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The word of the Lord came to Jonah to the effect that he should cry against Nineveh in that its wickedness had come up before the Lord. Jonah proves unwilling. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for Tarshish. He pays his fare and boards the ship with a view to fleeing from the presence of the Lord. Chap. 1:1-3. Jonah’s guilt is discovered. The Lord stirs up the sea by a great wind. The ship threatens to flounder. The sailors, struck with terror, cry every man unto his god. They cast forth the wares to...

In my previous article, I explained the purpose and design of the tabernacle. The purpose was to provide the Holy Ghost with an instrument for signifying, declaring, that the way—the meritorial instrument by which believers go into the holiest and by which is to be understood the sacrifice of Christ—was not yet made manifest and that thus the way that then had been made manifest—the sacrifice by which Aaron went into the holiest of the first tabernacle—was as far from being the true way, that it was but a shadow, type, symbol; that it was thus not the way by...

The Levites were taken for the ministry of the sanctuary in place of the firstborn of Israel. Spake the Lord to Moses, “And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of the firstborn that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel: therefore the Levites shall be mine” (Num. 3:12). The Lord immediately explains His doing and names the reason for it, “Because all the firstborn are mine; for on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both...

The Book of numbers sets out thus: “And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the wilderness of Israel. . . .” According to this Scripture, there intervened between the departure of the people of Israel from Egypt and the numbering of which this text makes mention one year and one month. The journey out of Egypt to Sinai...

To the undersigned was delivered the task of presenting to the readers of The Standard Bearer a short resume of the things that have transpired with a view to our congregation in Manhattan, Montana. We begin by briefly relating the history which led up to the organization of our congregation and the coming of our first minister. Reverend Kok came into our midst in August, 1938. And as most of us were not acquainted with fine decisions of the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church of 1924, his coming was a surprise to many of us. Upon his arrival the...

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...

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...