Page:Religious Thought in Holland during the Nineteenth Century James Hutton Mackay.djvu/26

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AND THE REVEIL .5

more radical elements, and the task of finding one's way among the “dykes and dams" of Dutch theology was at first not without some difficulty. I found the subject. however, exceedingly interesting. Whether I can sue- ceed in making it so to others is another matter.

While Holland, politically, at the beginning of the century was caught up and swept along for a time by the whirlwind of the French Revolution, the movement seems to have had little influence on the religious thought of the country. In looking over the files of the Middelémg Couranl of those days, I was struck by the fact that at a certain date, when the French troops came to the town. the paper appeared with the heading, Fri/'- hia'.‘ Celgfl'lu’ed. en Broederxr/ia/I, presently to assume a more familiar form as the French gl'lp tightened, but the Speeches of the Dutch revolutionary leaders, among whom was Van fEZOIPalm, who is regarded as the typical

.033" Of the period, dwell on the manifest wh?c‘:g::r: Dtivltle Providence in the events al‘mg place. “The voice is