MISSION TIDINGS

GIFTS RECEIVED FOR MISSIONS IN JULY, 1981

CLASSIS EAST SOURCE AMOUNT

Franklin Lakes Pentecost Coll. $1114.00

Clifton Pentecost Coll. 663.60

CLASSIS MID WEST

Friend in Lynwood Gift 200.00

Kalamazoo Pentecost Coll. 1079.00

Grand Rapids Pentecost Coll. 3238.27

Friend in Michigan Gift 150.00

CLASSIS WEST Corsica Miscellaneous 31.25

CLASSIS FAR WEST

Lynden Mission Circle Gift 1000.00

OTHER

Friends in Australia Gift 136.43

TOTAL: $7,612.43

Dear friends,

We are glad to have the opportunity to acknowledge everyone for their support in behalf of the Mission. May the Lord bless you and your gifts.

Hopefully sometime in September, Mike and Carol Meeuwse will leave for New Guinea, the Lord willing.

At present there is nothing special to write about.

We have a lengthy letter from Rev. Sonnevelt, so we will leave it with this.

American General Mission Fund

Netherlands Reformed Congregations

of United States and Canada

John Spaans, Treasurer

2376 Shadow Lane N.E.

Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505

A LETTER FROM IZI

Onuenyim

June 8, 1981

Dear Family and Friends:

We are here for three months already, and it is time that you hear from us again, via a general letter. It seems so long ago that we left Holland. We are now feeling ourselves at home here in IZI more and more. The change was not as great as we had expected, but naturally it makes a difference how well we are prepared. For years we had been looking forward to the work whereto the Lord had called us.

Still we have left Holland with a burdened heart. We have seen dark clouds hovering very low over a church wherein the love of many is waxing cold. Dear friends, we hope to share with you in your difficulties and grief. Taking leave of our parents and relatives was very hard, but it has pleased the Lord to soften the pain. May His grace enrich you with its comfort, also when the Lord will hold deep ways with us.

Moreover, life in Izi is not an unbearable burden. Mission people are not special or extraordinary people; they are no martyrs either. The Izi people gave us a hearty welcome. One speaker thanked us that we were willing to leave our chair in Holland to sit with them on the ground. Of course when we hear this, then it pleases our flesh. However, the following speaker said very soberly: “I think it was not so easy for you to leave your relatives behind,” but the Lord says to one, “Come” and he comes, and to another, “Go” and he goes.

We are living in a nice parsonage. At the rear of the house we can see the huts in the town, and at the front we can see the house of the family Moerdijk. In the background we can see the hills of Igedde, and when it is clear weather then we can also see the Kameron mountains, (which are more than 150 km from here). Our house sets quite high so that we feel every breeze of wind. When we arrived here it was very hot, and it was the dry season of the year. In the meantime the rainy season has started, and the temperatures really went down. Last night we slept with a blanket over us. It is 25 to 30 degrees centegrade now. Because of the rain everything is blooming. The grass can become a couple meters high here. Tineke raises all kinds of vegetables in the garden, at least she is trying, and she is very enthusiastic about it. We have made heaps of one meter high on our farm. In every heap there grows a yam, which is food for the Izis.

A few weeks ago our sea-baggage arrived here by truck from Port Harcourt. It was not so easy to have them send it because there was a i.v.m. strike. The problem was the hush-money and slow turning official windmills. But now we have all our belongings in our house, and it appears that nothing was stolen.

Our house is our home now, and Gertjan likes to feel this, too. He is much more relaxed than when we were living in Holland in tents. Sometimes the heat bothers him, but he is close friends with his black brothers. You can see his own will richly developing in him. The first Izi word he learned was “auwa” which means, “no.” He seems to be a lover of insects, and gives his mother a lot of work, and he sure likes to ride with his father on the Motorcycle.

These first months are a period of orientation for us. My work is especially in the Bible school, and the pastoral labors in the congregation. Via the orientation you become more and more involved with the proper work. I was privileged to baptize twelve people two weeks ago. It was my first baptismal service. An old lady gave a deep impression when we examined her, when she said, “We can only escape the judgment by giving ourselves over into the hands of the Lord Jesus,” (this is the Izi way and expression for believing). When we asked her whether she had done this, she said, “Auwa”! this is “No.” “The Holy Spirit has brought me thereto..” Alas with others it was not always so clear! We had to turn some down.

