THE INQUISITOR’S SECRETARY

Chapter XVII

TEN YEARS LATER

Again we take our readers back to The Hague. Nicholas Del Castro had laid down his office of Provincial Inquisitor long ago and had been received as its first bishop by the city of Middelburg on the third day of January, 1563; but other inquisitors still persecuted, even more vehemently than he ever had done, by fire and sword the ever increasing numbers of the followers of the Reformation. For every person who was martyred dozens of others came in his place, and the blood of the martyrs again proved to be the fruitful seed of the Church.

In the house in the Achterom we already know so well, which was now inhabited by a Garret Willemsz, a wool merchant, two men were standing, silent and very serious, in the room where the wife of Harm Hiddesz had fought her last battle. One of them we would have recognized at once. He was the former cheese merchant himself, whose hair and beard were gray and whose face bore the imprints of many cares and deprivations. The second person we would not have recognized as readily. He was Hidde, whose features and appearance had changed much since the moment we saw him last when he had escaped from Amsterdam. The years had given him a more rugged look; the hardships of the times had ripened him into a robust man.

For the first time after more than twenty years of absence they were standing here together again in the room where Maria, the Flemish woman, had departed, boasting of the peace through the blood of the cross.

Garret Willemsz, a warm adherent of the new doctrine and a faithful believer, entered the room and invited the “brethren” to follow him to the big warehouse back of his house. There Harm Hiddesz and his son found a small crowd of faithful Christians who, in spite of the placards, had been courageous enough to gather here to search the Word of God and to participate in the Sacraments.

They all looked with keen interest at the young man who accompanied Harm Hiddesz. They already knew his history. They already knew that the preacher had escaped from prison in Amsterdam, together with the secretary of the Inquisitor, and that they had faced much danger in doing so. They had heard about the struggle of the young priest before surrendering willingly and giving himself to the service of the Lord, whereupon he had been solemnly ordained to the office of minister by the laying on of hands at a church meeting in Wesel. Now they would hear from his own mouth, the mouth of him who once sat at the table in the torture chamber of the Inquisition, the pure gospel, and behold in him a manifestation of God’s faithfulness.

The father opened the solemn gathering with prayer. In the same place where he used to labor hard to earn his daily bread, he now boasted of the riches that are in Christ Jesus.

He opened the old Bible, his inseparable treasure.

There could be no singing! The enemies were probably not far away, and it would be not only careless but also irresponsible to arouse the suspicion of neighbors and passersby.

Harm Hiddesz read Psalm 77, the song which David had composed when his soul had been afflicted with sorrow, but the mighty Jehovah had sent deliverance; and the gathering attentively followed every word the preacher said.

“I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember thy wonders of old.”

Harm had a rich subject, for he could testify to wonders and deliverances in his life. Was he himself not a living proof of the faithfulness of God? Had he not more than once been snatched from certain death as by a miracle? And did not his son stand across from him, ready to take over Harm’s task in Holland, while he himself was called to other places to labor in the vineyard of the Lord?

Briefly he recalled for this small congregation in The Hague the remarkable events which had reunited him and Hidde at this place, and in a fervent prayer he commended his son to the faithfulness of God and the love of the congregation.

Then Hidde arose. A flood of emotions seized his soul now that he here, at the place where he had spent his early years, and where his now-blessed mother had breathed her last, appeared under such entirely different circumstances from those of a few years ago. He also thought of the little lad, whose remains rested out there at Voorschoten, but whose soul sang praises with all those who had been bought with the blood of the Lamb.

The deathbed of the lad, and the words he had spoken, which Harm, upon Hidde’s request had repeated at least a hundred times, filled him with a holy longing for the City of God on high. In these days of oppression and persecution, of grief and fear, of blood and fire, his eye of faith beheld the New Jerusalem as John saw and described it in the twenty-first chapter of Revelation.

“There will be no more persecution and lamentation, no fear of stakes and scaffolds, but there will be eternal singing by those who, while on earth, walked their pathway of life weeping and sighing; the anthems will resound to the honor of Him who loved His people already from before the foundation of the world and who bought them with His precious blood.

“Faggots may smoke, the Inquisition may multiply its attempts to quench the light of the gospel ten times; still hundreds and thousands more may have to seal their faith in free grace with their blood; but nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ!”

