in authoritative creed and confession, but in moral activity and influence. The divine Word
in the conscience begins to work and to govern; Christianity is being transferred into the
moral domain.
“However; the perfect ethical immanence of God is not attained in this dispensation;
being always possible, it may be realized in the succeeding eons.”^1
It is not surprising that this theology, obliterating with its pantheistic current the
xviiiboundary-lines between the Creator and the creature, should have come in hostile contact
with the Reformed theology, which most zealously guards these boundary lines. In fact, in-
stead of uniting the two existing parties on one common ground, the Ethical movement
added a third, which in the subsequent conflict was much more bitter, arbitrary, and tyran-
nical than the moderns and which has already abandoned the Holy Scriptures in the manner
of Wellhausen and Kuenen.
In 1872 Dr. Chantepie de la Saussaye was appointed professor of theology in the Uni-
versity of Groningen, succeeding Hofstede de Groot. He filled this position but thirteen
months. He fell asleep February 13, 1874.
His most excellent disciple is the highly gifted Dr. J. H. Gunning, till 1899 professor of
theology at the University of Leyden.
The name of Dr. Kohlbrugge is frequently found in the following pages. Born a
Lutheran, a graduate of the seminary of Amsterdam, a candidate for the Lutheran ministry,
Dr. Kohlbrugge became acquainted with the Reformed theology through the study of its
earlier exponents. Known and feared as an ardent admirer of the doctrine of predestination,
the authorities first of the Lutheran then of the State Church refused him admission to the
ministry. He left Holland for Germany, where for the same reason he was debarred from
the pulpits of the German Reformed churches. At last he was called to the pulpit of a Free
Reformed church at Elberfeld, established by himself.
He was a profound theologian, a prolific writer, and one zealous for the honor of his
Master. His numerous writings—half Lutheran, half Reformed—were spread over Holland,
the Rhenish provinces, the cantons of Switzerland, and even among some Reformed churches
of Bohemia.
Some of his disciples fell into Antinomianism, and occupy pulpits in the State Church
at the present time. They are called Neo-Kohlbruggians. Professor Böhl, of Vienna, is the
learned representative of the Old Kohlbruggians. Both the old and the new school are strongly
opposed to Calvinism.
The translation of “The Work of the Holy Spirit” was undertaken by appointment of
the author, to whom the proof sheets of almost all the first volume were submitted for cor-
rection. Being “overwhelmed” with work and being fully satisfied with the translation so
1 Dr. Bavink
Explanatory notes to the American edition