All Articles For Article

Restoration of Scotland. In Scotland Episcopacy (the Anglican State Church) was restored. All the acts that had raised Presbyterianism to the state religion of Scotland were annulled. It will be recalled that in 1643 Episcopacy had been abolished by Parliament and a thoroughly Presbyterian system of church government, a directory of worship, and a new Calvinistic confession (known as the Westminster Confession had been prepared by an assembly known as the Westminster Assembly. These preparations had been adopted by Parliament in 1648. It meant the abolition of Episcopacy as the state religion. This had happened under the protectorate of Cromwell....

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, land to enter into His glory? Luke 24:26. It was towards evening; the day was far spent when the two disciples reached Emmaus; yet there may have been time enough for them, after they had dined, to return by daylight to Jerusalem (a distance of about seven miles, a two or three hour’s walk) and to be present at that evening meeting, in the midst of which Jesus was seen by them once more. It must have been between mid-day and sunset that the journey to Emmaus had been taken. Of the...

*This speech was delivered at the last December meeting of our League of Men’s Societies. The movement known as the “Reformation” is characteristically spiritual. It denotes that work of God whereby His people, His church was liberated out of the shackles of Roman Catholicism. To be sure, the Reformation also had far-reaching political results. Yea, to many it was merely political. This is due to the fact that the Roman Catholic, Church, besides being a spiritual power, was also clothed with political might. Nevertheless, the Reformation, in its origin and according to its fundamental significance, is decidedly spiritual. We associate...

Cromwell’s Protectorate Cromwell allowed a large degree of toleration to all Protestants, viz., the Presbyterians, the Episcopalians and the Congregationalists. He left the great majority of clergymen undisturbed. His rule, however, was disliked for its rigor on the one hand and for its broad tolerance on the other. As the result of his tolerance there was much controversy of rival religious bodies. For the great majority of the people of England this was greatly distasteful. This majority wanted peace and to get peace they would see one established form of the faith inculcated upon the nation, that all controversy might...

More and more it seems as though equity, truth and wisdom have fled from the face of the earth, never to return. The very foundations of human relationship seems to be so shaken that only cruel might, total deception and ludicrous folly seem to reign supreme. However, nothing is farther from the truth. Even now, God lives and all is well. Even now, as ever, all things happen according to a very fixed plan and for a very determinate purpose. Moreover, that plan and that purpose are strictest justice and divine truth and wisdom. At all times God says: “These...

Let us again get before our eye the two parties to the great religious struggle raging in England and in Scotland in the period under consideration. We saw how that the yoke of the Pope was thrown off both in England and in Scotland where the Reformation had triumphed. We also saw that the Pope’s place in the church had been taken by the civil magistrate, the king, who set himself up as the highest authority in the church. The demand of the king was that the church having disposed of the Pope, recognize him as its head and swear...

And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and eiders said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now; if he will have him; for he said, I am the Son of...

Holiness was the property of God’s priests, of Aaron and his sons. We learn this from Moses’ reply to Korah, “Tomorrow the Lord will shew who is His, and who is holy; and whom He makes to draw near to him; and whom He chooses will He make to draw near to Himself” (Num. 16:5). Now whereas the whole congregation was holy, what was meant is that Aaron and his sons (the priesthood) possessed this property in a peculiar sense. This raises the question, What was the symbolical holiness of the priesthood? And the answer: It was the holiness that...

But the prophecies further present us with the character of the gospel as well as of its author, and with a description of the extent of His kingdom as well as of His suffering. It was prophesied that the Messiah was to reveal the will of God to man, and to establish a new and perfect covenant,—“I will raise them up a prophet,—and will put my words in His mouth, and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him; and it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which He shall speak...

In my previous article, under the above caption, I pointed out that, according to Rev. D. Zwier, our gospel message—the gospel as we, ministers of Protestant Reformed churches preach it, lacked “aangenaamheid” pleasantness. Zwier, so I wrote, ought to tell his readers just what he means. What he means is not that our message for God’s believing people lacks “aangenaamheid.” He knows that our message to God’s people is that with body and soul, both in life and death, they are not their own but belong to Christ their faithful Savior with all that this implies. Now this message is...