                    IIe



                           earer .r .

A  REFORMED  SEMI-MONTHLY  MAGAZINE                          '




                     Fortieth  Anniversary  Issue





                            Volume XLI/. Num bev 1/ October  1, 1964

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

                                                       CONTENTS                                                                                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
     Meditation  -                                                                                                                                          Semi-montly, except monthly during June, July and  August
            Anniversary  Remembrance  and Praise  ..,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
                   Prof.  H.  C.  Hoeksema                                                                                                                   Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association
                                                                                                                                                                            Editor - Rev. Herman Hoeksema
     Editorials  -
            In Retrospect  - Forty  Years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4                                  Communications relative to contents should be addressed to
                   Prof.  H.  C.  Hoeksema                                                                                                             Rev. H. Hoeksema, 1139 Franklin St., S.E., Grand Rapids 7,
            In Prospect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7        Mich.          Contributions  will be limited  to 300 words  and must be
                   Prof.   H.  C.  Hoeksema                                                                                                                                    neatly written or typewritten.
            Pages  From  The Past . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*....*. 8                                  All church news items should be addressed toMr.  J. M. Faber,
                                                                                                                                                                        1123 Cooper, SE., Grand Rapids 7, Mich.
     Contending  For The Faith *....*.............................*......... 10                                                                        Announcements and Obituaries with the $2.00 fee included must
            The Church  and the Sacraments
                   Rev.   H. Veldman                                                                                                                   be mailed 8 days prior to issue date, to the address below:
                                                                                                                                                            All matters relative to subscriptions should be addressed to
     In His Fear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12                  Mr. James Dykstra, 1326 W. Butler Ave., S.E.
            Selling  God's Love Short                                                                                                                                            Grand Rapids 7, Michigan
                   Rev.   J.  A.  Heys                                                                                                                       Renewal:   Unless a definite  request  for discontinuance  is
                                                                                                                                                       received  it  is  assumed   that  the  subscriber   wishes   the  sub-
     From Holy Writ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15             scription to continue without the formality of  a renewal order.
            Exposition  of Romans  5:12-X
                   Rev.   G.  Lubbers                                                                                                                                       Subscription price: $5.00 per year
                                                                                                                                                                Second Class postage paid at Grand Rapids, Michigan
     The Church  At Worship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17                         .
            vowsRev. G. Vanden  Berg                                                                                                                                    ATTENTION ALL OFFICE BEARERS

     A Cloud Of Witnesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . `19                          There will be an Office Bearers Conference held
            Samson's  Restoration and End                                                                                                              October 6, First Protestant Reformed Church at 8:00
                   Rev.   B.  Woudenberg                                                                                                               P.M.            All present and former Office Bearers and
     All Around Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21        Ministers are invited.
            The N.F.O.                                                                                                                                       Speaker for the evening will be Rev. H. Veldman,
                    Rev.   H. Hanko                                                                                                                    who will speak on the Topic: "The Calling of the Elders
     News From Our Churches  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23                              onFamily  Visitation."
            Mr.  J.  M. Faber                                                                                                                                                                        Jay Bomers, Sec'y.





                                                                                 ANNIVERSARY REMEMBRANCE AND PRAISE
                                                                                            Bless the  Lovd, 0 my soul, and forget not all
                                                                                            his benefits.                                                             Psalm  103:2

        0 my soul, forget not all His benefits1                                                                                                        Holy Scriptures and as proclaimed by the church, is
        Let not the occasion of this anniversary pass by and                                                                                           that flag which Thou hast unfurled for Thy people. In
fade into the irretrievable moments of history's oblivion                                                                                              Him Thou hast revealed Thyself as the mighty God of
without remembering and counting one by one all the                                                                                                    our salvation. In Him Thou hast made Thyself known
benefits of these forty years  I                                                                                                                       as our covenant God. In Him Thou hast in sovereign,
        And then, 0 my soul, bless the  Lord1                                                                                                          elective love revealed Thyself as the God Who con-
        A banner, a flag, a standard Thou hast given unto                                                                                              ceived of, Who establishes, and Who realizes Thy
Thy people, 0 Lord, unto them that fear Thee.                                                                                                          eternal covenant of friendship with Thy people through
        That standard is the standard of the truth and its                                                                                             the deep way of sin and grace. In Him Thou hast taken
revelation. Centrally, in all His Person and work, our                                                                                                 us up into that covenant of friendship, hast called us
Lord Jesus Christ is that ensign which Thou hast                                                                                                       with a holy calling, in order that in the midst of the
raised up, 0 Lord.                                            For He is  the  Truth. He in His                                                         world that lieth in darkness we should be to the praise
incarnation and suffering and atoning death; He in His                                                                                                 of Thy glorious grace, rallying `round that standard,
resurrection and exaltation at Thy right hand; He in                                                                                                   standing antithetically for the cause of Thy Son.
His reception and outpouring of the Spirit; He in His                                                                                                        0 my soul, never forget, but ever call to mind that
redemption and deliverance of the sheep which Thou                                                                                                     Benefit of all benefits, that Benefit in the light of which
gavest Him; He in His gathering of the elect church by                                                                                                 all the deeds and dealings of Thy God are benefits to
His Spirit and Word through the wonder-work of re-                                                                                                     thee-ward  1
generation, calling, faith, justification, sanctification,                                                                                                   And this, 0 my soul, is also a divine benefit, a high
preservation, and glorification; He in all His saving                                                                                                  privilege of His grace, that Thy God, Jehovah, has
significance,                          -He, as revealed infallibly in all the                                                                          given thee this flag, this standard,  to be displayed.  He


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                     3
has given it in order that those who fear Him might .know         of His cause, in order that in the pages of our Standavd
their covenant position and vocation in the midst of the         Beaver  the standard might be borne aloft. Bless the
world.    He has given it in order that His people might         Lord, 0 my soul, that He has given a Danhof, a  Hoek-
rise up, in the cause of His Son. He has given it, in            sema, an Ophoff, a Verhil, a Vos, and how many more,
order that rallying to the cause of His covenant, those           - some of them for all of these forty years that we
who fear Him might, as a battle host, fight a holy war-          remember,  - to be instrumental in the raising high of
fare against sin, the devil, and the world. He has given         the standard of the truth.
this banner in order that His people might display it                 Yet another benefit, 0 my soul, oughtest thou to
and plant it in every sphere of this  .world's life and          remember at this occasion!
thereby be distinguished as God's peculiar people. He                 Through all the years there has been band of faith-
has given this ensign, in order that, when they see it           ful men, willing to support, with time and labor and
displayed, those who with us fear His Name, beholding            funds, the work and the purpose of our magazine. Men
it held aloft, may follow in our company, the company            of God, a small but faithful and courageous Gideon's
of the militant-triumphant church.                               band, have been these men of the R.F.P.A., dedicated
   My soul, forget not this benefit!                             to the purpose that the flag of the Reformed truth, the
   Nor dare thou, O-my soul, forget this benefit,                truth of Scripture, might be borne far and wide through
namely, that in our magazine, even as its very name              the means of a free publication, unfettered by hierar-
denotes, God has provided a  beaver  of the standard, a          chical bonds.
means through which the flag of the truth, the colors                 Or consider this benefit, 0 soul, that through all
of the host of Jehovah, might be held aloft, boldly and          the years there have continued to be those who read
courageously, for all to see. The  Stm,aTavd  Beaver  our         and whose hearts rejoiced when through the agency of
God has given us now for forty years! Only a bearer              our  Standavd   Beaver  the ensign of the truth was dis-
of the flag of the truth is our magazine, but an im-             played, - fathers and mothers in Israel, with their
portant one. The means of the pen, of the printed page,          children.
it has been. By it the ensign of the truth in all its as-             Or ponder yet another benefit, soul of mine, that
pects, in all its facets, in all its dazzling colors, has        even in times of pain and trouble, of discouragement
been displayed. To friend and foe it has been displayed.         and weariness, of conflict and tribulation, of internal
In hundreds and thousands of homes our Bearer has                trouble and chastisement, of prosperity and "smooth
borne the Standard.      By means of page after page of          sailing," but also of poverty and depression so great
instruction and exposition, by thousands upon thousands          that it seemed at times that the  Standard Bearer  must
of words of warning and encouragement, by warlike                needs faint, it was our God, Jehovah, Who had given us
words of polemics against those who opposed and con-             the banner to be displayed, Who also continued to lead,
tradicted the truth, and by hopeful words of-encourage-          to provide, and to preserve.
ment to the battle-weary, the flag has been held high.               And, 0 my soul, if only thou dost pause to contem-
And always, - though admittedly in weakness and im-              plate, how many more benefits thou  canst call to mind
perfection,  - it was the same banner of the truth that          and recount I
was raised  aloft1    This also, 0 my soul, is a precious            Indeed, forget not all His benefits1
benefit of God to thee! Forget it  not1                              Remember  them1 Count them one by one  I Bring
   And this too, 0 my soul, is one of his benefits: that         them to mind this day, but also keep them constantly
always when the battle in the cause of God's truth was           before thee. Dwell upon them; ponder them; meditate
hottest, the bearer of the colors, the  Standard   Bearer,       upon them.
was in the forefront, to rally those that fear God to                 Bless the  Lord1
the battle.                                                          All those benefits, 0 soul, point very clearly to
   It was thus in the beginning, forty years ago, when           Him, Jehovah, the I Am, the everlasting, the unchange-
there were those who urged the church to make common             able, the faithful, the true, the glorious God. He, Who
cause with the world on the basis of a claimed "common           has no deeper source than His infinite Self, is the
grace" of God, those who tempted the armies of Jehovah           source of all these benefits. He, the I Am, Who is all
to follow two banners, that of the truth and of the lie,         that He is for His people, His chosenpossession, whom
that of antithesis and that of synthesis, that of the city       He will preserve and bless to all eternity in the com-
of God and that of the kingdom of this world.       It was       munion of His everlasting tabernacle, through His only
then, 0 my soul, that the Standard  Bearer  began to be          begotten Son, Jesus `Christ,  - He is the fountain of all
the bearer of God's flag of truth. And it has been thus          these blessings. They  allflowfromHim  to us in bound-
ever since, even as the battle is always raging. It was          less grace.
thus circa 1953 when the foe within the gates sought                 And they all have as their purpose that the soul
diligently to bring down the flag of the truth and to slay       shall return all thanks and praise to Him, Jehovah, the
the  Stutird Bearer.  It is thus even to this  day1              God of our salvation1
   Remember, and forget not, this benefit I                          Bless Jehovah, then, 0 my  soul1
   Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, for yet another benefit,               Kneel down before Him and praise  Him1 Such is
namely, that He has raised up His servants, has en-              the meaning of that term "bless" in this connection.
dowed them with knowledge and understanding of the                   Be very sure that you do not rejoice in the benefits
Scriptures, has bestowed on them the gift of writing,            themselves, in mere things, not even in the mere
has given them faithfulness and diligence and the love           abundance of good things that He has bestowed on our


4                                            T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
magazine.     Be certain that you do not merely joy in            thanksgiving of Him can only issue forth from the
the opportunities, in the abilities, in the works, and in         blessed consciousness that we are the recipients of
the fruits and results upon the labors represented in             and the objects of pure, sovereign grace. It presup-
our Stundavd  Beaver.  Above all, do not boast in self            poses a soul that can confess, "All that I am I owe to
and in thine own efforts, -not even partially. For the            Thee."
remembrance of self and the boasting of our own ac-                    When thus the soul kneels down in humble confes-
complishments and the blessing of Jehovah's holy                  sion of one's own shame and unworthiness, then, and
Name are absolutely incompatible. The latter excludes             then only, is it prepared to break forth and address
completely the former; and the former is an abomina-              the glorious Lord, extol His virtues, recount all His
tion in the sight of Him Whom our souls should bless.             benefits, tell all His wonderful works, adore Him and
     To bless Him implies, in the first place, humility.          declare that He is good.
It means that the soul comes before Him bowed down                     Bless the Lord, 0 my  soul1
in humiliation. For praise and thanksgiving in the true                Forget none of His benefits!
sense of the word can arise only out of the keen con-                  0 my soul. . . . . .
sciousness of our own utter insignificance. They can                   Soul that art indeed inclined to forget, inclined to
proceed solely from the awareness that we arenothing,             take things for granted, inclined to boast in self and in
and that He, Jehovah, is all. To bless Him implies that           thine own wonderful works:            Remember1 And then
we are mindful that He is the fountain and source of all          bless the  Lord1
goodness, and that we must always be filled at that                    Let thy thanksgiving be personal. . . . . .
fountain.    To praise and adore Him presupposes the                   Let it proceed from the inner recesses of thy life,
clear knowledge and forthright acknowledgement that               too. For all empty form and vain show is abominable
we can always and only receive from Him, that we                  before Him.
have nothing that we have not received, and that we                    Stop and consider I Contemplate and remember I
can never do anything for or bring anything to Him.                    Kneel down in humiliation -and contrition on account
Moreover, the praise of Him can only arise out of the             of thy frequent lukewarmness, thy slowness to count
painfully humiliating  &onsciousness  of our own utter            all the Lord's benefits, thy slothfulness to be warm and
unworthiness, due to the fact that we are by nature               zealous in the cause of the Lord.
children of wrath, and due to the fact that even as                    And then awake, 0 my soul, to the praise, -the
imperfect children of God we still defile our way                 conscious, willing, loving, fervent, ardent praise,  - of
thousands of times, have forfeited and do by our sins             thy Benefactor I
still daily forfeit all His benefits.     The praise and                                                                H.C.H.





