tive criticism of the German Rationalists De Wettc, Ewald, and Ilitzig, and they dispose of the " historical" by asserting (e. g. Kuenen) that we cannot go further back than the middle of the 8th century before Christ, or the time of liosea and Amos; that "all the preced- ing times are enveloped in hopeless myth. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the founders of Israel, are not persons, but personifications. They are purely ideal figures, for modern ' historical' inquiry teaches us that races are not derived from one progenitor, but many. The devel- opment and preservation of Israel — its whole history — were the result of purely national causes." Christianity itself, they came naturally enough, from such grounds, to regard as " neither superhuman nor supernatural. It is the highest point of the development of human nature itself, and in vhis 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." But what the idea of the modern theologians of Holland is on the relation of science to faith we may well learn from Prof. Opzoomer, of Utrecht University {The Truth and its Sources of Knowledge, p. 43) : " Science is not to appear before the bar of faith, but faith before that of science; for It is not the credibility of knowledge, but of faith, that is to be proved. . . . Science needs no justification. . . . The believer, on the contrary, must justify his faith, and that before the bar of science. Thus, as a matter of course, the final decision and the supreme power rest with science." Great indeed is the science of Opzoo- mer, and in like ratio is the insignificance of the thing he calls faith. His manner of rejecting miracles is the old threadbare argument of Hume. " Modern sci- ence is established on the experience acquired by the observance of nature. What experience teaches is the touchstone for testing the historical value of the ac- counts that reach us from past ages." Again, and more positively : " It is the duty of the historian to reject every narrative which is in manifest contradiction with everything known to him concerning the time of its al- leged occurrence. . . . Nothing in all nature gives prob- ability to the supposition that moral and religious greatness can be estabUshed by dominion over natural phenomena" {The Nature o/Kno2cled(/e,p.Sl,iio). "We know nothing of the supernatural ; to us there is not a single miracle" {The Spirit of the new Tendency, p. 28). " Experience — it, and it alone ! What is beyond it is from an evil source. For our knowledge there is but one way — the way of observation" {Free Science, p. 26). Perhaps we can do no better than insert here a resume by Dr. Hurst of the object of the Dutch modern theo- logians, as follows : " 1. History must be reconstructed ; for every miracle must disappear from the Biblical nar- rative, since philosophy teaches that there can be no miracles. 2. Philosophy must be liberated from the so- called divine revelation, because the history of the pres- ent time, or experience, teaches that there can be noth- ing supernatural; hence there never was. Thus the argument whirls in a hopeless circle; historj' demon- strates from (untrue) philosophy, and philosophy from (untrue) history, that there is no such thing as miracle, nor even anytliing supernatural! Can we wonder at the sorry j)light of the modern theologians which Pier- son (formerly pastor of the Walloon Church in Rotter- dam, now professor at Heidelberg University) divulges on the very first page of his Mirror of the Times: We do not conceal the fact that our theology^ is involved in ceaseless vacillation V" Besides Scholten we have Kue- nen, the great exegetical scholar, and RavenhofF, the ecclesiastical historian, both professors at Lej-den, ac- tively engaged in promoting the interests of these Ra- tionalistic opinions, and, unfortunately enough for Chris- tianity in Holland, -it must be confessed that at present no Dutch theologians exert more influence over the young theologians of that countiy than professor Schol- ten and his associates just mentioned. See Dr. Hurst in the Meth. Quart, liec. 1871 (AprU), p. 250 sq. ; and
LEYDT
409
LIBATION
his Hist of Rationalism, p. 3GS sq. ; Scholten, De Leer der llervormde Kerk in hare f/romlbeffinselen nit de hron- neii voorgesteld en be.ordeeld. (1848; "^d ed. 1850; 4th ed. 18G1) ; and his article on "Modern Jlaterialism and its Causes" in Progress of Religious Thought in the Protest, Ch. of France (Lend. 1861), p. 10 sq. See Eeformed (Dutch) Church. (J. H. W.)
Leydt, Johannes, a prominent minister of the Re- formed Dutch Church, was born in Holland in 1718, and came early to America. He studied thcoloi^y under tlie Ilev. John Frelinghuysen and J. II. Goetschius, was li- censed in 1748, and became pastor of the united church- es of New Brunswick and Six-mile Kun, New Jersey. In the great Coetus and Conferentic conflict he was ac- tively identified with the former, which insisted upon the education of ministers in this country, and upon an independent Church organization separate from the Re- formed Church of the mother country. In this "liberal and progressive" movement Jlr. Leydt was a powerfid leader. He published several pamphlets in its favor, and was one of the most prominent men in the estab- lishment of Queen's College (now Rutgers) in 1770. He was one of its first trustees. He was president of the General Synod in 1778. An ardent patriot of the Rev- olutionary War, he preached boldly on the great ques- tions of the time, arousing much enthusiasm among the people, "and counselling the young men to join the army of freedom." His active and useful ministry closed only with his life in 1783. He is represented to have been an instructive, laborious, and faithful minister, an impressive preacher, a favorite at installations of pastors, organization of churches, and other public services. He was a healer of the breaches of Zion, as well as an in- trepid leader in an important crisis of the Church and of the country. — Historical Sermon by R. H. Steele, D.D. ; d^xv;m, Manual of the Reformed Church, s. v, (W. J. R.T.)