With these words Hidde concluded his sermon. And when a few moments afterwards the congregation gathered around the communion table, Harm Hiddesz, the old tried field preacher, received the signs and seals of the New Covenant from the hands of the former Secretary of the Inquisitor.

(The End)

(This concludes the story of “The Inquisitor’s Secretary”, which was translated by Mr. C. Lambregtse. We are certain that you join with us in a word of thanks to him for the many hours of work involved in translating this very interesting book. As he at one time was “Uncle Calvin” in our Timothy magazine, he requested that the following letter to his young friends be placed at the conclusion of the story. Many thanks, Mr. Lambregtse.)

Headers:

A long time ago, after we had just started with The Inquisitor’s Secretary, I promised that I would continue to translate this book to the end.

Well, you now have reached the end of the story, and I wonder how you liked it. I hope that you liked it as much as I did when I first read it in school, when I was a boy your age. That is about forty years ago. I still remember how often my tears would drip on the pages, although I made very sure that nobody saw them, by hiding my face behind my hands. And now again, while translating this book, I have wept several times at certain stirring passages. But neither those tears of long ago nor the recent ones were tears of pity. Much rather, they were tears of admiration, and of longing that I might have such a glorious faith as that of young Adrian and his father and mother and brother. Especially Harm Hiddesz, who was ready and willing to die the death of a martyr for his faith.

We may, of course, be thankful that we can serve God without being in danger of persecution or death by the hand of the enemies of God. But today it is just as necessary to have a faith strong enough to face death. After all, every one of us must die sooner or later, and the all-important question for you and me is: Will I be ready when that moment comes?

I hope that the reading of this story has filled you, too, with a great longing to be a child of God. If that is so, then God has been saying to you: “My son,” or, “My daughter, give me your heart.”

If that really has been the case, namely, that you felt this great longing in your heart, then I could not have received a greater reward for doing this big job of translating The Inquisitor’s Secretary. With love,

HOLD FAST THAT WHICH IS GOOD

The Lord’s Day, commonly called Sunday, has been a real source of blessing to all generations from the very first Easter, when the Lord arose from the dead, to the present day.

The Lord observed both the Passover and the seventh day as the Sabbath during his ministry on earth. The night before He was betrayed, He abrogated (abolished) the Passover by instituting the Lord’s Supper. After observing the seventh day all His life, he abrogated it by rising from the dead on the first day of the week.

Therefore, Jesus abolished both the Passover and the seventh day for worship by an act and not by a command.

Important happenings on the Lord’s day:

1. Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. John 20:1.

2. Jesus appeared to ten of His disciples on that first day of the week. John 20:19.

3. Jesus waited one week and on the next first day of the week appeared to the eleven disciples. John 20:26.

4. The promised coming of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled on the first day of the week, on the Day of Pentecost, which, by law came on the first day of the week. Leviticus 23:15-16.

5. On that same first day of the week, the first gospel sermon on the death and resurrection of Jesus was preached by the Apostle Peter. Acts 2:14.

6. On that same first day of the week, the three thousand converts were united into the first New Testament church. Acts 2:41.

7. On that same first day of the week, the sacrament of Christian baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit was administered for the first time. Acts 2:41.

8. At Troas the Christians assembled for worship on the first day of the week. Acts 20:7.

9. At Troas Paul preached to the assembled Christians on the first day of the week. Acts 20:6-7.

10. Paul instructed the Christians at Corinth to make contributions on the first day of the week. I Corinthians 16:2.

Let us hold fast to this Day, which has been established upon the greatest fact of all history, the Resurrection of the Lord, and which was observed by the early Church and became a day of blessing to all who used it reverently.

The Lord’s Day has meant much to America; in fact, many of our national statesmen have credited the great prosperity of our nation to the observance of Sunday as a day of rest and worship.

Today, we are allowing Sunday, as a sacred day, to slip from our grasp. It is no longer the sacred day it once was, but is becoming a holiday.

We must hold fast to Sunday as the Lord’s Day. We must insist upon its proper observance — for only as the family and the Church are kept together can we hope for a Christian America.

BROKEN HEDGES

THE HEDGE OF TEUTH. A blind woman who lived with her daughter one day lost a silver spoon, and she asked her daughter if she had seen it. The daughter said, “No !” But sometime after the question was again put to her by her mother, “Have you taken my spoon?” The girl became angry and dared the Almighty to strike her dead if she had the spoon in her possession. She immediately fell down, and when her neighbors came in the lost spoon was found hidden in her dress. Yes, boys and girls, the Word of God is a solemn reality; none “who love a lie” can enter through the gates of heaven.

