GIFTS RECEIVED FOR MISSIONS IN FEBRUARY 1971

SOURCE AMOUNT

CLASSIS EAST Friend in Clifton Gift 100.00

CLASSIS MIDWEST

Friend in Michigan Gift 50.00

Friend in Kalamazoo Gift 5.00

Kalamazoo Church Col. Collection 105.00

Friend in Grand Rapids Gift 10.00

CLASSIS WEST

Friend in Sheboygan Gift 50.00

Corsica Rebecca Circle Gift 28.00

TOTAL: $348.00

Dear Friends,

In the first place we want to thank you all for the kind gifts to the mission work. May the Lord bless you and your gift. Greetings to all in the name of the mission committee.

American General Mission Fund

John Spaans, Treasurer

Plankinton, Box 106 RR 1

South Dakota 57368

TIMOTHY MISSION FUND

Our grateful thanks for the gifts received during the month of February, which amounted to $95.00. A check in the amount of $100 was sent to the Wycliffe Bible Translators, leaving a balance at the end of the month of $188.40. As can be seen in the acknowledgments which follow, your gifts are greatly appreciated. May the Lord bless the various labors performed, so that they might serve to His honor and to the salvation of many souls. Donations to the Timothy Mission Fund should be sent in care of Miss Adriana Kievit, 1121 North Westnedge Avenue, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49007.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS—

Dear Mission Friends,

Many thanks for the gift which we received from you for the work to be done in 1971. Once again our best thanks! May the Lord bless this gift for the Glory of His Name. God bless you and your friends on the other side of the ocean also in 1971.

SPANISH EVANGELICAL MISSION

J.R.v. Oordt (secretary)

Dear Timothy friends,

Thank you for your gift toward the giving of the gospel to the Maxakali Indians. May the Lord bless you. We appreciate your concern.

We are preparing for a trip to the Indians in which Fran, the youngest (Phillip — 3½ years) and I are to go, while David, Jimmy and Annette are to stay behind here with another family and attend school. We appreciate your prayer as we go. The Indians for the most part would like to have God and the devil both; most would say they believe in Jesus Christ, but they continue in their spirit communication. This is unacceptable to our jealous God. How much do they really hunger after God?

We hope to check Genesis, Acts, and Timothy again with the Indians in preparation for publication. Please pray for the three oldest children. For the larger part of a month we will be completely out of contact with them. The substitute “parents” will appreciate your prayers, I know.

WYCLIFFE BIBLE TRANSLATORS

Harold and Fran Popovich

(in Brasilia)

Dear Mission friends,

Thank you so much for your check for $200.00.

Our two Holland nursing sisters were given permission by the authorities to commence medical work in a rural area. All the necessary preparations for this were made. To our dismay we have now been informed that permission will be withdrawn unless they agree to take an active part in the propagation of family planning methods among the Africans. To this we will of course not agree. The Lord is able to incline the hearts of those in authority. If not, the whole project will have to be called off. In this also it is wonderful to wait and see how He will work. He has power to close one door of apparent opportunity and open another (Acts 16:6–10).

Since last year I have been teaching New Testament Scripture knowledge in a college in Bulawayo. The students are African teenagers from many tribes inside and outside Rhodesia. Most of them have a heathen background. Their ignorance of the Bible is appalling, but most of them are keen to learn. Bible knowledge is a state examination subject. At present I see 400 students for two periods per week. Are the names of some of these young people written in the Lamb’s Book of Life…? Pray for them that the Word of God may take hold of these young lives.

Hugo, seven, now goes to school in Bulawayo. Annamarie, six, is still taught at home by my wife, regularly watched by Christina, who is almost five.

The warnings given to the church in Pergamos (Revelations 2) are very applicable to many churches in Rhodesia also. Pray that young churches may be so taught by the Holy Spirit that it will become abundantly clear what is of the doctrine of Balaam and what is of Christ, the alone Head of His Church. The Lord be praised that there are also those who hold fast His Name and have not denied the faith

With Christian love and greetings,

yours very sincerely,

Jan van Woerden

EBENEZER SCRIPTURE

MISSION — RHODESIA

Dear friends of the Timothy Mission Fund,

We would like to thank you very much for your gift to Wycliffe Bible Translators. Your gift helped in our personal support.

We are Australians and we first went to New Guinea to serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators in 1965. At the end of last year we returned to Australia for furlough. We hope to return to New Guinea later this year.

Wycliffe has translation teams in almost 90 different languages of New Guinea. There are about 450 other tribes in New Guinea who need a translation of the Bible into their own languages. A few are receiving translations through other missions, but most are still waiting for it. Wycliffe’s aim is to send translators to these tribes also.

Back in New Guinea we are “support workers” at Ukarumpa, Wycliffe’s base of operations in New Guinea. Support workers provide the services needed for the translation program. We free the translators to concentrate on their language and translation work.

Kevin’s job could be called town engineer for Ukarumpa. He supervises the work in roads and bridges, town planning, water supply, engineering workshop, automotive repairs, vegetable garden and electricity supply. The electrical work takes a lot of time, especially if we do not have another electrician at Ukarumpa. The electrician now at Ukarumpa will be leaving later this year and our special prayer request is for another electrician to replace him.

Before we left for furlough Kevin was able to install two new diesel generators with a total capacity of 300 KVA. These should provide for Ukarumpa’s electricity needs for the next three years when more generators will be needed. Many important operations at Ukarumpa depend on electricity, such as the printing.

