Music in the Woods (5)

The people of the Afscheiding who began to settle in the woods of West Michigan in 1847 treasured the doctrines of election and reprobation, preached the Heidelberg Catechism, and loved to sing the word of God in the Psalms. But they discovered that the Reformed Church in America, to which they had united in 1850, did not. The RCA spoke little of election and reprobation, did not preach the Catechism, and sang hymns. They also allowed Masonic lodge membership—a serious sin. Whether one admitted...