                                       he



                                               earer


      A  REFORMED  SEMI-MONTHLY  MAGAZIVE



      IN  THlS ISSUE


            Meditation:
              The Parting of His Garments

            Editorial:
              Our Schools and Government Subsidy

            The Restoration of Absalom  (see: A Cloud of Witnesses)

            The Doctrine of Sin (see: Contending' for the Faith)



I                                              Volume XL V /Number 11 /March 1,1969
     I .


242                                                          THE STANDARD BEARER


                               CONTENTS:                                                                   TbE STANDARD BEARER

                                                                                      Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July and August.
Meditation-                                                                            Pubiished by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
   The Parting of His Garments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .242              E@tor-in-Chief:  Prof. H. C. Hoeksema

Editorials-                                                                    Department Editors:  Mr. John M. Faber, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof.
                                                                                  Herman Hanko, Rev. Robert C. Harbach, Rev. John A. Heys, Rev. Jay
   Editor's Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .245        Kortering, Rev. George C. Lubbers, Rev. Marinus Schipper, Rev. Gise J.
       Our Schools and Government Subsidy . . . . . . . . .245                    Van  Baren, Rev. Herman Veldman, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg
                                                                               Editorial Office:  Prof.  H..C. Hoeksema
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Meditation

                                      The Parting of His Garments
                                                                   Rev. M. Schipper

                                             "Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus,
                                          took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier
                                         a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without
                                         seam, woven from the top throughout. They said
                                          therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast
                                          lots for it, whose it shall be: that the Scripture might be
                                         fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among
                                          them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These
                                          things therefore the soldiers did. "                     John  19:23,24.
                                             "They part my garments among them, and cast lots
                                          upon my vesture. "                                         Psalm 22: 18.


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  243


  Abundantly full of the most significant contrasts is        garments. Could it be that the centurion was bothered
the life and death of Jesus!                                  by a much more serious business at the moment? Was he
  When He made His entrance into the world the                not more concerned about the Person of Christ than he
heavens brake to allow myriads of glorious angels to          was about His property? Was it not he who moments
announce in heavenly paeans: Joy to the world, the            later was forced to exclaim as Matthew tells it: "Truly
Lord is come. Caressed was He by a loving virgin              this was the Son of God;" or, as Luke informs us:
mother, embraced in the arms of an aged Simeon who            "Certainly this was a righteous man." And so, the
could not die until he had seen the Lord's Christ,.while      soldiers became the legal heirs.
those strange but wonderful magi come from afar to pay          Opinions differ as to His complete or partial dis-
obeisance to the King Who must be born of the Jews.           robing. Some think He retained at least a loin cloth.
But when He makes His exodus and departs out of the           Others believe He was robbed of all. We believe the
world He goes out in the company of bandits. Not only         latter to be the truth, not only because of the custom of
is He numbered by them with the transgressors, but            the day as suggested above, but more particularly
they rob Him of all His earthly possessions, even that        because of the terms describing His clothing used in the
which must cover His nakedness.                               text: the one describing His outer garments, and the
  When He made His entrance into the world, He Who            other that worn closest to His body. When all was
was rich became poor and was born in the midst of             removed there was nothing left. Moreover, the total
poverty, the very signs of which were the manger and          disrobing was in harmony with the cruelty of that day
swaddling clothes. But in His dire poverty He was             that intended to bring the most shame upon the
nevertheless clothed, though it be with swaddling bands       convicted and the condemned. This disrobing must have
which with the manger were indicative of His poverty.         taken place before the crucifixion, and the disposal of
On Calvary and the cross, on the other hand, His              His garments after the work of fixing Him to His cross
disrobing was a special symbol and spoke a unique             was finished. Then it was time to decide what to do
language of God. If angels could have spoken at His           with His effects. Not difficult was it for them to make
death as they did at His birth, they would have brought       equal disposition of His outer garments. Each of them
this message: And this shall be the sign unto you, ye         received a part. But when it came to the tunic, the
shall find the Saviour stripped and naked, and hanging        undergarment worn next to the skin, they were faced
on a cross. Swaddling clothes are given Him in God's          with a difficulty. The garment was all of one piece,
providence at His birth. By that same providence the          without seam. To divide it would have made it useless
garments which He possessed are taken away from Him           and worthless. Thus they decided to cast the lot for it to
at His death.                                                 see whose it would be.
  How interesting and striking it is to notice also how         The point of importance here is the significant fact
different is the day of Noah and the day of Christ with       that He, Whose right of requisition was solely His,
respect to nakedness ! In Noah's day to look upon             allowed Himself to be stripped naked.
nakedness made one worthy of the curse. This indeed             The ass upon which He made His royal entry into
was the penalty that fell on that son of Noah who             Jerusalem He simply requisitioned for the reason that
looked on his father's nakedness. In Christ's day, though     He had need of it. The room where He instructed His
we are tempted to look away from the nakedness of the         disciples to prepare the Passover, He simply took over
Son of God in the flesh, God adjures us, if we would not      on the grounds that He had need of it. The money
be unclothed but clothed upon, to stand there and see         which was in the fish's mouth, He simply lays claim to,
that nakedness which will clothe all His brethren. Truly      that He and Peter may meet their obligation to Caesar.
the nakedness of the suffering Prophet is divinely            But when it comes to the clothing of His nakedness, His
necessary to clothe us ragged sinners. It would be our        clothes are denied Him. Yea, He denies Himself the right
condemnation to look away from Him now. Even here             of requisition, and allows Himself to become naked.
there is life in a look at His naked form.                    Indeed, His God and ours denies Him the right to His
  Then the soldiers took His garments, and made four          clothing and ordains that He become a spectacle of
parts, to every soldier a part; and for His coat they cast    shame.
the lot!                                                        By itself, clothing is not nice. In the state of
  Thus Christ was disrobed!                                   righteousness there was no need for clothes. Adam and
  Not unusual it was in those days to so treat one            Eve were naked before they fell by transgression, and
adjudged to be criminal! Regulation had it that the           they were not ashamed. Sin brought with it shame.
property of the condemned was legitimate loot to the          Hence, our first parents sewed fig leaves to make
executioners of his sentence. And generally it was the        themselves aprons. And later God provided them with
centurion, the officer in charge of the execution, to lay     coats of skin. The sinners must learn that it will not do
the first claim. We know, of course, that in this instance    to devise their own covering for sin, but only God can
this rule was not followed. For the text plainly states       provide their covering, and that, too, through the
that it was the soldiers who disposed of Christ's             shedding of blood, the sacrifice of atonement. And


244                                                  THE STANDARD BEARER


when Christ, our Representative in the sinful world                   stripped naked. Caesar has finally succeeded in robbing
makes His appearance, He is fully clothed. But when He                this Holy Child even of His swaddling clothes.
pays the penalty of our guilt, He must become naked.                     Shameful suffering!
  That the Scripture might be fulfilled!                                 .Nailed to a cross, stripped and naked, and He cannot
  Beautiful prophecy as related in Psalm 22!                          hide!
  Correctly called: The Psalm of the Cross!                              Behold Him, Whom heaven will not receive, and earth
  Listen to the psalmist utter those meaningful excla-                has cast out of her sight!
mations we hear again in the proximity of Calvary! "My                   So horrible is the suffering into which He is plunged,
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Verse 1).                   and so black is the darkness that envelops Him that He
"But I am a worm, and no man." (Verse 6). "All they                   feels Himself abandoned as it were into the lowest hell.
that see me  .laugh me to scorn, they shoot out the  lip,             And there in His loneliness He believes that even His
they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that              God has abandoned Him. He cries out in His abandon-
he would deliver him, let him deliver him, seeing he                  ment: My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
delighteth in him." (Verses  73). "They pierced my                       Why must He suffer so?
hands and my feet." (Verse 16). And then in Verse 18                     0, paradox of paradoxes!
we read: "They part my garments among them and cast                      The answer is: that a naked church may be clothed
lots for my vesture."                                                 with garments that are pure white!
  A Psalm of David, occasioned by his flight from Saul!                  Like our first father, who, having become disobedient
He laments that the misery which robs him of the                      and fallen in depravity, knew his shame; so we of his
experience of blessed fellowship with his God is caused               generations stand before God, the Holy One, stark
by those who were doing him wrong. They who                           naked in our shame. And because we by nature, like
persecute him are robbers and plunderers. He gives a                  Adam, will not recognize that the only clothing where-
vivid picture of these plunderers by comparing them                   with we may appear acceptably before God must be
with such common ones as are willing to raffle off the                that which He Himself prepares for us, have gone about
clothes of their victim. These plunderers are bent on                 making to ourselves our own garments-the  figleaf
making him an object of shame. It is questionable                     garments of self-righteousness, which can only be
whethqr David literally experienced the losing of his                 burned from us by the heat of His consuming wrath. So
clothes. Better it is to understand that the Holy Spirit of           that, no matter how nice we may seem to appear when
Christ is He Who speaks in the Psalm and is foretelling               God finds us, we are still naked before Him with Whom
exactly the way the Redeemer must go.                                 we have to do.
  And so, again, we have here the suffering Prophet                      God Himself must clothe His naked church and that
fulfilling the Scriptures!                                            with the garments of righteousness which He alone
  In our former meditation we` observed Him actively                  could prepare.
and deliberately choosing Judas the betrayer. But now                    This is the significance of the suffering of the naked
we behold Him passively bowing to the will of His                     Saviour !
executioners--but whether actively or passively-yet ful-                 He took our place, and contracted our shame, and as
filling the Scriptures.                                               our Representative received our curse and bore our
  Behold Him, that great Son of David, as He is being                 punishment. Following the route of obedience as it was
plundered on Golgotha! No longer is it His privilege to               prescribed for Him in the prophetic Scriptures, He
walk freely. He is fixed to the cross. The soldiers had               allows Himself to be unclothed and to hang naked
done their work well. They pierced His hands and His                  before God's tribunal; while in love to God and to His
feet as they nailed His emaciated body to the accursed                church, He brings the sacrifice of atonement that must
tree. He watches these robbers as they tear from His                  merit the dispensation of that clothing of righteousness
body His covering. He observes as He loses His claim. He              which alone can bear away God's approval and blessing.
rejoices that He has not erred from the path predicted                   Thus the bride of Christ is clothed in pure white and
of Him. While David may have been robbed, it would be                 awaits the appearance of the great Bridegroom Whom
of the clothing given to him; but Christ is robbed of all             God has highly exalted because He has so deeply
that is His own. The Great Clothier allows Himself to be              humbled Himself.
             It is plain, then, that when a man sings 01 preaches "Whosoever will may come," he presents in song or sermon
           what is undoubtedly true. And to this we have no objection. Indeed, it is true that whoever will may come to
           Christ, and will surely be received. Never a man will appear in the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment
           of God who will be able to say that he longed, and desired, and willed, and sought earnestly to come, but was
           refused. But if a man sings or preaches no more than this, he, nevertheless, fails to present the full truth of the
           gospel as it is in Christ Jesus and revealed to us in Holy Writ. He speaks a half truth which, because of its
           deceptive nature, is more dangerous than a direct and plain falsehood. A large part, the more basic and, therefore,
           niore important part of the truth he forgets or intentionally omits. One may, indeed, freely proclaim "over vale
           and hill" that "whosoever will may come," but he is unfaithful to his ministry unless he adds: "no one can come
           unless the Father draw him; it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that  runneth, but of God that sheweth
           mercy."                                                                 H. Hoeksema,  "Whosoever Will, "pp. 16, 17


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   245



Editorials

                                             EDITOR'S NOTES

  Don't blame your editor if you fail to take advantage         March 4, at South Holland. Personally, I have long felt
of the pre-publication sale of "Behold, He Cometh!  -           that there is not sufficient opportunity for fellowship
An Exposition of the Book of Revelation." The reason            among the ministers of our small denomination. Too
will not be that you have not been reminded. When this          often we see and speak to one another only at such
issue arrives in your mail, the pre-publication sale will be    occasions as classical and  synodical and committee
exactly one-half over. Have you ordered your copy?              meetings. This invitation from our Western ministers is a
Being privy to all the preparations for publication, I          move in the right direction. The seminary faculty and
have had the opportunity to see the final page proofs.          students are planning to attend. And I recommend that
This is going to be a beautifully printed book, I can           the various consistories urge their respective ministers to
assure you! And I hardly need tell you that I am in love        attend and that if they have other activities scheduled,
with the contents of this clear and thorough exposition         they should be excused from those. Rev. D. J. Engelsma
of the Book of Revelation. It ought to be in every              is scheduled to deliver a paper on "The Genealogy of
Protestant Reformed home, and in many others too!               Jesus According to the Flesh."
Get your copy at the special price of $7.95 by ordering                                  ******
it today and enclosing payment. The address: Reformed
Free Publishing Association, P. 0. Box 2006, Grand                We welcome Rev. R. Decker to this issue as a guest
                                                                writer in the department 
Rapids, Mich. 49501.                                                                         The  Lord Gave The Word.
                           ******                               And, in a feature article, our News Editor is doubling as
                                                                a reporter for our Theological School Committee. I
  I recommend  that all the ministers of  Classis East          wonder what grade I should give him in Isagogics for the
accept the invitation to attend the Ministers' Conference       morning?
of Classis West which is to be held, D.V., on Tuesday,


