Thus were these devoted men performing their great mission of improving the life of the Church. We shall soon see how low the current of that life was, and how great the burden placed upon them. Each one had his special endowment, and was eminently qualified to contribute to a more healthy religious tone throughout the Protestant lands. But, after all, their work was only preparative. The culmination of their labors was, in later years, the great Pietistic Reform; and they marked out the path along which Spener subsequently passed. Theirs was a great part in the drama of providence; but their achievements would have accomplished no permanent advantage had they not been succeeded by the triumphs of the Father of Pietism. It has sometimes been a noticeable part of the divine plan in our great struggles with the powers of darkness, that, when the heroes of truth fall at their post, the contest does not need to rage long before others, with hearts of equal fervor and weapons more brightly polished, take their places in the advancing lines. What wonder, then, that, by and by, the mountains echo back the shouts of victory! FOOTNOTES: [11] Pusey, _Historical Inquiry_, pp. 16, 17. [12] _Responsum Moguntinis Theologis_, p. 129. [13] _Conc. Evang._, in Henke, vol. I. p. 274, note. [14] Dowding, _Life and Correspondence of Calixtus_, pp. 313-315. [15] _Hours with the Mystics_, vol. 2, p. 67. CHAPTER II. RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH AT THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA--1648.