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the Institute’s affairs are entitled to our grateful acknowledgments for the 
wise zeal and energy which they have shown. It is always an agreeable duty 
to propose a vote of thanks ; but in this instance it is shadowed over by the 
very great loss the Institute has sustained in him who, this time last year, 
occupied the chair which you now fill. I refer to our amiable, gifted, hard- 
working, and devoted Vice-President, the late Rev. Walter Mitchell. 
I am sure that all who have witnessed his conduct in the chair, 
and at our different discussions, must have admired the courtesy, the 
gentleness, and yet the firmness, with which he ever advocated what 
he believed to be in the interests of truth. Turning now to another 
point, — one which was very recently the subject of a paper read 
before a meeting of this Society, and to which all leading geologists were 
invited — I would say that whatever may be the period which is suggested or 
veiled under, if it be veiled under, the expression “ six days,” Hugh Miller 
was justified in summoning to his aid the testimony of the rocks in order to 
sustain the Mosaic account of the world’s creation, and its subsequent 
arrangement and adaptation to the conditions of the things and creatures 
which were to be brought upon it. And recently we have had other 
testimony brought before us ; the very depths of the ocean have been 
sounded, and living creatures have been found where it was supposed no 
living creatures could exist : such a fact warns us equally with the testimony 
of the rocks, that we should be careful in recognizing new theories, and 
not over-hasty in interpreting the voice of Nature, for we do not yet 
understand her language or appreciate what she teaches ; and until we 
really know what Nature speaks, and understand her language, we are not 
in a position to come out with dogmatic views, now often used to cast 
doubt upon the Divine word, and upon Him who gave it, and to dethrone 
God from His kingdom, and from superintendence over His own works. 
Bishop Ryan has referred to design. Design pervades the whole domain of 
Nature, and the more we study her the more we shall acknowledge this fact. 
I further maintain that as regards ourselves there is no one who has 
moral aptitudes in his soul for good, or who feels a tendency to evil, 
who does not know that these are conditions within him, the one being 
the offspring of a Being who is loving, and holy, and good ; and the other 
being the consequence of the fall. Originally we were created upright, 
and with aptitudes for all that is great and good ; but sin entered in, and 
now men would assault even the purity of Heaven. Yet still is the Spirit 
bearing witness with our spirit, and testifying to us what we are, the destiny 
before us, and the hope that maketh not ashamed. May I exemplify this 
in the case of one well known to us, the late Admiral Halsted, — a man 
who never swerved from his work ? It was my privilege to be present with 
him when he was dying. I repeated to him these words : — 
“ How sweet the name of Jesus sounds 
In a believer’s ear ; 
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, 
And drives away his fear.” 
