14 ANNUAL 



communications in the shape of correspondence ; and we have also to 

 thank those who have assisted in the discussions that have taken place 

 at our meetincrs. But, apart from such conspicuous work as this, there 

 is a great deal to be done by the Council in the shape of anxious con- 

 sideration as to what is going on — a great deal of thought to be 

 bestowed on the changes of ground that take place in regard to matters of 

 scientific discussion, and how best those changes may be met. The task 

 of the Council in this respect has not always been a very easy one ; but 

 undoubtedly, since the Victoria Institute was founded, there have been, in 

 many respects, changes for the better. A great many things that are put 

 forward as having a tendency to destroy the Christian faith have been 

 discovered to be not such very serious matters, after all. Our faith has 

 survived them as it has already survived so many attacks directed against 

 it, and, as I believe, it will survive them to the end. But still I think we 

 should remember that, although the rock will never be washed away by 

 these waves of passing opinion, there may be some ill-fated loiterers upon 

 that rock who have not taken a sufficiently firm hold, and who may be 

 washed away. It is for them, therefore, rather than for the rock itself, our 

 care should be. (Hear, hear.) We see also that there are those who want 

 some weapon to use against a faith they will not accept, and so long as there 

 are those who, while they value their faith, are over-conscious of the danger 

 to which it is exposed, and therefore cannot believe in its eternal strength, 

 because they are frightened about it, so long will there be a need for the 

 efforts of societies such as ours. Not that we lay claim to any monopoly in 

 such efforts ; for while there are so many brilliant defences of our belief on 

 the lines of this Institute, — while there are invaluable works like those 

 written by the Duke of Argyll on the Unity of Nature, and many other 

 treatises of great value, — although there are not many that can be regarded 

 as more valuable than that, — we shall gladly welcome the fact that we are 

 not alone in the field. (Hear, hear.) What we can do we shall continue to 

 do, asking, at the same time, your kind help, assistance, and confidence, and 

 fearing not for the Faith itself, but only for those who may fall away from 

 the Faith. (Cheers.) 



[The following address was then read by the Eev. J. Leslie Porter, D.D., 

 D.C.L., President of Queen's College, Belfast, who prefaced his paper with 

 these remarks : — ] 



You have heard this evening a very valuable and suggestive speech 



by Professor Stokes — who now occupies that Cambridge professorial chair 



which Avas once held by Sir Isaac Newton — on the results of modem 

 pr. 



science ; the conclusion to be drawn is, that when we investigate Nature 



, . in its greatest depths we are necessarily led from Nature to Nature's 



\ I do not intend to say anything of modern science. It is my 



