alse creed on the human
character. It is an infallible law of our nature that the mind, not less
than the body, becomes depraved by an impure diet. Many persons have
been permanently injured by reading the _Briefe ueber den Rationalismus_,
and other works which Rationalism has published against the doctrines
of Revelation.

As far as the completeness and speed of the work of Rationalism are
concerned we shall find that it ranks with the most rapid and
destructive errors that have ever risen in conflict with the church.
Instead of striving to build up a land that had so long been cursed with
the blight of Papacy, and had not yet been redeemed a full century, this
evil brought its quota of poison into the university, the pulpit, and
the household circle. Nor did it cease, as we shall see, until it
corrupted nearly all the land for several generations. To-day the
humblest peasant who steps on our shore at Castle Garden will stare in
wonder as you speak of the final judgment, the immortality of the soul,
and the authenticity of the Scriptures. Naturalism could not live thus
long in Italy, nor Deism in England, nor the blind Atheism of the
Encyclopaedists in France; neither in either land was the work of
destruction so complete.

But the church has proved herself able to depose many _corruptions of
her faith_; yet this _attack upon her faith_ she has still to vanquish
thoroughly. It is not works on the evidences of Christianity that she
needs for the consummation of her great aim; and we trust that, by the
divine blessing, the inquiry into the vagaries of Reason upon which we
are now entering will not be without its effect upon the young mind of
America. Our task is simply to lift the finger of warning against the
increasing influx of Rationalistic tendencies from France and England;
which lands had first received them from Germany. One of our great
dangers lies in permitting Reason to take our premises and build her own
conclusions upon them. There is an intimate union between theology and
philosophy; and anything less than the pursuit and cultivation of a
sound philosophy will endanger our theology. Tennyson gives a beautiful
word of advice when he says:

"Hold thou the good: define it well:
For fear divine Philosophy
Should push beyond her mark, and be
Procuress to the Lords of Hell."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Tholuck, Herzog's _Real-Encyclopaedie_. Art. _Rationalismus_.

[2] Trench, _Study of Wo