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lirupusiiig, but in luy iiccuiitiiiy this uJlicc, )i;isud u|)<jii the struiiy ties 

 ■\vliicli biucl together literature and «cienee with those purposes to which I 

 have more especially been led by God's providence to devote my life and 

 my labour. At all events, if I had declined the office, when you had 

 done me the honour to propose it to me, it would have seemed as if I had 

 l)y that act, declared that in my judgment there was no necessary or in- 

 timate connection between the work of a Christian bishop and the work 

 Avhich the name of your association implies. Now, my opinion 

 is exactly the reverse of this. I believe that the %\'ork of a 

 Christian bishoj*, and that of men who combine themselves for the 

 purpose of advancing literature and science, are very closely allied — much 

 more closely than is often supposed. Anyhow, I am quite sure that your 

 road and mine lie to such an extent in the same direction that we may 

 very well be on friendly terms, and try to help each other. For look to 

 the question of literature, and observe to what a great extent the religion 

 which Christian people profess is Avhat I may call without offence, a 

 literary religion. Those to whom the first propagation of the faith was 

 entrusted connnitted their knowledge to writing. They did not merely 

 move the hearts of people by sermons and speeches, but they wrote books ; 

 and so it became jjossible from the beginning, and it became essential in 

 after times, to appeal to the Holy Scriptures — that is, to literature. 

 Lilera scripta manet ; and, under God, the Church Avas founded upon a 

 rock just because it had a written basis upon which to rest. ■ And so, to 

 take as an example one of the most stirring periods of Christian history, 

 and that in which we are chiefly interested as members of a reformed 

 Church — I mean the great Reformation movement of the sLxteenth cen- 

 tury — it should be observed that this was distinctly a literary movement. 

 The men who made the stir were contemptuously called " men of the 

 new learning.'' It was the study of Greek, and the general movement in 

 the direction of candid literary investigation, and independent criticism, 

 and literary discovery, which made the great religious revolution of the 

 sixteenth century both a possibility and a necessity. I do not wish to 

 travel far into this subject, the more so as it is possible that I may be 

 speaking to some who would not agree with me in regarding the ecclesi- 



