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Mr. W. M‘ Arthur, M.P., in returning thanks, expressed his belief that 
the Institute only required to be better known to be more highly appre- 
ciated. 
The Rev. J. B. Owen proposed “ The health of the President, Vice-Pre- 
sidents, Council, and Officers.” 
The toast was warmly received. 
Rev. W. Mitchell. — With regard to Lord Shaftesbury, there can be 
no doubt that he is most thoroughly with us, heart and soul, and that he 
will do all he can both for this Institute and for the defence of truth. It 
was a very old question put by Pilate to our Lord — “ What is truth ? ’ and 
I believe that this Society is a standing representative of the fact that 
English Christians are not afraid to ask, “ What is truth V and to stand by 
and in defence of what they believe to be the truth. What we want to 
know in this, as I believe I must term it, in spite of what people say, un- 
scientific age, is what is truth ? The gentleman who returned thanks for the 
army regretted that there was not a more scientific education given to the 
army, and I believe that the great defect of the present age is the want of 
scientific knowledge, for if there were more true scientific knowledge, such 
absurd scientific fancies and theories as we now hear would never be put 
forward. If men had a really scientific education, they would be better able 
to resolve that which is now mere hypothesis. I believe that every Christian 
may stand firmly on the ground of that which he is taught by his holy 
religion as being a lover and receiver of truth. I have sought to enter into 
scientific inquiry, whether successfully or not I do not know. Sometimes I 
feel as if the pursuit had carried me perhaps too far ; but I can say this, that 
no pursuit of scientific truth has ever interfered with that which I have held, 
a childlike, simple belief in the truth of the revealed Scriptures. The more 
I inquire, the more does Science confirm the truth of Revelation. In fact, the 
teaching of revealed truth carries a man much farther than what is called 
mere scientific truth, and when he has acquired all that the intellect of man 
can teach, all that the most refined intellect, aided by the greatest powers, 
the highest mathematical knowledge, the most extraordinary industry in the 
pursuit of the experimental sciences, can lead him to, he has only begun to 
learn the very A B 0 of truth ; and when he has attained this, and thus 
laid, as it were, the foundation, the holy Scriptures will lead him to still 
higher truth and philosophy, — that philosophy which depends on those 
Scriptural truths, of which only the Spirit of God can* give the solution. 
(Cheers.) 
Mr. J. Reddte expressed his cordial thanks, and urged that the members 
should take the advice of Mr. Alexander M‘Arthur, who had done so much 
for the Society, and introduce new members, in order that, being strengthened, 
the Society might accomplish the work before it. 
Rev. Dr. Rigg. — I have been asked to propose the toast of “ The Learned 
Societies and the Press.” I am almost afraid to say a word about the learned 
societies after what we have heard, fearing you may have come to the 
conclusion, as this is so unscientific an age, that there are no learned societies 
