I well remember that when I was a boy we had a rather large family living in our neighborhood to which my mother and several neighbors often referred as “Een huishouding van Jan Steen.” When I was a rather small boy I never had heard who Jan Steen was, but I certainly knew what was meant by the expression “A household of Jan Steen.” The particular family I am speaking of at present, was not a well-regulated family. The father was a drunkard, and the mother of the home was slouchy and always gadding with the neighbor ladies; she was...

Before we set out to treat this subject as such, it is well that we explain the subject we desire to treat. This essay COULD deal with the church, as within her own domain social questions are continually put before us demanding an answer. Questions as to the home and the social functions of the members of the church, are continually asked. The questions as to society life within the domain of the church, I say, COULD be treated under the topic assigned to us. But we do not believe that is the implication of the subject given us for...

For, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy. . . .Luke 2:10b. A word of great joy? Can we hear it? A thing has happened, a word has come to pass that is very really a cause of great joy. And from heaven appeared an ambassador with the tidings concerning this thing that came to pass, in order that these tidings as a word of great joy might be heard by us and the joy of it might fill our hearts! Do we hear it? That is the question of chief concern! Do we so hear it that...

It is generally maintained by the defenders of the “doctrine of “Common Grace” that Calvin, the father of Reformed theology, also believed in a grace of God that was common to all mankind. They have even gone so far as to maintain that Calvin believed in four kinds of grace. They are enumerated as follows: Universal Common Grace, which God bestows on all creatures; General Grace, a grace which God bestows upon men as men; Covenant Grace, which is common to God’s elect and all those who live in the covenant sphere; and Saving Grace, which God bestows unto salvation,...

Another page of valuable Standard Bearer wasted, someone will likely say as he pages through this issue and finds there an article on the Sunday School. I can almost hear such an one mumble about, “Dat ongereformeerd ding” . . . and our Prot. Ref. magazine writing about it . . . waar gaat het heen enz etc. I am so sorry to have disturbed you. But the Standard Bearer has a way of writing about all kinds of things and that is perhaps as it should be in a country such as ours. Besides that, there are many people...

The Criterion of a Miracle In treating a subject involving the conception of a “.miracle we are immediately confronted with an extremely difficult and much debated problem. Not only has the subject been heatedly debated between the rationalist and the believing theologian, tut also Biblical theologians have struggled long and hard among themselves about such questions as whether the miracles were: natural or supernatural; mediate or immediate; or by secondary causes conformed to laws of nature, accelerations, or breaches of these laws; creations or performed with existent master; special providence or miraculous interposition. In order to arrive at some kind...

It is with some hesitancy that the author of these lines undertakes to write on the above-captioned subject and that for two reasons, which both hinge on the nature of the subject. The first is the awareness on the part of his own limited background in the field of this subject. The writer considers himself a novice, one without broad reading knowledge and matured judgement. This does not mean that this article will not reflect the conviction of the writer. On the contrary, the writer is firmly convinced that the lines drawn in this article lead us in the right...

Failing in his attempt to induce the Lord to instruct him to curse Israel, Balaam rises up and goes and returns to his place, Num. 24:25. The loss of the gold after which he lusts inflames his anger. He is burning with hostility toward Jehovah and His people. As he passes through the country of the Midianites, who dwell on Moab’s border, the thought occurs to his dark mind to counsel the heads of these peoples to call the children of Israel to the sacrifice of their gods and this in the consideration that, if the call is heeded, Jehovah...

When Christ sent out His disciples to preach God’s gospel, He said to them, “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.” This prediction has been going into fulfillment through the ages without interruption and from the day that it was uttered by the Savior. Always have the true followers of Christ been hated of all men, of the world that lieth in darkness for the sake of the Word of God. Now hatred is the will to destroy, so that, according to this saying of Christ, the world is always bent on destroying God’s believing...

Always the subject of the Christian’s hope is an important one, but especially in times like the present it should have special interest for the believer. Our times are characterized by turmoil and confusion in the world. The outlook, from a worldly viewpoint, is hardly inspiring confidence for the future. We are involved in a world-war unequalled in scope and intensity by anything ever witnessed before. The idealism of the world is put to shame,. The magnificent structure of modern civilization, of culture and philosophy, is crashing down all about us. There is doubt and fear, distress and suffering on...