We would encourage you to take the little test of your theological knowledge set up for you on p. 10. This test is designed to sharpen your awareness of the difference between what is fundamental in Christian ex- perience and what is fundamental in Christian communication. A Christian is kind to others because he is a Chris- tian. But being kind to others does not make them Christians. It’s as simple as that.

According to an item in the Alex- andria (La.) Daily Town Talk, work- ers began the job of stringing Christ- mas lights throughout the city during the last days in September. If they back up the season any more there will be no valid reason for taking the decorations down from one Christmas to the next. At this juncture we re- call that the Ministerial Association of Raleigh, N. C. last year exacted from the Chamber of Commerce a promise that Christmas would not begin until after Thanksgiving.

Marching in a “Christian Witness” parade in Philadelphia recently, two teen-agers were observed carrying a sign which we, too, find eminently satisfying:

God said it Jesus did it I believe it That settles it!

Miss Margaret Law and her mother, Mrs. R. W. Law, of the Mt. Zion church, St. Charles, S. C., (W. L. Newman, pastor) have recited the Shorter Catechism.

“I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”” — Galatians 2:20. Henry Drum- mond spoke of the “expulsive power of a new affection”. For the answer to life’s problems, try loving Christ.

Vol. XIX November 16, 1960

CONTENTS

IRRESISTIBLE GRACE 5 Dr. Robert Strong GOD’S ENCOUNTER WITH MAN 7 Dr. William C. Robinson EDITORIALS 10 \ LAYMAN AND HIS CHURCH 11 SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON, November 27 13 YOUTH PROGRAM, November 27 15 THE CHURCH AT HOME 16 CHILDREN’S BIBLE STUDIES 18 BOOK REVIEWS 19 THE MAILBAG 20 Rev. G. Aiken Taylor, Ph.D. Editor

Rev. Henry B. Dendy, D.D. L. Nelson Bell, M.D., F.A.C.S. Arthur H. Matthews

Managing Editor Associate Editor

Editorial Assistant

The Presbyterian Journal, a Presbyterian weekly magazine, devoted to the statement, defense, and propagation of the Gospel, the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints, published every Wednesday by the Southern Presbyterian Journal, Inc., in Weaverville, N. C.

Editorial Offices: 84 Kimberly Ave., Asheville, N. C. All editorial correspondence should be addressed to Asheville, P. O. Box 3108.

Business Offices: Weaverville, N. C., where all changes of address, business and advertising correspondence should be addressed. Subscription price, $3 a year. Every Family Plan for churches, $2.

Second-c’.ss mail privileges authorized at Weaverville, N. C. Vol. XIX, No. 29, November 16, 1960.

Changes of address: Please send both old and new addresses, allowing three weeks for change in continental U. S.

mie

News ROUNDUP

JAPAN — High moment of the 15th meeting of the General Synod of the teformed Church in Japan was when announcement was made of the deci- sion of the Board of World Missions of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. to donate the entire property of the Kobe Theological Seminary to the Reformed Church in Japan. The Reformed Church is one of two major Christian bodies in cooperation with which our missionaries work, the other being the cooperative United Church (Kyodan). The transfer of this property, repre- senting a relinquishment of this work into the hands of the “younger” Church, was approved at the request of the Japan Presbyterian Mission and will be formally consummated at the 1961 Annual Meeting of the Mission.

Built just 10 years ago for some $65,000 in Program of Progress funds, the property is now valued in excess of three times this amount. It is lo- cated in a quiet residential section of Kobe, about half-way up the slopes of the mountain foothills. From its win- dows one can view the entire Kobe harbor. The location is ideal, and the property is complete.

At the

moment of announcement

the Moderator of the Synod, Mr. Fu-

Ae. ee

Religious Education Seen As Obscenity Answer

SYDNEY — (RNS) — Australia’s top-ranking Anglican leader called here for concerted efforts to arouse the government and the people to the spread of immorality which, he said, is “a cancer eating at the nation’s heart.”’ He blamed the condition large- on the distribution of indecent litera- ture.

