Domela Nieuwenhuis’s book contains two articles reprinted from De Standaard 17 (1888), no. 5081, October 3, 1888, and no. 5083, October 5, 1888. In three articles from 1888, Kuyper depicted the life of a member of Parliament, whom he described as confronted with ever higher mountains of paper and ever broader streams of speeches. He related the complexities, demands, exigencies (with respect both to his own party and to the electorate), and thrills of serving as a member of the Dutch Parliament.

The revolutionary socialist Domela Nieuwenhuis (1846–1918), who began his career as a pastor and ended it as a socialist theorist and crusader, considered the articles clear and to the point and thus reprinted them in his book about the Dutch Parliament. He left out a few paragraphs from the first two articles, the final part of the second article, and the entire third article because he disagreed with Kuyper’s claim that a member of Parliament had an obligation not to act according to his own views, but to resign himself to the party and to tow the party line.