The opening speech at the Meeting of Deputies of the Anti-Revolutionary Electoral Associations on May 12, 1891. The speech was delivered with an eye toward the upcoming elections (see 1891.03). In it Kuyper sets the stage by reading from Revelation 19. He then calls upon the deputies to act with conviction in the spirit of Christian democracy. The anticipation of the Lord’s second coming—Maranatha—provides the horizon for thinking about short-term political possibilities. On the one hand, this perspective unmasks the anti-Christian character of the electoral platforms of other political groups. On the other, it unites Christians across all confessional lines in the spirit of democratic action. The shift, characteristic of the present age, away from the ideals and intellectual achievements of individuals and toward the needs of social life is advantageous to the struggle for Christian democracy. For, as Kuyper notes, “if anything is social then it is the Christian religion.” The speech ends with a poem by Isaac da Costa (see 1897.16).

Kuyper’s speech was particularly well received by the approximately seven hundred deputies at the meeting. The published edition of the speech was already available on the day following its delivery.

A printed copy of this address has also been preserved in oversized format (35cm.), with twenty-four numbered pages, printed on one side only (cf. 1909.27).