race is not instantly
they entered the sanctuary, and looked at things from a higher          destroyed after the fall ? It is because of the common grace
viewpoint. There are all the blessings of this temporal life.           of God. Repeatedly the idea is expressed and emphasized
There are the institutions of the home, of the state, of  SO-          that, if common grace had not intervened immediately after
ciety, of the school, there are all the products and com-              the fall, Adam and Eve and all the yorld would have been
modities this world produces. There is all the science, all the        instantly sent to utter ruin and destruction. That Adam and
art, all the ingenuity displayed by sinful man in this dispensa-        Eve are spared, that they are promised life and a seed and
tion. Now; then, the question is : You hold to the doctrine of          development that the curse does not immediately destroy
total depravity ? How do you ,account for these facts ? And            the world, the kosmos; that the rain falls and the sun shines,
very unfortunately to our mind the theory of common grace              that seasons and years follow in regular succession that
was advanced to account for them. It is- this theory wk are             nature still offers its wonderful powers and forces to the
asked to discuss this afternoon. We introduce the subject               service of man, and that man possesses the power and the
by calling your attention to :                                          ingenuity to bring them to light and subject them to, him-
                                                                        self; the development of man in the world of the life of
  I .   TJae  Theory  a n d   i t s   zveakness.                        science and art, commerce and industry; the continuance of
   II.  OW- view of the matter.                                         the institutions of the home, society, the state; civil right-
                                                                        eousness, law and order, -all these, and whatever good
   I. No doubt I can afford to be very brief in presenting             things you may further be able to enumerate as blessings             -
or recalling to you the theory of common grace as developed             of this present life and as bestowed on man in general, are
`by Dr. Kuyper. In the first place because ydu are all throughly       the outflow of common grace. They are good gifts of God
acquainted with the theory, and in the second place, for .the           reaching all men and coming to them as sinners outside of
simple reason that there is but very little to be said about it.       Jesus Christ.
It is true, there are three heavy volumes under the title De               In the third  pl'ace, as to its subjective operation in the
Gevlteene Gratie, together covering approximately two thou-            hearts of m&n, this common grace is a check upon the develop-
sand pages. But it is surprising how little the three ovlumes          ment of sin. If you ask, how it must be explained that
contain on the subj.ect of Common Grace. And, therefore, I             total depravity does not appear in all its horror in the world
can be very brief. What, then, is meant by common grace ?              outside of special grace,  K&per  answers, that God checks
   In the first place, it may be said, that it is a grace shown        the development and manifestation of sin. He does so partly
by God to the world outside of Christ. It is a grace outside           thru the means of these outward blessings of His common
of Christ as the Mediator of redemption. The presentation is,          grace. But he also halts the progress and prevents the full
that common grace flows from  fhe Mediator of Creation, and,           manifestation of sin directly thru an operation of His spirit.
therefore, directly from the Logos. In his  Dictaten   Dogma-           This is so often expressed that it has become the chief ele-
tiek, Lot. de Foedere, p. 129, Dr. Kuyper speaks as follows:           ment in the theory of common grace. Common grace is the
"Nog kan de vraag  worden  gedaan of het leven der Gemeene             power  that prevents the full manifestation of sin in the in-
gratie buiten  Christus  staat. Let wel, niet of er ook  we1            dividual sinner, and that halts the progress of sin in its or-
ethische invloeden op inwerken, maar of ze er principieel mee          ganic development in the world. And the result of this opera-
samenhangt.   .En dan  meet het antwoord zijn: ongetwijfeld.           tion of common grace as a check upon the power of sin is
Ook geheel die helpende  redding   komt uit den Christus.              not only that man does not reveal himself in all the hellish.
Doch dan niet uit  Christus  als verlossingsmiddelaar, maar            horror of his corrupt nature, but also that he performs a
uit hem als scheppingsmiddelaar. Het scheppingsleven zelf              good deal of good, that there is much in his life  and  ac-

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

complishments that attracts and appeals. "`Ook bij San alle       de particuliere genade uit het zaad Gods dat in hem is, als
geloof veryreeemde  menschen, bij wie we met geen wederge-        de gemeene gratie, die hem met de wereld gemeen it. Niet
boorte rekenen mogen, ontmoeten we velerlei levensuiting die      met een maar met twee genadefactoren  heeft men by den
liefelijk aandoet, en we1 verre van tot het kwaad te neigen,      geloovige te  doen, en daar bovendien zijn natuur in hem
er veeleer tegen ingaat." Vol. II, 48. "Dat nu nochtans, niet-    werkt, moet zijn verschijning en zijn optreden begrepen
tegenstaande  `s menschen zondige natuur hen prikkelt, om         worden  als een complex van  drieErlei  werking : ten eerste
de menschelijke orde prijs te geven, en in een dierlijke orde     van zijn natuur, ten tweede van zijn kindsgenade,  ten derde
lust te hebben,  tech zekere menschelijke orde tusschen de        van zijn gemeene gratie . . ."
menschen in het gemeen in stand bleef en zich zelfs in toe-
nemende mate  ontwikkeld   beeft, is Godes gemeene gratie.            We may summarize, therefore, by saying : Common grace
Niet de mensch heeft zichzelven van de vernieling gered ;         is  the name for a theory that holds, that God outside of
maar die hem ook voor het wereldsche leven tegen  hem-            Christ and his atoning blood reveals His good favor to all
zelven beschermd heeft is God de Heere. Deze reddende             men in general ; that from this grace must be explained all
daad der gemeene gratie Gods loopt ten deze nu langs twee         the present existence of the  wbrld,` with all the temporal
wegen: de eene  in den mensch, de andere  onder de  men-          blessings and institutions for the present life, as well as all
schen ; de eene inwendig, de andere uitwendig. Die inwen-         the power and ingenuity man still displays';. that this grace
dige weg in den mensch bestond hierii', that God hem in           serves subjectively to check the developnient  and prevent
zijn  wilden  hartstocht intoomde, behoefte aan vrede en rust     the full  manifesiation  of the totally corrupt nature of man
in hem prikkelde, en zachter gezindheden in hem deed op-          and is productive of much good  ; that the  .power of this
komen." p. 159. The power of common grace serves, there-          grace works in regenerated and unregenerated alike, so that
fore, as a check upon the power of sin. And this check on         the child of God lives from two kinds of grace, one of which
the power of sin bears this fruit, that the sinner performs       is peculiar to himself, the other of which he has iti common
something positively good. More than once Dr. Kuyper              with the world.
emphasizes this. On p. 303 he concludes a discussion of                                                        /
this difficult question, how a check on total depravity can           Now, in the way of negative criticism we wish to remark
be productive of positive good with the  statemeAt:  "Ver-        in the first place; that the theory does by no :means  solve the
gissen we ons nu niet dan is hiermede de zoo moeilijke vraag      problem it promised to solve. The problem was that the
beantwoord, hoe, als de gemeene gratie niets doet dan de          children of the world did much good and the children of
zonde stuiten, ze  tech leiden  kan tot iets positief goeds."     God much evil. The church disappointed the  careful ob-
And that the theory actually leads to this conception is evi-     server, and the world was much better than we'would  expect
dent from the notable illustration of Melchisedec. According      on the basis of the doctrine of total depravity. IBut we fail
to Dr.  Kuyper's  view in Melchisedec we have one of the          to see how this theory offers an explanation  bf this sad
grandest products of common grace. He was a carnal maIT,          contrast. True, it apparently explains the good there is in
to'tally  depraved. He possessed no redeeming grace. Yet,         the world. The power  of common grace operating in the
sin was checked in him to such an extent and so effectively,      sinful heart checks the development of sin,  and  for that
that he was serving the true God in priestly consecration,        i-eason the world appears not as bad as we` would expect.
was a king of righteousness, and type of Christ Jesus who         But, this  do& not explain why the church should be so
is priest after his order!                                        much worse than the world, and why much of the attraction
                                                                  and graces that adorn the children of the world should not
   Lastly, it is a grace that is common to all men. It is         .also beautify the regenerated. For according to Dr. Kuyper
not thus, that the people of the world that live outside of       the believers also are under the influence of this common
Christ live under the influence of this common grace, while       grace. If it were thus, that believers lived from special
the saints in Christ Jesus possess special or saving grace.       grace alone, and the children of the world only under the
No, all possess this common grace. The people of the world,       operation of common grace, the problem raised might prob-
all that are ouside of Christ `live from only one kind  bf        ably be regarded as solved. But now it is a different story.
grace, ; God's regenerated people live from a double, from        Fact is, that believers live under the power of a double
a two-fold grace, from two `kinds of grace. They live partly      grace, common and special, while the children of the world
from common, partly from special grace. "Gemeenlijk stelt         live from the foriner only. And, therefore, we would still'
men hkt zoo voor, alsof de gemeene gratie alleen werkt in         expect that the children of God would display a much mFre
de niet wedergeborenen, en alsof alles wat in de geloovigen       virtuous life and character than the children of the world.
ten goede  uitkomt vrucht  ip van de particuliere genade.         It will, I think, be evident, that the problem is not solved
Maar het kost weinig  moeite  om in te zien dat dit niet          by this theory.
opgaat. . . Wie de zaak  helder wil inzien zal moeten  erken-
nen, dat er twdeerlei  genade in den geloovige we&,  zoowel                                                                H. H.
                                                                                     .  _    2  -