                                         IN RETROSPECT-FORTY YEARS

     Anniversaries are occasions to pause and to look             of years gone by. And who, especially among those who
back.    And this fortieth anniversary of our  Standard           can still appreciate the Dutch language, does not
Beaver  is no different; we too wish to pause and take            enjoy "digging back" into the earlier  .volumes  of our
a backward look at the forty years of the life's history          magazine?           To this latter class,  - if I may be per-
of our magazine.      Such a backward look, however,              sonal for a moment, - I belong, for I am only a year
should serve a better purpose than that of merely                 and a half older than our Standard  Bearer.  And how
indulging in fond memories.       I have no doubt that            often, when doing some research on a certain subject
many such memories,  - memories of glorious times                 or text in an earlier volume, I have been sidetracked
in the history `of our churches,  - might be recalled             by some eye-catching title into reading up on some
at this occasion.    Some of us, who perhaps had a part           subject altogether unrelated to the one I originally
in the organization of the Reformed Free Publishing               intended to look up.
Association or who have been readers of the  Stundavd                  Both interesting and instructive such reminiscing
Beaver from the beginning, some who have lived through            can be.       Just try it some time. Many a chuckle can
entire history of our churches, can reminisce at an               be aroused, or many a tear of sympathy. Not infre-
occasion like this from actual experience.       Others,          quently a feeling of righteous indignation can be stimu-
the fortunate possessors of all the forty volumes of              lated when one relives in print the struggles against
our magazine, cannot relive in their minds and hearts             injustices committed or lies and slanderous tales
the experiences of the past perhaps; but by paging                spread abroad. Not difficult is it to be overwhelmed
through the literally thousands of pages of those forty           with triumphant joy and filled with courage to face the
volumes they can in their souls "live along" with                 future when one reads of glorious victories in the
their parents and grandparents in their experiences               cause of the truth or witnesses the valiant efforts


                                                   T H E   STANDAR,D   B E A R E R                                                5
                                                                           .-
 of our leaders to vindicate the Reformed faith over                 and W. Verhil (deceased), then,  of. course, not yet
 against its deniers and detractors and calumniators.                ministers, were members of the  publicatiqn  committee
 And how many thousands of words of thorough-going                   at that time. And in this brochure, written by Revs.
 exposition of Scripture, of clear and uncompromising                Danhof and Hoeksema, the last chapter is entitled "Our
 delineation of a Reformed world-and-life view, of soundly           Plan To Publish A Monthly Paper." In this chapter
practical instruction; of admonition, of comfort, of                the authors not only make known the plan to go ahead
warning, of encouragement one can find by opening                   with the publishing of a periodical, but they set forth
these volumes. Even such reminiscing is not necessarily             the nature and purpose of the planned periodical. Space
 idle, but can be immensely profitable.                             does not permit me to quote the entire article, but I
     Nevertheless, our look backward must serve a better            will translate a few passages in order to show what
purpose.                                                            the original aims of the  Stundavd  Beaver were.
     That purpose should be, in the first place, to take                Quite in general it is stated that the magazine "will
 stock.      We should look back to the very beginning of           be devoted to the development of the truths of Holy
 our  Standuvd   Beavev,   examine its origin, its initial          Writ according to the requirements of the present day
claim, its purpose  ,and aim, in order to judge whether             circumstances of our people in this country, and in a
 and in how far our magazine has been true to its                   manner adapted to duly developed, vitally interested
claim and purpose down through the years. Moreover,                 members of our Reformed churches... . .  .Still less will
 in the light of this judgment we must determine                    we direct ourselves to a very few, or to a definite
whether our course is in need of correction or not;                 group; nor will merely limit ourselves to the treat-
 and, if not, then we must determine, if our course is              ment of the subject of common grace as such.
 a true one, to progress along that same course.                         "That last is just exactly not our  .purpose.  On the
     In the second place, the purpose of this anniversary           contrary, we are concerned to instruct and to help the
 stock-taking, this inventory, should be  a,rededication            Reformed child of God in the living of a full, deep,  all-
to that original purpose, and that too, on the part                  sided Christian life for his Lord, in every relation, on
of editors, publishing association; and readers.                     every plane,.and in every sphere. But because we fear
     Let us, then, with that purpose in mind look back.             rhe dividing up of the ever organically coherent life (of
                                                                    man) into fixed territories, as not only takes place on
The Beginning                                                       the standpoint of common grace, but, if one is consis-
                                                                    tent, as must happen with compelling necessity, there-
     It` has sometimes been said that the  Standard                 fore we have in the past pointed to the danger that
Begrev   is the paper of the Protestant Reformed                    therein threatens for God's people, and shall, of
Churches.          If the latter term is  .used  loosely in the     course, continue to do so in the future.. . . . . Both theoret-
s e n s e   o f    "Protestant Reformed people," then               ically and practically, according to our conviction, the
this statement is correct, generally speaking. For                  doctrine of common grace must necessarily lead to
there is no denying that our  Standard  Beaver is of, by,           world-conformity."
and for Protestant Reformed people.               But strictly          Prophetic words, are they not?
speaking, the statement is incorrect on two counts.                     Or listen to this: "We. shall let Scripture speak.
`In the first place, our magazine is not ecclesiastically           To it we must be bound by the  Holy,Spirit. It does not
bound, but is  free.         It is neither published nor con-       befit us to engage in philosophical reasonings about it,
trolled by a church organization, but by the Reformed               however apparently neutral and learned, but fitting  .is
Free Publishing Association. In the second place, the               the subjection of heart and mind to its judgment. God's
statement is historically incorrect: for the  Stm,&wd               Word must instruct us concerning God, ourselves, and
Beaver is older than the Protestant Reformed Churches.              the world of creatures around us. Outside of it we
The Protestant Reformed Churches were not organized                 have no source from which to obtain knowledge..... .
on the basis of the  Act  of  Agreement as Protesting               Man as God's image-bearer, as God's king under Him
Christian Reformed Churches until March, 1925; but                  over creation, and as God's friend and ally, had to know
the first issue of the  Standard   Beaver  was dated on             God's will, had to know all that God according to His
October 1, 1924. In fact, there is no doubt about it that           sovereign purpose thought to do with and with a view
the publication of the Stundavd Beaver contributed inno             to, as well as through, the world of His creatures.
little way to the events that were climaxed by the oust-            God's friend had to know what his Friend did.
ing of the ministers Danhof, Hoeksema, and Ophoff                       "With this glorious covenant idea we hope to spend
and their con&tories  in late 1924 and early 1925.                  considerable time in the future.....  .Thus we arrive at
    Older even than the  Stmdavd Beaver,  however, is               the antithetical line.. . . . . ."
the Reformed Free Publishing Association, which was                     Or, to quote no more:             "Scripture must teach us.
organized originally to undertake and support the                   In it God must speak to us. According to it must be our
publishing of the writings of Revs. H. Danhof and H.                world-and-life view.           It must teach us concerning sin
Hoeksema.          Two brochures, entitled  "Langs Zuivere          and grace, curse and blessing, reprobation and election,
Banen  (Along Pure Paths)" and "Om Recht en Waarheid                doom and bliss . . . . ..."
(For the Sake of Justice and Truth)" had been published                 And the authors pledge themselves not only to write
by the R. F. P. A. before our magazine made its ap-                 defensively, nor merely to engage in negative criticism,
pearance. The latter of these brochures was published               but to be positive and constructive.
shortly before the Synod of 1924. The Revs. G. Vos                      I have reproduced only a few snatches of this


        6                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   -BEARER                       -
        chapter in which the original plan and purpose of our            Reformed faith.
        magazine were set forth; but these are enough, I am                   A survey of the forty volumes of our  Stan&d
        sure, to indicate clearly what the character of our              Be&rev,  I believe, will bear out my claims.
        Standard  Beaver was intended to be.                                  First of all, our magazine has. covered an amazingly
_ --         And so, on October 1, 1924, the  Standard   Beamy           broad range of subjects of interest to the Reformed
        made its first journey into the world. Needless to  sayI         believer. Doctrine, exposition of Scripture, defense of
        it made an impact.                                               the Reformed truth and exposure of error,  - these
                                                                         have abounded in our periodical. And there is a verit-
        Forty  Yeavs'  H%ovy                                             able gold mine of material available in the forty volumes
                           -.                                            completed.         But besides the above, there is scarcely a
             To recount all the history of the  Stand&d  Beaver's        subject left untreated, nor an aspect  .of either the faith
        forty. years is neither possible nor necessary here.             or. the life of God's people on which the Standard  Beavev
        Our purpose is to get the over-all picture of those              has not expressed itself and given sound leadership
        forty years and to evaluate them.                                and instruction. Church government, `church history,
             In retrospect, certainly one of the first impres-           history of doctrine, the confessions, Christian educa-
        sions one receives is that of change. Time always                tion, social and economic affairs, politics, practical
        brings with it change, and our magazine has been no              problems of morals and life, the decisions and affairs  '
        exception. Many changes have there been. One change              of other churches in the Reformed community and-of
        which immediately comes to mind is the change of                 the church at large, both here and abroad,  - all these
        personnel in our editorial staff. Today, of the original         have come in for their share of attention, some more
        and early staff members our editor-in-chief is  theonly          and some less.
        one left; and we look forward to the time when, the                   In the second place, true to its announced intention,
        Lord willing, he will return to the columns of our               our magazine, though in the nature of the case it has
        magazine.      Some became renegade to the cause at an           often been necessary to be critical  and.polemical (for
        early date.     The Rev. G. M. Ophoff was at an early            we are in the church militant), has by no means been
        date co-editor of our paper; and what a tenacious and            exclusively negative.         On the contrary, the  Standavd
        valiant battler for the truth he  was1  But the Lord has         Bearer   has served well in the positive development
        promoted him to glory. The Reverends G. Vos and W.               and enrichment of the Reformed viewpoint. Where will
        Verhil were from the outset staunch supporters of and            you find the doctrine of the covenant or the  do.ctrine
        laborers for the R.F. P. A.; and not long after our              of sovereign predestination and sovereign  .,grace,  .for
        churches were established these two brethren became              example, so richly, so thoroughly, and so consistently
        regular contributors. to our paper. The latter of them           maintained and developed as in the pages of our period- _, ._
        passed away before half of these forty years were                ical?      Where will  yoy, find such a wealth of sound
        completed, so that not a few of our younger readers              exegetical material as in these forty volumes7 Where
        will not even remember him. The former has only                  will you find a magazine which so unflinchingly de-
        recently said frVaZe!`f  to our readers, after many              fended and set forth the Reformed position with regard
        years of faithfully contributing to various departments          to the multitude of problems which always face the
        in his own, unique style. Many will remember him                 churches of the Reformed community?
        especially for his writings on the Psalms. And who                   In the third place, the  Standard  Bearer   has con-
        can forget that little more than ten years ago a large           sistently,  - and successfully,  - attempted to let the
        number of our ministers, most of whom had at one time            light of Holy Scripture fall on every subject treated
        or another written for our magazine, faltered in battle          and every problem analysed and every solution offered.
        and faithlessly deserted the flag of the truth?                  And this was the original purpose of this paper: "We
             Other changes there have been. There was the                shall let Scripture speak.. . . ..God's Word must instruct
        gradual, but inevitable change in language , from a              us concerning God, ourselves, and the world of
        predominant use of the Holland language in our early             creatures around us."
        history to the complete elimination of the Holland in                In the fourth place, although our  S@ndavd   Beaver
        more recent years. There have been changes in for-               has never hesitated to delve deeply into the truth, has
        mat, in the division into rubrics, in the assignment of          not hesitated. in a day of doctrinal indifference to be
        subjects.                                                        doctrinally orientated, nevertheless' our magazine has
             But, in the second place, in spite of whatever              not been an abstruse theological journal.  Ithas spoken,
        changes have come with the passing of the years, one             - and such was its original purpose, - out of a concern
        fact stands out: the  Stunduvd  Beaver  has not changed          "to instruct and to help the Reformed child of God in
        essentially, but has been faithful  .to its original pur-        the living of a full, deep; all-sided Christian life for
        pose. Friend and foe will admit this.                            his Lord, in every relation, on every plane, and in
             No, the editors will be the first to admit that their       every sphere."
        work has not been perfect by any means. But with our
        limited talents and abilities, with our sins and weak-           C o n c l u s i o n   :
        nesses, under the pressures, not infrequently, of a
        crowded schedule, and under the strain sometimes of                  What, now, must the end of this be?.
        disappointment and discouragement, our striving has                  Shall we boast, that is, of self and of our own work?
        been to wield sanctified pens in the service of the             God forbid  1


                                                T H E   S T A N 'D A R D   B E A R E R                                        7
    In the first place, let us with humble hearts,  -                effectively and in greater outreach a witness for the
`editors, publishing- society; and readers,  - give the              Reformed faith. in our time. This writer is convinced
thanks and all the praise to our covenant God. It is all             that especially in our times,  - times of turmoil and
of Him; and we have nothing whereof to boast, except                 crisis in the Reformed community,  - we have a solemn
our boast be in Him.                                                 duty to let our testimony be heard to the utmost of our
    In the second place, let us be appreciative of our                ability.      To achieve that. purpose we need a greater
heritage as it has been preserved and enriched for us                outreach, more dedicated efforts,  land  even more
by our  Standard  Beaver.  .And by appreciative I mean               generous support than we have had heretofore.
not a mere empty sentiment of appreciation, but an                        Finally, let our editors,  - all of them,  - pledge
esteem of such a kind that it moves us to be better and              themselves with renewed consecration and courage and
more thorough readers of our magazine, moves us to                   vigor to devote their very best efforts toward continuing
be more loyal and dedicated and generous supporters                  to make the contents of our magazine conform to its
of it, moves us to instill in our children that same                 original purpose.
inclination to appreciate, to be instructed by, and to
support this magazine.                                                    The time is certainly short. The night  cometh, in
    In the third place, even as so often in the past our             the which no man can work. Let us labor while it is
Standard   Beaver  has been of such great service in                 dayl
bearing the flag of the truth outside our immediate                       And may the Lord our God bless our labors.
Protestant Reformed circles, so let it become more                                                                      H.C .H.





