et Impressions_, pp. 24-29.

[93] Da Costa, in his biography of Bilderdyk, enumerates other
participants in the revival in the Dutch Church; among whom were the two
brothers Van Hogendorp, Nicolaas Carbasius, J. T. Bodel, Nyenhuis,
Brugmans, Elout, Ran Van Gameren, Baron Van Wassanaer, Willem de Clercq,
the poet, and author of a work on the _Influence of Southern Literature
on that of Holland_; Van der Kemp, author of an admirable _Biography of
Maurice of Nassau_; and Koenen, author of an historical work on the
_Refugees in Holland_.

[94] An article by Scholten on _Modern Materialism and its Causes_, may
be found in the _Progress of Religious Thought in the Protestant Church
of France_. London: 1861, pp. 10-48.

[95] _La Crise Religieuse en Hollande_, pp. 12-107.

[96] _Oratio de Scepticismo, Hodiernis Theologis Caute Vitando_, quam
habuit Johannes Jacobus Van Oosterzee Theologis Doctor: Roterodami,
1863.

[97] _La Crise Religieuse en Hollande_, p. 200.

[98] _Christian Work_, Sept. 1863, and July and August, 1864.

CHAPTER XVI.

FRANCE: RATIONALISM IN THE PROTESTANT CHURCH--THE CRITICAL SCHOOL OF
THEOLOGY.

Some French clergymen, who were sojourning in Berlin in 1842, asked
Neander, "What ought to be done to arouse the Protestants of France to
thinking upon theological subjects?" "Give yourselves no trouble on that
score," replied the professor; "Theology will yet have its good day
among you. You have in France the soil in which true theology loves to
germinate and grow--I mean Christian life. This has brought you your
great theologians of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and it is
sure to do the same thing in the nineteenth." The present century has
not yet run two-thirds of its course, and yet the prophecy has been
literally fulfilled.

The spectacle presented to-day in France is highly interesting. The
period of indifference has already terminated. The first step toward new
vitality has therefore been taken. French theology is displaying an
animation and seriousness which may well excite the notice of the whole
civilized world. The great minds are bestowing upon sacred subjects an
attention nowhere surpassed in vigor and acuteness. Important religious
questions are taking their place beside political themes, and the circle
of theological readers and thinkers is constantly enlarging. Each class
is deeply engaged in the discussion of all the new phases of opinion.
Every man chooses his pa