Abraham Kuyper

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A revised and updated version of
Abraham Kuyper: An Annotated Bibliography 1857-2010 by Tjitze Kuipers (2011)

You can buy a printed edition of this book on the site of the publisher.

1887

1887.02
[Cable.]
In: De Standaard 16 (1887), no. 4548, January 12, 1887.
Dated: Amsterdam, January, 11, 1887.
See also: 1887.38 (p. 7); 1929.04 (p. 186).
ET: The Reformed Church Congress, reminded by its chairman of the moving document in which Elout van Soeterwoude vented the indignation that the synod’s verdict raised within his soul, gives its thanks to the Lord that He would spare an honorable old greybeard in order that he might express the sympathy of a nearly bygone generation with the sufferings of those carrying out the struggle today, thus bringing to light the bond of unity between the two generations of Christian fighters, and offering assurance to those persecuted that they were truly entering into the same struggle which Elout himself in fairer days carried out with Groen van Prinsterer and his supporters for the church of our fathers. They pray that the voice which arises from their beloved brother, no, from their father in Christ, might yet break the fetters of many and that, when finally the last fetters shall be broken, there might be rest for him after so much spiritual labor standing watch by his Lord. In the name of the office: Kuyper.

Het Gereformeerd Kerkelijk Congres, door zijnen voorzitter herinnerd aan het roerend schrift, waarmeê Elout van Soeterwoude lucht gaf aan de verontwaardiging, door het synodale vonnis in zijne ziel verwekt, spreekt zijn dank aan den Heere uit, dat Hij den eerbiedwaardigen grijsaard nog spaarde, om deze deelneming van een haast voorbijgaand geslacht in het lijden van wie thans den strijd voeren uit te spreken, alzoo den band der eenheid tusschen deze twee generatiën van Christi strijders doende uitkomen, en aan de vervolgden de zekerheid biedende, dat zij wel waarlijk ingingen tot denzelfden strijd, dien Elout zelf eens in schooner dagen met Groen van Prinsterer en zijne medestanders voor de kerken onzer vaderen heeft gevoerd. Zij bidden hun beminden broeder, neen, hun vader in Christus toe, dat zijne stem die uitging nog voor velen de banden slake, en dat hem, als eens de laatste banden zullen geslaakt zijn, ruste na zooveel zielsarbeid wachte bij zijn Heer. Namens het bureau: Kuyper.

A respectful telegram to P.J. Elout van Soeterwoude (1805–1893; cf. 1883.06) sent, with the consent of the Reformed Church Congress (see 1887.01), after the opening of the congress.

Like Groen van Prinsterer, Elout had once led the opposition to the state’s repression of the secessionists of 1834. The eighty-one-year-old judge and advocate for Christian politics and Christian schooling had recently written a passionate and forceful open letter titled “Verklaring aan de Hervormde Gemeenten in Nederland” [Declaration to the Reformed Congregations in the Netherlands], dated December 9, 1886 and published in De Heraut, no. 469, December 19, 1886. In his letter, Elout stated that, though not directly affected by the church struggle and though he had not consulted with its leaders, he considered his words and deeds to have also fallen under the synod’s verdict. After having earnestly sought God’s countenance, he had decided to renounce communion with the denominational authorities. His declaration ended with the prayer “that before long all congregations and individual believers who have cherished the time-honored confession of the churches of this nation and wished to bring them into practice, might reunite in a single mighty community, visible to the world and opposed to the unbelief and half-belief of these days, under the leadership and discipline of the Holy Spirit and in the demonstration of the power of the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ.”