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 205

II                                                                     have treated the patient with the approach of what is called
       F R O M   H O L Y   W R I T   .,/I "Psycho-Somatic" medicine. Here. in this passage Jesus
                                                                       clearly indicates that the secret of rest for the "soul" is
              Exposition of Matthew 11:25-30                           not at all simply a matter of the "mind," of thought-patterns,
                                                                       stream of consciousness, but that it  5s a deeply  spiritual-
                                IV.                                    ethical question of standing in the proper relationship toward
                       (Matthew 11 :29, 30)                            God. That the question of bodily health enters into the
                                                                       picture no one will deny, who has made a serious study of
      For the sake of clarity we once more call attention to the       Scripture in regard to the effect which a rebellious attitude
 trend of thought we have thus far noticed in the verses 25            toward God and fellowman can have upon our health. Read
 through 28. This trend of thought is as follows:                      Psalm 32  :3, 4, "when I kept silence, my bones waxed old
       X. That Jesus thanks and exalts the Father, Lord of             through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy
 heaven and earth, that He has hid the Mysteries of the                hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the
' Kingdom from the wise and  prudent  and revealed them unto           drought of summer." And let it be clearly understood  that
 the babes. We noticed that Jesus emphatically thanks the              this poetry portrays a very dreadful reality in David's life
 Father not only that He has "revealed" these things to the            - until he rested in the sweetness of forgiving love.
 "babes," but that, he has also "hid" these things from the               The minister and elder, who does not see the deep prin-
 wise and the prudent.                                                 ciples here of soul-care in the church, is responsible that
.' 2. `That. when Jesus explains and reveals the deeper                the work of the Church is often relegated to the psychia-
 background of this "revealing" of the things of God's King-           trist," who lacks both the insight and the authority to "care
 dom to the "babes," He tells us that this  eniire work of             for the souls as they, who must give account." Heb. 13 :17.
 "revealing" has been delivered into His hands and into His               Wherefore, lest this accusation ret&n to our own door,
 authority. He reveals the Mysteries to whom he will ; it is           let us give heed to the instruction of Christ in this  impor-   -
 solely in His sovereign will to reveal or not to reveal. He           tant Scripture passage.
 reveals it to those whom the Father has given Him.. And                  The great boon, which Christ here promises to all who
 to the "rest" it is not given to understand the Mysteries of          take "his yoke" upon them is "ye shall find rest for your
 the Kingdom; from these it is hid. Skeing they see and                souls."
perceive not, and hearing they hear and understand not,                   Concerning this sentence "ye shall find rest for `your
 lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears,  and          souls," it should be observed, that this is a quotation from
 repent and God should heal them.                                      Jer.  6:lG where we read, "Thus saith the LORD, stand
       3. That, further, the weary and heavy laden are called          ye in the ways, and see, ask for the old paths, and walk
 to rest by Christ in harmony with this will of Christ to re-          therein, and ye shall  j&d  Test  for  yowl  soztls."  If anything
 veal it to some and not to others. The "w1zosoezIer  believ&"         is clear from this. passage it is this: a man finds rest for
 is in perfect dependent relation to the "to wlzoutzsoezfey  I will    his soul only when that soul is right with God and, therefore,
 to reveal the Father." Surely the objects of the revela-              "asks for the old paths and walks therein." And this is not
 tion of the Father by the Son will come as weary and heavy            simply a Psycho-Somatic matter, but it is, at bottom, a
 laden ones.                                                           spiritztal-psychological  matter; it is a matter of repentance
       However, we now come to a very interesting and prac-            with the whole heart. And such only the "babes" find be-
 tical matter here in this portion.                                    cause it is  revealed  to them. And since it is revealed to
       The text reads  as  follows:  "Take  "yyzy  yoke upon you       them they "find" it for their souls.  -
 and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: a,nd ye
 shall find rest for your souls. FOY IQLY  yoke is easy and my            Rather radical, I hear someone opine.
 burden is light."                                                         I reply: the "old paths" often look new and untrodden
       In this passage we are dealing with the spiritual-psycho-       to those who have never found it, since they are lost in  a
 logical aspect of the making known by Christ of the: Father's         maze of philosophic speculation, solving life's riddles, whereas
 love, and the appropriation of this revelation of the Father's        a simple obedience to the Word, yea, a profound obedience
 love by the called sinner, in his learning to know the spiritual      of meekness and  lowlimindedness  is the answer. We then
 secret being disclosed to him, so that he "finds" rest for            stop peeping and muttering about the "mysteries of life"
 his soul.                                                             of which the fickle and superficial and God-hating world
       In passing we would remark that in this  passage  we            sings her vain songs, and know that the solution to the
 have some profound, yet clear and lucid principles of "Soul-          quest for rest for the Boul lies in the mystery of  faith! And
 care" in the church. Here are principles which are far                this  mystery  of faith  is the conferring of rest as this is re-
 higher and different than what modem psychiatry has to                vealed to us in the Mystery of GODLINESS that is great!
 offer. The latter imagines itself to have attained when they          It is the mystery revealed to the "babes" : I will give you rest !


        206                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   BE.ARER

               Such is the radical standpoint of Christ. And is  He not       wicked,  &d, therefore, no rest for the `soul of the wicked.
        radically, absolutely different tiith the healing of his wings,       As little as man can lift himself up by his own boot-straps
        than all the panaceas of the would-be soul-care of those,             so little can modem psychiatry give  `<rest to the  soul."  At
        who have no eye for the Scriptural truth, that the outgoings          best the unbelieving (not willing the teaching of Scripture,
        of life are from the heart. And that it is from the evil heart,       able to give rest to the soul) psychiatry can give a false
      in relationship to God, that the unrest of man proceeds,                peace, telling a man that all his troubles are simply psy-
      - - for as Augustine, the ancient father, said : Man cannot rest        chological, have nothing to do with conscience. .And when
        save he rests in God!                                                 those, who purport to be Christian psychiatrists, tell their
               The reader should not understand the former remarks            patients, who literally roar with a sense of guilt, that their
        about "psychiatry" as if the modern methods of "electro-              sense of guilt will leave as soon as the roaring leaves, they
        therapy" etc. did not have their valid place. They do. They           have reversed the cause and the effect. If it were not so
        have a place, however, fundamentally only in filiysicti.1  ther-      disastrous `for the patient, since it puts him really  otit of
        apy. They are, at bottom, no different in effect than the             reach of Calvary, I would smile about it and say: My
        warm or hot bath, or a good night's sleep. No one denies              grandfather used to tell me, that, in order to catch a rab-  ~
        that a good night's rest does not afford.the  physical-psycho-        bit, one had to place salt on his tail!
        logical stamina to meet the day, together with a good break-              I will, however, as long as the Lord gives me breath,
        fast of bacon and eggs. Neither will anyone deny, that a              believe and, therefore, preach, that as soon as the sense of
        good meal and night's sleep will not "raise  &e's spirits."           guilt leaves and all opposition to God is crucified in our
        But they will not give `rest to the soul of any man, for mn           souls, then also the roaring is ceased and sweet and blessed
        does not live by bread alone, but by every word which pro-            peace of heart and soul replace it.
        ceeds from the mouth of the Lord. And when Moses and                      To my surprise, a hospital pastor in one of the Christian
        Christ here speak of "man" they have in mind "man" in                 Sanitariums, was speaking to me about the soul-care of
        the generic sense. The English canno't distinguish man and            patients filled with real fears. He wondered how a Christian
        "man." The Holland `language does ; it speaks of "man"                could possibly come to such a point in life. When I observed
        in distinction from "mensch." And since we are concerned              that `he was speaking to the patients on "attitudes" in life,
        with man, man, as created in the image of God, we hold                of jealousy, envy, pride, resentment, I told him that I thought
        that no meal, bath, electro-therapy (shock-treatment) can             that he was on the' right track, that is, on the "old paths."
        give "rest to the  soul."  The Holy Spirit, it has always             After  some discussion I told him that in the  Carions of
        been held in the Church, sovereignly chooses the "means of            Dort, the Fifth Head of Doctrine the answer was given to
        grace" to work the grace of faith and repentance in our               his questiori how a Christian could come to that point in the
        hearts, and thus makes us seek for and find sweet peace for           road where all seemed lost, and where the withdrawing of
        our souls.                                                            God's countenance is `more bitter than death" and where
            I  haire been approached by psychiatric doctors requesting        there are "grievous torments of conscience."
        my observations of what happens in a "shock-treatment"                    He asked me, whether I would dare to preach .this. And
        to the patient. I told them I had never observed one, but             I told him I would not dare not to pmach it.
        that they  ,had. They should tell me. They wondered  what                 Later I visited that institution again. This time the
        happened to the "soul" of man. They felt somehow they                 pastor told me that he had instructed the patients to read
        "helped" a man to raise himself up again in soul and bqdy.            the Canons of Dart,,  Head of Doctrine V. And it had been
        However, they wondered what it was. Well, I asked them:               of benefit to them. Such had been their testimony. Well,
        what habpens  to you when you have slept well ? You know              it is good to hear this. However, it would have been true
                                                                              fanyway.
        the effect.  Well, that's my answer. But as little as a night's                   For it is the old way, the tried way, where all
        sleep will `work faith and strengthen faith in my heart, so           God's children find rest for their souls."
        little will a shock-treatment. And in some cases, where  a.               Why do they find rest there, and there .only? And why
                                                                              do they find rest for their souls in that way whether at
        man is not deeply humble, a shock-treatment, although it              Pine Rest or at  Befhesda?
        does not work resentment per se, will become the occasion                The answer is simple : Chi-ist gives rest only to the weary
        of the sinful reaction of bitterness because of its being a           and heavy laden, in the way of  .their learning to be meek and
        harsh treatment-something like the resentment of a sol-               lowly of heart, since they thus learn Christ and the truth as
        dier against the "army."                                              it is in Jesus.
           Btit "finding rest for the  soul" is something which  lies             Next time, the Lord willing, we shall investigate the
II      on a ciifferent plane. It is a questioti  of spiritual "learning."    text a bit more closely.
        When we have leaa.mcd a profoundly spiritual lesson we will               Meanwhile : to the law and the- prophets ; if they speak
        "find rest for our ~6~1s." For the wicked are'like the driven         not according to this word there is no "dawn" (morgenrSte)
       se& their waters cast forth mire  ; there is no peace to  the          to the weary souls of God's children.                     G.L.