                                                       IN PROSPECT

   It is but natural at the occasion of an anniversary               contribute to improvement and greater attractiveness.
tolookforward as well as backward. It is not my inten-               As noted previously, the Rev.  M.  Schipper  is returning
tion at this time to attempt a long look into the future,            to the ranks of contributors,  - in the Meditation de-
although that can very well be  .done without claiming               partment. The Rev. J. Kortering has also consented
to be clairvoyant.                                                   to contribute seven meditations in Volume 41. The             -
   The forward look of this `editorial has the pur-                  Rev. C. Hanko will conduct a regular rubric on
pose only to inform you of some of the planned changes               Mission Principles and Practice under "The Lord
in the format and content of our Standard Beaver for the             Gave the Word...!' This department was begun on a
coming volume-year.                                                  temporary basis last  year.~ The Rev. R.C.  HaYbach'-
   First of all, as to format, you will- notice that                 is joining the ranks of writers with a rubric on "Sects
with this issue some changes have been introduced.                   and  Isms" which will appear under the heading "Try-
The editorial staff decided at its June meeting to                   ing the Spirits."        And the Rev. G. Van  Baren, who
introduce some of these changes, namely, the new                     contributed several informative articles on the Vati-
cover page and the new style of department heads.                    can Council in Volume 40, will furnish us more
From now on all articles will also run in parallel                   material on that subject and on the general area of
columns and will not be continued on other pages.                    the ecumenical movement. His contributions will appear
The staff felt that these changes would make our paper               under the heading,  ."Examining  Ecumenicalism." Thus
more attractive in appearance.         The Board of the              we hope to introduce greater variety in our columns.
R.F.P.A. has also instituted some changes. In this                        By this time you are probably wondering how all
issue we have changed over to off-set printing, to a                 these departments will fit into one,  Standard  Bearev.
type of paper with less sheen (and, hopefully, more                  The answer is that not every rubric will appear in
readability), and to a slightly smaller size of paper,               every issue.         Our plan is to have the departments
which necessitated smaller margins.        Possibly the              Meditation,  EditorWs,   and Our  Doctrine-  appear every
last mentioned change is only temporary. The pur-                    time; the other departments will appear fourteen or
pose of the Board was partly to reduce, or at least                  fifteen times per year.
hold the line on, costs of printing, and thus to fore-                    We hope you will enjoy the changes. Needless to
stall an increase in the subscription price.                         say, the staff welcomes comments and constructive
   In the second place, the present volume willwitness               criticism.
some changes in content which the staff feels will                                                                      H.C.H.

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





                                                 PAGES FROM THE PAST

                                    The committee of the Editorial Staff that was appoint-
                                  ed to prepare the the anniversary issue of our  ,%uandard
                                  Beaver  thought it would be interesting to present some
                                  significant quotations from past volumes of the  Standard
                                  Bearer.  To make a significant quotation from an
                                  article apart from the context in which it is found is
                                  rather difficult. Moreover, space will not `permit
                                  making such quotations from all forty volumes. The
                                  citations below were taken from the first ten volumes.
                                  They are not all significant for the same reason.
                                  But I do believe that they  all will show that the  Standard
                                  Bearer  in its early volumes lived up to its initial
                                  claims. They will also show that the fundamental note
                                  of our  Stundavd  Bearer  is the same now as it was in
                                  yesteryear. Those who possess the bound volumes
                                  might find it interesting to spend an evening looking up
                                  and reading the articles from which these quotations
                                  were taken.
                                                                                             H.C.H.

     "And thus it happens that I, the undersigned, am of the           It is living and most intimate fellowship between God and man.
group editing this periodical. The fact that I agree to serve          It is the relation of friendship in which God makes Himself
upon the editorial staff of the `Standard Bearer' amounts to           known to man, reveals to him His secrets, walks with him and
an admission on my part that I too reject the views and                talks with him, eats and drinks with him, loves him and blesses
conception of things which the term common grace stands                him with His own favor which is better than life, and places
for. For me it is quite impossible to adhere to the principles         him as His party in the midst of the world. And on the other
embedded in the term common grace and remain on friendly               hand, in that covenant-relation man knows his God with that
terms with Scripture. . . .                                            knowledge which is eternal life, loves and adores Him, dwells
     "I, as a reformed preacher, cannot and will not preach            in His presence and inquires in His temple to behold the beauty
total depravity and in the next breath assure my hearers that          of the Lord, is His friend-servant, His party in the world,
the depraved sinner, in his depraved state, performs noble             His prophet over against the false prophet, His priest over
deeds, has pure emotions and thinks good thoughts. God's               against the false priest, His king over against the Prince of
Word unclothes- the sinner, strips him of every virtue and             this world and his power. That is God's covenant with his
sends him naked to Christ. God forbid that I stop that sinner          people in the world. And essentially it is always the same. . . . "
on the way to clothe him in the beautiful garments of common                                        Rev. H. Hoeksema, Vol. II, p. 42
grace. I should fear lest that sinner would no longer feel
the need of Christ."                                                       "It is evident that this was not a matter of grace, neither
                   Rev. G.M. Ophoff, Vol. I, No.  3,  pp.21-22         was there any restraint upon the development of sin imposed
                                                                       by the confusion of tongues. Only the race was forced into new
     I`. . . All these may be phases of the covenant-relation,         channels of development, and these same organic lines of
the covenant itself is always more than any one phase of it.           development sin would needs follow in the future. This


                                                    TH'E  S T A N D A R D .   B E A R E R                                                  9
development is such, that a premature unity and  world-                      "For the doctrine of vicarious atonement implied that
kingdom is prevented for the time being. The power of  anti-             Christ took the guilt of those, for whom He atoned, upon,
Christendom that is in the world cannot realize its needed               Himself, and by His blood paid for the debt of their sin before
unity  and establish its great and universal kingdom.  Hence-            God.
forward the sinful world shall be a kingdom divided against                  "It follows that the sins of those for whom Christ atoned
itself, For as each nation separately strives to attain the              are blotted out forever. Their guilt is removed. Their debt
purpose that could not be attained in Shinar's valley, nation            is paid. This blotting out of their sins, this payment of their
rises against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there              debt, does not take place the moment they believe, but did
are wars and rumors of war. And as long as. this separation and          take place on Calvary, once for all. Neither does this payment
division and conflict continues the kingdom of Antichrist cannot         of the debt of those for whom Christ died depend on their
come and the man of sin cannot reveal himself in all his power,          faith or unbelief. Faith is no condition for the forgiveness
In the meantime this development:. of the race in different              of sins, though the latter cannot be possessed or enjoyed
nations along organic lines, as it is today, serves God's pur-           without the former. The atonement of Christ is an objective
pose with regard to the realization of His church andcovenant.           fact, and its effectiveness depends solely upon the question:
For out of every nation and tribe and tongue He gathers His              Whom did `Christ represent on the cross? For whom did He
church, and the elect are combined into one great body of                die?
Christ Jesus. The diversity of nations and tongues must,,                    "Now, either Christ died for  all, or He died for the elect,
of course, serve the riches of the body of Christ. . . . . .  "          as regards God's purpose and Christ's intention."
                           Rev. H. Hoeksema, Vol. III,  p. 342                                        Rev. H.  Hgeksema,  Vol. VI,  p. 12

   "Young men! thus Scripture says, you are strong! You                      "It is noteworthy that Rebekah remained Isaac's only
have overcome the evil onel                                              love. So completely did she seem to have filled his life, so
   "That means that the world is no theatre and no play-                 large a place did she secure for herself in his heart that in
ground, but a battlefield, and that we have our fight not against        that life and heart of his there was room for no other. It
flesh and blood but against principalities and powers,                   shows that what the Lord joins together is so perfectly and
against the spiritual wickedness in high places. That means,             completely united that no points of contact remain for other
not that you are strong in body and have a well-developed                and new connections. Contract a marriage that meets with the
muscle. That is very good. I like to see a young man that is             approval of Heaven, and you join yourself to a mate the Lord
also in the physical sense of the word strong. But it is not             prepared for you with your every need before His eye. How
the main thing. Physical exercise is for that reason worth               stupendously foolish then to pass Him by when you set out
but little. It can have but a small place in our lives. It does          in quest for a mate. . . . . .He has given you a sign whose
not prepare you for the main battle. You cannot fight the devil          speech, if to it your ears are attuned, will enable you to
with your powerful fist. But it means that you are strong in             make the proper selection. It is the sign of godliness and
spirit. It signifies that the fear of God is in your hearts, that        true Christian piety. . . . . "
the love of God is poured forth in your souls, that your minds                                  Rev. G. M. Ophoff, Vol. VII, pp. 36-37
are enlightened by the grace of God, that you are well founded
in the truth, in the  p.rinciples of the Word of God, that you               "In the midst of and in distinction from the evil world that
understand the world in which you live and  are'well able to             lieth in darkness and is perverse in all its ways because of
discern between the powers of darkness and the light in Christ,          sin, it is the calling of the people of God to live by grace
that you have put on the whole armor of God and are able to              from the principle of regeneration according to the will of
stand in the evil hay.                                                   God in every sphere of life, individual, family, social,  indus-
   "Young women, you must adorn the truth1  It is your calling           rial, p
in the light of the Word of God, not to follow after the vain            trial, political and ecclesiastical, so that they may be children
fashions of the world, to become transformed according to the            of light in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.
manifestation and form of this world, but to be an example of            Hence, they insist that all education, that must prepare their
true Christian modesty and beauty and  virtuel"                          children for such an all-sided Christian walk in the world,
             Rev. H. Hoeksema, Vol. IV, p. 245                           shall be adapted to this purpose."
   "The Church of Jesus Christ in the world is such a                                        Rev. H. Hoeksema, Vol. VIII, pp. 488-489
camp in the midst of an hostile land, or, if you please, a
walled city, surrounded by the hosts of the foes of God and                  "Finally, I want to say yet that earthquakes proclaim to us
His Christ. The city consists of the living members of the               antithetically that there is an immoveable kingdom coming.
body of Christ, or those, that have been called out of darkness          You may be certain that in the New Jerusalem there will
into the marvelous light of God, in order that they might be a           never be an earthquake. For it is the city that hath foundations.
royal priesthood, an elect race' a peculiar possession unto              And then men attempt to make buildings that, are  `quake-
God, and their calling it is to shew forth the praises of Him            proof.' He that sitteth in the heavens shall  laugh1   `Quake-
that called them and gave them a place in the Kingdom of                 proof.' If it were not so dreadful, one would want to laugh
His dear Son. And in that living city every heart of every               about it. Before God nothing stands. The ungodly cry: `The
citizen is a gate, a possible avenue.,of  approach through which         great day of His wrath is come and who shaI1 be able to stand?' "
the foe might enter the city and destroy it. And the foe is                                  Rev. G. Vos, Vol. IX, p. 332 (translated)
always watching, is constantly on the alert, to make his
attack at a point that is not sufficiently guarded, that is                  "The fear of the Lord is the sole thing that counts!
left unprotected and defenseless for a moment, in order                      "For His mercy is not-upon-all. The mercy of the Lord is
that he may enter and destroy and devour the citizens."                  not general. It is very  -particular.  It is upon them only that
                            Rev. H. Hoeksema, Vol. V, p. 361             fear His name1
                                                                             "Not, indeed, as if His mercy were upon them, because
   "If atonement is really atonement, its purpose and intent             they fear Him, for quite the contrary is true. It is not our fear
must needs ba co-extensive with its application.                         of His name that evokes His mercy, but it is His everlasting
   "If the  etkQ  iveness of atonement depends upon our choice,          mercy that is first and that is the everlasting cause that we
or even upon the faith of those that are saved, it cannot                may fear Him."
properly be called atonement.                                                                        Rev. H. Hoeksema, Vol. X, p. 171

                                                           I

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





                               T H E   C H U R C H   A N D   T H E   S A C R A M E N T S

                                      THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION

                             VIEWS ON THE SACRAMENTS (LORD'S SUPPER)