My job is to compile information from Bible commentaries on I Timothy which will be useful to translators. They will have the information available in one book.

We have two sons — Peter 7 and David 4. They are meeting many people and seeing many new places as we travel on furlough. Taking meetings is keeping us busy.

Thank you for sharing the work with us,

WYCLIFFE BIBLE TRANSLATORS Kevin and Ann Close

GILBERT TENNENT AN AMERICAN BOANERGES

(Continued)

But what, it may be asked, was the character of the preaching that produced such results? What were the doctrines most frequently touched upon? The Rev. Thomas Prince junior, pastor of the Old South Church in Boston, recorded his impressions of Tennent’s preaching: “It was frequently both terrible and searching. It was often for matter justly terrible, as he according to the inspired oracles exhibited the dreadful holiness, justice, law, threatenings, truth, power, majesty of God and his anger with rebellious, impenitent, unbelieving and Christless sinners; the awful danger they were every moment in of being struck down to hell and being damned forever, with the amazing miseries of that place of torment.”

Yet it appears that it was the searching elements of Tennet’s preaching that was the principal cause of the great impression made upon the people. For Mr. Prince in questioning the people who came to him under conviction of sin discovered that, “it was not so much his laying open the terror of the law and the wrath of God or damnation or hell (for this they could pretty well bear, as long as they hoped these belonged not to them or that they could easily avoid them) as his laying open their many sins and secret shifts and refuges and counterfeit resemblances of grace, delusive and damning hopes, their utter impotence and impending danger of destruction, whereby they found all their hopes and refuge of lies to fail them and themselves exposed to eternal ruin, unable to help themselves and in a lost condition. This searching preaching was both the suitable and principal means of their conviction.”

It must not be thought, however, that all this went without opposition. Whitefield realized immediately, after hearing such searching preaching, that “hypocrites must either soon be converted or enraged” and Tennent himself observed that “as soon as an effectual door was opened I found many adversaries and my character was covered with unjust reproaches.” The sad thing, however, was that most of the opposition came from the clergy. For it is true to say that the greater number of the ministers of the Presbyterian church opposed the revival of religion that was taking place and did their utmost to quench it. They defamed the characters of the leaders of the revival and ridiculed the doctrines that they preached. Over and over again the synods of the Church made it clear that they were on the side of those who opposed the awakening and even issued decrees that sustained them in their opposition to the truth. Tennent at last felt that something must be done, and so, when he was guest preacher at the Presbyterian church of Nottingham, Pennsylvania, he preached his celebrated sermon on, “The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry.” This was the trumpet blast that summoned all who supported the revival to take a firm stand for the truth, and its solemn appeal to all who were concerned about their eternal welfare to forsake the ministry of men undoubtedly unconverted was devastating in its effect. There can be no doubt that Tennet went too far in castigating the majority of the ministers as “orthodox letter-learned pharisees and hirelings, murderous hypocrites,” but the provocation was great. As Whitefield put it, “unconverted ministers are the bane of the Church,” and like Tennent he was not slow to witness against them. Whitefield writes: “The reason why congregations have been so dead is, because they had dead men preaching to them! O that the Lord may quicken and revive them! How can dead men beget living children? It is true, indeed, that God may convert people by the devil, if He chooses; and so He may by unconverted ministers; but I believe He seldom makes use of either of them for this purpose.” Despite its defects, Tennent’s sermon was the principal means of influencing the people against unconverted ministers. In return the synod, exasperated by Tennent and the “Log College” preachers, brought out a ruling that ministers who desired to be received into its membership must present a diploma from either an English or a New England university. This, of course, was designed to exclude men trained in the “Log College.” It proved to be the last straw and Tennent withdrew from the synod of Philadelphia, taking with him the whole of the New Brunswick presbytery, together with a part of the Newcastle and New York presbyteries, and seven years later formed them into the synod of New York. But to his credit it must be mentioned that Tennent was later to be principal agent in the reunion of the presbyteries and in the healing of the schism. But by that time almost all the ministers of the Church had ceased to oppose the revival and, indeed, most encouraged it.

In 1743, two years after the division in the Church, Tennent accepted a call to become the first pastor of the Second Presbyterian church of Philadelphia. The congregation was composed mainly of those who had been convert ed under the ministry of George Whitefield. Amongst these Tennent was to labour until his death in 1764. The most romantic days of Tennent’s life were over, but his usefulness was not thereby diminished. For the congregation increased rapidly, and when a larger church was built in 1752 to accommodate the growing congregation it was found to be too small and balconies had to be added before all could be seated. His preaching had lost little of its fire, and although it was more tender than it had been during his New Brunswick ministry his moving appeals could still be heard falling upon the people with peculiar power:

“I beseech you, friends, by all the happiness of heaven, by all the torments of hell, for the sake of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, by all the regard you owe your deathless souls, your reason, your conscience, as well as the ambassadors of Christ among you, that ye Awake! I beseech you as a messenger of the Great God, as on my bended knees, by the groans and tears and wounds of Christ that ye Awake! Yea, I beseech you by all the curses of the law and the blessings of the gospel that ye Awake! My friends, you are witnesses against yourselves that I have set death and life before you. O choose life that you may live! Sirs, consider these things as ye will do at the tribunal of God at the last day.”

On July 23, 1764, at the age of sixty-one, Tennent passed to his reward mourned by a vast multitude of people who knew that a “prince in Israel had fallen” and that the earthly life of one of the Church’s most faithful ministers had come to a close.