                  Our Schools and Government Subsidy
                                                  ProJ: H. C. @oeksema

A Word of In tvoduction                                         children. In the City of Chicago the Roman Catholic
  To discuss the subject of government subsidy of               schools enroll more than 35 per cent of the children of
non-public schools hardly needs any justification today.        school age. The school system of the Archdiocese of
In the  realm of things educational, there is hardly an         Chicago is the nation's fourth largest, exceeded in size
issue that is more in the news and more under discussion        only by the public school systems of New York, Los
everywhere than this one.                                       Angeles, and Chicago. According to a recent report in
  In the State of Michigan there are at least three             the  Chicago Tribune,  it is plagued by financial and
proposals for some kind of state subsidy of non-public          personnel problems which, if unchecked, threaten to be
education, two of which are already before the legisla-         fatal for half of its 515 schools within a decade. And
ture in some form, and one of which has been publicly           recently the bishops of that state have bluntly stated
proposed by an influential member of the State Board            that only the state could preserve the Catholic school
of Education but not yet formally introduced to the             system.
legislature. Every day the newspapers carry items about           And so it goes. Similar problems and proposals are
this subject and about various public meetings for              arising in other states. Besides, the federal government is
discussion and debate of the issue.                             already deeply committed to aid non-public schools
  In other states-the Christian school movement is not          from the college level down; and it bids fair to become
numerically as large as in Michigan; but in some of these       more deeply involved.
the Roman Catholics claim a large number of students              Sooner or later parental Christian schools everywhere,
and are clamoring for financial help from the govern-           including our own parent-controlled, covenantal
ment. In Illinois, for example, this is the case. In that       schools, are likely to be faced by the necessity of giving
state the Roman Catholic schools presently enroll 20            a Yes or No answer to the offer of some kind of
per cent of all the state's elementary and high school age      government subsidy. Or, in areas where the public


     246                                              THE STANDARD BEARER


     school forces hold more complete sway numerically,            by the dollar signs in our eyes. And we can be deceived
     and where government help may therefore not become a          by slogans about justice and about a "fair share" of the
     real option, Christian schools may find themselves the        state's coffers into which we pay our taxes, et cetera. I
     victims of a squeeze-play which threatens their very          have written about this in the past; and I shall have more
     existence in a different way. This, I under&and, is           to say about it. But by all means, let us keep our
     increasingly the situation in Iowa, Ghere there is a move     Christian bearings, and not allow ourselves to be
     afoot to make it difficult for Christian schools to exist     tempted by the lure of dollars into deciding our stand
     by exerting the pressures of various technical require-       on this issue without regard to our Christian principles.
     ments.                                                        Then we might better close our schools right now,
       Hence, we must be ready! Our school boards must be          rather than wait for them to die a slow death through
     ready to take the proper stand. But more than that, our       lack of real commitment.
     societies and parents must be ready to make a proper            No, for us this issue is one of principle. And it is on
     decision. For this is not an issue that can be decided by     this basis alone that we must take our stand. If
     any board all by itself, nor would I expect that any          government subsidy is right, then we must not only wait
     board would even want to bear the responsibility. Our         for it to come and accept it when it is offered. Then we
     schools belong to the parents and the parent-societies.       had better get on the band-wagon and work for it  -
     And therefore we all must know what this is about, and        always, of course, on the basis of principle. If it is
     must be able to make a well-founded decision.                 wrong, then we  may not,  before God, accept it, even
       Moreover, we must be prepared to face this issue            though  the.majority  might succeed in making it  avail-
     strictly on the basis of Christian and, more specifically,    able,.as I expect they will. And let us remember: we are
     Reformed principles. It is not a pragmatic question of        not accountable to men, nor to ourselves, but to our
     the half-plus-one, the majority, the "voice of the            God, Who has charged us with the training of our
     people." It is only to be regretted that here in Michigan     children in the fear of His name.
     all kinds of tiressure  groups, both for and against state      In this series of articles, therefore, I purpose to study
     aid, are being formed, - in most cases utterly without        the entire subject of government subsidy of non-public
     regard to any real principles. Protestant and Roman           education, particularly with respect to our own Chris-
     Catholic and Lutheran and Jew, Christ and Belial, the         tian schools. There are principles involved here: princi-
     world and the church seem to be able to form all kinds        ples of justice, principles of government, principles of
     of alliances either to advance public education or to         education. And when I speak of principles, I mean
     advance aid to non-public schools. And it is nothing less     principles which can only properly be spelled out from a
     than appalling to behold the spectacle of those who are       Reformed point of view and on the basis of Scripture.
     supposed to be Reformed leaders joining in these              In these articles, I shall also attempt to be factual and
     unprincipled movements and even trying to be heard as         informative. I have been watching the various develop-
     spokesmen.                                                    ments being reported and have been gathering informa-
       Nor is it a question of state or federal constitutions.     tion about the proposals in Michigan especially; and for
     For legislatures and courts this is indeed a question; and    the most part my discussion of any concrete proposals
     the constitutional provision of the "non-establishment        will be concerned with the situation in Michigan. But
     of religion" is proving to be a knotty problem for            the problem and the principles involved will, I trust, be
     proponents of school< aid. However, it may very well be       generally the same everywhere.
     that in the future this problem will be either solved           Meanwhile, I invite you, the readers, to do two
     legislatively or resolved in favor of school aid by the       things. In the first place, send to me any information
     courts of  the land, which tend to be rather pragmatic        you can, especially from and about other states. Some
     any way in recent years. The legislative and judicial         have already done this; to them my thanks. In the
     trend seems to be in this direction: But just because         second place, I welcome any questions which you may
     government subsidy may be declared constitutional does        have on the subject, or any questions which my articles
     not make it permissible for us as Christians. While we        may occasion. I will do my best to answer them.
     abide by the constitution of the land, let us remember
     that we have a higher and controlling loyalty, that of        The Proposal of the Joint Legislative Committee
     the kingdom of God and its righteousness.                       When what has been nicknamed Parochiaid failed to
       Nor, surely, is it a question of money. This is what it     get through the legislature last year, a Joint Legislative
     has become in the public mind to a large extent,  - a         Study Committee on Aid to Non-Public Schools was
     clamor for funds. It is precisely this aspect which is        appointed "to conduct an in-depth study of the present
     tempting many to join in the hue-and-cry for govern-          status of  non-pub& schools and, as a result of that
     ment subsidy. And because both the love of money and          study, to report its findings to the 1969 Legislative
     the littleness of faith with respect to the morrow so         session." (Report of the Joint Legislative Committee, p.
     readily plague us as imperfect children of God, the           1; hereafter referred to as RJLC). This committee of 5
_    danger is not small that we are blinded to the real issues    state senators and 5 state representatives investigated,


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                        247


conducted hearings, listened to supposed experts, and                     financial and child accounting records of the non-
prepared a report and recommendations. Obviously the                      public schools as they pertained to the purchase of
committee was from the outset bent on coming up with                      services.
some kind of formula for state aid; at least their report            The Report goes on to comment on this proposal as
never mentions the possibility of rejecting state aid al-          follows, p. 27:
together, but only reports on several possible courses of                 Such legislation can be carefully drafted in order to
providing aid. And after narrdwing down the possibil-                  meet constitutional tests and to safeguard the interests
ities to four, the committee recommends the fourth,                    of the state in the use of public funds. Administration
which I here quote in full (RJLC, pp. 25-27):                          by the State Board of Education through existing
                                                                       intermediate structure (the vast number of local school
    Purchase of educational services with amount deter-                districts would make administration through such
    mined by a percentage of public school aid                         districts far more unwieldy and more costly), with no
       The committee carefully examined the following                  money going directly to non-public schools, would
    approach for consideration.                                        provide safeguards.
    Concepts of this legislative approach are as follows:                Yet the non-public schools of this state would be
     1. State aid to non-public schools would be related to            able to maintain their identity while continuing their
       a percentage of the state aid formula for public                contribution to the general welfare, to public educa-
       schools. Funds would be paid out of the general                 tion, and to the general tax-paying public.
       fund for the purchase of secular educational ser-                  The Legislature could determine, through testing,
       vices.                                                          whether or not this approach was meeting the secular
     2. Money would be appropriated to each Intermediate               legislative purpose.
       School District based upon a membership count of              Nbw I do not intend to criticize this proposal in any
       non-public school pupils on the fourth Friday after        detail at this  ,time. Let me merely point out some
       Labor Day.                                                 notable features:
    3. The amount of money should be based on the                  1) Inherent in the proposal is the religious-secular
       existing average net full-time membership allowance
       to public schools. The proponents recommended              distinction in education which plagues all who try to
       amount for 1969-70 would be 50% of that average            find a way to provide state aid.
       allowance. In inner city target areas to be desig-         2) This proposal rather deviously tries to avoid any form
       nated by the State Board of Education, the  full           of  direct  state aid to non-public schools:  1)By making
       average membership allowance should be granted             payments  indirectly  through the Intermediate School
       for 1969-70 and every year thereafter.                     Districts.  2)By so-called "purchasing of educational
    4. The Intermediate School District, establishing a           services" rather than outright subsidy. 3)By attempting
       separate account, would purchase under supervision         to stipulate that those whose services are purchased are
        of the State Board of Education, from boards of           .nevertheless  not employees of the Intermediate School
        education, associations, or corporations operating        Di+-ict, though payment would go to the persons, not
       non-public schools, legislatively specified educa-         to their schools (a rather novel way of redefining the term
       tional services (such as guidance and counseling
        services, library and audio-visual services, and pro-      employee!)
       fessional teacher services) for the benefit of pupils      3) The State  wou'ld already have its fingers into the
       in membership.                                             internal affairs of the schools by testing pupil achieve-
     5. The Intermediate School District would pay pro-           ment in courses of instruction for which it pays and by
       fessional persons (who would be required to be             requiring audits of the schools' records.
       state certified or meet minimum state standards)              Finally, I wish to point out that the entire approach
       rendering such services upon written certification         of this proposal is financial and utilitarian. The commit-
       by non-public school authority that such services          tee was concerned with but one thing: the financial
       had been provided. Such persons would not be               problems of the non-public schools. And ultimately the
        considered employees of the Intermediate School           motivation is the protection of the economic welfare of
       District and would never receive all of their wages
       from the Intermediate District. Therefore, no mon-         the state and of the public schools. This is evident
       ey would be paid directly to the institution.              throughout the report, but it is rather bluntly stated in
     6. No Intermediate Board of Education would pur-             the following section from the Summary (RJLC, p. 28):
        chase any educational services in courses of instruc;             We find that the existence of non-public schools
       tion in religion.                                               provides the state with valuable education resources
     7. In order to assure that the state was receiving                and results in vast financial savings annually to the
        appropriate services for state aid, the State Board of         general public.
       Education should annually test pupil achievement                   The non-public schools are faced with severe fman-
       in courses of instruction purchased in order to                 cial problems. This is evident by the enrollment loss of
        determine the secular effect and whether the secular           46,000 students from non-public schools during the
       educational legislative purposes are being achieved.            past four years due to fiscally induced closures and
    8. The State Board should require audits (similar to               cutbacks.
       those required of public school districts) of the                  This transfer of students from the non-public sector