“Be the matter what it may,
Always speak the truth;
Whether work or whether play,
Always speak the truth;
Never from this rule depart,
Grave it deeply on your heart,
Written ‘tis in Virtue’s chart,
Always speak the truth.”

THE HEDGE OF CONSCIENCE. My dear young friends, always listen to the voice of conscience. Have you not noticed a “something” within you which rebukes you when doing wrong, a voice which whispers, “You are doing wrong! You are doing wrong!” It is the voice of conscience, a warning monitor. Every boy and girl has a natural conscience which accuses and condemns when they do wrong, and tell lies, and behave unkindly. When boys and girls walk in the paths of sin and danger, Conscience speaks to warn and caution. Alas, how many boys and girls pay no attention to the warning of conscience, but go on and on in wrong-doing, and by and by are found out, and fall into disgrace. O beware of breaking through the hedge of Conscience.

I read a story of a poor Indian who felt he had a conscience. One day he asked a white man for some tobacco, who gave him a handful from his pocket. The following day the Indian came back, saying he had found a piece of money among the tobacco. He was told he might as well keep it, but he answered: “I got a good man and a bad man here, pointing to his breast, and the good man says, ‘It is not mine, I must return it to the owner,’ the bad man says, ‘Why he gave it to you and it is your own now.’ The good man says, ‘That’s not right, the tobacco is yours, not the money’ the bad man says, ‘Never mind, you got it, go and buy something.’ The good man says, ‘No, no! you must not do so, so I don’t know what to do and I think to go to sleep; but the good man and the bad man keep talking all night and trouble me; and now I bring the money back I feel glad.” I feel the poor red Indian man puts many of us white people to shame. You will remember my text, boys and girls: “Whoso breaketh a hedge, a serpent shall bite him.”

And now I would like to talk to you about “the serpent’s bite.” You know if a person is bitten by a serpent his body suffers a lot of pain, and the serpent-bitten man is a picture of a sinner dead in sin. My dear young friends every boy and girl comes into the world born in sin and suffering from the consequences of the serpent bite of sin, the venom runs in every vein. “ALL have sinned.” And what is the result? All boys and girls are ruined and undone sinners. First, I would like to tell you about the awful malady of sin, and secondly, the only remedy.

1. The awful malady of sin set forth by the serpent bite. The Word of God contains a sad record of how Adam and Eve broke through a hedge set up by the God of Truth, and fell a prey to the serpent bite of sin, and brought ruin to all mankind.

Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden by the Lord. And they were surrounded by beauties and pleasure untold; no tongue can tell what a wonderful place the Garden of Eden must have been. A solemn command was given by the Lord, “Of every tree in the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” I have no doubt Adam and Eve lived very happily for a time, but, alas! the command was disobeyed. The Word of God tells how a cunning serpent crept into the beautiful garden, and began to talk to Eve. “How could a serpent talk?” you may ask. 0. my dear friends it was the devil speaking in the form of a serpent. The serpent said to Eve, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” And he went on to instil into the mind of Eve poisonous thoughts and inclinations and soon she broke through the hedge. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” O the sad result which followed!

Soon the Lord entered the garden, and found Adam and Eve ashamed, and afraid, and unable to meet His holy eyes. O how solemn it must have been when Adam and Eve were arraigned, like the guilty prisoners they were, before the awful bar of an offended God! The Lord visited their sin upon them with lasting consequences. The ground was cursed, and permitted to bring forth thorns and thistles; and Adam was sentenced to till the ground, and earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. Eve was solemnly punished also. Added to all these sad effects of sin the first command was: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” The seeds of pain, affliction, and death entered into the bodies of Adam and Eve, and they became dying creatures; and every boy and girl from that day to this comes into this world a fallen sinner. And the saddest part of breaking through the hedge was that Adam and Eve were turned out of the presence of God, and no more allowed to dwell in the Garden of Eden. O what an awful breach was made by sin!

The fall of Adam has sunk poor sinners so low, no boy or girl can think a good thought, or speak a good word, or do a good action, or take one step in the “narrow way” which leadeth unto life eternal. By the word “good” I mean “spiritual” and “holy.” Sin has filled the heart with deadly poison which causes every boy and girl to love by nature what is wrong, and hate what is heavenly and spiritual.