There can be no doubt that Gilbert Tennent was one of the most successful evangelists of “the Great Awakening” in America. Indeed it is difficult to think of anyone before or after him who was so pre-eminently used in that country for the awakening and the conversion of sinners. But the question that is surely the most interesting to all those who are concerned about the cause of the Gospel in our day is, “How are we to account for the great success that attended Tennent’s preaching?” The ultimate cause, of course, must be sought in the sovereign will of God. “Paul may plant and Appollos may water, but it is God that giveth the increase.” It is the Lord who crowns a man’s labour with success and what He gives to one man He withholds from another. Our duty is to be faithful to God in accordance with the ministry, the gifts and the opportunities God has given us. But though we must trace the success of Tennent’s preaching to the sovereign will of God, yet we must surely have observed that there was a connection between the character of his preaching and the success that attended it. For it is noteworthy that, orthodox though he was, earnestly though he preached, he was unsuccessful at the beginning of his ministry. It was only after he was given “affecting views of eternity” during his sickness, when he began to preach “as a dying man to dying men” and in a searching discriminating manner, that he was so pre-eminently successful. It was this searching element of his preaching that Mr. Prince observed was “both the suitable and principal means of the conviction” of his hearers. Tennent preached in an alarming, awakening manner separating the “wheat from the chaff and the “precious from the vile.” We do not hesitate to say that this is the kind of preaching that is needed today!

In recent years we have witnessed a tremendous upsurge of evangelistic activity but at the same time a decay of godliness in the Church. On all sides we see an increase of worldliness and a lack of conviction of sin amongst church members. Ministers complain that their preaching has little or no effect upon their people. The trouble is that the churches are filled with numbers of people who imagine that they are saved because they have made a “decision for Christ” in some evangelistic meeting or because they profess evangelical religion and believe in the new birth! But a man may have “the form of godliness” and yet know nothing of its “power”. He may have “a name to live” and yet be dead. But how are we to remedy the situation? We preach upon sin and judgment, but the people believe themselves to be saved! We preach on the necessity of repentance, of faith, of the new birth, but all our hearers believe themselves to be the happy possessors of these saving blessings. It is searching, discriminating preaching that is needed! It is preaching like Tennent’s that is required! We need to preach much on the nature of true faith, distinguishing the “faith of God’s elect” from mere “temporary faith” whose chief manifestation is effervescent “joy” (cf. Mark iv. 16). We need to preach much on the parable of the sower and the necessity of “holiness without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb. xii.14). We must deliver ourselves from the notion that a man may receive Christ Jesus as his Saviour and yet not submit to Him as Lord. We must declare boldly with the Apostle James that “faith without works is dead.” We need to cast off that hypersensitivity that affects so many ministers who fear to preach on the necessity of self-examination lest they disturb the assurance of their people. We must not forget that it is only an antinomian presumption that is disturbed by self-examination, whereas a true assurance is rather strengthened by the performance of this duty! In a word, we ought to show from the Scriptures who are the Lord’s people and who are not, and declare that “it will be well with the righteous” but that “it will not be well with the unrighteous.” There can be no doubt that many will be offended. Men took offence at the preaching of Tennent, but if we preach as he did, though some be offended, we may, with the blessing of God, experience also something of his success. W. T. Atkinson

NOTES OUT OF THE CATECHISM CLASSES OF REV. J. FRAANJE

Continuing the subject of the Holy Scriptures — Lesson 2-part 1

Last week we considered how the Lord at the beginning of the church under the old testament made known His will to the people by word of mouth and they then received these words by faith as God’s word to them. But now, since the time of Moses, we have God’s written Word from which we can learn the truths that can make us “wise unto salvation.”

Continuing the subject of the Holy Scripture, Hellenbroek asks: Who has ordered the Holy Scriptures to be written?

Answer: God. 2 Tim. 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God.

And by whom did He cause them to be written?

Answer: The Old Testament by prophets and the New Testament by evangelists and apostles.

In Exodus 17:14 The Lord said to Moses: “Write this for a memorial in a book” and in Revelations 1:19 “Write the things which thou hast seen and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter.”

It is pointed out plainly in 2 Peter 1:21 that these persons did not write their own words or thoughts. It states: “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

Do you see, boys and girls, that Rev. Hellenbroek would not teach you things that are not in accordance with God’s Word? You can find every answer confirmed in the Bible. You, too, should always try to speak the same way. Do not believe or say things that are not in accordance to God’s Word. We as human beings always make mistakes. That is why the Holy Scripture must always be our guide in faith and life. The persons writing those things could never make mistakes in them because God the Holy Spirit communicated to them and guided them into all the truth.

Because of this they are not human truths but divine truths.

We shall run through the questions as they are written for awhile this afternoon because you must learn the historical aspects of God’s Word too.

Of course, you all know that there are two testaments in the Bible. The Old Testament was originally written in the Hebrew language, except a part of the books of Daniel and Ezra which were written in Chaldean.

The New Testament, with exception of some Latin and Hebrew words, was written in the Greek language.

Now our 13th question asks: Is the whole Bible a divine book?

He answers, yes, because it contains such things as can proceed only from God. Which things are they? Mysteries, as the triune God, the creation out of nothing in six days, that Jesus is God and man, the Mediator, and prophecies: which are predictions of future events that were performed on the exact time and place.

In brief, we could say: The Bible, the divine book, is perfect:

1st. In its entirety.

2nd. In its two testaments.

3rd. In its 66 books.

4th. In its chapters.

5th. In every one of its verses.