248                                                      THE STANDARD BEARER


       to the public sector is already costing the taxpayers             stated that "I do not feel public funds can be used for
       $30 million this year. At a time when our public                   the indoctrination of specific values  - whether they
       schools are having financial problems of their own, the            be mine or someone else's." This proposal involves
       state cannot afford to lose any available educational
       resources.                                                        issuance of a voucher to any student to pay for his
          The financial problems of non-public schools are                education so long as the school he attends meets the
       most severe in our metropolitan inner cities in the very           following criteria: 1) Proper certification of all teachers
       areas where our public schools face the greatest prob-             and curriculum. 2) Selection of faculty on a nondiscrim-
       lems .                                                            inatory basis. 3) Prohibition against imposing discipline
          The Legislature should act on the principle that               upon the basis of creed. 4) Optional religious training
       partial investment in non-public schools will prove to             and no religious symbols in the school. 5) Acceptance of
       be more economical to the general tax-paying public                all students up to a school's capacity, no matter what
       than paying the full cost through state and local taxes            their race or religion. Supporters of government aid,
       of educating these children in public schools.                     needless to say, have already expressed strenuous
0 ther Proposals                                                          objections to this plan.
  The proposal of the Joint Committee was to have                           Finally, I may briefly mention the suggestion of
been introduced in the Legislature during the first part                  former Governor George Romney in his farewell ad-
of February. Meanwhile, other proposals have been made.                   dress. I mention it not because it is considered a real
   One bill has already been introduced which provides                    option in Michigan, but because it was in a way more
for a tax exemption for those tax-payers who send their                   honest than diplomatic. The governor, who has some-
children to non-public schools. Not much is being said                    what of a reputation for foot-in-mouth disease, bluntly
about this bill at present, the reason probably being that                proposed that the non-public schools and the churches
it will not provide adequate financial aid to non-public                  get completely out of the business of education in
schools. Besides, it will have the effect of reducing the                 so-called secular subjects, and leave this education to the
state's income and its support of public schools at a                     public school system. The church-related schools would
time when the state is looking for more income to meet                    then serve only to furnish direct religious instruction.
a higher budget. And while I doubt that this proposal                       I call this proposal honest, because it simply carries
has much chance of passage, there would still be the                      the distinction between religious and secular education,
question whether this would be a no-strings-attached                      - a distinction which everyone has been making, - to
exemption with respect to the matter of  religious-                       its logical consequences. But you should have heard the
`or-secular education.                                                    cries of anguish, and even of outrage, arising from
   Still another proposal was aired by a member of the                    almost every quarter, especially from the proponents of
State Board of Education, a proposal which might be                       state aid who have constantly been talking about the
presented in modified form to the legislature. Appar-                     secular subjects taught in Christian schools. It was rather
ently the proposal was deliberately made in order to                      amusing how the governor put certain people on the
restrict subsidy of non-public schools as much as                         spot!
possible. For its author, a. Dr. Augenstein, admitted                       Next time, D.V., we shall begin to examine the issues
that probably many of the state's parochial schools                       at stake.
would elect not to participate; and he rather frankly


In His `Fear

                                             A Song in the Heart
                                                                   (Concluded)

                                                           Rev. John A. Heys


   There is a moment of hushed expectancy.                                has gone by, has had his own personal experiences. Each
   At least there ought to be such a moment before the                    has had his own struggle with sin and with the
divine worship service begins.                                            temptations of the flesh. But all gather before God's
   From various directions and distances the saints have                  face to hear what the Spirit hath to say to the churches.
gathered in one place as members of a local manifesta-                       All the reborn pilgrims there assembled have the song
tion of the body of Christ. Each has his own problems                     of salvation in their hearts. Under all the burdens and
and cares that trouble his soul. Each, in the week that                   anxieties of the day that song is there. Deep within


                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER                                                   249



     them the song of Moses and of the Lamb murmurs in              pipe. David was a cunning player upon the harp. Even
     their souls. And this it is that brings them to this place     though these instruments have their inception in the
     at this time.                                                  inventions of godless Jubal, the Scriptures certainly
       Indeed, there is much custom and habit about our             make it plain that God's people may make use of them
     church attendance. We go to church because we have             to the glory of His name.
     been going to church. There is not too much thinking             "That does not mean at all that we may play any
     very often, from the first waking moment on the                style of music, nor by any means does it put the stamp
     Sabbath until we arrive in our pew, about what we are          of approval upon all kinds of music to be played in the ._
     doing here and why we came to this sanctuary. Not              divine services as an offertory. It does not mean that we
     until we sit down and breathe our prayer for God's             may play anything we please in the prelude and
     blessing upon the service do we squarely face the reality      postlude to our divine services. No more than every
     of our coming into God's house.                                piece of vocal music is suitable for use in our divine
       Even then all that which we did that morning before          services is every piece of music composed by believer or
     coming to church pointed us in that direction. We              unbeliever proper for a prelude, offertory or postlude.
     dressed differently. We laid out the money for our             We do not even hesitate to say that not  every
     children to give as their offering. We picked up our Bible     arrangement of a hymn or Psalter tune is suitable for
     and hymn book instead of our tool box and dinner pail.         these occasions, even though they might be permissible
     We backed our car out and headed in a different                at a program, or at home.
     direction. And if we have over-slept, we will hurry to get       "In the house of God before the services and during
     into our seat before the servant of God steps up to the        the services the music ought to be slowly and softly
     pulpit.                                                        played. God's people come from various environments
       Then, in these moments before the service begins,            to the house of prayer and meditation. As we gather
     there is or ought to be that moment of hushed                  there we are gathered at Jesus' feet to be taught by Him.
     expectancy while we wait for the salutation; while we          Anything that would by its lilting rhythm, its boisterous
     wait to join with the other saints to sing the song that is    character or its levity tend to destroy the solemnity and
     in our hearts; while we wait for the moment when our           reverence of the occasion ought to be kept off the music
     souls shall be united in prayer - the moment when the          rack of the piano or organ. Indeed, there may well be
     world fades from our eyes and from our minds  - and            the joy of salvation surging through the souls of God's
     we stand before God's face; while we wait - O! were it         people as they congregate and especially as they hearken
     only breathlessly  - for God Himself to speak to us            to the Word of God preached. At times the auditorium
     through His human mouthpiece.                                  may ring with a resounding praise to God. And the
       This is an important moment.                                 organist may often desire to have at his disposal double
       The organist  - or pianist  - should therefore con-          the volume of which the organ is capable to cope with
     stantly bear this in mind and avoid making it a moment         this joyful burst of praise to God. Those thrilling
     of fleshly agitation. The organist should remember that        experiences are often the greatest inspiration the organ-
     this song of Moses and of the Lamb is there in the hearts      ist has for his work. But, nevertheless, this does not
     of God's people. And every effort should be put forth          detract from the fact that as the congregation assembles
     to bring it out rather than to stifle it and excite to         or as the congregation renders its offering, it behooves
     toe-tapping or ear-tickling fleshly entertainment.             the holiness and solemnity of the occasion that the
       Our attention has been called to the fact that we            music itself be of such nature and that it be played
     wrote something along this line in the department of           softly and slowly so that the congregation is led not into
     `Yin His Fear" some sixteen years ago. It was suggested        earthly meditation and excitement, but instead is
     that we reprint them for today's generations. We will do       prepared psychologically to listen to the Word of God."
     so and add a few new thoughts.                                   Need we add that the prelude, offertory and postlude`
       "As far, then, as instrumental music is concerned the        are not to be an exhibition of the organist's abilities?
     Scriptures show clearly that when it is rendered by the        These are to assist the child of God in His worship and
     believing child of God and done to His glory, it is not        praise of God. It must not sound before or during the
     only permissible, but it is also pleasing in His sight and     service as though the last exercise or etude that the
     in His holy ears. We hear the Church of God exhorted to        organist has mastered for his "lesson" is now going to be
     praise God in Psalm 150 even with the clanging and high        run through before this audience so as to keep in
     sounding cymbals. In Psa1.m 33: 2 and 3 we read, `Praise       practice on it. And it must not be something "over the
     the Lord with the harp, sing unto Him with the psaltery        heads" of the children of God assembled. It must not be
     and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto Him a new          a dazzling display that attracts the attention of the
     song; play skillfully with a loud noise.' When Samuel          saints (who have assembled to see God's glory in our
     sent Saul home after anointing as king over Israel, he         salvation) and focuses that attention to the man seated
     told him that he would meet a company of prophets              at the console. It must serve to direct the whole service
,    with psaltery (a wind instrument), harp, lyre, tabret and      to the praise and glory of Him Who created music in


250                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


order that His glory might shine forth. There is a place        speak five words with my understanding, that by my
for the brilliant and intricate fugue and even of the           voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words
stirring march, but that place is not at the place where        in an unknown tongue." We do speak figuratively of the
God's people have assembled for quite a different               "voice" of the organ. And that organ can speak very
purpose: to hear what the Spirit hath to say to the             beautifully to the saints gathered in the sanctuary, if we
churches. The song in the heart of God's people must            use it to speak the Word by means of the melody that
not be curbed and be shunted by that which has its              has been associated with it.
appeal merely to the flesh and is designed to emphasize           It is a thing to be regretted that the world does take
and call attention to the work of man.                          our church music, put its sensual and fleshly words to it
  Organists do well to remember that at any program             and thus rob us of its use in our churches. What was
that which receives the greatest appreciation is a well         written for church music, what could well be used to set
known tune or composition. The music is played or               a quiet, reverent mood by its smooth-flowing melody
sung in order that the audience may follow in its soul. A       and rich harmony we would not dare to use even at a
strange melody may have its appeal, but even then after         church program, because today it is far better known as,
it is known it has greater appeal. One simply wants to          "Moonlight and Roses." Here is one melody of which
walk along with the song. He wants in his soul to keep          the world has robbed us. In fact we find it hard to think
up with the melody, he wants to share with the                  of it anymore as anything but a song of the world, even
performer. And a known melody serves that purpose.              though it was written for church music and simply
Applied now to the prelude, offertory and even post-            called, "Andantino in D Flat." Use it before the saints,
lude - although the attention to it is far less critical or     and we would certainly send their thoughts down any
serious  - this means that what satisfies, serves and           direction but the momentary confrontation with God
prepares the child of God for meeting his God in the            Himself in the preaching of the Word.
preaching of the Word is the song of salvation in his             But so it is also with, those melodies which we do at
heart which by God's grace he knows. A reverently,              once associate with particular Scriptural truths  - and
quietly and softly played hymn or gospel song, wherein          indeed also with heretical positions. The latter are, of
these diversified saints can unite with their souls in the      course, to be avoided. The former are to be sought and
contemplation of God's glory and in the wonder of               used. Let the musician serve the congregation and fill
salvation, prepares them for that for which they have           this moment of hushed expectancy with music that will
assembled.                                                      not make the service a sharp contrast by its reverence
  Let it never be lost sight of that they are assembled         and spiritual atmosphere. Instead let the prelude blend
for the spiritual. They came not for entertainment but          into and lead into the worship service. Then indeed it is
for edification and inspiration from the Word, and by           a prelude. One does not play the organ before church
the Word. Let then that Word also be there in the               for oneself but for others. And it is a wonderful service
prelude and offertory in that the melody played                 to prepare others to wait in hushed expectancy and in
suggests the Word which is versified and has been united        His fear for the moment of united worship of the thrice
to that tune. We are reminded of Paul's words in I              holy God.
Corinthians 14: 19, "Yet in the church I had rather


A Cloud of Witnesses

                         The Restoration of Absalom
                                                   Rev. B. Woudenberg

                                  And Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent unto
                                thee, saying, Come hither, that I may send thee to the
                                king, to say, Wherefore am I come from Geshur? it had
                                been good for me to have been there still: now therefore
                                let me see the king's face; and if  there be any iniquity in
                                me, let him kill me.
                                  So Joab came to the king, and told him: and when he
                                had called for Absalom, he came to the king, and bowed
                                himself on his face to the ground before the king: and
                                the king kissed Absalom.               II Samuel 14: 32,33


