1886.14

Alzoo zal het onder u niet zijn. Op 11 juli 1886 in “Frascati” uitgesproken.

(Uit de diepte. Bijbellezingen door de afgezette leeraren en hun trouwe medebroeders te Amsterdam in “de lokalen” gehouden: I/II.)

Amsterdam, J.A. Wormser 1886 (P. Groenendijk). 32 pp., 20cm.—ƒ0.15.

A sermon held ten days after the Provincial Church Administration of North Holland removed seventy-five officials of the Dutch Reformed Congregation of Amsterdam from office. Kuyper begins the sermon by addressing this event and then undertakes an exposition of Matthew 20:25–28, from which the sermon’s title is derived. After establishing that the church cannot be ruled by human power, he asks how such treasonous power can be driven out once it has crept into the church.

Since the provisional suspension of January 4, 1886 (see 1886.02), the suspended pastors and their supporters in the Amsterdam congregation had been meeting in various locations (lokalen) across the city—not for worship services, but for “Bible readings.” Kuyper gave the first “Bible reading” on January 10, 1886 in Locaal Plancius (on Hebrews 11; see De Standaard, no. 4240, January 12, 1886). Ten such Bible readings took place in seven different locations on Sunday, July 11, 1886. Sermons from these Bible readings were gathered together into a sermon series titled Uit de diepte [Out of the depths]. “It will not be so among you” was the first sermon included in this series.

According to the publisher’s prospectus, the purpose of this series was twofold: first, to bring people to faith through the messages of the sermons; and second, to raise proceeds for supporting both the expenses of renting space for the Sunday gatherings and the expenses of pursuing the rights of the suspended pastors in ecclesiastical proceedings. A sermon of about sixteen pages (compactly printed and with continuous pagination) was published every Thursday (at a price of f 0.07 5). The first series, Uit de diepte, ran from July 11, 1886 to June 30, 1887. The annual subscription price was ƒ3.90. Full cloth bindings were available for a small surcharge. In total, four series/volumes were published (1886/1887–1889/1890). For additional sermons by Kuyper in this series, see 1887.08 and 1887.31.

With this edition a new publisher emerged as the successor to Kuyper’s publisher J.H. Kruyt (1839–1898). In April 1886, H. Höveker (†1889) retired as a partner of the book dealer and publishing company, Höveker & Zoon (the son in question was his son-in-law, J.A. Wormser) under the condition that nothing be published by the firm without his explicit approval. Höveker wanted to prevent his firm from publishing the leading men of the Doleantie. J.A. Wormser (1845–1916), who stood on Kuyper’s side in the church conflict, was forced by this move to found a publishing house under his own name on May 1, 1886 (cf. 1907.22). On January 15, 1887 Wormser purchased the unsold stock of all the works by Kuyper from J.H. Kruyt for ƒ3,200.- and then began buying up other publishers’ editions and printings of his works. In a letter (dated March 21, 1887) about the future of De Standaard written to potential financial supporters, Kuyper gave the following explanation for the transferal of the fund: “… as a consequence of the church conflict … [we] no longer had the old sympathy [of Kruyt]” (KA 125/microfiche 598). Kruyt had not joined with the Doleantie, but had remained a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. He resigned as director of De Standaard on December 31, 1886. After the sale of his Kuyper stock to Wormser, Kruyt then sold his interest in De Standaard to Kuyper. Wormser was appointed director and publisher of the paper on July 1, 1887.

In De Standaard 16 (1887), no. 4686, June 25 1887, Kuyper gave a short overview of the fifteen-year history of De Standaard. He recalled that Kruyt had saved the paper from financial ruin in 1874 by his energetic management and his exceptional fiscal administration, stating for the record that “in administrative matters our movement owes a debt of gratitude to this man for the possession of its own newspaper.” Ten years later, on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of De Standaard, Kruyt wrote to his friend Kuyper that he considered the first fifteen years of De Standaard “as the happiest of [his] life” (KA 129/microfiche 790).

For information on Kuyper’s publishers, see also 1874.02 and 1907.22.