Oriental
Theological College, established in connection with the University,
promoted the study of Biblical languages, and originated the first
critical edition of the Hebrew Bible. Moreover, it founded missions to
the Jews and Mohammedans. From Halle streams of the new life flowed out
until there were traces of reawakening throughout Europe. First, the
larger cities gave signs of returning faith; and the universities which
were most bitter against Spener were influenced by the power of the
teachings of his immediate successors. Switzerland was one of the first
countries to adopt Pietism. Zuerich, Basle, Berne, and all the larger
towns received it with gladness. It penetrated as far east as the
provinces bordering on the Baltic Sea, and as far North as Denmark,
Norway, and Sweden. Many of the Continental courts welcomed it, and
Orphan Houses, after the model of Francke's, became the fashion of the
day. The Reformed church was influenced and impelled by it, and even
England and the Netherlands indicated a strong sympathy for its
practical and evangelical features. No higher tribute can be paid it
than that of Tholuck, who avers, "_that the Protestant church of Germany
has never possessed so many zealous Christian ministers and laymen as in
the first forty years of the eighteenth century_."

There are two names intimately connected with Pietism in its better
days, which it would be improper to pass over. Arnold, the historian of
Pietism, and Thomasius, the eminent jurist. They were both alike
dangerous to the very cause they sought to befriend. The former, in his
_History of Churches and Heretics_, took such decided ground against the
existing church system that he was fairly charged with being a
Separatist. He attached but little importance to dogmatics, despised
orthodoxy, and inveighed against the church as if she were the veriest
pest in the land. While a student at Wittenberg he applied himself to
the study of Mysticism, and now claimed that its incorporation with
Pietism was the only salvation of Christianity. He held that great sins
had existed in the church ever since the days of the Apostles, the first
century being the only period when it enjoyed comparative purity.
Thomasius, very naturally, held Arnold in high esteem, and lauded his
services in the following language: "He is the only man, or at least the
first, who has avoided the follies into which others have fallen, and
discovered and fully exposed the err