We hope to go to Jos in July and August, 500 km to the north of Izi, to study language. If we stayed in Izi then there would not come much of it. There is plenty work here, and the people like to come and talk.

It is not so easy to give an impression of the work here in Izi in a general letter. Where must I begin, and where must I stop? If I would write everything then this letter would become too long. If I would only tell you the main things, it would probably be too business-like. Therefore I wish to tell you of a Sunday afternoon at a far distant mission post, to give you an impression of a church service in Izi. Finally that is where the heart of the church beats: in the gathering of the congregation round about the Word of God.

It is 4:30 when I start out. Then I first pick up my translator, Peter Nwite. I do not have a permanent translator, but I really like to take this boy along. He is one of the clinic workers. He is an extraordinary intelligent boy, but what is more important, he is a serious boy.

On Saturday evening Peter and I delivered the sermon. The next day was Pentecost, and I hoped to speak about Ezekiel 37, the vision of the valley of dry bones. It was a simple subject matter, and I noticed that Peter wrestled with it. Is the Holy Ghost the breath of God? Is He a person? Or maybe both? He feels that our human understanding is too small to understand it, but he also feels that it is more important to know something experimentally of the workings of the Spirit, and the quickening of dead sinners. A sigh comes up in my heart that we both may know something of this. When a translator is a stranger inwardly of the things concerning the kingdom of God, then he cannot bring the message over good. Hopefully, that I may be enabled to speak the language in the future.

To reach the little town we must first cross a small river. Whereas the rainy season has just begun, the water is not so high yet. Still when I cross the river my motorcycle disappears about halfway in the water. After a while the path becomes narrow, and the grove more dense. We enjoy the realm of nature. Also, the heavens and the earth declare, “the great works of God.” We entered Nduoswa, which means literally, the people of the grove or the primeval forest. Now it was 5:00 o’clock, but there was hardly any one under the grass roof of the little church yet. So I just asked some questions about the morning sermon. Then we sang awhile. A man entered and fell on his knees and began to make crosses. A little while later he left the church again. He seemed to be a Roman Catholic, and thought it more important to pray than to listen to the Word of God. Meanwhile the little church became full, and the service could start, about an hour later than was planned.

Pentecost in Izi. What rich promises there are in the Bible also for the heathens. The Lord pours out His Spirit on all flesh. When that becomes true, then it makes no difference where we are. In a church like a Cathedral, in Holland, or in a grass hut in Izi. Maybe I would rather sit in the latter. Where the Lord is, there it is good.

At the end of the service a man arose and asked for a thanksgiving prayer. The white ants had destroyed his books and papers. But oh wonder! these ants have not touched his Bible. This was for him and us all a proof of the power of the Word of God.

Sometimes we are afraid that these people see the Bible too much as a better sort of magic book. But who shall deny that the Lord had directed this? It is a great blessing that they come under the Word of God.

Indeed, these people are much more primitive and superstitious than we are in our modern world.

During the service we were repeatedly hindered by a clattering radio, which had been set up right next to the church, for use on the market. They have a market like this every five days, so, every so often it falls on a Sunday. It is a great temptation, also for those who have come to church for a long time already. To be sure, there are no grocery stores to buy your supplies. We preach against commercializing the Sabbath, in various ways. I closed the service earlier than normal, and afterwards we all went together to the market, to sing and to preach. Especially the singing, when accompanied with all kinds of musical instruments and clapping of hands, really draws the people. A short time later I was on my way home again with Peter. The seed was sown again, but to convert people, that is the work of the Lord. Will you pray with us?

Hearty greetings from Izi! Hoping to hear from you.

Commending you to the Lord.

Cees, Tineke and Gertjan

MR. JOHN VREUDGENHIL

March 23, 1912 — April 3, 1981

In our Holland church paper, “De Saambinder,” of May 21 there was an article about Mr. Vreugdenhil. Because his books on Bible History and on Church History, which have been translated into the English language as well as into the Spanish language, are very well known among us and also among most of the children, an article about him in our “Banner of Truth” would be appropriate.

Of him we may say, “The memory of the just is blessed,” (Proverbs 10:7). Psalm 105 says, “Talk ye of all His wondrous works,” and there are many wonders to relate about Mr. Vreugdenhil: in his life, during his illness, and at his death.