In his presidential address to the 42nd Synod of the Sydney Diocese, Dr. Hugh R. Gough, Archbishop of Sydney and Primate of Australia, de- clared that immorality was rampant not only among married and unmar-

kuda, asked the members of the Japan Mission then present to come forward. W. A. Mellwaine, Lardner W. Moore, Benson Cain and Harold Borchert came before the body and the Moderator delivered a moving address of apprecia-

tion. W. A. McIlwaine responded on behalf of the Mission. At this same meeting, the Rev.

Teruichi Matsuda, now studying at Co- lumbia Seminary, was named fraternal delegate to the Centennial Assembly in Dallas next year and forward-look- ing steps were taken to make increas- ing numbers of congregations self-sup- porting.

The Japanese Language School for new missionaries (of many denomina- tions) rents rooms in the seminary building.

—~(Rev.) Harold Borchert

Principal buildings of the Kobe Reformed Theological Seminary in Japan, which

will be presented by the Presbyterian Church, U.

S. to the General Synod of

the Reformed Church of Japan next year, are: dormitory and mission language school (left) and academic-administration building (right).

PAGE 3

/ THE PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL /

NOVEMBER 16,

ried grown-ups, but among young peo- ple and children.

Charging also that many young peo- ple in the country are amoral, he said “immorality is bad enough, but to be amoral is infinitely worse.”

In his attack on immorality, which he linked to the growth of materialism, the Primate said it is necessary “to open our eyes to this threat and do our utmost to counter every attack upon Christian moral standards.” In this connection he stressed that the intro- duction of religious teachings in schools “is of the utmost importance for New South Wales and the Com- monwealth.”

“Unless our children receive religious instruction as part of their normal education,” he said, “there is grave danger of their coming to regard re- ligion as something for those people who are ‘inclined that way’ and not for ordinary people.”

Dr. Gough urged the New South Wales government to “bring about this greatly needed reformation” by introducing religious education in the secondary schools.

Presbyterian Alliance Studies ‘Catholicity’

ZURICH, Switzerland (RNS) —The- ologians at the annual meeting of the World Presbyterian Alliance’s Euro- pean Theological Commission discussed the meaning of “Catholicity” from the standpoint of Protestant Churches of the Reformed or Presbyterian tradi- tion.

The commission sought to define the basic theological question which Pres- byterian and Reformed Christians face when, while still remaining separate from wother Churches, they acknowl- edge the universality of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Dr. Alex J. Bronkhorst of Brussels, chairman of the commission’s meet- ing, explained that the question be-

1960

“Do we be-

fore the theologians was: lieve that we have the revelation of Jesus Christ, or merely a revelation of Jesus Christ?”

“If we reject the first possibility,” he said, “then what do we mean by the second? Do we say we have part of the truth, or the whole truth in a distinctive form?”

Dr. Bronkhorst stated that the an- swer Presbyterian and Reformed bod- ies give to the question of Catholicity will have much to do with the nature of Christian unity.

Comprising the WPA are 83 Re- formed Presbyterian Churches with about 46,000,000 communicants.

Judges, Couples Happy After Church Weddings

MILWAUKEE, Wis. — (RNS) — Milwaukee county’s civil court judges, who feel that a courtroom is not an appropriate setting for a marriage ceremony, are urging couples who ap- ply for civil marriages to exchange their nuptial vows in church instead.

Within recent weeks, Judge Leander J. Foley, Jr., calendar judge of the civil court, has helped arrange church weddings for 11 couples who first asked him to marry them. He said that he and his judicial colleagues had adopted the policy in the spirit of Wis- consin’s new family code, which bars justices of the peace from performing marriages. The code allows civil mar- riages to be performed by courts of record.

The jurist said that when he asked several couples why they didn’t plan a church wedding, they replied, “We can’t afford it; we have no money.”

“In each case I contacted their re- spective clergymen, who advised me to send the couples right over,” he said. “The clergymen told me that the cou- ples didn’t need any money to have a church marriage.”

A number of couples referred to their churches have joined their clergy- men in thanking the jurists “for go- ing out of the way to help us solemn- ize the marriage in church,” the judge reported.

Since justices of the peace cannot perform marriages, civil judges have been- besieged -with.-requests to marry couples. ..Thatis what prompted the new policy.

