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the day of the propagandise! of infidelity. (Hear, hear.) We have 
lived to see the day when those who deny our Lord have caught the mis- 
sionary spirit of the apostolic clergy, and they are parading their work so 
adroitly, so wisely, so consistently, and so powerfully, that it behoves us all 
to do what we can to meet and to answer them. (Hear, hear.) Therefore 
I rejoice with the gentlemen who have preceded me in calling attention to 
the People’s Edition of your Transactions. In my own country, as in this, 
there are young men who seem to think that all the brains and all the 
learning are on the side of scepticism ; that there are few great minds on 
the side of Christianity, and this impression is constantly made. The fact 
is that the self-conceit of scepticism is something absolutely sublime. There 
is a man in your city whom I have heard speak, and he boasted that in 
fifteen years he had collected a congregation of 500 people. He was 
boasting of this to a clergyman whose church holds 2,000, and is packed 
every Sunday. He said, “ I have succeeded in getting 500.” “Only 500,” 
said the other P “ Yes,” was the response ; “ but you know I am so far 
advanced that you cannot expect I should have large crowds.” That is 
simply an indication of the temper and tone of these people. I rejoice in 
the issue of your People’s Edition, because the able Papers read before your 
Society thus get into the hands of our young men, and they see that the 
brains, the masculinity, the manhood, and the scientific incisiveness 
belonging to this great question are on the side of the Cross of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ. (Applause.) As I have heard it said, the 
religion that is not scientific is no religion at all for men of reason ; and I 
may add that the science that is not religious is no science at all for men 
who have immortal souls. (Hear, hear.) Therefore I desire to urge you 
to do what you can to circulate your Papers widely, and in my own country 
I shall redouble my efforts on my return. I know that a select circle of 
savans rejoice in what we have done elsewhere, and there are many who 
rejoice that the language and statements of Scripture are being shown to 
be not only Biblical, but scientific, statements. — As an American, I am 
probably not fully aware of what may be considered due to the English 
sense of strict propriety, and I should like to know whether you would 
think it wrong if, in the presence of his lordship, I were to say a word or 
two about the Earl of Shaftesbury. We graybeards in America have 
heard of the Earl of Shaftesbury ever since we were boys, and when he 
came in to-night I expected to see a very venerable gentleman, probably 
somewhat decrepid ; but I assure you my heart leapt with joy when I saw 
his lordship come on the platform, and I saw that he had in his eye, and 
his walk, and tone the promise of many days of useful labour when, it may 
be, you and I shall have passed away. (Hear, hear.) In my own church, 
the evening I came away, I noticed that the only man I was asked to see in 
England was the Earl of Shaftesbury; and I rejoice that I have lived to 
see him. Why ? Because he is a man who has devoted the power of his 
social position, and the rare business capabilities which God hath given him, 
to the side of the Cross, — (applause) — and when hundreds of your nobility 
