Page:Religious Thought in Holland during the Nineteenth Century James Hutton Mackay.djvu/17

 6 THE REVOLUTION

Much to my relief, Hastie gladly agreed to my proposal that we should visit the great man together. This was the year in which the third volume of Ritschl’s Rerlztﬂrlzg‘ng and Verso’lmmgg, in which he expounded his theo- logical system, had appeared, and Hastie, who kept himself abreast of foreign theological literature and Spoke German fluently, was soon engaged in an animated discussion with the author on the subject of his book. All I can remember, and all that is necessary for my purpose in recalling the incident, is that he warmly praised a book on the same subject that an Edinburgh professor had recently published, and offered to send a copy of it to Ritschl, an offer that was courteously accepted, and was the beginning—Plastic told me many years afterwards ~of much friendly intercourse between them. On leaving Ritschl’s house together—I speak to my shame—I expressed my surprise that he should value so highly a book that seemed to me to be behind the times. He replied that the book, which I had not read—Dr Crawford on the Atonement— had distinct merits of its own, and that in any