The Life and Dying of Mientje Vrijdag (1)

We read in Proverbs 10:7a, “The memory of the just is blessed.” The truth of that is confirmed in God’s precious Word. In Hebrews 12:1, it is written with golden letters, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” Think of Enoch and his walk with God. Think of Noah in his safety in the ark. Think of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, their walk of faith and the end of their faith. Lot was led out of Sodom; see the choice of Moses, his life, and his end.

The entire chapter of Hebrews 11 tells us that the remembrance of the righteous has been for a blessing. In this cloud of witnesses also included was our beloved soul friend M. Vrijdag. In her was fulfilled that she lived firmly in the hope and patiently persevered. Through grace she persevered unto the end. In 1943 she entered into eternal glory. With Paul she could testify: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

Oh, what a deliverance, to pass over from the striving church to the triumphant Church. She received her wish to glorify God eternally without sin. Of our friend, who is now glorified above, we may testify with freedom what Paul testified of Timothy: “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also” (2 Timothy 1:5). She has often spoken of her mother and grandmother both of whom, according to her testimony, feared the Lord.

Mientje Vrijdag was born in Rijssen, the Netherlands, on January 1, in the year of our Lord, 1884. Her father is still living and is eighty-seven years old (died 1946). Her mother died in 1890, therefore, along with her only brother she lost her mother at an early age. The Lord called her out of the world by His Word and Spirit at an early age. He drew her and convinced her. She was completely turned and savingly won over. Her soul was wonderfully and visibly conquered for the service of the blessed covenant God. With much sorrow she mourned over her sins against a good-doing God. Oh, how she could with much humility and adoration speak of the Lord finding her. She could do this in a very clear manner as it was fulfilled in her, “What wilt Thou that I should do?”

Early at a young age the Lord worked in her with His Spirit. The way the Lord held with her was very clear from the beginning to the end. She was clear about the seeking love of God. The Spirit of the Father and the Son convinced her of her deep fall and her missing of God. She was not kept long in the initial leadings of God with her soul. Quite quickly, the Son was revealed to her soul in the promises. She could also embrace the promises in the gospel by means of a refuge-taking faith. She was converted powerfully to God. She was uncovered ever deeper of her guilt and unreconciled state before God. She was deeply led and uncovered about her missing of Christ, and even though in the initial leadings of God with her soul she had many exercises of faith, at God’s time, despite all that she had experienced, she was placed in a totally lost state. In that state she was stripped and uncovered and placed in the missing of God. All grounds for salvation outside of Christ were taken away. In the end the Lord brought her soul to a cut-off way. With David she called out, “O Lord, that my soul would be saved by Thee.” With her original and actual sins, she was brought back to Paradise. There it was fulfilled:

Thou knowest Lord my deep distress,

The lonely path, the hidden snare,

How refuge faileth, friends forsake,

And no man for my soul doth care.

My prayer is unto Thee, O Lord,

For I am weak and foes are strong;

My captive soul from prison bring,

And glad shall be my thankful song.

She was able, through grace worked by God, to fall under God and bow under His holy justice and testify with David:

My transgressions I confess,

Grief and guilt my soul oppress;

I have sinned against Thy grace

And provoked Thee to Thy face;

I confess Thy judgment just,

Speechless, I Thy mercy trust.

There she was justified in the court of God’s justice and freely and sovereignly justified of sin so that Lord’s Day 23 was fulfilled in her.

(To be continued)

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