For handy reference about the man:
". . . in 1907, when his seventieth birthday was made the occasion of a national celebration, it was said: 'The history of The Netherlands, in Church, in State, in Society, in Press, in School, and in the Sciences of the last forty years, cannot be written without the mention of his name on almost every page, for during this period the biography of Dr. Kuyper is to a considerable extent the history of The Netherlands.'"
"During all these years his work was many-sided to an astounding degree. As has been said: 'No department of human knowledge was foreign to him.' And whether we take him as student, pastor or preacher; as linguist, theologian or university professor; as party leader, organizer or statesman; as philosopher, scientist, publicist, critic or philanthropist — there is always 'something incomprehensible in the mighty labors of this indefatigable wrestler; always something as incomprehensible as genius always is.' Even they who differed with him, and they were many, honored him as 'an opponent of ten heads and a hundred hands.' They who shared his vision and his ideals prized and loved him 'as a gift of God to our age.'"
"In 1897, at the twenty-fifth anniversary of his editorship of De Standaard, Dr. Kuyper said: 'One desire has been the ruling passion of my life. One high motive has acted like a spur upon my mind and soul. And sooner than that I should seek escape from the sacred necessity that is laid upon me, let the breath of life fail me. It is this: That in spite of all worldly opposition, God's holy ordinances shall be established again in the home, in the school and in the State for the good of the people; to carve as it were into the conscience of the nation the ordinances of the Lord, to which Bible and Creation bear witness, until the nation pays homage again to God.'"
"In his early years the religious life in his country was at a low ebb. 'Church life was cold and formal. Religion was almost dead. There was no Bible in the schools. There was no life in the nation,"
"But intimations of better things to come were not wanting. As far back as 1830, Groen van Prinsterer, a member of Parliament, began to protest against the spirit of the times. 'This brought about a revival of Gospel preaching — that by nature all men are sinners in need of the atoning blood of Christ. Great offense was taken at this. It was not long before Evangelicals could not be tolerated. It was not irreligion that was wanted, but religion such as would please every one, Jews included.'"
"Looking back upon this experience he writes: 'What my soul went through in that moment, I have only later fully understood; but yet in that hour, nay, from that very moment, I learned to despise what formerly I admired, and to seek what formerly I spurned. But enough. You know the lasting character of the impression of such an experience; what the soul encounters in such a conflict belongs to that eternal something, which presents itself to the soul years afterward, strongly and sharply defined, as though it happened but yesterday.'"
"But, under God, it was the simple country folk of his first parish that were instrumental in leading him into that fullness of spiritual life toward which his former experiences had pointed. As he ministered to them, they admired his talents; and soon they learned to love him for what he was; but they set themselves earnestly to united and individual prayer for his entire conversion to Christ. "And," as Kuyper writes afterward, "their faithful loyalty became a blessing to my heart, the rise of the morning star of my life. I had been apprehended, but I had not yet found the Word of reconciliation. In their simple language they brought me this in the absolute form in which alone my soul can rest. I discovered that the Holy Scripture does not only cause us to find justification by faith, but also discloses the foundation of all human life, the holy ordinances which must govern all human existence in Society and State."
"Thus began his Christian life. At the Cross he made the great surrender of himself to his Savior and to His service. 'To bear witness for Christ' became the passion of his life. That Christ is King in every department of human life and activity was the keynote which he kept ringing in all his writings, addresses and labors, whether as theologian or as statesman, as a leader in politics, as president of the Christian labor union, as promoter of Christian education, it was all done from the burning conviction, that: "Christ rules not merely by the tradition of what He once was, spake, did and endured; but by a living power which even now, seated as He is at the right hand of God, He exercises over lands and nations, generations, families and individuals."
"Thus the finding of some lost books, the reading of a novel, the teaching of uncultured folk, were experiences which explain in part Dr. Kuyper's great work."
"The fellowship of being near unto God must become reality, in the full and vigorous prosecution of our life. It must permeate and give color to our feeling, our perceptions, our sensations, our thinking, our imagining, our willing, our acting, our speaking. It must not stand as a foreign factor in our life, but it must be the passion that breathes throughout our whole existence."
"In pursuit of this ideal, Dr. Kuyper took time to add to his gigantic labors the writing of a devotional meditation every week. He wrote more than two thousand of them. They are entirely unique in character. They are well said to form a literature by themselves, and are in line with the best works by Dutch mystics, such as Johannes Ruysbroek, Cornelius Jansinius, and Thomas a Kempis."
Source: Excerpt from Lectures on Calvinism
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