Rev. Willem C. Wust—A Restless Traveller for the Gospel

The King of His church has given faithful watchmen in His church, also in the days of much decay. He showed His care for His children. These watchmen, taught by His Spirit, preached the Word of God purely, in spite of severe persecutions they had to endure.

In a previous article we saw that a secession from the State Church took place. Leaders of this movement were Reverends De Cock, Gezelle Meerburg, Van Velzen, Scholte, and Van Raalte. The two ministers last mentioned also initiated the emigration to the New World. New settlements were established in Iowa and Michigan respectively.

A serious controversy arose in the young secession churches when some of their leaders asked permission from the government for freedom of worship. There were also doctrinal differences within the churches—differences of opinion about the value of baptism, different views on the covenant of grace and the promises of it, and also concerning a more objective or subjective preaching. These were the causes which led to the separation of a group of churches which called themselves Churches Under the Cross.

This new denomination, expanding rapidly after 1840, was one of the roots of our Netherlands Reformed Congregations. Among the leaders of this small group we find the name of Rev. Wust, a minister of a small church in Den Helder, The Netherlands. Since this preacher can also be considered as one of the fathers of our churches on this side of the ocean, we will give some attention to his life story.

Willem Coenraad Wust was born in Utrecht, in the central part of the Netherlands, on August 12,1807. In his youth he lived according to the desires of his flesh. He worked as an assistant to a blacksmith, but at sixteen years of age decided to join the crew of a ship so he might see something of the world. After a few years, however, he found out that this adventurous life did not satisfy him. When young Wust finally came back from his first journey, his father, who had tried in vain to contact him during the past year, had passed away. Wust found a job as a blacksmith in Den Helder again, but he still lived as an enemy of God and His people.

In 1836 the Lord stopped him on his way to destruction. Spiritually, it was very dark and barren in Den Helder in those days. Wust did not know of even two converted people in his city, he said. In the Reformed State Church he could not find any spiritual food. He met with a few others who also hungered for the truth, and soon they assembled together to read the sound writings of the fathers. A short time later he was asked to speak an edifying word in their midst.

This was the beginning of a lengthy time in the Lord’s service in His church militant on earth. The enmity of the people in this town could not stop him in his fervent zeal as a young preacher. Sometimes they literally besieged his home while he was preaching. They threw stones through the windows. It is difficult to imagine what was experienced in those days from the enemies of the truth, even from the government which vehemently persecuted those new “sectarians” with such bitterness, and in the same manner as in the days of the Inquisition. Rev. Wust was a minister of the Churches Under the Cross. It was not a perfect church; Wust was not a perfect servant of God either, but a man with shortcomings. There also was a Rev. Van den Oever, who sometimes was called the pope of the Churches under the Cross. He preached the truth and had many hearers, but sometimes had “bossy” inclinations.

Rev. Wust left Den Helder for Gies-sendam in 1846, a change which brought him, according to his own words, from summer into winter, from rich pastures into the wilderness. Conflicts with his Brother Van den Oever culminated in Wust being suspended. He was soon placed outside of the denomination by the firm leadership of Van den Oever. This was perhaps the most urgent reason that in 1848 Wust, for the first time during his ministry, crossed the ocean in order to settle in the New World.

He settled twenty miles south of Chicago, in Low Prairies. He was accompanied by some of his followers from Giessendam. Together they attempted to create a new existence in this country of promise. Here they could purchase land for from two to five dollars per acre and buy a cow with calf for only ten to fifteen dollars. The future appeared to be bright in this land of freedom. However, reality was quite different from their high expectations. Wust writes of this time: “Here our people built a church and a miserable home for me, which became my mourning and crying home. Our home was just a poor, plain room made of wood. We could see the dawning of the day through the openings in it. The wind blew right through the cracks in the wooden walls. At night we could hear the wolves howling around the house and sometimes my wife had to make a fire outside in order to scare those beasts away. There was a multitude of them.”

Already in 1850 Wust traveled back to the old country after having accepted a call from his former flock in Giessendam. Wust was in terrible distress and in a miserable condition for his soul. But Giessendam was also not what it used to be. An Antinomian spirit prevailed and his labors seemed to be a plowing upon rocks. Pressed by the situation, Wust sought close contact with the Churches Under the Cross again. Although not all obstacles could be removed, this resulted at last in the sending of an attest of recommendation, when Wust left in 1854 for the second time for the New World. There he hoped to find some rest and wanted to iive in quietness, because he was tired of all the quarrelings and strife.

