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upon my paper, I have to thank Dr. Currey, and the other gentlemen who 
have spoken, for the very generous way in which they have dealt with it ; and 
I am also obliged to them for the points they have suggested as to where its 
deficiencies might have been supplemented. With regard to the gentleman 
who spoke of the connection between the imperishable soul and the perish- 
able, changing body, he rather misapprehends my meaning. I did not enter 
into any argument apart from the fact that the accepted teachings of science 
do not contradict that element of our faith which leads us to accept the reve- 
lation of the immortality of the soul. What connection there can be between 
that and the question of the possibility of animals also living hereafter, I 
really do not see. I am not bound to defend or to enter into that matter at 
all : it is a question which is open to discussion upon quite other grounds, 
I am not involved in it in any way, for I have advanced nothing which 
requires me to answer the question as to whether the dog shall or shall not 
live in another world. All I have to say is, that the Christian view of the 
immortality of the soul is that it is revealed to us, and that all the accepted 
teachings of scientific men cannot invalidate it. An impression has ob- 
tained currency, that scientific teaching contradicts the teaching of the im- 
mortality of the soul ; but I think I have shown that that is not the case, 
and that is a very important point ; for we should take hold of these men 
according to their teaching, and not merely according to their theories. 
Speculations we can indulge in, as well as they ; but their speculations are 
not to be accepted as truths. What I try to prove is, that there is something 
in man beyond the material atoms ; in other words, that the atoms of oxygen 
and hydrogen and carbon and iron contained in his body do not constitute 
the identity of a man, but that there is something else which does give him 
a continued identity ; and that much even Professor Tyndall has been obliged 
to admit in his last paper; for he states that the process by which conscious- 
ness is infused into the material atoms is unthinkable ; that is to say, he has 
no answer at all to give to this important question. I am very much obliged 
to our Chairman for the very clear way in which he has stated the argument 
which shows that the original elements out of which organized life is pro- 
duced are not the products of inorganic matter. If you take a field of soil, 
you certainly cannot get a crop of corn from it unless you sow the living seed. 
That opens up one of the greatest questions which we have to consider ; and 
I believe that a very useful book, both to ministers of religion and to men 
of intelligence, is Professor Janet’s Modern Materialism, in which the 
mistakes of Buchner are exploded. I would recommend the gentleman who 
spoke of the immortality of the soul to read that book with care, and I think 
he would derive much assistance from it. What has been said by our Chair- 
man is in exact accordance with the latest experiments and the best teaching 
as to the production of life from inorganic matter. I have only to repeat my 
thanks to those who have spoken, for their kind appreciation of my paper. 
The meeting was then adjourned. 