PAGE 4 / THE PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL /

Ban on Death Penalty Rejected by Lutherans

ATLANTIC CITY, N. J.—(RNS)— A resolution urging abolition of the death penalty as punishment for crime was rejected by the United Lutheran Church in America at the closing ses- sion of its 22nd biennial here.

convention

The

cussion

followed an hour of dis- debate a statement on capital punishment, prepared by the social action department of _ the ULCA’s Board of Social Missions, which contended that the death penalty is not “an effective deterrent to crime.’

vote

and over

Principal opposition to the state- ment came from a justice of the Su- preme Court of Ohio and from a Penn- sylvania clergyman, with an indirect assist from J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Judge Charles B. Zimmerman of Springfield, O., declared that ‘“‘a good deal of misguided sentimentality” has clouded the issues of capital punish- ment. “I am not opposed to capital punishment,” he said. “It can be de- fended Biblically. It is just!”

Dr. Edward K. Rogers of Greenville, Pa., stewardship secretary of the Pitts- burgh Synod of the ULCA, quoted from a recent letter from J. Edgar Hoover in which the director of the FBI wrote: “I share your that capital wisely admin- necessary deterrent to wanton criminal activity.”

view punishment, istered, is a

Here are examples of why we have missionaries in Latin America.—Ed.

When Deity Arrives In a Motorcade—

BUENOS AIRES—(RNS)— Scenes of indescribable enthusiasm were wit- nessed here when the statue of Our Lady of Lujan, patroness of Argen- tina, was taken for the first time in 330 years from its national shrine some 40 miles away for the formal opening of the second phase of the greatest Roman Catholic spiritual mis- sion ever held in Buenos Aires.

Escorted by mounted

Argentina’s crack Grenadiers, cadets of the armed forces and gauchos (cowboys) in traditional costume, the 17-inch

NOVEMBER 16,

statue of the Virgin, who is also the patroness of Uruguay and Paraguay, was brought in a motorcade to the Plaza de Mayo, the city’s great central square.

The intention had been to transfer the statue from a flower bedecked automobile to a portable altar erected in the square, but the surging crowd jamming the plaza prevented this. In- stead, the statue remained where it was while the crowd shouted, “Long live the Virgin,’ and waved handkerchiefs in welcome.

The statue arrived in the city after an overnight stop at the outlying town of Moron, where it was accorded mil- itary honors, since Our Lady of Lujan is also patroness of the Argentine armed forces.

‘She Can Free Us...

MEXICO CITY (RNS) — A special Guadelupan Marian Year to honor the Virgin of Guadelupe, patroness of Latin America, was opened by Jose Cardinal Garibi y Rivera, Archbishop of Guadalajara.

“Only she can free us from evils,” he declared in a sermon.

all

Sunday Law Tested

PETERSBURG, Va. — (RNS) — An injunction to restrain enforce- ment of Virginia’s Sunday closing law until Dec. 15 was granted by Judge Oliver A. Pollard of Hustings Circuit Court.

He said on that date he would hear arguments against the legislation from three merchants in this city who con- tend that the measure deprives them of “their property, due process and and equal protection of the law,” as guaranteed under the U. S. Constitu- tion.

Earlier, the state’s Blue Law was declared “repealed” by a circuit Judge in Hampton because of the adoption by the legislature of a new criminal code. The Sunday law had been an amendment to the old criminal code.

While Judge Frank A. Kearney’s decision in Hampton affected only his circuit, attorneys pointed out that it probably will be followed in others until the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals rules on the issue.

1960

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Basic doctrines of the Reformed faith—

IRRESISTIBLE GRACE

ROBERT STRONG, S.T.D.

Every man wants to be known as a clear thinker. Not only in knowledge but in logic there is power. We ap- preciate the Five Points of Calvinism,

for one thing, because they exhibit rigorous logic. One point leads to another or implies another or fol-

lows from another.

If man is so depraved that he is unable by himself to turn to God, then the salvation of any is due to God’s plan, that is, *s election. If God has chosen a people, then of course Christ died for them in an atonement which was efficacious but not universal. If Christ died actually to save His peo- ple from their sins, then they will be brought to Him. How reasonable is the concept of irresistible grace, the subject with which we are now to deal.

