Soth, 1-16-25 sub. PREFACE. IN N choosing a site for a Garden City special care is taken to test beforehand the quality and quantity of the available water-supply, inasmuch as the prosperity of any ordered settlement depends in a large degree upon the securing of favourable conditions in this vital particular. In like manner, when estimating the prospects of the Christian faith, we are concerned, not merely with numerous Churches or a large body of Mission adherents, but also with the character of the instruction given forth from Universities, Colleges, Academies, and other centres of learning. 66 In days when the Early Church was being planted, the city which seemed most to correspond with modern centres of culture was Athens, where, as we know, the people were occupied with nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing." In many quarters to-day, in like manner, the prevalent tendency is to seek after novelty to advance theories which are interesting, ingenious and plausible, and to do so with but slight regard for such consequences as may follow upon the broadcasting of grievous errors or immature conclusions among those who are unable to judge of their truth and usefulness. In circumstances such as those described the Victoria Institute aims at "proving all things" and "holding fast that which is good." If in papers read at its meetings novel and untried views. are brought forward, an endeavour is made in subsequent discussion to put such views to the proof, so that mere guesses at truth may not be given forth without careful examination and the support of reason and judgment. The Council of the Institute is ever mindful that, in the event of some measure of poison, moral or spiritual, reaching the stream of culture, those who attend the meetings, or who read the Transactions, should be warned against it, and, by means of an antidote simultaneously supplied, become protected from moral and spiritual injury. The papers given in this volume cover a wide range of instruction and thought, and it is the confident hope of the Council that, as they are read in many lands, they may tend to stabilize Christian judgment and promote inquiry along lines that shall glorify God. F. A. MOLONY, Editor, October, 1924. On Behalf of the Council. |