80, 581
Improvement of Church History, 581-583
Estimate of the Life of Christ, 583-586
The Evangelical Church:
Necessity of an impartial View of Science, 586, 587
The proper Way to combat Skepticism, 587, 588
Unity a Requisite of Success, 588, 589

APPENDIX.

Literature of Rationalism:
Germany, Holland, Switzerland, 590-595
Rationalistic Periodicals in Germany, 595
France, 595-598
Rationalistic Periodicals in France, 598
Great Britain and the United States, 599-606
Literature of Unitarianism and Universalism: 606-609
Unitarian Periodicals, 609
Universalist Periodicals, 609-610

INDEX, 611-623

HISTORY OF RATIONALISM.

INTRODUCTION.

RATIONALISM DEFINED--ITS CHARACTER AS A SKEPTICAL DEVELOPMENT.

Rationalism is the most recent, but not the least violent and insidious,
of all the developments of skepticism. We purpose to show its historical
position, and to present, as faithfully as possible, its antagonism to
evangelical Christianity. The guardians of the interests of the church
cannot excuse themselves from effort toward the eradication of this
error by saying that it is one which will soon decay by the force of its
natural autumn. Posterity will not hesitate to charge us with gross
negligence if we fail to appreciate the magnitude of Rationalism, and
only deal with it as the growth of a day. We have half conquered an
enemy when we have gained a full knowledge of his strength.

There was a time when Rationalism was a theme of interest to the
Protestant church of Germany alone. But that day is now past. Having
well nigh run its race in the land of Luther, it has crossed the Rhine
into France and the Netherlands, invaded England, and now threatens the
integrity of the domain of Anglo-Saxon theology. Thus it has assumed an
importance which should not be overlooked by British and American
thinkers who love those dearly-bought treasures of truth that they have
received as a sacred legacy from the martyrs and reformers of the
English church. The recent writings of the exegetical Rationalists of
England are suff