Philippus Hoedemaker and Abraham Kuyper shared a dream: to establish a university on the foundation of the Reformed faith. They were among the three or four men in the entire nation who, by Philippus van Ronkel's count, could pull off such a thing. Hoedemaker was not deterred by the smallness of the beginnings, for God could accomplish great things through such a Gideon's band. The church needed it and the nation needed it. Unbelief would not prevail.

They will not have it

The old Netherlands

It remains, despite its misery

The property of God and the fathers!

So they sang with Isaac da Costa.

Hoedemaker's efforts to pursue science on the Reformed basis, in which the Bible and theology play a central role, is chronicled in the addresses included here. The Dedication given at the founding of the university explains the intention in broad strokes. A thorough justification of the Reformed basis of the university is provided in "The Antirevolutionary Principle and Higher Education." From there Hoedemaker proceeds to a historical investigation of the Reformed principle vis-