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Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
As already mentioned, Professor Flint retired from the active duties of 
University teaching in 1903, and in announcing his intention he had said 
that his chief motive was to gain more time for writing ; but neither health 
nor years were given him. The delivery of his Gifford Lectures for 
1908-9 was eagerly awaited by many who believed that in them he would 
finally outline a Philosophy of Religion adumbrated for years, and find 
satisfaction at last for that passion for completeness which delayed this 
and many another of the Professor’s literary projects. But long before 
the lectures were due bodily weakness suddenly intervened, and all the 
hopes thus formed were disappointed. 
Both in Theology and Philosophy Professor Flint definitely adopted the 
traditional British or, we may say, Scottish position, and was what would 
have been called an orthodox man. In Ethics an Intuitionist, in Theology 
he started from a perfect trust in reason and its powers, and in every 
argument chose to be dominated by the necessity for purely intellectual 
conviction, insisting upon it with a vigour that distinguishes him from any 
contemporary thinker. In justifying this initial trust in reason, he criticised 
adversely and almost with passion every other avenue that professes to 
lead to truth. He rejected utterly the prevalent tendency of his own day 
to take refuge from the agnostic verdict against reason in philosophies of 
faith or feeling, will or conscience. And yet in all Professor Flint’s published 
works the historical, critical, and controversial elements prevail over the 
positive establishment of his own conservative position. It was from the 
Chair of Divinity that he specially devoted himself to the task of vindicat- 
ing the older methods, which were, in his opinion, being needlessly thrust 
aside ; and it was only in his class lectures, unfortunately as yet unpublished, 
that his constructive genius found full scope. In them he often sounded 
the characteristic note of all-comprehensiveness. He conceived the task of 
Systematic Theology to be to collect materials from every possible source, 
from Natural Theology and from the other religions of the world as well 
as from the springs of Christian revelation ; he regarded every movement 
of speculative and scientific thought as combining to clear the ground, and 
there is no existing treatise on Christian doctrine which takes so wide a 
view or contains so much supplementary matter. He stood for a strong 
and vigorous and exacting type of thought, and stood for it almost alone. 
Professor Flint held the degrees of Doctor of Divinity and Doctor of 
Laws from more than one university, and the many honours bestowed upon 
him both at home and abroad testify to his international reputation. Those 
who knew himself can but add their testimony to the singular moral dignity, 
the kindly chivalry, and the absolute sincerity that marked his life. 
