try to draw from the scientific facts which they laid before you. There are two errors against which we should be on our guard. We may misuse God's revelation to us in Holy Scripture, which was given for our instruction in righteousness, by using it as if it were for our instruction in the physical sciences. We may misuse the book of nature which was given us for our enquiry, for our intellectual development and our material help and comfort, and may use it as if it were a key to that knowledge of God which is everlasting life, which lies only in Himself and in Jesus Christ, Whom He hath sent. The first school would render to God the things which are Cæsar's; the second to Cæsar the things which are God's. Be it in the future, as in the past, the work of the Victoria Institute to insist that we render to Cæsar the things that be Cæsar's, and to God the things that be God's. The CHAIRMAN then called upon the Rev. H. J. R. MARSTON, M.A., to deliver an address upon THE ADVANCE IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GREEK TESTAMENT, MADE IN THE LAST FIFTY YEARS. ABOUT three years before the inception of the Victoria Institute, J. B. Lightfoot published his famous edition of St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. B. F. Westcott had already some years earlier published writings on the Bible. Henry Alford finished his valuable career of honest and faithful work on the elucidation of the New Testament a few years after the Institute began its career. F. J. A. Hort was occupied with similar tasks during the years which mark our era. Dr. Moulton was a contemporary scholar; and later the names of Sanday, Headlam and Meyer became famous. Meyer among the Germans, and Godet in Switzerland, must be mentioned as illustrating how wide an interest was spread over the Christian Church in the work of exact scholarship in the department of the Greek Testament. The principle which governed the investigations and researches of these eminent men was that of a belief in the sacred force of words. splendid Cambridge triad in particular had learned from their great teacher, Prince Lee, the value of language when employed by a master mind with honesty and sincerity. They had been The disciplined in the doctrines of Hermann, that "language is the image of thought; and that whatever is impossible in thought is impossible in language." It may be said that the result of their labours has been to enable us to understand the New Testament in a way that has not been possible to the same degree since the days of the Apostolic writers themselves. To me the principles on which these great scholars have worked appear to offer some important suggestions. The first is that on these principles may be raised a reasoned and sober theory of verbal inspiration. Secondly the method and the spirit of these scholars disposes me to look with scepticism on many of the conclusions of the Higher Critics. A reverent treatment of the very words of Scripture such as these scholars manifest, and a close adherence to the text, is a strong prophylactic against the lawless and romancing spirit too often characteristic of the mere Higher Critic, so called. Thirdly the same considerations lead to a rigorous attitude towards the school of what I may call "papyrology" as ably represented by Dr. Moulton, of Didsbury. I learn from Lightfoot and Westcott to treat St. Paul and St. John with scientific and scrupulous reverence in their very language. I cannot, therefore, regard the language of the Apostles as a patois such as may be interpreted by fragments of stray documents picked up among the debris of Asia Minor or the valley of the Nile. The language of the New Testament is Greek, not a jargon of cooks and apothecaries, without law or stability. The CHAIRMAN asked Mr. JOSEPH GRAHAM to speak, and in response he urged upon the Meeting the great importance of a diligent study of the Holy Scriptures and a reverent attitude towards them. The CHAIRMAN: After this series of admirable addresses I have only one thing further that I wish to say, one thing that impresses me more and more as I get older. Remember that the past belongs to us old men, the future belongs to the young. Take care that the young are encouraged and brought forward to do the work and take up the charge which is falling from our hands. The Rev. Chancellor LIAS, M.A.: Ladies and Gentlemen, if you have listened as I have for the last hour and a half to a series of most interesting, most intelligent and helpful addresses, I am sure you will heartily accord a vote of thanks, first to our Chairman for his charming opening, and then to each one of the speakers. It would be invidious for me to distinguish between them. I hope those here who are not yet members or associates of the Institute, having had a sample of what the Institute does, how it thinks and how it works, will come forward and join us as soon as they can. I have great pleasure in proposing a vote of thanks to the Chairman and speakers. The Rev. Prebendary H. E. Fox, M.A., seconded the vote, which was carried with great applause. The CHAIRMAN: I can only thank you for coming in such good numbers and for your attention and appreciation of the addresses. Professor H. LANGHORNE ORCHARD: I am sure we should not like to separate