                                              THE REFORMED VIEW

      Finally, the sacrament seals the promise of the              versy in the Christian Reformed Church. The teach-
gospel and the truth that righteousness is  byfaith. The           ing and position of Prof. Dekker that Christ died for
sacraments and faith belong inseparably together. How              all men, head for head, must follow from the position
must this expression be understood? That the sacra-                that God loves all men, wishes to save all men, and
ment seals this righteousness by faith is objectively              offers salvation to all the hearers of the gospel. And
true. The sacrament itself is a seal of this. This is              is it not an amazing phenomenon that the Christian
not difficult to understand. Fact is, the sacraments               Reformed Synod of 1964 has placed this matter (the
(also applicable to the sacrament of baptism) speak of             teaching of Prof. .Dekker)  into the hands of a committee
two fundamental truths: man's utter hopelessness and               to report at some future synod? Was not the matter of
the fulness of all our salvation in our Lord Jesus                 the scope of the death of Christ settled at the Synod of
Christ. This is plain, is it not'? We are conceived and            Dordrecht of- 1618-16197 Did not that synod declare
born dead in sins and in trespasses. Christ alone is               that Christ died only for the elect?. And now this matter
the Bread and the Water of Life. The sacraments                    is placed in the hands- of a committee? This. surely
themselves seal to us the promise of the gospel as                 means, does it not, that the question of .the scope of
fulfilled in Christ. They speak of our sin and guilt, of           the death of Christ must still be settled in the Chris-
our utter inability to do ought in our own behalf; they            tian Reformed Church, and that that church now en-
speak, do they not, of the water as symbol of the blood            tertains the possibility that Christ did  die.for all men.
of Christ, of the broken bread and poured wine as                  And, in the meantime, Prof. Dekker continues to teach
Christ's broken body and shed blood.          Hence, the           his `heretical views in the seminary of  the. Christian
sacraments themselves pledge and seal the gospel; they             Reformed Church.         The fact that he is permitted to
are `God's signs and seals, bestowed upon His church               teach in the seminary surely means that his Arminian
and God's pledge to us, lost sinners, that the sacrifice           view of unlimited atonement is being condoned in that
of Christ belongs to us, that He is our righteousness             ,church.       But, we. repeat the question: do the sacra-
and justification forever. So, the sacraments are seals            ments seal and pledge to everybody that the Lord loves
of the righteousness which is by faith. Fact is, we are            him, promises  to. save him, if only he believe? And
lost in sins and misery; and in Christ is all our salva-           the answer is: Of course not! And this for the simple
tion. Hence, this righteousness must be a righteous-               reason that they are signs and seals of the one sacri-
ness which is ours only by faith, because we are one               fice of Christ, and Christ did not die for all men, but
plant with Christ, united with Him, belong to Him, as              only for the elect. But they are seals only for the be-
members of a body belong to its head.                              lievers.       And the believers, we understand, are the
      However, that the sacraments seal the righteous-             elect. . And the believers are only the elect, not be-
ness which is by faith is also true subjectively. How              cause their election is based upon their faith, but be-
does this seal become this seal for us, operate as such            cause their faith is dependent upon their election; and
in  US ? Do they seal (as, for example, in baptism) and            the Lord gives faith, sovereignly, only to those whom
pledge to everybody that God loves him, promises to                He has known and loved from before the foundation of
save him, if only he believe? This, we know, is the                the world. This is clearly set forth'in the Scriptures
Liberated view of the covenant and of the promise  .of             and also in- our confessions, which teach that the Lord
the gospel which is set forth in the sacraments. They              does not `will to give faith to anyone whom He has not
believe that the sacrament of baptism is a seal of the             elected from before the foundations. of the world, That
Lord upon and for every child that is baptized, sealing            way of faith is the only way we receive this assurance.
unto that child that the Lord loves it, is desirous to             That is the only way we can receive it from God. Fact
save it, but that his salvation is dependent upon faith            is, when the Lord gives us this assurance He cannot
This conception of- the promise of the sacrament has               deny Himself, must give it to us in harmony with His
also been taught in the seminary of the Christian Re-              own justice and righteousness, as realized for us in
formed Churches       for several years; and it is also            Christ Jesus.       And so God gives us faith, unites us
embodied in the Three Points of 1924, particularly in              with Christ, and causes us  tp see our salvation as
Point One.    And this conception has reached its ulti-            realized in Christ Jesus.. And, in this way the divine
mate and certain fruit in the recent Dekker contro-                line of our salvation is surely complete:. we are saved


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   .BEARER                                            1.1

by grace and justified only for Christ's sake; God is             Again, `these things write I unto thee,' says the Apostle
merciful to us, sinners, not because of anything in us,           to Timothy, `that thou mayest know how thou oughtest
but only because of His sovereign love  inChrist  Jesus.          to behave thyself in the house of God,' etc. (I Tim. 3:
In that love He knew me before I knew Him, redeemed               14, 15').         Again, the self-same Apostle to the  Thes-
me while I was yet a sinner, and I know that He will              salonians: `When,' says he, `ye received the word of
save me to the uttermost. And the sacraments are                  us, ye received not the word of men, but as it was
signs and seals, not of a universal and changeable,               indee'd,  the Word of God,' etc. (I Thess.  2:13). For
conditional love of God, but of a particular, uncondi-            the Lord himself has said in the Gospel, `It is not ye
tional and unchangeable love of God in Jesus Christ,              that speak, but the Spirit of my Father speaketh in
our Lord.                                                         you; ' therefore `he that heareth you, heareth me; and
                                                                  he that despiseth you, despiseth me' (Matt.  10:20;
         THE CANON OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURE                        Luke  10:16; John 13:20)."
                                                                      In the Gallican Confession we have the following
    Having concluded our series of articles on the                expression relative this truth:
Church and the Sacraments, we will now, the Lord                      "II. As such this God reveals himself to men;
willing, proceed to discuss the history of several as-            firstly, in his works, in their creation, as well as in
pects of the doctrine of Holy Writ in the development             their preservation and control. Secondly, and more
and realization of God's covenant throughout the ages.            clearly, in his Word, which was in the beginning
This, we understand, is a tremendously broad field.               revealed through oracles, and which was afterward
And it is and should be a subject of tremendous interest          committed to writing in the books which we call the
for the church of God to follow the historical develop-           Holy Scriptures.
ment of all these doctrines of the Word of God.                       "III. These Holy Scriptures are comprised in the
However, before we call attention to these several                canonical books of the Old and New Testaments, as
doctrines, we would first of all call attention to                follows: the five books of Moses, namely: Genesis,
the canon of the sacred scriptures and the truth of               Exodus,      Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; then
divine inspiration which gave us the infallible Word              Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the first and second books of
of God. First, then, we call attention to the  C&on.              Samuel, the first and second books of the  I<ings, the
of  the Sawed  Scviptuves.                                       first -and second books of the Chronicles, otherwise
    All protestants agree in teaching that the Word               called Paralipomenon, the first book of Ezra; then
of God, as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and             Nehemiah, the book of Esther, Job, and Psalms of
New Testaments, is the only infallible rule of faith and          David, the Proverbs or Maxims of Solomon; the
life. Rome contends that tradition is equal in authority         book of Ecclesiastes, called the Preacher, the Song
to the inspired Word of- God, but we maintain that the            of Solomon; then the book of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamen-
Scriptures alone are the infallible rule of faith and             tations of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel,  Hosea,  Joel,
life.      In the Smalcald- Articles, Part  II, 2,  15, the       Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zepha-
Lutheran Church declares itself in favor of the truth            niah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi; then the Holy Gos-
that the Scriptures are the Word of God.                         pel according to St. Matthew, according to St. Mark,
    The symbols of the Reformed Churches teach the                according to St. Luke, and according to St. John;
same doctrine, that the Word of God, as contained in             then the second book of St. Luke, otherwise called
the Old and New Testaments, are the one -and only                the -Acts of the Apostles; then the Epistles of St. Paul:
infallible rule of faith and life. In the Second  Helvetic        one to the Romans,           two to the Corinthians, one to
Confession, Chapter 1, we read: "We believe and con-             the Galatians, one to the Ephesians, one to the Philippi-
fess the Canonical Scriptures of the holy prophets and            ans, one to the Colossians, two to the Thessalonians,
apostles of both Testaments to be the true Word of               two to Timothy, one to Titus, one to Philemon: then
God, and to have sufficient authority of themselves,             the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of St. James,
not of men.        For God himself spake to the fathers,         the first and second Epistles of St. Peter, the first
prophets, apostles, and still speaks to us through the            and second and third Epistles of St. John, the Epistle
Holy Scriptures.                                                 of St. Jude; and then the Apocalypse, or Revelation of
    "And in this Holy Scripture, the universal Church             St. John.
of Christ has all' things fully expounded which belong                "IV. We know these books to be canonical, and
to a saving faith, and also to the framing of a life             the sure rule of our faith, not so much by the common
acceptable to God; and in this respect it is expressly            accord and consent of the Church, as by the testimony
commanded of God that nothing be either put to or                 and inward illumination of the Holy Spirit, which
taken from the same (Deut. 4:2; Rev.  22:18, 19).                enables us to distinguish them from other eccle-
    "We judge, therefort; that from these Scriptures             siastical books upon which, however useful, we can-
are to be taken true wisdom and godliness, the refor-            not found any articles of faith.
mation and government of churches; as alsoinstruction                 "V. We believe that the Word contained in these
in all duties of piety; and, to be short, the confirmation       books has proceeded from God, and receives its
of doctrines, and the confutation of all errors, with all         authority from Him alone, and not from men." (The
exhortations; according to that word of the Apostle,             Lord willing, we will continue with these quotations
`All  .Scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable       in our following article.)
for doctrine, for reproof,' etc.        (2 Tim.  3:16, 17).                                                              H.V.

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





                                          SELLING GOD'S LOVE  SHORT

      For  ,forty years in the providence and grace of our         congregations, yes,  - but no denomination that will
God  The  St&lavd   Beaver-  has borne the -standard of            stand shoulder to shoulder with us to maintain that
truth for which our churches stand and have stood                  God loves only the elect, is gracious only to those who
these many years.                                                  from eternity  I-Ie gave to Christ, and is merciful only
      Amid countless thousands who speak of the sov-               to those whose  names  He has written in the Lamb's
ereignty of God and maintain it in limited spheres,                book from all eternity.
we have been given grace to maintain it also in the                     All others sell God's love  short1
,sphere  of God's grace and to hold forth the Word of                   And this is true amid all the seeming emphasis
truth that God is sovereign in His grace and mercy                 upon that love. The love of God is the theme of each
because He is sovereign in His love.                               and every song and speech in the same circles that
      God's grace, we have often said, is God's love               actually deny that love.            That we have continued to
as it goes out to the undeserving sinner in his guilt              maintain it as an unchangeable and sovereign virtue
and gives him that which he does not deserve. We                   of the living  God  these forty years is not because
once heard the definition of grace that it is "God                 by nature we want it. We have no love to God in our-
giving everything for nothing to those who deserve                 selves.       Of each and all of those who sell that love
nothing."      And we have revised it to read, "God's              short we must say, "There, but for the grace of God,
grace is God giving everything for nothing to the good-            go I." That is exactly why it is for us such a comfort
for-nothings."' It is not simply a matter of giving that           to hold on to the truth that God's love is Unchangeable.
which one does not deserve.          The man may work              We know our own frailties and sinful desires. We know
hard for you, and he deserves no more than the wages               that we do not stand in our own strength. We realize
which you have promised him.           You may then give           every day that we deserve to be dropped and to fall from
this faithful worker a bonus at Christmas time. That               grace.      Our acts of hatred,  - and every sin is such an
is grace, to give him over and above what he earned.               act of hatred against God,  - reveal to us that we de-
But with God it is a matter of giving to those who are             serve to be hated of God.           Therefore, that we, amid
good-for-nothings I     As He Himself declared in the              all this overwhelming presentation of a love that insults
Person of His Son when He dwelt among us, after we                 the unchangeable and sovereign God, still have not
have served  - and that by His grace  - we are still               been swept along with the tide is not of us but of
unprofitable servants.     Still more, when first we re-           God Who showeth mercy.
ceive the gift of salvation and God begins to instill
in us the new life, we are utterly unworthy of it,                      This rubric, since its introduction October 1, 1945,
good for nothing, rebels who hate Him. While we                    is dedicated to the fear of the Lord. It has striven
were yet  sinners,   Christ died for us.         While we          to serve that fear, to declare it and to seek to stimu-
were yet enemies, God began to give us what we do                  late it. We have striven to show how in practical life
not deserve. That is His grace. But that is also His               we contradict this glorious God and deny Him His
love.                                                              glory when we are bold enough to go our own way.
      And His mercy is that same love as it goes out               We have sought to condemn such boldness and to incite
to this same undeserving sinner as he is in misery                 unto awe and reverence before the mighty God of our
because of his guilt,      and is God's kind compassion            salvation.          The theme. of the writings in this rubric
and desire to deliver that child out of that misery as             has to a great extent been those words we often sing:
soon as possible for Christ's sake. Grace deals with                       Stand in awe, and sin not,
guilty people.     Mercy deals with these same people                      Bid your heart be still;
from the point of view of their misery. And back                           Through the silent watches
of that grace and mercy is God's love. God IS love,                        Think upon His will.
and therefore He is the God of all grace and the God
of all mercy.                                                           Indeed, let us learn that fear of the Lord so that
      In His fear we have not dared to sell  Hislove,              we do stand in awe of Him, rather than to dare to as-
grace, and mercy short.         For forty years God has            cribe to Him the frailties and weaknesses which are
been gracious to us to give us the courage and the                 the human lot.          Let us learn to be silent before Him
desire to maintain the sovereignty of that love, grace,            and listen to what .He has to say of Himself. Let us
and mercy amid much opposition and with well-nigh                  learn  t.o think upon His will and bow before it. In
the whole church-world against us.         Outside of the          His fear means that we. live in the consciousness of
Primitive Baptists, who in their  Grace  and Truth                 the truth that we are less than the dust of the balances
magazine maintain the Five Points of Calvinism, I                  before this majestic and infinite God, and that we con-
know of no denomination,  - individuals and individual             duct our lives in harmony with that consciousness.