In the work of salvation each mem- ber of the Godhead has a distinctive part. Seripture shows that God the Father made the plan, chose the ob- jects of electing love, and sent the Eternal Son into the world to save them. God the Son accepted the role of Mediator and Redeemer, humbled Himself to be made man, went to the cross, merited there everything neces- sary to bring His people to Heaven. What of God the Spirit?

God the Spirit quickened the vir- gin’s womb, sustained the human na- ture of the Messiah, raised Him from the dead, inspired the sacred record

of the Gospel events and of the au- Is

thoritative apostolic explanation of the events. And He is active still. The Shorter Catechism says that the Holy Spirit works faith in us who are Chris- tians, thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

“Effectual calling’? — it is another way of speaking of irresistible grace.

PAGE 5

/ THE PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL

The Catechism thus defines it: “Ef- fectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renew- ing our wills, He doth persuade and enable us embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the Gospel.”

“CALLING” IN SCRIPTURE

The expression “calling” is a com- mon Biblical term. For that matter most of our theological vocabulary is drawn from the Bible. Theology is or should Bible study. It is a great pity that people shy away from theology. We ministers should do our best to acquaint our members with the language and meaning of theology. For too many Christians are spiritually weak and languid due to ignorance of the truth as it is in Jesus. Away with this supine concessiveness that rushes to agree with the seductive ap-

OUT OF DARKNESS INTO THE LIGHT

BUT YE ARE AN ELECT RACE+:-A PEOPLE FOR GOD'S OWN POSSESSION, «WHO CALLED YOU OUT OF DARKNESS INTO His MARVELLOUS LIGHT 1Per.2:9

peal that we bring our teaching to date,”

NOVEMBER 16,

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up that we translate the ideas of the Bible into thought forms agree- able to these modern times.

If we ever lose our grip of the great words of Scripture, then Christianity is done. We should be suspicious of the frequent suggestions we hear that we lay aside the vocabulary and thought-forms of the 17th century, that is, the period of the Westminster Confession of Faith. There is nothing sacred about the language of the 17th century, as such, but we should recog- nize that the efforts to depreciate our theological standards are very often nothing but a disguised revolt against basic Christianity itself and the sig- nificant language of salvation. The New Testament was not produced by accident. The Holy Spirit used a lan- guage, a vocabulary, a group of writ- ers that would give us the Christian faith in a propositional form of en- during significance and relevance. Let Christianity be taught in New Testa- ment terms!

Consider now a few instances of “calling” in the New Testament: “par- takers of the heavenly calling,” “Walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye are called,” “He hath called us with an holy calling,” “Give diligence to make your calling and election sure,” “Whom He did predestinate, them He also called,’ “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellow- ship of His Son Jesus Christ,” “He hath called you unto His Kingdom and glory,” ‘He hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light,” “the called of Jesus Christ,’ “They that are with the Lamb are called, and elect, and faithful.”

To say that they have been called is a fitting way to represent how sinners

1960

are brought to Christ. seems to be that to “call” is to “cause

The thought

to happen,” or to “effect.” Indeed, the Divine activity is frequently set forth in this manner in the Scrip- tures.

Take, for example, the account of creation. “Let there be light,’ God said, and light like a great Niagara, as Dickens put it, came rushing on crea- tion at the Word of God. By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He commanded and it was done.

Again, consider the miracles of Christ. See Him standing at the tomb of Lazarus. Martha and Mary are weeping; Jesus in sympathy weeps with them. But He knows what He will do. The stone is ordered removed from the mouth of the tomb. They demur because Lazarus has been dead

now four days. Jesus insists. They obey. And then: “Lazarus, come forth!” Soundness, circulation, move-

ment, intelligence, hearing, will are re- stored. The dead man is alive; he walks out of his tomb to Jesus who had called him.

Just so men dead in their trespasses and sins are brought to their Saviour. He calls them in the Gospel. Accom- panying His Word is His power. Sin- ners are made alive, so that they may respond and come to salvation.