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              207
  -             - --_-
 II                                                                  pressive of the meaning of the original text. For whether we
                I N          HIS  F E A R                            show respect or not, whether we are respectful or disrespect-
                                                                     ful, we do these things because of an inner judgment which
                                                                     the outward deeds reflect.
                  Respect and Obedience                                 We have another passage in'the Old Testament Scriptures
                                                                     wherein it is stated that God had respect. We read in Ex-
                                (2)                                  odus 2 :25, "And God looked upon the children of Israel, and
       "And the Lord had respect unto Abd and to his offering."      God had respect unto them." Here we have an entirely
       "But imto Cain and unto his offering He had not respect."     different word from the one in Genesis 4 which is also trans-
       So Moses speaks in regard to the -attitude of God to-         lated "respect." It means "to know, to be acquainted with."
 wards Cain and Abel when they brought their offerings unto,         It is interesting also to note that this is said in connection
 Him. Of this we read in Genesis 4 :4, and 5.                        with the statement that "God looked upon the children of
       You will recall that we were dealing with the matter          Israel." For, as we remarked last time, the word respect is
 of respect and obedience and the relation between them.             made up of the latin hreposition `3-e" which means "back or
       We cited the case of  Harold whose little four year' old      again" and the verb "to look." Respect and disrespect depend
 son was allowed to call his father by his first name instead        upon how people look to us and are determined by our judg-
 of showing him respect as his father.                               ment upon them in the light of what we see of them.
       Examples of entirely different loehaviour  of children to-       Harold's little boy saw hini occasionally as his father, .as
 wards their parents as they are revealed to us on the pages         someone upon whom he depended and even in a sense as one
 of Holy Writ were quoted. We noted that Joseph even                 to.whose wishes he had to submit. As we wrote last time, .he
 after he became chief ruler in Egypt under Pharaoh so that          pleaded with his father to go down and get something to eat.
 his father was subject to him in many earthly matters still         As a little child without money of his own, without the ability
 showed respect to his father and called him such.                   to read a menu in the diner, he felt the need of his father and
       We had only begun to examine those passages in Scrip-         in that sense looked up to him. There was a difference be-
 ture wherein the word respect appears in our english trans          tween him and his father which he could not help but see.
 lation. Having said a few things about those  passages              He tias simply incapable of escaping the fact that there was
 wherein respect of persons is mentioned and condemned,              a difference between him and his father that was deeper than
 we referred you to that passage above in Genesis 4:4 and'5          the eye could see. When he called his father by his first name,
 wherein God is presented as having respect unto Abel and            however, he was behaving as one who knew his father only
 to his offering and not unto Cain and unto his offering.            according to that which the eyes of Harold's equals see him.
       We desire now to pick up the thread there and continue           Harold's wife no doubt called him such before their chil-
 to consider this matter of respect and obedience.                   dren. Harold's brothers and sisters called him by the first
       The word Moses uses in Genesis  4:4 in itself means           name. His friends did so. And all this Harold's little boy
 more than to look. God looked at that offering of Abel. He          heard, of course. It would be quite .-impossible to keep him
 took notice of it. But as the English translation has it, He        from it. But Harold never instructed his son - and for that
 had respect unto it. That means more. It means that He              matter his wife did not either- to look upon him in any
 approved of it and looked upon it with favor. The actual            6ther way than these brothers, sisters, wife and friends who
word that Moses uses hast the primary meaning of dividing            were as to position and age on the same level with Harold.
 or  disceynin,g.  It is, then, a look whereby a distinction is         Incidentally, it may seem a little humorous and odd to
 made between Cain's and Abel's offerings. It is a look              hear a man call his wife "mother ;" but it surely does not en-
 that sees more $han that which meets the eye. It is a deeper        courage the children td show disrespect for their mothers. I
 evaluation than that which results from a look at outward           would  a. hundred times rather see and hear a man-be his
 things. God looked at the heart and judged Abel's' offering         wife five or ten years younger than he - say to her when the
 to be a worthy expression of his faith and desire for salva-        children are present, "Well, mother, shall we go home now  ?"
 tion. He loo<ed at the heart of Cain as `well as at the. thing      than to hear Harold's little boy say,  "Let's  go downstairs,
which he offered and judged it to be full of wickedness and          Harold. Come on, Harold I'm hungry." The same holds true,
 unbelief. We maintain, therefore, that in respect one always        of course, for the `wife calling her husband "Father" in the
  judges an individual or object to be worthy of honor, of           hearing of the children.
  confidence, of acceptance or the lik6.                                 At this particular P.T.A. meeting  whereip  the matter of
       When we respect someone we pass judgment- upon that           respect was treated briefly on a panel discussion that dealt
  individual from the viewpoint as to whether he should be           with other matters that had to do with the relationship be-
  honored, esteemed,, trusted and served or not. The element         tween the teachers and the parents one of the ministers pre-
  of discerning of dividing surely is in that word `respect and      sent made a remark that certainly points in the right direc-
  therefore the translation here in Genesis 4  :4 and. 5 is  ex-     tion. He said that it was unthinkable for him and he could