                                                 THE STANDARD BEARER                                                    251



  The wise woman of Tekoah had presented Joab's                among those who were mighty in the land. When,
argument to David with a masterly touch, and the               therefore, he came back to Jerusalem only to find
cleverness of Joab's working was evident in it through-        himself banished still from the only place where
out. By taking a case which was similar to David's own,        influence could really be established, it was a cruel
but much more difficult, she was able to extract from          blow, more severe than he could actually bear.
David a precedent decision of leniency for a young man           It was a bitter two years that Absalom spent after his
who had killed his brother. From there it took but a few       return to Jerusalem. He was free to live in his own
quick moves to show to David his apparent inconsis-            home, he was free to move throughout the land, he was
tency in excusing her son for such a crime while leaving       free to have his own friends; but the one place he had to
his own in banishment for what he had done. By this            go if he was to establish power for himself and influence
time David was fully suspecting the maneuverings of            was barred to him. At last, as the weeks and months
Joab in the background; and yet he followed because he         passed on, Absalom began to realize that he had
wanted to. David's heart wanted to excuse Absalom and          misjudged his own ability to turn his father in whatever
restore him even though his mind and his conscience            way he wanted. As a child his father had always favored
said he shouldn't. But thus it was that at last he yielded.    him; and he had been quite confident that regardless of
Summoning Joab he commanded him to recall the                  what he did he would always be able to restore himself
banished Absalom.                                              to favor again. But now at last, he was beginning to
  The conscience of David, however, was much too               realize that he was wrong. As strongly as his father loved
strong to be so easily subdued. For the moment he had          him, David's dedication to the principles of right and
been beguiled into recalling Absalom from his banish-          justice were even stronger. Because of what Absalom
ment, and he allowed the order to stand. Nevertheless,         had done, his father would never come to consider him as
he did not feel that the impression might ever be left         a serious prospect to inherit the throne of Israel. His sin,
that he overlooked and was excusing the wickedness of          even if personally forgiven, would be held against him in
what Absalom had done. The result was that, although           his public position as long as he lived.
Absalom was called back from Geshur to Jerusalem, he             For Absalom, however, this realization did not
was denied all of his court priviledges as a son of the        become the occasion for any serious repentance or
king. He was allowed to live in his own house with his         regret for what he had done. It only meant that his
family. He was allowed to work his own land and collect        plans and ambitions had to be approached from a
the profits from it. But not once was he allowed to            different point of view. If his father could not be gained
enter the court of the king either to mingle with the          to serve his cause, he would have to find some way of
mighty men of the land in their festive occasions or to        bypassing the assistance of the king. Those two years
discuss with them the problems of maintaining the              after he first returned to Jerusalem were not wasted
kingdom. It meant that Absalom was yet a marked man,           from Absalom's point of view; but they were certainly
just as really as when he was many miles away in the           years during which he gave himself over to the basest
banishment of Geshur.                                          side of his nature. There in the isolation of his own
  For Absalom this was a most severe disappointment.           home all personal feelings which he held for anyone
From the very first, he had been quite aware of the            died and in its place came a burning drive toward the
special love and favor which he held in the eyes of his        goal which he had always wanted more than anything
father. In fact, he had been relying on this to carry him      else, the throne of Israel. Slowly, carefully and with all
through. It had come to him with no surprise when a            the calculating cleverness of his nature, Absalom
messenger arrived from Jerusalem calling him back out          planned his moves step by step as to just what he could
of exile: the only thing that had surprised him was that       do to accomplish his purpose. Then, when at last he had
this summons had not come sooner. He had never really          determined exactly what was to be done, he began to
expected that his father would hold out for three full         act accordingly.
years without recalling him to the palace. Thus, when            The first move of Absalom was to call Joab to him as
the call finally did come, he was more than ready to get       a means of restoring himself to a position where he
back to Jerusalem and become involved with all that he         could operate effectively within the kingdom. He had
had planned. After all, the death of  Amnon had                thought that after all he ought to be able to gain a bit of
involved much more than just the revenge of Tamar,             cooperation from this corner seeing Joab had been the
although he had always told himself this was the chief         one responsible for bringing him back from Geshor.
consideration.  Amnon was the one, he felt, that had           Immediately, however, he discovered how difficult his
always stood between himself and the royal throne.             planned course of action was going to be. Joab was
Once Amnon was out of the way, and the wrath of his            himself a man of keen discernment. Once Absalom had
father had had time to cool, Absalom was sure that he          returned from Geshur, Joab kept his eye on him as he
could establish himself as the successor to his father's       did on all of those of potential influence within the
throne. He was anxious now, to get back into the flow          kingdom. Thus, it did not take him long to come to the
of things and to build his own image and reputation            conclusion that here was more than just a growing boy


252                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


who had made a blunder in a heat of temper; here was a        there still: now therefore let me see the king's face; and
young man of ambition who knew what he wanted and             if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me."
was determined to get it. In fact, it did not' take long        Joab was impressed. There was a certain daring
before Joab had come to the conclusion that he had            courage in a young man who was ready to burn down
made a very bad blunder by preparing  the way for             the field of an army captain rather than be ignored; and
Absalom's restoration to Jerusalem. But it  kas done,         there was an element of justice in his demand. Actually,
and to undo it again was almost impossible. All that he       Joab felt relieved. Maybe Absalom wasn't so bad after
could do was to be careful that he didn't plab into the       all. Maybe he had misjudged the young man. Wasn't
young man's hands any further. Thus, when a! summons          there something unfair about calling him all of the way
came from  .Absalom requesting his presence at his            back from Geshur only to leave him totally ignored for
house, Joab simply ignored it and failed to appear.           two whole years at the very gate of the palace? In any
Impatiently Absalom sent again a second time; but this        case, Joab saw no reason why he should not help
time also Joab ignored the summons completely,                Absalom along once more and plead his cause before the
making it quite evident to Absalom that he had no             king. Thus, he promised Absalom that he would do so,
indication of cooperating with him.                           and he did.
  Absalom, however, was not about to be' so easily              It was a touching scene that brought about the
discouraged. He had his plan, and, if he needed the           reconciliation of David to his son. Through all of the
cooperation of Joab to enact it, he was going to have it.     intervening five years David's love for the young man
So in exasperated impatience, he went into action. He         had not dimmed. He loved him dearly with a love that
had a field which was located right next to a field of        was intense, and he showed it. The young man came
Joab's in which there stood a crop of ripening grain.         into the court with all of the appearance of humility
Calling a few of his servants to him, he instructed them,     and repentance. Bowing himself before David, he did
"See, Joab's field is near mine, and he hath barley there;    the obeisance which was expected of a subject before
go and set it on fire."                                       his king. But David felt more as a father to the young
  As he expected, this brought `a quick response.             man than as a ruler. Raising him up he took Absalom
Although Joab was a most clever man, he was also a            into his arms and kissed him. Little did either David or
proud man with a quick temper. He was not one to take         Joab at that moment realize how completely they were
such an affrontation without responding.. Almost im-          misjudging the situation. They had both been much
mediately Joab was at the door of Absalom's house             better off if they had stayed with their original
demanding an explanation. "Wherefore, have thy ser-           inclinations, or better yet, if they had consulted more
vants set my field on fire?"                                  closely with God as they had in the early days of their
  This was, in fact, all that Absalom wanted, an              labors. It was, this very young man whom now they
opportunity to talk to Joab. Coolly he explained,             welcomed with tears and open arms that was always
"Behold, I sent unto thee, saying, Come hither, that I        planning in his heart the most treacherous and painful
may send thee to the king, to say, Wherefore am I come        blow which David was ever to experience.
from Geshur? It had been good for me to have been


Examining Ecumenicalism

              The American Council of Christian Churches
                                                  Rev. G. Van Baren


   In earlier articles I have brought to your attention          Now, however, a new development has taken place
that affiliation of churches known as the A.C.C.C. This        within the organization. Christianity Today (Nov. 22,
council of churches has also sent communications to            1968) reported:
our churches, inviting us to attend their gatherings. It               Carl  M&tire,  founder of the fundamentalist
is part also of the International Council of Christian              American and International Councils of Christian
Churches. These councils of churches have been closely              Churches, is accusing colleagues of trying to undercut
associated with the Dr. Carl McIntire organization. In             him.
                                                                       Things came to a head last month at the ACCC
fact, one complaint, possibly unjustified, was that                meeting in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, where  -
McIntire was the "whole ball of wax" in these                      among other things  - the council voted to set up
organizations.                                                     permanent headquarters at nearby  Valley Forge.


                                                        THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           253


    M&tire  opposed this and other moves, and the                  committee is usurping the functions of the Council
    discussions consumed most of the three-day meeting.            itself.
       The apparent issue is the  ACCC's  desire to break               9. There is dispute regarding the International
    out of the one-man mold, and some embarrassment                Christian Relief Commission, supposedly a branch of
    over McIntire's hard-line methods in his radio and             the ACCC but now functioning under ICCC.
    publishing work. ACCC General Secretary John                      10. Finally, ACCC officials deplore that Dr.  Mc-
    Millheim,  one of the anti-McIntire leaders, denies any        Intire is now urging the radio audience to make sure
    matters of doctrine are involved . . . .
       This echoes behind-the-scenes complaints at the             that the ACCC is not remembered in their wills.
    International Council's August meeting. Its missions           McIntire, who constantly pleads with his listeners that
    arm wrote the council executive committee express-             someone of them give him a million dollars (in
    ing alarm at McIntire's "increasing involvement in             addition to the many smaller gifts already given),
    political issues," protest parades, and criticism of the       wants to be certain that his erstwhile child does not
    government. "When he speaks in the area of politics,           benefit from the generosity of his followers.
    race, and civil rights, this causes irreparable damage            The ACCC continues to function. It will be interest-
    to our missionary efforts," said the letter, signed by         ing also to observe its course in the days to come. Will
    outgoing missions executive J. Philip Clark, the new           it be able to change its image of being a one-man
    ACCC president.                                                organization? Will it change in its doctrinal position?
  Of course, it is difficult for an outsider to evaluate                                     *******
the various charges and counter-charges. For what it is                  Opposition to the World Council of Churches
worth, I'll try to summarize a statement of the                       There has come to my attention a full page
differences issued by the ACCC on Nov. 15, 1968.                   advertisement appearing  in  the  New York Times  of
                                                                   Nov. 18, 1968. The ad emphasizes the terrible direc-
    1. It was charged that at its fall convention, there           tion in which both the W.C.C. and the N.C.C. are
was held a "secret session" which passed a "suppres-               headed. There are clergy and churches very much
sion upon speech rule." The ACCC contends that when                concerned with decisions taken  - many of these
serious charges had been presented on the floor of the             affiliated denominationally with the N.C.C. and W.C.C.
convention, the executive officers with the majority               There is a good reason for their concern. The entire ad
approval of the delegates adopted Robert's Rules of                can not  b.e quoted, but some is worth consideration.
Order as guide to debate and demanded that, charges                The ad points to decisions taken by the World Council
against individuals be not allowed on the floor until              of Churches this past summer:
the provisions of Matt. 18 be followed.                                       In July of 1968, the World Council of Churches,
    2. McIntire's church (Bible Presbyterian) claims                     meeting. in  Upsala,  Sweden, released a series of
that communications sent by them were never placed                       recommendations and pronouncements which called
on the floor of the convention. They were ignored.                     f o r :
The ACCC insists that the disputed communication                              1.  Granting recognition to Red China,  stating that
was never received by that body; there was therefore                    her entrance into the international community
nothing to treat.                                                        (U.N.)  is a "matter of great significance to the future
    3. There was a dispute about office space. The                       of mankind."
ACCC presently has its headquarters in New York                               2.  Adoption  of the idea of "One-World Govern-
City. The ACCC claims the space is inadequate, too                       ment," by suggesting that "Christians should urge
expensive, -and existing in an area of high-crime rate.                  their governments to accept the rulings of the
                                                                         International Court of Justice without reservation. "
The ACCC proposes to move to Willow Grove near the                            3. Endorsement  of the principle of world social-
historic Valley Forge. McIntire insists that the ACCC                   ism by advocating the Marxist philosophy of "from
should be located near the headquarters of the                           each according to his ability, to each according to his
National Council of Churches and therefore ought not                     need." The idea of a tax of 1% of G.N.P. for
make a move. He insists too that the proposed                           industrialized countries was presented as a means of
relocation would involve too large an expenditure of                     accomplishing this.
m o n i e s .                                                                 4. "The lifting of the economic blockade of Cuba,
    4. There is disagreement about the proper use of                     as an example of what could be done to develop a
certain money willed to the ACCC.                                        political climate which can adopt development poli-
    5. There is disagreement about the duties and                        cies transcending purely ideological and political
functions of some of the officers of the ACCC.                          interest."
    6. There is disagreement about the number of                              5. "The immediate and unconditional cessation of
                                                                        all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam, and the use of
conventions which the ACCC ought to hold each year.                      all weapons of mass destruction."
    7. There is evidently also some disagreement re-                          6. Endorsement of "the principle of civil diso-
garding suggested constitutional revisions involving                     bedience of draft laws by conscientious objectors and
doctrinal positions.                                                     giving sanction to non-participation in particular wars
    8.  McIntire evidently claims that the executive                     for reason of conscience."


