e
to exhort his disciples. He did not really die on the cross. Whenever
recognized by his disciples afterwards, he went away directly, and came
back unexpectedly and for a short time. At last he disappeared quickly,
and let himself be seen no more. This end, like that of Lycurgus,
produced many followers. By degrees all the tales of the crucifixion
were extended and a Christian mythology erected."[39]

Becker was not more extreme in his inculcation of doctrine than many
others. Even Gesenius, in the preface to his _Hebrew Reading Book_,
tells the students of the Bible that Gen. i. 2, 3, contains the
description of the origin of the earth by a sage of antiquity; that the
narrator has a very imperfect knowledge of nature, though his
description is sublime, that he can hardly be the first inventor of the
description, as the principal outlines of it and even the six works of
creation are to be found in other religions of the East; and that
probably he only accommodates the general tradition of the East to the
national opinions of the Hebrews,--a remark which applies especially to
his ascribing a mystic origin to the Sabbath, a festival peculiar to the
Jews.

Such was the kind of theology in which the German youth were trained
during a period extending through the latter part of the eighteenth and
the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. It is no matter of
astonishment, then, that when those children became adults they were
rigid Rationalists from the mere force of training.

We now come to one of the most inexcusable deeds with which Rationalism
stands charged. We refer to the general destruction or alteration of the
time-honored German hymns.

Both the great branches of the Protestant church had always highly
prized their rich hymns, of which there were eighty thousand in
existence. Some of the finest lyrics of any tongue were among the
number. The sacred songs now used in our American churches are not
solely of English origin, or of our own production; but many of the
sweetest of them are free versions from the German hymnists. The
Rationalists, not being content with their present laurels, began in
great earnestness to despoil the hymn-books of the Protestant church of
everything savoring of inspiration or of any of the vital doctrines
already rejected. They looked upon those songs of devotion as composed
during the iron age of truth, and therefore unfit to be sung by the
congregations whose lot had been cast in t