So, too, in Holland, in the _Sacred Geography_ published
at Utrecht in 1758 by the theologian Bachiene, we find him, while
showing many signs of rationalism, evidently inclined to the old
views as to the existence of the salt pillar; but just here comes
a curious evidence of the real direction of the current of thought
through the century, for, nine years later, in the German
translation of Bachiene's work we find copious notes by the
translator in a far more rationalistic spirit; indeed, we see the
dawn of the inevitable day of compromise, for we now have, instead
of the old argument that the divine power by one miraculous act
changed Lot's wife into a salt pillar, the suggestion that she was
caught in a shower of sulphur and saltpetre, covered by it, and
that the result was a lump, which in a general way _is called_ in our
sacred books "a pillar of salt."[[245]]
But, from the middle of the eighteenth century, the new current
sets through Christendom with ever-increasing strength. Very
interesting is it to compare the great scriptural commentaries of
the middle of this century with those published a century earlier.
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