254                                                     THE STANDARD BEARER


           Tragically, few American delegates expressed op-                   not seek to function as a political, economic, or
       position to these controversial political and economic                 otherwise secular institution.
       issues. A typical example of the reactions  and.                           (2) Place greater interest on the communication
       editorials in the American press to these pronounce-                   of Biblical truth and emphasize the need for zealous-
       ments was the response of a New York editor who                        ly proclaiming the good news of how mankind can be
       said that the Assembly had been "pre-occupied with                     liberated from the bondage of sin and discover true
       practical, social, political and economic issues of the                peace and happiness by faith in Jesus Christ.
       .day rather than with a far greater human hunger  -                        (3) Encourage the clergy and laity to become
       the spiritual starvation of mankind."                                  actively involved in finding solutions to the social,
  The above indicates again how the beasts of Rev. 13                         political, and economic problems in which they have
continue to arise. The W.C.C. encourages a one-world                          interest and competence and, as concerned  private
                                                                              citizens  responding to the guidance of the Holy
government. Its concern is physical, earthly, material.                       Spirit, exert leadership in their circles of influence to
Its actions reflect not the working of the Spirit of God,                     their fullest potential.
but the spirit of the antichrist. It remains a cause of                           In conclusion, we believe that clergymen, as
amazement to me that any truly Reformed Christian                             counselors and leaders of their communities, should
could suggest union with such an organization. The                            be well informed on matters of national and inter-
advertisement in which the above summary of de-                               national concern and as Americans they should
cisions was presented, contains also several recommen-                        uphold our Constitution and help to preserve our
dations worthy of consideration:                                              heritage of Freedom under God. Policy-making de-
         We, therefore, propose to replace the Council's                      cisions and pronouncements, however, should be
       recommendations with three simple guidelines for all                   left to our elected officials and experienced states-
       people to follow. We believe that the Church should:                   men.
           (1) Adhere strictly to its spiritual commission and             To much  of the above we  can respond: Amen!


From Holy Writ

                                          The Book of Hebrews
                                                               Rev. G. Lubbers

THE HIGH PRIEST THAT BECAME US (Hebrews 7:26)                           Hebrews 7, to wit, that Christ was appointed by an oath
  The writer to the Hebrews now comes to the grand                      (7 : 17); that he is a priest by the power of endless life
conclusion concerning the greatness and the fittingness                 and not by dint of a mere carnal commandment (7: 16);
of the priesthood of Christ, which is after the order of                that his priesthood is not founded  on  having father,
Melchizedek. Suppose that all the wonderful and distin-                 mother, etc. but that it is that which belongs to the Son
guishing features and elements of the priesthood accord-                of God forever  (7:3) Such a High Priest became us!
ing to the order of Melchizedek were true and factual,                  Furthermore, if this "such" refers to the foregoing
and stood as the rock of Gilbraltar, but that this                      context then it also refers to the fact of what the. writer
priesthood did not fit our state and condition as                       had said in the immediate context concerning this
sinners-what would be the spiritual and eternal profit                  priest. (1)That he is powerful to save to the uttermost.
for us?                                                                 He is the almighty God in the flesh. And all power is
  But no! The priesthood of Christ is exactly what we                   given to the Son in our flesh in heaven and on earth.
need. He is the  o&y High Priest. He is the only High                   (2)That He is eternal. He ever lives! He ever lives to
Priest on every count. He fits our need. That is the                    intercede for those who come to God through him.
implication of what the writer says, "for such an high                     Surely such is the force of the demonstrative pronoun
priest became us. . . . . " The force of. the term "such"               "such."
in the Greek  (toioutos)  underscores the fact that this                   However, this term also refers to that which follows.
priest had to be exactly such a kind of priest. This ought              This is clear from the phrase "who needeth not daily, as
to be observed.                                                         those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own
  The question ought to be faced whether the term                       sins, and then for the sins of the people. . . . " (Compare
"such" in the text refers to what immediately preceded,                 `I Corinthians 5 : 1)
or whether it refers to that which follows. If it refers to                Such a High Priest became us. It fitted the nature of
that which precedes, then it means that it refers to the                our condition and the nature of our being created
salient points of the priesthood that the writer had there              originally in the image of God. This term "became" us is
enumerated. It refers to the points here stated in                      translated from the Greek and from the Hebrew. The


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                                          255



Hebrew term "nawah" we have in Psalm 33: 1 where we                    tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted of evil, nei-
read "Praise is  comely for the upright." And, again, in               ther tempteth he any man." Thus also Christ. Because
Psalm  93:5 "Thy testimonies are very sure; holiness                   he was harmless he could be undefiled. Only he who can -
becometh thine house forever." And of God Himself it                   hurt others can be touched and defiled with evil. He was
is said "That it  became  Him, for whom are all things,                above the law of the Old Testament Nazarite. He could
and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to                   not be defiled because he came to take away the
glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect                  defilement of sin. He could eat and drink with sinners
through sufferings." (Hebrews 2: 10)                                   without being defiled by them. While he was among
   Christ is the High Priest that fits into the plan of the            sinners he could lay His hand on God's holy white
Builder and Maker of the heavenly tabernacle!                          throne without besmirching it. Truly, here is a Priest on
   He will bring many sons to glory through suffering.                 whose ephod is written "Holiness To The Lord" in very
   For he has all the qualifications.                                  truth. (Exodus 3 9 : 30)
   In the first place it is said of him that he is "holy."                And thus the text says that this priest was "separated
Now holiness becometh God's house forever. For thus                    from sinners." Forsooth, this separation from sinners
saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,                 can not be taken in a local sense. The term separated
whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy                       from sinners is a further implication of Christ's being
place. . . . . . . (Isaiah 57: 15). It is first of all for the sake    "holy." While he is numbered with the transgressors he
of God Himself that this High Priest must be Holy. He is               was harmless and undefiled. When he cries out on the
a priest in the holy temple of God. And God's name is                  cruel Cross "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken
Holy. He is not to be compared with man or with the                    me," it is the deep sense of his own sinlessness which
creature. He is the transcendent God. However, He is                   underlies this cry. He is separated from sinners. He is the
also holy in the sense that he is too pure of eyes to                  perfect Lamb, without spot or blemish.
behold sin, to wink at iniquity. For it is the justice of                 Such a High Priest became us from God.
God that He maintains his own holiness. And in respect                   He is the High Priest who is separated from sinners
to those who transgress the law of God and sin against                 from the conception in Mary's womb till the time of His
the holiness of God, this Holy God cannot deny                         giving up the ghost on the Cross where He said "Father,
Himself; He reveals His wrath from heaven against all                  into Thy hands I commit my spirit." He is in the
ungodliness of men who keep the truth down in                          completed and perfect state and condition of being
unrighteousness. We need a High Priest who will                        separated from sinners. Such he was, is and shall be
perfectly keep the commandments of God. He alone fits                  forever. He is separated from sinners as the perfect High
in the holy temple of God. He alone can intercede for us               Priest. He did not need to first bring a sacrifice for his
and save us to the uttermost. The term "holy" here in                  own sins. This was imperative for any priest of the Old
the text is the translation of the Greek word  "`hosios."              Testament. Such was emphatically true of Aaron. Thus
This refers to the piety of the Son. It refers to His                  we read in Leviticus 9:7 "And Moses said unto Aaron,
perfect obedience which he learned while He suffered                   Go unto the altar, and offer thy sin offering, and thy
with strong crying and tears. This fact that he is such,               burnt offering for thyself and for the people. . . " And
that he is "holy," constitutes him the perfect Lamb of                 again we read in Leviticus 16:6 "And Aaron shall offer
God which taketh away the sin of the world. (John                      his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and
1:29) Jesus was a very pious, meek, righteous and godly                make an atonement for himself, and for his house." On
man. He was the perfect last Adam, the High Priest                     the other hand, concerning the offering for the people
which became us!                                                       we read, "Then shall he kill the goat of the sin
   Closely associated with, yea, implied in Christ's being             offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood
"holy" is the fact that he was both `"harmless and                     within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with
undefiled." The former term indicates that Christ's                    the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy
attitude toward his fellowmen was one in which there                   seat, and before the mercy seat: and he shall make an
never was any hatred' toward his neighbor. He never                    atonement for the holy place, because of the unclean-
meant any hurt, in thoughts, words or deeds. He was                    ness of the children of Israel, and because of their
never after any one to get him. He did not need to put                 transgressions in all their sins. . . . ." (Leviticus 9 : 15, 16)
off malice, envy, hypocrisy, and all evil in order to                  But this is not true for this High Priest. He is separated
draw nigh to God. He knew no sin of commission in any                  from sinners constantly, in unbroken continuity. Such is
sense. He was in this sense actively obedient to God and               the implication of the Greek participle  "kechoris-
was, indeed, the perfect Lamb. However, he is also                     menos."
"undefiled." He was not subject to the Levitical                          Truly, such an high priest became us.
defilement of all other men under the law. He could not                THE TRANSCENDENT EXISTENCE OF
be defiled with sin because he could not tempt others to               OUR HIGH PRIEST (Hebrews  7:26 b)
sin. It was with him as with God Himself as we read in                    The High Priest which became us is now no more on
James 1: 13 "Let no one say when he is tempted, I am                   earth. The sphere of Christ's priesthood is in principle in


256                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER



the heavens. No he was not born in the heavens. He was                Hence, beginning on earth Christ's priesthood is such
born on earth from the virgin Mary in Bethlehem Judah.              that it opened up to Him the portals of heaven. He went
Shepherds found him with Joseph and with Mary, His                  to prepare a place in the Father's house with its many
mother, in a stable; found Him wrapped in swaddling                 mansions. (John 14: l-3)
clothes and lying in a manger. (Luke 2:  12,26)  And, yet,            The writer to the Hebrews says here "made higher
we must not really think of the Priesthood of Christ as             than the heavens." The term "`made" really means in the
being in any sense an earthly priesthood. Although he               Greek "became." He  bectie higher than the heavens
came on earth to suffer and die, yet His priesthood was             once and for all. This could only happen once. He will
heavenly. It was through suffering of death that he                 suffer all these things and thus enter into his glory; And
entered into glory; Christ's death meant that he is                 this suffering all these things to enter into His glory is a
glorified. Thus we read of Christ's own confession in the           "must." It belongs to His priesthood. Such a High Priest
night in which he was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, "Now              became us. He is thus a High Priest because he suffered
is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.           death. He finished the work of bringing the atonement;
If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in           He expiated our guilt and is our propitiation with the
himself, and shall straightway glorify him." (John                  Father. And through his suffering, death, resurrection
13:31,32)                                                           and ascension he became higher than the heavens.


Contending for the Faith

                                         THE DOCTRINE OF  SIN
                                          THE THIRD  PERIQD  - 730-1517 A.D.

                                         The Doctrine of the Church of Rome

                                                           Rev. H. Veldman

   When discussing the doctrine of sin as maintained by                  and considered the monastic life the happiest and best.
the Church of Rome,--incidentally prior to the Reforma-                  When duty called, however, he did not shrink from
tion, the Church of Rome was the Church of God and                       assuming the burdens of administration and from
of Christ in the midst of the world, bearing in mind that                mixing in the turmoils of statecraft, and he proved
in 1054 this Church was split into two large parts, the                  that steadfast rectitude is as efficacious as the devious
Eastern half of which had its center in Constantinople                   ways of- politicians. His honesty and simplicity were
                                                                         sometimes found embarrassing by diplomatic pontiffs
and the Western half of which had its center in                          and time-serving bishops. He was unfeignedly humble,
Rome,-we should call attention to the views of sin as                    kind of heart, and charitable in judgment, of spotless
entertained by the scholastics of the Middle Ages, by                    integrity, as zealous in good works as in the perfor-
men such as Anselm,  Abelard, Thomas Aquinas and                         mance of duty, patient under trial and adversity. He was
Duns  Scotus.                                                            skillful in winning and training the young, achieved
   Concerning Anselm, we read the following in the New                   marked success as a teacher, and the common people
Schaff-Herzog Religious Encyclopedia:                                    were always on his side. In the history of theology he
         Anselm, Saint, of Canterbury: The father of medie-              stands as the father of orthodox scholasticism, and has
       val scholasticism and of the most eminent of English              been called "the second Augustine." His mind was
       prelates; born at  Aosta, Piedmont, 1033; died  at                keen and logical, and his writings display profundity,
       Canterbury, England, April 21, 1109. He was well-                 originality, and masterly grasp of intellect.
       born and his parents were wealthy. While still a boy he         As far as Anselm's conception of sin is concerned,
       wished to be a monk, but his father-a harsh man and          Hodge writes as follows, Vol. II, 169:
       unkind to his son- forbade; his mother, a good and                     This loss of original rigbteousn&.s  was universally
       devout woman, had died early. When about twenty-                  regarded as a penal evil. It was the punishment of the
       three Anselm left home, and, after three years in                 first sin of Adam which came equally upon him and
       Burgundy and France, went to Bee in Normandy,                     upon all his descendants. The question now is, What  is
       where his celebrated countryman, Lanfranc, was prior.             the moral state of a soul destitute of original rigbteous-
       Here he became a monk (1060). He succeeded                        nevs considered as a supernatural gift? It was the
       Lanfranc as prior in 1063, and became abbot in                    different views taken as to the answer to that question,
       lO'/S..  . . . He was canonized in 1494.                          which gave rise to the conflicting views of th?. nature
         Anselm is one of the most attractive characters of              and consequences of original sin.
       the medieval Church. He was preeminently a scholar,


