Introduction

Biography

Beets was the son of Jas­per Beets and Griet­je Smit, and hus­band of Cla­ra Poel.

He emi­grat­ed to Am­eri­ca in 1886, and af­ter some years in Kan­sas, stu­died at Cal­vin Col­lege, Grand Ra­pids, Mi­chi­gan. He gra­du­at­ed in 1895, and was or­dained a min­is­ter in the Chris­tian Re­formed Church.

In 1911, he re­ceived an hon­or­ary Doc­tor of Law de­gree from Mus­kin­gum Col­lege (now Mus­kin­gum Uni­ver­si­ty), New Con­cord, Ohio.

He was pas­tor of the Chris­tian Re­formed Church in Sioux Cen­ter, Io­wa (1895–99); the La­Grave Ave­nue Church, Grand Ra­pids, Mi­chi­gan (1899–1915); and in Bur­ton Heights, Mi­chi­gan (1920).

In 1920, he be­came sec­re­ta­ry and di­rect­or of mis­sions for the Chris­tian Re­formed Church. He al­so ed­it­ed the week­ly pub­li­ca­tion the Ban­ner and De Hei­den­wer­eld, a month­ly mis­sion­ary pub­li­ca­tion.

Works

• Life of Pre­si­dent Mc­Kin­ley (in Dutch), 1901
• Life and Times of Abra­ham Lin­coln (in Dutch), 1909
• Triumphs of the Cross (in Dutch), 1914
• Compendium of the Chris­tian Re­li­gion—Ex­plained, 1915, 1919 & 1924
• History of the Chris­tian Re­formed Church, Its Work and Prin­ci­ples, 1923
• Student’s Com­pen­di­um of the Hei­del­berg Ca­te­chism, 1925