First we will mention some of the wonders God wrought in his life. It is a wonder when the Lord causes a man to stand still. It happened in the province of Zeeland, on a clear night. He considered the heavens, the moon and the stars that God had ordained, and the Spirit of God gave him a deep impression of God the Father, the Almighty Creator of the good creation, and of himself, a fallen creature. He realized the great separation between the two, because of his own sin. He was without God and without hope. The Lord led him further to see his totally lost condition.

What a wonder it is when God reveals the way of salvation to a miserable sinner, bowed down under the slavery of Egypt. In Rijssen during the sermon preceeding the administration of the Lord’s Supper, the Lord in a moment placed him from the impossibility of believing into the impossibility of not-believing. The Rev. R. Kok spoke about Acts 7:34, “I have seen, I have seen the affliction of My people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them,” (Acts 7:34).

What a wonder it is when God strengthens the weak and assaulted faith, and grants that we do not “cleave with our hearts unto the external bread and wine, “but through the working of the Holy Spirit, may be fed and refreshed in our souls with His body and blood.” This also literally took place when the pastor gave him the bread while saying, “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,” (Ps. 103:3).

What a wonder it is when the Lord makes the sinner “sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto Him.”

About 20 years ago he had an acute onset of an incurable disease. Mrs. Vreugdenhil was going to lose her husband, and the eight children would lose their father. At that time he was privileged to say, “Thy will be done,” whether it would be to life or to death. The evening before the serious operation the surgeon came to ask for “confidence”, and he promised to do everything possible, but the visit turned out differently than expected: the strong man was strengthened by the weak man. At that time the body was so weak that he had to live on mere faith, if “feeling” had to be added, the body would have fainted. Beyond expectation, healing followed. The fruit of this chastisement was a prayer, a desire: “Lord, may I spend my remaining time in Thy service? Wilt Thou use in in Thy Kingdom?” And he has labored abundantly. There was no area of church life to which he did not give himself, not because it was so necessary, but because he had a strong feeling of responsibility, and because the love of Christ constrained him.

He had great gifts. In many years of daily fellowship with him, I have never heard him pride himself because of it. He was a fascinating speaker, but his aim was the message, not the effect. He never sought to be complimented but rather to be effectual.

What a wonder it is when our talents are not misused, but are spent in the service of God.

Now I must speak a few words about the wonders of God during his sickness. Late in 1979 he had symptoms that worried him, but he said nothing about them as yet. In the summer he was going to be examined, beginning on a Monday. After the Sunday morning service, as he was walking home, He Who had always been the first in his life, appeared as a companion in the cloak of His Word, to tell him who was so fearful that He knew all about him, and to speak to him about the things we do not see. “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” In communion with his Comforter he walked home.

In the coming months these things that he knew spiritually had to be experienced physically, for every part of his earthly house had to be dissolved, and this process must have been very painful to him. He could talk about it objectively, but his voice became warmer when he spoke of the “building of God.” That comfort remained with him. He marveled that he was not cast in the seive of Satan.

Among all the things from which he had to be made loose, was also his office in church. It had not been a job to him, nor an honor, but a task, and yet, loosening the tie was painful.

The first Sunday that he sat with his family became unforgettable, beginning with the Scripture reading, Phil. 3, especially the last verse, “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body.” Looking at His body changed his view of his own body that had become so terribly emaciated, that he wondered whether he should still show himself among people.

Thus the outward man perished from day to day, while the inward man was renewed from day to day. One fear remained; he was afraid of the king of terrors, but he was hopeful that the last grace, grace to die, would not be withheld from him, for that also Christ had merited.

We must mention one more wonder, that he was led beside very quiet waters, even unto death. While one of his children recited his favorite Psalm, the last verse of Psalm 17, he was prepared and kissed by the mouth of his Bridegroom to behold God’s face in righteousness.

G.D.B.

HIS RESPONSIBILITY

Oh! blessed fact for the Church of the living God, that her glorious and exalted Head represents her in His own righteousness, represents her in His own merit, represents her in His own likeness, represents her in His own authority, represents her as His own charge; being (mark this,) invested with responsibility for her sake and her safety.

