ANNUAL ADDRESS. 
My Loeds and Gentlemen, 
T HE first thought on this occasion is, I doubt not, the same 
in your mind as in mine. We have sustained a great 
loss. I feel that the Council has asked me to stand here 
to-day to discharge a twofold duty — address you as a Philo- 
sophical Society, and refer also to that loss. The duty is not 
an easy one, though in attempting it I am secure beforehand 
of all your sympathies. 
Our friend James Eeddie has been suddenly taken from us. 
To him more than to any other man this Institute owes its 
existence. To his profound faith in God and His Son Jesus 
Christ, — I must not shrink from saying — every one may attri- 
bute our combined action here in defence of the foundations of 
Christianity against assaults from without, especially some 
which assume a disguise of science. I well remember how, 
with that clearness and originality which distinguished him, 
he urged to me in private, long before he pressed it on the 
public, the need there would certainly be of a philosophical | 
union among all “ who name the Name of Christ/' our com- 
mon Lord, to confront the devastating literature which, m new 
and various forms, ultimately denies that Name. . 
Not that he had any fears concerning the faith itself : but he 
observed that there was a growing assurance of superficial 
opinion, in itself very perilous ; while the hasty assertions 01 
incipient science, even when contradictory and transient, 
shook, and at times destroyed, the faith of the thousands who 
are led by the few. He pointed out, that the reputation of 
being “ scientific/' — though in the highest rank very hardly 
won, — is attained with curious facility by numerous coteries, 
who with little knowledge and no true investigation renec 
the latest crudity of the hour. Unthinking, admiring, and 
willing crowds, whose consciences are sometimes eager lor 
liberation, find flattering relief in the persuasion that credu 
as to matters of science indicates a philosophical tempei. 
Then the mischievous vanity of some must, he thoug , e 
already sufficiently irksome to men of real knowledge, > w 1 e 
not a few make themselves specially offensive to religious 
minds. The resolve came thus to be steadfastly formed by 
