In 1922, a book with a series of recollections about Kuyper was published, Herinneringen Van De Oude Garde Aan Den Persoon En Den Levensarbeid Van Dr. A. Kuyper [Memories Of The Old Guard Of The Person And Life's Work Of Dr. A. Kuyper]. The memories were collected and edited by two of Kuyper’s children. One of the “old guard” contributors was Reverend Ch. Hunningher (1864–1928), a Dutch Reformed minister in Amsterdam. During his younger years, he spent considerable time in the Kuyper household. This extract is part of his memoirs from that time. At the time Kuyper was 40 and Hunningher a 12-year-old attended school with Kuyper’s eldest son. Hunningher had these observations regarding Kuyper’s church attendance:
When Dr. Kuyper lived in The Hague after his first term as a member of Parliament (1877–1880), during the time I got to know him, he still interacted frequently with Gunning and occasionally attended his church, although attending church was never Dr. Kuyper’s “forte.” He told me later in Amsterdam that he suffered from a kind of "seventh-day headache," which had originated during his tenure as a pastor for the Reformed Church in Amsterdam from 1870 to 1874. The excessively busy services he conducted during that time exhausted him greatly, and for a long time afterward, he especially suffered from headaches on Sundays. These often led him to prefer retreating to his study rather than subjecting himself to the torment of listening to a sermon in church. Particularly from certain preachers, even those otherwise aligned with him, the sermons could, as he put it, "hammer on his head like blows."
It is well known that on Sunday mornings, Dr. Kuyper wrote his devotional meditations for De Heraut, through which he "preached to our entire nation." Less well known is that, when he did attend church, he by no means always worshipped with “strictly Reformed” ministers. I recall that he once “with great edification” participated in a Communion service at the Nieuwezijds Chapel in Amsterdam, led by Rev. Ten Kate, and on another occasion heard Rev. Van Marken at the Oosterkerk. I still remember him saying: “Oh, such ministers do no harm by what they say, but by what they leave unsaid.”
He also told me that Ten Kate’s beautiful choice of words and eloquent delivery had done him much good and that the way Ten Kate addressed the deaf-mute attendees, whose teacher interpreted for them, was especially moving. “After the service, Mr. Ten Kate was very friendly to me in the room; quite different from how ethical men of lesser stature sometimes behave toward me,” he said.
The immense capacity for work that Dr. Kuyper displayed for many years was due in large part to the strict daily schedule he adhered to with an iron will. He never worked early in the morning, nor late at night. The latter had likely been his habit before I knew him, and he himself told me that staying up late while drinking strong coffee had done him much harm, which is why he had to spend some time recovering in St. Moritz and Nice.
After his recovery, however, he strictly maintained the order he had set for himself: at 8 o’clock in the morning, he rang for the family and household staff to gather, and he read the Holy Scriptures with them. He usually added a brief explanation of what had been read and sometimes asked the following day about the passage explained the previous day. Household devotions always included singing and kneeling for prayer. The songs were almost exclusively psalms, although occasionally hymns such as Gez. 3 or Gez. 83 were sung. On Sunday evenings, other hymns were sometimes sung, such as César Malan’s:
"Agneau de Dieu, par tes langueurs
Tu pris sur Toi notre misère."
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