You know, I am very fond of that word responsibility; being invested with responsibility for her salvation. Oh! the blessedness of the responsibility of our Representative. Were it not for this, I should lie down in despair. I pray, you, poor proud free-wilier, do not forestall me with supposition that I am denying human responsibility; it is the very knowledge of that, that makes me love this. My responsibility, which lies upon me as a creature of God, would ruin me eternally, if I had no other; but His responsibility saves me for ever and ever. My responsibility is but as a solemn trumpet, blowing its appalling blast from the top of Mount Sinai;—”Cursed, cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law, to do them.

His responsibility, like the silver trumpet under the Mosaic economy, all of one piece, (no addition to it from the creature,) is everlastingly sounding the joyful news around the throne, and within the souls and experiences of the Lord’s family—”Men shall be blessed in Him;” and while the curse is attached to human responsibility, the blessing is infallible in Christ’s responsibility, and I rejoice in having been enabled to flee to that. My responsibility, directly it was opened to my view, directly it was felt in my conscience, directly it stared me in the face, smelt sulphurously, and as I gazed upon its dark, black letters, all I could read in human responsibility was damnation—”He that believeth not shall be damned.” But when I turned to the responsibility of my Lord, the covenant undertaking of my precious, glorious covenant Head and Husband,—when I saw in Him the law fulfilled, justice satisfied, all my iniquities laid upon His person, and His “lo, I come” laying Him under responsibility,—emblazoned as with sunbeams, and shining with the meridian glory of celestial light, Salvation—Salvation appeared to the eye of faith, was claimed by the hand of faith, and has been enjoyed by the soul ever since. It is His responsibility, which is our security on earth in spiritual things, and before God in eternals.

-Excerpt from a sermon by Joseph Irons, 1842

A PRAYER FOR ISRAEL

O Lord! incline our hearts to pray

For Israel’s scatter’d race,

Remove the veil that hides from them

Their own Messiah’s face;

Oh banish from their darken’d hearts

Their unbelief and pride,

May they behold their promised King

In Jesus crucified.

Thine only is the power, and Thine

The grace that can renew,

In mercy do thou look upon

The lone and outcast Jew.

Fulfil the promise of Thy Word,

Bring the despis’d again,

Nor let the house of Jacob seek

Their father’s God in vain.

Submitted

TRUTH AND ERROR

Faith

I shall not attempt a definition of faith. This only let me say in a few words, that that faith which goes no farther than the intellect can neither save nor sanctify. It is no faith at all. It is unbelief. No faith is saving but that which links us to the Person of a living Saviour. Whatever falls short of this is not faith in Christ. Hence, while salvation is described sometimes in Scripture as a “coming to the knowledge of the truth,” it is more commonly represented as a “coming to Christ Himself.” “Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life.” “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.”

But whatever view of faith we take, one thing is obvious, that it is from first to last “the gift of God.” Make it as simple as you please, still it is the result of the Holy Spirit’s direct, immediate, allquickening power. (Never attempt, I beseech you, my dear friend, to make faith simple, with the view of getting rid of the Spirit to produce it.) This, I believe, is one of the wretched devices of Satan in the present evil day. By all means correct every mistake in regard to faith by which hindrances are thrown in the sinner’s way, or darkness thrown around the soul. Show him that it is with the object of faith, even with Christ and His cross, that he has to do, not with his own actings of faith; that is not the virtue of merit that is in his faith that saves him, but the virtue and merit that are in Christ Jesus alone. Tell him to look outward not inward for his peace. Beat him off from his self-righteous efforts to get up a peculiar kind of faith or peculiar acts of faith in order to obtain something in himself—something short of Christ, to rest upon. Simplify, explain, and illustrate faith to such an one; but never imagine that thereby you are to make the Spirit’s help less absolutely necessary.

This, I believe, is the aim of the propagators of the new theology. Their object in simplifying faith is to bring it within the reach of the unrenewed man, so that by performing this very simple act he may become a renewed man. In other words, their object is to make man the beginner of his own salvation. He takes the first step, and God does the rest! He believes, and then God comes in and saves him!

