Vol 29 Issue 19

Classis East convened on April 8, 1953 at 9 o’clock A.M. in our Hope Protestant Reformed Church. During the month of April Classis East met six days; two days in Hope, two in Second “Church and two in Hudsonville. Then Classis recessed until May 19, 1953 and met dur­ing two Weeks for the sum total of eight more days; two days in First Church, two at Fourth Church, two at Hudsonville Church and two at the Creston Church.

Eating and Drinking Christ In the Blue Banner Faith and Life magazine of July-September issue, we came across the following review of Hoeksema’s latest book on the Heidelberg Catechism written by Adam Loughridge. We liked most of what the reviewer says of this book and pass on to our readers the entire article in the hope that it will encourage especially our own people to read the book.

The house that is built partly on a rock, and, partly on the sand, will fall: and the sinner, who rests his hope of salvation, partly, on Christ, and, partly on his own works, will be damned.

The fourth article of our church order defines the lawful calling of candidates to the office of the min­istry of the word. In this respect it is to be disting­uished from the next article which speaks of the cal­ling of ministers who are already in the office. Later articles in our church order speak of the calling and ordination of elders and deacons. The order to be pursued by the church in calling one to the ministry as prescribed by our church order is not above criticism. We cite the article here in its entirety:

We had concluded our preceding article by calling attention to Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, and noted that he, too, declared that there could be no salvation for anyone except in the Church.

As to the content of the canons in comparison with that of our other creeds, it must be noted, first of all, that the Canons treat only a certain aspect of the truth, while both the Belgic Confession and the Heidel­berg Catechism cover the entire field of Reformed doc­trine. In this respect the Canons could never stand alone as the doctrinal standard of a church, while it would be conceivable that a church could stand merely on the basis of the Catechism or the Netherlands Con­fession.

Vacation time is here again! And in these hectic days of hustle and bustle, of hurrying and worrying, of nervous tension and ner­vous “breakdowns” the question becomes not whether we may take a vacation but rather whether for health’s sake we ought not take a vacation to enjoy a little relief from the strain of today’s mad rush.

The passage of Scripture which we will consider in this essay reads as follows: “Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind, being sober, and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

In convincing the men of Judah that he bore them no ill-will, the king went much further than to chide them for being the last to bring him back. He in­structed the high priests Zadok and Abiathar to tell Amasa that, whereas he, too, was his bone and flesh, he was making him captain of the host in Joab’s stead.

Lord’s Day 36, Chapter 3: With Fear and Reverence