54 
INTERMEDIATE MEETING, February 19, 1872. 
The Rey. J. H. Titcomb, M.A., in the Chair. 
The Minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed, and the follow- 
ing elections were announced : — 
Members : — William Wilberforce Baynes, Esq., 48, Moorgate-street, E.C. ; 
Owen Edwards, Esq., Camden Wood, Chislehurst, S.E. ; James Fal- 
shaw, Esq., 26, Castle-street, Edinburgh ; Rev. Algernon S. Grenfell, 
M.A. (Balliol Coll., Oxon), Parkgate, Chester ; John T. Matthews, Esq., 
The Rookery, Shooter’s Hill, Kent ; W. Foster Newton, Esq., Bingham 
House, Richmond, Surrey; Thomas Seaber, Esq., 26, Martin’s-lane, 
E.C. ; G. Shann, Esq., M.D. (Cantab), F.R.C.P., Petergate, York ; Rev. 
J. R. Wood, M.A., (Principal of) Trinity College, Eastbourne. 
The Rev. J. Robbins, D.D., then read the following paper, which is 
inserted here in accordance with a special resolution passed by the Council. 
ON FATALISM, by the REV. J. ROBBINS, D.D., $c. 
SUPPOSE no one acquainted with the direction of popu- 
lar opinion in the present day would deny the enormous 
influence of the Doctrine of Fatalism or necessity. There is a 
widely-spreading philosophy which, getting rid of the idea of a 
living God, or at all events of His intervention in the affairs of 
the world, tends to explain everything by the action of necessity ; 
and as it denies liberty in God_, so does it also deny it in man. 
In the various manifestations of the human soul it sees only an 
effect of temperament and race. Thus it explains all religions : 
one small people, for instance, one only in the ancient world, 
believed in a God, maintained His essential unity, His moral sove- 
reignty. It is a question of race, say the Fatalists ; the race was 
Semitic, and the desert wherein they so long wandered was preg- 
nant with monotheistic teaching. — Again, on a certain day in the 
world’s history a handful of men left J erusalem to carry forth to 
the world the good news of the universal love and favour of God, 
Quite so, say they ; that was only the effect of the fusion of J ewish 
