re at that very
time the hotbeds of rank infidelity. Even the State cabinets that
controlled the professorial chairs could not believe for a long time
that men who had been chosen to teach theology were spending all their
power in corrupting the religious sentiment of the land. Large
congregations were sometimes startled with strange announcements from
their pastors, to the effect that the supposed miraculous dividing of
the Red Sea was only occasioned by certain natural forces of wind and
tide; that all the rest of the Old Testament miracles were pure myths;
and that many parts of the New Testament were written at a later time
and by other authors than those whose names are usually associated with
them. "Heterodoxy," was whispered. But the reply was, "Better have
heterodoxy than these miserable disputes on Election and the Lord's
Supper, to which we have been compelled to listen almost ever since
Luther laid his body down to die." Fledgling theologians would come home
from the university, and read aloud to the family-group the notes of
lectures which they had heard during the last semester. The aged pair,
looking up in wonder, would say, "The good and great doctors of our
Reformation never taught such things as these." But their sons would
answer, "Oh, the world has grown much wiser since their day. New
discoveries in philosophy and science have opened new avenues of truth,
and our eyes are blessed that we see, and our ears that we hear. Just
wait until we get into the pulpit, and we will set the people to
thinking in a new way." Thus the enemy was sowing tares while the church
was dreaming of a plenteous harvest.

Rationalism was very adroit in its initial steps. Its method of betrayal
was, Judas-like, to sit in friendly intercourse beside its victim, and
afterwards, when the fulness of malevolent inspiration had come, to give
the fatal kiss in the presence of enemies. The people did not know the
ills they were about to suffer until deliverance was well-nigh hopeless.
Had Rationalism begun by laying down its platform and planning the work
of proof, the forces of the opposition might have been organized. But it
commenced without a platform, and worked long without one. The
systematic theology of Bretschneider would by no means be accepted by
the entire class of Rationalistic divines. To get a fair conception of
what has been the aggregate sentiment of the whole class, one must
wander through hundreds of volumes of exeg