 208                                         ?HE   STANDARD   B E A R E R

 not possibly get it across his lips. to call his elders in the        God does not have any superiors whose honor He must re-
 church by their first names. By elders he meant not those who!        spect. He is God. And that  means  that there is not and
 were older than he in the congregation but the officebearers          cannot be any one who is either above Him or even on the
 in the office of elder in his consistory. .He said that he could      same level with Him. All are under Him and all, therefore,
 not call them Pete, John and Bill but always Mister so and            must respect Him. All must render Him honor and obe-
 so. We would go a step further. As pare&s we ought never              dience. But He shows deference to no one.
 to speak of these elders in the church to our children in any            When He had respect unto Abel and to his offering He
 other way than in respect for the office. We-ought to teach           approved of `Abel and of his offering ; but He did not show
 our children to see them with a deeper insight than that which        deference unto him. He did deem his offering as worthy of ac-
 comes to the natural eye. ,God has made them to be different          ceptance and Abel as worthy of being considered to be a
 when He ordains them into the office in His Church  ; and for         believer. This, however, was due to the fact that He had
 their work's sake that difference ought to be seen and                given that faith unto Abel whereby he brought unto God an
 maintained by us and by our children. How much more                   "excellent sacrifice." The respect God showed unto Abel was
 beautiful and spiritually proper it is to refer to them when          due to the fact that Christ is the Lamb of God Who was slain
 we speak to our children as Elder so &d so and Deacon so              for the sins of God's people gnd due to the fact that now in
 and so.                                                               Him the elect are worthy of the blessings of salvation. Thus
        We live in a world that wants to get away from all             we read in Revelation 3 ~4, "Thou hast a few names even in
 formality and class distinction. Respect of persons, to be sure,      Sardis which have not defiled their garments  ; and they shall
 Scripture condemns. But we must be very careful that our              walk with me in white: for they are worthy." And again in
 desire for informality and removal of class distinction does.         Luke  20~35,  "But they which shall be accounted worthy to
 not become disrespect. For disrespect is sin. Paul writes to          obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead neither
 the church at Rome, "Render therefore to all their dues:              marry nor are given in marriage." Yet this respect God has
 tribute to whom tribute is due ; custom to whom custom is             for His people is a respect for His Own works in them. It
 due  ; fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor." And dis-              is not due to a judgment of them as they are in themselves.
 respect is violating the fifth commandment which demands              Then His attitude would be one of eternal wrath and indigna-
 that we honor our fathers and our mothers and all those who           tion. Then He would have no more respect for them than
 are in authority over us.                                             He has for Cain and for his offering. But seeing us again,
  .,Respect means dealing  with others in a special way. It            seeing us as we are in Christ He deals with us in a special
 nieans  that we see that difference between us and them which         way and bestows blessedness upon us.
 Gcid has been pleased to bririg  about and that we are willing to:       But amopg men there can be respect for superiors because
 honor them and show them deference because of His iover-              God does make some to be superiors over others in one way
 eign  good pleasure to place us in a position of inferiority over     or another. Even, then, however, we do not respect them for
 against them.                                                         what they are in themselves but for what God has made them
        By having us born to certain parents God realizes a posi-      to be in relation to us. Often they behave so that it is difficult
 tion of inferiority between us and them that remains as long          to have any respect for them; but for God's sake we still do
 as we and they live. We never outgrow the fact that we owe            honor them by obeying them and dealing with them as being
 our existence to them.  `By ordaining officebearers in His            our sup&-iors. Respect for the authorities, respect for our
Chtirch  God realizes a position of inferiority between us and         parents, respect for the  of&es in the Church is respect for
 theni  which He recognizes as long as they are in office. They        God Who alone is worthy of our praise and honor.
 have the spiritual rule over us. The same holds true of the              Respect for those whom God has placed over us in walk-
 governor, the king or president, the policeman, the master or         ing in His fear.
 "boss" for whom we work. And He demands that we look at                  Only as we fear God will we respect Him by respecting
 them in that light, deal with them accordingly and do not             those whom He has placed over us.
 behave in such a way that we deny that difference which He                                                                      J . A . H .
has brought into being.
    It stands to reason that the respect God has differs from
the respect which is demanded of us to those He places over                                    IN MEMORIAM
us. Essentially the idea is the same, as we have seen. When               The  Consisto,ry of the First  P&e&ant  Reformed Church  of
 God showed respect to Abel's offering He looked at it far             Grdnd  Rapids, expresses its sympathy to our fellow members,
niore deeply than Cain who saw his own.offering  as a good             Elder M.  Swart and Deacon W. Swart, in the loss of their
thi?g.  God judged that offering of Abel and approved of it.           Mother and Grandmother,
When we show respect it is also due to a deeper look than that                                 MRS. J. SWART
of the outward appearance reveals to the natural  eye: Respect           May God comfort and sustain the bereaved in their sorrow.
is the result of judgment of inner qualities or realities. Bui:                                                     P. Decker, Secretary


                                             T H E ,   STANDA.RD   B E A R E R                                                          209
                                                                    .-

                                                                              All these documents make up a manual of orthodox doc-
          Contending .For The Faith                              II trine and clerical discipline. They give dogmatic decisions
                                                                          against heresies, especially Arianism (which. lingered long
                                                                          in Spain), and directions on worship, the sacraments, feasts
              The Church and the Sacranients                              and fasts, sacred rites and costumes, the' consecration of
    VIEWS DURING THE THIRD PERIOD  (750-1517 A.D.)                        churches, church property, and especially on church polity.
                                                                          The work breathes throughout the spirit of churchly and
                 THE SUPREMACY OF THE POPE                                priestly piety and reverence.
                  THE ISIDORIAN, DECRETALS.                                   2. The  mcerdota.1 system  (pertaining to a priest or the
     During the chaotic confusion under the Carolingians (the             priesthood - H.V.).      Pseudo-Isidor advocates the papal
  Carolingians are known in Church History as or per-                     theocracy. The clergy is a divinely instituted, consecrated,
  taining to the dynasty or family of Charlemagne who  was<               and inviolable dispensation. The priests are the  `fa~iliares
  emperor during the early part of the ninth century  - H.V.) ,           De;," the  Crspirikales,"  the laity the  "c.arnales."  He who
  in the middle of the ninth century, a mysterious book made              sins against them sins against God. They are subject to no
 its appearance, which gave legal expression to the popular               earthly tribunal, and responsible to God alone, who appointed
 opinion of the papacy, raised and strengthened its power                 them judges of men. The privileges of the priesthood cul-
 more than any other agency, and forms to a large extent the              minate in the episcopal dignity, and the episcopal dignity
 basis' of the canon law of the church of Rome. This is a col-            culminates in the papacy. The cathed~~a Petpi is the fountain
 lection of ecclesiastical laws under the false name of bishop            of all power. Without the consent of the pope no bishop can
 ISIDOR of Seville (died  636),  hence called the  "Pseudo-               be deposed, no council be convened. He is the ultimate um-
 Isidorian Decretals." He was the reputed (though not the                 pire of all controversy, and from him there is no appeal. He
 real) author of an earlier collection, based upon that of the            is often called  r'episcopzw   ztniveusalis,"  notwithstanding the
 Roman abbot, Dionysius Exiguus, in the sixth century, and                protest of Gregory I.
 used as the law-book of the church in Spain, hence called                    3. The  #aim of Pseudo-Isidor is, by such a collection of
 the "Hispana." In these earlier collections the letters and              authoritative decisions to protect the clergy against the
 decrees (Epistolae Decretales) of the popes from the time                decular  power and against moral degeneracy. The power of
 of Siricius (384) occupy a prominent place. A decretal in                the metropolitans is rather lowered in order to secure to
 the canonical sense is an authoritative rescript of a pope in            the pope the definitive sentence in the trials of bishops. But
 reply to some question, while a dezrrtic is a papal, ordinance           it is manifestly wrong if older writers have put the chief aim
 enacted with the advice of the Cardinals, without a previous             of the work in the elevation of the papacy. The papacy ap-
 inquiry. A Canon is a law ordained by a general or provin-               pears rather as a means for the protection of episcopacy in
 cial synod. A dogma is an ecclesiastical law relating to doc-            its conflict with the civil government. It is the supreme
 trine. The earliest decretals had moral rather than legislative          guarantee of the rights of the bishops.
 force. But as the questions and appeals to the pope multi-                  4. The  genzcineness  of Pseudo-Isidor was not doubted
 plied, the papal answers grew in authority. Fictitious doce-             during the middle ages (Hincmar only denied the legal ap-
 ments, canons, and decretals were nothing new ; but the                  plication to the French church), but is now universally given
 Pseudo-Isidorian collection is the most colossal and effective           up by Roman Catholic as well as Protestant historians.
fraud known in the history of ecclesiastical literature.                     The forgery is apparent. It is  inconveivable  that  Diony-
     1. The  contents of the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals. The              sius Exiguus, who lived in Rome, should have been ignorant
 book is divided into three parts. The first part contains fifty          of such a large number of papal letters. The collection more-
 Apostolical Canons from the collection of Dionysius, sixty               over is full of anachronisms : Roman bishops of the second
 spurious decretals of the Roman bishops from Clement (died               and third centuries write in the Frankish Latin of the ninth
 101) to Melchiades (died 314). The second part compre-                   century on doctrinal topics in the spirit of the post-Nicene
 hends the forged document of the donation of Constantine,                orthodoxy and on mediaeval  relations in church and state ;
 some tracts concerning the Council of  Nicaes, and the canons            they quote the Bible after the version of Jerome as amended
 of the Greek, African, ,Gallic, and Spanish Councils down to             under Charlemagne ; Victor addresses Theophilus of Alex-
 683, from the Spanish collection. The third part, after a                andria, who lived two hundred years later, on the paschal
preface copied from the Hispana, gives in chronological order             controversies of the second century.
 the decretals of the popes from Sylvester (died 335) to Gre-                The Donation of Constantine, which is incorporated in
 gory II (died  731), among which thirty-five are forged,' in-            this collection, is an older forgery, and exists also in several
 cluding all before Damasus; but the genuine letters also,                Greek texts. It affirms that Constantine, when he was bap-
 which are taken from the Isidorian collection, contain inter-            tized by pope Sylvester, A.D. 324 (he was not baptized till
 polations. In many editions the  Capitztla   Aztgi1ram-k  are            337, by the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia), presented
 appended.                                                                him with the  Lateran palace and all imperial insignia,  to-

