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As I am addressing the members of the Victoria Institute, 
who profess faith in the Christian religion, I confine myself 
to the last, and turn to the often-neglected third guide. 
Religion — Christian religion — bids us turn to the Scriptures, 
for information on an authority no less than divine. It is 
surely important that we should study profoundly the meaning 
of those records which we commend to thoughtful inquirers. 
We are told in the New Testament that the “ Oracles of God” 
were a trust committed to the chosen nation (Rom. iii. 2), 
from whom we receive them (faithfully preserved, though not 
altogether uninjured in the transmission), and pass them on, 
still further obscured in part by our translations, to other 
Gentiles. It is surely needful, when these “ Oracles ” are 
attacked, to recur to the original deposit, and that in its 
primitive language and condition. The most celebrated 
translations, such as the Septuagint and Vulgate, afford much 
superfluous matter for critical objection. Look at “ the Be- 
ginning” and see how every word tells, This is the 
title of the first book in our Hebrew Scriptures, and it informs 
us of the great fact that there was a Beginning, concerning 
which both Science and Philosophy leave us entirely in the dark. 
It is by faith that we enter upon the large and fair domain 
before us, a province which we cannot surrender to the 
“ Agnostic.” It is by faith alone that a we understand that 
the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things 
which are seen were not made of things that do appear.” 
Everything in Heaven and earth is represented as formed by 
and/o?' the Son of God* We read nothing of a self-developing 
Universe, of “the powers and potencies of matter.” Nature is 
but a figurative expression to conceal our ignorance ; and the 
laws of Nature have no real existence, implying simply the 
course of things as it falls under our observation. The Son 
of God is represented as “ upholding all things by the word 
of His power ” ; so that we have here in a religious aspect 
the alone source of forces and powers that we do not under- 
stand, but dimly recognise in their operation. 
Mundane religion here accords with the account given in 
the Scripture, and, whilst not adding to its authority, cer- 
tainly confirms what is there stated. The earliest conceptions 
of mankind of which we have any account symbolise with the 
above, representing not an effort to attain higher truth but 
a remembrance (and often a distortion) of truths already 
received. 
* See Heb. i. ; Coloss. i. ; also Appendix A. 