You must never forget your whole life long that the whole book is perfect, meaning that not even one part can be taken from it. Neither can words be stricken or added because the Lord said in the next to the last verse of the last book, Revelation 22:19, “And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life.” In the 18th verse it states: “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.”

Boys and girls, that would be a perilous thing to do; don’t you think so, too?

Therefore, never let yourself be brought from the way of truth by those who say that God’s word is in the Bible (they mean there are various things in the Bible that are actually of God) but the entire Bible is not God’s Word! The Ethicals, especially, have taken this position. They teach that men may, without fear (or conscience qualms), reject certain parts of the Bible because only God’s Word is considered to be the Bible.

They contend they can possess true faith and be saved without accepting the Holy Scriptures as an entirely divine book.

They consider the Bible merely raw material from which they take confidence and in so doing pretend that they also believe God’s Word. In reality they deny it, because, when men believe only parts of the Bible to be God’s Word, they reject the remaining parts, and as a consequence render any trust they have worthless.

There is nothing to be added or to be taken away.

We shall not take the remaining time this afternoon in discussion of the division of the books or the meaning of their names.

If you want to, you can find these in your Bibles at home. They are listed in the front part of it.

You remember that the first 17 books of the old testament, from Genesis to Esther, are historical. Then follow the 5 poetical or moral books of Job to the Songs of Solomon. Then follow the 17 prophetical books of Isaiah to Malachi.

The New Testament is divided into the 4 gospels, from Matthew to John; the Acts of the Apostles, then, the 21 epistles, of which Paul wrote 14, and ending with the prophetical book, The Revelation of John.

Now, men would logically say: The men that God used to write such divine writings must have had an exceedingly high education and must have been very intelligent.

There too (reverently speaking) the Lord used very expedient means.

It was decided in His Holy council from eternity that Moses would be the first man to write the Divine Words. And now just notice the wisdom of God in making Moses qualified for it.

The Lord promised Abraham the whole land of Canaan. During the famine in Joseph’s time, the children of Jacob stayed in Egypt. So also, many generations after them. They lived there more than 400 years.

You know from Bible History that Pharaoh oppressed them. They had to work hard and were not much more than slaves. Of course, in those times, there were not many bright educated men amongst the Israelites because without exception, according to the Bible, they all had to work for Pharaoh.

Moses was born in those terrible times. The child that God had chosen had arrived in time, became old and brought the children of Israel, according to God’s promise, to Canaan. He wrote the first 5 books of the Holy Scriptures.

But how would it be possible in times of hard slavery for Moses to learn to read and write?

If you may arrive home in good health this evening, you should read attentively the history of Moses in Exodus 2, 3 & 4. You will then see how God caused him, a very handsome boy, to be born. How his parents found it impossible to throw him into the river according to the command of the wicked Pharaoh. When his mother put him in a basket made of bulrushes and placed him in the water, God arranged that the daughter of Pharaoh should find him and provide for his education. In that way he had much more opportunity to become educated than he could have had while living with his father.

Was not that a peculiar way to be made capable for the great task that God had intended for him?

I think if the princess and Pharaoh had known that they had caused a little child to be educated, that later would be used as a means to lead the Israelites out of their land, they would have immediately murdered it. Don’t you think so too?

So the Lord arranges all sorts of wonderful means, whereby those He would use later, are made eligible for their tasks.

This was the experience of Paul too. He was a genuine Jew, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the most eminent professors of those days, skilled in Scripture knowledge. Paul studied with great zeal, and conscientiously practiced the law of Moses and the whole Old Testament. But when the time arrived that Saul must become Paul, God made use of this education. It was in a very different manner than Paul had ever intended. God used him to write fourteen precious letters which are a part of the New Testament.

He was a boy born out of the smallest tribe of Israel. But the Lord did not forget him; that boy was His chosen vessel who was to have a great place in the founding of the New Testament.

He was to be the first to preach the Messiah to all sorts of heathens from Spain to Italy, far removed from the land of Canaan.

Now his education was being put to good use.

Do you know what is so plain to see in these persons?

That all of God’s children, whom He has chosen but who are still unconverted and filled with sinful ways, are nothing but servants of satan, (horses that the devil has borrowed).

The devil, so to speak, uses them for all sorts of ungodliness as long as he can.

You see that clearly in the life of Paul. He persecuted the disciples who adhered to Jesus as being the true Messiah and threatened to kill them.

(To be continued)

A MINISTERS ADVICE

Do you not expect your minister to be more than man. When you find perfection in yourselves you may condemn your brethren in whom you do not see it. You owe your pastor your love, your hearty undissembled constant love, if you have not a love to his person there will soon be a prejudice against his ministry and where there is prejudice against a man’s ministry there will be no profit by his labours. It is sad to hear as critics and not Christians. Remember, one day the word is to judge you, forward as you be to judge the word.

You owe your minister your prayers. Pray hard that he may preach well and walk well. The people’s prayers are, in a sense, the pastor’s best books. It is a blessed thing when there is a stock of prayers going up daily from the church for their pastor. Those who complain most of a ministry pray least for it. What is lacking in your prayers you may expect to find wanting in your provision.

Written nearly 200 years ago.

GETHSEMANE

Go to Dark Gethsemane,
Ye that feel the tempter’s power;
Your Redeemer’s conflict see;
Watch with Him one bitter hour;
Turn not from His griefs away;
Learn of Jesus Christ to pray.

See Him at the judgment hall,
Beaten, bound, reviled, arraigned
See Him meekly bearing all;
Love to man His soul sustained;
Shun not suffering shame or loss;
Learn of Christ to bear the cross.