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

 gether with the Roman and Italian territory. This mysterious         wars among the grandsons of Charlemagne. In Rome the
 document tells that the emperor Constantine was cured of             Decretals were first known and quoted in 865 by pope
 leprosy by. the prayers of Pope Sylvester. Thereupon Con-            Nicolaus I.
 stantine out of gratitude to the pope deceded to remove his             From the same period and of the same spirit are several
 residence from Rome to Byzantium on the Bosporus, the city           collections of  Cap&da  or  Cap&da&,  that is, of royal ec-
 later called Constantinople. His object in doing this was            clesiastical ordinances which under the Carolingians took the
 that the secular government of the emperor might not cramp           place of synodical  decisions. Among these we mention the
 the spiritual government of the pope. On leaving Rome Con-           collection of Ansegis, abbot of Fontenelles  (827),  of  Bene-
 stantine, according to this document, ordered all office-            dictus Levita of Mayence  (847),  and the Capitula  Angil-
holders in the-Church to be subject to Pope Sylvester and             ramni, falsely ascribed to bishop Angilramnus of Metz (died
 to his successors upon the papal throne. Furthermore he              701).
 transferred to the popes the city of Rome and all the provin-           6. Significance of Pseudo-Isidor: It consists not so
 ces, districts, and cities of Italy and of the western regions.      much in the novelty of the views and claims of the mediaeval
 So, according to this document, Constantine bestowed upon            priesthood, but in tracing them back from the ninth to the
 the popes sovereignty over the western half of. the Empire.          third and second centuries, and stamping them with the
 The object of this forgery was to antedate by five centuries         authority of antiquity. Some of the leading principles had
 the temporal power of the papacy, which rests on the dona-           inded been already asserted in the letters of Leo IX, and
 tions of  Pepin and Charlemagne. The only foundation in              other documents of the fifth century, yea the papal `an&z&s
- fact is the donation of the Lateran  palace, which was origin-      may be traced to Victor in the second century' and to the
 ally the palace of the Lateran  family, then of the emperors,        Judaizing opponents of St. Paul. But in this collection the
 and last of the popes (concerning this  Lateran  Church Schaff-      entire hierachical and sacerdotal system, which was the
 Herzog writes the'following. The church of St. John Lateran          growth of several centuries, appears as something complete
 in Rome and the councils held in the palace connected with           and unchangeable from the very beginning. We have a
 it. The palace was the official residence of the popes for over      ,parallel phenomenon in the Apostolic Constitutions and
 a thousand years. It was originally the property of the rich         Canons which gather into one whole the ecclesiastical deci-
 patrician family of Plautius Lateranus, but was confiscated          sions of the first three centuries, and trace- them directly to
 by Nero, and later became an imperial residence. A portion           the apostles or their disciple, Clement of Rome.
 of it, bestowed by Maximian  on his daughter Fausta;  second            Pseudo-Isidorus was no doubt a sincere believer in the
 -wife of Constantine, became known as the Domus Faustae,             hierachical system; nevertheless his collection is to a large
 and she lived there until her husband beheaded her. Con-             extent a conscious high church fraud, and must as such be
 stantine then gave it (312) to Pope Melchiades, confirming           traced to the father of lies. It belongs to the Satanic element
 the donation to Sylvester, in whose pontificate the first            in the history of the Christian hierarchy, which has a little
 basilica was built here and consecrated in 324. The church           escaped temptation and contamination as the Jewish hier-
 of St. John  Lateran  is properly speaking the cathedral of          archy. The great purpose of this document was to show that!
 the Roman diocese ; here the pope is bishop of Rome, while           all the rights claimed by the popes in the ninth century has
 St. Peter's is the seat of his universal jurisdiction.). So, the     been exercised by the popes. from the earliest times. For
 wife of Constantine, Fausta,  resided in it, and on the transfer     hundreds of years these documents were accepted at face
 of the seat of empire to Constantinople, he left it to Sylvester,    value and regarded as genuine. Nicholas de Cusa in 1433
 as the chief of the Roman clergy and nobility. There the             was the first one to suggest that the decretals were a forgery.
pope takes possession of the see of Rome. But the whole               After that they came to be called the "Pseudo-1sidorian
 history of Constantine and his successors shows conclusively         Decretals." In 1440 Lorenzo Valla proved -that the "Dona-
 that they had- no idea of transferring any part of their tem-        tion of Constantine" was a forgery. Today Catholic scholars
poral sovereignty to the Roman pontiff.                               agree with Protestant scholars, that both `documents are
        5. The az~tlzomhip  must be assigned to some ecclesiastic     spurious, or false. But the harm had been done and the
of the Frankish church; probably of the diocese of Rheims,            papacy had time to entrench itself.                      H.V.
between 847 and 565 (or 857) ) but scholars differ as to the
writer. Pseudo-Isodor literally quotes passages from a Paris                                   NOTICE!
 Council of 529, and agrees in part with the collection of              The Free Christian School Society of Edger-ton, Minnesota,
Benedictus Levita, completed in 847 ; on the other hand he            is in need of two teachers for its next school term. One  to
is first quoted by a French Synod at Chiersy in 857, and then         teach the lower grades one through four, the other as prin-
by Hincmar of Rheims repeatedly since 859. All the many-              cipal to teach the four upper grades, five through eight. Need
scripts are of French origin. The complaints of ecclesiastical        we plead ? Please send enquires or applications to the Board
disorders, depositions of bishops without trial, frivolous di-        of the Free Christian School Society.
 verces, frequent sacrilege, suit best the period of the civil                       H. Miersma, Secretary, Woodstock, Minnesota


                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 `211
                                                                    4 that he fears the evil results of his sin. B.ut his adherence
 Ii          The Vohce of Our Fathers                               I to the outward form of the .law is purely outward, external.
                                                                         His regard for virtue is not motivated by the love of God.
                    The Canons of Dordrecht                              It is a regard that has respect only to the evil effects of sin
                                                                         for himself and for society. His regard for external order
                               P A R T   T W O                           in his individual and communal life is `of the same character.
                     EXPOSITION OF THE CANONS                            For in the first place, as soon as a man imagines that he can
                                                                         commit a certain sin and "get away with it," escape its
              THIRD AND FOURTH HEADS OF DOCTRINE                         results, he will do so. In the second place, he is not always
       OF THE CORRUPTION OF MAN, HIS CONVERSION TO GOD,                  equally mindful of the evil effects of sin. Or, if he is mindftll
                                                                         of them, he will make the attempt to nullify those effects,
                     AND THE MANNER THEREOF              ~               so that he can sin freely and without the fear of those- effects.
                         Article 4 (concluded)                           And in the third place, ultimately man can never succeed to
         The question is: how is it possible for the Gentiles to do      bridle his lust. Sin has dominion over him. And so he not
 this ? The apostle explains that they have the work of the              only sins, but he has pleasure in sin, and he has pleasure in
 law (not the law, but the work of the law, the work that the            his fellow sinner.                                             '
 law does, the work of drawing the fundamental lines of the                 And therefore, again, in all this there is no iota of evid-
. will of God for our ethical life in this world) written in their       ence of the grace of God. Nor is there any proof whatsoever
 hearts, -written by God Himself, by the testimony of His                that the natural man has any capacity for good. On the
 Spirit in and through His general revelation. That the                  contrary, the very fact that he is able to distinguish between
 Gentiles know this difference between good and evil, are able           good and evil means that man is responsible, and can
 to distinguish, is also evidenced in their ability to formulate         properly be judged by God. Mere knowledge is no virtue.
 systems of jurisprudence, codes of law, by which they lay               And mere outward adherence to the law, regard for virtue,
 down the law for the individual citizen in the community.               out of the motive of selfseeking is an abomination to the Lord.
 `And it is evidenced, as the apostle also indicates, by the fact           Hence?, our fathers draw the negative conclusion, first of
 that their conscience bears witness, their thoughts, considera-         all, that man by this light of nature is not at all able to
 tions, the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.             arrive at a saving knowledge of God or to convert himself
 They reveal in their thoughts, their considerations, that they          to God. We must bear in mind that when the fathers here
 have a formal knowledge of the law of God as it distinguishes           speak of a saving knowledge of God, and in Article 3 of
 between good and evil. They reveal this officially  and formally        saving good, they did not have in mind a non-saving knowl-
 in their laws and in the judgments of their courts.. They re-           edge that constituted a non-saving, or civil, good. The
 veal it too in the expression of public opinion, in conversa-           &nons were written against the Arminians. And over
 tion, in the daily newspapers, and on the radio. The Gentiles,          against the Arminians the question was whether man,
 who had no contact with the law as it was given to the Jews             through the means of the remnants of natural light, which
 could even write volumes on ethics. And, in this natural                both the Reformed and the Arminians ascribe to the natural
 light, according to which they knew the difference between              man, -whether through the means of this light man was
 things good and evil, they judged one another, and accused or           able to come to a saving knowledge of .God, to the knowledge
 excused one another -according to that work of the law that             of salvation, and whether man was able to convert himself
 was written in their hearts.                                            to God. The  Armmians maintained that this was possible.
         Accordingly, the article tells us, in the fourth place, that    And the fathers, taking cognizance of these remnants of
 by virtue of this remnant of natural light man even shows               natural light, express the judgment concerning them, that
  "some regard for virtue and external order, or discipline."            man is by no means able through this light to come to such
  Notice that the fathers do not say that the natural' man               a saving knowledge of God or to convert himself to God.
 keeps the law. They do not say that he does good. They do               The fathers insist that man is far from being `able by this
 not even speak of a certain "civil good." But: "Man shows               light to come to such a saving knowledge. How far? Here
  some regard for virtue and for external order." He knows               we have the positive conclusion of this article. The true
 that the law of God, and that to keep the law in his earthly            picture of the natural man, with all his remnants of natural
  life is good for him. He understands right well that the way           light, is so far different from the picture of him that is drawn
  of sin is the way of destruction. And so his regard for                by the Remonstrants that, on the contrary, %n is not evem
  virtue and external order, or discipline, even extends so far          able in things natural and cizlil to we this natu~a.1 light ,aright.
  that he attempts in his life and walk to adhere to the out-            Still more: the fathers maintain that even in things natural
  ward form of the law and to maintain order in society. He              and civil man wholly contaminates and pollutes this natural
  attempts to conform his life and the life of his fellows to the        light, and he holds it under in unrighteousness. The Remon-
  outward form of the law. That regard is due to the fact                strants attempted to, maintain that, the natural man could use