                                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R ,                                            13
   Let us therefore continue to maintain that God's                  going to sit in judgment and tell Him that THAT is not
love is infinite, sovereign, and unchangeable. It appeals            fair?
to the flesh of man to sell that love short and make it                   Some of the older pilgrims amongst us will re-
a fickle emotion on God's part, dependent upon the                   member, - perhaps from childhood days,  - the old
whims and fancies of man. Man has not rid himself                    Presbyterian Psalter which contained a series of 52
of that lie of Satan that he can be like God. His flesh              hymns in the back, arranged to be used with the Lord's
being under the power of the lie, he still intends to                Days of the Heidelberg Catechism and divided also into
seek to attain to such a position and lives out of that              the three chapters of knowledge of misery, of salvation,
foolish ambition whenever he sins. In each sin he tells              and of gratitude.            Hymn 21 strikes such a powerful
God that he may decide for himself what is good and                  note of that sovereignty of God and breathes that spirit
what is evil.       And all Arminianism is nothing less              of reverence and awe which is His fear.
than the lie of Satan applied to the process of sal-
vation.                                                                   Behold1 the potter moulds the clay,
  Test it  once1                                                          His vessel forms himself to please:
   Who becomes God when salvation is offered upon                         Such is our God, and such are we,
the condition that man believe and express his de-                        The subjects of His just decree.
sire for it? Who has the last word? Who determines                        Doth not the workman's power extend
whether or not the man will be saved? It is a mighty                      O'er all the mass; which part to choose,
bold stand to take that man and man's will determines                     And mould it for a nobler end,
what God will do. The old cry is always there that,                       And which to leave for viler use?
unless we take the position that God offers salvation,
invites, coaxes and pleads, but will not force us to                     May not the sovereign Lord on high,
accept salvation, we deny the responsibility of man.                      Dispense his favors as he will;
Granted that to present the relation between God's                        Choose some to life, while others die;
sovereignty and man's responsibility is difficult, why                    And yet be just and glorious still?
is it that well-nigh the whole church-world then takes                    What, if he mean to show his grace,
a stand that denies the sovereignty of God'? One need                     And his electing love employ
not choose between these two. For there is a perfect                     To mark out some of mortal race,
harmony between them; and both are taught clearly                         And form them fit for heavenly joy?
in Holy Writ.       But to take the position that God loves
everybody, is gracious because of the cross to all men,                   Shall man reply against the Lord,
invites, coaxes, and pleads with conditional promises,                    And call his Maker's ways unjust;
and then, if you and I do not accept, rejects us, turns                  The thunder of Whose dreadful word
from love to hate, from grace to wrath, from mercy                       Can crash a thousand worlds to dust?
to infliction of hell's punishment, denies the sovereignty               But,  Oh1 my soul, if truth so bright
of God. The simple fact , which the fear of the LORD                      Should dazzle and confound thy sight;
will clearly see is that, if we have to choose between                   Yet still his written word obey,
denying either the responsibility of man, or the sover-                  And wait the great decisive day.
eignty of God, we would have to choose to defend God's
sovereignty.     Actually we would have no choice, when                  But we said: Test it once.
confronted by these two as though they were contra-                      How strong is the love of a parent who lets the child
dictory. We would have to be loyal to God and stand                 make the decision as to whether he will or will not
in awe before Him rather than to go to court to defend               take the  only cure for his otherwise fatal disease?
man's "rights."        Even if, from our point of view,              What would you say of the parent who reaches out his
God would be doing injustice to man, we would still                  hand part `of the way to his child in the water but will
have to defend His right to do so. The whole idea                   not grasp the sinking child, and instead pleads and
rests on the false assumption that God is responsible                coaxes him to take hold? The child has his tantrum.
to man.      And that is a denial of His sovereignty. It             He is angry at his parents and does not want to live
makes absolutely no difference whatsoever, regardless               with them anymore.               He is willing to commit suicide
of what God may do with His creature, He has the                     because he hates his parents (justly or unjustly, makes
right to do so; and no man has any right to deny this                no difference). He .has locked himself in the room and
of Him.      One basic truth we have so much difficulty              turned on the gas. If the parents love that child, will
getting into our minds, and which by nature we do not                they plead and coax and then stop short of forcing
want at all, is that He is GOD.                                      their will upon that child and break down the door and
   When we speak           of being fair and unfair, of              snatch him to safety3             The love of man will stop at
righteousness and unrighteousness, we always point                   nothing to save that which it loves. And are we going
to a law which must be kept and under which one re-                  to sell God's love short and say that if we do not let
sides.     Is God under some law and obligation to those             Him, God cannot save us? Will His love let us go away
creatures that He brought forth and that depend upon                 unsaved ?            Is that not an insult to God's sovereignty
`Him for every breath of life? Who placed Him under                  and love? Is it not a changeable love in an unchangeable
that law? And since He is God, suppose that He wants                 God?
to change the laws of His own sovereign being, who is                    May we, by God's grace, begin this forty-first year


holding forth the banner of God's sovereignty in the         Yet I will harden, yes, harden his heart,
sphere of salvation.      And, if I may be given a little    That he shall refuse and not let them depart,
extra space in this anniversary issue, let me present        Till I bring my just plagues on all your foes,
the truth as Elder J.C. Sikes penned it down in 1926:        And thus get me honor on him and his host.
                                                             Yet sinners most wicked will oft Him arraign,
                     GOD'S   DECREE  :  .:          -.       -Against His just counsel, they often complain
                                                             And say,' If he decreed all things to the end,
                                                             Then he is unjust and the author of sin.
If Jehovah is infinite in all His ways,                      The.heathen  may rage and imagine things,
Giving life to man and numbering his days;                   The lowest, the highest, yea even their kings,
W~ho-dares  to impeach Him, if in His wise plan              And shout till the world hear the  soundof their din,
He gave shape and direction to the ways of man?              The author, the author, the author of sin1
If He in His wisdom did all things create,                   His saints will  stillpraiseHim  and shout as they go,
Shouid He turn the  helm:   andleave  all things to fate?    Jehovah most holy all things doth foreknow;
Did He not have the right in His sinless decree              His counsel did settle just how they should be,
To mark out the way for both you and for me?                 So shout on you heathen, you don't disturb me.
If He did decree just what we should do,                     We learn      from an angel that time shall soon end
I cannot arraign Him, say brother, can you?                  And saints shall be welcomed by Jesus, their Friend;
Before whom will you try Him as judge of your court?         This all is established by holy decree,
Who will act as your clerk and make your report?             For thus it is written, and thus it shall be.
If all things are in the decree of His will                  If all things are certain, then how came they so?
And all things are working the same to fulfill,              If things were not certain, how could God foreknow?
Who but a vile sinner too wicked to bow,                     Were all things to which foreknowledge relate
Would call Him in question, or say, What doest Thou?         Made certain by the old heathen goddess of fate?
If he decree the death of His Son,                           We surely all know at a tho't or a glance,
The sinless, the righteous, the most Holy One,               That things are not left to haphazard and chance.
And this did not make Him the author of sin,                 Will some one please tell me that I may once see,
To make Him the author, where will you begin?                How things can be certain, yet uncertain be?
Will you begin with Judas-whose act was told                 Now while you are thinking, I'll come to a halt.
And as was determined, His master he sold?                   If you don't see the point, it isn't my fault;
Did not the dear Saviour say woe to that man
I go as determined in God's holy plan?  (Luke22:22)          But , brother , please tell me how this thing can be?
                                                             All things were made certain without a decree.
If Pharaoh you think would no doubt
Prove that God's purpose was not carried out,                   Indeed, Stand in awe and sin not. May all the issues
Did not God command him by Moses you know?                   of the  Stunduvd  Beuvev  that follow be written in His
Saying, Thus saith Jehovah, let my people go.                fear.
                                                                                                                `J.A.H.


                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                15





                                         EXPOSITION  CiF ROMANS  5:12-21

The recipients  of  grace reign in life through theagency          Christ unto good works, but rather remains a dead
of  Christ.                                          vs. 17        sinner, even though he is justified by the free grace in
   In this verse Paul further elucidates upon the great            Christ.      However, Paul stresses  here.that  the "much
Gospel-truth in Christ concerning the abundance of                 more" of grace reaches its great triumph in the fact
grace and free-gift in Christ over the transgression in            that those who receive the grace reign in life through
Adam. We do well to take notice of this great benefit              Jesus Christ.
of grace as here expounded; it is for our comfort and                   The terms "they who receive" the grace of Christ
edification.                                                       in the Greek is a participle, a verbal adjective.- It is
   Had Paul in verse  .16 called attention to the legal            in the present tense, the active voice. The action here
side of the grace of Christ, the justification to life,            of the "receiving" is contemporaneous with the reign-
here he underscores the matter of the internal grace               ing.       WhiZe   we reign, we receive this gift of the
of the Holy Spirit in Christ, as the free-gift, by which           abundance of grace. There is a constant receiving of
we reign in and with Christ over sin and death. Here               this great gift.      The verb "to receive" is of wider
the great benefit of justification is connected with the           denotation than the English "accept." That the apostle
grace of sanctification.     The one is not without the            does not simply write "those believing," but "those
other.     Those who fail to see this and still desire to          receiving" is evidently because he goes one step back
glory in the free grace of Christ must needs fall,                 in the work of God's grace. Back of the believing is
willingly or unwillingly, into the error of antinomism.            the work of the Spirit, as He infuses into our hearts
They will surely arrive at the blasphemous error                   the great gift of the desire and ability to reign with
which says, "Let us remain in sin in order that grace              Christ.      When we therefore read that this `Lreceiving"
may abound." Such have never been thrilled in their                is contemporaneous with the reigning, we do not leave
souls with the "God forbid" of Romans  6:l. Prating                them simply concomitant; but rather they are related as
about the grace of life, they deny the very Christ,                cause and effect.        Besides, the apostle in this phrase,
Whom they confess to have bought them. Paul will have              "they who receive," clearly points out these as a class
more to say about this error in Romans 6. Peter re-                in distinction from another class which do not receive;
flects upon such in II Peter 2 and 3.                              to the latter it is not given to know the things of the
   With the foregoing in mind, let us then notice that             kingdom of heaven.              John  1:12;  3:5; Matt.  13:11-13.
Paul draws an inference in verse 17 from the teaching              This is indicated by the use of the article in Greek.
in verse 16. If what Paul teaches concerning the grace             We shall refer to this matter more in our discussion
of being justified in Christ is true, then what he                 of verse 18.
teaches concerning our reigning with Christ must                        What is the -reason for the reigning in life through
follow.    God does not give the one without the other, ' Christ of those who are the class who receive7                        It is
for both are a part and parcel of the free-gift in Christ          that they receive two things.
as standing opposed to the great transgression in                       In the first place, they receive the abundance. This
Adam.      The sentence here is conditional; it is a sen-          abundance  is,the well-known "abundance" spoken of in
tence of fact. In the mind of Paul both are true as the            verse 15. The free-gift abounds! It far surpasses all
rock of Gibralter. The condition and the conclusion                attempts to measure it.              It far surpasses even the
in the sentence are both determined reality. They are              multitude of our transgressions and the greatness of
thus in the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of               our guilt. That is the abundance. Says Christ, "that
God, as well as on the Cross of Christ and in the great            ye might have life and have it more abundantly". John
benefit of salvation which He bestows upon all His own.            1O:lO.      This is not at all the "abundant life" of which
   Let us look a bit more closely at this "conclusion"             the world speaks rather loosely and profanely, refer-
here in verse 17.                                                  ring to the abundance of material things, conveniences
   The emphatic element here too is the "muchmore"                 of modern life and technology. Nay, this is the abun-
of the free-gift, in its sanctifying effect, over the              dance of eternal life which has its fount in God. This
horrible effect of the reigning of death in Adam. We               is the water which becomes in those receiving it a
should notice that the contrast here is not the reigning           fountain of living waters, springing up unto everlasting
of "death" as opposed to the reigning of  Zife,  but the           life.     John  4:14;  7:38.     Indeed, from such streams of
contrast is here "death" as distinguished from  "those             living waters flow - flow from their bowels I
who  Yeceive  the abundance of the grace and of the gift               In the second place, notice that this is an abundance
of righteousness." This  fvee grace frees the redeemed             of "the grace". It is the well-known grace which is
so that  they reign;  they reign in life through Christ,           opposed to all works. It is the grace of justification
but they reign. That is the deathblow to antinomism,               which constitutes us righteous before God and heirs of
the teaching that the Christian is not made alive in               everlasting life. It is the grace in the one man Jesus