TWO KINDS OF CALLING

Not all that hear the Gospel make this response. We thus have learned to make a distinction between two kinds of Gospel calling. Our Lord taught us to do this when He said, “Many are called, but few are chosen.” The calling that is not heeded we desig- nate external calling. The Gospel, in other words, is heard with the ears but not with the heart. Every time the truth is preached or read but not believed it is an instance of external calling. The plan of salvation may be quite clearly given, the promise of salvation upon the sole condition of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ may be most winsomely stated, the re- vealed command to repent and believe the Gospel may be most forcibly de- clared, while reasonable appeals are made — but Christ is not received. There has been but external calling.

Many a time perhaps it was that way with you and me. But the hun- dredth time how different. That day what had been just a lesson learned

PAGE 6

in childhood, what was merely a fa- miliar recitation of Bible verses became instinct with light, shining with glory — we were saved! It was the inward call of the Gospel. Saving grace had made its mighty entrance into the soul.

Young Saul, aflame with zeal for the law of his fathers, is hastening to- ward Damascus there to harry the Christian community. A light bright- er than the sun shines down, a voice arresting and powerful utters chal- lenge: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” “Who art thou, Lord?” he asks. “I am Jesus, whom thou perse- cutest.” “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” It is the classic illustration of effectual calling.

You and I have no experience to recount as dramatic as Paul’s, but in a

The Devotional Life

A fruitful devotional life includes both the Bible and prayer. One can steer by a compass alone and he will get nowhere. He can steer by a map alone and he will get nowhere. You need both. For the Christian his com- pass is prayer and his map is the Bible — he needs both.

—Dr. David Easton

way it was like that with us also. Whether in days before self-conscious- ness dawned — and regeneration does sometimes come to the very young, so that they never know other than to trust and love Christ — whether in the days of youth, whether in adult life, spiritual things became alive to us and our hearts responded to God’s call. Just as surely as the Lord Jesus Christ called Paul, He called you and me who believe in Him. That, by the way, is why to be a Christian is such a really great thing. Christian faith is produced by a supernatural work and is therefore to be prized above all else. Mighty grace, almighty grace has wrought in us who believe in the Son of God.

EFFECTUAL CALLING DESCRIBED

The inward call of the Gospel is at once recognized as altogether indis- pensable by the person who takes in- to account the Bible teaching on total

inability. How mysterious it is,

though, when the Holy Spirit claims access to the deep levels of the soul and makes us capable of appreciating Christ in His glory and love and saving power. The transformation from self- centeredness and absorption in things to an awareness of guilt, of the need of pardon, of the adequacy of Christ is beyond our ability to analyze search- ingly.

Is this what Jesus is saying in John 3 when He likens the new birth to the wind? From where it has come and where it is going no man can tell; only of its sound and present force have we knowledge. So is everyone, Jesus says, that is born of the Spirit. And thus comes the great saying, “The Spirit of God works how and when and where He pleases.”

Effectual calling is not moral argu-

mentation. To defend the faith and to reason clearly about the Gospel are important. Christian truth de-

serves the best possible presentation. But eloquence and logic are not enough. In the end it is the Spirit of God, it is irresistible grace, it is effectual calling that produces Chris- tians.

Effectual calling—let us again re- mind ourselves—stands in close con- nection with the other doctrines of our system of belief. If God has chosen a people to be His, we may be sure that He will have devised a way to overcome their spiritual death; that way is effectual calling. If Christ on the cross merited for His people everything necessary to save them, clearly, He merited the irresistible working of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of those for whom the atoning sacrifice was made. If God designs that His people shall persevere and come at last to Heaven, then a super- natural work in their souls is what will be required.

Effectual calling is a truth that gives God the glory due Him. It is a truth that comforts and strengthens the Christian: God has taken thought of him and has come to him to save him. It is a truth God the Spirit uses — I have seen it occur — to make men see the importance of salvation, the desirability and beauty of it, to make men say — may some say it even now —“I see it, I want it, I do now trust Christ as my Saviour.”

* * * *

Dr. Strong is pastor of the Trinity Church, Montgomery, Ala.

' THE PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL / NOVEMBER 16, 1960

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JHE SERMON God’s Encounter With Man

WILLIAM C. ROBINSON, Th.D.

