9. Finance.

The Statement of Receipts and Expenditure attached hereto is, on the face of it, satisfactory, and when the debtors and creditors at the beginning and end of the year are taken into account, it shows a distinct improvement in the Financial position of the Institute after the twelve months' working.

10. Auditors.

The thanks of the Council are again most cordially given to Messrs. Sewell and Lance Gray for their kind services as Auditors.

11. The Gunning Prize.

The Gunning Prize was awarded this year to the Rev. Parke Poindexter Flournoy, D.D., of Maryland, U.S.A., for the best essay received by the Council on the Subject of "The Bearing of Archæological and Historical Research upon the New Testament." It will be read at the meeting to be held on the 17th of March and published in the next Volume.*

12. Conclusion.

Members will have noticed that in drawing up the list of subjects for the last and current Sessions, special prominence has been given to those which, in the words of our First Object, "bear upon the great truths revealed in Holy Scripture." This the Council believe to be the highest purpose of the Institute, and they hope that it is in accord with the desires of the Members. Any comments on this or on the working of the Institute generally will be much valued and will be carefully considered by the Council.

Science to-day is tending more and more to the recognition of the Hand of God in the Universe, in its material aspects, in its varied forms of life, and above all in the development and influence of the Spirit of Man, His highest work.

Philosophy, too, may be taken to be more than ever a true servant of Christianity, claiming for its Divine Founder the position always given Him in the New Testament and by His humble and obedient disciples.

* That is, the present volume, see pp. 139-170.—ED.

The work of the Institute, therefore, is increasingly that of taking counsel with philosophers and men of science rather than defence from open and undisguised attack, and calls for a sympathetic attitude of mind towards all honest thought and true research, great vigilance lest error creep in unawares, and above all dependence upon the Holy Spirit of God for His guidance, both in the study of His Word and of all subjects upon which it bears.

Signed on behalf of the Council,

HALSBURY,

President.

THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

OF THE

VICTORIA INSTITUTE

WAS HELD IN THE ROOMS OF THE INSTITUTE ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3RD, 1913, AT 4 O'CLOCK.

Mr. DAVID HOWARD, V.P., occupied the Chair.

The Minutes of the last Annual General Meeting were adopted and signed.

The notice calling the Meeting, and the Report and Balance Sheet, which had been duly circulated, were taken as read.

Colonel ALVES then moved the following resolution :

"That the Report and Statement of Accounts for the year 1912 be received and adopted, the officers named therein be elected, and the thanks of the meeting be given to the Council, Officers, and Auditors for their efficient conduct of the business of the Victoria Institute during the year."

Mr. R. W. RICHARDSON seconded, and the resolution was carried with acclamation.

The CHAIRMAN responded on behalf of the Council, Officers and Auditors.

Colonel MACKINLAY proposed a vote of thanks to the Chairman, who replied, and the Meeting adjourned.

536TH ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING.

HELD IN THE ROOMS OF THE INSTITUTE, DECEMBER 9TH, 1912, AT 4.30 P.M.

GENERAL J. G. HALLIDAY IN THE CHAIR.

The Minutes of the preceding Meeting were read and signed.

The SECRETARY announced that since the last Meeting Mr. A. W. Oke and the Rev. David Baron had been elected Members, and Mr. George Cartwright, Sir Andrew Wingate, K.C.I.E., Mr. J. B. Karslake, Mr. John Scott, J.P., the Rev. J. U. N. Bardsley, Miss F. A. Yeldham, B.Sc., the Rev. John Ridley, Mr. H. P. Rudd, the Master of St. Catherine's College, Cambridge, and Mr. W. Duncan White, Associates.

The CHAIRMAN then called upon the Rev. Dr. Whately to read his paper.

IT

IMMORTALITY.

By the Rev. A. R. WHATELY, D.D.

[T seems hardly possible that the doctrine of Immortality will always occupy the comparatively subordinate position to which it is usually relegated by religious thought. God, the world, and the individual give us the ultimate terms of all our highest thinking. And the last is in a special way privileged : for the thinker himself is an individual, whereas he is neither God nor the world. In the long run, if he is ignored, the very meaning of his religion will shrivel to nothing. If selfrenunciation is made the one ground-principle of the religious life-if we are taught to regard the permanence of our very existence as secondary and unessential-then self, taught to despise its own selfhood, may with consistency despise all that that selfhood contains or bears: its growth, its aspirations, its conscience, its religion. Nothing can claim an eternal significance for a being that is not eternal. If we ignore the self-regarding impulses, we cannot consecrate them. And if we do not ignore them, then they can have but one goal, a personal standing in the eternal Kingdom of God.

Let me endeavour first to set before you exactly the position which I believe this doctrine to hold in the totality of human thought, so far as I can do so in a few words. To all of us who