16                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
Christ standing directly opposite to the transgression                    "a l l " are brought to the justification of life. The
in Adam. 0, the abundance of this grace. Those who                        Arminians of every degree, shade, and colors wax
receive this grace of justification reign in life. This                  clamorous at this passage and insist most vehemently
grace is first. Roman Catholicism has denatured this                     that Paul here teaches a universal grace. The numer-
into works and virtually denies the  grace1                 In the       ical greatness and identity of persons is the same in
theology of Rome and their teaching concerning "Actual                   both1  ,So they insist!
Grace" they have reversed the order which Paul                                However, let us take a hard and careful look at the
teaches here in this text, and, in fact, in the entire                   matter here in question. We agree with Dr. Hodge's
letter to the Romansl                                                    remarks on. this matter. See his Commentary, pages
        In the third place, Paul speaks here of "the gift of             268, 269.           There are six salient points to which he
righteousness." Righteousness here is the righteous-                     calls attention.         We take the liberty of giving these
ness of God which he has prepared for us on the cross.                   points back in our own phraseology.
This righteousness is the gift; that we stand accounted                       In the first place, as is well-known to every care-
righteous before God is because God has prepared a                       ful Bible student, there is the hermeneutical rule that
righteousness for us which He places on our account,                     a passage must be interpreted in the light of the im-
imputing it to us, so that He deals with us as if we had                 mediate context and sequence, In John  3:26 it is said,
never sinned, yea, as though we had fulfilled all                        "and all are coming unto him." It is quite evident
righteousness1 See  Heid.  Cat., Question 60.                            that the "all" here refers to all who believed and were
        Only such which receive this gift of grace, this gift            baptized of him through the disciples, and that the use
of righteousness and such a grace which is called "the                   here does not allow for "all" absolutely. Again we read
abundance," reign with Christ by virtue of the grace                     in John 12:32, "And I, if I be lifted out of the earth, will
received.       This is as the Psalmist sings, "With thee                draw all unto me."             This does not refer to "all"
there. is forgiveness that thou mayest be feared".                       absolutely, but refers  to. all His people, whether Jew
Psalm  130:4.                                                            or Greek, male or female. As writes Dr. Hodge, "In
        Such reign with Christ. Whereas death reigns, as                 a multitude of cases, the words  all, all things,  means
the penalty of sin, without this gift of grace, they who                 the  ail  spoken of in the context, and not all without
receive this abundance reign in life by Jesus Christ.                    exception; see Eph.  l:lO, Col.  1:20, I Cor.  15:22, 51,
They are made alive. They have the right to be called                    II Cor.  5:14, etc."
the  chiidren of God, and they are.            John 1:12;  I John             In the second place, there is a limitation to the
3:l.       Behold, the manner of the love to thus be called              "all" where many other parts of Scripture clearly
the sons. of Godl         Thus God brings many sons unto                 teach such  .a limitation. Scripture must be interpreted
glory I      Heb.  2:lO. Such reign "in life." These are                 in the light of Scripture. The rule of faith is ever our
made alive in Christ, are renewed after his image,                       guide.      Rom.  12:3.      The spirits of the prophets are
baptized with Him into his death so that they may be                     subject to the prophets. I Cor.  14:33. It is everywhere
made conformable unto His resurrection. Rom.  6:s.                       taught that faith is necessary for justification. The
      Even such is all "through Jesus Christ." He is the                 righteousness of God is for every  one believing,  Rom.
author of such salvation.           He is our righteousness,             3:22.      And faith is the gift of God. Eph.  2:8. Thus we
sanctification, and complete redemption, delivering us                   read in Acts  13:39, where we have both the epistles to
from the totality of our misery. Never do we do any-                     the Galatians and to the Romans in a nutshell, "By him
thing apart from Christ. No more than the branch has                     abl  that believe  are justified." Here too all is limited
life apart from the vine, do we have life and do we                      to' believers, that is, to the elect1
reign apart from Christ. He is the last Adam in whom                          In the- third place, we should notice in the immediate
the mercy and the grace and the gift of righteousness                    context in verse 17 that  P'aul writes that not all reign
is without repentance  I                                                 with Christ in life. All who are justified reign with
                                                                         Christ.      All do not reign. Only those who receive the
The Conclusion  of  the Whole  Matteev  Summed Up. vs. 18                gift of grace and the superabundance of the gift of
                                                                         righteousness.         This is an iron-clad reference in the
      Really in this verse Paul shows the entire thrust of               context which the universalists flagrantly ignore. They
what he has taught in the verses 12-17. This is stated                   change , `receive" into ` ' accept" which is not the mean-
very succinctly by Dr. Hodge in his "Commentary on                       ing of the verb.         See our remarks above on verse  17.
the Book of Romans," page 264, to which we refer the                     By no stretch of the imagination can this be made to
interested reader.          We quote in part  "....The word              refer to all except upon the unscriptural  pre-supposi-
thevefove,   at the beginning of verse 12, marks an in-                  tions of the Pelagians and Arminiansl
ference from the whole doctrine of the epistle; the                           Fourthly, let it be noticed what Dr. Hodge very
corresponding words here are also strictly inferential.                  pointedly remarks concerning the "all men" in Adam.
It has been proved that we are justified by the right-                   Even here "all" men refers to those who come from
eousness of one man, and it had also been proved that                    Adam "by ordinary generationl" Christ too is a man,
we are under condemnation for the offense of one.                        but he is excluded from the all men upon whom the con-
Thevefove   as we are condemned, even so  `are we all                    demnation comes in Adam in the sense referred to in
justified."                      -e..                                    Rom.  5:12.          "All" here too is not "all" absolutely,
      We notice that Paul writes that "all" came unto                    that is, without, limitation.
condemnation through the offense of one, thus also
                                         ._                                                                                      G.L.


                                                          T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                            17
                                            74e &4wk 79% zvaeG4q
                                            ("0 worship the Lord in the  beauty  of holiness."  Ps.  96:9a)
                                                                                 impunity.         And it seems to me that one cannot make
                                 v o w s                                         a  distinction between the three aforementioned vows
           "I am a  stranger  heve, dependent on Thy  grace,                     as though it is not quite as necessary to keep the one
           A  pilg&m as my fathers were, with no abiding                         as it is to keep the other.         When one then violates
           p1ace.l'                                                              his confessional vow and instead of leading a godly
                                                                                 life, walks in sin and pursues'the  vanitiesand  corrup-
         With this confession the Christian pilgrim so-                          tions of the world, he is necessarily made the object
      journs through the present wilderness of sin in quest                      of special consistorial labor. He is admonished, and,
      of the heavenly Canaan.         In his journey he pauses                   if there is no amendment of life, disciplined and
      on three significant occasions to make a vow unto Je-                      excommunicated. Likewise when one violates the holy
      hovah. Oh, to be sure, the child of God in the course                      relation of marriage and practices infidelity or follows
      of his earthly life makes more vows than three. His                        the course of the world and obtains a divorce, the church
      life is a continuous pledge of obedience and love                          does not hesitate to excommunicate such an impenitent
      to God; and even as the mercies of God are renewed                         covenant breaker from her fellowship. The violation
      upon him each morning, so with the beginning of every                      of these sacred vows is indeed a very serious  offence.
      day does God's child. promise anew to walk in His                          So also it is with the vow of baptism. Wilful neglect
      ways and to seek Him with all his heart. But we spoke                      or obstinate refusal to walk in the way of that vow
      last time of three specific vows which are normally                        is sin and must be so regarded by the church. One
      taken and which must be singled out and given special                      cannot participate with a blessing in the sacrament
      attention and emphasis.                                                    of the Lord's Supper while walking in wilful neglect
         When the child of God reaches the years of dis-                         or violation of the sacrament of Baptism. By such
      cretion he arrives at the consciousness of his faith                      practices "the covenant of God would be profaned,
      in God. Realizing that he is not his own, but belongs                      and His wrath kindled against the whole congregation;
      with body and soul to his faithful Lord and Savior                        therefore it is the duty of the christianchurch, accord-
      Jesus Christ, Who has purchased him with His own                           ing to the appointment of Christ and His apostles,
      blood, he cannot refrain from confessing this. In                          to exclude such persons, by the keys of the kingdom
      making this good confession he vows unto Jehovah,                          of heaven, till they show amendment of  life."(Heidel-
      among other things, that he will "reject all heresies                      berg Catechism, q. 82)
      repugnant to the true and complete doctrine of salva-                          The church must be careful that she does not measure
      tion and will lead a new, godly life." This is a step                      with a double measure.          She cannot discipline the
      of serious consequence, for its effect is unavoidably                      man who divorces his wife while she leaves the man
      felt every step of his way.                                                undisciplined who neglects the instruction of his chil-
         The next milestone is that of marriage. Marrying                        dren or gives them to be instructed contrary to his
      in the Lord the believing young man and woman                             vow       when it is within his power to do otherwise.
      vow to Jehovah "to live  holily . . . keeping faith and                    Neither may the man who is a drunkard and thief
      truth in all things according to the holy gospel."                        be disciplined while he who divorces his wife is
      Once more we have to do with a vow of most profound                       given an honorary place in the church.              Such in-
      significance because only through its performance can                      consistent practices negate. the spiritual power of
      the  .marriage relation reflect the beauty of the union                   discipline, and the church that looses this has lost
      of Christ and His church and be a means through which                      one of her distinguishing marks.         She is on the way
      God Himself furthers His cause by the propagation                          of decline; and unless a remedy is instituted, this
      of the seed of His covenant.                                              degeneration will ultimately bring her to ruin. The
         When then that seed is brought forth, believing                         Lord cannot be mocked, and the passages of His Word
      parents present their children in baptism. They speak                     we cited last time show clearly His unchanging atti-
      the vow of baptism not as a custom or superstition                        tude toward the broken vow.           The true and  faithfill
      but in the acute awareness that baptism is God's                          church, therefore, will without compromise or hesi-
      ordinance.       Sincerely they promise "to instruct and                  tancy enforce the Word and will of Christ, her head,
      bring up their children in the true and perfect doctrine                  expressed in the text: "Pay unto the Lord thy vows."
      of salvation, or help or cause them to be instructed                           Parents must realize the serious implications of their
      therein to the utmost of their power."                                    baptismal vows when they are asked before the church
.,       This last mentioned vow is our primary concern                         to answer  sincerely  to three questions. Those ques-
      at present since we are discussing the Baptism                            tions are:
      F o r m . However, before discussing its content we                            "First: Whether you acknowledge, that although our
      must underscore the seriousness of all three of these                     children are conceived and born in sin, and therefore
      vows.    In a sense they stand on a par. It is the con-                   are subject to all miseries, yea, to condemnation itself;
      viction of this writer that willful violation of any one                  yet that they are sanctified in Christ, and therefore,
      of them is a serious sin that is punishable by the                        as members of His Church ought to be baptized?
      discipline and ultimate excommunication of the church                          "Secondly: Whether you acknowledge the doctrine
of Christ.             It is impossible to violate our vows with                which is contained in the Old and New Testament, and in


18                                           THE"STANDARD   B E A R E R
the articles of the Christian faith, and which is taught       to a presupposed regeneration or sanctification. In
here in this Christian Church, to be the true and              this case the term "sanctified in Christ" refers
perfect doctrine of salvation?                                 .to real holiness or real sanctification. Those that
      "Thirdly: Whether you promise  ,and intend .to see       prefer this view also apply it to every individual
these children, when come to years of discretion,              child that is baptized. Nevertheless, admittedly this
instructed and brought up in the aforesaid doctrine,           is based on a supposition that the child belongs to
or help or cause them to be instructed therein, to             the elect; and this; they  say,,we can never know or
the utmost of your power?"                                     be sure of until the  chi-ld'grows up and comes to
                                                               years of discretion and reveals that Christ is in
      The first two questions here are in effect con-          him. The big fallacy of this view lies in the fact that
fessions.     The first of these pertains  to the  yight       the presupposition cannot be supported from the
of the children to receive baptism.      Parents confess       Word  of. God.    In fact, `the Word of God teaches the
that these children in themselves do not  .have this           very opposite when in Romans 9 it instructs  .us in
right, for they  are. conceived and born in sin. They          the truth that "not: all is Israel which are of Israel"
acknowledge that their children are by nature totally.         and "they which are children of the flesh, these are
depraved from the moment of their birth and, there-            not the children of God: but the children of the promise
fore, are subject,to  all miseries, even to final condemna-    are counted for the seed." Hence, we may not pre-
tion.     In ourselves  both. we and our children have         suppose to be true what the Word `of God plainly tells
only one right, the right to perish if it may be  so-          us is not true; and we know that the line of sovereign
called. This we deserve and can lay claim on nothing           election and reprobation cuts right through the gener-
more..                                                         ations of God's people in this world.
      However, in this first question the confession               Properly, therefore, we must apply the organic
is also made that our children "are sanctified in              conception  .to  `the  :words of this question as we must
Christ, and  therefore9  as members of His Church,,            also  ' do with the entire Baptism Form.         The doc-
ought to be  .baptized."     The- phrase "sanctified in        trinal part, the prayers, the thanksgiving, the questions
Christ" has given rise to much criticism and con-              can never be understood unless we apply to them the
troversy- in the Reformed Churches in the past.                organic idea. The `church organically and in its en-
Especially was this so when the church became lax              tirety is designated as being "sanctified in Christ."
in discipline and everybody could have their children          But just as in John 15 the Lord pictures that church
baptized.    It stands to reason that under such con-          as the vine from which many branches are cut off
ditions the more serious could no longer take these            and burned, yet the vine itself remains a living
words on their lips with respect to the children               vine, so: the church in Christ remains as a sancti-
that were received by baptism into the church. Con-            fied organism even though many members fall away
sequently attempts were made to change this ex-                and reveal themselves as ungodly and reprobate. The
pression.     Some read instead of "are sanctified,`*          church, together with the parents, does not then
"ought to be sanctified."         Others changed it into       make any confession or statement in this             first
something that is very similar: "must be sancti-               question respecting each individual child that is bap-
fied yet," or simply into "as being sanctified." Still         tized.    This she cannot do.     Neither is she called
others inserted "can be" for  "are,".or  even  ".proba-        upon to do so.       She is called upon to confess her
bly are." All these attempts show plainly that in the          faith,. and that faith has its basis in and derives its
Reformed Churches they certainly did not believe               content from the Word of God. The church can say
that the infants that are baptized are in fact already         no more than the Word of God, and she dare not say
sanctified in Christ.                                          anything contrary to that Word.          In this question,
                                                               then, the church confesses that God gathers His
      Although these words have never been eliminated          children out of the generations of His people and that
or changed in the form, there are those even today             this seed of His people, though conceived and born
who give to them different interpretations.         There      in sin and worthy only of condemnation, He "sancti-
is the interpretation that these words refer to a              fied in Christ." And whereas we cannot distinguish
certain covenant, or external holiness, whatever this          among these children which are and which are not of
may be. This interpretation seems quite impossible             that spiritual seed, all of them as members of His
however in view of the fact that the term "in Christ"          church in the midst of this world ought to receive
is very definite. The children, according to this first        the sign of baptism.       This is in accord too with
question, are said to be sanctified  in Christ.  That          the command of God in the old dispensation that all
cannot be an external sanctification, even though it           the natural seed of Abraham, including even his
may be that those who prefer this interpretation               servants, were to receive the sign of circumcision.
can quote texts like Hebrews  6  or 10 in support of           Merely receiving the sign did not mean they were all
their view. However, if such were the intended meaning,        in the covenant, and  .neither  did the fact that some
it seems to me that the words "in Christ" would have           were not abrogate the faith of the church that God
been omitted here.       It would have been sufficient         maintains His covenant in the line of thesegenerations.
then simply to acknowledge that our children have                 -The next two questions we will, D.V., continue to
been sanctified, that is, set apart, separated.                discuss in following articles.
      Others claim that the words in question refer                                                             G.v.d.B.


