ANNUAL REPORT. 



7 



12. Auditors. 



The Council desire again most cordially to thank Messrs. 

 Sewell and Lance Gray for their kind services as Auditors. 



13. Conclusion. 



In passing in review the year 1914, the Great War inevitably 

 dominates our thoughts. The Victoria Institute, from its 

 inception, has endeavoured to bear witness against the evil 

 influence of Materialism, but the events of the last few months 

 have impressed the truth, even upon the most thoughtless, that 

 the principles of Materialism sap the very foundations of all 

 ethics. There was a time not long ago when it was widely 

 claimed, and too freely conceded, that morality was inherent in 

 Materialism, and a high standard of ethics, really adopted 

 without acknowledgment from Christianity, was asserted to be 

 its natural fruit. The demonstration that this is not so has 

 now been placed before the eyes of the whole world. A great 

 nation, great in science, in philosophy and music, and in former 

 times in religion also, has apparently given itself up to the 

 worship of material success. For fifty years it has prepared 

 itself to bring by force or by guile the whole world under its 

 rule. Leaders of its thought have laid it down that military 

 advantage justifies any action, no matter how treacherous or 

 cruel, no matter how contrary to the law of God. Science is 

 good, but the science in which that nation has most excelled is 

 the science of destruction, the destruction of the works of men, 

 the destruction of their lives. Philosophy is good, but not the 

 philosophy which destroys the distinction between right and 

 wrong, truth and falsehood. 



The Council would humbly express their hope that God has 

 enabled ' the Victoria Institute in the past to combat 

 materialistic tendencies, whether arising in this land or in 

 others, and to bear some witness to their faith in the upright- 

 ness of the Law of God, the greatness of His Truth, and the 

 reality of His Presence with men. 



Signed on behalf of the Council, 



HALSBUEY. 



