o altered as to stand upon the same
footing with the hymns themselves. All sentiment was extracted, as quite
out of place, and sublimity was made to give way to a more temperate and
stoical standard. In due time the Rationalists effected their purpose.
Secular music was introduced into the sanctuary; an operatic overture
generally welcomed the people into church, and a march or a waltz
dismissed them. Sacred music was no longer cultivated as an element of
devotion. The oratorios and cantata of the theatre and beer-garden were
the Sabbath accompaniments of the sermon. The masses consequently began
to sing less; and the period of coldest skepticism in Germany, like
similar conditions in other lands, was the season when the
congregations, the common people, and the children sang least and most
drowsily.

We now behold Protestant Germany in the full possession of a shrewd,
powerful, and aggressive system of infidelity. The most thorough student
of church history must conclude that no other kind of skepticism has
received more aid from external sources. Everything that appeared on the
surface of the times contributed its mite toward the spiritual
petrification of the masses. Hamann, Oetinger, Reinhard, Lavater, and
Storr were insufficient for the great task of counteraction, while
Rationalism could count its strong men by the score and hundred.
Literature, philosophy, history, education, and sacred music were so
influenced by increasing indifference and doubt that when the people
awoke to their condition they found themselves in a strange latitude and
on a dangerous coast. But they thought themselves safe. They could not
see how each new feature in politics, literature, and theology was
affecting them in a remarkable manner; and how so many influences from
opposite quarters could contribute to the same terrible result,--the
total overthrow of evangelical faith.

FOOTNOTES:

[36] Moehler's _Symbolism_: Memoir of Author.

[37] Schlosser, _History of the Eighteenth Century_, vol. 2, pp. 33-41.

[38] Kahnis: _German Protestantism_, p. 216.

[39] Rose, _State of Protestantism in Germany_, pp. 178-181.

CHAPTER VIII.

DOCTRINES OF RATIONALISM IN THE DAY OF ITS STRENGTH.

The church now presented a most deplorable aspect. Philosophy had come,
with its high-sounding terminology, and invaded the hallowed precincts
of Scriptural truth. Literature, with its captivating notes, had
well-nigh destroyed what was left o