Vol 18 Issue 05

We complain that two papers are too many for our small group of churches. Defiantly our young people published a third: Beacon Lights! We heartily congratulate our young people with their defiant spirit, and with its product in this new “Periodical of the Protestant Reformed Young People’s Federation.” The outward appearance of the first issue is attractive and neat. A look at the names of the members of the editorial staff and the list of contributors kindles the hope that the paper will deliver good stuff and sound doctrine. A perusal of the contents of this first issue corroborates that...

It is with some diffidence that I undertake the task, of discussing the question of discipline in the field of education. For this subject is the most serious, the most comprehensive in its range, of all the problems of education. Discipline is by far the most important element in the education of our children. We can conceive of a school without buildings, without equipment, without books; but we cannot conceive of a true school without discipline. Besides, these are days when we are not only told that the problem of discipline has been completely and finally solved, but one is...

Such is the brief topic assigned to me for this essay. However, though the topic is brief, it is pregnant with meaning. For ‘’making friends” is a beautiful activity but also a very difficult art. To see this it is necessary that we have a correct conception of what constitutes a true friend. Who is our true friend? What characterizes him? First of all he resembles us. In a sense he is our equal. There is affinity between him and us. For, “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3). And this affinity between us and our friend...

The Reformation proper was a spiritual movement, that stood for an action that consisted in exalting the Holy Scriptures as the sole infalalible source of doctrine and truth. According to the literal meaning of the word, the Renaissance was a re-birth. It is needful to ask of what it was the re-birth. Some use the term to denote the entrance of the European nations upon a fresh state of energy in general. Others use the term to signify only revival of natural intellectual activities that were stimulated by the recovery of the ancient, pagan, learning and culture of the Graeco-Roman...

Qu. 6. Did God then create man so wicked and perverse? A. By no means; but God created man good and after his own image, in true righteousness and holiness, that he might rightly know God his Creator, heartily love him and live with him in eternal happiness to glorify and praise him. Qu. 7. Whence then proceeds this depravity of human nature? A. From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise; hence our nature is become so corrupt, that we are all conceived and born in sin. Qu. 8. Are we then so...

Of this exclamation of the lamenting prophet we were reminded when we read the answer by Prof. L. Berkhof in The Banner of Oct. 31, 1941, to a question by a member of the Christian Reformed Churches concerning the censurableness of a Church member’s belonging to the C.I.O. The standpoint of the reply is that membership of the C.I.O. and, of course, of any worldly union is a relative matter: one may belong to such organizations, but it is better, because it is less dangerous, not to belong to them! And when we compared this weak and colorless reply to...

In this writing a comparison is drawn between these two prophets of God as to their task, character, and significance for the church. The two form a class by themselves. They stand alone among the great prophets of the Old Dispensation. They did not, as the school of prophets to which Isaiah belonged, predict the exile of Judah or the permanent dispersion of the ten tribes. This was not their task. Their prophetic labors concerned their present. Speaking generally, their task was to witness for Jehovah against the wicked in the land through word and deed, miracles and judgments. They...