Vol 17 Issue 02

“Thou shall not kill.” Ex. 20:13 It requires some careful thinking to gain a correct insight into the meaning of this command. The mistake can easily be made of seeing too much in this command, of making it cover acts which according to the mind of God it does not cover. The pacifist makes this mistake. The pacifist is one who is opposed to all war, who regards war as such, sin, a transgression of the command, “Thou shalt not kill.” For this command, so it is held, forbids all killing. The taking of life is thus wrong under any...

Not only is the collection or offering of the saints itself rich and meaningful, but in II Cor. 8 and 9 Paul also goes on to show what great and far-reaching effects of blessing these offerings have, both for them that give as well as for them that receive, and above all what glory to God it arouses. The Givers The Lord certainly does not want us to give liberally with the hope of a rich reward in return for our giving. Beautifully Calvin expresses this when he says: “It is indeed the saying of a heathen—‘what you have given...

Mr. K. Heersema of Redlands, Calif., writes us: Many thanks for your answer about Babylon’s fall. I write to comment on it in as far as you conclude that I reason that Germany will win the war. I see Babylon strictly as standing in the sign of merchandise as Tyre and Sidon in the Old Testament. As a fulfillment of Scripture the fall of the British empire is not needed. The fall of the capitalistic system fulfills the Scripture and Britain is going fast in that direction. Was Mammon-capitalism, the system of money, not an international world-power really universal, I...

Recently I attended a meeting of the local R.F.P.A. convening in the basement of the First Protestant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Mich. What impressed me most deeply at that meeting was the apparent lack of zeal and interest, both locally and generally in all our churches, in the cause for which The Standard Bearer was originally called into existence and for which it still stands. It was not the meeting itself nor the men that were present there that caused this impression, but rather the absence of the men that should have been present, and the reports concerning the...

“The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters.” Psalm 23:1, 2. There is a poet of olden times who has called the twenty-third Psalm the nightingale of the psaltery. I can well believe it. It is of a homely feather and shyly it sings out of obscurity. Among the large bundle of Psalms it sings to us in few words, but, oh how sweet they are. It has given solace and rest, comfort and courage to a veritable host of God’s children. It...