                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER                                                           257


       Some said that this negative state was itself sinful.            the soul assents to  this dominion of its lower nature
     Admitting that original sin is simply the loss of original         and deliberately acts in accordance with it, it cannot
     righteousness, it was nevertheless truly and properly              be chargeable with any personal, inherent sm. There is
     sin. This was the ground taken by Anselm, the father               therefore no sin of  nature,as distinguished from actual
     of the scholastic philosophy and theology.                         sin. It is true, as the advocates of this theory taught, in
  That the loss of original righteousness was universally               obedience to the universal faith of the Church and the
regarded as a penal evil means that it was an evil inflicted            clear doctrine of the Bible, that men are born in sm.
by God as punishment. However, the question was,                        But this is the guilt of Adam's first sin, and not their
What is the moral state of a soul destitute of original                 own inherent corruption. They admitted the correct-
righteousness considered as a supernatural gift. And the                ness of the Latin version of Romans 5: 12, which
view of Anselm will become plain when viewed in the                     makes the Apostle say that all men  sinned  in  Adam.
                                                                        But they understood that passage to teach nothing
light of the views of others. Anselm believed that,                     more than the imputation of Adam's first sin, and not
although original sin is simply the loss of original                    any hereditary inherent corruption of nature. This was
righteousness, is therefore simply negative, the loss of                the theory of original sin adopted byAbelard,  who held
what we once had, nevertheless this loss is truly and                   that nothing was properly of the nature of sin but an
properly sin. Now we believe that sin is not merely                     act performed with an evil intention. As there can be
negative. Spiritual blindness is not merely the absence of              no such intention in infants there can be, properly
sight; spiritual deafness is not merely the failure to hear.            speaking, no sin in them. There is a proneness to sin
That the sinner is dead does not simply mean that he is                 which he  calls vitium;  but sin consists in consent to
devoid of life. Of course, sin is negative. But we believe              this inclination, and not in the inclination itself. He
that it is more than this. Sin, according to the Word of                admitted original sin as a punishment, or as the guilt of
God, is a power. And therefore we believe that it is better             Adam's sin, but this was external and not inherent.
to say that sin is a positive lack. After all, according to             This view of the subject was strenuously maintained
                                                                        by some of the theologians of the Roman Church at
the Word of God, sin rules over us, holds us in its grasp               the time of the Reformation,  especially by Catharinus
and dominion, and this can hardly be said of something                  and Pighius.
that is exclusively negative. But it is nevertheless worthy
of note that Anselm taught that this loss of original                 This conception of sin is very different from that set
righteousness itself is truly and properly sin.                    forth by Ansehn. Anselrn taught sin, although simply
  Another of the scholastics was Abelard. Concerning               the loss of original righteousness, is nevertheless truly
his conception of sin, Hodge writes the following, Vol.            and properly sin. But this  view declares that the loss of
II, 169 f.f:                                                       original righteousness left Adam precisely in the state in
       The ground taken by others of the schoohnen was             which he was created. And mankind shares this fate of
    that the loss of original righteousness left Adam              Adam; all men are born in the same state. There is no
    precisely in the state in which he was created, and            inherent hereditary corruption, no moral character
    therefore  in  punk  naturalibus   (i.e., in the simple        `either good or bad. It is true that, because of this lack of
     essential attributes of his nature). And as his descend-      righteousness, the lower powers of man's nature gain the
     ants share his fate, they are born in the same state. (let    ascendancy over the higher, and that man grows in sin.
    us notice this, inasmuch as this is of great importance,        Sin consists in assent and purpose. Only when the soul
    H.V.) There is no inherent hereditary corruption, no           assents to this dominion of the lower nature and
    moral character either good or bad. The want of a              deliberately acts in accordance with it, can it be
    supernatural gift not belonging to the nature of man,          chargeable with any personal, inherent sin. Children,
    and which must be bestowed as a favour, cannot be              therefore, are not born in sin. This view was maintained
    accounted to men as sin. Original sin, therefore, in the
    posterity of Adam  .can consist in nothing but the             by Pighius, a bitter opponent of Calvin. This, of course,
    imputation to them of his first transgression. They            is Pelagianism, and it is `well that we understand this.
    suffer the punishment of that sin, which punishment is            Thirdly, we call attention to the view of sin as held
    the loss of original righteousness. According to this          by Thomas Aquinas. Hodge writes that Aquinas, al-
    view, original sin is paena but not culpa. It is true that     though approaching much nearer to Augustine than the
    the inevitable consequence of this privation of right-         other theologians of his age, taught a certain synergism
    eousness is that the lower powers of man's nature gain         which enters into all other systems. This synergism is
     the  ascendency  over the higher, and that he grows up        very dangerous, a being able to cooperate with the grace
    in sm. Nevertheless there is no inherent or subjective         of God. Thomas Aquinas was born in 1224 and died in
     sin in the new-born infant. There is a natural proneness       1274. He was a Dominican monk, the Doctor Angelicus
    to sin arising out of the original and normal                  of the schoolmen, and by far the most influential
     constitution of our nature, and the absence of original       theologian in the Latin Church `since the days of
    righteousness which was a frenum, or check by which
    the lower powers were to be kept in subjection. But            Augustine. His "Summa Theologiae" was long regarded
    this being the condition in which Adam came from the           as a standard work among Romanists, and is still
    hands of his Creator, it cannot be in itself sinful. Sin       referred to as an authority both by Romanists and
     consists in assent. and purpose. And, therefore, until        Protestants. What did he teach? Hodge writes concern-


258                                                         THE STANDARD BEARER


ing this doctrine of Aquinas the following, Vol. II, 17 1                      form is that which makes the material knife. So in
f.f:                                                                           original sin this aversion of the  will from God (as a
          He taught  (1)That original righteousness was  `to-                habit), is the substance of original sin, it owes its
        Adam a supernatural  gift.  (2)That by his transgression               existence and nature to the loss of original righteous-
        he forfeited that gift for himself and his posterity.                  ness. (6)The soul, therefore, after the loss of its primal
        (3)That original righteousness consisted essentially in                rectitude, does not remain in puris naturalibus,  but is
        the fixed bias of the will towards God, or the                         in a slate of corruption and sin. Most frequently, in
        subjection of the will to God.  (4)That the inevitable                 accordance with the  usus loquendi of his own and of
        consequence or adjunct of the loss of this original                    subsequent periods, this positive part of original sin is
        righteousness, this conversion of the will towards God,                called concupiscence.
        is the aversion of the will from God. (5) That  original             We  will pause here. As Hodge remarks, it is of the
        sin, therefore, consists in  two things,  first,the loss of       utmost importance what Aquinas means when he speaks
        original righteousness and second, the disorder of the             of concupiscence. It is used in many different senses. To
        whole nature. The one he called the  formale   and the            this, the Lord willing, we will call attention in our
        other the materiale  of the original sin. To use his own          following article.
        illus$ration, a knife is iron; the iron is the material, the


The Lord Gave The Word

                            The History of Missions A.D. 100-500
                                                                  Rev. R. Decker

   By the end of the Apostolic age (100 A.D.) the                         the history in two periods from A.D. 100-300 and from
Church had pretty much been established in all parts of                    300 to 500. The reign of Constantine the Great
the Roman empire and  the Mediterranean world. It is                       (306-337) is the dividing point. Under Constantine the
indeed true that "the small mustard seed of the upper                     persecution ceased and Christianity was given the
room at Pentecost had grown into a mighty tree. And                        official approval of the government. About this and its
that by the power of Christ Who gathers His church by                      effects we shall have more to say later.
His Word and Spirit." (cf. Rev. C. Hanko's article in the                  Concerning the pre-Constantinian period we may say
previous issue). In this article we shall attempt to trace                in general that although the records are scanty they
the history of the growth and spread of the church in                      suffice to show that by the year 180, Christianity was
the four centuries immediately following the death of                      found in all the provinces of the Empire and in
the last Apostle, John, in A.D. 100.                                       Mesopotamia. From 180 to 306 the church enjoyed a
   This is in many ways a most fascinating chapter in the                  remarkable growth as is evidenced by the fact that the
history of God's church. It was an age marked by many                      emperors generally regarded the church as a public
and diverse phenomena. During this period we find the                      menace and attempted to exterminate it by means of
birth and growth of Asceticism, the forerunner of the                      persecution.
monasticism of the Middle Ages. This was a period of                         Our story begins in Palestine. Here the church was
persecution such as the church has never experienced                       never large. Although the church continued for cen-
since. From Nero (A.D. 64) to the year 305 the church                      turies to preach the gospel to the Jews, very few
endured the "fiery trial" of which Peter speaks in I                       converts were added to the church.
Peter 4: 12. A great many heresies and false teachers                        The faith was somewhat stronger in Phoenicia. We
made their appearance in these years. And during this                     know that Christians were found here at a very early
period four of the seven great ecumenical councils of                      date (cf. Acts  11:19,  21:2-4. 7;  27:3). There was an
the church met (Nicea 325, Constantinople 381, Ephe-                       especially strong church established at Tyre. It appears,
sus 43 1, and Chalcedon 451) and developed the truth                      however, that for the most part the church was found
positively overagainst various departures. And all during                  among the Greek-speaking, urban population particu-
this time the church enjoyed a rather remarkable growth                   larly along the coast.
throughout the world, making inroads as far westward                         Antioch in Syria was the second home of the Church.
and northward as Spain and the British Isles.                              Here it will be recalled the disciples were first called
   Much, of course, could be written about all of this                     Christians (Acts 11:26). For years this city continued to
but our purpose is simply to trace the history of the                      be a prominent Christian center. The church was
spread of the church. Even then, however, we can only                      predominantly Greek speaking and spread throughout
hope to give the barest sketch of the history. We treat                    much of Syria. The fact that no less than 20 bishops


