mple was at
work in drawing the people from the old faith. He hesitated not to
supplant evangelical professors and pastors by free-thinkers, and at any
time to bring ridicule on any religious fact or custom. That
thin-visaged man in top boots and cocked hat, surrounded by his infidels
and his dogs at Sans Souci, dictated faith to Berlin and to Europe. He
would have no one within the sunshine of royalty whom he could not use
as he wished; and just as soon as Voltaire would be himself he became
disgraced. But Frederic lived to see the day when insubordination sprang
up in his army, and in many departments of public life. It came from the
abnegation of evangelical faith. And it is no wonder that when the old
king saw the disastrous effects of his own theories upon his subjects,
he said he would willingly give his best battle to place his people
where he found them at his father's death. But the seed had been sown,
and Prussia was destined to be only a part of the harvest-field of
tares.

FOOTNOTES:

[28] Farrar, _Critical History of Free Thought_, p. 214.

[29] Hagenbach, _History of Doctrines_, vol. 2, p. 340.

[30] _Critical History of Free Thought_, pp. 215-216.

CHAPTER V.

SEMLER AND THE DESTRUCTIVE SCHOOL.

1750-1810.

The foreign influences being fairly introduced, it now remained to be
seen what course the German church would adopt respecting them. The
process of incorporation was rapid. A remarkable activity of mind was
observable in the theological world, and men of great learning and keen
intellect began to apply the deductions of foreign naturalism to the
sacred oracles. No one can claim that the interpretation of the
Scriptures rested at this time on a pure and solid basis; and it is
therefore not remarkable that those men who had no special predilection
for the doctrine of inspiration should silently submit to the views of
the orthodox believers of their time. The divine origin of Hebrew points
and accents was rigidly contended for; and Michaelis only fell in with
the accustomed current when, in his early life, he wrote a work in their
defence. The theory that errors of transcription might possibly have
crept into the text, was totally rejected. No such thing could, by any
contingency, occur. The fable of Aristeas was still considered worthy a
place in the canon. The sanctity of the Hebrew language, and other
Rabbinical notions, were defended. Christ was discovered in every book
of the Ol