50 
TILE ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
THE PRESENT POSITION OF CHRISTIANITY AND 
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IN THIS COUNTRY. 
My Lord Shaftesbury, Ladies, and Gentlemen, — 
My task to-night must be a humble one. I have 
at all times too little leisure, and I have too little learning, 
even if I had the general ability, to be able to provide for 
this annual meeting any such a discourse on the present 
condition or position of science in relation to philosophy or 
theology as we have been favoured with in several former 
years. I have, therefore, shrunk very much from under- 
taking so responsible a task as that which, notwithstanding, 
has been forced upon me. Nevertheless, other men — men 
who could have brought valuable contributions to the literature 
of the Institute, and whose names would have conferred 
distinction upon our annual meeting — having proved unable 
to accomplish what had been expected from them, and there 
being no one else, as it appeared, to whom the Council could 
at the present moment resort — no one at least who had not 
already delivered the Annual Address, — I was obliged to leave 
myself — under protest, I am bound to say — in the hands of 
the Council ; and, at their risk, hardly with my own proper 
consent, I shall to-night say what I may best be able in 
regard to the present position of Christianity and the Christian 
faith in this country. 
There is one thing, I venture to affirm, which can hardly 
be disputed ; viz., that such an association as the Victoria 
Institute was very greatly needed at the time when it was 
founded, that its course has been one of marked usefulness 
and of undeniable success, and that at this moment the 
relations of Christian faith to philosophy and science arc 
better settled, and at the same time more satisfactory, than 
for some years past. Ten years ago infidelity was more 
confident in its tone, notwithstanding all that has since been 
published in the way of sceptical argument or speculation, 
than it is to-day. Ten years ago it was not suspected by 
many how much support Christianity could claim from pliilo- 
sophy, or how powerfully the defenders of Christianity would 
be able to maintain their contention against the usurpations 