Calvary’s mournful mountain climb;
There adoring at His feet,
Mark that miracle of time,
God’s own sacrifice complete;
“It is finished” hear Him cry;
Learn of Jesus Christ to die. Amen.

(James Montgomery)

BUT WHEN?

Reader, I dare say you mean one day to be a decidedly religious man. You hope one day to be a really serious Christian. But when is this to be? I say again, When?

Are you waiting till you are sick? Surely you will not tell me that this is a convenient season. When your body is racked with pain, when your mind is distracted with all kinds of anxious thoughts, when calm reflection is almost impossible, is this a time for beginning the mighty work of acquaintance with God? Do not talk so.

Are you waiting till you have leisure? And when do you expect to have more time than you have now? Every year you live seems shorter than the last: you find more to think of, or to do, and less power and opportunity to do it. And after all you know not whether you may live to see another year. Boast not yourself of tomorrow — now is the time!

Are you waiting till you are old? Surely you have not considered what you say. You will serve Christ when your members are worn out and decayed, and your hands unfit to work? You will go to Him when your mind is weak and your memory failing? You will give up the world when you cannot keep it? Is this your plan? Beware, lest you insult God.

Are you waiting until your heart is perfectly fit and ready? That will never be. It will always be corrupt and sinful — a bubbling fountain, full of evil. You will never make it like a pure white sheet of paper that you can take to Jesus Christ, and say, “Here I am, Lord, ready to have Thy law written on my heart.” Delay not, but begin as you are.

Oh, lingering reader, are not your excuses broken reeds? Be honest; confess the truth. You have no good reason for waiting.

Take the advice I give you. Resolve this day to wait no longer. Begin at once to seek God. Repent of your sins. Believe on Christ to be saved. “Behold now is the accepted time;behold, now is the day of salvation.” II Cor. 6:2.

J. C. Ryle

TIME FOR SECRET PRAYER

The times wherein we live call aloud for secret prayer. Hell seems to be broken loose, and men turned into incarnate devils; land-destroying and soul-damning wickedness walk up and down the streets with a whore’s forehead, without the least check or control, Jer. 6:15, “Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush.” They have sinned away shame, instead of being ashamed of sin. Custom in sin had quite banished all sense of sin and all shame for sin, so that they would not suffer nature to draw her veil of blushing before their great abominations. The same words are repeated in chapter 8:12. How applicable these scriptures are to the present time I will leave the prudent reader to judge.

But what does the prophet do now that they were as bold in sin and as shameless as so many harlots? That you may see in Jer. 13:17: “But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears”. Now they were grown up to that height of sin and wickedness, that they were above all shame and blushing; now they were grown so proud, so hardened, so obstinate, so rebellious, so mad upon mischief, that no mercies could melt them or allure them, nor no threatenings nor judgments could in any way terrify or stop them. The prophet goes into a corner, he retires himself into the most secret places, and there he weeps bitterly, there he weeps as if he were resolved to drown himself in his own tears. When the springs of sorrow rise high, a Christian turns his back upon company, and retires himself into places of greatest privacy, that so he may more freely and more fully vent his sorrow and grief before the Lord. Ah, land, land, what pride, luxury, lascivi-ousness, licentiousness, wantonness, drunkenness, cruelties, injustice, oppressions, fornications, adulteries, falsehoods, hypocrisy, bribery, atheism, horrid blasphemies, and hellish impieties, are now to be found rampant in the midst of you! How are the Lord’s Sabbaths profaned, pure ordinances despised, Scripture rejected, the Spirit resisted and derided, the righteous reviled, wickedness countenanced, and Christ many thousand times in a day by these cursed practices afresh crucified! Land, land, were our forefathers alive, how sadly would they blush to see such a horrid degenerate posterity as is to be found in the midst of you! How is our forefathers’ hospitality converted into riot and luxury, their frugality into pride and prodigality, their simplicity into subtlety, their sincerity into hyprocrisy, their chastity into chambering and wantonness, their charity into cruelty, their sobriety into drunkenness, their plain-dealing into dissembling, their works of compassion into works of oppression, and their love to the people of God into utter enmity against the people of God! And what is the voice of all these crying abominations, but every Christian to his closet, and there weep, with weeping Jeremiah, bitterly, for all these great abominations whereby God is dishonored openly.

Oh weep in secret for their sins who openly glory in their sins, which should be their greatest shame. Who knows but that the whole land may fare the better for the sakes of a few that are mourners in secret? But however it goes with the nation, such as mourn in secret for the abominations of the times, may be confident that when sweeping judgments shall come upon the land, the Lord will hide them in the secret chamber of His providence; He will set a secret mark of deliverance upon their foreheads that mourn for the crying sins of the present day, as He did upon theirs in Ezek. 9:4–6.

Rev. Thomas Brooks

A PENITENT HEARD

(Translated from a book of daily meditations)

Rev. P. Blok

“And prayed unto him: and he was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.”

