156 



COMMEMORATION MEETING. 



Arnot Tower, 



Leslie, Fife. 



May 19th, 1916. 



Dear Mr. Maunder, 



I very much regret that it is not possible for me to be 

 present at the celebration of the Jubilee of the Victoria Institute. 

 There has never been a time when the work of the Institute has 

 been of greater national and Imperial importance. 



Very sincerely yours, 



Ch. Bruce. 



Then our old and valued friend, Canon Girdlestone, who is not 

 able to be with us, writes : — 



Saxholme, 



Wimbledon, S.W., 



May 22nd, 1916. 



Dear Secretary, 



Just a line to say how much I am thinking of your Jubilee, 

 thankful for the past and hopeful for the future. I lately made 

 an Index of 19 of the V.I. vols, for my own use. This gave me an 

 opportunity of estimating the value of the subjects, the papers, 

 and the discussions. We Bible students owe much to the 

 Victoria Institute, and, not least, to its present Secretary. 



Yours sincerely, 



R. B. Girdlestone. 



Then from another member, Mr. Sydney T. Klein, who is prevented 

 from being with us by serious ill-health : 



The Victoria Institute. 



There are few people alive now who fully realized at the 

 time, and remember now, the bitter state of antagonism which 

 existed in the middle of last century between Religion and 

 Science, between what was then called Idealism and Materialism. 

 It was fortunately at the time recognized by many lovers of the 

 Truth that there was something radically wrong in this antagon- 

 ism, and it was a little band of these well-wishers who 

 inaugurated this great Institution to rectify this state of things. 