After a tiresome journey Wust and his wife arrived for the second time in the United States. He intended to again settle in the Chicago area, do some farming and be available if asked to use his gifts for the benefit of others. Wust desired to terminate his labors in the ministry and to lead a peaceful and quiet life. But man proposes, God disposes. God’s thoughts were higher than Wust’s thoughts; His ways differed from Wust’s intended ways.

When Wust arrived in Buffalo and was waiting for the steamer to take him over the lakes to Illinois, two officebearers of the local Dutch Reformed Church heard that a Dutch minister was staying in an inn by the harbor. They met him and asked him to preach one Sunday in their midst, since there was a great need among them. One Sunday was followed by two other Lord’s days in the Buffalo flock. A call followed and was accepted. Thus instead of farming Wust began a new pastorate in Buffalo.

In 1856 he moved to Rochester, New York, where he labored for eight years. At first he traveled his official path rejoicing, but soon other dark clouds cast their shadow over the wearied pilgrim’s path through Mesech. He again was reminded that he was but a stranger here below. Wust could not agree with the new customs and modern ideas which manifested themselves in his Rochester flock. He could not go along with the singing of hymns, with youth societies and Sunday schools, which he considered as conflicting with parental duty and authority.

As a result, the restless wanderer through this wilderness departed in 1864 to Lodi, New Jersey to work in another part of the Lord’s vineyard, in another Dutch Reformed Church. But Americanization also manifested itself there. Wust became concerned that the old landmarks were being replaced and that together with new American customs, a new doctrine would be introduced. But he would fight this as long as he was able to do so. When he traveled to the States, fighting was not what he had intended to do, but it seemed that he could not escape it. Therefore he attacked those corrupt, dangerous influences and customs with real Wust-like boldness. This finally led to a separation from his denomination and Wust and his flock continued their ecclesiastical way in solitude. The ecclesiastical situation in Reformed America offered a quite confusing and complicated picture—a sad picture of division and human-wrought separations.

There were some attempts from the side of pastors of the True Dutch Reformed Church to affiliate with Wust’s lonely church, but this did not materialize. The True Dutch Church was even more conservative than the Dutch Reformed Church and they maintained contact with the Ledeboerian Rev. Van Dijke in the Netherlands. In spite of these disappointments, Rev. Wust continued seeking contact with people of the same persuasion. It appeared that in several places groups of followers of Rev. Ledeboer and former members of the Church Under the Cross came together, reading the old writers.

The ecclesiastical situation in Reformed America offered a quite confusing and complicated picture—a sad picture of division and human-wrought separations.

In 1877 Lodi, New Jersey and Grand Rapids, Michigan where Rev. Kloppen-burg had worked, established ecclesiastical ties. A few years later several other groups were organized and joined the new denomination.

In 1879 Wust departed for the Netherlands where he had accepted a call from the Ledeboerian church-group, Rev. Bakker, in Nieuw Beijerland. Would the wanderer finally find rest there? No doubt Wust anticipated this. However, Nieuw Beijerland appeared still to be part of the wilderness journey here on earth. The followers of Rev. Ledeboer did not even have “a button of their admired example on their suit,” Wust said. The day of the Lord was desecrated in a public, offensive way and even consistory members were guilty of this.

Thus it should not astonish us that in 1881 we should see Wust and his wife, for the third time, on their way to the States. His “beloved Lodi” had called him again. For two years Wust was allowed to labor in New Jersey. In 1883 he felt incapable to continue and he became emeritus minister. Some months later, however, he succeeded in organizing another group in neighboring Passaic, where he labored for another year. Then on August 6,1884, he again retired after having ordained Rev. H. Meijerink as his successor.

Wust then returned to his old fatherland where he arrived in Amsterdam in May 1885. He was very disappointed with the condition of the churches in the new world, but also did not expect much good in his birth country anymore. He had high expectations for the future. Soon he would enter into the true and perfect church in His only real fatherland, in the heavenly Jerusalem. There the wearied warrior and pilgrim finally would find rest in the prepared place for a prepared people. There there is no true Dutch church or real English church, but the one saved Christians’ church. There there is no conflict, misunderstanding, error, separation, and corruption anymore. There all human names fall away— there there are no ministers or pastors— but there all His servants will see His face. There He will be all in all and they will be nothing—and that is salvation. There all riddles are solved; all God’s ways will appear as perfect and wise. There He will receive all the honor and praise for what He has done.

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