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man who asks us the reason of the Mth we hold, in all meekness and in all 

 confidence at the same time. (Cheers.) I am persuaded that the way in 

 which the council and honorary officers have managed the afiairs for the 

 members of the Institute, is of a very satisfactory kind. I conld not help 

 feeling sorrow when I heard read just now the names of those members who 

 hare died during the past year. I remember that almost the last paper I 

 had the privilege of hearing at a meeting of this Society, was one from a 

 member of the council who is now no more, the Eev, J. B. Owen. He has gone 

 to his rest, but ius works, I am persuaded, wiQ leave a beneficial influence 

 behind hinL (Hear, hear.) With respect to the hints thrown out in the 

 report that our officers are unpaid, there is a proverb that unpaid work is 

 never well done ; but I would bear testimony to the fact that the work of 

 the honorary officers of this Institute is an exception to that rale, for I con- 

 ceive it to be admirably done. (Cheers.) I have at all times been gratified 

 at the courtesy displayed by individuals connected with the Institute, I 

 never yet had occasion to make an inquiry as to any question upon which 

 I wished to cret information that I did not obtain it courteously and 

 directly. On the merits of the great subject which has brought us together, 

 it would not become me at this hour of the evening to dilate, but I have 

 been struck by a good deal of what we have heard, especially by the fact that 

 the opinions that are apparently safely promulgated in this part of the world 

 produce such dire eflFects in other places, particularly among the young. It 

 is like throwing about a firebrand of doubts with regard to our holy faith, 

 and we must wonder rather at those who give rise to these doubts, from the 

 fact that they profess themselves to be inquirers after troth. There is a 

 great field of trath and of zeal open, and why should there be any attempt to 

 ignore the pursuits of trath in that grand department of the human intellect 

 which tmites us with eternity and the Supreme Being, and simply to give our- 

 selves to the mere material elements of the world around us ? Must these in- 

 quirers limit the province of entering into higher questions ? Perhaps some of 

 you can recall the anecdote of Xewton and Dr. HaUey. Halley, the famous 

 astronomer, was rather tincttired with the fashionable imbelief of that day, 

 and on one occasion he used expressions in the presence of Xewton that 

 threw some contempt upon Eevelation. Newton is said to have remarked to 

 him, " I>r. HaUey, on all questions of astronomy when you speak I hear yoa 

 with the greatest pleastire ; but upon questions with r^ard to Eevelation and 

 the Divine purposes I hear you with pain, because you have not given such 

 attention to that subject as entitles you to be authority upon the point." 

 (Hear, hear.) In point of fact, the people who throw about these dangerous 

 opinions have not sufficiently weighed those great departments of mind and 

 thought which are brought before us in life and immortality, which flatter 

 can never bring before us, and which we know alone firom Eevelation. On 

 the contrary, they altogether ignore these qnestions, and devote their atten- 

 tion to mere material things. (Hear, hear.) I have great pleasure in pro- 

 posing that a vote of thanks be tendered by the members and associates of 

 the Victoria Institute, to the CoimcU and to the honorary officers for their 