                                                    THE STANDARD BEARER                                              259


from Syria were present at the Council of  Nicea                 As for the beginnings of the faith in Egypt, it may
indicates the presence of the faith in many towns and          again be said the evidence is scanty. That the church was
cities in several different parts of the region.               here at an early age is quite certain. Alexandria was an
  In Asia Minor the church was well established. Here          especially strong center, producing such Christian think-
was Ephesus, an early stronghold of the faith, as well         ers as Clement (c.l50-c.215)  and Origen (c.l85-c.254).
as the churches mentioned in the Apocalypse. Of the            There is also evidence indicating that the church spread
missionaries who labored here subsequent to the Apos-          beyond Alexandria into the desert regions, where we
tle Paul we know little, except for the account of             find the "Desert Fathers."
Gregory Thaumaturgos or "Worker of Wonders." This                There was rapid growth further west in what is today
man, a son of prominent, wealthy parents, was a native         known as Tunis and Algeria. The churches here were the
of Pontus. In the course of his studies he came into           first Latin speaking churches. And out of them flowed
contact with Origen who was instrumental in intro-             some of the great Latin Christian literature, as e.g.
ducing the young man to the Christian faith. In the year       Tertullian and Cyprian, to be followed later by the
240 he was made Bishop of his native city and with the         famous St. Augustine.
aid of his brother, Athenodorus, bishop of another city          This brings the history to the reign of Constantine
of Pontus, he set out to preach the gospel to the pagans       and in the words of Stephen Neill: ". . . we may say that
of his region. It is said that when he ascended the            by the end of the third century there was no area in the
episcopal see only seventeen Christians were there while       Roman Empire which had not been penetrated by the
thirty years later at his death only seventeen pagans          Gospel. But distribution was very uneven. The areas of
remained. The historian Latourette is no doubt correct         strongest development were Syria, Asia Minor, Egypt,
when he says: "Such numbers are probably more                  and North Africa, with some other notable centres such
rhetorical than accurate." (A history of the Expansion         as Rome, and Lyons in the south of France. The church
of Christianity, vol I, p. 89) Nevertheless, this man was      for the most part spoke Greek and Latin, and the village
instrumental in the spread of the gospel in Asia Minor.        people were as yet to a large extent untouched." (A
  The church at Rome also continued to grow in this            History of Christian Missions, pp. 38,39).
period. In fact the growth was quite rapid. Generally in         All of this growth took place while the church was
these years its membership was from the poorer classes         being frowned upon by the Empire and subjected to
of people. This rapid growth is partly to be attributed        chronic opposition and persecution. In the beginning of
to  the1 large number of Christians who converged on           the 4th century this situation changed. Constantine was
Rome from other parts of the Empire. By A.D. 166 the           emperor and under him the Christian faith received the
Christians had surpassed the Jews, and Adolph Harnack          sanction of the government. He had his children
estimates the number of Christians at 30,000 by the            educated in the faith, erected many churches and
year 250. Others place the figure even higher. Evidence        enlarged others, and "adopted measure after measure
of the spread of the faith in other parts of Italy are         increasing the privileges and prestige of that faith which
fragmentary. We know only that Italy had approxi-              in the days of his immediate predecessors had been so
mately 100 bishoprics by the middle of the third               severely persecuted." (Latourette, A  History of the
century.                                                       Expansion of Christianity, ~01.1, p. 173). The result was
  Growth was slow in Gaul (France) and Spain.                  a complete change  \ in the situation of the Christian'
Irenaeus  (c.130-c.200) speaks of using both the Celtic        Church! Crowds literally entered the church. Christian-
and Latin languages, which would indicate that the             ity became fashionable and the majority of men found
church had gone beyond the Romanized people of the             it expedient to follow the fashion! This had its effects
cities to the less educated tribal natives. The greatest       both good and bad. It allowed the church to move with
growth was found in the southern part of what is now           freedom, to emerge from the catacombs into the open.
France. By the end of the third century many churches          This under the providence of God prepared the way for
and bishoprics had been established in Spain. The              the tremendous spread of the faith even beyond the
Spiritual quality of the Spanish Christians is disappoint-     borders of the Empire in the succeeding years. Neverthe-
ing. In general they compromised with idolatry and             less, we must agree with Neil1 when he writes: "In all
adultery and murder. We hear also of bishops who left          this there were great dangers. Faith became superficial,
their church duties to engage in commerce. Another of          and was identified with the acceptance of dogmatical
the bishops apostatized during the Decian persecution          teachings rather than with a radical change of inner
(A.D. 250) and later after the danger had passed               being. As the Church became rich, bishoprics became
resumed his office!                                            the objects of contention rather than instruments of
  There is no certain information concerning the               humble service. With a new freedom, the Church was
introduction of Christianity in Britain. The only certain      able to go out into the world; at the same time, in a new
fact is that in 3 14 Britain was represented at the Council    and dangerous fashion, the world entered into the
of  Aries by the bishops of York, London, and a third          Church." (A History of Christian Missions, pp. 46, 47).
unnamed see.                                                     As was noted, the gospel spread even beyond the


260                                            THE STANDARD BEARER


borders of Empire from A.D. 300-500. Some of the              siveness of the faith, it attracted all races and classes.
names connected with its spread are: Martin, Bishop of        5)The fact that Christianity was both intransient and
Tours, Ufilas, Patrick, Ninian, Clovis of the Franks.         flexible, it refused to compromise with paganism but
Martin, Bishop of Tours, trained men in the monasteries       adapted itself to the times (this latter, however, not
who served as missionaries laboring in Gaul. Ufilas,          true-R.D.) 6)The moral qualities of Christianity. (cf. A
though he was Arian, was a great missionary to the            History of The Expansion of Christianity,  vol. I, pp.
Barbarians laboring particularly among the Goths be-          163-167) Latourette concludes that the answer is
yond the Danube. He is known for his translation of the       complex.
Scriptures into the language of the Goths in which he           The real reason, however, is very simple. No doubt
omitted the warlike books of Kings, on the ground that        God used and even directed and determined the events
the Goths knew quite enough about fighting anyway!            and affairs of those days just as He does now, causing all
(cf. Neill, p. 55). Patrick brought the Gospel to Ireland     things to work together for the good of His church. But
around 430 and Ninian brought it to Scotland. Clovis          the reason why the Church grew and spread is simply
leader of the Franks was converted after winning an           due to the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Indeed
important battle and was baptized on Christmas Day            we see in this period of the History of God's Church a
496, together with 3,000 of his soldiers.                     marvelous evidence of Christ gathering His Church out
  In conclusion what accounts for the tremendous              of every nation, tribe, and tongue by His Spirit and
spread of the Gospel in these years? Latourette cites the     Word. So our Lord continues His work throughout the
following: l)The sanction of Constantine, 2)The  disinte-     ages and when He is finished we shall see Him on the
gration of pagan society and culture, 3)The close knit        clouds coming in all the glory of the new heavens and
organization of the Christian community, 4)The inclu-         earth.


From our School Committee

                                    Seminary Report
                                                   Mr. J. M. Faber

   It has been five months since our last report, and we      this date on the school calendar than any previous class.
are eager to tell you about the progress that has been        In one of Prof. Hanko's classes the committee heard him
made. Let us begin with the reports received at the           instruct his students to pray before each study session in
regular meetings of the Theological School Committee,         their home, implying that their studies can have the
which supervises all of the activities of the school.         desired results only under the favor of the King of His
Sub-committees of two are appointed to make monthly           church, the Great Shepherd Who has called them to feed
visits to the school and to report on their visits at the     His flock. Indeed, all the reports have an optimistic air,
next meeting. From these reports we will glean some           predicting a brighter future for our churches in that we
information which you are waiting to hear because you         will have a new supply of ministers in four to five years.
are vitally interested in the progress of our future            At the February 7 meeting of the Theological School
ministers.                                                    Committee the first semester grades were reported; and
   From these reports we learn that the professors give       it was evident that this sowing yielded the average crop,
evidence of expending a great deal of energy in their         as in the Parable of the Sower,  - some thirty, some
work. The instruction is on a very high, scholarly level,     sixty, and some an hundred fold. We also learned that the
given in an easy-to-follow manner, so that it can be          faculty has decided to introduce Seminarian R. Miersma
absorbed by the students as water in porous sand. The         to the course in Practice Preaching, and have scheduled
committees are impressed with the vast amount of work         him to preach his first sermon on March 18, and another
that the two instructors have taken upon themselves and       on April 23. These sermons will be given in the hearing
by their obvious enjoyment therein. In this day of            of the staff and the student body (and possibly some
unionism, which attempts to shirk work as much as the         visitors from the School Committee). It was also
management will tolerate, it is refreshing to see employ-     reported at this Feb. 7 meeting that at the end of the
ees (the professors) strain their efforts to the utmost, -    first semester each student was in conference with the
and to see the students try to keep up with them! The         faculty for an evaluation of his first semester's work, -
professors tell us that they are happy with the caliber of    to be encouraged in his strong points, to be strength-
work put out by their charges; and in one case, the class     ened in his own peculiar weaknesses, and to learn that
in Hebrew grammar, they say it has advanced farther at        their instructors are vitally interested in the personal


                                                THE STANDARD BEARER                                                  261


progress of each student.                                     his line. The name "Genesis," we learned, is not
  With the approval of the School Committee, the              inspired;-but it is significant because it is an indication
faculty and students plan to attend the March 4 meeting       of the contents of the book. The book reveals several
of the Ministers' Conference of  Classis West in South        "beginnings," - those of the creation, of sin, of grace,
Holland, at which Rev. D. J. Engelsma will deliver a          of the covenant, of Christ (as far as His revelation is
paper on "The Genealogy of Jesus According to the             concerned), of the second world, of Israel and the
Flesh." This should prove to be an interesting change of      church. Moreover, in these ten-fold toledo  th the antithe-
pace for all concerned, and it will also serve to give the    sis is revealed: in each case the line of the seed of the
young men another inside view of the ministry.                woman is narrowed down, while the wicked seed is
   But let's pay a visit to the school and sit in on a        merely fitted into the history to serve the line of the
morning session to see for ourselves what is going on.        true seed (as chaff to wheat).
This reporter did that on Thursday morning, Feb. 6. We          The professor then spoke of the human writer, Moses,
were happy to see Rev. R. Decker as a surprise visitor,       reflecting on the striking fact that Genesis is all
on a mid-week trip to Grand Rapids from Doon, Iowa            pre-Mosaic history. He warned us that we must not
for committee work. The day was scheduled to begin at         make a mistake and conclude that God did not reveal
8 o'clock with a test in Dogmatics for the Seminarian;        Himself before the inspired writing of Genesis. Revela-
and thereafter the first class opened at 9: 15. Prof.         tion and even inspired speech preceded inspired writing
Hoeksema led in opening devotions; and in this first          by some 2500 years. God revealed Himself to Adam and
class he had only one of the seven students to instruct.      to Noah, for example, which is recorded in Genesis; and
Two others were in a Greek Class with Prof. Hanko in          to  Enoch, whom Jude calls a prophet. There was no
an adjoining room. This class was in 0. T. Isagogics, and     inspired Scripture extant at the time of the patriarchs,
the student got out his notebook to take notes as the         but they had revelation in very truth. To the question
professor lectured on the Pentateuch, particularly on         where Moses received all that he wrote, the professor
Genesis. (By the way, before we share with you some of        replied that we must not understand that God simply
the salient points of this lecture, let's first be sure we    mechanically told Moses to write down exactly what He
understand what that strange term means. Isagogics is         said to him, and to write down history of which he
that department of theology which introduces the              knew nothing. That would not be organic inspiration,
student to the Scriptures, touching on such matters as        but mechanical. God used means. Though there were no
the date, the human writer, the contents, and the             Scriptures, there was revelation. As revelation continued
canonical significance of each book.)                         the body of truth grew in the course of God's dealings
  We learned that the name of the first book is               with His people. And in the first 1650 years, until the
determined by the first word of the first chapter, the        Flood, there was a strong oral transmission of the truth.
Hebrew word  bereshith,  translated in the English, "in       Noah's father was contemporary with Adam! Noah
the beginning." Genesis contains some ten headings            could know the truth only second hand! And after the
under the word  toledo   th,  which is translated in our      Flood there was still a tremendous overlapping. Shem,
English Bibles as "generations." The word does not            Noah's son, was still living when Abraham lived. And,
merely mean the birth and genealogy of a certain line;        beginning with Abraham, who was called out of Ur, the
but in each section there is traced the history of the        line of the people of God was isolated in a special way
generations mentioned. "For instance," said the profes-       from the world. And thus there was a very strong oral
sor, "in Genesis 2 we find the generations of the heavens     tradition also then. Hence, while as yet there were no
and the earth. This is not a second creation narrative. It    written Scriptures, all the dealings of God with His
is not a creation account, but an account of the early        people were of utmost importance in the  "father-to-
history, the stages of development through which              son" traditions.
creation passed. You have traced in it the setting of that      When the question arose in class how Moses could
history: the earth as the home of man, the man whom           have learned all these truths when he was in Pharaoh's
God placed in that home, the position in which God            court, it was pointed out that Moses, under the special
placed him in Paradise, and then the history of what          providence of God, was brought up in his mother's
became of man as a covenant creature." Further, it was        home during the crucial time of his life. Though we have
explained that sometimes these sections of Genesis are        little detail of Moses' life at that time, we do know that
rather brief, especially those which concern the seed of      first he was at home, and that even later he kept in
the serpent; but those which concern the seed of the          contact with his fellow Hebrews'and appreciated that he
woman frequently supply much historical detail, - like        was one of them,  - even to the extent that he sided
the "Generations of Terah," which includes the entire         with them when he was forty years old. So we must
history  .of Abraham and the rise of the two lines of         conclude that, with respect to Genesis, Moses through
Ishmael and of Isaac. Ishmael's generations are again         the means of oral tradition knew this history, largely;
very brief. Esau's also is brief, although it is projected    and through the direct inspiration of the Spirit he was
far into history in the naming of the several "dukes" in      given to write it inerrantly. On that note the class in


262                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


Isagogics ended. .Now if you had been in that class, you        analysis of the text, not of the theme. Clear to you?
would have learned all this. Take our word for it!              Now you know what synthetical-analytical propositions
  The next class (after coffee break) was Homiletics.           are.
This is the branch of theology which treats-of the art of         The 11: 15 class was Hebrew Grammar. They were
preaching. Five students were present: the Messrs.              required to read a Hebrew verse, locate the verbs in it,
Kamps, Van Overloop, Miersma, Bekkering, and                    and tell something about them (which was over our
Slopsema. In this period the students, two at a time,           head). All your reporter learned from this forty-five
were to write on the blackboard a theme-and-division            minute class was that in Exodus 5 the taskmasters did
such as they might make for a sermon. For study and             not tell the Israelites to "make" bricks, but to "brick"
practice today was the kind called  "synthetical-               bricks. It seems that the Hebrew language contains
analytical propositions." That is, the theme was to be          words that take on the form of a verb or that of a noun
synthetical, and the divisions analytical. The first text       when necessary. So much for Hebrew.
used in this exercise was Psalm 23 : 1. Two men wrote             We would leave you with this observation: what a
out their versions, and this was then criticized by the         great improvement over last year's one-student class!
other three, with the professor having the last word. So,       The criticisms leveled at one another, half-bantering,
two by two, each had his try-and-descry opportunity             sometimes badgering, but always seriously, all serve to
with a text which had earlier been assigned for practice.       hone their acumen to a razor-sharp edge. One might
Another text treated was Psalm 25: 14. It may safely be         make the mistake to read, "make bricks" the first time
said that if some day you hear a sermon on one of these         because one remembered it that way in the English
texts by one of these students, his theme and divisions         Bible; but the second time he comes across it, he will
will have been modified to satisfy the criticisms re-           read with confidence, "brick bricks."
ceived! We finally deduced that the object of this lesson         So then, until next time, when we will again (as we
was that the propositions under the theme must be an            say in Hebrew) "school you in school,".farewell!


