182 
man who asks us the reason of the faith we hold, in all meekness and in all 
confidence at the same time. (Cheers.) I am persuaded that the way in 
which the council and honorary officers have managed the affairs for the 
members of the Institute, is of a very satisfactory kind. I could not help 
feeling sorrow when I heard read just now the names of those members who 
have died during the past year. I remember that almost the last paper I 
had the privilege of hearing at a meeting of this Society, was one from a 
member of the council who is now no more, the Rev. J. B. Owen. He has gone 
to his rest, but his works, I am persuaded, will leave a beneficial influence 
behind him. (Hear, hear.) With respect to the hints thrown out in the 
report that our officers are unpaid, there is a proverb that unpaid work is 
never well done ; but I would bear testimony to the fact that the work of 
the honorary officers of this Institute is an exception to that rule, for I con- 
ceive it to be admirably done. (Cheers.) I have at all times been gratified 
at the courtesy displayed by individuals connected with the Institute. I 
never yet had occasion to make an inquiry as to any question upon which 
I wished to get information that I did not obtain it courteously and 
directly. On the merits of the great subject which has brought us together, 
it would not become me at this hour of the evening to dilate, but I have 
been struck by a good deal of what we have heard, especially by the fact that 
the opinions that are apparently safely promulgated in this part of the world 
produce such dire effects in other places, particularly among the young. It 
is like throwing about a firebrand of doubts with regard to our holy faith, 
and we must wonder rather at those who give rise to these doubts, from the 
fact that they profess themselves to be inquirers after truth. There is a 
great field of truth and of zeal open, and why should there be any attempt to 
ignore the pursuits of truth in that grand department of the human intellect 
which unites us with eternity and the Supreme Being, and simply to give our- 
selves to the mere material elements of the world around us ? Must these in- 
quirers limit the province of entering into higher questions ? Perhaps some of 
you can recall the anecdote of Newton and Hr. Halley. Halley, the famous 
astronomer, was rather tinctured with the fashionable unbelief of that day, 
and on one occasion he used expressions in the presence of Newton that 
threw some contempt upon Revelation. Newton is said to have remarked to 
him, “ Dr. Halley, on all questions of astronomy when you speak I hear you 
with the greatest pleasure ; but upon questions with regard to Revelation and 
the Divine purposes I hear you with pain, because you have not given such 
attention to that subject as entitles you to be authority upon the point.” 
(Hear, hear.) In point of fact, the people who throw about these dangerous 
opinions have not sufficiently weighed those great departments of mind and 
thought which are brought before us in life and immortality, which Matter 
can never bring before us, and which we know alone from Revelation. On 
the contrary, they altogether ignore these questions, and devote their atten- 
tion to mere material things. (Hear, hear.) I have great pleasure in pro- 
posing that a vote of thanks be tendered by the members and associates of 
the Victoria Institute, to the Council and to the honorary office s for their 
