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scientific inquiry. But we must always recollect that it has pleased our 
Almighty Maker to give unto us not only intellectual faculties, but also a 
moral nature, and something which has to live when this world has passed 
away. And this moral condition of man brings its own necessities, which 
must be supplied, and it is impossible that mere science can supply them 
Now, there is no necessity that there should be an antagonism between the 
Revelation of God in His works and in His word. There may be difficulties 
in Revelation— we should expect such ; for how are we to understand those 
things which have reference to infinity? We find difficulties in nature 
which we cannot explain : how much more then, when we come to consider 
the moral and the spiritual things ? There may be a difference between the 
kind of evidence in which we are to receive Science and Revelation ; but we 
should always recollect that, though the truths of religion may not be 
the subject of demonstration, we have an amount of moral evidence 
collected from the facts which range over a very wide surface indeed, all 
converging at one point ; and these give us a moral certainty that religion is 
true. And as reasonable men we are bound to act upon that moral certainty. 
And if we did what Coleridge recommended a friend to do, who was doubting 
about religion, namely, to try it, we should no doubt find the truth of what 
our Saviour has said, that if any man do the will of God he will know 
whether the doctrine be of God. 
Rev. T. P. Boultbee, LL.D. — I rise with great pleasure to second the 
resolution. As an old Cambridge mathematician, I have listened with 
the greatest delight to Professor Main’s address. He has given us certain 
modern scientific results, and the limits within which these results have 
been dealt with have been the closest in which they could possibly be laid 
down. Mr. Main has proved the use and necessity of this Society in two 
ways; he has exposed the formation of errors, and he has shown a great 
deal of their fallacies, and he has thrown the great weight of his own personal 
authority on the side which we all believe in. What we all recognize as the 
great cause and necessity for this Society is the peculiar tone of certain men 
of science, who have not limited themselves to their own subjects, but have 
t lought proper to attack the very fundamental principles upon which, not 
only all religion, but all society is founded ; and if it be so, inasmuch as we 
must live m society, these things are far more valuable to us than any mere 
scientific discoveries can be. We must live here together, and charity and 
justice, and all the fundamental virtues, are necessary to us here ; but it is 
not necessary to us that we should know the ultimate constitution of atoms. 
Therefore, to say nothing of the infinitely greater things that rise up before 
us as Christians, we are all persuaded of the great value of this Society. This 
is not simply a clerical society ; but in this, as in all other matters, we 
advance best when the clergy and the laity can advance together. I have 
much pleasure in seconding the resolution. 
The resolution was carried unanimously, and acknowledged by the Rev. 
R. Main. 