                                     B O O K R E V I E W S
                                                      PYO~ H. Hanko

CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH GOVERNMENT,                           missionary labors from the time the first mission
by Howard B. Spaan; Kvegel  Publications, 1968; 23 7 pp.        societies were organized in 1800 to the time when
   The successor to Schaver's Church Polity, this book          women were actually sent into the mission field to labor
brings the many Synodical decisions of the Christian            among the heathen. An interesting addition to the
Reformed Church which bear on the newly adopted                 library on the history of missions.
Church Order up to date. It contains a brief explanation
of each article of the new Church Order, all pertinent          THE INESCAPABLE CALLING, by R.  I<.  Stvachan;
Synodical decisions, a list of memorable dates in               Wm. B. Eevdmans Publishing Company, 1.968; 127 pp.,
Christian Reformed history, a roll of the Classes, a roll       $1.65  (paper).
of the states provinces and information concerning the             An evaluation of present missionary labors in the
churches.                                                       light of the work of the early Church made in the hope
                                                                of improving present missionary methods and arousing
THE TENT OF GOD  (A Journey Through The Old                     people to the urgency of the task of missions. Some
Testament), by Marianne Radius; Wm. B. Eerdmans                 interesting and worthwhile observations, but far from
Publishing Company, 1968; 368 pp., $5.95.                       the Reformed view of missions.
   This Bible story book is the companion volume of the
author's "God's With Us" - her New Testament work.              QUESTIONS ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AN-
It is written for small children, but contains all the          SWERED FROM THE BIBLE, by Derek Prime; Wm. B.
weaknesses of the first work: not always faithful to the        Eevdmans Publishing Company, 1968; 128 pp. $1.45.
text; sentimental application-to practical life; filled with      This book contains, in question and answer form, a
Arminian theology. Not recommended.                             discussion of the basic truths of the Christian faith. The
                                                                book's value lies in its handiness especially for young
ALL LOVES EXCELLING, by R. Pierce Beaver; Wm., B.               people to give them an easy-to-understand and readily
Eerdmans Publishing Company; 1968; 22 7 pp., $2.9.5             available summary of the cardinal doctrines of Scrip-
(paper).                                                        ture. It contains an abundance of Biblical proof texts and
   In this story of American Protestant women in world          a well-worked out "dictionary" of Biblical definitions.
mission work the author traces the development of the           It is conservatively evangelical although must be used
increasingly large role which women have played in              with discretion. At several key points it is not as


                                                       THE STANDARD BEARER                                                     263


     soundly Reformed as one would like. Recommended as                       What Others Think
     a valuable handbook, as a worthwhile book for study in          The "Book Feature" section of the August, 1968
     societies if it is used with care.                            issue of The King's Business carried an article entitled
                                                                   "Systematic Theology" by Dr. R.L. Saucy. In this
     WHEN DEATH TAKES A FATHER, by Gladys                          article, which features several pertinent remarks about
     Kooiman; Baker Book House, 1968; 171 pp., $3.95               the nature and purpose of systematic theology and
       An interesting and sometimes helpful spiritual biogra-      which laments the fact that "In many places today, the
     phy written by a woman whose husband died leaving             study of theology in a systematic way has fallen on dark
     her with the responsibility of a large family. It is an       days," there appears the following paragraph in review
     intimate story of the spiritual struggle brought on when      of "Reformed Dogmatics."
     God reached into the family to remove the head of the           "Recent offerings in the field of theology have been
     house.                                                        vast and varied, all the way from good biblical studies to
                                                                   the so-called Christian atheism. Of particular interest to
     TINDER IN TABASCO, by Charles Bennett; Wm.  B,                evangelicals interested in serious doctrinal study is the
     Eevdmans  Publishing Company, 1968; 213 pp., $2.95            posthumous work of Herman Hoeksema,  Reformed
( p a p e r ) .                                                    Dogmatics  (Reformed Free Publishing Association,
                                                                   $14.95). This is a solid work representing the mature
       An honest and thorough study of Presbyterian                thought of a thorough-going Reformed theologian.
     mission work in a southern and very small province of         Replete with Scriptural documentation, Hoeksema's
     Old Mexico. It is the kind of close and careful study of a    work goes beyond simply proof-texting in many cases to
     small section of the mission field which has value for        enhance its value with exegetical discussion of key
     mission work the world over. While the theory of              doctrinal passages."
     missions outlined in the book is not above criticism, the       This brief, but favorable review is submitted for our
     book deals honestly and forthrightly with many prob-          readers who are interested in knowing "what others
     lems which have to be faced in mission labors.                think."                                                H.C.H.

                                                                               ATTENTION! ! OFFICE BEARERS.
                    Books for the Lenten Season                      There.will be an Office Bearers Conference Tuesday,
                                                                   April 1, 1969, at 8 P.M. at the Hudsonville Protestant
     REJECTED BY MEN - by the Rev. Herman Hoeksema                 Reformed Church. All present and former office bearers
~      In thinking on the meaning of the Crucifixion and our       are invited to attend. Rev. M.  Schipper will be the
glorious salvation, we do well to ponder the supreme               speaker.                                     J. Dykstra, Secy.,
     cost. In this meditation is given some timely help in
     understanding certain deeper aspects of that suffering.                               ANNIVERSAR Y
                                                                      The Lord willing, on March 6, 1969, our beloved
     Order now by sending $1.50 to:                                parents
                           THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR                           MR. AND MRS. JUSTIN KORTERING
                           P-0. BOX 1230                            will celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary.
                           GRAND RAPIDS, MI., 49501.                  Reflecting upon the significance of this event, we join
                                                                    them in thankful praise to God. From childhood's
                                                                    earliest years to the present, they have unfolded before
                         ANNOUNCEMENT.                              our eyes the fear of the Lord. Through all our trials they
        Covenant Christian High School has an interesting           have inspired us onward.
      position open for a teacher to instruct in History,             In observance, an open house will  .be held at their
      Government, Economics, and Business Arithmetic. Per-          residence, 130 E. 24th Street, Holland, Michigan, on
      sons interested in this position are invited to write to      March 6th from 7:00 - 9:30 P.M.
      the Educational Committee in care of Mr. Chas. H.               May our covenant God sustain them in their remain-
      Westra, 1149 Iroquois Dr., SE, Grand Rapids,  Mich.,          ing years. Together, we look forward to the day of full
     .49506.                                                        salvation.              Their grateful children
                                                                                            Lafern
                          ANNOUNCEMENT                                                      Erma
        Needed for the 1969-1970 school year at the North-                                  Jess
     west Iowa Protestant Reformed Christian School, two                                    Mr. and Mrs. Ken Schuitema
      teachers. One for Grades 1 through 4, and one for                                     Rev. and Mrs. Jay Kortering
      Grades 5 through 8. Anyone interested please contact                                  Mr. and Mrs. Ervin Kortering
     Mr. George Hoekstra, Hull, Iowa, 5 1239.                                               8 grandchildren.


264                                             THE STANDARD BEARER


                                News From Our Churches

                                       February  14,1969       in our February mail we received a July 14, 1968
  The January issue of Loveland School's  Ledger               bulletin from one of our churches. A mistake, no doubt.
contained an editorial by the school board regarding the       But it did contain some excellent "quotes" from the
so-called findings of science  - specifically their latest     works of Spurgeon which we may share with you from
venture to determine the "origin" of the rocks on the          time to time; so all is not wasted.
moon. This editorial predicts that this will only result in                                  ******
still another attempt of man to "`prove to himself that           Lynden's Adult Bible Class suffered cancellations for
the Scriptural description of creation is impossible and       two weeks in January because of winter storms; and
untrue." The last paragraph we will give in its entirety:      Loveland's children suffered bouts of flu and chicken
"We thank Thee, Father, that we are privileged to have         pox, curtailing their activities in school and catechism.
our own Christian day school, where our children may                                         ******
daily express their gratitude in prayer for all Thy good
gifts and spiritual blessings; and that they may be under         As you know, our churches do not all have the same
the supervision and training of a teacher who is of the        practices, but did you know that Loveland's congrega-
same faith, and whose desire and purpose is to                 tion stands for the prayer following the sermon, and is
strengthen the church in the proper education of our           seated for the song which follows?
                                                                                             ******
covenant youth."
                         +*****                                   And, practices are changing: in Hope's February 2
  The January 26 bulletin of  Doon announced that              bulletin we read, "This morning we introduce an
their pastor was preaching in Forbes that day; but bad         offertory as part of our liturgy."
weather changed this decision,  - Rev. Decker stayed                                         ****:B*
home!                                                             Lynden's people all came to church on Sunday
                         *a***+                                evening unitedly to "wish the Lord's blessing to Charles
  The young people of the Grand Rapids area who are            Vander  Veen" who was to leave for military duty that
interested in attending the Convention in Redlands this        week. That is Christian concern in action!
year have called a meeting with their parents to discuss                                     **es**
the mode of travel to be utilized, be it bus, train, or
plane. Advance rumors have it that a jet plane would be           The monthly Discussion Group of First Church, in
the least expensive, and quickest. That would put our          their February meeting, discussed the controversial
young people in the "jet set." One of the many events          "Parochiaid." It may be somewhat difficult to see the
sponsored by the Federation Board to raise money for           stripes of the tiger at the far end of the string attached
the trip is a Family Night to be held May 23. This will        to this gift, but. . . !
include a supper and activities for all ages. We trust this                                  a*****
means that the activities will range from the gymnastic           Lynden's Adult Bible Class has found an excellent use
to the sedentary;                                              for the "Dogmatics" of the late Rev. H. Hoeksema: they
                         ******                                are studying it!
  A Dedicatory Program is scheduled in First Church to                                       ******
dedicate the new organ and the remodeled auditorium.              And now for one of those "quotes" from that
Mark the date, April 18, on your calendar so that you          nineteenth century British Baptist preacher, C. H.
may share the joy of First Church, may see the                 Spurgeon: "We did not ask Him to make a Covenant of
remodeled auditorium, and may hear some fine organ             Grace. We did not ask Him to elect us. We did not ask
music by Mrs. G. Bol and Misses Mary and Ellen Kregel          Him to redeem us. Those things were done before we
(the regular organists of the church), and Mrs. C.             were born. We did not ask Him to call us by His Grace,
Lubbers (organist for the Radio Choir). A special              for alas! we did not know the value of that call, and we
demonstration will be given to show what the organ's           were dead in trespasses and sins, but He gave to us freely
component parts do alone and in different combina-             of His unsought, boundless love. Prevenient grace came
tions. The Music Committee is planning an Organ                to us, outrunning all our desires, and all our wills, and
Recital some time in early spring. Watch for further           all our prayers."
announcements.
                         ***+**                                                              *+**+*
  Shades of summer! In a Feb. 2 bulletin of First Church       . . . . see you in church!
this: "Reserve June 20, 1969 for the Annual Sunday
School Picnic to be held in Douglas Walker Park." And                                                             J.M.F.