This is nothing short of a flat and bold denial of the Spirit’s work altogether. If at any time more than another the sinner needs the Spirit’s power, it is at the beginning. And he who denies the need of the Spirit at the beginning cannot believe in it at the after stages—nay, cannot believe in the need of the Spirit’s work at all. The mightiest and most insuperable difficulty lies at the beginning. If the sinner can get over that without the Spirit, he will easily get over the rest. If he does not need the Spirit to enable him to believe he will not need Him to enable him to love. If when a true object is presented to me, I can believe without the Spirit; then when a lovable object is presented I can love without the Spirit. In short, what is there in the whole Christian life, which I cannot do of myself, if I can begin this career without help from God? The denial of the Spirit’s direct agency in faith and conversion is the denial of His whole work in the soul both of the saint and the sinner.

Rev. Horatius Bonar, 1851

THE BEAUTY OF JESUS

It is, as you experimentally know, the highest of all privileges to be brought, in the light of the Holy Ghost, to see the Son, and believe on Him, because it is the will of the Father that every one who does this may have everlasting life. This seeing the Son is necessary to believing on Him, for He is the Object of faith, to which it cannot look, and on which it cannot rest, until He is revealed by the Spirit (John 6:40; Eph. 1:17, 18). There is no object set before men which can bear any comparison with this one blessed and wonderful Object,—Christ crucified. Of other things it is truly said, that “the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing,” because, however pleasant they may be for a time, they leave a void, and when often repeated, become a weariness instead of a refreshment to the spirits. But who that has tasted that the Lord is gracious can ever see and hear enough of Christ the Saviour of sinners? This beauty and glory is as captivating to such as it was to David (Ps. 45:2), who, speaking to Him, says, “Thou art fairer than the children of men; grace is poured into thy lips.”

The beauty of Jesus shines in His mediatorial office, in executing which He has glorified all the attributes and perfections of God. Uniting in His wonderful Person all the perfections of both natures, of God and man, He was able by Himself to purge the sins of fallen man, and to reconcile those who were enemies in their minds by wicked works, in the body of His own flesh through death, so that mercy and truth might meet together, righteousness and peace should kiss each other in the justification and salvation of elect sinners. Therefore when, having finished the work of redemption which the Father gave Him to do, He rose again from the dead, then truth sprang out of the earth in His righteous Person, and justice looked down from heaven well pleased in Him (Ps. 85:10, 11; Rom. 4:25; Matt. 17:5). When the glory of this blessed Mediator shines in your heart by the Spirit’s testimony, you then behold the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shining in His Person, by Whom you are “saved from wrath,” and in Whom you are “made the righteousness of God” (Rom. 5:8-10; 2 Cor. 5:21).

The beauty of Jesus is seen in the offices which He bears towards redeemed sinners, as their Prophet, Priest, and King. In His prophetic office He is their wisdom to teach them that they may understand the mysteries of His kingdom, the blessings of the everlasting covenant, and “know the things which are freely given unto them of God.” By His teaching, the doctrines of the gospel, the eternal counsels of God in election and redemption, and the precious promises of the Word of truth, are opened up and applied to the heart so that the grace which is poured into the lips of the King drops into it as “sweet smelling myrrh;” for He speaks pardon to the guilty conscience, rest to the burdened soul, peace and reconciliation to the rebellious heart, comfort to the distressed mind, and life and salvation, as the gifts of God, to the returning prodigal.

As their prophet, He often speaks sweet reviving words to His ransomed ones who have got into darkness, and who, through the subtilty of the old serpent, are ready to lose the simplicity of their faith in Christ, and to mix something of their own with His finished work. By these sweet words He recalls them to their true rest, and strengthens their faith of being complete in Him alone. He has the tongue of the learned given Him, that He should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary; and therefore, as He speaks to their case, He satiates the weary soul, and replenishes every sorrowful soul (Isa. 1:4; Jer. 31:25).

As their priest, He makes Himself known to His people as finishing the transgression in their behalf, making an end of sin, making reconcilation for iniquity, and bringing in everlasting righteousness for them, by His own obedience unto death. He satisfies them, by the manifestation of Himself in His priestly office, that by His atoning sacrifice they have forgiveness of sins, and perfect cleansing from all unrighteousness by the justice and faithfulness of God; and hence comes joy in God through Him (I John 1:9; Rom. 5:11).

As their High Priest, He shows Himself as gone into heaven with His own blood, now to appear in the presence of God for them, and ever living to make intercession. Therefore He is able to save them to the uttermost, however low they may be sunk in desponding fears through manifold temptations, and however dark and perilous their path may at times appear.