Everyone must once give an account of his deeds before God. However, there is a great difference if it happens on the Judgment-Day, or between the cradle and the grave. Sometimes the Lord uses deep ways of affliction to fulfill His counsel. The greatest enemies are made willing in the day of His power. Visualize one in the Babylonian prison who creeps around because of his deep spiritual needs. Who is this? He is the king of Judah? But now he is no longer king. Manasseh has ignored all of God’s callings. Time and again he rejected God’s voice in his life. The Lord spoke to Manasseh but he took no notice of it. Now he is in Babylon’s prison; now he is a captured man. Now he can no longer avoid God. Manasseh is scared to death. God has humbled him. Formerly he took refuge in the idolatry of the peoples, but now all his religion has become pure vanity. There he bows before God. There he stammers his first true prayer. That prayer penetrates through to heaven for the Lord wishes to hear his cry. It is a supplication which ascends to the Lord. Here is a beggar begging for grace without any right to it. It is a typical prayer that the Lord will hear. Righteously, the Lord could have cast him away. However, wonder of wonders, He regards the prayer of the destitute. Manasseh may pursue the way back. He may enter God’s city again. How differently he must have viewed Jerusalem compared to former days. Now all became new for him. Never yet had he seen the value of God’s service. Now it is: “For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand.” Now he is aware of the Lord, the God of Israel. A true knowledge of God is instilled in him. There is only one true God, a God with which he must reckon. How foolish does all idolatry become; how painful to have served these. How often has the Lord spoken to us? How long have we ignored God’s testimony? “Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord.”

Read: II Chron. 33:1–13, Acts 9:1–9.

As the disciples of Christ are more than others, so the disciples of Christ do more than others.

OUR NATIONAL SINS

“O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee.” Daniel 9:8.

Great God, at whose disposing voice
The nations tremble or rejoice,
Help us to mourn before Thy throne,
The sins of others, and our own.

Proud of her glory, America boasts
The strength and safety of her coasts:
But peace and war Thy word fulfill
And only move to do Thy will.

But stronger foes than hostile powers
Infest this guilty land of ours:
Oh, might her favored sons begin
To trace their trouble to their sin!

Yet, Lord, Thou hast a praying few,
Who humbly for Thy mercy sue;
Who hear the message of Thy rod,
And fly for refuge to their God.

And shall we supplicate in vain,
Nor one sweet ray of hope obtain?
Shall sorrow bow before Thy feet,
And empty leave the mercy-seat?

Spare us, good Lord, in mercy spare,
And let Thy righteous wrath forbear;
Still let Thy kind and bounteous hand
Defend and bless our native land.

NEVER ENDING FAVOUR

If grace is compared to an earthly stream we may say, it was eternal in its rise, and shall be everlasting in its course. It has flowed without interruption down to the present time, and appears broader and deeper as onward it proceeds.

Every individual who was an object of grace in eternity, is made a subject of grace in time, and shall continue so forever and ever. Every gracious soul is assured — “my grace is sufficient for thee.” By grace we stand; by it we persevere; by it we overcome; by it we enter heaven. Grace is the principle which inspires every holy motive, which suggests every holy thought and word, and which constrains to a holy and becoming line of conduct. No gracious person can sin that grace may abound, for sin is opposed to a work of grace in the heart. So, no object of grace shall fail of becoming a subject of grace; and no subject of grace shall fail of the fruition of grace, which is eternal glory. The stream shall flow on, increasing in width and depth, in power and majesty, until the ocean of glory is reached.

INCOMPARABLE FAVOUR

Everything of God is worthy of Himself. In the clemency in pardoning their offending subjects, and raising them to dignity and honour; in the friend sacrificing his own existence for his friend; and in the bestowal of the most munificent gifts to the needy — where is anything comparable to the grace or favour of God? Through it the mind of the Eternal was perpetually revolving around the idea of our salvation. Through it all things in time have been, and still are made subservient to His merciful designs. Through it God tabernacled in our human nature, and is now glorified in His finished work. Through it His Spirit has been given, to render that grace effectual in every heir of salvation. Through it every comfort of a temporal nature, every blessing of a spiritual kind, and every hope of future blessedness comes to us.

We owe everything to grace, except that which is evil. To what, then, can we compare it, except to the glory of God Himself? “It is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.”

THE OBJECT OF DIVINE GRACE

But for God’s purposes of grace, our first parents could have had no respite, nor reprieve, nor mercy shown to them. The day of their sin must have been the day of their death; and so they must have perished miserably themselves, and with them their unborn posterity. But in the hour of their extremity, and ours, grace appeared giving utterance to the voice of mercy, and redemption from the curse. Our salvation began to appear in the very persons of those by whom sin entered into the world and death by sin.

Every sinner so long as he lives in this world is a monument of grace. But for the long-suffering and patience of God which are exercised through grace, our impiety would be visited by an angry God in instances most frequent, and in the most awful manner. But for the grace of God we had already been lifting up our eyes in hell being in torments; but instead we are saved. Divine grace preserves every one of the elect in Christ, while in their unregenerate condition; restrains them in many cases from such lengths of sin as otherwise their disposition would lead them into, and in every case prevents the outpouring of the trials of justice upon the guilty individual.

THROUGH BACA’S VALE

“But grow in grace, and in knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. “ 2 Peter 3, 18

Growth is the sure mark of life. We see this in vegetation, in the animal creation, in the growth of our bodies, and every other thing in which there is life. Where, then, there is the life of God in the soul, there will be a growth in that life. Paul says to the Thessalonian Church: “We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly” (2 Thess. 1.3); and Peter says, “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4.13). It was for this increasing knowledge of the Son of God that Paul stretched every desire of his soul when he followed after, if that he might apprehend that for which also he was apprehended of Christ Jesus; and thus reaching forth unto those things which were before, he pressed toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3.12–14). This is not what is called progressive sanctification, as if the flesh got holier and holier, for that is ever “the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;” but this is a growth of that “new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” After this growth in grace, this closer conformity to the image of Christ, should we ever be striving with all the powers of our soul; not satisfied with a low and lean state before God, but with unceasing prayer and supplication, begging of the Lord that we might be “filled with the knowledge of his. will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that we might walk worthy of the Lord, unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians1,9,10).

