metimes it is obliged to
halt and give battle. The carnage may last long, and the on-looking
world may, in its ignorance, decide too speedily that the day is lost.
But the victory of error is only temporary. The ark in Dagon's house was
still the ark of God. Since good men are a perpetual power to a people,
we may reasonably hope that the Swiss reformers will continue to animate
the citizens of all the French and German cantons. May the pulpits and
theological chairs of Switzerland ever be filled with men who can say
what Zwinglius uttered one New Year's Day as his first words to the
assembled multitude in the cathedral of Zuerich: "To Christ, to Christ
will I lead you,--to the source of salvation. His word is the only food
I wish to furnish to your hearts and lives!"

FOOTNOTES:

[121] Hagenbach, _Kirchengeschichte d. 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts_, vol.
II., p. 416.

[122] Alexander, _Switzerland and the Swiss Churches_, p. 194.

[123] Kurtz, _Church History_, vol. ii., p. 334.

[124] Farrar, _Critical History of Free Thought_, p. 444.

[125] _L'Opinion Nationale_, 1863.

[126] _Christian Work_, Aug., 1863.

[127] _Semaine Religieuse._ Geneva: 1864.

[128] Riggenbach, _Der Heutige Rationalismus besonders in der Deutschen
Schweiz_. Basel: 1862.

CHAPTER XIX.

ENGLAND: THE SOIL PREPARED FOR THE INTRODUCTION OF RATIONALISM.

The religious lesson taught by the condition of England during the
eighteenth century is this: The inevitable moral prostration to which
skepticism reduces a nation, and the utter incapacity of literature to
afford relief. English Deism had advantages not possessed by the
Rationalism of Germany. Some of its champions were men of great
political influence; and in no case was there a parallel to the
abandoned Bahrdt. The Deists were steady in the pursuit of their game,
for when they struck a path they never permitted themselves to be
deflected. But the Rationalists were ever turning into some by-road and
weakening their energies by traversing many a fruitless mile.

The literature of England, during the most of the last century, presents
a picture of literary ostentation. The Deists had toiled to build up a
system of natural religion which would not only be a monument to their
genius, but serve as an impassable barrier to all such claims as were
urged by the zealous and loud-spoken Puritans. But early Deism lacked an
indispensable element of strength,--the power of adapting itself