without another vote of thanks, and that is to our Secretary. It is not too much to say that he is worthy of the line of secretaries who preceded him, and the success and prosperity of this Society is very much due to his foresight and never-failing diligence. He has conducted this Meeting under great difficulties, and with what success we can testify. (Applause.) The SECRETARY: I beg to thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, for the very kind way in which you have greeted me this afternoon. I may say I felt rather taken aback a few days ago when first one thing and then another went wrong, but the way in which the Council has supported me in the arrangements I had to make and has fallen in with my suggestions has taken all the trouble off my shoulders. I feel much happier than I did a few hours ago. Our next Meeting will take place in the usual room at the Central Buildings, on Monday week, June 5th, when Professor Hull will give an address on "The Tides." The Meeting adjourned at 6.5 p.m. 581ST ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING. HELD IN COMMITTEE ROOM B, THE CENTRAL HALL, COLONEL CHAS. EDWARD YATE, C.S.I., C.M.G., M.P. FOR THE MELTON DIVISION OF LEICESTERSHIRE, TOOK THE CHAIR. The Minutes of the preceding Meeting were read and confirmed. The SECRETARY announced the election of Miss Caroline J. Crawford and of Mrs. Marston as Associates of the Institute. The SECRETARY read the following letter* from the Rt. Hon. the Secretary of State for War :— "War Office, Whitehall, S.W. 3rd June, 1916. "Lord Kitchener desires to thank Professor Hull for the card of invitation which he was so good as to send him, but regrets that his engagements will not permit of his being present at the Central Hall, Westminster, on Monday, the 5th instant, on the occasion of his lecture on 'The Tides.' "Professor Edward Hull, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S." The CHAIRMAN said that it gave him great pleasure to preside at a Meeting of the Victoria Institute, of which he had been at one time an Associate, until the pressure of other duties obliged him to retire. And it was an especial pleasure to preside on the occasion of a lecture by his old and valued friend, Professor Hull, whom he would now ask to address them on the subject of "The Tides." THE TIDAL WAVE ON THE IT OFF SIDE OF THE T is remarkable that one of the most generally recognized of the physical phenomena belonging to our globe-that of the double tides-is still a subject under discussion, and that we may say of it" tot homines quot sententiae." It is universally recognized that the tidal wave which visits our coasts twice in * At the moment when this letter was read, Lord Kitchener had already started on his last voyage. N the twenty-four hours, is due to the attraction of the moon, augmented, under certain conditions, by that of the sun, by which the ocean waters are raised to a small extent above the normal level in the form of a wave which, owing to the rotation of the earth, moves along from east to west till, obstructed by some barrier of land thrown across its path, such as that of Africa or America, its course is deflected or destroyed. This elevatory force is applied within the plane of the Ecliptic, and has its maximum effect along a line drawn from the centre of the moon to that of the globe, but diminishes towards the great circle which has the moon at its pole where the force ultimately becomes tangential. Of the several great oceans on the Earth's surface, only one, the Pacific-as it covers nearly half the globe at the equator-offers sufficient expanse for the formation of a full tidal wave. The other oceans, such as the Atlantic and Indian, present insufficient surfaces towards the moon for the full development of the tidal wave; and still less does the Mediterranean, though both are influenced to some small extent. Existing Theories.-The solution of the problem for the existence of a tidal wave on opposite sides of the globe has been often attempted, but with unsuccessful results, as admitted by writers themselves. The favourite theory, and one generally adopted, may thus be stated: "The attraction of the moon is strongest on the earth's surface next the moon, less at the centre, and less again on the parts beyond; so that the solid body of the earth, which is attracted as though it was condensed into its own centre, is more powerfully attracted than the ocean water on the off side from the moon, and is drawn away from the water." A recent writer on this subject, Mr. J. A. Hardcastle, rejects the theory that "on the side towards the moon the water is drawn away from the earth, while on the other side the earth is drawn away from the water.' The latest writer I have met with is Mr. Arthur R. Hinks, recently Chief Astronomical Assistant at Cambridge Observatory,† but he skips rather lightly over the subject of the double tides, and apparently does not accept any of the accepted theories, or give one by himself. He merely remarks that "the subject is * Journ. Brit. Astron. Assoc., Dec., 1912, p. 141. Mr. Hardcastle's letter is misleading; for, although headed "Tide on the other side," it deals with "tide on this side," as the last paragraph of it shows. "Astronomy," Home University Library, p. 58. |