PRIDE HUMBLED

The following incident as told as part of the history of Elder John Leland (who was a native of Massachsetts, but served churches several years in Virginia). Elder Leland traveled much over the country on preaching tours on foot. On one occasion he had been warmly solicited in writing by a widow lady to visit her home in old Virginia and preach, telling him to set his time and her home was at his service. Mr. Leland replied to her by setting a day, at 10:00 a.m. The lady was a very wealthy planter in Appomattox. She regarded herself as one of the most pious and exemplary persons to be found anywhere. She had been reared in the high circles of life, and knew nothing about poverty; she had never associated with the laboring classes. She was about 35 years of age, but knew nothing of privation commonly attending the life of a widowed mother. She took much pains to appear pious, and her chief object in inviting Mr. Leland was that she might make a display of wealth, and thus have the applause of her associates.

So she went to great trouble and expense in preparing for the meeting. The appointment had been spread far and near, pressing solicitations had been sent to numerous friends to attend the meeting. Everything was in the very best style. On the evening preceding the meeting, several carriages of people had arrived to enjoy the hospitality of the hostess. About sunset, Mr. Leland came up to the mansion on foot. The day was quite warm and the walk had caused a free perspiration to run down his cheeks, making roads in the dust which had settled on his face during his day’s walk.

His rap on the door was answered by a black servant of whom he inquired for the landlady. The servant ran down the carpeted hall to the door, from which proceeded the sound of talking and laughing. In a very short time, a lady, very richly attired, made her appearance, walking briskly and lightly towards the door where Mr. Leland was standing. He had a fair veiw of her and at once her physiognomy. His intentions had been to introduce himself, but before he had time to speak, she spoke in rather a harsh tone: “Old man, what do you want here? I have nothing for beggars.”

Mr. Leland, in a very much soft and unassuming tone, said, “Please excuse me, madam. I do not wish to beg for money; but I am very tired from a long walk, and called to know if you would do me the kindness to allow me to stay under your roof during the night.”

Viewing him hastily from head to feet, she very positively answered, “No, I have company now, and tomorrow the Rev. Mr. Leland is to preach at my house, so I can’t take in poor stragglers.”

“Well,” said Mr. Leland, “I am too much fatigued to travel farther tonight. Will you allow me to stay in one of those cabins?” pointing to a row of Negro houses just outside the mansion yard.

After a moment or two of reflection, she said, “Yes, you may stay with the Negroes if you want to.”

He bowed a very polite “Thank you,” and turned toward the row of huts. He proceeded to the farthest one from the mansion, but the neatest of all the huts, where he found seated at the door an old Negress, who was fanning herself with the wing of a fowl. He spoke to her very gently: “Good evening Aunty.” His greeting was answered with “Good evenin’, Mosta.”

“Well, Aunty, I have come to ask a very uncommon favor of you.”

“Bless de Lord, Moster, what can dat be? Fo’ please God, I got nothin’ to give anyone.”

“I am very tired from walking all day. I called on your mistress, but she says she has no room for me in her great house. I am too much fatigued to go farther, so I have come to see if you can allow me to shelter in your home.”

“Bless de Lord, Moster, I got no ‘commodation fo’ anyone; but ‘fore a fellow mortal shall stay outdo’s, I lets ‘em stay in my cabin, if dey can put up wid my hut. Uncle Ben be in directly, den he keep you company, while I fixes you sumpin’ to eat, fo’ you looks as if you had not a morsel for a long time, “at the same time pointing to a three-legged stool by the side of the door, saying, “Set down and rest you’ self, for you look so worn out.”

Mr. Leland took the seat as directed, saying at the same time, “I am sorry that I am compelled to put you to so much trouble, as I have no money to pay you.”

“Please God, Mosta, Aunt Dilsey never charge anyone yet fo’ such ‘commodations as I could give ‘em. Fo’ God knows it’s poor enough at best. You say, Mosta, you call on Missus at de house, an’ she can’t take you in? Well, well, you must ‘scuse her, fo’ she’s looking fo’ a mighty heap o’ company tomorrow. Dar’s a great man to be dar tomorrow, who is gwine to preach in her house, an’ a good many folks done come a ‘ready, an’ heap mo’ coming’ tomorrow, so Missus is mighty busy fixing fo’ ‘em. But here’s Uncle Ben,” she continued, as an old gray-haired Negro came around the corner of the cabin, muttering to himself about the carelessness of some of the other Negroes.

This old couple, Uncle Ben and Aunt Dilsey, as they were familiarly called by all who knew them, both black and white, were an old couple who, from age, had for a long time lived in a small but snug cabin at the far end of the row of huts occupied by the younger and more active slaves. Although Uncle Ben was not required to do any labor, yet he voluntarily took a kind of supervision over the farm, stock, etc. When he saw Mr. Leland, he stopped short and gave him a scrutinizing look. Aunt Dilsey spoke, saying, “Uncle Ben, don’t stare your eyes out at a stranger. Dis old gent’man was out travelin’ and come to stay in our cabin, ‘cause Missus, she can’t let him stay dere. So she’s got a heap o’ company now.”

“Well,” said Uncle Ben, “we’s commanded dat if a stranger comes along we’s got to take him in an’ give himsich as we have to set before him.”