                      .-                   T H E   STA.bDARD   B E A R E R                                                   19


                                pe  &tb4&9~  zi%Q!kei~~
                                             .<-
                                     -SAMSON'S RESTORATION AND END

 . And Samson said, Let me die with the  Philistiiies.              the inclination of his passions, he gave himself into
And he bowed himself with all his might; and the                    the hands of a wicked and seductive Philistine woman.
   house fell  ,upon the  lords, and upon all the  peo&le           Even when it became evident that she was determined
   that  weye therein.      So the dead which he slew in            to find out the secret of his strength and put it to the
   his death were move than they which he slew in                 n test, Samson continued to let his passions be his guide.
   his life.     o                         J&&es   18:30          Under the  relentle'ss beguilements of her seductive
                                                                    ways, he finally broke down  Andy told her wherein the
   Samson had been a Nazarite; he was no more. His                '
                                                                     Secret of his strength did lie. Delilah was a cruel and
head had been shaved and his strength was gone.              ~      determined woman. Sadistically she held his sleeping
   Samson had been an unusual figure in the history of             .head upon her own knees while a Philistine barber cut
the judges. He was from his birth a Nazarite unto the               his seven locks away. Then with cruel torments she
Lord.     The Nazarite in Israel was a person who had               awoke him from his sleep. His strength was gone with
taken unto himself the vow of absolute dedication and               t$e mark of his Nazarite vows. He was as an ordinary
service to Jehovah God.        There were usually three             man.
distinguishing marks of this office or position., A                      At first Samson would not believe it. Through his
Nazarite might not drink strong drink, he might not                 long years of service under the Spirit of God, he had
touch a dead body, and he might, not cut his hairduring             come to  take his miraculous strengthfor granted. Even
all of the time he was -under the vow. It appears that              though ,in his mind he must have known better, he had
particularly this latter mark was the distinguishing                somehow come to feel that no one could really take his
feature of Samson. He had been appointed .a Nazarite                strength away no matter what they  (lid. Thus, when
from his birth, and so he had never cut his hair. It                Delilah's tormenting awoke him from his sleep, he
hung in seven long locks down his back, giving him a                lifted himself from her knees and said, "I will go out
very distinctive appearance: It signified that he in his            as' at other times before, and shake myself." But this
appearance and,office had never been formed or altered              time it  .was different. Having betrayed the mark of
by any instrument in the hands of man. Without regard               his  office: the Spirit of God was gone, and with Him
for appearance or style, his nature was wholly given to             went'His strength.
the service of God.  %Thus he was fitted also to serve as              ' It was surely a pathetic scene that followed. About
a judge.  I He represented the cause of Jehovah God                .Samson swarmed like so many biting flies the wicked
over against all the enemies of Israel, and particularly            Philistines and Delilah, intoxicated with their. new-
against the Philistines.     For the performance of this            found power. Hardly daring to believe it, like a person  I
office, God gave to him extraordinary strength. It was              awakening from a dream, they had to try and test the
not the strength of an unusually large  andrpowerful                situation over and over again to be sure that it was
physique. It was a miraculous strength  givento  him by             real.    Prodding, spitting, striking with the fist, every
the Spirit of  Godeand  which no human force, no matter             humiliation they could imagine to inflict upon him was
how large, could ever overcome.            In his life was          repeated over and over again to the accompaniment of
literally fulfilled the promise of Joshua  (23:lO)  "One            insane peals of laughter and glee. The pent-up hatred
man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your                of decades burst forth as a torrent to be racked upon
God, he it is that fighteth for you; as he. hath promised           the bowed head of Samson.         So often had he walked
you." Meanwhile no one was able to do him harm. He                 freely through the land with head erect and confident,
was protected in the way of which  Ps.llm. 91 speaks,               knowing that none would dare to stop him. But now he
"Thou shalt not be afraid for  the.  terror.by  night; nor          was pushed about as a dumb animal, falling and
for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence            groveling in the dust at every blow. The mighty man
that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that              of Israel was fallen,  .and the Philistines were deter-
wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side,              mined to exact from  .him the last ounce of cruel joy.
and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not                     Basically, of course, the hatred which burst forth
come nigh thee." (5-7) This was the life of Samson.                 upon Samson was not as much a hatred for him per-
   But now all this was changed. It was because of the              sonally as for the God whom he represented. The
cutting of his hair. Samson's Nazaritevow was broken.               Philistines hated the God of Israel; they could not help
His appearance was altered so that he no longer bore                but do that. He was different. All of the nations had their
the distinguishing mark of a man dedicated completely               own gods. They were for the most part gods molded and
unto God. So his strength had fled him.                            formed from gold and silver, wood and stone. They were
  -It was not Samson's own doing as such. His hair                  gods which. finally could be made in the form which they
had been cut secretly by a wicked conspiracy while he               wanted them to be; but not the God of Israel. From the
slept.    But the guilt was his just as much. Following             day that Israel had .entered  the land of Canaan, He had


20                                           T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
proved Himself different. To Him belonged a strength              millstone, they forced him to march around and around
and power which defied all competition. The most                  to grind grain like a dumb animal.
carefully laid plans of men, and the greatest alliances                It is hard for us to say just how long this servitude
of earthly gods were equally helpless against Him:Men             of Samson lasted. We may be sure, though, that the
before Him were rendered helpless. But even more                  days and months which passed were marked for him
provoking to all was the morality whichcame with Him.             by the sorrow of a repentant heart. How he must have
Where the worship of all other gods included the satis-           relived with grief his unfaithfulness to the great and
faction of the most carnal desires, the God of Israel             glorious office which God had given him. Not only had
rejected such entirely. He demanded that His people               he brought himself to misery, but he had put the name
live lives which were. pure and holy; and really He               of his God to an open shame. In the place of his pride
demanded the same of all other nations also. The                  came a humility greater than he had ever known. And
constant moral demands which poured forth from                    accordingly also there came a gradual change in his
Israel irritated and offended the Philistines as well             appearance.         His hair began to grow, restoring the
as all of the, other heathen nations. It aroused within           mark of his Nazarite vows.
them an indignant hatred for the God of Israel.                        Meanwhile the Philistines could not be satisfied.
      The result was a unique and unusual degree of               We can only imagine how often they came to gloat over
competition between Israel and its heathen neighbors,             the blind Samson silently treading his way around the
including the Fhilistines. These nations longed, not              mill, or took him out to mock and ridicule him in
only to overcome Israel's power, but also and especially          public display.       Finally they determined to set aside a
to undermine its morals.      All through the history of          day of sacrifice and feasting to their god Dagon, in
Israel we find that there was a very determined effort            which Samson would be the feature attraction, for as
on the part of the heathen nations to induce Israel to            they said, "Our god hath delivered  Samson our enemy
follow them in their idolatrous practices. When they              into our hand."
succeeded, as only too often they did, it served for                   It was a jovial crowd that gathered that day in
them a double purpose.       Jehovah in His anger and             Gaza.      Thousands  came, and Samson was there to be
judgment would often withdraw His hand from support-              seen by all as they came into the city. With mocking
ing Israel, allowing these heathen nations to overrun             glee they cried in his ears, "Our god hath delivered
the land; and it also soothed the consciences of the              into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our
heathen to see Israelites following them in their                 country, which slew many of us." Surely Samson's
idolatrous practices.                                             heart wept as he heard it.
      That was where the hatred of  Samson entered in.                 Finally the throng retired to the temple of Dagon
He represented all that the Philistines hated inIsrael's          for the concluding feast of wild abandon.           Into the
God. Before he appeared.on the scene, they had all but            temple poured all of the lords of the Philistines, with
succeeded in subduing the national and religious life of          some three thousand men and women filling the temple
Israel.    .The Israelites were submissively following            and its open roof. Last they. called for Samson that
them in whatever they suggested. Then Samson came,                they might make sport of him.
With overwhelming power he demanded that Israel                        By' a small lad he was led into the midst of the
maintain its own distinctive national and religious life.         wicked.. The crowd roared with laughter for the meek
He insisted that the Philistines should be recognized             way in which he now had to follow where only a small
as an infidel heathen nation, unworthy of recognition by          lad led him. But to the lad he whispered his instruc-
Israel. Nor were the Philistines able to do anything to           tions, "Suffer me that I may feel the pillars where-
disprove him. With power Samson went throughout the               upon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them."
land, doing everything he could to force a complete               It looked like weakness that caused him to lean upon
separation between them and Israel. They were power-              those great pillars; but from his heart there rose one
less to stop him; but all the time their hatred for               last prayer to heaven, "0 Lord God, remember me, I
Samson and His God mounted within them.                           pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this
      Now they had Samson. They had won over him by               once, 0 God, that I may be at once avenged of the
the same method they had always succeeded with the                Philistines for my two eyes."
children of Israel. They had seduced him through his                  While the Philistines looked on in amazement, the
carnal passions. Now they were ready to gloat in the              body of Samson once more began to stand erect as it
superiority of their morality, or lack of it, over that           had in former days. It was too late for them to stop
of the God of Israel. Now that they had conquered,                him, nor could they have, had they tried. With  all of
they were not about to let it be forgotten. Each humili-          his might he gathered the pillars into his grasp until
ation they could heap upon Samson was a repudiation of            they crumbled, and the temple plunged with a mighty
His God. They wanted everyone to know.                            roar into ruin.       It was a curse for Samson so to die
      The cruel revenge of the Philistines knew hardly            with the wicked. He knew that, for his parting words
any bounds. Having tormented him no end, they finally             of humble acknowledgment for his great sin were,
put out his eyes.    Bound in fetters of brass, they took         "Let me die with the Philistines." But it was an act
him down to Gaza and put him on public display. Only              of faith.      By it more perished with his death than he
after the public curiosity was fully satisfied did they           had ever slain while he lived. God was justified of His
place him in the closed prison. But even there they               enemies.
would not allow him to rest in peace. Binding him to a                                                                  B.W.


                                                  T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         21





                                                            THE N.F.O.

   The occasion for this article is a growing menace                            cooperate with other liberal organizations to
to our farmers. In recent years an organization has                             achieve these goals.
come into existence called the National Farmers'                            From the above quotation, several conclusions are
Organization.      It has grown phenomenally in recent                 obvious:
months and now numbers in the thousands of members.                         In the first place, the main purpose of the organi-
   A description of this organization and itspurposes                  zation is to secure better prices for farm commodities
can be learned from the by-laws of  itsConstitution                    from the processors.       At present the organization is
from which we quote in part:       ~..  -.-  :                         concentrating its attention and efforts on cattle and
         We hold that to permit the processor to set                   hogs.       It is trying to gain for its members higher
     the price on the sale.' of commodities raised by                  prices for stock that goes to packers. But its aim is
     the American farmer to be a complete reverse                      to control the price of all farm commodities. Its
     of the tradition of the American system of govern-                goal is a contract with the packers guaranteeing a
     ment which normally permits the manufacturer                      definite price for cattle and hogs which farmers will
     of products to set the prices of the products that                receive upon shipment.
     he produces.      We hold these conditions to be                       In the second place, this organization operates
     utterly at variance with the spirit of justice and                on the same principle as the existing labor unions. This
     the needs of the American `farmer. We believe                     is evident from the statement quoted above in the
     the right of the farmer to organize for his mutual                preamble of its by-laws: "We believe the right of
     protection is compatible with the rights of other                 the farmer to organize for his mutual protection is
     segments of our society to organize for their                     compatible with the rights of other segments of our
     mutual protection.                                                society to organize for their  lnutual  protection."
         We believe that the American farmer has a                     The reference is obviously to the labor unions in
     right to expect a fair profit over and above the                  which workers have organized for the purpose of
     cost of production for the commodities raised on                  protecting themselves from their employers              and
     his farm.                                                         securing for themselves higher wages. In fact, the
         The American farmer does not seek to usurp                    N.F.O. is reportedly working closely with the labor
     the functions of the processors of his commodi-                   unions to attain its goals, and is even financed in
     ties, nor does he ask for a place on the Board of                 part by the AFL-CIO.
     Directors of such concern. He merely asks his                          In the third place, the sole goal of this organizatiqn
     right to a fair profit through his organization.                  is to increase the profit of the farmers. In this way
     The farmer's investment in his agricultural                       also there is little or no difference between existing
     business is his sinew and money in the production                 labor unions and the  N.F.0, Its goals are purely
     of his commodities. The processors of his com-                    monetary; its purposes are purely material. It is
     modities invest in their business.           We believe           true beyond question that in recent months the farmers
     that each has a right to a fair profit. The farmer                have received very small profits on their cattle and
     seeks a place at the conference table, together                   hogs--and in some cases have raised their animals
     with the processor, when decisions are made                       only to sell them at a loss. It is true too that precisely
     which affect the price of the commodities the                     these circumstances have persuaded many to join
     farmer produces. He only asks that he be given                    the N.F.O. in the hopes of getting a fair return on
     a voice in establishing the price and quality of                  their commodities. But the fact remains that the goals
     his commodities.                                                  of the N.F.O. are purely monetary. They have taken
                  PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES:                              it upon themselves to put more money in the pockets
         To improve and stabilize the living standards                 of their members.
     of the American farm families; to bargain col-                         The rightness or wrongness of membership in this
     lectively with the processors of agricultural                     organization is        a burning issue in every farm
     commodities in accordance with the provisions of                  community. Sad to say, people of the Reformed churches
     the membership agreement... to create a system                    have actively and avidly supported it.  The Banner  has
     to insure a fair price for farm products at the                   more than once carried articles in support  ofmember-
     market place; to maintain and protect the interest                ship in it. It is a well known fact that members of the
     of the family type farmers under the jurisdiction                 Christian Reformed Church, Reformed Church and Neth-
     of the National Farmers' Organization.                            erlands Reformed Church in the Iowa and South Dakota
         . . . To work for the pas s age of improved                    areas are often leaders in the movement.
     legislation in the interest of all farmers. To                         It is therefore a question which must be decided
     enforce existing laws; to work for the repeal of                  upon by farmers--also of our own churches. The
     those laws which are unjust to the farmer. To                     temptations to join are strong,--the farmers are not


