12 Dec 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
While we're on the subject of Christmas: I noted in my most recent post that Geerhardus Vos fancied himself something of a poet; at the link you can see his poem on Christ's Nativity. Vos was not unique in this predilection. One of his Princeton colleagues, B.B. Warfield, also wrote a number of poems,...
Read more → 10 Dec 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
At various points, we’ve discussed the celebration of Christmas and other holidays in various sectors of the Reformed tradition, including among some conservative Presbyterians in the nineteenth century, as well as time-keeping more generally. The same favorable attitude we see in Hodge continues...
Read more → 08 Dec 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
Below is the Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent from the Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States. I mentioned last week that the Collects in this volume are not simply reproductions of the Book of Common Prayer. Thus the prayer for this week is quite different. This week's...
Read more → 05 Dec 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
The predecessor of the Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States, the Liturgy, or, Order of Christian Worship (1858), which I have discussed previously (e.g. here), includes a section of “Prayers for the Festival Seasons,” the material of which is (at least, mostly) included in the later...
Read more → 02 Dec 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
Last week I posted the Collect for the Sunday before Advent from the Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States. Now the cycle starts over, and included below is the Collect for the First Sunday in Advent. The reader familiar with the Book of Common Prayer will immediately recognize...
Read more → 26 Nov 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
Since I’ve been posting selections from the Mercersburg liturgies, and since it’s Thanksgiving week here in the U.S., I thought I’d post a prayer of thanksgiving from the 1866 Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States. THANKSGIVING FOR HARVEST ALMIGHTY and everlasting God,...
Read more → 25 Nov 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
Below is the penultimate installment in the “Guide to Private Devotion” from A Liturgy, or, Order of Christian Worship. It is to be used when one goes to bed. In the view of the authors, going to sleep should be treated as a daily memento mori, a reminder of the inevitability of death. The second...
Read more → 24 Nov 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
I recently mentioned the Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States, published in 1866. I'm going to try to remember to post throughout the year the Collects it gives for each week. In this post is the final one for the "old year" before the cycle starts over next week. It is a prayer...
Read more → 19 Nov 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
In a puzzling string of assertions comprising part of a recent online article, the claim was made that the principle that “all truth is God’s truth” is “distinctively Dutch Reformed.” (Curiously, as a superior alternative there was offered the perspective of a theologian who was...Dutch...and...
Read more → 18 Nov 2019
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
I recently introduced a series on the Federal Vision. In the first installment, I explained why people are still talking about it and promised follow-up articles explaining the history and development of FV. In this post I would like to give something of a survey history of the personalities and controversy...
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