493IU) OEDIjSTAEY GENEEAL MEETING. 



MONDAY, MARCH 1st, 1909. 



Heywood Smith, Esq., M.D., in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed. 



The following paper was then read by the Author : — 



MODERNISM: ITS ORIGIN AND TENDENCIES. By 

 Eev. Chancellor Lias, M.A., Hulsean Lecturer, 1884. 



IPEOPOSE to State, as plainly as possible, my own personal 

 views on the subject which I have been asked to discuss in 

 this paper. The outspoken utterance of convictions which may 

 be unpalatable to others, has not, I admit, been a principal 

 characteristic of our past discussions, but it must be obvious to 

 all who are acquainted with this Institute, that it is now 

 attempting to meet the changed wants of the time by a certain 

 change in its methods. Years ago, when Christianity was 

 confronted with the somewhat rash dogmatics of a tlien new 

 school of physical science, great care had to be taken in our 

 papers and debates not to trample on the feelings, or, as may 

 sometimes have been the case, the prejudices, of particular 

 schools of thought among Christians. Our first desire was to 

 unite all Christians, as far as possible, in resisting the material- 

 istic teaching which threatened to overthrow, not merely 

 Christianity, but every reasonable form of Theism. It must, 

 however, be evident to us all that the forms under which 

 scepticism and unbelief now lurk are of a different kind. 

 The danger to faith assumes tlie shape, at present, of random 



