its fountain is
the physical, intellectual, and moral world. The first Adam did not
possess that knowledge of God which was thoroughly enjoyed by the
second. But can man attain to the knowledge of God while in a sinful
condition, and while the light of his reason is darkened? Assuredly he
may, for sin does not belong to the essence, but to the condition of
man. The Reformed theologians built on the acknowledgment that Religion
has her seat in the being of man, and sees in the Christian the
expression of the reasonable religion. The material principle of the
Reformed church is the doctrine of God's sovereignty and free grace. The
weakness of the Reformation lay in its inconsistency, for it substituted
the authority of the letter for that of the Church.

Scholten's abhorrence of authority has led him to a denial of miracles.
From this point of view he can freely join hands with the Rationalists.
In his latest work, the _Gospel of John_, he takes occasion to retract
the favorable opinions formerly expressed concerning that portion of the
New Testament. He has been fearlessly assailed by Oosterzee, La
Saussaye, Da Costa, and other leading theologians. Unfortunately, he
exerts more influence over the young theologians of Holland than any
other Dutch theologian. He is ardently supported by Knenen, the exegete,
his colleague at Leyden; and by Rauenhoff, the ecclesiastical historian.
We close our estimate of Scholten with a word on his opinions of
Christianity in general. It is neither superhuman nor supernatural. It
is the highest point of the development of human nature itself, and, in
this sense, it is natural and human in the highest acceptation of those
terms. It is the mission of science to put man in a condition to
comprehend the divine volume presented by Christianity.[94]

THE SCHOOL OF EMPIRICAL-MODERN THEOLOGY. The two leading representatives
of this important branch of contemporary Dutch theology are Opzoomer and
Pierson. The former, a professor in the University of Utrecht, left the
sphere of theological instruction for a time, and took a prominent part
in political debates in order to combat the claims of the
anti-revolutionary party. He exerted little influence during the first
years of his professorship in Utrecht, but since his publication of a
manual of logic, _The Road of Science_, he has had a large share in
founding the school with which he is now identified. In this work he
maintains that observation is t