Vol 21 Issue 03

Classis East of the Protestant Re­formed Churches met Wednesday morn­ing at 9 o’clock, October 4, 1944 in the parlors of the First Church at Grand Rapids, Michigan. The opening exercises were conducted in the usual way by Rev. J. De Jong, the president of the former classis. The credentials were then read and received and classis was declared constituted. Rev. C. Hanko was called upon to pre­side and Rev. J. De Jong took down the minutes. The minutes of the July session of classis were read and approved. A report of the stated clerk was read and approved. A report...

A motive is that within the individual which incites him to action. (Webster Dictionary). Therefore any act ion of any individual has its origin in an idea translated into a motive and transported into action. If a man is of a pure mind his motives as well as his actions will be pure, and, contrary; if a man is impure in mind, his motives, and actions will be impure. If an individual is religious, naturally his motives and actions will have a religious contour. If a human being is financial minded; his thoughts, ideas, motives and activities will be centered...

* Speech delivered at the Annual meeting of the R.F.P.A. on Thursday evening, September 14, 1944 in Fuller Ave. Comments and criticisms concurring any of the material here presented is invited. At the close of the first installment of this article, was concluded from the facts presented, that the cause of the Standard Bearer is losing supporters and that the paper is no longer read and received as it should be. If you would not wish to grant that on the facts thus far revealed, certainly the Annual meeting itself testifies loudly to that conclusion. On the night this paper...

The Stone-lectures of Dr. A. Kuyper on Calvinism are well known in Reformed circles; it may be taken for granted that at least the title of this work is known by many of the readers. For the sake of those who may be interested in this subject and who are acquainted with this work a few remarks of an introductory nature will not be superfluous. Dr. Kuyper delivered these Stone-lectures in the month of October, 1898 at Princeton, N. J. They were delivered in the English language. However, they are also obtainable now in the Holland language. The question might...

The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians stands out in all our minds as the epistle which especially treats the subject of Christian Liberty. In the major portion of this letter, up to chapter 5, Paul carefully explains the Christian’s relation to the law and so establishes the doctrine of Christian Liberty. In the chapters 5 and 6 the subject is applied to our actual life. A study of the epistle is therefore very profitable for practical Christian living. Of fundamental importance to a correct understanding of the subject of liberty in relation to law, which is assigned to me...

A clearer passage we have in Rom. 1:19-20 teaching that which is knowable of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it unto them: His invisible things. . . .are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, namely his eternal power and divinity. Now it is strange that Dr. Schilder would deny even this passage its probative force on the ground that Prof. Greijdanus would interpret conditionally “if the unseen things are grasped with the spirit, the mind, they are seen! The spiritual activity must continue, otherwise the seeing stops.” I cannot see anything that...

As we have seen, after the death of Jair, the people of Israel again forsook Jehovah and served the gods of the surrounding nations. When the new tide of apostasy, that engulfed the land, was at its height, Jehovah again came with His judgment, and the distress was so great that the very existence of the nation was threatened. The people cried unto the Lord and a new spirit was manifest in Israel. There was confessions of sins. The strange gods were put away and the nation returned to the Lord. Discord and weakness, despondency and self-seeking, gave way to...

It is for the elect, too, that the Lord prays in His sacerdotal intercession. Very clear this is from the Lord’s high priestly prayer as it is preserved for us in John 17. Expressly He declares there: “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.” It is true, that in the narrowest sense and in the first instance these words have reference to the disciples. But this does not alter the fact that, according to Jesus’ own words “the world” is excluded from His prayer. This...

The origin of this church lies in Europe. It is, in part, to be traced to the Zwinglian Reformation in Switzerland, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and partly also to some of the followers of the Reformation in Germany, who could not fully agree with all the Lutheran views, but were of a rather Calvinistic type. These instituted the German Reformed Church. Because the Heidelberg Catechism is part of our Confessions, we are, of course, acquainted with the fact that Frederick III, elector of the Palatinate, instructed Zacharius Ursinus, and Caspar Olevianus, professors, in the university of Heidelberg,...

The inserted photo (SEE ATTACHED PDF TO VIEW PHOTO), is in a sense, a picture of the conference that was held during the latter part of September in Kassel, South Dakota, and the membership of which consisted of some ministers and elders of the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and some of our own ministers. I say, “in a sense,” because it is somewhat difficult to determine the exact limits of this conference as far as its membership is concerned. Strictly speaking, it was a conference of some brethren of the above mentioned church, the synodical committee of our own churches,...