uralism," says he,
"can be conquered only by a Christian philosophic belief in revelation,
and by a powerful development of modern supernaturalism.... To some,
nothing is easier than to lay all supernaturalism under condemnation,
especially when it is opposed only in that form in which it appeared
against the worn-out Rationalism of the past century, without attending
to its further development, or taking the trouble to add to Renan's
critical anathema a clear and intelligible exposition of his own point
of view. Renan's _Life of Jesus_ shows us what becomes of Christianity
when we regard only the ethical-religious side of revelation, and not
its supernatural character. You can hope for no victory as long as you
know none but a subjective ground of faith, and do not meet Satan,
coming as an angel of light, with a perspicuous and powerful, 'Thus it
is Written.'"

Professor Van Oosterzee was called four years ago to the chair of
Scriptural Interpretation in the University of Utrecht, now the centre
of evangelical theology in Holland. He had been pastor of a church in
Rotterdam, and his new appointment, made at the instance of the King and
his ministers, was a great triumph of the orthodox party. He had already
distinguished himself by his _Life of Christ and Christology_, in six
volumes, and by his exegetical labors in connection with Lange's _Bible
Work_. But the oration he delivered on his assumption of office in the
University added largely to his reputation, and obliterated any doubt
which may have existed concerning his firm attachment to the faith of
the fathers. Bearing the title, _The Skepticism which is anxiously to
be avoided by the Theologians of our Day_,[96] it discusses the
character, origin, rights, fruits, and remedy of the infidelity of the
present time. The cardinal characteristic of this skepticism is,
according to Professor Van Oosterzee, a denial of the great revelation
of grace and truth in Jesus Christ, as the Son of God and of man, by
whom salvation is made possible to us and to all the world. There are
three fountains of the modern infidelity; a scholastic dogmatism, which
has laid more stress on the formularies of the church than on the Gospel
itself; a wild, revolutionary spirit in politics, not of native growth,
but imported from abroad, which only satisfied itself by the overthrow
of thrones, by the transgression of all established limits, and by its
declaration of the supreme rights of reason