Acts 7:2—‘“The God of glory ap- peared unto our father Abraham.” Gal. 1:15-16—‘“‘It pleased God who... called me by His grace to reveal His

' Son in me.”

on sine

The Bible records a number of God’s encounters with men. Perhaps the most dramatic of these are those with Abraham, with Moses, with Isaiah, and and with Paul. It is our purpose to study these for light on how God deals with us and what is the nature of the faith with which we respond to His gracious intervention.

A. GOD’S GRACIOUS INTERVENTION

Looking at the account of these en- counters, we are struck with the fact that in each case God takes the in- itiative. If you please God is the hero of each story. God, not man, is the author of every conversion. At the moment of encounter Abram is an idolater, a worshipper of Sin the Moon —God and Ningal his consort; Moses is the great excuser; Isaiah is the disap- pointed court politician; and Paul is the persecutor of the disciples of the Lord. The God of Glory appeared unto our Father Abraham when he was an uncircumcised pagan in Meso- potamia. When Moses was living in Midian as an embittered disillusionist the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush. When

| Isaiah was chagrined at the death of

| the great King Uzziah in whom all the | hopes of the house of David were

centered then he saw the real King, the LORD, high and lifted up. When

Paul was breathing out slaughter and

| threatening in veritable Khrushchev

fashion, then the Lord Jesus whom he was persecuting met him. Thus he became a “partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God who saved us and called us with an holy calling” (II Tim. 1:8-9).

In these meetings God is personally present in the power of His Holy Spirit. Paul urges the Galatians to stand be- fore God as Abraham did: not by works but by faith. Thus will they receive the blessing of Abraham, the promise of the Spirit. In Isaiah 63: 11 the prophet asks where is He that put His Holy Spirit within Moses. The same prophet speaks of the Spirit being given to the Messianic Servant 11:2; 42:1; and waits for the Spirit to be poured out from on high, 32:15, for in the covenant promise:

My Spirit which I have put up- on thee and my Word which I have put in Thy mouth, shall not depart from thee nor from thy seed nor from thy seed’s seed for- ever, 59:21.

Paul repeatedly testifies to the Spirit who bears witness with our spirits by which we call God, Abba, Father. Thus our faith stands not in the wis- dom of men, but in the power of God, I Cor. 2:5.

“Let me no more my comfort draw, From my frail hold on Thee;

In this alone rejoice with awe Thy mighty hold on me.”

The living God Who manifested Himself in the illuminating power of His Spirit was also present speaking His own Word. In each encounter, He was present as the Person of God speaking. God Almighty made _ to Abraham exceeding great and precious promises, even the assurance that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Jesus said that Abraham saw his day and was glad. As he offered his most precious posses- sion, Isaac, the heir of the covenant, on the altar and as God stopped his hand, Abraham looked down the ages and saw the Heavenly Father doing in fact what the earthly father did, only

PAGE 7 / THE PRESBYTERIAN JOURNAL / NOVEMBER 16, 1960

in figure. For the NT Gospel is phrased in terms of Abraham’s great act: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” ... God withheld not His own Son but freely offered Him up for us all.

God revealed Himself to Moses as the God of the covenant, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the Lord gracious and merciful, long-suffering and plenteous in loving-kindness and tender mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. To Isaiah, in the hour of human despair there is hope. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given and the government shall be upon His shoulders and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, Immanuel” 9:6; 7:14. And again “by His knowledge shall my Righteous servant justify many for He shall bear their iniqui- ties’ 53:11. The deepest note in the Lord’s revelation of Himself to Paul is this: “He loved me and delivered Him- self up for me.” In Romans five the Apostle puts together the revelation of God’s love in His Spirit and by His Word. The love of God for us is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit as He points us to Calvary and shows us God commending His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

Is this word of God’s love the word of our Calvinistic faith, or are we rather shut up to some kind of fatalis- tic determinism? Dean Doumergue cites Calvin as asking, “Wherein does our faith consist?” and answering, “In this: that God is our Father.” This accords with the letter to Francis I:

“What is more consistent with faith, than to assure ourselves of God being a propitious Father,

where Christ is acknowledged as a brother and a Mediator? than securely to expect all prosperity and happiness from Him, whose unspeakable love towards us went so far that ‘He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all?’ than to rest in the certain expectation of salvation and eternal life, when we reflect upon the Father’s gift in Christ, in whom such treasures are hid- den?”

