An article reprinted from the Zondagsblad van De Standaard, no. 25, September 20, 1874, published at the initiative of the Dutch Association of Friends of the Truth for the Maintenance of the Doctrine and the Rights of the Reformed Church (cf. 1879.09). The article gives advice on the subject of congregational autonomy. Among other things, the author indicates eight consequences of congregational autonomy, sometimes breaking down his points with subpoints in order to be more precise.

Introduced (p. 1) by H.J. Dibbetz (president) and four other members of the administrative commission of the Friends of the Truth (HUA/NHKU 93), this item provides a more precise definition of what Kuyper understood by congregational autonomy at a time when the centralized administration of the church had come to stand in contradiction to its presbyterian origins.

The twelfth annual meeting of the Friends of the Truth on May 27, 1874, which Kuyper attended, gave its administrative commission instructions to promote the essential autonomy of its congregations in oral and written communications. At the subsequent annual meeting on April 14, 1875, the commission reported that it had sent, with Kuyper’s permission, an article reprinted from the Zondagsblad van De Standaard both to their departments and to the 1,337 consistories of the Dutch Reformed Church (cf. Verslag van de dertiende Algemeene Vergadering der Nederlandsche Vereeniging Vrienden der Waarheid, tot Handhaving van de Leer en de Rechten der Gereformeerde Kerk, Amsterdam 1875, pp. 8–9).