He has a kingly office, too, with respect to both the world and His church. With respect to the world, He is King of kings, and Lord of lords; and says, “By Me kings reign, and princes decree justice” (Prov. 8:15). But, as King of Zion, He rules in the midst of His enemies over His own people, that they may be well ordered in all respects, and suffer damage in nothing. As their King, He gives them to view Him conquering sin, Satan, the law, death, and the grave for them, and making them sharers in all His victories, that they, too, may reign as kings over every enemy (Rom. 8:35-37). Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, have no power against them when He appears in their behalf. Over these they are “more than conquerors through Him that loved them.” It is useless for any enemy to rise up against those who have the promise (Isa. 54:17); and when the promise drops upon the heart in the light and power of the Holy Spirit, it strengthens the weak hands, and confirms the feeble knees, and causes the soul to lift up its eyes to behold the King in His beauty, and gives a sweet refreshing view of the land that is very far off, as our eternal inheritance in Him (Isa. 33:17). As King of saints, He reigns in the hearts of His people by putting His Spirit and grace there, by writing His laws of liberty, truth, and love in them; the powerful effects of which, as He applies them, subdue their unruly wills and affections, make them willing captives to His grace and love, and bring every thought into subjection to the obedience of Christ (Isa. 26:13). His power upon them is what they always wish to feel; and when He condescends to bring them into His chambers, into sweet communion with Himself, so that the soul feels and enjoys the common interest they have in each other, and says, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His,” the King of Israel is glorious indeed, and His rest is glorious (Isa. 11:10).

He has wine peculiar to His kingdom, which He sometimes gives to those of His subjects who are ready to perish, and are of heavy hearts, till they drink and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more. This wine goes down sweetly; it yields such comfort, satisfaction, joy, and gladness to the before drooping spirit! It is strong, because it communicates the power of eternal personal election, never-failing grace and love, particular redemption, final perseverance, and the certainty of partaking of eternal glory with Christ, to the heart in such a manner as to make it glad indeed in the feeling and prospect. (Ps. 104:15). But it is not more strong than palatable; and everyone that gets a taste of this wine, which is well-refined from the dregs of human wisdom and fleshly reasonings and carnal unbelief, finds it so sweet to his soul, so wholesome and nourishing, that he understands what the King means, and is of the same mind. (Luke 5:39).

We will say, then, “Thou art fairer than the children of men;” for there is none to compare with Him who is “the chiefest among ten thousand, yea, altogether lovely.” We will say also, “Grace is poured into thy lips;” for who speaks peace to our souls but Jesus? Who but He speaks to us of grace, as displayed in the sovereign and eternal love and goodwill of God in His purpose and promise towards us in Christ Jesus? Who but He could give us such assurances as are contained in those words (John 5:24)? And who but He can persuade our minds, by the powerful application of His gracious promises and doctrines, that the love of His heart is set upon such poor polluted unworthy creatures as we, that He has espoused and betrothed us unto Himself for ever, and will never put us away for our infidelity, our wanderings, our unfaithfulness? (Hos. 2:19, 20; Mal. 2:16; Isa. 44:21, 22; Jer. 3:1, 14). No! He has declared that, however far His people may backslide from Him, “they shall return;” and however dry, barren, dead and unsavoury they may at times become, yet “they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine” under His quickening, invigorating, refreshing influences (Hos. 14:7), till their scent is as the wine of Lebanon; because He will be as the dew unto His Israel.

Extracted from a letter dated July 4, 1837

Submitted

DRY BONES

Preachers may from Ezekiel’s case,

Draw hope in this declining day:

A proof, like this, of sov’reign grace

Should chase our unbelief away.

When sent to preach to mould’ring bones,

Who could have thought he would succeed?

But well he knew the Lord from stones

Could raise up Abr’ham’s chosen seed.

Can these be made a num’rous host,

And such dry bones new life receive?

The prophet answer’d, “Lord thou know’st

They shall, if Thou commandment give.

Like him around I cast my eye,

And oh! what heaps of bones appear;

Like him, by Jesus sent, I’ll try,

For He can cause the dead to hear.

Hear, ye dry bones, the Saviour’s word!

He, who when dying gasp’d, “Forgive,”

That gracious sinner-loving Lord,

Says, “Look to me, dry bones, and live.”

