THE 597th ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING. 



HELD IN COMMITTEE ROOM B, THE CENTRAL HALL 

 WESTMINSTER, ON MONDAY, MARCH 4th, 1918, at 4.30 p.m. 



A. W. Oke, Esq., B.A., LL.M., took the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 



The Hon. Secretary announced the election of Dr. A. H. Burton, 

 Miss C. Peaice, and the re-election of the Rev. W. D. Sykes as Members ; 

 and of Theodore Roberts, Esq., W. Hoste, Esq., M.A., W. Dale, Esq., 

 F.S.A., F. S. Forbes, Esq., J. T. Galathan, Esq., R.E... J. R. Christie, 

 Esq., M.A., and R. Lindley, Esq., as Associates. 



The death was reported of Brigadier-General the Hon. F. C. Bridgeman, 

 an Associate. 



The Chairman then called on the Rev. H. J. R. Marston to read his 

 paper on " The Reserved Rights of God." 



THE RESERVED RIGHTS OF GOD. By the Rev. H. J. R. 

 Marston, M.A. 



I HAVE no intention of delivering a Theodice. The task 

 attracted both Milton and Leibnitz. We may agree that 

 neither of these srreat men was very successful in the attempt 

 to " justify the ways of God to men.'' We may make that con- 

 cession without for a moment admitting that Voltaire, in his 

 profane and licentious ridicule of the " best possible world,'' was 

 any more successful than was the philosopher whom he 

 lampooned. 



The truth seenis to be that Theodice, on formal and set lines, 

 is a task beyond our powers ; and may even degenerate into a 

 sort of spiritual impertinence, born of zeal not according to 

 knowledge. The Bible is certainly not friendly to the attempt. 

 The Book of Job, though it allows the utmost freedom of specula- 

 tion and of speech about the ways of God among men, ends in 

 the confession of the Patriarch : " I abhor myself, and repent 

 in dust and ashes " ; as if he should say : I abandon my attempt 