The same thoughts are found in the 12th, the 13th and the 111th answers to Calvin’s Catechism. Everyone should be assured that he is beloved of God and that He will be both his Father and his Saviour. This assur- ance comes by His own Word wherein He utters His mercy in Christ and as- sures us of His love toward us. The right faith is a sure persuasion and steadfast knowledge of God’s tender love toward us, as He has plainly uttered in His Gospel that He will be both a Father and a Saviour unto us through the means of Jesus Christ.

Only one who has been loved can love; only one who has been trusted can trust; only one who has experi- enced self-surrender in another can learn to surrender himself. We are set free to give ourselves to God through the fact that He has given Himself for us.

As we know ourselves loved by God we love Him. As we find Him opening His heart to us in Christ we open our- selves to Him. As we enter in the fel- lowship of His sufferings for us, we receive grace to give ourselves to Him Who first gave Himself for and to us. It is as we find God trusting us with His only-begotten Son that we in turn trust Him Who withheld not this un- speakable gift but freely offered Him up for us.

B. MAN’S RESPONSE IN FAITH

Now what is our response? What is the nature of that faith in which we reply in this God-wrought en- counter?

While there is an intellectual re- sponse to God’s revelation of Himself in the Gospel, faith is more than knowledge. It is trust, confidence of the heart, entrusting ourselves to and giving our trust to the faithfulness of God our Saviour. From acceptance of the promises of God, Abraham came to trust in the God of the promises. “He believed in the LORD and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness,” Gen. 15:6.

PAGE 8

THE

Moses was faithful to Him that ap- pointed him as a servant in all his house, Heb. 3:2,5, for “he endured as seeing Him that is invisible,” Heb. 11:27. According to Isaiah 36:3, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in Thee.” Paul reminds Peter, “We have put our trust in Christ Jesus, that we might be justi- fied by the faith of Christ,” Gal. 2:16. For “whosoever betieveth on Him shall not be put to shame,”’ Rom. 10:11.

For Luther, faith is unwavering trust of the heart in Him who has given Himself to us in Christ as our Saviour, steady assurance of faith be- cause Christ with His work has under- taken our cause. For Calvin, faith is more of the heart than of the head. As the work of the Spirit, it is more heart certainty than intellectual com- prehension, Institutes III.ii.8,14. Faith means to put one’s entire confidence in, to rely on God in Christ.

In this whole record of Biblical men and reformers, the nature of faith is that it takes from the believer all glory

and all self-confidence. It is a self- alienating principle. It does not make of my faith an idol. Abraham be-

lieved giving glory to God, Rom. 4:20; that is, faith is the unlimited willing-

ness to let God have all the glory of saving the sinners. It is to divest our- selves of all ground of glorying that God may be eminently glorious and that we may glory in Him. Sola fide as used by the Reformers meant that all the virtue, all the saving power of faith rests in its object, its content, none in the believer. The faith of Abraham is trust in the Almighty Pow- er of God who despite the deadness of age gave Isaac to the patriarch, and who for our justification raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, Rom. 4:19,24; ef. Heb. 11:19.

Yet faith does involve a _ certain knowledge, or acknowledgement that God who knows us through and through has given us a partial knowledge, but a sure persuasion of His loving know- ing of us. The older divines said that faith consisted of notitia, essensus and fiducia, that is knowledge, assent and confidence.

In our day many of the neo-orthodox object to propositional knowledge. It is interesting to note, however, that Karl Barth (whom Pauck calls the only neo-orthodox theologian) in his DOGMATICS IN OUTLINE recognizes that this knowledge may be logical as well as factual and in his CHURCH

(Cont. on p. 17, col. 1)

THE READERS ASK

(Address your questions to “The Readers Ask.” c/o the JOURNAL)

Q. What are the advantages of the Rotary System for church officers?

A. The story is told (it was told us as true) that the Rotary System found its way to the General Assembly as a proposal because one congregation wished to rid itself of a highly dis- liked elder. It was _ primarily signed, not to give everyone in the congregation a chance to serve as an officer, but rather as a graceful way to prune the eldership and the dia- conate in order to keep the spiritual leadership of a congregation at the highest and most effective level. (Na- tional elections of senators and con-