COMMEMORATION MEETING. 



165 



force of its appeal through sheer familiarity. (2) With the 

 changes that arc; constantly involving human thought, there is 

 a danger that the Christian revelation shall be regarded as ,i 

 hack issue, which, though it performed some service in days 

 gone by, has been discredited by modern criticism. On 

 both these heads the Institute has made emphatic utterance 

 before the world. 



On this first head, by " working over " the thought of the day 

 — going beneath forms to principles — the Institute has shown 

 that, speaking generally, truth is not dependent upon familiar 

 phrases, however precious these may have become in individual 

 experience. In other words, the old teaching may be expressed 

 in modern terms, even as latest versions of the Sacred Books 

 have shown that between Tyndale's Translation (sixteenth 

 century) and the Eevised Version (nineteenth century) the 

 difference is one of form rather than of substance. On the 

 second head — the tendency for the Christian revelation to be 

 left in the rear by reason of the insistence and pushfulness of 

 new theories — it has again and again been shown that the 

 much-vaunted novelties have little or nothing to contribute to 

 the volume of sound and ennobling thought. At the same 

 time, the process of investigation has consistently yielded 

 important results, showing that, far from being " back issues," 

 the old books and the old doctrines are invested with a 

 Divinely-implanted vitality which refuses to go down before 

 impatient criticism. In other words, fair and full and dis- 

 passionate discussion has demonstrated the unique character of 

 the Christian revelation, and shown that it is designed to be an 

 abiding factor in the present world of flux and change. 



The influence of the Institute may be judged from two con- 

 siderations : (1) It has brought together a thoughtful body 

 of Members and Associates — men and women to whom the 

 things of God and Christ come as things that concern the mind 

 as well as the heart. Needless to say, there are many excellent 

 Christians who never trouble themselves with the grounds of 

 faith, who never ask what is its warrant or justifying basis. 

 Others, however, must concern themselves with these things, 

 and must ask questions if only in order that they may be in a 

 position to answer the same in the hearing of others. Here, 

 generally speaking, we find the supporters of the Victoria 

 Institute. They are so constituted — at least many of them, as 

 their careers in literature well show — that they can only 

 " receive to hold " that which, in some measure, has been com- 

 mended to their reason and judgment. In the whole world of 