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

this light aright in the sphere of things spiritual. The Synod            gospel, and taught that through the law man could
of the Christian Reformed Church in 1924 attempted to main-               obtain the saving grace of God. Implied in this teaching
tain that man could use this natural light  aright in the                 is, of course, the error that the natural man can also keep the
sphere of things natural and civil. Both are wrong, accord-               law, `at least in part, that is, at least in so far as is necessary
ing to our Canons. For the fathers maintain that man is not               to obtain the promise of eternal life, in so far as God de-
even able to use this light  aright  in the sphere of things              mands such obedience in order to connect with it the promise
natural and civil. They contradict both the Remonstrants                  of eternal life. And they denied that the natural man
and the Synod of 1924. Man, such is the position of the                   neither can nor will keep the law unless he is first regener-
Synod of Dordt, though he has a certain knowledge of God,                 ated and receives that small beginning of the new obedience
though he has a certain knowledge of things natural, though               according to which he delights in the law of God and strives
he discerns the difference between good and evil, and though              to walk according to it. The comparison indicated in the
he is even able to show some regard for virtue and external               opening sentence of this fifth article sheds some light also
discipline, - though he knows, therefore, Whom he ought                   on the Arminian view that is opposed in it. Just as the
to serve, and what he ought to be, and what he ought to do,               Arminian taught that man through the use of his natural light
yet sins and corrupts himself in all his life. He wholly                  was able to come to a saving knowledge of God and to `true
pollutes his natural light, such as it is, and he holds it under          conversion, so the same Remonstrant taught that God re-
in unrighteousness.                                                       vealed His law as a means by which man might come to the
    The only possible conclusion, therefore, concerning man as            saving knowledge of God and to true conversion. He would
he is apart from Christ, is that in all his sin and in all his            not be saved by the keeping of the law in perfection. But if
corruption there is no single fact to be found which might                man revealed that he was not opposed to the law of God,
mitigate his judgment before the bar of the Judge of heaven               that on the contrary it was his desire and striving to keep it,
and earth. He stands without. excuse. He is by nature a                   then God would show that man grace and bestow upon him
child of wrath, prone to evil, dead in sin, in bondage thereto.           all the necessary grace to be saved. But notice, please, that
And without the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, con-               while this is not purely a doctrine of salvation by works, it is
version is an utter impossibility for him.                a               a doctrine which begins with man, begins with man's works,
            Article                                                       which makes the grace of God unto salvation dependent once
                        5. In the same light are we to consider the
            law of the decalogue, delivered by God to his peculiar        again upon the will of man to receive that grace not only, but
            people the Jews, by the hands of Moses. For though            dependent upon the worthiness of man to receive it.
            -it discovers the greatness  o'f  sin! and more and more
             convinces man thereof, yet as  rt neither points out             Nor is this such a strange error,  - not strange in our
            a remedy, nor imparts strength to extricate him from          day. Not infrequently the error is committed of making
            misery, and thus being weak  thro,ugh  the flesh, leaves
             the transgressor under the curse, man cannot by this         separation. between the law and the gospel, of taking the law
            law obtain saving grace.                                      out of its proper context as a part of the revelation of the
    The above Engilsh translation fails to do justice to the              gospel, of ignoring the fact that the law was imposed upon
origin Latin version of this article. In the original the first           the promise for one reason, `namely, to be a school-master,
sentence introduces an element of comparison that is im-                  to lead us unto Christ. Not infrequently the law and its
portant for the understanding of this article, and which is               demands are preached with the implied, if not the open, claim
not expressed in the English. For those who can follow the                that the respowibility to keep the law implies the ability to
Latin, we quote it here : "Q use2 abuxinis   na&rae,   eadeevut   haec    keep it. Not seldom the law is preached in such a manner
Decalogi  per  Mosen  a, Deo  Jztda,eis  peculia~Gke+   tiraditi  est     even to converted Christians that its obedience is presented
?diO." It is a bit difficult to give a smooth-flowing English             as a condition unto salvation and that salvation is after all
translation of this, but the idea is as follows: "What (is                in some degree to be obtained by works, be they thenthe good
true) of the light of nature, this same is the reason (explana-           works of faith. Well, therefore, may we take warning from
tion, accounting, ratio) of the Decalogue, delivered by God               this article.                                              H.C.H.
through Moses peculiarly to the Jews." From this it will he
evident that the accepted English version goes rather far
astray with its "In the same light . .  -." The Dutch is more                                     IN MEMORIAM
accurate, although it fails to translate the Latin mtio : "Gelijk            The Board of the Free Christian School Society of Edgerton,
het met het  licht der natuur toegaat, zoo gaat het ook in                Minn., wishes to express to the principal of our  schooml, Mrs.  H.
dezen toe met de wet der Tien geboden, van God door                       Feldman,  its sincere and heartfelt sympathy in the lost of her
                                                                          Mother.
Mozes den Joden  in het bijzonder gegeven."                                                      MRS. P. EZINGA
   It must be evident at once that here again the fathers                 January 1, 1957.
deal with one- of the many Arminian corruptions of the                       May the  Lord of all grace and `comfort console her in this
                                                                          hour of sorrow, and grant her the blessed assurance that all
truth. That fundamental error was in this case that the                   things work together for good to them who love God and are
Arminians made separation between the law and the                         the called according to His purpose.
                                                                                                                     H. Miersma, Secretary


                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                213

                  OLD AGE PENSION                                   county bureau under the rules and regulations of the state
                                                                    bureau. . .  ." Notice particularly that statement, "sufficient
    The purpose'of  this article is'to discuss a problem which      income to provide for a reasonable subsistence, compatible          _
often confronts the diaconate of our churches. It happens           with decency and health." That is a perfect description of
repeatedly that when some of our people reach  `Lhe age where       a needy person, a charity ward, who turns. to the state be-
they are unable to provide for their own livelihood, and do         lcause he has no where else to t&n for his daily subsistence.
not have the necessary reserve to support themselves, they          ,Therefore the. state has made regulations as to how much
turn to the state to apply for state aid, or old age pension,       property a person may own and still be eligible for state aid.
rather than to appeal to the deacons of the church. The ques-       And the state also determines the amount that shall be paid
tion has often been raised, Is  this proper? Should the             to each individual according to need. All of which proves
church and the deacons approve of this, tacitly consent to:         that a person must be considered dependent on others for
it? Or should we openly express our disapproval, instruct           his daily subsistence ; that is, he must be an object of charity
these parties accordingly, and urge them to seek their aid          before he can appeal to the state !For &id. Which only stresses
from the deacons ?                                                  the point that old age pension is  a special relief measure, and
    Our problem is, therefore, a very practical one.                nothing less.
   You realize that we are not discussing the federal Social            Quoting once more from the Social  Welfare  Act (Sec.
`Security Act, nor the propriety of applying for and obtaining      400.26),  we find under (d) that a person can receive old age
old age assistance through Social Security. That, to my             assistance if he "Has no spouse, child, other person, associa-
mind, is an entirely different matter that has riothing  in com-    tion or corporation legally and contractually responsible under
mon with the old age pension. It is true, that in the future        the laws of this state for his support and found by the county           '
social security will replace the present old age pension, and       bureau to be able to support him: Provided, that if  such
thus our present problem will be resolved. `B,ut in the mean-       spouse, child, other person, association, society or corpora-
time we still are confronted with this question.                    tion is partially able to support the applicant, such partial
   It should also be understood that we are not discussing          support shall be taken into consideration  in fixing the amount
in this present article the matter of aid from the cancer,          of the assistance."
polio, and heart societies. That is  aTso an entirely different        This is an even more potcznt  argument to show that old
subject, that is well worth discussing, but lies beyond the         age pension is a special relief measure -adopted  by the state
scope of our present discussion. We are limiting  ourselves         for those who have no one to assist them in  ththeir need.
now to the matter commonly known as "old age pension."              From the section quoted  above it is obvious that  the. state
   I have obtained some literature from the Michigan Social         w<ll  give aid to the aged 6nly  when the responsible relatives
Welfare Commission, to which: I will refer occasionally. I          are unable to support them. From 4 leaflet entitled;"What!
am well aware that this material actually applies only to the       is Expected of Relatives ?" giiven  out by the State of Michi-
State of Michigan, but I feel that we are quite safe in as-         gan Department of Social Welfare, I quote the following:
suming that the legislation of the various States in this matter    "Does the state give pensions to the aged, widows, etc.? Not
differs only in minor detail, and actually does not affect the      in`the sense that many people think of a pension as something
main point of our discussion.                                       a person is entitled to regardless of circumstances. The
   I would have you note, therefore, first of all, that in the      Michigan Social Welfare Act gives the conditions under
State of Michigan the old age pension' is the result of state       which the various types  of public assistance may be granted.
legislation. The State has drawn up`a *`Social Welfare Act"         Section 76 says, `This act shall not be construed to relieve
providing for such matters as "old age assistance, aid to de-       the liability for support by relatires  under the provisions of
pendent children, aid to the blind, and aid to the totally and      Act 146 of the Public Acts of 1925, as amended. The terms
permanently disabled" which is supported by state and federal       of said act with respect to liability for support by relatives
funds taken from the taxes.                                         may be invoked in connectiotl  with any form of public aid
   From this it already becomes evident that the state itself       or relief administered under this act." (Act 250. Public Acts _
considers old age assistance through pensions as a special          of 1939, as amended.) Thus, when an aged person applies for
relief measure, or an act of "charity." It is matter of special     old age assistance, for example, the county Bureau of Social
legislation, and is placed in the same category as aid to de-       Aid is required by law to determine whether the responsible
pendent children, blind, mentally handicapped, etc. The             relatives are able to provide support." This leaflet adds, that
pensions are even drawn from the same funds.                        "if the total of expected contributions from the relatives does
   Moreover, the Social Welfare. Act provides (Sec. 400.26)         not meet the person's needs as figured on Bureau standards,
that  `iOld age assistance shall be given to any person who         .assistance  may be given for the difference."  .Which  means
(a) Has attained the age of 6.5 years' or upwards; . . . (f)        that the state supplies only that amount  wl+ch cannot be
Has not sufficient income to provide a reasonable subsistence,      brought up by the responsible relatives. And then it goes on
compatible with decency and health, as determined by the            to say, that if relatives do not make the  expected-  contribu-