22                                             T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
receiving a just return on their investments and a                  writing in favor of labor unions in the Reformed Journal.
fair share of profits. But the question remains whether             He frankly admitted that coercion lay in the very
or not membership in this organization is to be condoned            character of these organizations. He writes:
in the light of the Word of God. If the organization is
wrong, membership is wrong, whatever the material                        The fact is that labor unions and political powers,
advantages to membership may be.                                       whether Christian or not, are "power structures".
      The  Banner recently carried a letter by a corres-                 They are this because they have, and of necessity
pondent from South Dakota in which it was maintained                     must have, in their possession certain instruments
that to join the N.F.O. was one's Christian duty.                        and     techniques of        constraint.    Without these
The argument runs something like this: We have the                       instruments and techniques of constraint, without
calling in Scripture to love our neighbor as ourselves.                  the "force" and "compulsion" that they can bring
This calling we fulfill when we seek the welfare of                      to bear upon people, they would cease to be what
                                                                         they are.
our neighbor,--in this case, in gaining for him a fair
price for his- farm commodities. We are therefore                           It should be obvious that without the "strike
                                                                         weapon"
obligated to join the N.F.O. in order to raise the prices                               a labor union ceases to be a labor union.
                                                                         Without the power to "compel" management to
of his farm products so that he can live in greater
material comfort.                                                        yield to its demands a union is nothing but an
                                                                         educational institute or a propaganda agency; it is
      This is pretty poor justification for membership in                not a union. A labor union, from its very nature
the N.F.O. Even granted (for the moment for the sake                     is unlike a Church or a School or a Newspaper or
of argument) that membership in the N.F.O. is not                        a Radio Station or any other such thing. Churches,
wrong, this is surely not the way to help my neighbor.
The implication seems to be that I am not joining                       is unlike a Church or a School or a Newspaper or
the organization for myself, but am doing it only out                   a Radio Station or any other such thing. Churches,
of a fervent love for the man next door who needs                       schools, and  :similar  organizations teach, proclaim,
help. But if the N.F.O. is the means to relieve him                     witness, persuade, convince, and thereby "exert
from his troubles, why should not I encourage him to                    influence," but they do .not have the capacity or the
join himself rather than join for him. Besides, if                       right to "constrain" "force" or "compel". This
I am so intent on helping my neighbor, I can better do                  is because they are not in their nature "power
this by giving him of my bounties of food and sharing                   structures" as labor unions assuredly are.
with him the things that God has given me, rather than                   Prof. Stob is talking about labor unions. But the
joining an organization to help him. It would help more             same principle holds true of the N.F.O. How else
(if my motives are so pure) to take several bags of                 except through the use of picketing and force can the
groceries to him, rather than to join some organization.            objectives of such an organization be attained? It is
Further, as someone remarked to me, perhaps some-                   not a mere educational institute or a propaganda
how this joining the N.F.O. can be construed as helping             agency; it is an organization instituted to gain money
my neighbor on the farm. But what am I then doing to                for its members. Specifically, the N.F.O. purposes to
my neighbor in the city who will have to pay more for               prevail upon the processors by the useofwhat is called
his meat over the counter because the price of cattle               "withholding actions". These withholding actions are
goes up? I help one neighbor at the expense of another.             agreements between all the members to withhold from
      And yet it is  st.riking  that no other argument has          the processors their products until the processors
been advanced in favor of joining the N.F.O. other                  raise their prices for the farm commodities. But,
than the arguments that it will lead to financial gain.             of course, not all farmers are members. Therefore
Even Reformed people who support this organization                  some farmers wish to ship their cattle and hogs to
can offer no better reasons for joining than this.                  market in spite of these "withholding actions." Just
And yet it seems obvious that if we are to commit                   as some workers want to work even though a union goes
ourselves to membership in some organization which                  on strike. So the problem must be faced by the N.F.O.
requires of us many obligations, we ought to have some              how to keep any goods from coming to market. There
deeply spiritual reason for doing this. In some way,                are two alternatives. One alternative is not simply to
membership ought  _ to enhance our spiritual life. To               let non-members ship. The whole withholding action
join an organization for purely material ends involves             would then be a failure.            But one alternative is to
one in covetousness. It is a matter of trusting in the             prevent even non-members from shipping. And this
arm of man, in human power, to secure for us our daily              must be done by force. Either the plants are picketed
needs; and it ignores the fact that we look to God for              or the N.F.O. resorts to violence to attain its end.
our daily bread.                                                        Recently the N.F.O. has instituted just such a with-
      Nevertheless, there are other serious objections              holding action. What is the result? The newspapers are
against joining the N.F.O.                                         filled with reports of violence. Trucks are sabatoged;
      In the first place, any organization that is devoted          tires are shot out; farmers are hurt; fights  ensued,--
exclusively to securing greater financial remuneration              all in an attempt to keep anything from reaching the
for its members at a cost to others must necessarily               market. This has been the story from Ohio and Michigan
resort to coercion. This is true of labor unions; this              all the way to Montana and theDakotas.  Governors have
is no less trueof theN.F.0. Inproof  of this point I quote         ordered their state police to attemptto keep order and
from an article written by Prof. Henry Stob, who was               prevent violence and rioting.


                                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              23
    The conclusion is that such an organization with                         authority to determine what he shall do with the pro-
such goals as the N.F.O. has no alternative but to be a                      duce of his farm.       Clearly this is a violation of his
"power structure". imposing its will by force.                               calling to Christian stewardship. God has given to a
    There is another alternative. The unions have                           farmer his farm.         He has the calling to till the soil,
successfully employed this tactic. That alternative is to                    to raise his crops and his herds as steward over
force everyone who is af armer to join the N.F .O. Unions                    these things which God has entrusted to his care. He
have what is called the closed shop. Every man has                           is given the authority from God Himself to determine
to join the union in a particular plant in order to work.                    before God's face and for God's sake what he shall do
The goal of the union is to make every shop a closed                         with that which is given to him. He shall have to give
shop.    Then every one will have to be a union member                       an account to God for what he does with God's gifts.
to work. The N.F.O. has this goal as well. It is de-                         If, rather, he turns this responsibility and authority
termined to get all farmers into its organization. Then                      over to an organization  - any organization, he relin-
it can make its withholding actions stick. But, just as                      quishes his obligations to Christian stewardship and
the unions, it needs favorable legislation to accomplish                     turns his God given right over to others. This he may
this.    Just as the unions have the law on their side so                    never do.
that in many states the closed shop is supported by the                           The conclusion of the matter is that a Christian, in
law, so also the N.F.O. seeks to gain legislation which                      the full consciousness of his calling may never join
will make it impossible for any farmer to ship to                            such an organization. Our churches have, historically,
market except he be a member of the N.F.O.                                   opposed membership in labor unions. Our stand  over-
    It ought to be evident that no mancan belong to such                     against the N.F.O. ought to be no different. No doubt
an organization without becoming responsible for all                         the time will come when farmers also will not be able
this violence and coercion.                                                  to buy or sell without affiliation with this organization
    But there is yet another objection. The farmer, by                       or one like it. But our calling is clear. We ought to
signing a contract with the N.F.O. signs away all right                      obey God rather than man. And if this means that we
to determine for himself when and how and for what                           must suffer want because of our faithfulness, we must
price he shall bring his goods to market. He turns                           commit our cause to our righteous Judge and trust in
over all responsibility for this to the N.F.O. By join-                      His abiding love and care.
ing this organization he gives the N.F.O. the sole                                                                             H. Hanko





                                    5%36@4   7'cQm  date &%dwh4
                                    ("All the saints salute thee . . -." Phil.  421)

    In this 40th Anniversary issue let us reminisce a                        installation of Rev. G. Vos in Sioux Center, Iowa.
little with some old news items.                                            The two firstlings were "rushed" through their
                                                                            Theological studies because of the dire need for
    Oct. 1, 1925 - The first news letter appeared in                        ministers, especially in the West far from student
the  Stmdard Bearer  in the form of a personal letter by                     supply.
the Rev. H. Hoeksema to "My Friend In The West".                                  Oct. 15, 1928  - This year saw the beginning of
This was written in the Holland language as was most                        newsletters written by Rev. G. Vos under the title
of the material in the early issues. This "first" was                        "Stemmen Uit Het  Westen", which as any S.B. reader
in the first anniversary number of our magazine. In                         in those days knew to be "Voices From the West".
the same issue was a news account of the organization                       That "voice" was a reflection on the  comparitive
of a church in Byron Center,  Mich., which  occured                          youth of our ministers: that our denomination could
Sept. 30, 1925.                                                             not even boast of a 50 year  old! Rev. Vos' "voice"
  Oct. 1, 1926 - The second anniversary number printed                       then waxed prophetic and opined that the reason for
another news letter from Byron Center, this time about                       this must be sought in the future  - that the Lord had
the dedication of a new church home, albeit a basement                      work for them that would run into years  ! Prophetic?
church. The dedicatory program scheduled speeches                            Yea, verily. Witness the ages of the Revs. Hoeksema
by Rev. Ophoff and Rev. H. Hoeksema. With this issue                         and Vos, both eager to occupy the pulpit again after
the S.B. became a bi-monthly magazine  - doubling                            a bout with illness.
the output  I                                                                     Ott, 1930  - The sixth volume of the S.B. carried
    Oct. 15, 1927  - Then came the glad news that our                        the news of the  Classis  Reports and the preaching
Seminary had graduated two students who were also                            schedule of our sixteen ministers and students. Note-
immediately placed in congregations. Rev. W. Verhil                         worthy is the fact that Rev. Hoeksema regularly
was installed by Rev G. M. Ophoff in Hull, Iowa Sept.                       preached three times in his church, a supply being
20, and the next day Rev. H. Hoeksema officiated at the                     provided for only one of the four services each Sunday.


24                                              T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
      June, 1934  - The eleventh volume produced news                Meditation was one on the confession found' in Psalm
which truly was a "first", It carried a photo of the                 119:65,66,  "Thou hast dealt well with thy servant...."?
first graduation class of the first Prot. Ref. Christian                 July 1, 195.4  - News accounts again began to grace
School to be organized. The place  - Redlands,  Calif.               the pages of our magazine. Trios, Calls, and the results
      June, 1935 - This issue contained the news that the            of those calls were reported. This issue also saw the
S.B. Board had instituted a great change in the editorial            beginning of a series of articles by the  Editor-in-
staff. Revs. Verhil and Vos were named regular editors               Chief detailing the court trial in Grand Rapids, and its
besides the original two. Further, that all our ministers            outcome which affected the whole denomination to this
were named associate editors, reducing the work-load                 present day.
of Revs. Hoeksema and Ophoff to ten pages of each                         Oct. 1, 1958  - Finally, under this dateline, this
issue. And, for the first time news editors were                     announcement was placed in the S.B.: "The Staff,
appointed  - five of them  - to present the news of the              in its last meeting, decided to institute a new column
churches from five main districts. The products of                   under the rubric, News From Our Churches. This
these editors appeared only occasionally, and were-                  decision is in response to the popular demand from
mostly reports  -of the coming and the leaving of                    many of our readers who are desirous of a closer
ministers with the attending farewell and  welcpming                 unity between our churches; a unity wherein we can
programs.                                                            share one another's joys and sorrows; a unity based
      Oct. 1, 1941  - The 17th anniversary number made               -on one hope, one love, one Lord Jesus Christ. So in
known the fact that Mr. S.  DeVries,  of Grand Rapids,               this issue you will find an introductory column devoted
had been named News Editor. His reports, written                     to church news as it affects each one of us. The
in the English language, appeared sporadically. for                  Ministers of each congregation and the presidents of
two years, but the new venture gradually died  .of                   consistories  of. vacant churches are requested to mail
starvation, according to the editor's final contribution             their bulletins and other important news directly to the
of Feb. 15, 1943.                                      -_            editor of this column". And, for six years, every issue
      Oct. 1, 1944  - Half-way to today's mark. This issue           (but one) of our  Standuvd   Beaver  has carried "News
was silent about its being the 20th anniversary number.              From Our Churches'!.
But was it strictly coincidence that Rev. Hoeksema's                                                       . ..see you in church.





                                               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                               The Board and Staff of Adams St. Christian School
                                express their deepest sympathy to Mr. R. Petersen in
                                the loss of his brother.
                                                 MR. EDWIN PETERSEN
                                "In God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my
                                strength, and my refuge, is in God." Psalm  62:7.
                                                        -.       Board of the Association for
                                                                            Christian Education
                                                                 J. Vander Woude, Secretary


                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

      On October 1, 1964, our dear parents,                          The Lord willing, our beloved parents
            MR. AND MRS, HENRY HEEMSTRA                                            MR. AND MRS. PETER DE VRIES
celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. We, their                  will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on Oct.
children, are thankful to God for the many covenant                  15, 1964. With gratitude to God we acknowledge His
blessings we have enjoyed through them. May our                      goodness to them and us for sparing them these many
gracious Father in heaven continue to care for them                  years.
and bless them in their future years.                                   We pray that God may continue to guide and bless
      Their children:                                                them in their remaining days.
               Mr. and Mrs.  Fredrick W. Geers                                                  Mr. and Mrs. John F. De Vries
               Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth A. Rietema                                                     Mr. and Mrs. Peter Zandstra
               Mr. and Mrs. Hollis D. Heemstra                                                                  9 grandchildren
                Mr. and Mrs. Ivan C. Korhorn                         Open House
                Nancy I. Heemstra                                    First Church basement
                Henry T. Heemstra,                                   7:30-9:30   p.m.  `r ?<