While Aunt Dilsey was preparing supper, Mr. Leland learned much about the lady of the mansion from Uncle Ben. He learned, among other things, that they were a very religious family, but the hostess had been reared in the city of Richmond and had imbibed all the fashionable ideas of religion, with but very few of its true principles, and none of its humility. Soon, after Mr. Leland had finished a very good coarse supper, he told his host that he was very fatigued from a long day’s walk and wished to retire for the night, and that he felt like he wished to return thanks to his Creator for the blessings of the day, and invoke His protection through the night; that if it annoy them he would retire to some place out of doors.

“Bless God,” said the old folks at the same time. “We allers likes prayin’ in our house and never goes to bed ‘thout one of us tries to pray.”

Mr. Leland then took an old wellworn Bible out of his little bundle, and read in a very solemn tone the 102nd Psalm. During the reading the two old blacks often said in a voice, “Amen, bless the Lord.” When the Psalm was ended, Mr. Leland fell upon his knees and poured out his feeling in such an outburst of reverential eloquence as was seldom ever equalled, and never surpassed by mortal lips. His host and hostess were so affected by his Psalm and prayer that they could do no more than fix their eyes on their guest, as though he was something more than a mortal man. He retired to a clean little pallet in one corner of the cabin, where he soon fell asleep. When morning came, he was up early. Aunt Dilsey soon had him a good plain repast, after which he seated himself to read, telling his hostess that “he felt too much fatigued to travel, and if she willing, he would rest there until afternoon anyway, and then if he felt better, he would be on his way.”

Aunt Dilsey said, “Yes, Mosta, stay as long as you wants to; we be glad to have you stay with us a fortnight, if you can put up with our fare.”

Mr. Leland seated himself under a shady tree in the cabin yard, and with his Bible, waited to see what the finality would be. About 9:00 everything was in a bustle about the stone mansion. All the servants were called to dress in their very best. Carriages arrived by the dozen, until the hall and every part of the large and elegant building was crowded to overflowing. But to their dismay, no preacher had made his appearance, for the last that came in sight had been scanned to get a glimpse of the minister. No one in the large congregation had ever seen him, but all heard of him. So, everyone was full of anxious expectation, supposing that when he came he would be drawn by two or four horses driven by a servant in livery.

Ten o’clock passed, half past ten, eleven o’clock was announced by the clock on the wall, and no minister. The company had by this time become restless, when Aunt Dilsey went to her mistress and said:

“Bless de Lord, Missus, why don’t you get de ole man who stayed in our cabin last night to come here to de door and pray ‘fo’ de folks go home? He prayed in our cabin last night and dis morning.’ ‘Fore God, in all my born days, I never heard sich prayin’ afore. He’s setting right dere now, under the tall pine tree, an’ as de preacher’s not come, if you’ll let him pray, I’ll go right now and fetch him down.”

The lady consulted with some of the company, the matter was talked of among the congregation, when it was agreed to have the straggler, as they called him, come and pray before the congregation broke up. So, Aunt Dilsey went to where Mr. Leland was sitting and said:

“Mosta, de folks are all dis-pinted ‘bout de preacher. He am not come, and dey wants you to go down an’ pray ‘fore dey all break up. Mosta, I wants you to pray jist like you did last night.”

Mr. Leland walked down to the front door, and standing on the steps repeated a short hymn by memory, sang, and then engaged in prayer. By the time his prayer was ended, all eyes were fixed upon him with amazement. He then remarked that as there seemed to be a disappointment, if it would not be assuming too much, he would talk to them a few minutes; and as a foundation, or starting points, he would read a short passage from the word of truth, and which they would find by referring to the 13th chapter, second verse of Hebrews: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” When he had spoken for twenty or thirty minutes, the hostess, who had refused him the hospitalities of her house the evening before, became so deeply affected that she ran and prostrated herself at the feet of Mr. Leland, and would, if he had allowed her to have done so, have washed his feet with her tears and dried them with the hair of her head. It was said she was so overcome and affected that from that time forward she was a changed and different woman, so much so that she threw off all her finery and ornamental dressing and became an humble and plain Christian.

Though she was a professor before, her whole deportment underwent a complete change. Her house became a place of worship, where she delighted in making all, no matter how plain or how poor, as happy as kind attention could make them; in fact, it was said that if preference had to be given, it was always to the poor and needy.

THE PREACHED WORD

What is the blessing that you want to rest upon the preached Word? I will tell you. To have the work of grace begun, carried on, or strengthened; to be humbled into the dust of self-abasement; to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; to have manifestations of God’s mercy and love; to see the beauty, blessedness, grace, and glory that is in Christ Jesus; to have a sweet persuasion of our interest in the blood and obedience of Immanuel; to be separated in heart, spirit, and affection from the world; to mourn over the evils of our nature; to be kept from every evil way, work and word; to have a tender conscience, and a watchful, prayerful spirit; and to have the affections in heaven, where Jesus sits at the right hand of God. And besides these inward fruits, to live the Gospel, as well as profess the Gospel; to be Christians not merely in lip and tongue, and be hearing the truth; but in every department of life, as masters and servants, husbands and wives, children and parents; to manifest the grace of God in our trade, business, occupation or profession; however situated, however placed, to shew forth the grace of God, and to yield Him those fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to His praise and glory. I believe, that solid blessings will always produce these solid fruits, will bring forth a crop in heart, lip, and life; and where this crop is not in some measure brought forth, well may we say, such a religion is vain.

BE NOT DECEIVED

Galatians 6:7,8, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

2 Thess. 2:8–12, “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming; even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

Pilgrim Tract Society

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