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

  tion, the hardship will fall on the dependent person, for the       may be done in His name, and the right hand never knows
  bureau "is required by law to consider the expected contribu-. what the left hand is doing. It is, therefore, blessed to give
  tion as available income whether it is forthcoming or not:"         in His name, but also to receive from His hand.
         Summing up, we have three arguments. First that old age          From this follows, that from the aspect of the aged who
  pension is not something th?t a person is entitled to regard-       need assistance, where would they rather go than to the
  less of circumstances. Second, that a means test is applied to      deacons  ? Charity,  in the true sense of the word, can only
  determine whether or not a person shall receive state aid, so       4e exercised by the church. For the mercies of the wicked
  that anyone who has sufficient income to provide for a reason-      are always cruel. Would we rather go to Moab and Philistia
  able subsistence cannot qualify for this welfare measure. And       than to Israel for help ? But even more, the deacons do not
  third, that there is a responsible relative measure in this law,    aid the needy; not as mere deacons. Nor does the church ;
  so that the immediate relatives must furnish the aid if at all      not as church. But Christ aids His needy through the chan-
  possible, and the state only steps in to fill in the amount:        nel of the church and the deacons. He who receives his
  which cannot be brought up by the relatives. From which             daily sustenance from Christ, receives it from the same hand
  we conclude that fhe old age pension, as it exists at present,      as when  he worked for his daily bread, but now through
 *is a matter of charity administerd by the state.                    the direct channel of the church. And by doing so, both he
         Now we do not question the right of the state to makq        is blessed who gives, and he who receives. That we believe,
  such regulations for those persons who have no other means          and therefore it becomes easy to swallow all sinful pride
  of support. It is only proper that the state should take care       which might prevent us from receiving of those who live
  of its citizens, whether they need old age assistance, aid          round about us and know what we do with the gifts which
  because of blindness, or are totally disabled, and have no          we receive.
  other source of relief.                                                 But that still leaves a few questions.
     But the question remains, what is the calling of the
 church and its members in this respect? We can grant with-               The argument is sometimes raised, that we pay into these
                                                                      funds by our taxes, and therefore have a right. to draw out
  out argument that the immediate relatives are the first re-         of them as well. The argument implies that we have a right
  sponsible parties in taking care of the needy. But what is          to these pensions because they are supported by taxes. But
 the order after that? Is this the- order : relatives - state -       the fact remains that the state has introduced this welfare act
 church ? Or this : relatives - church - state ? Or, to cast
 the question in a slightly different form, must a needy person       as an emergency measure to aid those who have no other
                                                                      source of income. It is not something that a person is en-
 who cannot obtain aid from his immediate relatives turn
 first to the church, and only to the state if the church fails       titled to regardless of circumstances, that is, regardless of the
                                                                      fact that there is an office of mercy in the church.
 t6 help him ? Or must he appeal to the state, and only finally
 in a last extremity, to the diacdnate ?                                  The objection is also made that every other needy person
     From the point of view of the church, she has a very             benefits from this state welfare, so why should not we?
 definite calling? First of all, the church must proceed from         Yet, this argument is in direct conflict with the stand we
 the principle that Christ is her Head, even as her exalted           have taken in regard to the instruction of our children in our
 Lord in heaven. Christ rules over His church as her King,            own Christian schools, as well as in regard to the care and
 preaches the Word as her Prophet, and exercises mercy as             support of `those who suffer from emotional and mental dis-
 her Highpriest. Therefore He also assures His church that,           turbances.  Why our own Christian schools ? Why such in-
 "the poor ye have always with you," not as an unpleasant             stitutions as Pine Rest? Why, since we  dould benefit from
 burden, but as a gracious arrangement of God whereby the             `the institutions which the state has raised up? To that we
 mercies of Christ may become manifest. In the second place,          answer, of course, that the instruction of the seed of the cov-
 Christ exercises His three-fold office of Prophet;Priest  and        enant is the responsibility of the parerits, regardless of
King through  His church. Therefore He has instituted the             whether the state has provided schools for our children. And
 offices of minister, elder and deacon. Therefore He calls to,        again, that it is the calling of the church to exercise mercy
 that office through the church, ordains and qualifies by His         ip caring for mentally handicapped and disabled. But then
 Spirit, and accomplishes His work through the ofice in the           the same rule applies to the care of those who can no more
 church as institute. `We  may never ignore that principle.           support themselves and have no source of income from their
 From this follows that Christ manifests His mercy through            immediate relatives.
 the mercies of the believers upon the poor and indigent.                Ultimately it is simply a matter of principle. If anyone
 Christ Himself arouses His people to exercise that love and          `is inclined to. disagree with what  .has been written in this
 mercy, when He says in His Word, "distributing to  the               article, I am sure that the  Standu~d   Bewe~   will appreciate
 necessity of the saints, given to hospitality."  Ram.  12  :13.      your contributions on this subject. And, personally, I would
 And He makes this possible through the deacons, that  it             like to hear from you.                                    .C.H.