The sad effect of the serpent’s bite is eternal, boys and girls. Yes. the serpent bite not only brought death, and misery, and the grave, but a never-ending eternity of woe to every sinner who dies without a God-given repentance, and heartfelt knowledge of the Truth.

“Deep are the wounds which sin has made,
Where shall the sinner find a cure?
In vain, alas! is nature’s aid;
The work exceeds all nature’s power.”

2. And now, I would like to tell you about the wonderful fact: a remedy for sin, or a cure for the serpent bite.

A beautiful picture of the serpent bite of sin and its cure was set forth in days of old when the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness. They broke through the Hedge of Contentment, and murmured and grumbled at their provision (food) and lack of water to drink. “And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people: and much people of Israel died.”

Too late, the Children of Israel saw the evil of breaking hedges, and they went to Moses and admitted their guilt, and begged him to intercede on their behalf. “And Moses prayed for the people.”

Such was the mercy of the God of Israel, He gave Moses a command: “Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he look-eth upon it shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.” What a wonderful cure ! And what a wonderful picture of the cure of the serpent bite of sin! The Word of God tells us, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

This is the only remedy for the sin-bitten, my young friends.

“None but Jesus

Can do helpless sinners good.”

O what a mercy if the Holy Spirit should convince you of your lost estate as sinners, and show you the way of salvation. The first step toward a remedy for the serpent bite of sin is a feeling sense of need. And, like the children of Israel who were bitten and felt death creeping upon them, so the sinner, young or old, when convinced of sin is made to feel “the sentence of death” in the conscience. And what must have been the pains of the bitten Children of Israel as they lay upon the ground! The command was to “look and live,” and yet multitudes lay dead in the wilderness. Why? One of the first effects of the serpent’s bite is loss of sight, and they could not gaze upon the serpent of brass until they were given natural sight. When the blessed gift of sight was given, a look could be directed to the serpent of brass lifted up on a pole. And now Jesus was lifted up on the cross; and by His law-fulfilling life and meritorious death; by His spotless righteousness, and precious sin-atoning blood He brings life and healing to the sin-bitten.

And boys and girls are now dwelling in everlasting bliss who have been led into these great truths. Godly Abijah is there, whose heart contained some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel; Samuel, who heard the call of God, in early youth; and Timothy, who knew the Scriptures from a child; and thousands who were “called by grace” in youthful days,—all singing the song of the redeemed. O may the God of Truth bless you, my dear young friends, and give you real conviction of sin, and put the Psalmist’s plea within you: “O satisfy us early with Thy mercy; that we may rejoice, and be glad all our days.”

A MAIDEN WHO DECIDED TO LOVE THE WORLD

(This is a poem Rev. R. Mc-Cheyne wrote about a family friend, who had said “that she was determined to choose the world.”)

She has chosen the world,
And its paltry crowd;
She has chosen the world,
And an endless shroud!
She has chosen the world
With its mis-named pleasures;
She has chosen the world,
Before heaven’s own treasures.

She has launched her boat
On life’s giddy sea,
And her all is afloat
For eternity.
But Bethlehem’s star
Is not in her view;
And her aim is far
From the harbor true.

When the storm descends
From an angry sky;
Ah! where from the winds
Shall the vessel fly?
When stars are concealed,
And the rudder gone,
And heaven is sealed,
To the wandering one.

The whirlpool opens
For the gallant prize;
And, with all her hopes,
To the deep she hies!
But who may tell
Of the place of woe
Where the wicked dwell,
Where the wordlings go?

For the human heart
Can ne’er conceive
What joys are the part
Of them who believe;
Nor can justly think
Of the cup of death,
Which all must drink
Who despise the faith.

Away then—oh, fly
From the joys of earth!
Her smile is a lie—
There’s a sting in her mirth
Come leave the dreams
Of this transient night,
And bask in the beams
Of an endless light.

ADDRESSES FOR TIMOTHY CORRESPONDENCE

Timothy section —

Thomas Moerdyk

1222 Vassar Drive

Kalamazoo, Michigan

Timothy Mission Fund —

933 S. Burdick Street

Kalamazoo, Michigan

Bible Quiz —

Garret J. Moerdyk

1104 Roseland Avenue

Kalamazoo, Michigan

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