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At the Cradle of a New Denomination (5)

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At the Cradle of a New Denomination (5)

8 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

Rev. Nicolaas Hendrik Beversluis and his place in the Ledeboerian churches

The King of His church uses weak and sinful creatures to labor in His vineyard. Rev. Kersten was young when he worked towards the union of the two denominations. The Lord gave him a close friend who supported him in these efforts. His name was Rev. Nicolaas Hendrik Beversluis.

Who was this Ledeboerian minister?

Beversluis was born on February 1, 1850, in New Beyerland. His father was a carpenter. Even when he was very young, his mother brought him to the meetings of God's people. Hendrik, as he was often called, was about eleven years old when he came under convictions and the rest was taken out of his life because he had to die and meet his Maker. The necessity of true conversion was impressed upon his heart.

On the Lord's days he went to church with his mother to a small group of Ledeboerians in his native town. From one of his poems, “The Pilgrim,” we learn a little more of the way in which the Lord led him.

He must have been about 25 years old when he learned to bow under God's righteous judgments and agreed with His just sentence, but the Lord also opened a way of salvation to him in the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Once, when he was serving in the military, when he was about 19 years old, he became seriously ill. But a child of God visited him with the message, “You, my son, will not die, for the Lord has still much for you to do.” On May 3, 1872, Beversluis married Annigje De Jongste.

His calling

Physically he was not a strong man, and the carpenter's job that he did became too heavy for him. Then he began a little business and tried to earn a living for his family.

In 1875 he became a police officer, and during the following years he was stationed in different places. Then he started to take night courses to become a teacher. After further courses he was promoted to be a principal. During all his moves from one place to another, Beversluis remained a member of the Ledeboerian churches. At this time, this group of nearly twenty churches with about five thousand members was served by Rev. D. Janse and the exhorters L. Boone and P. Ingelse.

The Lord bound the need of the church upon the heart of Beversluis, and He called him also to work in His vineyard.

In August 1891 “Teacher Beversluis” delivered his first sermon in the Ledeboerian congregation of his native town, New Beyerland. A year later he received permission to speak in all the churches.

In 1898, when Rev. Janse felt the burden of his increasing years, he proposed that his churches look for a successor. In the next meeting Beversluis was called by seventeen Ledeboerian churches combined. Beversluis, however, rightly felt that a call should not proceed from a group of churches or a denomination, but from one local church.

He also objected to ordination by Rev. Janse, because in his opinion this minister had not been lawfully ordained. A long controversy developed, which divided the Ledeboerian churches. It was not until 1903 that the breaches were healed. The Lord gave Beversluis to reach out the hand of brotherhood to Rev. L. Boone, who had been ordained by Rev. Janse a few years before.

Pastor in Rotterdam

In the meantime Beversluis himself had been ordained in the ministry on November 24, 1901, as pastor of a free church in Rotterdam. His inaugural text was, “Brethren, pray for us.”

Soon their meeting place, which was formerly a horse stable, became too small. The fast-growing congregation bought another building, which held about 500 people. Rev. Beversluis' labors were blessed, and he was much appreciated, not only in his own congregation, but in all the Ledeboerian churches, in which he again with his congregation had received a place after the breaches of the past had been healed.

A milestone: 1907

However, Beversluis saw other breaches, particularly those between the Churches under the Cross, which Rev. Kersten served, and his own denomination. The trials which he had experienced in the past had been useful and instructive for him. He now longed to be used as an instrument in God's hand to bring together what belonged together. He found a friend and companion in the young Rev. Kersten, who at that time worked in the same city, Rotterdam. It must have been a joyful moment for both when the first synod of the new denomination could be held on October 9 and 10, 1907, in Rotterdam.

The delegates elected the 57-yearold Rev. Beversluis as chairman and the 25-year-old Rev. Kersten as clerk. Rev. Beversluis led the prayer service in the evening with a sermon from Romans 14:19, “Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.”

A more fitting word could hardly have been chosen. It was like a theme for the path in which the Lord led him and for the labors which He would give him to perform.

To the other side of the ocean

Therefore it was unexpected to many that, in 1908, Rev. Beversluis accepted the call to the Gereformeerde Gemeente (Reformed Congregation) of Paterson, Haledon Avenue, in the United States. This church was organized in 1906, when some members of the Reformed Church in Paterson were increasingly dissatisfied with the preaching in their congregation. After the church was organized, they soon sent calls to ministers in the old country: Revs. Kersten, Janse, and Roelofsen. The fourth call was sent to Rev. Beversluis. Though he labored under it, he did not find freedom to accept this call. Then Paterson called Rev. J. Overduin of Lisse. A few weeks later, Rev. Pieneman, of Grand Rapids, served Paterson, since he was their moderator. At the end of the service he announced that Rev. Overduin had declined, but he asked the male members whether they could agree with the decision of the consistory to extend a second call to Rev. Beversluis that same evening. Rev. Beversluis was called by acclamation.

This new call caused considerable unrest in the Beversluis home in Rotterdam. Rev. Beversluis' friend, Rev. Kersten, understood the situation. He warned him, “Do not fight against God. You must go over the ocean.” The Lord has a willing people in the day of His power. He also knows how to make His servants willing and ready to follow the Lamb wherever He goeth, even if the way is against their flesh and not understood by others. So it was with Rev. Beversluis. He surrendered and accepted the call.

On March 25, 1908, Rev. Beversluis preached his farewell sermon to his beloved congregation from 1 Peter 5:7, “Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.”

His friend and brother Rev. Kersten addressed him lovingly, and a few days later the family left the old country by boat. The journey took twelve days, but on the Lord's days Rev. Beversluis was allowed to bring God's Word to those on board.

A new task in a new country

When they finally arrived in the harbor of New York, not only his consistory, but also Rev. Pieneman and an elder from his church in Grand Rapids, John Sporte, were present to welcome them. They were soon brought to Paterson, a factory city not far from there.

On April 8, the moderator, Rev. Pieneman of Grand Rapids, installed his brother in the ministry with the words from 2 Corinthians 5:18b, “…and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”

The following evening Rev. Beversluis preached his inaugural sermon from 2 Corinthians 5:20, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.”

In his first consistory meeting Rev. Beversluis expressed the wish to seek the spiritual welfare of Paterson “with the hope and prayer to the Lord that it may be a blessing for the congregation, and that the Lord might give His divine approval upon his ministerial labors.”

There was sadness in the Ledeboerian churches in the Netherlands. They had lost a highly respected leader and pastor. However, for the churches in America, for those immigrants who loved the truth, his coming was a blessing. The Lord gave him a new field of labor in which he also would be used for the building up of our churches, for the conversion of sinners, and for the instruction of God's children, so that His Name would be honored.

— to be continued —


The Church

God in His earthly temple lays
Foundations for His heavenly praise;
He likes the tents of Jacob well,
But still in Zion likes to dwell.

His mercy visits every house,
That pay their night and morning vows;
But makes a more delightful stay
Where churches meet to praise and pray.

What glories were described of old!
What wonders are of Zion told!
Thou city of our God below,
Thy fame shall Tyre and Egypt know.

Egypt and Tyre, and Greek and lew,
Shall there begin their lives anew;
Angels and men shall join to sing
The hill where living waters spring.

— Watts

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At the Cradle of a New Denomination (5)

Bekijk de hele uitgave van maandag 1 juli 2002

The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's