                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 215

                                                                      fact from the point of view of eternity. He continues as
            A L L   A R O U N D   U S                                 `follows :
                                                                          "Let us see God's statement of this fact. In the words of
                                                                      our text (Phil.  1:6),  the Apostle says, as a matter of fact,
 The Perseverance of the Saints.                                      that it is God who makes this difference among men. God
    The Rev. Malcolm R. Mackey,.  concerning whose writings           who begins the good work of saving faith in men, will surely
 in  The Contender  we have called attention before, in the NO-       finish what He has begun. Now this puts the matter on a
 vember, 1956, issue of his paper continues his development           proper and reasonable basis. God's work is not thoughtless,
 of the above named subject. In the present issue he treats           hit-or-miss, haphazard, as is so often the case with the works
 two aspects of the subject, calling attention- first of all to :     of men . . . When we think of God, we are in an entirely
 The Fact of Perseverance; and then in the second place to :          different realm where sin, weakness, ignorance or any other
 What Perseverance Depends Upon. He informs his readers               kind of evils, defects, or limitations have no existence. They
 that he plans in the succeeding issue of The Contender to            are not in Him. And, positively speaking, the being and per-
 call attention to : Perseverance  - af1.d the Sins of the Elect.     fection of God are infinite, eternal and unchangeable. Hence,
 We, will be waiting with interest his development of this            what God has determined, or planned, to do He shall most
 third point.                                                         certainly accomplish, regardless of how devils and men may
    Concerning the first and second points mentioned above,           rage against it. This is the case with the eternal redemptidn
 we give our readers a few excefpts  which we consider both           of the elect. Consider the fact that it is God who has decreed
 interesting and instructive from the point of view of our            that this shall take place! And it automatically becomes un-
 own historic faith.                                                  thinkable that this should not be accomplished with glorious
                                                                      and infinite perfection. Therefore, looking at the persever-
    Rev. Mackay writes the following respecting The Fact of           ance of the saints from the ineffable light of eternity and
 Perseverance :                                                                                                                            \
                                                                      not from the shadows of this life, God is the one who does
    "Putting this as simply as it ,can be put, there is one out-      it: `Being confident of this very thing, that He who hath be-
 standing fact which has been seen from the beginning of hu-          gun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of
 man history, from Abel's time to the piesent,  and that is, that     Jesus Christ.' "
 there has been a continuing line of people who have, by faith,         In the 10th chapter of John's gospel, in connection with
 seen the eternal, immortal invisible God, and in this faith          the parable of the Good Shepherd and His conflict with the
 they have persevered unto the end of their mortal lives. This        bitterly hostile Jews, Jesus makes a plain statement of fact,
 is the essential fact, however widely differing their individual,    which illustrates the truth of the `perseverance of the- saints
 racial or national circumstances have been. These people             from both the human and the  divines points of view. First,
 belong to the one body of the elect. They. have been chosen          He made a contrast between the hostile Jews or the non-elect
 unto life eternal by God the Father from eternity ; they have        and His own disciples or the elect under the figure of those
been redeeined  by Christ the Son in the fulness of time ; and        who are not His sheep and those who are: `But ye believe
 they are, as they take their predestined place in the unfolding      not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My
 course of history, called by God the Holy Spirit out of the          sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me.'
 guilt and bondage of sin into the peace and blessedness of           Here is a plain observable fact, -some are not Christ's
 God's spiritual. kingdom. This is a glorious fact against            people while some are."
 which the gates of hell cannot prevail. Nothing can stop the             "Along with this. statement of fact, Christ tells us some-
 fulfilment of God's plan whereby these people  al'e at  last         thing about these two classes which otherwise we could not
 brought to heaven , . ."                                             have known. This explanation which He gives is the divine
     "Perseverance has in view, in particular, not the begin-         revelation as to why some are not His sheep, and why those
 ning of the Christian life, or any particular stage of it along      who are His sheep persevere in the faith unto the end of their
 the way, but the end or consummation of it . . . Perseverance        niortal lives. This difference does not lie in the nature or will
 in the faith to the end may be regarded as an indication of          of men. How could it? - for by birth we are all alike dead
 one's election. That is, perseverance to the end is a practical      in sin and enemies of God. Notice Christ does not say that
 proof, in this life, that a person is of the elect. It is the        some are not His sheep because they believe not, but that
 outworking, in daily life, of God's eternal decree to, give that     some believe npt because they are not of His sheep! This
 person an inheritance in eternal life. We are to judge of the        gives the lie to the Arminian (or common grace) doctrine
 state of our souls, not on the basis of profession, or  bf an        which teaches that the' only reason why some are not saved
 intellectual assent to `orthodox' doctrine, but on the basis of      is because they believe not. This lying doctrine teaches that
 perseverance in the faith, through thick and thin to the end."       the only obstacle in the way of the eternal salpation  of these
     Having considered the plain fact of history concerning           people is their own sin and unbelief, and that they could be
 %is perseverance of saints, the writer. proceeds to look at this     saved if only they desired (or willed) it. This teaching would


  216                                             T H E   STANDAkD   BEARER

  take away the sovereign gift character of salvation. And it has         versation. No other conception, of the love of God is in his
  done just this in the mind of the average person. `Salvation' mind. More than that, he is quite content with it that way,
  to him is not a matter which God may grant to him or not                and it never seriously-crosses hi: mind that it could be any
  grant to him, as seemeth good unto Him, as Jesus expresses              other way. All is well. The `people on  the street pass un-
  it in Matthew 11  :25-27  . . .  ."                                     noticing, intent on~their errands, - or the peace of the coun-
           "Common grace men, no less than the Arminians,  actually       tryside and the mingled, pungent, oldzfashioned  store odors
 ,put God's dealings with men on the same kind of universaliz-            along with the crackling of wood ?n the -stove, give a sense
  ing, levelling, lowest common-denominator basis as does                 of solid contentment. And if, while you were speaking with
  modern democracy in its theory of mankind. Just as demo:                your man, a funeral should be seen passing along, enroute
 cracy claims that all men are equal, and that if any man does1           to the cemetery (`memorial gardens'), he would probably
  not make use of the opportunity he has it is his own fault,             say, `Well, some day we too must pass away,' implying quite
  so common grace (like out-and-out Arminianism) says that                naturally that all is well with the deceased, and will be with'
  all men have the opportunity to be saved, and that if they are' everybody else who dies. God is loving;.and.He understands.
  not saved, it is their own responsibility and fault, not God's.         Let us be good neighbours, and play our part. In the ordinary
  This takes the sovereignty completely out of God's dealings             course of events, the conversation would end as it began, -
  with `men, and ?educes  God to the same level as the popular            peacefully: But if you were so undiplomatic, cold-blooded
  head of a democratic state who is supposed to be sti-ictly im-          and cruel as to say that this idea of the love of God, is simply
  partial and treat all citizen!:; alike. Thus Arminianism and/or         not true, but -that instead of God's love being universal and
  common grace,`alike,  teach that in the final analysis the an-          general  it. is partial and particular, the sense of peace and
  swer to whether or not a person is saved, lies in man rather            well-being would vanish. Let us suppose that you were,
  than in God. The common grace men cannot deny this for                  further, bold enough to say that God, by the counsel of
  they do say that the  0x1~  thing that prevents a man from              His own will and by nothing outside Himself, makes a
  being saved is his own un.belief  and unwillingness of heart,           difference among men. Upon some He bestows His infinite
  for God, they say, wills their salvation, has provided a suffi-         and- everlasting love, and because of this particular love to
  cient atonement for them, and offers it freely to them. This            them,*or on the basis of it, He chooses tb deliver them from
  puts the ultimate cause  for their salvation or damnation               their sins and make them heir of eternal life, seeing to it in-
  squarely upon man rather than God. This is very pleasing                fallibly that they shall reach the goal which He has marked
  and satisfying to the  natm,al, unregenerate heart for the              out' for them. IJpon the rest He does not bestow this love.
  natural man loves to say in the words of the atheist Henley,            Instead of  choalsing  to deliver them from their sins, His
  `I am the master of my fate; I  ain the captain of my soul              eternal `decree is to harden them in their sins, and make them
           >,
  . . .                                                                   `vessels. unto dishonour' (Rom. 9 :21) , `vessels of wrath fitted
           Rev. Mackay has much  lmore to say about  the, fact of         to destruction' (:Rom.  9  :22). And, likewise, He sees to it
  perseverance which we will have to pass over in order to                infallibly that they shall fulfil the destiny- which He has,
  leave room for a few excerpt:3  of the material he gives us in          marked out for them. If you undertake to say this to your
  his second point : What Perxverance  Depends Upon. Under                man,. he will undoubtedly' blurt out that such an idea of God
  this heading he writes as follows :                                     is preposterous. He will say, `Who believes such nonsense
           "First and most important of all, it is ba.sed upon the iw.    nowadays ? ! If people believed that way once upon a time, -
 finite,  etwnal  and  unc(mngeable  love of God for His  elect           well, we are more enlightened and broad-minded. We believe
 people.* Now this love is anything but what the average per-             in a Gdd whose love is like the sunshine, rain and air, -be-
  son takes for the love of God. If you were to strike up  a.             stowed universally on all.' "
 convei-sation  with any man of ordinary inteiligence  on a drab             Rev. Mackay further develops the thought: Universal
 town street .or in a general store in a cduntry  village or at a         Love  Implies  Universal Salvation and Pa:rticular Love Im-
 crossroads, and ask him what he, thinks of when he hears of              plies Particular Salvation.  Concerning the former, he posits
 the love of God, he would say something like this : `Oh, God             two particular and outstanding cases from history to prove his
 loves everybody, everywhere, and makes no difference be- point. The two cases he refers to are, 1. John Wesley and
. tween one man and  the next one.  HiS love  is  everywhere,` the Methodist Church. 2. Princeton Seminary and  Cotimon
 like the air we breathe, and all we have to do is to i-ecognize          Grace. Concerning #the latter he writes : "Now Wesley ,was
 it and receive it.' Whethe:f your man lives in Cape `Race,. dead twenty five years before Princeton was founded. His-
 Newfoundland, or Snag in the Yukon, or anywhere b&&n, torically speaking, the n/Iethodist  Church turned to the rejec-
 you will get the same reply. Yes, he +ays, God's love is uni-            tion of hell and  belief  in (mode&tic) universal salvation
 versal, impartial, all-embracing. God yearns for all men to              fairly fast. But Princeton went faster from common grace in-
 receive Him and is grieved when they do not. And your `man               to Barthianism which is basically the same sdrt of human-
 will undoubtedly leave it at that unlesS  you ,continue  -the con-
                      .                                                   &c rejection of the truth as modernism."                   M.S.


