10 
who have done so much for the Victoria Institute during the past year, I 
am sure that I shall secure all your suffrages. I find that in this resolution 
the usual honorary officers and the auditors are all included in one motion ; 
but I think I shall be pardoned — indeed, I think I shall be only expressing 
what his colleagues would wish me to do — when I ask you to specially 
consider in this vote of thanks, the honorary Secretary. (Cheers.) I am 
well aware that Captain Petrie would not ask for this special notice, for 
he seeks the reward of his many labours in the success of the 
Institute ; but still we owe it to ourselves to make some recognition 
of the invaluable services Captain Petrie has rendered to the Institute, 
and, therefore, I would ask that his name should be specially men- 
tioned and included in the vote of thanks to which I will, in its formal 
terms, ask you to assent. Before doing so, however, I will with your 
permission say one or two words, — there is not time for many. 
First of all I should like to say how heartily and sincerely I congra- 
tulate the Victoria Institute upon the progress and success detailed to 
us in the Report which is in our hands. It tells us of progress, of 
financial success ; it shows that the influence of the Institute is spread- 
ing widely, abroad and at home, that that influence is being exercised 
for good, and that the ideas of those who founded it are to a 
great extent being carried out. Therefore I may safely say that the 
Society is to be congratulated upon the present aspect of its aflairs. If 
I might say one or two words further about the Society itself, I hope you 
will not think me presumptuous in doing so. This Society, if I understand 
it rightly, has for its object the investigation and elucidation of scientific 
and philosophical truth. There is nothing whatever really, and there never has 
been anything, that should have caused the breach that for so long has 
appeared to exist between what is called scientific truth and revealed truth. 
But if this Society proposes for itself the noble aim of making its scientific 
researches available for the purpose of reconciling these apparent difficulties 
and differences, it is performing an excellent work, and I am sure that there 
is no one, whether in the scientific or the philosophical world, or amongst the 
theologians, who would not wish it success ; but if I may give a word of 
caution, it is that all this should be pursued with great care and caution. 
There must be no theological intolerance and bitterness on the one side, 
there must be no pride on the other ; all must be prepared to meet each 
other hand to hand, and then the chasm will be bridged over, and not widened, 
as it has been in former years. I think it must be apparent to all that the 
tendency now is rather to lessen the difficulty than to increase it. I believe 
that any one is wrong who attributes (as is so frequently done) evil 
intentions to men of science. Those great masters of science, whose 
names we cannot mention without respect, are doing as much good as 
any one can possibly do. If they are teaching truth, they cannot be teaching 
that which is contrary to revelation. The Victoria Institute is, as I under- 
stand it, a scientific society which pursues its investigations in search 