Thou heav’nly wind awake and blow,

In answer to the pray’r of faith;

Now thine almighty influence show,

And fill dry bones with living breath.

Newton

Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. I Cor. 14:34-35

THE SABBATH

By Thomas Watson (c. 1620-1686). If this timely reminder of the sanctity of the Lord’s day was needed in the days of the Puritans, how much more so today!

I. See here the Christian’s duty: “to keep the Sabbath day holy.”

1. The whole Sabbath is to be dedicated to God. It is not said, Keep a part of the Sabbath holy, but the whole day must be religiously observed. If God has given us six days, and taken but one to Himself, shall we grudge Him any part of that day? It were sacrilege. That a whole day be designed and set apart for His special worship is a perpetual statute while the church remains upon the earth.

2. As the whole Sabbath is to be dedicated to God, so it must be kept holy. Now, besides what I have said upon keeping this day holy, let me make a short comment or paraphrase on that Scripture: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words” (Isa. 58:13). Here is a description of rightly sanctifying the Sabbath. If thou turn away thy affections (the feet of thy soul) from inclining to any worldly business, that is, thou must not do that which may please the carnal part, as in sports and pastimes, for this is to do the devil’s work on God’s day and call it a delight, that is, esteem it so, to find this holy delight is to “be in the Spirit” on the Lord’s day. We are to count the Sabbath honourable because God has honoured it. All the persons in the Trinity have honoured it. God the Father blessed it, God the Son rose upon it, God the Holy Ghost descended on it. This day is to be honoured by all good Christians, and had in high veneration. It is a day of renown, on which a golden sceptre of mercy is held forth. The Christian Sabbath is the very dawning of the heavenly Sabbath. It is honourable because on that day “God comes down to us and visits us.” To have the King of heaven present in a special manner in our assemblies makes the Sabbath day honourable.

II. If the Sabbath day is to be kept holy, they are reproved who, instead of sanctifying the Sabbath, profane it. They take the time which should be dedicated wholly to God, and spend it in the service of the devil and their lusts. The Lord has set apart this day for His own worship, and they make it common. He has set a hedge about this commandment, saying, “Remember,” and they break this hedge; but he who breaks this hedge, a serpent shall bite him (Eccl. 10:8).

The Sabbath day lies bleeding: AND O! How is this day profaned, by sitting idle at home, by selling meat, by vain discourse, by sinful visits, by walking in the fields, and by sports! The people of Israel might not gather manna on the Sabbath, and may we use sports and dancings on this day? Truly it should be a matter of grief to us to see so much Sabbath profanation. To profane the Sabbath is a great sin. It is a willful contempt of God. It is not only casting His law behind our back, but trampling it under foot. He says, “Keep the Sabbath holy,” but men pollute it. This is to despise God, to hang out the flag of defiance, to throw down the gauntlet and challenge God Himself.

Now, how can God endure to be thus saucily confronted by proud dust? Surely He will not suffer this high impudence to go unpunished. God’s curse will come upon the Sabbath breakers, and it will blast where it comes. The law of the land lets Sabbathbreakers alone, but God will not. No sooner did Christ curse the fig tree, but it withered. God will take the matter into His own hand; He will see after the punishing of Sabbath violation. And how does He punish it?

1. With spiritual plagues. He gives up Sabbath profaners to hardness of heart, and a seared conscience. Spiritual judgments are sorest. A sear in the conscience is a brand-mark of reprobation.

2. God punishes this sin by giving men up to commit other sins.

3. God sometimes punishes Sabbath breaking by sudden visible judgments on men for this sin. He punishes them in their estates and in their persons.

While a certain man was carrying corn into his barn on the Lord’s day, both house and corn were consumed with fire from heaven. The Theatre of God’s judgments relates of one, who used every Lord’s day to hunt in sermontime, who had a child by his wife with a head like a dog, and it cried like a hound. His sin was monstrous, and it was punished with a monstrous birth. The Lord threatened the Jews that if they would not hallow the Sabbath day, He would kindle a fire in their gates (Jer. 17:27). The dreadful fire (The Great Fire of 1666) which broke out in London began on the Sabbath day; as if God would tell us from heaven He was then punishing us for our Sabbath profanation. Nor does He punish it only in this life with death, but hereafter with damnation. Let such as break God’s Sabbath see if they can break those chains of darkness in which they and the devils shall be held.

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