I have attended many of the meetings when you, sir, have been in the chair, 
and I know that you have done us great service. In one point of view the 
office of Chairman is not an easy one, for speakers sometimes fail ; but when 
you have been Chairman I have noticed that, when others have not spoken, 
you generally threw yourself into the gap. Again, you always insist on 
keeping us to the point of the discussions. Very often — and I must plead 
guilty to this myself — we are apt to digress, or tlx only upon some particular- 
point of the subject not very closely connected with its main issues, and you 
then very properly call us to the main question. It affords me very great 
pleasure to second this resolution. 
The resolution was then carried with applause. 
The Chairman. — Lord Shaftesbury, the President of the Institute, is not 
often able to be amongst us, but when we have the pleasure of seeing him 
here, that pleasure dwells long in our minds. We know not only his bene- 
volence and fondness for good, but he has that tact of the real English 
nobleman — though I am happy to say that it is not confined to them — of 
saying exactly the right thing at the right moment. I have been much 
pleased at hearing him say just the very thing we wanted to hear. A great 
part of your thanks really goes to our noble President, but several expressions 
have been uttered which are so personal to myself that it is impossible for me 
to transfer them to another. I feel that those remarks of Dr. Irons and Mr. 
Buckley are something like the second half of a return ticket, stamped with 
the very legible expression, “ not transferable.” (Laughter.) The point 
which Dr. Irons brought out most especially as a reason for thanking me is 
that I have always endeavoured to keep polemics out of the Society. It is 
satisfactory to find one’s work recognized. I have always desired and intended, 
so far as I could take part in its affairs, that the Institute should be a scientific 
institute, and not a society for discussing differences in matters of religion ; 
and I rejoice in the thought that this Institute has been the means of saving 
a great waste of power. We Christians, unhappily, occupy a great deal of 
our strength and time in contending with one another. I suppose it cannot 
be helped ; and that there must be a great deal of controversy even among 
those who hold the same fundamental truths in matters of religion ; but 
there are times, places, and occasions when and where controversy must bring 
about a great waste of power, which it would be better to prevent. Now, all 
Christians have a common interest in the Holy Scriptures. If those Scrip- 
tures are attacked, not one school of thought alone is wounded, but every one 
receives a wound, and therefore we are all equally interested in defending the 
Holy Bible. Therefore, I am glad to think that we have here a society in 
which persons differing on other points can meet together and fight together, 
shoulder to shoulder, for that book which is their common inheritance and 
their common faith, in the face of the enemy. Here, then, we must not 
contend with each other, but we must all pull together. On the other hand, I 
am glad to find it laid down that we are a scientific society, and not a society 
